Saudi King Abdullah invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for an extraordinary summit of Muslim leaders to be held this month in the holy city of Mecca, state news agency SPA reported Sunday. The Saudi monarch "sent a written letter to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inviting him to attend the extraordinary Islamic solidarity meeting which will be held in Mecca" in mid-August, SPA reported.
Tensions have been running high between the Sunni-dominated kingdom and Shiite Iran as both regional powers had taken opposite stances on the uprisings in Bahrain and Syria. Hmmm. Wonder if this is another data point indicating our ol' buddy Bandar Bush drew the short straw in the Archduke Franz Ferdinand Memorial Sweepstakes?
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
08/05/2012
19:01 ||
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Global jihad terrorists attack Egyptian military base in Sinai, stealing 2 armored vehicles and ramming through Kerem Shalom Crossing; firefight with IDF soldiers ensues, at least 3 terrorists killed.
Global jihad terrorists infiltrated into Israel on Sunday night after breaking into an Egyptian military base and stealing two armored jeeps. One of the vehicles exploded as it rammed through the Kerem Shalom Crossing into Israel and another crossed through. Several armed terrorists exited the vehicle and a firefight broke out with IDF troops as dozens of mortars rained down on nearby communities.
Al Arabiya reported that 15 Egyptian soldiers were killed in the attack on their base and several more were wounded.
The attack began at around 8 PM, likely in retaliation to an Israeli airstrike earlier in the day against a global jihad terror cell which the IDF said was in the final stages of launching an attack against Israel along the Egyptian border. One terrorist was killed in the strike and another was seriously injured.
Former U.S. defense secretary tells Fox News that international sanctions have had no impact on the Iranian regime Given leaks at White House, Rumsfeld says he would not notify U.S. of Iran plans if he were in the Israeli government.
They should let it slip to the Bambi administration (accidently, of couse) that they've decided not to do anything to Iran.
Just before they bomb Iran back to the Stone Age.
Posted by: Barbara ||
08/05/2012 19:58
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#4
Iran has not closed off the Persian Gulf + the Strait of Hormuz, ergo present no threat to World Trade - by most Pert accounts, Iran has no Nukes + there is no evidence that is or will proliferate dangerous Nuke-WMD Techs to Radical Islamist Militant-Terror Groups or aligned.
IN IRAN'S VIEW, THE US-ISRAEL HAVE NO REASON TO ATTACK IT, WHILE THEIR NATION'S RIGHT TO NUKES IS MORALLY + LEGALLY CONSISTENT WID INTERNATIONAL LAW + "GLOBALISM".
That leaves Pakistan vs. Taliban, etal. + 2014; + newly MilPol-aggressive Rising-China-vs-Everybody in the East + South China Seas [First Island Chain]. "POST-US" WORLD #1 WANNABE,
"MANIFEST DESTINY" HAPPY CHINA WANTS OVERSEAS PLA BASES, + ITS NOT TAKING "NO" FOR AN ANSWER.
Unless Iran does something singularly moronic e.g. de facto close off the Gulf + SoH, or get caught tranferring Nuke-WMD Techs to MilTerr Groups, A US-IRAN WAR WILL MOST LIKELY OCCUR AS FOLLOW-ON TO ANOTHER REGIONAL MIL CONFLICT(S) THAT BROKE OUT EARLIER.
Again, while it nuclearizes Iran will desire to stay on the strategic defensive AMAP ALAP. Pesky Persians like to be Pesky but NOT to the point of causing a US-led war + ground invasion.
#5
I don't trust Israel to keep our secrets and I'm sure Israel doesn't trust us to keep theirs.
I agree with Rumsfeld's assessment. I would also expect the US not to tell Israel before it would go in until the operation was underway and then tell them to fire up Iron Dome. Shit may be incoming from Iran.
OAK CREEK, Wisc. (Reuters) - A shooting at a Sikh temple outside Milwaukee left at least seven people dead on Sunday, police said.
Four people were shot inside the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin and three outside, including a gunman killed by police, Greenfield Police Chief Bradley Wendtlandt told reporters.
#1
"With absolutely no evidence, we are reporting that it was a Tea Party member with a Chick-Fil-A franchise. Over to you, George"
/Brian Ross
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/05/2012 15:29
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#2
I see it now Frank, wearing his NRA god and Guns shirt, holding an assault rifle, bible in his back pocket and Chic fillet in his hand, his Tea part memberhip in his wallet, he is heard over the gunfire shouting god hates gays and muslims!
Hot damn I should work for MSNBC!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/05/2012 16:38
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#3
OOPS, Missed it, God hate Gays, muslims and Gurus! There fixed.
In any event I hope the guy that did the shooting rots in hell.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/05/2012 16:41
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#4
Have 'em riding off on a ballet horse and I think you hit for the cycle.
#5
Crime Scene:
500 - Good Guys unarmed.
1 - Bad Guy armed.
Result:
10 - Good Guys Dead or Wounded
1 - First Responder Police Officer/Multiple Gun Shot Wounds
1 - Bad Guy Dead
Fallout:
More brain dead politicians huffing and puffing for more gun laws, to try to control violence by bad guys who have not intention of following those laws.
For decades, executives at unionized companies have harbored the fantasy that they could dictate the wages, benefits and working conditions of their employees, just like non-union firms. "Dictate" sort of gives away the author's bias. While I do not belong to a union, no one "dictates" my wages. If I don't like them here, I go over there.
What stood in their way was the unions' ability to mount a strike that would prove more costly than paying above-market compensation. In the language of economics, the strike gave workers market power.
Now, at a hydraulics plant in Joliet, Ill., this corporate fantasy is about to become economic reality. Thanks to globalization, declining union density and years of chipping away at labor laws, Caterpillar is set to prove that even unionized companies can operate as if they have no union at all. Southwest Airlines is not unionized, makes tons of money, but I hear it's a good place to work, not a sweatshop.
In the previous six-year contract, Caterpillar won a two-tier wage structure: Existing employees would get to keep wages that average about $26, but there would be no raises and new employees would be paid wages pegged to the existing market -- roughly $12 to $19, depending on the job classification. Instead of the old defined-benefit pension plan, the company would put 3 percent of each worker's base pay into a 401(k) retirement account, and match employee contributions up to an additional 3 percent. The company would continue to pay 90 percent of the premiums for a generous health insurance plan, and profit sharing that averaged $2,300 a year. This year, the union upped the ante and management said, "No." The union walked out.
The reason Caterpillar has no intention of negotiating with its workers is pretty simple: It doesn't have to. In the three months since the strike began, the company says its Joliet plant has produced all the hydraulic parts it needs. The work is done by supervisors, newly hired employees and employees contracted from temporary help agencies, along with 80 and 100 union members who have crossed the daily picket lines and returned to work. If things really got tight, the company could always import the same parts from other Caterpillar plants around the world.
Caterpillar's success in effectively neutering its unions is the result of decades of disciplined work and billions of dollars in investment. The turning point came in the 1990s when, after two long strikes, 9,000 members of the United Auto Workers at its giant facility in Peoria, Ill., effectively capitulated and went back to work on terms dictated by the company. The strikes demonstrated to Caterpillar's workers that they were not as irreplaceable as they thought, and that their picket lines would no longer deny the company the workers or the raw materials needed to continue operation. As it turned out, the capitulation also allowed Caterpillar to avoid the near-death experience of the Big Three automakers, which accepted the UAW's overly generous contracts for another decade. In other words, Caterpillar bit the bullet a decade before Obama bailed out the UAW. But I don't think Caterpillar could've waited another ten years. WaPo will never admit that this was a good thing...
Caterpillar makes no bones about the fact it intends to bring its scary "market-based" approach to worker pay and benefits to every location. That message, apparently, was lost on the 465 unionized workers at a 62-year-old locomotive plant in London, Ontario, that Caterpillar bought a few years ago. Those workers had been getting $35 an hour. Caterpillar's take-it-or-leave-it offer was for half that, along with substantial cuts in benefits. When the workers balked, Caterpillar closed the plant, took its cutting-edge diesel-electric (railroad locomotive)technology and moved production to Muncie, Ind., where workers lined up for a shot at one of $12- to $18-an-hour jobs. I wonder why Obama didn't bail out the Canadian union?
It is easy to get moralistic It's especially easy for WaPo to get moralistic...
about a company that pays its chief executive $16.5 million as a reward for squeezing the incomes of employees who, even at the top of the scale, earn about one-half of 1 percent of what he does. It's just not fair!
It's easy to get nostalgic about the loss of union power that really did make it possible for generations of workers with only a high-school education to enter the middle class. But the reality is that Caterpillar probably has no choice but to bow to the dictates of the markets -- not only the markets from which it gets it labor but also the markets from which it raises its capital and the markets into which it sells its products. If it can't sell its products at above-market prices or offer its investors below-market returns, it can't afford to pay its workers above-market wages. Then the author goes on about fairness. Caterpillar, he says, pays mid-level guys 15% above market to keep and motivate them. Why not pay the union guys 15% above market, too? It just ain't FAIR! Employers gotta responsibility!
Because of its size and reputation, companies like Caterpillar also need to acknowledge that they have an outsize impact on the social, political and economic environment in which markets operate. WaPo means that Caterpillar should embrace progressive politics and then work to install those politics on the rest of us...
Caterpillar should not expect voters to embrace its aggressive free-trade philosophy if globalization merely gives it license to grind down the incomes of average workers. Most purchasing guys are not worried about politics - get them a good product at a good price.
It shouldn't expect politicians to approve more money for public works projects just because those benefit everybody, or give the green light to increased coal and shale-oil production just to dump the oil ticks -- both big generators of Caterpillar sales -- if the profits from those sales won't be shared fairly with front-line workers. Ask the locomotive workers in Muncie if they are being treated fairly. The profits are shared -- people have jobs. In a society with a U-6 unemployment rate of 15% that's a good way to share...
And it shouldn't expect to win the good opinion of investors or the public if its human-resource strategy is to become the recognized leader in the corporate race to the bottom. $18 an hour plus good health care benefits and employer contributions to a 401K is a race to the bottom?
The reason the union movement is in trouble is because unions abused their market power and overplayed their hands. No, really?
Now, it is Corporate America that has gained the upper hand, and if the news from Joliet, Ill., is any indication, it is about to make the same mistake. The market will decide! Put the unions back in charge, WaPo, and what do you think will happen?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/05/2012
13:31 ||
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#1
Caterpillar helps oppress Palestinians. Outfoxes unions. Is there anything they can't do?
#3
and the WaPo hemorrhages money, kept afloat only by their Kaplan test-prep biz.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/05/2012 14:35
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Glenmore - I believe you are right.
