#2
the biggest contractor involved in building the site, was not provided with the information it needed to start writing code for the site until the spring of this year. This detail in the story aroused some shock and surprise among outside web developers, and these CMS officials say its just not true.
I bet it IS true. I'd guess "Information" was provided it just wasn't what was asked for or useful.
#7
Also likely is that every congresscritter and their aid wanted in on the action. Meaning that they likely got leads and managers who were there based on patronage over qualifications. From designers to analysts to coders (who knows if there any testers...).
All based on who they know, skin color, sexual orientation, gender, etc.... instead of qualifications and experience.
#1
The guy is from the left side of Tennessee. We don't claim him on the right side of Tennessee. Many over here would think the radical left (which has taken over the Donk party) is the domestic enemy. Currently, out governor is a Pub, the legislature is Pub and our bond rating is AAA (unlike the Federal government). Rep. Cohen, look at your party and inward for someone to blame for this current mess we are in.
#5
I feel the current Dhimocrats are the domestic enemy. They are lawless and ignore any constitutional law and mandate. If they want to pick a fight, let 'em. They forget which side has the guns and most of the veterans.
#7
Which, like all of their grand social engineering schemes, has been and will remain a total failure. Disarming the populace would requite confiscation, and there is just no physically possible way to remove something like 300 million guns from circulation. Any serious attempt would only provoke the very fight they'll lose.
#8
the people who would be called to do so are not Janissaries separate from our society. They are Americans - with family and friends, easily identifiable for retribution in any martial act. It should be made clear to them
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/20/2013 18:49
Comments ||
Top||
h/t IMAO
It's long been known that America's school kids haven't measured well compared with international peers. Now, there's a new twist: Adults don't either.
In math, reading and problem-solving using technology -- all skills considered critical for global competitiveness and economic strength -- American adults scored below the international average on a global test, according to results released Tuesday.
#3
It's long been known that America's school kids haven't measured well compared with international peers.
It's also been known that international tests usually just involve the better slice of the student bodies vs American 'test them all'. Kids are sorted out in middle school periods for separate tracks for vocational and higher education. Guess who's result get counted?
There's dumb and then there's lazy. Don't confuse the two. Wonder who's citizen (Japan, Canada, Australia, Finland) are better at running a 'black' off the books economy?
#4
I was looking at our county-wide educational Advanced Placement (AP) test results. The results supported some of the things mentioned in this posted article. Kids from areas that have higher levels of poverty, don't have intact families, have lower levels of education, tend to have more violent crime and gang activity, and have higher percentages of minorities tend to score lower on AP tests. But then we are probably a racist community (sarc on).
#6
One thing that affects international comparisons is that America is divided into two groups:
The Race that Dare Not be Named; and everybody else.
One group has large numbers of uninformed voters, poor reading and math skills, high rates of violence, and high rates of drug use. the other group is the opposite.
The problem is that when the two groups are averaged together, the resulting score is lower by several points.
One demographic fact: Americans living in the inner city have the same life expectancy as a person from Bangladesh. However, after age 5 (to factor out child mortality), the chances of dying is greater for the American in the inner city. Since dozens of Bengalis are eaten by tigers every year, It gives you an idea of just how dysfunctional the inner city is.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
10/20/2013 12:28
Comments ||
Top||
#7
Immigration from 3rd world hell holes is also a factor. Fifty percent drop out rate
Posted by: regular joe ||
10/20/2013 12:48
Comments ||
Top||
[Ynet] Marking 2 years to Shalit deal, Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, PM Haniyeh calls for 'renewal of intifada in West Bank' praising recent terror attack, boasting Hamas has broken all of Israel's redlines, claiming 'thousands are training above, below ground to fight for Paleostine'
Gazoo Strip's Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh ...became Prime Minister after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank... gave a speech marking two years to the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal, which he dubbed a "victory" for the terror organization.
As expected, in the speech, billed as "strategic," Haniyeh opened with a few words about the "historic victory" Hamas registered with the Shalit deal and then moved on to on recent developments in Sinai, Egypt as well as praising recent terror attacks and claiming that Hamas as succeeded in erasing all of Israel's redlines.
Attempting to accent his claims regarding the Shalit deal, Haniyeh quoted Israeli leaders who mentioned the heavy price Israel had to pay -- namely the release of over 1,000 Paleostinian prisoners -- for Shalit's release. Haniyeh further promised that Hamas will continue to "use any mean possible" to release all the remaining prisoners in Israel's custody.
"We call for the renewal of the popular intifada in the West Bank, to restart resistance within it," Haniyeh said, praising the recent string of terror attacks. "We send blessings to the heroes who undertook the recent attacks in the West Bank, and call on (Paleostinians involved in the) resistance to stand up and take action at every possible moment to stop the threat facing the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem."
During his speech, Haniyeh stressed that Hamas is still strong and built on unity among its ranks and the Paleostinian people. According to him, armed resistance is still the movement's strategy, and thus he slammed peace talks currently underway. According to him the talks are held only in a bid to better Israel's international standing and while negotiation, Israel continues to expand its settlement project -- in contradiction of peace talks.
Haniyeh claimed that the armed resistance is still strong and undeterred in Gazoo, in spite of the Israeli and Egyptian enforced blockage on the Strip. "Resistance fighters are silently preparing for the next battles in Paleostine. Thousands of them are above the ground and thousands underneath, preparing to release our lands," referencing the IDF 's unearthing of a tunnel into Israel.
In the second part of his speech, Haniyeh commented on Hamas's status within a wider regional context, specifically in regards to the group's deteriorating relations with Egypt and the ambivalent relation the terror group has with embattled Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... , and by proxy with Hezbollah and its patron Iran.
He expressed empathy with Arab people's desire for freedom, but much like Khaled Mashal, said he opposes the bloodshed which it seems to entail. He reiterated claims that Hamas remains neutral in regards to internal events in Arab countries such as Syria, Egypt and Leb.
Haniyeh attempted to dispel rumors of a riff within the organization's leadership in wake of the Arab Spring, saying such claims were false. "Hamas has never been more united as it is today."
Most of his speech focused on tensions with Egypt. Despite denying that Hamas is active in the Sinai Peninsula or anywhere else in Egypt, and demanding that the Egyptian authorities stop inciting against Hamas and Gazoo, Haniyeh praised the regime in Cairo. According to him, claims that Hamas is in contact with the Moslem Brüderbund, like claims of Hamas's involvement in Sinai, are false.
The Hamas prime minister noted that his organization will turn its arms only against Israel and that "Egypt will remain the Paleostinians' strategic" partner.
He concluded his speech by praising Gazoo residents for their endurance during hard times.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013 13:52
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Ahh yes, the voice of reason from Hamas.
