JAY LENO: Heres a very disturbing story. You may have heard about this. 25-year-old man in New York arrested for trying to join al Qaeda. Well, here is the amazing part. He said it was still easier to join al Qaeda using their website than it was to sign up for ObamaCare. And he was in! He was in, in like, two minutes!
"The soldier told me he fears reprisals and asked not to be identified. He said there was a blanket statement that donating to any groups that were considered a threat to the military and government was punishable under military regulations." ...Holy $hit UCMJ-Man...maybe this explains a few or more of the recent purges of our (not HIS) General and Flag Officers...?
#1
Isolated incidents? So, identify the 'briefer' who added these by their own volition. Shouldn't that be something to be 'noted' on the next eval? If not, why?
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas sent a letter of condolence to the family of slain terrorist Mohammed Asi, Israel Radio reported on Wednesday.
Asi, who planned an attack on a Tel Aviv bus a year ago, was killed by IDF forces during an arrest on Tuesday.
"He (Asi) was killed at the hands of gang-members that is the army of the occupation," Abbas wrote in the letter. One wonders when the, strongly worded protest, from USDS will be received by Israel
While the BBC reports US intelligence chief James Clapper denying reports that US spies recorded data from as many as 70 million phone calls in France in a single 30-day period, one of the ruling socialist party's leaders in the National Assembly says that "The United States has no allies, only targets or vassals":
#1
Hey, it was an extra bonus for using those hundreds of thousands of untraceable credit card donations that came out of Europe to the 2008 Obama campaign.
#2
Angela Merkel is running out of patience, too. It seems her mobile phone was tapped, too. That's what a Presidential Medal of Freedom is worth today.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/23/2013 20:26
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#3
We will be lucky to have a vermin ridden bum as an ally after Obama's term.
#2
TechSurge: the teen taskforce who wage a relentless battle against G.L.I.T.C.H. using a potent arsenal of supermemes and press releases ...and Java code.
#1
As per TOPIX + WORLD NEWS, will the US see its Debt rise to US$20.0Trilyuhn by the time the Bammer leaves office in Jan 2017???
Perts are now arguing that the post-Shutdown USoAMerika can no longer NOT rely on QES andor similar massive or excessive deficit spending lest it risk de facto collapse - BY THIS SCOPE, IT MEANS THE GOVT. MUST CONTINUE SLOWLY BUT STEADILY, + OF COURSE PCORRECTLY-DENIABLY COINCIDENTALLY, TAKEOVER MORE + MORE INDUSTRIES + SERVICES NORMALLY OPERATED BY THE US PRIVATE SECTOR.
In the LT, the only alternative to expanding the debt levels is to engage in Soviet-style "write-offs" of same, i.e. FUDGING THE BOOKS + PRETENDING THE DEBT NEVER EXISTED.
It didn't work nor saved the Cold War USSR from itself - ditto for post-2015 OWG Amerika, the OWG Mighty USSA or the OWG Weak USRoA Gobal SSR.
One reason for the snafu-laden rollout is that the administration apparently delayed in setting key rules and specs so no discussion drafts would be floating around before the 2012 election. Why? Because the media would then inevitably dig into the question of who wins and loses under ObamaCare's thicket of explicit and implicit subsidies.
A second reason for the pestilential rollout is complexity created by the requirement that users enter and confirm their personal information before they begin shopping. Some speculate the administration's goal was simply to ensure those customers who are entitled to big discounts aren't scared off by seeing only unsubsidized prices. But success depends on signing up enough unsubsidized customers. A likelier motive was to make the healthy and affluent, once they enrolled, fearful of unwanted IRS attention if they didn't follow through on their mandated duty to buy overpriced insurance to keep the scheme afloat.
A South Florida model was incarcerated Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! Sunday evening and charged with domestic battery after allegedly slashing her boyfriend with a pink pocket knife after his dog made a meal of her marijuana stash.
According to the arrest affidavit, police were dispatched to the apartment of 26-year-old Shadae Scott (pictured above) responding to a domestic dispute. Upon arriving, officers reportedly saw her boyfriend, Kevin Wiggins, with two small knife cuts in the face and head area and one gash across his hand. The alleged victim told deputies that the fight broke out after his dog ate her weed. According to Wiggins, Scott kicked him out of the apartment but he could not find his personal items, claiming that she had hid all his stuff. When he asked her about his computer, she allegedly began stabbing him.
But there are always two sides to story and Scott's was very different according to the report. "Scott added that during one of the many times during the argument, Wiggins walked into the knife and cut himself,' wrote Sheriff's Deputy Laughten Hall on the arrest report.
Scott also claimed that the argument arose over dinner plans. As it escalated, she said Wiggins got physical and prevented her from leaving the apartment. That's when she pulled out the pink pocket knife for protection.
#1
Man, that story is gonna hurt. Not only was he cut by a gurl but she used the Dreaded Pink Knife of Doom on him.....
what a putz. bet his dog is a purse doggie too.
GEIST: Robert, it kind of defies belief that no one knew that there were problems before it went up. And we have seen report after report from tech experts who worked on the project who said there were problems, there were problems. And we told the White House about the problems and they went forward anyway. When does the White House step up and take a little more responsibility for what happened here.
GIBBS: Well I think they did that with the president in the Rose Garden and I think the reason it defies belief, Willy, is because it is unbelievable. There is no doubt in my mind that people at HHS and involved in this project knew this wasnt going to work. I mean, its inconceivable that no one tested it. They should have been nicer to ole Robert, putting him out like that was very tacky. Chickens home to roost ek se.
#1
I used to think Gibbs was bad. He can't compare to Carney. I don't see how Carney lives with himself. Obama is not a detail man. He likes the hoopla, stage, being around celebs, campaigning, and blowing smoke up everyone's arse...and golf and that is about it--otherwise he has never done or accomplished much that qualifies him for POTUS. He is in way over his head. I'm still in disbelief that he ever got elected in this country. Some have said he didn't.
#2
of course a small irony is the post election media reports bragging about the technological advantage by the dems that gave them the positive 2012 election results. I am starting to think that story was exaggerated.
[WAPO] A White House national security staffer was reportedly fired over Twitter postings, including unflattering views about Obama administration policies and administration officials, made under an alias.
The Daily Beast reported Tuesday night that Jofi Joseph, a nonproliferation expert at the National Security Council, was fired last week. So administration officials CAN actually be fired ?
Joseph did not respond to requests for comment. A White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the matter involves a personnel matter, said only that Joseph no longer works there. He be gone man! Just don't go there.
The Twitter feed @natsecwonk, a guilty pleasure among national security analysts, reporters and others, disappeared last week. Searches for it Tuesday on Twitter yielded messages that there was no such user. Luckily, Twitter pulled everything before the IRS Web Enforcement Branch (IRSWEB) was notified.
The Twitter feed had rankled Obama administration officials and career State Department higher-ups, some of whom suspected that @natsecwonk was a current or former department official. Among the tens, possibly hundreds of millions of twitter users, please tell us how Mr. Joseph was identified.
The feed ran for more than two years. The posts appeared often, but not daily. Some were flippant comments about news stories or analyses done by Washingtons large foreign policy commentariat. Others were musings on the policy workings of the administration. Musings to some possibly.
The administration had recently tried to track the source of the anonymous tweets, a current and a former official said, but it was not clear whether that effort led to @natsecwonks unmasking. I suspect friends at Fort Meade were very helpful.
The posts never included classified or highly sensitive information, making a true leak investigation difficult to mount, but they often contained insider details. The type of things we see on Fox News every night ?
The level of detail led to speculation that the poster was a Hill staffer with access to White House briefings, but also may have raised suspicion that the tweets were coming from within the White House.
#1
So administration officials CAN actually be fired?
Only if they bore into your ego. Some of the tweets were hilarious. Newsmax has a sampling of some of these tweets: Sampling of Joseph tweets The administration spent a long time tracking this inside guy down. I only wish they would spend as much time on governing.
""I'm a fan of Obama, but his continuing reliance and dependence upon a vacuous cipher like Valerie Jarrett concerns me."
A group of metro Detroiters visiting Saudi Arabia for the hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage, said they were attacked and threatened with death last week by a group of Sunni men from Australia because they are Shias, a minority sect within Islam.
One of the members of the group was strangled until his face turned blue and women in the group were threatened with rape, according to people who witnessed the attack last week. They allege that authorities in Saudi Arabia did not take their complaints seriously and deleted a video one of them had made of the incident.
A U.S. State Department official told the Free Press on Monday: "We are concerned by reports that a group of U.S. citizens was attacked ... at a campsite for Hajj pilgrims located outside of Mecca. We take these reports seriously and are committed to the protection of U.S. citizens traveling and residing abroad." Time to launch a Crusade? Oh, never mind.... Maybe State can issue a sternly worded warning to would-be hajjis planning trips to SA, telling them the US will not be responsible, etc...
While Shias from metro Detroit have reported being harassed before on hajj, last week's incident was much more extreme and frightening, members of the group told the Free Press.
The Salafis asked one of the Shia men if he was Shia, recalled Seyed Mothafar Al-Qazwini, a nephew of Imam Al-Qazwini. "He responded 'yes.' He was immediately attacked by three men, one grabbing him in a choke hold, the others punching him in the face."
Al-Qazwini said the leader of the Salafis then shouted "Kill them all. Kill the Shia."
Suehaila Amen of Dearborn said the attackers also yelled "Kafir" at the Shias, an insult that means "infidel" or "non-Muslim."
Some of the Sunnis then ran to the women's tents, telling them "if they do not leave in 15 minutes, they will rape them all," Al-Qazwini said.
During the attack, the leader of the attackers referenced a 7th century battle in Karbala, Iraq, where a leader revered by Shias was killed along with many of his family members, said Al-Qazwini. The leader told the Shias, according to Al-Qazwini: "We will make this day like the day of Karbala. We will kill all your men and take your women as captives." And after that, take on the entire infidel world! Jihad! Derka Derka!
h/t Gates of Vienna
There may be no official rule book for being a liberal, but that doesn't mean there aren't rules. There are actually quite a few rules liberals go by and the more politically active liberals become, the more rigidly they tend to stick to their own code of behavior. These rules, most of which are unspoken, are passed along culturally on the Left and viciously enforced. Ironically, many liberals could not explain these rules to you and don't even consciously know they're following them. So, by reading this article, not only will you gain a better understanding of liberals, you'll know them better than they know themselves in some ways.
#3
Falls directly in line with the Brown shirts, Pol Pot, and Khmer rouge. They will make great death panel members for Obama care. If your over 60, hope you enjoyed life.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
10/23/2013 13:25
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The news will come as no shock to the readers of the Belmont Club, nor will it surprise anyone who has been following events in the Middle East. But expect the phrase unexpected development anywhere you see the MSM label. Reuters reports that Saudi Arabia has announced it will shift away from the United States:
Saudi Arabias intelligence chief is vowing that the kingdom will make a major shift in relations with the United States to protest perceived American inaction over Syrias civil war as well as recent U.S. overtures to Iran, a source close to Saudi policy said on Tuesday.
The shift away from the U.S. is a major one, the source close to Saudi policy said. Saudi doesnt want to find itself any longer in a situation where it is dependent.
The story is accompanied by a large photograph showing Prince Bandar shaking hands with Vladimir Putin "Negotiating with Obama is like playing chess with a pigeon.