In contrast to non-union competitor JetBlue Airways, Southwest maintains its profitability and low-fare, low-cost business model while being heavily unionized. The Southwest Airline Pilots' Association, a union not affiliated with the Air Line Pilots Association, represents the airline's pilots. The Aircraft Maintenance Technicians' are represented by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA). Customer Service Agents and Reservation Agents are represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Union (IAM). Flight Dispatchers, Flight Attendants, Ramp agents and Operations agents are represented by the Transport Workers Union (TWU).
But their flight attendants clean up the cabins, so I think the work rules must be a bit more reasonable.
About ten years ago, I read a study about why Southwest was so profitable. The one thing that stuck in my head was that their pilots flew twice as much as the older, traditional airlines. Yet they manage a pretty good safety record!
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/05/2012 15:51
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#5
I surely was not going to waste my time reading the whole thing. I'm sure he wedged that magic word "stakeholders" in there somewhere.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/05/2012 16:22
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#6
Classic socialist drivel. Good job Cat.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/05/2012 16:35
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#10
In the language of socialist economics, the strike gave workers market power.
FIGY
In the language of capitalist economics, each party voluntarily takes part in a transaction that leaves both better off. Otherwise, the transaction does not take place.
#11
If it can't sell its products at above-market prices or offer its investors below-market returns, it can't afford to pay its workers above-market wages.
Unless in a fascist-crony environment where they nationalize the company for the 'workers' and then stick the extraordinary expenses and loses upon the backs of the common citizen. Never happen here though. /sarc
Israel is getting tough with Arab countries that do not recognize Israel and bars them from crossing Jordan to Ramallah.
The Foreign Minister explained that diplomats from Cuba, Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh are not being allowed to attend a mini-Non-Aligned Movement conference in the Palestinian Authority headquarters because their governments do not have diplomatic ties with Israel.
A delegation from Algeria was to be barred, but the country told its officials to return home before Israel could bar therm.
The conference was to be held to back PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas; renewed attempt to win recognition from the United Nations, this time as an observer state, but the PA said it will cancel the meeting because of Israels action.
Other countries that were to attend include those who have ties with Israel, such as Egypt, Jordan, India, Colombia and South Africa.
#1
Surprised they didn't do that long ago. I understand Israeli hospitals are the place to go if you are a rich Saudi in need of urgent care. Israel helped them out hoping to buy good will but that just doesn't seem to work with neighbors that take all signs of civilization as weakness.
Seven months after the last U.S. troops left their country, Iraqis are surprisingly optimistic about the future, given the horrors of war they have endured for nearly a decade. Not to mention the 30+ years of brutal, repressive, dictatorial rule.
Housing developments, shopping centers and hospitals are rising from the rubble, stores that had been closed for years are reopening, and old familiar sights -- busy ice cream parlors and Baghdad's famous red double-decker buses -- are returning.
Violence has dropped sharply from its height in 2006 and 2007, but people are murdered with bombs and guns every day, just not as many as in Chicago and Detroit. Coordinated bombings on July 23 killed more than 100 people and wounded dozens more, the bloodiest day in Iraq in two years.
Oil production and revenue are surging back to levels not seen since before former president Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990. Yet the government barely provides the basics of life: schools, clean water and electricity on summer days that routinely crack 120 degrees. We used to get weekly reports of electricity produced. IIRC, 1/3 of the time was pretty good in 2005.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq's democratically elected leader, presides over a government that -- according to critics from international human rights groups to Baghdad bus drivers -- is ineffective, increasingly authoritarian and repressive toward its political enemies. Experts and bus drivers - they ought to know! I'd trust the bus drivers, they have their fingers on the pulse of the public...
In dozens of interviews this summer across Iraq, many people said that their lives were safer and more prosperous under Hussein and that the U.S. invasion was not worth the price both countries have paid. Could we see how the questions were phrased, please? How many Kurds were in the poll?
Even those who were grateful that the Americans ousted Hussein were happy the U.S. troops are gone. At least now, they said, Iraqis would rise or fall on their own.
New development is everywhere. An eight-story Baghdad Mall is being built by a Turkish developer, and Maximall, a huge new department store, attracts thousands of shoppers. New car dealerships, shops, houses and offices are rising, along with a luxury spa offering expensive, trendy treatments using tanks of little fish that nibble away damaged skin. How progressive!
Families play in riverfront parks with Ferris wheels, merry-go-rounds and cotton candy. Young men whiz in and out of traffic on in-line skates, grabbing rides on bumpers, dodging cars while chatting on their cellphones. Yeah, but can they text while they skate?
Nearly a decade of American presence here has left a clear impression on Iraqi culture. On the sidewalks, young men are virtually indistinguishable from their American counterparts, wearing jeans and T-shirts and tattoos. Kids sport T-shirts featuring American cultural images, from "The X-Files" to professional wrestler John Cena to folk icon Arlo Guthrie.
At Burger Joint, a brand new restaurant in Mansour, the vibe is as American as the burgers on the grill: The waiters take orders on iPads as Sinatra and Motown classics play in the background. Burger Joint is the first unabashedly American-style eatery in Baghdad -- and it is packed nightly. The menu, in Arabic and English, also offers hot dogs and milkshakes and apple pie.
On the streets, people said they were disgusted that Maliki's government has been incapable of stopping the daily violence, and has actually created more by feeding sectarian tensions. Another American feature -
Corruption is rampant, and people complain that political donations bribery is the only way to get a job, a building permit or a government contract. Transparency International listed Iraq as the 175th worst out of 183 countries in its 2011 annual corruption survey. I wonder where Champ's 'most transparent regime ever' fits in?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/05/2012
10:48 ||
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Sandi confirmed NBC's Andrea Mitchell report that Jackson was receiving treatment in facility in Arizona. At her request, Jackson's brother Yusef took him to the Sierra Tucson Treatment Center in Arizona. She denied the part of the report that said her husband was suffering from alcoholism and addiction.
Doctors at the Arizona facility determined Jackson's depression might be connected to a weight-loss surgery he had a few years ago, and that's when he was referred to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
Sandi Jackson siad her husband is doing better now, but he's still having "his good days and bad days." She said they're increasing his depression medication to therapeutic levels, and that doctors are still trying to confirm the link between his depression and his weight-loss surgery.
His family visits regularly, and they're taking the recovery process one day at a time. "I fully expect him to return to work, but not a day before the doctor says its OK. Thats the word we are waiting for," she said.
Jackson's office didn't offer any sort of explanation for his disappearance until two weeks after he was admitted to the hospital. Sandi Jackson said he's been under a "news blackout" since he entered treatment, dismissing the theory her husband was hiding from a bribery investigation into his friend, Raghuveer Nayak. Nayak wasn't arrested until June 20, ten days after Jackson disappeared.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2012
09:57 ||
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#1
no mention of investigation of the bribe his minions offered Blago?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/05/2012 10:28
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#2
dismissing the theory her husband was hiding from a bribery investigation into his friend, Raghuveer Nayak.....wew! But the timing was pretty goo.
#3
He's gotta come out sometime soon to campaign. Even his district won't elect an absentee congress critter...
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/05/2012 12:19
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#4
Steve, c'mon! This is Illinois we're talking about. He's Jesse Jackson, JR, fer crying out loud. He doesn't need to campaign. He just needs to say "I'm Jesse Jackson JR, and I approved this message"
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
08/05/2012 13:43
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#5
If I was that big of a scumbag I'd be depressed. But I'm thinking if you're shameless enough to become that big of a scumbag you wouldn't be depressed about it. You'd be living large like all the rest of the kleptocracy. Must be something else.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/05/2012 14:24
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#6
The people of the 2nd district in Illinois previously elected Gus Savage and Mel Reynolds to represent them. Can you say "stuck on stupid"?
it hits blacks and whites and in between, poor and rich, morally good and morally bad, tall and short, lean and fat
in some cases the disease is easily treatable in others the doctors struggle to keep up
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/05/2012 15:01
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#8
combined with bribery, racial hucksterism, alcoholism, drugs, adultery, it can be exacerbated
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/05/2012 15:18
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#9
If the dude is so depressed that he can't show up for work, it is time for him to retire and let someone else do the job. He will make fat money in retirement.
Of all the people in the world, U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Godfather II. Doesnt he remind you of Sen. Pat Geary, the totally corrupt solon in the classic movie. Like the hypocritical Geary, Reid puts the blast on Romney for doing something he himself does refusing to release his taxes.
Mitt, I know James Michael Curley said, Never complain, never explain. Generally speaking, he was right. But youre running against the Outfit here, and theres nothing they wont do. Refresh yourself about Baracks Senate election in Illinois and the suddenly released divorce records of both his Democrat and Republican foes. Recall the 2008 presidential campaign, and the abject lies Obamas media rumpswabs knowingly peddled. Remember The New York Times [NYT] stories about John McCains mistress who wasnt, or Todd Palins membership in the Alaska National Party, which likewise was totally false. How many piss-poor columns has Gail Collins written about Seamus the dog on the roof, but Barack Obama actually eating dogs ... crickets please.
Mitt, cant you find some Republican as sleazy as Harry Reid to start making charges about Barry Soetoro. I mean, youre running against the capo of the Choom Gang, a guy with multiple names, multiple birthplaces, somebody who gave up his law license for never-explained reasons, a guy with a Social Security number from a state he never lived in.
And you turn the other cheek? You should have given Rich Gorka a raise for ripping into those Barack bumkissers in Poland. Instead, you benched him.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2012
09:50 ||
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#1
Dinghy Harry would be well-served to just shut up. He's got dirty underwear and dirty linen. The Donks are lobbing spitballs and rolling around in the mud. Tennessee Rep. Scott DeJarlais was accused by the Donks of taking money from Chinese pr0stituti0n for his campaign. The only prostitution going on here is Donk pr0stituti0n of the truth.
#3
There are lots of things we would like to say to the Donk leaders that would be newsworthy and get under their skin, but the MSM will not permit it. Even if Mitt began to give better than he got, they'd call it "hateful and hurtful".
I think the MSM are correct for suggesting that Mitt is a wimp, but are not correct in suggesting why they are correct: not because he has no "sex appeal", but he won't respond. Jesus did not respond to the patently wild-ass attacks, but he DID respond to the more plausible ones. And there were the "gimmies" that Jesus REFUSED to ignore, but happily hit out of the park.
Reid is a "gimmie" that Mitt's refusing to hit out of the park. What? He think's he's better than Jesus? Puhleeze, I will NOT vote for someone THAT delusional.
#4
Mitt's not a wimp: ask Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich.
He's just saving his ammo.
I'm not sure that's the right political play this election, but it's his call.
I do think that descending into the gutter with Harry Reid is wrong. It's wrong to accuse him of pederasty and pedophilia without evidence, just as it's wrong and evil for Reid to accuse Mitt of being a tax dodger. I'd like to think that the better part of our society would condemn Reid of his scandalous behavior, and not mimic it by accusing him of pederasty and pedophilia.
