CHICAGO (WLS) -- For the past 12 years, 30-year-old Jasmin Ford has had to hustle for everything she has.
"Gratitude is what gets me through. I mean, becoming a nurse and being able to serve in the field that I'm in is the greatest honor of my life second to having my son," she said.
Ford grew up on Chicago's South Side. She's now a single mother and a nurse, the first in her family to go to college. She works two jobs, six days a week, and is saddled with $150,000 of student loan debt she never thought she'd pay off.
"There are times when I fall short and I have to reduce my payment amounts, so there's really not a timeline that I can necessarily see," Ford said.
Until now. Fifth Third bank became aware of Jasmin, who is a customer, while they were working on a promotional video. Bank officials said they chose to pay off her student loans because she exemplified the impact that loans can have on a family trying to achieve.
"We know the burden that student loan debt places on people's lives and slows down the trajectory and the change that they can make in the world, and to be able to remove that roadblock and that obstacle for Jasmin is just a dream come true for all of us," said Fifth Third Bank's Mike Crawford.
#2
"Debt!" Democrats fret, ever rattled,
By somebody's choices embattled:
"That money skedaddled!"
No matter how addled, The dumbass has always been "saddled."
[FOX] CUCUTA, Venezuela/Colombia border ‐ As Venezuela continues to crumble under the socialist dictatorship of President Nicolas Maduro, some are expressing words of warning ‐ and resentment ‐ against a six-year-old gun control bill that stripped citizens of their weapons.
"Guns would have served as a vital pillar to remaining a free people, or at least able to put up a fight," Javier Vanegas, 28, a Venezuelan teacher of English now exiled in Ecuador, told Fox News. "The government security forces, at the beginning of this debacle, knew they had no real opposition to their force. Once things were this bad, it was a clear declaration of war against an unarmed population."
Under the direction of then-President Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan National Assembly in 2012 enacted the "Control of Arms, Munitions and Disarmament Law," with the explicit aim to "disarm all citizens." The law took effect in 2013, with only minimal pushback from some pro-democracy opposition figures, banned the legal commercial sale of guns and munitions to all - except government entities.
Chavez initially ran a months-long amnesty program encouraging Venezuelans to trade their arms for electrical goods. That year, there were only 37 recorded voluntary gun surrenders, while the majority of seizures - more than 12,500 ‐ were by force.
In 2014, with Nicolás Maduro at the helm following Chavez’s death but carrying through his socialist "Chavista" policies, the government invested more than $47 million enforcing the gun ban ‐ which has since included grandiose displays of public weapons demolitions in the town square.
A former gun store owner inside Venezuela ‐ who told Fox News he has now been relegated to only selling fishing supplies since the ban ‐ said he can’t sell any type of weaponry - even a slingshot - and underscored that even BB ammunition and airsoft guns are only issued to police and military officers.
The punishment for illicit carrying or selling a weapon now is 20 years behind bars.
This has always intrigued me. After a successful revolution, it's pretty much SOP to do everything necessary to make sure no one comes along and overthrows *you*. These guys did the exact opposite.
Many were members of the Society of the Cincinnati, and viewed politics as a temporarily necessary duty to be laid down as soon as possible in favour of returning to their real work. They loathed professional politicians
#4
Next it would be nice to see Notional Review outta here.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/14/2018 15:31
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#5
Just saying, if the divine had a sense of humor, he'd send an agent among lessor men to display to all their foibles and falseness. Then allow those who can see, their choice to decide whom to follow or not and in doing to decide the fate of their souls.
[National Review] Florida’s Republican state Senate president told colleagues Thursday that embattled Broward County elections supervisor Brenda Snipes cannot rescind her previously announced resignation in order to contest her suspension by Governor Rick Scott.
Snipes, whose office missed a crucial recount deadline and misplaced 2,000 ballots in the recent midterm elections, immediately tendered her resignation, effective January 4, once the elections’ recounts were concluded. She subsequently rescinded her resignation after Scott issued an executive order in which he argued she deserved to be suspended due to misfeasance, incompetence, and neglect of duty.
In a memo sent to his colleagues Thursday morning, Senate president Bill Galvano said Snipes’s resignation would take effect before the legislature had time to investigate the circumstances behind her suspension and determine if it was justified. As a result, Galvano said, the Senate would not allow her resignation to be rescinded.
The memo does, however, leave open the possibility that Snipes might challenge her suspension in court or request a suspension hearing before the Senate, which could result in her receiving back pay from November 30, 2018 through her resignation date of July 4, 2019.
[CNN] A 21-year-old American student was stabbed to death in Rotterdam, allegedly by her roommate, police confirmed Friday.
According to a police statement, authorities received reports of a quarrel at an apartment on Kralingse Kerklaan on Wednesday. When they entered the apartment, the statement said, police found Sarah Papenheim with stab wounds and attempted to resuscitate her. Police say those attempts were unsuccessful, and she died of her injuries.
An investigation led authorities to the suspect, Papenheim's 23-year-old roommate, who was arrested at the Eindhoven train station, the police statement said. The two lived in the same apartment with their own rooms, but shared a kitchen and bathroom, police said. The suspect has not been named by police.
Papenheim had moved to the Netherlands to study at Erasmus University in Rotterdam.
"Sarah studied psychology and lived in the Netherlands since 2016. Our deepest condolences go out to all Sarah's family and friends at this poignant time. The university is shocked by this terrible incident and is taking care of upset students and employees," the university said.
The School of Social and Behavourial Sciences has organized a gathering for staff and students Friday.
"We encourage our students and staff not to let each other (be) alone in this difficult time," the university said.
Papenheim's brother died by suicide a few years ago, her former high school teacher Mitch Bahr told CNN affiliate KRCR, and Papenheim was struggling with the loss. She attended Foothill High School near Redding, California.
She was supposed to come home next week for the holidays, her friend George Moye told CNN affiliate WCCO.
"The thing that is going through my head is that she was coming home for Christmas, as we were all so excited to see her and to hear that she was coming back that way, and that was just tragic," Moye said.
Papenheim was an avid musician. She started going to open jam sessions around her hometown of Andover, Minnesota, when she was just 15, according to WCCO. There, she met drummer Jellybean Johnson, who became her mentor.
"I liked her because she hit the drums just as hard as the guys did," Johnson told WCCO. "So I nicknamed her 'Thumper.'"
"It was a real drive for her to want to be a great female drummer," Bahr told KRCR. "Not just be that girl drummer but be an excellent female drummer and she did that very well."
Joel Schelling, 23, was arrested at the Eindhoven Railway Station shortly after the body of Sarah Papenheim was discovered in her dorm room.
Schelling was taken into custody after police searched the double bass case he was travelling with at the time and cleared the platform.
'Maybe he was just in a psychotic state of mind. He did not speak and almost didn't blink his eyes,' said the man who photographed the arrest.
'They’d talk music all night. They kinda clicked on that. Then as time went on, he’d get highs and lows,' Pappenheim's mother said in an interview with the Star Tribune.
Things had gotten worse recently according to Donee Odegard, who said in the interview that just a few days ago 'two people from mental health came over, but she shooed them away because she was afraid he would think she called them.'
That is when she told her daughter to 'get out of there.'
[Babylon Bee] SAN FRANCISCO, CA‐Amid heated debate in Washington over President Trump's border wall, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has weighed in, ruling that construction on the U.S.-Mexico border wall can proceed, so long as it is "short enough that a pregnant woman carrying a child in each arm could be expected to scale it without difficulty."
While that definition may seem vague to some, the Ninth Circuit's judges further clarified in their decision that "two or three feet high ought to suffice." Contractors working on the wall have been ordered to have a pregnant woman and several children on hand. Each family will be asked to stress-test climbing over the wall every ten feet to ensure all portions of the barrier are equally easy to scale. Should the sample woman have to exert herself too much, construction workers will have to lower that part of the wall.
"We are in full support of President Trump's right to secure our nation's borders, so long as his actions do not cause undue burden on those trying to get into our country illegally," the court wrote in its decision.
The Court further assured Americans that is decision is in keeping with the Constitution, claiming that they googled "What is the Constitution?" and "Constitutional Law for Dummies" several times during deliberations.
#6
To be fair, the stress-testing should be done with a 5th percentile Honduran pregnant women while packing food, children, drugs, water, extra clothing and assistance monies. Not to pre-guess the results but most likely, the wall will have to scrapped and existing structures removed. (sarc)
#7
The Babylon Bee is always good for a laugh, even on topics like this. Would that more people could laugh.
Posted by: Tom ||
12/14/2018 11:42
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#8
What about the handicappedable pregnant w/ 2 kids illegal alien community? We demand wheelchair ramps with child safe guardrails over the fence every 300 feet.
[Townhall] The Department of Justice Inspector a General released a report Thursday showing thousands of text messages sent by fired FBI agent Peter Strzok and former FBI attorney Lisa Page were not properly preserved and presented a "gap" in investigating their misconduct at the Bureau.
"The Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General initiated this investigation upon being notified of a gap in text message data collection during the period December 15, 2016 through May 17, 2017, from Federal Bureau of Investigation mobile devices assigned to FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page relevant to a matter being investigated by the OIG's Oversight and Review Division. Specifically, the OIG's Cyber Investigations Office was asked to attempt recovery of these missing text message for the referenced period from FBI issued mobile devices issued to Strzok and Page," the report states. "In view of the content of many of the text messages between Strzok and Page, the OIG also asked the Special Counsel's Office to provide the OIG the DOJ issues iPhones that had been assigned to Strzok and Page during their respective assignments to the SCO."
