Southern Europes debtor states must pledge their gold reserves and national treasure as collateral under a 2.3 trillion stabilisation plan gaining momentum in Germany.
The German scheme -- known as the European Redemption Pact -- offers a form of "Eurobonds Lite" that can be squared with the German constitution and breaks the political logjam. It is a highly creative way out of the debt crisis, but is not a soft option for Italy, Spain, Portugal, and other states in trouble.
The plan is drafted by the German Council of Economic Experts and inspired by Alexander Hamiltons Sinking Fund in the United States -- created in 1790 to clean up the morass of debts left by the Revolutionary War. Flourishing Virginia was comparable to Germany today.
Chancellor Angela Merkel shot down the proposals last November as "completely impossible", but Europes crisis has since festered, and her Christian Democrat party has since suffered crushing defeats in regional elections.
The Social Democrat opposition supports the idea. The Greens say they will block ratification of the EU Fiscal Compact in the German Bundesrat -- or upper house -- unless Mrs Merkel relents.
"The Redemption Pact cleverly combines the advantages of lower interest rates through joint European borrowing with a reduction of debt," says Green leader Jürgen Trittin. "Joint liability would be limited in both time and scale."
The White House says it remains opposed to military action in Syria, reasoning that it would only lead to more carnage.
Spokesman Jay Carney says the Obama administration will continue offering non-lethal assistance to the Syrian people. Following a gruesome weekend massacre in Syria, Carney says the US is working with its allies to assess further action, but he is giving no specific detail about what those next steps might include.
A United Nations agency that aids member nations in securing their national infrastructures is set to warn member nations about the risk posed by the 'Flame' virus.
Flame is a computer virus that Tehran says is infecting its computers and which independent experts say "most dangerous cyberwarfare tool ever created."
Particularly if you own centrifuges used to enrich uranium...
One technology reporter for the Herald Sun -- who estimated Flame was 20 times more powerful than any virus seen before -- facetiously joked the virus could "bring the world to its knees."
"This is the most serious (cyber) warning we have ever put out," Marco Obiso, cyber security coordinator for the UN's Geneva-based International Telecommunications Union, said.
"They should be on alert," he added.
Analysts say evidence suggests Flame may have been built on behalf of the same nation - or nations - that commissioned the Stuxnet worm that attacked Iran's nuclear program in 2010,.
"I think it is a much more serious threat than Stuxnet," Obiso said.
He said the ITU will set up a program to collect data - including virus samples - to track Flame's spread around the globe and observe any changes in its composition.
At present, Flame is known to have struck at least 600 specific computer systems in Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority. Flame does with one virus what hackers have previously had to deploy many separate viruses to do. That means it can deliver a more comprehensive picture than ever before of what a computer is being used for.
With a line-up that includes Drew Barrymore, David Beckham, Orlando Bloom, and Ricky Martin, the UN's choice of ambassadors has been known to cause raised eyebrows or the odd smirk. OK, which Smirk is the odd one? It's not Pappa Smirk.
Seldom, however, has there been such anger, or questioning of the organisation's credibility, as that greeting the appointment of a new international envoy for tourism: Robert Mugabe. The Zimbabwe president, accused of ethnic cleansing and bankrupting his country, asked to champion terrorism tourism.
Improbable as it seems, the Zimbabwean president, who is widely accused of ethnic cleansing, rigging elections, terrorising opposition, controlling media and presiding over a collapsed economy, has been endorsed as a champion of efforts to boost global holidaymaking. I gues he does have a background in holiday making. At the expense of his country, of course.
Despite that fact Mugabe, 88, is under a travel ban, he has been honoured as a "leader for tourism" by the UN's World Tourism Organisation, along with his political ally, Zambian president Michael Sata, 75. The pair signed an agreement with UNWTO secretary general Taleb Rifai at their shared border at Victoria Falls on Tuesday. The UN strikes again!
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/29/2012
14:02 ||
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#1
Oyster Bay again shows us why it's the 'Whirled Leader'.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
05/29/2012 14:29
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The Zimbabwe president, accused of ethnic cleansing and bankrupting his country, asked to champion terrorism tourism.
"Ethnic cleansing" of the white man does not count when the selection of the UN Leader for Tourism terrorism is at hand.
Some potentially unnoticed irony on our Memorial Day:
The Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) of Rhodesia from the United Kingdom was signed on November 11, 1965. The timing of Smith's telegram to the British Prime Minister (Harold Wilson) announcing the UDI was symbolic. The message was sent at precisely 1 pm local time (11 am in London) at the exact moment that the United Kingdom started its Remembrance Day tradition (two minutes of silence to mark the end of World War I and honour its war dead). The not-so-hidden message in this timing was to recall the fact that Rhodesia had helped the UK in its time of need in both World Wars and that the British should not forget that.
#3
At least they didn't give him a job on the wretched Human Rights Commission. Is there anything the UN touches that doesn't turn into parody or disaster?
[Wall Street Journal] Syria's international isolation deepened Tuesday as several Western countries said they were expelling Syrian diplomats, in a coordinated response to the killing of 108 civilians last week in a single attack.
The U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, La Belle France, Germany and some other European countries announced Tuesday they were kicking out senior Syrian senior envoys. The U.S., which had already downgraded diplomatic relations earlier this year, said Tuesday that Syrian chargé d'affaires Zuheir Jabbour has been given 72 hours to leave following the tank and artillery attack on the village of Houla.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/29/2012
14:00 ||
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#1
North Korea Embassy / Cuba / Human Foot Sent To Tory National Party Official ! Seemingly Looks As Old Cadaver Bod ! Most Likely Sent By Reject Disgruntled Recently Fired Or Reprimanded Govt. Canada Official Or Medical Student : Dismissed From : Permanent Accademia or Gov. Job ! Either Someone Posed As Relative Of Deadened Person Bod Used For Medical Cadaver School : Purpose - EXCULSIVELY ! Or Reject From Potters Fields ! : By Someone Identified As Loved One ! Or Homeless Bod : Also !
#5
Mohammed is a squiggle? I wouldn't have known it if someone hadn't told me. Prince was formerly known by some abstract symbol known only to Prince. I think he gave it up because it became too damn hard to communicate with people.
OTTAWA - Canada will immediately expel the three remaining Syrian diplomats in Ottawa in response to a massacre in the town of Houla last week, Foreign Minister John Baird said on Tuesday. Baird told Ottawa's CFRA radio that the trio - a charge d'affaires and two other officials - had been told they were being kicked out. France and Germany have already announced they are expelling the Syrian envoys.
"Canada and our partners are speaking loudly, with one voice, in saying these Syrian representatives are not welcome in our countries while their masters in Damascus continue to perpetrate their heinous and murderous acts," Baird said in a separate news release.
"Despite repeated, even continual calls for peace, Assad's reprehensible campaign of savage violence continues unabated," Baird said in the statement.
Canada, like most of its international partners, has already imposed tough economic sanctions on Syria.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/29/2012
12:19 ||
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The Al-Menaa complex is the second of three 360 Architecture sports venues in Iraq. The first project in Iraq is the $700-million, two-stadium Basra Sports City, set for completion late this year. The third is the 30,000-seat Al-Najaf stadium in Al-Najaf, which is trailing Al-Menaa.
The 65,000-seat Basra stadium project was prompted by the selection of Iraq to host the 2013 Gulf Cup of Nations soccer tournament. The Basra, Al-Menaa and Al Najaf projects are part of a national program, led by the Iraq Ministry of Youth and Sport, Baghdad, to build a network of athletic facilities. The goal is to build 30,000-seat stadiums in each of Iraq's 18 provinces. Currently, there is an estimated $1.5 billion worth of sports construction in Iraq. In each province. I like that.
For the design team, security and safety aren't the only issues that distinguish the project. Not much has been built in Iraq in about 40 years. The Ministry of Youth and Sport itself is only about 10 years old. Government tendering is also a "growing process, which is pretty fragile," says the architect.
For example, the stadium is designed to international codes and standards. When the project began, Iraq had no building code. The design team submitted a list of international codes that would be used and got approval for their application on the project. Soon Iraq will have a giant bureaucracy to develop and administer codes!
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/29/2012
07:17 ||
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#1
Bread and circuses. Stuff people NEED...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/29/2012 10:44
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Soon Iraq will have a giant bureaucracy to develop and administer codes!
Posted by:Bobby
Mlle. Sophie Neveu, estranged granddaughter of the late Grand Master Jacques Saunière should be able to assist with the more challenging codes.
NATO says al-Qaeda's second-in-command in Afghanistan has been killed in an air raid near the Pakistani border.
The US-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, or ISAF, said on Tuesday that Saudi-born Sakhr al-Aifi, also known as Musthaq and Nasim, commanded foreign fighters and directed attacks on NATO and Afghan troops.
It described him as al-Qaeda's "second highest leader in Afghanistan", saying he frequently travelled between Afghanistan and Pakistan, "carrying out commands from senior al-Qaeda leadership".
He also supplied weapons and equipment to insurgents, and managed the transport of anti-government fighters into Afghanistan, the military said.
NATO said he was killed in an air raid on Sunday with "one additional al-Qaeda terrorist in Watahpur district, Kunar province" which borders Pakistan.
A senior Al Qaeda leader was killed in a joint Afghan and Nato troops operation in eastern Kunar province, Isaf said on Tuesday.
After positively identifying Sakhr al-Taifi and one additional Al Qaeda terrorist, and ensuring no civilians were in the area, the security force engaged the targets with a precision airstrike.
No civilian property was damaged and no civilians were harmed, Isaf said.
#3
Another Saudi bites the dust.The amount of insurgents killed in Iraq must outnumber any other foreign nationality.What do they teach over there in their Mosques/schools?
Egypt and Pakistan have similar problems as they look up to the Saudis.
An Iraqi woman in Saudi Arabia has systematically tortured her little daughter because she was born on the same day when the Iraqi capital Baghdad was seized by US invasion forces in 2003.
Officials said they discovered that the girl, Noura, had been tortured by sharp objects and fists by her mother following a check up at school.
Her body was full of bruises and marks of sharp objects her mother later confessed to having beaten her and tortured her many times, the Saudi Arabic language daily Alwatan said in a report from the northerwestern town of Hail.
The mother said she was doing so because her daughter was born on the same day of Baghdads fall ..she told authorities that she would commit a suicide if they decide to take her daughter off her.
Alwatan said the woman is married to a Saudi, who had been crippled and bed ridden at home following a stroke.
Three Chinese migrants attempting to infiltrate the Israeli border in the early hours of Monday morning were injured during exchanges of fire between IDF soldiers and four Egyptian smugglers. There were no injuries among the Israeli troops.
The armed Egyptians, who were trying to smuggle the Chinese nationals across the border, fled back into the Sinai Peninsula. One of the smugglers was injured from IDF fire. The injured border jumpers were evacuated in an Israel Air Force helicopter to the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba.
Medical officials said one of the infiltrators sustained moderate wounds. Another has already been released, while the third infiltrator was awaiting treatment outside the hospital's emergency room.
The area in which the incident occurred, between Ein Netafim and Mount Sagi, is known as a smuggling route, but usually the smugglers part from the infiltrators a few hundred meters from the border fence. IDF officials said the border fence has prevented dozens of infiltrations.
Last week a demonstration against the constant influx of migrants into south Tel Aviv's neighborhoods turned violent. Seventeen people were arrested for attacking migrants and looting their stores.
#1
Why are Chinese migrants trying to get into Israel? They're now in the 'care' of Israel so I guess that question will be answered, at least to those who need to know.
Turkey's police have detained six retired generals, including the country's former chiefs of air force and land forces, over their alleged role in the 1990s ousting of an Islamist prime minister.
Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency says a court has charged the six on Tuesday over their role in forcing the resignation in 1997 of an Islamist Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan. (AP)
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: International nuclear talks with Iran have achieved nothing, a senior Israeli official said on Tuesday, suggesting that some Western nations were happy to see the negotiations drag on.
Israel, which has threatened to go to war to prevent its arch-foe going nuclear, has fretted on the sidelines as six world powers press for a curb on Iranian uranium enrichment.
Breaking Israel's official silence on the second round of talks, held in Baghdad last week, Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said they had only produced "more Iranian time-buying".
"(There was) no significant achievement except for the Iranians having been given another three weeks or so to pursue the nuclear project until the next meeting in Moscow," he told Israel's Army Radio in an interview.
"To my regret, I don't see any sense of urgency, and perhaps it is even in the interest of some players in the West to stretch out the time, which would certainly square with the Iranian interest."
Yaalon, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rightist Likud party, would not elaborate. In January, he accused U.S. President Barack Obama of diluting anti-Iran sanctions for fear of a spike in fuel prices that would sap his bid to win another White House term in November.
Like Israel, Washington says armed force could be a last option against the Iranians, who deny seeking the bomb and have vowed to fight back on several fronts if attacked.
Loath to see a new war in the Muslim world, the Obama administration has sought to reassure the Netanyahu government that discussions have not yet been exhausted.
