US killtech behemoth Northrop Grumman has has said that it is ready to take orders for the "world's first ruggedised, weaponised high energy solid state laser designed for battlefield applications". The raygun module is dubbed FIRESTRIKE.
"This is a rugged electric laser with power levels, beam quality and runtime suitable for offensive and defensive military utility," said Northrop beam-cannon chief Dan Wildt.
"Combined with advanced electro optical and/or infrared sensors, the FIRESTRIKE laser can provide self-defense [or] precision strike capabilities."
Northrop has long been working to produce weapons-grade solid state lasers with US military funding. To date, the only way to make a laser useful as a weapon in its own right - rather than a pointer for other systems, or a dazzler - has been to use chemically fuelled systems.
There are two combat lasers under development right now using chemical fuels. The biggest is the jumbo-jet mounted Airborne Laser (ABL), intended to blast enemy ICBMs above their launch bases. Then there's the Hercules transport-plane Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) gunship model, intended perhaps as a silent, undetectable sky-sniper for the US special-ops community.
But chem lasers need big tanks of dangerous toxic fuel, and produce equally hazardous and corrosive exhaust products. Their logistics requirements are nightmarish, and realistically they are only for static use or mounting in large aircraft or ships.
Solid state lasers, powered by electricity, are much easier to deal with. Until now, however, they have had rather low power levels. As an example, Boeing's Humvee-mounted "Laser Avenger" has to be shone on an enemy munition for quite some time before it will explode.
Northrop reckon they've changed all that. A single FIRESTRIKE module weighs 400lb and delivers 15 kilowatts. FIRESTRIKEs can be linked together to get a more powerful beam, apparently.
It would seem, then, that FIRESTRIKE is simply one of Northrop's previously-announced solid state laser "chain" units, ready for sale. The firm has said that at least eight of these can be linked up to get a proper 100 kilowatt beam, generally seen as the threshold for a true battlefield weapon. Beam quality, for the laser aficionados among those reading, is listed at "nominally 1.5 times the diffraction limit". Others may be pleased to note that FIRESTRIKEs come with Ethernet interface as standard.
Energy efficiency for Northrop's chains is supposedly in the 20 per cent region. This suggests that a full-bore 100kW battle ray will weigh about 1.5 tonnes and require half a megawatt of power. That's pretty hefty, but it's within the ballpark for modern combat vehicles.
Portable blaster rifles or carbines aren't really on the cards yet, then. But a reasonably useful laser tank could well be a goer if Northrop can do what they say.
There was no word on possible waterproof versions, with handy attachments for mounting on the head of one's hollowed out volcano lair swimming-pool menagerie. By comparison, a small, hand held five Watt laser can burn a hole in a cinder block.
Infectious diseases strike suddenly and can change quickly, leaving scientists scrambling to develop effective treatments. Staying one step ahead of disease is the goal of the $18 million Regional Biocontainment Laboratory dedicated yesterday at the University of Missouri. There, scientists will study diseases including the plague, anthrax and "Q Fever" in a safe, contained environment.
Experts say the research will be essential in battling the next generation of diseases.
"Were only a jet-plane ride away from our next epidemic, and were actually in this race with microbes," said Samuel Stanley Jr., director of the center for Biodefense & Emerging Infectious Disease Research at Washington University.
"They have this incredible ability to evolve, theyre changing all the time, and as they change they become resistant to the antibiotics. ... And at this point in time, Im not sure whos winning the race, but it may not be us," Stanley said.
The new laboratory, one of 13 facilities planned in the nation, was funded in large part by the National Institutes of Health to help scientists win the race. The MU lab will focus mainly on zoonotic diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans. The labs Level 3 security status means all diseases studied there will be treatable with a known vaccine or treatment.
But concern still exists about housing the potentially deadly diseases along East Campus Drive, close to a large student population. How can scientists be sure that what happens inside the lab stays inside?
To answer that question, MU scientists took reporters and some of the 85 people who attended a ribbon-cutting on a tour of some of the 10,000 square feet of lab space. They stressed safety.
* Doors to each laboratory require security keys, and scientists must pass through multiple secure sites to enter all labs. No clothing from the outside can be worn inside the labs. Disinfection occurs before scientists leave.
* Hallways in the facility have negative air pressure. Even if exterior doors were to open, air would be drawn inward.
* Air circulating inside the building is cleaned with highly efficient HEPA air filters. All liquid or exhaust from the building is purified by an autoclave, a device that heats and sterilizes it.
* The lab structure has a backup battery to maintain a continuous flow of electricity in the event of a power outage. A backup generator also can provide power to the facility for as long as two weeks.
* Researchers must undergo a federal background check. At least two people will work on research at a time to help ensure that no harmful pathogens are intentionally removed from the facility.
Proponents say the new lab is one of the most secure research facilities in the country and will be a major recruiting tool to lure new faculty to MU.
"The major risk that we focus on is protecting scientists," Kurilla said. "If we protect scientists from the work that theyre doing, then the risk to the public becomes nil."
In the event of a national emergency caused by the outbreak of disease, the lab would be one of the facilities used to quickly combat the problem.
"If we knew what was going to pop up next, we could easily prepare," said the labs director, George Stewart, who led the media tour. "The problem is the ultimate bioterrorist is Mother Nature, and she doesnt tell us whats lurking and is going to appear next." These scientists grew up watching The Andromeda Strain.
remember? Lawyer for Commie Elian Gonzalez's dad. Wonder who paid that bill, Fidel?
Perhaps a foundation that launders money for George Soros ...
Gregory B. Craig, a well-known Washington lawyer who quarterbacked President Bill Clinton's impeachment defense, has been chosen White House counsel by President-elect Barack Obama, according to Democratic officials.
Craig is intimately familiar with the president-elect's record because he played the role of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in debate preparations.
That doesn't mean squat since not even Bambi knows what his record is. Though it was likely a quick brief ...
The officials said Obama has settled on Craig but were not sure when the appointment would be announced.
The choice gives the president-elect both experience and loyalty. During the primaries, Craig was an early Clinton alumni defector to Obama. Columnist Robert D. Novak reported back in the winter of 2007 that Craig had told him he "was impressed with Obama when he first met him at the home of investment banker Vernon Jordan, an intimate friend and supporter of the Clintons."
Craig was an Obama foreign policy adviser during the campaign. At the start of the Clinton administration, he had been the State Department's Director of Policy Planning, the head of State's in-house think tank. He also was senior adviser on defense, foreign policy and national security to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).
The White House counsel, among the most powerful members of the West Wing inner circle, serves as the president's lawyer, giving him legal advice and handling pardons and conflict-of-interest issues.
Craig, 63, is a partner at Williams & Connolly and a protégé of the late Edward Bennett Williams, the legendary Washington power lawyer. His selection adds to the surprisingly large number of Clinton White House veterans who are at the top of the Obama roster.
What's so surprising? Bambi has to turn to Democrats who at least know the ropes. It's not like the progressive mopes on the Left know anything about goverance, since they've always fought against it ...
Craig, who had been friends with Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham at Yale Law School, was recruited for the impeachment job by John Podesta, then deputy White House chief of staff and now a leader of Obama's transition.
A Washington Post profile in 1998 by Lloyd Grove and John F. Harris reported: "Craig brought along his best bedside manner when Clinton summoned him to the White House residence on the night of Sept. 10 -- the day after independent counsel Kenneth Starr's lurid report to Congress was published on the World Wide Web. On a balcony overlooking the South Lawn, Clinton and Craig sat talking for two hours."
Among Craig's other high-profile cases: successfully representing Elian Gonzalez' father, a Cuban, in his efforts to regain custody of his son; and representing U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in connection during the Volcker Commission's investigation of the Oil-for-Food Program at the United Nations.
He's got all the correct seedy recommendations then ...
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/16/2008
17:03 ||
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LOL - could've been clearer. Poor brainwashed Elian. His Dad is the Commie, Janet Reno and this POS are main culprits
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/16/2008 17:08
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Change you can believe in? It's beginning to look like another Clinton administration.
#5
Is this deja vu all over again, or have the flys stopped circling D.C. and begun to land on a newly layed hot one? I hope the Good Lord gives me a few more years. I surely wouldn't want to miss any of this.
The family of two Islamist extremists executed this week for the 2002 Bali bombings criticised an Indonesian Web site for publishing close-up photos of them in funeral shrouds, a report said Saturday.
I guess they're going to be real unhappy when I use a rubber stamp to strike 'Cancelled' on each of the pics for the Burg ...
Pictures of the faces of brothers Amrozi and Mukhlas as well as ringleader Imam Samudra after they were executed by firing squad on Nov. 9 appeared on the Islamist Ar Rahmah Web site. The photos were captioned with text in Arabic and Indonesian praising the murderers as the "martyrs of the battle of Bali."
Amrozi's and Mukhlas's eyes were open but Samudra's were shut.
"The family has been trying to anticipate this as best as we can but in the end the photos were stolen," Mohammad Chozin, the elder brother of Amrozi and Mukhlas, told Detikcom news Web site. "The family hasn't had the chance yet to ask Ar Rahman about this," he said.
Lawyer Fahmi Bachmid said the images were published against the will of the dead bombers.
Then again, who asked them?
The 2002 Bali bombings by the Jemaah Islamiahmilitant network killed 202 people including 88 Australians, in what the bombers said was the defense of Islam.
Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai warned on Sunday that President Robert Mugabe would cause the collapse of a power-sharing agreement if he imposes a unity government.
"He would have literally collapsed the deal," Tsvangirai told AFP in Stasbourg, northern France, during a rare visit to Europe.
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader also said negotiations on the power-sharing government with Mugabe must not be allowed to run on indefinitely.
"It can't be forever," Tsvangirai said. "We cannot go on and on and on."
The MDC has said it would only join a unity government once a constitutional amendment is passed to comply with all the terms of the September 15 deal, under which Mugabe would remain president and Tsvangirai become premier.
However Zimbabwe's parliament needs to approve an amendment to create the office of the prime minister and define its powers.
Mugabe vowed to soon form a new government after regional leaders proposed earlier this month that his ZANU-PF and the MDC immediately set up a new cabinet. The proposal was rejected by the opposition.
TBILISI, GeorgiaEuropean Union cease-fire monitors in Georgia say they were shot at near a breakaway region in the former Soviet republic.
The EU observer mission says in a statement Sunday that shots were fired as they investigated the shooting death of a Georgian policeman near the border with Abkhazia. They called the incident "unacceptable" and asked Abkhaz authorities to investigate.
No one was injured in Saturday's shooting. The 225-strong mission is there to monitor a fragile cease-fire brokered after a short war between Russia and Georgia in August.
Abkhazia is one of two regions of Georgia controlled by Moscow-friendly separatists to have been recognized as independent by Russia but not the West.
A local geological agency official says a powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake has struck eastern Indonesia. A tsunami warning was immediately issued and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says a destructive regional tsunami is possible.
The official, Fauzi, said the underwater quake hit off Sulawesi island. He did not have any immediate reports about damage or injuries.
The U.S. Geological Survey said Monday the quake struck 13 miles (21 kilometers) beneath the sea and was centered 54 miles (135 kilometers) from Gorantalo, a coastal town on Sulawesi.
Indonesia is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
In a devastating week for Myanmar's democracy movement, dozens of its members have been sentenced to length prison terms, as the military-ruled government locks away writers and Buddhist monksas well as musicians, a poet and at least one journalist.
By the weekend, more than 80 had received sentences of up to 65 yearsa move that seemed designed to keep them jailed long past the upcoming elections, activists and analysts said Sunday.
"They are clearing the decks of anyone who is likely to challenge their authority ahead of the election" in 2010, Larry Jagan, a Bangkok-based newspaper columnist and Myanmar analyst, said of the generals who rule the country.
Many of those sentenced were arrested following mass pro-democracy protests that were crushed by the ruling junta in September 2007. According to U.N. estimates, at least 31 people were killed and thousands were detained. Many fled the country or went underground.
Others sentenced this week were arrested in 2007 for protesting a massive fuel-price hikedemonstrations that preceded the protests in September. The blogger received more than 20 years in prison for Internet activities, and a poet was sentenced to two years for allegedly concealing the text of an anti-government slogan in one of his works. The journalist was arrested while covering a demonstration staged by victims of this year's devastating cyclone.
News of the sentences came mostly through activists and analysts. The military junta that has ruled Myanmar since 1962 did not comment on the sentences, most of which were handed down in closed-door proceedings. It was not known why the prisoners were sentenced now, although many analysts concluded the move was made to eliminate opposition ahead of the election that the junta has described as part of its "roadmap to democracy." Opposition groups and other critics dismiss it as a sham meant to perpetuate military rule.
"Now they won't be able to participate in the election," said Soe Aung, spokesman for the National Council for the Union of Burma, a Thailand-based umbrella organization for exile groups. "The generals are trying to put the final nail in the coffin to keep themselves in power forever."
Twenty-three of those sentenced were members of the 88 Generation Students group, veterans of a brutally suppressed 1988 democratic uprising, who received prison terms of 65 years each, and a labor activist, Su Su Nway, was sentenced to 12 1/2 years. At least 10 people allied with the pro-democracy National League for Democracy party headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi received jail terms of eight to 24 years.
"They fear the 88 Generation Students. They were at the forefront of the protest last year, and they are not passive," Jagan said.
Early Sunday, nine of the more prominent members of the 88 Generation Students group were taken from infamous Insein Prison in a Yangon suburb to prisons in more remote parts of the country, according to Aung Din, co-founder of the Washington-based U.S. Campaign for Burma, which lobbies for political change in Myanmar, also called Burma.
"The transfer of political prisoners to far-flung districts is an additional punishment to the activists and such a move will cause extreme social and financial burden to the families," said Nyan Win, spokesman for the National League for Democracy party.
The European Union said last week that the election will be seen as illegitimate unless the junta frees all political prisoners.
Amnesty International and other human rights groups say the junta holds more than 2,100 political prisoners, up sharply from nearly 1,200 in June 2007, before the pro-democracy demonstrations.
The prisoners include opposition leader Suu Kyi, who has spent more than 13 of the past 19 years under house arrest.
An Israeli airstrike killed four Palestinian militants as they fired mortars from the Gaza Strip on Sunday, Palestinian officials said, just hours after another group of militants struck Israel in a separate rocket attack.
The violence was the latest in a surge of clashes that have rocked a 5-month-old truce between Israel and Gaza's militant Hamas rulers. Both sides say they would like to preserve the Egyptian-mediated truce, which is due to expire next month, but events over the past two weeks signal the opposite is happening.
The militants killed in the airstrike were from a small Hamas-allied group known as the Popular Resistance Committees. Abu Attaya, a spokesman for the group, said the four were firing mortars at Israel when they were killed.
The Israeli military said the airstrike targeted a rocket squad in northern Gaza.
After the strike, dozens of onlookers converged on the bodies of two of the dead men shouting "God is great." They then carried the bodies, one wrapped in a blanket, to a nearby civilian car.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum threatened retaliation. "Today's crime will not pass without punishment," he said.
At sundown a rocket launched from Gaza hit a house under construction in the battered Israeli border town of Sderot, slightly wounding a resident, police and media reports said.
Palestinians launched two other rockets earlier in the day. No one was hurt, the military said.
According to the Israeli military's count, Palestinians have sent more than 170 rockets and mortars flying at Israel since the violence resumed nearly two weeks ago. Israeli troops have killed 15 militants, and two more died in unclear circumstances. No civilians have been killed on either side.
Israeli leaders signaled they had not given up on the cease-fire. Speaking Sunday ahead of the Israeli Cabinet's weekly meeting, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said, "We are not eager for battle but we do not fear it."
Israel has dispatched several messages to Hamas, via Egypt, saying it wants to see the truce preserved, Israeli defense officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the efforts were not made public. Hamas officials also confirmed they have been in touch with Egypt.
In Gaza, the prime minister of the Hamas government, Ismail Haniyeh, said continuing the truce "depends on stopping the aggression against our people, opening the border crossings and all the terms of the calm."
Israel has sealed Gaza's border crossings since the latest fighting erupted, barring badly needed goods and fuel from entering the impoverished territory. U.N. food supplies in Gaza have been depleted and the fuel cutoff has led to power shortages.
Olmert is set to meet on Monday with Hamas' rival, moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, for another in a series of talks on peace negotiations.
An Abbas aide said the Palestinian leader would ask Olmert "to avoid further suffering of the people in the Gaza Strip," Nabil Abu Rdeneh said.
Although Abbas no longer controls Gaza, he still claims to be the Legitimate leader and representative of the area's 1.4 million people.
Gordon Brown tonight called on the world's most powerful industrial nations to agree a programme of immediate and coordinated tax cuts to prevent the global economy sliding deeper into recession.
Yep, do that, cut some spending, rein in the stupidities and be smart about who you let go bust and who you don't ...
Arriving in New York for this weekend's unprecedented gathering of the leaders of the world's leading 20 economies, the prime minister said the need for a "fiscal stimulus" both for the UK economy and the world had increased after an autumn in which accelerating job losses had intensified fears of a deep and lasting slump.
Brown proposed a four-point plan which he hopes will win support at tomorrow's summit and help tackle the most severe financial crisis for 90 years. "By acting now we can stimulate growth in all our economies," he said. "There is a need for urgency. The cost of inaction will be far greater than the cost of any action."
