NASAs Commercial Crew integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative award winners were announced on Friday, with SpaceX, Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) all winning agency money to develop their vehicles to the next stage of providing domestic access to the International Space Station (ISS) for US astronauts.
Ahead of Fridays decision, only four companies were in the running with a realistic shot of the limited NASA funding for the CCiCAP initiative, the three eventual winners, and Liberty. In the end, Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations Directorate William Gerstenmaier opted to award:
Boeing with $460m,
SpaceX with $440 and
SNC with $212.5m.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
08/03/2012
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Aww! isn't this nice. The White House's new bestest buddies.
Calling itself the "Armed Men of the Muslim Brotherhood", the militia has a presence in Damascus as well as opposition hot spots like Homs and Idlib. One of their organisers, who called himself Abu Hamza, said that he started the movement along with a member of the Syrian National Council (SNC), the opposition alliance.
"We saw there were civilians with weapons inside, so we decided to co-operate with them and put them under one umbrella," he said.
Hossam Abu Habel, whose late father was in Syria's Muslim Brotherhood in the 1950s, said that he raised $40-50,000 (£25,000-£32,000) a month to supply Islamist militias in Homs province with weapons and other aid.
The militias he funded were not affiliated to the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the main rebel movement, added Mr Abu Habel.
"Our mission is to build a civil country but with an Islamic base," he said. "We are trying to raise awareness for Islam and for jihad."
Four Iraqi soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad. The bomb reportedly targeted an army patrol east of Dhuluiyah. One of the four killed was a major, and four others were wounded.
President Barack Obama, along with many Democrats, likes to say that, while they may disagree with the GOP on many issues related to national security, they absolutely share their admiration and dedication to members of our armed forces. Obama, in particular, enjoys being seen visiting troops and having photos taken with members of our military. So, why is his campaign and the Democrat party suing to restrict their ability to vote in the upcoming election?
On July 17th, the Obama for America Campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and the Ohio Democratic Party filed suit in OH to strike down part of that state's law governing voting by members of the military. Their suit said that part of the law is "arbitrary" with "no discernible rational basis."
Currently, Ohio allows the public to vote early in-person up until the Friday before the election. Members of the military are given three extra days to do so. While the Democrats may see this as "arbitrary" and having "no discernible rational basis," I think it is entirely reasonable given the demands on servicemen and women's time and their obligations to their sworn duty.
[f]or each of the last three years, the Department of Defense's Federal Voting Assistance Program has reported to the President and the Congress that the number one reason for military voter disenfranchisement is inadequate time to successfully vote.
I think it's unconscionable that we as a nation wouldn't make it as easy as possible for members of the military to vote. They arguably have more right to vote than the rest of us, since it is their service and sacrifice that ensures we have the right to vote in the first place.
If anyone proposes legislation to combat voter fraud, Democrats will loudly scream that the proposal could "disenfranchise" some voter, somewhere. We must ensure, they argue, that voting is easy and accessible to every single voter. Every voter, that is, except the men and women of our military.
Make no mistake, the Democrat lawsuit is intended to disenfranchise some unknown number of military voters. The judge should reject it with prejudice.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/03/2012 10:59
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#3
As we say, SOP for the usual suspects. For the non military types SOP means Standard Operating Procedure. Same party had practiced the game for a hundred years doing it to blacks. Remember their argument of 'historical patterns of discrimination' justified special considerations for other groups. The military is one group that will never get the Democrats motivated to make a 'protected group' under the law to stop this type of exclusion from the process.
#10
They deprive Soldiers of their vote, every election, every year. Democrats rather have felons, illegal aliens, and dead people as their country make up. You all suck, Democrats. All of you.
The House on Thursday voted to reprimand Rep. Laura Richardson (D-Long Beach) for ethical misconduct. The House chamber was nearly empty, despite the rare moment, as Ethics Committee members presented the charges, which included engaging in conduct that "brought discredit upon the House." The reprimand was approved on a voice vote.
Richardson agreed to the uncommon discipline, including paying a $10,000 fine out of her own pocket. Richardson, in a filing with the committee, said she accepted the punishment because ending the matter, rather than staging a fight that "would consume many more months and much more of her time and attention, is in the best interests of her constituents and of the House." The embarrassing vote comes as Richardson faces a tough race to win reelection in a newly drawn district.
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), the Congressional Black Caucus chairman and a Richardson supporter, said on the House floor, "I know that she regrets the violations and hopes that the reprimand by the House will allow both her and the House to move on to address the great issues facing the nation."
I haven't read everything he ever wrote by any means, but I never read anything by him that I didn't enjoy. And everyone should read The Face of Battle, especially people with non-military backgrounds. As a history buff, I was surprised how much it opened my eyes to different aspects of what it would have been like to be in famous, historical battles.
Rest In Peace
Well of course. Once the Russian advisors stop getting takeouts of polish sausages & mustard, and the Chinese experts stop ordering takeouts of kung-pao chicken, how can any good restaurant keep operating in Syria? So as someone wryly observed yesterday, once those 5-star dishes are all gone - do you relaly think that Kofi and the UN boyz are going to stick around? Ha!!! The very thought of it!
#9
Some people, when relieved of the restrictions of political office, inflict even more lasting damage as a civillian than they were even capable of as a government official.
The repulsive connotation of Barrick Obama prancing about on the world stage, for decades to come, is an ill-boding and repugnant prospect, which we will undoubtedly have no alternative but to detest, and dutifully endure.
Posted by: Barbara ||
08/03/2012 16:53
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If the mayors of Chicago, New York, San Francisco and many others had their way, this would never have happened. Instead there would only be a local story of an elderly woman robbed, possibly murdered.
As Glenn Reynolds often says, when seconds count, the police are only minutes away.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
08/03/2012 19:04
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h/t Instapundit
...the average net worth of Congress has increased since 2004, and held about even from 2007 to 2010, the average American family net worth dropped 40 percent from 2007 to 2010.
...In 2010, the average net worth for a U.S. senator was $13,224,333. The average net worth for a Democratic senator was $19,383,524, compared to $7,054,258 for a Republican senator. Thats a difference of $12.3 million. No wonder Democrats think of them as "Party of Stupid"
#1
Are these Donk Congresscritters part of the one percenters that they keep demonizing and want to tax out of everything they own--that is the job creators?
With diplomatic efforts dead and the future of Syria playing out on the battlefield, many of the Syrian government's most powerful weapons, including helicopter gunships, fighter jets and tanks, are looking less potent and in some cases like a liability for the military of President Bashar al-Assad.
Rebels have turned part of Mr. Assad's formidable arsenal on his own troops. Anti-Assad fighters on Wednesday shelled a military airport in the contested city of Aleppo with captured weapons. On Tuesday, rebels used commandeered Syrian Army tanks in a skirmish with Mr. Assad's troops.
Perhaps even more worrying to Mr. Assad, his military has come to rely more heavily on equipment designed for a major battle with a foreign enemy, namely Israel, rather than a protracted civil conflict with his own people. Close observers of his military say Syria is having trouble keeping its sophisticated and maintenance-intensive weapons functioning.
The strain is likely to grow more acute as the government depends on helicopter gunships to extend its reach to parts of the country rendered impassable to logistics convoys and even armored vehicles by the rebels' improvised bombs. More at the link
#1
According to his bio, Chivers is a former marine who served in Desert Storm. His website talks about how Gaddafi met his end from weapons taken from his own inventory, but conveniently omits the fact that these self-same weapons were impotent against Gaddafi's armor, artillery and air attacks, until NATO jumped in and took out those assets. This guy's not an observer bloodlessly analyzing both sides' military capabilities based on numbers, equipment, organization and so on. He's already picked a winner based on a NATO intervention that may or may not materialize.
#2
From the NYT: C.J. Chivers takes up a growing issue for the military of President Bashar al-Assad: troops have weapons that do not match well with the civil war they are now fighting.
Here, this guy's talking about how Assad has too many heavy weapons. I have to shake my head in disbelief. Heavy weapons are how you minimize friendly casualties. They are why powerful countries have large numbers of them, and armies that have very few are merely a step up from militias. How does he think the US achieved 20 to 1 kill ratios in Vietnam? Via light infantry one-shot one-kill engagements?
[Dawn] Uzbekistan is moving to ban foreign military bases on its territory, local media reported on Thursday, ending speculation it could allow the United States to reopen a base for operations in neighbouring Afghanistan.
However, a lie repeated often enough remains a lie... some analysts said the ban might not prevent military cooperation with the United States, which could still use Uzbek facilities for special-forces operations to fight the Afghan Taliban or other regional threats.
The ban is part of a major foreign-policy document proposed by President Islam Karimov, which was approved by the lower house of parliament this week. It was the first such document since Uzbekistan's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, and the Senate is expected to pass it this month.
Uzbekistan, a mainly Mohammedan Central Asian nation, evicted a US military air base from Karshi-Khanabad as ties with Washington and the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... soured following the government's suppression of an uprising in the town of Andizhan in May 2005.
Karimov, who brooks no dissent in his nation of 30 million, has since improved ties with the West, prompting speculation at home and abroad that he could allow the US military to return to his country.
