George Washington you remember him,
American children are told, having cut down his father's favorite cherry tree, showed his sterling character by confessing to the deed. An Arab hearing this story, shaking his head
not only fails to see the moral beauty of such behavior but wonders why anyone would ever compromise his integrity by admitting thus his guilt or tree chopping labor.
As to Washington's explanation that "I cannot tell a lie," the Arab asks how a man could rise to the presidency if he were not suave enough to use a well-concocted falsehood as a tactic in emergency behavior.
A former soldier has been sentenced to 70 days in prison for setting fire to a copy of Muslim holy book the Koran in the centre of Carlisle.
Andrew Ryan had previously admitted religiously aggravated harassment and theft of a Koran from a library. The 32-year-old, of Summerhill, said he had been "shocked" watching a Muslim burning a poppy on Remembrance Day.
Shoppers and schoolchildren witnessed the burning, outside the old Town Hall, on 19 January.
Sitting at Carlisle Magistrates' Court, District Judge Gerald Chalk described it as a case of "theatrical bigotry".
He said: "It was pre-planned by you as you stole the book deliberately. You went out to cause maximum publicity and to cause distress."
Ryan struggled with security guards in court after the sentence was passed. While being handcuffed he shouted: "What about my country? What about burning poppies?"
About 10 people were in court to support Ryan, and as they left the court they shouted "do you call this justice?".
After sentencing, Inspector Paul Marshall, of Cumbria Police, said: "This incident was highly unusual for Cumbria as we have such low levels of hate crime in the county."
Deadly rioting erupted across Nigeria's largely Muslim north on Monday as yoots torched churches and homes in Muslim Rage at President Goodluck Jonathan's election victory. Jonathan, the first president from the oil producing Niger Delta, was declared the winner with around 57 percent of votes. He defeated Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler from the north, who got around 31 percent.
Observers have called the poll the fairest in decades in Africa's most populous nation. But Buhari's supporters accuse the ruling party of rigging and rejected the results. Of course thay do. He's not a Muslim.
The results show how polarised the country is, with Buhari sweeping the north and Jonathan winning the largely Christian south. Jonathan had nearly 23 million votes to just over 12 million for Buhari.
The Nigerian Red Cross said churches, mosques and homes had been burned in rioting across the north and many people had been killed, but it was impossible to give a toll for now.
"In Kaduna we have seen dead bodies lying by the road," Red Cross official Umar Mairiga told Reuters. "Two thousand people have been displaced at one military camp alone." Military Camp?
Authorities in the northern state of Kaduna imposed a 24-hour curfew after protesters set fire to the residence of Vice President Namadi Sambo in the town of Zaria and forced their way into the central prison, releasing inmates. They need more thugs and mayhem makers.
Security forces fired in the air and used teargas to disperse groups of yoots shouting "We want Buhari, we want Buhari". Some people just can't handle emocracy.
Police said the violence was political rather than ethnic or religious. Horse-hockey!
Twelve years after the end of military rule, the army said it stood fully behind the government and democratic rule.
"No one's political ambition is worth the blood of any Nigerian," he said in a statement.
Buhari was yet to make any public statement on the violence despite appeals by foreign embassies that he call for calm.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/18/2011
17:12 ||
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#1
Declare the rioters to be in insurrection and shoot them.
#3
"In Kaduna we have seen dead bodies lying by the road," Red Cross official Umar Mairiga told Reuters. "Two thousand people have been displaced at one military camp alone."
Military Camp?
No ugly, blue eyed colonials involved, therefore no UN or Whitehouse comment, condemnation, or outrage. Christians to be murdered and eaten soon enough. Move along now, little of consequence to be seen here. Remember, this IS Afica.
#4
Offer refuge to the Coptic Christians from Egypt if someone from there family joins the Military. That a million Christians suddenly being armed should shut them up real fast.
Posted by: Charles ||
04/18/2011 19:55
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#5
Some people just can't handle emocracy.
Emocracy: rule by histronic pigmentation-challenged kohl-eyed twentysomethings.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/18/2011 20:42
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#6
Well you see infidels should only get 1/4th a vote (Muslim women get 1/2).
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/18/2011
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#1
I used to think that maybe Palin should retreat to Alaska yield the national stage to the next conservative leader. But since she is a lightening rod of hate to the left it really draws out the nuts and exposing the left for who they are. Hate Palin or not when the anthem is being sung you STFU.
#5
Ann Althouse says that this isn't precisely fair - apparently they were making too much noise to hear *what* they were drowning out. Not that they weren't being a pack of monstrous asses, they just weren't deliberately booing the anthem.
After all, I dare you to tell the national anthem from a baseball game when a thousand gamey hipster asses are blowing vuvulezas in your ear & you've deafened yourself shouting random epithets at your most hated enemy.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/18/2011 20:48
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#6
Any future POTUS SARAH? will have her work cut/made out for her, to also include the UK Royals HARRY + KATE, etal. NEW GENERATION OF WORLD LEADERS.
GWCC = LAND, SEA, ECON, DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGES; + SPACE ROCKS + "PEAK OIL/RESOURCES" + GLOBAL NUCLEAR ISLAMIST/MILTERR THREAT .........@ETC.
E.g FREEREPUBLIC > {ZeroHedge.com] TOTAL US DEBT NOW OFFICIALLY ABOVE THE [Debt] CEILING, by US$11.0Bilyuhn.
* WMF > HE XIUYI: TOTAL US ECONOMIC COLLAPSE IS INEVITABLE.
The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest Islamic movement and the founder of Hamas, has set up a network of political parties around the country that eclipse the following of the middle class activists that overthrew the regime. On the extreme fringe of the Brotherhood, Islamic groups linked to al-Qeada are organising from the mosques to fill the vacuum left by the collapse of the dictatorship.
The military-led government already faces accusations that it is bowing to the surge in support for the Muslim movements, something that David Cameron warned of in February when he said Egyptian democracy would be strongly Islamic.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, warned on Sunday that the direction of Egyptian politics was anti-Israeli. He told diplomats last week that Egyptian officials -- including Nabil al-Arabi, the foreign minister -- were pandering to political militants by branding Israel as the "enemy".
"I am very concerned over some of the voices we've been hearing from Egypt recently," Mr Netanyahu said. "I'm especially concerned over the current Egyptian foreign minster's statements."
Mohammed Badie, the Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader, last week predicted the group's candidates would win 75 per cent of the seats it contested.
Fundamentalist factions have also emerged as parties. Gamaa al-Islamiya, an al-Qaeda linked group that promotes Salafist traditions has used its mosques as a political base for the first time since the 1970s.
A scare campaign that a No vote in last months referendum would eliminate Islamic law from the Egyptian constitution ensured a 77 per cent Yes result.
But the April 6th movement that spearheaded protests has no clear plan for party politics. Diplomats have warned the demonstrators are not well prepared for elections.
"The leadership of the protests was so focused on the street-by-street detail of the revolution, they have no clue what to do in a national election," said a US official involved in the demonstrations. "Now at dinner the protesters can tell me every Cairo street that was important in the revolution but not how they will take power in Egypt."
Mahsud Arishie, a teacher visiting the square, said Egypt would be a different country in the wake of the uprising. "Muslims have their own space now where there is no pressure from the government, only a direct connection to the Lord in the sky," he said as he made his way to the prayers. "That does not mean our country will be hostile to the West but it does mean we will do what we want."
Although the leading contenders for Egypts presidency are independents, many have begun wooing the Muslim blocs. Front-runner Amr Moussa, the Arab League president, has conceded that its inevitable that Islamic factions will be the bedrock of the political system.
As hardliners compete for street power, Egypt's Christians -- who make up 10 per cent of the population -- are emigrating in growing numbers.
They know what's coming.
Al-Masry al-Youm, an Egyptian newspaper, reported last week that the Canadian embassy had been swamped by visa requests from Coptic Christians.
We should help but Bambi wouldn't think of helping Christians escape persecution.
Others are fighting back. Naquib Swiris, a Copt who is one of Egypt's richest men, has formed the Free Egyptians Party as a rallying point for a liberal democracy.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/18/2011
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For those unaware, Egypt has biological and chemical weapons that the Muslim Brotherhood would be happy to hand-deliver to Hamas.
#2
Who would have thunk that these uprisings would have be co-opted by radical muslims? Let's see. Are there any models for such takeovers? You say 1979 Iran! I will be damned! Who would have thunk?
#7
1990's MALAY-INDONESIA II, where despite domestic Oil-Energy activities local Muslim Govts use organized mass Muslim street protests to forcibly prevent Econ, hence Politically vital Christians, Other Non-Muslims from leaving the country???
#5
He does. He and the Democrats were absolutely committed to losing Iraq back in 2004, 2006 and 2008, and they're damned sure going to make sure it happens.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/18/2011 17:56
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I feel there is a war coming in the Gulf.
Will it be Arab v Persian or Sunni v Shiia?
I see signs it will be the latter.
Iraq allied with Iran is ominous to say the least.
New Delhi: With seven Indian sailors still being held hostage by pirates despite payment of ransom, the Navy has placed one of its warships on high alert and sent it from anti-piracy patrol duties in the Gulf of Aden to the Somali coast.
Navy sources said here on Monday that the Talwar-class frigate -- already in the vicinity of the piracy crisis -- was rushed in an offensive posturing and may see some military action to rescue the hostages.
The pirates, who released eight other Indian sailors of cargo ship MV Asphalt Venture held hostage since September last, have reportedly sought to use the seven hostages as lever to seek release of over 120 of their comrades being held in prisons in India after they were captured by the navy in the Indian Ocean in the last six months.
The Navy was, however, unwilling to divulge details of the mandate given to the warship that has positioned itself off the Somali coast with regard to the current hostage crisis. Hmmmmm...stay tuned.
#4
While heavier and not as easy to use in tight quarters on a ship, I think the Indian sailors should use Scottish Claymores. Something about a wickedly long, straight blade to put the fear of Allan in the average Somali pirate.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/18/2011 17:57
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AFAIK INDIA = INDIAN-OWNED, REGISTERED MVS has suffered the highest rate of attacks + capture vee the Somali Bad Boyz, a frequency which has led many Indian Bloggers-Netters, etal. to presume that the Pirates have it in agz India.
INDJUH = NEW "PANAMA CITY" FOR THE SOMALI EQUIVALENT OF MORGAN + DRAKE???
#1
It's pretty damned obvious that the Taliban have created a successful infiltration campaign into the Afghan military.
So the response to this should be to create a counter-infiltrator program designed to identify traitors early on, before they are able to inflict lethal damage. This is not easy.
Optimally, they will discover some psychological situation that an infiltrator will find irresistible. Several of these are known and in use in the civilian world.
For example, some businesses have learned to set up "honor system" donuts and bagels, monitored by a discreet camera. Those employees who steal from it have a high probability to commit other theft against the company, so are fired. Thus, donuts and bagels can save them tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The trick is to find something that infiltrators will do that ordinary soldiers will not typically do.
#3
they will discover some psychological situation that an infiltrator will find irresistible.
I believe they're call 'strip clubs'. Even Hasan couldn't resist. It follows the rite of the original assassin cult.
After being drugged, the Ismaili devotees were said be taken to a paradise-like garden filled with attractive young maidens and beautiful plants in which these fidais would awaken. Here, they were told by an "old" man that they were witnessing their place in Paradise and that should they wish to return to this garden permanently, they must serve the Nizari cause.
#4
Hasan is about as special case as it gets. He had served eight years as an enlisted man with little or no problem, and spotting him based on his record just wasn't going to happen.
However, in the case of the Afghan army, all recruits are generally illiterate and untrained. This means infiltrators have several distinguishing characteristics that other recruits don't have. With some psych screening, they should not be hard to identify, and they won't even know they were being screened, as they have never heard of psychology.
So this delves down into simple psychologies that most westerners would scoff at, such as putting them in charge of a heavy metal safe, telling them there is a powerful weapon inside, so don't let anyone push on those buttons on the top or it could kill everyone here!
You put half a dozen recruits in there after telling them that, doing other small tasks, and if one of them starts frantically pushing buttons, you've got your man.
