POLAND - It was one of those nights for 56-year-old Marek Michalski. One of those nights when "one more" seemed like a good idea - but wasn't. He was found passed out on a bench in Piotrkow, Poland without a pulse. Concerned citizens called an ambulance and he was whisked away.
Fade to Black:
Fade in:
It's hours later. It's dark. It's quiet.
Marek awoke in a body bag and screamed for help but nobody heard him. He then rolled the bag off the table and extricated himself from his premature eternal sleeping bag to find himself in the morgue.
He told local media, "I remember sitting on a bench and the next thing I woke up in a morgue. Someone has to pay for this, I have nightmares now about being sliced up by doctors who dont realize I am alive and want to do an autopsy."
Marek intends to file suit against the hospital which gave a glimpse of its razor sharp defense: "They [the staff] believed that the man was dead and followed procedure by putting him inside a sealed bag."
The moral of the story is if you plan to drink a lot, try not to die...if even for a short while.
The author is whining about not doing enough. I present it as an example of how much it's going to cost, notwithstanding the need.
For climate change optimists, California is indeed the golden state when it comes to aggressive policies designed to avoid alleged catastrophic climate change. But as a new report makes depressingly clear, even Ecotopia will fall far short of hitting a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050 without the invention of new technologies and imposition of more draconian green mandates. Give us more power and control! We will save you!
That's the number scientists believe must be met to keep climate change in check. "This is quite a stringent requirement, and even if we aggressively expand our policies and implement fledgling technologies that are not even on the marketplace now, our analysis shows that California will still not be able to get emissions to 85 metric tons of CO2-equivalent by 2050," said Jeff Greenblatt, a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who wrote the report.
Greenblatt assumes that Californians will drive 30% fewer miles in 2050, and if they're still driving gasoline-powered cars, their vehicles will get about 78 miles per gallon. About 17 million cars would need to be zero-emission vehicles--powered by batteries or fuel cells. The state had better hope that fracking works out; 45% of all heavy-duty trucks would be powered by natural gas under the most optimistic scenario. They'd prefer that truck would run off unicorn natural gas, none of that nasty fracking, please! Coming soon, with additional funding grants -
The study does identify policies that were not considered under the third scenario because of a lack of data on their impact. Those included making all buses electric or powered by fuel cells, converting trains to run on natural gas, self-driving cars, and the mass deployment of solar panels and energy storage in every home to radically cut power plant emissions. Nor were their any cost estimates associated with the proposed changes.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/07/2013
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#1
California will just have to take more radical steps, like banning the sale and use of fossil fuels and turning off their electric grid. Turn away all ships attempting to dock at their ports.
#6
AlanC, I've often wondered about that. Do pious greenies really believe that restricting greenhouse gas emissions on this or that small patch of land will make much difference in world where industrializing behemoths like China and India have no intention of following suit? Even if they're correct about the problem and the solution, it hardly matters if most of the rest of the world blows it off. Like swearing off smoking with the left hand but not with the right. What's the point? I mean, other than OWG. Do they even think about it?
#7
Now RandomJD, you know the problem with your question. You KNOW they don't think, because thinking is against their religion. If they start thinking, they become heretics when they realize everything they believe is a lie and wrong.
#8
There are so many opportunities they overlook. For example, have you ever flown at night? Notice how bright it is? Think of how much electricity from the nasty fossil-fuel plants we could eliminate if we just turn off all the lights when we went to bed. Like they do in North Korea.
Snark of the day.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/07/2013 12:40
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#9
You are assuming of course that it's about the environment. Not the case. The environmental protection agency and vast majority of other 'enviromental groups' don't give a rats arse about protecting the environment.
Controlling people's lives on the other hand... Oh yeah!
#10
I hate to admit but I do know the answer to the question. Unfortunately once the answer has been stated there is nothing else to say...and where's the fun in that.
The answer, of course, is that there are the stupid greenies who believe their own bilge and there are the leadership greenies who are more accurately labeled water-melons, green on the outside and red in the middle.
For the leadership it is, as CF points out, all about control and power for me but not for thee.
Once you have identified the totalitarians and tyrants what is left to say on this issue?
#11
Back in the 80s when it was all about the rain forest I wondered why didn't all these groups start buying up rain forest so it couldnt' be logged. I know that's a capitalist answer but with all the money they raised for awareness they could have bought a large chunk of forest and saved it. I bet they could have gotten the UN or Brazil to work on their behalf to get a discount or tax exemption. Except it wasn't ever really about the trees.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a bill that forces relatives of terrorists to pay for damages caused by their attacks. It also boosts penalties for launching, participating, or financing militant or terrorist groups.
Under the law, all damages including moral damage should be compensated at the expense of the means of the person committing the terrorist act and also at the expense of the means of his [or her] family, relatives and close people.
The term close people refers to those whose lives, health, and well-being are valued by the terrorist, due to the terrorists personal relationships with the individuals.
#1
Cool! Good thing the bankers pay the splodydopes families a reward, so they can pass that cash straight thru to Putty.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/07/2013 9:17
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#2
In Israeli territories they used to plow the family's house under. In the States, they rush to import more family members and give them more entitlements.
[Al Ahram] Syria's Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... on Wednesday compared his country's war against rebels, whom he describes as "terrorists", to the conflict that devastated Algeria for an entire decade.
"The Algerian people's position on the Syrian conflict is not surprising, considering they had to undergo a challenge that was similar to the Syrian people's, which is currently facing terrorism," Assad said during a visit by an Algerian delegation to Damascus.
When an anti-Assad revolt broke out in March 2011, Damascus branded opponents as "terrorists", even before the movement took up arms.
Algeria has systematically abstained in Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... votes that have resulted in decisions to punish the Assad regime.
The Algerian civil war in the 1990s killed 200,000 people, according to official figures.
It erupted after the army suspended an electoral process when the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) won the first round of a parliamentary vote in 1991.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2013
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#1
Meanwhile, not to be outdone by ASSAD = SYRIA ...
* WORLD NEWS > SYRIA BECOMING "MEDITERRANEAN AFGHANISTAN": TURKEY PRESIDENT [Erdogan].
IMO Artic read, ANOTHER US = US-LED WAR AGZ AL-QAEDA + TALIBAN, ETAL.
As suppor by ...
* TOPIX > WHY DID OBAMA TRY TO REACH A GRAND BARGAIN WITH IRAN?
* SAME > OBAMA AND IRAN ON SAME SIDE IN SYRIA?
In the mighty words of BUSH 41 = "HERBIE" = "GEE WHIZ-Z-Z".
[Al Ahram] Al-Qaeda's north and west African division grabbed credit Wednesday for the murders of two French journalists rubbed out in Mali's rebel-infested northern desert, in a statement published by a news agency in neighbouring Mauritania. "This operation was a response to crimes committed by La Belle France against Malians and the work of African and international forces against the Musselmens of Azawad," Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said, using the name given by the Tuareg people to northern Mali.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2013
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Thousands of striking Greek workers marched to parliament in pouring rain on Wednesday to protest against measures imposed by foreign lenders, whose inspectors are in Athens to review the country's bailout.
The 24-hour general walkout by Greece's largest public and private sector unions shut schools and disrupted flights but far fewer people took to the streets compared with previous protests as heavy downpours blanketed Athens.
What a bunch of wussies -- the protests were called on account of rain?
#1
What a bunch of wussies -- the protests were called on account of rain?
Agree, I recall an African king, many years ago who went lion hunting. The lion turned, charged and killed him.
Seems that was the first time the reign was called on account of game....
[Bangkok Post] A military ranger was killed and seven others wounded when a motorcycle bomb went off outside Rangae district office on Wednesday. The incident took place at a time when many people were at a trade fair to buy discounted goods which was organised on the open grounds opposite the government office.
Police said a home-made bomb was hidden in a motorcycle parked near a corner of the offices wall. It was believed a terrorist insurgent among the crowd at the trade fair used a mobile phone to detonate the bomb when a foot patrol from the 45th Ranger Regiment was passing the spot.
A bomb sniffing dog was killed and six rangers were injured, one seriously with his leg cut off by shrapnel. Two civilians were also wounded. The seriously injured ranger, identified as the team leader, later died at hospital.
Witnesses said that the bomb was detonated as the sniffer dog was checking the motorcycle. The blast threw victims into the air and scattered pieces of metal and electronic devices around the area.
ISLAMABAD: Former military ruler Pervez Musharraf was formally released on Wednesday from his sub-jail. Pervez Musharraf was imprisoned in his Chak Shehzad farmhouse near Islamabad which was declared a sub-jail. He was released from the sub-jail after he submitted two surety bonds of Rs 100,000 two days after being granted bail in the murder case of Lal Masjid cleric Abdul Rasheed Ghazi. Ahmed Raza Kasuri, counsel for the former military dictator, said that Musharrafs release was not part of any deal and the ex-president would address a historic press conference after his release from the sub-jail. He claimed that fake cases were instituted against his client.
Earlier, Pervez Musharraf was granted bail in the murder cases of Baloch nationalist Akbar Bugti, and Benazir Bhutto. The former presidents name still remains on the Exit Control List and he will require the governments approval prior to leaving the country. Adiala Central Jail superintendent called back the police officials deputed in and around Musharrafs farmhouse, while the Rangers personnel deployed outside the house will remain there for security reasons, sources said. Meanwhile, personal security officials of the former president took charge of his farmhouse after its status as sub-jail was revoked. However, he is expected to remain at the heavily guarded residence since he has received several terror threats.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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[Al Ahram] Rabaa Al-Adawiya mosque, the site of a six-week pro-Morsi protest camp earlier this year, will re-open in a week, after months of renovations, announced Cairo Governor Gala Said on Wednesday.
The mosque, which was named after legendary Moslem Sufi saint Rabaa Al-Adawiya, was ruined during the violent dispersal of the sit-in on 14 August by security forces, which left hundreds dead.
The sit-in at Rabaa was one of two camps established on 28 June by supporters of Morsi -- largely comprising Moslem Brüderbund members - to counter mass demonstrations calling for the ouster of the former Islamist president.
The other sit-in was located at Giza's Al-Nahda square.
The choice of Rabaa Al-Adawiya mosque in Nasr City in eastern Cairo as a location for the sit-in was believed to be due to the large number of Moslem Brüderbund members who live in the residential neighbourhood.
Since the dispersal and following the arrest and detention of hundreds of Brotherhood members, Morsi loyalists have attempted to march to Rabaa Al-Adawiya more than once, but have been barred by security forces.
On 11 October, a 19 year-old pro-Morsi protester, Belal Gaber, was killed after security forces shot at a demonstration in support of the ousted president as it approached Rabaa Al-Adawiya, where security has been permanently stationed to prevent another sit-in from taking place.
Islamist supporters of the ousted president have adopted the Rabaa sign - 4 fingers referring to the Arabic meaning of the name - as a symbol of defiance to the interim government.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2013
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[An Nahar] The far-right Sweden Democrats party on Wednesday proposed forbidding foreigners from begging in the country under penalty of jail time or expulsion.
"Make begging in Sweden an offence for foreigners and impose the punishment of expulsion or an entry ban" for a certain amount of time, the party wrote in a political program.
The Sweden Democrats entered parliament for the first time in 2010 on an anti-immigration, euroskeptic platform, and the party hopes to win even more seats in September 2014 legislative elections.
The latest opinion polls show the party has around 12 percent support among voters.
According to the party, in a section of the program entitled "fight against criminality", there are two types of beggars in Sweden.
"The main reason beggars come to Sweden is to beg in a professional manner. We can compare them to Swedish beggars who often beg because of their homelessness or addiction to alcohol or drugs.
"The Sweden Democrats think that professional begging has no place here in Sweden. We also feel that Swedish social protection must first of all be directed towards, and take care of, our fellow citizens," according to the document.
Sweden has relatively few homeless people, however their number has increased as a result of the economic crisis in Europe.
The government in 2012 counted 370 homeless European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... citizens in the country, most of whom were men or Roma.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2013
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#1
Street begging has got to be tough in winter there. Not like you can hitchhike to Florida for seasonal work.
A court in Egypt has upheld an earlier ruling that banned Brotherhood and ordered its assets confiscated.
The lawyers for the group had asked the Cairo Court for Urgent Matters to halt the implementation of the Sept. 23 ruling. Osama El Helw, a Brotherhood lawyer, says the group will appeal on Wednesday's ruling, which was reported by the state MENA news agency.
Egypt's military-backed authorities have already formed a committee to review the Brotherhood assets but have not moved against its finances until the verdict is final.
The Brotherhood has been under a government crackdown following the popularly-backed coup in July that removed President Mohammed Mursi, a Brotherhood member and Egypt's first elected leader after the 2011 fall of autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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A top research group says prototype ballistic missiles seen at recent North Korean military parades may be more advanced than earlier believed, and may even be sophisticated enough to threaten the U.S. west coast.
The things these guys can do with paper-maiché...
Many Western analysts dismissed the KN-08 missiles as primitive, non-operational mockups when they appeared in photos at Pyongyang military parades in April 2012 and again in July of this year, but the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University said Tuesday that the missiles, even if fakes, appear to be getting more advanced, and have reached the point of being what it called "scary good."
