h/t Gates of Vienna
Foreign diplomacy doesnt always resolve world-class problems, but it sure does rake in the swag.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was given a half-million bucks worth of diamond and ruby jewelry by Saudi Arabian King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz and received $58,000 worth of bling from Brunei. I wonder how much Clintons got for Kosovo
So why is there such a disconnect between what Obama once declared and what he subsequently professed? There are four explanations, none of them mutually exclusive:
Each of the four rationales seems to fit quite well, so I guess they ALL apply!
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/02/2013 15:40
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#4
So far no European or Arab nation has offered military support for our planned effort against Syria.
Except the Saudis and the French, but we don't want to go there do we? The Saudis are there to extend Sunni influence. The French see an opportunity to get Lebanon back as the Paris on the Med.
And for US? I'm still confused why we give a shit?
It would seem as the Saudis have something we need and it ain't oil.
A doctor from France says: "In France, the medicine is so advanced that we cut off a man's testicles; we put them into another man, and in 6 ...weeks he is looking for work."
A German doctor comments quietly: "That's nothing, in Germany we take part of the brain out of a person; we put it into another person head, and in 4 weeks he is looking for work."
A Russian doctor says boasting: "That's nothing either. In Russia we take out half of the heart from a person; we put it into another person's chest, and in 2 weeks he is looking for work."
The U.S. doctor laughs and answers loudly immediately: "That's nothing my colleagues, you are in no way behind us....in the USA, about 5 years ago, we grabbed a person from Kenya with no brains, no heart, and no balls....we made him President of the United States, and now....... the whole damn country is looking for work
#3
Pedro Mendiondo Gómez. Born August 13, 1945. Graduated from the Enseñanza Superior Militar Military Academy. At the triumph of the Revolution he joins the Youth Patrols and the Association of Young Rebels. In 1961, he begins studies on artillery and during the Missile Crisis he becomes part of a Popular Defense Battalion as the leader of the unit.
Joins the Revolutionary Armed Forces in 1963 at the San Julián Military School, and upon graduating he holds different positions in a number of units in the Revolutionary Air Defense and Air Force (DAAFAR), where he is eventually named its Chief of Staff.
Mendiondo Gómez served in Angola where he rose to the rank of Colonel. He has been awarded the Order for Service to the Homeland and the medals Ignacio Agramonte and Internationalist Combatant.
Unlike our Federal Reserve..... the Rantburg Treasury doesn't print money...
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We're coming up on new server time. I'd like to swap out maybe in October or November, not that we've had the least problem with Lucretia, our current machine.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2013 9:44
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A suspected terrorist militant was killed and a policeman injured in a shootout in Russian republic of Dagestan on Sunday, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee reported in a statement.
The statement said policemen stopped two people late Sunday night outside the city of Buinaksk to check their identification documents, but they opened gunfire on law enforcers. Policemen opened fire in return killing one of the suspects, while the other one managed to escape. One of the policemen was wounded in the shootout.
The statement also said that the killed suspect was later identified as Zaur Umarov, who was on a wanted list and known as a bomb expert allegedly behind a number of terrorist attacks in Russia.
Is Prince Bandar feeling feisty, now he isn't dead?
Taliban fighters attacked a U.S. military outpost in the Afghan province of Nangarhar on Monday, less than a week after targeting a Polish base in a nearby province.
In an email Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said, "In a parking lot used by Americans there was a huge blast and after that a massive attack... A number of our heroes are fighting."
The base itself had not been penetrated. Provincial spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai said no casualties had been reported.
The attack prompted police to close part of a highway between the provincial capital and Torkham district near the border with Pakistan.
#1
Obviously the TB has been emboldened by the US pullout. I hope we don't see a FOB or COP overrun and US forces captured. This may get very, very ugly.
Only someone as strategically inept as Susan Rice would think this is a good idea. Democrats have defended Susan Rice when the evidence has been overwhelming she really isn't qualified to be top National Security advisor, and her inexperience outside her foggy bubble is on parade right now. Partisans in the US keep making the same mistakes. They get caught up listening to what their political opponents say and don't pay enough attention to what the career oriented professionals say. The line of non-partisan career national security professionals who have deep respect for Susan Rice for her intellectual capacity of national security affairs is very short, and today may be invisible.
When the UK Parliament voted down Prime Minister Cameron's military participation in Syria on Thursday, that was a blatant sign of war fatigue by civilians in the UK (which also exists in the US). The last time the UK Parliament voted down a Prime Minister on matters of war and peace in the UK was regarding the Crimean War in 1855, meaning the events of Thursday was a once in a lifetime event as a political failure. Lord Aberdeen resigned the next day! Before 1855 the previous time was in 1782, when Parliament voted against further war against America. Lord North, Prime Minister at the time, resigned 3 weeks later!
I believe Susan Rice is partly accountable. She put Prime Minister Cameron in an impossible position and never saw his opposition coming. She is responsible for managing the national security political processes in defense of US National Interests, but her first move was to put the act of taking military action in Syria ahead of the facts that make a case for military action in Syria. Process is one of her primary responsibilities for the administration, and she is doing a terrible job. The first casualty of our National Security Policy to address Syria using chemical weapons on civilians was America's closest ally.
How will the US strike Syria? see link.. Outstanding piece. Read it all. Now.
#1
But they (the Democrats) really need a war (scratch) military action, what with the election coming up and all.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
09/02/2013 8:27
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he coalition to date consists primarily of the United States, France, Canada, Australia, Greece, and Turkey.
I found a number of questionable statements in the article but this was the biggest WTF.
Since when have Canada and Austrailia signed on to this? When has Greece signed on?
For that matter, what has Turkey done (or will do) other than arm the MoBro and AlQ?
The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and other ships in its strike group are heading west toward the Red Sea to help support a limited U.S. strike on Syria, if needed, defense officials said on Sunday.
The Nimitz carrier strike group, which includes four destroyers and a cruiser, has no specific orders to move to the eastern Mediterranean at this point, but is moving west in the Arabian Sea so it can do so if asked.
"It's about leveraging the assets to have them in place should the capabilities of the carrier strike group and the presence be needed," said the official.
"We try to reduce the physics of time and space so we can be as ready as possible should we be needed," said a second official, cautioning that decisions about ship positioning in the Mediterranean were still being finalized.
The Nimitz carrier group had been in the Indian Ocean supporting U.S. operations in Afghanistan but was due to sail east around Asia to return to its home port in Everett, Washington, after being relieved in recent days by another aircraft carrier, the USS Harry S. Truman.
Given the situation in Syria, U.S. military officials decided to reroute the Nimitz and send it west toward the Red Sea, and possibly the Mediterranean, officials said.
[THEHILL] The idea of "slam dunk" intelligence should disappear from national security discussions, Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... said Sunday.
"The word 'slam-dunk' should be retired from the American national security issues," Kerry said on NBC's "Meet The Press."
"We are saying that the high confidence that the intelligence community has expressed and the case that I laid out the other day is growing stronger by the day," he continued.
During the George W. Bush administration, then-CIA chief George Tenet reportedly told Bush that intelligence showing Iraq had weapons of mass destruction was a "slam dunk."
The phrase became a symbol for the botched intelligence that the Bush White House used to justify the invasion.
Kerry spoke in response to his claim that evidence shows sarin gas was used in the Assad regime's alleged chemical attack in the suburbs of Damascus last month.
"Individuals who were engaged as first responders in East Damascus, I can report to you today that they have tested positive for signatures of sarin," he said on Fox News. "So this case is going to build stronger and stronger."
Kerry, who was to appear on five networks on Sunday, made the case that evidence of a chemical attack is strong.
"We know where this attack came from. We know exactly where it went. We know what happened exactly afterwards," he said on Meet the Press, according to a transcript.
"We know the preparations were being taken before for this attack, we know people were told to use their gas mask to prepare for the use of the chemical barrage. We also know that after it took place, they acknowledged that they had done it and were worried about the consequences and whether the U.N. inspectors were going to find out," Kerry said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2013
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#1
feckless crapweasel doesn't like being held to the standards he demanded of Boooosh
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/02/2013 9:31
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The phrase became a symbol for the botched intelligence that the Bush White House used to justify the invasion.
Continuing to reference the war Iraq as the wrong war, the evil Bush war. This has curiously become a mantra which Champ's regime chirps at nearly every opportunity.
One must ask the question, why is this anti-Bush narrative on Iraq still being enforced, or even still being discussed? One possible justification may be the need to distance the regime from a failing Iraqi government rapidly moving into the Iranian camp. When the Iraqi government finally collapses, the regime will herald it's demise as the culmination of the Bush failed policy and wash their hands of it.
[An Nahar] Thousands of protesters held a protest in Yemen's main southern city of Aden on Sunday to renew calls for independence from the north and reject the Sanaa regime's apology for a 1994 civil war.
The protesters waved the flag of the formerly independent south and banners reading: "We reject apologies," and "Our demand is freedom and independence."
The protest was called by the separatist Southern Movement to mark the 42nd anniversary of the creation of the army of South Yemen, which was an independent state until it united with the north in 1990.
"No dialogue, no negotiations, we are masters of our decisions," shouted the protesters, who also organized a symbolic military parade by retired soldiers and sang the national anthem of the former South Yemen.
After unification in 1990, the south broke away four years later, triggering a short-lived civil war that ended with the region being overrun by northern troops.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2013
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[MAGHAREBIA] Algerian security services on Saturday (August 31st) foiled a terrorist attack in the centre of Batna, Tout sur l'Algerie reported. The incident occurred when hard boyz trying to evade capture took a family hostage in the Bordj El Ghoula district. Security forces killed one of the armed attackers and jugged Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! three others. The hostages were unharmed.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2013
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[Xinhua] The Iranian army will stage a large- scale military maneuver in late September, a senior Iranian commander said Saturday.
Quoted by Press TV, Brigadier General Farzad Esmaili, commander of Khatam al-Anbiya Air Defense Base, said the exercise, dubbed the Modafe'an-e Aseman-e Velayat 5 (Defenders of the Velayat Skies 5), will be larger than the previous one held in the eastern part of Iran last year.
Various long-range radars and passive defense systems will be tested during the drill, he was quoted as saying without elaboration on the area and scope of the exercise.
Modafe'an-e Aseman-e Velayat 4 military drill was held jointly by the country's army and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps in November last year.
In the 2012 drill, an upgraded high-precision long-range S-200 ground-to-air defense system, and indigenous missile defense systems named Qader, Ya Zahra 3, Mersad 3 and Hog. were tested, according to Press TV.
Also, electronic and surveillance systems were used to detect manned and unmanned enemy aircraft flying at low altitude.
F-14 and F-4 fighter jets, shoulder-launched weapons, as well as Sayyad 40, a mobile electronic interception system, and Rassed 32, a smart surveillance system were also tested then.
The drill covered an area of 950,000 square kilometers in the provinces of Khorasan Razavi, North Khorasan, South Khorasan, Sistan-and-Baluchestan, Hormozgan, Kerman and parts of Fars and Yazd provinces.