Brown believes an agreement by the G20 this weekend will provide his government with the political cover it needs to finance a multibillion-pound package of tax cuts in the upcoming pre-budget report. "For Britain, a fiscal stimulus is the right course, as Mervyn King [governor of the Bank of England] made clear today, and we will be setting out our proposals in the pre-budget report," he said.
Brown will argue that countries cannot rely on interest rate cuts alone in the face of the wider economic crisis, and that the impact of tax cuts or higher public spending will be lessened if only a handful of countries take part. "It is now becoming increasingly accepted around the world that a temporary and affordable fiscal stimulus is needed. This will have most impact if it is coordinated internationally."
Last night George Bush admitted the global financial system needed reform, but insisted that the credit crunch was not a failure of the free market system. Speaking at Federal Hall on Wall Street, he said while financial markets needed some new regulation and more transparency, free trade should not be restricted. "The answer is not to try to reinvent that system. It is to fix the problems we face, make the reforms we need, and move forward with the free market principles that have delivered prosperity and hope to people all across the globe," he said.
"While reforms in the financial sector are essential, the long-term solution to today's problems is sustained economic growth. And the surest path to that growth is free markets and free people."
The scale of the problem facing Brown was underlined yesterday as the pound fell to a six-year low against the dollar, ending the day at $1.48. It also ended at an all-time low against the euro of almost 85 pence as traders priced in more interest rate cuts in the UK following Wednesday's bleak outlook from the Bank of England.
Figures confirmed that Germany, the world's third largest economy, had entered recession. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development yesterday predicted the world's economies were heading into a "protracted recession".
The summit is seen by Downing Street as a crucial stage in tackling domestic and international problems. "This is a global problem that requires a global solution. Only by acting with our international partners can we address the challenging economic circumstances affecting families and business in Britain." Progress was urgently needed in three other areas, Brown said.
To identify and rectify the weaknesses of the international financial system exposed during the banking crisis.
For rich countries to pump more money into the International Monetary Fund to support developing countries.
Brown will push for world trade talks which opened in 2001 but finally broke down in the summer to be reopened and concluded by the end of this year.
Government officials are concerned that the meeting is being chaired by the outgoing President George Bush rather than president-elect, Barack Obama. They fear it means that Washington is less focused than other countries on making firm commitments. Brown will not be meeting Obama personally on his two day trip but his officials will be meeting Obama's transition team.
#1
Brown's Labour? And he's advocating tax cuts? Did the wife put something in my coffee?
Posted by: Jonathan ||
11/16/2008 12:37
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He knows that socialist overspending can only exists with economic growth and capitalism. Here is my country we see a lot of socialists saying they want to save capitalism... :)
Ab Tak Chhappan! The title of this Ram Gopal Varma film easily comes to mind observing the manner in which the Maharashtra ATS is going about picking up people all over India and slapping them into the cooler on a daily basis, ostensibly in a bid to unearth dimensions of "Hindu terror".
We have lost count of the number of persons interrogated, sent on police or judicial remand, their brains penetrated with narcotic substances to induce confession to their "crimes". But not a day has passed, since Sadhvi Pragya was nabbed some 25 days ago, without somebody or the other being arrested, allegedly in connection with a fantastic plot conjured up by the Maharashtra Police.
Those arrested included serving and retired Army officers, school and college teachers, political activists and now even a resourceful sadhu. Every evening at the news meeting in our office, the first question asked is, "What's the score today? Ab tak ...?"
Buoyed by enthusiastic endorsement from the "secular" media, which is gleefully eating out of the ATS' hands, the so-called Hindu terror plot keeps assuming an ever-growing magnitude. Not content with pinning the blame for the minor bomb blasts in Malegaon and Modasa, then Nanded and later Kanpur, the ATS' ambitions have increased manifold. Currently, it is busy trying to implicate the same group in the 2006 Samjhauta Express blasts. Curiously, SIMI commander Safdar Nagori's narco tests have resulted in a confession that his organisation executed the Samjhauta bombings. Does this mean that so-called Hindu terrorists have been synchronising their moves with SIMI? Or, maybe ATS will tomorrow come up with a theory that "Hindu terrorists" have been funding and masterminding the actions of jihadis who innocently fell into the Hindu trap in the lure of money. Far fetched? Not really, if you consider the gigantic yarns being spun around the purported confessions of the detained suspects.
Interestingly, in the last seven days, contradictory "leaks" have been planted on the handpicked media about the responses of detained suspects. A particularly hilarious story front-paged by a leading national daily claimed that the narco-analysis of Sadhvi Pragya came to a naught because she meditates daily! Apparently, those who are ardent practitioners of that spiritual art become immune to narco tests because their mental powers are strong enough to resist drug-induced coercion aimed at extracting confessions.
Moral of the story: All criminals ought to mediate, for then narco-tests shall fail and they go scot-free!
By the way, it would be interesting to know if the servants arrested in the Arushi Talwar murder case were also trained in the art of meditation. Must be, for the CBI failed to get any information out of them and finally they had to be released. Similarly, Lt Col. Srikant Purohit, too, foiled the investigators' desperate attempts to cajole him into confessing his crime because, we are told, as an Armyman, he was trained to absorb stress and no amount of drugs got him to talk. Halted on their tracks, the ATS then leaked purported details of Purohit's confessions, which were eagerly lapped up by sections of the media to further their campaign to equate "Hindu" with jihadi terror.
Following the arrest of Swami Amritanand aka Dayanand Pandey or Sudhakar Dwivedi, we were treated to details of his past, website photos, his ashrams, connections with top national personalities, ex-President APJ Abdul Kalam downwards. But what we never got to know was his role in the Malegaon blasts. Within hours of his arrest, the Haryana Railway Police swooped down on him apparently to discover his link to the Samjhauta Express blasts, which self-confessedly, SIMI had carried out. Without a shred of evidence to that effect, he has already been awarded the epithet of "Terror Guru".
In the same way, the highly respected Bhonsala Military School has been dubbed a terror factory - a term used hitherto for Talibanised madrasas. Merely because some members of a little known outfit called Abhinav Bharat, an adjunct of the largely defunct Hindu Mahasabha, visited the premises of the school, its custodians were hounded to the point of putting in their papers.
Judging by the hype accompanying the "Hindu terror" revelations, it would appear that nothing else is happening in this country for the last month or so. With every passing day, the ATS' concoctions get more incredible, the scale of "leaked" stories magnified and the media's tone becomes predictably shriller. All this before any of the arrested persons is formally charged or given an opportunity to defend themselves. Wasn't it the Congress that kept cautioning us against trial by media? Wasn't it Manmohan Singh who plaintively lamented that everything in this country gets politicised? But when a trial by the media is actually sponsored by the Government and agencies under its control, like the Maharashtra ATS, nobody sees anything wrong with it.
That, in the process, even the Army is being hauled over the coals and its exalted status sullied beyond repair is of no consequence. Clearly, the Government thinks tarnishing the Army serves its short-term agenda: Putting BJP on the backfoot. Nothing is too sacrosanct to achieve that aim in an election year. In the face of mounting public anger against the UPA's all-round failure, especially its vote-bank politics over terrorism, the Government desperately needed a face-saver. So, they decided to construct an elaborate theory of all-pervasive Hindu terror hoping to convince the electorate that the Hindutva forces are the real fountainhead of all terrorist activities. It is a matter of time before it is volubly argued by "secular" politicians and their media cheerleaders that jihadi terror is nothing but an act of self-defence in the face of rampant "Hindu terrorist" provocation.
With investigating agencies dragging their feet (could it be under orders from above?), failing to convict any terror accused so far, this is a clever ploy to divert attention from the real danger jihadi terror poses to India. Determined to thwart efforts by BJP-ruled States to introduce tough anti-terror laws, the Government has directed the President to return Narendra Modi's proposed GUJCOC, drafted on the lines of MCOCA, which is operational in UPA-ruled Maharashtra. And the Centre is equally determined not to execute Afzal Guru despite the Supreme Court sentencing him to death several years back. Incidentally, Muslim-majority Indonesia has fewer qualms: It executed three Islamic radicals last week, soon after they were convicted for the Bali bombings.
But our Government is focused on damning Hindu organisations by a sustained campaign of calumny. I wonder if the Maharashtra ATS will soon "unearth" global linkages of Hindu terror and accuse some sadhvi, swami or an Army officer of having plotted 9/11 too!
What the Congress-led Government is failing to recognise is that public anger against a regime increasingly seen as decidedly anti-Hindu, is rising. In the process, the Congress may actually be helping to create a Hindu vote for the first time in India's history. Pyromaniacs often end up being consumed by the very fire they light
Posted by: john frum ||
11/16/2008
12:25 ||
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Too bad that America is paralyzed by PC and not sure what it will take to shake this disease off our backs. Sad to heard that a stinkin Hungarian commie started it...must have been Soros' mentor/hero.
I had to find something for this page!
The jurors had spent the better part of two days battling one of their own, Juror No. 9, who had refused to participate in deliberations. Several feared that they were headed for a hung jury, an ignominious end to the month-long corruption trial of Sen. Ted Stevens, one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress. But when the jurors reconvened a few days later, it took them just hours to find Stevens guilty on all seven counts of lying on financial disclosure forms to hide more than $250,000 in gifts and renovations to his Girdwood, Alaska, house.
The jurors said they went from near-disaster to a quick verdict after they put their bickering aside and realized that prosecutors had presented an overwhelming case. Stevens, they said, did himself no favors by taking the stand, where he destroyed the grandfatherly image his lawyers had carefully crafted.
For most of the trial, the 84-year-old senator sat hunched over the defense table listening to testimony through court-issued headphones. He fit the part, some jurors said, of an elderly gentleman who left many of life's details - including his house renovations - to others.
But the jurors' empathy vanished the moment Stevens came under cross-examination. Stevens, the jurors said, came off as evasive, arrogant and combative, and his answers did not jibe with the evidence. He said one gift was a loan and that others were not gifts at all. He said he was not aware that work had been done on his house.
"He looked fragile for most of the trial, and then he testified, and, man, he became this lion," said Colleen Walsh, one of two jurors and two alternates interviewed about their experiences during the trial. "I thought, 'Wait a minute, if the defense is trying to portray this man as a sympathetic character who didn't know what was going on in his life, why did they put him on the stand and he could recall everything that happened except the gifts?' "
Two weeks after the jury returned its verdict, its ramifications still are not known. Stevens's lawyers are expected to file court documents seeking to overturn it, and U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan has not set a sentencing date. Stevens faces as much as five years in prison on each count. Despite the trial, Stevens ran for a seventh full term and trails his Democratic opponent by 1,022 votes in the most recent tally.
The jurors said they are not surprised the senator garnered such support. Stevens is revered in Alaska, and testimony from high-profile figures such as former secretary of state Colin L. Powell showed that Stevens is well liked and respected, they said. After Veco workers testified about helping to turn the modest cabin into a two-story house with a garage, whirlpool and two wraparound decks, the trial got interesting, jurors said.
That is when prosecutors introduced a stack of e-mails between Stevens and a family friend who monitored the renovations. The e-mails highlighted Allen's work and lauded the labor of Veco employees at the house, which Stevens and his wife call "the chalet."
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/16/2008
11:29 ||
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Being guilty as sin probably didn't help his case much either.
#2
He's one piece of trash the NEW Republican Party doesn't need cluttering up the landscape. John McCain is another - too old, too slow, and too opinionated, trusting too many of the wrong people.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/16/2008 14:02
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The West Bengal government has sounded a red alert throughout the state following intelligence reports that terrorists may trigger serial blasts in different parts of the state.
A senior official said the state government had already received alarming information from the intelligence wing of the Border Security Force (BSF) that at least three teams of the Islamic Jihad Council (IJC) comprising activists of L-e-T, Jaish-e-Mohammad, HuJI and a couple of militant groups from the Northeast might carry on serial blasts in different places of Kolkata, Asansol, Siliguri and New Jalpaiguri station within a fortnight. The report from the BSF said that the families of the terrorists had already received between Rs 500,000 and Rs 10,00,000 each as remuneration for carrying out the blasts. The terrorists had already entered the state from Bangladesh and reached their hideouts in both South and North Bengal.
The city and state police had already launched massive search operations in New Market, Chowringhee, Gariahat, Park Circus, Victoria Memorial and the possible hideouts of the terrorists in the city. The security forces had also intensified vigilance in all underground railway stations in the city and terminal railway stations like Howrah, Sealdah and New Jalpaiguri. Search operations were also being carried out in inter-state bus terminals in both South and North Bengal.
According to intelligence reports, the agents of Pakistans Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and a section of the Bangladeshi civil and military officials have been coordinating with the terrorists to carry out subversive activities in India. With easy availability of arms, ammunition and explosives from China via Myanmar, this unholy alliance of terrorists are set to create havoc in India as it is evident from the recent blasts in North India, Tripura and Assam, the reports point out. The militants from Assam, Tripura, Manipur and West Bengal have already undergone a series of training along with the members of the IJC on use of different kind of explosives, including RDX and TNT under the supervision of some ISI and Bangladeshi experts, the reports pointed out.
The report feared that the ISI and the IJC might even use the Maoists to carry out serial blasts in different parts of the country. The United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) had already arranged meetings between the ISI agents and the Maoists, both in Bangladesh and Nepal, the reports added.
Reports from across the border said that at least 20 teams, comprising Indian militants and Islamic terrorists, had been formed after extensive training on use of different kinds of explosive to carry out clandestine activities in different parts of India. These teams had reportedly established contacts with their linkmen in different parts of the country, including West Bengal, Karnataka, Hyderabad, Maharashtra, Gujarat and New Delhi. Each team comprised at least seven members.
The state official said that the serial blasts were designed to destroy the basic fabric of the country and the centre should pay more attention to the international border with Bangladesh. On our part, we have intensified vigilance along the border and other vulnerable areas to prevent any subversive activity by these unholy nexus of Islamic terrorists and Indian militants, he added.
#1
I would have no qualms with India reasserting its sovereignty over Bangladesh territory and most of Pakistan, so long as they outlawed Islam in the process. The entire world would be a better place. Either that, or exile all Indian militant Hindus to Pakistan and Bangladesh, and close the border. As I said elsewhere, Islam is a cancer and it's time to exise it.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/16/2008 12:08
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ION INDIA, PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > ASSAM'S LARGEST TRIBE GOES TO WAR AGZ ITS MUSLIMS; + THE RISE OF INDIA'S SAFFRO-NAZIS. Militant Hindu Right-Wing COMMUNALISM is the alleged REAL THREAT to India, NOT the rise of any local Communism, + US EXPERT: BANGLADESHI'S NAVY IS FAR SUPERIOR TO MYMANMAR'S, + BANGLADESH BUILDS A MISSLE ARSENAL.
To any of our fellow Conservatives who think school vouchers are a good idea, get a load of this.
THE HAGUE, 14/11/08 - Nearly nine out of 10 Islamic schools in the Netherlands spend government subsidies unlawfully. The education ministry confirmed yesterday following a report in De Telegraaf that 86 percent of the schools make fraudulent use of money.
De Telegraaf obtained a study by State Secretaries Sharon Dijksma and Marja van Bijsterveldt of Education of the 41 primary schools and two secondary schools that provide Islamic education. At half of the schools, the quality of the education is assessed as weak to very weak. At normal schools, this figure is 11 percent.
Additionally, financial mismanagement was established at 86 percent of Islamic school managements.
The illegal spending ranges from salaries to 'teachers' who turn out to be the wives of management board members, unlawful payments for transport that is never hired and even, as already made known earlier, trips to Saudi Arabia - the school (Ibn Ghaldoun in Rotterdam) bought plane tickets for Muslims who had nothing to do with the school whatsoever.
The Islamic education "gives ground for great concern," said Dijksma and Van Bijsterveldt yesterday. The education ministry is trying to claim back 4.5 million euros in unlawfully spent subsidies from the schools. This is an increase of 2.5 million from fraud figures previously known.
Due to the constitutional freedom of education - every religion can set up its own school at the expense of the government -
the government sees little possibility of intervening.
No Islamic school has ever been closed.
Virtually nothing can be done against fraudulent school managers either.
Dijksma and Van Bijsterveldt hope that the Islamic schools themselves will introduce reforms. The weak and very weak Islamic schools will come under "intensive supervision" by the Education Inspectorate. And "if the position of the management board becomes insupportable, the ministry will push for the removal of the board," they write to the Lower House.
#1
I still believe charter schools and vouchers are ok. The only way to circumvent the communistic teachers' unions and promote choice for parents and students. This doesn't mean they acn simply operate without any regulation or oversight. It merely proves that the Netherlands is hardly a nation at all any longer. Unfortunately, thanks to this election of Hussein, the US is heading down the same path.
The Inspector General of Police, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura has issued a strong warning to Muslims who have threatened to violently deal with their Mufti Sheik Shaban Mubajje if the Court tomorrow finds him innocent of allegations of selling Muslim properties.
Buganda Road Chief Magistrates Court will tomorrow Monday issue its judgment on a case filed against Mubajje and other leaders of the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council. Mubajje, UMSC Chairman, Hajji Hasan Basajabala and former UMSC General Secretary Hajji Dr. Edris Kasenene are accused of selling several properties belonging to Muslims. The trio were sued in the Court by a group of Muslims led by Sheik Muzata but the case was later taken over the Directorate of Public Prosecutions since the case was criminal.