Just in a nick of time to derail any meaningful negotiations on the West Bank or Palestinian statehood.
Do you get the feeling Hamas and Hezbollah really don't want to settle the issue, they need an excuse for their behavior.
Of course terrorism is a nice gig, nice cars, admiring compliant women, nice houses, nice expense accounts and thousands of gullible useful idiots to carryout the dirty work and donate to the cause.
These guys don't want peace. If Israel never existed they would find some other excuse.
The Israeli issue could have been settled years ago but the lousy greedy leadership in the middle east use Israel as a scapegoat for the societal problems and divert attention from their own incompetence and lavish lifestyles.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
10/20/2013 14:38
Comments ||
Top||
[Ynet] Two suspected cases of polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... have been detected in Syria, the first appearance of the incurable viral disease there in 14 years, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday.
The UN body said initial test results from a cluster of cases of acute flaccid paralysis in the eastern province of Deir al-Zor in early October had come back positive for the crippling disease.
Probably brought by some of the roaming jihadis from the northwest of the Indian subcontinent.
The least dispiriting moment of another grim week in Washington was the sight of ornery veterans tearing down the Barrycades around the war memorials on the National Mall, dragging them up the street, and dumping them outside the White House. This was, as Kevin Williamson wrote at National Review, "as excellent a gesture of the American spirit as our increasingly docile nation has seen in years." Indeed. The wounded vet with two artificial legs balancing the Barrycade on his Segway was especially impressive. It would have been even better had these disgruntled citizens neatly lined up the Barrycades across the front of the White House and round the sides, symbolically Barrycading him in as punishment for Barrycading them out. But, in a town where an unarmed woman can be left a bullet-riddled corpse merely for driving too near His Benign Majesty's palace and nobody seems to care, one appreciates a certain caution.
By Wednesday, however, it was business as usual. Which is to say the usual last-minute deal just ahead of the usual make-or-break deadline to resume spending as usual. There was nothing surprising about this. Everyone knew the Republicans were going to fold. Folding is what Republicans do. John Boehner and Mitch McConnell are so good at folding Obama should hire them as White House valets. So the only real question was when to fold. They could at least have left it for a day or two after the midnight chimes of October 17 had come and gone. It would have been useful to demonstrate that just as the sequester did not cause the sky to fall and the shutdown had zero impact on the life of the country so this latest phoney-baloney do-or-die date would not have led to the end of the world as we know it. If you're going to place another trillion dollars of debt (or more than the entire national debts of Canada and Australia combined) on the backs of the American people in one grubby late-night deal, you might as well get a teachable moment out of it.
#1
The wounded vet with two artificial legs balancing the Barrycade on his Segway was especially impressive.
Indeed it was. I am waiting for Charles Woods, father of slain US Navy SEAL Ty Woods, to post himself daily, at the White House fence demanding answers. It would be interesting to see how long the MSM might ignore him ?
[Ynet] Arab-language Sky News has quoted an Egyptian security official as claiming that some 400 people were incarcerated Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! in recent weeks as part of the second phase of the army's operation in Sinai. Out of the 400, at least 100 are Paleostinians, which according to the official, are affiliated with Sinai-based terror groups.
In addition, the source said that the army succeeded in destroying 97% of the tunnels connecting Gazoo to Sinai.
#2
Having lived in Egypt under Nasser I can tell you that he would not permit Palestinians to live in Egypt (unless of course the bribe were sweet enough).
[Ynet] Two Turkish pilots kidnapped in Leb were freed Saturday as part of a deal that saw nine kidnapped Lebanese pilgrims in Syria released from captivity, officials said.
Turkish Airlines pilots Murat Akpinar and Murat Agca had been held by bully boyz since their kidnapping in August in Beirut. Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency issued a bulletin Saturday announcing the pilots' release, without offering any other details. The Turks' release is part of a negotiated hostage deal that included the freeing of the kidnapped pilgrims, as well as dozens of women held in Syrian government jails.
A plane with nine Lebanese hostages freed from northern Syria landed safely in Beirut on Saturday night, witnesses said, nearly a year and a half after the men were captured by Syrian rebels near the Turkish border. Live video from Lebanese television showed a Qatari jet landing at Beirut International Airport and Lebanese officials lining up to greet the men.
Qatari officials negotiated the release of the men in a deal that simultaneously secured the freedom of two Turkish pilots taken in a retaliatory kidnapping in August 2013.
[Ynet] Analysis: If accepted, Tehran's offer to world powers will merely freeze nuclear activity until Khamenei decides to resume it
Washington and Jerusalem's initial assessments regarding Tehran's intentions were correct. The partial information coming in following the negotiations in Geneva indicates that the current Iranian leadership is in fact proposing a valid deal on its nuclear program. If in the past it was the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany that presented practical outlines for the resolution of the nuclear standoff and Iran stalled for time, now it is the other way around: Iran presented a pragmatic and supposedly fair outline for a deal that will be implemented quickly in three stages. The sanctions succeeded where diplomacy failed.
This is the essence of the Iranian proposal: Within 3-6 months Iran will stop or significantly reduce its activities related to uranium enrichment, which advance it toward obtaining the capability to produce a nuclear weapon in a short period of time. Tehran will also allow tight international supervision that will make certain it is living up to its commitments, in accordance with the agreement. In return, the six world powers will gradually remove the sanctions that are stifling Iran's economy.
Continued on Page 49
[TOLONEWS] Residents of northern Sar-e-Pol Province have raised the volume on complaints of rampant corruption within their provincial government. Provincial officials acknowledged the existence of corruption, but said they needed the help of residents to effectively combat it.
According to a number of Sar-e-Pol denizens, provincial offices don't work without bribes, and officials delay work in order to extort higher fees. They warned that people would lose faith in government if the issues go unaddressed.
Corruption is a widely documented problem in Afghanistan. According to Transparency International, Afghanistan is the second most corrupt nation in the world, falling right behind Somalia, and a report the organization released earlier this year ranked the Afghan judiciary as the most corrupt in the world.
"If you want to get an ID Card, you have to pay 1,000 Afghani, and without paying money, it is impossible," a resident of Sar-e-Pul who asked not to be named told TOLOnews.
The Governor of Sar-e-Pul, Abdul Jabbar Haqbin, stressed his utmost commitment to the task of fighting corruption in his province. But he added that to remove the problem effectively, residents need to cooperate, and report instances of bribery and other improprieties.
"The people should inform high ranking officials in the province about the persons who engage in corruption, delay work for no reason or have illegal demands," Haqbin told TOLOnews. "If this happens, we will succeed."