The institute's report said the missile mockups appear to show North Korea can assemble components and technologies "good enough to produce missiles with theoretical ranges from 5,500 to over 11,000 kilometers." That would easily be far enough for North Korea to make good on its threats of being able to strike the U.S. mainland with a nuclear warhead.
The report cautioned the KN-08s are "almost certainly" non-operational and would need to be tested at least once. It cautioned, though, that a test could occur any time, given the advanced state of the mockup hardware and recent satellite photos showing upgrades at North Korea's main missile launch site.
North Korea is already believed to have cleared a number of technological hurdles needed for an ICBM when it used its Unha-3 carrier to successfully launch a satellite into space last December. The move was portrayed by the North as a peaceful scientific mission but condemned by the UN as a banned long-range missile test.
Which did nothing to stop the Norks from building the next one...
There are other obstacles North Korea would face in delivering a nuclear warhead to the United States. It is unclear if North Korea's nuclear bombs are small and reliable enough to be placed on such a long-range missile. Experts say the North also still needs to make progress on designing a re-entry vehicle that could guide any intercontinental ballistic missile back to Earth after reaching orbit.
However, the U.S.-Korea Institute said the North's missile technology seems to be getting more advanced. It said that at the 2012 parade, the KN-08 missiles on display had several design inconsistences and sported warheads "that appeared to be quite shoddily made." However, a little over a year later, at the July parade, it said the most obvious issues seemed to have been corrected.
Some have suggested the KN-08s are a hoax, meant to extract more foreign concessions in negotiations over North Korea's nuclear weapons program, but the U.S.-Korea Institute's paper said the simplest explanation is that the missile "may be exactly what it appears to be: a developmental road-mobile ICBM of limited capability but still able to threaten the continental United States."
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/07/2013
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#1
ION Regional News ...
* WORLD NEWS > [Japan News] US ADMIRAL [PACOM Cdr Locklear] PREPARING FOR NORTH KOREA ICBM.
* SAME > [SCMP] CHINA DEMANDS "ACCURATE" NUCLEAR ACCOUNTING FROM JAPAN ON FUKUSHIMA.
I'm personally interpreting this as China covertly desiring to know Japan's curren spent fuel stockpile that be converted to NucBomb/Warhead production, as Japan suppos shutdown most or all of its NucEnergy facilities in the wake of Fukushima = 3-11.
* KYODO NEWS > [11/04/2013] TWO NORTH KOREA WARSHIPS SUNK, SCORES OF SAILORS REPORTEDLY KILLED.
RELATED BIG NEWS NETWORK > [International Herald Tribune] NORTH KOREAN SAILORS REPORTEDLY KILLED DURING OCTOBER SINKING, SOUTH KOREA SAYS THERE WAS NO [Naval or Military] CLASH.
The DPRK ship was suppos a SUB-CHASER.
USN CVN USS GEORGE WASHINGTON I'M STILL A'LOOKIN AT YOU.
* STARS-N-STRIPES > PHILIPPINES-US TALKS ON TROOP DEPLOYMENTS STALLS ON BASE CONTROL.
USA = D *** NG IT, PEOPLE WILL THINK ITS THE PHILIPPINES' BASES, NOT OURS!
And the fact that the US closed down Clark + Subic + turned over same to Manila has absolutely positively categorically undeniably nothing to do wid anything.
VERSUS
* RUSSIA TODAY > OP-ED: JAPAN TARGETS CHINA AS ISLANDS DISPUTE THREATENS TO BOIL OVER [unto Sino-Nippon mil conflict = War].
ARTIC = CHINESE SOA TOP OFFICIAL = JAPAN'S CONTROL OR DOMINATION OF THE WATERS AROUND THE DUSPUTED ISLANDS [Senkakus/Diaoyus], BE IT SOVEREIGN OR VIA 200-MILE JAPAN-CLAIMED EEZ, CLUTCHES AT THE THROAT OF CHINA AS PER ITS ABILITY TO ENTER [+ Exit] INTO [+ From] THE OPEN WATERS OF THE PACIFIC.
The Hell you say.
[MACAULAY CAULKIN "AAARRRRRGGHH" SLAPPY FACE here].
RELATED CHINA DAILY FORUM ...
> JAPAN-CHINA PUSH-N-SHOVE REACHING BEYOND BOILING POINT.
> POSTER THREAD: CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS NOT ENOUGH:
JAPAN MILITARY ACTIVELY PROVOKING PLA.
* TOPIX > [ABS-CBN News] "CHINA SHOULD [forcibly = unilaterally] TAKE MORE [disputed] PHILIPPINE TERRITORY", as per its "Cabbage Strategy" of defensive "layered sovereignty" around disputed islands.
PLA MGEN. ZHANG ZHAOZHONG.
* GLOBAL TIMES > JAPAN [temporarily = MilEx?]DEPLOYS SURFACE-TO-SHIP MISSLES IN OKINAWA [Miyako Island] | JAPAN DEPLOYS MISSLES IN STRATEGIC STRAIT.
Tokyo says was due to pre-scheduled MilEx, CHINA HOWEVER THINKS = FEARS THE MISSLES MAY BECOME PERMAMANENT, HENCE POSING A DIRECT THREAT TO CHINESE PLAN + COMMERCIAL SHIP MOVEMENTS [trade] THAT MUST PASS NEAR OKINAWA/MIYAKO.
* SAME > OPINION: [China's]"PEACEFUL RISE" WILL [ultimately or eventually come up against] MEET US CONTAINMENT.
* PEOPLE'S DAILY ONLINE > INTERNAL DIVISIONS AND
[Inter-Nation] WARINESS MEANS "ASIAN NATO" NOT ON CARDS.
And my favorite news today ...
* DEFENCE FORUM INDIA > WOULD US LEASE TO INDIA ITS NAVAL BASE ON GUAM?
Ditto POOR ECON, SEQUESTER, SHUTDOWN, + POST-SHUTDOWN affected USA to lease Guam to CHINA + PLA, in order to prevent an East Asian or NE Asian mil conflict, let alone NUCLEAR WAR, LIMITED NUCLEAR WAR OR LIMITED TACTICAL NUCLEAR WAR???
VERSUS
* BIG NEWS NETWORK > [Prison Planet] TOP SCIENTIST [David Suzuki] WARNS ANOTHER FUKUSHIMA QUAKE [major natural disaster] WOULD MEAN US [West Coast = NORAM Continental?] EVACUATION,
"BYE BYE JAPAN".
#5
You heard the case where, during WWII the Germans build this big fake airstrip out of wood. Complete with wooden tanks, wooden trucks and jeeps and even wooden people...
...until the allies air force came along and dropped a wooden bomb on it.
Based on the dubious logic that the NorKs are basing the fakes on prototype designs, the latter which, if they exist, appear to be viable-to-very-effective designs.
South African police fired rubber bullets on Tuesday to disperse a protest march organized by a firebrand new political party and arrested four people, highlighting tensions building ahead of general elections next year.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), headed by Julius Malema, the expelled bad boy of the ruling African National Congress, said in a statement an unspecified number of its members were injured in the march near the main government buildings in the capital Pretoria.
It also said four of its leaders had been arrested.
Police confirmed the incident, saying the march was illegal because no permission had been granted in advance.
#1
Jacob 'Shower head' Zuma and his "Lethu Mshini Wami" ("Bring Me My Machine Gun") too liberal and soft for the anxious Malema. A much welcomed schism ek se.
[Al Ahram] Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday accused the Paleostinians of creating "artificial crises" as he met with 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... , who is striving to rescue the fragile grinding of the peace processor.
The premier's remarks were made at the start of a meeting with Kerry at a Jerusalem hotel that lasted nearly three hours and came shortly after the Paleostinians threatened to bolt the talks over a fresh row about settlements.
Kerry arrived in Israel late on Tuesday as rumours swirled that the US-brokered peace talks that resumed in late July had produced absolutely no sign of progress and were on the brink of collapse.
"I am concerned about (the talks') progress because I see the Paleostinians continuing with incitements, continuing to create artificial crises, continuing to... run away from the historic decisions that are needed to make a genuine peace," Netanyahu said in remarks to news hounds.
"I hope your visit will help steer them back to a place where we could achieve the historical peace that we seek," he retorted.
But Kerry sought to calm the situation, pleading for patience.
"We are three months into this negotiation... there are always difficulties, always tensions," he said.
"We need the space to negotiate privately, secretly, quietly."
Progress was possible with "a serious effort" on both sides, he said. "I hope we will continue in the good faith that brought the parties together in the first place."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2013
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#1
One way to calm down the Paleo Simians would be to increase the import of meat from the Syrian carnage.
Posted by: Herb Gloluger9960 ||
11/07/2013 23:06
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Somali money transfer service Dahabshiil has won an injunction preventing Barclays from cutting its banking services. The injunction means customers will be able to transfer money through Dahabshiil for the foreseeable future.
Barclays had planned to cut off services to the company amid proper concerns over money laundering.
Dahabshiil is the largest provider of remittance services to the 100,000 Somalis living in the UK. They are believed to send back millions of pounds every year to friends and relatives in Somalia - a vital source of income for the impoverished country.
"The Court handed down its judgment, granting an interim injunction which has the effect of preserving Dahabshiil's banking arrangements with Barclays until the conclusion of a full trial," a Dahabshiil statement read.
"This is not just a victory for Dahabshiil. It is a victory for the millions of Somalis and other Africans, many of whose livelihoods depend on our services."
But the charity Oxfam warned that the ruling was only temporary.
Translation: we westerners have to give the poor Somalis more money. At least we can transfer it by wire this way...
"The ruling provides a small window of opportunity for Somalis living in the UK to send money home to loved ones in one of the poorest countries in the world," it said. "However, this does not solve the problem - a long-term fix is needed to safeguard hundreds of thousands of people relying on the money for food, medicines and education."
The charity's call for a permanent solution was echoed by Somalia's Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon, who urged: "Governments, the money remittance sector and all key stakeholders must now work together to find a permanent legitimate and transparent solution that keeps open this vital lifeline."
How about instead you shoot all the Shaboobs, disarm the pirates and the petty tribal chiefs, and run a country that your citizens won't run away from?
Barclays had provided Dahabshiil with bank account services. But it expressed concern that money transfer services like Dahabshiil could be used for money laundering or even the funding of terrorism.
Barclays announced plans to close the accounts of several money transfer companies, including Dahabshiil, in May, but Dahabshiil sought an injunction preventing Barclays from closing its account, on the grounds that it was abusing its dominant position.
Barclays is the last major UK bank that still provides money transfer services to Somalia.
So how did the other banks get away with closing off transfer services to Somalia? Seems a bit unfair to leave Barclays holding the bag...
Barclays argued that some money service businesses "don't have the necessary checks in place to spot criminal activity with the degree of confidence required by the regulatory environment under which Barclays operates".
The withdrawal of Barclays services from Dahabshiil and similar money transfer services would have had a dramatic effect on the flow of remittances from the UK to Somalia. Remittances from the UK to Somalia total more than £100m a year, according to Oxfam, and campaigners say they provide a lifeline to Somali families with no other source of income and no access to conventional banking services.
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Try that in Texas during college football season. I double dog dare you!
Via Weasel Zippers:
Using loudspeakers mounted on vehicles, al-Shabaab banned the people of Barawe from watching television, saying it harms their Islamic principles, and ordered them to turn in their televisions and satellite dishes to al-Shabaab officials.
The militants announced the ban October 28th and gave residents five days to hand over their equipment to the Barawe municipal office, said Mursal Yarisow, a 54-year-old traditional elder in Barawe.
#1
One appropriate response to an announcement like this one is a high powered rifle slug right through the loudspeaker. That never seems to happen in Jihad country.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday Israeli- Palestinian peace talks had run into difficulties but thought it still possible some agreement could be reached.
John thinks all sorts of stupid stuff, this is no exception...
Israeli and Palestinian officials painted a grim picture of the talks resumed under Kerrys tutelage in July after a long stalemate, saying they were going nowhere.
You and I saw this coming so why Jahwn couldn't...
I come here without any illusions about the difficulties, but I come here determined to work, Kerry said after arriving in Israel ahead of talks on Wednesday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
No illusions? The whole peace process is an illusion, Jahwn. The Paleos won't acknowledge Israel's right to exist and the Israelis won't agree to be massacred. That's why there's no peace.
We believe this is something that is possible and that its good for all and can be achieved, Kerry told a remembrance service for late Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated in 2005 by a right-wing Israeli opposed to his peacemaking with Palestinians.
Both sides have been airing their frustration over a lack of progress on core issues such as the borders of a Palestinian state, security arrangements, the future of Israeli settlements in occupied territory and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
Abbas, in a speech broadcast on Monday, said: After all the rounds of negotiations there is nothing on the ground.
What have you offered to change that? Answer: nothing. Paleos don't offer anything of consequence. Tell the Israelis that you'll recognize their nation, exchange ambassadors, agree to defensible borders and give up the right of return, and see how quickly you get a peace.