The pigeon knocks over all the pieces, shits on the board and
then struts around like it won the game."
#1
So Putin is going to help the KSA be able to defend itself against the nukes it is helping Iran develop? And when the Persian Gulf oil is inaccessible due to ever-increasing Sunni-Shia war all that Russian oil will be ever-so-much more valuable.
#2
"Negotiating with Obama is like playing chess with a pigeon" WOW I wish I had said that.
I believe he said it. The quote SOUNDS like Darth Vlad.
If Obama "loses KSA" I guess that means the alternative energy, green energy, wind power, etc., BS that is Obama's energy policy is out the window. THE ONE will have to open the gates and let us "drill baby drill" or does he want EVERYONE in the US except him and Harry Reid unemployed?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
10/23/2013 10:25
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#3
Putin probably did not say it, but he should have said it.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/23/2013 11:10
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#4
Bill - no he wants total control over deciding who gets what 'fair share' of resources.
#5
C'mon, you guys. You know Baraq Hussein wants everybody riding smelly old buses and rickety trolley cars to work from their cracker box apartments in the city...er...everybody except him and his cronies. He has to have the presidential limousine to take him to the golf course.
But I'm not losing any sleep over the Soddies. They got all butt hurt because we won't join them in their little war against Assad? Tough shit. With friends like them we don't need enemies. Think about it: What difference does it make if we buy our oil from Sunni whack jobs or Shiite whack jobs? They all hate us. They'd all nuke Israel if they they could. And if we're forced into developing our own resources that's a good thing.
The only surprise is the Prince is blaming the Champ. But the Champ was more than willing to help them any way he could. It's the American people who want the Soddies to FOAD.
#6
I translated it for my mum, and it doesn't sounds all that good in Russian---so Putin probably didn't say it. Unless he was speaking English at the time.
#8
Let the Saudi's get their knickers in a twist for all I care. We are not becoming pals with the Iranians, despite the "overtures" (and yes, said overtures are stupid). But getting deeply involved in Syria was not going to get us anything except wasted money and potentially dead US service personnel. Not worth it.
[DailyMail] o Startling revelation is the first time that federal authorities have officially implicated Tamerlan Tsarnaev
...the dead Boston Marathon bomber, run over by his now-jailed younger brother...
in the gruesome 2011 killings
o Brendan Mess, described as Tsarnaev's 'only American friend', Raphael Teken and Erik Weissman were murdered on September 11, 2011 at their home in Waltham, Massachusetts
o The admission by federal prosecutors comes almost six months after Tsarnaev's friend, Ibragim Todashev was shot dead in his Orlando home
o The court documents filed today assert that Todashev told law enforcement that he and Tsarnaev were the killers
#3
Yeah, Besoeker - makes you wonder just what/who the NSA/CIA/FBI/DEA etc. are really watching (or maybe it's mostly just a system for funneling contracts to cronies, and works just as well as the ACA website.)
#4
Yes, interesting to ponder which came first; the bureau's release of the Tsarnaev bros. photos to the media and 'Low Information Voters' (nearly before the blast smoke had cleared), or the internal damage assessment.
The view from the intellectual left of yesterday's events.
[AtlanticMagazine] On Tuesday a federal judge denied a request from the Justice Department to dismiss a lawsuit aiming to block health care subsidies in states not running their own healthcare exchange sites. Put another way, if the plaintiffs in Halbig v. Sebelius win this case, low- and middle-income individuals in 34 states won't get subsidized health care. The only good news for people expecting those subsidies is that the judge, U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman, decided not to block the subsidies while the case moves forward.
Of course, they'll only get those subsidies -- assuming the subsidy calculator was putting out correct numbers the day they registered, and they're really eligible -- if they manage to get properly registered on the federal website by the deadline. No mulligans if the website is not actually working properly at both ends by then.
#5
The typical way for courts to dodge this sort of case is to claim lack of standing -- i.e. you are not the right person to bring this case. Of course if there winds up being no 'right person' well, that's not our problem now is it?
From that perspective, this is a significant milestone. The fact that the court is willing to hear this at all is a very big deal.
That said, the Hobby Lobby case will reach the SCT much sooner. Will be interesting to see how Roberts handles it. On the one hand, Hobby Lobby is almost certain to prevail. On the other hand, Roberts is not going to be eager to strike down the entire law and incur the combined and sustained wrath of a vicious, hateful and completely unhinged Left.
[Ynet] A Spanish court has ordered released a convicted terrorist after a top European human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... court ruled that her rights were violated. Ines del Rio Prada was sentenced in 1987 to a total of 3,828 years for multiple terror attacks carried out by the armed Basque group ETA.
She had been due for release in 2008 but Spain's courts ruled her sentence reduction was applicable only to her full sentence, and not to the 30-year maximum period she could be kept in jail under law. The European Court of Human Rights ruled in del Rio's favor Monday and Spain's National Court heeded the decision Tuesday, ordering her release.
[Al Ahram] Government warplanes and helicopters struck rebels Tuesday as they struggled to advance near Syria's two main cities, Damascus and Aleppo, a monitoring group said. In other developments, shelling by both loyalists and rebels killed civilians across the country, including in the capital.
"Helicopters fired explosives-laden barrels at Muban... near the town of Sfeira in the east of Aleppo province," which is a strategic flashpoint because the army has been fighting for months to secure its route into Aleppo city, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Loyalist helicopter gunships also unleashed heavy gunfire on rebel positions near Kwayris military airport, which has been under rebel siege for months, said the Britannia-based monitor.
In Aleppo city, warplanes carried out an air strike on the battered Bab Nairab neighbourhood, scene of a horrific regime missile strike in July that killed at least 29 people, mostly children.
As festivities raged on in Damascus's Jobar, Qabun and Barzeh neighbourhoods, the army pressed its bid to crush the rebels' positions on the city's outskirts.
Days after advancing rebels broke through near Mleiha, southeast of Damascus, the air force unleashed an air strike on the area, said the Observatory.
Mleiha is important because it lies near pro-regime areas in the capital, which the army is trying to secure from rebel attacks.
According to state news agency SANA, at least two people were killed in a shelling attack against Jaramana, a majority Christian-Druze neighbourhood in southeastern Damascus firmly under regime control.
The Observatory confirmed the attack, saying one of those killed was a child.
Violence also raged further south, with army shelling on Inkhil in Daraa province killing a man and a child from the same family, said the group.
In the central province of Homs, warplanes were deployed to strike rebels fighting troops in countryside areas that are important because they lie near the Lebanese border and just northeast of Damascus.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2013
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[Ynet] The Lebanese news site El-Nishra reported that IDF fighter jets flew over the south of the country on Tuesday afternoon. According to the report, the planes simulated low altitude attacks
Additionally, it was reported that an Israeli drone also flew over the same area at the same time, and that Syrian air force planes are conducting attacks along the border between Leb and Syria.
[Ynet] Leb's official news agency reported that an unmanned Israeli aircraft entered the country's airspace this morning and flew over its southern region and the Baalbek area. The drone later returned to Israel, the report said.
[Ynet] A website affiliated with Hezbollah reported that 15 IDF soldiers crossed into Lebanese territory and are combing the border area with the help of tracking dogs.
[An Nahar] A Tanzanian court on Tuesday ordered the release of 52 supporters of a controversial Musselmenholy man, tossed in the calaboose Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! earlier this year after rioting during protests calling for their leader's release.
The supporters of Sheikh Ponda Issa Ponda, head of the Jumuiya ya wa Islamu (Community of Islam in Swahili), a group not recognized by the Tanzanian authorities, were tossed in the calaboose Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! in March for a year.
But Judge Salvatore Bongole ordered the group to be released "as they have already served more than the required sentences", arguing the initial sentence was too severe.
Ponda remains in jug awaiting trial after he was jugged Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! in August for "inciting unrest"
In May, Ponda was handed a one-year suspended sentence for "criminal trespass", after he and 49 of his supporters were tried for inciting violence and theft after the sacking of churches during riots in October.
In Tanzania, where Musselmens and Christians each make up around a third of the population, the communities traditionally live peacefully side-by-side, but a series of attacks have raised tensions.
No connection has been made between Ponda and acid attacks against two British women in Zanzibar in August.
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[BBC.CO.UK] Human rights groups on Tuesday accused the United States of breaking international law and perhaps committing war crimes by killing civilians in missile and drone strikes that were intended to hit bully boyz in Pakistain and Yemen.
Amnesia Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... released separate reports detailing the deaths of dozens of civilians in the two countries. They urged the B.O. regime and Congress to investigate, and end a policy of secrecy on the attacks.
"In some of the cases we looked at ... they appear to be war crimes, but really the full picture is for the U.S. authorities to reveal," Mustafa Qadri, Pakistain researcher at Amnesia Amnesty International, said after describing the death of a 68-year-old Pak grandmother in an alleged drone strike.
"We are saying for the U.S. authorities to come clean," he said at a joint news conference with Human Rights Watch.
Responding to the reports, White House front man Jay Carney said B.O. regime officials "take the matter of civilian casualties enormously seriously." He said he could not speak to specific operations, but that U.S. policies met international and domestic legal obligations and the standard of "near certainty" that civilians would not be hit.
U.S. officials have argued that any drone strikes are very carefully targeted and that civilian casualties have been kept to a bare minimum, possibly in the low dozens.
Letta Tayler of Human Rights Watch said her organization had found violations of international law when civilians were "indiscriminately" killed in Yemen.
In a September 2, 2012, attack, the target - an alleged al Qaeda bully boy, Abd al-Raouf al-Dahab, - was "nowhere in sight" when the United States hit a passenger van and killed 12 people returning from the market, she said.
"Their loved ones found their charred bodies in pieces on the roadside, dusted in flour and sugar that they were bringing home to their families," Tayler told news hounds.
Both the Amnesia Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch reports looked at handful of U.S. attacks in Pakistain and Yemen to urge transparency and accountability in U.S. policy.
U.S. drone strikes in Pakistain and Yemen increased dramatically after President Barack Obama I've now been in 57 states -- I think one left to go... took office in 2009, and the pilotless aerial vehicles became a key part of the fight against al Qaeda. More recently the number of strikes has slowed.
The United States has also used drones over Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, and Iraq, and this year received approval to base drones in Niger.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Geneva 3.3a is the one worth waiting for. It has vouchers in the jacket.
[Al Ahram] Mozambican ex-rebel group Renamo staged a pre-dawn attack on a cop shoppe Tuesday, hours after it declared the end of a peace deal signed 21 years ago, locals said.
Police fled the station in the central town of Maringue when Renamo members opened fire on it, escalating hostilities between the rebel group-turned-opposition party and the government of ruling party Frelimo, the group against which Renamo fought a bloody 16-year civil war.
"Gunmen attacked the cop shoppe but fortunately there were no casualties because the coppers fled the post," Maringue's administrator Antonio Absalao told AFP by phone.
The town is located about 35 kilometres from Renamo's military base, which government troops seized on Monday in an operation the ex-rebels claimed was aimed at killing their leader, Afonso Dhlakama.
"The situation is horrible here. Early this morning, gunnies supposed to be Renamo attacked, and it was a mess," said Romao Martins, a local teacher.
"For one hour shooting could be heard from all directions and people fled from their homes," he said.
Schools have been shut amid fears of an escalation in violence.
A Renamo front man hinted that the group was responsible for the attack.