While the issue off corruption in Afghanistan has been longstanding, and will likely not go away over night, sensitivity is heightened ahead of the elections and withdraw of coalition troops next year, which present trials that will test the credibility of the central and provincial government system that has been established since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.
Sar-e-Pul province is located in northern Afghanistan, and has just over 500,000 residents. The province's economy is primarily based on agriculture and livestock.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
[Libya Herald] The former commander of the thuwar in Al Amamira, near Emsalata some 140 kilometres east of 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... , was reportedly rubbed out yesterday, Friday. Muftah Grimazi was driving with his cousin Rifat Grimazi when their car was attacked, sources in Khoms told the Libya Herald. In the subsequent shootout both men were hit, as were two of the assailants.
Both cousins were rushed to hospital in Emsalata but Muftah died later, the source said. Rifat's condition is reported as stable.
One of the injured assailants was taken to at Khoms hospital. However, you can observe a lot just by watching... according to the source, when police arrived to arrest him, he was no longer there. He had apparently been spirited out of the hospital by a group that had accompanied him there. The police did, though, arrest two men suspected of being involved in smuggling him out. The source said they had been transferred to Emsalata cop shoppe.
The killing is believed to be the first of its kind in Al-Amamira.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Al Ahram] The High Administrative Court adjourned to 21 December Saturday a case demanding the dissolution of the Moslem Brüderbund's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) and the Salafist El-Nour Party, on grounds of their being formed on a religious basis.
The court also adjourned earlier Saturday to 16 November 11 other lawsuits demanding the FJP's dissolution, pending recommendations by the State Commissioners' Authority on each case.
Egypt's State Commissioners' Authority, a body that advises the government on legal issues, recommended 7 October the dissolution of the FJP, the political wing of the Moslem Brüderbund.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
President Hamid Karzai's Loya Jirga, intended to determine the fate of the Kabul-Washington Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), is set to be held sometime in mid November in Kabul. But with only weeks left even Sebghatullah Mujadadi, the Jirga's Chairman, has voiced reservations about the purpose of the gathering.
In addition to Mujadadi's appointment, Sadeq Mudaber was tapped to be the head of its Secretariat, Nematullah Shahrani as First Deputy and Said Hamed Gillani as Second Deputy.
The men will preside over a Jirga that was proposed by President Karzai back in August as a strategy to leave future of the contentious security pact with Washington up to the Afghan people. The BSA is expected to outline the future of U.S. involvement in Afghan national security after the NATO combat mission ends in 2014, including the number and function of troops to remain behind for what has been called a "advising, training and assisting" mission.
The Afghan President's choice to defer the fate of the agreement up to a Jirga has received a mix of approval and disapproval from Afghan power players. Some have applauded it as a democratic way of deciding on what has been regarded as an accord that could determine whether Afghanistan sinks or swims after the coalition's departure. Others, however, have been less positive, calling the decision a waste of time, reckless and even illegal in some cases.
While introducing the Administrative Board and head of the Secretariat, Mr. Mujadadi, the designated leader of the Jirga, even voiced disagreement with the Jirga being the method relied upon for finalizing the BSA.
"There was no need for holding the Advisory Loya Jirga for signing the Bilateral Security Agreement. This could have been solved through discussions with the United States," Mujadadi said. Nevertheless, the Jirga is moving forward, and is now expected to convene in a matter of weeks. The traditional form of consensus decision-making will bring together thousands of local, national, religious and political leaders from around the country.
"The number of participants will be around 3,000 people and they will be divided into 16 categories, of which there will be members of parliament, provincial councils, civil society and representatives of the people," said Mudaber, the head of the Jirga's Secretariat.
The provisions of the BSA have been hotly debated between U.S. and Afghan negotiators over the past year since talks began. It wasn't until last weekend, when U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry made a surprise visit to Kabul, that most of the agreement was finally ironed out. Reportedly, the only issue that remains unsettled is that of U.S. troop immunity from Afghan judicial jurisdiction, which Kerry said could make or break the deal and Karzai said he will leave up to the Jirga.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Methinks he is afraid of an explodydope attendee at the meeting.
A wise man in these times.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
10/20/2013 14:34
Comments ||
Top||
[Al Ahram] The Egyptian Administrative Court has postponed the case against Google for keeping the anti-Islam film 'Innocence of Islam' available on YouTube until 2 November
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
No doubt enough money will change hands that it will keep on being postponed until people have forgotten about it. Especially since the Muslim Brothers aren't running things anymore.
[Dawn] A recently released UN report suggests there is "strong evidence" that top Pak military and intelligence officials approved US drone strikes on Pak soil during 2004 and 2008.
The study says in some cases, even "senior government figures" gave their approval to the strikes in the country's militancy-hit tribal areas.
"There is strong evidence to suggest that between June 2004 and June 2008 remotely piloted aircraft strikes in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas were conducted with the active consent and approval of senior members of the Pak military and intelligence service, and with at least the acquiescence and, in some instances, the active approval of senior government figures," says the report by Ben Emmerson, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... and counter-terrorism.
The report, however, does not elaborate on the details of the evidence collected.
Islamabad officially condemns US drone attacks as a violation of its illusory sovereignty and counter-productive in the fight against terrorism and militancy.
In April this year, former military dictator Gen (Retd) Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... admitted in an interview to CNN that his government had given approval "only on very few occasions".
Musharraf, who ruled over Pakistain until 2008 after coming to power in a bloodless coup as army chief of staff in 1999, said drone strikes were discussed and approved "at the military and intelligence levels" but only "two or three times".
Drone strikes against Pakistan's sovereignty: Nawaz
Prime Minister 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... has said that drone attacks violate the illusory sovereignty of Pakistain and that the issue will be raised during his visit to the United States, DawnNews reported.
The prime minister spoke to the media after reaching the UK capital while en route to the United States. He said that drone attacks will be discussed when he meets with US President Barack Obama I am the change that you seek... Sharif said that Pakistain has raised the issue of drone attacks at the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... as well.
The prime minister also said that all political parties are on one platform with regards to having talks with the Pak Taliban.
The US State Department said that 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... will meet with Nawaz Sharif before the former leaves on a foreign trip.
The prime minister will meet President Barack Obama at the White House on Wednesday.
US-Pak relations have weathered numerous crises in recent years.
There was a months-long legal battle over a CIA contractor who killed two Paks, in addition to the fallout from bin Laden's killing in the Pak military town of Abbottabad ... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden.... in May 2011.
The Pak government was outraged that it received no advance warning of the Navy SEAL raid on bin Laden's compound.
