[Daily Caller] A pro-Nazi association now operates a Persian-language website in Iran, promoting anti-Semitism and memorializing Adolf Hitler ...late Fuehrer of Germany, founder of the Third Reich, currently communing with his pals Himmler and Heydrich. He is reincarnated every few days as a politician somebody doesn't like... , apparently with the approval of the Iranian government and its censors.
The site, Nazicenter.ir, features videos of Nazi leaders and pictures of Hitler, and praises the Third Reich for nearly conquering the Western world. It also includes a public forum whose members routinely discuss their hatred of the Jewish people.
The site's primary goal, its administrators write, is to confront the "story of the Holocaust, which without a doubt has been taken advantage of in contemporary history."
Iran's Islamic regime strictly regulates all forms of communication. Hundreds of websites have been banned, and Iranians' online access to the free world is severely restricted. But a Nazi propaganda website is consistent with the proclamations of Iran's military and politicians, who have both denied the existence of the Nazi Holocaust and called for the destruction of Israel.
The chief commander of the Iranian armed forces, Maj. Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi, announced the doctrine of the Islamic regime in a recent speech. "The Iranian nation is standing for its cause," he said, "and that is the full annihilation of Israel."
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has openly called Israel a "cancerous tumor" that should be cut out. And Iran's president, Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad, has repeatedly denied the Holocaust occurred.
Nazicenter.ir is hosted on a Web server in Germany and administered by two individuals who also own the Internet domain "NaziClub.ir."
The website, according to Google ...contributed $814,540 to the 2008 Obama campaign... 's "FeedBurner" syndication service, has more than 1,200 subscribers. Its online forums serve nearly 1,700 members, including some with online avatars named "Klaus.barbie," "NEW Heil" and "Heinrich_Himmler."
A published set of ground rules prominently displayed for forum participants includes the warning that "All members must respect the current laws of the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran." The also include requirements that members should promote "the expansion of Iran's nationalism" and "make known the true picture of Zionism."
"We as an Internet media outlet consider it a duty to show the ugly and oppressive face of Zionism," the text continues, "which rules the world's media who have hidden its true face."
While Nazicenter.ir includes historical reports about Hitler's messages to troops and the Nazi military's operations during World War II, it also features an article about "the issue of race and ability, and IQ differences between different races."
On April 20 the site offered "congratulations" to its readers "with Aryan blood" on the anniversary of Adolf Hitler's birth. On May 9 an unnamed author republished video of a 1938 speech in which Hitler warned about the dangers Allied powers posed to "occupied Paleostine."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2012
18:24 ||
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The United States will move the majority of its war ships to the Pacific Ocean as part of a strategy of boosting links with its Asian allies, Leon Panetta, the American defence secretary, has announced.
Speaking in Singapore, Mr Panetta said the shift from the Atlantic to the Pacific would take place by 2020, at the same time as military cooperation with nations including Vietnam and the Philippines was enhanced.
At present, around half of all US war ships are in the Atlantic, and the shift is being seen as part of what President Barack Obama has described as a “pivot” towards Asia in American foreign policy.
Some Asian critics had questioned whether the White House would find the money to make good on its commitments to the region.
But Mr Panetta told an audience of military chiefs and defence officials: “By 2020 the Navy will reposture its forces from today's roughly 50-50 split from the Pacific and Atlantic to a 60-40 split in those oceans.
“We will also invest - invest in cyber, invest in space, invest in unmanned systems, invest in special forces operations.
"Sooner or later the Japanese will commit an overt act against the United States and the nation will be willing to enter the war."
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
#2
Change of home ports or just differnt deployments?
a change of home port is spendy, and thanks to BRAC there isn't a lot of capacity on either coast to absorb more ships.
#6
"From the Atlantic to the Pacific" > Despite the UK's budget troubles + EuroDollar Crises, the USDOD must have faith in the UK + NATO-EU, to include the revamped Russian Mediterranean, Black Sea Fleets, etc. to "hold the line" in the Med + Atlantic.
AFAIK the USDOD = US GOVT. is still forecasting no major wars in the World thru at least Year 2050 iff not Year 2100, only minor conflicts + UN-led "Police/Peacekeeping/Humanitarian Actions" [OWG-NWO = "Globalism" centric]. THIS LEAVES THE USDOD TO FOCUS ON SPACE TECHS, INCLUD BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE EFFECTS OF SOLAR-LED GWCC + "LAND/SEA CHANGES" ON USN SHIPS + PROPOSED "GLOBAL TASK FORCE" ["1000-Flag OWG Navy" = pre-Fed Starfleet Command].
#7
FYI CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > [Book] A DRONE-EAT-DRONE WORLD, of the near? future. Air-sea Drone "Hunter-Killers" prowl in search of wily dastardly Enemy Drone Units or Forces.
DRONE WAR OR NO DRONE WAR, STILL NEED PROTECTION FROM GWCC = THE SUN.
#8
The USDOD-Navy should watch + learn from Queen Liz's upcoming Diamond Jubilee, i.e. the traditional Spithead all-Royal Navy Review, OR IN 2012 THE POSSIBLE LACK OF ONE.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [Telegraph.UK] DIAMOND JUBILEE: THE QUEEN NO LONGER RULES THE WAVES.
UK Perts are nervousy twitchy oer how big the Spithead Naval Review may, or may not be, for Queen Liz this year.
BRITISH GRAND/HOME FLEET = POST-COLD WAR, POST 9-11 ARE-YOU-BRITS-SURE-ITS-A-GRAND-SQUADRON, + STILL GETTING SMALLER.
An American drone fired two missiles at a motorbike in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, killing two suspected militants, officials said. The US is pushing on its drone campaign despite repeated Pakistani protest with this being the fifth such strike in the country in less than two weeks. Two Pakistani intelligence officials said the missiles hit in Dogh village near Wana, the main town in the South Waziristan tribal region.
Faced with deteriorating economic conditions and an unexpectedly aggressive Republican opponent, President Obama and his aides are expressing nostalgia for Sen. John McCain, the Republican opponent Obama defeated handily in the 2008 election.
At a rally in Minnesota Friday, Obama said Republicans today are in the grip of a "fever" that has caused them to oppose his initiatives virtually across the board. That "fever," Obama said, will make this presidential race against GOP nominee Mitt Romney particularly contentious -- in contrast to the last time, when Obama faced an opponent, McCain, who declined to engage in the kind of hard-hitting fight that many of his Republican supporters hoped he would.
"I mean, 2008 was a significant election, obviously," Obama told the audience at a Minneapolis restaurant called Bachelor Farmer. "But John McCain believed in climate change. John believed in campaign finance reform. He believed in immigration reform. I mean, there were some areas where you saw some overlap."
Now things are different, Obama said, and "we're going to have as stark a contrast as we've seen in a very long time between the candidates." It will only be when Mitt Romney is defeated, the president continued, "that the fever may break, because there's a tradition in the Republican Party of more common sense than that."
#1
ION DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > US WILL SOON SELL LETHAL WEAPONS [select = certain types] TO VIETNAM?, as supported by McCain.
US-Viet negotiations underway.
Prolly safe to say that China will critically blast Vietnam like it did the PHIL oer the latter's Weaps Purchases, Deals vee the US in the on-going Scarborough Shoal SCS spat.
Traders and a government official admitted that despite efforts to check whether local farmers really grow the grain they sell, the problem of disguising imported wheat to profit from the payments will remain or worsen this year as the rewards grow.
"In reality it happens every year, this year it's happening even more because the spread is bigger (between cheap origins andEgypt's local wheat price)," a trader said. "It was Ukrainian, some Russian, some Argentine, but mainly Ukrainian this year."
Evidence of the problem comes from the fact that purchases of local grain remain brisk even though a shortage of diesel for farm machinery since the start of the year should, in theory, be holding back local output.
Sucks to live in a dictatorship. Especially a dictatorship that's incompetent, broke and besotted with religion.
Iran has warned the United States not to resort to military action against it, saying US bases in the region were vulnerable to the Islamic Republic's missiles, state media reported on Saturday.
Their missile bases likewise are vulnerable to us. If you can hit us, we can hit you...
The comments by a senior Iranian military commander were an apparent response to US officials who have said Washington was ready to use military force to stop what it suspects is Iran's goal to develop a nuclear weapons capability.
"The politicians and the military men of the United States are well aware of the fact that all of their bases (in the region) are within the range of Iran's missiles and in any case ... are highly vulnerable," Press TV reported Brigadier-General Yahya Rahim Safavi as saying.
Safavi is a military adviser to Iran's clerical Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and was until 2007 the commander in chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the force that protects Iran's Islamic system of governance.
He also warned that Iranian missiles could reach all parts of Israel but played down any possibility of military action against his country as "faint" because of the current economic condition of the United States.
#2
Again, IMO Iran desires to isolate any US or US-led Coalition NAVFORS = Nuclear CVNS, USMC Amphibs, Allied to the Sea of Oman + beyond AMAP ALAP AFAP where Iran can make maxi use of its LR Air, Missle, Nuke-WMDS? Firepower.
Iff it survives any Iran first or preemptive strike(s), the US Fifth Fleet at Bahrain will prob come under LT Siege ala 1942 BATAAN-CORREGIDOR.
Iran is finishing construction of a new space center that will allow it to soon launch more domestically made satellites into orbit, the country's defense minister said on Saturday.
The remarks by Gen. Ahmad Vahidi's were the first confirmation that Iran is building a new space facility amid the standoff with the West over Iran's controversial nuclear program. The West is concerned the program masks efforts to make atomic weapons, a charge Tehran denies, insisting it's only for peaceful purposes.
Iran's ambitious space plans have also raised concerns in the West because of their possible military applications — the same rocket technology used to send satellites into orbit can also be retooled to make intercontinental warheads.
Vahidi, in comments carried by the official IRNA news agency, said the first satellite to be launched from the new center will be the Tolo. It will be carried into orbit by the Iranian-made Simorgh light booster rocket, he said.
Vahidi didn't say where the new facility, which has been named after the Islamic Republic's founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, is located.
Iran already has a major satellite launch complex near Semnan, 125 miles (200 kilometers) east of Tehran, and another space center — a satellite monitoring facility — outside Mahdasht, about 40 miles (70 kilometers) west of the Iranian capital.
"Some 80 percent of the actual construction of the new space center has been completed," Vahidi said, adding that the new facility will send "satellites from Iran, the regional countries and the world of Islam into orbit in the near future."
ABERDEEN, Wash., May 31 (UPI) -- Police in Washington state said a man released from custody was arrested again when he allegedly stole the jail's connected bracelets and tried to pawn them. "I used to be an escape artist on stage. Really."
Investigators said the 43-year-old Aberdeen man, whose name was not released, was arrested on an outstanding theft and trespassing complaint Tuesday and taken to the local Gray-Bar Hotel, where he was processed and later released, The Daily World, Aberdeen, reported Thursday.
#2
This does not surprise me. Being a chemist, I work with and know many scientists. I also know many people who are not scientists. The scientists are much better at discerning the difference between ideas that have merit based on their understanding of the natural world (as well as discussing such idea in a logical and sensible manner), and ideas that are political tripe.
#4
As a former Meteorologist I must be the exception. However, I have to admit the Glaciers in Yosemite melted and left that ugly Valley. Also we got stuck with five big lakes in the upper Midwest as the glaciers receded into Canada.
Follow the money, there is none to be made disproving Man Made Global Warming. However, if you can find a malformed needle at the end of a branch of a Sequoia Gigantea and theoretically tie it to global warming you are rewarded.
The Earth warms and cools on it's own, it's a micro event that happens every 24 hours. A lot has to do with that great big flaming thing in the sky which oddly enough goes through cycles over decades and/or centuries.
#5
To me, the debate over global warming goes like this:
1. Is global warming actually happening?
2. If the answer to number 1 is yes, is it caused by CO2 in the atmosphere?
3. If the answers to 1 and 2 are yes, is the excess CO2 caused by humans?
4. If the answers to 1, 2 and 3 are yes, is there anything we can do to cut CO2 enough to make a difference?
The answer to number 1 is apparently yes. However, we are coming out of a mini ice age, so it is to be expected.