US and South Korean special forces have been parachuting into North Korea to gather intelligence about underground military installations, according to a senior US officer.
Army Brigadier General Neil Tolley, commander of US special forces in South Korea, told a conference held in Florida last week that Pyongyang had built thousands of tunnels since the Korean war, The Diplomat reported.
"The entire tunnel infrastructure is hidden from our satellites," Gen Tolley said. "So we send (South Korean) soldiers and US soldiers to the North to do special reconnaissance."
We can expect a whole bunch of North Korean colonels and generals to have auto accidents this week...
"After 50 years, we still don't know much about the capability and full extent" of the underground facilities," he said, in comments reported by the National Defense Industrial Association's magazine on its website.
#3
I have no idea if this is true, but if it isn't, I like broadcasting that we've done it and will do it again. Let's see Pudgy the Fabulous General explain how his country is being violated by those evil paratroopers.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/29/2012 10:31
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If it is true, OTOH, I DO NOT like broadcasting that we have done this.
#10
I had a native American cousin who learned to speak Korean fluently when he was in the Air Force & did indeed parachute into the north. This was decades ago. He lived the life of a beggar and a thief, probably just blended in.
#11
Drop some chutes weighed down with ice -- ice melts, you get just a parachute out in the middle of nowhere. Leak juicy story to UK press, watch the fun!
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/29/2012 21:35
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And the Kabuki Theater continues
UN-Arab envoy Kofi Annan will seek to salvage his battered Syrian peace plan during "frank" talks with President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday, amid international horror at the Houla massacre of over 100 people.
As he began a visit to Syria on Monday Annan called the "tragic" massacre in the central town "an appalling moment with profound consequences".
The former UN chief said those responsible must be held to account, and urged "everyone with a gun" to abide by his six-point blueprint to help end 15 months of bloodshed.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem met Annan and the head of the UN observer mission in Syria, Major General Robert Mood.
Muallem explained "the truth of what is happening in Syria and the attacks against law and order which are aimed at sowing chaos ... (despite) the reforms that Syria has adopted in all areas," the official SANA news agency reported.
France's new president, François Hollande, has put the German chancellor on the defensive with his growth agenda. Now Angela Merkel is planning to strike back. She is calling for structural reforms to save the euro with a six-point plan aimed at harmonizing austerity and growth in Europe once again.
#3
The Hollande Days is unappetizing to me as well. So it seems that in addition to head of government change-outs a la Italy and Greece, there seems to be mechanism in the Euro Nation to control the coffers as well. This is in addition to nations effectively having others vote them in.
Its a good thing they have pretty pictures and know multiple languages such as Austrian, otherwise it would look a bit like tyranny. The only thing missing would be an ad-hoc militia composed of foreigners who are hooked on the government interested in threats and violence as a method to persue their own interests. Yes I believe that is the preferred method, I'd ask Gadaffi but hey, you know.
I guess if Germany needs to collect, they could send their reps and bankers to the low countries, convence them, then send the bankers and couriers up around then into Paris. Set up shop, take some pictures for insurance sakes.
Besoeker, have a location picked out? Would Morocco be...wait a second, is this that deja vu they keep talking about?
Four women and two men have been sentenced to death in northern Pakistan for singing and dancing at a wedding, police say.
Clerics issued a decree after a mobile phone video emerged of the six enjoying themselves in a remote village in the mountainous district of Kohistan, 176km north of the capital Islamabad.
Pakistani authorities in the area said local clerics had ordered the punishment over allegations that the men and women danced and sang together in Gada village, in defiance of strict tribal customs that separate men and women at weddings.
"The local clerics issued a decree to kill all four women and two men shown in the video," district police officer Abdul Majeed Afridi told AFP.
"It was decided that the men will be killed first, but they ran away so the women are safe for the moment. I have sent a team to capture them and am waiting to hear some news," he said, adding that the women had been confined to their homes.
Afridi said the events stemmed from a dispute between two tribes and that there was no evidence the men and women had been mingling.
"All of them were shown separately in the video. I've seen the video taken on a cell phone myself. It shows four women singing and a man dancing in separate scenes and then another man sitting in a separate shot," he said.
"This is tribal enmity. The video has been engineered to defame the tribe," he added.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said at least 943 women and girls were murdered last year for allegedly defaming their family's honour.
#10
Hey, if we can endure Roseanne Barr singing the Star Spangled Banner, I'd think Pakinstain ought to be able to put up with singing and dancing at a wedding. Must be some kind of honor killing thingee.
Still trying to work out this democracy thingimijig Scenes of last year's anti-Mubarak uprising return to Cairo. Thousands rioted, some of them torching the HQ of a presidential candidate.
Scenes of last year's anti-Mubarak uprising returned to Cairo's Tahrir Square Monday as thousands rioted, some of them torching the headquarters of presidential candidate and former prime minister Ahmed Shafik.
No deaths were reported and there were few injuries, in sharp contrast to last year's demonstrations in which Mubarak's security forces shot protesters on the spot.
Shafik and Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi emerged as the winners in the first round of voting, the first time Egyptians have been able to vote in a presidential election that was not rigged. However, the presence of Shafik as one of the two final contenders set off a violent response, with rioters yelling in Tahrir Square, "Where is the revolution?" while others ransacked Shafik's campaign headquarters and set
What are they going to call these folks? Reefers, perhaps?
Now that the issue of the president's birth certificate has been laid to rest (mostly), some conservatives are turning their attention to a new obsession: Barack Obama's college transcripts.
Last week, a website that already had offered a $10,000 reward for Obama's transcripts from Occidental College, Columbia University and Harvard Law School, increased the bounty to $20,000.
About a year ago, Donald Trump, among the highest-profile "birthers," helped get the mini-movement started. After the president released his long-form birth certificate, Trump abruptly changed subjects:
"The word is, according to what I've read," said Trump, "that he was a terrible student when he went to Occidental. He then gets into Columbia; he then gets to Harvard. ... How do you get into Harvard if you're not a good student? Now maybe that's right or maybe it's wrong, but I don't know why he doesn't release his records." He's afraid that his reputation will go Up In Smoke?
What do these "transcripters" (if we may coin a phrase) hope to prove?
"We're not convinced that Barack is as smart as you media elitists keep insisting he is," says The Trenches, the website that posted the reward. (The Daily Caller outed the responsible party as Brooks Bayne, a conservative blogger who admitted he was behind the reward.)
That rationale may strike some as a little flimsy, given that Obama was president of the Harvard Law Review, taught constitutional law, has two bestselling books to his credit and is, at the moment, leader of the free world. Nah, he's just smarter than a bunch of gullible voters who want to prove they're not racist, even if it means voting for some clown out of left field only because of his race.
We do know a few things about the president's college career.
In his new book, "Barack Obama: The Story," David Maraniss quotes Obama as saying that his grade point average at Columbia was an impressive 3.7. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, which cannot happen with poor grades. How'd he do with economics?
The president's presumptive opponent, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, was no academic slouch either. According to various news reports, Romney graduated from Brigham Young University with a 3.97 grade point average and was in the top 5% of his class at Harvard Business School, where he simultaneously earned a law degree. Uh oh, someone with a record and multiple degrees.
Unfortunately for transcript transparency advocates, school transcripts, like tax returns, are private. They are protected by a 1974 law, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA.
"There are all kinds of exceptions, but the rule is records may only be released with signed written consent of the individual," said Barmak Nasserian, associate executive director of the American Assn. of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. The group counts more than 2,600 degree-granting institutions among its members. "Barack Obama, like every other American, is entitled to privacy rights under federal law." And he seems to be quite private about his excellent record, it seems.
In any case, said Nasserian, he doesn't see much benefit in allowing voters to peruse candidates' college transcripts.
"I am not sure looking at 20-year-old Mitt Romney or Barack Obama at that granular level of detail would make a difference," he said. "It's kind of a stretch to say performance in a particular course, or that they took a course with a professed Marxist, or they studied Russian for heaven's sakes, is going to be relevant or helpful to someone making up their mind." Fine, then you won't mind opening up those records for my perusal, right? Or did you skip logic 101?
Though it may be true that college transcripts are not determinative, they can certainly be revealing.
In 1999, the New Yorker published an apparently purloined copy of George W. Bush's Yale transcript before he became the Republican nominee for president. Bush, it turned out, was basically a C student. Was this a scandal? Hardly. He never cast himself as an intellectual or brainiac, and, despite his Harvard MBA, often made fun of highly credentialed people.
During the 2004 presidential campaign, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry was assumed by many to be Bush's intellectual superior. But months after he lost to Bush, his college transcripts were inadvertently sent to the Boston Globe and he was revealed to be a C student as well, earning four Ds his freshman year. (Stung by allegations that his Vietnam War service was not what he had claimed, Kerry had given permission for his Navy records to be turned over to the newspaper. The college records were part of those documents.) Can a mediocre student hope to achieve the highest office?
The answer is self-evident.
"To those of you who received honors, awards and distinctions, I say well done," President Bush told Yale graduates in 2001. "And to the C students, I say you too can be president of the United States."
#2
What I'm interested to see about Obumble's university records are whether he received any benefits or advantages based on being enrolled as a "foreign student". That scenrio seems reasonably likely.
#3
And who started the whole business about Bush's academic record? Oh, excuse me, that action went down the 1984 Memory Hole. It's all about push back. Someone is playing the game back into the face of those who did it and they're unhappy. One set of rules for me, another set of rules for thee.
The time for politeness is well passed when dealing with the left. If they dish it out, they'd better be prepared to take it in turn.
#7
Lone Ranger, I think he got enough points in Affirmative Action such that claiming foreign student status wasn't necessary.
And the latter can be harmful: for a number of graduate programs, foreign students are not eligible for student aid. Not sure if that's true for Harvard Law.
I wouldn't mind a look at his transcripts since he's supposed to be so smart. Remember 2004 when Kerry was supposed to be the smart one? Later, much later, after the election, we learned that the big dummy Dubya had a better GPA at Yale than did the schmart one Kerry.
So I'd like to see how Champ really did in his academics. And his bar exam.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/29/2012 10:34
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we learned that the big dummy Dubya had a better GPA at Yale than did the schmart one Kerry
Not that this "learning" really makes one bit of difference to the electorate, many of which still seems to think Dubya was no smarter than a bag of rocks, and which still doesn't mind that Jawn F'ing Kerry was only as smart as a half bag of rocks.
#10
Obama is as goofy as a $3 bill--we know nothing about him other than he was a community organizer, one-term Senator, and a doper who had composite girlfriends. Now just how does that qualify you to be President?
#11
"just how does that qualify you to be President?"
I think it's more about race, John.
What? He's obviously Manchurian....
Posted by: Barbara ||
05/29/2012 18:38
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I'm guessing that his people looked at his transcripts, realized his grades weren't as good as W's (or McCain's) and locked 'em up tight to avoid comparison. They built an illusion about him being really smart because he was good on a teleprompter when he's basically a egotist pothead who was smart enough to fly under the radar and leave minimal record of his existence until the election.
"Hey, Barack, remember all those unemployed military folks who are making our already doctored unemployment numbers look even worse? I just had an idea ...."
The US's top military officer has warned Syria it could face armed intervention as international outrage grows over the massacre of women and children by tanks and artillery in Houla.
General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said that following the UN security council's condemnation of the slaughter -- in which more than 100 people were killed, many of them children -- there needed to be increased diplomatic pressure on Damascus. But he added that the US would be prepared to act militarily if it was "asked to do so".
Is he serious?
"There is always a military option," he told Fox News. "You'll always find military leaders to be somewhat cautious about the use of force, because we're never entirely sure what comes out on the other side. But that said, it may come to a point with Syria because of the atrocities." You can only pretend to keep your head buried for so long before someone notices that they're talking to your butt.
The warning comes as Barack Obama is under increasing pressure from his Republican opponent in November's presidential election, Mitt Romney, and members of Congress to take tougher action over Syria.
Romney accused Obama of weakness and disparaged his support for efforts by the former UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, to revive a failing peace plan. He said Washington should instead arm opposition groups.
"After nearly a year and a half of slaughter, it is far past time for the United States to begin to lead and put an end to the Assad regime. President Obama can no longer ignore calls from congressional leaders in both parties to take more assertive steps," he said.
Romney continued: "The Annan 'peace' plan, which President Obama still supports, has merely granted the Assad regime more time to execute its military onslaught. The United States should work with partners to organise and arm Syrian opposition groups so they can defend themselves. The bloodshed in Houla makes clear that our goal must be a new Syrian government."
Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate against Obama four years ago, called the White House "feckless" for not doing more to stop Syria.
"This is a shameful episode in American history," he said. "It's really an abdication of everything that America stands for and believes in."
Dempsey was asked if there is a place in Syria for the Libya model, in which Nato led a bombing campaign ostensibly to protect civilian areas but which swiftly evolved into action directly in support of the rebels.
"I'm sure there are some things that we did in Libya that could be applicable in a Syria environment or Syria scenario. But I'm very cautious about templates," he said.