Adding to the mistrust, the US mistakenly killed two dozen Pak soldiers in November 2011. Islamabad responded by shutting land supply routes for troops in Afghanistan until it received a US apology seven months later.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
The Pak government was outraged that it received no advance warning of the Navy SEAL raid on bin Laden's compound.....
.....but continue to cash the Obama administration foreign aide dividend checks and dutifully blame slumbering security forces, faulty Russian radar and doctor.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was sworn in for a third term on Saturday after romping to victory in a widely criticized election in the oil-rich ex-Soviet country. The inauguration ceremony took place in the parliament in Baku immediately after the constitutional court confirmed Aliyev's crushing win in an October 9 poll that international observers called seriously flawed.
"I swear to observe the constitution of the country and to serve to protect the independence and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan," Aliyev said according to the state-run news agency Azertac.
Aliyev's third term extends what is already a decades-long rule by his family. He won some 85 percent of the vote, far ahead of his main challenger Jamil Hasanli with around 5.5 percent.
Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said the poll fell well short of international standards and Aliyev's opponents demanded the result be annulled.
The 51-year-old Aliyev -- who took power in 2003 in a disputed election after the death of his father Heydar, a former KGB officer and Communist-era boss -- has been buoyed by billions in petrodollars over the past decade.
Any sign of dissent usually meets a harsh reaction in the tightly-controlled nation and rights groups accused the authorities of jailing scores of opponents in the run-up to the vote.
Aliyev is expected to continue treading a cautious path between the West and Russia, ensuring that Azerbaijan remains a key energy source for Europe and a U.S. ally while not upsetting its giant northern neighbor. At home, he faces the tougher task of keeping rising discontent over high-level corruption and inequality in check.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
whoops - wrong story/headline combo
Fixed.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/20/2013 8:57
Comments ||
Top||
[An Nahar] An official in the fundamentalist al-Nusra Front has threatened to target Hizbullah strongholds in Leb in response to the party's involvement in the fighting in Syria alongside the country's regime, reported the Kuwaiti al-Seyassah daily on Saturday.
He vowed that the front will respond to the killing of Syrians by targeting Hizbullah strongholds of Dahieh in Beirut, the Bekaa city of Baalbek, and southern Leb, a military leader of the Syrian opposition quoted him as saying.
Meanwhile, ...back at the dirigible, Cynthia backed into the galley, the barbecue fork held in front of her. Jack! she called. Where the hell are you?... Lebanese security authorities told the daily that the security forces and army's deployment the southern Beiurt suburbs of Dahieh will not prevent boom-mobileings from targeting the area.
They said: "The deployment in over 16 Hizbullah security zones will not prevent such attacks because those seeking to harm the party are already in the area."
In July, al-Nusra Front leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani hit out at Hizbullah for its intervention in the Syrian conflict, warning "Shiites in Leb against allowing Hizbullah to drag them into a proxy war in Syria on behalf of its Iranian backers."
"I say that abandoning Hizbullah and disowning it will save you from woes and disasters that you would do without," he added.
In September, a joint force of 800 men composed of soldiers from the army and security searvices began their deployment in Dahieh, where they will take over security at checkpoints set up by Hizbullah in the wake of two bombings that hit its stronghold.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: al-Nusra
[An Nahar] The Gazoo Strip's Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, prime minister Ismail Haniyeh ...became Prime Minister after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank... denied on Saturday reports that the Islamic myrmidon group was involved in fighting in the neighboring Egyptian Sinai or in Syria.
"We did not interfere in the affairs of any country and are not involved in the events or differences or internal conflicts of any country," Haniyeh said.
"This (is) our position regarding what has happened and is happening in Syria, Egypt, Leb and all Arab and Islamic countries," he said.
"We are not involved in any incident," he added. "Neither in the Sinai or elsewhere. We only act in the Paleostinian arena and our guns are turned only toward the Zionist enemy."
He called on the media to stop their "baseless" accusations against Hamas, which he said "is proud to have taken from its first day a principled and moral position for the people and their suffering and their right to freedom , democracy and dignity."
Haniyeh made the remarks during a speech marking two years since captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was exchanged for 1,027 Paleostinian prisoners, feted in Gazoo as a victory for the "resistance."
Relations between Cairo and Hamas have deteriorated since July 3, when the Egyptian army ousted president Mohammed Morsi ...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Time principle, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator... , a member of the Moslem Brüderbund in which Hamas has its roots.
Since then, the Egyptian army has destroyed hundreds of smuggling tunnels under the border with the Gazoo Strip, which supplied the Paleostinian territory with food and construction materials.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
"We did not interfere in the affairs of any country and are not involved in the events or differences or internal conflicts of any country," Haniyeh said.
"....except da Jooooos"
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/20/2013 8:52
Comments ||
Top||
[An Nahar] The U.S. Congress must stop stumbling from crisis to crisis and join together to create jobs and get things done, President Barack Obama If you have a small business, you didn't build that... said Saturday in his weekly radio address.
Speaking just two days after Congress reached an 11th-hour accord to end a 16-day government shutdown and avert a debt default by extending the Treasury's authority to borrow money, the president said politicians have little to be proud of.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Should we go for the politics of personal assassination like your ilk do?
[TOLONEWS] The National Assembly's Commission for Reviewing Government Actions released a report on land-grabbing after eight months of fact-finding. Although the names of small-to-medium scale land-grabbers were released, the Commission said that a lack of cooperation on the part of government ministries made it impossible to ascertain the identities of the country's biggest offenders.
The Commission's report was divided into three tiers of land-grabbing: small amounts in the third tier, medium amounts in the second tier and the largest amounts in the first tier.
At a general meeting of the House of Representatives, Zalmai Mujaddadi, the Chairman of the Commission, said that the government had been cooperative in helping assemble the names of individuals falling in the third and second tiers, but unhelpful when it came to the big-time offenders of the first tier.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
[Shabelle] Scotland Yard is investigating a video apparently made by Somali bad turban group al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... after British Mohammedans who have spoken out against extremism were named as targets.
The hour-long film, narrated by an unidentified man with a British accent, reportedly praises acts of Islamist terrorism and starts by hailing the killing of soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich, south east London.
[An Nahar] Arab nations on Saturday appealed to 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... to reverse a decision to reject a seat on the U.N. Security Council.
Arab U.N. ambassadors made the appeal after an emergency meeting on Saudi Arabia's surprise announcement Friday that it would not take up a Security Council seat to protest the body's handling of the Syria war and other conflicts.
Saudi Arabia's leaders should "maintain their membership in the Security Council and continue their brave role in defending our issues specifically at the rostrum of the Security Council," said a statement released by Arab states at the U.N.
The statement expressed "respect and understanding" for the Saudi position.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Which (IMO) it will do eventually, albeit very reluctantly.