Something that silly and straightforward wouldn't work on an educated person. But it, and equivalent pranks, might work wonders on a Taliban.
#6
For those unaware: jihad is promoted openly in mosques in Kandahar and elsewhere. How many Nazis operated in the open in occupied Germany? How many Japanese-militarists set up propaganda shops in occupied Japan? Third Worlders get special status.
#1
Reading the editorial, I sense the Jooos had the most to gain by waxing Arrigoni.
Just sayin'.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/18/2011 6:33
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Just your run of the mill arrogant left leaning needy person wanting to feel important and "help"
Stretch and Pancake make a great pair.
Furthering terrorism in the name of helping the oppressed.
The US kicks in more money for Gaza than Saudi Arabia.
If the "palestinian state" is so important to Moslem sensibilities, why don't Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and maybe the dilitantes in the UAE kick in and provide some jobs?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/18/2011 12:39
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On Thursday a small, Al Qaeda-linked group calling itself Tawhid and Jihad (Monotheism and Holy War) released a video of Arrigoni with a beaten, bloodied face and someone clutching the hair of his head.
They wanted a trade? And then they denied they had anything to do with it. And then they blamed it on the Jews?
A paramilitary ranger was killed and 23 other people wounded when a home-made bomb in a car parked in a business area of Yala municipality exploded on Monday morning.
Witnesses said that the bomb was inside a Honda Civic sedan parked in front of a drug store. As a pickup truck carrying five paramilitary rangers was passing, the bomb was detonated. One ranger was killed instantly in the explosion and 23 other people were injured.
#4
"Pastor?" The dope's "church" doesn't have tax free status because the flock support the entity by working for free in the entity's furniture store. I wonder if these events are set up as free advertising?
#5
I wouldn't go to the effort of burning the Koran. On the other hand I don't think Obama, Graham, and Petraeus should pander to the muslims regarding the Koran burning. Burning the Koran doesn't put our troops in any more danger than they are already in. The enemy was trying to kill them before the incident and is still trying to kill them after the Koran burning incident.
[Ma'an] Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,politician Ahmad Bahar on Sunday urged Paleostinian factions to form orc groups with the aim of capturing Israeli soldiers.
The deputized Paleostinian Legislative Council speaker said kidnapping soldiers would pressure Israeli authorities to release Paleostinian political prisoners. He made the remarks in a speech commemorating Paleostinian Prisoners' Day in Gazoo City.
Bahar urged the captors of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit to insist on their demands for a swap deal to release Paleostinian detainees. Shalit was seized in a cross-border raid in June 2006. Negotiations to secure his release have so far failed.
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Paleostine Maxwell Gaylord on Sunday urged Israel to comply with international human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... law in its treatment of Paleostinian prisoners, particularly women and kiddies in Israeli jails.
In a statement from his office to mark Prisoners' Day, Gaylord noted that the practice of detaining Paleostinians in Israel was contrary to the Geneva Conventions.
"Israel's policies and practices regarding Paleostinian prisoners raise a number of concerns, including a lack of clarity on the legal status of such prisoners, the location and conditions of their incarceration, the need for access to legal counsel and representation, the issue of administrative detention, and the prevention of family visits for detainees from Gazoo," the statement said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2011
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#1
DAILY TIMES.PK > ABBAS RULES OUT ISRAELI TROOPS [being based] IN FUTURE STATE.
IDF Troops in PA = Gaza-West Bank = NOT REAL SOVEREIGNTY OR STATEHOOD, BUT JUST ANOTHER FORM OR VARIANT OF ISRAELI MIL OCCUPATION + OPPRESSION.
versus
* TOPIX > ISRAEL PREPARES FOR WAR ON ALL FRONTS.
The IDF modifies its Combat Strategeery to meet new threats.
RADICAL ISLAM woke up from slumber in January-February 2011 TO SUDDENLY FIND IT HAD A [proto-]OWG CALIPHATE IN THE ME, + one thats also going Nukulaar.
[Iran Press TV] The Saudi-backed Bahraini government forces have intensified their crackdown on anti-regime protesters and have also demolished two mosques.
Bahraini security forces attacked the crowds in the towns of Sanabis and Daih on Sunday. Gunfire was heard and several people were kidnapped by the pro-government forces.
Despite a martial law in effect since mid-March, and the arrests of hundreds of opposition figures and political activists to further stifle the opposition, demonstrations continue in Manama and other cities.
Scores of people have been killed and many others gone missing during the crackdown.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth had turned a paler shade of blue. Star-A-Star had struck again... the security forces fired tear gas into several religious sites across the country and two mosques were demolished -- one in Karzakan and another in A'ali.
Several mosques have been destroyed so far as part of the Saudi-backed crackdown.
Earlier this month, a video footage showed a mosque in the northern town of Kawarah destroyed in attacks by Saudi forces.
In a series of pictures depicting the brutal crackdown of anti-regime protests, the video also showed burned pages of the Holy Qur'an buried under masses of debris.
Anti-Saudi sentiment is rising in Bahrain, where people are calling for an end to more than two centuries of Al Khalifa royal family's rule in the Persian Gulf state.
Posted by: Fred ||
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TOPIX, DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > HIRING OF PAKISTANI FIGHTERS [Ex, Retired Pak Military] FOR BAHRAIN ANGERS IRAN.
ARTIC = PAK is now the FRONTLINE STATE for the PROTECTION OF THE SUPERIORITY OF SUNNI ISLAM [agz Shia Iran].
* TOPIX/WORLD NEWS > SAUDIS THREATEN TO RECALL ENVOYS FROM IRAN, unless their Embassies + Diplomatic Offices can be properly secured by Tehran agz anti-Saudi/GCC Protestors.
ARTIC also read, TEHRAN MUST STOP ITS CONTROL, SUPPORT OF ANTI-KSA/GCC MASS PROTESTS.
[The Nation (Nairobi)] A pledge by Syria's embattled president to lift almost 50 years of draconian emergency rule within a week was brushed aside as not enough today, as activists called for more protests.
President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad's One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... long-awaited announcement came on Saturday, on the eve of Independence Day, after a month of bloody protests and a global outcry for change in the autocratic country.
But protesters erupted into the streets within hours of his speech, which was followed by calls for more demonstrations on Sunday posted on social networking website Facebook, a motor of the pro-reform movement.
"The day of independence is the day of liberty across Syria," the Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook page said of the 65th anniversary of the end of French rule.
"The juridical commission on the emergency law has prepared a series of proposals for new legislation, and these proposals will be submitted to the government, which will issue a new law within a week at the most," he said.
In a televised address Saturday to a new cabinet tasked with launching reforms, Assad also expressed his sorrow over the deaths of an estimated 200 people in a month of protests demanding greater freedoms.
Assad also addressed the broad spectrum of complaints that have sparked countrywide protests for more than a month, including joblessness, corruption and a crisis in agriculture.
"Corruption is a threat to morality and to the country's potential for development," he said.
The president also called for a national dialogue, saying there was a deep divide between the people and the institutions of the state.
"Citizens need security and services, but also dignity. We want to engage in dialogue with everyone... the unions and national organisations," he said.
Top human rights ...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... lawyer Haytham Maleh told AFP on Sunday that Assad's pledge to end emergency law was "not enough."
"It must be accompanied by reform of the judicial system which is corrupted," said Maleh, who was released from jail on March 8, benefiting from a presidential pardon.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2011
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Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2011
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#1
Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Barbara Hale aka Della Street in "Perry Mason" aka Abby Drake in "First Yank into Tokyo" aka Dr. Jenny Langer in "The Giant Spider Invasion" aka Mary Audrey in "A Likely Story" aka Miss Brand in "The Boy with Green Hair " (age 89)
[Arab News] A 33-year-old man who bit back after he was caught by a Phoenix police dog is suing police. Dog bites man=not news.
Man bites dog=news.
This must be news, so pay attention.
Erin Sullivan alleges the dog violated his civil rights and used excessive force to capture him after he ran from officers in Glendale during a burglary investigation last year.
Police say Sullivan bit the dog back, injuring it.
The lawsuit names the cities of Phoenix and Glendale and four officers.
Precursor filings to the lawsuit sought $200,000 from Glendale and $250,000 from Phoenix.
Officials in Glendale and Phoenix have declined comment.
Sullivan also alleges Glendale police refused to give him insulin to treat his diabetes. Sullivan's attorney, Keith Knowlton, has said his client suffered a diabetic seizure in a Glendale cell.
Sullivan is serving eight years for convictions in the Glendale burglary.
Posted by: Fred ||
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...after he ran from officers in Glendale during a burglary investigation last year...
Sullivan is serving eight years for convictions in the Glendale burglary.
Because it's his constitutional right to run from officers? Man, thirty years of watching COPS and the dude still doesn't understand the fundamentals. Another example of the courts allowing themselves to become clogged by creating an environment that invites such suits, thus denying reasonable redress by others waiting in line with cases of worth.
[Iran Press TV] Indian-administered Kashmire police say three people have been jugged in connection with the liquidation of Mohammedanholy man Maulana Showkat Ahmad Shah.
"Three arrests have been made so far regarding this particular liquidation and other aspects of a larger conspiracy are also being looked into," Inspector General of Kashmire police Shiv Morari Sahai said on Sunday.
Police also said that the plot to kill Maulana Shah was hatched by radical elements who do not want to see peace in Kashmire, a Press TV correspondent reported.
The detentions come after a week of protests by thousands of people who shouted slogans against the killers and urged police to bring the perpetrators before justice. The protesters had vowed to continue the rallies until the assassins are jugged.
Maulana was killed in an improvised bombkaboom near a mosque in Srinagar on April 8 when he was going to the Friday prayers.
The prominent leader was a well-known supporter of the separatist movement which seeks independence from India.
Posted by: Fred ||
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(AyPee) With 99 percent of votes counted, the biggest vote-winner in Finland's parliamentary elections was the conservative National Coalition Party, part of the current center-right government and a strong advocate for European integration.
But with 43 seats it had only one more than the opposition Social Democrats, while the nationalist True Finns gained 33 seats for 39 in the 200-member Parliament, the official preliminary results showed. These folks sound a lot like the TEA Party. Trunks should take note. I doubt the TP would ever run a ticket, but Trump could be a third party spoiler. At any rate, others are fed up with their betters.
The anti-immigration and staunchly euroskeptic True Finns oppose bailouts for Portugal and other cash-strapped European countries.
Oh, the bogyman card. The old guard Trunks offer nothing but the same old, same old. Their position is to demonize anyone who doesn't fit the RINO model. We've seen it in Florida and Alaska [talk to me about WHO split the vote there]. Now nationally. The only reason the vote will be split will be by the entrenched refusing to provide real leadership of which they are sadly deficient in. Don't want Trump then you damn well better provide a real alternative rather than something just 'Lite'.
#3
ION NOT-FINLAND, WAFF > ANARCHY DESCENDS [finally] ON HELLAS [Greece] | FURIOUS GREEKS PRESS FOR COUNTRY TO DEFAULT ON DEBT, to achieve national debt restructuring which in turn will help provide proactive econ relief for mainstream Greeks suffering from curr Govt-imposed National Austerity measures.
#6
Before he decided on this stunt political run, Trump didn't even qualify as a RINO because he was an activist democrat.
If YOU can't find a candidate who didn't give money to Harry Reid in the last two years, well, ask not whom the RINO bell tolls for, it tolls for thee.
#7
Thing if the Republican establishment puts up a RINO or Donk Lite, why even bother going to the polls? It's just a game between the Inner Party and Outer Party to us prols.
#9
I personally don't support Trump. He's P T Barnum, who was also a business man. My problem is that Trump is getting the air time because of the abject failure of the 'old guard'. If the establishment just chuckles this off and not recognize its a very serious wake up call, then the non-socialist political elements of America had better clean house in the Trunk party quickly this year.
"I rented him a piece of land. He paid me more for one night than the land was worth for two years, and then I didn't let him use the land," Trump boasted. "That's what we should be doing. I don't want to use the word 'screwed', but I screwed him."
Bravo. A bigger asshole than the one we've got is just what we need. And better yet, a guy who'll be an asshole not to us, but on our behalf. I pray he will not pull another Perot, but watching The Donald wax the floor with debate Obama would be fantastic!