For number 2, there is much more debate. CO2 is a trace gas in the atmosphere, roughly 0.034% by volume. Water vapor is also a significant "greenhouse gas", and constitutes 0.4%.
For number 3, there is even more debate. Humans produce a lot of carbon dioxide, but so do volcanoes and other natural phenomena. Also, the oceans and trees are carbon sinks, so CO2 that goes into the atmosphere doesn't stay there forever.
And question 4 is the $64,000,000,000 question. We could significantly reduce anthropogenic CO2 IF we all lived like people in North Korea - in the dark and on the verge of starvation, AND we somehow reduced the population of the world by 50 or 90 per cent.
All of this is based on the assumption that global warming is a bad thing. As GBUSMC pointed out, every bad thing is blamed on global warming. See John Brignell's warmlist.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
06/02/2012 16:30
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#6
The difference is possibly due to the fact that enineers and "pure" scientists are taught the scientific method, Which requires that experimental data be replicable. And so when The Manns of the world refuse to share their data, they are usually dismissed as quacks, as they should be.
#8
Rambler in Virginia, I believe we could cut down CO2 production by going nuclear all around, it might take time but we'd then have lots of cheap power, but the environmentalists refuse to do so, a stance which puts their beliefs into serious doubts.
#9
There is already a bunch of CO2 in the atmosphere absorbing the stuff it absorbs. Adding a little more is not going to change much, since once everything CO2 can absorb is absorbed more of it makes no difference.
However, chlorofluorocarbons, absorb stuff in all kinds of funky places. Fortunately, the world's leaders did understand that problem and ban the things a few decades ago, and now they are decaying out of the atmosphere.
Surprisingly, there has been little noticeable warming over the past decade even as the amount of CO2 has increased.
A bear ate the corpse of a convicted killer in a wooded area of Canada, according to authorities.
The mauled body of Rory Nelson Wagner, 53, was found in a rural area in southern British Columbia on Wednesday evening, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.
Police believe Wagner was already dead in a 1986 Volkswagen Jetta when the black bear broke into the vehicle, ate some parts of him and dragged the rest of the body away.
"The driver's window of the vehicle was down and investigators noted numerous muddy animal prints and scratches on the car," police said. Doesn't mean much. Perhaps he had kids.
Officials "discovered the body in the surrounding bush, about 120 meters from the vehicle," police said. It was a grizzly scene.
Drug paraphernalia and a bottle of liquor was found in the car. Never do bath salts with a bear, I guess.
A coroner is conducting an autopsy and toxicology tests. Conducting an autopsy on what? A pile of bear poop?
Wagner and two other people were charged with the 1993 killing of a man they thought had sexually assaulted a relative, CNN affiliate CTV reported. The man they killed was found not guilty of sexual assault charges, according to the affiliate. Looks like the charges didn't bear out.
Wagner was convicted for the murder, but he had been on parole.
Conservation officials say the bear was caught, but may be killed to ensure public safety. But the bear killed a killer. Again, our authorities make no sense.
#5
"Hey Boo-Boo, this sure beats filchin' pik-a-nic baskets."
"But Yogi, Mr. Ranger sir isn't gonna like it."
"Shut up, little Boo-Boo buddy, this IS Mr. Ranger sir."
#6
A ranger told me there's a simpler way to distinguish the two main types of bears. If one chases you, climb the nearest tree. A bear that climbs up the tree after you is the common black/brown bear. A bear that simply knocks the tree down is a grizzly bear.
In his talks with President Obama in March, David Cameron reportedly gained assurances from the White House that Washington would stop pressing for negotiations between London and Buenos Aires over the sovereignty of the Falklands. If such an assurance was given, it was surely worthless.
All Obama promises come with an expiration date.
As Mercosur Press (South Atlantic News Agency) has just reported, the State Department is once again calling for UK-Argentina negotiations, ahead of next week's Organisation of American States summit in Bolivia:
"Our policy is unchanged. We believe that this is a bilateral issue that needs to be worked out directly between Argentina and the United Kingdom. That's what we are encouraging both sides to do" said Acting Under Secretary for Press Affairs at the State Department Mike Hammer during an exchange with reporters on Twitter.
Likewise "we are encouraging Argentina and the UK to work this out peacefully, to work it out through negotiations".
This is basically a reiteration of Hillary Clinton's statement in Buenos Aires alongside Argentina's president Cristina Kirchner in March 2010:
A young woman in Venezuela has been rewarded with a new home by President Hugo Chavez for becoming his three millionth follower on Twitter.
Paid for by the first 2,999,999 followers...
Natalia Valdivieso, 19, posted celebratory messages on her Twitter account as she received her home on Thursday, one of them reading: "Thank you my home is very beautiful!"
She said there were about 200 families receiving public housing in her area on Margarita Island.
Mr Chavez congratulated Valdivieso in a message on Monday when he said she had become his three millionth follower. His regional campaign manager, Carlos Mata Figueroa, announced later that she would receive the home.
Mr Chavez's government has been building new public housing complexes ahead of the country's Oct. 7 presidential election.
Miss Valdivieso called Mr Chavez "the best president" and gushed: "I woke up knowing that is the happiest day of my life!"
#3
Margarita Island? Those are safe houses or warehouses--caught smuggling Stingers there awhile back. Oogo doesn't have much time to leave his legacy.
Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak has been found guilty of complicity in the death of protesters.
The deposed Egyptian president was wheeled into court on Saturday to hear the verdict in the case against him on charges of corruption and ordering the killing of protesters last year.
His two sons, Gamal and Alaa, who are standing trial on corruption charges, also arrived in the court, where they stood alongside their father in the cage reserved for defendants. The charges were dropped against both his sons.
Mubarak's former interior minister, Habib el-Adli, also charged over the deaths of protesters, was also among the defendants in the cage. He too was given a life sentence over his role in supressing the January uprising.
Scuffles broke out inside the courtroom as presiding judge Ahmed Refaat handed down the sentences.
#4
No ally of the people of the United States may deliberately kill hundreds of people mostly peacefully petitioning government for redress of their grievances.
No prior service can excuse or forgive such an act, and anyone who does so, must know that the people of the United States will push them away from the public arena.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday called for armed Syrian rebels to release 11 Lebanese pilgrims that were kidnapped last month.
The men were taken while traveling back from a religious pilgrimage to Iran and on Thursday a group called the Revolutionary Council in Aleppo claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
Addressing the kidnappers – who released a video broadcast via Al Jazeera claiming that the abduction was not motivated by sectarianism – Nasrallah said the innocent should not be caught up in any political disagreements.
"You said yesterday that you have no problem with a religious sect so you must prove this – these people are pilgrims and they must return to their families," he said.
"If you have a problem with me there are many ways to solve this. If you want to solve it with war lets solve it with war, if you want to solve it with peace lets solve it with peace."
"Solve your problem with us but to take the innocent people hostages for this problem is a big injustice that you must put a stop to."
The kidnappers had demanded Nasrallah apologize for a previous speech in which he thanked Syrian President Bashar Assad for his efforts in trying to secure their release.
#1
To me, this seems to be a potential powderkeg. If the rebels decapitate his kinfolk that means war. And a stated religious sect war at that.
With what the UN commissioner said, Assad has nothing to lose. Neither does Nasrallah. Pencil Neck and Hassan can make a pact to first clear the rebels and then turn around and clear out Lebanon. The Turks won't go against their best interests.
A US drone strike targeting a vehicle in Pakistan's northwestern tribal belt killed at least three militants on Saturday, security officials said, the latest in a recent spate of attacks.
The strike -- the sixth in 11 days -- took place in Khawashi Khel village, five kilometres (three miles) west of Wana, the main town in the South Waziristan tribal district which borders Afghanistan, a Pakistani security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"The US drone fired two missiles which completely destroyed the vehicle. At least three militants have been killed," the security official said.
Another official said the attack took place as militants were trying to move from one area to another near the border.
Four aid workers kidnapped in northern Afghanistan last month have been freed by coalition forces, officials say.
British nutritionist Helen Johnston, Kenyan medic Moragwa Oirere and two Afghans were rescued in an operation in Badakhshan province on Friday, the Nato-led Isaf said in a statement.
They were among five employees of Switzerland-based aid group Medair captured by insurgents on 22 May.
Five hostage takers were killed during the operation, Nato says.
The group were making their way on horseback to the remote, mountainous province of Badakhshan, in north-eastern Afghanistan, when they were captured.
One Afghan national was released soon afterwards.
According to Isaf, the others were found in a cave by the rescue team who arrived by helicopter under the cover of darkness.
Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai, spokesman for security forces in northern Afghanistan, said the hostages were in a "good condition".
#1
But the BBC's Quentin Sommerville, in Kabul, says heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47s found during the raid suggest the kidnappers did have links to insurgent groups such as the Taliban.
An internationally acclaimed Turkish classical pianist will stand trial on charges of insulting Muslim values in comments posted on Twitter, an Istanbul court ruled on Friday.
Fazil Say quoted a well-known poem by Persian poet Omar Khayyam that ridiculed the hypocrisy of people who pretend to be pious.
The court "accepted an indictment against Say for allegations of explicitly insulting religious values." If convicted, the pianist faces up to 18 months in prison.
Khayyam's poem is in the form of a questions to the faithful: "You say rivers of wine flow in heaven, is heaven a tavern to you? You say two houris await each believer there, is heaven a brothel to you?"
In a separate tweet, Say poked fun at a muezzin. He asked, "The muezzin finished the evening prayers in 22 seconds ... Why are you in such hurry? A lover? A raki table?" he asked, referring to the aniseed-flavored liquor popular in Turkey.
Say is expected to stand trial in the coming months in a case that demonstrates how the tide has turned in Turkey since Erdogan was imprisoned for reciting a poem that a court ruled was an incitement to religious hatred.
Erdogan, the then mayor of Istanbul, had belonged to an Islamist party that had been banned. He served six months in jail. The poem he had read contained the verses: "The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers."
#1
I call my one dog Blackie because he's the blackest
I call my one dog Meanie because he's the meanest
I call my one dog Smarty because he's the smartest
And I call my one dog Liberace because he's the pianist
-- Benny Hill
#3
You say two houris await each believer there, is heaven a brothel to you?"
And there was I thinking you got 72 houris, of either sex, seventy two by seven cubits, height and width (do they supply ladders?), or is that bonus reserved for suicide bombing shadids?
#5
My son who was in Iraq said our media portrays this area of the world as so religious when it is not. This video is an example of what he was saying.
The truth or cheap politicking.
US President Barack Obama was behind the Stuxnet cyber attack on Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities last year. Obama accelerated the attacks - codenamed "Olympic Games" - that began during the Bush administration, even after the Stuxnet virus escaped the plant and caused cyber destruction around the world, the New York Times reported.
The Iranian plant was hit with a series of attacks and during the weeks that followed up to 1000 of the 5000 centrifuges Iran had been using to purify uranium were taken out. After it took out Iran's facilities, the virus leaked and wreaked havoc on hundreds of thousands of computers around the world, including Australia.
Obama asked whether the US should "shut this thing down" during a meeting with the CIA director, Leon E Panetta, and Vice President Joe Bidenm but despite the minimal damage to Iran's plants and the huge collateral damage elsewhere, it was decided the attacks should continue.
The attempt was reportedly the first time the US has used cyberweapons instead of military weapons to take out infrastructure that allows countries to wage war. Obama was only revealed to be the source of the virus after unnamed former US, Israeli and European officials involved in the program came forward. The cyber attacks remain highly classified.
Forensic investigators from businesses, including anti-virus companies Symantec, were involved in dissecting the virus which was 50 times the size of a typical "worm" computer virus. They were unable to determine the source.
#1
I heard B-HO actually wrote the code himself. In addition to knowing everything about Judaism, he is also an expert on SCADA systems. Is there anything he can't do?
#3
US President Barack Obama was behind the Stuxnet cyber attack on Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities last year.
