Fresh off of losing his battle for custody of his twin sons Tuesday, Charlie Sheen took on the topic of American politics on his Violent Torpedo of Truth Tour, the Washington Post reports.
Normally reserving his criticisms for his former bosses at CBS and his ex-wives, Sheen went after President Barack Obama, questioning the validity of his birth certificate, while toying with his own ideas about running for office.
For starters, I was f**king born here, how about that? And I got proof! Nothing Photoshopped about my birth certificate, Sheen said.
According to the Post, Sheens comments brought cheers from the 3,700-seat venue in Washington, D.C.
Sheen also took on Sarah Palin, calling her a lunatic from Alaska and added that he would handle Libyan dictator Moammar al-Qaddafi by making him marry my [ex-wives] Brooke and Denise.
#1
O's birth certificate was probably destroyed in a tragic fire at the family hut. Sheen should try to have some sensitivity. It probably still stings the Bamster.
#2
Actually... what I'd really like to see is a copy of the EEOC report at the Wall Street Firm that supposedly offered Obama a job and that he supposedly turned down.
I'm not holding my breath for that to appear, either.
h/t Donald Sensing
Last week the president gave a speech on the deficit, rightly trying to convince Americans that it is now beyond unsustainable. Yet his theme was that the Republicans attempts to reduce it were cold-hearted, endangering the most vulnerable among us, such as those with Downs Syndrome, while protecting the proverbial rich from commensurate sacrifice. Let us, then, look at Obama, and the context of his speech, as a doctor might a patient. A long article, with a surprising conclusion. Of course, VDH is an Historian.
MISRATA, Libya - Two US journalists were killed in Libya Wednesday, the Business Insider reported. The website reported that Tim Hetherington -- who was nominated for an Oscar this year with co-director Sebastian Junger for "Restrepo," a documentary about US troops in Afghanistan -- was killed in Misrata along with fellow photojournalist Chris Hondros.
The source for the information was Andre Liohn, a fellow photographer who announced the news on his Facebook page.
"Sad news Tim Hetherington died in Misrata now when covering the front line. Chris Hondros is in a serious status. Michel Brown and Guy are wounded but fine."
Liohn, who claimed to be at a hospital in Misrata, later reported on his feed that Hondros had died.
Hondros was a Pulitzer Prize-nominated photojournalist whose work appeared in the New York Times, Newsweek, and the Economist, according to Business Insider.
On Tuesday, Hetherington tweeted, "In besieged Libyan city of Misrata. Indiscriminate shelling by Qaddafi forces. No sign of NATO."
AoS at 1920 CT: I should have made this clear: I respect these guys and any journalist who goes smack into the middle of a war zone. RIP both of them.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/20/2011
15:13 ||
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#1
Hey, LSM, these ragtag Muslim rebels you adore are getting wiped out on the battle field. What are doing in the middle of it. Are you THAT stupid?????
#2
Photojouirnalists, heh? They'll only get a 24 hours of chatter from the MSM. Real JOURNALISTS would receive weeks of paeans from the talking heads. See that's how you'll know who's real and who's a wannabe.
#5
Being a war corespondent is VERY dangerous duty. And these guys took that duty, and paid the ultimate price. By all accounts I have seen, they were good at it too (the boots-on-the-ground reporters usually are, it's the clowns in the studio that screw it up.) I salute them, and offer prayers for their families.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/20/2011 19:22
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#7
much respect RIP, wonder if the co director of Restrepo is the one who stayed and did all the camera work on the documentary?
Posted by: chris ||
04/20/2011 19:40
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Tim Hetherington -- who was nominated for an Oscar this year with co-director Sebastian Junger for "Restrepo"
Photojournalism has been getting a bad name lately, what with blatant paleo-fauxtography, cleverly framed 'crowd' shots at rallies and such, but if Restrepo is any indication, Hetherington was the real deal.
note: Restrepo is a combat documentary that tells the story of a year in the life of an Army platoon at an outpost in Afghanistan. Watch it and be moved, awed and humbled.
#9
Restrepo shopuld be mandatory viewing in high schools! If they can push all that liberal; bullshit down our kids throats then they should be shown what real men and women go through in war zones like afghanistan and the losses they endure. Might teach alot of the youth today too show a little more respect too our soldiers before the professors at places such as berkely get ahold of them and warp their senses.