On the sidelines of the peace talks, Israel has released half of the 104 Palestinian prisoners it pledged to free under a deal Kerry brokered to draw Abbas back to negotiations after a three-year break over Israeli settlement-building.
Israel says continued housing construction in settlements, in areas it intends to keep in any peace accord, was part of those understandings, which led to the return home of long-serving Palestinian inmates convicted of killing Israelis. In tandem with the release of 26 men last week, Israel pressed ahead with plans to build 3,500 more settler homes in the West Bank, a move widely seen as an attempt by Netanyahu to placate hardliners in his government.
Nabil Abu Rdeineh, an Abbas spokesman, condemned the settlement campaign but said Palestinians remained committed to the negotiations.
Whats required is a firm American position on Israels provocations. Israel is continuing its policy of putting obstacles in front of the peace process - every time Kerry comes to the region they announce more settlements.
Abbas, speaking to his Fatah party on Sunday, voiced opposition to any such linkage, cautioning that this equation could blow up the talks and there could be tensions soon.
Unlike today with no tensions at all, nope, nope...
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/07/2013
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#8
Not necessarily, Pappy. The Peter Principle requires those doing the promoting to realize you have reached your level of incompetence. Who is the White House is smart enough to realize that? Heck, he could prolly get promoted again - to Veep on the Hillary ticket!
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/07/2013 13:06
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#9
Gimme that much money and I could jet around the world saying stupid stuff too.
[An Nahar] Arab Democratic Party official Rifaat Eid accused the authorities of adopting the "law of the jungle" as caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel refused to approve a request for the party to hold a march on Friday.
In remarks to As Safir daily published on Wednesday, Eid said: "Charbel's rejection to grant a license (for the demo) means there is no security in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... and that the state cannot protect a march and cannot definitely protect a sect."
"The state is now adopting the law of the jungle and inciting citizens to follow it," he said.
Eid warned that he should not be blamed for failing to call for self-restraint on the residents of Jabal Mohsen, a neighborhood in the northern city of Tripoli that is an Arab Democratic Party stronghold.
State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr charged on Tuesday Arab Democratic Party chief Ali Eid and his driver Ahmed Mohammed Ali with helping a suspect in the Tripoli mosque bombings escape justice.
They were charged with hiding suspect Ahmed Merhi and smuggling him to Syria.
In remarks to An Nahar, Charbel said any march out of Jabal Mohsen would lead to unwanted repercussions.
"We won't allow it under such delicate circumstances," he said.
But Eid told al-Joumhouria newspaper that his party had three options -- "either to surrender to the Saudi plan, which will not happen, or head to civil war, which we rule out, or to extend our hands and say enough bloodshed."
Jabal Mohsen, whose residents are from the Alawite sect of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... , has been for years at odds with the majority Sunni neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh.
The rival districts have been involved in several rounds of deadly gunbattles, which intensified after the rebellion against Assad in March 2011.
Eid accused the state of inciting for civil war and stressed that his party was avoiding bloodshed.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2013
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#1
Ay Rabz "marching"...
Posted by: Herb Gloluger9960 ||
11/07/2013 22:51
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Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was poisoned to death in 2004 with radioactive polonium, his widow Suha said on Wednesday after receiving the results of Swiss forensic tests on her husband's corpse.
"We are revealing a real crime, a political assassination," she told Reuters in Paris, after receiving a report from the Lausanne University Hospital's Institute of Radiation Physics on samples taken from Arafat's grave in the West Bank city of Ramallah, when the mausoleum was opened last November.
The Swiss scientists found a lethal level of polonium-210 in his body, Al Jazeera television news channel said. That confirmed the findings of an investigation by the Qatar-based channel last year that detected traces of the isotope on Arafat's personal effects.
#7
This is just bullsh-t. Polonium is very rare and has a half life of less than a year. Further, only a little bit will do you in. He was buried somewhere for almost a decade. There is about 2^15 less polonium in him now then there was when he died.
[Al Ahram] The Libyan government said Wednesday it will stop paying armed groups from the 2011 uprising unless they sign up to join the security forces by the end of the year. The government will "stop paying any premium or reward after" 31 December, a deadline for the "dissolution of the armed groups and their integration into the army or the police", said a statement.
It called for former rebels who fought to topple Moamer Qaddafi's regime to "resolve their situation" so they can be taken into account for the 2014 budget.
When Qaddafi was overthrown and killed in October 2011, the rebels were hailed as heroes for bringing an end to more than four decades of dictatorship.
They were handed roles in securing borders, prisons and strategic facilities, giving them legitimacy and also a sense of impunity.
But since then, they have formed militias with different ideologies and motivations.
Today they stand accused of responsibility for many of Libya's ills, notably the instability that still plagues parts of the North African nation.
Many militias have rejected the government's demands to turn in their weapons or join the national security forces, and a patchwork of armed groups effectively controls much of the country.
In April and May, groups of ex-rebels besieged the justice and foreign ministries in Tripoli for nearly two weeks, demanding that a law be passed excluding those who served under the Kadhafi regime from official posts.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2013
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[Al Ahram] Cairo prosecution has slammed Muslim Brotherhood leader Essam El-Erian with 15 more days in prison as investigations continue on charges of incitement and attempted murder, holding citizens against their will and torturing them during the six-week long pro-Morsi sit-in at Rabaa Al-Adawiya Square in Cairo's Nasr City district. During the pro-Morsi sit-in protest, a garage attendant, Ahmed Hassan Mohsen, came forward claiming that he was tortured during the vigil, had his finger amputated, and was thrown on a deserted highway.
Mohsen, however, changed his testimony in court early October stating that a police officer forced him into pressing false charges.
Amnesty International issued a statement 2 October including testimonies of anti-Morsi protesters who claim they had been captured, beaten and subjected to electric shocks, or stabbed by supporters of the deposed president.
The statement added that at least eight bodies arrived to the morgue in Cairo between late June and 28 July, and at least five of these were found near areas where pro-Morsi sit-ins were being held.
El-Erian was present in court Monday on other charges, along with deposed president Mohamed Morsi and a number of Islamist political figures. That case has been adjourned to 8 January to allow prosecution and defence lawyers to examine evidential documents.
El-Erian had been on the run for almost three months before being captured last week in Cairo's upscale Fifth Settlement neighbourhood.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2013
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[An Nahar] Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, a member of AMAL, a not very subtle Hizbullah sock puppet... revealed on Wednesday that Israel had set up a number of spying stations along its border with Leb, reported the National News Agency.
He said during his weekly meeting with MPs at his Ain el-Tineh residence: "The stations begin at al-Naqoura, pass through Khiyam, and end in Shebaa."
The stations include advanced equipment that enable Israel to monitor the whole of Leb.
They are also connected to stations that were set up at Mount Hermon and the Shebaa Farms and are linked to Tel Aviv, explained Berri.
He stressed the need for concerned officials at the Foreign and Telecommunications Ministries to convene in order to tackle this issue, proposing that a complaint be filed to the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... Security Council.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2013
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#1
Well duh!! If they didn't they would be idiots. And they're not.
#2
The fellow in the foto appears to be servicing a ground sensor unit or camera. Part of a multi-layered system I suspect. A pity we do not have such advanced technology available here.
Democrats have been complaining - loudly and repeatedly - that Republican opposition tactics on the Affordable Care Act are unprecedented. This is true, but not for the reasons that Democrats are telling themselves. No political party was ever foolhardy enough to pass such a big bill, with such sweeping consequences for so many people, without the support of a majority of their countrymen and at least a few members of the opposite party. Once they had done this unprecedented thing, the unprecedented reaction was predictable - and indeed predicted by myself and others.
I certainly hope the author is correct and we'll find out in the 2014 midterms. But this week's results - in NYC and Virginia - were not encouraging.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/07/2013 8:15
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#5
..subtract out the DC burbs in VA, and you get another round of urbanist vs non-urbanist electorate mentalities.
#6
we'll find out in the 2014 midterms. It looks like a permanent Democratic supermajority aka "The Free Lunch Party" is in the works. Maybe 2014 will be a speedbump in that process.
#7
Krauthammer commented: However, if you were wealthier and you lose it and you end up on Medicaid, I dont think youll vote Democratic.
People in that situation count (and will count) for nothing, nor does (nor will) their vote.
#8
I certainly hope the author is correct and we'll find out in the 2014 midterms. But this week's results - in NYC and Virginia - were not encouraging. I don't think Virginia and NYC tell us much either. The Pubs are trying to turn Virginia into a victory because the race was so close. It might have been closer if the Pubs had put some money into the race earlier. The closeness might be because of the intense dislike of ObamaCare and the fact that Obama is a habitual liar. The field of candidates in NYC sucked. Also NYC has traditionally been a liberal stronghold. The new mayor is really far out there in left field somewhere. We won't know until 2014 election results are in.
#9
A smart leader knows that big strategic thinking and giving orders are the smallest parts of her job. The biggest is persuading people who are not invested in her agenda to carry out her grand plans -- and, equally important, figuring out which plans to abandon because they can never get enough support to work.
Which pretty much what the President has not been over the past 5-plus years.
"Spahic allegedly performed an Islamic ceremony that involved "chanting and rubbing the body with oil," court papers said. ...Holy crap!!! I'm a freaking Muslim...!
#1
At the time of his arrest Spahic served as the imam - a leader of Islamic prayer services - at the Des Moines Islamic and Cultural Center Bosniak on Lower Beaver Road.
Curiosity getting the best of me, I tried to punch the addy into my Garmin, but the voice prompt began to laugh uncontrollably.
#2
Stopping them from killing apostates, kaffirs and other non-Muslims is also probably interpreted by the same kind as violating their 'religious freedoms'.
Sunday night, members of the Federal Police defused an alleged plan by the 'Knights Templar' to assassinate Apatzingán bishop, Miguel Patino after receiving information via satellite that 'Knights Templar' planned an attempt on the bishop's life.
This threat followed a public complaint by the bishop on Oct 16 in his Pastoral Letter saying that the valley of Tierra Caliente Apatzingán is under the control of organized crime. "there are increased kidnappings, abductions, killings, the collection of 'quota' is widespread and entire families have emigrated by fear and the insecurity we are living."
[An Nahar] A Libyan intelligence officer was killed in a boom-mobileing in the eastern city of Benghazi Wednesday three days after a colleague died in the same way, a hospital source said.
"Officer Abusif al-Mabruk succumbed to his wounds" several hours after the blast, Al-Jala hospital spokeswoman Fadia al-Barghathi told Agence La Belle France Presse.
A security front man, Abdullah Zaidi, said the 44-year-old army intelligence officer had been gravely maimed when a device attached to his car went kaboom! in the city's Al-Berka district.
On Sunday, another military intelligence officer named as Suleiman al-Fissi, was killed when a bomb placed under his car went off.
The kaboom also seriously maimed his wife and two children.
Benghazi, cradle of the 2011 uprising that toppled dictator Muammar Qadaffy ...Proof that a madman with money will be politely received for at least 42 years until his people get tired of him and kill him... , has been rocked by a wave of attacks targeting police and army officers.
Also on Wednesday, army Colonel Issam al-Houidi was maimed in a murder attempt near Derna east of Benghazi, the official LANA news agency reported, adding his life was not in danger.
Security forces also said they found and defused late Tuesday an bomb in the Benghazi medical center, saying it could have been detonated by remote control.
Authorities have tried to impose order in Benghazi, but attempts to tackle the violence by deploying police and troops have proved ineffective.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2013
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[Al Ahram] 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... on Wednesday unveiled $75 million (56 million euros) in new aid to the Paleostinians, aimed at building roads, schools and health clinics.
The money adds to $25 million pledged by the United States in September, bringing the total US contribution for the West Bank infrastructure projects to some $100 million.
In addition Germany is to put up $10 million towards about 200 projects being identified by the Paleostinian Authority, which will cost a total of around $50 million.
All the projects are due to start within the next six months.
"We have now committed $100 million to support micro infrastructure initiatives in the West Bank and they will help bring real improvement in the Paleostinian communities and lives," Kerry said at a ceremony in Bethlehem to announce the aid.
"Let me tell you what these investments will mean. They will mean more health clinics, better transportation, new community centres and schools."
One of the projects will be to improve three kilometres (two miles) of road in Bethlehem, where according to Christian tradition Jesus was born in a manger.
The aim of the project was to "enhance travel safety, reduce traveller times and promote economic development and tourism," Kerry said, adding that the projects would allow better movement of "tourists and pilgrims to this holy place."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2013
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#1
where's the 75mil for roads, schools medical clinics for the us taxpayer that created that pile of dough?
A bomb exploded in central Damascus on Wednesday, killing eight people and wounding 50, with women and children among the casualties, Syria's state news agency SANA said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition monitoring group, reported seven dead and at least 20 wounded in the attack. It cited conflicting reports from activists as to whether the explosion was caused by a bomb or a mortar shell.