And he started racing Nascar at the age of three without any lessons. And would have won except Richard Petty sneaked around him at the last second because he couldn't see out his rear-view mirrors very well.
And at the age of four he went golfing for his first time ever and hit ten holes-in-one. On a 9-hole course.
And he taught Cheech and Chong how to make those huge reefers.
And he taught them how to smoke the whole thing in one big drag.
#10
Developing the software and logistics like Stuxnet involved many players and took years to develope. For Big Zero to claim credit only shows the world how big a self-centered ass of a politician he really is.
#13
I heard that it was Obama - not Al Gore - who invented the internet. He's also too smart to be President: it's not challenging enough.
A little fact checking on the article: after the Stuxnet virus escaped the plant and caused cyber destruction around the world, the New York Times reported.
Stuxnet would go into action only if the plant had a certain brand of centrifuges and were arranged a certain way. (Don't ask how they knew the precise set up the Iranians used)
There was no chance of "cyber destruction around the world."
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
06/02/2012 12:32
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#14
Can't help but wonder if he isn't trying to start a war.
#1
complained that his government had been left in the dark about operations
Looking once again to what was not said. Ambassador Sarukhant was a bit shakey on the operational details, but he appears to have been aware of the existance of the program. Logically, this might indicate that unless a talking Chupacabra stepped forward, the Mexican diplomatic section was briefed by our very own diplomatic community.
Good luck with your investigation Mexico. You should be able to harvest some very nice Yankee hush money payola from this one.
Marilyn Monroe aka Lorelei Lee in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)" aka Pola Debevoise in "How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)" aka Sugar Kane Kowalczyk in "Some Like It Hot (1959)" aka Amanda Dell in "Let's Make Love (1960)" aka The Girl in "The Seven Year Itch (1955)" aka Kay Weston in "River of No Return (1954)" (Died in 1962 at age 36)
#1
China has increased steel making capacity by 5 times since 2000. As China demand slows, an awful lot of steel is going to be dumped on world markets.
#3
The benefits alone would drown a fish. It's staggering. Should you find that information I can't understand how they lasted this long. Workers knew how to work the system. Many were bitter and egar to stick it to the company. Even when they needed the help or not. I would get that comment(needed the help or not) at the VA also, those workers just didn't belong there. Shoot, I remember Vets didn't want to go to the VA hospital for fear of not getting out the stay could be so long. I guess people will work any program for whats its worth. Teachers Union also. They learn how to work the system, always!.
#4
In a related story this week, the UP of Michigan is enjoying a resurgence in copper and iron mining; both from existing mines and exploration for new deposits. couple that with this story almost makes me think that the raw ore will be sent overseas for processing straight away.
[Dawn] A sessions court sentenced on Thursday a man to 10 years in prison in an acid attack case.
The court found Sabir Masih alias Sajjan guilty of making an attempt on the life of his cousin Zarina, wife of Iftikhar Masih, by throwing acid on her in December 2010 within the remit of the Gulberg cop shoppe.
The attack left 35 per cent of her body surface burnt. However, women are made to be loved, not understood... a co-accused, Babar Masih, alias Sunny, a son of the main accused, was acquitted for want of evidence.
The court also directed the convict to pay Rs500,000 to the victim and in case of default he would undergo an additional one-year imprisonment.
The additional district and sessions judge (central), Rashida Siddiqui, who conducted the trial, pronounced the judgment after recording evidence of witnesses and final arguments from both sides.
The 37-year-old victim was also present in the courtroom when the judge read out the judgment.
The court ruled that the woman in her statement fully deposed against Sabir and he was also nominated in the FIR on the recommendation of the victim.
The testimonies of other witnesses, medical and documentary evidence corroborated the statement of the woman and the charge for which the accused had been tried stood proved, it added.
However, women are made to be loved, not understood... the court further observed that the case of the co-accused was on different footing as the victim had not nominated him in her statement recorded under Section 154 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), besides the
prosecution also failed to furnish any solid evidence to connect him with the alleged offence.
According to the prosecution, the victim, mother of four, was a resident of New 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... and did cleaning work at a private hospital and on Dec 11, 2010 Sabir threw acid on his cousin.
The face, head, neck and trunk of the victim were severely brunt and she also lost both eyes while her arms and legs also sustained burn injuries.
Sabir lived with the victim and her family, but she pushed him out a few months ago before the incident and since then he
had been harbouring a grudge against her, the prosecution said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2012
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[Dawn] A couple and their one-and-a-half-year-old daughter were found bludgeoned to death in their rented house in Madina Colony within the remit of the Shah Latif cop shoppe on Thursday, police said.
The landlord told the police that he had come to the house and knocked at the door, but the family did not respond despite his repeated knocks.
He then informed the police who entered the house and found the bodies of Sohail Fazal, his wife, Shehnaz, and their daughter Sawera.
The police suspected that the victims might have been given some food laced with drugs to make them unconscious before they were bludgeoned to death with a block of concrete.
The police also found a marriage certificate in the house which showed that the couple had contracted a freewill marriage and they hailed from Bahawalpur.
The bodies were taken to the Edhi morgue after autopsies at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre as no one came to collect them.
Station House Officer of the Shah Latif cop shoppe Sajjad Hyder said that the slain family had rented the house about a month ago.
The police said they believed that the couple had got married without the consent of their families and that could be the reason of the triple murder.
An FIR of the incident was not registered till late in the night.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2012
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#1
The attacker's DNA will be on that block. It won't be discovered.
(Sh.M.Network) Pirates accused of kidnapping a British couple off Somalia could be hauled to the UKto stand trial.
Paul and Rachel Chandler were seized from their yacht and held inAfricafor a year before being freed after a ransom of up to £620,000 was reportedly paid.
Now Government lawyers here are working with Interpol to arrest and extradite the Somali gang, who are in jug in neighbouringKenya.
It would be highly unusual for suspects to be extradited back to the UK for a crime committed overseas.
But both the Home and Foreign Office are keen to take a firm stance on pirates running amok off east Africa.
A source close to Paul, 61, and Rachel, 57, of Tunbridge Wells,Kent, said: "The family have been told that officials are keen the kidnappers do not go unpunished.
"Paul and Rachel have doubts about whether the gang would ever be brought to justice if a trial went ahead inAfrica."
The men accused of being the armed bandidos who boarded the Chandlers' boat near the Seychellesin 2009 are being tried inKenya for an attack on a French ship.
Paul has told MPs: "I'd like to see them prosecuted by theUKauthorities."
A Parliamentary report has said Britannia's failure to prosecute any Somali pirates due to lack of evidence "beggars belief".
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2012
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For a map, click here. For a map of Zacatecas state click here?
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
A Mexican Army road patrol unit seized a total of 2.2 metric tons of marijuana and a quantity of weapons and munitions in Zacatecas state Friday, according to Mexican news reports.
According to a story posted on the website of El Sol de Zacatecas news daily, the road patrol was near the village of Lobatos in Valpraiso municipality when soldiers observed two vehicles travelling in convoy. The driver and passengers immediately abandoned the vehicles without firing a shot as the unit closed. No detentions were reported.
Seized contraband included 2.258 metric tons of marijuana in 150 packages. Weapons and munitions seized included two AK-47 rifles, one 12 gauge shotgun, one .45 caliber submachine gun, two explosives detonators, weapons magazines and more than 200 rounds of ammunition.
An unrelated seizure of marijuana took place the day before in Zacatecas municipality when Policia Federal agents executed a search warrant at a residence near the intersection of calle Igualdad and Valores de la Democracia in Zacatecana colony.
A total of 760 grams of marijuana wrapped in 81 packages, presumably for retail sale, was seized. No one was reported detained in the raid.
Meanwhile, in Jerez de Garcia Salina municipality two armed suspects were killed in an intergang firefight Thursday afternoon, according to a news story posted on the website of El Sol de Zacatecas news daily
The gunfight took place in the parking lot of Plaza de Toros, and apparently continued into an adjacent village.
Jerez de Garcia Salina has been the scene of a number of recent gunfights between Mexican security forces and criminal gangs operating in the area. Since the start of the year, 25 individuals, all reportedly armed suspects, have been killed in three separate firefights with Mexican security forces. A total of five shooting incidents have been recorded in the municipality.
According to the article, unidentified officials refused to speculate as to the cartel affiliations of the gunfight's participants. However, a May 4th gunfight was reportedly between a Los Zetas criminal gang and Gulf Cartel members.
Jerez de Garcia Salina sits astride Mexico Federal Highway 23, roughly 40 kilometers south of Fresnillo and 25 kilometers southwest of Zacatecas, the capital of Zacatecas state.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
#1
They should require microdots on all weapons manufactured or at least for US import and use. Some of the previous weapons used could have been issued to the military or law enforcement but others found among cartel members come from Eastern Europe, Bulgaria, Russia, or are Chinese-made AK-47's. One report even mentioned weapons that have been issued in ME militaries--it could link narcos to the terrorists.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Germany and Russia agreed on the need for a political solution to end the bloodshed in Syria, their leaders said after talks here Friday, as Vladimir Putin ...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile... warned the country could be on the brink of civil war.
The Russian president said the situation in strife-wracked Syria was "extremely dangerous" but underlined his opposition to military intervention, after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom... on the second leg of his first foreign tour since returning to the Kremlin.
Amid mounting pressure for Moscow to drop its resistance to tougher UN action on Syria, Putin, who was later due in Gay Paree, warned at a joint presser with Merkel: "You cannot do anything by force."
"Today we are seeing emerging elements of civil war," he said after arriving in Berlin from Belarus. "It is extremely dangerous."
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The White House said Friday it was critical to maintain President Barack Obama's On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes -- and I see many of them in the audience here today... policies despite a rise in the jobless rate and blamed factors, including Europe's woes, for dire economic data.
"Problems in the job market were long in the making and will not be solved overnight," said Alan Krueger, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors in a statement.
A White House damage control effort swung into action after much worse than expected data from the Labor Department that showed the economy only added 69,000 jobs in May and the unemployment rate rose to 8.2 percent.
The dismal report signalled that the much hoped-for recovery in the job market has stalled and fuelled speculation that it may prompt the Federal Reserve to step in with a fresh round of economic stimulus.
"There is much more work that remains to be done to repair the damage caused by the financial crisis and deep recession that began at the end of 2007," said Krueger in a written statement.
"Just like last year at this time, our economy is facing serious headwinds, including the crisis in Europe and a spike in gas prices that hit American families' finances over the past months.
"It is critical that we continue the President's economic policies that are helping us dig our way out of the deep hole that was caused by the severe recession."
Krueger argued that Obama had proposed policies to create jobs and strengthen the economy, including those that would put teachers back to work and police on the streets and create employment through infrastructure projects.
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06/02/2012
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#1
IIRC it was 54,000, not 69,0000, earlier this week???
#4
Why shouldn't he stay on course? So far everything is running swimmingly according to plan. He will have destroyed the US economy by the time his first term is up and he will declare victory.
(Sh. M. Network)-Residents say calm situation has returned to Afmadow town of southern Somalia, a day after Somali and Kenyan troops have peacefully taken over the town from the Al Qaeda-aligned snuffies of Al shabab.
General Abdimahdi Abdisalan, one of Somali military commanders, told Shabelle Media that the seizure of Afmadow will enable TFG soldiers along with their allied Kenyan army to wipe Al shabab elements out of Jubba regions almost immediately.
Security analysts say this is the second major blow to the Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... in less than a week when forces from Somali government backed by those of the AU had wrested control of Afgoye, 30 KM away north-west of Mogadishu.
Strategically, Afmadow locates about 100 kilometers northwest of the port town of Kismayo, the quiet provincial capital of Lower Juba region, which is the biggest and the most critical stronghold of Al-Shabaab snuffies in southern Somalia.
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#1
Key learning objective: Seize and hold key terrain, "wipe out" enemy, and the bullshit stops peace results.
[Al Ahram] Officials in Tunisia's interior ministry said Friday they had banned a demonstration against Salafist extremism planned for this weekend, raising the prospect of fresh festivities on the streets.