Obama has steered clear of public discussion about military action against the Assad regime, saying that conditions in Syria are different from those in Libya. For a start, Russia is a major diplomatic obstacle to military action or even much stronger sanctions although it backed the UN security council condemnation of Damascus on Sunday, suggesting there are limits to the protection it is prepared to offer.
Neither is there much appetite for military intervention in other western capitals, including France which led the assault on Libya but which has since had a change of leadership with the election of Francois Hollande.
Domestic US political conditions have also shifted since the Libya campaign. With an election in November, the president may not want to embroil US forces in another Middle East conflict when he is trumpeting getting the US out of unpopular wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Washington is instead looking to a negotiated transition that would see President Bashar al-Assad surrender power as part of a power sharing agreement between the rebels and the regime.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, on Monday said that Russia is not wedded to keeping Assad in control.
"It is not the most important thing who is in power in Syria, what regime has power," he said. "For us, the main thing is to put an end to the violence among civilians and to provide for political dialogue under which the Syrians themselves decide on the sovereignty of their country."
#1
So we're gonna have to go "protect civilians" again, huh? It occurs to me that if those "civilians" would stop shooting at the Syrian army then the Syrian army would stop shooting back.
#3
be prepared to act militarily if it was "asked to do so".
Asked by whom, hmmmmmm? Anyone else think that 0 is looking for a way to turn the US Militarty over to the UN? That'd get those pesky service folk away from the ballot box.
I was invited to watch the Thunderbirds fly at US Air Force Academy graduation today (5.23.12) by some folks with a shop just east of the north gate entrance to the academy. Obama was the commencement speaker. It is traditional that the Thunderbirds fly their entire demonstration routine after the initial pass as the new lieutenants toss their hats. But obama, as arrogant as he is, couldnt wait the 30 minutes for the routine to finishhe had the Thunderbirds hold their routine after the first pass until he exited the stadium and campus, not having even the courtesy to watch subordinates of his demonstrate the professionalism and skill incumbent with their jobs. I did not notice the exact time of the initial pass of the Thunderbirds, but am guessing around the 1245 to 1300 mark. The official potus site showed him scheduled to depart Peterson AFB at 1530 arriving Buckley ANGB at 1600. A half hour airshow would not have delayed him in the least for his 1730 fund-raising dinner in Denver, but he chose to snub his subordinates and leave forcing the entire cadet wing, dignitaries, families, friends, and new lieutenants to wait on him. Decide for yourself his commitment to the military, and to his responsibilities as commander-in-chief...
[Iran Press TV] The new Iranian Majlis (parliament) has strongly condemned the ruthless massacre of defenseless Syrians in Houla, saying the US is responsible for the attack.
"The barbaric massacre of the innocent people of Houla, in Homs, is reminiscent of the merciless terrorist atrocities in Sabra and Shatila and is a blatant symbol of terrorist acts and mass murder in this juncture of human history," the 9th Majlis politicians said in a statement Monday.
On May 25, deadly festivities broke out between Syrian forces and gangs in Houla, located in the central province of Homs.
Head of the UN observer mission in Syria Major General Robert Mood said in a briefing via video from 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... to an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Sunday that UN observers in Houla estimate 108 people were killed, including 49 children and 34 women.
The Iranian politicians said there is no doubt the Orcs and similar vermin responsible for such atrocities are armed and trained by the West and its regional allies and are dispatched into Syria by some of its neighbors.
"The US should be held accountable for its incorrect policies in Syria," they said.
The politicians called on the United Nations ...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involves making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country... Security Council to prevent the shipment of weapons into Syria.
Earlier, Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast also condemned the ''suspicious attack" in the village of Houla and stressed the necessity of identifying and punishing the perpetrators.
"The attack has been carried out in order to create chaos and instability in Syria and its perpetrators are trying to block the way to a peaceful resolution," Mehmanparast said on Sunday.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/29/2012
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#1
Whoa, the US hates Hula Hoops - who knew?
NOT-THE-GREAT-HULA-HOOP-MASSACRE ...
versus
* TOPIX > REVOLUTIONARY GUARDS' UNITS [Quds/Qods Force]ADMIT IRAN INVOLVEMENT [MilOps] IN SYRIA, in order to protect Iran ally Assad + Regime.
#3
OOOOPPSSS, forgot FREEREPUBLIC > [WaPo] NEWSPAPER: IRAN-LINKED OPERATIVES ATTEMPTED TO ASSASSINATE US, ISRAELI DIPLOMATS, in seven foreign countries oer the past 13 months.
Iff there is a US-Iran War this summer or year, i.e. US-led ground invasion of same, THE BAMMER + NCA + CONGRESS, ETC. HIGH-PROFILE US-ALLIED TARGETS SHOULD EXPECT SOMETHING LIKE THIS TO OCCUR AS A MATTER OF COURSE.
Once again, PESKY PERSIANS ARE, + WILL BE, PESKY!
To also include the below [Nukes-WMDs] ...
* WAFF > DURING WW2, JAPAN PLOTTED TO UNLEASH BUBONIC PLAGUE UPON THE UNITED STATES.
versus
* WAFF > UNDERCOVER US AGENTS BROUGHT DOWN OUR NEW SUPERJET; RUSSIA'S EXTRAORDINARY CLAIMS | STATE GRU MILITARY INTELLIGENCE AOURCES SAY RUSSIA INVESTIGATING THEORY CRASH WAS [intentional/wilful] "INDUSTRIAL SABOTAGE", + Act Act of Terror, War agz sovereign Mama Russia.
* TOPIX > US PREPARES FOR CIVIL WAR + WORLD WAR THREE.
* PRAVDA > IT WAS THE US + UK THAT SANK RUSSIA'S "KURSK" SUBMARINE.
FYI Mama Russia is also blaming the US for its recent Satellite + Space Rocket failures.
HHHHHHm HMMMMMMM, intehwesting, iff my Dreams-Visions from childhood hold true, espec as also complemented by FREEREPUBLIC's News this AM as per the US Navy proceeding wid its new, All-Female Crewed Submarine, THEN THE US WILL BE FACING A SERIOUS/MAJOR DETERIORATION = REVERSALS IN ITS POST-COLD WAR, POST-911 GEOPOL RELATIONS WID BOTH RUSSIA + CHINA.
* Year 2015-2020 > any positive or good relations wid Russia + China will be all but gone, espec vee Russia.
Not just MilPol antagonism and confrontationisms, but also GWCC + "Peak Oil/Energy" + "Fracking".
CHINA = "PEAK OIL/ENERGY" BUT ALSO "PEAK WATER". China's + East Asia's water tables are rapidly drying up but China doesn't know why + steadfastly refuses to link wid its massive "Three Gorges" Projects.
[USN's ALL-FEMALE SUB + WOMEN IN COMBAT ROLES = "SINK THE TIRPITZ, SINK THE TIRPITZ" + "THE GORGE-BUSTERS" here].
[Dawn] At least two coppers were killed and another sustained injuries when gunnies ambushed them here in the Wali Jaith area of the city on Monday.
Police officials said that unknown gunnies riding bike opened indiscriminate fire at a police van in the precincts of New Sariab cop shoppe, killing an officer on the spot and leaving two others critically injured.
Later, police officer ASI Abdul Qayum died while he was being transported to the hospital. The condition of the other injured coppers was also stated to be critical.
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[Emirates 24/7] The chairman of Egypt's presidential election commission says the Moslem Brüderbund's candidate and Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... 's last prime minister will context next month's runoff vote.
Farouq Sultan said on Monday the official final results show the Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi and Ahmed Shafiq, a former air force commander, as the top two finishers in the first round of voting on May 23-24. He said Morsi won 5.76 million votes, while Shafiq garnered 5.5 million votes.
Finishing a close third was leftist candidate Hamdeen Sabahi with 4.82 million votes.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Tolo News] The deputy chief of Afghanistan's Passport Department Mohammad Nabi Bayan was locked away Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! Monday on murder charges, the Afghan Attorney General's office said in a released statement.
Who died?
Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... called for Bayan's arrest at the National Security Council Meeting on Sunday and ordered an investigation into over the murder, the statement said.
Who is he accused of having killed?
The statement noted that recently a number of residents from Badakhshan province recently complained against Bayan and accused him of murder.
Yes, yes. Who? Is there actually a body in evidence somewhere?
Karzai's office confirmed in a statement said that "the Afghan Interior Ministry was instructed following the national security council meeting on Sunday to dismiss Mohammad Nabi Bayan from his position and introduce [him] to judiciary institutions for further investigations."
See comments above.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/29/2012
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#1
There are a lot of murders there so they have to pin them on someone. It doesn't matter that the name of the person murdered isn't given, could be any number of people.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/29/2012 19:15
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[Yemen Post] Senior Al-Qaeda leaders, two, escaped an Arclight airstrike which killed three Death Eaters in Yemen on Monday, News Yemen reported, quoting local sources.
Congrats on being next to the spot instead of on it, guys. For some reason Allah wants you to know you're being hunted -- enjoy!
Nabil Al-Dhahab and Qaed Al-Dhahab, the leaders of Al-Qaeda in the Rada city in Baidha province, were targeted this afternoon while driving a car in the Masanih area, the website reported.
"They escaped the Arclight airstrike which killed three Al-Qaeda krazed killers," the sources said, according to the website.
Earlier this year, Al-Qaeda seized Rada and other parts in Baidha, but left the areas after the government met their demands including the release of Death Eaters from state prisons.
Leader of Al-Qaeda in this province was killed in family festivities after this development.
Monday's Arclight airstrike coincided with ongoing battles on Al-Qaeda in the southern Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... province, where hundreds of Death Eaters have been killed and injured including big shots in the past two months.
With direct support from the US and tribal fighters, the forces have recently stepped up the offensive against the Death Eaters to retake key towns including Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan, which were seized last year.
They have so far regained control of some areas and are now surrounding the most notorious strongholds of the krazed killers: Zinjibar and Jaar.
More recently, President Hadi ordered to further intensify the war on the Death Eaters to retake the two cities and so far the forces retook key krazed killer positions on their outskirts.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/29/2012
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LONDON: A radical preacher accused of giving spiritual inspiration to one of the 9/11 hijackers on Monday lost a bid to be freed from the British prison where he is being held ahead of moves to deport him to Jordan to face terrorism charges.
The decision to refuse Abu Qatada bail at a special court will come as a relief to the British government which has been trying to expel the Jordanian cleric for a over decade. The judge also said he would not be able to rule on the legality of Qatada's deportation until November, following a two-week hearing starting on Oct. 8.
Excellent. He's jugged for the Olympics!
He said he accepted concerns from Britain's security services, detailed at the hearing, that Qatada might abscond if freed and damage their ability and that of the police to protect the public when their resources were in high demand during the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games in London this summer.
"If the appellant were to abscond then either their resources would be diverted, or finding him would be allocated a lower priority than should be the case," the judge, Mr.Justice Mitting said.
Last month the preacher, who was not present at the hearing, embarrassed the government by seeking a last-minute delay to deportation proceedings with an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, nearly 24 hours after Britain said the deadline for such a legal recourse had passed. Even though the appeal was subsequently rejected, the confusion allowed opposition politicians to accuse interior minister Theresa May of incompetence and mock her for apparently not knowing what day it was in the week.
Britain rearrested Qatada in April, hoping it had removed legal obstacles to his deportation and could remove him before the Olympics in July.
The prospect of a swift removal has now receded, and May will have to convince the October hearing that she has overcome a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that Qatada could not be deported as he would not receive a fair trial in Jordan. The Strasbourg court said in January there was a risk that Jordan would use evidence obtained by torture against Qatada, and that without assurances to the contrary his deportation would be a "flagrant denial of justice."
Britain now says a 2005 deal with Jordan and more recent diplomatic reassurances will ensure that Qatada, once described by a Spanish judge as "Osama Bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe," will receive a fair trial.
Qatada's lawyers had sought his release on bail, arguing that the proceedings to send him back to Jordan would be lengthy and that it was wrong to keep him in prison during that process after already spending six years in detention without charge.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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[Yemen Post] Thousands of Yemeni people erupted into the streets in the capital Sanaa Sunday to condemn violence, referring to the latest and deadliest ever suicide kaboom in Sanaa, and expressing solidarity with the Syrian people.
More than one hundred security forces were killed and few other hundreds maimed in the bombing, which targeted a military parade rehearsal in mid-last week. The Sharia Supporters, the offshoot of Al-Qaeda in Yemen, grabbed credit for the attack.
The demonstrators marched through streets passing at the residence of President Abdrabu Mansour Hadi and came back to the change square outside Sanaa University. Thousands of protesters have refused to leave this square, where many tents were pitched last year.
The protesters rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud demanding the departure of military commanders including the relatives of ex-president, Saleh, allegedly involved in the bombing in the Sabeen Square.
Among the commanders the demonstrators demanded to fire is Saleh's elder son, Ahmed, the commander of the elite republican guard.
Some military commanders have rebelled against decrees by President Hadi firing them from their posts and the UN envoy Jamal Benomar has failed few times to convince the elite republican guard to end the rebellion of the commander of the third brigade in Sanaa. Tariq Saleh, a nephew of Saleh, is the commander of the third brigade.