Posted by: chris ||
04/20/2011 21:07
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#10
In the immortal words of Gunny Hartmann "he's got guts and guts is enough" - applies to anyone that goes and puts themselves on the line to tell the story of our guys doing the fighting.
While the International Criminal Court has announced that it is investigating charges of war crimes against Muammar al-Gaddafi and other members of the Libyan regime, harrowing video evidence has emerged that appears to show atrocities committed by anti-Gaddafi rebels. Among other things, the footage depicts summary executions, a prisoner being lynched, the desecration of corpses, and even a beheading. The targets of the most serious abuse are frequently black African prisoners. The ultimate source of the footage appears to be rebel forces or sympathizers themselves.
What is probably the most harrowing of the clips depicts a public beheading. A man with a long knife can be seen alternately sawing and hacking at the neck of a man who has been suspended upside-down. The victim's inert body is soaked in blood. The beheading takes place in front of a burnt-out building in what appears to be a public square. The Dutch public broadcaster NOS has identified the location as the main square of the rebel capital of Benghazi. Rest of the article describes the atrocities and the links. Really, I don't know why anyone is surprised. It is a CIVIL WAR. This shit happens.
#2
What kind of idiot would expect a population that has known nothing but violence to be humane in the treatment of their former oppressors or their agents?
#3
What kind of idiot would expect a population that has known nothing but violence to be humane in the treatment of their former oppressors or their agents?
The American MSM and their masters the Socialist/Nationalist Democrats.
#4
I would expect it in any civil war. If I found foreign mercenaries supporting the government forces suppressing me here in a war, I surely would shoot them in the back of the head and dump them in a ditch.
#6
"This would appear to be something to avoid, Mr President."
So he'll plunge right in, of course. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/20/2011 19:28
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What is probably the most harrowing of the clips depicts a public beheading. A man with a long knife can be seen alternately sawing and hacking at the neck of a man who has been suspended upside-down. The victim's inert body is soaked in blood. The beheading takes place in front of a burnt-out building in what appears to be a public square. The Dutch public broadcaster NOS has identified the location as the main square of the rebel capital of Benghazi.
I don't think Gaddafi the Commie has done anything remotely like this. This is jihadist theater - designed simultaneously to frighten non-jihadists and recruit believers of a similar bent. All the more reason to hope that Gaddafi liquidates the opposition.
#11
There is a stone wall in a cemetary in Lockerbie I would invite you to visit.
And there is a site in downtown Manhattan, under which I was walking in the subway tunnel one sunny morning when word came that a bomb had detonated in the World Trade Center, requiring that all trains be rerouted uptown. Just as we quickly overlooked the tens of millions killed by our former Nazi and Shintoist enemies as the Iron Curtain came down over the Eastern Bloc and an increasing part of the Third World, we may find it advantageous overlook incidents between us and some of the Commies who scored points against us - especially in view of the fact that jihadists killed thousands back in the continental United States. In looking back at the Lockerbie incident, I think I've just figured out why Sarkozy seems to want Gaddafi out at any cost - UTA 772 (France's version of Pan Am 103).
A University of Iowa professor felt the need to reply to a blast email by the College Republicans on Monday morning. Ellen Lewin, a professor of Anthropology and Gender, Womens & Sexuality Studies in the Department of Gender, Womens & Sexuality Studies, sent a vulgar response to a College Republican email about the groups, Conservative Coming Out Week.
The College Republican email, which was sent to the entire University of Iowa Community, had been approved by a number of university officials before being sent out.
Lewin responded to email by writing, #*@% [F-Word] YOU, REPUBLICANS from her official university email account.
Rep. Darrell Issa has tired of waiting for the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms to respond to his subpoenas in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee's probe of the ATF gunwalker scandal. In a letter today to ATF's director, Issa warned of contempt proceedings if the DoJ and White House continue their refusal to comply with subpoenas, and pointedly explained why the DoJ's current investigation isn't germane to the issue:
For the first time since Republicans took control of the House and gained the power of congressional subpoena, the Obama administration has declined to comply with a subpoena issued by top GOP oversight official Rep. Darrell Issa.