A group of muslims on Friday said they were going to launch a Jihad (Holy war) on Monday if the muslims leaders are declared innocent by the court. They have threatened to come ready to die and discipline the leaders if they are freed of charges. But Maj. Gen. Kayihura says the Police will not allow any group of Muslims to cause chaos in the city when the ruling is read out on Monday. He says the police are ready and well equipped to deal with any violence and will not allow anyone to take the law in to their own hands.
The police chief says that if any group feels the judgment read by Court tomorrow is unfavorable, they should appeal the judgment to higher courts of law.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Pakistan temporarily barred oil tankers and container trucks from a key passageway to Afghanistan, threatening a critical supply route for U.S. and NATO troops on Sunday and raising more fears about security in the militant-plagued border region.
The suspension came as U.S.-led coalition troops reported killing 30 insurgents in fighting in southern Afghanistan and detaining two militant leaders _ both in provinces near Pakistan's lawless border.
Al-Qaida and Taliban fighters are behind much of the escalating violence along the lengthy, porous Afghan-Pakistan border, and both nations have traded accusations that the other was not doing enough to keep militants out from its side.
The tensions come as violence in Afghanistan has reached its highest level since the U.S.-led invasion ousted the Taliban regime in 2001, and as a surge in U.S. missile strikes on the Pakistani side of the border has prompted protests from Pakistan government leaders.
Last Monday, a band of militants hijacked around a dozen trucks whose load included Humvees headed to the foreign forces in Afghanistan. Renewed security concerns prompted officials to impose the temporary ban on tankers and trucks carrying sealed containers late Saturday, government official Bakhtiar Khan said. He said it could be lifted as early as Monday.
Lt. Cmdr. Walter Matthews, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, acknowledged only that "the appropriate authorities are coordinating security procedures."
"The convoys will continue flowing. We will not discuss when, or where, or what," he said.
Denied entry to the route, dozens of the trucks and oil tankers were parked along a main road near Peshawar, the regional capital.
Asked about security fears, Rehmatullah, a driver who gave only one name and said his truck was carrying a military vehicle of some sort, said, "This is our job, and we have to do it, but yes, we have a security risk every time we pass through the route."
Many of the supplies headed to foreign troops arrive in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi in unmarked, sealed shipping containers and are loaded onto trucks for the journey either to the border town of Chaman or the primary route, through the famed Khyber Pass.
Last week's ambush took place at the entrance to the pass. Police said around 60 masked militants forced the convoy to stop, briefly trading fire with nearby security officers. U.S. officials say the attackers seized two Humvees and a water truck. Several trucks carrying wheat for the World Food Program were also hijacked.
While critical of U.S. missile strikes in Pakistan's northwest tribal regions, both Pakistan's prime minister and president denied any plans to subvert the supply line as a pressure tactic in recent interviews with The Associated Press.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/16/2008
09:59 ||
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#2
no lets remember this when the next AID check is supposed too be handed over
Posted by: chris ||
11/16/2008 13:30
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#3
This is what will drive us out of Afghanistan. The Taliban can't possibly beat us in the field, and they won't convert the population to their cause. But they can disrupt supply sufficiently that we and NATO will have little choice, and I expect our NATO 'allies' to fold first.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/16/2008 17:49
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CIA director Michael Hayden has warned that every major terrorist threat confronting the world has ties to Pakistan.
In a speech to the Atlantic Council on Thursday, Mr Hayden also claimed that Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was hiding in Fata. "Let me be very clear. Today, virtually every major terrorist threat that my agency is aware of has threads back to the tribal areas," Mr Hayden told the Washington-based think-tank.
The CIA director, however, acknowledged that Bin Laden was isolated from the day-to-day operations of Al Qaeda, although the organisation was still the greatest threat to the US. "If there is a major strike on this country (the US), it will bear the fingerprints of Al Qaeda," he warned.
Gen Hayden, however, depicted Al Qaeda chief as an extremely frustrated man who spent all his time trying to survive and had no time for guiding his militants. "[Bin Laden] is putting a lot of energy into his own survival, a lot of energy into his own security," the CIA chief said. "He appears to be largely isolated from the day-to-day operations of the organisation he nominally heads."
Capturing Bin Laden, however, remained the US government's top priority, he added. "His death or capture clearly would have a significant impact on the confidence of his followers - both core Al Qaeda and unaffiliated extremists throughout the world," he said.
After depicting Pakistan as the hub of all major terrorist activities in the world, the CIA chief also conceded that Pakistan faced a complex situation. "While the problem looks easy from thousands of miles away, it's extremely difficult up close because of the tribal issues," he said.
The CIA chief said he believed the Pakistani government had been "extraordinarily helpful" in responding to this challenge. Their plan, which they started to implement in 2006, to slowly expand their reach over the Fata would have been wise and far-reaching were it not for the extreme urgency of the threat, he added. We've killed and captured more top Al Qaeda operatives with the support of the Pakistani security forces than anywhere else in the world. What remains unclear is what the end game is," he added.
According to him, Al Qaeda was chased out of Yemen in the 1990s only to reconstitute in Afghanistan. It was run out of Afghanistan in 2001, only to disperse, setting up a rump headquarters in Pakistan and declare Iraq the "central front" of its effort. "Where, then, does it stop? Or is this simply a case of perpetual penalty kicks?" he asked.
Mr Hayden warned that despite the losses the terrorist group had to incur after 9/11, Al Qaeda was still spreading in Africa and the Mid-East.
The CIA believes progress has been made in curbing Al Qaeda's activities in the Philippines, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Other areas, however, are showing an increase in activity, including East Africa, the Maghreb, Yemen and Pakistan. Mr Hayden claimed that in Pakistan Al Qaeda had established safe haven and was training a "bench of skilled operatives."
Gen Hayden was appointed CIA director in May 2006 by President George Bush but it's not clear whether he will retain his job when President-elect Barack Obama takes office in January.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/16/2008
09:54 ||
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#1
And we've been saying that for how long? Gee, Rantburg scoops the CIA. Who alerted Gen. Hayden to our group? Whoever it was, congratulations. Now if he (and a few others) would only listen to our advice, especially about Pakiwakiland and Somalia. Remember, General, it's better to be feared than to be treated with contempt. Most of the Islamic world has nothing but contempt for the US, because we've been playing war as if it were a British tea party. Turn the Pashtun areas into a totally inhospitable desert, and 90% of the problems in Afghanistan and Pakistan would disappear. Bomb all the madrassas in pakistan, and even more problems would be eliminated. They may hate us, but they're darned sure not going to attack us, especially if we tell them the next time we do it with nukes.
Salafi Islam is a cancer. The sooner we excise ALL of it (including the Magick Kingdom), the sooner things quiet down. Take their fricking oil as payment for our need to respond to their aggression, grind them into dust, and tell any other islamic nutjob we'll be coming after them with the biggest stick in our arsenal if they cause any more problems. These people only respond to the strongest horse. We've been acting like a broken-down Shetland Pony. Time to bring out the Thoroughbreds and Clydesdales.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/16/2008 11:47
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#2
well they do say you learn something new everyday. (sarcasm)
Posted by: chris ||
11/16/2008 13:31
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#3
It's one thing for us to say this online at the Burg and to congratulate one another on our insight.
It's rather another and more significant thing for the Director of the CIA to say it in a public speech during a period in which we've launched dozens of UAV attacks into Pakistan.
"Tent cities are already sprouting up around the country and were going to see many more."
Where are all these tent cities around the country?
I think this might be suffering from hyperbole because you can't get attention with screaming disaster. His previous predictions were reasonably correct only because they could be realistic and still sound hyperbolic when compared to everyone else.
Now that most people are crying doom, he really has to go over the top.
#8
Okee dokee, between this guy, the Mayan calendar prediction and Obama's sure to be higher tax rates, I think I'm gonna slack off for the next few years.
#9
I've been contemplating buying some Earth Boxes (because the soil on my property is thin and poor, and because I'm too busy to do an in-ground garden the right way) and stashing some non-hybrid seeds. Just as an insurance policy.
If I really bought into the panic, I'd be setting up an indoor area to grow veggies over the winter. Maybe hydroponic. But that would entail moving a bunch of stuff around in the house and Mr. Lotp is already highly skeptical about a recent ammo purchase. He was mollified to see that they were just a couple hundred rounds of practice stuff ... but then, I've been away from the range for a while and I need practice.
BTW, I've been trying for 3 months to buy a 20 ga tactical shotgun. The decent ones cannot be found for love nor money right now and no word on whether they'll ever be available. Dunno if we'll have a real depression or revolution but clearly a bunch of somebodies are hedging their bets.
#11
We've been procrastinating on getting a backup power system for our home, which is in the exurbs. I think it's time to start calling around for quotes.
BTW - if any Rantburgers picked up a 20 ga Reminton 870, 18" barrel, folding tactical stock and is willing to see it go to another good home, leave a note in the O Club. I promise it will see practice at the range and be put to good use. (We live too close for my comfort to a small city that was ruined by race riots in the 60s and is mostly drug/gang -ridden public housing now.)
#12
The author has watched our situation unfold in Zim, South Africa, and most recently the UK. The parallels are indeed striking, as many on the Burg have previously noted. I hope and pray he is wrong.
#14
I guess I won't have a need for my hoard of incandescent light bulbs. I shoulda invested in canned tuna.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
11/16/2008 16:41
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And when the grid fails for an extended period of time, what do you use to fuel the generator? If we don't have Reddy Kilowatt hustling down the line, the diesel won't be delivered either. Ethanol from the still behind the garage?
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/16/2008 17:06
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LOL Frank. I was leaning towards gasoline or LP generators. Hadn't considered diesel .....
Well, I confess that I'm not likely to be energy or food independent here, NS. So if it comes to that we're in trouble. But in the meanwhile it would be nice to have our well pump work during short term power outages. And the electrically-powered doohickey that keeps our oil-burning furnace going too. Gets cold around here in winter. We've lost power for over 24 hrs due to ice storms more than once in the last few years.
We've had the money set aside for a backup power generator for a while now ... I've just not made it a priority to start the process of selecting a contractor and getting it installed / connected to our house panel.
#18
What I've been really been coveting of late is to plant several fruit trees and blueberry bushes. I had the catalogs all marked up in August but this was not the year for me to make sure half a dozen small trees were properly planted, watered in and mulched for the winter.
There are some delicious cherry varieties for which semi-dwarfed stock is now available .... mmmmm. And apples, but we've got apple orchards all around our area. Have my eye on two varieties of pears, tho, and maybe I can coax apricots to grow here if I coddle them through the winter ....
#25
LOPT, you need to go to Gunbroker.com , just go to the menu firearms-shotguns and type 'tactical' into the search. I just pulled up about 135 of all different configurations. I've sold several items in the past and bought a few. It's a reputable site with a secure payment service. Highly recommended.
A multi-million dollar Nigerian satellite launched in May 2007 has been shut down to prevent it spinning out of control and damaging others in orbit. Chinese-built NigComSat-1 cost the African oil producer $340m (£228m). NigComSat-1 was launched 18 months ago to much fanfare from the government, but it has been mired in controversy ever since.
The Nigerian government said insurance would pay for a replacement and Nigerians should still be proud of the country's satellite programme. But telecoms experts told the BBC it was a "white elephant in space" and the whole operation was a "debacle".
On Tuesday, controllers shut the satellite down because it was having problems with its power supply, the government announced. The satellite was meant to provide communications for government agencies and broadband internet. "This has been a real debacle from day one," a telecoms engineer told the BBC. The engineer, who works as a consultant for a multinational communications company, did not want to be named.
The satellite was limited because the type of frequency it used was disturbed by clouds in the atmosphere, and did not work properly in Nigeria's rainy season or during the Harmattan, when clouds of dust blow down from the Sahara, he said. The satellite also operated on frequencies already allocated to other companies and interfered with other providers' equipment.
But Information Minister John Odey denied the satellite was not worth investing in. "No technology can be a waste of money," he said. "It is a worthy investment, and Nigerians should see it as desirable. It has served a purpose and will continue to do so."
Local media initially reported that the satellite had "gone missing". But on Wednesday Minister of State for Science and Technology Alhassan Zaku told journalists it had lost power and had to be "parked, like you would park a car".
"If it wasn't parked and it lost all its power there would be no energy to even move it and it would be like a loose cannon and would keep rolling about and hit other satellites in the orbit," he told reporters.
According to analysts, Nigeria has made nearly $2 trillion in oil revenues over the last 30 years, but its population are mostly poor. Africa's most populous nation lacks basic infrastructure like power and water, and many Nigerians thought the satellite showed the government did not have its priorities right.
The news that the satellite could not get enough power to run has led to jokes that, as one e-mail doing the rounds put it: Nigeria has "exported its electricity generation problems to space".
Posted by: john frum ||
11/16/2008
08:19 ||
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Afghan President Hamid Karzai offered Sunday to provide security for the Taliban's reclusive leader if he agrees to enter peace talks, and suggested that the U.S. and other Western nations could leave the country or oust him if they disagree. Karzai's comments come as international political and military leaders are increasingly mulling whether negotiating with the Taliban is necessary as the insurgency gains sway in large areas of Afghanistan.
Karzai has long supported drawing the Islamist militia into the political mainstream on the condition that they accept the country's constitution. "If I say I want protection for Mullah Omar, the international community has two choices, remove me or leave if they disagree," Karzai said in an hourlong news conference in Kabul. "If I am removed in the cause of peace for Afghanistan by force by them, than I will be very happy. If they disagree, they can leave. But we are not in that stage yet," Karzai said.
"If I hear from (Mullah Omar) that he is willing to come to Afghanistan or to negotiate for peace and for the well-being of the Afghans so that our children are not killed anymore, I as a president of Afghanistan will go to any length to provide protection," Karzai said.
Omar has not directly responded to these calls, but spokesmen associated with the Taliban have previously said their participation in any talks depends on the withdrawal of U.S. and other foreign troops from the country. Karzai dismissed that, saying foreign troops are necessary for Afghanistan's security.
#2
She would be fantastic. [Secretary of state] Hillary Clinton has an international reputation and relationship with the worlds leaders.
Granted, but her "international reputation" is one of being a conniving cold-fish and her primary "relationships" are with her fellow Trans-Atlantic progressive-elites. It might be a good pedigree to have as the errand-girl carrying water for an Obama Administration but a lousy career choice for her.
#5
Senator Clinton has an international reputation as the wife of President Clinton. Which is to say, none whatsoever. Don't forget that out there beyond our borders political wives are expected to make pleasant conversation while being served tea, to admire the little children presenting them with bouquets and, most importantly, to make no waves while the menfolk get on with their negotiations. If they can charm their husband's opposite numbers while ornamenting the dinner table, that's an extra benefit. Only actual female heads of state are listened to, with the attention commensurate to the size and wealth of the countries they govern.
Also, the Secretary of State also has to run a large and rambunctious department. Dear Hillary's only experience in that direction -- trying to put together a universal health care plan for her husband -- was a dismal failure on the management front, by all reports.
Several opposition MKs, led by Likud's Yuval Steinitz, said Sunday they would push to convene the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in light of escalating violence in the Gaza region.
The MKs submitted a demand to that effect to committee chairman Tzahi Hanegbi (Kadima).
However, there is an alternate view
Fatah acknowledges responsibility for Gaza attacks
Olmert, Abbas set out to discuss the recent round of violence in Gaza. Besides the utter immorality of discussing the matter casually instead of bombing the Arab murderers, the question arises: what does Abbas have to do with Gaza? Officially, Hamas had ousted every trace of Fatah presence there. The answer is simple: Fatah-affiliated groups such as PRC and PIJ attack Israel from Gaza in order to discredit Hamas and make it unwilling to risk presidential elections in 2009, so that Abbas can stay in power after his term expires. The Fatah accomplices also try to provoke Israel into invading Gaza to clear it from Hamas for Fatah.
THE pioneering Australian scientist who discovered the cure for cervical cancer is on the verge of creating the world's first vaccine for skin cancer.
Professor Ian Frazer, former Australian of the Year, has revealed the vaccine could be ready within the next five to 10 years. As with the jab now given to millions of young girls each year to prevent cervical cancer, children aged between 10 and 12 would be given the vaccine to prevent skin cancer later in life, Professor Frazer envisages. Testing on animals has shown the vaccine to be successful and human trials will start next year.
Australia has the world's highest rate of skin cancer with more than 380,000 people diagnosed with the disease and 1600 dying from it each year.
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A surreal scientific blunder last week raised a huge question mark about the temperature records that underpin the worldwide alarm over global warming. On Monday, Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is run by Al Gore's chief scientific ally, Dr James Hansen, and is one of four bodies responsible for monitoring global temperatures, announced that last month was the hottest October on record.
This was startling. Across the world there were reports of unseasonal snow and plummeting temperatures last month, from the American Great Plains to China, and from the Alps to New Zealand. China's official news agency reported that Tibet had suffered its "worst snowstorm ever". In the US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month, and ranked it as only the 70th-warmest October in 114 years.
So what explained the anomaly? GISS's computerised temperature maps seemed to show readings across a large part of Russia had been up to 10 degrees higher than normal. But when expert readers of the two leading warming-sceptic blogs, Watts Up With That and Climate Audit, began detailed analysis of the GISS data they made an astonishing discovery. The reason for the freak figures was that scores of temperature records from Russia and elsewhere were not based on October readings at all. Figures from the previous month had simply been carried over and repeated two months running.