Over the past few years, Iran has held several military drills to enhance the defense capabilities of the Armed Forces and to test modern military tactics and equipment.
[An Nahar] India's opposition said Sunday it would seek tougher punishments for juveniles after the first verdict in the New Delhi gang-rape case saw a teenager sentenced to three years' detention, sparking widespread anger.
The rape and murder of a 23-year-old student by six attackers on a moving bus last December sparked nationwide protests and led to reforms that mandated longer sentences for adult sex offenders.
Sushma Swaraj, opposition leader in the lower house of parliament, said she would introduce a bill this week to amend the law for juveniles.
"This meager punishment of just three years does not do justice," Swaraj wrote on Twitter.
"The sentence must commensurate with the gravity of the offense irrespective of the age of the offender," she added.
On Saturday a juvenile court in New Delhi sentenced the only under-age suspect in the gang -- who was 17 at the time of the crime -- to three years in a correctional facility.
This was the maximum sentence under India's law, which treats all under-18s as children and seeks to reform rather than punish them.
"TRAVESTY: December 16 teen rapist 'gets away' with murder," a headline in the tabloid Mail Today read, summing up the mood.
The convicted teen will spend about 28 months in a juvenile detention center, having already spent about eight months in jug awaiting the verdict.
"He can watch TV, play games while doing time," the Hindustan Times reported, while pointing out that police sources had earlier described the teenager as "the most brutal" of the six attackers.
The Times of India said the gang-rape victim had "been denied justice" by the juvenile court.
Subramanian Swamy, a politician from the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, told Agence La Belle France Presse the teenager "should have been executed" and he intended to file an appeal against Saturday's court order.
Swamy has already lodged a petition in the Supreme Court challenging India's juvenile law for not taking the gravity of a crime into account during sentencing.
"It's ridiculous to think you can reform a person who has committed a heinous crime, who has raped and murdered a young woman in such a brutal fashion," he added.
According to the teenager's defense lawyer, his conduct will be observed and the sentence could be reduced for good behavior.
The juvenile was employed to clean the bus where the attack took place and often slept rough or inside the vehicle, reports say.
A child rights activist who knows him said he grew up poor in a village in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh and moved to Delhi on his own at the age of 11 when he began a string of menial jobs.
"He changed jobs all the time, desperate to earn more and send money to his family," the activist told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The attack on the young woman brought simmering anger about endemic sex crime in India to the boil, and turned her attackers into public hate figures.
But despite soul-searching and a new law toughening sentences for rapists, sex crimes have continued unabated, with almost every day bringing news of a new grave offense.
News emerged Saturday evening of another attack in the Noida suburb of the capital, where a woman was allegedly gang-raped by five attackers including two police constables.
The Press Trust of India said the 25-year-old victim was attacked while visiting a male friend, who was also assaulted by the gang of five.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2013
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[NATIONALREVIEW] But the object of war, in Liddell Hart's famous distillation, is not to destroy the enemy's tanks (or Russian helicopters) but his will. And on that front America loses, always. The "unmatched" superpower cannot impose its will on Kabul kleptocrats, Pashtun goatherds, Egyptian generals, or Benghazi militia. There is no reason to believe Syria would be an exception to this rule. America's inability to win ought to be a burning national question, but it's not even being asked.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2013
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#1
Maybe stop playing world enforcer for tranzi ideology.
Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that samples collected by first responders after the reported August 21 chemical weapons attack in Syria have tested positive for the nerve agent sarin.
"In the last 24 hours, we have learned through samples that were provided to the United States that have now been tested from first responders in east Damascus and hair samples and blood samples have tested positive for signatures of sarin," Kerry said on NBC's Meet The Press. "So this case is building and this case will build."
Secretary of State John Kerry [said] that all signs suggest that Syrian leader Bashar Assad used the nerve agent in his alleged chemical weapons attack. Kerry said the use of chemical weapons puts Syrian President Bashar Assad in the same category as the world's most bloody dictators. "Bashar Assad now joins the list of Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein [who] have used these weapons in time of war," he said.
You might recall, Mr. Secretary, that you voted against going after Saddam.
The former Massachusetts senator said Sunday that he believes Congress will pass a measure to authorize the use of force in Syria.
"I don't believe that my former colleagues in the United States Senate and the House will turn their backs on all of our interests, on the credibility of our country, on the norm with respect to the enforcement of the prohibition against the use of chemical weapons, which has been in place since 1925," he said.
Unlike you in 2003...
Apparently Syria is not signatory to that treaty, and therefore it does not apply. Also, it only applies, as I understand it, to warring nations, not to civil wars within a nation. You have a law degree, Mr. Secretary, though you did not get into Harvard despite your family connections. Perhaps you might consider actually applying your hard-won skills.
But Kerry would not say whether the president would act even if Congress votes against intervention. "I said that the president has the authority to act, but the Congress is going to do what's right here," he answered when pressed.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/02/2013
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#1
I note that they keep dancing around the subject of "who used them?"
Posted by: European Conservative ||
09/02/2013 0:29
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#2
"positive for signatures of sarin" is not quite the same thing as "positive for sarin"....
#4
Champ gains cover and 'wins' whatever the congressional outcome. In addition, he gains valuable media diversion time from other phony crisis, as the MSM rushes to cover the debates and talking heads.
If he [Champ] cared anything about the victims and potential future victims, he be sending the rebels defensive chemical agent alarms, detection kits, atropine injectors, and other med supplies. It's quite obviously not about the children.
#5
sarin decays pretty quickly once it is in atmosphere - it even decays in storage which is why the Syrians probably used a binary system in the delivery -
thus the detection of the breakdown components rather than the agent itself in the clothes of the first responders
yes of course it is possible that the rebels could manufacture sarin but would they then use it on eight separate neighborhoods that they controlled and do it essentially simultaneously and time it for when Assad's forces were shelling the same neighborhoods?
Posted by: lord garth ||
09/02/2013 12:59
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It doesn't matter who done it. A tarbaby is a tarbaby. Let it the hell alone.
Just a reminder that there are other conflicts in the world, currently at a low simmer, that could blow up at any time. Particularly if the world is engaged in dealing with other issues, like Syria/Lebanon/Iran/Egypt/Libya/Gazoo/Israel.
Armenian Armed Forces opened fire at positions of the Azerbaijani Army in the village of Gaymagli of Gazakh region, from the positions in the village of Barekamavan of Noyemberyan region of Armenia yesterday and tonight, press service of the Defense Ministry of Azerbaijani told Trend on Sunday.
The positions of Azerbaijani Armed Forces were also subjected to fire of the Armenian forces from positions near the villages of Alkhanli, Ashagi Abdulrahmanli of Fizuli region, as well as from the positions on the nameless heights of Khojavend region.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 per cent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the U.S. are currently holding peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
Kinda like watching five football games at the same time, it is hard to keep the good guys identified.
[Dawn] A trustee of an Imambargah was bumped off in a targeted attack apparently on sectarian grounds in an Orangi Town locality on Saturday, police said.
They said that gunnies targeted 60-year-old Bostan Ali in Orangi Town's Sector 11 ½ when he was going home on a cycle of violence. He was hit by three bullets and was struck down in his prime.
"Two men on a motorbike intercepted him near a petrol pump in Sector 11 ½ when he was returning home from a nearby market," said Inspector Amjad Kyani, the SHO of the Iqbal Market cop shoppe. "The victim was a trustee of the Salman Farsi Imambargah in Toori Bangash Colony and lived in the same area. His killing appears to be part of the ongoing wave of sectarian killings."
A front man for the Majlis Wahdat-e-Moslemeen condemned the killing and called it a failure of the government and the security administration.
He said that funeral prayers for the victim were held at Rizvia Society and he was laid to rest at the Wadi-e-Hussain graveyard.
Missing teenager found murdered, suspect held
A teenage boy, who had gone missing three days ago, was found dead in the Malir river on Saturday, police said.
They said that 14-year-old Ahsan Bilal, a resident of P&T Colony, went missing on the evening of Aug 28. Later, some witnesses said that the boy was last seen with his neighbour Muhammad Hafeez.
Gizri SHO Inspector Raja Tanveer said that the police had started the paperwork but haven't done much else under Section 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person) of the Pakistain Penal Code and had taken Muhammad Hafeez into custody on Friday night for questioning.
"During grilling, he disclosed that he had kidnapped the boy, sexually assaulted him and then killed him. A team of Sherlocks recovered the body from the Malir river near the Jam Sadiq bridge on the basis of the information provided by him."
The body was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medico-legal formalities.
The area SHO said that other relevant sections of the PPC would be incorporated in the FIR after the post-mortem report.
"The held suspect has been nominated in the FIR. He and the victim boy were very close and they had very cordial relations for the past several years. The suspect also informed the police that his two friends helped him in dumping the body in the Malir river," he said, adding that the police were making efforts for their arrest.
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09/02/2013
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[Bangla Daily Star] An upazila chairman was killed and at least 10 others were maimed in a clash between two factions of the ruling Awami League in Mymensingh Sadar upazila on Sunday evening.
Forkanuddin Mridha alias Selim, 40, was the chairman of Dhubaura upazila Gay Pareehad and also the upazila unit secretary of AL, reports our correspondent in Mymensingh.
Selim's supporters got into a clash with men of Azizul Haq Khan, secretary of Gamaritola union AL in Panchanandapur area in the upazila around 2:10pm, said Abdul Haque, officer-in-charge of Dhubaura Police Station.
Local administration intervened to stop the clash and imposed Section 144 in the area, the police official said.
Defying the restriction, the activists again started the clash around 5:00pm which left 10 people including Selim injured, the OC added.
He said among the injured, five were rushed to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital where doctors declared Selim dead around 7:30pm.
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[An Nahar] Suspected Islamists on Sunday rubbed out a Coptic Christian man in Egypt's restive Sinai peninsula where several myrmidon groups operate, security sources told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Hani Samir Kamel, 37, was attacked in El-Arish, the regional capital of North Sinai, where security forces have been battling a semi-insurgency since Islamist president Mohammed Morsi's military ouster on July 3.
The assailants fled after the attack, the sources said.
Militants have launched near daily attacks on police and army facilities in Sinai, where a priest was killed and a Copt found decapitated in July.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Egypt has arrested three people who opened machine gun fire on a ship passing through the Suez Canal, an army source said on Sunday, playing down what the waterway's chief described as a terrorist attack.
During Saturday's unsuccessful attack, the Panamanian-registered container ship COSCO ASIA came under fire in a northern section of the Suez Canal, a major global trade artery which is secured by the Egyptian armed forces.
"There was an attempt to disrupt security in an area called el-Qantara as they fired at a ship in an attempt to halt (traffic on) the waterway," said the army source.
"Three were arrested and they have been dealt with ... This attack could not have harmed the ships," the source said, without giving any details except that an investigation was underway.