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqs Ministry of Labor & Social Affairs announced on Sunday the release of 100 juveniles, detained in a number of the Ministrys reform sections over the past few days.
The Juveniles Reform Department of the Ministry of Labor & Social Affairs has released 100 juveniles, detained in different reform sections and laid 17 others in its future reform programs, the department's Director-General, Faris Sami Aziz, said in a statement, a copy of which was received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Aziz said that his Department had enrolled 198 juveniles in various blacksmith, carpentry, tailoring, computers, drawing, sign-writing and hair-dressing courses, along with house-keeping courses for young females.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/18/2011
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[The Nation (Nairobi)] Cuban President Raul Castro has said that he backs political term limits of 10 years at most for top leadership spots in a country he and his brother Fidel Castro have led for more than five decades.
Didn't think of this back in the 60s, didya...
"We have reached the conclusion that it is in our interest to limit to a maximum of two consecutive five-year terms service in top state and political roles," Castro told the 1,000 delegates as he opened the Communist Party Congress.
"This is possible and necessary in our current situation," added the 79-year-old, who took over during his brother's health crisis back in 2006. It was not immediately clear if, or how, Raul Castro meant for the measure to apply to himself as president. He turns 80 in June.
And Raul Castro lamented that, in his view, there were no younger Cubans ready to take over the helm of the party and the nation immediately.
"Today, we face the consequences of not having a back bench of adequately prepared replacements, who have enough experience and maturity to take on the new and complex duties of managing the party, state and government," he said.
I think he means the 1,000 delegates, who can't be too happy about what they just heard...
The president said, without elaborating, that glory-seeking by unnamed parties could stand in the way of the Communist Party being "worthy of the unlimited support of the people and the revolution, for all time."
Delegates will, over four days, vote on economic reforms and officially relieve his ailing 84-year-old brother as party leader.
Posted by: Fred ||
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And Raul Castro lamented that, in his view, there were no younger Cubans ready to take over the helm of the party and the nation immediately.
Translation: we two octogenarians are going to be running things for a while longer.
[Tolo News] Operator of Japan's tsunami-stricken nuclear plant has expected to cool the reactors in nine months amid Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Edmund Randolph ... 's visit to the country.
At a presser on Sunday chairman of TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Co) said they need nine months to bring the reactors to a cold shutdown in nine months. But officials in Tokyo are doubtful about the timetable.
"We sincerely apologise for causing troubles," BBC quoted Tsunehisa Katsumata, the chairman of TEPCO, as saying. "We are doing our utmost to prevent the crisis from further worsening."
He said after nine months people would be able to return to the area and restart their life the same as before.
At the same time the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton landed in Tokyo to announce Washington's support to Japan.
Sending 20,000 troops to help Japan in rubble clearance and rescue efforts and as well as many other ships and planes the United States has hunted hearts and minds in Japan.
Before the crisis relations between the two nations went souring after a dispute on US military bastions in southern Japan.
On March 11 Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant hit by a strong tsunami triggered by a huge quake.
The incident led to the death of some 14,000 people while hundreds of thousands of others are still missing.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2011
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#1
Maybe I heard it wrong...
CNN AM > gave me the impression that TEPCO = JAPAN needs roughly three months just to effec lower the radiation to safe levels, then another six months afterwards to cap Fukushima Reax 1-4, THEN NINE MONTHS ADDITIONAL AFTER THE AFORE 3 + 6 MONTHS TO COMPLETELY SHUTDOWN THE PLANT.
IIUC, the new CNN Math is 3 + 6 Months = actually 18 MONTHS???
PRESUMING THAT NOTHING BAD HAPPENS ANEW IN THE INTERIM.
The bad news also for TEPCO + Tokyo is that neither CNN nor even FX believe the nine months only timeline will be enuff.
#2
ION BHARAT RAKSHAK > {Mainichi News]DATA SHOW TSUNAMI THE KILLER [Drowning], ELDERLY THE MOST VULNERABLE IN DISASTER. Approxi 54.8% of dead in three Perfectures from 03-11 TOHOKU/SENDAI EVENT = Persons aged 65 years or older.
and
* SAME > [Nature.com] ARE LARGER EARTHQUAKES THE SIGN OF THE TIMES.
ARTIC = World rocked by flurry of massive, Tsunami/Tidal Wave-generating MAG8.8-or-higher quakes since 2005, PROB = 63.0%-plus THAT A FUKUSHIMA-STYLE, MAG9.0-OR-HIGHER QUAKE WILL OCCUR AGAIN IN SIX YEARS = YEAR 2017.
WHOA, GUAM TAOTAMONAS "GHOST WRITE" FOR NATURE MAGAZINE - WHO KNEW???
[MADONNA = "ROCK ME, BABY" here].
Guam's "KAMALEN" wave will be agz the island's west coast - nminor in scale + comparison to 2004 + 2011 Fukushima unless you live on-island.
#3
"...while hundreds of thousands of others are still missing."
I hadn't noticed that being reported anywhere else. Hundreds of thousands is a lot of people.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/18/2011 6:32
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#4
NHK's summary Nearly 28,000 people are dead or missing in the March 11th quake and tsunami in northeastern Japan
The National Police Agency says that as of 3PM Monday, 13,858 people have been confirmed dead, including those who were killed in aftershocks on April 7th and 11th.
14,030 are listed as missing. The police agency says, however, that the number does not include people missing in Sendai City, the capital of Miyagi Prefecture, as authorities are checking for any overlapping reports..
#5
So, the original article is off only by an order of magnitude or so. Just silly zeros.
Tolo News, eh. Grain of / handful of salt applies to these guys I guess.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/18/2011 10:12
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#6
Wife is from the orient and even trying to translate correctly I often notice her being off some magnitude of 10. It's common enough among her friends too that I think the the oriental press should change their reporting to use scientific notation ... ie 1.925 x 10 to the n...
Posted by: Water Modem ||
04/18/2011 11:09
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#7
CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > JAPANESE TOLD BY GOVT. TO EAT [safe?]RADIOACTIVE VEGETABLES | PLEASE EAT FUKUSHIMA VEGGIES, JAPAN TELLS RADIATION-WEARY NATION.
PCorrect Top Govt. Leaders + other Tokyo Diet/Parliament-critters = Nippon Politicos rushing to be first in line to sample.
Yokay, I'll say it - D *** NG IT, IFF AMERICA = AMERIKA IS WONDERING WHY OUR FUTURE DESCENDANTS LOOK LIKE "GREY" + "BLUE" SPACE ALIENS FROM ROSWELL, WELL WONDER NO MORE!
D *** NGED TIME-SPACE SPACE-TEENS + THEIR SOLYENT LIGHTSPEED BUGGIES!
* WMF > JAPAN TO BUILD "ALTERNATE/VICE" CAPITAL CITY IN CASE TOKYO IS DESTROYED BY MAJOR NATURAL DISASTER. POST-DISASTER CONTINUATION OF MAIN GOVT. FUNCTIONS. A MAG7.3-OR-HIGHER MAJOR EARTHQUAKE IN TOKYO BAY COULD KILL UP TO 1.1 MILYUHN JAPANESE, DESTROY 850,000 HOMES + GOVT., COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS, AND INCUR AN ECON LOSS AS HIGH AS Y$112.0MILYUHN.
* CNN AM > JAPANESE ECONOMY, TOURISM SERIOUSLY DAMAGED BY 03/11/2011 QUAKE-TSUNAMI + FUKUSHIMA CRISIS.
#8
Japan's ranking in the TOP-TIER = TOP FIVE OF MAJOR WORLD ECONOMIES, + also its very sovereignty + national existence, is at risk as a consequence of the TOHOKU/SENDAI EVENT INCLUD THE [Multi-Region affecting]FUKUSHIMA CRISIS.
Perhaps a little good news for Nippon -not much but a little ...
* PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM [post-Tohoku/Sendai Event]> PLA ANNOUNCES "END TO WAR" [MilPol = Geopol hostility] BETWEEN MAINLAND CHINA + JAPAN.
Pragmatically, why should Beijing argue wid BFF Russia over strategic access thru the Russ-controlled, now Russ-sovereign SOUTH KURILS = FORMER PRE-WW2/1945 JAPANESE "NORTHERN TERRITORIES" iff it can get seriously Econ, Enviro, + Geopol troubled Japan on China's side.
AIR-NAVAL PORTS + BASE RIGHTS IN MAINLAND JAPAN + OKINAWA [ancient "Ryukyu Kingdom" Chin vassal state], Daoyus = Senkakus, perhaps even SINO-JAPAN-US TRILATERAL COOP ON TAIWAN???
#9
Japan's ranking in the TOP-TIER = TOP FIVE OF MAJOR WORLD ECONOMIES, + also its very sovereignty + national existence, is at risk as a consequence of the TOHOKU/SENDAI EVENT INCLUD THE [Multi-Region affecting]FUKUSHIMA CRISIS.
Perhaps a little good news for Nippon -not much but a little ...
* PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM [post-Tohoku/Sendai Event]> PLA ANNOUNCES "END TO WAR" [MilPol = Geopol hostility] BETWEEN MAINLAND CHINA + JAPAN.
Pragmatically, why should Beijing argue wid BFF Russia over strategic access thru the Russ-controlled, now Russ-sovereign SOUTH KURILS = FORMER PRE-WW2/1945 JAPANESE "NORTHERN TERRITORIES" iff it can get seriously Econ, Enviro, + Geopol troubled Japan on China's side.
AIR-NAVAL PORTS + BASE RIGHTS IN MAINLAND JAPAN + OKINAWA [ancient "Ryukyu Kingdom" Chin vassal state], Daoyus = Senkakus, perhaps even SINO-JAPAN-US TRILATERAL COOP ON TAIWAN???
[Pak Daily Times] Thirty-one people were maimed, seven of them by live bullets, as demonstrators clashed with security forces in the northern Iraqi city of Sulaimaniyah on Sunday, a medical official said. "There were seven coppers and 24 demonstrators among the injured, including seven protesters maimed by live bullets," said Ricot Hama Rashid, director of the city's main hospital. Two local journalists were also among those hurt in the festivities, which broke out after protesters blocked the main Mowlawi street in the Kurdish city, 240 kilometres north of Storied Baghdad. ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... The city has seen nearly daily demonstrations since mid-February. Protesters have been calling for an end to official corruption, resignation of the regional government and an investigation into the deaths of three young demonstrators in festivities with security forces in February. Five people have been killed -- including two coppers -- and more than 100 injured during two months of demonstrations.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2011
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[An Nahar] At least five demonstrators were maimed on Sunday when regime agents ... that'd be the cops and the secret police...
broke up two pro-freedom rallies in the south, bastion of Syria's Druze minority, rights activists said.
Some 400 people gathered to celebrate Independence Day in the central square of Suweida, said Mazen Darwish, director of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression.
Demonstrators carried portraits of the leaders of the revolution that ended French rule and rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud calling for freedom, Darwish told Agence La Belle France Presse.
But regime backers cut short the rally, he said, beating protesters and trampling over portraits of Ibrahim Hanano and Saleh al-Ali, who fought to end the French mandate.
"Two demonstrators were maimed and hospitalized," Darwish said.
In the nearby village of al-Qraya, the burial site of Sultan Basha al-Atrash who led the 1925-1927 Syrian revolution, a delegation of about 150 people was not allowed to celebrate Independence Day as they had done in previous years, another rights activist said.
Security forces prevented a delegation of communist party supporters and Suweida dignitaries from approaching the revolutionary's tomb, Muntaha al-Atrash told AFP.
Three people were maimed and hospitalized, including Hani al-Atrash, the grandson of Sultan Basha, Darwish said.
In the southern town of Daraa, nerve centre of more than a month of anti-regime protests, upwards of 4,000 people, including former political prisoners and religious leaders, staged another rally.
They chanted anti-regime slogans, said a rights activist who requested anonymity.
In the northern coastal town of Banias, which has been shaken by a deadly security crackdown and shootings that residents blame on regime thugs and agents, 2,500 people demonstrated, a rights activist told AFP.