Egypts military which has been battling fledgling jihadist groups in the Sinai for months says the rate of terrorist attacks has declined in recent weeks, leading to optimism in army circles that security sweeps are having an effect, but some analysts question this and warn of burgeoning ties between Egyptian jihadists and al-Qaida.
The rate of attacks in the Sinai is currently on the decline, says David Barnett, who tracks Egyptian jihadists for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington DC-based think tank. There have been about 200 attacks since the beginning of July, there were 104 that month, but last month we saw about 20.
[Al Ahram] A Jordanian court on Wednesday jugged Please don't kill me! a jihadist and a doctor for going to neighbouring Syria to support rebels fighting the regime in the war-torn country, a judicial official said.
"The state security court sentenced a jihadist to five years in prison for infiltrating Syria to fight with the rebels last spring," the official told AFP.
The convict was charged with "carrying out acts that are not approved by the government and that would expose Jordan and its citizens to the risk of acts of aggression and Dire Revenge™."
"The doctor was sentenced to a year in jail for infiltrating Syria in 2011 to treat rebels," the official added.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2013
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[Dawn] The Punjab government has decided to suspend cellphone and wireless phone services in the areas surrounding the routes of Muharram 9 and 10 procession, Dawn has learnt.
The sources said the decision in this regard was taken in the light of the proposals of the law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
A bigwig of an intelligence agency, on condition of anonymity, revealed that the provincial government had sought proposals from intelligence agencies regarding suspension of cellphone services.
He said after reviewing the security situation, they proposed to the government to suspend the service only in the areas where Majalis and the Muharram procession would be held.
The sources said after reviewing the proposals, the government agreed to suspend cell phone service in 'limited areas'.
The security official said if main procession of Muharram was brought out in Rawalpindi city, the cellphone service would be suspended only in the surrounding areas of the route.
On the other hand, the police have tightened security around several senior politicians, including Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, chairman Awami Moslem League and Hamid Ali Mosvi, chief of Tehrik-e-Nafaz-e-Fiqh-e-Jafria (TNFJ) in the light of intelligence that terror group might target them during Muharram, security sources said.
The Punjab provincial government had already announced security high alert during Muharram and directed the divisional chiefs to take all possible measures to ensure peace.
It provided 13 reserves (each comprising 20 personnel) against the demand of 40 to the Rawalpindi district police.
However, Switzerland makes more than cheese... when the city police officer Bilal Siddique Kamyana was contacted, he said a foolproof security plan had been chalked out to ensure peace during Muharram.
For the first time, "three security cordons" will cover the procession and deployment of police will be made by their names.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2013
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Deputy Governor General of Sistan and Baluchestan province in security and political affairs said several people have been arrested in connection with assaisnation of Zabul prosecutor, IRNA reported.
In an interview with IRNA, Rajabali Sheikhzadeh said he cannot comment on the motive of the assaination, but security work is being done now. He declined to reveal more details concerning the number of arrested people due to the sensitivity of the issue.
Prosecutor of Zabul, a city in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan was assassinated on Wednesday morning by unknown assailants. The prosecutor and his driver were killed in the event.
Retribution, terror attack or Persian-style intrigue?
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/07/2013
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[Shabelle] Æthiopia has put its police and security forces on heightened alert after receiving strong evidence that Somalia's Islamist al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... group is planning attacks in the country, officials said on Tuesday.
The move came three weeks after officials said two Somali jacket wallahs accidentally blew themselves up while preparing to kill football fans during Æthiopia's World Cup qualifying match against Nigeria.
Al-Shabaab has vowed to exact Dire Revenge™ on Æthiopia for sending troops to Somalia to fight the al Qaeda-linked myrmidons, alongside 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... forces from Uganda, Burundi and Kenya.
"There is strong evidence that indicates Al-Shabaab and terrorist groups backed by Eritrea ...is run by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with about the amounts of democracy and justice you'd expect from a party with that name. National elections have been periodically scheduled and cancelled; none have ever been held in the country. The president, Isaias Afewerki, has been in office since independence in 1993 and will probably die there of old age... are preparing to carry out attacks in Addis Ababa and other areas of the country soon," the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) and the federal police said in a joint statement.
Addis Ababa often accuses the government in neighbouring Eritrea of supporting rebels, which Asmara staunchly denies.
The statement, read on state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
, said security forces were already on heightened alert and called on the public to inform police if they encountered "suspicious" activity.
Hotel staff and private landlords should verify the identity of visitors, the statement said.
It urged soldiers to remain vigilant at checkpoints along the country's borders.
In September, al-Shabaab gunnies raided an upmarket shopping mall in Nairobi, killing at least 67 people in a four-day siege.
Æthiopia says it has thwarted several attacks over the past two years which it blamed on domestic rebel groups as well as Somali myrmidons.
However, today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday... it has so far been spared the sorts of assaults seen in nearby countries -- such as the Nairobi mall siege and an attack that killed 74 football fans in Uganda as they watched the 2010 World Cup final on television.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2013
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#5
Normally, during Quality Assurance tests during alpha, well before beta, a site like this will not have hundreds of errors. It will have thousands. Depending on how large the QA test team is.
After a few hundred bugs are fixed, those fixes open up more functionality on down the line of code that has not been tested yet until the first bugs were fixed, which adds hundreds more.
If the development team consists of more than one person, which usually a project of this size has many developers, copies of code must be controlled through source control programs such as Visual Source Safe, or a developer working with an old set of code for several days that does not include bug fixes rolled out since he got his copy, can overwrite the new bug fixes when he submits his old stuff.
Democrats don't know this. But common practice in the Evil private sector enterprise.
#6
My guess is that the specs were never nailed down until just before the go-live. Designed by multiple committees and rampart feature creep as things get added, and added, and added, oh and this well-connected interest group wants this little feature so you have to re-write whole sections of code.
So the development window shifts right radically toward the go-live date and QA and Release management gets squeezed tight. What was originally a few months of QA gets squeezed to a couple of weeks. QA and Source control gets very sloppy with little or no controls and soon they are simply throwing changes into production practically directly from development with little or no QA (we can catch up on that later... besides, it compiles and the prima-donna developers tested it right? We *must* make this date!)
#10
My guess is that the specs were never nailed down until just before the go-live.
Uhhhhhh, yeahhhhhh. Like I said before, imagine the likes of Hilary Clinton, Kathleen Sebelius and Nancy Pelosi putting a software specification together. And just for kicks, throw in Harry Reid and Moochelle. C'mon, it'll be fun!
#11
Administration officials say they are committed to having the website fixed by the end of November, but the timeline leaves little room for error given the list of problems.
"It's a pretty aggressive schedule," Mrs. Sebelius told the Senate Finance Committee at a hearing Wednesday.
"Aggressive schedule" is management speak for "the programmers are on a death march". Let's put it this way, they won't be seeing much of their families for the next few weeks.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/07/2013 12:47
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#14
Pro-Obamacare team trains reporters on covering Obamacare website problems
The vital quote from that article:
"What is surprising is that an organization claiming to represent professional journalists would endorse 'training' delivered by advocates for the program they are covering, which would violate SABEW's code of ethics. That code encourages journalists to 'avoid any practice that might compromise or appear to compromise objectivity or fairness.'"
So we'll see "hundreds of errors" become "dozens of minor problems," to then become "a few feature enhancement issues?"
#17
#15 Any sting those journalists feel will be their pride...if they have any. Maybe the trainers can buy them some drinks afterwards. It might help.
Bill Clinton: "put some ice on that"
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/07/2013 14:33
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#18
You can do all the BS propaganda actions, but the thing that you cannot cover up the fact that people are getting notices that their insurance is cancelled.
Some people will submit and buy health insurance that does not pay anything and is more of a tax. Some people will not submit.
The bottom line is mean olde Mr. Arithmetic. There is not enough money to pay for those that don't contribute by those that do.
The system is dead. It just does not know it yet.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/07/2013 14:58
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#19
Sebilius says healthcare website has hundreds of errors.
Same could be said for the stones in Hadrian's Wall, from a supine view.
#22
The thing is, in software there are many kinds of errors. There can be simple formatting errors - you expected dates to be printed out as month/day/year, and they came out as day/month/year. These sorts of errors should show up in initial testing, and should be fairly easy to fix.
Then there are simple coding errors, where the programmer meant to add two numbers together, but instead multiplied them. These errors might not be easy to find, but they are usually easy to fix - just correct the code.
Then there are design errors, where you tell the programmer to do something, but s/he was supposed to do something different. These are much harder to find, and can be a real bitch to fix.
Next you have the connection errors, where you need to get information from another system, say the IRS. You expect the IRS to send you the data in XML, but they send it in their own private binary code. These should show up when you do your connection tests - if you do them. Fixing these errors could take a long time - somebody needs to decree a common format, and then everybody has to code to it.
Add to these the numerous other places where things go wrong - you call a subroutine, and send the parameters in a certain order, but the subroutine expects them in a different order. Again, these sorts of issues should be settled in a design conference - if you have them. Sometimes you need the system integrator to establish the protocols between systems. If no one with experience is in charge, you get chaos. If you don't test, you find out only when the system goes live.
So there are hundreds of errors - but that doesn't address what kind of errors they are, where they are, how critical they are, how hard they are going to be to fix. That is the real challenge.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/07/2013 22:02
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A series of small explosions killed one person and injured eight others on Wednesday outside the provincial headquarters of the ruling Communist Party in the northern Chinese city of Taiyuan, officials said.
Officials gave no word on the target or perpetrators of the blasts, which state media said were caused by homemade bombs.
The explosions came during heightened security following a suicide car crash at Tiananmen Gate in Beijing that killed the cars three occupants and two bystanders. However, Wednesdays blasts also were reminiscent of the kind of revenge attacks occasionally launched by disgruntled citizens in China. Assailants angered at perceived injustices have blown up buses, stabbed officials and attacked schools.
So it may be Terror or just terrible...
The Shanxi provincial government and police said the blasts occurred at about 7:40 a.m. The official Xinhua News Agency cited unidentified police sources as describing the explosives as improvised bombs, although police spokesmen declined to confirm that information.
One of the injured was listed in serious condition, and a bus and several other vehicles had their windows blown out or suffered other damage.
A street cleaner interviewed on state television said the explosives were planted in flower beds in two separate locations and that eight blasts were heard in all.
Footage showed the blast scene littered with nails and steel balls of various sizes, apparently packed into the bombs to cause maximum damage and injury.
Xinhua quoted a witness, Liu Guoliang, as saying smoke and flames were seen pouring from a minivan.
Police closed off the broad street in front of the party headquarters, and fire trucks, ambulances and police vehicles were parked in the area. State media showed a man lying on the ground, apparently dead.
Taiyuan is the provincial capital of mountainous Shanxi, which lies to the west of Beijing in Chinas gritty coal belt. Demand for the fuel has created vast fortunes for mine owners, but many in the province still live in poverty.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/07/2013
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[Dawn] At least two people were rubbed out and a few others were maimed in armed attacks apparently on sectarian grounds in different parts of the city on Wednesday, officials said.
An elderly person was rubbed out in an attack apparently on sectarian grounds in the Khokhrapar area on Wednesday, police said.
They added that Ansar Zaidi, 60, was targeted near his residence in D-Area of Khokhrapar. He sustained a single bullet wound in the abdomen and was taken to a nearby hospital. He was later referred to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre where he died.
Landhi SP Faisal Noor said that no spent bullet casing was found at the scene of the crime and it appeared that the assailant(s) targeted him from some distance.
He said the incident could be related to the ongoing wave of sectarian killings in the city.
In an armed attack near Sohrab Goth, an activist of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat ...which is the false nose and plastic mustache of the murderous banned extremist group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain, whatcha might call the political wing of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi... (ASWJ) was rubbed out while two others were maimed, police said.
The officials added that some ASWJ men were returning to a party office near Nagan Chowrangi from Regal Chowk after attending a rally when their vehicle came under attack near Sohrab Goth.
SSP-Central Amir Farooqi said that the three men sustained bullet wounds and were taken to a private hospital, where one of them, identified as Latif, died.
Later, the body was shifted to the JPMC for a post-mortem examination.
The SSP said that in another attack near Board Office, Nazimabad, two workers of the ASWJ riding a cycle of violence were shot at and maimed by person or persons unknown.
Killing in Lyari
A man, said to be a relative of a key figure of the 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.... gang warfare, was rubbed out in the Chakiwara area on Wednesday, police said.
They said that Gul Hasan, 28, was killed on main Tannery Road in Bihar Colony. He sustained six bullet wounds and was taken to the Civil Hospital 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... where doctors declared him dead. He's dead, Jim! Later, the body was handed over to his brother, Mohammed Yusuf, who told the police that they would get an FIR lodged after burial.
The police said that the victim was said to be a relative of alleged gangster Noor Mohammad alias Baba Ladla.
'TTP man' rubbed out in Pirabad
An elderly man, said to be a member of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain, was rubbed out in a Pirabad locality on Wednesday, police said.
They said that Hameedullah, 65, was bumped off in Islamia Colony-1. The body was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities.
Pirabad SHO Abdul Moid said that he was a member of the banned TTP and killed due to ongoing infighting in his group.