On Saturday, the head of the Suez Canal, Mohab Memish, said a terrorist had carried out the operation, suggesting Islamist militants could have been behind it. Suez Canal Authority sources said a rocket-propelled grenade had been used in the attack.
The sources said that even if a grenade had struck the ship, it would have had a limited impact. The aim, they said, was to create a media frenzy and hurt Egypt's image. Asked if the military suspected the attack was part of a broader campaign to disrupt the movement of ships, the army source said. "I don't think so because the Suez Canal is secured."
Any major attack on the Suez Canal would hammer Egypt's economy, which depends heavily on revenue from the 192-km (120 mile) waterway, the quickest sea route between Asia and Europe.
Egypt has faced a rising number of militant attacks on security forces in the nearby lawless North Sinai region after the army, prompted by mass protests, ousted the country's first elected Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, on July 3.
Growing insecurity in Sinai worries the United States because the area lies next to Israel and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, as well as the Canal. The Suez Canal Authority has received threats from unidentified groups which said they would target the waterway, security sources said. At one point the military blocked a bridge over the canal as a precautionary measure because of threats.
[MAGHAREBIA] The leader of the armed Death Eaters holed up in Tunisia's remote Jebel Chaambi region is wanted by Algeria, Tout sur l'Algerie reported on Saturday (August 31st).
Speaking on television Friday night, Tunisian Interior Ministry Spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui named the terrorist leader as Algerian national "Yahia".
Also on Friday night, Tunisia's Al Wataniya television aired segments from the interrogations of two Jebel Chaambi terror suspects.
One detainee said his 30-member group included armed fighters from Tunisia, Mali, Mauritania and Algeria, aged between 18 and 40, Tunisie Numerique reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Dawn] A homoeopath and four other people were killed when gunnies attacked two clinics in Landhi area of the city on Saturday night. Four people were maimed.
In the first incident, at least four attackers sprayed a clinic in Shah Latif Town with bullets, killing four people and injuring two men and two women, police said.
Investigators found the incident to be the result of personal enmity. However, some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them... the Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... claimed that the clinic was owned by a member of one of its committees.
"The clinic is situated in Bhains Colony of Shah Latif Town," Malir SP Ahmed Jamal said. "Initial investigations suggest that four to six gunnies came on two cycle of violences and entered the clinic. They fired on people inside the clinic and escaped."
He said the clinic was owned by Dr Ghulam Sarwar Dahri, who was a member of the MQM's Muzafati Organising Committee. The doctor escaped unhurt, but his son Ghulam Murtaza and nephew Salim Dahri bit the dust, the SP said.
An official at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) said two of the injured died during treatment, bringing the corpse count to four.
"They have been identified as Khadim Hussain Lashari and Shahzad Ayub. The injured were Afshan, Kiran, Haq Nawaz and Abdul Hakeem. One of the injured is at death's door," he said.
In the other incident, a homoeopath belonging to the Ahmadi community was rubbed out.
Police said gunnies targeted 55-year-old Syed Tahir Ahmad when he was in his clinic, checking patients.
"He ran the clinic in one of the rooms of his 120-yard house in Khurramabad," said an official of the Landhi cop shoppe. "Two men pretending to be patients came to him and one of them fired at him."
A father of five, the homoeopath suffered two bullet wounds and died, the police official said.
His body was taken to the JPMC for medico-legal formalities.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2013
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[MYFOXNY] In a case that ruffled feathers in Egypt, authorities have tossed in the clink Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! a migratory bird that a citizen suspected of being a spy.
A man in Egypt's Qena governorate, some 450 kilometers (280 miles) southeast of Cairo, found the suspicious bird among four others near his home and brought them to a cop shoppe Friday, said Mohammed Kamal, the head of the security in the region.
There, officers and the man puzzled over the electronic device attached to the suspected winged infiltrator. On Saturday, a veterinary committee called by concerned government officials determined the device was neither a bomb nor a spying device.
Instead, they discovered it was a wildlife tracker used by French scientists to follow the movement of migrating birds, said Ayman Abdallah, the head of Qena veterinary services. Abdallah said the device stopped working when the bird crossed the French border, absolving it of being an avian Mata Hari.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
The Egyptians have it right and that is not all these nasty 'spy birds" do:
[Dawn] An anti-terrorism court on Saturday admitted a charge-sheet for trial in a case pertaining to a kaboom on the convoy of a judge of the Sindh High Court.
Masoom alias Billa alias Abu Bakar and Mohammad Muavia Leghari have been booked and tossed in the slammer Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! for their alleged involvement in the June 26 attack on the motorcade of Justice Maqbool Baqar, the senior puisne judge of the SHC.
Judge Saleem Raza Baloch of the ATC-III admitted the charge-sheet for hearing and issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of absconders as well as production orders for tossed in the clink Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! suspects till Sept 12.The court was informed that senior lawyer Ilyas Khan had been appointed special public prosecutor in the case.
The charge-sheet said that nine men, including six coppers, two Rangers personnel and the driver of the SHC judge were killed and a dozen of people, including Justice Baqar, sustained injuries.
The police arrested suspect Masoom on July 17 and during interrogation he disclosed his involvement in the kaboom and said that Hafiz Bashir Leghari had criminal masterminded the attack. Subsequently, the police raided the house of the alleged criminal mastermind in Surjani Town and arrested Muavia Leghari and another suspect Qari Amin after an encounter. The alleged criminal mastermind, who is the father of suspect Muavia, was killed in the shoot-out.
It stated that illicit weapons and explosive substance were also found in the house, adding that Muavia, Asif Chhotu, Qari Allah Dad, Sajid, Yasir Moosa and Masoom were present when the attack was planned at Leghari's house.
Asif and Yasir rigged a snatched cycle of violence with explosives and Masoom and Yasir brought it to the place of the incident and Masoom was selected through a draw to detonate the explosive-laden motorbike.
Sajid and Yasir were deputed around the place of the incident to update Masoom about the arrival of the motorcade and he detonated the explosive-laden motorbike through a remote-controlled device upon the arrival of Justice Baqar's convoy, the charge-sheet said.
Suspect Masoom also recorded his confessional statement under Section 164 of the criminal procedure code before a judicial magistrate and an eyewitness had also picked him out during an identification parade, it added.
The investigation officer had shown Rizwan alias Asif Chhotu, Atta-ur-Rehman alias Naeem Bukhari alias Bilal, Qari Khalil alias Qari Allah Dad, Sajid and Yasir Moosa as absconders in the charge-sheet and listed 64 prosecution witnesses, including Justice Baqar.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2013
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[BIRMINGHAMMAIL.CO.UK] A Birmingham Islamic TV channel has been fined £85,000 after a controversial presenter said it was a duty for Mohammedans to murder anyone who insults the Prophet Mohammad.
Broadcasting regulator Ofcom said the statement aired live on Noor TV last May could have radicalised its young viewers and incited them to commit acts of violence.
Satellite channel Noor TV boasts that its multi-lingual broadcasts from a studio in Victoria Road, Aston, specifically target young British Mohammedans.
The station says its mission is to "present a balanced, moderate and true face of Islam to both Mohammedans and non-Mohammedan communities across the globe".
But on its Paigham-e-Mustafa -- it means Message from Mustafa -- programme, presenter Allama Muhammad Farooq Nizami told its Mohammedan viewers that it was their duty to murder anyone who insulted Islam's prophet Mohammed.
The shocking advice was prompted by a caller who asked in Urdu what punishment was due for anyone showing disrespect to Islam.
Sitting alone in the studio, Nizami looked straight into the camera and replied: "One has to choose one's own method. Our way is the peaceful way but when someone crosses the limits, faith-based emotions are instigated.
"The mission of our life is to protect the sanctity of our beloved Lord.
"May Allah accept us wherever there is a need to kill a blasphemer.
"We are ready, and should be ready at all times, to kill a blasphemer."
Several viewers immediately contacted Ofcom to complain.
In addition to imposing a fine, Ofcom said the comments were 'likely to encourage or incite the commission of crime or to lead to disorder.'
It added it was concerned that young people watching the show could become 'radicalised' or take 'violent and criminal action as a result of watching videos of Mohammedans with extreme views.'
The remarks were deemed to be so inflammatory that they could have inspired a repeat of the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gough, who was killed after Islamic holy mans condemned his film criticising the treatment of Mohammedan women.
Ofcom also ordered the TV station not to repeat the segment and to broadcast a statement of its findings.
Al Ehya Digital, which owns Noor TV, fired Nizami in May this year for promoting personal political opinions and supporting a violent act.
In its statement Ofcom said Al Ehya Digital has not yet broadcast an apology or condemnation of Nizami's remarks and appears not to have recognised the gravity of the comments made by Nizami.
Despite this, the regulator fined Al Ehya Digital only a fraction of the £250,000 it could have imposed -- because it wanted to protect the station's right to 'freedom of expression'.
The fine comes three years after Al Ehya was fined £75,000 for appealing for viewers to donate money in return for 'prayers or the receipt of a "special gift" of earth from the tomb of Prophet Mohammed.'
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
>station's right to 'freedom of expression'
Er Incitement to murder is not freedom of speech, it's criminal conspiracy.
[Ynet] Israeli satellite takes off from Kazakhstan, joins 3 other satellites which are already operational
The satellite Amos 4, operated by the Israeli company Spacecom, has been launched into space from Kazakhstan on Saturday.
The satellite joins Spacecom's Amos 5, 2 and 3, which are already operational in space. Amos 6 is expected to be space-ready in 2014.
This problem with directionality is no doubt due to having wandered in the desert for forty years.
The satellite is carrying sophisticated communication equipment that allows it to function as a remote transmission and broadcast hub.
It orbits the earth at a distance of tens of thousands of kilometers over the equator, and moves with the direction of the earth's rotation.
Science and Technology Minister Yaakov Peri addressed the launch and said: "In the digital and satellite era, space and cyber space are critical issues when it comes to Israel's security. The Israeli Space Agency is expanding its work significantly and launching this satellite is another milestone in the journey that the State of Israel has set -- entry into the list of five leading national space programs.
In the meantime, the Arabs have managed to reignite a thirteen hundred year long religious civil war. Good going, guys!
#3
I was wondering about Moses I, suspected to have a serious maneuvering and communications ability. Further out is the possible Amos-Moses Bait-Killer Sat.
Egypts army-backed government unveiled a constituent assembly on Sunday almost devoid of Islamists, and gave it 60 days to review amendments that would erase Islamic articles brought in by the Muslim Brotherhood and more hardline Islamic parties.
The constitutional review is part of a road map unveiled by the administration that took power after the army deposed President Mohammed Mursi on July 3. Egypt will hold parliamentary and presidential elections only once the constitution is approved in a referendum.
Reflecting a power shift as the government cracks down on the Brotherhood, accusing it of terrorism, the changes proposed in a first draft of the constitution may open the way for a comeback by some members of the old order associated with Hosni Mubarak, who was toppled in a popular revolt in 2011.
The proposed amendments would remove Islamic articles - hotly disputed by secularists - that include one that gave Muslim scholars a say over some affairs of state, and also lift a ban on some Mubarak-era officials assuming public office.