In the face of a subpoena by Issa, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) provided no documents by the April 13 deadline, according to an April 20 letter from Issa to ATF's director, Kenneth Melson.
Issa is threatening contempt proceedings if ATF does not comply.
First simple step, Defund the ATF. As the T-shirt says, ATF should be a convenience store, not a government agency.
Full article is Aaay-Peee so just highlights here. If you read the original you'll see just how many people can't be named or choose to remain anonymous.
PARIS -- France vowed Wednesday to step up airstrikes on Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces and acknowledged that it has military officers already working with Libyan rebels on the ground.
Italy joined Britain in announcing their commitment of military instructors to train the rebels.
Italy joining the effort for trainers in Benghazi is more than I thought they would do, but I'm not surprised that the French and British are stepping up.
European powers and the Libyan opposition remained firm against sending foreign ground troops into Libya, a dangerous and politically risky step. However NATO, which is leading the U.N.-sanctioned international military operation to protect civilians, is now acknowledging that airstrikes alone cannot stop the heavy shelling of cities by Gadhafi's forces.
"France has placed a small number of liaison officers alongside our special envoy in (the rebel stronghold) Benghazi," French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Christine Fages said in an online briefing Wednesday.
A French diplomat said the French officers are not combat troops and are not teaching Libyan rebels weapons skills. Instead, he said, they are working on logistics and organizational help. France sent a diplomatic envoy to Benghazi earlier this month. French government spokesman Francois Baroin suggested less than 10 officers were involved and insisted the move conforms to the U.N. resolution authorizing the international military campaign in Libya.
Like hell they aren't training the rebels. Logistics alone won't get the rebels to stand their ground under an artillery bombardment.
France has championed the international campaign in Libya. President Nicolas Sarkozy met Wednesday with visiting Libyan opposition leader Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, who said he asked France "to intensify the support accorded to the Libyan revolution."
"We will intensify the strikes," Sarkozy responded, according to a presidential aide.
"We will help you," Sarkozy promised his Libyan visitor.
A NATO official said there had been no pressure from France to increase allied strikes, but that France might increase its own contribution. The official was not authorized to be publicly named.
In Rome, Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa said 10 military instructors will be going to Libya to help the rebels, but again ruled out sending Italian ground troops. La Russa spoke after meeting with British Defense Secretary Liam Fox, who said many of the Libyan rebels "have no military experience, they have little understanding of weaponry or military tactics."
"The best way in which we can assist them is to give them some technical capabilities in how to organize themselves," Fox said.
The British minister said the situation was "not that different from what's happening in Afghanistan, where we've decided that training up security forces so that the Afghans themselves can look after their security is the best way forward."
Notice that in Afghanistan we have 150,000 people 'training up security forces'. And killing Taliban. But mostly killing Taliban. The same thing could easily happen in Libya, at least until Gaddafi's mercs get tired of being killed.
Britain said Tuesday it was sending up to 20 military advisers to help Libya's rebel forces.
A spokesman for Libya's National Transitional Council, the political wing of the rebel movement, said Wednesday the military advisers would be a big help.
"My understanding is that it will all be administrative help, nothing with weapons and nothing in the field," Mustafa Gheirani said.
That comes next.
The rebels have repeatedly said they do not want foreign troops on the ground.
That comes when the rebels are facing imminent defeat.
French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet suggested the U.N. Security Council should weigh whether to send ground troops. "It's a real question that merits international reflection," he said after a Cabinet meeting Wednesday.
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Dismissing concerns over possible links between Libyan rebels and al Qaeda, the Obama administration has notified Congress it is providing $25 million in nonlethal aid to the rebels' effort to drive Col. Moammar Gadhafi's regime from power.
I suppose cash is always welcome, but the Brits are putting boots on the ground. And the rebels have access to the oil fields so they can always raise cash.
Only during those brief interludes when access turns into control, and they can quickly load up and send off a tanker... How many of those have the rebels sent off, since the troubles began?
"The president's proposed actions would provide urgently needed nonlethal assistance to support efforts to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas under threat of attack in Libya," said Joseph E. Macmanus, acting assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs, in an April 15 letter. A copy of the letter, sent to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was obtained by The Washington Times.
The new authorization for assistance would cover "vehicles, fuel trucks and fuel bladders, ambulances, medical equipment, protective vests, binoculars, and non-secure radios," according to a memorandum attached to the letter.