But the document adopted by the lower house "allows no deployment of foreign military bases or other facilities on the territory", according to Uzbek media on Thursday.
It also said that Uzbekistan would not take part in any military and political blocs and its servicemen would not take part in peacekeeping operations abroad.
In June, Uzbekistan suspended its membership in the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation -- better known by its Russian acronym ODKB -- which gathers several ex-Soviet states and is seen by some analysts as a regional counterbalance to NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
Arkady Dubnov, a Moscow-based expert on Central Asia, said Uzbekistan's new status of neutrality, approved by a docile legislature, had been designed to placate its former imperial master Russia, irked by its plans to quit the ODKB.
"It looks like Karimov is sending a signal to his Russian partners: 'If I am no longer with you, this does not mean that I will now be against you'," Dubnov told Rooters.
"What's more, Uzbekistan's declarative ban on deployment of foreign bases on its land will not hamper its cooperation with the Americans," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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The Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency warned its employees and contractors last week to stop using their government computers to surf the Internet for pornographic sites, according to the agency's executive director.
As Glenn Reynolds would say, the country is in the best of hands...
In a one-page memo, Executive Director John James Jr. wrote that in recent months government employees and contractors were detected "engaging in inappropriate use of the MDA network."
"Specifically, there have been instances of employees and contractors accessing websites, or transmitting messages, containing pornographic or sexually explicit images," James wrote in the July 27 memo obtained by Bloomberg News.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Don't play with the button, it might go off, then we'd be in a right mess.
MADRID: Spanish police arrested three suspected Al-Qaeda members thought to have been planning an attack in Spain or elsewhere in Europe and seized explosives, the government said Thursday.
Good going! Now roll up their networks, financing and supporters...
Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz told a news conference that one of the three men was a very important operative in Al-Qaedas international structure.
Two of the men were arrested on a bus heading for the French border and the other in a flat in the town of La Linea de Concepcion, in the southern province of Andalucia, where police also discovered the explosives. The arrests came within hours of each other on Wednesday.
This is one of the biggest investigations which has been carried out up until now against the Al-Qaeda terrorist group at an international level, said Diaz. He described the men as extremely dangerous people.
Police also found documents relating to flying light aircraft.
The two on the bus were arrested in Almuradiel in the central province of Ciudad Real while traveling from Cadiz to Irun near the French border.
There is a clear indication that those arrested could have been planning an attack in Spain or in Europe, Diaz told reporters.
The suspect detained in the flat at La Linea is a Turkish national described by the minister as an Al-Qaeda logistics expert while the other two are from former Soviet republics which the minister did not name. Earlier on Thursday Cadena Ser radio, citing police sources, said the suspects were two Chechens and a Turk and were in possession of poison as well as explosives.
The minister said police had so far found no poison but he said the secret services of other nations had informed Spain that one of the suspects has extensive experience in the manufacture of poison and car bombs.
He declined to comment on Spanish media reports that the three men had links to Pakistans Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group blamed for the November 2008 attack on Mumbai that killed 166 people.
The minister said one of the two men detained in Ciudad Real used uncommon strength to resist arrest, using the military training he received, and special forces had to intervene.
Police had the men under surveillance and decided to arrest them when it appeared that they were going to leave Spain.
The investigation has been assigned to a judge at Spains top criminal court, the National Audience which has jusridiction over terrorism cases and international crimes.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/03/2012
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#1
WELL , IT's About France , Italy , Schwitzerland , And Belgium ! Not Germany , T'was , This Time , Around !
ALEPPO: Syrian rebels shelled yesterday an air base being used by regime forces to pound the northern city of Aleppo.
"Menagh military airport was bombarded yesterday morning by a tank captured previously by the rebels," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said of the base 30 kilometers (18 miles) northwest of the country's commercial capital.
An AFP reporter who witnessed the bombardment said rebels told him it was "an attack to take this airport being used by helicopters and planes that are firing on Aleppo."
The United Nations confirmed on Wednesday that rebels battling President Bashar Assad's regime now had heavy armour, and that its military observers had seen the Syrian military use a fighter jet to attack rebels in Aleppo. AFP correspondents on the ground have reported that rebels have captured a number of tanks, and some armoured units have defected with their vehicles.
The Observatory and an activist said mobile phone and Internet services in Aleppo have been cut since Wednesday, and a security source in Damascus told AFP such cuts are "generally the precursor to a major military offensive."
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/03/2012
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[An Nahar] Syrian shells hit at dawn Thursday an area in the northern district of Akkar that lies six kilometers away from the Lebanese-Syrian border, injuring two people, the National News Agency reported.
NNA said this was the first time that shells hit an area relatively far from Leb's northern border.
Seven shells landed near the towns of al-Bireh and Kherbet Daoud, damaging several houses and injuring a woman identified as Mariam al-Zohbi and a man called Tayseer Merheb, Kherbet Daoud's municipal chief, Mahmoud Abdul Majid, told NNA.
"This is very dangerous and the Lebanese state should assume its responsibilities regarding ... the violations," he said.
The incident caused panic among the residents who moved to other areas and returned to their houses in the morning when the shelling stopped.
On Wednesday night, around 12 shells landed on the outskirts of the border towns of Hekr Jneen, Qashlaq, Ammar al-Baykat, Eastern Dbabiyeh and al-Noura that lie near the Kabir River.
Posted by: Fred ||
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WASHINGTON: Congress voted Wednesday to slap sanctions on Iran's energy, shipping and financial industries, convinced that increasing the economic pressure on Tehran will derail its suspected nuclear weapons program. The House overwhelmingly passed the bill 421-6 and a short time later, the Senate approved it by voice vote. The measure now heads to President Barack Obama for his expected signature.
The legislation builds on the current penalties directed at financial institutions that do business with Iran's central bank and adds sanctions to undermine Tehran's oil income. The legislation would impose sanctions on anyone who mines uranium with Iran; sells, leases or provides oil tankers to Tehran; or provides insurance to the National Iranian Tanker Co., the state-run shipping line. The bill seeks to undermine Iran's ability to repatriate revenue from the sale of crude oil.
The bill would penalize anyone who works in Iran's petroleum, petrochemical or natural gas sector, or helps Tehran's oil and gas industry by providing goods, services, technology or infrastructure.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/03/2012
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#1
Meanwhile, Bat/dark Knight Fans, over in NORTH KOREA ....
* WORLD NEWS > PRESIDENT OBAMA DECLARES NATIONAL EMERGENCY IN REGARD TO NORTH KOREA, as per the proliferation from all causes of Weaps-usable Fissle Materials.
Yokay, I'll bite, isn't it kinda moot iff claims that NOKOR has 253 Tacnukes allegedly in place + aimed or targeted at SOKOR andor Nippon prove true???
#4
"Give us the means to wage war, or we will wage war against you."
It falls flat on me. I believe that if the US had not coordinated an energy/material sanction on IJ, they would have had the necessary means to secure their resources on the mainland, thus not depending upon island resources as much, redering a submarine campaign against their merchant shipping not as effective.
According to the book Twilight Warriors, one thing the US/Allied forces had going for them later in the war was that the aviation fuel had been so diluted many Nippon aircraft were downed before before combat.
Is it an act of war, well it is certainly an aggression, if it were reduced to a mother sauce it is a seige tactic and as old as the first raiders to attack a defended town.
The question I pose to those who think the Japanese would not have attacked the US Pacific Forces if sanction had not been put in place is that would an aggressively expansionist Japan already neck deep in Korea and China not at some point attempted dominance in the Pacific where the big dog had been the USA since Teddy, and even before?
#6
Of course calling for sanctions is only as good as enforcement.
I wish we had the Kabul Karachi express, where every transit pipeline crossing similarily had a loosely guarded highly stocked waypoint acap. Dang shame if that stockpile blew up and destroyed the pipeline...
[Bangla Daily Star] The government has banned operations of three international NGOs in Ukhia and Teknaf of Cox's Bazar from last Monday for illegally providing aid to Rohingya intruders.
The NGOs are La Belle France's Doctors without Borders (MSF), Actions against Hunger (ACF), and Britannia's Moslem Aid.
"Any NGO wishing to work in border areas must obtain approval from the NGO Affairs Bureau which in this case the three organizations did not have," said Joynul Bari, deputy commissioner of Cox's Bazar, adding that the illegal operations had been encouraging Rohingyas to intrude into Bangladesh territory.
Meanwhile, ...back at the argument, Jane reached into her purse for her .38... detectives on Wednesday night nabbed Please don't kill me! nine unregistered Rohingyas at a residential hotel in the capital's Fakirerpool area.
The decision of banning the activities of the NGOs came at a time when hundreds of Rohingya refugees were trying to enter Bangladesh due to the sectarian violence in the Rakhaine state of Myanmar that left around 80 people dead over the last two months.
During the time, Bangladesh authorities had been pushing back refugees seeking shelter here. The action drew criticism from various rights bodies, but the government had responded saying that the global community should ask Myanmar to address the longstanding problems with Rohingyas.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2012
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#1
I don't understand this particular conflict..