Then again, since Mr. Reid is getting a free pass, one can understand why honest citizens, frustrated with the lack of decency in Washington, would take matters into their own hands and accuse Mr. Reid of pederasty and pedophilia. The Outfit is willing to do anything to bring this election home for Obama, and so there is the temptation to accuse Reid of pederasty and pedophilia, even though there is (currently) no evidence of it.
Tusk, tusk.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/05/2012 12:24
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#5
The congress should vote on censure or whatever it is called to against Harry for his innuendo and slander. Shine a bright light on the cockroaches and they scurry.
#6
Those who delivered Guernica, Warsaw, Rotterdam, London and Coventry, received Hamburg, Berlin and Dresden in return. You learn to play their game to win. Civility only returns after the devastation is so great, wiser minds remember not to start it in the first place. The only choices the other side offers you are surrender or fight.
#7
nobody's accusing him of Pederasty, Dr. Steve. We're just raising the question since so many say that he is but don't want to actually go on the record. It's up to him to prove he's not. That's teh Democrat rule, nobody in teh WH is telling him to knock it off, so we'll play by the same Chicago/Vegas rules. You've got to play to win, and they're setting the bar. I want no McCain "losing honorably". It's a political knifefight, and if they pull guns (so to speak), we will too. A guy like Harry is shameless, so you have to make him fear for his career for these tactics. I'd spend some money digging into his, his sons' past and financials. He, after all, refuses to release his returns. His son is acting as a lawyer for a Chinese firm Harry supported....
No more Mr. Nice Guy. They called the rules
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/05/2012 13:37
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#8
Sorry, Steve, I also have to register my respectful disagreement. Your hope that "the better part of our society" would stay on a higher-minded, decent path this campaign season risks a repeat of 2008. The Obamunists are counting on their media stooges to keep Team Mittens bottled up within the Alinsky rule of "make the enemy follow their own rules", in this case trying to force Romney into a permanent Marquess of Queensberry campaign mode.
OTOH, this interesting 1-page summary of Alinsky's Rules for Radicals contains the elements that our side can use to wage a guerrilla campaign against the Obama/DNC/MSM machine. Choice cuts:
#5: Ridicule is man's most important weapon. How can you NOT ridicule a corruptocrat senator who looks like a cross between ET and the Cryptkeeper?
#6: A good tactic is one your people enjoy. The great Iowahawk has done brilliant pioneering work with this one. Remember when the scumbag ABC reporter Brian Ross falsely accused a Tea Party member of being the Aurora, CO movie-theater shooter? Iowahawk collected a series of links to random news stories about guys named "Brian Ross" being arrested for crimes ranging from check fraud to rape and murder, then posted them on Twitter as "Brian Ross's One-Man Crime Wave." The "Harry the Pederast" schtick is simply in keeping with this idea, and I don't have a damn bit of sympathy for the target.
#8: Keep the pressure on. Never let up. Be Breitbart. Keep trying new stuff; keep the bastards off-balance and unable to mount a coherent counterattack.
Now this isn't the first time I've inserted this vid, and for the same reason...
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
08/05/2012 14:18
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#9
Fight clean in the 2012 election---if you don't mind your grandchildren being serfs.
#10
I'd better apply the 'sarc' tag next time. I only mentioned pederasty and pedophilia four times to see if I could help raise Mr. Reid's Google profile...
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/05/2012 14:34
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#11
*squints*.... hmmmm. I guess he's OK, boys
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/05/2012 14:36
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#12
He's just saving his ammo.
I sincerely hope you're right about that. I got really impatient this morning watching Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer on CBS. The donks kept harping on Mitt's tax returns and neither Schieffer nor any of the Repubs would make any mention whatsoever about Barry's college records. They must have been congratulating themselves for their discipline and the way they stayed on script about the economy. But that's not gonna work because the donks kept coming back with lies and half truths about the economy. This nonsense needs to stop. Somebody needs to call bullshit. Mitt needs to take off the gloves and play smash mouth.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/05/2012 14:42
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#13
I only mentioned pederasty and pedophilia four times to see if I could help raise Mr. Reid's Google profile...
I get that. I actually got a chuckle out of it. But I was not amused by Schieffer.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/05/2012 14:44
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#14
I'd better apply the 'sarc' tag next time. I only mentioned pederasty and pedophilia four times to see if I could help raise Mr. Reid's Google profile...
OK Steve, you got us all pretty good with that one. In that spirit...did everyone notice how the original article compared Dingy Harry to "Pat Geary," the corrupt Nevada Senator from Godfather II? Now while I can't say for sure that Harry Reid has ever been found lying semiconscious next to a dead hooker, I think inquiring minds MIGHT want to know about the association of Harry Reid with a possible allegedly dead hooker.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
08/05/2012 14:50
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#15
THIS is how you do it:
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/05/2012 15:17
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#16
This is indeed how you do it - through a proxy.
#17
one who calls it harsh and sharp and won't back down. Now Harry "land deals and no tax returns" Reid, alleged pederast, gets to respond.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/05/2012 19:35
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#18
Now Harry "land deals and no tax returns" Reid, alleged pederast, gets to respond.
Now Harry "land deals and no tax returns" Reid, alleged pederast who may or may have not been found lying semiconscious in a whorehouse bed next to an eviscerated practitioner of The World's Oldest Profession; nobody knows for sure; you know how it is with that whole "anonymous sourcing" thing, gets to respond.
FIFY :-)
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
08/05/2012 20:07
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[Yemen Post] Yemen's Interior Minister Abdul-Qader Qahtan has affirmed that Yemen's security services seek to root up al-Qaeda and expel it form Yemen, pointing out that it cooperates with its neighboring states to expel the organization form the destabilized state.
In remarks to a Saudi newspaper, Okaz, Qahtan said Yemen does best to find out the Saudi diplomat Abdullah Al-Khalidi who was kidnapped by Al-Qaeda.
He said that the ministry seeks to find out al-Khalidi, affirming that there is no confirmed information about his location.
He declined to give any information about the side that was behind the attack on the interior ministry in which about 15 persons were killed.
He further said that Yemen still suffers of child trafficking, singling out that it coordinates with Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face... to stand against the phenomenon.
Saudi Arabia repatriated last month about 100 children who infiltrated to the Saudi land to the Yemeni authorities.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Esquimeau village our hero was receiving a quick lesson in aeronautics...... the Yemeni authorities in Haradh foiled attempts of trafficking 80 children to the Saudi land during the two past months.
According to the online website of Interior Ministry, the security authorities set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock Book 'im, Mahmoud! three child smugglers while they were attempting to smuggle a number of children who were all from Dhamar governorate.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2012
09:41 ||
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Yemen suffers from complicated administrative and educational problems that have resulted in the lack of employability skills to meet the labour market needs and contribute to the economic development process.
British Charge d'Affaires in Sanaa, Sharon Wardle, said the lack of employability skills makes Yemen depend on external workforce to provide and improve services.
The lack of generic skills affects the economy of any country in the world because it is a key reason for unemployment and deterioration of traditional industries, she said, pointing out that the shortfall of this problem is blamed on the lack of motivating and guiding students toward special disciplines in line with the labour market needs.
There is a dire need of specialized, developed education because the current education system has failed to produce key competencies and suitable output in line with the countrys economic and investment trends, she said at a ceremony to present the award for the best innovator from the technical education and vocational training schools in Sanaa.
Furthermore, qualified and skilled workforce is a key factor to attract foreign investments, boost the national economy, accelerate social change and improve livelihoods.
Diversified education is very necessary in Yemen at the moment to cope with continuous labour market changes triggered by technological and industrial developments, she added.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2012
09:40 ||
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#1
Stop shooting teachers, that'll help.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/05/2012 11:11
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An Al-Qaeda jacket wallahwent kaboom!" in south Yemen late on Saturday killing at least 23 people and injuring another 20, security sources in Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... province said.
The bombing targeted a condolence ceremony by the pro-government fighters in the Jaar town, one of the sources said by telephone. The attacker detonated his explosives belt inside the meeting room and that was shocking.
The victims were offering condolences to head of the pro-government fighters, who supported the army in the offensive that drove Al-Qaeda hard boyz out of their strongholds in Abyan in May, the source continued.
It was the deadliest attack in Abyan since the defeat of Al-Qaeda in May. In recent weeks, suspected hard boyz raided villages and military and security posts some parts of Abyan killing and injuring several troops.
Separately, military sources said several Al-Qaeda hard boyz were killed in an Arclight airstrike in Hadramout ...the formerly independent Qu'aiti state and sultanate, annexed by Communist South Yemen in 1968, encompassing a region along the Gulf of Aden, extending eastwards to the borders of the Dhofar region of Oman. The people are called Hadhramis and speak Hadhrami Arabic. The city Tarimis estimated to contain the highest concentration of descendants of the Prophet Muhammad (PTUI) anywhere in the world, approximately seven in every square yard... province amid an extensive hunt for key operatives after the defeat of Al-Qaeda.
Through April-May, the Yemeni army launched a US-backed offensive and retook control of key towns in Abyan including the capital Zinjibar and killed hundreds of hard boyz including big shots.
After the victory, the authorities have been hunting the hard boyz who fled from Abyan and Shabwa provinces after reports said they had planned to regroup and build centers to recruit new fighters.
Many cells and terrorist suspects have been jugged Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! so far.
In retaliation for the blows, Al-Qaeda has carried out deadly suicide kabooms targeting military and security chiefs, personnel, cadets and offices in several cities including the capital Sanaa.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2012
09:39 ||
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#1
Not sure about the marine or Octopus application. A bit too deep for my simple mind. However, after studying the IED chellenge for over a decade, it is now common knowledge that the majority of IED's are placed within 7k's (yes, commuting distance) of a village or town. Other "knowns" which have surfaced are the emplacer(s) likely reside in the village, are cognisant of ISAF traffic patterns, and advise locals on how to avoid the IED's. I will keep an open mind regarding the Octopus application.
#2
I have thought that a major strength of the US forces has always been their ability to act in small groups and independent of central control. And that everytime it has been tried (central control) it has failed dismally.
Of course there is the over-riding strategic plan under which all actions must take place but local flexibility has always been a strength, no?
#3
The article describes an approach for addressing tactical problems with a flexible strategy, which is fine and actually what the U.S. forces are trained to do. The article doesn't stop there, however. It then advocates using the same approach to developing strategy, which is very foolish.
The problem is information. Being able to know what set of things and procedures constitute a "flexible capability" in a complex system is hard to determine. And because any useful "flexible capability" will be necessarily complex, how does a policy-maker know that the capability is really working as intended? Thus the need for planning and testing the tools and methods needed for developing strategic assets and methods.