They marched under banners that read: "You are in Banias, not in Israel" in a rebuke to officials blaming the violence on foreign plotters.
Protests calling for greater freedom and sweeping political reform erupted in Syria on March 15, posing an unprecedented challenge to the regime of President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad, One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... in power since 2000.
Assad on Saturday pledged to lift almost 50 years of draconian emergency rule within a week, but the gesture was brushed aside as not enough and was followed by new protests.
Posted by: Fred ||
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ISLAMABAD Former military ruler Gen. (retd) Pervez Musharraf has expressed his desire to sort out his differences with the Pakistan Muslim League chief Nawaz Sharif but says he has no regrets for toppling him in 1999.
I would not mind if it happens for the good future of the country under my own terms of course, he said in reply to a question in an interview with DawnNews from Dubai. He said he had not phoned Sharif to enquire after his health because his heart and mind did not allow him to do so in view of some statements by PML-N leaders.
When asked about warrants issued against him by an anti-terrorism court of Rawalpindi, Musharraf declined to comment on these technical, legal questions.
He said he would definitely return to Pakistan and did not fear going to jail, but I am waiting for the proper time.
When he or his bestest friends are back in power...
In reply to a question about a petition filed by former president Rafiq Tarar for withdrawal of Gen. Musharrafs titles of president and other posts, he said Tarar was an irrelevant person.
He disclosed that when he was in power he had good relations with Tarar and had asked him to continue serving as president.
Mr Tarar, who was actually a man of Mian Nawaz Sharif and his father, had played a key role in purchasing the loyalties of judges when Justice Sajjad Ali Shah was the chief justice of Pakistan.
In reply to a question about Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, he said that if he (Justice Iftikhar) could not hear cases against him, he should refer them to other judges. Musharraf said he had no regrets over the military coup of October 12, 1999, and the unconstitutional steps taken on November 3, 2007.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/18/2011
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[Tolo News] Ten Islamic fascistihanded over their weapons and surrendered to government in western Afghanistan on Saturday, local officials said.
The men surrendered in Badghis province and promised to work for peace in their province, Sharafuddin Majidi, a front man for governor of Badghis told TOLOnews.
The men were active in Muqor district of the province fighting against the government, he added. The men said they will not fight against government in the future.
Insurgents are said to be active in some parts of Badghis province.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2011
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#1
Next they'll enlist in the Afghan Army, get their weapons back, and then shoot up their 'allies and colleagues.'
[Al Jazeera] Rebel fighters in eastern Libya fought off an attack by government troops in the town of Ajdabiya on Sunday, a day after retreating from a key oil facility around 100 kilometres farther west.
Forces loyal to longtime leader Muammar Qadaffy ... a proud Arab institution for 42 years ... advanced on Ajdabiya under a heavy artillery barrage in the morning and fought at close range with rebels on the town's southern outskirts before a counterattack forced them back, witnesses said.
On Saturday, with the help of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... air strikes along the main coastal road, rebels reached the outskirts of Brega, the site of a major oil and petrochemical port west of Ajdabiya.
But a sandstorm that began overnight hampered air cover, and by Sunday morning rebels had retreated.
Dozens of civilian vehicles, many of them carrying families, decamped Ajdabiya throughout the morning, and some rebels also appeared to join the withdrawal.
Two fighters were maimed in the battle, suffering superficial shrapnel wounds during the bombardment, but none were seriously injured or killed, doctors at Ajdabiya Hospital said.
In response to the advance by Qadaffy's forces, the opposition Transitional National Council issued orders that casualties should no longer go to Ajdabiya Hospital and should instead be sent directly to Benghazi, the seat of the rebel government around 160 kilometres to the north, the doctors said.
Some of the maimed already at the hospital were also evacuated. At least five ambulances with flashing lights and sirens blaring could be seen driving north out of Ajdabiya before noon.
Dozens of kabooms from incoming artillery fire could be heard south of the town, and fighters said there were at least 100 blasts throughout the morning.
The rebels responded with a barrage of Grad rockets, their flames streaming upward against the backdrop of a sky darkened by the sandstorm, which often reduced visibility to just a few hundred metres and gave Qadaffy's troops cover to advance rapidly on Ajdabiya.
The bombardment from regime forces hit near the town's large, green western gate - a landmark and rallying point for rebel forces - but shells also landed on residential areas, said Muhammad Barwuin, a rebel fighter. No civilians were reported to have been hurt in the attack.
Just 10 days ago, women and kiddies had begun to return to Ajdabiya, and businesses started to reopen. But on Sunday, the town, which has traded hands multiple times in the months-long conflict, was deserted, and only fighters walked its shattered streets.
Shortly after noon, more than 30 vehicles carrying rebel reinforcements streamed into Ajdabiya, carrying a by-now familiar assortment of jury-rigged weaponry: machine guns, recoilless rifles, anti-aircraft batteries, and dismounted helicopter rocket pods, all welded to the back of pick-up trucks.
After the bombardment lifted, small arms fire echoed from deeper inside the town, and the government troops involved in the attack apparently withdrew. Rebels took up defensive positions around Ajdabiya and erected roadblocks made of rocks and metal sheets at most major intersections.
At the roundabout connecting two main roads, Tripoli and Bridge streets, rebels standing on the back of pickups stared attentively down the barrels of their machine guns, and an array of mounted rocket launchers pointed west.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
I know that QuaDafy Duck is the leader, but the people opposing him are trash, they would gladly usher in Islamicism.
Kill them.
Quickly and thoroughly.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/18/2011 19:22
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#2
Unfortunately, we find ourselves backing the phueching wrong side again. Better to have stayed completely out of it.
SANGIN, AFGHANISTAN -- Signs of change have sprouted this spring amid the lush fields and mud-brick villages of southern Afghanistan.
In Sangin, a riverine area that has been the deadliest part of the country for coalition troops, a journey between two bases that used to take eight hours because of scores of roadside kabooms can now be completed in 18 minutes.
In Zhari district, a once-impenetrable Islamic exemplar redoubt on the western outskirts of Kandahar city, residents benefiting from U.S.-funded jobs recently hurled a volley of stones at Taliban henchmen who sought to threaten them.
And in Arghandab district, a fertile valley on Kandahar's northern fringe where dozens of U.S. soldiers have been felled by homemade mines, three gray-bearded village elders made a poignant appearance at a memorial service last month for an Army staff sergeant killed by one of those devices.
Those indications of progress are among a mosaic of developments that point to a profound shift across a swath of Afghanistan that has been the focus of the American-led military campaign: For the first time since the war began nearly a decade ago, the Taliban is commencing a summer fighting season with less control and influence of territory in the south than it had the previous year.
"We start this year in a very different place from last year," Gen. David H. Petraeus,
No longer considered "General Betray-us" for some reason...
the top coalition commander in Afghanistan, said in a recent interview.
The security improvements have been the result of intense fighting and the use of high-impact weapons systems not normally associated with the protect-the-population counterinsurgency mission.
Petraeus has not provided his withdrawal recommendation to Obama. The four-star general said the progress across southern Afghanistan remains "fragile and reversible," although he also has made it clear to his subordinates that he thinks it can be cemented with enough time and military pressure.
Sounds like he's going to recommend no withdrawal.
#1
Its great that the Taliban has been pushed out of these areas, but then what? said a senior U.S. official involved in Afghanistan policy who was not authorized to speak on the record. Once we leave these places, its hard to imagine that the Afghans will really be able to hold on to them.
[Pak Daily Times] Yemeni forces loyal to President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, after serving as a lieutenant colonel in the army. He had been part of the conspiracy that bumped off his predecessor, Ibrahim al-Hamdi, in the usual tiresome military coup, and he has maintained power by keeping Yemen's many tribes fighting with each other, rather than uniting to string him up. ... fired at a protest march in Sanaa on Sunday, wounding at least 10 people, doctors said, heightening tension as opposition leaders prepared to meet Gulf Arab mediators.
Doctors said around 200 more demonstrators were overcome by teargas when they marched outside their normal protest zone in the streets near Sanaa University, a hub of pro-democracy demonstrations that have lasted three months.
"We neared the Sanaa Trade Centre when police confronted us with teargas, and suddenly opened heavy gunfire on us from all directions," said Sabry Mohammed, a protester. "A state of terror set in among the demonstrators, and some of them decamped into side streets."
Both Western and Gulf Arab allies have tried without success so far to broker a resolution to a crisis over a transition of power from Saleh, who has led the Arabian Peninsula state for 32 years and says he wants a handover, but only to "safe hands".
Saudi and Western allies of Yemen fear a prolonged standoff could ignite festivities between rival military units and cause chaos that would benefit an active al Qaeda wing operating in the poor, mountainous country.
Hundreds of security forces deployed across the area near where the festivities took place on Algeria Street in Sanaa, roughly 2 kilometre outside the normal protest zone. Some were on foot while others were in armoured vehicles.
The maimed were rushed to hospital by ambulance and private car, and tear gas canisters littered the road. A protest official told anti-Saleh crowds over a loudspeaker that dozens of protesters had been tossed in the slammer by a nearby mosque.
Clashes also were reported to have taken place in Dhamar, just south of the capital.
A political survivor who has described governing Yemen as akin to "dancing on the heads of snakes", Saleh has warned of civil war and the break-up of the country if he is forced out.
More than 116 protesters have been killed in festivities with security forces since late January.
Gulf Arab states stepped in this month with an offer to mediate after Western-brokered talks stalled, and an opposition delegation was due to meet Gulf foreign ministers in Riyadh shortly to lay out conditions for entering formal talks. The opposition, whose delegation is headed by former foreign minister Mohammed Basindwa, rejected a Gulf framework for talks last week, saying it wanted Saleh out within two weeks and the Gulf plan did not include a quick or clear transition timetable.
Basindwa told journalists the opposition had agreed to meet at the invitation of Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al Faisal and on condition no Saleh representatives would be included.
Saleh stepping down was "not negotiable", Basindwa said.
"We hope the American and European friends as well as our brothers in the Gulf will support this initiative because there will be no solution without Saleh's departure."
Saleh had welcomed the Gulf plan, which appeared to promise him immunity from prosecution, an issue that had proved a stumbling block in earlier talks that stalled. Saleh accepted the Gulf talks framework the next day.
The opposition wants to keep open the option of prosecuting him but has indicated that issue alone would not thwart a deal. After initially offering to leave after his current term ends in 2013, Saleh subsequently said he would step down after holding elections, possibly this year.
Even before the start of the protests, inspired by the toppling of the Tunisian and Egyptian presidents, Saleh was struggling to quell a separatist rebellion in the south and cement a truce with Mohammedan rebels in the north.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2011
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#1
Has the green turban guy with the sword emigrated to Yemen?
There is a striking resemblance...
Fred you aren't using stock footage again are you?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/18/2011 12:32
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Sure. After he finished the generals applauded politely, sent him home and got back to doing whatever they were doing before he arrived.
ISLAMABAD In an unusually candid speech to military officers, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry has said that the armed forces of Pakistan must be subservient to the civilian administration.
Addressing the officers of Command and Staff College Quetta on their visit to the apex court, the chief justice blamed military interventions in politics for the stunted growth of democratic institutions and reminded the officers of their sworn oaths to preserve, protect and defend the constitution in addition to the frontiers of the nation.
If we are to be recognised as a civilised nation in the world, then we must have supremacy of the constitution and the rule of law, said the chief justice, in a speech that laid out the history of civil-military relations with unusual candour.
Chief Justice Iftikhar said the constitution itself manifestly states that all the executive and judicial authorities shall act in aid of the Supreme Court. The 1973 constitution introduced provisions pertaining to the command, oath and functions of the armed forces for the first time.
The armed forces role has been clearly defined in Article 245 of the constitution which envisages that the armed forces shall, under the federal governments directions defend Pakistan against external aggression or threat of war, and, subject to law, act in aid of civil power when called upon to do so.
Which happens more than you might expect...
The chief justice went on to say that parliamentary subordination to a powerful executive had its roots in the weak political framework in the initial years.