"The president of Renamo has lost control of the situation and you cannot blame... (him) for what happens from here on," Renamo's Fernando Mazanga told AFP.
"The guerrillas are scattered and will attack without taking any orders," said Mazanga.
Renamo, which launched a rebellion against the then-communist Frelimo government after Mozambique gained independence from Portugal in 1975, declared Monday that it had pulled out of the peace agreement that ended that conflict.
Mazanga said Monday's attack on its base "marks the end of multiparty democracy" in Mozambique.
The Mozambique civil war, which ended in 1992 after Renamo lost its Cold War backers Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa, killed about one million Mozambicans.
Tensions between the two sides began escalating last year after Dhlakama set up camp in the Gorongosa mountains, retraining former guerrilla fighters.
The assault on the Renamo base came after the former rebel movement attacked a government military unit on Thursday.
Defence ministry front man Custodio Chume told state broadcaster Radio Mozambique that Monday's assault on the Renamo base was in response to that attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2013
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#1
Two facts that defy dispute:
a. The Renamo are freedom fighters who were betrayed decades ago.
b. Clearly no one likes communism, except the communists.
#2
The Mozambique civil war, which ended in 1992 after Renamo lost its Cold War backers Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa, killed about one million Mozambicans
[Pak Daily Times] Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, on Tuesday, expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... over the "continuing inaction" of the federal government in starting "structured talks" with the Taliban as mandated by all the political parties of the country in the all-parties conference (APC).
In a statement issued from his office, the chief minister said the Taliban "continue to point out that there has been no formal offer of talks from the government side and we are also aware of this delay". He went on to add: "Unfortunately, this inaction on the part of the federal government to operationalise the APC resolution and move forward in instituting dialogue is allowing those who wish to sabotage dialogue and peace to indulge in increasing acts of terrorism."
The chief minister stressed the importance of putting in place a structured dialogue so that talks were not conducted through the media, which allowed those opposed to dialogue and peace to spread disinformation. Khattak reminded that the people of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa along with the provincial government were taking the brunt of the federal government's "vacillation, with increasing acts of terrorism", resulting in the loss of innocent lives.
The call for immediate talks with the Taliban comes after Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Law Minister Israrullah Gandapur was assassinated in a suicide kaboom on October 16, the Eid's first day, in Dera Ismail Khan ... the Pearl of Pashtunistan ... District. "To expose the opponents of peace the APC-mandated dialogue must begin without delay," the chief minister demanded, adding that the prime minister should move immediately on emergency basis to commence structured talks to give peace a chance. The chief minister also pointed to the recent revelations about the unlawful killing of civilians by the United States through drones. He referred to a BBC news report of last week according to which a UN investigation found that US drone strikes had killed at least 400 civilians in Pakistain, far more than the US has ever acknowledged. "Today, we have the Amnesia Amnesty International report on drone killings stating that the US must be held accountable for killings in Pakistain," Khattak stated, adding that this report once again "vindicates PTI's principled opposition to drones from the start of this unlawful CIA operation". He said the Amnesty report was a damning condemnation of the US drone attacks. "We insist the federal government (should) immediately stop drone attacks," the chief minister concluded.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2013
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[Al Ahram] A court in Cairo has revoked an asset freeze and travel ban imposed on former prime minister Hisham Qandil. Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat had imposed the restrictions on Qandil, former housing minister Tareq Wafiq and officials at the New Urban Communities Authority after they were accused of squandering public funds worth LE3 billion.
The court maintained the restrictions on the other accused.
Egyptian authorities launched a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood after Morsi's removal on 3 July, arresting hundreds of the group's top and mid-level members
On 23 September, the Cairo Court for Urgent Matters ordered the banning of all Muslim Brotherhood activities.
The court also ordered the interim government to seize the group's funds and establish a panel to administer its frozen assets until appeals are held.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Local advocacy group Alliance to Protect Nevada Jobs (APNJ) released Thursday the latest clip of Culinary Union leaders shouting at people as they entered the Cosmopolitan hotel-casino. The group said the insults in the video, which they labeled as happening on Oct. 12, were harsher. Protesters, who were captured on video calling tourists on the Las Vegas Strip "losers" and "jerks", were seen in new clips insulting people about their weight and even addressing some with a slur used for people with disabilities.
In a number of moments on the video, a protester on a megaphone insults tourists for their weight.
"You beached whale!" shouted one protester. "Man with the belly, you need exercise."
The video then gets to a point where the same protest leader says, "You losers. You retards."
The Alliance to Protect Nevada Jobs said the video was recorded a week after local news media reported of protesters insulting people on the Strip on Oct. 5.
The APNJ also cited an interview with the union's secretary-treasurer, Ed Geoconda Arguello-Kline, who said the slurs will not end and that there was no wrongdoing with the group's tactics. Regarding the Oct. 5 video, Arguello-Kline previously said, "The recent civil disobediences, rallies, and pickets are exercises of workers' First Amendment rights and part of the struggle for the Las Vegas Dream."
The Culinary Union Local 226 have been in the midst of contract negotiations with the Cosmopolitan's owner, Deutsche Bank. The group said the negotiations have been ongoing for more than two years.
FOX5 has made contact with the city's tourism bureau, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. It only offered the following statement: "This is between the Culinary Union and the property."
#6
But a lot of Vegas tourists ARE fat, losers, and jerks (though probably not many are truly retards.)
I sense another case of 'projection' - I bet these union leaders are fat, losers and jerks too - and retards.
#12
Clearly none of you have actually been to the Strip...it is full of fat tourists, losers, and retards ...it's just that union leaders shouldn't be speaking the truth, they should be denying it like the Tea Party types...
#14
And what does it say about a city whose existence depends upon fat tourists, losers, and retards? Not much different than an entire political party which promises the wealth created by others to the very same.
[Al Ahram] Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi on Tuesday called on the United Nations to undertake reforms to reflect the "growing role of developing countries". "To continue its presence in the international political and economic scene, the United Nations needs to undertake fundamental reforms," said Araqchi, the ISNA news agency reported.
He was speaking at a ceremony in Tehran to mark the 68th anniversary of when the UN charter went into effect, attended by UN Development Programme (UNDP) administrator Helen Clark.
"These reforms must reflect the change in global order, particularly the growing role of developing countries, the right of nations to determine their own fates and to allow (nations) to enjoy new technologies," said Araqchi, whose country holds the presidency of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).
Araqchi led negotiations last week in Geneva with world powers over Iran's controversial nuclear ambitions, which have led to several rounds of UN and international sanctions damaging Iran's economy.
Western governments suspect Iran is building a nuclear military capability, a claim vehemently denied by Tehran which rejects the sanctions regime targeting its vital oil income.
"These illegal, inhumane and oppressive sanctions target Iranian citizens ... as well as the country's developing programmes in health, education and its fight against poverty," said Araqchi.
"Imposing such unfair sanctions against developing countries is not only contrary to the UN charter, but also exposes a serious threat to world peace and security," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2013
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#1
Never thought I'll agree on anything with Ayatollahs.
Norway says it is considering a request to take the bulk of Syrias chemical weapons stockpile for eventual destruction.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Ragnhild Imerslund says the U.N. and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which are charged with destroying the deadly arsenal, would like the stockpile destroyed in one country outside Syria, and have asked Norway to do that.
Imerslund told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Norway would consider accepting Syrias chemical precursors and mixed chemicals such as mustard gas, but not chemicals loaded onto weapons such as warheads, which would be very dangerous to handle.
The ministry says that, according to the latest U.N. estimates, Syria has 50 metric tons of mustard gas and some 300-500 metric tons of chemicals needed to make deadly nerve agents.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/23/2013
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Qatar has agreed to provide $150 million in debt relief to the Palestinian Authority, US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday as he announced that Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are intensifying.
Speaking after he briefed Arab states about the direct peace negotiations, which resumed on July 29 with a goal of reaching an agreement within nine months, Kerry told reporters that the two sides have increased the pace of their discussions.
He also said that the government of Qatar would offer the debt relief to the donor-dependent Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and faces mounting debt as Western and Gulf aid has dwindled.
I can only hope this means that cash from the West has been drying up...
"The two parties have been engaged now in 13 meetings -- serious meetings. They had three meetings in the last four days," Kerry said. "All the core issues are
[An Nahar] The female jacket wallah who killed six people on a bus in southern Russia had been sent on her mission by her husband, a young guerrilla fighter who prepared her boom belt, media reports said Tuesday.
The religion of peace.
Monday's blast in the southern city of Volgograd, which also injured more than 30 people, was the deadliest attack outside the volatile North Caucasus in the past three years.
The attack also raised security fears less than four months before the Winter Olympic Games arrive in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, a prestigious event secured personally for Russia by President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... Militants want to establish an Islamist state across the North Caucasus.
In July, guerrilla commander Doku Count Doku Umarov ... Self-styled first emir of the Caucasus Emirate. Count Doku has announced that his forces will not target civilians, but qualified that statement by saying there aren't any civilians in Russia... vowed to resume attacks against civilian targets after a brief hiatus, and to also target the February 7-23 Sochi Games.
Police on Monday identified the Volgograd suicide bomber as 30-year-old Naida Asiyalova, a native of the North Caucasus region of Dagestan ...a formerly inoffensive Caucasus republic currently bedevilled by low-level Islamic insurgency, occasional outbreaks of separatism, ethnic tensions and terrorism, primarily due to its proximity to Chechnya. There are several dozen ethnic groups, most of which speak either Caucasian, Turkic, or Iranian languages. Largest among these ethnic groups are the Avar, Dargin, Kumyk, Lezgin, and Laks. While Russers form less than five percent of the population, Russian remains the primary official language and the lingua franca... .
The mass-circulation Komsomolskaya Pravda daily said Asiyalova was a known figure among the country's Islamist fighters.
The pro-Kremlin Izvestia daily added that she had met her 22-year-old husband Dmitry Sokolov -- an ethnic Russian -- online.
Komsomolskaya Pravda said Asiyalova had introduced her husband to myrmidons, adding that he received the Islamic name Abdulzhabar but was also known under the nickname "Giraffe."
Russian officials said on Tuesday they were now looking for Sokolov in Dagestan as well as Moscow.
Sokolov, who went missing in July 2012, converted to Islam and is believed to have developed an interest in explosives.
The newspaper said that Sokolov is believed to have made Asiyalova's suicide belt.
Russian security services also suspected Sokolov of making explosives that maimed 15 people in two attacks in the Dagestani city of Makhachkala earlier this year, the newspaper said.
The lifenews.ru website, which relies extensively on security services sources, said both Asiyalova and Sokolov were listed on a federal wanted list at the time of the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2013
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#1
I thought Muslim men only had to put the wife's shoes outside the tent and say "I divorce thee" three times to get out of a marriage. This seems so unnecessary.
Simple - they obviously know who he is, so kill him and his entire extended family, including parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, children, and pets (though I'd be sad about the pets).
Rinse and repeat as necessary until the jihadi bastards get the message.