Reports last month, confirmed by The Times, stated that the CIA was providing covert assistance to elements of the Transitional National Council (TNC), the political arm of the Libyan rebels.
Questions have emerged in recent weeks about the connection between some of the Libyan opposition and the al Qaeda terrorist group. Noman Benotman, a former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, said in an interview last month that about 1,000 freelance jihadists are at large in Libya.
The State Department memorandum attached to the letter, however, stated that the United States finds the TNC to be committed to democratic reforms.
"The U.S. government has been in communication with the TNC in an effort to build a working relationship and to understand its security capabilities and shortfalls, while recognizing the key role that Libyan opposition forces play in the protection of civilians and civilian populated areas in Libya," the memo said.
The memo also stated that "the TNC has publicly rejected terrorism, embraced the Geneva Conventions, and emphasized its dedication to building democratic institutions to provide for a secular future in which a broad range of Libyan citizens will be able to participate."
Did they say it in English, Arabic or both?
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/20/2011
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#1
Give me that money and I would invest it in something worthwhile. OK, I'd squander most of it. But I'd invest some. I promise.
#6
Dismissing concerns over possible links between Libyan rebels and al Qaeda,
We've been blatantly dismissing Hamid Karzai's nefarious links for phueching years. No surprises here. I believe we all saw it coming, but will the Chinese approve our note?
BRITISH military officers are set to hit the ground in Libya to bolster rebels fighting tyrant Colonel Gaddafi. The advisors will go into the country's second city of Benghazi the stronghold of the pro-democracy opposition.
I think we sort of saw this coming, and figured it would be either the Brits or the French who would make the first move. Wonder if the advisors are there for training only or whether they'll include forward air controllers and their protectors.
Foreign Secretary William Hague said today: "The National Security Council has decided that we will now move quickly to expand the team already in Benghazi to include an additional military liaison advisory team. This contingent will be drawn from experienced British military officers."
Mr Hague said the move was needed to help protect civilians in Libya and was compatible with the United Nations resolution which authorised a no-fly zone. He said in a statement: "The United Kingdom is strongly committed to the effective implementation of the provisions of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1973.
"With the Libyan people still faced with continuing attacks by Gaddafi's forces, the need to protect civilians in Libya is our highest priority.
"UNSCR 1973 authorises member states to take all necessary measures to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas under threat of attack from Gaddafi.
"The UK's substantial and early military contribution to the enforcement of UNSCR 1973 has helped saved the lives of thousands of civilians threatened by Gaddafi's murderous regime. As the scale of the humanitarian crisis has grown, so has the urgency of increasing our efforts to defend civilians against the attack from Gaddafi forces."
Mr Hague described the rebels' political body, the National Transitional Council (NTC), as "legitimate political interlocutors".
Britain has supplied body armour and telecommunications equipment to help them take on Gaddafi's forces.
Mr Hague said: "We have stepped up our contribution to international efforts to relieve the humanitarian crisis in Libya, in particular in Misrata, and a UK diplomatic team led by Christopher Prentice has been liaising closely with the opposition in Benghazi.
"These additional personnel will enable the UK to build on the work already being undertaken to support and advise the NTC on how to better protect civilians. In particular they will advise the NTC on how to improve their military organisational structures, communications and logistics, including how best to distribute humanitarian aid and deliver medical assistance."
Mr Hague said the deployment is fully within the terms of UNSCR 1973 to protect civilians but also rule out a foreign occupation force on Libyan soil.
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04/20/2011
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#1
Wonder if the advisors are there for training only or whether they'll include forward air controllers and their protectors.
As time is short , I would suspect that FST's will be employed , if not already in place/en route . The main issues with this rucus is the backward/forward motion on the 'battlefield' . Its very apparent that the 'rebels' couldnt run a bath even with close air support
FST = fire support team , upto 6 strong personel in normal conditions. Something the Royal Marines are quite good at .
Posted by: Oscar ||
04/20/2011 13:54
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The Obama administration privately urged Standard & Poor's in recent weeks not to lower its outlook on the United States -- a suggestion the ratings agency ignored Monday, two people familiar with the matter said.