We did not have popularly or directly-elected legislatures from 1947 to 1970. This also retarded the political development of the state, he added. But the chief justice also acknowledged the positive contributions of the military and its stature in the eyes of ordinary Pakistanis.
He said the Pakistan Army has been regarded over the years as a highly disciplined and trained force.
They haven't beaten anyone in a war, but they're highly disciplined and trained...
He blamed the militarys dominance of the polity of Pakistan as the primary cause of the public eventually questioning its role.
"If you guys can't win a war what good are you?"
The welfare of the people must be the supreme consideration of all institutions and all functionaries of the state, he added. He also cautioned against military adventurism even as he praised the sacrifices of Pakistani soldiers to the cause of national security.
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[Iran Press TV] Renowned American author and veteran journalist Helen Thomas
Oh, thank goodness! Reading the headline, I thought it was Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and I was severely disappointed.
is set to head a mass protest during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to the United States.
Look at meeeeeee! I'm still impoooooortant!!!!
Netanyahu is expected to travel to Washington for the annual policy meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in May 21-24.
Over 50 major peace groups are now organizing a gathering to protest against the Israeli lobby shaping US foreign policy.
Thomas, whose contentious comments about Israelis led to her departure from the White House press corps last year, is one of the main critics set to address the massive anti-Israeli rally.
The outspoken 90-year-old journalist, stoked controversy on December 2, 2010, when she suggested Jews should leave "Paleostine" to Arabs and head to Europe and the US.
Soon after making the comments, Thomas was forced to retire from Hearst Newspapers.
It was no longer possible to ignore the fact that she'd reached that stage of early senility when one can no longer govern one's tongue.
She later defended her remarks in an interview with Kansas City paper, saying that "I can call a president of the United States anything in the book, but I can't touch Israel, which has Jewish-only roads in the West Bank."
No, dear. It's the segregated Palestinian West Bank that has Jewish-only roads, quite unlike unsegregated Israel. We understand that facts are hard, but do try, just a little.
Helen Thomas has covered every president since John F. Kennedy and was the first woman news hound to become a member of the White House Correspondents Association.
The "Move Over AIPAC" project intends to bring activists and concerned citizens from around the country to learn about the extraordinary influence AIPAC has on the US policy.
According to official data, Israel receives about USD 3 billion from the US in direct each year, which is roughly one-fifth of America's foreign aid budget.
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Maybe if he wants to know who is living inside Obamas head he should read this article first.
BILLIONAIRE business celebrity Donald Trump, who is flirting with a White House run, has lamented that the United States has become a "laughing stock'' too timid to wield its power assertively on the world stage.
He also says President Obama is the weakest US president in history.
"We have such power if we knew how to use it,'' Trump told CNN television in an interview.
He said that by failing to move more decisively in its foreign policy, "this country is a laughing stock throughout the world''.
Trump, 64, has not yet announced that he is running for president, but he has become more visible in recent weeks, giving more interviews and stepping us his criticism of President Barack Obama ahead of a possible 2012 challenge.
The wise-cracking, straight-talking real-estate magnate, an early frontrunner among possible Republican presidential contenders, renewed his criticism of Obama as an "ineffective'' leader. He offered the US role in military action against Libya's Muammar Gaddafi as proof of America's new impotence.
"Look at Libya. Look at this mess,'' an exasperated Trump said. "We go in, we don't go in, he shouldn't be removed, we don't want to remove him, we don't want to touch him, but he should be removed. Nobody knows what they're doing on Gaddafi.
"I'd do one thing. Either I'd go in and take the oil or I don't go in at all,'' he said. "In the old days, when you have a war and you win, that nation is yours.''
The billionaire mogul was equally incensed over US policy toward Beijing.
"If you look at what China is doing, they're stealing our jobs, they're taking our money. They're then loaning our money back. It's amazing,'' Trump said.
"They're making all of our products,'' he said. "They are also manipulating the currency that makes it almost impossible for our companies to compete with China.''
#1
"I'd do one thing. Either I'd go in and take the oil or I don't go in at all,'' he said. "In the old days, when you have a war and you win, that nation is yours."
AND
"If you look at what China is doing, they're stealing our jobs, they're taking our money. They're then loaning our money back. It's amazing," Trump said.
Word. I'm liking the Donald. I'm liking him a lot. I think he's got what it takes to go against the Democrats head on: no apologies, no mincing words, no talking down. It's freaking manly, to be honest.
* RENSE > [Opinion-Maker.org] WAYNE MADSEN - OBAMA'S MOTHER WORKED FOR THE CIA.
SUKARNO-VS-SUKARTO + 1960's Indonesia.
As for Libyuh, once again since the Muslim Brotherhood is not trusted by the US-West to NOT impose a Radic Islamist agenda on post-Mubarak Egypt, the former is keeping Muammar as a hedge agz the post-Jasmine Radical Islamist takeover of Egypt + Muslim ME.
#6
BHARAT RAKSHAK > [UN IMF] TO CONTAIN FUTURE BUDGET, US MUST RAISE TAXES BY 35%, CUT ENTITLEMENTS BY 35% [Health Care + Social Security].
IMF Report = No cuts of any kind = US must raise taxes by 88% just to par = meet its liabilities.
* SAME > IMF: WORLD BANKS FACE A "WALL" OF
NEAR-TERM MATURING DEBT, widin the next two years which will inhibit Banks, espec hard-hit Euro-Banks, to borrow from other Banks = Ledning Services, or to fund National Governments.
IOW, BOTH WORLD BANKS + GOVTS WILL HAVE MASSIVE DEBT, BUT LITTLE-TO-NO-MONEY TO PAY OFF [real risk of serious to catastrophic, Multi-Vendor/Govts-States default come 2015].
D *** NG IT, DAT CAN'T BE BECAUSE THE POLITICOS KEEP TELLING US THAT PERENNIAL DEFICIT SPENDING/BANKRUPTCY IS DA HONEY - WE'RE MERELY "APPROACHING/NEARING INSOLVENCY" WHEN OUR NATIONAL DEBTS ALREADY EXCEED OUR REVENUES BY OVER 100%-N-CLIMBING!
#7
I was certain I'd see the Master of the Obvious graphic when I came to this article.
Maybe it's so obvious, it's not necessary?
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/18/2011 6:03
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#8
Like Obama, Trump is an ego junkie addicted to his own importance.
He has more experience actually running things than Obama, you gotta give him that, but he wouldn't be much of an improvement.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/18/2011 6:57
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#9
1) Trump knows how to run a large organization and get things done.
2) He has a keen understanding of business and economics.
3) He calls things as he sees 'em.
Don't know where he stands on many policy issues (and I want to know), but he's probably the best candidate out there for addressing spending and the deficit. And that counts for a lot with me.
Besides I'd love to see an Obama / Trump debate, assuming they can find a venue large enough to contain their two egos.
#12
The Donald has gained support most likely because he speaks his mind without the PC BS in between. Voters are hungry for honesty and straight talk. I can hear him saying you're fired to BHO during innauguration. I don't think he has much of a chance--but then I didn't think BHO had a snowball's chance in hell either.
#13
Trump is being recruited by the Democrats in order to split the anti-Obama vote and let Obama win in 2012.
This is the only way Obama can win.
Ross Perot showed how it can be done: a third-party independent draws votes primarily from Republicans, allowing a Democrat such as Clinton to sneak in with 43% of the vote.
Obama is assured 40% of the vote from government dependents, and if Trump can pull 20%, he wins.
Trump is close to the Democrats. With real estate in NY and NJ, he is extremely dependent on political support from Northeast Democrats.
His chief political adviser is a long-time Democratic operative, who now doubt mediates between him and the DNC/Obama campaign.
#18
"If you look at what China is doing, they're stealing our jobs, they're taking our money. They're then loaning our money back. It's amazing,' Trump said. "They're making all of our products,'' he said. "They are also manipulating the currency that makes it almost impossible for our companies to compete with China.''
Yes Donald, we noticed. It's the cheap labor, destroy the middle class thing again as it always is.
#21
I don't know what Trump's positions are. They seem to change. The Club for Growth claims Trump is a liberal. They cite Trump's positions: support of "universal health care" and a proposal to slap a onetime tax on individuals with a net worth of more than $10 million, plans to levy a tariff on Chinese goods makes him the "king of protectionism," I wouldn't mind seeing the Chinese slapped around some as they give a damn about fair trade.
#23
he's faux-populist huckster (Yeah, and I don't like Huckabee, either) with a penchant for bankruptcy and getting thrown out of company control. IOW - a clown, who entertains, but not a serious candidate unless you forgot Ross Perot and what he did to help the Reps in 1992
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/18/2011 22:06
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#24
Trump's value right now is that, not being a 'serious' candidate yet, he can say anything. Example: the way he has been hammering at the birth certificate quagmire. No one else, with the possible exception of Sara Palin, could get away with that.
#27
not Voters, poll audiences. I still remember Newt on that couch with Nancy decrying Glowbull Warmening.
He doesn't get a pass for that, much less his prior shit. Donald has enough crap in his closet that he's not a serious candidate. If, as SteveS (who I respect) says - he's a foil, more power to him. I can just see him reading his press releases and going for it, screwing everyone for his stoopid combover ego
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/18/2011 22:45
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#28
Mind the ones thought NOT to be "serious candidates." We have one in office at this very moment, now playing golf or vacationing or both every week end. I've forgiven Newt both crotch and global warming.
#29
no doubt non-"serious candidates" have their place and purpose.
I think Sarah Palin is unelectable nationwide, but she can be a game-changer and argument-setter by her very presence and statements. I think she knows the same and will use it to good effect,
Trump, in my mind, is unable to restrain his ego, sufficiently stoked, and that scares me
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/18/2011 23:08
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[Al Jazeera] Incumbent candidate Goodluck Jonathan ... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau... is heading for victory by a landslide margin in Nigeria's presidential election.
With most ballots counted in 35 of the West African country's 36 states Jonathan had tallied more than 22 million votes while his nearest rival Muhammadu Buhari, the country's former military ruler, had around 12 million.
Formal confirmation of the result is not expected before Monday, but the margin of Jonathan's lead suggests he has secured election without requiring a runoff vote. To win in the first round, a candidate needs a simple majority and a quarter of the vote in two thirds of the 36 states.
Al Jizz's Yvonne Ndege, reporting the capital, Abuja, said: "It's safe to say that the cat is out of the bag, and that Jonathan has won this election."
Jonathan polled strongly in predominantly Christian southern areas, including some of Nigeria's most populous cities, while Buhari attracted most of his support in the country's Mohammedan north.
Observers hailed the vote as "orderly and transparent" but some Buhari supporters claimed the results looked suspicious while youths in some northern cities set up burning barricades, the Rooters news agency reported.
In Lagos, Jonathan's People's Democratic Party (PDP) picked up 65.9 per cent of the vote, according to preliminary results from the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The PDP, which has won every presidential vote since Nigeria returned to civilian rule in 1999, had struggled there in last weeks the parliamentary election.
Oronto Douglas, a senior advisor to Jonathan, told Rooters: "This is no time for triumphalism. It is a time for deep reflection, for strengthening the bond of our union and for all of us to work together."
So far, there has been no official reaction from the candidates.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2011
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[Arab News] Troops loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffy ... a proud Arab institution for 42 years ... on Sunday shelled the rebel-held city of Ajdabiya, a strategic eastern town that has been the scene of fierce fighting in recent weeks.
The government bombardment of Ajdabiya marked a setback for the rebels, who were forced to retreat a day after having advanced as far as the outskirts of the oil town of Brega, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) to the west.
On Sunday, dozens of vehicles, some of them rebel trucks with heavy machine guns mounted in the back, could be seen fleeing Ajdabiya toward the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) to the north.
Last month, Qadaffy's troops encircled Ajdabiya with tanks, armored personnel carriers and heavy artillery before NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... Arclight airstrikes decimated the forces besieging the city and allowed the rebels to reclaim the town and push west.
The NATO-led air campaign has kept rebels from being defeated on the battlefield by the better trained and equipped government forces, but it still has not been enough to completely turn the tide. The rebels have been unable to reach Qadaffy's heavily defended hometown of Sirte, the gateway to the regime-controlled western half of the country.