Setting out a clear strategy is extremely hard work, and arguing that we should adopt a strategy of not thinking about strategy is analogous to unilateral disarmament -- i.e. foolish.
Taliban faceless myrmidons carried out a series of co-ordinated attacks in a number of districts of Kunar province ... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country..... in eastern Afghanistan on Friday night, killing two civilians, local officials said. Two other civilians were maimed.
Taliban faceless myrmidons struck at least six districts including Dangam and Marora, targeting governors' offices, and police and army checkpoints, Kunar's governor, Fazullah Wahidi, said.
"The attacks were carried out with the support of Mighty Pak Army," Mr Wahidi said. "First the Mighty Pak Army started shelling the province. After that, faceless myrmidons started their attacks."
The Taliban grabbed credit for the attacks and said they killed several members of the Afghan cops.
Kunar shares a border with Pakistain. Local officials said that more than 1,000 missiles have been fired into the province in the past year. Shelling has increased recently and the Afghan Ministers of Defence and Interior today briefed politicians on the situation.
Interior Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi told Parliament that "there is no doubt that Pakistain is firing missiles in eastern parts of Afghanistan."
As many as six non-combatants were killed in the Bagram district of northern Parwan province when a civilian bus was ambushed by faceless myrmidons early Saturday morning, a security official said.
The incident occurred around 6 A.M. local time in the Niyaz Dara area of Bagram district, Asadullah Lodin of the 202 Shamshad police zone told TOLOnews.
Another person was injured in the incident, he added.
This comes as three others were maimed in a clash between security forces and bodyguards of Amir Khan Dawlatzai, a member of Afghan Parliament in Kabul, a police official said on Saturday.
Another incident in the Shina area of Kabul city on Saturday morning injured three people including one police, one civilian and one of Dawlatzai's bodyguards the Head of Kabul's Police Criminal Investigation Department, Mohammad Zaher, told TOLOnews.
Dawlatzai's bodyguards have been placed in durance vile Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! by the Afghan National Security Forces and investigations are underway, Zaher said.
Four, including three civilians and one Afghan National Army soldier, were killed in an thug attack on the Kabul-Jalalabad Highway, Kabul provincial front man Wafiullah Miyakhil told TOLOnews.
Three others were maimed in the incident.
In the south of Afghanistan, three jacket wallahs were killed in Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province on Saturday, according to a Ministry of Interior statement.
The statement said that the thugs, armed with Kalashnikovs and wearing burqas, launched an attack on a police checkpoint in the Noorzad district of Helmand province.
All of the faceless myrmidons were killed in the engagement.
Six Afghan troops and two New Zealand soldiers were killed during a battle with cut-throats in Bamyan province on Saturday. More than 21 others were maimed in the battle.
The New Zealand Defence Force said that their troops were near the town of Do Abe in Bamiyan coming to the aid of local security forces who had come under attack.
Badakhshan MP Wahidi Fakoori Behishti said that "one Afghan soldier remains unaccounted after the clash, which lasted for several hours in the area." The injured soldiers have been evacuated to a military hospital.
There is no exact information about the number of Taliban cut-throats casualties in the battle, he said.
New Zealand has around 150 soldiers in Afghanistan and has lost eight since 2003.
The New Zealand Defence Force did not have information immediately available as to whether any cut-throats were killed.
#1
If the early 20th century was about the East trying to join what it couldnt lick, the early 21st may be about the East trying to lick what it hasnt been able to join.
A police officer was killed and another one was wounded during an anti-militant raid in the capital of Russia's North Caucasus republic of Dagestan.
Police executed the raid against a member of a local terrorist militant group in Makhachkala late on Saturday. The terrorist militant opened fire on police after he was trapped inside a building at around 11:30 pm local time. The terrorist militant was killed.
A Catholic-run school in the southern Philippines has caused an uproar by banning students from wearing the hijab. The school is thought to be the first in the Philippines to enforce an outright ban on wearing the hijab.
The head of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos, said he had written to Pilar College in the port city of Zamboanga to demand a reversal of policy. Mehol Sadain said, "Pilar College should realise that while educational institutions can formulate their own policies, the same should not run counter to existing laws and state policies."
Sadain pointed out an education department policy stating that Muslim girls should be allowed to wear their head coverings in school and be exempted from non-Muslim religious rites.
But the school said in its letter to the council that it would not "deviate" from its Catholic principles, and said students from other religions were welcome but must strictly follow its non-hijab policy.
A suicide bombing blamed on al-Qaeda has killed 42 people in a southern Yemeni town recently recaptured by the army from the jihadis. Meanwhile, a suspected US drone strike late on Saturday killed five al-Qaeda terrorists militants, a local official said on Sunday.
The bomber struck on Saturday in Jaar, one of a number of towns in Abyan province that were recaptured by government troops in June after being held by al-Qaeda fighters for more than a year.Provincial governor Jamal al-Aqal said, "An al-Qaeda suicide bomber detonated his explosives belt during a mourning ceremony organised by the Popular Resistance Committees," a local militia that fought alongside the army in its counteroffensive.
An official at a hospital in Jaar said it had received the bodies of 24 of the dead, while medics said 12 people died of their injuries in three hospitals in the major southern city of Aden.
The suspected US drone strike came near the village of al-Qotn in Hadramawt province in the eastern part of Yemen. A local official said, "A drone fired two missiles at an all-terrain vehicle ... killing its five occupants, all members of al-Qaeda."
A police officer was shot and seriously injured in a gun attack in Pattani province on Sunday. While Pol Sr Sgt-Maj Abdulrosa Yuso, 45, of Sarong police station, gardening in front of his house, four men arrived on two motorcycles and opened fire at him with AK47 rifles. The attackers then fled.
The policeman was hit four times and seriously injured. Police recovered six spent AK47 shells at the scene.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/05/2012 16:13
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IMO POTUS Bammer should do it - iff the establishment or the US Congress is NOT going to be serious about stengthening the borders + closing serious immigration loopholes, WHY KEEP USELESS PCORRECT-DENIABLE GIVING LIP SERVICE FOR MANY YEARS AND DECADES TO A PROB THE GOVT IS NOT SERIOUS ABOUT SOLVING, save for continually expanding the Welfare-Nanny State $$$ which the Fed can no longer afford unless Pols break their routine election-year promises to keep taxes low.
SEND 'EM HOME, OR MAKE THEM "LEGAL" ASAP RESONABLY - since the Govt clearly doesn't wanna send 'em home, the alternative is to make them LEGAL!
LEGAL LIMBO = MORE GOVT WASTE UPON WASTE UPON WASTE UPON ... OF MAINSTREAM TAX $$$!
Unless the Fed = USA wants to be like Greece or Japan and go for that S&P, Fitch dowgrade vee the magical, overly excessive Debt-to-GDP Ratio of few or several 00% than at present???
#3
There is still a difference between being a legal resident and being able to vote. The DHS action will make it possible for illegal immigrants to get work permits. It doesn't say that they will become citizens and able to vote (legally, anyway) by election day.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
08/05/2012 21:34
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An Iraqi court has rejected a request to send a Hezbollah commander to the United States for trial. Ali Mussa Daqduq, a Lebanese militant, has been held in Iraq for the 2007 killings of five American soldiers, four of whom were captured, tortured and shot execution-style. But now the Iraqi central criminal court has ordered that Daqduq be freed immediately. The Court stated:
It is not possible to hand [Daqduq] over because the charges were dropped in the same case. Therefore, the court decided to reject the request to hand [him] over to the U.S. judiciary authorities, and to release him immediately.
#3
there's obviously a lot of backroom politics going on here. some deal has been reached. The Iraqi's didn't get what they wanted from the USA, so Daqduq walks.
Catch and release ain't applicable here. The differences are this guy ended up in the Iraqi court system; a lot farther than the average Talibani. He was also released by the Iraqis. US/NATO et al policy in Afghanistan wasn't involved.
#5
Don't we still have the wherewithal in Iraq to arrange for this character to have an accident?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/05/2012 14:19
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#6
well, after all, he was a talkative guy, treasure trove of blabbed secrets that we used to whack so many of his colleagues. Oh, and he promised to keep spying for us
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/05/2012 14:38
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#7
Stuff like this is why you don't "sit out" an election or waste your vote on a third party candidate, unless you can look yourself in the mirror no matter what you have done...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/05/2012 16:33
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#8
#4 'Catch and Release' is SOP.
Catch and release ain't applicable here.
A technical point which could potentially be debated, provided one had nothing else to do. The endgame is much the same however. He will undoubtedly go on to kill again.
But applying the premise of applying catch-and-release (a political decision applied by NATO to in an attempt to placate the Afghanis) to Iraq's decision (a political decision applied by the Iraqis to likely placate Iraqis and curry favor with the Iranians) is akin to saying that using columns of heavy armor is applicable to the mountains of Afghanistan, simply because it was used in both wars against Iraq.
Perhaps a pedantic point and non-essential to those on the ground. But those who effectively plan future wars study crap like this.
Posted by: Bill Ayres ||
08/05/2012 18:17
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#11
Just another memo to pack in the lower cognitive group for when the Intel guys talk about capturing enemy personnel for interrogation rather than killing them right then and there on the battlefield.
#12
I wouldn't call this Obama's fault. It was the fault of the neocons, who more or less told us that inside every Iraqi is an American struggling to get out. What we've discovered* is that inside every Iraqi is a troglodyte trying to get out. Iraqis voted in the politicians who picked these judges. Like it or not, the Iraqi voter had much a bigger hand in this terrorist's release than Obama.
* I don't think the neocons lied - they just don't know what the heck they're talking about. Many of them don't know the history, but even the ones that do don't have a basic conservative understanding of what makes humans tick. The conservative view is that they will follow what has been handed down from generation to generation. The neocon view is that they are Americans under the skin who need to be given a copy of the Constitution in order to become just like us.
There is something to the neocon view. The Germans and the Japanese did more or less abandon their old worldviews in the postwar era. But what neocons leave out is the massive shock we delivered to their system, by killing between 5% to 10% of their populations. A similar kind of massive shock is the same reason why so much of the pre-Islamic world in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia converted to Islam - large-scale massacres caused population crashes wherever Muslim armies prevailed.
#1
Yes, but sooner. I was on AM radio late last night and the Astrology signs are not good at all. World economic order, if you can call it that, will collapse. The world stock markets will be the beginning signal of collapse. Yes, 2012. I'm going to request a waver. Timeout maybe. You know like, I got times. The end is near sign might be handy. I got to have a dog. The guy always makes it when he has a dog.