Activists using the Internet had called for the protest for Saturday on the city's main thoroughfare, avenue Habib Bourguiba.
But in a statement published on its Facebook page, the interior ministry said it was illegal because nobody had asked for authorisation.
The ministry "reserved the right to react," the statement added.
On April 9, a demonstration on the same avenue went ahead despite having been banned but was violently broken up by the security forces, provoking widespread anger.
At least 15 civilians and eight coppers were hurt, Interior Minister Ali Larayedh was summoned before parliament to explain what had happened and President Moncef Marzouki denounced the "unacceptable violence".
One group of activists insisted that they had filed a request for this latest demonstration on time.
Activists called for Saturday's "day of anger" protest in response to violence last weekend in the northeast of the country, when radical Salafist groups attacked several cop shoppes.
The ultra-conservative Salafists ...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them... , some armed with clubs and swords, also burned down the shops of alcohol vendors who refused to close. They have been intensifying their attacks over the last 11 days.
On Thursday, responding to the attacks on the cop shoppes, Larayedh warned that the police were authorised to use live rounds.
"Those who think that sovereign institutions such as police barracks can be attacked with impunity should know that in such cases the law authorises the use of live rounds," the interior minister told news hounds.
"The state of emergency is still in force and we will take all necessary steps to restore security in the country," he added.
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(Sh.M.Network)-A suspected al-Shabaab ... the successor to the Islamic Courts... terrorist has sneaked into Uganda through Kenya, the Inspector General of Police, Lt Gen. Kale Kayihura told journalists during the launch of the annual crime report at Imperial Royale hotel in Kampala Thursday.
Kayihura said that man traveled to Uganda by a public bus from Nairobi with the aid of the driver and conductor [taut].
The IGP said the man dodged being photographed at the bus terminal inNairobiwhen he moved out of the bus at the time local authorities started taking pictures of all passengers on board before it embarked on the journey toKampala.
Kayihura explained the suspected terrorist who is being trailed by the police re-entered the bus about three kilometers from the bus terminal.
He carried a bag which the conductor later put in the luggage chamber.
At this moment a suspicious female passenger reportedly took the photograph of the man using her phone.
Kayihura said the woman whose identity he declined to name told the police that the suspected terrorist disembarked from the bus about three kilometers ahead of the border point between Uganda and Kenya where he entered the bush, leaving his luggage behind.
The IGP also explained that the woman informed police that the same man reappeared from the bush and got onto the bus again about three kilometers away from the border point.
The man alighted from the bus at a certain point inKampalacity center on Jinja road after the conductor advised him to do so.
The driver and the conductor of the bus have since recorded statements with police.
Last week, security agencies inUgandaand other East African countries warned of a new terror threat in the region planned towards the end of the month of May.
Security agencies said the beturbanned goons groups including al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, 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... , Qods, and al-Shabaab intend to mark the first anniversary of the death of their leader the late Osama bin Laden ... who knows that it's like to live in the belly of a whale only he's not living... with kabooms.
Terror alert on
Kayihura Thursday saidUgandaremains on a high terror alert, owing to the threats security agencies have been receiving from the terrorist groups.
He said the beturbanned goons target crowded places and those frequented by foreigners. Meanwhile, ...back at the sea battle, the Terror of the Baltic's career had come to an abrupt and watery end... he revealed that police would seek legal advice to close public places that have failed to put in place security measures to guard against terror attacks.
This fresh news about terrorism activities comes after a blast struck a shopping complex inNairobi's business district on Monday, wounding over 30 people at Moi Avenue.
In the recent past, several people have been killed in a string of attacks in Nairobi and the port city of Mombasa since Kenya sent troops into Somalia last year to fight al-Qaeda-linked bully boyz it accused of kidnappings that threatened tourism in the country.
The al-Shabaab bully boyz who merged with al-Qaeda earlier this year, have been claiming responsibility for the attacks.
The bully boyz killed 76 people in Uganda when they bombed football fans as they watched the 2010 World Cup finals at Kyadondo rugby grounds and Æthiopian village restaurant inKampala.
The al-Shabaab said they had carried out the attacks in retaliation for Uganda's involvement in peace keeping efforts in Somalia where they are fighting a transitional government.
Uganda,Kenya and Tanzaniahave experienced terror attacks since 1998 in which scores of people have died.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2012
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#1
sounds like the Conductor needs some truncheon face time
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/02/2012 10:42
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#1
Going forward, the pair will study how to authenticate chips and parts using scanning techniques that will distinguish between counterfeit and real components.
Bull. They're all counterfeit. Next time, buy domestic.
#2
No sense quietly informing Mr. Obama and the Yanks of their "back door." We'll just publish it for all the entire world to know. I think a news release by Sergei Skorobogatov would have a nice ring to it.
On an entirely different subject, how are things coming along for them with that nasty bombs on aeroplanes issue coming out of Yemen?
#4
This sort of thing had been predicted a long time ago, and its detection was just a matter of time.
How hard is it to replace a chip?
What other chips (non-military) could be carrying this kind of code? Immense potential to cause disruptions in many other aspects of life, e.g, chips controlling implanted pacemakers.
#5
From the source article: The
PA3 is heavily marketed to the military and industry and resides in some very
sensitive and critical products. From Google searches alone we have found that the
PA3 is used in military products such as weapons, guidance, flight control,
networking and communications. In industry it is used in nuclear power plants,
power distribution, aerospace, aviation, public transport and automotive products.
This permits a new and disturbing possibility of a large scale Stuxnet-type attack
via a network or the Internet on the silicon itself.
#6
in a related report, a similar back door was discovered in the chips used in the 787's computers. think of the possibilities; a terrorist could hijack the Screamliner from the comfort of his own cave and crash it into a building; once he gained control of the computer, the only solution to prevent it from hitting the WHite House, Pentagon, or other high value target would be a shoot down. the resulting PR nightmare would be a win for the bad guys. these revelations are frihtening.
Aid workers vulnerable as threats, abductions and killings increase in Hazara
On May 4, Maulana Abdul Haleem, a former parliamentarian elected from Kohistan ...a backwoods district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa distinguished by being even more rustic than is the norm among the local Pashtuns.... district, warned women working in non-governmental organizations (NGOs) against entering his district, and said violators would be forcibly married to locals.
"If women working in NGOs enter Kohistan, we won't spare them and solemnise their nikah (marriage) with local men," he said.
Haleem, who was elected on a Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) ticket in 2002, also opposes what he calls secular education for women and says Islam does not allow women to work outside of home.
"We have taken the warning very seriously," said an NGO official, who asked not to be named. "A number of international and national NGOs carrying out their aid projects in earthquake-hit areas of Hazara division have been targeted several times before."
Attacks on NGO offices in Hazara:
Kohistan and other districts of Hazara division were amongst the worst hit in the devastating earthquake in 2005. National and international humanitarian groups responded to the crisis and began rehabilitation and development projects in the area. Most of these projects still continue.
A senior police official said hundreds of men and women work in over a dozen humanitarian organizations in various parts of Hazara, especially in Mansehra ...a city and an eponymous district in eastern Khyber-Pakthunwa, nestled snug up against Pak Kashmir, with Kohistan and Diamir to the north and Abbottabad to the south... and Kohistan. Local Talibs have carried out a number of attacks on the offices of such NGOs and killed their staff, he said.
On March 9, 2010, six people including two women were killed when the bully boyz attacked the office of World Vision, an international aid organization in Oghi tehsil in Mansehra. The dead were Pak employees of the organization.
On April 6, 2009, four people including three female staffers of a USAID-funded project Rise International were brutally killed by bully boyz in Shinkiari area of the district.
Unidentified bully boyz attacked an office of Plan International, a British NGO, in Mansehra on February 25, 2008, killing four members of its staff.
In March this year, Jandul Hifza, or Hifza Brigade, has threatened to attack NGOs, co-educational schools, cyber cafes, CD shops, and cable TV operators in Mansehra.
"A number of NGOs working in the region have received threatening letters from myrmidon outfits," said a security adviser working for an international NGO. "In such an environment, irresponsible statements like the one issued by Haleem create security problems for NGOs and their staff."
"There are several reasons behind these threats," says Bushra Gohar, a parliamentarian from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... . "The NGOs that challenged the status quo were threatened and intimidated. Clerics and groups misinterpret religion to threaten peaceful citizens, mainly women and kiddies," she said. "This is not a new phenomenon in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and FATA. Law enforcement agencies have failed to deal with real and perceived threats and their failure has encouraged such elements."
Rights activists who worked on sensitizing and educating men and women of Kohistan about politics and voting rights were also threatened. In the by-polls held on November 24, women in Kohistan district were now allowed to cast votes.
"I have asked provincial authorities and my party, the ANP, to take these threats seriously and take appropriate action," Bushra Gohar said.
Pakistain Humanitarian Forum (PHF), an alliance of about 50 aid organizations working in Pakistain, says there has been an increase in targeted attacks against national and international humanitarian organizations and their staff across Pakistain in the last four years. PHF says 19 aid workers have been murdered in the country since 2009 and at least 23 have been kidnapped. Five aid workers have been kidnapped and another three killed in separate instances in the first two months of 2012 alone.
Militancy in Hazara:
Hazara division had been comparatively peaceful until the military operation in Malakand, after which bully boyz fled to the neighboring tribal area of Kala Dhaka (now district Torghar) where local bully boyz led by Momin Khan and Maulana Dost Muhammad were already making inroads.
Soon they began subversive activities in the neighbouring districts of Hazara division, especially in Mansehra, Battagram and Kohistan, attacking the offices of international aid organizations and cop shoppes.
Kala Dhaka was converted from a semi tribal area to a settled area in January 27, 2011 and renamed Torghar, in an attempt to safeguard other parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, especially the strategically located Hazara division.
Although the local administration and police deny the presence of Taliban in Hazara, journalists and tribal elders say bully boyz are operating in Kala Dhaka and Mansehra districts. Several Kashmiri jihadi group ran eight training camps in Batrassi forests and hills of Paka valley of Mansehra long before the events of 9/11. These camps were eventually closed down.
On February 20, 2010, bully boyz attacked Mansehra and Balakot cop shoppes killing a station house officer (SHO) and injuring nine other coppers. Eight people were killed in an attack on a public rally led by Amir Muqam, a central leader of Pakistain Moslem League, on July 11, 2011 in Battagram.
16 Shia passengers were rubbed out in a sectarian attack on a bus in Harban Nala in Kohistan on February 28. Outlawed myrmidon outfit Jundallah claimed the responsibility for the attack.
Locals say the attacks were carried out either by Lashkar-e-Ababeel, a myrmidon outfit headed by Mujahid Mohiyuddin, or the Momin Khan-led myrmidon group operating in Torghar. A local journalist, asking for anonymity, told TFT that Mohiyuddin was also named in the February 25, 2008 attack on the office of Plan International. The bully boyz do not have a strong organizational setup in the area like they had in Swat, and carry out hit-and-run raids, the journalist said.
There is speculation that international NGOs may roll back their operations in the region because of the threats, and that has concerned the local community.
"The suspension of activities of NGOs that are doing good work would deprive local communities of the much needed social services and development initiatives," Bushra Gohar said.
Continued on Page 49
[Dawn] A Rangers officer was rubbed out by two assailants riding a cycle of violence near his home in Korangi on Thursday.
The attack took place within the remit of the Zaman Town cop shoppe in the early hours of the day when Sub-inspector Abdul Hameed, 45, son of Maula Bux Chachar, came out of his home in Sector 50-E of Korangi.
The police said that the assailants had an altercation with the Rangers man before they shot him. The victim received a single shot to his head and was struck down in his prime, they said.
The body was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for legal formalities and, later, handed over to his heirs.
SHO Dilawar Jokhio of the Zaman Town cop shoppe said that Abdul Hameed was currently posted in the Sindh Rangers' nursing wing in Sanghar district and had been in 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... for 12 days to spend his one-month leave.
Father of six, the dear departed had two wives who lived together with him.
The police quoting the victim's family said that on Thursday morning, Hameed left home after receiving a phone call. The police, however, could not find his cellphone till late in the night, and assumed that it might have been taken away by the assailants.