[An Nahar] Belgium on Saturday charged an 18-year-old for belonging to a radical Islamist group one day after he returned from an eight-month trip to Syria, the federal prosecutor said.
Jejoen Bontinck, a Belgian citizen, was charged by a judge in Antwerp following police questioning, and subsequently remanded in jug, the prosecutor said, according to the Belga local news agency.
Bontinck, who was raised in a Catholic family and converted to radical Islam, left Belgium in February, telling his parents he was going on holiday in the Netherlands when he was actually bound for Syria.
The young man's father, a former Belgian military officer, went twice to Syria in search of his son but failed both times to find him.
Around twenty copperstossed in the clink Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! Bontinck on Friday night when he turned up at his mother's house.
Prosecutors accuse Bontinck of being a member of the radical Islamist group Sharia4Belgium, believed by Belgian authorities to be one of the country's main recruiters of volunteer fighters.
In interviews with Belgian media, Bontinck denied joining the fighting in Syria and said he transported medicine. He added he would continue living in Antwerp, "according to the holy tradition of the Prophet."
This article starring:
Sharia4Belgium
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Europe
#1
Belgium Charges Teen for Islamist Group Membership
I know that the Euros are hard-up for cash, but this?
[Market Watch] Insurers say the federal health-care marketplace is generating flawed data that is straining their ability to handle even the trickle of enrollees who have gotten through so far, in a sign that technological problems extend further than the website traffic and software issues already identified. Krauthammer hit it out of the park yesterday when he said, [paraphrasing a bit here]..... "The irony is, the administration's saving grace was that so few were able to get onto the site".
#2
Many young people are unwilling to sign on for this debacle. Many of them are awakening to this costly Ponzi scheme and the attendant impending financial disaster.
Posted by: Goober Prince of the Brontosaurs1840 ||
10/20/2013 15:11
Comments ||
Top||
#6
"applications" - that means they hit the first screen. If there were anything other than a total collapse in ENROLLMENTS, they'd have the number handy. So, they know the number of applications, but not enrollments? That bullshit. They're lying. It's a disaster for them
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/20/2013 15:19
Comments ||
Top||
#7
All part of the great plan, I fear. They will say "See, because of Republicans and Tea Partiers fighting Obamacare, it failed. Insurers went out of business because they only got sick old people to sign up. Young healthy people didn't get insurance. Therefore: the only solution is a government run single payer health system"
Obama won't be in office to enact it, but you can bet that Hillary will do it.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
10/20/2013 15:23
Comments ||
Top||
#8
My wife is 61 and already has insurance. She had to change it once already because of Obama's retreaded HillaryCare (which got shot down when she put it forth). She is less than enthusiastic about signing up for ObamaCare. Her attitude could be described as one of civil disobedience. Our daughter is in business for herself in Texas. She already has insurance. Knowing her, I would say she doesn't respond well to someone saying she has to buy something she doesn't need or want. I would guess she has an attitude of FOAD towards ObamaCare.
#9
I'm 67, still working, and thank goodness the company I work for provides insurance (which I partly pay for). But they had to completely revamp what they do in order to meet the gummint's requirements and not go broke and make it affordable for us.
Bambi and his minions can go to hell. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara ||
10/20/2013 19:59
Comments ||
Top||
#10
Barbara, you are lucky your company could revamp. I no longer have insurance, as spouses of employees and their dependents have been dropped from coverage by necessity. Required to cover children to the age of 26, fully covering drug and alcohol rehab, the company was paying for a 25 yo dependent adult with mental issues from the employee's wife's first marriage. Another spouse was retired and qualified for Medicare but chose to use company insurance as it paid for atrociously expensive treatments the government wouldn't cover. We won't even mention experimental cancer treatments that have been capped at $130, 000. Because insurance is so expensive, the company chose a high deductible group policy and self-insured a subsidy for employees, and has for years, but the new requirements would bankrupt them to continue coverage, taking a $75,000 hit on each person insured. Totally destroying any profit margin, this is a fairly common practice for small businesses...this either forces many onto the Obamacare exchanges reluctantly (like me) or will become a single-payer system by design. Maybe destroying business was the plan all along but I know a lot of Obama fans that are now totally pissed off and we have many new libertarians for 2014.
[An Nahar] New CCTV footage from Nairobi's Westgate mall appears to shows Kenyan soldiers carrying loot out of the besieged mall, attacked exactly four weeks ago, the Nation newspaper reported Saturday.
The report comes two days after members of parliament investigating the attack absolved the army of looting.
The Nation said the 30 minutes of footage showed "scores of soldiers rummaging through the Nakumatt Supermarket and leaving with white polythene bags whose contents cannot be seen."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
#1
4000 years of records show that if you pay the soldiers squat they usually 'liberate' material when given the opportunity. They also become somewhat surly if challenged, particular by people less well armed - "Let the Wookie win"
[Libya Herald] The family home of Wissam Ben Hamid in the Benghazi suburb of Kuwafiyah was attacked and set on fire this afternoon by members of the Barghathi tribe who accused him of responsibility for the liquidation this morning of Colonel Ahmed Mustafa Al-Barghathi, head of Libya's Military Police.
"Four or five carloads of men came to Wissam's house," said an associate of Ben Hamid. "They fired RPGs and then they escaped. But pictures were taken and it is known who they are."
It was then widely reported on social media sites that the attackers planned to move on to the homes of four other military commanders in the city: Ahmed Bukhattalah, Libya Shield commander Ismail Salabi, Ziad Belam, head of the Omar Mukhtar Brigade, and Bukah Laraibi who commands the brigade which protects the Kuwafiyah prison. All are regarded as Islamist.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Shabelle] The armed group al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed at least 13 people outside a restaurant popular with Ethiopian and Somali troops in the town of Baladweyne in central Somalia.
Our main target was Ethiopian and Djibouti troops who invaded our country. They were sitting there, Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al-Shababs military operation spokesman, said on Saturday.
He put the death toll from the attack at 25, including troops from Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia.
U.S. ISSUES STRONGLY WORDED STATEMENT
[An Nahar] Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported dozens of deaths in the northern province of Aleppo Friday, including 12 Kurds killed by regime shelling in the town of Tal-Aran, where nine people were killed on Thursday.
The town lies on a strategic route between Aleppo city and Sfeirah, a town under rebel control near a military base where the regime is believed to store some of its chemical arsenal.
Elsewhere in the province, the Observatory said at least 20 regime troops and seven rebels were killed after opposition forces attacked an air defense base southwest of Aleppo city.