#2
"It sounds like pseudoscience, but it's a published theory. "
This idiot doesn't seem to realize that those two things are not mutually exclusive. Shall we talk about UFOs? Nuclear winter/global freezing (circa 1975)? Global Warming? Phrenology? etc.
To quote the estimable Bugs Bunny, "Whadda marroon!"
Syrian television presenter Mohammed al-Saeed, abducted from his Damascus home in mid-July, has been executed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Observatory's Rami Abdel Rahman said, "The television presenter, a well-known figure on state TV, has been executed, and the Al-Nusra Front has claimed responsibility for the killing."
On Friday, Al-Nusra, a little-known Islamist militant group, claimed the kidnapping and execution of Saeed in a statement, "The heroes of western Ghouta [in Damascus province] imprisoned the shabih [pro-regime militia] presenter on July 19. He was then killed after he had been interrogated."
Posted on a forum portraying an al-Qaeda flag, Al-Nusra's statement showed a photograph of Saeed, looking scared, with his back against a wall in an unknown location. It said, "May this be a lesson to all those who support the regime."
#1
I'd suggest Rev Al, Rachel "Rick" Maddow, and a bunch of other MSNBC hosts broadcast from Damascus for a couple weeks
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/05/2012 8:22
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Since this TV anchorman supported the Assad regime, this is obviously a case of yet another war criminal gone to his just deserts. This execution was a fine example of Islamic humanitarian principles in action, for which each of the participants should receive a Nobel Peace Prize. Assad's execution of rebel combatants however, is a war crime for which he needs to be brought to justice, and soon, before the Hague.
[Jerusalem Post] Ships with up to 360 marines will arrive in Syrian port by early next week, Russian agencies report.
Israel is closely tracking Russian naval movements in the Mediterranean Sea amid reports that several ships are heading to Syria to secure the Tartus Port and possibly military assets Moscow maintains in the country.
On Friday, Russian news agencies quoted a top military source as saying that Russia was sending three naval vessels and up to 360 marines to Syria. The reports claimed that the vessels, which are already in the Mediterranean, will arrive in Tartus this week or early next week with supplies for Russia's only permanent port outside the former Soviet Union.
'
Russia's Defense Ministry however later issued a statement denying the warships would go to Tartus but left open the possibility they would do so if they remained at sea longer than expected.
For Israel, Moscow is something of a weather vane for gauging what is happening in Syria. A similar situation happened on the eve of the Yom Kippur War in 1973 when Russia pulled its diplomats and military advisers out of Egypt shortly before the war.
"Russia has a better feel for what is happening in Syria, and by following what it does it is possible to better gauge when Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... might fall," a defense official explained.
According to a report published last week by the Washington- based Institute for the Study of War, the Tartus Port is being used as a "as a political lever, both to affect the outcome of the Syrian civil war and to maintain legitimate access to a strategically located facility nested in the Arab world."
The report also suggested that if Assad decided to withdraw from Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... and fall back to a more defensible position in the Alawite coastal basin including Latakia and Tartus, Russia would be able to maintain its naval presence there. If, however, Assad's regime completely collapses, it is unlikely that a new Sunni regime would allow Russia to continue docking in Tartus.
Russia's Interfax news agency said on Friday that the loss of Tartus would be a strategic blow to Russia.
"Tartus is of extreme military- strategic importance for the Russian Navy, as the backup for the task forces in the Mediterranean. Therefore, its loss would entail deep negative consequences and the actual loss of influence in this key region," Interfax quoted a militarydiplomatic source as saying.
The English Defence League (EDL) and a collection of far-right and anti-Islam groups are planning to come to Stockholm to hold an international meeting on Saturday.
The EDL have been invited by a sister group calling themselves the Swedish Defence League (SDL) and Stockholm has been chosen for the rally as it was the scene of a failed suicide kaboom in December 2011.
"Stockholm was chosen for the Global Counter Jihad rally because of the actions of an Iraqi-born Swedish citizen, Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, who travelled to central Stockholm on December 11, 2010 in order to commit mass murder," a group associated to the meeting explained in a statement.
According to Jonathan Möller at Swedish anti-racism newspaper Expo the various groups are united in their belief that there is an ongoing war between the West and Islam and that this will lead to the introduction of Sharia law in Europe and the US.
"They are going to have a large demonstration... to broaden and deepen, as they put it, the counter-jihad network," Möller told TV4 on Monday.
According to the group's own estimates some 200-300 people are to be expected to attend the meeting.
English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson is listed among the speakers as well as US anti-Mohammedan bloggers Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller.
Pamela Geller has made her name within the US Tea Party movement and was a frontline figure in the campaign to prevent the founding of a Islamic centre near to the Ground Zero site on Manhattan.
She is furthermore attached to the so-called "birther" movement which seek to cast doubt on Barack Obama In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died -- an entire town destroyed... 's nationality and thus credentials as US President.
News of the demonstration has led to the mobilization of anti-racist opposition groups who plan to hold a counter-demonstration under the slogan "Stop EDL - Breivik's footsoldiers" in reference to Anders Behring Breivik who killed 77 people in twin terror attacks in Norway last year.
Breivik wrote of having strong links to the English Defence League, had 600 EDL members as Facebook friends, and claimed that he was guided by an English mentor after having been recruited to a secret society in London.
The Local has made attempts to contact the English Defence League but our calls have not been returned.
[Telegraph.uk] Sudan and South Sudan have hammered out a deal on how to share their oil wealth, one of a series of disputes that brought the rivals to the brink of all-out war earlier this year.
"The parties have agreed on all of the financial arrangements regarding oil, so that's done," said Thabo Mbeki, ...former president of South Africa, succeeding Nelson Mandela. He now pops up periodically as a mediator when something catches fire in Africa... former president of South Africa and African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... mediator, after talks in the Æthiopian capital.
The two countries had faced an August 2 deadline set by the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... to resolve their differences on oil and borders, and Mr Mbeki said they would meet next month to try to find a compromise on the disputed region of Abyei.
Mr Mbeki said a timetable would now be drawn up for the resumption of oil production and exports, which are vital to the economies of both deeply impoverished countries.
"What will remain, given that there is an agreement, is to then discuss the next steps as to when the oil companies should be asked to prepare for resumption of production and export," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2012
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Swedish police say violence has erupted during an anti-Islam demonstration in downtown Stockholm when authorities tried to keep it separate from a rival protest by leftist activists.
Police front man Kjell Lendgren says the leftists gathered to heckle the anti-Islam demonstrators, then began throwing bottles and other objects at police.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) sent the Democratic National Committee (DNC) a birthday cake on Friday, but the DNC sent it back.
The cake read "you didn't bake this" over a picture of President Obama. Text written in icing reads, "Happy birthday, Mr. President." The cake marks the occasion of the president's birthday, which is Saturday, with a play on the "you didn't build that" controversy.
"If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen," Obama told a crowd last month. "The point is, when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative but also because we do things together."
Republicans revolted over the line, calling it proof that Obama lacks belief in hard work and American entrepreneurs, and presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney has referred back to "you didn't build that" on the presidential campaign trail.
Yahoo News reported the cake as vanilla with vanilla frosting.
"Happy 50.99726th Mr. President," RNC spokesman Tim Miller wrote in an email. The decimal number tweaks the Democrats on an official blog post from White House Economic adviser Alan Krueger, who pointed out the July jobs report, released Friday, indicated the "unemployment rate ticked up to 8.3 percent in July (or, more precisely, the rate rose from 8.217 percent in June to 8.254 percent in July).
"23 million people struggling for work isn't a rounding error," RNC Chairman Reince Priebus snapped back.
But the Democrats sent the cake back.
"This is typical of Mitt Romney's approach to the middle class," DNC spokeswoman Melanie Roussell told The Hill. "He wants to 'Let them eat cake!' while robbing them blind. We sent the cake back to the RNC, along with a copy of the Tax Center's report on Mitt Romney's tax plan."
#1
Yahoo News reported the cake as vanilla with vanilla frosting
"raaaaacissttt!!11!!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/05/2012 8:24
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TheTax Policy Centeris a joint venture of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution. The Center is made up of nationally recognized experts in tax, budget, and social policy who have served at the highest levels of government.
[Dawn] Police in the interior Sindh town of Gambat have cooled for a few years Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! a man and two women and have charged them with "intentions of adultery," BBC Urdu reported on Saturday.
Curiously, the law-enforcers took it upon themselves to register a police case and also decided to act as witnesses to the said "crime."
Reportedly, a video clip is doing the rounds among locals, where the man and one of the women charged by police are shown being paraded naked and are trying to put their clothes back on but are forced against it by police officials.
In a recent development, a local journalist Shafiq Khoro informed Dawn.com that the man tossed in the slammer Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! by police, Mumtaz, had been warned by locals over his antics, where he had been found drunk and involved in unethical activities by his neighbours. "On the night of the incident, between July 28 and 29, Mumtaz was once again found disrupting the peace of the neighbourhood with his activities. The people of the area called the police but by the time the law-enforcers arrived, Mumtaz had already fled. Later, police found him in his courtyard with two women. One of the women was found to be inappropriately dressed," Khoro said.
Earlier, it was reported that when the local SHO was contacted by BBC Urdu, he agreed to give an official statement on the case but was later unavailable to make comments. Meanwhile, ...back at the chili cook-off, Chuck and Manuel's rivalry was entering a new and more dangerous phase... Deputy Superintendent Police Sagheer Mughairi said he was unaware of the incident and suggested the media to contact the local cop shoppe for further information.
According to the case registered by the police, officials were informed by a "local spy" that a man called "Mumtaz" had invited two women over for sexual favours. Police officials claim that when police officials reached the site, they found a man "sitting inside a room, with his arms around two women." Since no witnesses were present on the site to record their statements, two police officials who were part of the raid were made witnesses to the "act."
However, we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by... as opposed to the police statement, it is believed that several eye-witnesses were present at the site and reportedly saw the police force a naked man and a woman on to the streets. While parading the couple through the streets, the police also went past "Sheikh Chowk," which is half a kilometre away from the site of the incident. When BBC Urdu spoke to the eye-witnesses present at "Sheikh Chowk," they said that when they showed their aversion to the police, the woman -- still without clothes -- was forced into a police mobile and Mumtaz was forced to walk in front of the vehicle all the way to the cop shoppe. The second woman, eye-witnesses said, was fully clothed at this point.
According to the police, Mumtaz Hussain Mir Bahar is a local trader, who managed to seek a bail from a local court. Meanwhile, ...back at the fist fight, Jake ducked another roundhouse, then parried with his left, then with his right, finally with his chin... both women have been sent to Larkana jail.
Mumtaz claimed his innocence to BBC Urdu and said he is being victimised by the police. He has filed a petition, which will be heard on August 8 in the Sindh High Court.
While locals have condemned the incident, no official complaint has been lodged.