He said that two TTP gunnies -- Saadullah and Faizullah -- had killed him.
He said that the two suspects had also kidnapped the dear departed's daughter around one month ago and she was not recovered yet.
Four booked for killing brother-in-law
A young man was bumped off over some domestic issue in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, police said.
They said that Murad Mustafa, 34, was rubbed out allegedly by his brothers-in-law near in Gulistan-e-Jauhar's Block 7, as he allegedly subjected his wife to torture.
The police said the victim, a driver by profession, was a resident of Ghazi Goth.
Paperwork was started but nothing else was done against four brothers -- Qasim, Sikander, Nawab and Hussain Bux -- under Section 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistain Penal Code at the Gulistan-e-Jauhar cop shoppe.
However, death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate... all the nominated suspects are still on the lam.
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The United States is looking at new classified intelligence indicating the Syrian government may not fully declare its chemical weapons stockpile, CNN has learned. That would mean it will still have a secret cache of chemical weapons even after the current agreed-upon destruction effort is carried out.
I'll just bet that you're as surprised as I am...
The intelligence is not definitive but there are various threads of information that would shake our confidence, one U.S. official said. They have done things recently that suggest Syria is not ready to get rid of all their chemical weapons.
Why would Pencilneck want to keep his chemical weapons?
CNN has spoken to several U.S. officials with access to the latest intelligence on Syria, who confirmed the information. All declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the data. U.S. intelligence agencies, the Defense Department, the State Department and White House are all reviewing the information.
And they'll keep reviewing, and reviewing, and reviewing...
One official cautioned there is not yet a definitive U.S. conclusion about Syrian intentions based on this intelligence, but there is an effort to gather corroborating information and better understand what the regime may be up to.
There is agreement among U.S. officials that Syrias official declarations to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) have been made largely in good faith after the threat of military action by the United States for Syrias use of chemical weapons against civilians. The United States believes Syrian President Bashar al-Assad understands not to do that again.
He's just shaking in his Gucci loafers over Champ's threat, you betcha...
National Security Council spokesperson Bernadette Meehan issued a statement Tuesday evening saying: "We continue to review and assess the completeness and accuracy of Syria's declaration to the OPCW. However, in accordance with OPCW regulations, Syria's declaration is confidential, and we will not publicly discuss its details or our assessment of it. For further details, we would refer you to the OPCW."
Officials told CNN the new intelligence is related to stockpile inventories and delivery systems, such as warheads and artillery shells - items that could preserve Syrias ability to use chemical weapons again if it chose to. Officials believe al-Assad will hold on to some of the chemical weapons largely as a long-term hedge against what he sees as a threat from Israel.
It strains credulity, one official said, to believe he will readily give up his entire chemical weapons program.
The strain began on day one of this whole farce. Of course Pencilneck isn't giving up his capabilities, his delivery systems and his know-how. He's happy to give up corroded, old munitions -- what better than to have the U.N. dispose of them for him? But the technology and know-how stay in Syria...
Officials would not say exactly how the latest intelligence was collected. But much of U.S. intelligence about Syria comes from satellite imagery. Also, there have been communications intercepts in the past that have given the United States clues about the intentions of the Syrian leadership. And U.S. officials have in the past confirmed channels of information from operatives on the ground who work on behalf of the Syrian opposition or other countries in the region.
I'm sure the Israelis are passing on info.
Al-Assad may try to hold on to more than just weapons. Last week, Foreign Policy magazine reported that Syria's foreign minister had asked the OPCW to spare a dozen of Syrias chemical weapons factories from destruction so they could be converted into civilian chemical facilities.
To make baby milk...
Asked about that report Friday, State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said it did not appear Syria had submitted a formal request to OPCW. "The OPCW would then consider any request, Psaki said. However, as you know, the (U.N. Security Council) and the OPCW Executive Council decision made clear that Syrias chemical weapons program must be eliminated."
Asked about the Foreign Policy report, a U.S. official said, "there's a real concern that the Syrians might be trying to preserve some of their CW capabilities."
The new intelligence is not related to Syria's reported desire to keep some of its chemical factories.
The OPCW has endorsed shipping chemical stockpiles out of the country for destruction because of the ongoing conflict there. Discussions on finalizing a plan are expected in the coming days, according to the organization.
The OPCW had previously announced the destruction of production equipment at all declared chemical weapons production, filling and mixing facilities. According to the OPCW on Tuesday, 21 of the 23 sites have been inspected. The items from the other two inaccessible because of the conflict were moved to accessible areas and verified against disclosure statements made by the regime.
So the regime moved 100 out of 1000 warheads to the 'accessible' site, told the U.N. that 100 was all they had, and sure enough, the U.N. counts to 100 and says, see, the Syrians were honest with us!
The OPCW also said 154 warheads have been destroyed by the Syrians. Destruction work has begun at five other sites which the Syrians say hold 424 bombs and 63 warheads.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/07/2013
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He doesn't actually need to have any, as long as everyone thinks he does. Remember Uday and Kusay thought Daddy had WMDs and wanted to know why he wasn't using them on the invading infidels.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/07/2013 12:58
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A coalition of Burmese armed minority groups has agreed to continue a dialogue with the government to try to reach a nationwide cease-fire deal.
Representatives of 17 armed groups and the Burmese government ended two days of talks in northern Kachin state without any concrete agreements. But the two sides announced they will keep meeting, starting next month in the southern state of Karen.
France says its timetable for withdrawing troops from Mali remains firm despite an upsurge in violence and the kidnapping and execution of two French journalists.
French and Malian authorities continue their search for the four armed men who grabbed the journalists Saturday in the northern rebel stronghold of Kidal. Radio France International reports that dozens of people have been arrested in northern Mali in connection with the killing of RFI journalists Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon outside Kidal on Saturday.
[Dawn] Nine people were shot and at least two were killed at a barber shop in bankrupt, increasingly impoverished, reliably Democrat, Detroit ... ruled by Democrats since 1962. A city whose Golden Age included the Purple Gang... , Michigan where gambling often takes place, police said Wednesday.
Police were looking for two men who expeditiously departed at a goodly pace in separate vehicles.
"The location historically is known as a place where gambling took place so we're not sure if this was over bad debt, we have no idea," Detroit Police Chief James Craig told news hounds.
"Our investigation is still very early and still continuing."The suspects "engaged a couple victims" and several shots were fired inside the barber shop. Craig said some of the victims may have shot back.
He had initially told news hounds that three people were pronounced dead at the scene but local media said that number had been downgraded to two.
Detroit police did not immediately return requests for confirmation.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Lack, poverty, and hopelessness to blame, Ockham's razor.
#4
Gives new meaning to "getting trimmed" or "clipped." This would be a good time to make a film titled: "Escape from Detroit" if the usual suspects were involved. Or maybe "Detroitistan" if this were mooselimb inspired. I wonder if the police response time to this shooting was the usual one hour.
#7
This is even worse: Detroit
The family of a Detroit woman shot to death after she is believed to have sought help at a Dearborn Heights home is calling for answers in the incident.
The family of Renisha McBride, 19, said she went for help after a car accident around 2:30 a.m. Saturday. She died of a gunshot wound to the head after knocking on the door of a home on the 16000 block of Outer Drive near Warren in Dearborn Heights, near where the accident occurred. Her cellphone battery had died, her family said.
Few other details about the incident have been released by the Dearborn Heights Police Department.
Dearborn Heights (has) identified the person who fired the shot and killed the woman, according to a press release. The statement added that a final report on the shooting will be forwarded to the Wayne County Prosecutors Office for review in the near future.
McBrides maternal aunt, Bernita Spinks, said the shooting was not justified even if the resident believed McBride was an intruder breaking into the home.
He shot her in the head ... for what? For knocking on his door, said Spinks on Tuesday. If he felt scared or threatened, he should have called 911.
Spinks said the family met with officials from the Prosecutors Office on Tuesday. Spinks said she believes her niece was racially profiled.
You see a young black lady on your porch and you shoot? said Spinks.
He killed my niece and he needs to pay for it. He needs to be in jail.
There was no window broken. My niece didnt bother anyone. She went looking for help and now shes dead.
[An Nahar] Can the Chemical Weapons Convention be used against a woman who tried to poison her rival in a love triangle? My answer would be "that's a really stoopid question."
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday suggested that the answer is, no. "It seems unimaginable that you would bring this prosecution," Justice Anthony Kennedy told the government prosecutor during oral arguments in the case. Actually, I think that was a "hell no!"
Justice Samuel Alito asked jokingly if he would be at risk of prosecution after handing out Halloween candy bars since "chocolate is poison to dogs." He was whacking the prosecutor with a slapstick at the time...
At issue is the case of Carol Bond. Tell us about Carol. She sounds sweet.
The Pennsylvania microbiologist put arsenic and potassium dichromate on the mailbox and car controls of her friend who had an adulterous fling with Bond's husband and got pregnant. Okay, she's not all that sweet.
Bond was arrested in the failed attempt to kill her friend, pleading guilty in 2007 to two counts of the federal crime of having used using a chemical weapon. Trying to poison someone is a Bad Thing. But putting rat poison in Uncle Bob's soup isn't the same thing as gassing the opposing trenches on the Marne. Someone is terribly confused.
She was sentenced to six years in prison and released last year. She did her time, now she's out. Put it behind her. Move on with her life...
But Bond now has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, saying the law was supposed to stop terrorists from using chemical arms, not to prosecute individuals. There is that, isn't there. Who wants that sort of thing on his/her/its record? Better a plain old-fashioned attempted murder charge, which actually would have covered it.
"If the statute (is used) for any malicious use of chemicals then it clearly exceeds Congress's powers," her attorney Paul Clement argued. [Insert sledge hammer-insect analogy here]
That amounts to "police power," and as such would be a responsibility of the individual U.S. states, Clement argued. How'd the Feds get involved at all? Were state lines crossed?
One of the justices fretted that the list of potentially harmful chemicals would be "a thousand miles long," although the three women on the nine-member court seemed favorably disposed toward the government's case. Probably left the court and went to buy steering wheel covers...
But legal expert Lyle Denniston suggested on the ScotusBlog website that the best the government could hope for in the case is a small defeat, rather than a massive beatdown. Rather than being chased from the U.S. Supreme Court by people wearing fright wigs and size 22 shoes, honking air horns at them while thumping them with bladders...
"It appeared that the government might just have to hope that it loses the case on narrow grounds, because it might lose it in a sweeping way," Denniston wrote. Being laughed out of court is pretty sweeping.
A decision is expected by June. I have a mullet under my tongue. I am waiting with baited breath.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2013
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One of the justices fretted that the list of potentially harmful chemicals would be "a thousand miles long," although the three women on the nine-member court seemed favorably disposed toward the government's case.
Oh, great, another bureaucratic trick for the EPA to seize more abusive power to shut down the country.
Mexico's interior minister, Miguel Osorio chong Wednesday dismissed claims made by a Tamaulipas mayor that criminal groups were terrorizing the city.
According to a news account which appeared in the online edition of Milenio news daily, Osorio Chong said that he regretted Matamoros mayor, Norma Leticia Salazar's call for a curfew, characterizing the call as unneeded.
Osorio Chong hinted that the call for a curfew may have been illegal, however, municipal presidents in northern states have imposed curfews in past years due to extreme violence by local criminal groups. Because of the federalization of internal security in Mexico, the only other official who can impose curfew is the president of the republic, but only after votes by the council of ministers and the Mexican national legislature.
Last Sunday, a total of 13 armed suspects were killed by Mexican military forces in three separate incidents in Matamoros, during a time when an internal split in criminal groups associated with the Gulf Cartel had gone hot.
The situation was so dire, that even national media had reported street names, and Twitter reported that teens were being recruited at gunpoint to replace losses by the gunfights between rival factions, and security forces.
Normally in the past Mexican national media rarely, if ever reported on specific claims made by criminal groups, but it is clear now that with a nationwide clamp on news released about criminal actions, media organizations are desperate enough for news, they are reporting on claims made in Twitter and other social media means.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com he can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com
[Dawn] THE government wanted it and the opposition has granted it, but no one has quite been able to explain any of it: talks with the Taliban are to be attempted again, but how, when and on what terms? The only thing that is clear since last weekend's drone strike is that Hakeemullah Mehsud is dead and that the political class wants the public to believe that his killing has dealt a major blow to the talks process. Beyond that, nothing is clear. Even Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan's claim that a three-member delegation was set to travel to the tribal areas the day Mehsud was killed remains unsubstantiated -- and there is some reason to be sceptical of it. The problem is the government appears unwilling or unable to address any of the obvious problems with its dialogue strategy.
Start with the obvious. The killing of Hakeemullah Mehsud could not have in and of itself ended the possibility of dialogue, as the government appeared to suggest in the aftermath of the drone strike. For if the TTP can continue its attacks going into peace talks -- set aside the attacks whose provenance is for whatever reasons disputed and that still leaves the killing of an army general in Upper Dir that was explicitly and in video evidence claimed by a branch of the TTP -- then why does an attack on the TTP necessarily scuttle peace talks? If the TTP can talk about talking while still fighting, why is the political class so afraid to claim the state's right to do the same? Surely, signalling fear and meekness so publicly to the TTP cannot possibly help the negotiating process. Or does the government intend to submit to whatever the TTP wants short of disbanding the government and scrapping the Constitution altogether?