Drawn up by a 10-member committee of experts appointed by decree, the draft preserves the privileged status of the military, which it effectively shields from civilian oversight.
Although Islamists won five popular votes held since 2011, the constituent assembly will have only two Islamists among its 50 members. One belongs to the hardline Salafi Nour party, the other is a former Brotherhood leader now harshly critical of the group he left last year.
While the assembly includes the founders of the Tamarud petition campaign that galvanised support for protests that led to Mursis downfall, there is no obvious place for the pro-democracy youth movements that ignited the 2011 revolt against Mubarak.
There are also places for Muslim scholars, representatives of the church, the arts, unions, members of secular parties and prominent figures such former Arab League chief Amr Moussa and renowned heart surgeon Magdi Yacoub.
Its a very establishment list, said Nathan Brown, an expert on Egypt based at George Washington University in the United States, adding: The procedure does seem to tilt in favour of accepting what the experts have drafted.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/02/2013
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Clashes and explosions were reported in a camp housing Iranian exiles northeast of Baghdad on Sunday, but Iraqi officials denied allegations they killed 44 of the groups members in an offensive.
The Peoples Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran (PMOI), about 100 of whose members are living at Camp Ashraf in Diyala province near the Iranian border, also claimed security forces set fire to the groups property in the camp.
Local hospitals reported two Iraqi soldiers were killed and three were wounded, which officials attributed to angry camp residents attacking an army brigade responsible for the camp. Medics did not, however, report any casualties among Ashraf residents.
The United Nations did not confirm any of the varying accounts of Sundays unrest, but the UN refugee agency said it appears that deadly force has been used and that a number of people have been killed or wounded.
The UNHCR said it strongly condemns this attack, adding that the use of violence against a civilian population is unacceptable in any circumstances. The UNs mission to Iraq said it was looking into the unrest, and called on the Iraqi government to investigate the incident.
Officials and Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK) spokespeople gave wildly differing accounts of the unrest on Sunday and it was not immediately clear what caused the explosions and clashes, or the extent of the casualties.
Iraqi police and medical sources said five mortars hit the camp.
A police colonel said that in the aftermath of the rockets some angry Ashraf residents came out and attacked the brigade protecting the camp, killing two soldiers and wounding three in clashes.
A doctor at the main hospital in provincial capital Baquba confirmed the toll.
An Iraqi official responsible for overseeing the camp said the blasts were caused not by mortars but by oil and gas containers exploding inside Ashraf.
Not a single soldier entered Camp Ashraf, said Haqi Al Sharifi. There was no attack from outside against the camp, but what seems to have happened is that some barrels of oil and gas inside Ashraf exploded. The police are investigating.
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Riyadh will support a US-led strike against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime if the Syrian people support it, Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister says, dpa reported.
Could you possibly be a little more weaseley in your support?
"We stand by the will of the Syrian people. ... Whatever they accept, we accept, and whatever they refuse, we refuse," Saud al-Faisal told reporters in Cairo, ahead of an Arab League meeting.
He also called on the international community "to use all its power to stop the (regime's) aggression against the Syrian people."
Posted by: Steve White ||
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[An Nahar] Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... remained defiant Sunday after his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it... decided to seek congressional approval for a military strike, reiterating his country was ready for any intervention.
"Syria... is capable of facing up to any external aggression just as it faces up to internal aggression every day, in the form of terrorist groups and those who support them," he said in comments carried by state news agency SANA.
In his first official remarks since Obama's unexpected announcement on Saturday, Assad said that Syria continues to "record victory after victory."
Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad earlier told news hounds in Damascus that Obama "was clearly hesitant, disappointed and confused when he spoke yesterday."
Obama's decision effectively pushes back any military action aimed at punishing Assad's regime over an alleged deadly poison gas attack until at least September 9, when U.S. politicians return from their summer recess.
The United States and other Western and Arab countries have blamed the Syrian government for the suspected August 21 attack, which Washington says killed more than 1,400 people -- accusations Damascus categorically denies.
Meanwhile, ...back at the shouting match, the spittle had reached unprecedented levels... a senior Iranian official warned in Damascus on Sunday that U.S. interests in the region would be at risk if Washington launched a military strike against his country's ally Syria.
Iranian officials have issued stern warnings against U.S.-led military action targeting Syria and the latest came from the chairman of the foreign policy committee of Iran's parliament.
"I hope that the United States will not undertake any precipitated and irrational action, due to the sensitive situation in the region," Allaeddine Boroujerdi told news hounds.
"The Americans cannot threaten the countries of the region and expect that their own interests will not be threatened," he said, a day after talks with Assad.
"If the United States carry out a foolish act, our response will be decisive," said Boroujerdi, in remarks translated from Farsi into Arabic by an interpreter.
On Saturday, the head of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards warned that a U.S. strike would trigger "reactions beyond" Syria and bolster extremism.
And Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said a strike on Syria would be a "disaster" for the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
F it! Let's bomb the hell out of this country! They deserve it!
Posted by: Whomoper Oppressor of the Danes1311 ||
09/02/2013 17:40
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[Dawn] Police arrested on Friday a former federal minister belonging to the PML-Q, Liaquat Abbas Bhatti, shortly after recovering from his Johar Town residence a 14-year-old housemaid allegedly tortured and chained along with her younger sister and brother.
Police raided the place after receiving a tip about the illegal confinement of Shahida, her sister Zubaida and seven-year-old brother Irfan.
Shahida was immediately sent to the Jinnah Hospital for medical examination as she had swollen legs and arms and torture marks suffered during 'months-long' detention in chains.
A doctor said she was suffering multiple health conditions, including anaemia, because of remaining in such a condition. Zubaida had a severe wrist fracture.
The doctors suggested hat the three siblings be admitted to the hospital.
Shahida told Dawn in the hospital that she had been confined by Mr Bhatti because of a Rs400,000 loan her father had taken from him.
She alleged that Mr Bhatti had reduced her salary, as well as those of there siblings after their father obtained the loan.
Liaquat's driver Wajid and two other employees tortured me when I refused to work at the new salary.
However, the children's father Ashiq Ali, of Kot Noor Shah, Sheikhupura, said he had not barrowed money from the landlord, alleging that his children had been illegally confined by Mr Bhatti for bonded labour.
He came to Lahore when Johar Town police informed him about the recovery of his children. Police denied media access to the arrested former MNA due to legal complications.
Saddar Division SP (Operations) Jehanzeb quoted Liaquat Bhatti as claiming that he had not detained the children for forced labour.
"Actually my driver is responsible for the illegal confinement of the children. He kept them in the servant quarter over some issues," he was reported to have said.
The official said police had not recorded any allegation about the loan during investigation.
He said Shahida was in chains when the children were recovered and they had torture marks on their bodies.
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[TELEGRAPH.CO.UK] All cars could be fitted with devices that stop them going over 70mph, under new EU road safety measures which aim to cut deaths from road accidents by a third.
Betcha they cause more accidents than they prevent, especially until the stupid things are debugged, which it will turn out they desperately need to be.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2013
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#1
Will never happen. Communities make a lot of money with collecting fines
Posted by: European Conservative ||
09/02/2013 0:25
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Posted by: Barbara ||
09/02/2013 13:49
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#11
That brought on a Keystone Cops image, Barbara - cops zooming along at 70 mph while the bad guys race away at 70 mph. Perpetual motion!
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/02/2013 15:49
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My '99 Audi had a cutout at 130mph when I bought it (in'99). Is was based on the tire H rating (130 mph max) that came with the vehicle. I 'chipped' it and the max speed was replaced with a soft rev limiter. The car could then actually go the max speed it was designed for which is 148 mph. The speed limitation was all about liability and tire speed rating. It always comes down to the insurance peeps.
#13
Don't believe any crap about "aim to cut deaths". The aim of this, as has been admitted for 10 years or so, is to get all ars on the system so that taxes can be charged on road usage.
The control over people is just a side benefit. They're really after the money.
[TIMESOFISRAEL] Israel wants to believe the US will yet intervene to stop Assad's use of chemical weapons, undoing some of the damage caused by the president's zigzag. For the leadership here, the alternative is too awful to contemplate
A bit overwrought, but there is a difference between suspecting the Big Satan will not have your back and knowing that you're on your own.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
As long as the overgrown moron doesn't interfere.
#2
In warfare there are some things it is not a good idea to do because the Enemy will then ALSO do it. You treat prisoners decently. This encourages the Enemy to believe he may be treated decently and maybe you can get them to line up , "come on down" and stay alive.
You don't use poison gas unless you want the Enemy to use it TOO. There are few ways to die nicely in a war, but most people don't want to die foaming and squirting and twisting in agony and begging for someone, anyone, to shoot them.
But if Moslems want to do it to ONE ANOTHER, you eat popcorn and watch. Besides Obama wouldn't fight for his own mother and is a clown. He wasn't gong to go himself anyway. He would send you and your kids before he would go himself.
Obama is a mouth in a suit.
I try to stay away from people like that. You should too.
#3
"Hole three, third stroke, 200 yards out - this is when I think about Israel...."
"Fore!"
*I suspect the Obama Administration was gearing up for an end 3rd quarter domestic policy blitz and stage for 4th quarter enactments and was caught pants-down and without a plan for whatever this is. If this was an issue of concern for Obama, this case would have been prepared beforehand, submitted to Congress the hour after it had been confirmed, Congress called back into session, and the case made publically while they were in transit, and a vote within 72 hours of a gas attack Obama signalled would be war, what, a year ago?
As it is, the case has not been made by the President, and Congress has not been called into emergency session. My advice would be to plan to be at it alone, and if US help does arrive it will be after it is most needed.
To paraphrase, when seconds count, the US will be two poll results and a Sunday morning mouthpiece away. I want to be wrong, and it is just opinion, and the last four years of watching the Obama vs. Israel relationship, plus the military doctrine of LGBT > QRF.
#5
"when seconds count, the US will be two poll results and a Sunday morning mouthpiece away"
A keeper, swksvolFF.
And under Bambi, sadly too true. :-(
Posted by: Barbara ||
09/02/2013 16:21
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Barbara, it's not sad it's disgusting. I read so many things that are based on the same unwarranted assumption that it makes be ill. My cynicism reflex has been maxed for the last 5 years.
The assumption? That BHO actually cares about anyone or anything other than his own aggrandisement and power. There is, swks, nothing else that concerns Hussein.
[NEWS.SKY] A woman in China who allegedly murdered her husband and boiled his corpse in a pressure cooker has reportedly handed herself into police.
The man was allegedly drugged and tortured by his wife for three days in June, according to a report on government-backed news portal Anhui News.
The woman, who he had reportedly abused, then dismembered her husband's body with a saw and boiled the parts in a pressure cooker to cover her tracks, the report claimed.
It did not detail how she supposedly disposed of his cooked flesh.
The woman reportedly turned herself into police due to the psychological stress of the alleged crime, which saw her lose more than 6kg in weight.