Rebel advances west of Ajdabiya -- through Brega and its companion oil center of Ras Lanuf, another 60 miles (100 kilometers) farther on -- have ultimately foundered as rebels overextended their supply lines and were routed by the heavier firepower and more sophisticated tactics of the government forces.
But while Qadaffy's troops have been able to halt rebel advances and push back east, they have been unable to move in on Benghazi, largely because of the threat of NATO Arclight airstrikes on Qadaffy's exposed forces.
In Gay Paree, French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet dismissed statements from a top NATO official that the alliance is short of aircraft. Longuet said instead that NATO's mission in Libya is hampered by a lack of ground information.
"There is no lack of planes but a lack of identification of mobile objectives," he said in an interview published Sunday in the daily Le Gay Pareeien. "The problem is that we're missing concrete and verifiable information on identified objectives on the ground." Longuet said that "coalition aviation is capable of breaking all logistical provisions of Qadaffy's troops" to the east. But he acknowledged that in urban combat, "if the aviation avoids tragedies, it still isn't solving the problem." After a meeting of NATO foreign ministers last week in Berlin, the alliance's secretary-general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said NATO needed "a small number of precision aircraft" to hit Qadaffy's forces.
"I'm hopeful that nations will step up to the plate," he said, noting that the two-day Berlin meeting was not held to solicit new pledges of support.
The need for the additional aircraft comes as the situation has changed on the ground, Fogh Rasmussen said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2011
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[Iran Press TV] Scores of Yemeni protesters have reportedly suffered injuries and poisoning after the security forces used poison gas to disperse anti-government rallies.
The future will be interesting, as the tyrannical governments use up their crowd-control gasses...
On Sunday, at least 30 people were maimed and 40 others intoxicated after the forces gassed the demonstrators in the western city of Dhamar, a Press TV correspondent reported.
In addition, a report said 10 people hwere hurt as Yemeni forces fired at protesters in Sana'a.
Tens of thousands of anti-regime protesters erupted into the streets of the capital, Sana'a, and the city of Taizz, both located in the west, to call on President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, after serving as a lieutenant colonel in the army. He had been part of the conspiracy that bumped off his predecessor, Ibrahim al-Hamdi, in the usual tiresome military coup, and he has maintained power by keeping Yemen's many tribes fighting with each other, rather than uniting to string him up. ... to step down.
Hundreds of thousands of people have turned out for regular demonstrations in the two cities as well as the city of Aden in the south, calling for Saleh's removal and the tackling of corruption and unemployment.
Some 40% of the population lives on USD 2 a day or less in the country and one third face food shortage.
The protests have been met by riot police or supporters of Saleh armed with knives and batons.
The corpse count in the country has surpassed 300 since anti-government protests began in late January.
Also on Sunday, Yemeni women held a second day of protests against Saleh after he described the participation of women in protests "un-Islamic."
Moreover, thousands gathered for the funeral of a protester who had died from wounds sustained during festivities with the security forces.
Opposition leaders and Arab foreign ministers held a meeting in Soddy Arabia to discuss the stalemate in Yemen.
Last week, the opposition rejected an Arab proposal that gave Saleh immunity from prosecution and called on him to pass power to his deputy.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2011
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[Iran Press TV] Latest reports say NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... warplanes have bombed an area southwest of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, despite criticism that such strikes have failed to protect civilians.
Libyan military officials told state TV that NATO warplanes dropped bombs on the area of Al-Hira, 50 km southwest of Tripoli on Sunday.
The troubled region and its surrounding areas have been constantly targeted by NATO jets over the past weeks.
The developments come as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recently said that NATO military intervention in oil-rich Libya has gone far beyond the mandate authorized by the United Nations. ...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involve making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country...
After talks with their NATO counterparts in Berlin on Friday, Lavrov also called for an urgent shift towards a political and diplomatic settlement in Libya.
NATO has already been under fire from Libyan opposition forces for not doing enough to protect civilian lives.
The head of the opposition's armed forces Gen. Abdul Fattah Younis told news hounds in Benghazi in early April that NATO's inaction has allowed government troops to advance and kill people in Misratah and other cities.
Younis also threatened to ask the United Nations Security Council to suspend the NATO mission in Libya if the military alliance does not do "its work properly."
He also slammed Western-led forces over the civilian corpse count caused by NATO bombing campaigns in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2011
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#1
The rebels top military man is complaining that NATO doesn't meet his high standards?
Ya know what? I think I hear my Mother calling. It's time to go home.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/18/2011 6:38
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#2
Supposedly NATO is working on a political solution hased on regime change. However, the areas that they are "protecting," are polluted with islamists.
[Pak Daily Times] Bombs and gunnies killed six people in Iraq on Sunday, four of them from the same family, security sources said.
The four family members -- parents and their two daughters in their 20s -- were all shot in the head overnight by gunnies who spared a third, seven-year-old daughter. "This was probably a terrorist crime, which we are investigating," said Storied Baghdad security front man Major General Qassim Atta.
Also on Sunday, magnetic "sticky bombs" attached to cars killed two civilians and maimed another in Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... senior police officials said. In the western part of Kirkuk, police said they found the corpse of the leader of an anti-al Qaeda militia who was kidnapped a week ago. The UN envoy to Iraq, Ad Melkert, said this month that violent incidents still occur on average 25 times per day.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2011
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#1
Yah, they keep trying to blow up the shoggoths, and they just keep recoagulating.
[Emirates 24/7] The Barack B.O. Obama administration has launched an intense search for a country that could provide refuge to Libyan strongman Muammar Qadaffy, The New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... reported on Saturday. Maybe he could room with Louis Farrakhan? He owns him, doesn't he?
But amid looming indictments against Qadaffy by the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... in The Hague for the atrocities committed against his own people during the ongoing popular uprising and for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103, US officials only have a narrow list of potential host countries. "How about Antarctica, Chief?"
"Herb, that's not a country."
"So that means it doesn't have an extradition agreement, right?"
"Hmmm... You've got a point there..."
Three officials for President Barack Obama's administration told the Times they were considering finding a country that has not signed or ratified the Rome Statute, which requires countries to turn over anyone being indicted for trial by the ICC.
That approach raises the prospect that Qadaffy could find haven in another country in Africa, where about half of the continent's countries have not signed the treaty. The United States is also not a signatory due to worries that is military officers and intelligence officers could be prosecuted.
"We learned some lessons from Iraq, and one of the biggest is that Libyans have to be responsible for regime change, not us," a senior B.O. regime official told the newspaper. "What we're simply trying to do is find some peaceful way to organize an exit, if the opportunity arises."
The report came after weeks of bombings by NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... allies and pressure on both the military and Qadaffy aides have failed to oust the man who has ruled Libya with an iron fist for 32 years.
The United States supported Perfidious Albion and La Belle France in the nearly month-old operation against Qadaffy, launched out of alarm that Qadaffy would carry out wide-scale killings of civilians and fighters who rose up against him.
But the United States has resisted French-led pressure to supply more planes, saying it will play a limited role amid a heavy US commitment in Afghanistan and residual military role in Iraq.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2011
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#1
Sprocket Man gets a safe haven, but Mubarak doesn't?
TEHRAN, Iran - Irans official news agency says parliamentary elections have been set for next March. The report Sunday by IRNA quotes Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar as saying the voting will take place March 2, 2012.
Plans for the election could be a springboard for protests by Irans opposition after facing a relentless crackdown since unrest following the disputed 2009 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
But it also may be a test of strength for Ahmadinejad, who has been challenged by the current parliament.
Predictions --
1) Short Round and the Mad Mullahs will use as much violence as required to crush the opposition.
2) Obama won't care.
The last parliamentary election was in 2008 when Islamic religious fanatics conservatives won a majority of seats in the 275-seat chamber.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/18/2011
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[Arab News] A senior Iranian military official involved in investigating a mysterious computer worm targeting Iranian nuclear facilities and other industrial sites said Saturday the malware could have caused large-scale accidents and loss of life.
It first emerged in September that Iran was battling a powerful computer worm known as Stuxnet, which has the ability to send centrifuges -- used in nuclear fuel production -- spinning out of control. Its appearance and the suspicion that Israel and the US might have been involved raised the prospect of covert attempts to thwart a nuclear program that the West fears is aimed at weapons production.
Iran has acknowledged the code infected laptops belonging to employees at its first nuclear power plant, whose launch has been repeated delayed. It is also believed to have temporarily crippled Iran's uranium enrichment program last year.
On Saturday, Gholam Reza Jalali, head of a military unit in charge of combatting sabotage, said Iranian experts have determined that the United States and Israel were behind Stuxnet, which can take over the control systems of industrial sites like power plants.
Jalali said disastrous accidents and loss of life were averted by Iranian experts fighting the computer code. He gave no specific examples.
In recent months, Iranian state media have reported dozens of kabooms at industrial sites, particularly oil and petrochemical facilities, that have killed at least 10 people. But there were no official explanations for the blasts.
"Enemies have attacked industrial infrastructure and undermined industrial production through cyber attacks.
This was a hostile action against our country," the official IRNA news agency quoted Jalali as saying. "If it had not been confronted on time, much material damage and human loss could have been inflicted." Jalali heads a military unit called Passive Defense that primarily deals with countering sabotage. The unit was set up on an order from Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Jalali said Iranian experts have traced the Stuxnet virus back to the US state of Texas and Israel, IRNA reported.
Western experts say only a number of powerful countries could have developed Stuxnet.
Jalali also blamed the German engineering conglomerate Siemens, whose equipment and software is used at the Bushehr nuclear power plant, where technical issues have halted its planned startup.
"Siemens should explain why and how it provided the enemies with the codes of the SCADA software and paved the way for a cyber attack against us," IRNA quoted him as saying.
Iran has acknowledged Stuxnet affected a limited number of centrifuges at its main uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, central Iran, but has said its scientists discovered and neutralized the malware before it could cause serious damage.
The Natanz enrichment plant is of key concern to those nations who fear Iran is intent on weapons production because the technology can produce either fuel for power plants or material for bombs.
Iran insists its nuclear work is entirely peaceful.
Iran has confirmed that Stuxnet was found on several laptops belonging to employees at the Russian-built Bushehr power plant but has said it didn't affect the facility's control systems. Western intelligence reports have suggested that Stuxnet has infected the control systems there.
Bushehr is not a proliferation concern because of international safeguards on its spent fuel. But Iran has celebrated the plant extensively as a major technological achievement and a sign of its determination to master all aspects of nuclear technology.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2011
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#1
Iran insists its nuclear work is entirely peaceful.
And Adolph Hitler wished us all peace, health, long life, freedom, and prosperity too.
#4
I've been told, by my inside man Nabil, that the worm gets instructions to do the real dirty when efforts are made to remove it. Just saying...that's what I hear. Hope the IRGC doesn't find this out
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/18/2011 22:32
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#5
"Siemens should explain why and how it provided the enemies with the codes of the SCADA software and paved the way for a cyber attack against us," IRNA quoted him as saying.
The Germans owe you NOTHING! Stuxnet is introduced via the thumb drives of employees while up loading zoological porn. Get over it!
Nothing scares these young guys. Tornados just piss them off.
staying at lovett's cause a fucking tornado came and destroyed my house with me des and the dogs inside. we are fine but all our shit is gone. thanks a lot mother nature for being such a bitch
[Dawn] A student of a government school allegedly opened firing on his alma mater to kill the headmaster after being punished by him in the class on Saturday.
However, The contradictory However... the teacher remained unhurt as the enraged student couldn't manage to enter the school.
Sources said that the student, Mazhar, left his class for his home after exchanging hot words with the headmaster during Islamiat class over punishment.
"He brought a pistol from his house and opened firing on the building and staff of Government High School Narat Khel along with his two accomplices," they said. However, The ever-popular However... nobody was hurt in the incident.
Officials at the cop shoppe concerned, when contacted, said that they had started the paperwork but haven't done much else against the student but he managed to escape. He was declared a proclaimed offender, they added.
To a query, they said that according to FIR registered by headmaster of the school, Wali Shah, the accused was a student of 10th class student.