The plight of civilians in the war-torn country prompted a strongly worded statement from the United States, calling on the Syrian regime to give access to humanitarian aid convoys, and warning against further massacres.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[Al Ahram] Iraqi authorities say a car bomb that exploded on a commercial street in northern Baghdad killed three people. Police officials say 11 others were wounded in the Saturday morning blast in the capital's Qahira neighborhood. Shops and cars were damaged.
Health officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to release the information to reporters.
Violence in Iraq escalated sharply in late April following a deadly crackdown by security forces on a camp for Sunni protesters in the northern town of Hawija. At least 365 people have died in attacks so far this month, according to an Associated Press count.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant
[Al Ahram] At least five soldiers and a man whose occupation is yet to be revealed were maimed on Saturday when a boom-mobilewent kaboom! near an army intelligence building in Ismailia, northeast of Cairo, security sources and state media said.
The sources said another undetonated boom-mobile was found while security personnel were sweeping the area. The force of the blast caused part of the military intelligence building's wall to collapse, one of the sources said.
Army recruit Abdel-Salam El-Sayed, 24, suffered a 3-cm wound to the head, while Mohammed Saber, a 21-year-old soldier, sustained a back injury and a 6-cm wound to the head.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[TOLONEWS] Local officials of western Farah province said that Afghan Local Police (ALP) commander, Malam Jan, and two fellow coppers were killed by a roadside kaboom on Friday afternoon in Bala Boluk district of the province.
Three other copperswere maimed by the blast.
The incident took place in the Bala Boluk district when the coppers were on a patrol and their vehicle struck a roadside kaboom, said Abdul Rahman Zhwandon, a Provincial Police Chief Spokesman.
The victims have been taken to a nearby hospital for emergency care.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
[Dawn] Sardar Inayatullah Khan Gandapur, a former chief minister of the province and a chieftain, was known for aristocratic style as he drove around in his custom made armoured vehicle due to feuds.
However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... his son, Sardar Israrullah Khan Gandapur, even after being elected MPA thrice and made the law minister in the current provincial government, was a completely different man and a down-to-earth soul.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
[Dawn] PTI Chairman Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree... on Saturday urged the federal government to play the leading role by initiating talks with Taliban for rooting out terrorism, which had damaged peace in the country in general and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... in particular.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#2
Rustication. Kangaroo courts chaired by student gangsters. Ragging and harassing girls. Long knives and sickles. Regular Francois Villon stuff. Thanks for the heads-up.
The Hindoo (with pics of suspects looking how tehy look)
TOI: Suresh, incidentally, had told some his colleagues that he planned to resign from the college in a month. A senior faculty member of the college said that Suresh had felt extreme pressure in the job. "He was a tough man who was strict with students. But he used to tell me that he could not bear the pressure and planned to move out,'' the faculty member, who didn't want to be named.
A native of Senthamaram, a village near Sankarankoil in Tirunelveli district, Suresh was a divorcee and lived with his aged mother and college-going daughter in Palayamkottai, a town nearly 20kms away from Vallanadu. He had served in various colleges and universities across south Tamil Nadu and joined Infant Jesus College at its inception seven years ago.
Divorced. Aged mom and college-going daughter. Jesus. Vaya con Dios, hermano.
#3
Not sure this is a bad lesson for US principals. See the streaker who killed himself....
Kid suspended for picking up a drunk friend....
Gun-shaped pop tart....
What am I saying. These guys wouldn't even get the hot-stove lesson if they had third-degree burns on their ass.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
10/20/2013 7:02
Comments ||
Top||
[Shabelle] news just in from Beledweyne the headquarter town of Hiran region report that a jacket wallah has killed 12 people and injured more than 33 people outside a popular restaurant.
The restaurant was popular with government officials and Æthiopian troops who used to dean and rest during their resting hours.
Government troops and AMISOM troops have closed all roads leading to the site where the kaboom occurred as the rescue mission continues.
Those injured were taken to Beledweyne hospital where they are currently receiving medical attention.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Syrian snipers targeted pregnant women on more than one occasion, a British surgeon said Saturday after returning from a five-week stint in the conflict zone.
According to an interview with The Times newspaper David Nott, who spent five weeks volunteering at a Syrian hospital, said he treated more than half a dozen shot pregnant women on one day in a Syrian city.
He did not identify the city for security reasons but said that he regularly treated gunshot wounds that indicated that bored snipers were targeting particular parts of civilians' bodies in a bid to entertain themselves, reported Agence La Belle France-Presse.
"One day it would be shots to the groin. The next, it would only be the left chest," he told the newspaper.
"From the first patients that came in in the morning, you could almost tell what you would see for the rest of the day. It was a game."
On one day, two consecutive gunshot patients were heavily pregnant women, both of whom lost their babies.
"The women were all shot through the uterus, so that must have been where they were aiming for," he told The Times.
"I can't even begin to tell you how awful it was. Usually, civilians are caught in the crossfire. This is the first time I've ever seen anything like this. This was deliberate. It was hell beyond hell."
Nott is a prominent surgeon in the UK who counts former Prime Minister Tony Blair as an ex-patient and has volunteered as an emergency surgeon in warzones for 20 years.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
Nott is a prominent surgeon in the UK who counts former Prime Minister Tony Blair as an ex-patient and has volunteered as an emergency surgeon in warzones for 20 years.
His work has probably gone unnoticed by the Nobel committee.
#4
"If you are referring to the Nobel Peace Prize, he is probably disqualified on the grounds of having actually done something."
Steve nails it.
Posted by: Barbara ||
10/20/2013 14:38
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Actually, there are a few Peace Prize winners who probably deserved it - even if they didn't actually promote international peace. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) and Norman Borlaug spring to mind. Mother Teresa is well known. "All" Norman Borlaug did was to start the "Green Revolution", which only saved a BILLION lives.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
10/20/2013 15:15
Comments ||
Top||
#6
"which only saved a BILLION lives"
But they were all brown lives, Rambler, so that doesn't really count. /channelling lefties
The lefties think we need fewer people, not more. I'm surprised Borlaug got any award from EUropeans. :-(
Posted by: Barbara ||
10/20/2013 19:54
Comments ||
Top||
#7
Rambler makes a good point. There *are* people like Norman Borlaug (1970) who actually did something to make the world a better place. Sadly, they have been overshadowed lately by a much larger list of villains and mooks: The EU, Obama, Gore, El Baradei, Carter, Anan, Arafat...
[Libya Herald] A member of the Zawia Martyrs Brigade based in Sirte was maimed today when a bomb blew up under his car in the town's Buhadi area. According to Colonel Salah Buhulaiga, the commander of the brigade, Yusuf Lahsuni is in "an unstable" condition in hospital.
Buhulaiga's was himself the long distance victim of an attack earlier this week when a bomb was thrown at his home in Benghazi.