The protesters carried the Yemeni and Syrian flags and rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud expressing support to the Syrian people, who have been struggling for more than a year to oust the Assad regime.
They also carried placards expressing honor to the deaders, who were killed during the 2011 uprising against the former regime, and vowing to continue their struggle until the goals of the uprising were met.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/29/2012
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[Bangla Daily Star] Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami ...During the liberation war of 1971, Nizami formed the Al-Badr Force and acted as its supreme commander. The Al-Badr militia took active part in rape, extortion, looting and killing of Bangladeshis who supported the liberation, including a pre-planned massacre on December 14, 1971, when the Al-Badr militia along with Pakistan Army rounded up hundreds of doctors, professors, writers, and other Bengali intellectuals, and executed them... and its Assistant Secretary General Abdul Quader Mollah have been indicted separately for crimes against humanity committed during the 1971 Liberation War. The two international crimes tribunals that had been formed to deal with such crimes framed 16 specific charges against Nizami and six against Mollah yesterday. Trial against Nizami will start at Tribunal-1 on July 1 while trial against Mollah will begin at tribunal-2 on June 20. Both Jamaat leaders, however, pleaded not guilty. "Wudn't me." If the charges against them are proved, the duo could face death sentence, the maximum punishment for such crimes.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Emirates 24/7] African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... and Somali government troops secured an aid corridor between Mogadishu and a former rebel stronghold close to the capital, the AU said, wresting control of a strip of land believed to hold around 400,000 people displaced by conflict.
The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and Somali forces seized the town of Afgoye from the al Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab ... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban... hard boyz on Friday.
The joint operation then took control of Elasha Biyaha, the last remaining al-Shabaab stronghold in the 30 km (20 mile) corridor, making the area safe for aid groups to operate in, AMISOM said late on Sunday.
The rebels had used Afgoye as a strategic base to stage sporadic attacks on the Somali capital.
The corridor northwest of Mogadishu is believed to hold 400,000 internally displaced people, the largest such concentration in the world, with some access to aid.
The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Friday about 6,200 people had been displaced by the fighting in Afgoye.
"The week-long operation... has enabled a free flow of civilian traffic between Afgoye and Mogadishu, and provided the opportunity for humanitarian agencies to access the area," AMISOM said.
"Previously, al-Shabaab had prevented aid groups from delivering assistance to the people in the corridor."
The rebel group has waged a bloody five-year campaign to topple Somalia's Western-backed government and impose its harsh interpretation of Islamic law (sharia).
It continues to hold swathes of central and southern Somalia but is being squeezed out of some areas by Kenyan and Æthiopian troops, which have launched incursions inside Somalia in support of the beleaguered government.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Dawn] Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... Qaumi Jirga has urged all stakeholders to take decisive action against hard boyz to ensure sustainable peace in the valley.
The jirga, a forum of civil society groups, was organised here on Sunday which was addressed by its president Mukhtiar Khan Yousufzai, Sher
Shah Khan, Haji Zahid Khan, Mohammad Ali Khan and others.
Speakers said that all state institutions should play their due role for lasting peace in Swat and other parts of Malakand Division. They said that there was no room for terrorist groups in Swat and local people could not tolerate militancy anymore.
Expressing satisfaction over the prevailing situation, the speakers said that government should take more serious steps to wipe out militancy from the area. The forum demanded of the provincial government to reconstruct the main road from Landakai to Mingora up to Kanjo as, they said, it was very important for revival of tourism in the region.
They added that the law enforcement agencies should not harass tourists without reason at various checkpoints and checkposts. The speakers also demanded reconstruction of educational institutions which were destroyed in militancy.
They said that the security forces should vacate schools in order to bring these facilities in use for educational purposes.
Taking strong exception to frequent movement of officials in educational institutions meant for females, the elders asked the government to restrict the visits of irrelevant officials in girls schools and colleges.
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As many as 40 armed suspects attacked the facade of the police station and city hall in San Cristobal de la Barranca municipality in extreme northern Jalisco state Sunday morning, according to Mexican news reports.
A report on the website of El Sol de Zacatecas news daily said that the suspects arrived aboard ten pickup trucks at about 0600 hrs, dismounted and then proceeded to fire on the police station. The firing last five minutes.
The suspects then left on board their vehicles in the direction of the nearby village of La Lobera. The attack left no one hurt. About 500 spent shell casing from AR-15 and AK-47 rifles were found at the scene.
San Cristobal de la Barranca is on the mountain highway Mexico Federal Highway 23 which connects Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco state in the south with Teul de Gonzalez Ortega in Zacatecas state in the north.
The area since at least 2011 has been a scene of an intense and deadly competition between Los Zetas on one side and La Valencia Drug Cartel and Carteles Unidos, both of which are aligned with the Sinaloa Cartel.
That competition has led to large scale armed encounters between the groups, the bloodiest of which was an unconfirmed gunfight in San Cristobal de la Barranca municipality, which led to as many as 20 dead a year ago.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
[Emirates 24/7]
A packed Saudi mosque plunged into pandemonium after a money found its way inside and attacked worshippers just as they were about to kneel down for their daily prayers, a newspaper in the Gulf Kingdom said on Sunday.
Hundreds of people have converged on the mosque in the western town of Taif for their evening prayers and lined up behind the preacher when the monkey jumped into the lines and attacked them.
"They stopped their prayers to chase the monkey...after a few minutes, they failed to catch it and the monkey succeeded in fleeing outside the mosque," Sabq daily said without mentioning where the monkey had come from.
Outside would be my guess, though I can claim no expertise in the subject.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/29/2012
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#1
this should be an easy one
three separate verses in the koran say that Allah changed jews into apes and pigs
2:65
5:60
and
7:166
Posted by: lord garth ||
05/29/2012 0:34
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#2
If natural disasters are a sign from God, so must be marauding monkeys.
[Al Ahram] At around 11:25pm on Monday night, unknown assailants attacked protesters, who were chanting against election results in Tahrir, with stones and sticks.
Earlier on Monday evening, unknown individuals set presidential contestant Ahmed Shafiq's campaign headquarters in Dokki, Cairo on fire. Security forces tossed in the clink Please don't kill me! some individuals suspected of starting the blaze.
Meanwhile, ...back at the bunker, his Excellency called a hurried meeting of his closest advisors. It was to be his last. They discussed the officers's efficiency rating system... hundreds of protesters had taken to the streets in the cities of Cairo and Alexandria to protest the elections results which left the Brotherhood's Mohamed Mursi and Mubarak-era PM Ahmed Shafiq the two finalists in a runoff set for 16 and 17 June.
Posted by: Fred ||
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A new, unprecedented computer virus called "Flame" (or "sKyWIper") has hit Iran, the West Bank, and other Middle Eastern locations. It is already considered one of the most sophisticated cyber weapons ever unleashed. Internet security company Kaspersky said Monday that Flame was the "most complex piece of malicious software discovered to date."
The cyber-espionage worm, designed to collect and delete sensitive information, is said to have 20 times as much code as Stuxnet, which attacked an Iranian uranium enrichment facility (and some 16,000 computers), causing centrifuges to fail. Iran blamed Israel and the US for its creation.
Flame is also believed to contain an element that was used in Stuxnet. Kaspersky said the Flame malware may have been lurking inside thousands of computers across the Middle East for between five and eight years. The creator of the virus is not yet known.
The Laboratory of Cryptography and System Security (CrySyS Lab), affiliated with Budapest University, said the analysis on the virus is still limited in scope, but that the virus is a complex "info-stealer... with large components."
Flame is the third cyber weapon uncovered recently, after Stuxnet and Duqu (named after a Star Wars villain).
The country with the largest number of machines infected by Flame is believed to be Iran, following by the West Bank, and Sudan and Syria after that. Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt have also been affected.
Crysys Lab, which analyses computer viruses at Budapest University. said the technical evidence for a link between Flame and Stuxnet or Duqu was inconclusive.
The newly-discovered virus does not spread itself automatically but only when hidden controllers allow it.
Unprecedented layers of software allow Flame to penetrate remote computer networks undetected.
The file, which infects Microsoft Windows computers, has five encryption algorithms, exotic data storage formats and the ability to steal documents, spy on computer users and more. Components enable those behind it, who use a network of rapidly-shifting "command and control" servers to direct the virus, to turn microphone into listening devices, siphon off documents and log keystrokes.
Eugene Kaspersky, the founder of Kaspersky Lab, noted that "it took us 6 months to analyse Stuxnet. [This] is 20 times more complicated".
Once a machine is infected additional modules can be added to the system allowing the machine to undertake specific tracking projects.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/29/2012
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#1
They should have known better than to surf the pr0n sites from their work computers...
#2
from Fox: Vitaly Kamluk, chief malware expert for Kaspersky Labs, said there were many pointers to it being a weapon, not the least of which was how highly-targeted it was. According to their investigations, only 382 infections have been reported, 189 of which were in Iran, and the malware targeted individuals rather than organizations.
Kamluk said the malware was most likely introduced by a USB stick or other removable drive. Once injected, the malware would contact one of the many command and control servers around the world and download additional modules as needed."Unlike Stuxnet," said Kamluk, "[Flame] was much more sophisticated and not simply trying to infect every machine." He said the malware was also able to find out information about other devices around it.
#3
By targeting limited individuals, it also seems to link those in Iran to Syria and the West Bank. It even turns on the microphone remotely to listen in--GOTCHA!!!! :D
#4
The Debka people claim the Flame virus has also hit Israeli computers...
Cyber experts rate Flame, which has been around for five years, as one of the common or garden viruses affecting computers in many places, Israel and Iran included. It is not in the same class as Stuxnet, the only malworm that seriously disrupted Irans nuclear facilities in 2009 until it too was overcome. DEBKAfile: Since then, cyber warfare has moved onto a higher plane as was discovered when Chinese experts downed the US RQ-170 spy drone over Iran in December 2011.
An interesting statement, it seems to me in my ignorance.
#5
Using pirated software to run computers usually means the company with the copyright and patents probably won't be answering your service calls when your computer hiccups.
#6
Too bad we can't use this thing on the NYT to find out who their sources are inside the CIA. I'd love to string a bunch of them up by their thumbs on the Capitol Mall.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
05/29/2012 17:58
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[Emirates 24/7] Fifteen people were killed or injured in tribal fighting in Yemen after a male donkey chased an ass and raped it just near the house of its owner.
Newspapers in Yemen said the owner of the ass got mad after he saw the donkey attacking his animal, prompting him to chase the donkey and hit it.
The attack infuriated the donkey owner, who called his armed tribe men and asked them to take Dire Revenge™.
"The problem snowballed into an armed fight between Makabis tribe, which owns the donkey, and Bani Abbas which owns the ass...15 people were either killed or injured in the battle," the Saudi Arabic language daily Aleqtisadiah said, quoting newspapers in Yemen.
A large police force intervened and stopped the fighting at a village in the southwestern province of Abb, newspapers said, adding that police had tossed in the clink Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! eight persons involved in the conflict.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/29/2012
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Hopefully the donkey won't be scarred for life.
[Emirates 24/7] An kaboom tore through a shopping complex in Nairobi's business district during Monday's lunch hour, wounding more than 30 people, an d police said they were investigating whether it was a kaboom.
Police front man Eric Kiraithe said anti-terrorism police were combing the blast site in the city centre for clues, appearing to row back on an earlier suggestion by the police commissioner that a massive electrical fault might be to blame.
More than ten people have been killed in a string of attacks in Nairobi and the port city of Mombasa since Kenya sent troops into Somalia in October to fight al Qaeda-linked krazed killers.
Nairobi has blamed the al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... krazed killers, who merged with al Qaeda earlier this year, for the surge in violence and kidnappings that has threatened tourism in east Africa's biggest economy and wider regional destabilisation.
"The investigating team is exploring the possibility that the blast was caused by criminals using an improvised bomb," Kiraithe said in a statement.
Two shopkeepers told Rooters independently that they saw a man drop a bag inside the trading centre moments before the blast.
"He came into the shop twice, looking at T-shirts. He said he didn't have money so he left. Then he came back," said Irene Wachira. "(He was) three shops away from where I was. He left a bag and a few moments later we had an kaboom. The roof caved in and debris started falling on us," Wachira said.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga said Kenyans would not be cowed by "terrorists".
A front man for Kenya Power, the country's sole electricity distributor, said initial investigations had ruled out any electrical malfunction.
Dense black smoke initially billowed through the building's collapsed roof and sirens blared as emergency service crews rushed to Moi Avenue, a major road running through the city.
A military helicopter hovered in the skies above downtown Nairobi and the security forces cordoned off nearby streets.
"WASTING LIFE"
Medics applied bandages to the walking maimed, many of whom had been caught by flying glass, while some bystanders wailed in shock. Clothing, shoes and blown out windows littered the road.
Crowds carried away people seen with blood streaming down their faces. The police said 33 people had been maimed.