Police claimed that the main gate and doors of the school had few holes of bullets fired by the student as he could not manage to enter the premises. Police were conducting raids for the arrest of the three accused.
EXPLOSIVES: Police claimed to have seized huge quantity of explosives at Khushalgarh checkpost and tossed in the calaboose two accused in the second incident of its kind within two days here on Saturday.
They said that a pick-up vehicle bearing registration number H-2547, loaded with 1,240 kilograms of explosives, was transporting the consignment to Bahadar Khel area in Karak from Chakwal district of Punjab province.
Meanwhile, ...back at the scene of the crime, Lieutenant Queeg had an idea... officials said that the three accused, who were tossed in the calaboose on Friday with 200 kilograms of explosives, were remanded for three days by a local court on Saturday.
They said that coppers stopped a pick-up at Khushalgarh bridge checkpost on the border of Rawalpindi at the Indus River and recovered explosives from it on checking.
The accused Mazhar Hussain and Jabir of Rawalpindi showed licence of Pakistain Mining Development Corporation to police, saying the explosives were being taken for use in salt mines, they added.
The mining of salt is more than a century old in Kohat division whereas the British had established a Salt House for collecting tax. The building now serves as regional headquarters of Customs department and is still known as Salt House.
"The accused have expired permission form the PMDC and there is possibility of using the explosives in suicide kabooms and kabooms. But they are being interrogated and the investigation team is in contact with the sender and recipient of the consignment to confirm their identity," an official told Dawn.
Police had tossed in the calaboose Umer, Ikramullah and Akhtar Nawaz with explosives near the new toll plaza on Indus Highway on Friday.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2011
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[An Nahar] Syrian troops have deployed along Syria's border with Leb on Saturday in an effort to combat terrorism, reported the daily An Nahar Sunday.
It added that the Syrian border patrol have intensified their procedures along the Syrian-Lebanese border.
Earlier this week, hundreds of trucks were held up at a border crossing between Leb and Syria amid heightened security measures enforced as the Syrian regime faces unprecedented protests.
"Between 400 and 500 trucks, most with Syrian or Jordanian license plates, have been held at the Abboudiyeh border crossing for hours for inspection by Syrian security forces," a Lebanese security source told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"The inspection of each truck is taking about one hour," he added. "These measures have been in place for three days."
Thursday's security measures, the toughest in years, come amid accusations by Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... that members of Caretaker Premier Saad Hariri Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's liquidation. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too. 's Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... Movement have been funding and arming anti-government protesters in Syria.
Syrian state television on Wednesday aired "testimonies" of three people saying they had received funds and weapons from MP Jamal al-Jarrah to fuel a wave of protests against the ruling Baath regime.
Jarrah has denied the allegations. No, no! Certainly not! In 2006, trucks along the Syrian-Lebanese border were also held up in what was thought to be a retaliatory measure by Syrian authorities amid tension between the two countries.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2011
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#1
Actually, what the Syrians are probably trying to do is to get Hezbollah into Syria to back the government, and they don't want the protestors to know.
LONDON -- Britain's Prince Harry has been promoted to captain in the Air Corps after completing five years' service in the army, palace officials said Sunday. The prince, a former lieutenant and trainee Apache helicopter pilot, would now be known as Captain Harry Wales, St. James's Palace said in a statement.
He was also awarded his Apache Badge on Thursday, marking the completion of an eight-month course that included day and night flying and ground school training. The 26-year-old prince is now qualified to fly the aircraft without an instructor, and he has progressed to a further weapons handling course to complete his training as an Army Air Corps pilot.
Harry became an army officer in April 2006, after a 44-week training course at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, southwest of London. He had served for 10 weeks in Afghanistan during 2007 and 2008 as an air controller.
Good for him.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/18/2011
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#1
Very, very good, it's nice to see Royals fighting alongside US.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/18/2011 9:54
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#2
I wonder if anyone will call him, "The Captain, formerly known as Prince".
Posted by: Mr. Bill ||
04/18/2011 16:20
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#4
He had served for 10 weeks in Afghanistan during 2007 and 2008 as an air controller.
So: he didn't get into the air in his chosen profession (where the projectiles fly?). Know's how to work the system, eh?
#5
I understand he volunteered but the powers-that-be decided his downing/capture/kill would be a PR disaster. Don't disagree with that. It's the will, not the doing, that should be respected. He's done it, been there. More power to him. Obviously, Diana's son more than the Muslim-Luvin Tampon-In-Chief Dad
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/18/2011 22:40
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#6
So: he didn't get into the air in his chosen profession (where the projectiles fly?). Know's how to work the system, eh?
Posted by: Jealet Smith4593
A totally uncalled for comment Jealet, particularly in light of the people who run our government these days. No problem with old Albion or Royals bashing, but not a lad in uniform for phuechs sake. I would urge you to have the mods remove it before it causes any additional embarrassment.
[Al Jazeera] The Mexican Navy has said it has captured a suspected leader of the Zetas narco gang allegedly behind the mass killings of more than 100 people in northeastern Mexico.
Martin Omaar Estrada Luna, said to be the local leader of the gang, was captured on Saturday. He is accused of criminal masterminding the murders of 145 people in Tamaulipas state near the US border.
Their remains were discovered in a mass grave earlier this month.
A navy statement said Estrada Luna, alias "El Kilo", is also the main suspect in the massacre of 72 central and south American migrants last August, also in the same township of San Fernando in Tamaulipas.
He was one of six people tossed in the calaboose in a navy operation on Saturday, the statement added.
A series of bus hijackings alerted authorities to the killings. Since April 1, officials have found about 20 mass graves in San Fernando alone.
The Zetas, a notorious gang formed in the 1990s by ex-military commandos, is now engaged in a fight to death with its former bosses.
Seven major narco gangs are operating in Mexico, and over 34,000 people have been killed since December 2006 in the raging wars for control over smuggling routes and government efforts to crack down on illegal activities.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2011
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[Dawn] Egypt's ex-premier Ahmed Nazif and the former ministers of interior and finance are to face trial on charges of corruption, a judicial source told AFP on Sunday.
Nazif, "former interior minister Habib al-Adly and former finance minister Yussef Boutros-Ghali will face trial, charged with misusing public funds and unlawful gains valued at 92 million Egyptian pounds (15 million dollars)," he said.
The three, along with a German businessman, are accused of illegal profiteering from a deal to import new vehicle number plates.
They allegedly bought the number plates directly without calling for a public tender as laid down by law.
They are also said to have bought the number plates for higher than their market price.
The trial is part of a sweeping probe into corruption launched under the ruling military council which took power when president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... was ousted on February 11 following anti-regime protests.
Nazif, who Mubarak sacked along with his cabinet on January 28 in a bid to placate the growing protest movement, was remanded in jug on April 10.
Adly, the widely-reviled former interior minister, is already facing trial for fraud and is due to face criminal charges in connection with the shooting of protesters.
Boutros-Ghali, a nephew of former UN chief Boutros Boutros-Ghali and who held a senior post in the International Monetary Fund, is out of Egypt.
Nationwide anti-regime protests that erupted on January 25 ended Mubarak's 30-year reign of the Arab world's most populous country and saw power transfered to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which vowed to bring to justice all those found guilty of abuse.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2011
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It sounds as if, based on yesterday and today, that they want to cripple everyone _but_ the Brotherhood in time for the next election.
[Dawn] The federal government on Sunday decided to stop the supplies to NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... troops in Afghanistan for two days on April 23 and April 24, keeping in view Pakistain Tehreek-e-Insaaf's plan to stage a sit-in in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar to protest against drone attacks in the tribal areas.
The provincial government has given directions for a security plan to ensure law and order during the PTI's sit-in protest.
Sources said that the federal and provincial government decided to stop NATO oil tankers and food supplies during the protests to avoid any incidents of violence.
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04/18/2011
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#1
DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > US DRONE SUCCESS RATE IN PAKISTAN ATTACKS IS JUST 6.0% | [Islamabad = PAK Govt] SIXTY US DRONE HITS KILL ONLY 14 AL-QAEDA MEN, BUT ALSO 687 INNOCENT PAK CIVILIANS, between the period of 01/14/2006 -04/10/2009.
US-VS-PAK "WAR OF THE DRONE STATS" [Casualty Statistics].
* SAME > US DRONE ATTACKS CANNOT BE STOPPED, SAYS REHMAN MALIK [PAK Interior Minister].
POSTER = Islamabad quietly recognizes that US Drone Strikes also safeguard Pakistan by reducing the number of MilTerrs engaged in various domestic TerrOps, espec SUICIDE BOMBINGS.
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Five people, including a policeman, have been killed and a civilian injured in different attacks by unknown gunmen in Baghdad on Sunday, a security source said.
An explosive charge, planted on the roadside in northern Baghdads Tunis district, blew up early on Sunday, wounding a civilian, who was driven to a nearby hospital, the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
The security source said that an Iraqi Army force had discovered a rocket-launch pad in southern Baghdads Saydiya district, which included two rockets ready for launch presumably against west Baghdads Green Zone, the same location that houses the U.S. and British embassies.
Three rockets were launched from southern Baghdads Hay al-Amil district and fell on Baghdad Airport, but losses were not known, the source added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/18/2011
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[Ma'an] Chief of police in the Gazoo Strip Abu Ubayda Al-Jarrah announced Sunday a reward to any security officer who helped locate the killers of an Italian solidarity activist found dead two days earlier.
"All security officers who help reveal and arrest the killers ... will be rewarded," Abu Ubayda said in a statement, the day after President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... declared that those behind the murder would be charged with treason.
The statement was made despite the arrest and questioning of four men currently being interrogated over the murder of Italian news hound and activist Vittorio Arrigoni, who was found hanged early Friday morning.
Arrigoni had been kidnapped and his kidnappers posted a ransom video online Thursday, identifying themselves as a Salafist group. They said the activist would be executed unless Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, officials in Gazoo freed a number of Salafists from prison within 30 hours. Twelve hours ahead of the deadline, the activist was found hanged.
On Sunday evening, Hamas foreign affairs and planning minister Mohammed Awad told news hounds that Arrigoni's body would be moved to Egypt via the Rafah border crossing on Monday after a funeral in Gazoo.
"We're waiting for his friends and relatives to arrive in Gazoo. Some are already here but there are others we are waiting for, and then there will be a state funeral," Awad said.
"We expect afterward that his body will be taken to the Rafah crossing and then on to Cairo, according to the wishes of his family."
Earlier in the week, Gazoo Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh ...became Prime Minister after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank... had said that the murder "does not reflect the values, morals, or the religion of the Paleostinian people. This is an unprecedented case that won't be repeated," and called for a criminal investigation into the matter.
In the video, the kidnappers said they were part of a previously unknown Salafi group Sarayat As-Sahabi Al-Humam Muhammad bin Mohammedana (the Brigade of the Gallant Companion of the Prophet Mohammed bin Mohammedana). Larger Salafist groups have said they had nothing to do with the abduction or murder, which was harshly condemned.
There are five major Salafist groups in Gazoo, all of which espouse an austere form of Sunni Islam that seeks a return to practices that were common in the early days of the faith.
Their religious observances and refusal to abide by various ceasefires have set them on a path of confrontation with Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,.
Though small in numbers, the groups have had a disproportionate impact.
By launching hundreds of crude rockets from the coastal enclave into Israel, they have attracted the wrath of both Israel and Hamas.
The recent history of bad blood between Hamas and the Salafists picked up in 2007, when a Salafist group called the Army of Islam (Jaish Al-Islam) grabbed credit for the kidnapping of BBC news hound Alan Johnston.
Hamas severed ties with the group and helped free Johnston after four months in captivity.
Tensions boiled over in August 2009, when Jund Ansar Allah (Soldiers of the Partisans of God) announced the creation of an Islamist "emirate" in Gazoo, during a sermon at a mosque in the southern city of Rafah.
That prompted a furious response from Hamas, whose forces stormed the mosque, prompting festivities which left 24 people dead.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2011
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"Round up the usual suspects."
"Zum befel, mein Sturmbannfuhrer!"