A police officer in Anhui province's Lu'an City, where the man died, confirmed the case to the AFP news agency but declined to give further details.
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[An Nahar] German Chancellor Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom... will come face-to-face in a television clash Sunday with her center-left election rival, confronting Peer Steinbrueck whom she has studiously ignored on the campaign trail.
In what has been billed as the primetime TV event of the year, Steinbrueck will have a last-ditch chance to close a yawning poll gap against the popular Merkel.
With three weeks to go to election day, the brash, straight-talking but gaffe-prone Social Democrat, who once served as Merkel's finance minister in a 'grand coalition' cabinet, faces an uphill struggle to unseat the unflappable leader of Europe's biggest economy.
A poll Sunday gave Merkel's conservatives 39 percent of the vote -- a significant lead over the combined totals of 23 percent for the Social Democrats (SPD) and 11 percent for the SPD's preferred allies the Greens.
Merkel's current coalition partner, the Free Democrats, scored six percent, according to the Emnid Institute survey for Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
About half of voting-age Germans said they planned to tune into the TV debate, two separate weekend polls said. And almost one in three expected that the verbal clash could influence their voting behavior, an INSA institute survey found.
With few truly divisive ...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled... campaign issues to polarize the electorate -- both main parties largely cooperated in dealing with the eurozone crisis -- the campaign has been the most personality-based of recent times.
"We all know that Angela Merkel is a rather quiet personality who does not like to quarrel on the open stage," said RTL television's Peter Kloeppel, one of four moderators for the 90-minute debate starting at 1830 GMT on Sunday.
"Peer Steinbrueck is somewhat more aggressive, and that's what should make this duel more attractive. It will be interesting to watch how they use their temperaments. They can use it for their purposes, or it could count against them."
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[Al Ahram] Sinai myrmidon Adel Mohamed Ibrahim, also known as Adel Habara, confessed on Sunday to the murder of 25 off-duty coppers on the Arish-Rafah road, a security source told state news agency MENA.
He was jugged Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! on Saturday along with two other suspects.
Habara re-enacted the crime he reportedly committed, along with others, in front of the authorities.
The source stated that Habara is currently being investigated in order to determine the identity of his accomplices.
Habara has already been sentenced to death in absentia for killing soldiers in the Nile Delta last year.
Authorities have been engaged in a long-running battle against hard boyz in the northern-half of the strategic region, which borders the Gazoo Strip and Israel.
Earlier on Saturday, security officials confirmed 31 hard boyz have been arrested since Thursday, including three who are suspected of involvement in last week's attack and two who were caught seeking treatment for wounds sustained during festivities with police.
The 25 off-duty coppers were reportedly stopped on their way to their barracks, lined up and shot on 19 August, in one of the worst myrmidon attacks on security forces in the peninsula in recent months.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[DAILYMAIL.CO.UK] Brutal dictator Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... has amassed more than 1,000 tonnes of poison gas including sarin and XV, the most toxic nerve agent ever created.
A leaked intelligence report said the tyrant possessed missiles capable of firing the deadly substances 300 miles - within range of British military bases in Cyprus.
It says something that in all this time, they never shot them off at Israel. Why d'you suppose that is?
The news comes as the U.S. insisted Washington had its own evidence that Assad henchmen used the deadly chemical wepaons against civilians.
Secret service chiefs in Gay Paree also laid the blame for the massacre of civilians in a chemical attack in Damascus on August 21, which the US claims killed 1,429 civilians including 426 children, squarely on the regime.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Hmmm. How do you say "Curveball" en francais?
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
09/02/2013 2:02
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Posted by: no mo uro ||
09/02/2013 5:40
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#5
It says something that in all this time, they never shot them off at Israel. Why d'you suppose that is?
Probably for the same reason Israel hasn't fired its nukes at neighboring Muslim states - they represent the Samson option - a threat to bring the entire temple down on any invaders.
It was suggested the other day that the ZeroHedge story we ran smelt of propaganda. It seems the suggestor was correct.
[PJMedia] A website that ran a story alleging that the chemical weapons responsible for 1,429 deaths came from the Saudis to rebels who mishandled them has anti-U.S. and anti-Saudi links, as well as ties to the Occupy movement.
MintPress was started last year in Minneapolis by Mnar Muhawesh, a Shia and a St. Cloud State college graduate with Paleostinian immigrant parents who hired a start-up slate of experienced correspondents with funds from mysterious unnamed investors.
Correspondents and staff writers include writers and analysts with experience contributing to Iran's Press TV, J Street, Russia Today, Al-Jazeera ... an Arab news network headquartered in Qatar, notorious for carrying al-Qaeda press releases. The name means the Peninsula, as in the Arabian Peninsula. In recent years it has settled in to become slightly less biased than MSNBC, in about the same category as BBC or CBS... , Occupy Wall Street, AlterNet, TruthOut and Electronic Intifada. The site promises to run stories through a "social justice" lens.
The Anti-Defamation League has mentioned Muhawesh as it keeps track of anti-Israel press.
Turkish police blocked the entrance to Istanbul's Gezi Park, the epicentre of anti-government protests in June, on Sunday to prevent a demonstration there against a possible military intervention in Syria. Riot police advanced with shields but held back from using tear gas or water cannon against about 1,000 activists who instead formed a human chain on the city's celebrated Istiklal Avenue, according to an AFP photographer who witnessed the scene.
"United States, killers, stay out of Syria," shouted protesters, who are firmly opposed to Ankara's support for proposed US-led air strikes against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.
Smaller human chains were formed in neighbourhoods across Istanbul, with many protests organised by the same groups who had occupied the park to fight against its commercial development.
June's unrest erupted when a peaceful sit-in on May 31 was met with a heavy-handed response that left at least five dead and thousands injured in three weeks of clashes between protesters and police.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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[An Nahar] La Belle France will soon declassify secret defense documents detailing Syria's arsenal of chemical weapons in defiance of international conventions, a government source said Sunday.
Will the list include the shipments from Saddam Hussein in 2003?
The comment came after the Journal du Dimanche weekly said French intelligence agents had compiled information showing that some of the weapons had been stockpiled for nearly 30 years.
The arsenal included over 1,000 tonnes of chemical agents, the paper said.
"The citations from the notes are correct," the source said. "The government plans to make public the declassified documents on the Syrian chemical arms program."
According to the Sunday newspaper, the arsenal included Sarin and mustard gas. The secret documents showed that Syrian scientists had also worked to develop a powerful agent that was far more toxic that Sarin.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[NEWS.SKY] Egypt's ousted president Mohamed Morsi will reportedly stand trial on charges of committing and inciting deadly violence.
The country's state news agency said public prosecutor Hesham Barakat had referred Mr Morsi and 14 other members of his Moslem Brüderbund to a Cairo criminal court.
He will stand trial accused "of committing acts of violence and inciting the killing and thuggery", the agency reported.
It follows deadly street festivities outside the presidential palace in December 2012, involving his supporters and those who opposed his rule.
Mr Morsi, who became Egypt's first democratically elected president, was removed from office in July.
Since then, the military-backed government of General Abdel Fatah al Sisi has cracked down on members of the Brotherhood.
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[NATIONALREVIEW] While there is still plenty of time for Obama to make the case for war, lawmakers are still seeking answers to big questions, chief among them being what a strike would accomplish.
That's true among Democrats as well. One Democratic aide says if the "strategic objective is to slap someone's wrist," that won't exactly be compelling.
Some liberal commentators have reacted with glee that Obama's plan puts the political onus on Speaker John Boehner. But the initial reaction by Republican insiders is that Obama faces far more risk, since he would look profoundly weak in defeat.
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#1
both the senate and the house will have to revise the draft resolution to put time geographic and other limits on the President's authority; they will also try to get some better clarity on objective
if Obama cooperates in this they probably will pass something
Posted by: lord garth ||
09/02/2013 0:25
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No, this should be a straight up or down vote - no amendments, not tied to anything else.
Hopefully this will be voted down. This will put Obama in bind - he claims he could have done it without going to Congress. But if Congress votes it down - and explicitly says "Do not go to war" and he does anyway... Personally, I think that would be grounds for impeachment. If the President can ignore Congress, and go to war against their explicit orders, he has seriously violated the Constitution.
As Donald Sensing pointed out, any flag officer who obeys Obama's orders against the explicit will of Congress is violating his oath.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
09/02/2013 1:32
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#4
A chance for US Congress to show that they're, at least, as grown up as Brit Parliament.
#5
firing missiles at a foreign country is not necessarily war
congress didn't declare war in the Korean conflict and hasn't done so in any of the conflicts since
congress did not give obama authorization to act in Libya
it is true that under some interpretations of the War Powers Act that using force against syria could be construed as illegal but first of all a number of Presidents consider the War Powers Act to be unconstitutional and second its not clear that the WPAct applies to say a five day strike using stand off weapons
Posted by: lord garth ||
09/02/2013 2:32
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#6
So If the Norks fired a "few" missiles at the USA because of their deployment of Justin Beiber (insert other excuse) that wouldn't be an act of war?
#8
Obama hand off. Here, this is your problem now. I support the constitution. This is the proper procedure. I am the leader. They must do the right thing. Too hot today for golf. Spades sounds good. My administration is fully committed to Obama care passage now at this time. Send Powell out to help the media action.
#9
This has nothing to do with Syria. It's sort of like the economy 5 years ago. No matter what the US does, things will get worse in Syria and an enemy of the US will be in charge. So Syria will get worse, no matter what.
So what is it about?
Initially it was about Samantha Powers' conscience. But now it's about 2014.
Obama wants the House under donk control. Since Syria gets worse no matter what, how does he attach blame for it to the trunks? Make it their policy that caused all the problems. Because Obama isn't responsible for anything.
#11
As a point raised yesterday, no approval and taking action in which there is no clear threat to the country, has the potential to strip the man of any protection once he leaves office against international charges involving the acts of waging war. Will they? It's a gamble and considering that the man has a unique talent to alienate friends and former allies both by act and vacillation, I wouldn't write an insurance policy on it.
...congress didn't declare war in the Korean conflict
However the UN did authorize it [the Soviets were boycotting the meeting at the time] and Congress did provide the funding.
#12
Some liberal commentators have reacted with glee that Obama's plan puts the political onus on Speaker John Boehner
Which is tied to the long-war goal of '2014'.
My take: Congress will take a max of 3-4 days to decide. I'm figuring either a Tuesday or (more likely)Thursday, September 12, decision.
Either way, there'll be an attack window beginning September 14. September 11 is likely both too early and too symbolic for the administration to use (though I supposed the Left would love the 'tweak',) and September 13 is Yom Kippur, with all that that implies.
The one thing I don't see anyone considering is that Obama knows there will another chemical attack, which can be blamed on Assad, soon
The critical word here is "soon". "Soon" enough to engage in an immediate reprisal with Congress still debating or having voted "no"?
Or "soon" enough that US military assets have been pulled and the reprisals are aimed at Congress?