[Hot Air] Let’s run through the checklist for chief of staff in Jared’s case:
1. Loyal to Trump? Yes.
2. Trusted by Trump? Yes.
3. Able to reach out to Democrats? Reach out? He is a Democrat!
4. Working relationships on the Hill? As weird as it is to say this about a thirtysomething who worked in real estate less than two years ago ‐ yes. Kushner’s been meeting with power-brokers in Congress and abroad since Trump was sworn in. Everyone understands that he holds unusual sway over the president due to his family connection so everyone’s been eager to lobby him. In a way, he already is chief of staff. Trump would just be making it official.
5. Capable of brokering legislative compromise? Another strange and unlikely yes. By all accounts he was the chief Trump-whisperer on criminal justice reform, the man who convinced POTUS to spend a little political capital in backing an idea that wouldn’t be an easy sell to his base. Then Kushner put his own skin in the game by doing a rare interview on "Hannity" to sell the plan. He was persistent enough that Mitch McConnell went from claiming there was no time to put the bill on the floor to agreeing to take it up before year’s end. It’s among the more surprising legislative developments of Trump’s presidency. Could anyone else aside from one of Trump’s own children have convinced him to do it?
6. Willing to slug it out with Russiagate enemies? Yet another improbable yes. It was Jared who allegedly encouraged Trump to take the fateful step of firing James Comey, igniting the obstruction-of-justice part of Russiagate and leading directly to Bob Mueller’s appointment. Not the smartest decision in hindsight. But Trumpers want someone who fights!, particularly who fights with POTUS’s DOJ inquisitors. Kushner’s been willing to do that.
7. Potentially facing indictment? This isn’t an official job qualification, more of an informal requirement given that virtually everyone in Trump’s orbit is now under investigation. But for the record, sure. Jared’s got this box checked too.
So: Why not? It’s an open question whether Trump would heed advice given to him by a Newt Gingrich or David Bossie but there’s no doubt that he listens to Kushner. And West Wing staff are already familiar with him. There’d be no adjustment period as everyone’s forced to get used to the new guy’s foibles. The longer this job search wears on, the more likely it is that we arrive at one of two bad outcomes ‐ namely, Trump either names someone like Seb Gorka chief of staff or decides that he doesn’t need a chief of staff at all and goes into full "wing it" mode. Might as well pick Jared.
#3
Jared has actually been very successful as a man behind the curtain guy. Getting shit done.
However, I would advise against him being in the official cabinet. Smacks too much of nepotism for most people. Keep Jared where he is being successful.
[BBC] A well-known TV Michigan meteorologist and mother-of-two has taken her own life a month after telling fans she was struggling to recover from laser eye surgery that she got so she could finally stop wearing her contact lenses.
Jessica Starr, 35, worked for WJBK Fox 2 since 2011. On Thursday morning, her colleagues cried as they announced her death on the air.
Starr, whose married name was Rose, had two young children. She leaves them behind along with her husband of eight years, Daniel.
In a statement issued on its website and read aloud by her colleagues on Thursday morning, Fox 2 said: 'Last night we were informed of the heartbreaking news that our friend and colleague, meteorologist Jessica Starr took her life.
'All of us here at FOX 2 are in deep shock and cannot believe that such a wonderful, bright and intelligent individual will no longer be with us.
#1
...There has got to be something more to it than this. I've known literally dozens of people who've had Lasik surgery and the only thing they've ever complained about is fairly mild discomfort.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/14/2018 5:00
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yes, there was probably something in addition to the lasik issue
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/14/2018 11:43
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#4
Severely painful dry eye is a known, but uncommon side effect of the surgery. lotp had similar problems, though not bad enough to drive her to suicide, thank goodness.
So there may or may not have been more to her situation. There’s no way of knowing from the information given here.
[American Thinker] Historically the word "bastard" meant someone whose parents were not married. But even more than just the marital status of one’s parents, the word also carried with it an implication of defective character that was attributable to such an inauspicious beginning.
One might imagine that without the provision, protection, instruction, and correction of a father, children (boys in particular) would find harsh instruction from the world, like a child thrown into a swimming pool trying to learn how to swim.
Being thrown into the social world with little instruction can lead a child to develop a jungle-type survival skill set. Often the skills children develop are how to use people to get what you want or what to do to feel good. Those who are more capable or lucky learn how to manipulate others and indulge themselves without ending up in jail. Others never quite get the hang of how to function without attracting the attention of the police.
The statistics are clear:
63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes
90% of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes
85% of all children who show behavior disorders come from fatherless homes
71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes
70% of juveniles in criminal detention are from fatherless homes.
The relationship between fatherlessness and imprisonment suggests an importance to fatherhood not often fully appreciated. The impact of fatherless homes should have been alarming 50 years ago. Today a 40% rate (80% in many black communities) indicates a society irreparably damaged. If we consider historical events that contributed to this phenomenon, we can identify three main ones:
#7
All of those conditions cited also have big government involvement as "solutions". So it benefits the Big Government swamp to create more of those results.
The Big Government swamp subsidizes women to create fatherless children. And they scream "For The Children" if you try to point it out or cut it, and the weasels in the press accuse you of hating children.
[WD] Mika should be fired, as so many non-liberal media members have had happened to them.
Liberal hate did not begin at President Trump’s election. They have just perfected it since then. Along with lying and hypocrisy.
Mika Brzezinski, MSNBC’s "Morning Joe" co-host, apologized on for calling United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo a "butt-boy." This is a straight up homophobic slur that should be called out by the tolerant left, but many social media justice warriors along with opposition media personalities have gone crickets.
Will Mika receive any repercussions for these slurs about Pompeo? Pompeo is a Trump cabinet member, so I assume she will be in the clear. The liberal media always protect leftists as their hatred for President Trump is rampant.
[Daily Caller] The U.S. Army charged a Fort Bragg Green Beret with allegedly murdering a man who he suspected was a bomb maker for the Taliban.
Special Forces Maj. Matthew Golsteyn was charged with allegedly shooting and killing the suspected bomb maker in 2010, Task and Purpose reported Thursday. He was deployed with the 3rd Special Forces Group at the time of the alleged incident, according to Army Times.
Golsteyn has been charged with premeditated murder and could face the death penalty, Golsteyn’s attorney, Phillip Stackhouse, told the Times.
"Maj. Golsteyn is being charged with the murder of an Afghan male during his 2010 deployment to Afghanistan," U.S. Army Special Operations Command spokesman Lt. Col. Loren Bymer told Task and Purpose Thursday.
Golsteyn is a "humble servant-leader who saved countless lives, both American and Afghan, and has been recognized repeatedly for his valorous actions," Stackhouse said of his client, the Times reported.
Golsteyn believed that the Afghan man would kill the tribal leader in retribution for identifying him, so Golsteyn executed the man off base, the Washington Post reported. After initially burying the man, Golsteyn and two other soldiers later dug up the remains and burned them.
Army Criminal Investigation Command initially did not find enough evidence to charge Golsteyn, but an investigation was re-opened after the Green Beret talked about the killing during an October 2016 interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier.
When Baier asked Golsteyn if he had killed the Afghan man, Golsteyn replied, “Yes.”
“It is an inevitable outcome that people who are cooperating with the coalition forces, when identified, will suffer some terrible torture or be killed,” Golsteyn said.
#4
Precision bomb Germany and Japan killing thousands of civilians (not even counting fire bombing Hamburg and Tokyo intentionally targeting civilians who may or may not contribute to the overall war effort) and you are a war hero. I guess altitude is the difference. (Do I need to put a /sarc on this?) Call me when they decide to actually engage in war rather than something far less to give the appearance that they are doing something.
1. Takes CIA poly (ostensibly for employment). The Army is boring.
2. Does 2016 interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier. My book is nearly finished.
What happens in the suck, stays in the suck. Yes, former USN Seal Robert J. (I shot UBL) O'Neill is a dick also. Just my personal thoughts and opinion on the issue.
#9
"What happens in the suck, stays in the suck."
Truth. Plus, this guy sounds a little 'off'.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
12/14/2018 12:52
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#10
Possible scenario, I say again, possible.
Golsteyn detains TB bomber. Golsteyn processes Joint Priority Effects List (JPEL) traffic for shipment of detainee to Parwan Detention Facility. Our friends in MUFTI immediatley come back with:
Release detainee immediately, do not process detainee to Parwan. Again, release detainee immediately. Please confirm receipt.
Golsteyn complies with release, now with advanced case of the ass, takes matter into his own hands. All goes swimingly until Golsteyn 'goes on the box' and source termination puzzle is re-constructed.
#14
Thank you for explaining, Besoeker. I’ve learnt astonishing things since I discovered Rantburg — and my vocabulary haw expanded in unexpected directions.
[Breitbart] WASHINGTON, DC ‐ China is using its economic clout in Africa to promote a "new international order" and encourage countries to adopt its communist ideology, experts told lawmakers on Wednesday.
While testifying before the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, Judd Devermont, the director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think-tank, acknowledged that not all Chinese activities in Africa are anti-ethical to U.S. goals, noting that "some are neutral or complementary to U.S. objectives and may actually benefit American interests."