It is not known if that incident and today's attack are linked to the death in Sirte a week ago of a member of the Petroleum Facilities Guard under the command of Ibrahim Jadhran or to the fast developing conflict in Benghazi between local tribes and Islamists.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Dawn] Pakistain accused Indian troops of killing a civilian and wounding two others in "unprovoked firing" across the border Saturday as New Delhi voiced "grave concern" about the new military flare-up in disputed Kashmire.
In Islamabad, a Pak military official said a civilian was killed and two others injured by "unprovoked firing of heavy weapons including mortars by Indian Border Security Forces" near the city of Sialkot in Punjab province.
On Thursday, Pakistain accused India of killing a paramilitary soldier in "unprovoked firing" across the border in the same region.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[An Nahar] A suicide boom-mobileing outside a pro-regime suburb of Damascus and fighting that followed killed 16 Syrian soldiers Saturday, as the U.N.-Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... envoy began a push for peace talks.
Meanwhile, ...back at the mall, Clarissa suddenly spied Mr. Bartlett at the checkout counter. He was buying Grecian Formula!... the United States said children were starving to death in besieged residential areas of the capital and demanded the regime allow aid convoys in.
State media blamed the early-morning blast at the entrance to the mixed Christian-Druze suburb of Jaramana on "terrorists," the regime term for rebels.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a jacket wallah from the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front detonated an explosives-packed car at the checkpoint between Jaramana and rebel-held Mleha.
Heavy fighting ... as opposed to the more usual name-calling or slapsy... followed, with rebel mortar fire hitting Jaramana, said the Britannia-based Observatory, which relies on activists and medics on the ground.
Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said the southeastern suburb is a key pro-regime area and will be exposed if the rebels overrun the checkpoint.
He said they had almost seized it in he fighting, but that government aircraft had launched four strikes to try to force them back.
One resident said the intensity of fighting was "unprecedented" since the conflict erupted in March 2011.
"It is very violent; we can hear automatic weapons fire, mortar rounds, bombardments," he told AFP by telephone.
The conflict, which erupted after Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... launched a bloody crackdown on Arab Spring-inspired democracy protests, is believed to have killed more than 115,000 people.
Millions more have been forced to flee the country and hundreds of thousands are trapped by the fighting.
Washington condemned the regime's relentless siege of rebel-held Eastern Ghouta and Moadamiyet al-Sham on the capital's outskirts.
There were "unprecedented reports of children dying of malnutrition-related causes in areas that are only a few miles from Bashir al-Assad's palace in Damascus," said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
"Pro-regime suburb" sickening how these Christians refuse martyrdoom..
[An Nahar] Bangladesh police Saturday banned all rallies in the capital Dhaka, fearing violence after the opposition called for "armed" protests to force elections under a caretaker government.
The ban comes after an official from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) urged supporters to stage non-stop protests starting October 25 armed with machetes and knives.
All rallies, demonstrations and mass gatherings have been banned as a result of the opposition's protest call, which could "lead to (the) deterioration of law and order and security" in the capital, said Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) chief Benazir Ahmed.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Simple solution: mount a few MA-deuces here and there, with infantry support and a clear field of fire. Things get out of hand, people go down. Threaten violence, you get violence in return. Of course, they're muzlimb, so violence is more or less given...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/20/2013 14:49
Comments ||
Top||
[An Nahar] The Netherlands is considering sending some 400 soldiers including elite commandos, as well as Apache attack helicopters to war-torn Mali following an appeal for more U.N. peacekeepers, a newspaper report said Saturday.
The plan follows an urgent request by the U.N.'s special representative in the west African country for more blue helmets as its peacekeeping force faced a new surge of Islamist attacks.
"The plan is to send in around 400 Dutch troops. This included 70 commandos, able to operate behind enemy lines to gather intelligence," the Dutch leftist daily De Volkskrant reported, based on interviews with 15 unnamed diplomats, top military sources and politicians.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
#1
Wonder how much Srebrenica still haunts some of the Dutch, military and civilian. Doesn't seem like a good idea to put 400 guys into a continent the size of Africa.
Joseph Conrad once referred to a European gunboat shelling the jungle for some European gunboat reason. Back in that day, no radio contact with observers, aerial observers, just firing into the vastness of Africa. It was a metaphor for The vastness of the place and the uselessness of pinpricks.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
10/20/2013 6:54
Comments ||
Top||
Kerry Kennedy's fat share of the judgement hardest hit
One of the financiers of an environmental lawsuit that led to a $19 billion verdict against Chevron Corp. in Ecuador told a judge that he came to regret funding the case once after learning that it may be a fraud. Fraud? No way!
Burford Capital LLC Chief Executive Officer Christopher Bogart told a Manhattan federal judge yesterday that his firm, which he described as the world's largest dedicated litigation financing provider, supplied $4 million to the Ecuadorean plaintiffs and later sold the share when it became "deeply concerned about the mounting evidence of fraud and misconduct." You know you're in trouble when your bagman says you lied What did he do with the money he gained from selling his share? He didn't sell his share. He cut out a share of the putative settlement and gave Kennedy and small cut in cash, in exchange for her "services" in hammering Chevron publicly.
#1
From NY Times:
Mr. Donziger for the first time in recent years spoke publicly about the personal travails that he says have engulfed him. He says shadowy men have trailed him. Watched his family. Sat in cars outside his home. He had his apartment swept for bugs, but found nothing.
Mr. Donziger played basketball with Barack Obama at Harvard Law School, and has a serious following among environmentalists. He and his supporters say he is being vilified potentially ruined for unmasking Chevrons questionable environmental record. Chevron, which is suing him and his associates for damages that could reach billions of dollars, says he is simply a con artist.
Mr. Donziger has chased after Chevron with the single-mindedness of Ahab. Reports of questionable ethical conduct have cast doubt over his motives. He is accused of engineering the ghostwriting of a crucial report submitted to the Ecuadorean court that decided the case, a claim he says is exaggerated and misconstrues local legal customs. Some of his former allies have abandoned him and signed statements taking Chevrons side.
#3
Some of his former allies have abandoned him and signed statements taking Chevron's side.
Some contend they change sides because Chevron makes them "an offer they can't refuse" ('Godfather'-style.) (I don't think they're right, but with corporations this big, and this much money at stake, .....)
[An Nahar] The U.N.'s humanitarian chief called Saturday for a cessation of hostilities in a Damascus suburb besieged for months by Syrian army, so that food and vital medical aid can be delivered.
Although some 3,000 people were evacuated last week, "the same number or more remain trapped," the U.N.'s Valerie Amos said in a statement, noting that continued shelling and fighting hinder aid workers from reaching the needy in the town of Moadamiyet al-Sham.