Posted by: Barbara ||
10/23/2013 17:54
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[Pak Daily Times] BAJAUR: Three soldiers of the Frontier Constabulary (FC) were maimed on Tuesday in mortar shelling from Afghanistan on a Pak checkpost in Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central ...Smallest of the agencies in FATA. The Agency administration is located in Khar. Bajaur is inhabited almost exclusively by Tarkani Pashtuns, which are divided into multiple bickering subtribes. Its 52 km border border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistain's strategic depth... . Officials said the incident took place in Sarakai area of Bajaur Agency, which borders Afghanistan. "Three mortar shells were fired from the Afghan side on Tuesday evening and one of them landed on a Pak checkpost, injuring three FC soldiers," sources said. Officials did not immediately confirm whether the shells were fired by Afghan border troops or gunnies fighting US-led NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... forces in Afghanistan as well as Pak security forces inside tribal areas.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2013
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[Bangkok Post] Two men were gunned down and a woman critically wounded in two separate shootings in Narathiwat province on Monday night.
Around 9:51 p.m., Pol Lt Uthai Phanthong received a report of a shooting at a house in Rueso district. He led a security force to the scene and found Mahama Nasae Samae lying dead in front of the house.
Muhammad Kaseng, the dead man's brother-in-law, told police that Mahama Nasae, his sister-in-law, Rachana Kuechi, and two neighbors were sitting and chatting in front of the house when two men showed up on a motorcycle. The driver parked the bike pretending to ask a question and the man riding pillon then took out a gun and fired five shots at them. The attackers then fled.
Mahama Nasae was hit in the head and died on the spot. Rachana was seriously injured and taken to the hospital.
Police blamed separatist terrorists militants.
Meanwhile, another shooting was reported about 10 p.m. inside a mosque in Rueso district. Witnesses reported that Rusran Wohrong and about 20 other people were praying inside the local mosque. A man who arrived riding pillion on a motorcycle walked into the mosque, pretending he was going to pray behind Rusran. Instead, the man took out a handgun, fired four shots at Rusran and then fled. The victim was hit in the head and died on the spot.
[Shabelle] Police in Narok are holding 50 people of Somali origin nabbed ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... over the weekend at Ololunga area.
The police said the aliens were arrested after they were found without any identification documents.
Narok South OCPD Isaac Meme said the arrested could not give satisfactory answers on what they were doing in the country.
"These suspects are being interrogated by CID officers and the Anti-Poaching Unit. We have given them time to bring their identification documents but it seems they have none," said Meme.
He said the operation conducted by regular police, CID personnel, KWS officers and Anti-Poaching Unit stationed at Mara was prompted by the increased insecurity in the district and poaching in Mara.
Meme said intelligence reports have linked the suspects to increased poaching at the Maasai Mara Game Reserve.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2013
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[Pak Daily Times] The Sultan of Brunei introduced tough Sharia-law punishments on Tuesday including death by stoning for crimes such as adultery, hailing what he called a "historic" step toward Islamic orthodoxy for his sleepy country.
Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah -- one of the world's wealthiest men -- said a new Sharia Penal Code in the works for years was officially introduced on Tuesday in the tiny, oil-flush sultanate and would be phased in beginning in six months. Based on individual cases, punishments could include stoning to death for adultery, severing of limbs for theft, and flogging for violations ranging from abortion to alcohol consumption, according to a copy of the code.
The code applies only to Moslems. "By the grace of Allah, with the coming into effect of this legislation, our duty to Allah is therefore being fulfilled," the sultan, 67, said in a speech. An absolute monarch whose family has tightly controlled the languid, oil-rich country of 400,000 for six centuries, the sultan first called in 1996 for the introduction of Sharia criminal punishments.
The sultan already imposes a relatively conservative brand of Islam on his subjects, compared to Brunei's Southeast Asian Moslem neighbours, Malaysia and Indonesia. Brunei bans the sale and public consumption of alcohol and closely restricts other religions.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2013
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#1
I suspect this has more to do wid MSM-Net Reports of South + SE Asians learning jihad by fighting in Syria.
[Al Ahram] A 13-year-old child was killed and 11 other people maimed in a guanfight in Leb's 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... Tuesday between supporters and opponents of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Scourge of Qusayr... , a security official said.
Clashes broke out Monday night, as an interview with Assad was being aired on television. There was relative calm on Tuesday, but fighting resumed during the evening.
"Fighting on several fronts in Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tebbaneh has killed a 13-year old boy and maimed 11 other people, some of them critically," the official told AFP.
The army was deployed in the area, and shot back at the sources of fire, he added.
The 13-year-old victim was from Jabal Mohsen, a majority Alawite neighbourhood in Tripoli whose residents support Assad.
The majority of Bab al-Tebbaneh's residents are Sunni, and support the anti-Assad revolt in neighbouring Syria.
Both neighbourhoods are extremely poor and marginalised, and lack adequate medical facilities.
Sipping coffee on a roadside, Bilal Allush, a 30-year-old vegetable seller from a nearby neighbourhood, told AFP "we all want this violence to end.
"Those people fighting, they are just criminals. Meanwhile, ...back at the barn, Bossy was furiously chewing her cud and thinking... whenever there's a clash, people like me can't work and our families suffer."
Bab al-Tebbaneh is home to Tripoli's main vegetable market, where vendors like Allush can buy in bulk.
"I couldn't go buy vegetables from the market, so I haven't made any money today. My family survives on my daily income. I have four children," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2013
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[Ynet] The Shin Bet said the terrorist who was shot to death by IDF soldiers in the West Bank early Tuesday morning is apparently Muhammad A'atzi, one of the people who planned the bombing attack on a Tel Aviv bus in November 2012, which injured 29 people.
A'atzi, 28, from Beit Liqya, was imprisoned a number of times for his activity as an Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... member and has been in hiding since the attack.
[Al Ahram] Giza governor Ali Abdel Rahman said on Tuesday that his administration will offer financial compensation to the victims of the attack against Al-Adra church, or the Church of the Virgin Mary, in Cairo's working class neighbourhood of Al-Warraq.
On Sunday, four people were killed and 18 others maimed when two gunnies on a cycle of violence opened fire on a crowd of guests attending a wedding outside the church.
Abdel Rahman said the families of the dead will receive LE 5000 ($725), whereas each maimed will collect LE 2000 ($290), according to state news agency MENA.
All injured have been transferred to a military hospital south of Cairo, Al-Ahram's Arabic website reported the health ministry as saying.
Following massive protests against his turbulent year in power, 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... was toppled by the army on 3 July, sending the country into a bitter political deadlock.
Islamists, incensed by Morsi's ouster, have accused Christians of orchestrating what they call a coup against the country's first freely elected president.
Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II, the leader of Egypt's largest Christian denomination, backed Morsi's ouster, appearing on television alongside army chief Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and other political and religious figures when El-Sisi announced Morsi's removal.
Coptic Christians, who make up some 10 percent of Egypt's 84 million, have long complained of discrimination and periodic violence by hard boys. But the number of sectarian attacks has surged following a security crackdown on Islamists in mid-August.
Amnesia Amnesty International, a London-based rights group, says that upwards of 200 Christian-owned properties have been attacked and 43 churches torched or seriously damaged across the country, adding that at least four people have been killed.
Most of the vandalism to Coptic homes, monasteries, schools, and shops, however, has occurred outside the capital, making Sunday's attack especially shocking.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2013
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[An Nahar] Azerbaijani forces on Tuesday killed an Armenian soldier and injured three more along the volatile border between the two arch-enemies, the Armenian government said.
Garik Pogosyan, 19, was killed when the convoy he was in came under fire on a road that runs along the border, the defense ministry said in a statement.
Three other soldiers in the convoy were maimed, it, adding: "This criminal step by the enemy will not go unanswered and those behind it will be held responsible."
Armenia and Azerbaijan are locked in a festering decades-long feud over the breakaway region of Nagorny Karabakh.
Armenia-backed separatists seized Nagorny Karabakh from Azerbaijan in a war that killed 30,000 people in the 1990s.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2013
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[An Nahar] Paleostinian president the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... warned Tuesday Israel would be to blame if ongoing peace talks collapsed over its military control of a border with Jordan.
"We will not accept it, and if they (the talks) collapse, they (Israelis) will be the reason for the collapse, not us," Abbas told the Baltic News Service during a visit to Lithuania, current holder of the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... 's rotating presidency.
Israeli daily Maariv reported last week that negotiations almost collapsed in September due to conflicting positions on future borders, particularly where the eastern West Bank adjoins Jordan.
Israel has long stated that it seeks to retain a long-term military presence along the Jordan Valley.
But Paleostinians flatly object to any Israeli military on land that could become the eastern front of a future Paleostinian state.
"They don't have the right to stay in our territories after we signed a peace treaty," Abbas said Tuesday, while stressing that he accepts a future demilitarized Paleostinian state.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2013
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#1
So let's cut to the chase and blame the Juice now. That would save us from hearing about yet another round of stupid-ass, ultimately failed (surprise!) peace talks.
[Al Ahram] President Barack Obama Republicans can come along for the ride, but they've got to sit in the back... 's first package of economic aid to Egypt since the ouster of 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... is hitting a roadblock in Congress, where a key Republican senator is holding up the transfer of $60 million to a program to spur private investment in Egypt's flailing economy, according to U.S. officials and congressional aides.
The B.O. regime decided earlier this month to suspend much of America's annual $1.6 billion in mostly military support to its once ironclad Middle East ally, citing the ruling army's continued crackdown on political opponents since ousting Mohammed Morsi, the popularly elected, Moslem Brüderbund-backed president, in July amid mass protests.
But the administration pledged at the same time to maintain the strategic relationship, and recently sought congressional approval for a chunk of assistance.
The money would go to support the Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund, which was established during the height of the Arab Spring when Egyptian protesters toppled long-time leader Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... in 2011. Instead of traditional government-to-government aid, the fund offers low-cost capital to investors to spur private sector growth and more competitive markets in an Egyptian economy rocked by a tourism crash and a sharp decline in foreign investment over the last two-and-a-half years.
But even money with ostensibly capitalist aims is running into problems with U.S. politicians, many of whom have criticized the B.O. regime for not halting all aid to Egypt since the military takeover as demanded by a U.S. coup law, and for lacking a clear strategy to stabilize the Arab world's most populous country.
Standing in the way on this occasion is Sen. Lindsey Graham ... the endangered South Carolina RINO... , the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees foreign assistance. Graham joined fellow party member Sen. John Maverick McCain ... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution... on a trip to Cairo in August, where they held contentious meetings with Egypt's top military brass after demanding reconciliation with Morsi's Islamist supporters and a faster timetable for the restoration of democracy.
"Senator Graham has placed a hold on these funds and until he sees Egypt moving toward democracy, he will continue to restrict funding," Kevin Bishop, a front man for the senator, said in a statement. "Additionally he believes American taxpayers deserve a much clearer explanation of what exactly is President B.O.'s policy toward Egypt."
In a further sign of politicians' displeasure with Egypt, three Republican senators sent a letter to 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... on Tuesday, pressing him to speak out against the violence in Egypt and emphasize the need for the interim government to protect minorities and Coptic Christians.
The senators -- Bob Corker, Lamar Alexander and Roy Blunt ...A Missouri political oligarch. As a member of Congress he was reelected six times without significant opposition. He married Roseann Ray in May 1967 and had three children with her: Matt (the former Governor of Missouri), Amy Blunt Mosby and Andrew Blunt, both lawyers and lobbyists. Blunt and Ray divorced after 35 years of marriage. Afterward, he married Abigail Perlman, a lobbyist for Kraft Foods. In April 2006, he and his wife adopted an 18-month old boy from Russia, whom they renamed Alexander Charles Charlie Blunt. He will be either a politician or a lobbyist or both when he grows up. -- cited recent reports of targeted attacks on Coptic churches and other individuals.