Either way, given this administration, whether it happens mid-September or after another 'chemical attack", it'll be an all-out.
#14
NS, like the gas attack itself, a 9/11 plan fits more with the motivation and PR of the opposition than it does with Assad.
I doubt that the Russians would appreciate their Syrian ally getting linked in to that picture. The rebels? Hell yes especially if they could "Green Helmet" the event and control the PR.
#17
another small chem attack by assad is possible but I don't see how his forces could do a big one right now on a scale anything like the aug 21 attack
in the aug 21 attack eight neighborhoods were hit each by multiple projectiles some by more than a half dozen
this is because most of the assets assad would use for an attack for example artillery are currently being hidden and likewise the chem weapons themselves
btw I think the Obama admin would have been happy to dither or otherwise look the other way if the evidence wasn't so overwhelming
Posted by: lord garth ||
09/02/2013 11:23
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#18
So the idea is to send our military to assist the same people the president drone zaps in Yeman and who kill our service members in Afghanistan.
O's Glee Club should just be happy I'm not putting this acceptence speech for the Speaker of the House, now that this is officially an issue, something about a plan for Syria sitting next to the plan for Benghazi, next to the plan for the military budget, the public has been shut out like visitors to the White House. A massive cruise missile strike was ordered while the President learned the Samba, shall we hold our breath every time he chips for par?
I don't like any of the sides in Syria. I don't like the idea of chemical weapons being normalized. I don't trust this administration. I do look forward to the very people who wanted a post-american world arguing for intervention.
[Dawn] Sources at the Prime MInister's secratariat said that Premier Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... woud give approval of a joint grand targeted operation during Tuesday's meeting of the federal cabinet to be held in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... to finally decide regarding steps for peace in the port city.
The joint operation would include personnel of Rangers, FC and Sindh Police, the sources added.
Morover Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is expected to assure the Sindh government of the support and assistance of the federal government and of proivision of all resoures for the restoration of Karachi's law and order situation.
Sources further said that Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had provided Sharif with a complete briefing over the situation in Karachi, which includes reports of Sindh Police, Rangers and intelligence agencies, and that the prime minister is expected to issue direct instructions for indiscrimninate action to be taken over the issue.
A top-offcial of the Sindh Police, requesting not to be named, said that the prime minister would be briefed about the Sindh Police's position to tackle the situation in the metropollis city.
The briefing would include information regarding the last month's acquisition of GSM caller locator system by the police departmen, six years after recquisitioning it.
GSM caller locator allows police Sherlocks to spot the exact location from where a mobile phone call is being made.
Sindh police are already in possession of CDR and RBS sytems which enable police to access to information over calls and messages over mobile phone services and to precise pinpointing of an already detected mobile device.
Prior to the acquisition, police had heavily depended on the intelligence agencies when they needed to locate cellphone calls.
Moreover the prime minister would also be informed about the shortage of vehicles (particularly Armored Personnel Carriers), weapons and ammunitions faced by Sindh police with regards to restoring peace in Karachi.
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[LIVE5NEWS] Eight months after being appointed a U.S. senator, Tim Scott has finished his goal of visiting all 46 counties in South Carolina.
He has quickly and quietly firmed up a position as 1 of the most powerful Republicans in the state. Politicians from the governor down to the local level want to be seen with him.
Scott completed the goal of visiting every county last week with a trip to Abbeville. The visits have helped the Charleston native create a valuable network.
While fellow senator Lindsey Graham ... the endangered South Carolina RINO... has three primary challengers for a third-full term, no Republican has announced to run against Scott. He faces election in 2014 for the last two years of Jim DeMint ...junior U.S. Senator from South Carolina, distinguished by not being Lindsey Graham. He is a member of the Republican Party and a well-regarded leader in the Tea Party movement... 's term.
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The Hamas government said Sunday it was "surprised" to hear that Egypt is planning to create a buffer zone along the border with the Gaza Strip.
"Surprised" being a synonym for "frightened"...
Ehab Ghissin, spokesman for the Hamas government, said that there should be no buffer zones "between brothers and friendly countries."
There aren't: witness the U.S. and Canada. This should be telling you Gazooks something...
Ghissin expressed hope that the Egyptian move would not "solidify the blockade" and increase the suffering of the people in the Gaza Strip.
Because that might cause the remaining shopping malls in Gazoo to close...
He called for establishing a free trade area instead of a buffer zone along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
So that the Gazooks can freely obtain all the ammo and rockets they need...
And freely exchange the weaponry for their home-made forged currency.
Egyptian newspapers quoted Palestinian sources as saying that 90 percent of the smuggling tunnels along the border with the Gaza Strip have stopped functioning as a result of Egypt's security measures.
If only that's true, what a great bit of news.
That number has been bruited about for months. But nobody is claiming the Gazans are starving, so there may be error brackets around that it.
The sources said that the Egyptian army was waging an "unprecedented" campaign to destroy houses and tunnels.
It's like the Egyptians woke up one morning and decided that the Jordanians, Kuwaitis and Iraqis were right about the Paleos...
According to the sources, the planned buffer zone would be between 25 and 500 meters wide and 10 kilometers long.
Meanwhile, dozens of Egyptian families demonstrated on the Egyptian side of the border in protest against the demolition of their homes by the army. The protesters said that the Egyptian army has notified many families living close to the border with the Gaza Strip of its intention to demolish their homes as part of its effort to create a buffer zone in the area.
You could always move to Mauritania...
The families said that in the past few days the Egyptian army destroyed several houses without allowing them time to remove their furniture and personal belongings.
The Egyptian authorities have also banned Palestinian fishermen from entering Egypt's territorial waters near the Egyptian town of Rafah. Last weekend, Egyptian naval troops opened fire at a fishermen's boat near Rafah, injuring six people. The Hamas government has demanded clarifications from the Egyptians over the incident.
Seems clear to me...
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/02/2013
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#1
Paleos even wore out their welcome with Egypt. There are even limits to Egyptian patience.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/02/2013 0:30
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#2
no buffer zones "between brothers and friendly countries."
...nor should there be "smuggling tunnels" between friendly countries. Like so many in the Arab world they see no connection between what they want and what others might want.
No wonder Oblather has such an affinity for these people. It's all me, me, me all the time.
[Dawn] The Pakistain Mohammedan League Functional (PML-F) opposed on Saturday the Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... (MQM) demand for deployment of the army in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... for the restoration of peace and supported the federal government proposal for targeted operations in the city against all criminal gangs.
Talking to news hounds after meeting his leaders and candidates in the recent by-elections, federal minister for overseas Paks and a big shot of the PML-F Pir Syed Sadaruddin Shah Rashdi said the demand for army deployment was against democratic norms and it could affect the overall recently completed democratic process.
"The constitution allows army deployment in certain cases, but the situation in Karachi doesn't need to call the armed forces," he said. "If such a demand in Karachi meets success, it would set a precedent and the deteriorating situation in any part of the country would lead to a call for army deployment."
Answering a question, he said he supported the proposal of the interior minister that called for targeted operations in Karachi which, he said, would be effective and result oriented.
"We support the PML-N government and also their proposal for Karachi. The political parties should act in a way that may lead to a consensus policy on Karachi and our party believes that the police and Rangers have the capability to handle the situation," said Pir Rashdi.
The PML-F reaction followed the trend of major parties opposing the MQM demand for army deployment as both the ruling parties at the centre and in the province called it an 'undemocratic' move and a 'condemnable call'. The Awami National Party, however, found it in line with the ANP's longstanding suggestion.
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[An Nahar] Potential presidential candidate Omar Daudzai was appointed as Afghanistan's acting interior minister on Sunday, putting him in a high-profile public role seven months before the country's first democratic transfer of power.
Daudzai will move back to Kabul from Islamabad, where he has been ambassador to Pakistain since 2011 during a time of fractious ties between the two rivals and neighbors.
Last month Daudzai, a former chief of staff to President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... , set up an office in Kabul and announced that he would be a "probable" candidate in the elections due on April 5.
Karzai, who is barred from standing for a third term, has said he will not back any runner in the wide-open race, but Daudzai is seen as one of his closest associates and loyalists.
Daudzai, 55, from Afghanistan's biggest ethnic group the Pashtuns, was a member of the Hezb-e-Islami faction during the Soviet occupation and later went on to work for the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... Presidential front man Rafi Ferdous confirmed the appointment, which came after interior minister Mujtaba Patang was ousted by parliament last month over accusations that he had failed to thwart the threat from Taliban rebels.
Patang was dismissed soon after the Afghan government formally took responsibility for nationwide security from U.S.-led NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... troops, but he remained as the "acting" interior minister until Sunday.
Afghanistan's 350,000-strong security forces are suffering a steep rise in attacks as the NATO combat mission winds down, with police and army casualties said to have increased by 15-20 percent since 2011.
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What does the 1986 air raid in Libya, the 1991 Desert Storm battle and the 2003 Liberation of Iraq have in common? Obviously those are all military operations in which the United States had a hand and at least the veneer of justification. Not only that, but somewhere in the justification for launching military operation, an American nexus was apparent.
If President Barak Obama gives the go, US military forces will launch a brief aerial bombing campaign in Syria against soft military targets not because of any strategic imperative, nor because US interests would be advanced, but because a liberal president drew a "red line" and must back up US credibility.
Some entity in Syria possibly the dictatorial government of Bashir Assad launched a chemical attack that has killed around 1,400 individuals. United States UN ambassador Samantha Powers tweeted Saturday morning that among the dead were 426 children who died without, in her words, "a scratch, shrapnel wound, cut, nor gunshot wound..."
The missing irony of those unfortunate choice of words is that at least as many children in the Syrian Civil War have been killed by both sides by shrapnel, bullets and rubble. Typical with today's western liberal that the lives of "our children", is more valuable and worthy of outrage than the other 1,000 dead who were not children. Children dying in war is certainly horrible but in a conflict in which children have been dying for the last two years, the one thing most notable in this attack is the chemical weapons used.
But liberals will use the dead bodies of children like a bloody shirt to goad a feckless American leader into launching an airstrike against Syria. And as I have read elsewhere liberals are threatening to use Congressional refusal to intervene as a campaign issue in 2014. It isn't the first time our left has used dead children as a prop for a policy goal, and it won't be the last, but they can't hide the fact that the children who died were not American children. They were not even the children of any ally, but the children of a people who are the sworn enemy of Israel, which is -- last time I checked -- still an ally of the United States.
I won't make at this point dire predictions about what could happen following an airstrike against Syria. The possible scenarios that could happen could well be the same should Obama not hit Syria. Whatever entity in Syria which launched the chemical attack may well be planning a second attack already regardless of whether Syria is attacked, and it is just as likely the chemical attacker already shot his bolt. No more funny gas.
Regardless, unless Bashir Assad or the Syrian opposition wakes up and decides that coming to the negotiation table is preferable to the bloodletting that has gone on in the last two years, the bloodletting will go on, US airstrike or not. Nothing will change. Children will die only next time, we won't see photos of grieving families. We will see nothing. The left will be plotting to line up their next policy goal looking desperately for photos of more dead children to advance their agenda.