In the days after Kenya deployed soldiers across the border, al-Shabaab warned Nairobi to withdraw from its southern strongholds or risk bringing the "flames of war" into Kenya.
In April, the U.S. embassy in Kenya warned of a possible strike on Nairobi's hotels and key government buildings, which it said was in the last stages of planning.
The recent attacks, however, have tended to target low profile institutions, such as bars and nightclubs, where security is typically relatively light.
"Maybe it is these al Qaeda people. They are wasting life for nothing. Just innocent people going about their business," said Wilfred Kimani who was several blocks away from the blast.
Outside Nairobi's Jamia mosque, one Somali refugee who identified herself as Aisha said she feared a backlash if al-Shabaab or its sympathisers were behind the kaboom.
"It's bad because Kenyans may get angrier now."
There have also been several attacks near the border with Somalia since Kenya's military incursion. At least five people were killed in two separate attacks in the remote region on Saturday.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/29/2012
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#1
This African brand of jihad is very distressing to me. The shear brutality of their behavior, they make the Taliban appear tame.
If these guys get any traction and export their brand of violence we are all in trouble.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
05/29/2012 10:41
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[Al Ahram] Syria massacre condemned by Iran and China after at least 108 people were killed including children; state authorities deny their involvement in killings that sparked international outcry
Posted by: Fred ||
05/29/2012
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NAIROBI: A blast struck a shopping complex in Nairobis business district during Mondays lunch hour, wounding more than two dozen people, but there was confusion over whether the explosion was caused by a bomb or electrical fault.
Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere told reporters it was too early to determine the cause of the blast. He said blackened wires inside the trading center indicated a possible electrical fault and ruled out a grenade attack.
Two shopkeepers, however, told Reuters independently that they saw a man drop a bag inside the trading center moments before the blast.
He came into the shop twice, looking at t-shirts. He said he didnt have money so he left. Then he came back, said Irene Wachira. (He was) three shops away from where I was. He left a bag and a few moments later we had an explosion. The roof caved in and debris started falling on us, Wachira said.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga said Kenyans would not be cowed by terrorists.
A spokesman for Kenya Power, the countrys sole electricity distributor, said initial investigations had ruled out any electrical malfunction.
A military helicopter hovered in the skies above downtown Nairobi and the security forces cordoned off nearby streets.
Dense black smoke billowed from a fire inside the badly damaged building and sirens blared as emergency service crews rushed to Moi Avenue, a major road running through the city center.
Medics applied bandages to the walking wounded gathered by nearby buildings and some bystanders wailed in shock. Clothing, shoes and blown out windows littered the road. Crowds carried away people seen with blood streaming down their faces. Iteere said 28 people had been wounded.
Maybe it is these Al-Qaeda people. They are wasting life for nothing. Just innocent people going about their business, said Wilfred Kimani who was several blocks away when the blast occurred.
Outside Nairobis Jamia mosque, one Somali refugee who identified herself as Aisha said she feared a backlash if Al-Shabab or its sympathisers were behind the explosion. Its bad because Kenyans may get angrier now.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/29/2012
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[An Nahar] Sudan's army will begin pulling out of the contested region of Abyei from Tuesday, as demanded by the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... , the army front man said.
"We will start tomorrow and we will invite journalists to see this redeployment," Sawarmi Khaled Saad said in a statement to news hounds.
The pullout, ending a year-long occupation, will begin on the same day negotiators from Sudan and South Sudan are to meet in the Æthiopian capital Addis Ababa to resume talks led by African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... mediator Thabo Mbeki ...former president of South Africa, succeeding Nelson Mandela. He now pops up periodically as a mediator when something catches fire in Africa... Saad said Mbeki asked Khartoum to withdraw its forces from the area.
"Sudan decided to redeploy the troops out of Abyei area to offer a good environment for the talks," he said, adding that Khartoum requested a "guarantee" that the area is part of its territory.
After Sudan and South Sudan came to the brink of all-out war in April, the U.N. Security Council called on them to cease hostilities along their disputed border and to resume talks on a number of issues including the status of Abyei.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/29/2012
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#1
They, Arabs fron the north, got to - like they or not.
The above area is inhabited by black Southern Sudanese and sooner or later will rightfully be included to South Sudan...
[An Nahar] Air raids, including by U.S. drones, and festivities in Yemen have killed at least 17 al-Qaeda Islamic fascistiand a civilian, officials and rustics said on Monday.
Hurrah! Well done, guys!
Five Islamic fascistiof al-Qaeda were killed when they were hit by a U.S. drone on Monday, a tribal source told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"A U.S. drone struck a convoy carrying al-Qaeda's leader in Bayda province, Qaed al-Dahab," the tribal source said on condition of anonymity, adding that "Dahab survived but five of his guards were killed."
The strike hit the Islamic fascistias they were travelling in the area of Manaseh, east of the city of Radaa in central Yemen, he said.
Seven other krazed killers, including the local military chief in Hadramawt, Saleh Abdul Khaleq, were killed in an air raid conducted by Yemeni warplanes in the eastern province, a security official said.
The raid struck the group as they met in a "deserted coastal area" some 60 kilometers (35 miles) west of the city of Mukalla, the official told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Western diplomats say that U.S. experts are assisting the Yemeni army in their battle to destroy al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, considered by Washington to be the network's deadliest and most active branch.
In an interview with ABC television's "This Week," U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ...current SecDef, previously Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993.... defended the use of drones as "the most precise weapons we have" in the campaign against the krazed killer group.
His comments marked the first time the U.S. formally acknowledges the use of unmanned drones against al-Qaeda suspects in Yemen.
Five other al-Qaeda gunnies and a civilian were killed in overnight festivities as Yemeni troops inched closer to capturing the city of Jaar, a bastion of the krazed killer group in war-torn southern province of Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... , a military official said.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... , said a "mid-level commander" of the krazed killer group, Abdul Rahman al-Musallami, was one of the five al-Qaeda operatives killed in the festivities.
A local official in Jaar confirmed this toll and said the bodies of the five Islamic fascistiwere taken to the city for burial.
The military official said that Yemeni troops had advanced towards Jaar and were surrounding the city from three sides.
Yemeni troops advanced to "about three kilometers of Jaar," and have "surrounded the city from the north, the east and the west," he said.
He said the overnight assault on al-Qaeda positions in and around Jaar involved both ground troops and Yemeni air force. "We are tightening the noose around al-Qaeda," he added.
The army also made strides in their advances on Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan that fell to the Islamic fascistiin May 2011, he said, but gave no further details.
Yemeni forces launched an all-out offensive on May 12 this year to capture al-Qaeda controlled areas in Abyan.
Since the offensive began, at least 338 people have been killed, according to a tally compiled by AFP, including 247 al-Qaeda gunnies, 55 military personnel, 18 local snuffies and 18 civilians.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/29/2012
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Police in Somalia's northern Puntland ...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion... region have placed in durance vile Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! several suspected pirates, including a heavily armed gang accused of holding a Danish family hostage last year, officials said.
Troops from semi-autonomous Puntland attacked the northeastern pirate base of Hafun on Sunday, arresting 11 men including suspected pirate Mohamed Hassan -- known as Dhafoor -- and seizing automatic rifles and a machine gun.
"Dhafoor... is a well-known pirate wanted by Puntland authorities for hijacking commercial vessels travelling the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden waterways," Puntland's security forces said in a statement.
The authorities accuse Dhafoor of killing five Puntland security officers during a botched March 2011 operation to release a Danish family he was reportedly holding hostage.
Pirates captured the seven Danes -- a family including three teenage children, plus two crew members -- in February 2011 during a round-the-world voyage. They were released in September after the reported payment of a multi-million dollar ransom.
Think of the essays the children will be able to write for their college applications, and the equanimity with which they'll be able to face the little exingencies if daily life back home after spending more than half a year wondering each morning whether they would still be alive and unharmed by sunset, just because Mama and Papa wanted a unique family adventure.
Piracy has flourished off war-torn Somalia, outwitting international efforts to stamp out the scourge, including patrols by warships and tough sentencing of captured pirates.
The pirates are holding dozens of ships and hundreds of sailors for ransom, and have also branched out into land-based kidnapping.
Mr Ahmed Omar Issa, the front man of Puntland said "The suspects are assumed to be pirates with a record of attacking Puntland forces."
The front man told the media that some of the captured persons are infamous with past engagements in kidnappings and assaults on Puntland security personnel.
"The seized pirates include some of those involved in the kidnapping of a Danish family (that was recently released)," stated Mr Issa.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/29/2012
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"... Assad is receiving increased assistance from Iran, Hezbollah in Lebanon and from Iraqi fighters loyal to Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr. In addition to the advisors the Iranian Quds Force has sent, they also sent technological assistance, says the opposition leader."
The anonymous official also reports that many Syrian Pro Assad troops have been killed by other Syrian Pro Assad Troops.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
05/29/2012
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#1
I dont know who would be worse to be in charge of Syria, the Iranian funded intolerant shiites or the Saudi funded intolerant Sunnis?
Syria is Teheran West and Assad has cozied up to every nutjob terrorist group in the ME. He makes Saddam look small time in his support of all things terrorist and anti-US/Anti-Israel
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
05/29/2012 10:35
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#4
It is surprising, Bill, with regard to Iran since they're struggling for cash.
But with Sadr involved I suppose the bulk of the money is actually coming from Iraq.
Posted by: American Delight ||
05/29/2012 17:15
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#5
Hmmm, if the money is coming from Iraq, it is turn about fair play, after all of the grief Syria caused Iraq during the CPA days....
I suppose somewhere Maliki is cackling over the turn of events.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
05/29/2012 18:03
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[Bangla Daily Star] Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami ...During the liberation war of 1971, Nizami formed the Al-Badr Force and acted as its supreme commander. The Al-Badr militia took active part in rape, extortion, looting and killing of Bangladeshis who supported the liberation, including a pre-planned massacre on December 14, 1971, when the Al-Badr militia along with Pakistan Army rounded up hundreds of doctors, professors, writers, and other Bengali intellectuals, and executed them... yesterday told the International Crimes Tribunal-1 that genocide was carried out during the Liberation War in 1971, but denied his involvement in the war crimes.
"Wudn't me."
Jamaat and its student wing Islami Chhatra Sangha, historically known as an anti-liberation force, actively collaborated with the Pak occupation army that committed nine-month atrocities to foil the birth of Bangladesh in 1971.
But they always refrained from saying anything about the mass killing and genocide committed during the Liberation War.
During the war, Nizami was the president of Pakistain ICS (now Islami Chhatra Shibir), ... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh... which formed Al Badr, a band of collaborators, infamous for orchestrating the killing of intellectuals, according to historical records.
Nizami took an opportunity yesterday to address the Tribunal-1 as, after reading out of the charges against him, it asked whether he pleaded guilty or not.
Otherwise, the man who for decades has been one of the country's most recognised war crimes suspect sat quietly in the dock, intently listening to his charges read before him.
"I want to clearly say that my role during the Liberation War did not extend beyond the sphere of political activities," he told the tribunal.
The "tragic incident" would not have taken place if the country's power was handed over to the elected representatives of 1970 general election in the then East Pakistain, he said.
The Jamaat chief, however, did not say his definition of the "tragic incident".
"This is a matter of investigation that whether Bhutto saheb used Yahya Khan or Yahya Khan used Bhutto [in 1971]," he told the tribunal.
In 1971, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was the chief of Pak Peoples Party (PPP), which opposed Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman-led Awami League's taking over power even after the AL won majority in 1970 national assembly polls.
Yahya Khan, the Pakistain military dictator who was then the president of Pakistain, also refused to hand over state power to Awami League. Instead, he launched mass killing and genocide against Bangalees on the night of March 25, 1971.
"We had no link to creating the situation of genocide at that time," Nizami said. "Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was the Nayak [key person] of the genocide."
Out of the 16 charges brought against Nizami, four pointed fingers at the Jamaat ameer for making speeches inciting members of Razakar, Al Badr and other auxiliary forces to commit atrocities during the Liberation War.
Nizami told the court yesterday that the speeches mentioned in the charges were taken from newspapers.
He said he had visited some places and delivered speeches in 1971 as the president of ICS. However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... he did not "own" all his statements published in newspapers.
The Sangram, mouthpiece of Jamaat-e-Islami, quoted Nizami on September 15, 1971, as saying: "Everyone of us should assume the role of a Mohammedan soldier of an Islamic state, and through cooperation to the oppressed and by winning their confidence we must kill those, who are hatching conspiracies against Pakistain and Islam."
About other charges including murder and torture, Nizami said the incidents took place neither in his presence nor with his knowledge.
"I don't think there is any scope of accusing someone of war crimes for his political role," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/29/2012
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Barack Obama The campaign's over, John... is anchoring his re-election campaign around sharp attacks on Willard Mitt Romney ...former governor of Massachussetts, currently the presumptive Publican nominee for president. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney's charisma is best defined as soporific, which is probably why he is leading the Publican field. On the plus side, he isn't President B.O... 's business record, but the hardball strategy also risks tarnishing the president's own political brand.