Nevertheless, some of the witnesses noted that communist China is actively pursuing a new Beijing-led order on the continent.
#2
They couldn't live with trying to tie the National Socialist Worker Party to the right, now they're trying to define any kleptocratic authoritarian/totalitarian regime as just communist. Under capitalism the rich become powerful, under socialism the powerful become rich.
#4
Yah, but all the old time African Commies were bankrolled by the Old Soviet Union. Of course, to them communism was just a sales brochure for getting developing countries trapped in the Soviet Mercantilist system. Now it'll be the brand name and brochures for the New Chinese Mercantilist System.
[KhaamaPress] The U.S. forces have carried out a series of Arclight airstrikes in southeastern Ghazni and Paktika ...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo... provinces of the country, leaving at least 15 gunnies dead.
The203rd Thunder Corps of the Afghan Military in the Southeast in a statement said the U.S. forces carried out airstrikes using unmanned aerial vehicles in Gomar district of Paktika province.
The statement further added that the airstrikes were carried out in SyedKhel, Chahar Baran, and Zuhda areas of the district, leaving at least 12 gunnies dead.
Similarly,the U.S. forces carried out airstrikes in Andar district of Ghazni province which left at least 3 gunnies dead.
According to 203rd Thunder Corps, a cycle of violence and a Ak-47 rifle of the gunnies were also destroyed in the airstrikes.
Both Ghazni and Paktika provinces are among the relatively volatile provinces in Southeast of Afghanistan where Talibs and other groups are active in some of its districts and often carry out terrorist related activities.
[KhaamaPress] The Australian defense officials have said more than 15,000 SILVERSHIELD systems have been delivered to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces
SILVERSHIELD is the latest evolution in vehicle-mounted systems being developed under the REDWING program, which provides protection against radio controlled improvised bombs, according to the Department of Defense of Australia.
Minister for Defence, the Hon Christopher Pyne MP, said last week that this capability would boost the confidence of Australia’s Afghan partners when operating in a high threat environment.
"Over 15,000 SILVERSHIELD systems have now been delivered to Afghanistan for training and initial rollout with deliveries now complete," Minister Pyne said.
"This is an outstanding investment in Australian capability to deliver life-saving, cutting-edge Counter Improvised Explosive Device technology," he said, adding that "The REDWING program demonstrates successful collaboration between Defence and industry, and SILVERSHIELD is proof of Australian industry’s ability to meet the challenge of high volume and time critical manufacturing."
Since 2015, Australian industry and Defence have produced and exported over 200,000 individual and vehicle mounted REDWING systems to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces.
Pretty video with English subtitles can be watched at the link.
[Rudaw] BAWAPLLAWI, Kurdistan Region ‐ Residents of 31 villages in the Khanaqin district have fled their homes, afraid of a resurgent ISIS.
In one month, ISIS bandidosturbans have attacked villages in the area 143 times.
"The security in the Kurdish villages is not good. They are controlled by the Federal Police, and they never visit at night," said Ghaidan Abdulrahman, a local official (mukhtar) in Bawapllawi.
A year ago, 75 families lived in his village. Today, most of them are gone.
The area is part of the disputed territories that came under Iraqi federal control in October 2017. The federal forces have struggled, however, to secure these villages, especially at night, and ISIS has taken advantage of security gaps between the Iraqis and the Peshmerga.
Militants raid villages, and kidnap and kill residents.
"You never feel safe to go out; our children will not be safe," said a mother in the village.
An estimated 300 bandidosturbans are operating in the area, essentially having the run of the land at night.
"This area is very empty. Iraqi forces cannot establish control over the area. The situation is too poor for people to live in the villages even near Khanaqin," said local Peshmerga commander Kawa Mahmood.
Iraq declared victory over ISIS a year ago, but the murderous Moslem group remains a serious security threat. Iraqi, Peshmerga, and coalition forces regularly carry out operations against the murderous Moslems.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[Rudaw] Iraq’s Interior Ministry has ordered the firing of more than 125 Kurdish police officers from Kirkuk who left the city during the events of October last year.
The police chief has sent a directive to its offices, giving them 72 hours to remove 129 Kurdish officers. A total of 146 police are named in the letter, mostly above the rank of lieutenant. Fourteen of them have already been replaced.
The orders follow from a decision made in July of this year.
“A decision has been made to remove from their positions those who went to Erbil and Sulaimani after the events of October 16. They will be removed from the Kirkuk police department,” Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qadir, former head of Kirkuk suburban police, told Rudaw.
“According to the letter, the posts occupied by Kurds will be given to Arabs and Turkmen,” he added.
Federal forces took control of the most of the disputed territories in October last year just weeks after the Kurdistan Region and disputed areas voted for independence in a referendum.
Thousands of Kurds from the disputed areas fled to the Kurdistan Region. Abuses against Kurds by the Iraqi forces have been widely reported. In Kirkuk, the acting administration that replaced the ousted Kurdish governor has revived the Baathist-era Arabization policy.
An official from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) said disunity among Kurds has left them unable to fend off such actions.
“After the events of October 16, tens of decisions were made against Kurds of this city such as the Arabization of land, expelling Kurdish director-generals and employees. This is because of disunity among the Kurds,” said Jamal Shikur, an executive member of the PUK in Kirkuk.
Elements within the PUK chose to withdraw from Kirkuk, drawing accusations of treason from other parties.
MPs in Baghdad hope that the new Iraqi government led by Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi will address the problems.
The Council of Ministers, in a meeting on Wednesday, decided to form a committee to investigate decisions taken in Kirkuk since October 16, according to MP Mariwan Qadir.
“A committee has been formed for each of these decisions,” he said, including the sacking of Kurdish police officers.
Most of the officers named in the directive have certificates from military colleges of Qalacholan and Zakho that are officially recognized by the Iraqi government.
By the end of October 2017, Erbil and Baghdad had reached an agreement for more than 200 officers and policemen who were displaced to go back to work, but a couple of weeks later 47 Kurdish police officers were removed from their posts.
Brig. Gen. Khatab Omer, Kurdish director-general of Kirkuk police, was sacked in March.
[Rudaw] Following Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... saying on TV that its military would commence a campaign across its southern border, the US Department of Defense cautioned an incursion into northeast Syria would be "unacceptable."
"Unilateral military action into northeast Syria by any party, particularly as US personnel may be present or in the vicinity, is of grave concern. We would find any such actions unacceptable," Cmdr. Sean Robertson, a Defense Department front man, told CNN.
Earlier on Wednesday, Anadolu Agency reported military vehicles loaded with equipment traveling to the The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... -Syria border in the Elbeyli region of Kilis province, on the west side of the Euphrates River.
"We believe this dialogue is the only way to secure the border area in a sustainable manner, and believe that uncoordinated military operations will undermine that shared interest," added Robertson.
Turkey previously has threatened to conduct cross-border operations against the predominately Kurdish Peoples' Protection Units (YPG). The force forms the backbone of the US-led international anti-ISIS coalition and has been described by the US military as the most effective force against the Lion of Islams.
The YPG were pulled away from the battlefield twice before ‐ once when the Ottoman Turkish army and their allied Syrian militias invaded Afrin and then again last month when Ottoman Turkish forces fired on Kurdish positions and villages near the border.
The SDF reported notable gains against the last ISIS stronghold east of the Euphrates in the Hajin pocket over the weekend for the first time in about six weeks.
Turkey claims the YPG are the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a political party banned by Turkey and designated as a terrorist organization by Ankara, Washington, and Brussels. YPG denies the claims.
To try to assuage Turkey, the coalition conducts joint patrols with Ottoman Turkish forces west of the Euphrates around Manbij. The US military also reportedly began regular patrols along the border with Turkey to ease Ankara's concerns over fighters and arms flowing across the border in early November.
In his speech on Wednesday, Erdogan said their target "definitely" is not US troops.
"It is the members of terror organization operating in the region. I want to emphasize this," Erdogan added.
Coalition forces from the United Kingdom, La Belle France, and the United States have been seen in northern Syria. They work extremely closely with the SDF the facilitate air strikes against ISIS, establish local military councils, and help to clear mines, IEDs, and unwent kaboom! ordinance from liberated areas to allow displaced Syrians to return.
"The campaign against ISIS is not over. Coalition forces are working closely with the Syrian Democratic Forces who are in the midst of offensive operations against ISIS in the Middle Euphrates River Valley," said Robertson from the Pentagon.
Erdogan had claimed that ISIS is no longer a threat in northern Syria during his speech on Wednesday.
"We should not and cannot allow ISIS to breathe at this critical point or we will jeopardize the significant gains we have made alongside our Coalition partners and risk allowing ISIS to resurge," he added.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/14/2018
01:04 ||
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#1
Anyone counter to Sultan Edogan is by his definition a terrorist.
Consequences are such a useful learning tool for those who are teachable.
[IsraelTimes] Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces a series of punitive steps he has ordered in response to the recent spate of Paleostinian terror attacks.
The first of which is a directive to accelerate the demolition of gunnies homes to be carried out within 48 hours of an attack. It is not immediately clear how such a policy would be legal given the court’s requirements to allow the affected families to appeal the decision.
Netanyahu ordered the army to seal off the town of al-Bireh near Ramallah, revoke the permits of relatives of Paleostinian attackers, and increase administrative detentions of Hamas, the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®, operatives in the West Bank.