Posted by: American Delight ||
08/03/2012 6:39
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Apparently everyone (NGO's 'human rights' groups, the Muslim World, the Press , etc.) is upset and making lots of noise, but nothing else. I suspect it has to to with Myanmar being a client of China.
Posted by: American Delight ||
08/03/2012 17:37
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#4
I don't think so. Any other Southeast Asian country, the Rohingyas would be getting arms and training from Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Saudis, etc.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: A negotiator says seven crew members of a Malaysian-owned ship held by Somali pirates since late 2010 are heading home to Pakistan under a partial ransom deal that still leaves 15 merchant seamen held.
Negotiator Ahem Chinky says Pakistani families and groups raised $1.1 million for the release of the crew members from the MV Albino. But that fell short of the $2.85 million sought by the pirates under a deal reached earlier this year by Dubai-based intermediaries.
The freed crew passed through Dubai en route to Pakistan on Thursday.
The remaining crew still held by pirates include seven Sri Lankans, six Bangladeshis, one Iranian and one Indian. The Kenya-bound ship was hijacked in November 2010 in the Gulf of Aden.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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[Dawn] Seven cut-throats and a security man were killed in a clash in Dabori area of Orakzai Agency ... crawling with holy men, home to Darra Adam Khel, the world's largest illegal arms bazaar. 14 distinct tribes of beturbanned primitives inhabit Orakzai agency's 1500 or so square kilometers... on Wednesday, sources said.
They said that cut-throats attacked an advance party of security forces at Kago Qamar Darra locality of Dabori at 8am. The security personnel, backed by tanks and artillery, were advancing to Mamozai to conduct a search operation there.
The clash between cut-throats and security forces continued for more than two hours and both the sides used heavy weapons including rockets and missiles against each other.
Officials said that solider Shehzad was killed and soldier Sabir received injuries in the attack. The injured soldier was taken to agency Seven krazed killers, soldier killed in Orakzai clash headquarters hospital in Kalaya. They said that seven cut-throats were killed and one of their vehicles was destroyed in the clash.
In Kurram Agency ...home of an intricately interconnected web of poverty, ignorance, and religious fanaticism, where the laws of cause and effect are assumed to be suspended, conveniently located adjacent to Tora Bora... , three security personnel were maimed in a blast inside a compound of political administration in Sadda on Wednesday evening.
Officials said that an bomb was planted in Tehsil Office of the political administration. Three Levies personnel received injuries when the device went off, they added. The injured coppers were rushed to a local hospital.
In Lower Dir district, an educationist, who had led an armed lashkar against krazed killers, was rubbed out by unidentified persons when he was going to his school at Lagharai Thal area on Wednesday morning.
Sources said that Ghulam Syed, vice principal of Government Higher Secondary School Bagh Maidan, was rubbed out on the first day of reopening of schools after one month summer vacations.
They said that Ghulam Syed had no enmity with anyone, however, he played active role in organising youth of the area against krazed killers. He was also a member of the local peace committee.
A large number of teachers, students and area people attended his funeral prayers and demanded of the government to provide security to teachers.
A resident of Maidan told Dawn that cut-throats were active again in the area. He said that a pro-government local person identified as Wakil Khan was also killed by unidentified attackers three days ago at Lajbok Darra. He said that both the incidents were assassinations.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2012
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[Dawn] Four new polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... cases have been reported in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... and Federally Administered Tribal Areas, taking the countrywide number of the children affected by the crippling disease this year to 27. I;d feel sorry for the kids if I had any sympathy.
The relevant officials told Dawn on Wednesday that none of the four children received any dose of oral polio vaccine.
They said Mardan district recorded first polio case of the year as six-year-old Suleiman Islam, a resident of Mohib Banda village, had tested positive for polio.
According to officials, the boy's family is a follower of local holy man Noorul Huda, who has declared polio vaccination un-Islamic.
They said the people's refusal to get their children vaccinated against polio, especially in Fata, had become a major problem for local and international health organizations whose efforts to increase the rustics's awareness of immunisation had failed to bear fruit.
Officials said the second polio victim belonged to Khyber Agency and he, too, hadn't got any dose of OPV.
They said Hanifullah, 3, a resident of Akakhel area, couldn't be vaccinated as vaccinators had no access to his troubled area since 2009.
According to them, he is the 10th polio case from Khyber Agency this year.
Officials said the third new polio sufferer was six-month-old Naureen, a resident of Lakki Marwat area in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, who, too, was crippled for being unvaccinated.
They said the fourth case was SLearned Elders of Islamn from Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central ...Smallest of the agencies in FATA. The Agency administration is located in Khar. Bajaur is inhabited almost exclusively by Tarkani Pashtuns, which are divided into multiple bickering subtribes. Its 52 km border border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistain's strategic depth... , which also remained off-limits for vaccinators on security grounds.
Officials said Fata had so far reported 13 new polio cases, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa six, Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... four, Sindh three and Punjab one during the current year.
Meanwhile, ...back at the barn, Bossy had come up with a new idea... the World Health Organisation has 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... over 584,046 children missing vaccination during the last anti-polio campaign and said these children threatened the 35 million targeted population of immunisable ages.
In a statement, the WHO said the children, who could not be reached during the countrywide immunisation campaign (July16-18), included 528,271, who missed administration of OPV, and 55,775 whose parents sent away vaccinators.
According to it, Quetta reported the highest number of immunisation refusal cases (5,589) followed by Beautiful Downtown Peshawar (4,982), Pishin (3,568), Jacobabad (2,314), Karak (1,919), Bannu (1,886), Mardan (1,685), Charsadda (676), Multan (438), Gujranwala (383)
and Abbottabad ... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden.... (318).
The WHO said around 19,000 children in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa didn't receive OPV due to their parents' refusals.
It said reaching out to every child was the only way to eradicate polio from Pakistain, which was among the three countries (Nigeria and Afghanistan) only where polio was prevalent.
The WHO said Taliban had already banned vaccination in Wazoo putting the health of 3,18,000 children at risk.
Experts say July is the beginning of high transmission season for poliovirus and urged aggressive vaccination.
"Last year, we had detected 72 polio cases as of August 1," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2012
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#1
One of the saddest Dream/Visions sequence from my childhood, and so un-necessary.
Iff I were to say something to AYMAN ZAWAHIRI + MULLAH OMAR, ETAL. I would tell them your Hard Boyz have better things to do than play anti-US immunization politics wid the UNWHO + their own Childrens' lives, vee renewed deadly diseases that were all but wiped out decades ago.
THEY DON'T NEED TO STOP THE UNWHO TO FIGHT THE US-NATO.
D *** NG IT, AYMAN, OMAR, DON'T FORCE ME TO SEND MICHELLE + MICHELLE OVER THERE!
#2
Yes, it is sad and stupid. But I would argue that the Talibunnies and their fellow jihadi travelers are not just fighting US/NATO, but Western Civilization and everything is stands for. Except for going to titty bars before they blow themselves up, of course.
#5
Ole Jonas was not speaking about Muzzies. There goal is to turn everyone INTO their ancestors. They do not deny just western civilization but any modern civilization.
[An Nahar] Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi swore in a new cabinet on Thursday that retained military chief Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi as defense minister while giving the Islamists and their allies several portfolios.
The cabinet, which took office more than a month after Islamist Morsi, reflects a precarious balance of power between the president and the military, which retains broad powers after transferring control to him.
The Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party took five cabinet seats including higher education and the information ministry, which regulates the media.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2012
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[An Nahar] Syrian rebels used tanks to attack a military airport northwest 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... on Thursday, a rebel commander said, as a human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... group reported 67 people killed in violence nationwide.
"We had already attacked the airport several times, but this was the first time we used heavy weapons," which were "four tanks taken from Anadan," rebel commander Abdel Aziz Salameh told Agence La Belle France Presse, referring to a strategic military checkpoint outside Aleppo that the rebels captured on Monday.
"The destruction was greater than the time before," he added.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights earlier reported the rebel attack on Menagh military airport, 30 kilometers (18 miles) northwest of the commercial capital.
An Agence La Belle France Presse news hound who heard and saw the bombardment said rebels told him it was "an attack to take this airport being used by helicopters and planes that are firing on Aleppo."
The rebel Free Syrian Army has said it now controls "50 percent" of Aleppo, where the army is bombarding rebel-held areas, notably Salaheddin in the southwest, but has yet to advance on the ground.
Questioned about the lack of retaliation by the army, which is massed around Aleppo, a security source said that "the regime is testing the terrorists' defenses in order to uncover their hiding places before annihilating them in a major surgical operation."
Mobile phone and Internet services, cut since Wednesday night, were being gradually restored in Aleppo by Thursday afternoon.
In the capital Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... , heavy fighting ... as opposed to the more usual light or desultory fighting... erupted in the southern Tadamun district, the Syrian Observatory said.
"Syrian troops withdrew from the neighborhood following heavy festivities with rebel battalions, which resulted in the killing of four rebels and at least three soldiers," the Britannia-based watchdog added.
And for the first time, regime forces raided the exclusive Muhajireen neighborhood of north Damascus, arresting about 20 young men.