Paperwork was started but nothing else was done against unidentified persons on the complaint of the victim's brother, Imdad Chachar.
Meanwhile, ...back at the cheese factory, all the pieces finally fell together in Fluffy's mind... a handout issued by the Pakistain Rangers, Sindh, regarding Hameed's murder said that he was in civil clothes when attacked.
In Noorani Basti, falling within the remit of the same cop shoppe, a factory worker was killed by unknown assailants.
The SHO said that Asad Husain, 32, was shot by two attackers riding a cycle of violence while he was sitting outside his home in Korangi.
The victim suffered six bullet wounds and was struck down in his prime, he added.
The police officer claimed that a narcotics-related case was registered against him but the motive for his murder was not immediately clear.
Body, maimed man found dumped
Unidentified gunnies shot two persons and dumped them at a place near the Spencer's Eye Hospital near Lea Market on Thursday. One of the victims succumbed to his wounds when police reached the scene early in the morning.
Napier cop shoppe personnel said that they found the other victim at death's door and rushed him to the Civil Hospital Bloody Karachi with the body.
The area SHO, Imdad Khawaja, said that the maimed man was identified as Arshad Mehmood, 25, a resident of Nawalane, Lyari. He received a single shot to his head, and doctors at the CHK described his condition as very critical, he added.
He said that both men might have been kidnapped somewhere and shot before being dumped near the Spencer's Hospital.
Clad in white shalwar-kameez, the dear departed, who had sustained three bullet wounds to the head and chest, remained unidentified and his body had since been removed to the Edhi morgue.
An FIR (98/2012) was registered at the Napier cop shoppe against unknown persons on behalf of the state.
Two bodies found
The perforated carcass of a teenaged boy was found at a place on Mauripur Road on Thursday morning.
According to the police, the body was found in front of Dua Hotel near Crown Cinema within the remit of the Kalri cop shoppe.
Area SHO Safdar Mashwani said the victim had received three bullets to the head, neck and chest, and assumed that he might have been a 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.... resident.
The body was first shifted to the Civil Hospital for a post-mortem examination and then to the Edhi morgue for identification.
An FIR (136/2012) was registered against unknown killer on behalf of the state.
In Pak Colony, the body of another unidentified man was found dumped in the Lyari river on Thursday. The police said that the body, found near Rexer Lane, was about two days old. The victim, apparently a Lyari resident, was shot to the head, they added.
The body was shifted to the Civil Hospital for legal formalities and a case against unknown killers was registered on behalf of state.
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(Rooters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin ...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile... said on Friday it was "counterproductive" to announce that the mission of U.N./Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... envoy to Syria 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... had failed despite ongoing violence and he stuck to opposition to U.N. sanctions on Damascus. ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... Despite the fact that it's failed, it would be counterproductive to announce the fact. That's logic. Of a sort, anyway.
"Mr. Annan is a very experienced and respectable person, and we must do everything for his mission to succeed. I think it is counterproductive to announce his mission as a failure in advance," Putin told a news conference with his French counterpart Francois Hollande. ...the impending Socialist president of La Belle France... "On sanctions, such question needs to be discussed primarily by the UN Security Council ... Sanctions don't always work. The main thing we need to do is to prevent the situation from developing under the worst scenario and not let a civil war take place."
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#1
"Mr. Annan is a very experienced and respectable person
The Putin performance and personality analysis, where would we be without it?
For a map, click here. For a map of Tamaulipas state, click here.
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
Three unidentified armed suspects were killed in a gunfight with Mexican security forces in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas late Thursday morning, according to several Mexican news reports.
According to a report on the website of Vangardia news daily, officials with the Procuraduria General de la Republica (PGR) or attorney general refused to confirm the number of dead or wounded, only that an armed encounter took place. The casualty report comes from local reporting and Twitter postings.
In an unrelated gunfight, Mexican Army soldiers detained two unidentified individuals and killed an armed suspect Thursday in Guemes municipality Thursday, according to a separate report in Vangardia news daily, posted on the website.
The unit had been dispatched to a warehouse near Plan de Ayala ejido because of a citizen's complaint of armed suspects in the area.
Gunfire between the army unit and armed suspects ensued, leaving one armed suspect dead. An unidentified individual, who had been reportedly kidnapped and beaten was rescued.
Soldiers also seized one AK-47 rifle, one AR-15 rifle, 12 weapons magazines, 714 rounds of ammunition and other contraband.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg,com
The eurozone unemployment rate has hit a record high of 11.0 percent for the second month running in April, the highest level since records began in 1995, official figures revealed.
The European data agency, Eurostat, announced on Friday that over 17.4 million people were unemployed in the eurozone in April, up from 17.3 million, as the bloc has been struggling to tackle the financial crisis.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2012
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That is for Men, 27-54 years of age or something of that nature. The real rate is much higher.
A Democratic primary race in northern New Jersey has devolved into a highly competitive proxy war over Israel, pitting the state's pro-Israel community against a growing constituency of Arab voters who have accused a sitting congressman of putting Israel's interests before America's.
As the race between Democratic Reps. Steve Rothman and Bill Pascrell nears its Tuesday finish, veteran political observers on the ground have expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... at the way the battle between the two veteran politicians has transformed into a troubling ethnic brawl.
"One side says, 'We want this Jew out of office' and, frankly, it's pretty unsettling," Ben Chouake, president of NORPAC, a pro-Israel political action committee based in Englewood Cliffs, told the Free Beacon. "They emphasized [Rothman] is a Jewish congressman."
Others say they simply cannot recall a congressional race becoming a referendum on a candidate's religion.
"For the first time in recent American political history, we are witnessing a proxy battle between supporters and detractors of Israel, and it's playing out in the Ninth District of New Jersey," said one veteran campaign strategist who is knowledgeable about the district.
The race took an unprecedented turn on Monday when an Arabic campaign poster supporting Pascrell surfaced. It urged the "Arab diaspora community" to "elect the friend of the Arabs" and billed the race as "the most important election in the history of the [Arab] community," according to a WFB translation of the sign.
"I don't read Arabic well, but I am pretty sure that the pro-Pascrell posters that have appeared across the district are not calling to elect the candidate who supports a strong relationship between America and the only democracy in the Middle East, one which is rooted in progressive Western values--women's rights, gay rights, tolerance, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, etc.," said Josh Block, a Democratic strategist and former front man for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Observers such as Susan Rosenbluth, publisher of the New Jersey-based Jewish Voice and Opinion, say the race took an anti-Semitic turn in late February, when a prominent Arab supporter of Pascrell accused the state's Jewish voters of being more loyal to Israel than America.
#3
Observers such as Susan Rosenbluth, publisher of the New Jersey-based Jewish Voice and Opinion, say the race took an anti-Semitic turn in late February
The first of many, many more to come. Mooslims, it's the way they roll.
#4
Others say they simply cannot recall a congressional race becoming a referendum on a candidate's religion.
How about a presidential race? I'm a little too young to remember Kennedy's race all that well, but, I do remember that Catholicism was raised, though not by Nixon IIRC.
[Yemen Post] The Sharia Supporters, the offshoot of Yemen Al-Qaeda, released about 27 soldiers on Thursday, who have been held as hostage in Shabwa province, Almasdar Online reported, quoted local sources.
Tribal elder Othman Ali Albabakri mediated the release of all the troops held in the stronghold of the thug group in the Azzan area, but only 27 soldiers were released, the website quoted a spokesmen for the group.
"This week, also 13 soldiers were released in the Shuqra city in 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 bringing the total of those who have been set free to 40," Abu Hajir, the front man was quoted as saying.
The soldiers were incarcerated You have the right to remain silent... in Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan, amid an intensified offensive against the forces of Evil in southern and southeastern regions including Abyan and Shabwa.
The release of the soldiers came as the forces continued to advance on the thugs, killing many of them including big shots and recapturing areas, which were seized last year.
"The release was for the sake of Allah. We have not sought anything in return," the front man said, according to the website. "The 13 soldiers who were released in Shuqra had survived an Arclight airstrike while held in a school".
Al-Qaeda has recently raided military posts in Abyan province killing, injuring and arresting scores of soldiers. Some 73 of the soldiers incarcerated You have the right to remain silent... during the raids were released after a mediation.
The authorities said on Thursday Al-Qaeda forces of Evil were in their last breath as the forces further stepped up the battles to retake the most important strongholds of Zinjibar and Jaar, Abyan.
Earlier, the government refused to stop the war on the forces of Evil in return for releasing all Yemeni soldiers and foreign hostages.
In the past few months, Al-Qaeda kidnapped a Swiss woman, a Frenchie and deputy Saudi consul in Aden and took them to Shabwa.
The Swiss and Saudi diplomat have appeared in videotapes begging their government for help after negotiations by the Yemeni authorities failed to free them.
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Syrian government forces summarily executed 12 civilians on their way home from work in a fertiliser factory in Qusayr, activists in the central town told AFP by telephone on Friday.
The reported killings late on Thursday afternoon came on the eve of a special session of the UN Human Rights Council called to discuss the conflict.
"The workers were on a bus when they were forced to stop at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Qusayr," in central Homs province, said Salim Kabbani of the Local Coordination Committees, which organise protests on the ground.
"Regime forces tied their hands behind their backs and shot them."
Kabbani said abuses had become routine in Qusayr, a town southwest of the flashpoint city of Homs.
"The checkpoint where the workers were killed is dangerous, and people are often tortured there."
Several areas of Qusayr have been under non-stop shelling by government forces, Kabbani said.
"We have a very high number of maimed, and we fear many of them will die because we don't have the medical materials we need to treat them."
Amateur video posted on YouTube by activists showed bodies lain out side by side, several with bullet wounds to the head.
The footage, purportedly shot when rebel fighters reached the scene to recover the bodies, included the voice of one man crying out: "This is my son, my son," as he tugged in vain at the leg of a corpse lying face up, his blue shirt and white trousers covered in blood.
Another video posted on Friday showed hundreds of people in Qusayr taking to the streets for a joint funeral for the slain workers.
A man bearing the Syrian independence flag led the cortege. Crowds chanted: "Oh God, we only have you to turn to," and: "We won't surrender, we won't surrender."
Green branches were laid on the white shrouds wrapped over the corpses as they were carried by pallbearers through the town.
The opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) accused the regime of carrying out the "slaughter" and called for international intervention to stop killings in Syria.
"The world and international institutions are responsible for protecting people from genocide and must intervene immediately to prevent regime thugs from completing their massacres and continuing to kill innocent people," the SNC said in a statement.
It called on the UN Security Council and the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... to take "courageous decisions" against the regime to halt its crackdown and protect the Syrian people.
For its part, the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had asked the UN military observer mission in Syria to visit Qusayr as soon as possible to investigate the latest killings.
Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP that the persistent bloodshed made a mockery of the UN-backed ceasefire that was supposed to take effect from April 12.
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[An Nahar] Sudan has expelled four foreign aid groups working in the country's east, a source at the government's Humanitarian Affairs Commission told Agence La Belle France Presse on Friday.
"HAC decided to expel four international NGOs working in eastern Sudan because they failed in their planned projects," said the source, asking not to be named.
"Also, there is a weakness in these international NGOs," the source added without elaborating.
He identified the groups as Save the Children Sweden, GOAL of Ireland, a Japanese humanitarian group and another Irish organization.
"There's been no explanation for this," said a diplomatic source, who clarified that the government is only seeking to cancel the aid groups' activities in eastern Sudan, not in the rest of the country.
The source, asking for anonymity, confirmed that GOAL and Save the Children Sweden were among those affected.
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#1
"HAC decided to expel four international NGOs working in eastern Sudan because they failed in their planned projects."
Does that mean we can expel Sudan from the earth because it's failed, too?
Posted by: American Delight ||
06/02/2012 5:02
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[Iran Press TV] Leader of Russia's Communist Party says the recent massacre in the Syrian village, Houla, which killed over 100 people, is an intelligence plot concocted by the Western politicians.