"Egypt's Christian minority and their ability to worship are in danger. The situation warrants a clear U.S. response," the three senators said.
Earlier this month, U.S. officials said they were withholding aid, including 10 Apache helicopters at a cost of more than $500 million, M1A1 tank kits and Harpoon anti-ship missiles. The U.S. also is withholding $260 million in cash assistance to the government until "credible progress" is made toward an inclusive government set up through free and fair elections. The U.S. had already suspended the delivery of four F-16 fighter jets and canceled biennial U.S.-Egyptian military exercises.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2013
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#1
At work, Barry Hussein, Huma Abedin and the Muslim Brothers...
Posted by: Herb Gloluger9960 ||
10/23/2013 1:13
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#2
Senator Graham however, never uttered so much as a muffled sigh over the billion or so sent to Pakistan last week.
#3
If the Western political class had, implicitly or explicitly made a deal with the MB where the West would support MB rule in Egypt in exchange for an end to terror attacks, how exactly would events unfold differently?
The last voice of reason in the Middle East is the Egyptian Military who have put the "Arab Spring" under adult supervision.
SO, much as Congress and the Senate have ALWAYS been counter intuitive in foreign policy matters, much as they denied military aid to South Viet Nam during the second Tet Offensive, they now think it makes perfect sense to strangle the Egyptian military for slamming the door on the fingers of the Moslem Brotherhood?
I have blood running out of my ears trying to figure out the logic of that.
Why in the HELL have we been so late to the game on every damned thing in the region? Wallahee, we had to be drug into the Libyan revolution, kicking and screaming, by the FUCKING FRENCH!! The French for goodness sake! The pansies of Europe became the tough guys on ME policy.
We are one year too late in Syria. McCain, surprisingly, was right. We should have jumped into that mess in Syria A FREAKING YEAR AGO. Now it is too late. We are late. Most of our aid will go to AQ and other related nutjob jihadists who will do grievous harm to western interests with it. A year ago, we could have done a regime change and been out of there without the accumulation of fanatics and untoward misinformed children.
NOW we are trying to kill the last chance of common sense in the ME.
When I was in Libya, the military coup was supported almost universally as the Libyans are scared senseless over the possibilities of the MB taking over in Libya. While everyone mourned and lamented the loss of life in the crackdown on the MB, the Libyans were relieved the Brotherhood was out in Egypt and possibly their influence in Benghazi would diminish.
Unfortunately, no one in fucking Washington spends anytime reading anything, they don't study the issues, they don't talk to real experts, and they do not understand HISTORY or ECONOMICS or cultural differences.
I am just completely aghast at the lack of coherence/rational thought on ME "policy."
We DO NOT HAVE A FOREIGN POLICY.
The Soviets, who invented brinksmanship and hardball diplomacy would negotiate with Kissinger and Baker because they respected their intellect and their resolve. The Russians, the French, hell even the Italians, think Kerry is a joke and they all sure as hell don't know whether to laugh or cry over Obama's incompetence in foreign policy.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
10/23/2013 10:52
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#5
Oh, don't worry, Bill. I'm sure Putin is willing to step into the void.
[Al Ahram] 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... 's intelligence chief has told European diplomats the kingdom will limit dealings with the United States in protest at Washington's perceived inaction over Syria and its potential thaw with Iran, a source close to Saudi policy said on Tuesday. Prince Bandar bin Sultan told the envoys Washington had failed to act effectively on the Syria crisis and the Israeli-Paleostinian conflict, was growing closer to Tehran and had not backed Saudi support for Bahrain when it crushed an anti-government revolt in 2011, the source said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2013
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#2
In 'Princess', the author said it is tradition to remove pubic hair prior to the wedding night--rubbed raw with sand--and this girl was disabled. If she couldn't give consent for hair removal, she obviously couldn't consent to vows. Parents were probably preparing her for market.
[An Nahar] The Vatican served up tea and cucumber sandwiches on Tuesday as it launched its own cricket club, and challenged the Church of England to a match.
With the coat of arms of St. Peter's as its symbol, the club will give priests and seminarians -- and eventually nuns -- a new outlet for their sporting passions, said officials at the Pontifical Council for Culture.
"This represents the council's desire to go to the peripheries of the world that Pope Francis has spoken of," Monsignor Melchor Sanchez, who is the honorary president of St Peter's Cricket Club, told reporters at the launch.
The club colors are the yellow-and-white of the Vatican flag.
Sanchez said cricket could be a new way of engaging with other denominations and other religions, saying he hoped the Church of England would form its own team and the two could square off on Lord's cricket ground in London.
The game would be in September next year -- the month chosen because it is a time of holiday for seminarians in Rome. Other games are planned with Hindu and Muslim teams of seminarians who would come over especially from India.
"I never imagined cricket was so popular in Rome," said Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, who is informally known as the Vatican's "culture minister".
"Cricket is alien to our culture but it has become part of our culture as an expression of inter-culturality," he said, explaining that a wave of immigration in Italy had brought many young aficionados of the sport to the country.
Theodore Mascarenhas, an Indian priest and a mean off-spin bowler, is the chairman of the cricket club. Looking at all the priests, he quipped: "I don't think we're lacking for spiritual direction or guidance".
"The team will be strong enough to beat anyone in the world," he said.
While Pope Francis is known as an avid fan of the San Lorenzo football club in his native Argentina, Mascarenhas said he was "a very open man".
"I think cricket is another thing that would be part of that openness."
A woman, Philippa Hitchen, who works for Vatican Radio has been brought on the board in the hope that "eventually we will have nuns playing so the gentlemen's game can also be a ladies' game," Father Mascarenhas said.
Preparations for the cricket club began around a year ago thanks in large part to the enthusiasm of Australia's ambassador to the Holy See, John McCarthy, who said the initiative was an example of "sporting diplomacy".
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
...and challenged the Church of England to a match.
[Pak Daily Times] Chinese authorities have "restored" centuries-old Buddhist frescos in a temple by painting them over with cartoon-like figures from Taoist myths, reports said on Tuesday, prompting outrage online.
It is the latest example of controversial heritage preservation in China, where many ancient structures have been destroyed in recent decades, sometimes to be replaced by replicas of the original.
The temple in Chaoyang, in the northeastern province of Liaoning, was built more than 270 years ago and the delicate original paintings had survived, albeit crumbling, until the "refurbishment".
The new paintings are bold, simplistic, and of completely different subjects, pictures showed.
Chinese Internet users lashed out at the works on the country's weibo microblogging sites, branding the new paintings "even worse than cartoons".
"As a man from Chaoyang, I sincerely feel some people's brains were kicked by a donkey," wrote a user with the online handle Brave Brick.
"I should have cut the frescos down with a knife and brought them home if I had predicted this." Another poster said: "Ignorance is horrible!"
The tourist authorities in charge of the temple hired "substandard" contractors to carry out the maintenance work and the effects of the paintings were "inferior", the News Express said, citing Li Haifeng, an official with the Chaoyang city government.
Two officials had been sacked over the incident, the Global Times reported, citing Li.
A pagoda in the temple complex dates back to the Liao period (916-1125), it said, but the paintings were in a Qing dynasty hall.
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[An Nahar] An EU foreign minister on Tuesday told Ukraine it had less than a month to allow opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko to leave jail and fulfill other conditions, warning that the "time for bluffing" was over.
The release of former prime minister Tymoshenko, who is serving a seven-year sentence for abuse of power while in office, is a key condition Ukraine must fulfill ahead of signing a groundbreaking trade and integration deal with the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... in late November.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said in the Ukrainian capital Kiev that time was "very short" for Ukraine to come up with a solution that would be acceptable to all sides.
Sikorski and Swedish counterpart Carl Bildt met with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych for around two and a half hours on Tuesday.
"For us decision time will be November 18," Sikorski said, referring to a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council, the final gathering of the body on the issue before the summit due on November 28-29 in Vilnius.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2013
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#1
They're giving Yanukovych what he wants: the ability to pretend he wanted EU Integration but that he wasn't the person to stop it.
[Shabelle] Police are questioning three Tanzanians caught crossing the Kenya-Somalia border at Kiunga to allegedly join Al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... krazed killers.
Officials identified the three as Ali Ramadhan, 22, Musa Daudi, 19 and Shabaan Bakari Waziri, 21.
They were jugged Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! by the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), a few miles inside Somalia from the Kenyan border and handed over to police at Kiunga cop shoppe.
According to police who had profiled the three, they were headed to Kismayu to join "the holy war, which they claimed is led by the krazed killers".
Police said the men are from Dar-es-Salaam and had used the Lungalunga border to drive to Mombasa, Malindi and Lamu before getting into Somalia.
"They are being profiled by the Anti-Terror Police Unit who will decide the way forward. There is a likelihood they will be charged in court with various charges," said a police brass hat aware of the case.
The arrests came in the wake of reports that tens of Kenyan youths who had crossed to Somalia to join the faceless myrmidons are now back in the Coast.
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10/23/2013
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Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
[An Nahar] The United States on Tuesday denied its drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistain and elsewhere infringed international law and said it did all it could to avoid civilian casualties.
The comments followed the publication of reports on the U.S. drone war by two human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state... groups, and came a day before Pak 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... is expected to bring up concerns about the U.S. tactic at White House talks.
"We are reviewing these reports carefully," White House front man Jay Carney said.
"To the extent these reports claim that the U.S. has acted contrary to international law, we would strongly disagree.
"The administration has repeatedly emphasized the extraordinary care that we take to make sure counterterrorism actions are in accordance with all applicable law."
Carney also said that by deciding to use drone aircraft against terror suspects, rather than sending in troops or using other weapons, Washington was "choosing the course of action least likely to result in the loss of innocent life."
Earlier Amnesia Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... unveiled reports detailing civilian casualties in a number of U.S. operations in Pakistain and Yemen.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesia Amnesty International are jointly calling on the U.S. Congress to fully investigate the cases the two organizations have documented as well as other potentially unlawful strikes, and to disclose any evidence of human rights violations to the public. Those responsible for unlawful killings should be appropriately disciplined or prosecuted.
The groups called on Obama to provide a full legal rationale for assassinations in Yemen and elsewhere.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2013
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#1
As long as one remembers that, despite all the wishful thinking, international law is based on "might makes right".
[Al Ahram] The leaders of Sudan and South Sudan must agree at their summit on Tuesday to block a one-sided referendum in the flashpoint Abyei region, a tribal chief said. Mukhtar Babo Nimir leads the Arab Misseriya pastoralists who move seasonally through Abyei with their cattle.
He told AFP that his group also has the option of holding its own unilateral referendum if the rival Ngok Dinka go ahead with plans for a ballot.
"We are waiting for the results of President Bashir's visit to Juba today," Nimir said as Omar al-Bashir Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it. arrived in the South Sudanese capital for talks with his counterpart Salva Kiir.
"If he comes back with a deal for the Dinka to stop the referendum process, which they've started, that will be good," he said.
The Ngok Dinka, closely connected to South Sudan, are permanent residents of oil-producing Abyei.
At a 'People's General Conference' held last Friday, they declared their intention to hold a referendum to resolve the status of Abyei but set no date.
Abyei was meant to vote whether it lies in Sudan or South Sudan in January 2011 -- the same day as Juba voted overwhelmingly to split from the north -- as part of the 2005 peace deal which ended Sudan's two-decades long civil war.