At least 67 people -- 36 civilians, 16 soldiers and 15 rebels -- were killed across the country Thursday, according to the Observatory.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2012
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For a map, click here. For a map of Durango state click here.
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
A total of seven unidentified individuals have been killed or were found dead in drug or gang related violence in Durango state.
Two unidentified armed suspects were killed and six others were wounded in a shootout in Durango city Wednesday morning. A news account posted on the website of El Contexto de Durango news daily reported that police were called to a location on Calle Francisco Villa in Arturo Gamiz colony on reports of armed suspects travelling aboard a Jeep Cherokee SUV.
Two police agents who had arrived on the scene were fired on, and called for reinforcements. Before reinforcements arrived, the suspects managed to flee the area aboard several stolen vehicles. The gunfight lasted 20 minutes and may have involved as many as 10 armed suspects. Four police agents were wounded and two armed suspects were detained.
Following the firefight, police seized three AK-47 rifles, three AK-47 weapons magazines and two other vehicles including a Nissan Murano SUV and a Toyota Tacoma pickup truck.
One of the dead suspects was identified as Pedro Antonio Canales Gutiérrez, who died of his wounds as he was receiving medical attention.
Four unidentified men were found dead and partially decapitated in San Bernardo municipality Tuesday, according to a news item posted on the website of El Contexto de Durango news daily. The dead were found near the village of 5th de Julio, and apparently had been beaten.
A news item posted on the website of El Siglo de Durango news daily reported that in Santiago Papasquiaro municipality, Policia Estatal Acreditable (PEA) agents were dispatched to a bus stop near the village of Sandias on a report of a dead body. When police arrived at the scene, they came under small arms fire. Reinforcements were called, and presumably the shooters fled. Security forces later found an abandoned pickup truck that had been used by the shooters.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
BEIRUT: The unsteady, hand-held video shows several bloodied prisoners, one in boxer shorts, being led into a noisy outdoor crowd and placed against a wall. The prisoners crouch and seem to avert their eyes as men carrying assault rifles shout slogans and take aim. The gunfire lasts for more than 30 seconds.
The international community has accused Syrian President Bashar Assads forces of war crimes, but the gunmen in this gruesome video were rebels. Their slogans: Free Syrian Army Forever! and God is Great!
No one has clean hands in a civil war...
The video, which surfaced online this week, is fueling concerns that opposition fighters are capable of brutality that matches that of the regime they are seeking to topple a charge that could badly damage the rebellions ability to claim the moral high ground in the Syrian civil war. As rebels gain more territory and a multitude of militias, jihadists and criminals join the fight against Assad, reports of serious human rights abuses committed by armed opposition elements are on the rise.
As the Free Syrian Army and armed opposition gain more ground control, they are at a crossroad, said Nadim Houry, researcher at the New York based Human Rights Watch. They can either go down the route of revenge and killings and replicate the behavior that we have seen by pro-government forces, or take a genuine decision showing that what theyre fighting for is not just about revenge but about human rights and justice."
It's more likely that the rebels will compromise: they'll do the first for a while, and then (maybe) the second...
The video sparked international condemnation, including a rare rebuke of rebel tactics from the Obama administration on Thursday.
This is abhorrent and inconsistent with the type of struggle for freedom and a new Syria that the broad opposition is looking for, State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell told reporters.
Ventrell said the US was encouraged that opposition commanders have condemned abuses, but stressed that summary executions committed by any party are abhorrent and inconsistent with international law, and those responsible must be held to account.
Summary executions committed by rebel forces albeit on a far smaller scale than the regimes alleged atrocities put the West in a difficult position as it seeks to persuade Russia and China to stop blocking tough UN action against Assad.
In the areas they control the rebels bear responsibility for preventing acts of revenge and violence against defenseless persons, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said Wednesday. We clearly expect them to be aware of this responsibility.
Representatives of the Free Syrian Army, the Turkey-based umbrella group of Syrian rebels, acknowledged that the executions shown in the video were wrong but said the rebels, unlike Assads forces, do not attack ordinary civilians.
The Free Syrian Army does not attack civilians, said spokesman Ahmed Kassaem. We do not support killings and are not Sadists like the regime.
An Associated Press reporter who spent two weeks with rebels in northern Syria in June found little evidence of rebel attacks on civilians, but the rebels were often merciless with regime troops and Assad loyalists. Some boasted freely about sending captured soldiers or loyalists deemed as collaborators to Cyprus, which the rebels use as a euphemism for execution usually by gunfire.
In another video, posted Thursday, a group of about nine prisoners stand against a wall with their hands behind their backs, captured by rebels after they seized a police station in the embattled city of Aleppo. A rebel fighter says they would be put on trial in front of a Sharia (religious) court made up of honorable judges.
The Syrian uprising began in March 2011 with largely peaceful protests but has since morphed into an insurgency and civil war. Activists say the conflict has already killed more than 19,000 people a figure which may soar with reports that foreign jihadists and extremists are streaming into Syria to join the fight against the regime.
The AP reporter counted almost two dozen rebel groups operating with little or no clear command structure. Some were more brutal than others. And there are doubtless countless of others who answer to nobody but themselves. It is therefore difficult to call anybody to account for the increasingly ugly sectarian nature of Syrias conflict, where an opposition largely based among the countrys Sunni majority has risen up against Assads regime, which is dominated by members of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
Many Iraqi Shiites, streaming back to their homeland in the past month to escape the war in Syria, reported a rash of attacks against their community, apparently by Sunni rebel gunmen. In July alone, 23 Iraqi Shiites have been killed in Syria, some of them beheaded, according to the Washington-based Shiite Rights Watch. In one gruesome case, the UN said an Iraqi family of seven was killed at gunpoint in their Damascus apartment.
The motives for the attacks on Iraqis are unclear. They may be revenge against any Iraqi because the Shiite-led Iraqi government is seen as siding with Assad. They may also be fueled by sectarian hatreds, with resentment of Syrias Alawite leadership flaring into anger at Shiites.
Nevertheless, the rebels main targets are not Iraqis, but rather Syrian security forces and regime loyalists. And the main battleground is now the countrys largest city, Aleppo, where the new video of summary executions was shot.
According to activists, the executed prisoners were members of the powerful Barri clan, which has long had close ties to the Syrian government. Among them was the clans leader, Ali Zinelabedine Barri, known as Zeino. An earlier video shows Zeino sitting on the ground among a group of other prisoners, wearing only black underwear, with blood seeping from above one of his eye. The narrator says the prisoners had been terrorizing residents and earlier in the day killed 15 members of the Brigade of Unification, the main group of rebel fighters in Aleppo.
A local activist who goes by the name of Abu Adel confirmed the executions, saying they took place on Tuesday at the courtyard of a school after major fighting between the FSA and members of the Barri clan in Aleppos Bab Al-Neyrab district.
The Barri clan, which Adel said numbers in the few thousands, were known to be hard-core regime loyalists and for months had intimidated residents who took part in peaceful anti-government protests. He said they were outlaws, drug dealers and very well armed.
Everyone in Aleppo hates them, Adel said, adding that they were given a trial before they were gunned down. I wish it didnt happen, but the rebels are human after all. Sometimes its hard to control people. We should understand their motives.
In a nod to criticism of rebel brutality, Abdel Razzaq Tlass, leader of the Farouk Brigade of the Free Syrian Army in central Homs province, pledged that his group would comply with Geneva conventions and treat captives according to international law.
We are revolting against a barbarous regime that always tortured and treated detainees and arrestees in brutal ways that led to the death of many, Tlass said. Thats why we can never adopt the behavior of that very entity that we are revolting against.
Tlass made his pledge in a video that was posted on Monday a day before the Aleppo executions.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/03/2012
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#1
I thought the rebels were the nobel freedon fighters? You know, like the Libyans, but without so much oil.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/03/2012 5:51
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#2
When you have supper with the devil you need only bring a spoon. He will provide the fork.
[Dawn] Police on Wednesday registered an FIR of the killing of two Rangers personnel on a complaint of Mohammad Shabbir, a personnel of the paramilitary force, against unidentified attackers.
The FIR (182/2012) was lodged at the Pirabad cop shoppe under Sections 302 of the Pakistain Penal Code and 7 of the
Anti-Terrorism Act and an investigation initiated.
Two Rangers personnel -- Inspector Gul Bahar and Sepoy Noorullah -- were bumped off when they were sitting at a teashop near Banaras Chowk, Orangi Town, on Tuesday night.
The victims were associated with the intelligence wing of the Rangers.
Police said at least two men riding a cycle of violence came close to the victims and opened fire on them.
Following the killings, a heavy contingent of Rangers conducted an overnight door-to-door search operation in parts of Orangi Town, including Banaras, Aligarh Society and Gulfamabad.
Police remained on the outer cordon of the search operation while Rangers carried out the operation and cooled for a few years Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! about 30 persons. The entry and exit points were sealed off and no one was allowed to go in or out of the area during the operation.
The suspects were later moved to Qazi's guesthouse an undisclosed location for questioning.