The error was so glaring that when it was reported on the two blogs - run by the US meteorologist Anthony Watts and Steve McIntyre, the Canadian computer analyst who won fame for his expert debunking of the notorious "hockey stick" graph - GISS began hastily revising its figures. This only made the confusion worse because, to compensate for the lowered temperatures in Russia, GISS claimed to have discovered a new "hotspot" in the Arctic - in a month when satellite images were showing Arctic sea-ice recovering so fast from its summer melt that three weeks ago it was 30 per cent more extensive than at the same time last year.
A GISS spokesman lamely explained that the reason for the error in the Russian figures was that they were obtained from another body, and that GISS did not have resources to exercise proper quality control over the data it was supplied with. This is an astonishing admission: the figures published by Dr Hansen's institute are not only one of the four data sets that the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) relies on to promote its case for global warming, but they are the most widely quoted, since they consistently show higher temperatures than the others.
If there is one scientist more responsible than any other for the alarm over global warming it is Dr Hansen, who set the whole scare in train back in 1988 with his testimony to a US Senate committee chaired by Al Gore. Again and again, Dr Hansen has been to the fore in making extreme claims over the dangers of climate change. (He was recently in the news here for supporting the Greenpeace activists acquitted of criminally damaging a coal-fired power station in Kent, on the grounds that the harm done to the planet by a new power station would far outweigh any damage they had done themselves.)
Yet last week's latest episode is far from the first time Dr Hansen's methodology has been called in question. In 2007 he was forced by Mr Watts and Mr McIntyre to revise his published figures for US surface temperatures, to show that the hottest decade of the 20th century was not the 1990s, as he had claimed, but the 1930s.
Another of his close allies is Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, who recently startled a university audience in Australia by claiming that global temperatures have recently been rising "very much faster" than ever, in front of a graph showing them rising sharply in the past decade. In fact, as many of his audience were aware, they have not been rising in recent years and since 2007 have dropped.
Dr Pachauri, a former railway engineer with no qualifications in climate science, may believe what Dr Hansen tells him. But whether, on the basis of such evidence, it is wise for the world's governments to embark on some of the most costly economic measures ever proposed, to remedy a problem which may actually not exist, is a question which should give us all pause for thought.
#1
When I read about the pseudo-scientific drivel that exudes from Gore and his addled minions, all I can think about is how Galileo must have felt, trying to promote his heliocentric theory of the motion of the solar system.
I'm sure that glaciers could smother New York City and Los Angeles, and snowmen be built in Death Valley - and the Glowbawl Warming apologists would still be defending their inane theories.
#2
They're not really inane theories, to me, it seems they are working just fine... that is, in upping the ante of "global governance", asking for world-wide redistribution of wealth, for me gvt interventionism, allowing transational ngos a great deal of (non-answerable) power,... and not to mention getting some people VERY rich, starting with Mr. strong & gore.
#3
Just remember these guys aren't just wacko pseudo scientists. They are power brokers who want to invent carbon trading credits as a way to finance the UN and which will deliver the next securitized debt debacle.
#5
Have no fear our lord and messiah Barack Obama will solve global warming, lower the oceans, and solve all the problems in the Middle East. And imagine what he'll do after lunch.
#6
That the alarmists are being publicly busted in the mass media is a sign of progress. As long as temperatures had been (naturally) increasing, global warming alarmists were able to convince many. However, temperatures are no longer increasing. Many are no longer convinced.
As the earth's temperature fails to increase or even cools back down, alarmists will look increasingly foolish to an increasing number of people.
Posted by: Minister of funny walks ||
11/16/2008 13:01
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#7
Aren't Hansen's "data" also the ones which he would never release directly, in raw form, for others to evaluate? (an astounding and unprecedented thing to do in science, I believe)
Not that any proof were needed, but will THIS outrageous unscientific and clearly unethical behavior beging to wake anybody up?
Essentially falsified data, increasing use of weasel words by the IPCC (hedging their previously strong bets), models that are no better than random number generators - HELLO.
Gov. Arnold? GOP? Anybody home?
Not that I was under any illusions about science, as a human endeavor practiced in human society, with all that implies (and having been assigned Kuhn's "Structure of Scientific Revolutions" no less than 3 times in high school and college) - but does anyone else get the sense that, with few exceptions, many key professions and lines of work are just collapsing in terms of their integrity? Or is it just me?
#8
Dr. Hansen has been a rebel for years. Camped out in NY because he was ostracised from Greenbelt,Md. He's sloppy, lazy, and has a big mouth. No wonder Fat Albert patronizes him. It's time to retire him and stop listening to his babble.
#1
Good question to ask the president elect, : "This woman clearly has information that puts innocent Iraqi civilians and more importantly your troops in grave danger. As commander in chief, what guidance do you have for US troops advising the Iraqi interrogators?"
#2
The very basic question that the damn suiciders never ask, what is there for them to get killed themselves and to kill others. Americans learned a long time ago not to destroy what their money (taxpayers money) build. No body tells these damn stupid not to die for their handlers. I have no sympathy for these damn stupid who want to bite the same hand hands that feed them. If these stupid people never learned what are good for then, hell with them, kill them all and forget about them. Hey, even God helps those who want to help themselves.
BUSH WAS WORST PRESIDENT (EXCEPT FOR ALL THE OTHERS)
Farewell to George W. Bush. The. Worst. President. In. Modern. History.
Except for Nixon. That glowering paranoid freak sucker-punched the economy with his absurd price controls, secretly bombed Cambodia and led a gang of burgling henchmen who would later fill the federal prisons.
And Johnson. The most divisive event in modern American politics, it may surprise you to learn, is not the premature draping of a "Mission Accomplished" banner on an aircraft carrier or the decision to wiretap members of Al Qaeda's Friends and Family plan. It was the Vietnam War. It was a little matter of 60,000 fine Americans - many of them draftees, not volunteers - sent off to die for an irrelevant sliver of jungle on the shady pretext of a trumped-up, possibly fictitious attack in the Tonkin Gulf.
And Kennedy. LBJ sank into the quagmire that Kennedy stepped in. JFK wasn't kidding with that "Bear any burden, pay any price" nonsense, that "ask what you can do for your country" drivel. What he wanted you to do for your country was be drafted and go fight Communists wherever they lurked, even rice-paddy Communists in pajamas who would have posed no threat to this country unless they had figured out how to launch intercontinental ballistic spitballs.
And how about botching the Bay of Pigs invasion, which led Cuba and the Soviets to buy an insurance policy in the form of a missile site that took this country the closest it has ever come to nuclear war?
And Carter. Four years of malaise. Inflation was running at levels last seen in Weimar Germany. Military morale sank to an all-time low as Carter allowed the armed forces to decay so badly that Delta Force commandos got nowhere near rescuing hostages being held by a bunch of jibbering religious freaks.
And Reagan. Let's not forget who presided over the only really agonizing recession since the Depression, the 1981-1982 one, in which the U.S. economy exhibited unemployment levels that can only be described as "Swedish." And let's not forget his whopper when he said he didn't know about the illegal Iran-Contra operation. Of course he knew.
And Truman. Small wonder he had an 22% approval rating when he was forced out of office instead of running for a second full term, after squandering 50,000 American lives who "died for a tie" in Korea.
And Clinton. A lying, venal, human petri dish of corruption, Clinton is to integrity what the frat house is to cleanliness. He swept up innocent people around him in his vortex of untruth and sold pardons to criminals for the hilariously pathetic purpose of adding to his own glory at his presidential library. Signing the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act that set investment banks free doesn't look so uncontroversial today, does it?
And FDR. The downturn of 1937 - in FDR's second term - was almost as bad as the original one. How could his stewardship of WWII have been much worse? What kind of president lets our trans-Pond cousins get bombed in their beds every night for months? And Roosevelt should have opened the doors to every Jewish refugee who asked for asylum. Instead he locked them out.
And he was so unprepared for the Japanese attack military theorists had predicted for years that our sailors got bombed in their own beds from Hawaii to the Philippines. Later he imprisoned thousands of Americans for the crime of having Japanese ancestry. By setting up Social Security not as a charity for the poor but as a Ponzi scheme, he insured that the program would cripple the budget some day while millionaires collected their checks each month on the golf course.
And long before any of this he unleashed perhaps the most deranged attack on the Constitution in presidential history when he proposed adding six new Justices to the Supreme Court because he didn't like the ones who were already on it.
Everything is the best/worst/funniest/most tragic/most brilliant thing ever, if you're a high school girl, the hero of "Memento" or a political commentator.
Things look different if you extend your memory more than five minutes into the past. Maybe the problem is the lack of a buzzword for the scandal. Here's one: "Superlativegate."
#1
Why hammer Johnson and Kennedy without reference to Eisenhower? It was his paranoia about encircling China (Cam Ran bay, Subic bay, Japan, Korea, etc) they mishandled.
#5
back to the age of man-purses. Awesomeness. Better start up that fannypack biz too, it' only a matter of time...
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/16/2008 8:12
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4 Neither forgotten nor forgiven.
History is cyclical, so they will be back in one form or an another, and the Pain will start all over again.
Posted by anonymous5089 2008-11-16 05:29|| Front Page|| ||Comments Top
#5 back to the age of man-purses. Awesomeness. Better start up that fannypack biz too, it' only a matter of time...
Ima not nomally a gun sorta of poster. But deh above makes me want to invest in a street-sweeper. There are things worser than death, disco is one of them.
Oh, and let's not forget he invaded French North Africa without a declaration of war or Congressional authorization. He'd maintained an open diplomatic relationship with the neutral Vichy French government up to the moment of the unprovoked and premeditated attack. A day of infamy indeed.
Let's remember the modern liberal mantra - one set of rules for me and a separate set of rules for thee.
#9
There are a couple of old sayings regarding politicans..."all politicians are liars, thieves and whores" AND "people (we) get the kind of government they (we) deserve" Just sayin', ya' know??
(APP)- President Asif Ali Zardari has stated that PPP government is steadily moving to find an honorable solution to the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the wishes of Kashmiri people. "The opening of the cross LoC trade recently is just one step to bring the Kashmiris together. Who knows this step for the wellbeing of Kashmiris might turn out to be a lead forward for ushering in peace and prosperity in the whole region", the President said in a message read on the occasion of national conference held in memory of an eminent intellectual, scholar and author Prof. Khan Zaman Mirza here late Friday.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Afghan and coalition forces captured an insurgent leader in eastern Afghanistan, while 10 Taliban were killed in a separate clash, the US military said on Saturday. US forces said the captured man was a 'key insurgent leader' responsible for the deaths of Afghan troops, bomb attacks on coalition forces and the kidnapping of aid workers.
Coalition forces also killed 10 Taliban in a strike against a bomb-making cell in the eastern Paktia province on Friday, the US military said in a separate statement.
Separately, a civilian was accidentally killed by a grenade during a clash with insurgents in Zabul province, a US military statement said. Meanwhile, police thwarted a suicide attack in the eastern city of Khost, officials said.
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WASHINGTON -- South Korea sees no need to tap the International Monetary Fund for funding, a senior official from the country's finance ministry said Saturday. Speaking to foreign press following the conclusion of the Group of 20's first summit in Washington, Shin Je-Yoon, deputy minister for international affairs, said that asking IMF for aid was still a stigma in the Asian nation, which was given an IMF bailout during a financial crisis in the late 1990s.
Though he acknowledged the IMF has extended loans to needy nations without the tough conditions attached in previous crisis, seeking aid from the IMF is still hard for Koreans to accept, he said. "It is not a good impression," said Shin, adding that such a move may generate a public backlash.
Besides, he noted, the nation has accumulated a large amount of foreign reserves as a "first line of defense." Also, the nation has entered into currency swap lines with the U.S., China and Japan for much-needed dollars. South Korea has been suffering from a dollar squeeze in recent months due to strains in the money market.
Shin acknowledged that outflows from the stock market may continue, but he doesn't expect anything "drastic." He also said the economy was under pressure as the nation's exports feel the pinch from the crisis and global downturn. To spur growth, the government has cut interest rates and implemented fiscal stimulus.
Shin said the door remains open for further fiscal stimulus, and the government still has much room to implement fiscal measures.
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11/16/2008
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Political authorities suspended supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan via Torkham Border on Saturday due to security concerns on the Pak-Afghan Highway, a private TV channel reported.
According to the channel, hundreds of trucks and containers had been stopped in Peshawar after the suspension of the supply on Saturday.
Khyber Agency Political Agent Tariq Hayat told the channel that supplies had been suspended following incidents of looting of trucks and containers carrying oil and other supplies for the NATO forces battling Taliban in Afghanistan.
He said the NWFP additional secretary had sent a proposal to the federal government on November 11 asking for the suspension of the supplies because of the volatile security situation on the restive Pak-Afghan border.
"But some transporters are transporting supplies on their own responsibility," the political agent told the TV channel.
Quoting authorities, the channel said the supplies would not be resumed until effective security measures were put in place.
Another TV channel quoted FC officials as saying that the authorities had decided to set up security checkposts in Jamrud tehsil to protect the Pak-Afghan Highway and supplies to Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Where's the 101st? Have them land in Peshawar, take control of the convoy, and move it into Afghanistan. Use AC-130s to guard the route, and DARE phakestan to do anything about it. These people are exhausting MY patience, and I don't think I'm any more impatient than most military commanders. This is an attempt at bribery, and should be treated as such. It's time Rawalpindi/Islamabad disappeared from world maps.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/16/2008 11:52
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Nine Taliban including a commander were killed in clashes with security forces in Swat and another six were killed as troops pounded Taliban hideouts in Bajaur Agency on Saturday. The dead commander Ali Rehman was from Derai. Talks between rebel cleric Fazlullah and a Swat peace jirga also began on Saturday. A policeman was killed when a shell landed on his house during the operation against Taliban in Machni. An FC soldier was also killed in the clashes. Troops killed a suspected suicide bomber and an accomplice when they fired a rocket on his car in Shabqadar. They seized Taliban commander Ehtishamul Haq's house.
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Gurguri tribesmen blocked the Hangu-Tull road near Dalan on Saturday in protest against the abduction of 12 people including a Taliban commander belonging to their clan.
The tribesmen alleged that the Baland Khel tribe of Upper Orakzai Agency was involved in the abduction. Hundreds of armed tribesmen blocked the road, while the district administration tried to solve the issue by holding talks with elders of both the tribes.
Local sources told Daily Times that the abducted commander was identified as Nasurullah and was affiliated with the Hafiz Gul Bahadar group of the Taliban operating in North Waziristan.
Meanwhile, unidentified men killed Taliban commander Maulana Tayyeb in Orakzai Agency. His body was dumped in the Rabia Khel tribe's area in Anajawar.
So far no one has claimed responsibility for the killing. Political authorities have also confirmed Tayyab's murder. Separately, suspected Taliban blew up houses of two tribal elders of Ferozkhel tribe in the Merubak area of Lower tehsil of Orakzai Agency. The houses were partially damaged. However, no causalities were reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Give him back. In quart-sized zip-lock baggies.
The second marriage of a man to his wife's niece is unlawful and un-Islamic, said LHC Justice Khurshid Anwar Bhinder while dismissing a petition of a couple against the registration of a case. The petition was moved by Musarat Bibi and Muhammad Rafiq. The two were previously engaged to each other, but were unable to marry because of differences between both families. Rafiq later married Saleema Bibi, who was the real aunt (khala) of Musarat. However, after some time, Rafiq also contracted a marriage with Musarat. Of course they can't get married. They're not nearly closely enough related.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
That's insane! The LHC??? WTF? What EXACTLY is Cern's business to look into pakistanese marriages? Don't they have particles to study or something? So, they spent like all those billions on the LHC for THIS? Dude.
World heads and human rights organizations slammed Israel's stranglehold over Gaza on Friday and urged the Jewish authorities against breaking international laws by blocking essential supplies and called on it to end its "collective punishment" of the impoverished strip.
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#1
Hard to figure. In everything else, the international left reveres collectivism as the sine qua non of desired approaches...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/16/2008 8:46
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#2
Cause "anti-Zionism" outweighs love of collectivism?
#3
Don't think of it as 'collective punishment'. Think of it as good practice for being a state.
With statehood, when your government or major players screw up, everyone suffers. Irritatating and inconvenient though it may be, it can also be quite motivating.
(SomaliNet) The European Union has banned all Angolan airlines from landing at European airports due to safety considerations. Cambodian airline Siem Reap Airways is also included in the ban.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
So purchasing a return ticket on the red-eye from Luanda to Phnom Penh might not be good value?
Calm returned on Saturday to the Gaza Strip and southern Israel a day after Palestinian militants fired a barrage of 17 Qassam and Grad rockets at Sderot, Ashkelon and their surroundings in response to the death of a Palestinian militant in Gaza. One woman was lightly hurt by shrapnel and 15 others were treated for shock at Ashkelon's Barzilai Medical Center. Government sources said the next few days will be crucial in determining whether the ceasefire with Hamas may be salvaged. I once knew a woman whose 13 children were crucial in determining whether her virginity could be salvaged.
At the same time, Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned against any rash action that may destabilize the situation. "Blowing things out of proportion is not a state policy," Barak said. "This situation is intolerable. The defense establishment must act decisively against Hamas and other extremists in the Gaza Strip," Barak noted during a speech in Netanya. She was a southern lady, and she had the silly habit, or perhaps the affectation, of exclaiming "Well, I never!"