More problematic still is if the government and pro-talks lobbies are taken at their word when they claim that the spate of attacks, since it was agreed that dialogue with the TTP will be pursued first, are the doing of anti-peace and hostile elements. If that is in fact true, then what is the point of talking to the TTP at all? For even if the TTP has kept its guns silent and temporarily put away its boom jackets, bombs and IEDS, there has still been an unacceptable level of violence in the country the past few months. So what kind of peace can the TTP guarantee anyway, even if dialogue is successful? Mystery and confusion, thy names are Pakistain, at least at present.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2013
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[Al Ahram] Three years after Tunisia's revolution, youths who formed the vanguard of protests find themselves sidelined from the political arena by veteran leaders determined to hold on to power.
Sparked on 17 December, 2010 by the self-immolation of a 26-year-old street vendor angry with corruption and police harassment, the uprising toppled autocratic president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali a month later.
But since then, "the revolution of the youths has been confiscated by the old who were hiding at home or abroad during the popular uprising," said Naima Charmiti.
"Our dinosaurs haven't stopped telling us that we have a political future, but in reality they haven't done anything concrete," lamented the 32-year-old who runs the arabesque.tn news website.
Two veterans dominate the crisis-hit political scene in the North African country, where people under the age of 30 account for 51 percent of the population.
One of them, Rached Ghannouchi, 73, heads the ruling Islamist party Ennahda and spent two decades in exile before returning to Tunisia in 2011.
The other, Beji Caid Essebsi, 86, leads the main opposition party, Nidaa Tounes.
Essebsi was a minister under Habib Bourguiba, the father of Tunisia's independence, as well as a parliament speaker during Ben Ali's rule and prime minister in the months after the revolution.
The pair were at the heart of talks that failed on Monday to lead to the appointment of an independent prime minister to steer Tunisia out of a political crisis that began in July with the liquidation of an opposition leader.
Each side has its own candidate: Ennahda and its allies support 88-year-old Ahmed Mestiri; and the opposition backs 79-year-old Mohammed Ennaceur. Both men entered politics during the Bourguiba era.
"Right now it's clear the leaders of parties are all old, and making matters worse, they appeal to even older men!" said Thameur Mekki, a 27-year-old who supports rappers who have fallen foul of the law for irreverent lyrics.
And in a divisive ...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled... political era that comes in for ceaseless criticism, one of the rare things leaders have been able to agree on is the lifting of the age limit of 75 for presidential candidates.
Salem Ayari, secretary general of the Tunisian union for unemployed graduates, said the problem is that the political elites simply consider youths as incompetent.
"These people do not believe that young people can take over," he said, adding it was the same under the ousted regime of Ben Ali "who excluded youths from political life".
Among political parties, there are restraints that have impeded the involvement of youths, the engine of the revolution who now account for 30 percent of Tunisia's unemployed against the national average of 16 percent.
"Following the hyper-enthusiasm of the revolution, there is real hyper-disappointment," said Selim Ben Abdessalem, a 43-year-old deputy in the Nidaa Tounes party.
"It would be a huge mistake to ignore them, but there is a lack of ability to attract them.
"There is a distrust of... youths in all companies and parties."
But the situation could also be explained by the need for people with experience in Tunisia, which faces growing jihadist violence, political crises and economic hardship.
"We must also stop populism, and the cult of youth," said Ben Abdessalem.
"Tunisia is in a situation where you don't go to someone who has no experience in government as prime minister. And if we don't want those who weren't in the Ben Ali regime, we have to rely on those from the Bourguiba era," he explained.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2013
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[Al Ahram] The Egyptian armed forces killed three Islamist forces of Evil in a security operative in Sinai on Wednesday, Al-Ahram Arabic website reported.
A military front man stated that it had also seized a number of weapons, including machine guns, RPGs and homemade grenades.
The armed forces, supported by police personnel, also torched four cars that did not have licence plates or registration papers, army front man Ahmed Ali stated on Thursday via his official Facebook page.
Sixty-one houses have also been destroyed that, according to Ali, belonged to hard boys.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2013
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[Al Ahram] Syrian authorities have charged a former governor of the eastern province of Deir Ezzor with embezzling public funds, the official Ath Thawra newspaper reported on Wednesday.
"In the context of government measures to fight corruption, a lawsuit has been filed against Fawaz Al-Saleh, the former governor of Deir Ezzor and a number of other governorate council members," the paper said.
They stand accused of "misappropriation of public property" and "serious shortcomings" in the distribution of basic goods.
Saleh, who was named governor in January this year, was replaced in September.
Also on Wednesday, Prime Minister Wael Al-Halqi "dismissed 352 employees from different ministries", state news agency SANA reported.
The agency said the dismissals came "in the context of continuing efforts by the government to fight corruption".
Syria's government, battling an uprising that began in March 2011, has been keen to show it is tackling graft and carrying out reforms.
The country has long placed near the bottom of Transparency International's list of most corrupt nations, coming in at 114 out of 176 last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2013
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[An Nahar] They work hard, sniffing out crime with only the occasional pat on the nose in gratitude.
But police dogs deserve better, according to the police and crime commissioner in the English county of Nottinghamshire, who wants to reward them with "pensions" on retirement.
Paddy Tipping says the idea for a canine pension fund came about because officers were picking up the costs for retired police dogs. Handlers normally take dogs home upon retirement. Tipping, however, says he doesn't "think it's fair that they have to pay all the bills."
The plans announced Monday will be rolled out next month. Up to 500 pounds ($800) annually will be given to handlers for three years to cover veterinary bills for work-related injuries or illness.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2013
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Good stuff, and in the splendid tradition of Greyfriars Bobby.
[Dawn] A driver was killed and a colonel seriously injured when an army vehicle was ambushed near Kot Mojdeen in the Kunjah area on Wednesday.
The vehicle was going to a petrol pump when three assailants who were on a cycle of violence opened fire on it, killing driver Mohammad Ramzan and injuring Col Mohammad Zahid Naseer.
The attack took place in an area considered to be sensitive because of a number of recent terrorist attacks. It is a few kilometres from Jassoki village where seven people of Shia community were killed about two months ago.
In July last year, seven security personnel were bumped off near a bridge on River Chenab in the area. Two months later, four coppers were killed in an attack on a checkpost near Kathala railway crossing. Law-enforcement agencies locked away Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! some suspects in the attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2013
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[Al Ahram] Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan ... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau... asked politicians on Wednesday to extend a state of emergency declared in the northeast in May for an additional six months, saying the Islamist insurgency had not yet been contained. In a letter to senators from the upper house of parliament seen by AFP, Jonathan asked to extend "the state of emergency by a further period of six months with effect from 12 November, 2013" as "security challenges still exist".
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2013
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Philippine authorities are making preparations for a "super typhoon" which is expected to slam into the central part of the country later this week.
Disaster officials have issued their highest alert level ahead of the arrival of Typhoon Haiyan, which already boasts wind gusts of up to 185 kilometers per hour.
Voting was halted in north Mitrovica after a group of masked men broke into several of the municipality's schools that were being used as polling stations, attacking staff and destroying voting materials. Officials say the results from the area will be annulled. No date has been set for the rerun.
Despite the problems, Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci described the vote as a "new milestone" and an "important European test for Kosovo."
Police in southwest England appealed for help Tuesday in tracking down thieves who made off with 160 sheep from a field near the village of Wool.
Police say the sheep were stolen between Saturday and Monday, and that the thieves would have needed a large vehicle to move the woolly haul.
Constable Adam Taylor says all of the sheep were electronically tagged.
He is urging anyone who has witnessed suspicious activity -- or been offered sheep "in unusual circumstances or for very low prices" -- to come forward.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2013
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I suggest a local, unrelated criminal punishment fits this crime as well:
In the village of Wool.... A small single lane hump backed stone bridge about 200m north from the railway is no longer used for vehicular traffic. It has a stone halfway along it stating that those who deface or damage the bridge will be transported (sent to Australia or another penal colony) for the rest of their lives.
[Al Ahram] 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... reaffirmed on Wednesday Washington's rejection of Israeli settlement activity in the occupied Paleostinian territories as "illegitimate."
"We consider now, and have always considered, the settlements to be illegitimate," Kerry said, after talks in Bethlehem with Paleostinian president the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... focused on shoring up the peace negotiations.
"I want to make it extremely clear that at no time did the Paleostinians in any way agree, as a matter of going back to the talks, that they could somehow condone or accept the settlements," Kerry said.
"That is not to say that they weren't aware -- or we weren't aware -- that there would be construction," he added.
His remarks related to a bitter row that has erupted over Israeli moves during the past week to push ahead with construction of more than 3,700 new settler homes.
Several Israeli officials have claimed the settlement announcements were in keeping with tacit "understandings" between the two sides linked to the release last week of 26 veteran Paleostinian prisoners.
Their comments sparked furious denials from the Paleostinians.
"The Paleostinians believe the settlements are illegal. The United Sates continue to believe the settlements are not helpful," Kerry said.
A previous round of direct talks collapsed in September 2010 in an acrimonious row over settlements, with the Paleostinians refusing to negotiate while Israel builds on land they want for a future state.
After six months of shuttle diplomacy, Kerry managed to coax the two sides back to the table in late July.
But already tempers are fraying, once again over Israeli construction on land seized during the 1967 Six Day War.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
The United Sates continue to believe the settlements are not helpful," Kerry said.
He's quite right! The settlements are not helpful to the spread of Islamic totalitarianism, hate, and anti-semitism.
#2
There is an old BASIC rule. If your enemy wants it then don't let him have it. Even if you don't need it and its useless to you, don't let him have it ANYWAY.
Kerry is squat. Kerry is ...words absolutely fail me.
The Settlements WORK. Keep them up and expand them in any way possible. You owe nothing to the Palestinians, the sooner they move to Brazil the better. They will be happier there and you are doing them a favor. Bye-bye and send me a postcard from the Orinoco.
#3
Quite probably the Palestinian authorities agreed in private discussions to ignore the construction, while publicly condemning it. Kerry, by giving US support for that condemnation, puts pressure on those authorities to abandon the peace talks unless Israel stops the construction. After all, can the PA be less zealous in opposing building construction that the United States Government?
Why did he do that?
Is he against peace talks?
Does he want to give a boost to Hamas's anti PA propaganda?
Is he a buffoon?
Is there another explanation?
#4
"I want to make it extremely clear that at no time did the Paleostinians in any way agree, as a matter of going back to the talks, that they could somehow condone or accept the settlements," Kerry said"
#5
To see this, imagine that Kerry had instead met with some politicians in Bersheva, and then announced that the United States never releases convicted terrorists to further political or diplomatic goals (and that seems to be accepted US policy).
Would that further peace negotiations? If so why does he not do so?
#6
Quite probably the Palestinian authorities agreed in private discussions to ignore the construction, while publicly condemning it.
I suspect a lot of stuff in the ME works like that - sort of the confluence between "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" and "I against my brother, my brother and I against my cousins..." meets RealPolitik(tm)
Posted by: Barbara ||
11/07/2013 21:02
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#10
It's all them jooz' fault!
Eventually, they'll have to put their pants on and kick these ay-rabz intruders out of their country.
Malaysia just expelled five million Indonesians...did you hear anyone complain...even Djakarta didn't say squat!
Jews will keep bending over for the sand niggers until they will be in the ocean to their neck...
Barry Hussein does NOT have the Jews' welfare in mind, even if them Jews are the ones that elected him and are keeping the degenerate pervert shielded from any criticism.
Posted by: Herb Gloluger9960 ||
11/07/2013 23:16
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BOGOTA, Colombia The government and the FARC rebel group reached a deal Wednesday that would allow rebel commanders to exchange their weapons for a future in politics, an important advance that analysts say leaves little doubt there will be a final peace pact in the months ahead.
Unfortunately it may be a case of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. FARC was finished; their handful of leaders were on the run and it was nothing more than a drug ring. Now those leaders get another chance to meddle. It's not like they've become Liberal-Democrats...
With an agreement on political participation for the guerrillas, the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia have made breakthroughs on two of the most difficult points in the framework agenda for negotiations to end 50 years of conflict. In May, the two sides agreed on an ambitious program of land distribution and titling to resolve unrest in the countryside that has long spawned political violence.
There is no going back this process is moving forward, said León Valencia, a former guerrilla who is director of the Peace and Reconciliation Foundation, a think tank that has studied the peace process. They have basically reached an agreement that goes to the heart of negotiations. Everything else is just complementary.
A statement issued by the two sides in Havana, where the talks have been taking place over the past year, was vague about the latest agreement. It said that there would be rights and guarantees for the new movements that emerge from the signing of a final accord.
Analysts who follow the peace talks and have been in contact with negotiators say the FARCs objective is to form a new party and receive posts in the national legislature in exchange for disarming.