The victims' funeral prayers were held on Wednesday at the Bhitai Rangers Headquarters in Malir. Rangers and police officials attended the prayers. Later their bodies were dispatched to their hometown in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2012
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
"Police said at least two men riding a cycle of violence came close to them ... "
Ha! make snides remarks if you must. But it is no easy task to mount an RPG launcher to the handlebars of an old Pakistani bicycle. No sirreee. More than a few goons have lost their fingers trying to make that design work, and rumor has it that one poor Punjabi fried his jellybeans when the grenade launched early. Now that is human sacrifice.
[Dawn] President Barack Obama My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it... has signed a secret order authorizing US support for rebels seeking to depose Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... and his government, US sources familiar with the matter said.
Obama's order, approved earlier this year and known as an intelligence "finding," broadly permits the CIA and other US agencies to provide support that could help the rebels oust Assad.
This and other developments signal a shift toward growing, albeit still circumscribed, support for Assad's armed opponents -- a shift that intensified following last month's failure of the UN Security Council to agree on tougher sanctions against the Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... government.
The White House is for now apparently stopping short of giving the rebels lethal weapons, even as some U.S. allies do just that.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2012
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
D *** NG IT, THE REBELS DIDN'T BUILD THAT ...
versus
* WAFF > IRAN BANK CHIEF CALLS [new US] SANCTIONS AKIN TO "WAR".
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [IRGC] SOURCE: IRAN READIES ATTACK AGZ SAUDI ARABIA, [US-Base-too-far] QATAR, as well has Regional, International US-Allied Commanders + Targets, etc. iff ally Baby Assad's Govt. appears to about to collapse.
* SAME > FORMER MOSSAD CHIEF [Efraim Halevy]: IRAN SHOULD FEAR THE NEXT TWELVE WEEKS.
ARTIC focuses on possible Netanyahu-pushed Israeli mil attack agz Iran's NucProgs before the US Elections, but methinks its the outcome of the US POTUS Election per se which is what Iran will fear, i.e. Pro-War Romney versus anti-War Bammer.
* SAME > US CONGRESSMAN [Dana Rohrbacher] CALLS FOR UNION OF NORTH + SOUTH AZERBAIJAN, + US support for independence of Azeris in Iran.
[An Nahar] The Israeli Defense Ministry estimated that if the country engaged in a war with Hizbullah and Iran some 200 Israeli civilians would die.
According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the number of fatalities could rise to 300 if Syria joins the war as well.
The Defense Ministry experts said that there would be "less than one fatality for every ballistic missile," warning against Hizbullah's arsenal that contains short and medium-range Katyusha rockets and hundreds of relatively accurate M-600 rockets.
The experts say that these rockets could strike the center of Israel.
The daily reported that a possible confrontation with Hizbullah depends much on the Air Force and Intelligence's ability to strike long-range rockets on the ground before they are launched.
However, a hangover is the wrath of grapes... experts say that this will be harder than the 2006 war as Hizbullah has an estimated 60,000 rockets.
The ministry expert's predictions come in accordance with statements issued by Defense Minister Ehud Barak a year ago.
He said in an interview with Israeli Army Radio in 2011 that in a war with Iran "far fewer than 500 (Israeli civilians) would die."
Barak stated that predictions of thousands or tens of thousands of dead civilians were "hysterical" and groundless.
The report said the assumption is that Israel attacks the Iranian nuclear facilities and Tehran strikes back, without using its entire missile reservoir.
"Some of the missiles will fail to launch or will be hit on the ground by the Israeli Air Force. Others will miss and fall in open areas," the report added.
The launched missiles are expected to hit the Dan region.
"The high number of protected spaces and shelters could reduce the number of casualties," the experts say.
Another factor that would decrease the number of casualties is the American X-band radar, which gives a 15-minute alert before an Iranian missile is expected to land in the center of Israel.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2012
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#1
As per FOX NEWS AM SPECIAL REPORT = IRGC Commander claims the greatest threat to his country Iran is "SOFT WAR" - ironically, the Commander's claim is a point(s) for Iran, NOT pro-Iran Attack Mittens Romney or even pro-Diplomacy, UN Sanctions POTUS Bammer.
[An Nahar] Indian police have charged a journalist with conspiring to carry out a kaboom on an Israeli diplomat in New Delhi in February, a senior police official told Agence La Belle France Presse Wednesday.
Syed Kazmi, a freelance journalist who worked part-time with Iran's IRNA news agency, is accused of helping a group of Iranians to plan and execute the attack which saw a man on a cycle of violence attach a magnetic bomb to an Israeli embassy car.
"We charged Syed Kazmi yesterday under the prevention of unlawful activities act. He has been charged with planning and conspiracy in the February attack," said anti-terrorism official Ashok Chand, who is supervising the investigation.
Kazmi is the only person to be charged in India in connection with the bombing.
A 42-year-old Israeli diplomat, the wife of the defense attaché at the embassy, was badly maimed in the kaboom near the prime minister's residence in the center of the Indian capital.
A report in the Times of India newspaper on Monday said Delhi police had informed Iran that the plotters were members of the country's powerful Revolutionary Guards, a branch of the military.
Delhi police, however, later denied the report, stressing that it had only asked Tehran for "the details of six persons of Iranian origin suspected to be involved".
Interpol issued international arrest warrants for four of the suspects named in the report in March.
The main plotters were believed by police to have entered India on tourist visas and left after the attack, which Israel immediately blamed on Iran.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2012
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[Bangla Daily Star] India plans to launch a mission to Mars next year, putting an orbital probe around the red planet to study its climate and geology, top space department officials said yesterday.
The mission would mark another step in India's ambitious space programme, which envisages the Asian giant's first manned mission in 2016.
"We will embark on the Mars mission after the Department of Science gives the green signal and decides the schedule early next year," Deviprasad Karnik, director of the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) told AFP.
A 320-tonne Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle rocket will be used to carry the orbiter spaceship, blasting off from the ISRO launch site at Sriharikota in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
Another bigwig at ISRO, requesting anonymity, estimated the cost of the mission at 4.0-5.0 billion rupees ($70-90 million dollars).
The central government earmarked 1.25 billion rupees for the project in the last federal budget.
India began its space programme in 1963 and has developed its own satellites and launch vehicles to cut dependence on overseas agencies.
In September, 2009, India's Chandrayaan-1 satellite discovered water on the moon, boosting the country's credibility among established space-faring nations.
But the space programme suffered a major setback in December 2010 when a satellite launch vehicle blew up and fell into the Bay of Bengal after veering from its intended flight path.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2012
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#1
And China to send or land its Taikonauts on the Moon in 2013???
As our post-GWOT? US, the OWG Mighty USSA versus OWG Weak USRoA, hopes to rely on its International = "Global" Allies or Partners for "near-abroad" or peripheral Space Missions while it NASA focuses on those more complicated, HOPEFULLY THESE ALLIED PROJECTS FARE WELL LEST EVERYBODY SUFFER DELAY.
Vante regrets the unfortunate events that transpired yesterday in Tucson between our former CFO/Treasurer Adam Smith and an employee at Chick-fil-A. Effective immediately, Mr. Smith is no longer an employee of our company.
The actions of Mr. Smith do not reflect our corporate values in any manner. Vante is an equal opportunity company with a diverse workforce, which holds diverse opinions. We respect the right of our employees and all Americans to hold and express their personal opinions, however, we also expect our company officers to behave in a manner commensurate with their position and in a respectful fashion that conveys these values of civility with others.
We hope that the general population does not hold Mr. Smith's actions against Vante and its employees.
#3
Pro- and anti-CHICK-FIL-A is all over the MSM-Net today. Customer lines are repor out the door in many Chick-Fil-A Lobbies + Drive-Thrus, as well for non-affiliated nearby Restaurants.
THE POWER OF THE BIRD/CHICK COMPELLS THEM!
OOOOOOOOO, You just know this will all end up as a in-class Business Case Study for major Universities + Colleges.
#4
"You just know this will all end up as a in-class Business Case Study for major Universities + Colleges." Yea, you know how that will go. Spin city. Mush heads will suck it up and parrot what they are told. Well, if you want to pass the course. I have seen it happen.
#5
Last I heard University of Kansas, Berkley-on-Kaw, had only 1200 signitures (no mention on whether names were actually students, and not Cherry Garcia, Fellow Achio, Patty O'Furniture, so forth)
Also as counter-story, Wichita news had an emo on, skinney dude with the thick glasses, looks like that dude on the Olympics channel. Said was a Wichita State student, had a Jayhawk shirt on. Bullcrap, neither campus self-respecting alumni would stand for that; pre-fab-ulous.
#10
Actually, I think Chick-fia-A should offer him a job.
Posted by: Kelly ||
08/03/2012 16:45
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#11
"Actually, I think Chick-fia-A should offer him a job."
As what, toilet-cleaner?
CFA has more respect for its toilets than that.
Were I on the Board of Directors of Vante, I'd demand an outside investigation/audit of this clown's department - both the financials and how he treated the personnel. His lack of judgment here is stunning - no reason to think he was any different at work.
Posted by: Barbara ||
08/03/2012 16:51
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#12
One percenter speaking truth to power through a take out window. My hero.