In 2008, Mr Obama ran for office presenting himself as a different kind of politician, one who would seek to bridge divides rather than open new ones, and as a purveyor of a style of politics purged of Washington's normal bitterness.
His negative assault on Mr Romney is designed to disqualify the central premise of his rival's campaign -- that as a successful businessman, he has the experience and knowledge to fire up a slow economic recovery.
But analysts say, Obama may also in the process risk damaging his own standing with voters, and put at risk the affection many voters still have for their president, despite frustration with the plodding economy.
"It's a possibility that by his campaign being very negative on Mr Romney, that could lead some people to be less approving of him personally," said Mr Robert Erikson, a political scientist at Columbia University ...contributed $547,852 to the 2008 Obama campaign. Is there a reason universities are among the top financiers of political campaigns? And where do they get all that money they piss away buying politicians? in New York.
But Mr Obama will also be weighing whether his attacks will harm Romney's standing more than his own in a close election.
"Maybe there's a cost to the campaign, you lose something personally but your opponents lose even more if you attack them," Mr Erikson said.
"(But) if I were advising Obama, I don't think I would advise him to avoid being negative towards his opponent. I don't think that would be the wise course."
Recent polls show Obama with a slight lead over Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee in November's election, but also suggest the president has little margin for error as he shoots for a second term in November.
A Washington Post/ABC News poll found that more Americans disapprove (49 per cent) of how Obama is governing America than approve (47 per cent) and 55 per cent of those asked did not like how the president was steering the economy.
On the other hand, 52 per cent of those asked thought Mr Obama's personality was better suited to being president. In a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, 49 per cent had a very or somewhat positive view of Obama.
Only 34 per cent said the same of Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and multi-millionaire venture capitalist.
"In this particular election, Obama faces the problem that just being liked is probably not enough to win the election for sure," said Clyde Wilcox, a political science professor at Georgetown University.
"It looks like a pretty close election. So I think at this point that his people have pretty much decided ... Romney has pretty high negatives and they want to make sure they stay there."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/29/2012
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#1
A non-worthless bit of spam I received recently:
"We are worried about 'the cow' when it is all about the 'Ice Cream. 'The most eye-opening civics lesson I ever had was while teaching 3rd grade. The last Presidential election was heating up and some of the children showed an interest. I decided we would have an election for a class president. We would choose our nominees. They would make a campaign speech and the class would vote. To simplify the process, candidates were nominated by other class members. We discussed what kinds of characteristics these students should have. We got many nominations and from those, Jamie and Olivia were picked to run for the top spot.
The class had done a great job in their selections. Both candidates were good kids.
I thought Jamie might have an advantage because he got lots of parental support.
I had never seen Olivia's mother.
The day arrived when they were to make their speeches.
Jamie went first.
He had specific ideas about how to make our class a better place.
He ended by promising to do his very best.
Everyone applauded and he sat down.
Now is was Olivia's turn to speak.
Her speech was concise. She said, "If you will vote for me, I will give you ice cream." She sat down.
The class went wild. "Yes! Yes! We want ice cream."
She surely would say more. She did not have to.
A discussion followed. How did she plan to pay for the ice cream? She wasn't sure. But no one pursued that question. They took her at her word.
Would her parents buy it or would the class pay for it...She didn't know.
The class really didn't care. All they were thinking about was ice cream...
Jamie was forgotten. Olivia won by a landslide.
Every time Barack Obama opened his mouth he offered ice cream and 51.4 % of the people reacted like nine year olds.
They want ice cream.
The other 48.6% percent know they're going to have to feed the cow and clean up the mess."
#3
Where are Jim, Tim, and Franklin now?
Just in case you might have wondered how their ineptitude affected their lives after they ruined so many dreams and lives.
Where are Jim, Tim and Franklin now?
Here's a quick look into the three former Fannie Mae executives who brought down Wall Street.
Franklin Raines - was a Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Fannie Mae. Raines was forced to retire from his position with Fannie Mae when auditing discovered severe irregularities in Fannie Mae's accounting activities. Raines left with a "golden parachute valued at $240 Million in benefits. The Government filed suit against Raines when the depth of the aaccounting scandal became clear.
Tim Howard - was the Chief Financial Officer of Fannie Mae. Howard "was a strong internal proponent of using accounting strategies that would ensure a "stable pattern of earnings" at Fannie. Investigations by federal regulators and the company's board of directors since concluded that management did manipulate 1998 earnings to trigger bonuses. Raines and Howard resigned under pressure in late 2004. Howard's Golden Parachute was estimated at $20 Million!
Jim Johnson - A former executive at Lehman Brothers and who was later forced from his position as Fannie Mae CEO. Investigators found that Fannie Mae had hidden a substantial amount of Johnson's 1998 compensation from the public, reporting that it was between $6 million and $7 million when it fact it was $21 million." Johnson is currently under investigation for taking illegal loans from Countrywide while serving as CEO of Fannie Mae. Johnson's Golden Parachute was estimated at
$28 Million.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW? FRANKLIN RAINES? Raines works for the Obama Campaign as his Chief Economic Advisor.
TIM HOWARD? Howard is a Chief Economic Advisor to Obama under Franklin Raines.
JIM JOHNSON? Johnson was hired as a Senior Obama Finance Advisor and was selected to run Obama's Vice Presidential Search Committee.
#7
Guess What ? Ron Paul : Dark Horse : Might Switch To Liberal Conservative Democrat And Run As Well As Republican & Democrat & Draft From : Occupation Party ! Watch : Primary ! 4 or 5 Percent ! Still A Winner !
#8
Normally attacks might be advantageous but in this case Romney just has to point out that Obama can't run on his record which is why he's attacking and almost any attack is blunted.
[Tolo News] The US-led military incursion into Afghanistan was not an attempt to drive out the Taliban or Al-Qaeda, but rather an effort to lead the region, the political head of hard-line Islamists Hizb-e-Islami said Monday at a conference in Pakistain.
Ghairat Baheer, son-in-law of the group's founder Gulbudin Hekmatyar, spoke to religious leaders from Afghanistan, Pakistain and Iran who met to condemn the presence of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... forces in Afghanistan.
The group agreed that there will be no peace in Afghanistan if the NATO forces stay.
Of course, there'll be no peace in Afghanistan if the NATO forces leave, but that's a minor detail.
"US attack on Afghanistan was not to beat Taliban or Al-Qaeda, but you should know that they were looking for a golden chance to lead the region from Afghanistan," Baheer told the attendees of the conference in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar.
Meanwhile, ...back at the shouting match, a new, even louder, voice was to be heard... Leader of Jamaat-e Islami in Pakistain Qazi Hussain Ahmad ... third president (19872009) of the Pak Jamaat-e-Islami. Qazi was also head of the Muttahidah Majlis-e-Amal until his ego became bigger than the organization. Qazi is what is known as a fiery preacher, which means he has lots of volume, a good delivery, and not a lot of reverence for coherence. He was the patron of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Rasool Sayyaf and Osama bin Laden during the war against the Soviets. He used to recommend drining camel's urine to maintain good health before his kidneys started to go... said that the solidarity of Afghans is impossible if NATO troops remain.
"Solidarity of Afghan people is impossible with presence of NATO forces," Ahmad said.
"We want them out of Afghanistan."
Iranian representative in Peshawar also called for the foreign forces to withdraw from Afghanistan immediately, and the religious leaders voiced their opposition towards the signing and recent approval of the Afghanistan-US strategic agreement.
Afghan university professor Abdul Majid Naseri said in an interview with TOLOnews that their comments amounted to interference in Afghanistan, the same as if they were politicians saying how the country should be run.
"Afghanistan is an independent country, we will not allow anyone to interfere in our internal affairs," Naseri said.
"We know better who to sign a strategic agreement with."
The Afghan-US long-term pact was approved by Afghanistan's parliament last week after facing some pressure from political elements in Iran and Pakistain to not approve it.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/29/2012
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#1
"No peace in Afghanistan iff the NATO forces leave, but thats a minor detail" > Awwwwwww, I would've said "... but thats another story".
* FYI TOPIX > [Muslim News] PAKISTAN: INTEL BUREAU REPORT: SECTARIAN GROUPS [Pak-outlawed/
banned] GETTING STRONGER.
[Dawn] President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... on Monday directed to form a joint task force of intelligence and law-enforcement agencies. He ordered to launch a crack down operation against the criminal elements in Sindh, DawnNews reported.
The president was chairing a high level meeting at Bilawal House to discuss the law and order situation of the province with special focus on recent incidents of firing and killings in the capital city of Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... .
Governor Sindh Dr Ishratul Ebad, Chief Minister Sindh Qaim Ali Shah and Federal Ministers Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Syed Khurshid Shah, Syed Naveed Qamar and Maula Bux Chandio attended the meeting which set up a committee to look into matters of law and order in the province. Senior officials of Police, Rangers and intelligence agencies also attended the meeting.
President Zardari showed concern over increasing weapon proliferation in the city. He inquired the police officials about the routes through which weapons in such large quantity are coming in the city. He said despite availability of all the resources, law and order situation of the city is still the worst.
Chief Minister Sindh, Director General (DG) Rangers, Inspector General (IG) Sindh and officials of the intelligence agency gave separate briefings in the meeting.
The president issued directions to the police and the rangers specifically for the investigations of Lyari ...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot.... operation, firing incident on Sindh Muhabbat rally in Bloody Karachi and firing incident in Nawabshah.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/29/2012
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[Dawn] OF all the government's failures, its inability to prevent kidnappings by beturbanned goons has drawn some of the strongest criticism. Yet this condemnation has yielded few results. The country's map is dotted with gory points where kidnappers have killed hostages and dumped their bodies in order to deliver a horrifying message in the cruellest of manners. Abdul Ghafoor is the latest addition to the sad series. He was among the six Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... Rural Support Programme workers kidnapped in Pishin last December. His body was found in North Wazoo. He was the second from among the six BRSP men to have been killed by the captors. The kidnappers are said to have demanded Rs230m in ransom for the release of the six workers. The friends and families of the captives made a futile attempt at raising the money from donations after appeals for paying the ransom from the government's accounts failed to attract a positive response from the Raisani set-up in Quetta and efforts for a reduction in the ransom amount were unsuccessful.
The killings, the kidnappings, indeed the fact that the kidnappers are asking for such a huge ransom, are facts that reflect just how much is at stake here. They add to piles of evidence that speak volumes for the kind of danger that NGO workers in Balochistan and elsewhere in Pakistain face. Already, many NGOs, both international and domestic, have scaled back their operations. A large number are thinking about doing so and we are confronted with a winding up that would be hailed by the beturbanned goons as their victory. Far from acting merely as a support for the government, the NGOs have crucially been present in areas where government officials are not found. Their forced exit through murder and kidnapping and other acts of intimidation would be a huge blow to the development effort. That a large number of these kidnappings are traced to North Waziristan adds greater purpose to the calls for a security operation in the agency. Whatever exists in the name of protection is obviously not working. A revision is urgently required.
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NAIROBI: Police in Somalia's semi-autonomous region of Puntland arrested 11 pirates and recovered rifles, a heavy machine gun and a truck, the region's authorities said.
"On Sunday morning ... PMPF (Puntland Maritime Police Force) captured 11 pirates in a security operation in Hafun District," Puntland's Security Ministry said in a statement.
"The pirates arrested ... include Mohamed Mohamud Mohamed Hassan (Dhafoor), who is a well-known pirate wanted by Puntland authorities for hijacking commercial vessels traveling the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden waterways."
The ministry said the police also recovered a Toyota truck, seven AK-47 assault rifles and one heavy machine gun.
The statement said Hassan was part of a gang that killed five members of Puntland's security forces during an operation to rescue a kidnapped Danish family last year.
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[Iran Press TV] Spanish prime minister says that at the moment Madrid is going through "an extremely difficult phase," as it's very hard for his country to raise funds on the debt market.
Mariano Rajoy's Monday comments came after Bankia shares nosedived over 28 percent on reports that the bank needs more bailout cash than originally thought.
Rajoy however, downplayed the impact of financial problems that the country's fourth largest bank is facing saying that he doesn't believe that Bankia's woes have contributed to the latest surge in the risk premium requested by investors to hold Spanish debt.
The conservative prime minister insisted that Spain's banking sector would not need an international rescue.
Recently nationalized Bankia, Spain's fourth-largest bank has asked for an additional 19 billion euros in government help, in addition to the 4.5 billion euros rescue fund received from the state last month.
Meanwhile, ...back at the shouting match, a new, even louder, voice was to be heard... Spain's wealthiest autonomous region, Catalonia, has also asked for central government's help to pay 36 billion euros of debt refinancing bills this year.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Spain is like the EU in minature. No central fiscal control.
#2
Wehell, looks like somebody took the $$$ + ran ...
To wit,
* CHINA DAILY FORUM > REPORT: ECB SECRETLY DISTRIBUTES "INFINITE" MONEY, to Greek + other EuroZOne Banks.
Greek Banks per were allegedly funneled/given over EU$100.0Bilyuhn.