The prime minister also announced that he would be legalizing thousands of illegally built Israeli homes beyond the Green Line that were said to have been built "in good faith." The statement did not elaborate on what legal ground Netanyahu is able to make such a decision.
In addition, the statement from the PMO said Netanyahu had directed Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to take steps to enable the construction of 82 new homes in the Ofra settlement near where Sunday’s terror attack took place.
Netanyahu will also promote the establishment of industrial zones in the Beitar Illit and Avnei Hefetz settlements.
"They are thinking of uprooting us from our land, but they will not succeed," says Netanyahu at the conclusion of the statement.
[IsraelTimes] The IDF has announced that it is sending reinforcements to the West Bank following a spike in violence that included a deadly shooting attack near the Givat Assaf outpost and a car-ramming outside Ramallah.
Several reconnaissance units will join the 14 infantry brigades already stationed beyond the Green Line.
[IsraelTimes] Officials in the defense establishment have concluded that a Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", cell was responsible for the terror attack outside the illegal Givat Assaf outpost that left two soldiers dead and a soldier and a civilian seriously injured Thusrday morning, Hebrew media reports.
[Ynet] Two Border Police officers were lightly hurt in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem's Old City early Thursday morning. One of them shot and killed the terrorist.
A 19-year-old Border Policewoman was stabbed in her extremities and was moderately hurt. After arriving at the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem's Ein Karem, there has been an improvement in her condition and it is now defined as light.
A 21-year-old Border Policeman was lightly hurt and was taken to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in the capital.
[IsraelTimes] After raids in Gothenburg, security services offer no details on motive or identity of would-be terrorist, but say his activities had ’international links’ Olaf? Sven? Muhammad?
Fifty-fifty odds on Muhammed, in one of the usual variants.
A man has been placed in durance vile Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! in western Sweden on suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack, the country’s security services said Thursday.
The SAPO agency said "preparations for the suspected terrorist offense have been underway for some time" and added that "there are international links." It did not elaborate.
The person was not identified.
Several raids were carried out early Thursday in western Sweden and several people were brought in for questioning.
The Goteborg Tidning newspaper says the raids took place in Gothenburg, Sweden’s second largest city, and in suburbs to its north.
The operation was not linked to the jihadist attack in Strasbourg, La Belle France, that left two dead, one person brain dead and 12 others injured on Wednesday, SAPO’s Gabriel Wernstedt told the Swedish daily Aftonbladet.
Sweden’s terror threat remained unchanged at elevated ‐ the third level on a five-degree scale, meaning that an attack can occur, SAPO said.
Two attacks have hit Sweden in the past eight years.
On April 7, 2017, an Uzbek man drove a stolen truck into a crowd in Stockholm, killing five people and wounding 14 others. He was convicted of terror-related murder and given a life sentence.
In December 2010, a jacket wallahwent kaboom! in downtown Stockholm among panicked Christmas shoppers, injuring two people.
the 29-year-old Paleostinian who was killed on Wednesday night by the IDF near the village of Surda, north of Ramallah, belongs to a clan whose members are famous for carrying out a series of terrorist attacks against Israel in the past four decades.
The IDF says that Saleh belonged to the cell that carried out the shooting attack outside Ofra, which resulted in the nine Israelis maimed. An infant boy was delivered prematurely after his mother was seriously maimed in the attack and died on Wednesday.
Saleh was the most recent member of the prominent Barghouti clan to be involved in terrorist attacks against Israel. The clan has several families that live in the villages of Kobar, Aboud, Bani Zeid and Beit Rima in the Ramallah area. Saleh was from Kobar.
Saleh’s father, Omar, 65, spent more than 25 years in Israeli prison for his role in terrorism. The father was first placed in durance vile Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! by the IDF in 1978 for killing an Israeli citizen and was sentenced to life in prison. However, a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package... Omar, who is known as Abu Asef, was released seven years later in a prison exchange. Since then, he has been repeatedly held in administrative detention for several years. Omar entered Israeli prison as a member of Fatah, but later became a prominent leader of Hamas, a regional Iranian catspaw,A clan member also named Omar Barghouti is a founding member of the Paleostinian Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel and co-founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS). Omar was born in Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... Saleh’s uncle, Na’el, is the longest-serving Paleostinian inmate in Israeli prison. Born in 1957 in Kobar, Na’el has spent a total of 39 years in Israeli prison for his role in terrorism. Like his brother Omar, he too was arrested for the first time in 1978. Na’el was released in the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange swap, but was rearrested years later.
Another family member, 64-year-old Fakhri Barghouti (a cousin of the brothers Omar and Na’el), was also arrested in 1978 for carrying out a terrorist attack in which an Israeli soldier was killed near Ramallah. He too was released in the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange agreement.
Another clan member, Abdullah Barghouti, 39, was a senior commander of Hamas’s military wing, Izaddin al-Qassam, in the West Bank. Once considered as one of Hamas’s chief bomb makers, he is currently serving 67 life term sentences in Israeli prison for his role in a series of suicide kabooms during the Second Intifada. Israel refused to release Abdullah in the 2011 prisoner swap.
One of the clan members, Mustafa Barghouti, from the village of Bani Zeid, is a prominent Paleostinian physician and political activist who serves as Secretary General of the Paleostinian National Initiative, an independent political party. In November 2004, Mustafa, a vocal critic of Israel, was the main challenger of PA President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... in the Paleostinian presidential election. An outspoken critic of the leadership, he received only 19.8% of the vote.
But the most famous member of the clan is Marwan Barghouti, 59, who is also from the village of Kobar. A senior member of Fatah, he was arrested by the IDF in 2002 after becoming one of the leaders of the Second Intifada. Marwan was tried and convicted on charges of murder, and sentenced to five life sentences.
[DAWN] An important development in the murder case of Maulana Samiul Haq ...the Godfather of the Taliban, leader of his own faction of the JUI. Known as Mullah Sandwich for his habit of having two young boys at a time... took place on Thursday as the dear departed's personal secretary, Ahmed Shah, was tossed in the clink Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! by police.
The arrest took place with the assistance of the maulana's relatives, police told DawnNewsTV.
Maulana Sami, an influential religious scholar and former senator, was assassinated by unidentified suspect(s) at his residence in Rawalpindi on November 2.
The maulana's personal secretary had "disappeared mysteriously" funeral his funeral. Despite repeated efforts, police said they had previously been unable to locate him.
The secretary is currently being interrogated regarding the murder.
"Maulana Samiul Haq's secretary can prove to be a very important figure in this case," a police official told DawnNewsTV.
One month into the killing, police had been unable to make any significant progress in the investigation into the murder of the Jamaat-e-Ulema Islam-Sami chief.
On December 5, however, an interim charge sheet of the case was submitted by the police to the airport judicial magistrate.
The interim charge sheet contains the statements of the victim’s son and a report on more than 12 individuals, the mobile phone data of the maulana and a police investigation report.
However, there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly... the report does not identify a prime suspect.
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) has been placed on high alert this afternoon following an attack that was launched by the Ottoman Turkish military in the northern countryside of the Aleppo province.
According to a military source in Aleppo, the Syrian Arab Army was ordered to move towards the front-lines of Tal Rifa’at after the Ottoman Turkish military fired several artillery shells on the town.
The casualty total is still unknown at the moment; however, from the preliminary reports from Tal Rifa’at, it appears that an artillery shell hit a Syrian Army post.
This latest attack by the Ottoman Turkish military comes just 24 hours after Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... announced that his forces were planning to kickoff their new military operation east of the Euphrates.
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Exuberant on stage, subdued off it, Richard Branson said he believed that after today’s successful SpaceShipTwo test flight he’ll be on the vehicle’s first commercial mission some time next year. http://t.co/lp2wWpI1gT
[Al Jazeera] A woman accused of acting as a Russian agent to infiltrate a powerful gun lobby group and influence the United States's policy towards Moscow has pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy.
Maria Butina, a former graduate student at the American University in Washington, DC who had publicly advocated for gun rights, changed her plea from not guilty to guilty during a hearing on Thursday.
The 30-year-old was charged in July with acting as an agent of the Russian government and conspiracy to take actions on behalf of Moscow.
What kind of stupid government wants the enemy population to be even better armed?
Prosecutors accused Butina of working with a Russian official and two US citizens in trying to infiltrate the National Rifle Association (NRA), a group closely aligned with Republican politicians including US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
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[DAWN] LISTS drawn up by individual states ‐ rather than credible multilateral organizations or INGOs ‐ always run the risk of being termed biased and designed to push a political agenda, pillorying geopolitical rivals, and looking the other way where bad behaviour of friends is concerned.
The same can be said for the US list of those states Washington terms violators of religious freedom. As announced by the American secretary of state on Tuesday, Pakistain has been added to this unenviable list "for having engaged in or tolerated systematic... violations of religious freedom".
One look at those states mentioned on the list ‐ Iran, North Korea, Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... , China ‐ shows that apart from the Saudis, all the countries are geopolitical rivals of the US.
Hence, it is fair to ask how unbiased this listing is, what methodology was used, etc. It should also be mentioned that, especially under Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... ’s watch, the US itself has become a less welcoming place for ethnic and religious minorities, particularly Moslems, as the alt right and far right have gained ground.
Also, some major US allies, such as India and Israel, have been left off the list, even though the saffron brigade has been making life difficult for minorities in India under Narendra Modi’s watch, while Israel has been abusing the rights of Paleostinian Moslems for the past seven decades.