Posted by: regular joe ||
08/03/2012 16:56
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#13
Grats to Vante for doing the right thing. How many companies would have reacted so well?
Well, that would be ok but I was sort of thing that he could be the lady's assistant. Maybe fetching water and such.
Posted by: Kelly ||
08/03/2012 20:03
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#16
"thinking" not "thing"
Posted by: Kelly ||
08/03/2012 20:05
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#17
I hope the woman serving this POS will get a promotion. Her reaction was terrific and professional.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
08/03/2012 22:13
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#18
I also hope that the CEO of Vante personally visited that Chick-Fil-A to apologize to that young lady.
The asshole in the video is one of the reasons I'm glad that I never worked in customer service. I would have wanted to crawl through the window and choke the everloving sh*t out him.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
08/03/2012 22:35
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[An Nahar] Attacks in Iraq killed 17 people on Thursday, including four members of a family who were murdered with knives, security and medical officials said.
Militants attacked the house of a Turkmen family in Kirkuk in northern Iraq, killing a father, mother and two daughters with knives.
An Agence La Belle France Presse journalist at the scene said that the bodies of the husband and wife were in one room, and the two daughters in another. Blood was everywhere.
A police source said that nothing was stolen, and that it appeared to be a Dire Revenge™ attack.
Gunmen also rubbed out four police in Tikrit, north of Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... , while three members of the Sahwa anti-Qaeda militia were killed by a bomb near Balad, also north of the capital, security and medical officials said.
In north Storied Baghdad, a car boom in the Husseiniyah area killed three people, an interior ministry official said, adding that incensed residents then attacked federal police and burned some of their vehicles.
A health ministry official put the toll at five killed and 17 maimed.
Gunmen attacked a checkpoint near a cop shoppe northeast of Samarra, killing one police and one Sahwa member, a police captain and a medical source in Samarra hospital said.
An army officer said that gunnies also attacked a checkpoint near Dujail, also north of Storied Baghdad, killing a soldier and kidnapping four others.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2012
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[An Nahar] Police in Caliphornia have nabbed I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! a German university professor after he wrote about gunning down students at his late son's high school and then killing himself, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.
Officers acted after they found the emails, by 48-year-old Reiner Reinscheid, a professor at the University of Caliphornia ...a formerly great educational system, the most generous contributor to the 2008 Obama campaign, with a total of $1,648,685. Is there a reason universities are among the top financiers of political campaigns? , Irvine.
Reinscheid was angry at University High School because his 14-year-old son, Claas Stubbe, had did away with himself in March after being disciplined for a theft from a school store, the newspaper said.
In emails sent in April to his wife and to himself, Reinscheid threatened to kill the school's assistant principal, shoot hundreds of students and then burn the school down, the Times said.
"I need a gun, many guns, and then I have the ride of my life," Reinscheid wrote in an email to himself, the Times reported.
"I will give myself a wonderful ending and be with Claas very soon. I like this plan, finally a good idea."
Reinscheid was first nabbed I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! July 24 for trying to start a fire in a park, near where his son hanged himself.
He was released the same day on bail, but renabbed I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! July 27 after police found the emails on examining his cellphone.
Prosecutors submitted the emails in court on Tuesday as part of a motion that he be denied bail, the Times said. Sounds like the man needs some intensive grief counseling...
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2012
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He did need grief counseling. I suppose the left will spin this into part of their gun control theme. Since he was probably part of the left, maybe nothing will come of it. He was just a guy with mental problems.
[Dawn] Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Thursday alleged that Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree... had not paid a single penny as tax during the period from 1971 to 1992.
Addressing a presser at Punjab House, Khan also criticised the PTI chief for levelling 'baseless allegations' against the Pakistain Mohammedan League-Nawaz (PML-N) leadership.
He said that in the past, Imran Khan had been talking about moving courts against the PML-N leadership. "Now I accuse him of tax evading and he should bring me to courts."
The PML-N leader said that Imran Khan has always levelled accusations and allegations against party chief Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... and his family.
Imran should move the courts inside and outside Pakistain to probe the businesses of the sons of Nawaz Sharif, he added.
The opposition leader in the NA said that Nawaz's son had legal and lawful property in England and asked Imran to file a suit against Hassan Nawaz even in Britannia.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2012
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#1
Harry Reid is very popular this week.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
08/03/2012 0:48
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#3
It's Pakistan. Nobody pays their taxes, and very few pay their bills, according to an article I now regret not posting from last week's Friday Times. Sadly for my argument, the article is now archived, and only available to subscribers, as far as I can tell.
[An Nahar] A bull in the mood for love damaged an Arkansas sheriff's patrol car when it tried to mount a man who was leading the animal across a yard.
Authorities said Wednesday that a Faulkner County sheriff's deputy was responding to a call about a bull running loose when he saw the man slapping and trying to guide the bull.
According to the deputy's report, the bull then "tried to mate with him."
The bull then lost interest and followed a truck down the road.
The patrol car sustained minor damage, though no injuries were reported. The bull's owner says it was the animal's first escape.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2012
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Oh yeah, Metal Love is driving him mad - crazy, crazy ...
[An Nahar] Afghan officials said Thursday that five bully boyz linked to the Haqqani network were killed in a pre-dawn gunbattle, claiming to have foiled a major attack on an area of Kabul home to Western embassies.
A front man for Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security intelligence agency told Agence La Belle France Presse that three vehicles loaded with explosives were seized, along with boom jackets, rockets, hand grenades and machine-guns.
Lutfullah Mashal said forces discovered maps pinpointing intended targets in central Kabul, including the diplomatic enclave of Wazir Akbar Khan and nearby Shar-e-Naw, but refused to provide further details for security reasons.
The bully boyz -- who also had all-enveloping burqas to disguise themselves as women -- had planned to seize a tall building from which to fire on their targets, he said.
The scale of the preparations and the targets, as unveiled by Afghan officials, suggest an attempt at an assault along the lines of the biggest coordinated attack on the capital in 10 years of war, which occurred on April 15 this year.
Then, three squads of suicide kaboomers -- described later by Western officials as members of the al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network -- took up positions in high buildings and fired on government offices, embassies and military bases.
Seventeen hours of fighting left 51 dead, including 36 attackers.
Acting on intelligence reports Thursday, security forces raided a house in the eastern Pul-e-Charkhi neighborhood and a shootout erupted after the bully boyz refused to surrender, Mashal said.
"The shootout lasted for six hours and a total of five bully boyz were killed," Mashal said.
Foreign ministry front man Sediq Sediqqi confirmed the corpse count was five and added that "all indications and evidence shows they were linked to Haqqani".
The Haqqani network is a faction of the Afghan Taliban whose leaders are based in neighboring Pakistain, where Islamabad has come under immense U.S. pressure to wage an offensive against the group.
The U.S. Senate last week passed a resolution urging the State Department to put the Haqqani network -- accused of a series of spectacular commando-style raids in Kabul -- on the U.S. list of terrorist groups.
U.S. and Afghan officials say the network commands the support of Pakistain's intelligence agency, the ISI.
The NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... commander in Afghanistan, U.S. General John Allen, held talks in Islamabad Thursday with The Mighty Pak Army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... , and said later that "significant progress" was being made in improving cooperation.
No reference was made to the Haqqani network.
The alleged attack was foiled in the capital after NATO reported an escalation in Death Eater attacks in recent months, and amid growing unrest in areas neighbouring Kabul.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said last week that attacks in the second quarter of this year were 11 percent higher than in the same period last year.
The month of June alone saw the highest number of attacks in nearly two years, with more than 100 assaults a day across the country, including firefights and roadside kaboomings, the U.S.-led coalition said.
In the latest attack, on Thursday, two NATO soldiers were killed by a roadside kaboom in southern Afghanistan, ISAF said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2012
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[An Nahar] European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton called Thursday for a rapid appointment by the U.N. 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... of a successor to 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... after he quit as Syria peace envoy.
Expressing her "deep regret" in a statement, the English baroness said the EU "calls for the early appointment of a successor to carry on Mr. Annan's work towards a peaceful political transition in Syria."
Former U.N. chief Kofi Annan said on Thursday he was stepping down, complaining that his April peace plan did not receive support and bemoaning the lack of consensus on the U.N. Security Council.
China and Russia last month vetoed a resolution that would have threatened sanctions against Syria targeting Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Horror of Homs... if Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... failed to act on Annan's battered blueprint.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2012
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#10
Ha ha ha ha. Let us name Obama as the successor to Kofi. Ineffective and sanctimonious, yeah that will sell. Put it on the TV, with pictures of dead people. And Obama is a peace prize winner, so he can surely do more.
[Bangla Daily Star] The cabinet yesterday approved a proposal for amending an ordinance to give more powers to the Grameen Bank chairman to choose the managing director of the microlender.
The amendment to the Grameen Bank Ordinance 1983 will undermine the autonomy of the bank started by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus.
It will give the bank's chairman, always picked by the government, almost absolute powers to appoint the organisation's chief executive sidelining other members of the Grameen Bank board.