* SAME > EUROZONE CRISIS FACES "CRITICAL MMOMENT":ECB PRESIDENT[Mario Daghri].
IIUC DAGHRI = attempted TO Argue that IT IS FOR EUZ MEMBER-NATIONS TO ADJUST THEIR DOMESTIC + INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL, ECON SCHEMAS TO THE EURO-DOLLAR = SINGLE-VALUE CURRENCY, NOT FOR THE ECB, ETC. TO ADJUST TO GOVTS-STATES???
* SAME > PANIC SETS IN AS BRITISH EXPATS DITCH EUROS.
* SAME > UK DEEPER IN RECESSION THAN THOUGHT.
* SAME > UK FIRMLY IN DOUBLE-DIP RECESSION.
* FYI DEFENCE FORUM INDIA > BRITISH, SPANISH SHIPS INVOLVED IN [fishing] STANDOFF OVER GILBRALTAR.
Madrid claims London = ex-PM Blair promised to return Gibraltar to them - they want it, + they want back now or ASAP!
Iff neither side has any $$$, will this result in violence between Spanish Fishermen + Gibraltar-based UK Security Boats, or will London have to call in their own Fishing War Fleets to combat Spain's Fish Armada???
#3
Uhh, wasn't Catalonia talking like they were going to split off on their own a couple years ago? They had a website that inferred quite heavily that they were going to be their own country soon. Now they are coming to Madrid, hat in hand, asking for 36Billion Euros?
If I were the Prime Minister, I'd tell them to get bent, before I a stole/squandered a single additional Euro from the taxpayers, I'd tell Catalonia to get bent.
[Al Ahram] South Sudan said Monday Sudanese war planes and artillery had bombarded its territory on the eve of peace talks, as Southern officials set set off to attend African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... -led negotiations in Æthiopia. "They are bombing South Sudan, attacking South Sudan, and continuing to send gangs to destablise South Sudan... these are not the signs of peace," South Sudan's top negotiator Pagan Amum told news hounds.
A common enough judgement in certain circles...
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[Dawn] Three people, including a worker of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... , who had gone missing over a couple of days back, were found rubbed out in Lyari ...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot.... and its neighbouring areas on Sunday, police said.
A young resident of the Napier Road area kidnapped on his way to a friend's home was found rubbed out in Memon Society early Sunday morning, said the police.
The Kalri SHO said Shahid, 28, son of Zakariya, was kidnapped somewhere between Lea Market and Kharadar on Saturday.
The body was shifted to the Civil Hospital Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... (CHK), where the victim was identified.
The police quoted hospital sources as saying that the body bore torture marks and a gunshot wound.
The victim was an active worker of MQM Lyari sector's unit 29, said Mithadar SDPO Zafar Ali Shah.
He added the victim had a decoration shop in the Napier Road area.
The Kharadar police later registered an FIR (183/2012) against unidentified suspects on a complaint of the victim's father.
The police described the murder as a assassination.
Following the killing, tension spread in the areas of Napier Road and Kharadar amid suspension of commercial activities.
Man found rubbed out
The partially decomposed body of a young man believed to have been killed two days back was found in the Lyari river near the Love Lane Bridge within the remit of the Pak Colony cop shoppe, police said.
They added that 30-year-old Mohammad Bilal Mengal, son of Mohammad Khan Mengal, had gone missing two days back.
A resident of Al Fareed street, Garden West, Bilal was not associated with any political party, said the police quoting the victim's family as saying.
Pak Colony SHO Abdul Moid said the victim had sustained a gunshot wound to his head. The body was shifted to the CHK for medico-legal formalities and later handed over to his family.
The police suspected that gangsters in Lyari might have killed the victim.
However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... a case had not been lodged at the cop shoppe till late in the evening.
Body found
Another young man was rubbed out within the remit of the Pak Colony cop shoppe, police said.
Twenty-five-year-old Nasir, son of Hayat, was kidnapped close to his residence in Nishtar Basti, old Sabzi Mandi, the police said.
They added that the victim, an MSc student, was rubbed out before his body was dumped in Jahanabad, old Golimar.
The police said Nasir was not associated with any political party. They described personal enmity as a possible motive for the killing.
The victim hailed from Kalat, Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... , they added.
The body was shifted to the Edhi morgue after medico-legal formalities.
No case had been registered till late Sunday evening.
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China's massive crackdown on North Koreans who live and work there illegally could deal a hard blow to the North's feeble economy, some pundits say. They say it could make things very difficult for North Korean traders who smuggle Chinese goods across the border to sell back in the North. This in turn would hobble the grassroots market economy that is the only way for many North Koreans to sustain themselves under the cash-strapped regime.
"Some 30 percent of the products sold in open-air markets in North Korea are believed to have been smuggled across the border," said a source. "The crackdown could lead to a shortage of supplies and thus cause prices to skyrocket."
But some North Korea watchers believe the economic impact would not be that great. "Most of the smuggling is done between ethnic Chinese in North Korea and North Koreans living in China," said Kim Hee-tae, an activist working for human rights in the North. "These people can travel back and forth between China and North Korea legitimately and wont be heavily impacted by the crackdown."
Products legally imported by regime-controlled companies account for more than half the goods sold in North Korean markets, and they are outside the purview of the crackdown.
North Korea experts say the crackdown will lead to a greater number of North Koreans being sent overseas to work legally, who will end up putting more hard currency into the North's state coffers.
"Depending on where they work and what jobs they have, North Koreans dispatched overseas make between US$200 to $1,000 a month," said the source. They get to keep only 10 to 20 percent while the regime takes the rest in party loyalty funds, tax, insurance and living expenses. "The workers who will be sent to China legally will probably have to do the same," the source added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/29/2012
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#1
Is it just me, or is anyone else getting the feel that Beijing would like to take over NOKOR widout firing a shot = no "Great Power" Mil Confrontation in NE Asia, while still allowing Beijing to engage in unilateral, forceful
"Gunboat/Battleship Diplomacy" in the SCS vee ASEAN States???
NO UNO, NO US, NO RUSSIA OR NIPPON OR ANGRY SOKOR TO ARGUE WID CHINA OER ITS TAKEOVER OF A "NATURALLY/INTERNALLY", SELF-IMPLODED OR COLLAPSED NOKOR WHOSE STABILITY + WELL-BEING IS ALREADY IN CHINA'S "CORE INTEREST(S)"???
#2
China's percentage of bilateral export trade wid the DPRK is officially 85%, + by some Pert accounts higher - the new Sino-DPRK FTAS is antcipated in the West to only increase China's domination.
#3
CHINA DAILY FORUM > POSTER OPED: IFF THE US CAN CLAIM HAWAII + GUAM, THEN CHINA CAN CLAIM SOUTH CHINA SEA.
and
* WORLD MILITARY FORUM > TIME MAGAZINE: CLOCK TICKING ON CHINA-JAPAN ISLAND DISPUTE; IWA EXPERT TOGO KAZUHIKO - JAPAN MAY ONLY HAVE 1-2 YEARS [2013-2014] TO PEACEFULY RESOLVE THE DAOYUS/SENKAKUS ISLANDS DISPUTE WID CHINA BEFORE THE OUTBREAK OF WAR.
* SAME > JAPAN ON SINO-PHILIPPINE'S DISPUTE: CHINA IS ONCE AGAIN THE "MIDDLE KINGDOM" TO WHICH THE WORLD MUST KOWTOW.
versus
* WORLD NEWS > NORTH KOREA: UP TO 40,000 SOUTH KOREAN SOLDIERS [1950-1953]STILL BURIED IN DMZ.
#4
is anyone else getting the feel that Beijing would like to take over NOKOR widout firing a shot
They don't want to be seen doing it. Having NOKOR as a mad little lapdog for stirring up mischief is way too valuable, but the ChiComs need at least the appearance of deniability.
[An Nahar] Gunmen on a cycle of violencerubbed out four traders from the mainly Christian Igbo ethnic group in northeastern Nigeria on Monday, residents said, the latest in a string of such attacks.
Islamist group Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... has carried out scores of shootings and kabooms in northern Nigeria, but it was not immediately clear who was behind Monday's killings in the city of Yola, the capital of Adamawa state.
Police could not be reached for comment.
"Two men riding a cycle of violence came by some shops owned by Igbo traders," one resident said.
"They rubbed out the four men chatting outside their closed shops around 3:30 pm. Igbos in the city had refused to open their shops in protest over the killing of a bartender in a beer parlor last night by some gunnies."
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[Yemen Post] Minister of Electricity Saleh Sumaia has strongly slammed the former president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... , accusing him of leading a gang that attacks power lines linking between the capital Sana' and Marib governorate.
In a speech delivered in a Yemeni university on Monday, he affirmed that Saleh heads five persons who rotate to attack power towers in Marib, asserting that all the attackers of power were identified and that Saleh is their leader.
He said that the Electricity Ministry lost about YR 30 billion as a result of repeated attacks against power lines.
The Yemeni capital has been living in darkness for two days due to the halt of the Marib gas-operated station that was subjected frequent sabotage acts only in the past two days.
Many of Yemeni politicians and analysts accuse supporters of the former President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh of targeting power lines in order to hamper the interim government.
BBC correspondent in Yemen once said attacks against power lines were carried out by gunnies affiliated to the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
According to government statistics, power lines in were subjected to more than 170 attacks since the outbreak of pro-democracy protests in February 2011.
The Saudi Development Fund is to grant the Yemeni government SR 270 million for the electricity and energy fields under agreement that was singed in Riyadh on May 24.
The grant aims at reducing the sharp shortage of power and improve power services in Yemen.
Electricity crisis had led to the paralysis of factories, laboratories, workshops and many service sectors, pushing further Yemenis to unemployment.
Minister of Electricity Saleh Sumaia has strongly slammed the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, accusing him of leading a gang that attacks power lines linking between the capital Sana' and Marib governorate.
In a speech delivered in a Yemeni university on Monday, he affirmed that Saleh heads five persons who rotate to attack power towers in Marib, asserting that all the attackers of power were identified and that Saleh is their leader.
He said that the Electricity Ministry lost about YR 30 billion as a result of repeated attacks against power lines.
The Yemeni capital has been living in darkness for two days due to the halt of the Marib gas-operated station that was subjected frequent sabotage acts only in the past two days.
Many of Yemeni politicians and analysts accuse supporters of the former President Ali Abdullah Saleh of targeting power lines in order to hamper the interim government.
BBC correspondent in Yemen once said attacks against power lines were carried out by gunnies affiliated to the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
According to government statistics, power lines in were subjected to more than 170 attacks since the outbreak of pro-democracy protests in February 2011.
The Saudi Development Fund is to grant the Yemeni government SR 270 million for the electricity and energy fields under agreement that was singed in Riyadh on May 24.
The grant aims at reducing the sharp shortage of power and improve power services in Yemen.
Electricity crisis had led to the paralysis of factories, laboratories, workshops and many service sectors, pushing further Yemenis to unemployment.
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NAYPYIDAW: India agreed a raft of deals with Myanmar yesterday during a visit by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh aimed at boosting trade and energy links and contesting the influence of regional rival China.
The first Indian premier to visit in a quarter of a century, Singh met President Thein Sein in the capital Naypyidaw as energy-hungry New Delhi woos Myanmar after dramatic reforms ended its international isolation. The neighbors signed 12 agreements covering an array of issues including security, development of border areas, trade and transport links. Talks were described as warm, cordial and constructive in a joint statement released after the meeting, which stressed the potential for closer future ties.
Alluding to the mutually agreed target of doubling the bilateral trade by 2015, both leaders emphasized that there is considerable untapped potential for greater trade and urged the business community to capitalize on this potential, it said.
Indian trade with Myanmar stood at $1.2 billion in 2010, far short of the $4.4 billion between China and Myanmar.
Singh is the latest in a series of top-level visitors to Myanmar as the international community begins easing sanctions, raising hopes that the impoverished nation could be the next big frontier market. He is seen as looking to expand Indias influence after half a century of military rule left Myanmar heavily reliant on Chinese investment and political support.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
CHINA = we have no interest whatsover in Bangladesh save for Trade.
* INDIA = INDJUH = That's very good to hear [ but in reality means "Yeah-h-h Ri-i-ight, + take Pakistan wid You"].
[Dawn] Two separate US drone attacks killed at least nine cut-throats in Pakistain's northwestern tribal region near the Afghan border Monday, security officials said.
Both attacks took place near Miranshah ... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas... , the main town of North Wazoo, a known stronghold of Taliban and al Qaeda linked thugs.
The first, in the early hours of the morning, targeted a thug compound in Hassokhel town, 25 kilometres (16 miles) east of Miranshah, killing at least five thugs, security officials said.
The second attack targeted a thug vehicle in Datta Khel district, 30 kilometres (18 miles) west of Miranshah, killing four thugs, a security official told AFP.
"The drone fired two missiles on a vehicle. The vehicle caught fire and the bodies of the people inside were badly burnt," he said.
Two military officials confirmed the casualties.