Treasury Department officials had been discussing with S&P whether the ratings agency should change its outlook on the United States to "negative" from "stable," an indication that the country could lose its crucial AAA rating in coming years over its soaring debt levels.
Treasury officials told S&P analysts that they were underestimating the ability of politicians in Washington to fashion a compromise to curb deficits, a Treasury official said. They argued a change in ratings was not needed at this time because the debt was manageable and the administration had a viable plan in the works, the official said. Another boatload of FAIL for team Bambi. People will support you as long as they aren't threatened by your actions. Well, Bambi... the investors are starting to look at you like a toxic asset. Enjoy. Imagine what the press would say if George Bush had tried to influence the raters at the S & P. Of course, Dubya had no need to do so in the first place.
#1
So, what will be the focus of attack on S&P? Can we expect new regulations on ratings agencies whereby the gov't controls the scores? Or maybe that the agencies are no longer allowed to rate non-private issues?
I figure that the thugocracy that is Barry's buddies will start swinging soon.
The Scranton police union has filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the city for an off-duty drug arrest made by Police Chief Dan Duffy in March.
The complaint, which was filed with the state Labor Relations Board on April 14, takes issue with the chief arresting a man who was allegedly in possession of marijuana because the chief is not a member of the collective bargaining unit and was "off duty" when the March 20 arrest was made.
"I think it's absurd. I'm not going to turn my head on crime that takes place," Chief Duffy said. "I took the same oath (as a police officer) that everyone else took.
"On my day off and I'm driving around as the police chief, and that's wrong?" he asked.
The complaint states that "the work of apprehending and arresting individuals has been the sole and exclusive province of members of the bargaining unit," and that the city did not inform or negotiate with the union that the chief would be "performing bargaining unit work."
#1
This is probably a very ill considered move as both houses of the State legislature and the governor are Republican. This is not a time for unions to be irrationally arrogant.
#5
This article makes me think we are in trouble. Better arm yourselves if you are not already armed in these areas--the rank-and-file police might not show up if they are negotiating an union contract.
Sorry, the page you're looking for isn't here. Keep checking the blog for the latest from the campaign as we continue to provide new content, tools, and opportunities to get involved.
In the meantime, here are some links that might help:
#1
The Russians have their work cut out for them. In their situation, I would seriously suggest that they hire outside consultants, as this is going to take a total rebuild to get anything approaching a satisfactory military.
This idea is not unheard of in Russia, because for many years leading up to and through the revolution, their bureaucracy was "in-sourced" by Germans, experts at bureaucracy, because the Russians couldn't figure it out. Lenin tried to abolish it, and it shut the country down for days, so he had to restore all the Germans to their jobs.
Ironically as all hell, their best bet would be to hire Israeli military experts, many of whom were born in Russia.
#2
as this is going to take a total rebuild to get anything approaching a satisfactory military.
Nowadays Russia's chief military ambition seems to be to bully the countries of their "near abroad" into submission. For this the current military appears quite adequate.
#3
Perhaps, but in the midst of a downgrade of the Russian equivalent of the Pentagon, Putin and Medvedev actually went around them entirely, to order subordinate generals, the equivalent of post commanders, to invade South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
You can imagine how the Pentagon would lose its marbles if say, Obama directly ordered the post commander of Fort Benning to invade Cuba. Now admittedly, while he would probably be good to go, the rest of the chain of command would be, ah, perturbed.
Why would China formally invade Siberia, DK70 the Scantily Clad7177, when their people have been quietly settling into empty communities for years with no serious Russian response?
#7
ION NEWS KERALA > PUTIN WANTS RUSSIA TO BE [Econ] STRONG TO MEET ANY ECONOMIC, MILITARY THREAT.
ARTIC = 'Cuzin Vlad desires Russ to be in the World's Top Five econmies oer next years [2021-2022, wid its GDP to be US$35,000.0 per capita like France + Italy. Russia M-U-S-T ditto raise US$60-70.0Bilyuhn in Foreign Investments for every year ASAP AMAP ALAP.
OTHER ...
* PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > RUSSIA KEEPING A WARY EYE ON CHINA.