The Foreign Office has rejected Washington’s "unilateral and politically motivated pronouncement". For Pakistain, it is essential that a knee-jerk reaction is avoided.
While political considerations may well be behind the listing, there is little doubt that much more can be done to make this country a more welcoming place for religious minorities. For example, while Aasia Bibi may have been acquitted, she is still not a ’free’ citizen.
To avoid getting placed on such lists, we need to make improvements on the legal plane, as well as on a societal level, to create an atmosphere of tolerance and communal harmony.
The FO should engage with Washington and ask the State Department for further clarification regarding what can be done to remove this country from the list.
The US should also realise that, instead of tarring states in this manner, it should engage on the diplomatic level to address any concerns it may have.
Washington and Islamabad must coordinate on the issue of religious freedom instead of indulging in an ugly exchange of public mud-slinging.
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) issued a powerful response to the Ottoman Turkish military’s attack on their positions this afternoon, a source in Aleppo city told al-Masdar News.
According to the source, the Syrian Arab Army fired several artillery shells towards the Ottoman Turkish military’s positions in the Afrin region of northwest Aleppo after the latter fired several projectiles at their posts near the town of Tal Rifa’at.
The source said that some Syrian soldiers were maimed as a result of the Ottoman Turkish military strikes; however, they were minor injuries.
He would add that the Syrian Army fired the artillery shells towards the small town of Jaleel, which is controlled by the Ottoman Turkish military.
The response was meant to deter the Ottoman Turkish military from launching anymore strikes on their positions in northern Aleppo.
[Rudaw] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... ’s Defence Ministry announced one of their soldiers was killed in an attack on their forces north of Syria’s Aleppo on Thursday.
The ministry accused Kurdish forces of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) of opening fire on their soldiers from Tall Rifat city, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
The Ottoman Turkish military responded to the attack, according to the ministry’s statement.
The YPG has not immediately commented on the incident. The force regularly carries out attacks on Syrian forces allied with Turkey in Afrin, the Kurdish enclave that the Ottoman Turkish army took control of after a military offensive at the start of the year.
Media close to the Damascus regime, however, reported an altercation between the Syrian Arab Army and Ottoman Turkish forces in the Tall Rifat area.
Ottoman Turkish forces opened fire on Syrian posts near Tal Rifat and the Syrian army responded, reported al-Masdar News, citing an unnamed source in Aleppo. Some Syrian soldiers were lightly maimed in the altercation. The report did not give any details of casualties among the Ottoman Turkish ranks.
Nearly 2,000 Syrian militias loyal to Turkey have been deployed from the Aleppo countryside and Afrin to the river area, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Sources told the UK-based conflict monitor that the preparations for an offensive are complete and Syrian militias are just waiting for their orders to come from Turkey.
The operation "will extend from Euphrates until the Iraqi border," the Observatory reported.
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[DAWN] Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Thursday claimed to have placed in durance vile Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! a suspect from Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... who allegedly lured widowed and divorced women for marriage through social media and then blackmailed them to extort large sums of money.
The deputy director of FIA's Cyber Crime Wing, Abdul Ghaffar, said the agency received a complaint from a woman on December 3 and after holding an inquiry, arrested the suspect.
The suspect has been charged with Section 14 (electronic fraud), 21 (offences against modesty of a natural person and minor), and 24 (cyberstalking) of The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016.
The held suspect had also identified himself as an official of a "fake" agency, revealed the official.
During FIA's investigation, it transpired that the suspect created multiple online identities, one of which was a Facebook ID by the name of "Wajdan Ali". He sent messages in bulk on Facebook messenger claiming that he is a "well-wisher of widows" and is interested to marry them.
According to the complainant, the suspect asked her to meet him and expressed his desire to marry her. Upon meeting the suspect, the woman was shown "fatwas (religious decrees)" and the two performed a nikah without a Nikah Khwan (marriage officiator).
After having performed the "nikah", the suspect told her: "We have to keep our nikah a secret."
A few days later the complainant received a call from an unknown number and the caller told her that he was in possession of an "objectionable" video of her and if she wanted to get the video deleted then she should pay Rs200,000, the FIA official revealed while sharing details of the preliminary investigation.
The cybercrime official said that the complainant in her statement before the investigation agency disclosed that the held suspect made videos of her and then blackmailed her.
Due to the compromising nature of the video, the complainant paid him a sum of Rs30,000 through Easypaisa on December 8, as the "first installment".
The official explained that the modus operandi of the suspect was that he showed himself as an official of "Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA)", which is a fake agency, and used to tell women that he could not declare the marriage public because the "agency personnel" would take him and her (his wife) to task in case their marriage was made public.
"He would lure women to chat with him on virtual American numbers which he would generate using an application on the internet," said the cybercrime wing official.
Ghaffar said the suspect had assumed that such numbers were not traceable and would change numbers intermittently and ask girls to chat over Whatsapp as "Facebook is not secure".
"He [the suspect] would then insist to meet these women at a 'hotel' in Clifton near Do Talwar, where he would record their videos with the help of hidden cameras," disclosed Ghaffar.
"He would then use the videos to blackmail the women and extort large sums of money," added the official.
He said the suspect has extracted Rs0.6 million from one woman and Rs30,000 from another after recording their videos.
The suspect is a matriculate and resident of New Karachi who appeared to have gained "expertise" in use of modern technology. The FIA was also probing the role of the hotel, said the bigwig.
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The Greek Coast Guard stopped a Syrian ship last week that was sailing through their territorial waters.
The ship was then redirected to the island of Crete, where the Greek Coast Guard questioned the crew.
The Greek Coast Guard proceeded to arrest the twelve men on the ship, 11 Syrian nationals and one Indian national, and confiscated all of the contents inside.
Initially, the Greek Coast Guard believed this ship could be smuggling arms; however, it was later found out this week that the vessel was carrying a large quantity of drugs.
The Greek authorities found a large quantity of captagon pills and hashish that were destined for an undisclosed location.
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[PULSE.NG] Kurdish-led forces on Thursday moved deep into Hajin, the main village in the last pocket still held by the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group in eastern Syria, a war monitor said.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), with support from air strikes conducted by the US-led coalition, deployed across the Euphrates Valley village.
"The SDF managed to break the defences of the Islamic State group after massing a large number of fighters backed by the international coalition," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"They achieved quick progress inside Hajin, the largest of the villages that were controlled by IS," Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Britannia-based monitoring organization, said.
The SDF said on social media they had "liberated the city centre of Hajin and the big mosque".
Hajin lies on the east bank of the Euphrates in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, about 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the border with Iraq.
The area held by IS is sometimes referred to as the "Hajin pocket", the last rump of a once-sprawling "caliphate" the group proclaimed in 2014 over parts of Syria and Iraq.
The SDF Kurdish-Arab alliance launched an operation in September to flush out IS but their advance has been fraught with obstacles.
The push to retake Hajin was delayed by Ottoman Turkish threats on Kurdish heartlands further north and deadly counter-attacks by die-hard jihadists making a bloody last stand.
"Now IS is confined to tunnels and to the edges of town," Abdel Rahman said.
"Fighting on the group and air strikes are continuing. The mines planted by the jihadists are the main remaining obstacle," he said.
No casualty toll was immediately available for the latest fighting but according to the Observatory close to 500 SDF fighters have been killed since the start of the operation on September 10.
Around 300 civilians have also been killed, many of them in coalition air strikes, and thousands have been forced to flee their homes.
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[Al Jazeera] The suspected gunman, who killed three people at a Christmas market in Strasbourg on Tuesday, has been killed, police sources have said.
Cherif Chekatt was killed in the Neudorf area of the city in northeast La Belle France after a police operation was launched around 20:00 GMT on Thursday, sources said.
A French police official said security forces, including the elite Raid squad, acted following reports that the 29-year-old suspect was hiding in a building in the neighbourhood.
Authorities said a taxi driver dropped Chekatt off in the Neudorf neighborhood of Strasbourg on Tuesday evening after the shooting, which also maimed 13 people.
Chekatt had a long criminal record and was flagged for extremism, government spokesperson Benjamin Griveaux told CNews television.
Prosecutors had opened a terror investigation into the attack. Police distributed a photo of Chekatt, with the warning: "Individual dangerous, above all do not intervene."
The corpse count rose to three on Thursday with the death of a victim who was declared brain-dead earlier. Five of those maimed were at death's door, authorities said.
The man who killed three people and left several others seriously injured when he attacked members of the public in the centre of Strasbourg on Tuesday night, is believed to have been hiding out in a factory.
Police had been carrying out operations in Neudorf throughout the day with residents moved out of the area as apartments were searched.
Just before reports emerged that police had tracked down the suspect La Belle France's Interior Minister Christophe Castaner announced that the city's famed Christmas market would reopen again on Friday. Security around the market would be boosted with the number of access points reduced and shoppers subject to more checks.
"We can't give in to fear because life, the festivities, our culture, the joy, of which this Christmas market is a symbol, must win through," said Castaner.
A fifth person was detained by police for questioning on Thursday, in addition to the suspect's parents and two brothers who have been in jug since Wednesday.
Just over an hour after Chekatt was rubbed out, ISIS claimed the terrorist as a 'soldier' of ISIS, according to the propaganda new agency of the jihadist organization, Amaq.
In an update shared via social media, the IS Amaq news agency said: 'Amaq identifies Strasbourg gunman as an IS "'soldier".'
The Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group's self-styled news agency said that Chekatt was 'an Islamic State soldier' who 'carried out the operation in response to calls for targeting citizens of coalition countries' fighting the terrorist group's Lions of Islam in Syria and Iraq.
More than 720 French security forces had been hunting for the 29-year-old since the bloodshed on Tuesday night.
A police source said he was shot and killed by police in the Plaine des Bouchers area, near the Neudorf area of the city.
The Gay Paree prosecutor's office said Chekatt's parents and two brothers were being held in jug, while two of his sisters in Gay Paree were also questioned today. Police also raided the home of Chekatt's sister in Gay Paree, although they did not arrest her, according to Le Point. Officers apparently became suspicious over the sister's links to a doctor who may have helped treat Chekatt after he was shot in the arm.
The fifth person detained is reported to be a 39-year-old friend of the killer who once shared a prison with him. Chekatt is said to have stayed with the friend in Lingolsheim on the night before the attack.
As officers searched for the killer it emerged that they had found jihadist literature at his apartment, as well as a grenade, a loaded rifle and four knives.
On Thursday Le Gay Pareeien also revealed that, during a prison stay in 2008, Chekatt hung a picture of 9/11 criminal mastermindthe late Osama bin Laden ... who is now neither a strong horse nor a weak horse, but a dead horse... on his wall.
JEWISH GRAVES FOUND DESECRATED HOURS BEFORE ISLAMIST RAMPAGE
Jewish gravestones in a cemetery near Strasbourg were discovered daubed with antisemitic graffiti hours before an Islamic krazed killershot up a Christmas market in the French city.
The graves were painted with Nazis swastikas and the numbers 88 and 14, which are used by white supremacists to reference the phrase 'heil Hitler' and a 14-word statement he once issued from prison which reads: 'We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.'
Other graffiti read 'CRIF = ZOG', referencing the French organization which represents Jewish communities - CRIF - which was compared to a 'Zionist occupation government' or 'ZOG'.
The graves are located in Herrlisheim, a commune around 12 miles to the north of Strasbourg.
This is the fourth time in two months that graffiti featuring far-right and antisemitic symbols has appeared in the Alsace region, according to the Jerusalem Post.
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The first small strike drone Carnivora capable of intercepting other drones and using high explosive bombs has been created in Russia and is undergoing flight trials, the Micran Research and Production Company (the drone’s developer) told TASS on Thursday.
"This is a small-class strike drone that can take off from unprepared sites and hover for 10-15 hours, as well as respond to threats, for example, mortar fire pockets. This is the first copy of this drone," Micran said.
The drone has been dubbed Carnivora (from the Latin carnivores), the company said.
The drone prototype is currently undergoing factory trials.
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#1
...Pull the other one.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/14/2018 4:57
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#2
Will this be of the same AI as "Robot Ivan"? (Hint: That was a man in a robot suit.)
[PULSE.NG] Several dozen civilians have been rubbed out by button men who raided an area in northeastern Mali near the border with Niger, local officials and a Touareg self-defence group told AFP Thursday.
The attack, which took place early Wednesday, occurred in an area which has been badly hit by jihadist violence that has claimed several hundred lives this year, most of them civilians of Touareg or Peul ethnicity.
"Gunmen riding on cycle of violences raided many areas in the southern part of the Menaka region and executed civilians from the (Touareg) Idaksahak community," said the Movement for the Salvation of Azawad (MSA), which spoke of 47 people killed.
Local officials, who confirmed the attack, put the number of dead at several dozen but said they couldn't.
The MSA, part of a Touareg rebellion movement in the north, said the assailants headed for the Niger border after first setting a bushfire.
A Menaka official who wished to remain anonymous said he could not give an exact corpse count as "by the time the Malian army arrived, MSA fighters had already buried the bodies."
Another local official said he had been able to speak with one person hurt in the attack and transferred to Menaka and accused the assailants of "firing on civilians".
The regional governor's office was not immediately available for comment. "I can say no more!" on the attack.
MINUSMA, the UN mission to Mali, did not give a figure for casualties but deplored the attack on Twitter, urging the Malian authorities to investigate and bring those responsible to justice.
It also said it was deploying a human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. team to investigate what had happened.
In August, a panel of experts said in a report to the UN Security Council that inter-communal conflicts in the region were exacerbating existing tensions resulting from festivities between jihadists groups and international and Malian forces.
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[Free Beacon] The Trump administration plans to significantly cut U.S. support for United Nations peacekeeping missions in Africa as part of a broader strategy that seeks to better promote American interests on the continent, National Security Adviser John Bolton said Thursday.
Speaking at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., Bolton criticized "unproductive, unsuccessful, and unaccountable U.N. peacekeeping missions" that often lead to decades of U.N. occupation rather than conflict resolution.
"We will only back effective and efficient operations, and we will seek to streamline, reconfigure, or terminate missions that are unable to meet their own mandate or facilitate lasting peace," Bolton said. "Our objective is to resolve conflicts, not freeze them in perpetuity."
Bolton, who served as the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. under the second Bush administration, accused the world body of frequently entering into truces with African governments followed by the deployment of peacekeeping forces without addressing the issues fueling the conflict.
"All too often at the United Nations, establishing the peacekeeping force and deploying it is the end of creative thinking and the mandate [of the mission] is renewed almost automatically," he said. "There needs to be a lot more focus on resolving the underlying conflict, and therefore having success in the peacekeeping mission. Success is not simply continuing the mission ad infinitum."
Bolton cited the U.N. mission in the Western Sahara, which has operated there for nearly three decades. Bolton helped write the mission mandate in 1991 when he served as the assistant secretary for international organizations at the State Department.
He asked in exasperation, "How can you justify that?"
[Al Jazeera] The Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and the Levant's (ISIS, also known as ISIS) "deliberate, wanton annihilation" of agricultural land in northern Iraq amounts to a war crime, Amnesia Amnesty International has said.
The rights group, in a report released on Thursday, said the ISIS's "scorched-earth tactics" devastated Iraq's rural communities as it looted livestock, burned orchards, planted land mines, sabotaged water pumps and destroyed farmland.
The report was released a day after Nobel Peace Prize winner and Yazidi activist Nadia Murad visited Iraq's capital, Baghdad, to call for more government support to her native Sinjar region.
ISIS overran Sinjar in 2014, killing Yazidi men, forcefully enlisting boys as soldiers and kidnapping more than 6,000 women and girls as "sex slaves".
The US-backed Iraqi forces gradually drove the fighters from the territory under their control, declaring victory last year after a costly campaign that destroyed entire neighbourhoods and towns.
'COMPENSATE THE DISPLACED' "The conflict against ISIS eviscerated Iraq's agricultural production, now an estimated 40 percent lower than 2014 levels," the Amnesty report said.
"Before ISIS, around two-thirds of Iraq's farmers had access to irrigation - only three years later, this had fallen to 20 percent. Around 75 percent of livestock was lost, spiking to 95 percent in some areas."
Richard Pearshouse, senior crisis adviser at Amnesia Amnesty International, said the consequences of the conflict on Iraq's rural residents are "being largely forgotten".
"The damage to Iraq's countryside is as far-reaching as the urban destruction," he said.
The London-based rights group said ISIS fighters sabotaged wells by filling them with rubble, oil or other materials. The gang also stole or destroyed pumps, cables, generators, transformers and vital electricity lines.
Amnesty called on the Iraqi government to repair rural infrastructure and compensate the displaced. About half of Sinjar's residents have returned, with many others saying they have nothing to go back to.
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#1
Can you point me to the parts of the Geneva or Hague Conventions on this? Or do we make it up as we go along?
#2
Amnesty called on the Iraqi government to repair rural infrastructure and compensate the displaced.
No word on South Africa's uncompensated confiscation law for White farmers, though
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12/14/2018 8:48
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Totalitarian regimes generally attempt to urban-cluster their subjects. Much easier to control. Large population centers require large central governments. The two work hand-in-hand.
[PULSE.NG] Egyptian authorities Thursday placed in durance vile Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! a camel driver and a woman accused of having helped two Danes scale the Great Pyramid of Giza to take a video and naked photograph, sparking outrage in the country.
The interior ministry said the woman had put the pair into contact with the camel driver who took them to the site illegally at night on November 29 for 4,000 Egyptian pounds ($225, 200 euros).
The two had acknowledged their role in the incident and would be put on trial.
In a video called "Climbing the Great Pyramid of Giza", Danish photographer Andreas Hvid appears to scale the 4,500-year-old tomb on the outskirts of Cairo with a woman who is later seen removing her top.
Hvid says the video was shot in late November and posted on YouTube on December 8, setting in motion an investigation by Egypt's public prosecutor.
A photograph also released by Hvid appears to show the pair completely naked on top of each other while looking in the direction of a nearby pyramid.
The nearly three-minute video has so far notched up 4.5 million views on YouTube, while stirring a public outcry in Egypt.
"A 7,000-year-old civilisation has turned into a bed sheet," a Twitter user in Egypt lamented.
Hvid, 23, has explained back home to the Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet that he had "dreamed for many years of climbing the Great Pyramid" as well as of taking a naked photograph.
The young Dane, who runs his own YouTube channel, said the woman in the video was not his girlfriend. "It was just a pose. We did not have sexual relations," he said.
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[PULSE.NG] With the organizers seeking to cut costs, the 65th edition of the pageant is being moved from its historic home at the Caracas Polyhedron Arena to a cosy 200-seat television studio.