[Pak Daily Times] Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi, who resigned from his post, was reinstated by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei despite the resignation being accepted by the president, reports said Sunday. "Heydar Moslehi will continue his work in the ministry as minister after his resignation was rejected by the supreme leader," news agencies ISNA, Fars and Mehr reported. Earlier on Sunday, state news agency IRNA reported that Moslehi had quit and that his resignation had been accepted by President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad. IRNA also reported that Ahmadinejad immediately appointed Moslehi as his "adviser" on intelligence affairs. "I thank and appreciate your efforts during your tenure in the post of intelligence minister... I accept your resignation," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying in a letter to Moslehi carried by IRNA. IRNA did not specify the reasons for the resignation of Moslehi who was a newcomer in Ahmadinejad's second term cabinet. Ahmadinejad was returned to office after a disputed presidential election in June 2009.
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04/18/2011
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[Dawn] Insurgent attacks in Afghanistan killed eight NATO service members in one of the deadliest days for the military coalition this year, signaling the start of what many fear will be a particularly violent fighting season as President Barack B.O. Obama looks to start drawing down troops, authorities said Sunday.
The spate of attacks happened Saturday, when two separate kabooms in the south killed three soldiers and a suicide kaboom by a Taliban sleeper agent killed five NATO service members at a US base in the east.
Fighting usually increases in Afghanistan as the weather warms and cut-throats climb back over the mountainous border with Pakistain. This year, NATO has pushed further into Taliban strongholds in the south and has said the goal is to hold these areas so that cut-throats cannot re-establish their dominance.
Saturday's suicide kaboom in eastern Laghman province also killed four Afghan soldiers and an interpreter.
The Taliban grabbed credit for the bombing and front man Zabiullah Mujahid said Sunday that the soldier was a sleeper agent who had been in the army for years and had been in contact with Taliban operatives for "a long time."
He said the soldier had only been at this specific base for one month. Previously, the Taliban had said the soldier had only joined the army a month ago.
NATO has not identified the nationalities of any of the dead from Saturday's attacks. The international military coalition typically waits for national authorities to make such announcements.
The majority of troops in both the east and south are American, though there are forces from other nations in both regions.
The latest deaths make 23 NATO service members killed so far this month in Afghanistan and 125 killed so far this year.
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04/18/2011
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NATO has not identified the nationalities of any of the dead from Saturday's attacks. The international military coalition typically waits for national authorities to make such announcements
All US Army advisors and contractors to the Afghan Army. Difficult to esacape someone in an Afghan uniform walking around a crowded meeting table pulling grenade pins while mumbling Allah Akbar.
[Dawn] Eight people, among them a former UC naib nazim, were killed amid ongoing wave of violence and assassinations in different areas of Karachi on Saturday.
Twelve injured people were brought to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Civil Hospital and Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.
A man was found dead at an isolated place in Saadi Town area of the city. He was identified as 46-year-old Junaid Zahidi.
The victim belonged to the Jamaat-i-Islami and was former naib nazim of a union council in Gulshan Town.
He was hit by six bullets and his hands and legs were trussed up with rope. A Jamaat-i-Islami front man said Mr Zahidi was elected UC naib nazim in 2001. He had six children.
An owner of a roadside hotel was rubbed out in Nazimabad by armed motorcyclists. The dear departed was identified as 37-year-old Abdul Wasay Khan.
The shooting also left Zareef Khan and Nadir Khan injured. They worked at the same hotel.The victims belonged to Pishin district of Balochistan.
Earlier in the day, six people were killed, including activists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Mohajir Qaumi Movement (Haqiqi) and the Awami National Party.
A police officer posted in Jacobabad was among the dead. Police sources, however, said he was killed because of some personal enmity.
"Altaf Hussain deplored and condemned the brutal killings of the MQM workers and other people and called upon the government to take indiscriminate action against the killers," said an MQM statement.
"The city should be cleansed of the criminal elements and the life and property of people should be safeguarded," the statement quoted him as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2011
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MQM supports the abolishment of Jamaat-i-Islami (Islamic Society) as a terrorist movement, which is the stringpuller of the ISNA and the MSA in the US. The JI's power base is in Northwest Fronteir Province, but most Punjabis and Sindhis oppose them. There is no ideological difference between the JI and Taliban/Al-Qaeda.
[Arab News] Jordanian Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit threatened Saturday to resort to "hard security" measures in dealing with Salafist groups which the authorities accused of injuring 83 coppers on Friday.
"We will deal severely with any sedition and all attempts of cheating and behavior which is strange to our habits and conventions," Bakhit said during a visit to coppers receiving treatment at hospitals in Zarqa, 30 kms east of Amman. "These are not good Salafists but a misled group who try to exploit the atmosphere of democracy and freedom in the country," he added.
On Friday Salafists held their seventh rally in three months to press for the release of about 200 comrades who are serving jail terms after being condemned by the State Security Court for involvement in terror activities.
The function ended peacefully but one of the Salafist groups, wielding sticks and knives, was involved in festivities with coppers that were blamed on the Islamic fundamentals by the Public Security Chief Gen. Hussein Majali.
Majali threatened to resort to the "iron fist" in dealing with Salafists that found immediate expression in the arrest of more than 50 of them Friday night and early Saturday, according to security sources.
Among the jugged leaders of the Salafi movement were Abu Mohammad Tahawi, who appeared on the Doha-based Al Jizz television Friday night to deny the government charges and Saad Hunaiti, who was tossed in the calaboose along with two of his brothers.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2011
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[The Nation (Nairobi)] At least 45 people were left dead after a powerful storm whipped up tornadoes in seven southern US states, media reported today.
The tornadoes left a trail of destruction in North Carolina Saturday, levelling homes and businesses and knocking out power, the NBC television network reported.
The fast-moving storm toppled trees and power lines, tore roofs off houses and scattered tractor-trailers across highways.
Some two dozen tornadoes were reported in the southern states of Mississippi and Alabama on Friday, a day after 15 twisters struck in Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas, the National Weather Service said.
Violent weather also hit Arkansas and Georgia on Friday, US news reports said.
Particularly hard-hit was the North Carolina capital city of Raleigh, where dozens of homes were destroyed. Officials also reported multiple fatalities and widespread power outages throughout much of the state.
The violent weather system began late Thursday in Oklahoma, and left a trail of death and destruction as it travelled Friday and Saturday through several states,
Ripped from foundation
Among seven people killed in Alabama were mother and her two children, who were sheltering inside their double-wide trailer when it was ripped from its foundation and thrown about 500 feet, landing on its roof, disaster officials said.
The potent storm had made its way into the Atlantic Ocean by early Sunday, meteorologists with the National Storm Prediction Center said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2011
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N.C. has 14.5 percent "mobile homes." I'm sorry for the losses but everyone knows "moble homes" are tornado magnets.
[Straits Times] A MOTHER of eight children came forward yesterday to identify a jacket wallah who struck at a mosque in a police compound last Friday as her son, as the police increased security measures at their headquarters across Indonesia. "Yes, that's him. I recognize the ear and most of the teeth."
She came forward hours after the police released a photo of the man who killed himself and injured 30 worshippers, all but two of them coppers, in Cirebon, 200km south-east of Jakarta.
Three men also said they knew the bomber. Police front man Inspector-General Anton Bachrul Alam said they had identified the suicide bomber as M. Syarif, 24, from Cirebon, who was known to be a quiet person who did not talk to neighbours, reports said.
Syarif's uncle, Mr Elang Rasyid, said the dead man's wife was nine months pregnant. She had tried to call her husband that day but his cellphone was switched off.
Mr Supandi - the head of a neighbourhood unit in Cirebon - described Syarif as a mysterious introvert, who never prayed at the local mosque and was thought to have his own religious group.
Police are testing the mother's DNA to verify her claim.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2011
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[Arab News] Extremists attacked an army post and killed at least 13 soldiers watching the Algerian president's televised speech promising reforms, security officials said Saturday.
Two cut-throats in the group were killed by soldiers at the post in Kabyle, some 130 kilometers east of Algiers, the officials said Saturday.
On Saturday, security forces swept areas including the Yakourene forest, a hideout of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, in a search for other suspects.
It was the deadliest attack on security forces since July 2009, when at least 14 soldiers were reported killed in an ambush on a military convoy in Damous, near the northern coastal city of Tipaza.
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika ... 10th president of Algeria. He was elected in 1999 and is currently on his third term, which is probably why Algerians are ready to dump him... announced constitutional and electoral reforms Friday night "aimed at deepening the democratic process" amid upheavals in neighboring North African countries. In February, he lifted a 19-year-old state of emergency put in place at the start of a brutal Islamist insurgency. An estimated 200,000 people -- bully boys, civilians and soldiers -- were killed after violence erupted in 1992, when the army canceled the country's first multiparty elections and stepped in to prevent a likely victory by a Mohammedan fundamentalist party.
Security forces have brought calm to much of the country, but sporadic attacks by faceless myrmidons continue, particularly in the mountainous Kabyle region, a stronghold for Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which was officially formed in 2006 from the remnants of an insurgency movement, the Salafist Group for Call and Combat.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but most attacks in Algeria are blamed on Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
The attack on the army post, located between the towns of Azazga and Yakourene, came as most soldiers watched the speech by Bouteflika, officials said.
There was a long clash and reinforcements were sent in from blood-stained Tizi Ouzou, capital of the Kabyle region, the officials said.
Bouteflika, in office for 12 years, has made re-establishing peace a mark of his presidency, luring gunnies back into society with a reconciliation program.
Now, new fissures are reappearing as citizens hold scattered but regular strikes and protests, worrying officials who fear that popular uprisings in neighboring Tunisia and Libya could spread.
The 74-year-old Bouteflika promised to reform the constitution and the electoral process and ease pressure on the media in his Friday night speech.
He said a constitutional commission that includes all political tendencies and constitutional law experts would be set up and charged with making proposals for change -- to be adopted later by referendum or a parliamentary vote. He also promised changes in the electoral system so it conforms with the "most modern norms of representative democracies so that the people can express ... their most intimate convictions."
Without lifting the state's grip on television, Bouteflika said a variety of thematic channels would be offered and, more significantly, he vowed to do away with criminal penalties that have limited the independence of newspaper journalists.
However, The essential However... the promises of reforms were vague with no specific time elements or other guidelines, and the frailness of the president, who has been ailing and was at times barely audible, was among the most striking elements of the speech.
Posted by: Fred ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest Islamic movement and the founder of Hamas, has set up a network of political parties around the country that eclipse the following of the middle class activists that overthrew the regime. On the extreme fringe of the Brotherhood, Islamic groups linked to al-Qeada are organising from the mosques to fill the vacuum left by the collapse of the dictatorship.
[Iran Press TV] The Saudi-backed Bahraini government forces have intensified their crackdown on anti-regime protesters and have also demolished two mosques.
al-Assad's
Hillary Clinton
[An Nahar] At least five demonstrators were 
handed over their weapons
[Al Jazeera] Rebel fighters in eastern Libya fought off an attack by government troops in the town of Ajdabiya on Sunday, a day after retreating from a key oil facility around 100 kilometres farther west.
[Pak Daily Times] Yemeni forces loyal to President 
[Iran Press TV] Renowned American author and veteran journalist Helen Thomas 
Goodluck Jonathan
Muammar Qadaffy
[Iran Press TV] Scores of Yemeni protesters have reportedly suffered injuries and poisoning after the security forces used poison gas to disperse anti-government rallies.
[Iran Press TV] Latest reports say 
International Criminal Court
[Arab News] A senior Iranian military official involved in investigating a mysterious computer worm targeting Iranian nuclear facilities and other industrial sites said Saturday the malware could have caused large-scale accidents and loss of life.
Punjab
LONDON -- Britain's Prince Harry has been promoted to captain in the Air Corps after completing five years' service in the army, palace officials said Sunday. The prince, a former lieutenant and trainee Apache helicopter pilot, would now be known as Captain Harry Wales, St. James's Palace said in a statement.
captured a suspected leader of the Zetas 
Egypt's ex-premier Ahmed Nazif and the former ministers of interior and finance are to face trial on charges of corruption, a judicial source told AFP on Sunday.
Karachi on Saturday.
jacket wallah
Bouteflika
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but most attacks in Algeria are blamed on Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