But that vote never happened and Sudanese troops stormed the enclave and occupied it until May 2012. Since then, the impoverished area has been in political limbo.
The United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... , which is the only authority in the area, has previously warned that any unilateral move would risk inflaming tensions in war-ravaged Abyei.
On Monday, the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... reiterated that its own proposal for a referendum this month, to determine whether Abyei belongs with Sudan or South Sudan, is "a fair, equitable and workable solution."
That ballot has been stalled over disagreement about voter eligibility.
After a summit in September, diplomats said Kiir and Bashir seemed to have reached a deal to avoid an immediate official ballot on Abyei.
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10/23/2013
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#1
In accordance with the peace agreement that ended the first civil war between North and South Sudan, there was to be a plebiscite held in Abyei in the mid 1970s. The North reneged, and for more than forty years has continued to do so.
[REUTERS] Human rights groups on Tuesday accused the United States of breaking international law and perhaps committing war crimes by killing civilians in missile and drone strikes that were intended to hit forces of Evil in Pakistain and Yemen.
Amnesia Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... released separate reports detailing the deaths of dozens of civilians in the two countries. They urged the B.O. regime and Congress to investigate, and end a policy of secrecy on the attacks.
"In some of the cases we looked at ... they appear to be war crimes, but really the full picture is for the U.S. authorities to reveal," Mustafa Qadri, Pakistain researcher at Amnesia Amnesty International, said after describing the death of a 68-year-old Pak grandmother in an alleged drone strike.
"We are saying for the U.S. authorities to come clean," he said at a joint news conference with Human Rights Watch.
Responding to the reports, White House front man Jay Carney said B.O. regime officials "take the matter of civilian casualties enormously seriously." He said he could not speak to specific operations, but that U.S. policies met international and domestic legal obligations and the standard of "near certainty" that civilians would not be hit.
U.S. officials have argued that any drone strikes are very carefully targeted and that civilian casualties have been kept to a bare minimum, possibly in the low dozens.
Letta Tayler of Human Rights Watch said her organization had found violations of international law when civilians were "indiscriminately" killed in Yemen.
In a September 2, 2012, attack, the target - an alleged al Qaeda Death Eater, Abd al-Raouf al-Dahab, - was "nowhere in sight" when the United States hit a passenger van and killed 12 people returning from the market, she said.
"Their loved ones found their charred bodies in pieces on the roadside, dusted in flour and sugar that they were bringing home to their families," Tayler told news hounds.
Both the Amnesia Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch reports looked at handful of U.S. attacks in Pakistain and Yemen to urge transparency and accountability in U.S. policy.
U.S. drone strikes in Pakistain and Yemen increased dramatically after President Barack Obama I am not a dictator!... took office in 2009, and the pilotless aerial vehicles became a key part of the fight against al Qaeda. More recently the number of strikes has slowed.
The United States has also used drones over Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, and Iraq, and this year received approval to base drones in Niger.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2013
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#2
Obviously this is a racist act. I sense a visit from the IRS in the near future. Could put a ding in that 'non-profit' status undermining that "let's separate the rubes from their money" donation campaign letter.
#4
Well, the definition of "civilian" in an asymmetrical conflict, i.e., a terrorist environment is dicey. One group's civilian is another's enemy combatant.
I am afraid the drone strikes are bad policy. We have proven we can go anywhere and snatch just about anybody we want anytime we want. Killing a HVT instead of snatching and questioning is denying us a significant amount of valuable intelligence.
Nothing beats boots on the ground going through the personal effects of a high value target for finding interesting information.
The drone strikes allow THE ONE to stay above the fray and play omnipotent.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
10/23/2013 10:30
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#5
"play" being the keyword here
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/23/2013 11:13
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Don't forget Obama's need to be able to decide who lives another day and who dies. he just loves playing god...
#8
Internationl law? Did any Rantburger knoqw of when there elections for a Repentative in that International Congress who approves International Law? Because if by International Law they intend some pact aapproved by such lovely people as The Saudis, the Iranians, Burma's Junta, the Chinese governement and Kim Jong un I am afid I would have to tell them to stuff their International Law in some place I don't want to mention in front of ladies.
#9
The drone strikes allow THE ONE to stay above the fray and play omnipotent.
To be fair, the combination of "no casualties" and an endearment for technology has been a political mindset for decades, especially on the leftward side.
It's just that Mr. Obama has been a disappointment to the Left, and now we're seeing the results.
#10
By 'international law' I doubt they mean the Geneva Convention which, as I understand it, states that if an illegal combatant (i.e. terrorist) hides in, behind, and among the civilian population then any resulting civilian deaths are on *their* heads.
Or maybe AmNasty International and Human Rights Abusers Watch have a version with all those 'icky-hold-people-responsible' parts removed.
[Al Ahram] A bomb exploded in North Sinai's Rafah on Tuesday morning, killing one low-ranking officer and a civilian driver, and injuring 12 conscripts. The blast took place where the soldiers were deployed, a security source told state news agency MENA.
The injured were transferred to a nearby hospital, he added.
Since the 3 July removal of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, militant attacks targeting security forces have been on the rise, mostly in Sinai which has suffered a security vacuum since the January 2011 revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak.
Last Friday, a 31-year-old policeman was killed in Sinai by unknown gunmen who escaped after hitting him with 17 bullets.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2013
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[Pak Daily Times] KARACHI: Two young cousins were killed in police custody at Sharafi Goth cop shoppe's remits on Tuesday.
Gadap City police incarcerated Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! two cousins namely Baz Mohammad, 19, son of Jan Mohammad and Mohammad Younus, 20, son of Sher Mohammad, over their alleged involvement in the murder of a policeman. Deceased were residents of Mansehra Colony in Sharafi Goth.
They were taken to Sharafi Goth in police custody to indicate their other associates; however, unidentified armed riders came and resorted indiscriminate firing on them which resulting both the cousins were sustained multiple bullets wounds and was struck down in his prime, and ASI Babar Hashmi was also maimed in attack, however the assailants later managed to escape under cover of firing.
Following the killings, both the cousins' families staged a protest against the killings, terming the action as "extra judicial". According to the victim's uncle, Mohammad Ejaz, the victims were sleeping in their homes when police raided and arrested both the cousins. "They were working with me in construction business and had no political affiliation nor any criminal record, whatsoever," he added.
However, Switzerland makes more than cheese... district Malir SSP Nasir Aftab claimed the dear departed persons were wanted to the police in a murder case of a police constable, Bagh Ali, who was killed in Sharafi Goth on October 19.
Another constable, Munawar Ali, was also injured in the incident. "They were Afghan origins were wanted to police in number of cases of snatching and robberies," he said. "They killed and injured our cops who were
on routine patrol."
SSP Aftab refuted the family allegations made against the police "The police took them to Sharafi Goth to recognise the scene of the crime where they shot our coppers; however once they reached there, a gang of robbers present there thought they were raided, and hence opened fire," he said. "Resultantly, they were killed."
One police officer, ASI Babar Hashmi was also injured due to firing; however, the culprits managed to escape, he added.
Man rubbed out: Separately, a man was rubbed out in Bakra Piri area, within the jurisdiction of Malir City cop shoppe.
Police said the dear departed was identified as Abdullah, 32, son of Aziz, who came to 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... from Turbat, Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... , for a nursing course. Unidentified armed riders targeted him over a personal dispute, said the police.
Body found: Meanwhile, ...back at the comedy club, Boogie sadly admitted that he was a better peeping Tom than he was a comedian... a body of a woman was found into suitcase from the garbage area of Rais Goth, within the precincts of Mochko cop shoppe.
Police in an initial investigation said the body was wrapped under a bed sheet and suspect that the victim was sexually assaulted, and later strangled to death. The body has been moved to a mortuary for identification after completing medico legal formalities in hospital.
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[Pak Daily Times] KABUL: US inspectors are on the trail of a successful Afghan businessman they believe has channelled millions of dollars in aid to the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, one of the deadliest myrmidon groups in Afghanistan, but still has donor-funded reconstruction contracts around the country.
The investigation, detailed in a trove of documents obtained by Rooters, comes at a crucial time for Afghanistan and its foreign allies, who have poured billions of dollars into leaving behind a stable, viable state when most NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... -led combat troops pull out next year.
Development aid to Afghanistan - approaching $100 billion after 12 years of war - and the contractors who receive it are being scrutinised by the US Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR), with one case in particular involving businessman Haji Khalil Zadran linked to the Haqqanis.
"It makes absolutely no sense that individuals and entities designated as supporting the insurgency could receive US contracts," John Sopko, the chief of the US watchdog agency, told Rooters.
"If they get a contract not only do they get US taxpayer money, but they could gain access to US personnel and facilities, putting our troops at risk," he said.
Zadran rejects the allegations, saying it is simply a case of mistaken identity.
SIGAR believes Zadran's case is one of dozens that show a sinister side to the story of how endemic corruption, a charge often levelled at 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... 's government, has undermined efforts to stabilise Afghanistan.
Zadran left school to drive trucks and went on to build an empire that has won more than $125 million in donor-funded construction projects.
His fortune should reflect the potential for success in post-war Afghanistan. Instead, the SIGAR investigation paints a picture of how aid has been siphoned off to maintain a web of corruption, violence and failure.
The inability over many years to stop firms believed to be supporting the insurgency from winning multi-million-dollar contracts exposes the lack of control that donors have over cash once it is handed over to the Afghan government.
Those transfers make up an increasing proportion of aid. US federal agencies want more than $10.7 billion for reconstruction programmes in 2014, SIGAR says, and the government has promised at least half will be granted directly to Afghan institutions to spend as they see fit.
Much of the evidence against Zadran is classified, but the cache of documents given to Rooters by US officials on condition of anonymity show that he has close business ties with the Haqqani network's leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani.
The Haqqanis, Islamist Death Eaters who operate on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistain border, are believed to have introduced suicide kaboom into Afghanistan.
The links between Zadran and the insurgency include him teaming up with Saadullah Khan and Brothers Engineering and Construction Company (SKB), believed to be one of Sirajuddin Haqqani's companies.
Together they won a $15 million contract to help build a road between the towns of Gardez and Khost in Afghanistan's east for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2011.
"The owners of these companies are controllers and commanders of the Haqqani Network," one US government memorandum says.
Zadran says he approached SKB Chief Executive Kamal Naser Khan because they had already worked together on the construction of an airport in Faizabad in northeastern Afghanistan in 2009.
Zadran confirmed the contracts and partnerships, but said that alone did not constitute proof he financed the Haqqanis.
On the contrary, he said, it was fortunate the US auditors had alerted him because it had saved him from becoming involved.
Zadran won the road contract in January 2011 but it was cancelled a month later when vetting uncovered "derogatory information" about sub-contractors, USAID says.
Zadran's accountant said they had shares in SKB at the time the contract was awarded but had since sold them.
Rooters approached SKB with a request to speak with the chief executive, but calls were not returned.
The Gardez-Khost road project began in 2007 with a price tag of $68.5 million. It remains unfinished, while completed sections are already beginning to crack, and in August, a USAID official put the latest estimate of the bill at $230 million.
U.S officials say some of the profits from such contracts - in Zadran's case, estimated by SIGAR to be worth $125 million - have been channelled to the Haqqanis. The documents provided to Rooters do not detail how much, but one memorandum puts the figure for SKB alone at $1-2 million a month.