ARTIC = despite their improved relations, Russia + China have NOT formed any FORMAL MUTUAL DEFENSIVE ALLIANCE, + tend to pursue INDEPENDENT + UN-COORDIANTED, ALBEIT SEEMINGLY PARALLEL, GOVT. POLICY INITIATIVES [Foreign, Econ, Public] IN THIER OWN SOVEREIGN INTERESTS.
and
* TOPIX, DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > PUTIN PROMISES EXTENSIVE RUSSIAN REARMING. Russ mil modernization to the tune of US$700.0Bilyuhn oer next ten years.
-------------
E.g. PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > PLA'S "ACTIVE DEFENSE" TURNING OFFENSIVE IN INDIAN OCEAN.
and
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > CHINA ACCUSES PHILIPPINES OF "INVASION", i.e. intent to occupy China's "indisputable" sovereign territory in the NANSHAS = SPRATLY ISLANDS.
* WMF > RUSSIA SAYS THE PHILIPPINES PLANS TO IMPROVE + EXPAND ITS MILITARY STRENGTH IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA AGZ CHINA IN THE NANSHAS.
* RENSE > CHINA BLASTS PHILIPPINES CLAIM OVER SPRATLYS [China = Nanshas]. Beijing has not only formally complained to the UNO but in its complaint has reiteratedits CLAIM OF SOVEREIGNTY OVER THE "ENTIRE SOUTH CHINA SEA".
FIL BLOGGER = wonders why China doesn't just claim the PALAWAN REEF also while its busy claiming PHIL sovereign territory in the Spratlys = Nanshas???
THE ABOVE PROVES TO ME ONCE AGAIN THAT BEIJING = CHINA IS WELL AWARE THAT THE RECENT RUSSO-JAPANESE DISPUTE OER THE SOUTH KURILES, + RUSSIA'S PROCLAMATION OF PERMANENT SOVEREIGNTY OER SAME, IS ACTUALLY A COVERT SLAP AT CHINA'S INTERESTS IN RUSS FAR EAST, NORPAC + ARCTIC.
It is intended to keep Rising China + PLAN, PLAAF contained to China's coasts + outlying littorals.
China's priority at this time is its Economy, hence it is not willing to fight a Econ-destroying Limited or Major Conventional, Nuclear? War wid Russia oer strategic access thru the South Kuriles. THUS CHINA'S PUSH SOUTHWARD AGZ TAIWAN, PHILIPPINES, SOUTH CHINA SEA + INDIAN OCEAN.
JAPAN'S 03/11 "TOHOKU/SENDAI" QUAKE-TSUNAMI EVENT + now "FUKUSHIMA" NUCPLANT CRISIS =
GODSENT GIFT TO CHINA WHETHER CHINA ADMITS IT OR NOT, + AS AKIN TO THE "JASMINE"-LED UPRISINGS IN THE ME FOR RADICAL ISLAM + SUDDEN RISE/ADVENT OF ISLAMIST-DESIRED RULING POLITICAL POWER + ESPEC "OWG CALIPHATE" [Nuclear].
Radical Islam = Land = MULTIPLE MIDEAST STATES.
Rising China = Equivalent of Islamist "OWG CALIPHATE" = FAR PACIFIC OCEAN TOWARDS WESTPAC, CENTPAC + EASTPAC, US WEST COAST.
One or more massive, High-Mag Quakes-Tsunamis, + Tokyo + TEPCO, etc. recovery FUBARS = JAPANESE MASS DIASPORA = CHINESE MIL TAKEOVER OR POLITICAL, ECON DOMINATION OF TRUBLED JAPAN.
A report that the US government plans to sell off much of its remaining stake in General Motors this year despite the firm's lackluster share price caused investors to flee the stock Tuesday.
After the Wall Street Journal reported a government sale could come within the next six months, GM's shares fell by nearly 1.3 percent to end at $29.59.
The government sale would "almost certainly" mean that US taxpayers would take a loss from a politically controversial $50 billion rescue of the auto giant in 2009, according to the paper.
The government would need to sell its roughly 500 million shares for $53 dollars each in order to break even, but GM's stock is currently hovering at a price of just under $30 per share.
At the current price, the government would lose more than $11 billion, but the Obama administration is willing to accept the loss in order to cut its last ties to the auto manufacturer, the newspaper said, citing unnamed sources.
The summer sale would make it more likely that the government could unload the remainder of its shares before the 2012 election season.