Gambat is an administrative division (tehsil) of Khairpur district, which is also home to Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah. A large majority of traders is settled in the small town.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2012
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#1
What? NO burka?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/05/2012 11:08
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[Dawn] Officials of education department in Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central ...Smallest of the agencies in FATA. The Agency administration is located in Khar. Bajaur is inhabited almost exclusively by Tarkani Pashtuns, which are divided into multiple bickering subtribes. Its 52 km border border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistain's strategic depth... on Friday issued show-cause notices to over 200 teachers of various government schools and collages for remaining absent from duty, as educational institutions in the tribal agency opened on July 1 after summer vacations.
Confirming this, an official of the local education department told this correspondent on Friday that bigwigs of the department had warned the teachers to join their duty immediately or face action. He said that over 200 teachers, most of the women, were found absent during inspections of education institutions.
"An inspection team comprising several assistant education officers has visited various schools of the agency over public complaints about absence of teachers," Sarwar Khan, a bigwig of the department, told Dawn on Friday. The officials said that several schools in the agency, including those in Chamarkand, Nawagi, Charmang, Salarzia and Mamond tehsil, even remained closed on Friday. "Most of teachers of girl schools are non-locals and due to lack of any checks they always join their duty late after vacations," the sources said.
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RENO, Nev. -- A Navy veteran who died after throwing himself in front of a friend during the Colorado movie theater shooting was remembered Friday for his fearlessness and optimism.
Some mourners at the funeral for 26-year-old Jonathan Blunk also said they've been told by officials that there are indications he may have tried to stand up to the heavily armed gunman and stop him during the July 20 attack in Aurora, Colo.
"Law enforcement is leaning toward he was trying to get the (suspect's) gun to save people's lives," said Roland Lackey, an Air Force veteran who officiated the service. "He was a hero, and I salute him."
His service did not end when he took off his uniform. May that knowledge and their memories of this hero bring comfort to those who loved him.
Pirates attacked a ship being used by an oil servicing company in waters off southeastern Nigeria on Saturday, killing two Nigerian Naval guards and kidnapping four foreigners, the Navy said.
"The incident was somewhere around the Niger Delta, where an oil servicing company was attacked by gunnies. We lost two of our men and four expatriates were kidnapped, one Malaysian, one Iranian," Navy front man Commodore Kabir Aliyu said.
[BBC] Just a few months ago, Thwaiba Kanafani was leading a normal life with her husband, six-year-old son and three-year-old daughter in Canada.
An engineer by training, she had been working in the oil industry.
But now she has left all that behind.
When we met up in the city of Adana in southern Turkey, she had just fled across the border from the Syrian city of Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... after a mission with rebel forces that went wrong.
Two male colleagues who were acting as her minders, were killed.
At the end of June she joined the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and was given a particularly dangerous role to fulfil.
As a woman she has able to move more easily around the streets of Aleppo than the men.
"Lots of women are working with me and we do a lot of spying work," she says.
"We usually check the locations of regime people [military forces] and check where would be the best points to locate the Free Syrian Army.
"We also spy on high-ranking people in the government so we can help the FSA arrest and capture them."
In the midst of all this, she speaks on the phone with her family every day to reassure them she is fine.
"I wonder why I am not afraid of being shot through the head," she says pointing to her forehead.
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[An Nahar] The battle for 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... has not yet begun, and shelling by troops is just the start of what is to come, a senior Syrian security official in the region said on Saturday.
"The battle for Aleppo has not yet begun, and what is happening now is just the appetizer," the official told Agence La Belle France Presse on condition of anonymity, adding: "The main course will come later."
The official said new military reinforcements had arrived, and that there were at least 20,000 troops on the ground.
"The other side is also sending reinforcements," he added, referring to the rebel forces.
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#1
There's still time for a trip to the concession stand.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/05/2012 15:55
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[An Nahar] Explosions rocked parts of the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri Saturday as troops engaged suspected Islamic Orcs and similar vermin and raided homes, residents said.
The kabooms, which began late Friday, occurred in three neighborhoods notorious for attacks blamed on the Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... sect, and residents fled as troops went door-to-door arresting people suspected of complicity, they said.
"Last night, there were kabooms in Gwange area which went on till the late hours and today the kabooms continued in Kalari and Budum neighborhoods," Modu Ari, a Budum resident, told Agence La Belle France Presse by phone from the city.
"Soldiers moved from house to house arresting people, forcing residents to flee their homes to escape arrest," said Ari, who had left his house with his family on Saturday.
Ali Faltaye, a resident of Kalari, said troops battled suspected sect members in the area, sending residents fleeing to avoid being caught up in the fighting or cooled for a few years Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! by soldiers.
"Since morning loud kabooms have been going on in the area and soldiers have been breaking into homes making arrests", Faltaye said.
Military and police authorities were not available for comment.
Troops from Nigeria's Joint Task Force who were deployed in the city two years ago to combat Boko Haram have been accused of burning homes and committing rights violations against residents whom they accuse of complicity with Boko Haram whenever there is an attack blamed on the sect.
The soldiers have denied such accusations.
The group has stepped up bomb and gun attacks since the start of the Moslem fasting month of Ramadan.
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08/05/2012
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#1
cuz nuthin says "Islam" better than bomb and gun attacks during the Moslem fasting month of Ramadan
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/05/2012 9:32
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#2
OK, I admit Islamic theology is a little opaque to me (and by 'opaque', I mean generally stupid), but do you get extra points for murder, violence and explosions committed during Ramadan or are you supposed to lay off for a month?
#7
I saw this two or three weeks ago. I've been checking my tomatoes ever since, to see if I get any crosses. Nope. I did get one that said, "THE WORLD WILL END IN 2010." Musta been a typo.
ANKARA: Turkeys top military council on Saturday ordered the retirement of dozens of generals and admirals who are currently being held on charges of coup plotting, the army announced on its website.
Fifty-five generals and admirals are required to retire due to a lack of vacancies in their positions, and one admiral due to an age limit as of September 1, the army saiin an online statement. Among them were 40 generals and admirals in detention in connection with several probes, including the so-called Ergenekon and Sledgehammer cases into alleged plots to topple the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reported local media.
As Stalin found out, you can clean out the officer corps just a little too well...
The jailed generals had been awaiting promotion after it was suspended at last years meeting. But the military councils statement said the one-year waiting period for the generals had expired, ordering their retirement instead.
The latest announcement comes as the Supreme Military Council (YAS) began its meeting on Wednesday to discuss promotions and dismissals within the army. The decisions were made public Saturday after being approved by the president. This years YAS meeting however ended without the tensions that marred last years gathering which saw the shock mass resignation of the countrys top brass in a row with the government over officers jailed for alleged coup plots.
Veteran journalist Fikret Bila said the retirement of arrested generals and admirals was the governments preference.
We see the governments preference being implemented, said Bila speaking to the private NTV television. Some of the arrested generals might be released amid the ongoing trials but the decision on their retirement shows they are being dismissed from the army before the cases are concluded."
The order for retirement is considered the latest blow to Turkeys beleaguered officer corps who are the target of a series of probes launched in recent years into past military interventions and alleged coup plots. Hundreds of suspects, including several senior retired and active duty officers, as well as journalists, lawyers and politicians, are separately being tried over their alleged role to topple the Islamic-rooted government.
The trials are widely seen as part of an effort by the current Justice and Development Party (AKP) government to roll back the militarys influence in politics. But critics accuse Erdogans government of launching the probes as a tool to silence its opponents and impose authoritarianism charges it denies.
The Turkish army, which sees itself as the guarantor of Turkeys secular principles, overthrew three earlier administrations in 1960, 1971 and 1980. And in 1997, it pressured an Islamic-leaning prime minister, Necmettin Erbakan, to step down. Erbakan was the political mentor of Erdogan.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/05/2012
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[An Nahar] Pakistain on Saturday resumed NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... supplies, allowing 14 containers to cross into Afghanistan from its northwestern border at Torkham, officials said.
Pakistain had temporarily stopped NATO supplies over security concerns on July 24 after gunnies attacked a convoy of NATO trucks on July 24, killing a driver, in the town of Jamrud on the outskirts of the main northwestern city Beautiful Downtown Peshawar.
"The NATO supplies have been resumed from today and we sent 14 containers" for international troops in Afghanistan," a local administration official told AFP on condition of anonymity because he is unauthorized to speak to media.
A local intelligence official also confirmed resumption of supplies and the departure of 14 NATO containers to Afghanistan.
A senior local customs official, Ubaidullah Khan, however, put the figure of containers, which left for Afghanistan, at seven, adding that they carried food stuff and clothes.
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08/05/2012
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DUBAI -- Iran has successfully test-fired a new short-range missile equipped with a guidance system that it plans to install on all future missiles it builds, Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said Saturday.
"With the fourth-generation of the Fateh 110, the armed forces of our country are able to target and destroy land and sea targets, enemy headquarters ... missile seats, ammunition sites, radars and other points," Vahidi said in quotes carried by Islamic Republic News Agency.
The Fateh 110 has a range of around 180 miles, IRNA reported, meaning it would only be able to strike Iran's immediate neighbors.
"Using new guidance methods, target-striking systems were installed on the missiles and during the flight test... its ability to hit the target without deviation was proven," Vahidi said according to IRNA. "In future programs all future missiles built by the Defense Ministry will be equipped with this capability."
Vahidi also said the missile was intended as a defensive weapon. "These capabilities are defensive and would only be used against aggressors and those who threaten the country's interests and territorial integrity," he said.
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08/05/2012
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[Dawn] A local Pak court has sent one of the key suspects in the so-called UK Olympics visa scam, Abid Chaudhry, for a 14-day judicial remand, DawnNews reported.
The Federal Investigative Authority (FIA) presented Chaudhry, who is associated with the Dream Land travel agency, in court on Saturday.
FIA officials informed the court today that the passport scandal was currently being further investigated, after which civil judge Matiur Rahman ordered Chaudhry to be sent on a 14-day judicial remand.
Previously, the court had ordered a two-day physical remand for the defendant.
The scandal came to the fore after the British tabloid "The Sun" published a report of an alleged scam involving fake documents for travel to London, in connection with Pakistain's Olympic contingent.
However, the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits... an investigation conducted by the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) had dismissed the claims, calling the report a "fake scam."
"The Sun" said its report was based on information backed by a footage of Abid Chaudhry (an agent for the Dream Land travel agency) claiming how for around £7,000 he could get its man a two-month visa...and smuggle him into London 2012 as part of Pakistain's Olympic squad.
Chaudhry claims he is innocent and that the real culprit is Mohammad Ali Asad.
The Pak government has started the paperwork but haven't done much else against Asad for fraud, impersonation and mis-declaration, and is seeing his deportation from the United Kingdom, while also declaring him as the main accused in the case.