Gennady Zyuganov noted that some Western politicians and media outlets have created a hysteria on the massacre which took place in the western village of Houla on May 25.
The Russian politician strongly condemned what he considered as "a blatant provocation" in Syria and asked for an international probe into the crime, which he believed would sooner or later turn out to be related to the Western intelligence, like what happened in Yugoslavia, Libya, and Afghanistan.
The Communist leader also condemned the Western states for their quick accusation of the Syrian government, even before the results of the preliminary investigation into the massacre were disclosed, particularly that the reporters and international observers could not give any evidence
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#1
Title makes it look like the commies are admitting responsibility.
[Iran Press TV] A senior Iranian holy man says Western efforts to strengthen the Zionist regime by arming snuffies in Syria are futile as Israel's expiration date is overdue and it is doomed to extinction.
The six-point peace plan for Syria put forward by the UN-Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... 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... was making good headway until the Western world started arming terrorist groups in the country in a bid to support Israel, Tehran's interim Friday Prayers Leader Hojjatoleslam Kazem Seddiqi said.
Since the Mohammedan nations of the region are all enemies of the Zionist regime of Israel, they must unite against this cancerous tumor, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Did you doom Israel yourself? You have that power? oh wow!
[An Nahar] Syrian regime forces opened fire on protesters in the Douma area near the capital on Friday, as at least 43 people were killed in violence across the country, a rights group and activists said.
Regime forces killed 13 people in the countryside around Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... , eight in the central province of Homs, nine in the northern city 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... and its countryside, three in the central province of Hama, three in the northwestern province of Idlib, two in the coastal province of Latakia, two in the Damascus neighborhood of al-Mazzeh, two in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor and one in the southern province of Daraa, the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, reported.
Scores of protests broke out in towns and cities across Syria to condemn the May 25 Houla massacre.
At a protest in Douma, "regime forces met the demonstrators with hot lead. Everyone had to run away because there was nobody there to protect them," activist Mohammed al-Dumani told Agence La Belle France Presse via Skype.
He said several people were maimed.
The demonstrations were called to commemorate the 108 victims of a massacre last week, including 49 children, in the central town of Houla. Activists hailed the children as the "flares of victory" in the 15-month anti-regime uprising.
In Aleppo, Syria's second city, regime forces killed two people as they opened fire on protests which drew thousands of people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The crowds "chanted for the victory of the deaders of Houla," another activist who declined to be named told AFP.
"People chanted in honor of the deaders of Houla, and condemned the failure of (U.N.-Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... envoy Kofi) Annan's peace plan," notably a ceasefire which has been violated each day, Halabi added.
The U.N.-backed ceasefire that came into force on April 12 has failed to take hold. According to the Syrian Observatory, almost 2,300 people have been killed since the start of the truce.
The Observatory said two people were killed and a third seriously injured in an kaboom in the al-Mazzeh neighborhood of Damascus.
Earlier on Friday, regime troops killed five people during raids and shelling of rebel positions in the town of Daraya outside the capital, the Britannia-based monitoring group said.
Regime troops stormed the town -- a center for the armed opposition -- with tanks and fired shells at its western districts, the Observatory said.
The Houla massacre, which Damascus blamed on "gangs," stoked an international outcry and the expulsion of top Syrian diplomats from several Western countries.
On Friday morning, in al-Esseily neighborhood of Damascus, protesters demanded that further action be taken against the Syrian authorities.
"O Arabs, we demand more than the expulsion of the (Syrian) ambassadors; we also demand the expulsion of the Russian and Chinese ambassadors" in Damascus, read one poster.
In the southern province of Daraa, a man was rubbed out as he left a mosque in al-Sheikh Maskeen village, while heavy gunfire and kabooms were reported in several towns.
In the city of Homs, central Syria, regime forces rubbed out four people, while a child was injured in shelling of Houla, in the province of the same name, according to the Observatory.
And regime forces in Deir Ezzor province of eastern Syria rubbed out a civilian in the town of Bukamal, it said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2012
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Ay-Peeee - you spend like a Fernandez or Peron, the bill comes due
A top Argentine official denied on Friday that the government plans to devalue the peso amid rumors that drastic official actions are looming. "define 'drastic'"
"We are not going to take any explosive measures," Deputy Economy Minister Axel Kicillof said at a news conference. "define 'explosive'"
It's a CF, and they don't know what to do - sound familiar?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/02/2012
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#1
The president decreed in October that anyone buying foreign currency must first get authorization from Argentina's tax agency. The agency examines what the buyer has paid in wealth and income taxes, then subtracts documented living expenses from declared wealth to determine how many legally obtained pesos an individual might have available to sell.
The controls now have their first legal challenge, filed by Julio Cesar Duran, a retiree in the provincial capital of La Plata whose request to sell $10 worth of pesos for dollars to give to his grandchildren was denied. The online authorization system declared his purchase "inconsistent," without further explanation.
Theoretically, anyone who has paid his taxes and properly declared his income and wealth should be able to freely trade pesos for dollars at the official rate. But Duran is among a growing number of Argentines complaining that they've been cut off even though their taxes are up to date.
Fernandez has sought to vilify those trying to profit from the peso's unofficial decline against the dollar. She said Thursday that agricultural companies holding back grain sales to make bigger profits in the future are committing "a capital sin," and recommended that wealthy Argentines "forget for a moment the speculation and think about the country."
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/02/2012 11:45
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#2
ION DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > MEET THE NEW FACE OF THE WEST: GUTS [Germany, US, Turkey, + South Korea] |
MEET THE THE GUTS: THE RISE OF GERMANY, THE UNITED STATES, TURKEY + SOUTH KOREA: BROOKINGS INSTITUTE.
ARTIC = the on-going Financial Crisis has resulted in a variable TWO-SPEED WEST, WHERE FOUR COUNTRIES ARE ACTUALLY INCREASING IN GLOBAL INFLUENCE WHILE THE REST ARE MAINLY STALLED = STUCK IN A RUT.
POSTERS = BRIC-VS-GUTS = Global Power-Sharing, or Global Domination???
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Tuareg rebels in northern Mali have rejected a deal with beturbanned fascisti to form a breakaway state there because of their insistence on implementing sharia law, the Tuaregs said.
The Islamist Ansar Dine (Defenders of Faith) have refused to back off from their demand for an Islamic state, which some members of the rebel National Liberation Movement of Azawad (MNLA) had already said was unacceptable.
"The MNLA's politicianship, faced with Ansar Dine's intransigence on applying sharia law in Azawad, and to remain faithful to its resolutely secular position, rejects the deal dated May 26, 2012 made with this group and declares everything pertaining to it null and void," said a statement.
The document, dated Thursday and signed by senior MNLA member Hamma Ag Mahmoud in Azawad's capital Gao, was the first official confirmation of the rebels' rejection of the accord.
From Timbuktu, an ally of Ansar Dine leader Iyad Ag Ghaly confirmed the breakdown in the deal, but also suggested that different factions of the MNLA were sending out different messages.
"We told the MNLA on Thursday that for us, the discussions are over. There is no going back," said Walil Ag Cherif.
He added however that representatives of the MNLA in La Belle France were not saying the same thing as those based in Gao in northern Mali.
And Cherif's comments appeared to be supported by those of a Mauritanian specialist on the gangs in northern Mali, who said the rejection of the merger by the Tuareg desert nomads was a sign of a split within the MNLA.
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#1
To once again paraph Antonio Bandaras - "AH YES, THE SECULAR-COMMIE-SOCIALIST-VS-ISLAMO/ THEOSOCIALIST, ... BFFS, ... SHOW".
Mali's neighbors still are all nervousy + twitchy, though.
* TOPIX > CALLS RISE FOR US INTERVENTION IN MALI.
* SAME > US TO SEND SPECIAL FORCES TO UGANDA [ + Kenya], as ostensib due to strategic MALI threat.
Defence and foreign relations experts discuss ties between US and Pakistain in a conference in Islamabad
As state institutions refuse to admit their roles in the recent foreign policy fiascos, the situation can only be explained with one word: chaos. Participants of a recent dialogue in Islamabad said the parliament's demand from the world super power to kneel before Pakistain is over-ambitious and unrealistic, and there are various shades of opinions and tactics in Pakistain that lack coherence and consistency.
"The blockade of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... supply routes for six months in reaction to the Salala attack is ridiculous," former foreign secretary Riaz Khokhar said last week, at a Jinnah Institute sponsored policy debate on "Re-evaluating Pak-US Relations". "Such foreign policy issues should not be dragged for too long," he said.
"The decision (of blocking NATO supplies) after the Salala incident was a bold but unsustainable step," said Tanvir Ahmed Khan, also a former foreign secretary. "The situation is likely to deteriorate," he said.
"The parliamentary recommendations on Pak-US relations are very harsh, ambitious and undoable," said defence expert Gen (r) Talat Masood, speaking at the same event.
The participants agreed that public sentiments must not impede the formulation and implementation of a dispassionate foreign policy, based on the national interests.
What Morgenthau taught, Jervis preached and Kissinger practiced, the neo-realism based American foreign policy allows little space for emotions and sentiments. Hans J Morgenthau says: "The rational requirements of good foreign policy cannot from the outset count on the support of a public opinion whose preferences are emotional rather than rational."
Ties between Pakistain and the US have worsened over the last year. After a spate of issues like the arrest and repatriation of Raymond Davis, drone attacks, Operation Geronimo, the Salala attack, conviction of CIA aide Dr Shakeel Afridi, and aid restrictions by the US politicians against Pakistain, mutual ties have reached their lowest ebb.
"The drone attacks are not stopping anytime soon. Our strangely rigid stance has created a very difficult situation for us," said Khokhar. He said the mistrust between the armed forces and intelligence agencies of the two countries was aggravating the situation.
Polls in the United States show a majority Americans do not approve of Pakistain, and vice versa. State institutions probably have similar feelings. In recent years, hawks in the CIA and Pentagon view every Pak move with suspicion. The pro-Pakistain State Department seems to have failed to resist the pressure they were exerting on Pakistain.
Khokhar says nations with begging bowl cannot dictate their terms. In Pakistain's case, we cannot force the United States to make an apology over the Salala attack. "It doesn't make sense to bring the relationship to a standstill. There is a need to move beyond seeking apology and aim to work for a new working relationship."
Tanvir Ahmed Khan was more apprehensive about Pakistain's diminishing role in so-called Afghanistan Endgame.
It was expected that Pakistain would not be invited to the conference in Chicago to decide the future of NATO in Afghanistan. The invitation was extended fairly late, but the harshness of tones did not subside throughout the conference.
"It's a mutually constrained game, wherein Pakistain has some big stakes," he said. He assumed the political government in Pakistain would have been comfortable dealing with the United States if there was no pressure from the military establishment to make an unreasonably firm stance.
Gen Masood said the two-year rollercoaster ride of Pak-US relationship was taking a nosedive. He claimed the United States wanted to build a new democratic Afghanistan and it seemed Pakistain was not prepared to offer the support required.
They've been undermining since the 1990s. That counts as negative support, right?
He sounded pragmatic in saying that it would not matter if Pakistain had long-term strategic or indefinite transactional relationships with the United States. "It doesn't matter at all when the choices are hard or limited."
He said the recommendations by Pak parliament, which in fact are a long list of demands from the United States, were not doable. But he also underlined foreign relations are a two-way street.
Responding to a question, Khokhar didn't rule out the possibility of the two countries working together after the Afghanistan endgame, if the United States was serious in containing China and Iran. Pakistain may become useful again.
Khan said both the civilian government and military establishment were reluctant to accept the responsibility of flaws in the country's India and Afghan policy. "As a result, the political government has bruised, while the army too has lost some of its say in such matters," he added.
The experts were uncertain who was in-charge of engaging with the United States. Traditionally, the GHQ had the final say in defining the mode and scope of engagement with the US. But not any more.
"It's a total chaos here. We don't know who is controlling the foreign policy (of Pakistain)," concluded Khokhar, who was a known hawk when heading the Foreign Office during Gen Musharraf's regime.