The decision to go to war is a shared decision, but as I have said elsewhere the War Powers Act allows a US chief executive to launch a military strike anywhere and at any time of his own choosing. His only constraint is that he has to come to Congress before 90 days are up to seek approval, and by that time, the US Navy fleet gathering in the eastern Mediterranean Sea will have been dispersed to other missions. Probably.
We are in the fifth year of the reign of a president who has offered very few good ideas and a whole slate of bad ones. The proposed airstrike against Syria is but another of a long line of bad ideas. But that is how Obama and his supporters in the medea and elsewhere are. He can't help himself. Bad ideas flow from him like effluent into Lake Michigan. It is Obama's imperium.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com His latest work of non-fiction, The Wounded Eagle: Volume 2 went on sale yesterday at Amazon.com and Smashwords.com
[Pak Daily Times] At least nine soldiers were killed on Sunday when a roadside kaboom hit an army convoy passing through the troubled region of North Wazoo near the border with Afghanistan, security sources said.
Initially, army sources said three soldiers had been killed but later a security official in the regional town of Miranshah ... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas... raised the corpse count to nine. At least 21 soldiers were maimed. Militant groups including the Taliban and al Qaeda operate in the volatile tribal region, often launching attacks on troops and civilians from mountain hideouts on the mostly non-existent border. US drone strikes often target gunnies in lawless and inaccessible North Waziristan, home to both homegrown and foreign bad turbans. On Saturday, at least three foreign hard boyz were killed in a suspected US drone strike in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan, local officials said. Pakistain condemned the latest strike. A security bigshot told AFP that the bomb hit a convoy of up to 20 vehicles carrying regular soldiers and members of the paramilitary Frontier Corps to Miranshah from the Datta Khel area. Another security official confirmed the toll.
The Sunday attack was among several IED blasts in the agency during recent months. Dozens of army soldiers have been killed and several injured in IED blasts in the agency. After the military operations in the tribal areas most of the banned outfits have changed their tactics and are using IEDs to target security forces' convoys in the troubled areas, especially in Khyber, North Waziristan, and Orakzai agencies.
According to sources, a convoy of military vehicles was travelling from Datakhel to Miranshah when it was struck by a remotely-detonated bomb which was planted on the roadside in Boya area of North Waziristan tribal region. The victims were shifted to the Combined Military Hospital. A bad turban group, Ansaral Mujahideen, has claimed the responsibility for the attack.
Abu Baseer, front man of Ansaral Mujahideen, while speaking from an undisclosed place on telephone said that the army officials were attacked to avenge the drone attacks by the US. He said that they would continue retaliatory attacks until the US carries on drone strikes. Baseer also said that the group was sure that the drone attacks were being carried out with the consent of the establishment, therefore it has launched attacks as a Dire Revenge™. He said that in the future, the attacks would not be limited to North Waziristan Agency, and other parts of the country would also be targeted.
Pakistain is battling a Taliban-led domestic insurgency that has killed thousands of civilians and security personnel since 2007. Troops have been fighting for years against homegrown gunnies in the tribal belt, which Washington also considers the main hub of Taliban and al Qaeda hard boyz plotting attacks on the West and in Afghanistan. North Waziristan is frequently targeted by US drones. A drone strike on Saturday on a compound in the Heso Khel area killed at least four bad turbans.
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[MAGHAREBIA] The first International Flamenco Festival of Tangier will kick off on September 5th, MAP reported on Saturday (August 31st). The three day "Nights of Andalusia" event will feature Moroccan and Spanish artists.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
So I guess trailing wife, Barbara and maybe thing from snowy mountain are marking their calendars, booking flights to Tangier, nes pas
#4
Sadly, Shotle Ebbaing3000, I never got farther than an invitation to join a Spanish folk dancing group about to tour the continent, and even then they sadly overestimated my abilities. Also, they were desperate. Flamenco is a very different kettle of pigeons altogether.
[An Nahar] An al-Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... movement official criticized Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, a member of AMAL, a not very subtle Hizbullah sock puppet... on Saturday for allegedly ignoring U.N. Security Council resolution 1701 and "confiscating" the authorities of President Michel Suleiman ...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too...
In remarks to An Nahar daily published on Sunday, the official, who was not identified, said a speech made by Berri a day earlier had loopholes mainly over the legitimacy of the weapons of the army and the resistance in the South.
Berri launched an initiative calling for the resumption of national dialogue among bickering politicians for a period of at least five consecutive days to discuss the form and policy statement of the future government, revive talks on a new electoral law, and support the military to deal with arms in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which 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... and salvage the eastern Bekaa Valley and the northern border with Syria from the chaos of arms and gunnies.
The initiative also includes a call to address a national defense strategy, a thorny issue that hasn't been resolved in the past years over differences on Hizbullah's arms.
Berri "ignored international resolutions and mainly resolution 1701 that organized armed presence in the South," the official said.
The speaker added new articles to these resolutions, he said, wondering whether Berri was seeking to come up with a new resolution that outstrips 1701.
The official also criticized Berri over his call for dialogue.
"He cut the road on the president who was a pioneer in inviting" for such a dialogue, the source said.
Berri "confiscated the constitutional authorities of the president that enable him along with the Prime Minister-designate to form the government," he said.
The cabinet formation efforts are not the role of the national dialogue members, he added.
The Mustaqbal official also slammed the March 8 alliance, which Berri's Amal movement is part of, for not abiding by previous decisions reached at the national dialogue table.
"The problem lies in lack of trust in Hizbullah and the rest of the March 8 factions that approve certain things at the dialogue table and then act on their own," the official told An Nahar.
"The last example is the Baabda Declaration," he said in criticism to Hizbullah's fighting in Syria despite approving the declaration that calls for keeping Leb at a distance from the regional developments and crises.
Other March 14 alliance officials also criticized Berri for failing to discuss Hizbullah's arms, which they said are imposing self-security in Beirut's southern suburbs.
They said Berri only referred to Tripoli and the Bekaa, a reference to the northeastern border town of Arsal whose residents are staunch backers of the Syrian rebels.
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#1
"The problem lies in lack of trust in Hizbullah and the rest of the March 8 factions that approve certain things at the dialogue table and then act on their own"
S'okay dude - we seem to have the same problem here in the US.
[An Nahar] U.N. Secretary General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... on Sunday pressed U.N. chemical weapons inspectors to speed up their verdict on a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria, his front man said.
Samples collected in Syria will start to be sent to European laboratories from Monday. The U.N. also revealed that two Syrian government officials are observing the handling of evidence collected during a U.N. investigation into the August 21 attack near Damascus that prompted western threats of a military strike on Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Terror of Aleppo ... 's forces.
Pressure on the U.N. is mounting as the United States said on Sunday that it has proof that sarin gas was used by government forces in the attack on the Ghouta area, in the Damascus suburbs, which it says left hundreds dead.
Ban spoke with the U.N. chemical weapons inquiry chief Ake Sellstrom on Sunday, the U.N. front man Martin Nesirky told news hounds.
"In light of the horrendous magnitude of the 21 August incident," Ban asked Sellstrom "to expedite the mission's analysis of the samples and information it had obtained without jeopardizing the scientific timelines required for accurate analysis," Nesirky said.
"They discussed ways to further accelerate the process," he added.
The samples collected by inspectors who left Syria for their base in The Hague on Saturday will start to be sent to two laboratories in Europe from Monday, according to the front man.
The United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... has refused to announce its timeline for finishing the analysis. Ban told envoys from the U.N. Security Council's five permanent members on Friday that it could be ready in two weeks, diplomats said.
Sellstrom told Ban that "two Syrian officials were observing the process" of handling the samples in The Hague, according to the U.N. front man.
Nesirky said the presence of the government officials was part of the "guidelines" for the U.N. inquiry which was established after a demand by the Syrian government.
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#1
Soooooo, nothing is going to happen until the week of 09.09 at earliest, awaiting the U.S. Congress and lab findings. I am encouraged by the idea of using (2), presumably independent, labs, but the concept of "a fair trial then we'll hang 'em" is not new....
#2
This news is going to be aged faster than Nancy Pelsoi on a July Texas day. By the middle of the month we can focus back on the Republicans War on Women.
[An Nahar] The head of Syria's opposition National Coalition on Sunday urged Arab countries to back U.S.-led Western strikes on the Damascus regime over an alleged chemical weapons attack.
"I am here before you today to appeal to your brotherly and humanitarian sentiments and ask you to back the international operation against the destructive war machine" of the Syrian regime, Ahmed al-Jarba told a Cairo meeting of Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... foreign ministers.
"I urge your assistance and support for a military strike against the regime, which has sought the support of the Iranians and Hizbullah," added Jarba.
He noted that "national illusory sovereignty has no meaning in the face of the behavior of the regime, which has exposed the country to all types of intervention."
Arab League foreign ministers had initially planned to meet on Tuesday to discuss an imminent U.S.-led punitive strike on Syria for allegedly gassing civilians on August 21 in Damascus suburbs.
The meeting was brought forward to Sunday as U.S. President Barack Obama If you have a small business, you didn't build that... said he was determined to launch a strike on Syrian regime targets and would seek congressional approval for it.
Washington says the alleged chemical attack killed hundreds of people and Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... said on Sunday that Washington had proof the Syrian regime used sarin gas.
The United States has pointed to the vaporous Arab League as a potential ally for military action against Syria but several member states of the Cairo-based organization are opposed to a strike.
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 the Soddy national face... and Qatar, major backers of rebels fighting to topple Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators... , want firm action while other Arab states such as Syria neighbors Iraq, Leb and Jordan have ruled out joining any attack.
Earlier on Sunday, the Saudi foreign minister told a news conference that the international community must stop "the aggression against the Syrian people before these people perish."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2013
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[Bangla Daily Star] An anonymous letter has threatened to blow out important structures including court buildings in Chittagong if war crimes suspect Salauddin Quader Chowdhury is not released immediately.
Police said the typed letter claimed to be sent on behalf of the residents of Rauzan and Fatikchhari, also threatened to kill the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Chittagong, reports our Chittagong correspondent.
The letter was sent to the chief judicial magistrate's office around 4:45pm, said Rezaul Masud, additional deputy commissioner (prosecution) of Chittagong Metropolitan Police.
The police official said an investigation was underway.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2013
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[Dawn] Awami National Party leader Asfandyar Wali Khan on Saturday dissolved all party organizations, including central, provincial and district cabinets, in the country over the May 11 election defeat.
That seems a bit drastic...
"All future party organizations from lower to higher levels will be elected through a democratic process," he told a news conference at Wali Bagh here.
Mr Asfandyar said the decision top dissolve all party organizations had been made in light of the recommendations of a committee, which was formed to look into the party's defeat in the May 11 general elections.
He said the committee analysed the reasons and factors behind the party's election and found that there were two aspects of the defeat.