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#1
"...Producers were also concerned that the audience would eat the flowers."
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/14/2018 4:57
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"at least there's no fat girls"
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12/14/2018 8:39
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On a side note, anyone else hear about those three pro-baseball players who got into a wreck avoiding a highwayman abduction ploy in Venezuela? Two killed, one injured?
[PULSE.NG] Indian and Chinese soldiers looked to have hit it off in their first joint exercises since a dangerous standoff last year, with videos released by the Indian military showing them dancing and playing football.
Troops from both sides came eyeball-to-eyeball in the disputed Doklam plateau in the Himalayas in June 2017 when Chinese soldiers started building a road and India sent its forces to halt the process.
The face-off between the nuclear-armed Asian nations, who fought a war in 1962 and in recent decades have been jostling for influence in the Indian Ocean, lasted two months until both sides pulled back.
India and China put their annual joint military drills on ice last year because of the Doklam standoff, but they resumed on Tuesday in southwest China for exercises called "Hand in Hand" and set to last until December 23.
A video released by the Indian army on Twitter shows the soldiers chanting, linking arms and dancing, while a second shows a football match in which both teams "showcased excellent sportsmanship". The winner was not revealed.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping have moved to patch up ties between the world's two most populous nations, home to around 40 percent of the planet's people.
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[PULSE.NG] Kosovo's NATO-led peacekeepers moved troops through the Serb-dominated north on Thursday, an AFP correspondent reported, amid high tensions with Belgrade on the eve of a parliament vote to create a Kosovo army.
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[PULSE.NG] The Police in Borno said its men had successfully foiled a lone suicide kaboom on Wednesday night in Maiduguri.
The Police Commissioner, Mr Damian Chukwu, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on telephone that the incident occurred at about 8:30 pm in the outskirts of Maiduguri.
Chukwu disclosed that a teenage female bomber attempted to infiltrate a security check point, before coppers fired shot at her and the Improvised Explosive Device (IEDs) vest strapped to her body went kaboom!.
He said the kaboom blew the girl into pieces, noting that there were no other casualties in the attack.
The commissioner added that men of the Explosive Ordinance Department (EOD) were deployed and sanitise the area.
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[PULSE.NG] Soldiers who were killed by terrorist group, Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... , in the troubled northeast region will be buried by the Nigerian Army in a private ceremony scheduled to be held in Maiduguri, Borno State on Friday, December 14, 2018.
According to a report by The Punch, the soldiers were those killed during a terrorist attack on the 157 Task Force Battalion in Metele in Guzamala local government area of Borno on November 18.
Even though many reports indicated that over 100 soldiers were killed in the attack, with many others missing, the Army disclosed in a statement that 23 soldiers were killed with 31 others injured.
However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... according to one of the widows of the officers who spoke to The Punch, the number of soldiers to be buried during the private ceremony is unknown.
"I was invited for the burial of my husband with a few others this Friday in Maiduguri. Sincerely, we don't even know how many will be buried and the army is not giving us any information," she said.
A colonel who spoke to The Punch reported that the ceremony has been made private to conceal the real figure of casualties from the attack.
He said, "General Buratai said only 23 soldiers were killed in the attack. He also put the number of troops maimed in action at 31. However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... we all know that is not true. Over 100 were killed and a private burial is now being organised in order not to expose their lies."
Around the time of the Metele attack, faceless myrmidons also staged a series of attacks on Nigerian Army troops between November 2 and November 17 with 16 soldiers killed and 12 injured.
The attacks took place in Kukawa, Ngoshe, Kareto and Gajiram, all in Borno, but were 'successfully repelled' by troops who killed 'several members' of the terrorist group.
Many of the attacks were credited to Boko Haram faction, the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... West Africa Province (ISWAP), who has renewed assaults on military bases in 2018.
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[Al Jazeera] The head of the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... ' (UN) body focusing on AIDS has offered his resignation following an expert report on sexual harassment in the agency that blasted his "defective leadership".
Michel Sidibe, executive director of UNAIDS, told the agency's board on Thursday in the Swiss city of Geneva that he would leave his post in June, spokesperson Mahesh Mahalingham said without elaborating.
Sidibe, whose term was supposed to end in January 2020, has been accused of fostering a work environment that tolerated bullying, sexual harassment and a culture of fear among the staff.
A panel of independent experts released a report on Thursday, saying Sidibe was overseeing a "patriarchal" workplace and promoting a "cult of personality" centred on him as the all-powerful chief.
The experts said the situation could not be changed unless Sidibe, a native of Mali who has headed the UN agency for nine years, resigned.
Sidibe denied claims that he tried to force an employee to drop allegations that she was sexually assaulted by his former deputy. Despite the scathing report, he insisted he was the right man to turn around the organization.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Sidibe might check with the Clinton Health Access Initiative for a job opening if they are still grifting.
[Al Jazeera] Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez promised a huge jump in the minimum wage on Wednesday as he appeared to be gearing up for an early election widely expected for next year.
The 22 percent rise is the largest in more than 40 years and could see the monthly salaries of millions of low-paid workers grow from 736 euro ($835) to 900 euro ($1,019).
"A rich country can't afford to have poor workers," Sanchez told Spain's parliament in a debate on Wednesday.
Ministers will approve the measure by decree at a meeting in Barcelona on December 21, Sanchez said, with the change taking effect in January.
The move came two days after French President Emmanuel Macron announced a 100 euro ($114) increase for minimum wage earners following massive protests by the so-called "yellow vests" over a planned rise to fuel tax.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Real Minimum wage is always zero.
This will cause unemployment.
Cost of living rises are caused by central banks subsidising land owners and immigration.
[DAWN] An antiterrorism court on Wednesday awarded 21-year imprisonment to two convicts, said to be associated with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... ’s London faction, in cases pertaining to possessing explosives and illicit weapons.
The convicts ‐ Mohammad Irshad and Mohammad Bilal Lodhi ‐ were found guilty of possessing explosive substances and illegal arms with an intent to target the leaders of the MQM’s Pakistain faction and other political parties on the occasion of the July 25 general elections in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... The judge, who conducted the trial in the judicial complex inside the central prison, pronounced the verdict, which was earlier reserved after recording evidence and final arguments from both sides.
The judge awarded them a collective sentence of 21-year imprisonment and also imposed a fine of Rs60,000 each. They would undergo an additional 18-month imprisonment each on default.
According to the prosecution, the Rangers and police had conducted a joint intelligence-based operation in Orangi Town and detained Irshad and Lodhi on July 18.
During the interrogation, the convicts had disclosed that they were planning the liquidation of politicians to sabotage the peace prior to the polls under orders of their party leaders.
It further alleged that the MQM-L’s South Africa network, led by Qamar Islam Teddi, had set up murder teams in June to assassinate rival political candidates, including those who had left the MQM-L, to sabotage holding of peaceful elections.
The prosecution further alleged that both the convicts had admitted to have been provided with financial resources by the MOM’s London secretariat.
It claimed that the convicts were assigned the initial task to kill Mohsin Javed and Arif Hussain Qureshi, who were contesting elections on PS-128 from the platform of the Pakistain Moslem League-Nawaz and Pakistain Peoples Party, respectively. Besides, the Pak Sarzameen Party’s office-bearers in Gulbahar Moin and Azhar were also on their list, it added.
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#KSA and the Arab Coalition strongly support the agreement announced in Sweden today. We commend @OSE_Yemen for all of his remarkable efforts. The agreement is a major step towards alleviating the humanitarian crisis and reaching a political solution.
[DAWN] The Urdu and Pashto websites of international news organization Voice of America (VOA) have reportedly been blocked in Pakistain.
Accessing the website shows an alert that reads: "Secure Connection Failed. The connection to www.urduvoa.com was interrupted while the page was loading. The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because the authenticity of the received data could not be verified."
An official who works for VOA said that the Pashto website had been blocked a few months ago.
"However, denial ain't just a river in Egypt... the Urdu website became inaccessible last week after the coverage of a presser held by the leader of Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), Mohsin Dawar. Initially, we received complaints that the website was not accessible at some places, but later it was completely blocked," the official said.
"Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry was also contacted over the issue and he also confirmed that the websites were blocked."
Ayesha Tanzeem, the VOA bureau chief for Afghanistan and Pakistain, on her Twitter account @atanzeem said: "Pakistain Tightens Coverage of Pashtun Nationalist Movement #PTM, blocks VOA’s Urdu and Deewa websites."
In a news story published on the VOA website’s English edition, it is stated that Pak authorities were scrutinising media coverage of the Pashtun nationalist movement, blocking VOA websites and filing police cases against journalists covering its local rallies.
About a week earlier, it said, Pakistain had ordered internet service providers to block the website of VOA’s Urdu language service. VOA’s Deewa news website, which primarily caters to the Pashto-speaking audience in the region around the Afghan border, had already been blocked for months, the report added.
The VOA report quoted Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry as saying that the sites were blocked for "false and prejudiced reporting".
"The stories they were doing were only projecting a particular narrative without any impartial view. There are many things happening in our country and most are positive," he told the publication.
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Minutes ago, an intense firefight broke-out between the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and U.S.-backed rebels in southeastern Homs.
According to a military source in Damascus, the festivities erupted between the Syrian Arab Army and the U.S.-backed Jaish Maghawer al-Thoura group just north of the al-Tanf region, which is controlled by the U.S. Coalition.