In a statement yesterday, Prof Yunus expressed shock over the government move and said, "I am very disheartened to see that the poor is being deprived of the ownership of the bank they run and of the power to exercise their ownership."
President Zillur Rahman will soon issue an ordinance with the latest changes as parliament is now in recess, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told reporters coming out of a cabinet meeting at the Secretariat.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2012
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#1
The line item for 'bribe to Govt' was only 1%.
The new rate will be 10%.
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/03/2012 0:03
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[Dawn] Around 22,000 Pak children are at risk 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... after the World Health Organization suspended polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... vaccinations over a spate of bloody shootings, a UN official warned Thursday.
WHO, a partner in government efforts to eradicate the disease, suspended activities in part of Pakistain's largest city last month and has not yet been approved to take part in the next campaign due in September.
On July 17, a UN doctor from Ghana working on polio eradication and his driver were shot in Gadap town and three days later a local community worker who was part of the same campaign was rubbed out in the same area.
"We had a successful campaign in Bloody Karachi until those attacks," said Elias Durry, senior WHO coordinator for polio vaccination in southern Sindh province.
The campaign targeted 2.2 million children in Bloody Karachi, but 22,000 children in Gadap town were not administered polio drops because of security fears, he added.
"We fear the children of Gadap could be in danger of polio if we cannot go to them during our next campaign in September," Durry said.
Maryam Yunus, WHO spokeswoman in Pakistain, said activities would remain suspended in the area until police gave the go-ahead.
Police said they were still investigating the July shootings.
"We are investigating the incidents and trying to ensure fail-safe security for health workers in the future," said Mohammad Sultan, a local police official.
Pakistain, Afghanistan and Nigeria are the only three countries where polio remains endemic.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2012
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
DHAKA: Bangladesh has ordered three international charities to stop providing aid to Rohingya refugees who cross the border to flee persecution and violence in Myanmar, an official said on Thursday.
Frances Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and Action Against Hunger (ACF) as well as Britains Muslim Aid UK have been told to suspend their services in Coxs Bazaar district bordering Myanmar, local administrator Joynul Bari said.
The charities have been providing aid to tens of thousands of undocumented Rohingya refugees illegally. We asked them to stop all their projects in Coxs Bazaar following directive from the NGO (non-government organization) Affairs Bureau, Bari told AFP.
Bari said the charities were encouraging an influx of Rohingya refugees from across the border in Myanmars Rakhine state in the wake of recent sectarian violence that left at least 80 people dead.
The charities have provided health care, skills training, emergency food and drinking water to the refugees living in Coxs Bazaar since the early 1990s. MSF runs a clinic near one of the Rohingya camps which provides services to 100,000 people.
Speaking a Bengali dialect similar to one in southeast Bangladesh, the Rohingya people are Muslims seen as illegal immigrants by the Buddhist-majority Myanmar government and many of Myanmars citizens. They are viewed by the United Nations as one of the worlds most persecuted minorities.
Almost as bad as Palestinians...
In a letter to Muslim Aid UK, Bangladeshs NGO Affairs Bureau accused the charity of illegally helping the undocumented Rohingya refugees using its Non-Formal Education Training and Livelihood Support for the Vulnerable Families in Coxs Bazaar. It said the project was encouraging the entry of the Myanmar people into Bangladesh, said the letter, a copy of which AFP obtained.
Golam Sarwar, security coordinator of Muslim Aid UK in Coxs Bazaar in Bangladesh, confirmed to AFP that his group had stopped its Rohingya project following the order.
A senior aid worker, who did not wish to be identified for fear of government reprisals, said he feared that the impact of the governments move would be catastrophic and cause a humanitarian crisis.
The NGO Affairs Bureau, which is a wing under the prime ministers office, accused MSF of damaging the image of Bangladesh by running negative news in the international media about difficult conditions faced by the Rohingya.
The government says some 300,000 Rohingya Muslims are living in the country, the vast majority in Coxs Bazaar, after fleeing persecution in Myanmar. About 30,000 are registered refugees who live in two camps run by the United Nations.
In recent weeks, Bangladesh has turned away boats carrying hundreds of Rohingya fleeing the violence in Myanmar despite pressure from the United States and rights groups to grant them refuge.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/03/2012
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Syrian rebels shelled an airport near Aleppo on Thursday... opposition activists warned that fighting for the city, the countrys main commercial center, would likely intensify...
President Bashar al-Assads army appeared to be preparing for an all-out assault....We have seen military reinforcements making their way to Aleppo,...
Some reports from Turkey also suggested that Syrian government forces were trying to cut rebel supply lines, with fighting raging in a rebel-held town near the Turkish border...
opposition leaders said they had found dozens of bodies in a suburb of Damascus in the aftermath of the Syrian Armys house-to-house search for rebel fighters and activists. This claim of a new massacre came as the rebels faced severe criticism themselves for what appeared to be their brutal summary execution, one day earlier...
the United Nations said on Wednesday what rebels had been saying for days: the Syrian Army was using jet fighters in its operations. And they are not just flying, as in the past; now, according to the United Nations monitor mission in Syria and videos showing flashes of light bursting from dark jets, they are firing.
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/03/2012
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#1
Syrian Fighting Intensifies in Battle for Aleppo...Women, Minorities Hardest Hit
as of nightfall Aug 3, Assad forces were still making minor tactical infantry moves near Aleppo while also firing artillery into rebel held areas.
The rebels were also making tactical moves, taking some police stations, etc. The rebels have now been in Aleppo long enough that some of the locals are complaining about them (especially relatives of the dead ones) and some rebel forces are firing at each other.
Rebels are taking causalities as are the forces of Assad as are locals and some Paleos are also being killed. Assad's forces in the Aleppo area continue to be reinforced by troops from elsewhere but also suffering some additional AWOL loses.
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/03/2012 16:32
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#2
They protest every year. This protest was a bit more agressive in that they cut through 4 fences. What's unusual is that sensors didn't pick up them up. What's also unusual is that they didn't get shot. There was a time they would have during WWII when this entire area was verboten. It didn't even show up on maps.
These idiots never give credit to Oak Ridge as part of an effort that ended WWII and saved more than a million American lives that would have been lost during an invasion of the mainland Japan. Most likely more Japanese would have been killed during an invasion than were killed dropping the A-bombs.
#3
So its like the Dresdon protestors, who after a decade of plunging the Euro and world into a multi-million chaotic death slaughter, are upset about being boxed in the ears?
#4
At one time I was the guard officer responsible for security for a similar facility for the military. The only issue we had was how to write the SOP regarding use of force; these folks would have been staring down locked and loaded weapons moments after the first strand of wire was cut.
#5
It's suspected that the 'protesters' in this case might actually be the guards. The guard force is facing major cuts and apparently these 'protesters' knew where all the sensors were and how to avoid being seen.
So by having an 'incident' that panics the suits, they might avoid the cuts.
#6
It should be noted the security company is the same one who was supposed to handle the Olympic security this year. And the sensors did pick them up after the fence was cut.
Posted by: Charles ||
08/03/2012 15:37
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#7
This is just retarded. If an 82 year old nun can break into Y12, then America's nuclear archipelago is f**ked. Step back and smell the sewage.
There are dozens of people who need to be fired. Right now. And more later, after the investigation.
[Dawn] Pakistain said Thursday it had received $1.1 billion dollars from the United States for its fight against myrmidons, the first installment of its kind since December 2010.
Washington released the funds after Pakistain and the United States on Tuesday signed an agreement governing NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... convoys travelling through Pakistain into Afghanistan until the end of 2015.
The fund, which is designed to reimburse Pakistain for the cost of counter-insurgency operations, paid $8.8 billion to Pakistain between 2002 and 2011.
But Islamabad stopped claiming the money as relations collapsed in the wake of the May 2011 raid that killed the late Osama bin Laden ... who knows that it's like to live in the belly of a whale only he's not living...
The crisis fell to a new low when US air strikes killed 24 Pak soldiers and Islamabad imposed a seven-month blockade on NATO traffic in protest.
"We received $1.118 billion from the coalition support fund last night,"Syed Wasimuddin, front man for the central State Bank of Pakistain, told AFP.
He said it was the first installment since $633 million in December 2010.
Analysts have suggested that the $1.1 billion dollars is particularly beneficial to Pakistain as it tries to head off a new financial crisis created by poor tax revenues, mismanagement and overgenerous subsidies.
The fund has increased the country's total liquid foreign exchange reserves to $15692.5 million.
Pakistain's total foreign reserves stood at $14,574.5 million on July 27, 2012, according to SBP. According to break-up, foreign reserves held by SBP were $10,139.3 million and net foreign reserves held by banks (other than SBP) $4,435.2 million on July 27, 2012
On Thursday, the US commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan held talks in Pakistain for the first time since the NATO supply lines resumed.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2012
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#1
Uh, uh, $$$ IS N-O-T EVERYTHING???
To wit,
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > US ONE MAJOR [terror] ATTACK AWAY FROM TAKING [Military] ACTION AGZ PAKISTAN, ala the threat from the Haqqani Network.