Four of the 17 rockets fired at Israel over the weekend were Grads, which have a greater range and payload than Qassams. Most people would then look at the 13 tow-headed young 'uns and think "Well, yes, you did!"
Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack and said it was acting in response to attacks by Israel Defense Forces against Palestinian militants and following the death of a Popular Resistance Committee gunman in an explosion in northern Gaza early Friday. At which point most people would burst into laughter or at least, if they were very polite, snicker behind a raised hand.
A spokesman for the PRC said the Israel Air Force exchanged fire with a group of militants who approached the Israeli border near the city of Beit Hanoun, killing one of its members. An Israel Defense Forces spokesman said the IAF was not involved in the Friday incident and that the blast was the result of a mishandling of explosives by the militant. "The ceasefire agreement will not prevent Hamas from reacting to Israeli aggression," Fawzi Barhum, a spokesman for Hamas said. "The enemy is turning more corrupt and violent against our people and the holy sites. The military wing of Hamas will avenge every Israeli crime." "But really, we do have a ceasefire!"
Sderot was hit by a barrage of ten Qassam rockets, one of which landed in the center of town lightly wounding a woman. Another landed between two houses in a nearby kibbutz, causing panic.
Residents of Ashkelon, whose city was hit by four rockets, protested against the government following the attack. "We're either at war with Hamas or there's a calm," said Yossi, a youth from Ashkelon. "This is the government's cowardice. They aren't so interested in the security of Ashkelon's residents. The Israeli government cannot pursue its own agenda when rockets are fired at us. Now I understand what Sderot residents have felt for seven years...their fear and anxieties."
Barak On Saturday defended the government's policy of restraint during a speech in Netanya and hinted that Israel's decision to retaliate immediately after Hezbollah's attack on its soldiers, leading to the Second Lebanon War, was rash. "We saw two years ago what a rash decision may do to Israel's national security," Barak said. "In my estimation and according to my professional opinion we are not late in acting [in Gaza]. If and when, we shall carry out an operation and succeed. But such a large-scale action is not a picnic and it must be taken only when other options are exhausted, not the other way around."
The defense minister also rejected claims that the ceasefire with Hamas removed pressure from the Islamic group from reaching an agreement over the return of abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. Barak said that a large-scale operation would not help talks over Shalit's release.
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#3
Cyber Sarge---you're 90% right. What every UN politician working on the Paleostinian Problem needs to do is to live in Sderot and telecommute from Sderot.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/16/2008 13:53
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#4
I give that 10%. I think the Israelis should make that the begining (and non negotiable) step to ANY negotiations in the future.
NEW DELHI - More arrests are expected in the coming weeks as the frightening dimensions of a Hindu terror plot start to unravel, with investigators indicating that it had the makings of a larger conspiracy and planning of reprisal killings of Muslims for serial bombings in a number of Indian cities.
Ten people, including a self-proclaimed Hindu seer and a serving lieutenant colonel, have so far been arrested for the September 29 bombing in a Muslim-dominated neighbourhood in the small Maharashtra town of Malegaon that killed five people. Investigators are now examining if a Hindu terror conspiracy was involved in several other blasts -- like the one of the Samjhauta Express train in 2007 -- that have till date remained unsolved.
The Anti-Terrorism Squad's (ATS) arrest of Mahant Amritanand Dev alias Dayanand Pandey, the self-styled pontiff from Kanpur, which investigators say is a "prize catch", has already admitted that it was under his instructions that Lt. Colonel Shrikant Purohit procured RDX from an army depot that was used in the Malegaon blast. "Pandey was present in all the pre-blast meetings in Bhopal, Jabalpur and Faridabad, monitored operations meticulously and was also responsible for arranging the finances that came in through illegal channels," an ATS source told IANS.
Continued on Page 49
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Foreigners, including Uzbeks, Chechens, Afghans and Saudis, are involved in cross-border activities, which justify airstrikes by international forces on Pakistani territory, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Saturday.
Addressing a press conference at the Multan airport after arriving in the city to inaugurate two road projects, he said that the Pakistan Army was assigned to check extremism in the restive parts of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the NWFP.
He said that the army had adopted an effective strategy to eliminate militancy and extremism in troubled parts of the country that would eliminate foreign elements in the area, which would usher in an era of peace, stability and prosperity.
He said that Pakistan is a sovereign country and would not allow any one disturb its peace.
Halted attacks: Gilani hoped that the new United States government led by Barack Obama will stop the cross-border attacks by US forces in the Tribal Areas.
He said Pakistan was a responsible nation and has been raising the issue of American air attacks on its territories at diplomatic level.
The prime minister said the US administration was in a transitory phase and things would improve with the new government taking charge of the office.
He said that the government welcomed dialogue with those who were ready to renounce terrorism.
Responding to a question about the kidnapping of an Iranian diplomat, he said the government was duty-bound to provide security not only to foreign diplomats but its own citizens as well.
Economy: Gilani said the government was taking multi-dimensional steps to minimise economic hardships of the people, adding that things would improve within four to five months and the impact of global recession on Pakistan would ease.
He said that the government was previously spending Rs 60 billion on wheat import, but by raising the wheat support price, the exchequer will bear the burden of Rs 10 billion in subsidy only.
He said the government would purchase wheat and rice from the farmers at declared rates. Gilani said he would also direct provincial governments to take action against those hoarding fertiliser.
He said there was no rift in the coalition of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in Punjab, adding that the PML-N could talk to the PPP co-chairman if it wanted to quit the coalition.
Responding to a question about the possibility of repealing the 17th Amendment and Article 58(2b), Gilani said President Asif Ali Zardari had asked parliament to form a committee for this purpose, but it was still awaited.
Later Gilani inaugurated a new terminal at Karachi Port Trust (KPT) in Karachi, a private TV channel reported. He said KPT's development was in accordance with the PPP's vision and investors should be included in the country's economic programme.
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Two Shia parliamentarians have called for a referendum to turn the province of Basra in southern Iraq into a mini-autonomous state. Sheikk Kheirallah al-Basri, a Shia lawmaker from Basra on Saturday sought to dismiss fears that the move would cause instability in the country, arguing that the push for autonomy is not a "secessionist motion.''
Wail Abdul-Latif, another lawmaker from Basra, argued that granting Iraqi regions more power would give Iraq's political process "more chances for stability.'' He added that they have collected some 35,000 signatures from supporters in the region to press the electoral commission to hold a referendum on an autonomous region.
The idea of creating a federalist system in Iraq is expected to play a prominent role in the country's provincial elections, which are to be held before Jan. 31.
Iraq's three largest Shia parties have been divided on the issue of autonomous regions. The Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, which is the largest Iraqi Shia political bloc, strongly backs the creation of a nine-province autonomous region. This is while Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa Party and the Sadrist movement both oppose the proposal, arguing it poses a threat to national unity.
The region of Kurdistan in northern Iraq already enjoys self-rule.
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The United Nations has increased the security level in Peshawar and ordered its international staff to leave the province in the wake of recent attacks on international aid workers, including the killing of a USAID official. The UN sources told Daily Times that following a series of suicide blasts and killing of foreigners, the UN had raised the security level in Peshawar to phase four, adding all UN projects in Peshawar might be closed. The international staff will be relocated outside the province and shifted to Islamabad, the sources said, adding only the staff concerned with emergency or security operations would remain in the area. The dependents of UN international staff in Islamabad, which is under security phase three, have either left the country or have restricted their movement, the sources said, adding all international and senior local staff were operating from their houses in Islamabad.
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GAZA - Israel's policies in the Gaza Strip are strengthening the stance of extremists there, the director of UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in the coastal territory, John Ging, told Haaretz last week. By not easing restrictions at crossings into the Strip during the months of the cease-fire, Israel bolstered extremists' claims that the closures represent a political, rather than security-related move.
Everything the Israelis do bolsters the extremists. That's what the papers always say. If you negotiate you bolster them; if you don't negotiate you bolster them. If you kill the extremists you bolster them (frankly I have yet to figure that one out), if you don't kill them you bolster them. Let food into Gaza and you guessed it: bolstered. Close the border: bolstered. I'm amazed the Gazooks aren't already bolstered to the point of being gods given everything the Israelis have and haven't done to bolster them.
"The extremists claimed that the Israeli closure is not related to the rockets. We said that wasn't true, we said the illegal firing of Qassams must stop, that they have no justification," Ging said. "But the stance has been strengthened in recent months that the closure is political and not security-related. There were several months of tahadiyeh [cease-fire], but no easing at the crossings. This failure to ease the crossings was political."
Ging said he is not interested in judging Israeli policy according to interpretations based on ulterior motives, but on public declarations that Israeli security must be maintained. "If the platform is security and the desire to break the cycle of violence, Israeli policy has destructive, counterproductive consequences," he said.
Ging's remarks came last Thursday morning, when Israel closed the Kerem Shalom crossing, which was expected to be opened after having been closed for eight days. Gas supplies were also expected to be renewed.
In the afternoon, however, Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the crossings to remain closed. European Union consuls were also prohibited from entering the Strip. According to the coordinator of Israeli government activities in the territories, Peter Lerner, "the policy today is to only allow entry when it is most critical."
Because after all you don't want to bolster them.
Ging said he does not accept the security logic during the cease-fire of only allowing humanitarian aid to the Strip. "If what is allowed to enter is only humanitarian, the entire population here is brought to a situation in which it is dependent on food aid. Is that the goal? People want to work, to create and to be rewarded for their labor, not to stand in line to receive charity," he said.
Since 1948, UNRWA, the oldest and most corrupt established aid institution in the Strip, has served the vast majority of the territory's residents, some 70 percent of whom are refugees.
That's true only if you accept that the kids and grandkids of the 1948 refugees are also refugees. Then you have to ask why their brother Arabs won't accept them. Then you remember Black September, the Lebanese civil war, Kuwait, etc. and realize why.
In recent years, some of its aid and development programs have included people who are not refugees. Ging, who has lived and worked in the Strip for three years, has become well acquainted with residents' feelings in the community. His experience tells him that a state of dependence and poverty leads to deep frustration and desperation.
But not enough frustration and desperation to have the Gazooks say, "screw it, maybe we can learn to live with the Joooz." They're never quite that desperate. Maybe it's because they've been bolstered so.
"We are not talking about how to keep people alive, but about quality of life, not only physically and materially. This way, the people's mindset and emotional state are liable to be harmed," he said.
Ging said he continues to be surprised by how people cling to their humanity, even having "lived so long in uncivilized conditions," and continue to hope their children develop and grow in better conditions.
Since the cease-fire went into place this summer, Ging said, fewer supplies have passed through the crossing than did in the beginning of 2006, when the western Negev suffered incessant Qassam rocket fire. "Why? There is no need to explain the security challenges here. We are always told that we must ensure security arrangements, and we accepted that," he said. "But no one has explained to me the security reason behind the closure of every crossing. The crossings have tremendously sophisticated security devices. No one can pass with an explosives belt or weapon without being detected."
"Explain to me why people who present no security threat are not authorized to work in Israel as in the past. I ask the Israelis, why don't you allow the entry of cement, even during the cease-fire, so we can build new schools and reduce the crowdedness in classrooms?"
Maybe it's because the Gazooks have finally convinced the Israelis that they mean what they say when they boast about killing all the Joooz someday ...
The Erez and Rafah crossings are open, Ging noted, but only for certain individuals such as the ill, business people and politicians. Senior Hamas officials may leave the Strip through the Rafah crossing, and individuals linked to the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah may leave through Erez.
"One illegal action does not justify another. Where else is the UN under embargo? Where else is food aid subordinated to such severe restrictions?" Ging asked. "Why close it for certain people and open it for others? That's why so many people call it collective punishment. It's not only illegal and inhuman, but also ineffective. It only empowers the extremists."
Like everything else does ...
The policy of extended siege has proven itself to be ineffective, Ging said, adding that international observers have called for a new approach. In his view, to improve the situation, Israel should take a more positive approach and open all the crossings, ensuring freedom of movement to all people. "If indeed the goal is the stated one: to achieve security and stability to lay the foundation for peaceful relations," Ging said.
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#1
The head of UNRWA in Gaza being the prime example.
BAGHDAD - U.S. and Iraqi negotiators have agreed on a draft of a security pact that would allow American troops to stay in Iraq for three more years after their U.N. mandate expires Dec. 31, a senior aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Saturday. The aide said the draft could be put to a Cabinet vote in an emergency meeting Sunday or Monday. Transport Minister Amir Abdul-Jabbar said he had been notified by the Cabinet secretariat that a Cabinet meeting was scheduled for Sunday to vote on the agreement. If adopted by the Cabinet, it would then require parliamentary approval.
In Washington, National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe described the final document on the security pact as beneficial to the allied nations. We think this is a good document that serves both Iraqis and Americans well. We remain hopeful that the Iraqi government will conclude this process soon, Johndroe said Saturday.
The al-Maliki aide said the agreement stood a good chance of being passed by a two-thirds majority in the 37-member Cabinet. If adopted by the Cabinet, the agreement goes to a vote in parliament. I can say now that the two sides have agreed on a final draft, the aide said.
Passage of the agreement in the Cabinet could bode well for how it fares in the 275-seat parliament, where it needs a simple majority to pass, since the political blocs in al-Maliki's government dominate the legislature.
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Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Saturday asserted that while Israel does not seek to escalate violence that has been threatening to unravel a five-month truce in Gaza, it would strike back if there were further violations of the cease-fire. ...
"But we won't strike back with overwhelming force, nor will we strike back in kind, with counterfire. We'll instead check in with the European Union, the UN, and possibly with Sears, though not with Roebuck, to ensure that our actions have the seal of approval of those in the world who either don't like us or can't stand us. We'll meet each Hamas measure with a precisely calibrated half measure, to no particular end. And the voters will no doubt vote for us next election on the assumption we know what we're doing, even though it's incomprehensible to them."
Livni, a life-long leftie, has to convince her countrymen that she's a centrist if she's going to win the upcoming election. So she has to make noise about standing up to the Paleos, even though her heart is telling her to sign away East Jerusalem if it means 'peace' ...
Posted by: Fred ||
11/16/2008
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#1
Well, it is going to be up to the Israeli voters whether they want to live or commit suicide on the installment plan. Expect no support from the US; we have hope and change, but no spare change.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/16/2008 1:01
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Somali al-Shabab fighters flogged 32 dancers for violating strict Sharia edicts after arresting them for taking part in a traditional dance near the capital Mogadishu, officials and elders said.
The team was flogged in Balad township, 30 kilometers (18 miles) north of the capital Mogadishu, where they were arrested overnight while performing a folklore dance. "They were found dancing to traditional songs outside Balad last night and were flogged this morning. They were arrested by Islamist fighters," said Mohamed Sheikh Hussein, an elder.
'Strict Sharia'
Islamist spokesmanThe fighters who are enforcing a strict form of Sharia law have been slowly advancing on the city, raising the stakes in their two-year rebellion and undermining fragile U.N. brokered peace talks to end 17 years of chaos in the Horn of Africa nation.
Last month, they stoned to death a young woman accused of adultery in the southern port of Kismayu.
Islamist spokesman Sheikh Abdirahim Isse Adow said those arrested had been warned several times against dancing. "We arrested 25 women and seven men who were dancing near Balad (town). We released them after whipping them. We warned them many times, but they wouldn't listen," he told Reuters.
"The dancing of men and women together is illegal and totally against Islam. We neither killed them nor injured them, but only whipped them according to the Islamic law."
"The dancing of men and women together is illegal and totally against Islam. We neither killed them nor injured them, but only whipped them according to the Islamic law," Adow said.
Last month's stoning to death of the woman in Kismayu was the first such public killing by the hardline militants for about two years and drew international condemnation.
The Islamists, despite bringing much-needed peace and stability, carried out public executions when they ruled Mogadishu and most of south Somalia for half of 2006. Allied Ethiopian and Somali government forces toppled them at the end of that year, but they have waged an Iraq-style guerrilla campaign since then, gradually taking back territory.
'Creeping Talibanisation'
When in power in 2006, the Islamists carried out executions, shut cinemas and photo shops, banned live music, flogged drug offenders and harassed women for failing to wear appropriate dress in public.
Alarmed by the strict and fundamentalist version of Sharia law, the United States led Western concern over a "creeping Talibanisation" in Somalia by the Islamists.
Somalia has had no effective government since the 1991 ouster of President Siad Barre touched off a bloody power struggle that has defied numerous attempts to restore stability.
The turmoil in Somalia has fuelled instability across the Horn of Africa, fuelling one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters and triggering a wave of pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden, a vital shipping lane for trade between Europe and Asia.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/16/2008
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#2
This reminds me of an article, can't say if I read it in english online (that's what I believe) or possibly translated in french in a mag, but this was quite a few years ago already, and the somali writer, a more or less westernized journalist, complained very bitterly about the rapid growth of salafi islam... and how this "new" brand of islam was deliberately aimed at erasing all traditional somali culture, dance, song, veiling wimmen in abaya, having enforcers of "morality" (familiar?),... all this lavishly funded by oil money from the Gulf.
Somai probably were sufis, a far cry from wahabism, though sufis has a very underserved rep for being an "enlightnened" islam, which it never was except in the minds of hip western apologists/sufi converts IIUC... and this pattern has been ongoing over and over, a traditional, folk, "peaceful" islam being forcibly replaced by militant salafism, in north africa, in bosnia, in chechnya,... with an attendant aculturation, all this funded by the money stolen by the arabian princes, in a general movement of an aggressive and imperialist islamic "renaissance" born in 19th century India (John Frum had great comments about that).