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08/05/2012
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[An Nahar] The Syrian army now has the whole of the capital under its control, a brigadier-general on Saturday told journalists visiting the neighborhood of Tadamun, the scene of heavy fighting ... as opposed to the more usual light or desultory fighting... earlier.
"We have cleansed all the districts of Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... , from Al-Midan to Mazzeh, from Al-Hajar Al-Aswad to Qadam... to Tadamun," said the general who led the military operation in Tadamun, refusing to give his name.
The officer said regime forces retook the southern district at 2:00 pm (11:00 GMT) on Saturday, and that it was the last rebel bastion in the city to revert to army hands.
Fighting erupted in Damascus on July 15 and raged for several days as rebels seized several districts, forcing thousands of residents to flee for safety from what had for many months been the country's safest city.
"The situation in Damascus is excellent and stable," the general said.
"There is no more presence of gangs apart for some individuals who are moving from one place to another, just to prove that they exist."
When festivities erupted earlier on Saturday in Tadamun, the scene of heavy fighting ... as opposed to the more usual light or desultory fighting... a fortnight ago, Syrian state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
said: "The special forces were cleansing the district of Tadamun from terrorists."
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Suspect refuses to heed troops' calls to stop, sustains injury in knee and evacuated to Syrian hospital. IDF official lauds soldiers' conduct
"Good shooting, Arik!"
An IDF force opened fire on Saturday at a Syrian citizen who approached the Israel-Syria border and attempted to cut the fence. The man was injured in the incident and evacuated to a Syrian hospital.
IDF forces on routine activity in the area identified a man approaching the Israeli border. They ordered him to stop and when he failed to heed their calls, they opened fire in his direction.
The Northern Command launched a probe into the incident.
According to an initial investigation, the incident occurred at 3:20pm, after soldiers from the 401 brigade spotted the suspect approaching the border fence in the southern Golan Heights.
After the suspect failed to heed to the soldiers' calls, they fired warning shots in the air and eventually fired a single shot toward his lower body. The suspect was injured in his knee, and evacuated by Syrian citizens.
An IDF official lauded the force's conduct during the event, saying that "many suspicious activities near the fence have been recorded in recent days, of people posing as Shepherds.
"As far as we are concerned any person who tries to approach the fence is not doing it for peaceful reasons: He is either trying to collect intelligence on our troops, planning a terror attack, or he is trying to infiltrate into Israel and carry out an attack in one of the communities near the border. We will respond with an iron fist against any such attempt," the official noted.
In June, a Syrian man was tossed in the calaboose Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! near the border after touching the fence. He was transferred for investigation with security forces.
#1
Just because the individual was on the Syrian side of the border doesn't mean he was a Syrian. I wouldn't be surprised if it was an Iranian attempting to provoke an Israeli response.
#3
..didn't they get the memo from Homeland Security to retreat in case of such confrontations? Oh, wait, wrong country, one that is interested in the security and safety of its citizens, never mind.
[Dawn] A bomb hidden inside a mosque tore through dozens of worshippers during Friday prayers in eastern Afghanistan, wounding at least 19 including the imam, officials said.
The attack in Chaparhar town in Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province came just days after a provincial judge was killed and four civilians were maimed in a mosque bombing in southern Uruzgan province.
"The bomb went off close to the imam as he was offering the Friday prayer," provincial front man Ahmad Zia Abdulzai told AFP.
"Nineteen people have been injured, among them the imam who is in a critical condition," he said, blaming Taliban beturbanned goons for the bombing.
A front man for the beturbanned goons denied responsibility for the attack.
A member of the provincial council, who declined to give his name for security reasons, suggested the imam might have been targeted after agreeing to offer prayers for a man killed by the Taliban for working with US-led 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... forces.
The Taliban, whose hardline regime was tossed in a US-led invasion in 2001, warned at the start of their annual summer offensive this year that they would target Afghans working for foreign organizations.
Large numbers of local people work for Western civilian and military projects in Afghanistan, where NATO has 130,000 troops helping the Kabul government fight the myrmidons.
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08/05/2012
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#1
was this the "peaceful Taliban", Hamid? Happy Ramadan!
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/05/2012 9:13
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[An Nahar] Pak police said on Saturday they had jugged Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! five Talibs who were planning "terror attacks" in the central city of Multan and other towns in the region.
"The hard boyz belonging to Noor Gul group of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) were jugged Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! on an intelligence tip off," city police Chief Aamer Zulfikar told news hounds.
The 'Noor Gul' group has not been heard of previously, and Zulfikar did not say where or when the arrests were made.
"They were planning to carry out terrorist activities on the eve of the martyrdom anniversary of Hazarat Ali, the fourth caliph of Islam, falling next week," he said.
He added that the group was active in the southern part of the Punjab province, and had planned to target other towns and cities in the region.
The police also seized heavy weapons and ammunition including pistols and assault rifles from the jihad boys.
Meanwhile, ...back at the pound, Zebulon finally found just the friend he'd been looking for... six people were killed in an kaboom triggered in fireworks material stored in a house in Multan on Saturday.
Zulfikar said several nearby buildings were damaged in the blast, which also maimed at least 10 people.
"We are trying to ascertain what triggered the kaboom in the factory," he said.
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[An Nahar] Hamed al-Mutlak, a Sunni MP and brother to one of Iraq's deputy prime ministers, said he survived a roadside kaboom west of Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... on Saturday that maimed at least one of his guards.
"A roadside kaboomwent kaboom! on the main road in Abu Ghraib when we passed," Mutlak, an MP in the secular, Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc, told Agence La Belle France Presse, adding that one of his bodyguards was lightly maimed.
An interior ministry official confirmed the attack, saying the bomb went kaboom! while Mutlak's convoy passed Al-Nasr Wa al-Salam village in the Abu Ghraib area, putting the toll at two guards maimed.
It was unclear if the attack was aimed at Mutlak personally, or if his convoy was just a target of opportunity for myrmidons.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2012
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#1
Obama is their paycheck. They love a party animal in DC. Deals made and rubbing elbows with who's who and A list people. Catering people will tell you when business will be good with who is elected.When you have government cutbacks this beltway area will hurt like the rest of the country. Yes, the black population has declined but they still enjoy all the minority perks, even when they weren't the minority.
#2
Finally, a note on Washington DC. Some readers might attribute Obamas rating there solely to his enduring popularity among black voters, but Washington is no longer a majority-black city. (The black population dipped below 50 percent last year.) Obama is popular with nearly everyone in the capital. Among those who work for the government and for government-related businesses the permanent bureaucracy centered in Washington DC, northern Virginia and southern Maryland approval of the president remains very high.
Spend! Spend! Spend! They love it!
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/05/2012 7:24
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#3
So, vote for the candidate who'll be hated in DC, but loved in the rest of the country.
In the modern world of telecommunications and fast travel, there's no reason for all that bureaucracy to be so close to the flag pole.
[An Nahar] A 10-party opposition bloc in Mauritania on Saturday signed a charter rejecting any solution to the country's political crisis that does not involve President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz' departure.
The Coordination of Democratic Opposition (COD) also refused to take part in any election in which "transparency is not guaranteed."
Legislative and municipal elections planned for 2011 were postponed and are meant to take place at the end of 2012.
The COD says there is a political crisis in the country, and has held weekly sit-ins, marches and protests since May to demand that Abdel Aziz step down, refusing all dialogue.
The opposition accuses the former general of despotism and mismanagement and having failed to heed commitments made in the Dakar accords that led to his election in 2009, a year after he seized power in a coup d'etat.
The president's mandate expires in 2014.
The opposition wants a transition government to take over from Abdel Aziz and find a way out of the crisis, dealing with issues such as unemployment, slavery and attacks on human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... The charter also criticises Abdel Aziz for attacks launched against al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) bases in neighbouring Mali by the Mauritanian army, saying it was a "war lost from the start."
With AQIM now behind armed Islamist groups who have seized the north of Mali, this "constitutes a threat to the country," it said.
The signing of the charter comes two days before Ould Aziz holds his annual "meeting with the people" to celebrate his inauguration as president in 2009.
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[Dawn] A car boomwent kaboom! near the offices of the military police in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of thich is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... early on Saturday, a senior security source said, the first such attack in the Libyan capital since the start of a revolt that toppled the regime of Muammar Qadaffy ...Custodian of Wheelus AFB for 42 long years until he was ejected from the gene pool by his indignant citizens... last year.
The source said the blast slightly maimed a Tunisian national, but it could not say who might have been behind it.
A Rooters witness said police had cordoned off the area around the blast's location.
Several violent incidents have rocked Libya in recent days but these have been mostly confined to the eastern city of Benghazi.
Also in Benghazi, seven Iranian relief workers were kidnapped on Tuesday by an gang just as they started an official mission as guests of the Libyan Red Islamic Thingy Association, which is still seeking to get them released.
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#1
Cathys comments: We are very much supportive of the family the Biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives.
I can see why some folks would consider that "hateful and hurtful". Perhaps they didn't actually read the words?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/05/2012 7:17
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#2
Probably the best question to ask those who consider Cahty's position as "hateful and hurtful": Absolutely or Relatively? Univerally applicable to all, or JUST YOUR BELIEF? Why should I accept your Judgment of my hatefulness as binding on me when you dismiss my judgment of the sinfulness of the gay lifestyle as "just YOUR opinion?" Well, "JUST YOUR OPINION". So you scream to rally opposition against us, but FORBID us to make a call to rally support for those of YOUR HATE? When the numbers prove to be against you, you Fall back on "My Rights are not to be violated", but scream when we point to Rahm's statement and state "Cathy's rights are being violated."
You don't listen to "religious bigots", and we don't listen to "hypocrites of all stripes, colors, politics, and sexual preferences".
Squeal and scream all you want: YOU'RE NOT SPECIAL.
#3
I support CFA because I oppose gov't actions to restrain speech or religion.
LGBT oppose CFA because it donates money to groups that work to restrict gay 'rights' - not because of Cathy's comments.
#4
Bobby - what the person said has nothing to do with it - it the mere fact that she holds a belief that is not in accordance with the gay agenda. Holding any other opinion but theres is 'Hateful'. A thoughtcrime.
How long before they want to make it illegal with time in Prison for such a 'hatecrime'? You can already get an much extended sentence for having the wrong (meaning 'anti-gay') ideas while committing a crime.
#6
They also give free water to anyone, which is nice not only as an alternative to soda (fast food water goes $1.50-$2.00 out here, usually like 10% more than soda half the amount).
It is also nice when it is hot outside.
I believe the progs have had an agenda concerning CFA, was it about six months ago some GLAD group started making some rumbles, perhaps someone in their infinate wisdom decided that with a couple quotes and an election issue to pull the trigger.