ARTIC > NEW HAQQANI STRATEGY = FOCII IS TO BASE ON TERROPS CAPABLE OF INFLICTING "MASS CASUALTIES" AMONGST US-NATO PERSONNEL, ESPEC US MILFORS.
versus
* SAME > [Newly signed US-Pak MOU] PAKISTAN TO ALLOW SUPPLY ROUTES THROUGH [End-of-Year] 2015.
[Dawn] Amid growing challenges of policing and handling the city situation that ranged from militancy to assassinations and street crimes to kidnap for ransom, the authorities seem more concerned about the security of bigwigs, politicians, politicians and other 'important personalities' as the number of coppers deployed for the security of such individuals has risen from 4,500 in 2010 to more than 6,500, it emerged on Wednesday.
The situation is said to be disturbing for the city police hierarchy, which is mulling withdrawal of a 'significant' number of coppers carrying out security duty to depute them for regular policing, currently being handled with a mere 11,000 coppers.
More than half of the sanctioned strength of the key law-enforcement agency is carrying out either administrative jobs or guard duty to protect individuals.
"Till June 2010, there were some 4,500 coppers performing guard duty with different personalities on security grounds," said an official. "At that time the Sindh police were spending more than Rs117 million from their regular budget under this head.
The number of coppers on such duty has now increased to 6,590 and the expenditure would also have surged proportionally."
He said under the city police organizational structure, 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... had been divided into two zones -- Security Zones I and II -- that served as a pool of coppers dedicated to serve different individuals.
"There are 1,891 coppers in Security Zone I and 3,911 in Security Zone II. Also, there is a foreign security cell with the strength of 788 coppers which is supposed to provide security to different foreign missions, consulates and diplomats," he added.
In addition to manpower, the police department annual fuel budget was affected, as the personnel on guard duty use police vehicles and fuel while travelling with individuals, said the official.
While the Sindh government had increased the police department budget by more than 25 per cent from Rs30.47 billion to Rs38.44 billion this year, critics and bigwigs said the increase would hardly bring a change to the overall performance of the city police amid growing spending on individuals' security rather than regular policing.
"We are seriously planning the withdrawal of force from security duty," said Iqbal Mahmood, the city police chief designated as additional inspector-general of Sindh police. "We have plans to raise Mohafiz force with around 2,000 personnel to handle the law and order situation in any part or district of the city."
For experts and critics, acquiring services of coppers for personal security has more to do with a mindset than a genuine threat to the lives different individuals. They said the trend should come to an end once and for all.
"You can't withdraw or cut that number gradually," said Nazim F. Haji, the founding chief of the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC). "Representatives of people or holders of public office should not feel so insecure and if they do so they should not expose that fear. One can't expect security from insecure people," he remarked.
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[Dawn] A Death Eater, reportedly the head of banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP), south Punjab chapter, was killed on Wednesday in Dera Ghazi Khan in an encounter with police and law-enforcement agencies, according to a handout issued by the Punjab police.
Abdul Ghaffar Qaisarani, of Taunsa, who was wanted in a terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore in 2010 and a bank robbery in Taunsa in 2011, was killed in the operation near Ghazi Ghat, 19km from Dera Ghazi Khan, in the Drahma police remits.
Law enforcers had learnt that Ghaffar was traveling in a bus from Khanpur to Rajanpur. The personnel picketed Ghazi Ghat on the Indus and started checking vehicles.
During checking of the bus, Ghaffar threw a grenade and tried to escape. The grenade did not explode. Ghaffar then tried to flee while firing. Law enforcers shot and killed him before he could target any one.
A member of the operation team seeking anonymity told Dawn that Qaisarani had a hand-grenade and two sophisticated guns on him. He said Qaisarani, alias Saifullah, was associated with the banned TTP. He had been tasked with raising funds through bank robberies.
Qaisarani is survived by his widow, two daughters and a son. Dera police had been kept unaware of the operation. According to a handout issued by the police, Multan City Police Officer Aamir Zulfiqar Khan said Ghaffar -- alias Ghaffari, alias Moulvi Saifullah and son of Ghulam Husain was a resident of Taunsa and head of the banned TTP, southern Punjab.
He said the suspect had links with Imran and Arshad Punjabi, Taliban capos in North Wazoo. He said he was wanted in a bank robbery, which took place in Taunsa and in another case of keeping kaboom.
The CPO said he was also wanted in another robbery at the Habib Bank Limited in the Sheetal Mari area of Multan a few days ago.
Two security guards were killed in the robbery. The handout said Multan police had set up a picket near the Chenab on a tip off that a few terrorists, traveling by a bus, were arriving in Multan. The police signalled the bus driver to stop but he accelerated and tried to flee.
Later, a CIA team stopped the bus at a picket near Ghazi Ghaat and began physical search of the passengers. In the meantime, Ghaffar threw a hand-grenade after removing its pin to target the passengers. The coppers managed to capture the terrorist but he opened fire on the police as he was off-loaded from the bus. The police also retaliated and killed him.
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[Dawn] Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship. on Thursday said Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... is target of world power game and local beturbanned goon organizations and banned outfits are forwarding their agenda.
Malik was briefing the Senate about the Balochistan policy.
He said that there are certain sensitive things that he cannot tell publicly.
He requested that officials of Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI) should be summoned to record their statements.
Winding up the discussion on the Balochistan issue, Malik said "We cannot keep Balochistan aloof of world power game. Some aliens are harboring external aggression into Balochistan and interfere in our affairs,"
"The issue is grave. If we are negligent of it, history will not forgive us. We will have to reach a solution before it is too late," he said. Categorically blaming the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... who both he said were involved in present situation in Balochistan.
The interior minister said that the BLA had claimed the responsibility of most of the kabooms and killings in the province.
Malik claimed that BLA and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) had relations with each other for five years.
He said that transformation towards Independent Balochistan is not new as he mentioned to uprising of Nawaz Nauroz Khan, Sher Muhammad Bijarani in 1963-66 and Kher Bakhsh Marri led to uprising of 1973-78.
"Today once again the follow up of those uprisings. Harbyar Marri and Brahamdagh Bugti are operating from abroad. We know that people are killed when Harbyar calls cut-throats in Balochistan."
Malik critiqued the proposed resolution by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher in the US House of Representatives a few months back in which he demanded that Baloch people should have a right to self-determination.He said that he cannot understand that why Balochistan case was specifically discussed in US Congress when there were human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... violations in other provinces as well.
The Interior Minister claimed there was intervention from Afghanistan in the province, for which Pakistain raised its concerns with President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... . Karzai had said that the areas bordering Pakistain were under NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... /Isaf forces' control not in the hands of Afghan army.
Moreover, Malik said that people of Balochistan were patriotic. There are some myrmidons in the province who have destabilised the peace in the region.
The Interior Ministry on Wednesday submitted a special report in the Federal Cabinet over the prevailing law and order situation in Balochistan.
According to the report, at least 868 people have been killed, 619 kidnapped, and 2390 have gone missing from the province since 2010.
The report claimed that Laskar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), Lashkar-e-Balochistan, Baloch Musalla Difa Tanzeem, and the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) were involved in disrupting the law and order situation of the province.
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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.
NASAs Commercial Crew integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative award winners were announced on Friday, with SpaceX, Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) all winning agency money to develop their vehicles to the next stage of providing domestic access to the International Space Station (ISS) for US astronauts.
MADRID: Spanish police arrested three suspected Al-Qaeda members thought to have been planning an attack in Spain or elsewhere in Europe and seized explosives, the government said Thursday.
[An Nahar] Syrian shells hit at dawn Thursday an area in the northern district of Akkar that lies six kilometers away from the Lebanese-Syrian border, injuring two people, the National News Agency reported.
Orakzai Agency
Kurram Agency
Four new 
Wazoo
Syrian rebels used tanks to attack a military airport northwest of 
Police on Wednesday registered an FIR of the killing of two Rangers personnel on a complaint of Mohammad Shabbir, a personnel of the paramilitary force, against unidentified attackers.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
The Israeli Defense Ministry estimated that if the country engaged in a war with Hizbullah and Iran some 200 Israeli civilians would die.
cycle of violence
India plans to launch a mission to Mars next year, putting an orbital probe around the red planet to study its climate and geology, top space department officials said yesterday.
Attacks in Iraq killed 17 people on Thursday, including four members of a family who were murdered with knives, security and medical officials said.
Nawaz Sharif
A bull in the mood for love damaged an Arkansas sheriff's patrol car when it tried to mount a man who was leading the animal across a yard.
Afghan officials said Thursday that five 
...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...
The cabinet yesterday approved a proposal for amending an ordinance to give more powers to the Grameen Bank chairman to choose the managing director of the microlender.
DHAKA: Bangladesh has ordered three international charities to stop providing aid to Rohingya refugees who cross the border to flee persecution and violence in Myanmar, an official said on Thursday.
Pakistain said Thursday it had received $1.1 billion dollars from the United States for its fight against
Amid growing challenges of policing and handling the city situation that ranged from militancy to 
[Dawn] A
"The issue is grave. If we are negligent of it, history will not forgive us. We will have to reach a solution before it is too late," he said. Categorically blaming the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and 