Zadran met Rooters at a prominent warlord's house in central Kabul and, surrounded by rose gardens, spoke openly over tea about the US allegations. He said the United States has never given him concrete evidence of his support for the Haqqanis, who come from his tribe in eastern Afghanistan
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10/23/2013
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#1
The Gardez-Khost road project began in 2007 with a price tag of $68.5 million. It remains unfinished, while completed sections are already beginning to crack, and in August, a USAID official put the latest estimate of the bill at $230 million.
Might want to inspect the "IED Proof" waddi culverts before releasing the next payment. It would appear many are defective and provide little protection at all.
[Al Ahram] Scores of pro-Morsi students in and outside the capital protested on Tuesday afternoon, continuing a rocky start to the new academic year. Violence flared up between students at Mansoura University, with some lighting fireworks and others hurling rocks, Al-Ahram's Arabic website reported.
Pandemonium reigned on the Nile Delta campus, as supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi clashed with opponents, prompting police to fire tear gas over the university walls. Some students were forced to take refuge inside lecture halls as security forces shut the campus gates. Sounds of birdshot were also reported.
Nearly 18 people were injured in the Mansoura clashes, among them seven security personnel, according to Al-Ahram.
Twenty-five students and professors will face the university's disciplinary board on charges of inciting students to protest and engaging in clashes with their colleagues.
In Cairo, 15 students protesting outside the education ministry were given four days detention pending investigation on charges of stirring chaos, blocking a main road, disturbing public order, and assaulting security forces.
The students clashed with Central Security Forces, Egypt's riot police, after they tried to block a main avenue in Cairo's downtown.
It was not immediately clear why they were protesting.
Clashes also erupted at Cairo University between opposing students after pro-Morsi protesters chanted anti-army slogans, state news agency MENA reported.
Riot police were heavily stationed around campuses in Giza, south of Cairo.
Thousands of students from Egypt's ancient Al-Azhar University have staged demonstrations at the university's main Cairo campuses over the past three days, demanding Morsi's reinstatement and the release of fellow students arrested during recent political unrest.
Security sources said at least 43 out of over 3,000 students involved have been arrested. Despite the arrests, Islamist students have vowed to press ahead with their protests, defying warnings by authorities and university leaders.
On Al-Azhar's campus in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, tens of female students backing Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood staged a protest on Tuesday, flashing the four-finger Islamist sign and chanting anti-army slogans.
Islamists have accused Al-Azhar's leaders of backing the army's July overthrow of Morsi amid mass popular protests against his year in power.
Tensions have been simmering at Egyptian universities since studies began in late September, as authorities crack down on the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood movement, crippling their street activities.
Morsi and tens of senior Muslim Brotherhood leaders have been jailed on charges of inciting violence. Hundreds of other Islamists and their allies have been rounded up following a police raid on pro-Morsi protest camps on 14 August, which left hundreds dead.
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[Ynet] Yemeni security officials say police have fired tear gas to quell a prison riot by inmates held on terrorism charges in the capital, leaving at least three at death's door.
The officials said dozens of inmates linked to al-Qaeda refused to return to their cells early Tuesday, chanting and scuffling with the prison guards. Police fired their weapons into the air and lobbed gas in response. The officials said at least nine inmates were maimed, including three critically.
[Al Ahram] The administrative head of the attacked Al-Adra church told prosecautors on Tuesday that police conscripts supposed to be guarding the church were not present during the assault, Al-Ahram's Arabic website reported.
I'm sure it was just a simple matter of a watch captain forgetting to modify the duty roster...
On Sunday, four people were killed and 18 others maimed when two gunnies on a cycle of violence opened fire on a crowd of guests attending a wedding outside the church, located in Cairo's working class neighbourhood of Al-Warraq.
Since the popularly-backed military ouster of Islamist 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... in July, Egypt has witnessed a surge in sectarian attacks. Islamists, incensed by Morsi's ouster, have accused Christians of orchestrating what they call a coup against the country's first freely elected president.
If that hadn't happened, the Copts would've been blamed for the wheat shortage.
Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II, the leader of Egypt's largest Christian denomination, backed Morsi's ouster, appearing on television alongside army chief Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and other political and religious figures when El-Sisi announced Morsi's removal.
The Maspero Youth Union, a coalition of Coptic activists, cancelled on Tuesday a protest it had called for a day earlier, fearing "infiltrators," Al-Ahram's Arabic website reported.
The group said it met with a government representative and has demanded the removal of interior minister Mohammed Ibrahim for failing to protect Christians. In an earlier statement, the union called for charges against the minister and local security officials for "failing to do their job and protect the church."
"The killing and threatening of Copts in front of the church is the responsibility of the cabinet and of Prime Minister Hazem El-Beblawi," read the statement issued on the group's Facebook page Monday.
The group also called for the implementation of a security plan to protect other churches from similar attacks.
It might not be a bad idea to take up a collection and hire your own security. But that's not how it works in Egypt.
In an online statement published on 22 August, Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... said police and military have failed to intervene in the vast majority of the 42 Egyptian church attacks documented by the international human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... organization.
"A priest in Malawi, a town in Minya governorate south of Minya city, told Human Rights Watch that he called emergency services and police multiple times while mobs burned his church, but no one came. Another Dalga resident said that on 16 August the governor promised to send armoured personnel carriers to protect Copts from ongoing violence, but that none came," the statement read.
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BOSSASO, Somalia -- Puntland police forces have captured two alleged robbers who broke into Bossaso Jewelry market where they killed a businesswoman and took away gold ornament worth $30,000 during an armed robbery in the port city of Bossaso on Monday, Garowe Online reports.
They have jewelry in Puntland?
The two robbers and the looted glass cases of gold Tuesday were presented to the media at Bossaso central police station with Bossaso Mayor Hassan Abdalla Hassan, Bari regional Deputy Police Commander Yusuf Musse and jewelry shop owners present.
Addressing the media, Musse said that following massive security operation Police forces seized the bandits along with the robbed gold ornaments in the port city's New Bossaso neighborhood.
"The armed robbery was planned and anybody who involved in the incident would face the justice," said the Deputy Police Commander. "They admitted that they have committed the crime and you can see the looted materials".
The two robbers in police uniform reportedly attacked the market at 2:00 PM yesterday and immediately escaped from the scene of crime after the robbery.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/23/2013
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[Pak Daily Times] As many as 165 suspects were taken into custody by law enforcers during separate targeted raids and operations across the metropolis on Tuesday. 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... police claimed to have locked away ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... 129 suspects during separate targeted raids and operations in various parts of the metropolis. The officials also claimed to have recovered weapons, mobiles phones and snatched cycle of violences from the possession of suspects. Pakistain Rangers Sindh conducted targeted raids in Bhittai Colony - Korangi, Madho Goth - Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Khadda Market - Lyari, Khuda Ki Basti, Baldia Town, North Nazimabad, Muhammadpur, Orangi Town, Malir, Landhi and Pehalwan Goth among others areas last night. During the search operation, 29 hardened criminals including Lyari ...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot.... gangsters and criminals affiliated with political groups were arrested. Weapons including SMGs and a large quantity of mixed ammo were also recovered. Separately, Maripur police arrested three suspects during a targeted raid. The suspects were identified as Pervez, Saleem and Nadir. SHO Shafiq Tanoli said the accused were involved in around 50 cases of murders; however, their political affiliations were not disclosed. Similarly, Baloch Colony police nabbed four suspects and recovered weapons from their possession. The officials said that suspects were involved in street crimes.
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[TELEGRAPH.CO.UK] Greek police are concentrating on the theory that a child trafficking gang had planned to sell Maria to a wealthy childless couple but were forced to offload her after detectives moved in on them
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[Ynet] A woman of Paleostinian descent was incarcerated Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! Tuesday on immigration charges for allegedly lying about her conviction for a deadly bombing in Israel in 1969.
Rasmieh Yusef Odeh, 66, lied on immigration papers when she came to the US from Jordan in 1995 and before she became a naturalized US citizen in 2004, according to a federal indictment.
#1
She was just a child when she did the bombing - it shouldn't be held against her today; really, at this point what difference does it make. Like Ayers & Dorn, she is now a mature, contributing member of society, right?
Odeh works as an associate director at the Arab American Action Network, a Chicago-area nonprofit group that advocates for new immigrants and tries to combat anti-Muslim and anti-Arab prejudice, according to its director, Hatem Abudayyeh. According to the network's website, Odeh has a law degree and has worked as a lawyer. It says one of her focuses has been working with domestic-violence groups and addressing various women's issues.
"She is a leader in the community a stalwart, an icon," said Abudayyeh, who appeared at the Chicago federal court building to support Odeh. He added about her arrest, "It's an escalation of attacks on our community. ... We are very, very angry."
Abudayyeh was one of 23 Palestinian and left-wing activists in Chicago, Minneapolis and Grand Rapids, Mich., whose homes were raided by the FBI around 2010. The government has divulged almost nothing about the investigation since, and no one has been indicted.
#5
and tries to combat anti-Muslim and anti-Arab prejudice
By blowing the h8ters up, apparently.
Interesting that she was busted for lying on a federal form. We sometimes mock questions like "Are you a vicious terrorists?", but they do provide a lever to use against them, if only after the fact.
[An Nahar] Western and Arab powers agreed with Syrian opposition leaders Tuesday that Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Scourge of Qusayr... should be excluded from any future government, but urged the rebels to take part in a peace conference in Geneva.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said after a meeting in London that the rebels had to overcome their differences and commit themselves to the talks in the Swiss city that are due to take place in late November.
But a defiant Assad said he was willing to run for re-election in 2014, a move further likely to anger a key rebel group that has so far refused to take part in the Geneva 2 conference if regime figures are present.
Hague told a presser after the meeting of the so-called Friends of Syria that they had agreed a "number of important steps" during a meeting with Ahmad Jarba, the head of the Syrian National Coalition.
"We are as clear as he is that Assad has no role in a peaceful and democratic Syria," Hague said.
U.S. 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... urged the world to help find a negotiated settlement for Syria, adding that the country itself could disintegrate if more is not done.
"The only alternative to a negotiated settlement is continued if not increased killing," Kerry told news hounds.
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[Pak Daily Times] Afghanistan and the United States have not yet agreed on several issues in a bilateral security pact, a senior Afghan front man said, raising the prospect that Washington may yet pull out all of its troops next year unless differences are ironed out.
Two years ago, the United States ended its military mission in Iraq with a similar "zero option" outcome after the failure of talks with Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... For almost a year, Washington and Kabul have been seeking to conclude a Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) that will help determine how many US soldiers and bases remain in Afghanistan after most foreign combat troops exit by the end of next year.
US 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... told news hounds at the end of a visit to Kabul this month that there was just one issue outstanding - Washington's demand that its troops be immune from Afghan law and tried in the United States instead.
But this request was not even raised in the two days Kerry was in Kabul, said Aimal Faizi, the front man for Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid 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... "A lot of progress has been made on the document, but it is not finalised," Faizi told Rooters in an interview at the presidential palace.
"If we do not reach a final agreement on this draft, it will go to the Loya Jirga and the Afghan people will be able to look at the issues remaining." Faizi said. "If it's unfinished, it means that there are some areas even the two governments have not yet reached an agreement on."
The Loya Jirga, an assembly of tribal elders, is to meet in November to discuss the security agreement.
US President Barack Obama I am not a dictator!... 's administration however regards the language hammered out during Kerry's visit as final.