Homosexuality is the practice of Creationism. Darwinian evolution relies upon the propagation of a species so that desired traits build into a species' genetics over generations.
Homosexuality, in the pure sense of M/M or F/F, not the too drunk or changed mind etc. In the order of the pure Homosexual, based upon the arguement that a person is born that way and is not a choice*. That is, according to Darwinian Evolution, a dead end. In fact, the only way the Pure Homosexual can propigate is by non-natural ways, described as if the process at some point required electricity/industry it is not a pure natural propigation. That is, humans choosing whether or not to create life and if so by means outside the natural normal means of two beings creating offspring. In a way, deliberate consciencely creating life under very specific wishes outside of the default natural world; Creationism.
*I am aware many people visit this site, and I do only want to open a topic. I like happy people, and people in love tend to be happy people no matter the circumstances. When I was around this crowd and had good friends, it was the arguement that they were created this way, and therefore no amount of prayer or exercism would change who they are - that is what I mean by Pure Homosexual, and contrasted with those who over the course of life perhaps are hetero or at least bi which of course due to the course of life would allow for the chance of children.
I also believe happy people tend to see the world in a true sense, why I rise the subject. Throw stuff at me if you will but really just raising and academic point of order.
[An Nahar] The deadly kaboom on Israeli tourists last month at Bulgaria's Burgas airport was planned abroad, but the bomb was likely made in Bulgaria, a top interior ministry official said Saturday.
"I can definitely say that the attack was plotted, prepared and implemented by people who are very far away from Bulgaria," ministry chief of staff Kalin Georgiev told the 24 Hours newspaper in an interview.
"They come, act and leave," he said, without elaborating on possible accomplices.
"We also cannot talk about so-called homegrown terrorism. The people who prepared the attack did not use small-time Mister Big structures for logistic support," he added.
The explosive itself, however, was likely assembled on Bulgarian soil, Georgiev said.
"There is nothing specific about its make. Our experts estimate that it was assembled somewhere close as no one would risk carrying an activated improvised bomb (IED)," he said.
The bomb's components were legally available in any shop both in Bulgaria and abroad, he noted.
"In the method of assembly or the fabrication of the IED, there are no characteristic features typical of any one terrorist structure," he added.
The bomber's identity still remains a mystery over two weeks after the attack, even if Sherlocks have reconstructed a portrait via computer technology based on his severed head, which was found at the site of the attack.
The probe is also looking at accomplices the bomber may have had, including a woman who reportedly stayed with him in a hotel before the attack, and another man.
It is unclear if the bomber, who killed five Israeli tourists and the Bulgarian driver of the bus on July 18, intended to die in the attack, whether he was killed as a result of his own mishandling of the device or whether it exploded from a distance.
"I cannot categorically confirm any of the leads but I can say that he is not the typical suicide kaboomer. There is a high probability that the terrorist fell victim to his own error," Georgiev said.
Confirming the attacker's identity was now "a prime task of the investigation," which was progressing, even if slowly, he added.
"It is important to know that we are solving an equation, in which until recently there were only unknowns," Georgiev told the newspaper.
Prosecutors said last week they were working with the authorities in Belgium, Britannia and Finland in an effort to identify the suspect's origin.
The daily 24 Hours also reported Saturday on a possible Hizbullah link, although this was not confirmed by Sherlocks.
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08/05/2012
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[An Nahar] Police said Saturday they had rounded up about 2,000 people in an operation to evict undocumented immigrants from central Athens, claiming that "national survival" was at stake for debt-choked Greece.
The aim of the operation was "to send them back to their countries of origin, close the borders and ensure that Athens returns to being a lawful city with a quality of life," police front man Christos Manouras said.
Operation Xenios Zeus, named after the name of the king of the ancient Greek gods in his role as protector of guests, mobilized 2,000 police in Athens and another 2,500 on Greece's eastern border with Turkey.
Manouras said the deportation of undocumented Democrats was a necessity for national survival.
"We must send the message that Greece cannot afford work and hospitality" to would-be immigrants, he said.
Located in the southeastern extremity of the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... , Greece has become a popular transit point for migrants from Asia or Africa seeking to enter the bloc.
But as the country struggles with a crippling economic crisis and sweeping austerity cuts, social tensions are on the rise and the increase in undocumented immigrants has fuelled xenophobia and racist attacks.
For the first time in Greek political history, the country in June voted into parliament a neo-Nazi party, Golden Dawn, which has promised to purge the country of illegal migrants.
Current figures show Greece has about 800,000 legally-registered immigrants, while the number of those without papers is estimated at more than 350,000.
On Wednesday police said they were tripling the number of guards along Greece's border with Turkey to 1,800 to ward off any influx of Syrian refugees.
The Athens operation launched on Thursday came as creditors from the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the European Central Bank meet with Greek officials to discuss the further budget cuts needed to unlock the next tranche of aid in September, worth 31.5 billion euros.
Four months ago, Athens ran a similar eviction operation in conjunction with a number of city halls.
Right-wing Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, who took power in June at the head of a broad coalition, pledged during his election campaign to "win back the cities" and stop the "invasion" of immigrants.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2012
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So the olympic triple jumper gets cashiered from the team for stating there's a lot of Africans in Athens, but the government rounds them up and tosses them out. I'm all for tossing illegals - what I want to see now is the greek olympic officials who tossed the young lady, get their moment in the spotlight as they get their azzes tossed from their positions - spit!
The party of Cordell Hull, Estes Kefauver and Al Gore Sr. and Jr. won't have a standard-bearer -- or at least not one it can stomach -- in Tennessee's next U.S. Senate race.
Less than 24 hours after a man espousing conservative and libertarian views surprised the state's political scene by winning the Democratic nomination, the Tennessee Democratic Party disavowed him, saying he's part of an anti-gay hate group.
The party said Friday that it would do nothing to help Mark Clayton, 35, who received nearly twice as many votes as his closest challenger in Thursday's seven-candidate primary, winning the right to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Bob Corker in November.
"The only time that Clayton has voted in a Democratic primary was when he was voting for himself," the party said in a news release. "Many Democrats in Tennessee knew nothing about any of the candidates in the race, so they voted for the person at the top of the ticket. Unfortunately, none of the other Democratic candidates were able to run the race needed to gain statewide visibility or support.
"Mark Clayton is associated with a known hate group in Washington, D.C., and the Tennessee Democratic Party disavows his candidacy, will not do anything to promote or support him in any way, and urges Democrats to write-in a candidate of their choice in November."
Clayton defended his work for Public Advocate of the United States, the pro-life, pro-marriage group in question, and said he was disappointed with the Tennessee Democratic Party's "zero-sum politics."
Posted by: Fred ||
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"Many Democrats in Tennessee knew nothing about any of the candidates in the race, so they voted for the person at the top of the ticket."
Sheah right. More like the voters spoke, and the masters didn't like what they had to say.
#2
The loyal Democrat has nowhere to turn now. I believe many Democrats will refuse to vote this year because the party has left them. The left has hijacked the party. The left are but a small part of the party. The Democrats offer earth and water but require you to be on your knees.
#3
We have open primaries here in TN. Plus the 0 is not very popular especially in the east. I think you what you have here is disgruntled Dems, most Inds and mischievous Reps creating a perfect storm of sorts.
[BBC] Some 48 Iranian pilgrims have been kidnapped from a bus in the vicinity of a shrine near the Syrian capital Damascus, ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... reports say.
Iranian diplomats blamed the abduction, from close to the Shia shrine of Sayyida Zainab, on "gangs".
Syrian state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
later gave the same account of the incident.
Meanwhile, ...back at the abandoned silver mine, the water was up to Jack's neck and still rising... fresh fighting has been reported around Damascus, and in the northern city of Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... , where rebels are trying to secure their positions.
The Iranian consul in Damascus said the whereabouts of the kidnapped pilgrims was known.
Syrian state-run news agency ...and if you can't believe the state-run news agency who can you believe?... Sana said the Iranians had been kidnapped by "armed terrorist groups" and that Syrian authorities were "working to handle the situation".
Thousands of Iranians travel each year to Syria to visit the pilgrimage site in the mostly Shia district of Sayyida Zainab, which has seen heavy fighting ... as opposed to the more usual light or desultory fighting... in recent weeks.
There have been several other reports of groups of Iranian pilgrims being kidnapped in Syria in recent months, with most later being freed.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2012
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#1
"uniformed, well-armed Iranian 'pilgrims'"
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/05/2012 9:36
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Border Guard officers cooled for a few years Please don't kill me! two Arab men who assaulted a Jewish man in Jerusalem. As the forces arrived at the scene, a number of people gathered around them and started hurling stones.
Meanwhile, ...back at the palazzo, Count Guido had escaped from his bonds and overwhelmed this guard using the bludgeon the faithful Filomena had smuggled to him in the loaf of bread... stones were pelted at a bus travelling to the Western Wall and toward an ambulance driving in east Jerusalem. Magen David Adom reported that three people were lightly injured in the incidents.
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.
Saudi King Abdullah invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for an extraordinary summit of Muslim leaders to be held this month in the holy city of Mecca, state news agency SPA reported Sunday. The Saudi monarch "sent a written letter to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inviting him to attend the extraordinary Islamic solidarity meeting which will be held in Mecca" in mid-August, SPA reported. 
For decades, executives at unionized companies have harbored the fantasy that they could dictate the wages, benefits and working conditions of their employees, just like non-union firms. 
Yemen suffers from complicated administrative and educational problems that have resulted in the lack of employability skills to meet the labour market needs and contribute to the economic development process. 
Six Afghan troops and two New Zealand soldiers were killed during a battle with 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Sudan and South Sudan have hammered out a deal on how to share their oil wealth, one of a series of disputes that brought the rivals to the brink of all-out war earlier this year.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) sent the Democratic National Committee (DNC) a birthday cake on Friday, but the DNC sent it back.
...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...
RENO, Nev. -- A Navy veteran who died after throwing himself in front of a friend during the Colorado movie theater shooting was remembered Friday for his fearlessness and optimism.
The battle for 
Explosions rocked parts of the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri Saturday as troops engaged suspected Islamic 
Pakistain on Saturday resumed 
DUBAI -- Iran has successfully test-fired a new short-range missile equipped with a guidance system that it plans to install on all future missiles it builds, Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said Saturday. 
The Syrian army now has the whole of the capital under its control, a brigadier-general on Saturday told journalists visiting the neighborhood of Tadamun, the scene of 
[An Nahar] Hamed al-Mutlak, a Sunni MP and brother to one of Iraq's deputy prime ministers, said he survived a roadside 
[BBC] Some 48 Iranian pilgrims have been kidnapped from a bus in the vicinity of a shrine near the Syrian capital 