"I call on all parties to agree an immediate pause in hostilities in Moadamiyet to allow humanitarian agencies unhindered access to evacuate the remaining civilians and deliver life-saving treatment and supplies," Amos said.
She emphasized that Moadamiyet al-Sham is not the only town under siege.
"Thousands of families also remain trapped in other locations across Syria, for example in Nubil, Zahra, old Aleppo town, old Homs town and Hassakeh," she said.
"How many more children, women and men will needlessly lose their lives? The humanitarian community has stressed time and time again that people must not be denied life-saving help and that the fighting has to stop," Amos said.
Moadamiyet al-Sham, a suburb southwest of the capital, is largely controlled by rebels seeking the overthrow of the government, although pockets remain under regime control.
The army has laid siege to the area for months, and bombed it near-daily, with the opposition accusing it of creating a situation in which residents are starving to death.
At the end of August, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an NGO, reported two children aged three and seven had died from a disease related to malnutrition.
The group said the siege, which began in April, had prevented doctors from bringing in food or medicine to save the children.
It was also one of the neighborhoods on the outskirts of Damascus hit in an August 21 sarin gas attack the opposition blamed on the regime and that reportedly killed hundreds.
But the government accuses the opposition of holding residents of the district hostage.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[An Nahar] Tunisian security forces killed nine "terrorists" and seized two tonnes of explosives Saturday in a military operation near where two coppers were killed two days earlier, the defense ministry said.
The nine were killed in the Mount Taouyer area of the Beja region, some 70 kilometers (40 miles) west of Tunis, front man Taoufik Rahmouni was quoted as saying by the official TAP news agency.
Another ministry front man had earlier said troops had captured one member of the group during the operation to hunt down a cell of some 20 suspected jihadists blamed for the killing of the coppers.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Ansar al-Sharia
[Libya Herald] The commander of the Libya Shield No. 1 Battalion, Wissam Ben Hamid, spent almost two hours taking part in a TV phone-in this evening, denying that he was in any way connected with the murder earlier in the day of the Chief of Libya's Military Police, Colonel Ahmed Mustafa Al-Barghathi. He also vowed to target the people who had burnt down his family home in Benghazi this afternoon. Dire Revenge®. It's a requirement.
Appearing in a 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... studio for the Alaseema channel's "Seventh Question" show, Ben Hamid was clearly angry at highly critical comments from some of the callers, one of whom vowed to kill him if he returned to Benghazi.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[An Nahar] Rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... (DRC) said Saturday they are heading toward "major breakthroughs" with the Kinshasa government in peace talks in Uganda, possibly within hours.
Under Uganda's mediation, "major breakthroughs are about to be obtained in Kampala since the heavy involvement of the international community in the dialogue" between the two sides, the M23 movement said in a statement.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
Heard the Germans in WW II had "assault grenades", whose body was made of cement. Intense effect up close but very small radius of injury, so you could pitch them far enough that you were beyond the unfortnate-result range and keep going, rather than duck until it went off. Useful throwing into rooms whose walls might be some sheetrock or something. Not going to come back and bite you.
OTOH, maybe they ran out of steel.
Virtue from necessity.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
10/20/2013 6:59
Comments ||
Top||
#3
I also saw a description of a uniform shell with custom packing for explosive content. Something of a roll-yer-own mission specific munition. Hard to mix 'more lethal/less range' with 'less lethal/more coverage' in a handheld.
[Al Ahram] Turkish police fired tear gas canisters on students gathered to protest the beginning of controversial works on a road through their university campus in Ankara, an AFP photographer reported.
Security forces shielded workers and diggers as they began uprooting trees in a park on the site of Middle East Technical University (METU) in the Turkish capital on Friday night.
Dozens of students massed behind the gates of the establishment, Turkey's Dogan press agency reported, angry with the planned destruction of 3,000 trees.
The ongoing battle against the Ankara development has raged for weeks, with police using rubber bullets and tear gas in protests that drew in hundreds of students in early September.
METU's campus is one of the largest green spaces in the Turkish capital.
The latest protests come as Turkish authorities stand accused of committing "gross human rights ...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you... violations" during anti-government protests that rocked the country in June.
Amnesia Amnesty International said in a report released on 2 October that "a string of human rights violations on a huge scale" were perpetrated by police.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2013
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
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.
[Ynet] Marking 2 years to Shalit deal, 
During his speech, Haniyeh stressed that Hamas is still strong and built on unity among its ranks and the Paleostinian people. According to him, armed resistance is still the movement's strategy, and thus he slammed peace talks currently underway. According to him the talks are held only in a bid to better Israel's international standing and while negotiation, Israel continues to expand its settlement project -- in contradiction of peace talks.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Ynet] Two suspected cases of 
[Ynet] Two Turkish pilots kidnapped in 
[Ynet] Analysis: If accepted, Tehran's offer to world powers will merely freeze nuclear activity until Khamenei decides to resume it
[TOLONEWS] Residents of northern Sar-e-Pol Province have raised the volume on complaints of rampant corruption within their provincial government. Provincial officials acknowledged the existence of corruption, but said they needed the help of residents to effectively combat it.
Pervez 
Nawaz Sharif
[An Nahar] An official in the fundamentalist al-Nusra Front has threatened to target Hizbullah strongholds in 
[An Nahar] The U.S. Congress must stop stumbling from crisis to crisis and join together to create jobs and get things done, President 
[TOLONEWS] The National Assembly's Commission for Reviewing Government Actions released a report on land-grabbing after eight months of fact-finding. Although the names of small-to-medium scale land-grabbers were released, the Commission said that a lack of cooperation on the part of government ministries made it impossible to ascertain the identities of the country's biggest offenders.
[Al Ahram] Iraqi authorities say a car bomb that exploded on a commercial street in northern Baghdad killed three people. Police officials say 11 others were wounded in the Saturday morning blast in the capital's Qahira neighborhood. Shops and cars were damaged.
[Al Ahram] At least five soldiers and a man whose occupation is yet to be revealed were 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[An Nahar] The Netherlands is considering sending some 400 soldiers including elite commandos, as well as Apache attack helicopters to war-torn Mali following an appeal for more U.N. peacekeepers, a newspaper report said Saturday.
[Libya Herald] The commander of the Libya Shield No. 1 Battalion, Wissam Ben Hamid, spent almost two hours taking part in a TV phone-in this evening, denying that he was in any way connected with the murder earlier in the day of the Chief of Libya's Military Police, Colonel Ahmed Mustafa Al-Barghathi. He also vowed to target the people who had burnt down his family home in Benghazi this afternoon.