Shouldn't they have to win an election or something to get posts in the legislature?
But an official in the government of President Juan Manuel Santos said the details of how that will happen will be negotiated after the rebels lay down their weapons. And Colombian judges not the government or the rebels will decide which of the FARCs commanders, many of whom are accused of war crimes, can participate in politics.
Still, the two sides saw the latest development as a breakthrough that would bring peace to a country that has long been plagued by guerrilla groups and illegal paramilitary organizations.
We want this to be a peace with everyone and for everyone, Humberto de la Calle, the governments chief negotiator, told reporters in the Havana convention center where the talks are being held. We have an opportunity, here and now, to agree on the end of the conflict and begin the consolidation of peace. That is the great national longing.
Luciano Marín, a FARC commander better known here by his alias, Iván Márquez, said the pact creates an opening for those who have not felt represented in Colombias political system.
In comments carried by Semana magazine, he said the latest development gives us optimism to advance in debates to sign a peace pact and end the conflict.
The news from Havana was a setback for powerful opponents of the process led by former president Álvaro Uribe, who accuses the Santos government of selling out to the FARC.
Alfredo Rangel, a close ally of Uribe, told Colombian television that the government was setting the stage for an armed peace that is rejected by the vast majority of Colombians. He said he worried that FARC commanders would go straight from the jungles to the legislature, without paying for their crimes, and then work to install a government with close ties to leftist Cuba and Venezuela.
That certainly seems to be the plan for FARC. A few years back it looked like the large majority of Colombians were with Uribe on this one. We don't need another Nicaragua...
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Pax Obama...
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As the Congolese rebel group M23 began surrendering its weapons Wednesday, neighboring Rwanda called for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to turn its attention to tackling another rebel group.
Rwandas U.N. Ambassador Eugene Gasana told reporters that the Congolese army and the nearly 20,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission, known as MONUSCO, must now turn its attention to eliminating a nearly two decades-old scourge: the Hutu rebel group known as the FDLR (Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda), which operates in eastern Congo
Iraqi officials say a suicide attack targeting the police in the countrys east has killed at least seven policemen and wounded 14.
A police officer says the bomber drove his explosives-laden truck into the concrete blast walls outside the police headquarters in the town of al-Salam early on Wednesday morning. The town is about 75 kilometers (47 miles) northeast of Baghdad. A medical official confirmed the causality figures.
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Big bomb to do that much damage through a blast wall. Still no shortage of high explosives in Iraq. Or concrete blast wall was Arab cement?
[Dawn] The provincial chapter of Tehrik Nafaz-e-Fiqa Jafria (TNFJ) has expressed dissatisfaction over the security measures taken by police for Muharram and demanded deployment of army in the most sensitive districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... to ensure protection of mourner processions.
Addressing a presser here on Wednesday, TNFJ provincial general secretary Haider Jamil Alvi said that situation was precarious owing to possible sabotage acts in different districts. The government should avail the services of army for Muharram security, he added.
Mr Alvi said that government should take all possible precautionary measures for protection of mourner processions. "We demand deployment of army in the most sensitive areas like Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. , Kohat, Hangu, Parachinar and D.I. Khan for maintaining law and order during the Muharram," he said.
Accompanied by TNFJ chairman Agha Abbas Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... , provincial president Sardar Asghar Qazalbash, Kohat vice president Syed Ghazanfar Ali Shah and Peshawar president Sajid Hassan Qazalbash, he demanded enforcement of Anti-terrorism Act so that no one could violate law of the land.
Mr Alvi said that the issue should be resolved in consultation with Shia leaders otherwise they would take precautionary measures on their own. He also stressed the need for holding talks with Taliban for restoration of sustainable and durable peace. Regarding the issue of Balashkhel in Parachinar, the TNFJ leader said that the matter needed to be resolved peacefully. The high court had already given verdict in that regard but the local administration was creating hurdles in it, he alleged.
He said the issue of taking out mourner process ion in district Haripur should to also be addressed forthwith.
Mr Alvi said they were not in favour of closure of shopping markets and bazaars as they didn't place any such demand before the administration. He demanded of the government to establish special cells at district level to resolve the issues and problems of mourners amicably. The cell should be linked with TNFJ constituted committees, he added.
Mr Alvi demanded uninterrupted supply of power, natural gas and other facilities during Muharram so that the participants of processions would not face any problems.
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[Invenstor's Business Daily] Meltdown: A health care scholar estimates that if ObamaCare is fully implemented, including the employer mandate, 129 million people will not be able to keep their plans. The train wreck has become a nuclear meltdown. That's 40 percent of the population. Seems high...
The never-ending and ever-changing story line emanating from the damage control room at the White House has morphed from you can keep your plan, period, to we said you could keep the plan you liked at the rates agreed upon only if we decide it's not substandard.
That, we were told, would only apply to some 5% of Americans. They would get a better plan whether they liked it or not. It's as if the government decided the car you drove to work was "substandard" and forced you to drive a "better" car like the government-subsidized Chevy Volt.
ObamaCare is kind of like "cash for clunkers" only with fines and penalties thrown in. We fork over more cash in the form of higher premiums and deductibles and get the clunker known as ObamaCare.
The story has changed again as commentators try to split the hair between "intentional deceit" and "lie."
"Now, if you have or had one of these plans before the Affordable Care Act came into law and you really like that plan, what we said was you could keep it, if it hasn't changed since the law was passed," President Obama said Monday night. Oh, so that was what you meant by "period," Mr. President.
Every insurance plan changes as risk pools and claims vary over time. That's why people have had to renew their policies every year or so.
That is the ultimate Catch-22 of ObamaCare, one that will snare an astounding number of Americans in ObamaCare's tangled web of lies and deceit. Classic 'bait and switch'...who knew ?
Those who thought their plans were exempted under the "grandfather" clause were sadly mistaken and ignored that phrase throughout ObamaCare -- "the Secretary shall determine." Well, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius determined unless your plan was carved in stone tablets for all time, they had to go and changed the regulations.
Now, as the Daily Caller reports, an analysis by health care economist Christopher Conover at the Center for Health Policy & Inequalities Research at Duke University, shows just how wide that web will extend when ObamaCare is fully implemented in 2014.
It also helps explain the delay in the employer mandate -- an attempt to cushion the blow. Yes, letting us down softly, as has been mentioned here several times.
When ObamaCare is fully implemented, Conover finds, an estimated 129 million people -- that's 68% of the 189 million Americans with private health coverage -- could lose their previous health coverage due to a combination of factors including the cancellations of existing plans as well as changes and "improvements" to existing coverage that will be required under the new health care law.
Conover gave a further breakdown of the figures, saying that between 18 million and 50 million people will have their existing plans entirely taken away, including 9.2 million to 15.4 million in the non-group, or individual, market and 9 million to 35 million in the employer-based market. But, but, but that was the PLAN !
The rest, he said, will retain their old plans but have to pay higher rates for added ObamaCare-mandated "bells and whistles."
The Manhattan Institute's Avik Roy calculates that, in the average state, insurance premiums will rise 41%.
"Men will face the steepest increases: 77%, 37% and 47% for 27-year-olds, 40-year-olds, and 64-year-olds, respectively. Women will also face increases, but to a lesser degree: 18%, 28% and 37% for 27-, 40-, and 64-year-olds," Roy writes in Forbes.
In addition to dropped plans and skyrocketing premiums and deductibles, there is another ticking time bomb -- the lie that if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor. Matters little, as he'll likely not accept ACA, Medicade, or Medicare anyway.
HHS' response to the question on the currently down enrollment website was, "Depending on the plan you choose in the Marketplace, you may be able to keep your current doctor."
This is not a glitch. This is a health care meltdown. The "glitch" took place in Nov of 2008.
#3
AH, that's the idea. Doctors will become the first of the new slave classes totally controlled by the gov't. If they retire or find other work they will be replaced by cheap foreign imports...see UK.
#6
AH, that's the idea. Doctors will become the first of the new slave classes totally controlled by the gov't. If they retire or find other work they will be replaced by cheap foreign imports...see UK.
[Dawn] Groups from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... and 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... are involved in sectarian violence, kabooms, assassinations and other terrorist and criminal activities in 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... , particularly Quetta, according to a senior government official.
"Although some local groups were involved in sabotage acts in Balochistan, we have intelligence information that some gangs of myrmidons groups have shifted to Quetta from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Karachi and they are also involved in sectarian violence, kabooms and assassinations here," Balochistan Home Secretary Asad Gilani said here on Wednesday.
Addressing a presser along with Quetta Commissioner Usman Gul and police chief Arif Nawaz, he said there were threats to Ashura Majalis and processions in sensitive districts of Balochistan, especially Quetta, and a comprehensive security plan had been devised to maintain peace and order.
The official said some evidence had been found of the presence of anti-peace elements and their involvement in preparing a terrorist plot in a seminary on the Eastern Bypass where a bomb had went kaboom! recently.
He said the entry of 69 firebrand ...firebrands are noted more for audio volume and the quantity of spittle generated than for any actual logic in their arguments... religious scholars into Quetta had been banned for Muharram. Both Sunni and Shia speakers were on the list, he said.
Mr Gilani said the Quetta, Bolan, Jaffarabad and Khuzdar districts had been declared highly sensitive and Nasirabad, Jhal Magsi, Zhob and Lasbela sensitive.
He said personnel of the law-enforcement agencies, including the Frontier Corps, police and Levies, would be deployed around Imambargahs and on the routes of the Muharram processions, while the Pakistain Army troops would remain on standby and carry out surveillance by helicopters.
The Quetta commissioner said 200 beds in government hospitals and 40 ambulances would be ready to cope with any emergency.
The regional police chief said installation of security cameras on the routes of the processions had been completed. He said the roads leading to the routes and markets would also be closed on the 7th, 9th and 10th of Muharram.
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[An Nahar] The United States indicated Wednesday it was ready to lift sanctions against Rwanda if Kigali cuts all ties with Congolese M23 rebels.
Washington has distanced itself from its ally Rwanda since July 2012 by freezing its modest $200,000 military aid and imposed sanctions in a bid to urge President Paul Kagame's regime to end its support of the mainly Tutsi rebels of M23, who surrendered on Tuesday.
Last month, Washington slapped sanctions on Kigali for its alleged backing of the Congolese rebels who recruit child soldiers into their ranks.
The United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... , Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... and the United States all accuse Rwanda of providing military support to the rebels.
"If it turns out that Rwanda is no longer involved in such activities, if it turns out that their role here has been a positive one... then we will certainly review whether it is appropriate to continue these sanctions," U.S. Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Russ Feingold told a telephone conference.
Feingold recognized that Washington is not certain that Kigali's support for the M23 has completely stopped.
He called for a "fact-based investigation with the sincere hope that we find out that the support's terminated and certainly with an open mind in that regard."
The State Department had welcomed Tuesday's military victory by U.N.-backed Congolese troops over the rebels, and called for all sides to sign a final peace agreement on the Great Lakes in line with negotiations that began nearly a year ago in the Ugandan capital Kampala.
Rwanda and Uganda's decision to stop backing the M23 helped facilitate this latest shift in the long-running conflict. The two countries were under intense diplomatic pressure, including from the United States in recent weeks, to halt support for the rebels.
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Whatever is done, this needs to end completely now. Even if it all must be rooted out.
With all the dead Children on the fields, they will have to look at themselves.
KANDAHAR: Seven Afghan civilians believed kidnapped by the Taliban last month have been found dead with their hands bound behind their backs and apparently tortured, local officials in the southern province of Zabul said on Wednesday.
The apparent executions may have been punishment for working for Afghan security forces, the officials said, underscoring the growing threat of attack faced by civilians associated with local forces as foreign troops withdraw.
"They were brutally tortured and then shot dead," said Zabul deputy governor Mohammad Jan Rasulyar. "Our belief is that the Taliban killed them because they thought they were serving in the Afghan security forces."
Police officers in Zabul said they were attacked by Taliban fighters when they attempted to recover the bodies after receiving a tip-off about their whereabouts. They killed three insurgents during an operation to clear the area. "We rushed to the dead bodies. We saw that the Taliban had chained their hands behind their backs and killed them brutally. They were all civilians kidnapped by the Taliban," said police chief Ghulam Sakhi.
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From Foreign Policy via Garowe News. Just the opening paragraphs here.
As the Somali piracy blockbuster Captain Phillips raked in $26 million in its opening weekend on U.S. screens, Mohamed Abdi Hassan, better known as "Afweyne," was on a flight to Belgium with gainful plans to sell a very different story about East African marauders. Expecting to consult on a movie based on his life as a seafaring bandit, Afweyne and his associate were instead arrested by Belgian police and charged with the crimes of piracy and hostage taking. The two men had fallen for a hard-to-believe, reverse-Argo ruse -- a months-long sting operation set in motion to catch the mastermind behind the 2009 hijacking and ransom of the Belgian-owned dredging vessel Pompei.