#4
I recall years ago an article that appeared in some paper/magazine in the West concerning the manufacture of brassieres in the USSR. The bras looked like something that would fit on the bumper of a 1953 Buick; all large and unattractive. The gist of the article was that their economy was not market driven and no one wanted to buy the bras. So much for the wonders of central planning. It seems like we are heading in the same direction--at least so far as Washington's groupthink goes.
#6
Hello Darth; Back when GM was in trouble and its stock hit bottom a fellow went to several people wanting them to buy in on GM stock. $1000. was the investment. The return I was told was 10-1. Don't hold me to that but should their stock drop again then I'd bet you'll see investors move in. Could we be seeing them actually manipulating the market. Just a random thought of mine.
#1
Ammunition Technical Officer killed in Afghanistan named by MoD as Captain Lisa Jade Head.
Captain Head described by CO of 11 EOD Regiment as "a self-assured, highly effective operator and a well liked leader"
"She is gone but will never be forgotten by her Regiment who I know she was proud to be part of and whom are immensely proud of her."
Capt Mike Kennedy: "Lisa was the bravest most courageous woman I have ever met. She typified the sprit of the Ammunition Technical Officer"
Major Al Brown: "The British Army and the people of Afghanistan have lost an extremely skilled and courageous soldier today, someone dedicated to protecting the lives of others and the world is a poorer place for it."
Liam Fox: "We owe a great debt of gratitude for her bravery...her commitment... for sacrifice she has made to defend our national security."
NINEWA / Aswat al-Iraq: The two kidnapped Shabaks were found dead in west of Mosul on Tuesday, a security source said.
"Policemen found today the two civilians from the Shabak minorities, who had been kidnapped earlier, dead near al-Mahlabiya district, west of Mosul," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
"The bodies bore signs of gunshot wounds to the head and chest," he added. "The two men had been kidnapped earlier along with a Kurd working in the oil field while visiting the city of Mosul for business."
"The forces still searching for the Kurd," he said.
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04/20/2011
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NEW DELHI: India may have diverted a warship from the Gulf of Aden to the coast of Somalia in the wake of pirates refusing to release seven of the 15 Indian sailors being held hostage on merchant vessel Asphalt Venture, but no armed or intervention operation is on the cards as of now.
``Our prime interest is to save the life of every Indian sailor being held hostage...that is the guiding concern for the government,'' said overseas Indian affairs minister Vayalar Ravi on Monday.
The government has been taken aback by the refusal of pirates to release all the 15 Indian sailors on board Asphalt Venture, which was hijacked last September while on its way to Durban from Mombassa, despite the vessel owners having paid a huge undisclosed ransom for their release. The sea brigands are keen on a "swap deal'' with the Indian authorities, which has apprehended around 120 pirates after sinking their vessels on the high seas over the last few months.
"The warship which has been diverted, a Talwar-class guided missile frigate, is meant to keep an close eye on the situation...friendly foreign navies have also been alerted as a safeguard,'' said a senior official.
Even as the evolving situation is being watched closely, India remains against armed intervention in hostage situations due to the risk of "collateral damage'' among the hostages. "Most crews of hijacked ships are of mixed nationalities in nature,'' he said. "Moreover, the 54 Indian sailors being held hostage are on six different ships in dispersed locations along the Somali coast in places like Hobiyo, Kaduur, Grisbe and others. The minute an operation is launched at one place, hostages at other sites will come under immediate threat,'' he added.
In non-hostage situations, however, the Navy is now adopting "proactive and aggressive measures'' approved by the government to take the battle to pirates. The government has also decided to allow armed guards, akin to sky marshals deployed on civil airliners, on Indian merchant vessels to keep the sea brigands at bay.
#1
INDJUH's armed forces are in the midst of upgrade + modernization, + don't have much Naval, Air mil assets or sustainable LR capabilities at this time to unilaterally send agz the Somali Bad Boyz.
* OTOH TOPIX > SOMALIA: UN AGENCY [UN IMO]DEPLORE PIRATES' USE OF [captured] SEAFARERS AS HUMAN SHIELDS, belabeling the Pirates' method as "Crime(s) agz Humanity at Sea".
[The Nation (Nairobi)] Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan ... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau... reached out to his opponents on Monday in a victory statement after winning elections and said the country had proved itself capable of holding fair polls.