"The text that will be presented to the Loya Jirga is what we left Afghanistan with on Saturday (Oct 12)," US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told news hounds last week.
US officials are increasingly impatient to conclude the deal because they need time to implement plans for 2015. Washington wanted it done by the summer and most recently set an Oct 31 deadline, but there is now no chance of a deal until late November.
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#1
Hey, no problem. We'll just be running along a bit sooner. Don't be a stranger.
#3
Failure to achieve a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) is a plus for the administration. It's a one-way ticket out and promise to never return. I'd wager The Cape was secretly paid to contest and bugger the negotiations. It's the Chicago way.
[An Nahar] Nigeria's military said Tuesday it killed 37 suspected Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... fighters in a ground and air assault on an krazed killer camp in the northeast, the epicenter of the Islamist group's four-year uprising.
The military attacked a suspected Boko Haram camp in Borno state, said military front man Aliyu Danja.
The military recovered arms and ammunition and destroyed vehicles and cycle of violences belonging to suspected Islamists, he said.
"The operation which commenced (on) Monday involved a coordinated ground and air assault," said Danja.
"It was aimed at destroying the terrorists' camp... A total of 37 suspected Boko Haram gunnies were killed in (a) cross fire exchange."
The account could not be independently verified.
The assault came after Boko Haram gunnies dressed in military uniform and riding cycle of violences on Sunday killed 19 people near the Nigerian border with Cameroon, according to residents and survivors of that attack.
On October 15, the military said it repelled coordinated attacks by Boko Haram Islamists, killing 40 krazed killers, although it provided few details.
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[Al Ahram] Egypt's presidency denied on Tuesday media reports suggesting that the government has made contact with opposing "factions" in order to pull Egypt out of its current political stalemate. According to a Tuesday statement, the presidency has not appealed to "factions that use violence to impose their will, which is in opposition of the will of the Egyptian people," state news agency MENA reported.
The statement appears to refer to several recent media reports alleging negotiations between Egypt's interim authorities and the Muslim Brotherhood, which refuses to acknowledge former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi's popularly-backed military ouster in July.
Since July, Egypt has been deeply polarised between supporters and opponents of the army's intervention. Several reconciliation initiatives proposed by international institutions and local political figures have failed.
Mohamed Ali Bishr, a leading member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, told Al-Jazeera on Sunday that there were no reconciliation initiatives on the table.
Bishr said the group refused a dialogue initiative suggested earlier this month by Islamist lawyer Ahmed Kamal Abul-Magd.
Abul-Magd's initiative proposed that Islamists acknowledge the interim 'revolutionary authority' as a first step towards national dialogue.
The Building and Development Party -- the political wing of the ultraconservative Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya, and one of the parties in the pro-Morsi National Alliance to Support Legitimacy -- said earlier that the group may propose an alternative initiative soon.
The Muslim Brotherhood, the group from which Morsi hails, has thus far refused to participate in the interim authorities' transitional roadmap towards renewed presidential elections. The group has organised near-daily protests calling for Morsi's reinstatement, which have led to frequent clashes with security forces and pro-military protesters.
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[Pak Daily Times] The Pakistain Moslem League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Tuesday rejected the "out of box" solution on Kashmire dispute by declaring the UNO resolutions the only "way out" to settle the long standing conflict between Pakistain and India.
PML-N Chairman Raja Zafarul Haq addressing a presser categorically stated that implementation of previous UNO resolution would resolve issue and no fresh petition in the world body was required to pressurise India.
He took exception to the statement of Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khursheed who rejected the international mediation on Kashmire dispute by describing the Occupied Kahsmir "integral part" of India.
"Kashmire is no integral part of India. But an internal dispute as per the resolutions of UNO", he stated and rejected the conduct of India to make its integral part through its constitution.
Raja recalled that it was India that took the issue to UNO and also agreed with the 23 resolutions passed unanimously in Security Council. "These resolutions are still relevant and overrule all the arrangements India made to keep Kashmire as its part", he said. He also touched upon the Shimla Accord and Lahore declaration between India and Pakistain and pointed out that both the documents also carried the supremacy of UNO resolutions.
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Communist militants killed nine soldiers on Monday in landmine ambushes in Mindanao. The attacks, among the bloodiest by the New Peoples Army (NPA) in months, also left five soldiers injured, according to a military statement.
The first group of soldiers were on their way to meet pro-government militiamen when they hit a landmine planted by the NPA. Communist militants then opened fire on the soldiers, killing eight of them and leaving one in critical condition. They then took seven of the soldiers rifles.
Troops rushing to help the first group were hit by another landmine and also ambushed by the militants, killing one more soldier and injuring four others.
Colonel Marcos Flores said, This criminal act of the NPA in using landmines has to stop."
[An Nahar] A Bahraini court locked away Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! six Shiite Musselmen protesters for 10 years on Tuesday after convicting them of attempted murder of police in the Sunni-ruled kingdom, a judicial source said.
A Shiite-led uprising demanding a constitutional monarchy erupted in Bahrain in February 2011, and sporadic protests have continued since.
The six were convicted of trying to kill coppers by throwing Molotov cocktails, of burning a police vehicle and taking part in an unauthorized protest, the judicial source said.
Two coppers were maimed in March 2012 as they dispersed a demonstration in a Shiite village near the capital Manama, the source said, adding that four of the six men convicted were minors at the time of the incident.
Since September 29, 128 Shiites have been handed sentences of up to life in prison for taking part in protests, as authorities have tried to crack down on the protest movement.
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Afghanistans election commission has disqualified 16 minor candidates from the race for the countrys next president but all the top favorites easily qualified to run in the April vote. The Independent Election Commission said Tuesday the 16 were eliminated because of improper documents and other violations.
IEC chief Ahmad Yousuf Nuristani says they have 20 days to appeal the commission decision.
Nuristani says this leaves 10 in the race, out of 26 candidates who originally applied to contest the election. The 10 include political heavyweights such as Afghan President Hamid Karzais brother and several former warlords.
Gee, Karzai's brother managed not to get disqualified. Wonder if this qualifies for the surprise meter?
The April 5 vote could determine the future course of Afghanistan and the level of foreign involvement here after 12 years of war.
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[Pak Daily Times] President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... accused foreign rivals on Tuesday of using radical Islam to weaken the Russian state, a day after a suicide kaboom blamed on a Moslem woman.
"Some political forces use Islam, the radical currents within it ... to weaken our state and create conflicts on Russian soil that can be managed from abroad," Putin told Moslemholy mans at a meeting in the Russian city of Ufa.
He was speaking about 1,000 km northeast of Volgograd, where the female jacket wallah from Russia's mainly Moslem North Caucasus killed six people on a bus on Monday.
Putin did not say which foreign rivals he was referring to and portrayed Russia as a force for peace in the Middle East at what he said was a time of meddling by other countries. He has often accused countries, including the United States, of trying to interfere in Russia's affairs since he secured a six-year third term as president last year. Speaking after race riots in Moscow this month, Putin also urged the holy mans to help Moslem immigrants adapt to life in Russia to reduce the likelihood of violence.
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[Shabelle] SOMALI pirates piloting skiffs to attack passing cargo ships seem to have met their match: their operations come to naught when the prevailing wind speed reaches 32km/h.
The pirates, who cause annual losses of about $US8 billion ($8.2bn), typically attack ships using two or more high-speed open boats, known as skiffs, which are between 6m and 8m long.
In a study that matches weather observations with instances of piracy, Australian Catholic University geographer Duncan Cook and co-author Sally Garrett of the New Zealand Defence Technology Agency say the onset of the Indian Ocean summer monsoon virtually stops the pirates.
They write in the journal Weather, Climate, and Society: "The onset of the summer monsoon off the coast of Somalia occurs at the end of May. The impact of the summer monsoon on piracy here is swift and clear: in 2010, only one summertime attack took place in the study region after May 25, 2010.
"When piracy resumed on September 25, 2010, mean daily wind speeds at Socotra had fallen below 9m per second (32.4km/h).
"Surface wind speeds during pirate attacks were generally low (less than 8m/s), but once wind speeds exceeded 9m/s, no successful attacks occurred."
Even a light breeze had an impact on piracy: "Once wind speeds exceeded 3m/s, attack success broadly declined with increasing wind speed.
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#1
My name is Summer Monsoon, but you can call me Sadie, or Sally, or abdullah but you doesn't have to to call me Johnson, kafir.
A bomb equivalent to 12 kilograms of TNT has been deactivated in the Russian republic of Dagestan, said the National Anti-Terrorist Committee. The successful anti-terror mission happened the day after a female suicide bomber in Volgograd blew up a bus, killing six people with a device consisting of 500-600 grams of TNT.
The bomb was found near a shopping mall in the city of Khasavyurt, after local residents reported they had seen a suspicious object. Law enforcement officials identified the object as a homemade bomb. The bomb was deactivated with a water cannon.
"The homemade explosive device was filled with a mixture of saltpeter and aluminum powder, without shrapnel. The device had a detonating fuse and was ready for use," the National Anti-Terrorist Committee said in a statement.
The suicide bomber responsible for Monday's bomb in Volgograd was reportedly a native of Dagestan and was married to a terrorist militant.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A South Florida model was 
[DailyMail] o Startling revelation is the first time that federal authorities have officially implicated 
Qatar has agreed to provide $150 million in debt relief to the Palestinian Authority, US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday as he announced that Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are intensifying. 
Doku 
...Smallest of the agencies in FATA. The Agency administration is located in Khar. Bajaur is inhabited almost exclusively by Tarkani Pashtuns, which are divided into multiple bickering subtribes. Its 52 km border border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistain's strategic depth...
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Ynet] The Shin Bet said the terrorist who was shot to death by IDF soldiers in the West Bank early Tuesday morning is apparently Muhammad A'atzi, one of the people who planned the bombing attack on a Tel Aviv bus in November 2012, which injured 29 people.
[An Nahar] Azerbaijani forces on Tuesday killed an Armenian soldier and injured three more along the volatile border between the two arch-enemies, the Armenian government said.
Lindsey Graham
John 
[An Nahar] The Vatican served up tea and cucumber sandwiches on Tuesday as it launched its own cricket club, and challenged the Church of England to a match.
Nawaz Sharif
[REUTERS] Human rights groups on Tuesday accused the United States of breaking international law and perhaps committing war crimes by killing civilians in missile and drone strikes that were intended to hit 
[Pak Daily Times] KARACHI: Two young cousins were killed in police custody at Sharafi Goth 
BOSSASO, Somalia -- Puntland police forces have captured two alleged robbers who broke into Bossaso Jewelry market where they killed a businesswoman and took away gold ornament worth $30,000 during an armed robbery in the port city of Bossaso on Monday, Garowe Online reports. 
[TELEGRAPH.CO.UK] Greek police are concentrating on the theory that a child trafficking gang had planned to sell Maria to a wealthy childless couple but were forced to offload her after detectives moved in on them
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
[Shabelle] SOMALI pirates piloting skiffs to attack passing cargo ships seem to have met their match: their operations come to naught when the prevailing wind speed reaches 32km/h.
A bomb equivalent to 12 kilograms of TNT has been deactivated in the Russian republic of Dagestan, said the National Anti-Terrorist Committee. The successful anti-terror mission happened the day after a female suicide bomber in Volgograd blew up a bus, killing six people with a device consisting of 500-600 grams of TNT. 