The source said that the Syrian Arab Army killed at least three members of the U.S.-backed rebel group, while suffering no casualties of their own.
In the past, the U.S. Coalition would respond to these festivities by bombing the Syrian military near the al-Tanf region; however, they have yet to launch any Arclight airstrikes as of yet.
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[PULSE.NG] Sri Lanka's Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that President Maithripala Sirisena's sacking of parliament last month was illegal, clearing the way for potential impeachment proceedings against him.
The ruling is a major blow to Sirisena, seven weeks into a major political crisis in the Indian Ocean island nation that has sparked alarm abroad and concerns about its finances.
The seven-judge bench unanimously decided that Sirisena violated the constitution when he dissolved parliament last month and called a snap election nearly two years ahead of schedule.
Delivering the landmark judgement to a packed courtroom, Chief Justice Nalin Perera said the judges agreed that Sirisena violated the constitution when he dissolved the legislature prematurely.
Sacked prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's party has said it would await the outcome of Thursday's decision before deciding whether to open impeachment proceedings.
Sirisena triggered the unprecedented political crisis on October 26 when he fired Wickremesinghe and appointed the contentious former strongman Mahinda Rajapakse in his place.
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[ALMASDARNEWS] For the second time this week, the Israeli Air Force has conducted low altitude flights along the Syrian-Lebanese border.
According to a military communique from the Syrian Armed Forces, the Israeli warplanes began their cross-border flights by entering Leb’s Nabatieh Governorate and making their way to the Beqa’a-Damascus border.
The Israeli warplanes did not cross into Syrian airspace; however, their flight along the border was enough to raise the alert levels in Damascus.
Typically, Israel takes this flight path when they carry out Arclight airstrikes in western Damascus and western Homs, so any time their planes are spotted along the border, the Syrian military prepares their air defenses for a potential engagement.
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#1
Gathering Elint, hmmm, Avi?
Posted by: Frank G ||
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[PULSE.NG] Nearly 80 percent of the materials for staging the December 23 election in DR Congo's capital, Kinshasa, were destroyed when an election warehouse was torched overnight, officials said Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Does Kinshasa think it's a suburb of Broward County?
Mars China needs wymyns! [PULSE.NG] Two girls sprint from a hair salon into a car that will lead them back to safety in Vietnam -- a snapshot of the daring rescues taking place each month to free women and girls from forced marriages or sex slavery in China.
Filmed on a shaky camera phone, the successful rescue saved the Vietnamese teenagers from a brothel in China, where a huge surplus of males has fuelled the lucrative trade for brides and sex workers.
Bringing them home is dangerous work, pitting rescuers against vengeful husbands, pimps and organised trafficking networks who spin tens of millions of dollars selling women from poor Mekong countries.
"No one wants their business to be broken," says a rescuer from Blue Dragon, a Hanoi-based non-profit.
...nor their beds to be empty. Vietnamese hotties are better than no hotties at all in a country that jumpstarted its ancient habit of female infaticide back in the 1980s.
Blue Dragon has helped bring about 400 trafficked women and girls home from China since 2007.
They are among tens of thousands trafficked into China from impoverished pockets of Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos.
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...where a huge surplus of males has fueled the lucrative trade for brides and sex workers.
We have some Western technology they need to steal. They have a lot of experience at that purloining.
[Breitbart] Sheriff’s deputies in a Texas county located 80 miles from the U.S.-Mexico Border reported the recovery of two migrants’ remains who apparently died attempting to circumvent the Falfurrias Border Patrol Checkpoint.
It’s working as intended, then.
On December 11, a Brooks County Sheriff’s Office dispatcher received notice for the discovery of skeletal remains presumed to be those of a deceased migrant. The dispatcher sent Training Officer Ben Gomez to the scene to meet with a ranch hand who discovered the remains and Border Patrol agents, according to Brooks County Sheriff’ Benny Martinez.
The ranch is located west of the Falfurrias Border Patrol Checkpoint located on U.S. Highway 281, about 80 miles from the Mexican border. Human smugglers frequently use this area to drop off their "cargo" and force them on a lengthy march that has led to the deaths for at least 48 migrants in Brooks County this year.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Following are the commitments and the time frame of the initial Sweden deal:
- The Houthi militias withdraw from the ports of Hodeidah, Salif and Ras Issa to the north of Sanaa road within 14 days of the agreement.
- The immediate redeployment of the government forces south of the line.
- Full withdrawal of the Houthi forces from the city of Hodeidah in the second phase to sites outside the northern city limits within the 21 days after the agreement.
- The security of Hodeidah and the ports of Hodeidah, Salih and Ras Issa are the responsibility of the security forces in accordance with Yemeni law.
- The legal tracks of the Authority must be respected and any obstacles or impediments to the functioning of local institutions, including Houthi supervisors, should be eliminated.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
From the title I thought Sweden was surrendering to Yemen.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Ratings agency Moody’s said the outlook for Ottoman Turkish non-financial companies will remain negative for the next 12-18 months, Dunya newspaper reported.
Ahvalnews quoted Dunya as saying that Lira volatility was likely to remain high and tight financing conditions will persist.
Moody’s said in a report, that there was also limited clarity concerning government policies, it said.
The profit margins of Ottoman Turkish companies are under pressure after a currency crisis destroyed the economy this year, making imported raw materials less affordable and increasing the cost of foreign currency-denominated loans.
Firms in the country are saddled with more than $200 billion of long-term, unhedged borrowing in foreign exchange, according to central bank data. The lira has lost almost a third of its value this year.
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#1
Moody's is Gulenist!
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/14/2018 9:35
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[RADIOSHABELLE] High tension is reported in Baidoa, the interim capital of southwest state after Æthiopian troops in the town allegedly incarcerated Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! former al-Shabaab ... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord... deputy leader, Mukhtar Robow Abu Mansur.
Abu Mansour was said to have been detained on Thursday morning though it is not immediately clear the reason behind his detention.
Sources close to the former Alshabaab leader who is also among state presidential candidates running for the elections slated for 19th of this month said he was tortured before the arrest.
Communication lines are cut off as sounds of gunfire and violent demonstration is reportedly staged by residents to demanding for his release.
Robow was flown from Baidoa to Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu.
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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.
[FOX] CUCUTA, Venezuela/Colombia border ‐ As Venezuela continues to crumble under the socialist dictatorship of President Nicolas Maduro, some are expressing words of warning ‐ and resentment ‐ against a six-year-old gun control bill that stripped citizens of their weapons.
[CNN] 
[National Review] Florida’s Republican state Senate president told colleagues Thursday that embattled Broward County elections supervisor Brenda Snipes cannot rescind her previously announced resignation in order to contest her suspension by Governor Rick Scott.
[Townhall] The Department of Justice Inspector a General released a report Thursday showing thousands of text messages sent by fired FBI agent Peter Strzok and former FBI attorney Lisa Page were not properly preserved and presented a "gap" in investigating their misconduct at the Bureau. 
[Hot Air] Let’s run through the checklist for chief of staff in Jared’s case:
[BBC] A well-known TV Michigan meteorologist and mother-of-two has taken her own life a month after telling fans she was struggling to recover from laser eye surgery that she got so she could finally stop wearing her contact lenses.
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
[IsraelTimes] After raids in Gothenburg, security services offer no details on motive or identity of would-be terrorist, but say his activities had ’international links’
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
the 
[Al Jazeera] A woman accused of acting as a Russian agent to infiltrate a powerful gun lobby group and influence the United States's policy towards Moscow has pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy.
[DAWN] LISTS drawn up by individual states ‐ rather than credible multilateral organizations or INGOs ‐ always run the risk of being termed biased and designed to push a political agenda, pillorying geopolitical rivals, and looking the other way where bad behaviour of friends is concerned.
[Al Jazeera] The suspected gunman, who killed three people at a Christmas market in Strasbourg on Tuesday, has been killed, police sources have said.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The first small strike drone Carnivora capable of intercepting other drones and using high explosive bombs has been created in Russia and is undergoing flight trials, the Micran Research and Production Company (the drone’s developer) told TASS on Thursday.
[Free Beacon] The Trump administration plans to significantly cut U.S. support for United Nations peacekeeping missions in Africa as part of a broader strategy that seeks to better promote American interests on the continent, National Security Adviser John Bolton said Thursday.
[Al Jazeera] The 
[PULSE.NG] Egyptian authorities Thursday 
[PULSE.NG] With the organizers seeking to cut costs, the 65th edition of the pageant is being moved from its historic home at the Caracas Polyhedron Arena to a cosy 200-seat television studio.
[PULSE.NG] Indian and Chinese soldiers looked to have hit it off in their first joint exercises since a dangerous standoff last year, with videos released by the Indian military showing them dancing and playing football.
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
[PULSE.NG] Rahul Walke Bodhi was seated beneath a tree in Ramdegi forest in western India for morning prayers on Tuesday when the leopard pounced.
[PULSE.NG] Two girls sprint from a hair salon into a car that will lead them back to safety in Vietnam -- a snapshot of the daring rescues taking place each month to free women and girls from forced marriages or sex slavery in China.
[Breitbart] Sheriff’s deputies in a Texas county located 80 miles from the U.S.-Mexico Border reported the recovery of two migrants’ remains who apparently died attempting to circumvent the Falfurrias Border Patrol Checkpoint.
the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