"One aspect was the conspiracies hatched against ANP by elements afraid of its political stand in wake of the emerging regional political scenario, while the other aspect related to the party and its government's internal weaknesses, including weakness of policy, weakness of governance and weakness of organization," he said.
The ANP chief said the fact-finding committee also criticised the mode of recruiting members into the party saying it lacked transparency and that the entire process of organization building based on it was flawed and unrepresentative.
He said ANP would soon begin fresh membership campaign, which would last two months.
He said a central election commission and five provincial election commissions would conduct the intra-party polls and Senator Haji Adeel had been made the chairman of the central election commission.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2013
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#1
Don't they know they're just supposed to throw more money at the same old consultants when that happens instead?
[Debka] Syria, Iran and Hizballah are let off the hook by the lifting of the imminent US military threat against Bashar Assad over his use of chemical weapons on Aug. 21. Not only that, but the threesome have won an unforeseen tactical advantage: President Obama's turn to Congress to authorize that attack gives them at least a fortnight for launching a pre-emptive strike against US forces and its allies. I guess there may be a downside in voting "present"....
#1
In the case of Turkey and Jordan, I suspect they paid into the election fund for the purchase of this unreliable administration and now they're going to find out just how unreliable it is.
[ABCNEWS.GO] Syria on Sunday derided President Barack Obama I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody... 's decision to hold off on punitive military strikes, but also took precautions by reportedly moving some troops and military equipment to civilian areas.
The B.O. regime countered that its case for military action against the regime of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Terror of Aleppo ... is getting stronger, saying it now has evidence that the toxic gas allegedly used in strikes on rebel-held areas was the nerve agent sarin.
The administration predicted Sunday it will obtain congressional backing for limited strikes. After days of edging closer to military action against Syria, Obama suddenly announced Saturday he would first seek approval from Congress, which gets back from summer break Sept. 9.
Assad, in turn, tried to project confidence in his escalating showdown with the U.S., saying in comments carried by state media Sunday that Syria is "capable of confronting any external aggression."
From the sidelines, others exhorted the U.S. either to get involved or stay out of the brutal two-and-a-half-year-old conflict that has claimed more than 100,000 lives and displaced millions of people.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2013
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If South Carolina would just elect a few Dems, they could take care of that problem.
[POSTANDCOURIER] South Carolina ended the fiscal year with a higher-than-expected surplus, handing politicians an additional $68 million to distribute next year.
The fiscal-year closing report issued Wednesday by the state's chief accountant shows South Carolina collected more than enough taxes to fund every item on the Legislature's priority list for surplus revenue, as well as the full $50 million for bridge repair.
"The results of what we closed out support that economic conditions look strong for the state," Comptroller Richard Eckstrom told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named on Friday. "Operating conditions look pretty sound."
He noted the $6.2 billion "spent" in the year that ended June 30 included $282 million set aside in a rainy-day fund, which represents 5 percent of the prior year's general fund revenues. That's more than politicians were required to have in the reserve account. A constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2010 allowed politicians to incrementally increase the reserves, but politicians hit the 5 percent mark two years ahead of schedule.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2013
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#1
This article completely fails to mention the governor of the state. I guess it was just 'good luck.'
Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded here and there, now and then are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.
[Dawn] A Crimes Investigation Agency police constable was killed while a head-constable suffered injuries when suspected robbers shot up them outside Sessions Courts in Islampura police limits.
Police said a team of Iqbal Town CIA police was present outside the Sessions Court in plainclothes to monitor the movement of an alleged criminal, Ismail alias Shani, who was to appear in a court in connection with a robbery case.
When Ismail came out of the court along with a friend he saw the plainclothesmen there. On seeing the police, the accused pulled out a weapon from the rickshaw and opened fire on the police.
The firing left constable Sajid Ali and head-constable Anwar injured. Sajid was pronounced dead at the Mayo Hospital while Anwar was being treated for his injuries.
Policemen, overpowered Ismail while his accomplice managed to escape.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2013
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Iran's Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari says the Islamic Republic's new destroyer, Lavan, will soon join the country's naval fleet, PressTV reported.
It's actually a Hengam-class landing ship, tank, at just under 3,000 tons displacement...
"The overhaul of the Islamic Republic's destroyer, Lavan, is complete and [the vessel] will soon join the Navy," Sayyari said on Sunday while elaborating on the latest achievements of the country's naval forces.
Sayyari highlighted the importance of a strong naval force, saying, "The Navy should be able to defend national interests in territorial and free waters so that it could guarantee the country's progress."
Iran's Navy launched the renovated Shaheed Bayandor destroyer
which joined the country's naval forces on March 16, has been designed and built by Iranian experts using state-of-the-art navigation equipment and complex defensive systems.
When asked whether Iran had dispatched a fleet to the Mediterranean in the face of the US military buildup there for an attack on Syria, Sayyari said the Iranian Navy has not received any orders to send military ships near the Syrian coastlines.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/02/2013
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#1
Fleet tugs. They keep forgetting the fleet tugs.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
09/02/2013 1:51
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#2
If there's ever any shooting, the Iranian Navy will be getting a Fleet enema, Harpoon style...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
09/02/2013 7:38
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#3
future reefs
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/02/2013 9:32
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[An Nahar] Egypt on Sunday expelled three foreign journalists working as freelancers for Al-Jazeera ... an Arab news network headquartered in Qatar, notorious for carrying al-Qaeda press releases. The name means the Peninsula, as in the Arabian Peninsula. In recent years it has settled in to become slightly less biased than MSNBC, in about the same category as BBC or CBS... television's English channel, the state news agency MENA reported.
Airport security officials, quoted by MENA, said the three men left on a flight to London.
Correspondent Wayne Haye, a New Zealander, South African cameraman Adil Bradlow and Irish producer Russ Finn were locked away Please don't kill me! last Tuesday while covering the political crisis in Egypt.
Police said they did not have press accreditation.
The Qatar-based channel said last week: "There has also been a campaign against Al-Jazeera, in particular, as the channel's offices were raided last month and security forces seized equipment which has yet to be returned."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2013
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[LOHUD] Eight Peekskill High School students didn't graduate in June and must return to school this month because they were given credit for a class that doesn't exist.
Other students had to attend summer school to graduate, said interim schools Superintendent Larry Licopoli, but he didn't have a number.
And The Journal News has obtained records that show then-Superintendent James Willis ordered four guidance counselors suspected of handing out credits for phony courses to turn over information "inappropriately deleted" from an online system containing student data.
They're among the latest developments in the transcript scandal that began unfolding in January, when school officials said at least 34 seniors received credits for classes that didn't exist. Many received credit for a "co-op" class, which officials said appeared to be a legitimate work-experience course discontinued years ago. The four guidance counselors were reassigned amid suspicion of misconduct.
The high school's social studies chairwoman, 53-year-old Allison Risoli of Peekskill, is facing criminal charges, accused of altering answers on Regents examinations at least two weeks after the reassignment of the guidance counselors. She is on paid leave.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2013
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#1
They copied the University of North Carolina's black studies program for athletes, which was overseen by the present chancellor of the esteemed University of Kansas.
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.
Unlike our Federal Reserve..... the Rantburg Treasury doesn't print money... 
Taliban fighters attacked a U.S. military outpost in the Afghan province of Nangarhar on Monday, less than a week after targeting a Polish base in a nearby province.
Only someone as strategically inept as Susan Rice would think this is a good idea. Democrats have defended Susan Rice when the evidence has been overwhelming she really isn't qualified to be top National Security advisor, and her inexperience outside her foggy bubble is on parade right now. Partisans in the US keep making the same mistakes. They get caught up listening to what their political opponents say and don't pay enough attention to what the career oriented professionals say. The line of non-partisan career national security professionals who have deep respect for Susan Rice for her intellectual capacity of national security affairs is very short, and today may be invisible. 
[An Nahar] Thousands of protesters held a protest in Yemen's main southern city of Aden on Sunday to renew calls for independence from the north and reject the 
[MAGHAREBIA] Algerian security services on Saturday (August 31st) foiled a terrorist attack in the centre of Batna, Tout sur l'Algerie reported. The incident occurred when 
[Xinhua] The Iranian army will stage a large- scale military maneuver in late September, a senior Iranian commander said Saturday.
Armenian Armed Forces opened fire at positions of the Azerbaijani Army in the village of Gaymagli of Gazakh region, from the positions in the village of Barekamavan of Noyemberyan region of Armenia yesterday and tonight, press service of the Defense Ministry of Azerbaijani told Trend on Sunday.
[Dawn] A trustee of an Imambargah was 
[An Nahar] Suspected Islamists on Sunday 
Egypt has arrested three people who opened machine gun fire on a ship passing through the Suez Canal, an army source said on Sunday, playing down what the waterway's chief described as a terrorist attack.
[Dawn] A homoeopath and four other people were killed when 
[MYFOXNY] In a case that ruffled feathers in Egypt, authorities have 
[BIRMINGHAMMAIL.CO.UK] A Birmingham Islamic TV channel has been fined £85,000 after a controversial presenter said it was a duty for 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Dawn] Police arrested on Friday a former federal minister belonging to the PML-Q, Liaquat Abbas Bhatti, shortly after recovering from his Johar Town residence a 14-year-old housemaid allegedly tortured and chained along with her younger sister and brother.
[TELEGRAPH.CO.UK] All cars could be fitted with devices that stop them going over 70mph, under new EU road safety measures which aim to cut deaths from road accidents by a third.
[An Nahar] German Chancellor 
[Al Ahram] Sinai
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
... an Arab news network headquartered in Qatar, notorious for carrying al-Qaeda press releases. The name means 
Turkish police blocked the entrance to Istanbul's Gezi Park, the epicentre of anti-government protests in June, on Sunday to prevent a demonstration there against a possible military intervention in Syria. Riot police advanced with shields but held back from using tear gas or water cannon against about 1,000 activists who instead formed a human chain on the city's celebrated Istiklal Avenue, according to an AFP photographer who witnessed the scene.
[NEWS.SKY] Egypt's ousted president Mohamed Morsi will reportedly stand trial on charges of committing and inciting deadly violence.
Nawaz Sharif
Lindsey Graham
[An Nahar] Potential presidential candidate Omar Daudzai was appointed as Afghanistan's acting interior minister on Sunday, putting him in a high-profile public role seven months before the country's first democratic transfer of power.
Wazoo
[MAGHAREBIA] The first International Flamenco Festival of Tangier will kick off on September 5th, MAP reported on Saturday (August 31st). The three day "Nights of Andalusia" event will feature Moroccan and Spanish artists.
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Dawn] Awami National Party leader Asfandyar Wali Khan on Saturday dissolved all party organizations, including central, provincial and district cabinets, in the country over the May 11 election defeat.
[MAGHAREBIA] A Libyan Special Forces officer had his leg blown off in a 
[Dawn] A Crimes Investigation Agency police constable was killed while a head-constable suffered injuries when suspected robbers 
[LOHUD] Eight Peekskill High School students didn't graduate in June and must return to school this month because they were given credit for a class that doesn't exist.