There have now been five such attacks in the area since Thursday, in an apparent surge in covert strikes following a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... leaders' conference on Afghanistan in Chicago last week.
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[Emirates 24/7] The UN Security Council on Sunday unanimously condemned the killing of at least 108 people, including many children, in the Syrian town of Houla, a sign of mounting outrage at the massacre that the government and rebels blamed on each other.
Images of bloodied and lifeless young bodies, laid carefully side by side after the onslaught on Friday, triggered shock around the world and underlined the failure of a six-week-old UN ceasefire plan to stop the violence.
Western and Arab states opposed to Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... put the blame for the deaths squarely on the government. But Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... rejected the charge.
"The Security Council condemned in the strongest possible terms the killings, confirmed by United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... observers, of dozens of men, women and kiddies and the wounding of hundreds more in the village of (Houla), near Homs, in attacks that involved a series of government artillery and tank shellings on a residential neighbourhood," the non-binding statement said.
"Such outrageous use of force against civilian population constitutes a violation of applicable international law and of the commitments of the Syrian Government under United Nations Security Council Resolutions," the statement said.
The United Nations believes that at least 108 people were killed in Houla, UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said.
Russia, which along with China has vetoed two Security Council resolutions calling for tougher action against Damascus, said the "tragic" events in Syria deserve condemnation and called for a UN assessment of the violence there.
Russian Deputy UN Ambassador Alexander Pankin said the circumstances surrounding the massacre were "murky" and rejected the idea that the evidence clearly showed Damascus was guilty.
The head of the UN observer force, General Robert Mood, briefed the council by video link. Pankin said Mood "did not link directly the (army's) shelling with numbers of deaths."
UN Secretary-General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... sent the council a letter that appeared to give ammunition to both sides.
He said the observers "viewed the bodies of the dead and confirmed from an examination of ordnance that artillery and tank shells were fired at a residential neighbourhood." The rebels do not have artillery and tanks.
But Ban also said UN monitors observed shotgun wounds on some of the bodies, which could indicate close-range attacks by rebels, as Pankin suggested, or could be the result of follow-up attacks by the army after it stopped shelling.
"While the detailed circumstances are unknown, we can confirm that there has been artillery and mortar shelling," Ban said. "There have also been other forms of violence, including shootings at close range and severe physical abuse."
Ban is expected to brief the Security Council on the situation in Syria on Wednesday.
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#1
The next sharply worded letter is going to be a doozey. It will definitely leave a mark.
I support some meaningful discussions and frank exchange of opinions will be next.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
05/29/2012 1:27
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[Emirates 24/7] Syrian activists said on Monday President Bashar Al Assad's forces had killed at least 41 people, including eight children, in an artillery assault on the city of Hama over the past 24 hours.
The report, which could not be independently verified, comes after the U.N. Security Council condemned the massacre of at least 108 civilians, many of them children, in the Syrian town of Houla on Friday.
Images from Houla of the bloodied bodies of children triggered shock and outrage around the world and underlined the failure of a six-week-old ceasefire plan aimed at stopping the violence.
Opposition sources said Syrian tanks and armoured vehicles opened fire on several neighbourhoods of Hama on Sunday after attacks by rebel Free Syrian Army fighters on roadblocks and other positions manned by Assad's forces.
The Hama Revolution Leadership Council said in a statement: "Tank shelling brought down several buildings. Their inhabitants were pulled out from the rubble." It said five women were among the dead.
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[Al Ahram] Without assigning a blame for the killings of at least 109 civilians in Houla in central Syria, a statement by Hezbollah said it "strongly condemns the massacre and deplores those who carried it out". The Shi'ite guerrilla group, which the Syrian opposition accuses of backing Assad's military crackdown on the-14 month uprising, along with its patron Iran, is seeking the release of a group of Lebanese Shi'ites kidnapped last week by an armed Sunni Mohammedan group in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... .
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#1
Well, as long as you're deploring it, how about proving it by not helping Pencilneck anymore?
[An Nahar] Russia said on Monday it did not support the Syrian government of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Trampler of Homs... but urged world powers to work for the peace plan of U.N. envoy Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... and not regime change.
"We do not support the Syrian government. We support the plan of Kofi Annan," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a joint news conference with his British counterpart William Hague.
But he added that world powers had to "play the game of fulfilling the Kofi Annan plan and not the game of regime change."
Hague for his part warned there will be "chaos and civil war" if the Annan plan is not implemented.
Their meeting came after The New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... reported the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama The Cambridge police acted stupidly... is considering working with Russia on a plan for Assad's departure under a proposal modeled on the transition in Yemen.
Lavrov did not make any direct comment on the report but made clear that Russia's priority was not "who is in power" in Syria but ending the violence.
"We are deeply worried that the Annan plan is being implemented unsatisfactorily. We are still far from our goals," Lavrov said.
Russia had earlier joined other U.N. Security Council powers in condemning the Syrian government for using artillery in a massacre in the town of Houla that left 108 people dead, many of them children, and 300 injured.
Britannia and La Belle France had proposed a U.N. statement making an even stronger condemnation of the Assad government but this was rejected by Russia.
In contrast to the West's placing of the blame for the massacre on the Syrian government, Lavrov said Moscow believed both the regime and the armed opposition shared the blame.
"Here we have a situation where both sides clearly had a hand in the fact that peaceful citizens were killed," he said.
Hague had called on Russia ahead of his trip to use its leverage with the Assad regime and Lavrov said: "We are putting pressure on the Syrian government on an almost daily basis.
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#1
Will say anything while they sell weapons to them....and just about every evil country
[Yemen Post] The U.N envoy to Yemen Jamal Bin Omar left Sana'a on Sunday morning after he failed to convince the Third Brigade officers to end the rebellion against their newly-appointed commander Abdu-Rahman al-Halili.
After months of rebellion against Hadi's decrees, Bin Omar managed to convince the Third Brigade's former chief Tariq Mohammed Abdullah Saleh to obey President Abdurabu Mansour Hadi ...the second and possibly the last president of Yemen, successor to former President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh... 's decrees and hand over the command to his appionted successor, al-Halili.
But since then al-Halili could not enter the Third Brigade headquarters as some officers headed by Abdul-Hamid Maqwala carried out a rebellion against him and prevented him from getting into the camp. Maqwala is from Saleh's village and he is well-known for his support to him.
In March, Hadi issued some republican decrees dismissing dozens of military commanders, mostly from Saleh's loyalists and relatives. Some of these commanders such as Mohammed Saleh al-Ahmar--Saleh's half brother who is the former chief of the Air Force--and Tariq Mohammed Saleh obeyed Hadi's decrees after a long period of rebellion.
Only when they were convinced by Bin Omar, did they hand over the command of the key military institutions.
The officers' rebellion against their newly-appointed commander prompted Bin Omar to pay another visit to Yemen with the aim of convincing them to stop their rebellion and let al-Halili carry out his duties.
Yet, he failed this time to press Saleh's loyalists into listening to their commander, although US has announced sanctions against officials obstructing the transition in the country.
Bin Omar is set to submit a report to the Security Council which will held a session on Yemen on Tuesday to discuss how the GCC-brokered accord is being implemented in the country so far.
In this vein, the daily Akbar al-Youm newspaper reported on Sunday citing familiar sources that Bin Omar held several meetings on Saturday with top offiicals with the aim of convincing them to end the rebellion in the Third Brigade, but said his efforts ended in vain.
The officials Bin Omar met included President Hadi, Saleh and his son Ahmed-- the commander of the Republican Guard, as well as Abdul-Karim al-Aryani, a high-ranking figure in the General People Congress Party led by Saleh, the familiar sources noted.
According to the paper, the sources said that Bin Omar made it clear to Saleh, Ahmed and al-Aryani that its not in their favor if the Secuirty Council holds a session on Yemen this Tuesday while the rebellion in the Third Brigade is still continuing.
Early this month, the American President Barack Obama This is a teachable moment... issued an executive order for the Treasury to freeze any Yemeni offiicial's assets based in US if found trying to obstruct the GCC-brokered power transfer deal and the transitional process.
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05/29/2012
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[Dawn] At least 10 people, including five children and a woman, were maimed when stray artillery shells fell in three different localities of Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency on Sunday, while myrmidons blew up a high voltage power transmission line in Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central ...Smallest of the agencies in FATA. The Agency administration is located in Khar. Bajaur is inhabited almost exclusively by Tarkani Pashtuns, which are divided into multiple bickering subtribes. Its 52 km border border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistain's strategic depth... disrupting electricity to the entire region.
Sources said that an artillery shell hit a house in Swati Maqbara locality of Shalobar area early in the morning, which resulted in critical injuries to wife of one Aqal Khan, while three of his children suffered minor wounds. The injured were later taken to a hospital in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar.
In the second incident which took place in Arjali Nadi area of Shalobar, father and uncle of one Gul Wali, principal of a private school, were maimed when an a stray shell hit their house.
They said that a third mortar shell fell on the house of late Maj (retired) Noorullah in Jansi camp area of Sipah, which left two minor children and a woman maimed. Relation of the injured with the late officer could not be ascertained.
Meanwhile, ...back at the laboratory the fumes had dispersed, to reveal an ominous sight... Bara Khidmat-e-Khalq Committee expressed its serious concern over the indiscriminate artillery firing by security forces in Shalobar, Sipah and Malikdinkhel areas.
Turab Ali, a KKC office-bearer, told Dawn by phone that residents were facing a lot of difficulties in shifting their injured to hospitals due to closure of roads linking Bara with Peshawar, as security forces had also imposed curfew in most of these areas. Security forces had a few days ago sealed the Sam Baba-Qambarkhel road, thus causing hardships to residents of Shalobar, Malikdinkhel and Sipah areas.
The road closure has also caused food shortage, as forces were not allowing supplies to enter these areas where a military operation was in progress.
Mr Ali said that power supply to the areas also remained disconnected from last one week, which had been resulting in acute shortage of drinking water.
The KKC has appealed to the political administration and security officials to take utmost care to avoid civilian casualties in Bara and ease curfew restrictions in Shalobar and Sipah areas to enable people to shift to safer places.
Our correspondent reported from Khar that unidentified myrmidons blew up a high power transmission line in Yusufabad area of Bajaur Agency on the night between Saturday and Sunday, disrupting electricity supply to the entire region.
Officials said that a group of gunnies had planted explosives to the tower of 66 KV high transmission line near Yusufabad and blew it up.
The tower was situated close to a levies checkpost.
Residents said that electricity was instantly suspended in the whole agency. Soon after the blast heavy firing was heard from the levies post, but the myrmidons escaped, a resident Naik Amal Khan told Dawn.
When contacted, an official of Tribal Electric Supply Company said that the transmission line was completely damaged and power supply to Bajaur Agency would remain suspended for next two days.
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05/29/2012
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Top|| File under: Lashkar-e-Islami
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.
A United Nations agency that aids member nations in securing their national infrastructures is set to warn member nations about the risk posed by the 'Flame' virus.
With a line-up that includes Drew Barrymore, David Beckham, Orlando Bloom, and Ricky Martin, the UN's choice of ambassadors has been known to cause raised eyebrows or the odd smirk.
Syria's international isolation deepened Tuesday as several Western countries said they were expelling Syrian diplomats, in a coordinated response to the killing of 108 civilians last week in a single attack.
NATO says al-Qaeda's second-in-command in Afghanistan has been killed in an air raid near the Pakistani border.
The new Iranian Majlis (parliament) has strongly condemned the ruthless massacre of defenseless Syrians in Houla, saying the US is responsible for the attack.
At least two 
The chairman of Egypt's presidential election commission says the 
LONDON: A radical preacher accused of giving spiritual inspiration to one of the 9/11 hijackers on Monday lost a bid to be freed from the British prison where he is being held ahead of moves to deport him to Jordan to face terrorism charges.
[Bangla Daily Star] 
...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat...
[Al Ahram] At around 11:25pm on Monday night, unknown assailants attacked protesters, who were chanting against election results in Tahrir, with stones and sticks.
[Emirates 24/7] Fifteen people were killed or injured in tribal fighting in Yemen after a male donkey chased an ass and raped it just near the house of its owner.
[An Nahar] Air raids, including by U.S. drones, and 
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Police in Somalia's northern 
[Bangla Daily Star] 
Asif Ali 
Wazoo
Spanish prime minister says that at the moment Madrid is going through "an extremely difficult phase," as it's very hard for his country to raise funds on the debt market.
South Sudan said Monday Sudanese war planes and artillery had bombarded its territory on the eve of peace talks, as Southern officials set set off to attend 
Three people, including a worker of the 
[An Nahar] Gunmen on a 
Minister of Electricity Saleh Sumaia has strongly slammed the former president 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
Syrian activists said on Monday President Bashar Al Assad's forces had killed at least 41 people, including eight children, in an artillery assault on the city of Hama over the past 24 hours.
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...
...Smallest of the agencies in FATA. The Agency administration is located in Khar. Bajaur is inhabited almost exclusively by Tarkani Pashtuns, which are divided into multiple bickering subtribes. Its 52 km border border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistain's strategic depth...