A recent issue between Pakistain and the US is the conviction in Pakistain of Dr Shakeel Afridi, who helped the CIA find the late Osama bin Laden ... who no longer exists... . Dr Afridi has sympathisers in the US.
Recently, conservative Senator Paul Rand from the State of Kentucky who heads the Tea Party Movement vowed to move a bill in next Senate session seeking American citizenship for Dr Afridi.
It seems the Democratic Party is not alone in being unable to conceive of a truly self-organized, grassroots political movement. This is the second time in as many days I've seen Senator Paul accused of running the Tea Party. At least the savants at The Friday Times understand it is a movement rather than a party, which is a start.
Dr Afridi has been locked up in bad boy-infested Beautiful Downtown Peshawar Central Jail after a dubious trial under British-era Frontier Crimes Regulations. Most of the Islamic fascistihe shares the jail with are pro-Osama, and he is at a serious risk.
#2
More bad news for Iran [indirectly] today, + by extension ditto the anti-War, pro-Diplomacy POTUS Bammer, as per avoiding anti-NucProg ground war wid the US???
* FYI TOPIX > PAKISTAN DENIES RETURN OF US MILITARY TRAINERS.
Actually, we do. The problem is like military strategy, US long term foreign policy (as opposed to goals and pipe-dreams of the current State Dept. crop) is based on the last war; in this case, the Cold War.
[Iran Press TV] Republican presidential candidate 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... called a disappointing U.S. jobs report for May "devastating news" on Friday and a sign that President Barack Obama I don't sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar, we talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick... 's economic policies have failed.
Romney moved quickly to take political advantage of the Labor Department's report that U.S. unemployment had moved up slightly to 8.2 percent in May from 8.1 percent, with the economy adding only 69,000 jobs for the month, far fewer than anticipated.
"Today's weak jobs report is devastating news for American workers and American families," he said in a statement.
He called the May report "a harsh indictment of the President's handling of the economy."
"It is now clear to everyone that President B.O.'s policies have failed to achieve their goals and that the Obama economy is crushing America's middle class. The president's re-election slogan may be 'forward,' but it seems like we've been moving backward," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2012
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IMO Artic also read, BAD NEWS FOR IRAN AS PER AVOIDING WAR WID OBAMA = US.
* OTOH IIRC FREEREPUBLIC this AM > BREAKING: ROMNEY DID NOT WIN REPUBLICAN NOMINATION.
"Mittens" repor has only 1/2 of the Delegates required, hence cannot safely claim the GOP nomination despite Ron Paul being the only oppos contender left.
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > IFF JEB BUSH PICKED AS VPOTUS BY ROMENY, NEOCONS WILL HAVE A SURE SHOT AT [defeating]OBAMA | [ABC News] JEB BUSH AS [Romney]VEEP SPECULATES "I WOULD CONSIDER THE PROPOSAL VERY CAREFULLY".
CMF POSTER believes that JEB-led, Neo-Con = GOP-Right victory in November = lead to ...
> Restablishment of US as [dominant?] Pacific Power.
> Increased US Govt-Budget Spending as much as 20X current.
> US to align itself wid former SE Asia antagonist Vietnam [PHIL, Other?] to counter or fight China.
JEB BUSH vs. NEWT vs. RON PAUL/RAND PAUL vs. SANTORUM vs. MARC RUBIO vs. COLIN POWELL? CONDI? HILLARY? vs ... IN THE GOP'S = RNC'S GREAT "BATTLE OF ROMNEY"???
#3
Newc in a way a great deal of it really is all about Obama.
Consider Obama's actions & desires in light of the bedrock principle that in a fiat money system where wealth creation, and therefore economic expansion, is premised on the perpetual expansion of credit. In such a system the key component that prods ahead or retards, or even destroys, economic growth is confidence or the lack thereof.
Have Obama's actions fostered or undermined confidence? I'll posit that on nearly every imaginable front he has advanced policy or stated a strong desire to advance policy that has undermined confidence in the US economy. Which isn't to say that absent Obama everything would be fine & we'd be growing at a China-like clip; very clearly that's not the case. But when given a chance to advance or undermine the US economy Obama has steadfastly chosen the latter course and he has no one left to blame but himself for the consequences.
Obama commences Operation Wag the Dog in 3 ... 2 ... 1 .....
#5
Forty percent of the country is too stupid, tribal, venal, or encased in a leftist media bubble (often on purpose) to see that Obama has failed.
Sixty percent have either known all along or have figured out in the past 3+ years that he and his team are grossly incompetent, pseudointellectual dilletante poseurs and rent-seeking parasitic exploiters of the private sector.
However, many of that sixty percent don't care, many have some axe to grind philosophically and don't care if doing so takes out the U.S., and many are on the public sector gravy train directly or through regulatory pressure and rent-seeking "private" businesses, and so they want Obama to stay anyways.
Here's the thing....what percentage of that sixty per cent aren't getting a government check of one sort or another, don't have some bizarre ideological axe to grind, AND will be motivated to show up in November?
Upon that the election will swing.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
06/02/2012 5:22
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#6
By extending the recession more of the unemployed are exhausting their benefits. This has "reduced" the unemployment rate because these people are no longer counted.
But they know who they are, and they know they are no longer receiving that sweet, sweet sugar from Unca Sam.
We are not Europe yet; most of these folks will want to get back to work -- and they know O'Bumble just doesn't have what it takes to turn this around.
Posted by: regular joe ||
06/02/2012 9:13
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#7
Perpetual expansion of credit sounds very much like a perpetual motion engine. As in, not possible & will cease to function at some point.
For many in the US, Pakistan's sovereignty claims ring hollow
"Tonight I can tell you that we are fulfilling our commitments and we are meeting our goals," US President Barack Obama said in a speech after the Chicago conference on Afghanistan. The US president said 33,000 troops would leave Afghanistan by 2012, and the first batch of 5,000 troops would leave next month.
"My impression is that leaders at the summit haven't been overrun by the actual developments in Afghanistan," Carsten Michels, a German analyst who closely follows the Pakistani tribal areas. "Now they are struggling to make it look like everything is going by the plan. Everyone who gets a closer look might want to disagree on that. But that is politics. NATO has to look united and strong."
While NATO had met primarily to discuss Afghanistan, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was also invited to Chicago. "We expected Pakistan to at least consider the fact that over 4,000 of our soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, and stopping NATO supplies has helped strengthened the Taliban," said a senior NATO source. "We expected President Zardari to have restored the supplies, but he didn't."
Pakistan has declined to resume NATO supplies because it demands an apology from the US over the Salala incident, in which 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed last November. The US president and the NATO secretary general refused to meet President Zardari one-to-one "to show their anger", the NATO source said.
Pakistan People's Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who is in Washington to explain Pakistan's point of view, said the conference "went as expected".
"We have a common goal and a common enemy, and we must find common grounds to enhance cooperation" - Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari
"Pakistan had an unconditional invitation and that is how it was accepted," he said. "The idea was to have Pakistan included in a global alliance for stabilizing the region and Afghanistan."
He admitted ties between Pakistan and the US were passing through a difficult phase, but "we have a common goal and a common enemy, and we must find common grounds to enhance cooperation".
"There are serious complexities between the two nations, and the biggest problem is how Pakistan is seen as destabilizing Afghanistan and the overall ISAF/NATO mission in Afghanistan," US security analyst Brigadier (retd) Carl Adams said. "We are very upset about the fact that the Haqqanis and certain other groups who kill our boys and destroy Afghanistan find shelter in Pakistan."
US withdrawal from Afghanistan:
President Karzai has announced that another group of provinces will be given in Afghan control next month. He said the Afghan National Security Forces will take over the security of the entire country by mid-2013. The US and NATO will leave Afghanistan by 2014, and a post-2014 operation plan has already been made. Britain alone has pledged $100 million a year to fund the Afghan military, and billions of dollars have been promised by countries like Australia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Estonia and the Netherlands.
But the government has other concerns that it believes are more important. "Our government wants complete respect of Pakistan's sovereignty," Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar told reporters in Chicago.
President Karzai has asked the British to take over the training of his army from the Americans after 2014.
"The countries in the region, particularly Pakistan, have important roles in ensuring enduring peace, stability and security in Afghanistan and in facilitating the completion of the transition process," the declaration at the end of the conference said. "We stand ready to continue dialogue and practical cooperation with relevant regional actors in this regard. We welcome the progress on transit arrangements with our Central Asian partners and Russia. NATO continues to work with Pakistan to reopen the ground lines of communication as soon as possible."
NATO Supplies and Pakistan:
In Karachi, that supplies 80% of NATO provisions to Afghanistan, the mood had been ecstatic. Transporters, mostly Pashtun, have been waiting for the resumption of the supplies. "Between 10,000 and 15,000 people have been unemployed because of the suspension of NATO supplies," says Ahmed Mehsud, a contractor in Karachi. "We demand an immediate resumption of the supplies."
But the government has other concerns that it believes are more important. "Our government wants complete respect of Pakistan's sovereignty," Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar told reporters in Chicago. She appeared upbeat about the outcome of the conference, and said Pakistan had the highest stakes among the 60 countries that participated in the conference.
"The spillover effect of instability in Afghanistan is instantaneous in Pakistan, and if there is stability in Afghanistan, the effect of that in Pakistan too should be instantaneous. I will completely disagree with anyone at all who says that Pakistan should not participate in such a forum."
But American security analyst Lawrence Alan Levine says the US believes Pakistan's sovereignty claims "in the successful mission to rid the world of the mass murderer Bin Laden, ring hollow".
"Many understand that terrorists based in Pakistan commit atrocities in Afghanistan and India - an insult to their sovereignty," he said. "As we struggle with economic challenges, many wonder why we send aid to Pakistan when they do not tax their own wealthiest citizens. Americans wonder why a man who arguably helped rid the world of a terrorist is treated as a criminal in Pakistan."
#1
Again, NOT GOOD NEWS FOR IRAN AS PER AVOIDING POSSIBLE ANTI-NUCPROG WAR VEE THE US.
As per POLITICAL-GEOPOL DIALECTICISM, the Mullahs in Tehran may publicly support BFF Islamabad, but it wouldn't surprise me one bit iff they were covertly pressuring andor funding Pak Politicos, Street Protestors to demand that the NATO supply routes be open???
E.G. TOPIX > IRANIAN INFLUENCE IN SOUTH AZERBAIJAN RISING DUE TO POOR ECONOMY. Many poor Muslim Azeris or other travel to-n-fro the Iran-Azeri border for everything, esepc as per Iran.
Azerbaijan is part of the vital post-Pak NDN for the US-NATO into Afghanistan, while [neo-Persianist]IRAN = RIVAL TURKEY = SEES HEGEMONIC "GREATER IRAN" = "IRANIAN UNION" IN THE C.A.R. + CAUCASUS.
[An Nahar] The rebel Free Syrian Army on Friday announced it was resuming "defensive operations" after the expiry of its ultimatum for the regime to respect international 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... 's six-point peace plan.
"We will now resume defensive operations," FSA front man Qassem Saadeddine told Agence La Belle France Presse via Skype. "We will not go on the offensive because we do not want to be singled out as the ones responsible for breaking the peace initiative."
The decision came 48 hours after the FSA's military council from inside Syria gave the regime until Friday 0900 GMT to observe the Annan plan which calls for the withdrawal of government forces and heavy armor from towns and cities.
"We have tried to remain committed to the plan but it is our military and ethical duty to defend civilians," Saadeddine said.
"The Annan plan has failed," he said. "The ball has been in the regime and international community's court from the start, and the initiative was a failure from the day it was signed."
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#1
"The Annan plan has failed," he said. "The ball has been in the regime and international community's court from the start, and the initiative was a failure from the day it was signed."
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Kenya is mobilizing for the final push to capture Kismayu, the capital of the terrorist Somali group Al-Shabaab. ... the personification of Somali state failure... The new military stance was the centerpiece of President Kibaki's Madaraka Day speech on Friday in which he warned faceless myrmidons that Kenyans would never surrender to them.
The President's warning followed the most direct reference to the impending offensive by the Chief of Kenya Defence Force, Gen Julius Karangi.