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles County on Saturday following the loss of at least 165 homes by a raging wildfire fire. "It's certainly more than we've lost over the last decade. We have lost some today, there's no question about it," the mayor said of the damages caused by the fire.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/16/2008
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#5
I do agree that Caliphornians have stupid building codes wrt fires. However, no building survives in these fires. The question is why homes are built so sparsely so that there are so many combustibles (trees) near. See the Oakland Hills.
#6
fire-resistant roofs have been required for around 30 years. Stucco is naturally non-combustible. The problem is fuel and wind. Windblown embers driven up under non-boxed eaves are a big firestarter, expect to see boxed eaves in the next Int'l Building Code
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/16/2008 11:30
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#7
Fire resistant cedar shakes. Riight. Do they come with a Prop 65 warning in case of combustion?
#8
I heard on the radio that there hadn't been a fire in this particular area for something like 60 years and they haven't done any controlled burns that entire time.
Any truth to that?
Posted by: Mike N. ||
11/16/2008 12:46
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#9
when's the last time you could buy non-fire-resistant (treated) cedar shingles for roofing? Look it up
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/16/2008 13:08
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#10
as someone who planchecked for fire/building codes straight out of college in '83, I can tell you that was the code even back then ('79 UBC).
to Mike: they rarely do controlled burns except in rural areas, and not often for that either. the problem is that we put all small fires out too quickly, letting fuel accumulate on hillsides til it's a conflagration
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/16/2008 13:12
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#11
My parents house in Valley Center burnt to the ground in the Paradise Fire in 2003 - in spite of being built of concrete blocks, and with concrete roof-tiles, and with all the natural brush cleared away. The fire came roaring up a natural draw with some small trees in it, caught the eaves of the garage roof from below, and then when the garage was well alight, jumped to the house. The trouble was, their parking space by the house wasn't large enough for a firetruck to turn around in, and so the PD couldn't bring a pumper truck close enough to the house to knock it down. All my parents' neighbors houses were saved because the PD could do this, keep the house wet until the fire passed by.
BTW, my mother said that when the firemen ordered her out, the fire had this awful, deep roar to it, coming up the hill towards the houses. Scary as hell to hear - and she knew there was no fighting it at that point.
However, my father, some neighbors and the firemen stayed long enough grabbing pictures off the walls, until the heat began exploding the windows inwards...
#12
My comment didn't doubt that that was the code. It doubts that they work after 5 years. When these fires get going, treated cedar shingles are a thin line of protection. But they look great the rest of the time.
Speaking to the MPs at the Kenyan capital, Somalian President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed says that government is on the verge of being demolished by insurgency.
On Saturday, Abdullahi Yusuf urged Somali MPs in Nairobi to return to the country immediately to build a new government. The president confessed that the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) controls small parts of Mogadishu and Baidoa and the two areas are under persistent attacks from the insurgents.
Yusuf refused to agree to a cabinet list submitted by Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein earlier and accused the premier of dissolving the cabinet and appointing ministers that don't care about the country. "You know Elasha Biyaha (outside Mogadishu) that close to Mogadishu was captured, Yusuf further added.
Analysts say that the two leaders are competing to dominate the parliament.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/16/2008
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As Caroline Glick notes in the op-ed piece below, Obama is clueless about how the Middle East works. Appeasing the Arabs only whets their appetite for more. Yet Bambi is going to endorse the Saudi 'peace' plan. Guess what will happen next.
Barack Obama is to pursue an ambitious peace plan in the Middle East involving the recognition of Israel by the Arab world in exchange for its withdrawal to pre-1967 borders, according to sources close to Americas president-elect. Obama intends to throw his support behind a 2002 Saudi peace initiative endorsed by the Arab League and backed by Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister and leader of the ruling Kadima party.
The proposal gives Israel an effective veto on the return of Arab refugees expelled in 1948 while requiring it to restore the Golan Heights to Syria and allow the Palestinians to establish a state capital in east Jerusalem.
On a visit to the Middle East last July, the president-elect said privately it would be crazy for Israel to refuse a deal that could give them peace with the Muslim world, according to a senior Obama adviser.
The Arab peace plan received a boost last week when President Shimon Peres, a Nobel peace laureate and leading Israeli dove, commended the initiative at a Saudi-sponsored United Nations conference in New York. Peres was loudly applauded for telling King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who was behind the original initiative: I wish that your voice will become the prevailing voice of the whole region, of all people.
A bipartisan group of senior foreign policy advisers urged Obama to give the Arab plan top priority immediately after his election victory. They included Lee Hamilton, the former co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group, and Zbigniew Brzezinski, a Democrat former national security adviser. Brzezinski will give an address tomorrow at Chatham House, the international relations think tank, in London.
Brent Scowcroft, a Republican former national security adviser, joined in the appeal. He said last week that the Middle East was the most troublesome area in the world and that an early start to the Palestinian peace process was a way to psychologically change the mood of the region.
Advisers believe the diplomatic climate favours a deal as Arab League countries are under pressure from radical Islamic movements and a potentially nuclear Iran. Polls show that Palestinians and Israelis are in a mood to compromise.
The Paleos are in a mood to compromise? Since when? All they've been doing is launching Qassam rockets and sharpening their knives.
The advisers have told Obama he should lose no time in pursuing the policy in the first six to 12 months in office while he enjoys maximum goodwill.
Obama is also looking to break a diplomatic deadlock over Irans pursuit of nuclear weapons technology. A possible way forward, suggested last spring by Dennis Ross, a senior Obama adviser and former Middle East envoy, would be to persuade Russia to join in tough economic sanctions against Iran by offering to modify the US plan for a missile shield in eastern Europe.
And by giving Iran Israel, which is what this is all about ...
President Dmitry Medvedev signalled that Russia could cancel a tit-for-tat deployment of missiles close to the Polish border if America gave up its proposed missile defences in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Sort of like how the Soviets offered to eventually pull back their SS-20s if Reagan agreed not to deploy the Pershing missiles. We remember how that worked out. Bambi really is gullible ...
Ross argued in a paper on How to Talk to Iran that if the Iranian threat goes away, so does the principal need to deploy these [antimissile] forces. [Vladimir] Putin [the Russian prime minister] has made this such a symbolic issue that this trade-off could be portrayed as a great victory for him.
Ross and Daniel Kurtzer, a former American ambassador to Israel, accompanied Obama on a visit to Israel last July. They also travelled to Ramallah, where Obama questioned Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, about the prospects for the Arab plan. According to a Washington source Obama told Abbas: The Israelis would be crazy not to accept this initiative. It would give them peace with the Muslim world from Indonesia to Morocco.
Kurtzer submitted a paper to Obama on the question before this months presidential elections. He argued that trying to reach bilateral peace agreements between Israel and individual countries in the Middle East, was a recipe for failure as the record of Bill Clinton and George W Bush showed. In contrast, the broader Arab plan had a lot of appeal. A leading Democratic expert on the Middle East said: Theres not a lot of meat on the bones yet, but it offers recognition of Israel across the Arab world.
Livni, the leader of Kadima, which favours the plan, is the front-runner in Israeli elections due in February. Her rival, Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of Likud, is adamantly against withdrawing to borders that predate the Six Day war in 1967.
Ehud Olmert, the prime minister, last week expressed his support for Israels withdrawal from the West Bank Golan and east Jerusalem.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/16/2008
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#4
If you are going to f*ck up domestically, you might as well balance the sheet with foreign policy f*ckups right out of the chute.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/16/2008 0:59
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#5
All the words above -- go together to show Obama's position on the Middle East, is one of go-along-to-get-along..... as is all his positions so far.
He truly doesn't understand that adage, "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."
Our enemies are pulling him closer and closer to them, even before he takes office... and there is nothing standing in their way. He is placing in positions of power, those folks that Clinton had in place, that led us to 9/11.
My imagaination isn't broad enough to envision what it is that Osama is planning when he extends a welcome to Obama, telling him, he is planning a hit on us bigger than 9/11 --
We can only pray, that all those "secretive" W's executives order, his programs that extend into the next few years, will win us some time.
So far, our President Elect is running his office just as he did his time in the Senate --
Four years in the Senate. Two of those years campaigning for this job. He's already campaigning for his second term, cause, the only thing he know how to do really good, is campaign.
#6
This again speaks to the arrogance of Obama. Why would Isreal do what Obama tells it to do?
But the way I understand it, even for a moment thinking there can be any compromise until a fundamental reform of Islam is undertaken is impossible.
As I understand it, it is written in one Hadith or another that the reason the Jews lost Israel was because they refused to accept Mohammad as God's prophet and the Quran as the word of God and that the Jews would never regain Israel until they do.
So a religious Muslim can never accept that Israel exists without, by the same token, invalidating that Hadith. So unless it is decided at some high level that the Hadiths can be in error generally and that one in particular, a Muslim has no choice but to refuse to recognize Israel regardless of any land deal.
#9
All they've been doing is launching Qassam rockets and sharpening their knives.
Those rockets are being fired from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, Fatah/PA dominated West Bank has been very quite for many months, and the Palestinian security services have been keeping a tight leash on Hamas on the West Bank, albeit for their own interests rather than Israel's security.
Why would Isreal do what Obama tells it to do?
Because America gives them $2 billion a year every year and veto's down every anti-Israel UN resolution, among other things?
#14
Frank, Darth, IMO, your posts contain two implicit assumptions.
(a) Israel is a primary concern for American Jews.
(b) Republicans are better for Israel than Democrats.
In general, I find that examining one's implicit assumptions seldom hurts---and, in many cases, could be quite enlightening.
#17
our own TW is proof that not all American Jews are Democrats, but I do think, despite condi's marathon efforts for a dead roadmap, that Israel will look back on 2000-2008 as the "good old days"
Republican voters are generally more pro-Israel than the populace, and even more so than Democrat voters and politicians. My point is not that Israel is a central interest to Jews here, but they could do better than endorse twits like Carter, Obama, Clinton, Brzezinski, et al, which are even more Paleo and Arab-loving
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/16/2008 11:21
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#18
Because 6 decades of policy of pressuring Israel to appease Arabs have been so rewarding to USA.
#19
Why don't we leave Isreal alone to do what they do best??? Defend themselves and their land. They have shown time and again they know how to deal with their enemies.
#20
I think a LOT of people are going to regret voting for BO. Here is a man that has NEVER made a major decision. He voted "Present" in the Illinois Senate something like 140 times. He's seldom voted on a bill that had serious repercussions. Now he's President. There's no side-stepping decisions now - he either makes them, or he abdicates his position and authority. Either is possible, but in today's world a strong leader is absolutely essential. Instead, we have an empty suit. Personally, I think he'll have a stroke or heart attack in the first two years. He's never lived with stress in any position he's ever held. Now he's in a position where stress is a constant companion. Stress kills, if you're not used to dealing with it. Biden is no better, and may actually go first. Let us pray that the Republicans can retake the House before that happens, or we'll have President Pelosi - another empty-headed fool.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/16/2008 12:49
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#21
"it would be 'crazy' for Israel to refuse a deal that could 'give them peace with the Muslim world'"
True, but it is also true that there can be no peace with the Muslim world as long as the Muslim world practices what it preaches. Thus any such deal is a fantasy.
Aswat al-Iraq: The Gulf News newspaper, based in the United Arab Emirates, on Saturday evening reported that a senior aide to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki said Iraq and the United States are now in agreement over a final draft of a security pact.
The draft deal, if approved, would allow American troops to stay in Iraq for three more years after their UN mandate expires December 31, 2008.
The aide, who spoke to the newspaper on condition of anonymity, said that copies of the agreement will be distributed to Cabinet members later Saturday after a final revision of the Arabic translation.
It could be put to a vote in an emergency meeting on Sunday or Monday, the aide said, adding that it stands "a good chance" of being approved in Cabinet.
If adopted by the Cabinet, the agreement will be voted on in parliament.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/16/2008
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Leaders of the world's 20 largest economies pledged action to reverse a looming global recession and prevent future financial upheaval, but shied away from a coordinated stimulus plan. Yep. We're screwed.
World leaders agreed at the economic crisis summit to an action plan for reforming the financial system and promised to work together to restore global growth, according to a final communiqué. "We are determined to enhance our cooperation and work together to restore global growth and achieve needed reforms in the world's financial systems," the final statement from the G20 group of countries said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/16/2008
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#1
I'm filled with confidence (cause I believe that World-wide economic crisis is the only thing that can stop the triumphant march of Transnational progressivism).
Soak the peasants. [It's great to be King]
Tax Serfdom [the time has come cause we know how it worked last time - keeping the right caste in power for a thousand many years]
#4
WORLD MILITRYA FORUM > G-20 SUMMIT FAILURE: USA BOUND TO COLLAPSE DUE TO OVEREXCESSIVE NATIONAL DEBTS, CHINA TO TAKE OVER US ROLE IN TERROR WAR, WORLD AFFAIRS; + CHINA MUST CAREFULLY WEIGH ITS TRUE NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE/FREEDOMS AS IT TAKES OVER THE POLITICAL, MILITARY, AND ECONOMIC, ETC. GEOPOLTTICAL LEADERSHIP FROM THE BANKRUPT USA.
The Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) yesterday launched a month-long mass-awareness campaign in the city, demanding trial of the war criminals, end of fundamentalism and reinstallation of the 1972 constitution.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/16/2008
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Three suicide bombers have entered Peshawar to hit targets including the Malik Mohammad Saad Shaheed Police Lines, according to a note put up at the Police Lines on Saturday. The men have been identified as Ali Raza and Naeem from Khanjar Abad Koroona and another, also named Naeem, from Karachi. The attacker will identify himself as the son of a police or military officer and could be on foot, in a car or on a motorcycle, the note said. Police officials were not immediately available for comment.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/16/2008
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The NYT opines on what a President Obama will need to do with our military. They and the Democrats have spent the last eight years depicting our troops as broken, depressed or damaged goods, or as heartless killers, or as ruthless automatons bombing enemies into submission, or as stupid, bitter young men and women with no other prospects for getting out of the sticks to which they cling.
Now they think they know what our military needs.
And no surprise, they think the military should cut all the expensive stuff like the F-22 and new naval combat ships, dump the ballistic missile defense until it can be 'guaranteed' to work, and so on. And no one should think that their advice have more marines and soldiers, more transport capacity, and more 'preparedness' and training for small wars is genuine: that's the sort of thing a Democrat always cuts first when they're looking for spare change to fund new social welfare initiatives.
The NYT is calling for less military. It's what they believe in. It's going to be a rough four years.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/16/2008
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#1
The Donks are going to do their usual thing: Slash military spending as long as they are in power. This has a double-upside for them. Since they don't seem to give a $hit about military spending beyond what is absolutely necessary to hold onto any credibility among centrists whatsoever, they get to use the $$$ to buy votes in the next election or two and it makes it easier to "balance" the overall budget. When the Trunks grab the reigns back, they end up having to rebuild the dilapidated military, and all the Donks start their usual rhetorical whining about how the Trunks warmongering is bankrupting the country in the process. And after things are about as patched up as they can be given the combination of legitimate spending plus pork/earmarks (and whatever else the Donks can sabotage the process with by taking advantage of weak-willed politicians) that are competing for the military budget, the people vote the Trunks back out of power so they can get "Change" or whatever other mantra seems to resonate with the public's short memories and idiotic expectations that the US will somehow always end up on top after taking yet another four or eight year nap while the rest of the world plows forward.
#4
This time, though, I'm afraid the bottom line is that Defense is going to have to take a 25% hit, and though the Democrats want that, they aren't going to have a choice in the matter.
Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and all their other spending is also going to have to take a 25% hit as well. Which they are not going to like one damn bit.
To start with, next year, tax revenues are going to be down by double digits. And nobody is left who has the money to fund deficit spending. China is our biggest creditor, holding over $1T of US debt, and that gravy train has run out. Even if they just don't buy any more, the US is broke. If they cash in their bonds, very, very broke.
This means that one dollar beyond tax revenues will have to be "monetized" debt, like what Mugabe is doing in Zimbabwe. This results in the unpleasant weirdness that at the same time our money is terribly deflating, prices are terribly inflating.
As far as the military goes, when the economy tanks, they will have to turn away huge numbers of the unemployed. But almost all will be light infantry, carrying a rifle and getting room and board.
The international crises will probably mean that they get sent to other countries for heaven knows what.
But it would be interesting to see the nutjobs of the world pull off their next massive terrorist strike against DURING the administration of the party that creates the situation instead of nine months after they are voted out of office.
Of course, I shudder to think of what would have happened if the world trade center had occured under Clinton instead of Bush and I shudder to think of what BO will do in similar circumstances.
Cutting defense and our capability to search for, close with and destroy the enemy invites a big fat lip of a terrorist act that will kill thousands.
I sincerely believe that not even the disappearance of one of our cities will wake these nihilists up.
Posted by: James Carville ||
11/16/2008 17:57
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#6
all we can hope is that most of the appeaseniks inhabit that City. Might wake a few of the rest up
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/16/2008 18:01
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#7
"Dangerous New World > POTENTIAL LACK OF A CLEAR WINNER IN THE US-ISLAMIST GWOT; + ISLAMIST-LED, PAN-ASIAN/AFRICAN DESTABILIZATION/BREAKUP, + ON-GOING ENVIRO-LEFT DEMANDS FOR IMMEDIATE ANDOR NEAR-TERM GLOBAL WARMING "FORCED/GOVT-EMFORCED" + "GLOBAL" SOLUTIONS???