While some 1,000 Somali pirate foot soldiers have been jailed in over a dozen countries, Afweyne --whose sobriquet means "big mouth" or "crybaby" -- will be the first pirate leader to be prosecuted by the international community when his criminal trial opens in Belgium.
Though his hopes of being immortalized on the big screen have been dashed, Afweyne, more than any other pirate, is responsible for making Somali piracy into an organized, multi-million-dollar industry. According to a recent World Bank report, Somali piracy raked in an estimated $339 million to $413 million in ransom spoils between 2005 and 2013. Like many of his comrades, Afweyne asserts that he not a "kidnapper," but the leader of a "legitimate self-defense movement" dedicated to protecting Somalia's marine resources. While some of Somalia's first pirates operating from the autonomous region of Puntland could claim -- for a time -- to be "coastguards" levying a taxes on illegal foreign fishing, Afweyne was not one of them. Rather, he was shrewd businessman who sought to replicate Puntland's cottage pirate industry on a commercial scale, based out of his native Harardhere in central Somalia.
More on the 'crybaby' at the link including how he managed to build his piracy empire. Quite the business man...
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[Dawn] Many among the members of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... Assembly were a happy lot when the House unanimously adopted a resolution on Monday last against drone strikes and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... supplies.
After hours of intense back to back contacts between the ruling and opposition alliances, the provincial assembly produced a resolution that can at best be regarded as a breather, an attempt to shift responsibility to the federal government.
The resolution fell short of what Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... chief Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who isn't your heaviest-duty thinker, maybe not even among the top five... had promised to the nation in his reaction to the Nov 1 drone strike that eliminated Hakeemullah Mehsud and some of his close associates.
Mr Khan had stated that the PTI government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa would stop NATO supplies and the assembly would adopt a resolution that would have never been adopted before, and in doing so if the party had to lose the provincial government it would not budge from blocking the supplies.
Now what we have is the resolution that demands of 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... to formulate actionable recommendations by Nov 20 for stopping drone strikes and NATO supplies. So for now, the ball is in Mr Sharif's court.
While the resolution sets Nov 20 as deadline for formulating the recommendations, it does not set a deadline for stopping the supplies and American strikes by a specific date. It means the prime minister has the flexibility to decide the timeframe for stopping, if he may choose to block, drone strikes and NATO supplies.
The resolution has done some favour to the previous governments as well.
It is a document by which the majority PTI and its coalition government partners have offered a veiled appreciation to peace efforts made in the past and the parliamentary resolutions adopted against drone strikes in 2008 and 2011.
This is not what many were promised to come in the resolution: appreciation and acknowledgement of the efforts made in past. However, a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... without accommodating other political forces PTI could not have managed to pass a unanimous resolution from the House.
Being described by some as a much watered down resolution than what was expected after PTI chief's public pronouncements, the joint resolution is a reflection of PTI provincial leadership's obligations towards the party chief and the tough ground realities it has to wade through a complex parliamentary politics of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
PTI's provincial leadership wanted a unanimous resolution from the assembly, which could not have been possible without the support of opposition parties, which is a complex mix of parties with right and right of centre politics.
The orthodox Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam ...the political wing of the Pak Taliban... (JUI-F), PTI's main rival in its claim to the throne in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, wanted the ruling alliance to include two of its demands in the resolution: strike down American drones in Pak territory and close down US consulate in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. . The right wing Pakistain Musselmen League-Nawaz, with its government in centre, could not have supported anything too tough in wording and irrational in nature. It resisted incorporating demands for instant blockade of NATO supplies. Its leader in the provincial assembly, according to sources, sternly rejected the idea, by one of his party members, to demand of the federal government to strike down drones in Pak territory.
The party was also against Nov 20 deadline for stopping NATO supplies. What we have now is a deadline that asks the federal government to finalise recommendations by Nov 20 for stopping the supplies.
The other two opposition parties, including Awami National Party and Pakistain People's Party, devoid of anything at stake in the given situation were in favour of the PTI government blocking the supplies by issuing an executive order.
Then there were others from among the PTI allies and its legal brains who opposed the idea of provincial government acting unilaterally to stop NATO supplies via Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Senior provincial minister Sikander Hayat Sherpao, a leader of Qaumi Watan Party that makes part of the four-party coalition government, was heard telling an associate that stoppage of NATO supplies by the provincial government would amount to a treason, a violation of Article 6 of the Constitution.
Similar opinion was put forth by the government's principal law officer, advocate general. More than one senior government functionary told Dawn that the advocate general elaborated the point explicitly to the ruling alliance leaders. They were told it would be beyond the provincial government's legal authority to stop NATO supplies since these were covered under the federal government's international agreements.
However, some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them... after hours of behind the scene intense politicking sanity prevailed and it took the assembly only 10 minutes to present and unanimously adopt the resolution following which the session was prorogued.
Political compulsions of the PTI-led ruling alliance in the backdrop of PTI chief's public pronouncements, and the difficult spot in which PML-N found itself for being in power at the centre forced the two sides to agree to a common minimum ground that, for the time being, has pushed the matter under the carpet.
"We told them one of you has the government at the centre and the other in the province then what is stopping you from instantly stopping NATO supplies; go for it and we are with you," an ANP MPA said, when contacted.
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#1
If the Paks took Govt control of the tribal areas there would be no need for drones but as usual they are playing a double game.
Why do they let militants run parts of Pakistan and then moan when we target them?
AoS update at 0940 CT: David Gerstman at William Jacobson's Legal Insurrection has a piece on this that is worth your review.
The Obama administration is hoping to rapidly secure a deal with Iran that would temporarily freeze the country's nuclear program and buy time for diplomats to try to hammer out a more comprehensive agreement restricting Tehran's future ability to seek atomic weapons, U.S. officials said Wednesday.
Let's get Jahwn right on it...
A proposal to be formally presented to Iran during negotiations this week would likely require the Islamic republic to suspend its production of enriched uranium and agree to additional curbs, concessions that would be rewarded with a modest, temporary easing of financial sanctions, according to a senior U.S. official knowledgeable about the plan.
While key details remained unclear,
...they usually do, which is why the deals go nowhere...
the proposal reveals the contours of a path that officials hope will lead to a resolution of the 10-year standoff over Iran's nuclear policies. The plan has the backing of five other world powers involved in the talks with Iran, and the key points have been shared with Iranian officials during technical talks, diplomats said.
The proposed freeze, if accepted, would be the first stage in a multiple-step process that could culminate in an agreement early next year on permanent limits to Iran's ability to produce the components of a nuclear bomb, the U.S. official said. Whether Iran would agree to the concessions will be a key topic during talks set to begin Thursday in Geneva.
So in other words we demand that Iran give up its top policy initiative in return for .. nothing of substance. Sure, that's going to work. Ah, diplomacy...
"What we're looking for now is a first phase, a first step, an initial understanding that stops Iran's nuclear program from moving forward for the first time in decades, and that potentially rolls part of it back," said the U.S. official in a briefing to journalists on the eve of the talks. The official said the United States and its allies were looking to "put time on the clock" by ensuring that Iran's nuclear program does not advance while the negotiations are underway.
Wasn't the time for that back in 2009? After all the Iranians have had four years to work on the various parts of the problem. It's just engineering, it's not like they need to invent new science. Put reasonably smart people on the project and let them work and they'll eventually solve the problems.
The White House is under pressure to show substantial progress during this week's talks, as skeptics in Congress have threatened to impose harsh new financial sanctions on Iran even as the negotiations are under way. Administration officials met with key lawmakers last week urging them to delay any decisions on new sanctions until the first of the year.
Didn't we already do that? Or is this going to be the equivalent of "double secret probation"?
The U.S. official in Geneva said an Iranian agreement to freeze its nuclear program would result in "limited, targeted and reversible" relief on some economic sanctions, for a limited period of perhaps six months. The easing of sanctions would be reversed if Iran failed to honor its commitments, or if there was no progress in the effort to achieve a broader nuclear agreement. The toughest sanctions affecting Iran's banking sector and oil exports would not be lifted until the final stage of the process, Western officials said.
We did a trial run of something like this on North Korea a few years back. Worked well, too, the Norks completely gave up on getting nuclear weapons, ev'ryone knows that...
Diplomats from Iran and a bloc of six world powers are meeting in Geneva for the second time since the June election that swept moderate cleric Hassan Rouhani into power on a promise to end Iran's diplomatic isolation. Iran's newly appointed foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, told a French broadcaster Tuesday that he believed a deal could be reached to win sanctions relief for Iran while easing international concerns about Iran's nuclear intentions.
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Piss into the wind and get it all over you.Put on a Clown suit with a hole in your drawers and bend over.
Saudi authorities rounded up thousands of illegal foreign workers at the start of a nationwide crackdown ultimately aimed at creating more jobs for locals, media reported on Tuesday.
Hundreds of thousands of workers have already left the kingdom following a grace period of seven months during which authorities told expatriates that if they did not fix their legal status they had to leave the country or face jail.
[An Nahar] A sniper rubbed out an Egyptian soldier Wednesday in the lawless Sinai Peninsula where the army has been waging a relentless campaign to root out bad boys, a security official said.
The 20-year-old conscript was killed while training at a military camp in Sheikh Zuwayed, the official said.
"He was shot in the head," the official said, adding the nature of the wound indicated the bullet had been fired from altitude.
Egypt's army has poured troops and armor into the Sinai to crush bad boy activity which has surged since the military overthrew 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... on July 3.
A subsequent crackdown on Islamists has resulted in more than 1,000 people being killed and more than 2,000 locked away You have the right to remain silent... nationwide.
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#1
crush some more tunnels and shut the Gaza gate.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/07/2013 7:27
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#2
The best defense for snipers is your very own snipers.
#3
Can't do that in Egypt. You can't trust that your snipers won't become their snipers...
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/07/2013 8:46
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#4
Can't do that in Egypt. You can't trust that your snipers won't become their snipers... You never know when an acute attack of Sudden Jihad will strike.
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.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
ISLAMABAD: Former military ruler Pervez Musharraf was formally released on Wednesday from his sub-jail. Pervez Musharraf was imprisoned in his Chak Shehzad farmhouse near Islamabad which was declared a sub-jail. He was released from the sub-jail after he submitted two surety bonds of Rs 100,000 two days after being granted bail in the murder case of Lal Masjid cleric Abdul Rasheed Ghazi. Ahmed Raza Kasuri, counsel for the former military dictator, said that Musharrafs release was not part of any deal and the ex-president would address a historic press conference after his release from the sub-jail. He claimed that fake cases were instituted against his client. 
A court in Egypt has upheld an earlier ruling that banned Brotherhood and ordered its assets confiscated. 
A top research group says prototype ballistic missiles seen at recent North Korean military parades may be more advanced than earlier believed, and may even be sophisticated enough to threaten the U.S. west coast.
Somali money transfer service Dahabshiil has won an injunction preventing Barclays from cutting its banking services. The injunction means customers will be able to transfer money through Dahabshiil for the foreseeable future.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday Israeli- Palestinian peace talks had run into difficulties but thought it still possible some agreement could be reached.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was poisoned to death in 2004 with radioactive polonium, his widow Suha said on Wednesday after receiving the results of Swiss forensic tests on her husband's corpse.
[An Nahar] Speaker 
[Dawn] The Punjab government has decided to suspend cellphone and wireless phone services in the areas surrounding the routes of Muharram 9 and 10 procession, Dawn has learnt.
Deputy Governor General of Sistan and Baluchestan province in security and political affairs said several people have been arrested in connection with assaisnation of Zabul prosecutor, IRNA reported.
[Dawn] At least two people were 
The United States is looking at new classified intelligence indicating the Syrian government may not fully declare its chemical weapons stockpile, CNN has learned. That would mean it will still have a secret cache of chemical weapons even after the current agreed-upon destruction effort is carried out.
[An Nahar] Can the Chemical Weapons Convention be used against a woman who tried to poison her rival in a love triangle?
[Dawn] THE government wanted it and the opposition has granted it, but no one has quite been able to explain any of it: talks with the Taliban are to be attempted again, but how, when and on what terms? The only thing that is clear since last weekend's drone strike is that Hakeemullah Mehsud is dead and that the political class wants the public to believe that his killing has dealt a major blow to the talks process. Beyond that, nothing is clear. Even Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan's claim that a three-member delegation was set to travel to the tribal areas the day Mehsud was killed remains unsubstantiated -- and there is some reason to be sceptical of it. The problem is the government appears unwilling or unable to address any of the obvious problems with its dialogue strategy.
[An Nahar] They work hard, sniffing out crime with only the occasional pat on the nose in gratitude.
Goodluck Jonathan
[An Nahar] Wool's wool is missing.
[Dawn] The provincial chapter of Tehrik Nafaz-e-Fiqa Jafria (TNFJ) has expressed dissatisfaction over the security measures taken by police for Muharram and demanded deployment of army in the most sensitive districts of 
KANDAHAR: Seven Afghan civilians believed kidnapped by the Taliban last month have been found dead with their hands bound behind their backs and apparently tortured, local officials in the southern province of Zabul said on Wednesday.
[Dawn] Many among the members of 
Nawaz Sharif