Gen Karangi said Kismayu, a major source of financing for Al-Shabaab, would be taken before the mandate of the weak African-backed transitional federal government (TFG) ends on August 20.
"We continue to exert pressure on Al-Shabaab," said Gen Karangi, whose troops fighting in southern Somalia have joined the 11,000-strong 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... force in Somalia (Amisom).
"Kismayu... this target will happen before August when the TFG mandate expires," he added.
Kenyan forces this week took the Al-Shabaab stronghold of Afmadow to the South of Somalia while Ugandan and Burundian troops captured Afgoye to follow on their success in Mogadishu.
Addressing the public at Nairobi's Nyayo National Stadium during the 49th Madaraka Day celebrations, the Head of State said the government will hunt down and deal firmly with those threatening the country's national security.
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[Iran Press TV] Hezbollah's Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah has urged the speedy release of the Lebanese nationals kidnapped by anti-government gangs in Syria earlier this month.
In his televised speech on Friday, Nasrallah called for the release of the Lebanese captives, saying that the Lebanese government is responsible for the safety of the abductees.
Armed men kidnapped 13 Lebanese pilgrims in the city 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... while they were returning to Leb from pilgrimage in Iran.
The bus carrying the abductees came under attack on the Syrian-Turkish border by gunnies who took the men away and released the women.
An unknown Syrian gang has grabbed credit for the abduction, and demanded Nasrallah to apologize for his support of the Syrian government before they release the Lebanese nationals.
"Having a problem with Hezbollah or the Amal Movement over political views of what is happening in Syria is one thing, but taking innocent people hostage is a great injustice," Nasrallah responded.
"If you have a problem with me, then there are several means and ways to resolve this problem," he said.
The Lebanese resistance leader also reiterated his support for the Syrian government and said that dialogue and reform were the only means to resolve crisis in the country.
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#1
"If you have a problem with me, then there are several means and ways to resolve this problem," he said
I don't suppose that bullet-between-the-eyebrows is an option?
[Dawn] Women associated with different non-governmental organizations on Thursday demanded of the government to take prompt action against a holy man and former MNA from Kohistan ...a backwoods district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa distinguished by being even more rustic than is the norm among the local Pashtuns.... for issuing a threatening fatwa (religious decree) against NGO workers.
"It is time we raised our voice against such decrees and take the issue seriously," said members of End Violence against Women/Girls Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... and Fata Alliance during a consultative meeting in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar Press Club. The meeting was called to discuss the decree issued by a holy man and former MNA Maulvi Abdul Haleem of Kohistan against female NGO workers on May 4.
"During a Friday sermon, Mr Haleem had warned that women working with NGOs would not be allowed to enter Kohistan and that violators would be forcibly married off to the local men," said Qamar Naseem quoting a media report.
Ms Naseem said that Maulvi Haleem had also reportedly stated that it was against the religious teachings that a woman received education and used it to get employment.
"We are here to form a strategy to ensure protection of women rights," she said.
Noor Education Trust chairperson Zubaida Noor, Aurat Foundation's representative Shirin Javed and Saira from Shirkat Gah described the hostile environment and misconceptions about the work of women rights' activists as the main hurdle to their activities.
"We should not take such fatwas lightly as they encourage crime against women," said Ms Noor.
Ms Javed said that it was time the female NGO workers stood up for their rights and tell the people that they were not doing anything unethical.
Other participants demanded that the government should take strict measures against people like Maulvi Haleem who deprived women of their rights. The women activists vowed to raise voice over issues involving protection of women's dignity.
A participant said that almost a decade ago such a decree was issued by a holy man in Dir, but that had proved only a verbal threat. Such threats have been faced by women working with NGOs, said Ms Saira.
Other NGO workers hailing from rural areas said that it was time they broke silence on the threats they faced at the hands of bad turbans.
Riffat Kazmi, an NGO worker from Mansehra ...a city and an eponymous district in eastern Khyber-Pakthunwa, nestled snug up against Pak Kashmir, with Kohistan and Diamir to the north and Abbottabad to the south... , said that all religious figures did not consider women's work as un-Islamic. "Perhaps the decree is personal opinion of Maulvi Haleem and other Learned Elders of Islam should be engaged to persuade him to stay away from hurling threats at women," Kazmi said.
The participants also held a demonstration against the decree issued by the holy man and signed a charter of demands. They asked the government to take tangible steps for enforcement of relevant laws to protect women rights and conduct an impartial investigation into the issuance of decrees by religious holy mans against women.
In a resolution, they called upon the government to ensure protection of basic rights of women, full implementation of relevant laws, inclusion of human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. and gender equality in syllabus and proper legislation to stop jirgas and holy mans from issuing decrees against both men and women.
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[Dawn] Unidentified gunnies blew up a school for girls in Galandary village of Mardan district on the night between Wednesday and Thursday.
Khaista, the watchman of the community girls school, told officials of Saddar cop shoppe that three unidentified gunnies entered the school building, overpowered him and planted two bombs there.
He said that gunnies kept him in their custody till the time when the bombs went off and destroyed three classrooms and office of the headmistress of the school.
The cop shoppe concerned registered FIR against unidentified persons on the compliant of the watchman and started investigation.
In Tank, Taliban have warned tribal people, government contractors and workers of non-governmental organizations to stay away from construction work in South Wazoo Agency.
Through a one-page leaflet, written in Urdu on a plain paper, Taliban have termed South Waziristan a conflict zone and asked the tribal people to vacate the area.
The leaflet titled 'Last warning for residents of Mehsud area, South Waziristan Agency' doesn't carry any signature or monogram of any bully boy organization.
"Neither have we permitted nor will allow any government contractor and NGO workers to work there as they all are our target," it said.
The leaflet said that clemency would be declared for all those, who vacated the area voluntarily.
"All employees of education, health, Khasadar Force and NGOs etc will be considered criminals if they perform duty," it said. It also warned tribal elders against signing documents of displaced Mehsud people for reconstruction purpose or getting relief assistance.
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The front man for radical Islamist group Al-Shabaab ... the successor to the Islamic Courts... Sheikh Ali Mohamoud Raghe alias Sheikh Ali Dhere, stated on Thursday that a coalition of forces, backed by NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... , is involved in a military campaign against the bad turbans.
Sheikh Dhere read a long list of governments and organizations taking part in the latest campaign against the fanatical Islamists, mentioning Uganda, Æthiopia, Kenya, Burundi, and Djibouti as being allies of the Transitional Federal Government.
He added that NATO is supporting "the hostile operation".
"NATO, which is a military pact and made of the strongest nations on earth has joined the war," announced the Al-Shabaab front man.
He added that the coalition was meant to defeat a small fraction of the Somali society.
"Al-Shabaab is made of less than 5 per cent of the Somali society," stated Sheikh Ali Dhere.
Speaking through al-Andalus, a broadcaster run by the bad turban group, he wondered why all those forces were united to fight Death Eaters from a small proportion of the Somali society.
"We urge the Mohammedan Somali people to help us defeat this invasion from 'non-Mohammedans," he said.
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[Dawn] At least eight faceless myrmidons were killed and three were maimed in a military operation on Friday during helicopter shelling by the security forces in Orakzai agency, DawnNews reported.
The security forces shelled with the gunship-helicopters in the area of Mela in upper Orakzai, Frontier Corps (FC) official said.
According to the sources, three Death Eater hideouts have also been destroyed in the operation.
The decisive operation is being carried on in the areas of Mamuzai, Khudezai, Sama Bazaar of Orakzai agency.
Authorities claim that 95 per cent area of Orakzai agency has been cleared from the Death Eaters.
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Former US president Bill Clinton said he thought that fellow Democrat Barack Obama B.O.... would be easily re-elected to the White House, even though polls currently show a close race.
"I still think the president will win by five or six points," Clinton told CNN, in an interview with movie producer Harvey Weinstein.
Obama faces presumptive Republican nominee 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... in the November 6 election.
Romney has surged ahead of Obama in the southern battleground state of Florida, holding a 47-41 percent lead, according to a recent Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
However Obama and Romney are even in a number of nationwide polls.
At this point polls show support for the two men closer than it will be in November, Clinton said, due to continued stress on the US economy.
But if Obama's supporters hit the trail and tout his achievements as president, Clinton said he was confident "he'll be fine and he'll be re-elected."
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[An Nahar] In a graphic video posted to YouTube on Friday by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Syrian tank is seen running over the body of a dissident fighter.
A group of four tanks and an open truck carrying approximately 10 soldiers are seen parked on a dirt road while others in uniform and one man in plain clothes casually mill around the area.
A soldier on one of the tanks films as his vehicle begins to move, panning down to the dead body of a dissident on the road between the tanks, his body completely disfigured and bloody, and his head already split open.
The tank proceeds to run over the body as the soldiers in the truck observe the scene.
A soldier, who appears to be the one filming the scene, then faces the camera, his face stern, saying nothing. He points the camera to the gun of the tank and then to the man in plain clothes, who slaps hands with another soldier as they walk away from the tank.
Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence La Belle France Presse by phone that the man shown on the ground, along with a second crushed body not pictured, were confirmed to be dissidents.
The footage was taken March 14 at a checkpoint in Al-Bara village in northwest Idlib province, according to the Britannia-based watchdog.
In a statement released with the video, the Observatory says the footage "confirms the horror and brutality that regime forces use against Syrian dissidents, even after their deaths."
The Observatory "condemns in the strongest terms the heinous treatment of the corpses of the deaders and demands that the Syrian authorities respect the bodies of the dead, be they protesters or fighters, and hand them over to their relatives for a proper burial."
It also called for the prosecution of those committing such "acts of insanity, for which humanity should be ashamed."
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#1
Funny, I just watched Idiocracy today - not that that is a landmark movie in any way, but it's fitting.
(Sh,M,Network)-Fierce fighting between Somali government forces along with AU peacekeepers and Al shabab fighters took place overnight at Laanta-Buur area, just 25 Km away north-west Mogadishu, witnesses said,
A local resident told Shabelle Media under anonymity that the battle started after Al shabab agents staged attacks on Somali and AMISOM forces in the area. No death or wounds reported so far during the attack.
Neither Somali government officials nor Al shabab commented on the combat, but the area is one of the locations beyond Mogadishu that captured by TFG and AMISIOM troops this week after three-days of offensives with the orcs.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A pro-Nazi association now operates a Persian-language website in Iran, promoting anti-Semitism and memorializing 
Mahmoud 
ABERDEEN, Wash., May 31 (UPI) -- Police in Washington state said a man released from custody was arrested again when he allegedly stole the jail's 
A US drone strike targeting a vehicle in Pakistan's northwestern tribal belt killed at least three militants on Saturday, security officials said, the latest in a recent spate of attacks.
[Dawn] A sessions court sentenced on Thursday a man to 10 years in prison in an acid attack case.
(Sh.M.Network) Pirates accused of kidnapping a British couple off Somalia could be hauled to the UKto stand trial.
...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The White House said Friday it was critical to maintain President 
Officials in Tunisia's interior ministry said Friday they had banned a demonstration against Salafist extremism planned for this weekend, raising the prospect of fresh 
Aid workers vulnerable as threats, abductions and killings increase in Hazara
a city and an eponymous district in eastern Khyber-Pakthunwa, nestled snug up against Pak Kashmir, with Kohistan and Diamir to the north and Abbottabad to the south...
A Rangers officer was 
...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...
Syrian government forces summarily executed 12 civilians on their way home from work in a fertiliser factory in Qusayr, activists in the central town told AFP by telephone on Friday.
Leader of Russia's Communist Party says the recent massacre in the Syrian village, Houla, which killed over 100 people, is an intelligence plot concocted by the Western politicians.
[An Nahar] Syrian regime forces opened fire on protesters in the Douma area near the capital on Friday, as at least 43 people were killed in violence across the country, a rights group and activists said.
[Iran Press TV] Hezbollah's Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah has urged the speedy release of the Lebanese nationals 
Wazoo
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Former US president Bill Clinton said he thought that fellow Democrat 