Dare I say to include PROTRACTIVE US-GLOBAL FINANCIAL + FOLLOW-ON ECON CRISES FOR THE SAKE OF GLOBAL SOCIALIST ORDER - you know, PROGRESS = REGRESSION, REGULATION = LIBERTARIANISM, etc???
#8
E.g. WORLD MIL FORUM > "official" US GDP of US$13.0 +/-Trilyuhn offset by excessive US global debts levels possibly as high as US$50.0Trilyuhn, THUS MANY US DOMESTIC SECTORS ARE SCREAMING FOR US GOVT-LED, INDUSTRIES- AND STATE(S) BAILOUTS!?
MANY NET POSTERS > argue the USA is directly responsible for its probs just as all other World States, or just as drug addicts are responsible for their own drug [over]consumption and resultant personal legal, criminal, moral, psychological, and pan-econ probs > WHY SHOULD THE WORLD HELP = BAIL OUT IMPERIALIST ZIONIST NWO, ETC. AMERICA???
WORLD MIL FORUM > THE FIVE MAJOR TASKS OF CURRENT US INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES, as vee OWT + World Affairs.
* Monitoring CHINESE NAVAL. MIL DEVELOPMENT + MOVEMENTS.
* Ascertain and determine RUSSIA's intentions as per CENTRAL ASIAN ENERGY, ESPEC MILITARY UTILITY = ENERGY WEAPONIZATION.
* AL QAEDA + TALIBAN > vital intel data collection and interpretation, "divide-and-conquer" of same.
* Identify NEW EMERGING REGIONAL-INTERNATIONAL STATE(S) POWERS = GEOPOL "YOUNG TURKS", espec those wid NUCLEARIZED = HYDROGEN/PLUTONIUM BOMB CAPABILITIES [thermonuclear] + EFFEC TARGETING-DELIVERY SYSTEMS.
* CLOSE ATTN TO NORTH KOREA, espec as per KIMMIE SUCCESSION + NOKOR NUCLEARIZATION.
The Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier could be handed over to the Indian Navy in 2012 if Delhi provides sufficient funding for the project, the director of a Russian shipyard said on Thursday.
And in 2012, another two billion will have the Gorshkov ready in 2015 ...
"Construction of the ship will be completed in 2010 and tests will start in 2011, while in 2012 it will be transferred to the Indian Navy," Sevmash chief Nikolai Kalistratov said, stressing that it would only be handed over if Delhi provided sufficient funding to complete the construction.
Another shipyard executive said the market dictated that India should pay a further $2 billion. "The market price of such an aircraft carrier varies between $3 billion and $4 billion. The ongoing maintenance and upgrade makes up 60-70% of the new carrier's cost. This is about $2 billion," said Sergei Novoselov, deputy general director of Sevmash.
A source in Russian Defense Ministry said that if India failed to foot the bill, the carrier could be given to the Russian Navy. "If India does not pay up, we will keep the aircraft carrier," he said.
Kalistratov said the aircraft carrier was 49% complete and would be floated out before the end of this week so construction could be completed in a wet dock.
The original $750 million contract to deliver the Admiral Gorshkov to India, which Russia's state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport signed with the Indian Navy in 2004, projected the work would be completed in 2008. However, Russia later claimed it underestimated the scale and the cost of the modernization and demanded an additional $1.2 billion, which New Delhi said was "exorbitant."
After long-running delays and disputes, Russia and India agreed in February to raise retrofit costs for the aircraft carrier, docked at the Sevmash shipyard in northern Russia for the past 12 years, by at least $800 million. The current contract covers a complete overhaul of the ship and equipping it with modern weaponry, including MiG-29K Fulcrum aircraft and Ka-27 Helix-A and Ka-31 Helix-B anti-submarine helicopters.
The carrier, renamed the Vikramaditya, is to replace India's INS Viraat carrier, which, although currently operational, is now 50 years old. After modernization, the carrier is expected to be seaworthy for 30 years.
Still think we ought to offer the Indians the Kitty Hawk ...
Posted by: john frum ||
11/16/2008
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#1
The Vikrant, now being built in Cochin shipyard, Kerala, will hit the water in 2010 and is epected to enter service in 2012. A sister ship will be ready by 2017.
So India may have two Indian built aircraft carriers before the Gorshkov is ready.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/16/2008 8:19
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#2
I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a Gorshkov today.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/16/2008 14:02
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#8
BY various MSM-Net sources, the NERPA Sub is reportedly only leased to INDIA for as long as 10 years, NOT necess leased-to-own as other sources had claimed, an arrangement which could prove legally and diplom tricky iff RUSSIA OR INDIA NEED TO USE THE SHIP + SIMILAR IN COMBAT MISSIONS.
Pragmatically, wid the USN-DOD itself debating the LT utility of the CV21 class versus extending the service lives of the NIMITZ-Class, as given the advances in super-tech + proposed OWG-NWO "1000-Flag/Nation" Global Task Force = UNO Global Naval Police, smaller CV's like GORSHKOV are basically INTERNATIONAL AIR-SEA CADET TRAINING SHIPS FOR JAMES T. KIRK'S STARFLEET + FEDERATION [OF EARTH/TERRAN SYS SPACE COLONIES].
#9
First thingys first - RUSSIA wants the $$$, but I doubt it will turn the GORSHKOV, etc. over to India iff the latter appears to Russ to becom destabilized wid risk of national breakup ala PAN-ASIA ISLAMIST THREAT 2015-2020. Russ itself is subject to many of the same Islamist pressures ala 2015-2020, and ultimately may decide to keep the Gorshy for itself anyway in order to milpol CYA its own domestic arse agz Radical Islamism!?
The Middle East is in danger of accumulating large stocks of nuclear material over the next decade that could be used to produce over 1,700 nuclear bombs, a U.S. research center has projected in a newly released report.
The Institute for Science and International Security, headed by David Albright, one the world's top experts on nuclear weapons and the prevention of nuclear proliferation, recently released its report urging president-elect Barack Obama to take a number of measures to avoid such an outcome, including convincing Israel to halt production of its nuclear weapons.
"The Obama administration should make a key priority of persuading Israel to join the negotiations for a universal, verified treaty that bans the production of plutonium and highly enriched uranium for nuclear explosives, commonly called the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT)," the institute argued. "As an interim step, the United States should press Israel to suspend any production of fissile material for nuclear weapons. Toward this goal, the United States should change its relatively new policy of seeking a cutoff treaty that does not include verification. The Bush administration's rejection of the long-standing U.S. policy of requiring verification was a mistake that the incoming administration needs to rectify."
Though Israel has never publicly admitted it has nuclear arms, it is largely believed to possess about 200 nuclear warheads. Iran has defied the international community for years by running a nuclear program which many observers fear may allow it to obtain nuclear arms in the future.
More recently, several Middle Eastern countries including the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt and Turkey announced their intention of building nuclear power plants.
Though most countries said they want to build reactors in order to reduce their dependency on fossil fuels as their sole source of energy, the institute's researchers believe they also wish to create a nuclear infrastructure in their own countries in light of the possibility that Iran will obtain nuclear arms.
In the year 2020 a number of nuclear reactors in the Middle East are expected to be completed, producing over 13 tons of plutonium. According to the institute, a nuclear device requires only eight kilograms to be assembled.
The institute believes the White House should strive to have Egypt, Iran and Israel ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). It also has stated that the U.S. should discourage the reprocessing of irradiated power reactor fuel both domestically and internationally.
Oh that's just brilliant of them. We can't get the Iranians to stop their progress for a bomb in the first place but we're going to persuade them to ratify the CTBT? The Iranians have to test a bomb when they build it, not only to know if their design works but to demonstrate to the world that they have it and can build more. There's no way in the world the Iranians will sign that away, and Bambi will be delusional if he thinks he can charm the Mad Mullahs.
The Egyptians will build a bomb if only because they can't stand the thought of the Medes and Persians having something they don't have. As for the Israelis, they don't have to test now, but they're not going to admit to having the bomb so it's irrelevant.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/16/2008
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#1
Why disarm an ally if negotiations are unable to disarm a hostile regime like Iran?
#3
That's almost delusional, as proposals go, if only because international treaties as accepted only bind western powers, commies used to get away from not respecting them scot free, and so do third world countries... the "UN" world order has been a one-way street for quite some time already.
#4
I think their proposal should have been that Bojangles should ask the Israelis to tear down their wall, allow free immigration of Muslims into Israel, in exchange for which he will use US taxpayer money to buy them new homes in Freedonia.
#9
Compare wid PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > TRIANGULATING AN ASIAN CONFLICT - Both AL QAEDA + TALIBAN, etc. Islamist Groups are on the verge of securing NUCLEAR BOMBS from Pakistani sources. As RUSSIA, CHINA, INDIA, + OTHER ASIAN NATIONS ARE GEOGRPAHICALLY MUCH CLOSER TO THE MAIN OR MOST POTENT ATMRF ISLAMIST MILITANT-TERROR GROUPS THAN THE USA ANDOR NATO-EU, CHINA + INDIA = NEW RISE OF HAN-HINDU NATIONALISM should induce, not hinder, both impor Asian Nations = Nuclear States into CLOSER, NOT FARTHER OF UNILATERAL, regional milpol cooper to stop the LOOMING REAL THREAT OF ISLAMIST NUCLEARIZATION + likely ISLAMIST NUCLEAR TERROR.
IOW, a NEW 9-11 in America does NOT mean nuclear-ambitious Radical Islam will change from its campaign to destabilize and control large parts of EAST-CENTRAL-SOUTH ASIA.
*SAME > THE UNITED STATES OF ISLAM [Political, Economic, + Military, etc. UNIFIED MUSLIM WORLD]
#6
I understood the Superman reference in the 'Bloid because Ms. Vale is the spitting image of Lana Lang. But beyond that, I don't "get" a single reference in the comments....
#7
google up "poon" and "olongapo"... jeesh, scooter
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/16/2008 18:25
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#8
Any comment regarding Olanapo needs to include references to Sh!t River bridge..... in the last few years corrugated steel sheeting was installed in an attempt to cut down on peso diving.....
I used to look forward to a dinner at Susans, but in 95(?) it had been replaced by a rocl n roll bar.....
A Yemeni court on Saturday sentenced to death an Iranian for drug trafficking and imposed 25 year prison sentences each on another 11 Iranians and a Pakistani, officials said.
Ayub Mohammed Houd, 33, who faces the death penalty, and his 12 accomplices were found guilty of bringing 1.5 tons of hashish into Yemeni territorial waters, hidden in the hold of a ship coming from Iran. "It was the work of a gang of criminals, who turned to trading in narcotics," according to the prosecuting statement.
The prosecutor immediately entered an appeal, saying all the accused men should be condemned to death. Defense lawyers also said they would appeal the sentences. The men denied the charges and said they had nothing to do with the seized drugs.
The prosecution said the 13 men were arrested by a U.S. navy warship, which found the drugs on board their boat. They were handed over to the Yemeni authorities after the destruction of all but 20 kilograms of drugs.
At the opening of the trial on October 12, the men, whose statements in Farsi were translated into Arabic, denied the charges and said the U.S. sailors threw a large quantity of fish into the sea from the hold.
Another group of 13 Iranian fishermen are on trial in Yemen, also for drug running.
On Friday, Yemeni authorities announced the seizure of seven tons of drugs on a ship off the Yemeni island of Socotra in the Indian Ocean, during an operation by coastguards in cooperation with international forces. Nine people aboard the ship were arrested, an interior ministry official told AFP on Saturday.
Yemeni authorities have said they seized 27 tons of various drugs in the first nine months of the year, mostly from Iranian traffickers wanting to distribute them via Yemen to Gulf countries.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/16/2008
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A Canadian mosque that has asked workplaces to accept a strict dress code for Muslim women is now under criticism for publicizing slurs against Jews and western societies as well as warning members against integration, Canadian paper the Star reported.
The Khalid Bin al-Walid Mosque has served as the religious authority for eight Somali women who filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission against the delivery service UPS claiming that the company dress code violated their religious freedom. The Toronto mosque, founded in 1990, serves about 10,000 people and is known for preaching strict adherence to Islamic Sharia law.
The mosque website refers to non-Muslim Westerners as "wicked", "corrupt" and "our clear enemies." The website's Questions and Answer section where Muslims can ask, which allows Muslims to ask questions regarding their religion but has come under attack recently for some of the replies, according to the Star.
"Is it permissible for women to wear high heeled-shoes?" one reader asked, to which the reply was no. "It involves resembling the Disbelieving Women or the wicked women. It has its origin among the Jewish women," read the explanation
The site reportedly went on to say that once (a Muslim woman) becomes introduced to the wickedness of Western ideology and concepts ... (she) becomes fixated on trying to appear and act like her "role models" of corruption.
A disclaimer on the website noted that questions and answers did not necessarily reflect the mosque's views, said the Star. But the About Us page declares that the mosque's imam, Bashir Yusuf Shiil, "prepared, approved, and supervised" all questions and answers on the site.
The Q and A section was no longer available on the site at the time of publication and several attempts by AlArabiya.net to reach representatives of the mosque for clarification were unsuccessful.
The UPS case
According to the Star, the mosque's stand on the UPS case also appears contradictory. In September, a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal heard two weeks of testimony from eight mosque members accusing the company of "Islamophobia."
The eight women who were fired by UPS say Islam dictates they wear a full-length skirt for modesty. However UPS insists that the skirts only be knee-length due to safety concerns, as workers need to climb ladders up to six meters (19 feet) high. The women are allowed to wear pants under their skirts, but they say they do not want the lower part of their leg showing in case the shape of their calves can be discerned.
The eight women mentioned the Khalid Bin al-Walid mosque as their place of worship and religious authority, and produced a letter from its administration. "This is to certify that the religion of Islam requires all Muslim women to cover her entire body inclusive of the legs, arms, head, ears and neck," the letter reads. "As such, (the women) would not be able to wear pants as an outfit."
In addition, the mosque's website teachings forbid women to work outside the home. "It is known that when women go to work in the workplaces of men, this leads to mixing with men," one posting quoted by the Star asserted.
"This is a very dangerous matter," it read. "It is in clear opposition to the texts of the Shariah that order the women to remain in their houses and to fulfill the type of work that is particular for her."
The mosque published on Nov. 8 a response to the public criticism contradicting some earlier posts and stating that no offence was intended by the content of the site and that its members and directors are law abiding Muslims that practice their religion in a manner that is entirely consistent with the rights afforded by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
"The Board of the Khalid Bib Al-Walid Mosque maintains the view that women are an extremely important part of the workplace in Canadian society and that they have made and will continue to make many meaningful contributions to Canada's economy and the well-being of their communities and families," reads the message recently posted on the site's main page.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/16/2008
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#1
The mosque slurred the west? That's curious. I've never heard a talking mosque before.
Terrorists are begging for a ceasefire but the government will not agree to a truce until they surrender, a private TV channel quoted Interior Adviser Rehman Malik as saying on Saturday.
Speaking at a passing-out parade of Pakistan Rangers jawans in Mandi Bahauddin, the interior adviser said terrorists were being trained and funded by foreign countries, adding those who wanted to surrender should contact the political agent of the respective tribal agencies.
According to the channel, Rehman said the government was planning to teach Pakistani security forces the latest counter-terror techniques to fight terrorism effectively. He also announced that the pay and perks of the Pakistan Rangers were being raised and brought at par with those of the army.
About the money laundering scam, the interior adviser said the government would take stern action against Munaf Kalia and Javed Khanani and bring back the foreign exchange illegally transferred abroad.
According to Online, Rehman said the authorities were cracking down on those involved in Hundi and Hawala business. He urged overseas Pakistanis to remit their money through financial institutions.
Earlier, Pakistan Rangers personnel presented a guard of honour to the interior adviser. Rehman distributed prizes among Rangers jawans.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/16/2008
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#1
I'd prefer that they were begging for their lives, but that's just me.
Men with long hair and flowing beards have once again made their way to Peshawar and can be seen singly or in groups of twos and threes in the city markets.
The long-haired men, typical of the Taliban operating in the tribal agencies of Waziristan, Bajaur and Mohmand, had gone underground following the launching of the military operation against Bara-based Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) of Mangal Bagh in late June this year.
At that time, most of the long-haired men belonged to the LI from Bara, the sub-division of Khyber tribal agency and located some 12 kilometres south-west of Peshawar.
However, those roaming in the city markets presently belong to Mohmand and Khyber agencies, located close to the city on its northern and western outskirts respectively, and where the army and paramilitary troops have already launched or planning to launch operations against the law-breakers.
Though, the long-haired men did not issue threats to boutiques displaying mannequins, coffee shops playing music or internet cafes and CD shops, their presence has spread a wave a fear among the dwellers and shop owners who are already living in a state of peril because of the increasing incidents of violence and unabated kidnappings of businessmen, common citizens, NGO persons and foreign diplomats.
In the month of June, groups of such people from Bara would visit markets and distribute warning letters to shop owners or issue them direct threats to stop playing music or cable TV and avoid displaying photographs of actresses or women models in their shops.
However, the limited scale operation in Bara suppressed the trend and the inhabitants and businessmen of the walled city took a sigh of relief, though for a temporary period.
But the recent reappearance of the Taliban-styled men, now from Mohmand and Khyber, has once again disturbed the already harassed people.
Owner of a boutique dealing in women's garments and cosmetics, who wished not to be named, said the ratio of women customers had drastically reduced following the recent blast, the incidents of kidnapping and the reappearance of the Taliban-styled guys in the markets.
Mohammad Shoib, a government employee, told Daily Times that he accompanied his children to school in the morning and back home in the afternoon.
"This is a tough routine, but I have no other option," he said. Shoib added that he used to send his children to school with a rickshaw wala, but the increasing incidents of kidnapping and lawlessness forced him to accompany his children from home to school and vice versa.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/16/2008
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Iran detained 10 spies carrying $500,000 in cash who had entered the Islamic Republic illegally from neighboring Pakistan, state television said on Saturday. Modern espionage cameras and maps of sensitive regions in Iran were found when the group was detained in Iran's south-eastern Sistan-Baluchestan province bordering Pakistan, the report said.
Iran has in the past accused the United States and Britain of trying to destabilize the country by supporting ethnic minority rebels operating in sensitive border areas.
Television did not give any details on the 10 alleged spies' nationality or say when they were detained.
Earlier in the week Iran's Intelligence minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei was quoted by the semi-official Fars News Agency of saying that "over the last two months, Western intelligence agencies have set new priorities in Iran."
"Until two months ago, Western intelligence services focused on Iran's [general] elections, but today they are working on finding ways to foment discord inside the country," Ejei added.
Sistan-Baluchestan is a volatile province known for frequent clashes between security forces and well-armed drug smugglers.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/16/2008
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#2
Does anyone know how many NIMITZ-class Aircraft Carriers the US now has? The word I heard 20 years ago was that all other carriers, except for the Enterprise, were to be phased out and replaced by NIMITZ-class. At that time, we had a total of 16 carriers. I think the production order for NIMITZ-class was 12 ships, but Congress may have trimmed that, like they did the "Arleigh Burke" class destroyers.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/16/2008 12:03
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#3
The Congresscritters want to cutback the USDOD at the same time that THE ETHNIC, MIL + GEOPOL, ETC. MAP OF EURASIA + AFRICA, espec EAST-CENTRAl-SOUTH ASIA, MAY FORCIBLY MILPOL CHANGE 2015-2020, vee the well-reported/anticipated RISE OF CHINA versus [new]RISE OF NUCLEAR-AMBITIOUS RADICAL ISLAM/ISLAMIST ASIA [proto-Islamist Asia = large Militant enclaves]???
*WORLD MIL FORUM > CHIN PERTS >= are basically advsing Beijing = CPC/CCCC that China cannot hope to be true US-style, post-Cold War, 21st Century = Asia/Asia-Pacific Century Modern Superpower AND STILL BE HOMOGENOUS + GEOPOL ISOLATIONIST, ETC. AS PER NATIONAL POLICIES.
E.g. TO PROPERLY DEFEND THE EAST-SOUTH CHINA SEAS + CHIN HISTORICAL INTERESTS IN EAST ASIA, ETC. CHINA = PLA MUST BE MODERN, ECON STRONG/PROFICIENT, + ABLE TO MILITARILY DEFEND AND PROJECT DECISIVE FORCE AMAP AFAP INTO THE CENTRAL-EASTERN PACIFIC + INDIAN OCEANS, ETC. AGZ ANY AND ALL COMERS.
Can now add NUCLEAR-AMBITIOUS RADICAL ISLAM [States = Militant-Terror Groups] to China's list of possible future LOCAL-GLOBAL adversaries.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) said on Saturday it was not involved in kidnapping for ransom, the killing of innocent people, bomb blasts and robberies. In pamphlets written in Urdu and distributed in Jamrud, the Taliban said they would take action against those involved in these crimes. The pamphlets said Taliban were fighting for 'the sanctity of the religion' and their fight was not against a particular country, group or individual. According to the pamphlets, TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud has nominated Mustafa Kamal as Taliban chief for Jamrud sub-division of Khyber Agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/16/2008
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Aswat al-Iraq: Two explosive devices went off on Saturday in Kirkuk, wounding one civilian, while a third bomb was defused, said a source from the city's police. "A roadside bomb detonated in southern Kirkuk, wounding one civilian who was admitted to hospital for treatment," the source told Aswat al-Iraq.
"Support forces found a roadside bomb in the southwest of Kirkuk city, and they detonated it by themselves, without causing any casualties," he said. "In a third incident, an explosive device, which was adhered to the car of a local official, fell down on the road while the car was moving, and then was exploded, without causing any casualties or damages," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/16/2008
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US President-elect Barack Obama has properly sought to maintain a low profile in foreign affairs in this transition period ahead of his January inauguration. But while Obama has stipulated that the US can have only one president at a time, his aides and advisers are signaling that he intends to move US foreign policy in a sharply different direction from its current trajectory once he assumes office.
And they are signaling that this new direction will be applied most immediately and directly to US policy toward the Middle East.
Early in the Democratic Party's primary season, the Obama campaign released a list of the now-president-elect's foreign policy advisers to The Washington Post. The list raised a great deal of concern in policy circles, particularly among supporters of the US-Israel alliance. It included outspoken critics of Israel such as Zbigniew Brzezinski, who served as national security adviser under president Jimmy Carter, and Robert Malley, who served as a junior Middle East aide to president Bill Clinton. Both men are deeply hostile to Israel and both have called repeatedly for the US to end its strategic alliance with Israel.
In the months that followed the list's publication, the Obama campaign sought to distance itself from both men as the president-elect's advisers worked to position Obama as a centrist candidate.
Brzezinski was cast aside in February when he headed a delegation to Syria to meet with President Bashar Assad. The purpose of his "fact-finding" mission was to castigate the Bush administration for its refusal to pursue Syria as an ally, and to decry Damascus's international isolation caused by its support for the insurgency in Iraq, its strategic alliance with Iran, its support for Hizbullah as well as Hamas and al-Qaida, its illicit nuclear program and its subversion of the pro-Western Lebanese government.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/16/2008
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#1
Great. Zbiggys back. Luckily the Russian economy isn't back.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
11/16/2008 1:07
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#2
The Obama team's pre-inaugural signals indicate strongly that Israel's next government will need to strike Iran's nuclear installations before two rapidly approaching deadlines
Actually the Israelis have less than 42 days to hit Iran before Obama takes office.
#3
They might as well. Either way they are going to be screwed.
If they do hit Iran maybe they could do us all a favor and take out Washington while they are at it.
Posted by: Kelly ||
11/16/2008 12:01
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#4
Is this why Slow Joe was telling the minions to stick by him and Hussein? That they might doubt the path the administration was taking, but they should stick with them because they would need their support more than ever ? Biden has been a big supporter of the Muzz himself in the past. Is the payoff for the millions in illegal donations going to begin immediately by turning on Israel right after the inaugural ? This tactic will be glaring. Does Barry have the balls to try it ? If he does, we need to give Jesse a nice, sharp blade for Christmas.
#6
don't worry, he's being advised by previously exposed incompetent advisors
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/16/2008 18:43
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#7
CHURCHILL or WELLINGTON > 'tis a "DAMN NEAR THING".
*FREEREPUBLIC POSTERS > HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER [Actor Fred Thompson] > THIS THING WILL GET OUT OF CONTROL AND WE'LL ALL BE LUCKY TO JUST LIVE THROUGH IT.
#9
FREEREPUBLIC > DEBKA - AL QAEDA CLAIMS ORDER GIVEN FOR NEW ATTACK AGZ USA BIGGER THAN 9-11; + PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING. Russia + other CSTO States propsoe to formally create/form a common military security and reaction force capable of defeating or repelling all threats to same in CENTRAL ASIA - THREATS TO THE CSTO BEING IDENTIFIED IN WHITE PAPERS AS "THE AGGRESSIVE POLICIES OF THE UNITED STATES IN THE REGION" [Central Asia] + "CREEPING EXPANSIONISM OF MILITARILY SECRETIVE AND UNPREDICTABLE CHINA"???
Also, TOPIX > CAN THE NEW OBAMA ADMINISTRATION STOP IRAN [+ by extens Militants-Terrorists] FROM GOING NUCLEAR?; + WORLD MILITARY FORUM > PLANNED US DEPLOYMENT OF UP TO SIX AIRCRAFT CARRIER BATTLE GROUPS AND 60% OF SUBMARINES TO ASIA-PACIFIC WILL FORCE CHINA TO DEVELOP A BLUE WATER NAVY.
* WORLD MIL FORUM > OBAMA ERA IS A MAJOR TURNING POINT IN US DEFENSE STRATEGY FOR ASIA-PACIFIC [end of Bush-esque Preemptive Strike + general Bush Doctrine], + [Taiwan]IMPRISONED CHEN SHUI-BAN SUPPORTERS PROCLAIM NEED TO FREE CHEN VIA ABSOLUTE VIOLENT REVOLUTION IN TAIWAN. SOUTHERN TAIWAN URGED TO BUY FIREARMS, USE GRENADES, PETROL BOMBS + EVEN ROCKET LAUNCHERS; + CHINA TO DEPLOY NEW 400-KM, YJ62-A "EAGLE" ANTI-SHIP/AIRCRAFT CARRIER MISSLES IN SE CHINA TO LOCK IN TAIWAN AGZ US NAVY, + TOKYO SURPRISED AT SECRET ARRIVAL OF USN LOS-ANGELES CLASS ATTACK SUB TO MONITOR CHINESE/PLAN WARSHIPS + JAPAN CONCERNED ABOUT RECENT CHINESE, RUSSIAN NAVAL ACTIVITIES CLOSE TO STRATEGIC WATERS.
(SomaliNet) The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is to relocate 60,000 refugees from the Congolese city of Goma. The two camps in which the refugees are currently living are under threat due to continued fighting between government troops and Tutsi rebels.
The UN has also, for the first time in weeks, begun to hand out food to citizens in areas controlled by the rebels. A food convoy crossed the front line on Friday.
As the fighting continues, there are signs that more and more foreign troops are joining in. It is believed that soldiers from Angola and Zimbabwe are now involved in the hostilities and that the rebels are receiving funds from Rwanda.
Earlier on Friday, EU envoy Roeland van de Geer told Radio Netherlands Worldwide that President Joseph Kabila is now prepared to hold talks with rebel leader Laurent Nkunda.
President Kabila had refused talks up to now but, the EU representative said, the rebels' military strength had changed his mind.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/16/2008
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Sri Lanka's military said troops seized the entire western coast of the Indian Ocean island on Saturday, capturing the key Pooneryn area where Tamil Tiger rebel artillery had kept soldiers at bay since 1993. With the military controlling Pooneryn, a strategic spit of land that runs parallel to the neck of the northern Jaffna Peninsula across a narrow lagoon, it will be in a position to strike the rebel capital of Kilinochchi from three sides.
In one of Asia's longest-running insurgencies, at least 70,000 people have been killed in Sri Lanka since 1983.
"We have completely taken over Pooneryn. We have gone up to the town, and control the roads from Pooneryn to Paranthan," military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.
The Defence Ministry said troops had encountered stiff resistance as they fought through marshlands south of Pooneryn and across the Paranthan junction overnight.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had no immediate comment.
"We didn't find any artillery, because they must have taken those pieces away or hidden them," Nanayakkara said. Saturday's capture came after months of heavy fighting on the west coast.
Surrender: Sri Lanka's president Saturday asked Tamil Tigers to surrender after troops claimed to have recaptured a strategically important town from Tiger rebels following months of heavy fighting. President Mahinda Rajapakse said in a televised address to the nation security forces wrested control of the town of Pooneryn and the main northwestern coastal route of A-32.
"This morning the entire A-32 road and Pooneryn was captured by our security forces," the president said. "On this occasion, I ask (Tiger chief Velupillai) Prabhakaran to lay down and immediately come for talks."
"The best thing he can do for the (Tamil) people in the north is to lay down arms and surrender," he said.
Pooneryn had been a Tiger stronghold since 1993 when the rebels dislodged the main military base after killing some 700 soldiers in three days of intense battles. The rebels had used the coastal area to launch artillery strikes against a military airbase on the northern edge of the government-controlled Jaffna peninsula vulnerable to long-range attacks.
The defence ministry described Saturday's capture of Pooneryn as the "greatest feat against terrorists" along the island's northwestern seaboard. The ministry said troops were closing in on the town of Kilinochchi, the political capital of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) further south.
"Pitched battles are still going on in the area," the ministry said. "The terrorists are fast withdrawing" to the northwest. The ministry, however, has made repeated claims in recent months that Kilinochchi was about to fall.
The air force deployed helicopter gun ships to pound suspected Tiger strongholds in the Jaffna peninsula Saturday morning in support of ground troops in the area, the military said.
The latest reports came as the country's parliament was set to vote Saturday on a new war budget allocating a record 1.6 billion dollars for defence in 2009, up from 1.5 billion dollars this year.
The territory held by the separatist Tiger rebels has shrunk sharply since the guerrillas lost the vast eastern province in July last year after months of heavy combat. Security forces have in recent months stepped up their offensive in a bid to capture Kilinochchi, the town where Tigers received visiting foreign dignitaries.
With the fall of Pooneryn, the military has taken the northwestern seaboard of the island and is poised to open a new land route to the Jaffna peninsula, which had so far been supplied by sea and air routes.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/16/2008
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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.
Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai warned on Sunday that President Robert Mugabe would cause the collapse of a power-sharing agreement if he imposes a unity government. 
TBILISI, GeorgiaEuropean Union cease-fire monitors in Georgia say they were shot at near a breakaway region in the former Soviet republic.
A local geological agency official says a powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake has struck eastern Indonesia. A tsunami warning was immediately issued and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says a destructive regional tsunami is possible. 
An Israeli airstrike killed four Palestinian militants as they fired mortars from the Gaza Strip on Sunday, Palestinian officials said, just hours after another group of militants struck Israel in a separate rocket attack. 
Gordon Brown tonight called on the world's most powerful industrial nations to agree a programme of immediate and coordinated tax cuts to prevent the global economy sliding deeper into recession.
The West Bengal government has sounded a red alert throughout the state following intelligence reports that terrorists may trigger serial blasts in different parts of the state. 
The Inspector General of Police, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura has issued a strong warning to Muslims who have threatened to violently deal with their Mufti Sheik Shaban Mubajje if the Court tomorrow finds him innocent of allegations of selling Muslim properties.
CIA director Michael Hayden has warned that every major terrorist threat confronting the world has ties to Pakistan.
The world has never seen such freezing heat
The error was so glaring that when it was reported on the two blogs - run by the US meteorologist Anthony Watts and Steve McIntyre, the Canadian computer analyst who won fame for his expert debunking of the notorious "hockey stick" graph - GISS began hastily revising its figures. This only made the confusion worse because, to compensate for the lowered temperatures in Russia, GISS claimed to have discovered a new "hotspot" in the Arctic - in a month when satellite images were showing Arctic sea-ice recovering so fast from its summer melt that three weeks ago it was 30 per cent more extensive than at the same time last year.
Nine Taliban including a commander were killed in clashes with security forces in Swat and another six were killed as troops pounded Taliban hideouts in Bajaur Agency on Saturday. The dead commander Ali Rehman was from Derai. Talks between rebel cleric Fazlullah and a Swat peace jirga also began on Saturday. A policeman was killed when a shell landed on his house during the operation against Taliban in Machni. An FC soldier was also killed in the clashes. Troops killed a suspected suicide bomber and an accomplice when they fired a rocket on his car in Shabqadar. They seized Taliban commander Ehtishamul Haq's house.
(SomaliNet) The European Union has banned all Angolan airlines from landing at European airports due to safety considerations. Cambodian airline Siem Reap Airways is also included in the ban.
Calm returned on Saturday to the Gaza Strip and southern Israel a day after Palestinian militants fired a barrage of 17 Qassam and Grad rockets at Sderot, Ashkelon and their surroundings in response to the death of a Palestinian militant in Gaza. One woman was lightly hurt by shrapnel and 15 others were treated for shock at Ashkelon's Barzilai Medical Center. Government sources said the next few days will be crucial in determining whether the ceasefire with Hamas may be salvaged. 
NEW DELHI - More arrests are expected in the coming weeks as the frightening dimensions of a Hindu terror plot start to unravel, with investigators indicating that it had the makings of a larger conspiracy and planning of reprisal killings of Muslims for serial bombings in a number of Indian cities.
Somali al-Shabab fighters flogged 32 dancers for violating strict Sharia edicts after arresting them for taking part in a traditional dance near the capital Mogadishu, officials and elders said.
Speaking to the MPs at the Kenyan capital, Somalian President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed says that government is on the verge of being demolished by insurgency. 
Leaders of the world's 20 largest economies pledged action to reverse a looming global recession and prevent future financial upheaval, but shied away from a coordinated stimulus plan. 
A Yemeni court on Saturday sentenced to death an Iranian for drug trafficking and imposed 25 year prison sentences each on another 11 Iranians and a Pakistani, officials said. 
Iran detained 10 spies carrying $500,000 in cash who had entered the Islamic Republic illegally from neighboring Pakistan, state television said on Saturday. Modern espionage cameras and maps of sensitive regions in Iran were found when the group was detained in Iran's south-eastern Sistan-Baluchestan province bordering Pakistan, the report said. 