"Nigerians have proved to the world that we are capable of holding free, fair and credible elections," Jonathan said in the statement.
He also said: "I congratulate the candidates of the other political parties. I regard them not as opponents, but as partners."
Jonathan mentioned by name the other main candidates in the race, including second-place finisher Muhammadu Buhari, saying he wanted to pay tribute to them.
The election results exposed deep regional divisions in Africa's most populous nation, with Jonathan scoring particularly well in his native south and Buhari winning states in the north.
Deadly riots broke out in the north when results began to be announced.
Nigeria's 150 million population is roughly split between Christians and Mohammedans. The south is predominately Christian and the north mainly Mohammedan.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/20/2011
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If you reach out to a muslim, better use a long stick.
[Ma'an] The killer of Israeli-Paleostinian theater director Juliano Mer-Khamis has not been found, Paleostinian Authority security officials said Tuesday.
PA security services front man Adnan Dmeiri said investigations were ongoing into the fatal shooting of Mer-Khamis in Jenin refugee camp on April 4, clarifying statements made Monday by President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... on Al-Arabiya satellite television.
Abbas told Al-Arabiya that a suspect had been jugged in connection with the murder and was being questioned.
One suspect was jugged shortly after the killing, but was released after interrogation Dmeiri said.
Juliano Mer-Khamis, 52, was shot five times while leaving the Freedom Theater he reestablished in the camp. His mother, a Jewish Israeli, had founded the theater. His father was a Paleostinian born in Nazareth.
Dmeiri's comments were made at a conference on PA security services and the media, organized by the government and the Center for Strategic Studies and Research.
The front man said Abbas constantly reminded security leaders that citizens' dignity was more important than the law "because the law was designed to protect citizens' security and dignity."
Dmeiri said the media played an important role in developing democracy and monitoring the performance of security services.
He said the media illustrated the goals of security services to citizens.
"We always wish to provide media outlets with information, however, in some cases we avoid releasing information until investigations are complete."
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04/20/2011
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[Dawn] The British government has refused to process warrants against former president Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... in the Benazir Bhutto liquidation case, issued by an anti-terrorism court of Pakistain, DawnNews reported.
The British Foreign Office informed the Pak government that the arrest warrants cannot be processed because there is no official agreement signed between the two countries on prisoner exchange.
However, The infamous However... the British Prime Minister David Cameron ... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ... during his visit to Pakistain had assured Pakistain's request would be processed.
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04/20/2011
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Senior Chinese officials on four occasions invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's son and heir Jong-un to China during recent visits to Pyongyang, the National Intelligence Service says. The NIS officials were quoted by members of the National Assembly's Intelligence Committee as briefing them on Monday.
NIS Director Won Sei-hoon said the invitations "weren't written but verbal, but they appear to be considered official invitations."
According to other NIS officials, Kim junior is focusing on expanding his influence in policy-making, accompanying his father on outdoor activities more often, and generally boosting his status.
The NIS officials also briefed lawmakers on the food situation in the North. They said the regime is tightening controls by cutting rations even for traditionally privileged Pyongyang residents and low-ranking regional officials. Since January, the regime has been urging all households, agencies and enterprises to help the military with food donations.
They added their aim is to prepare for political events, ensure a smooth hereditary transition of power and stockpile food for the military before 2012, which the regime has touted as the year the North will turn into a "powerful and prosperous nation."
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/20/2011
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#1
TOPIX/WORLD NEWS > NORTH KOREA PREPPING FOR THIRD NUCLEAR TEST?
We'll see how the Chin kudos last.
-----------
ION ZHONGGUO, CHINESE MIL FORUM > US NAVAL INSTITUTE [USNI] WARNS OF [unilateral] PLAN AMPBIOUS INTERVENTION IN SOLOMON ISLANDS, i.e. the South Pacific Region + other tropical Pacific Islands] | USNI: THE CHINESE PERIL TO OCEANIA.
ARTIC = China is quietly growing impatient + increeasingly bellicose wid WEAK PACIFIC ISLAND GOVTS-STATES THAT APPEAR TO BE FAILING IN PROTECTING BOTH ITS CITIZENS-NATIONALS + CHINESE BUSINESS ACTIVITIES [econ interests]; US MUST STOP WORRYING ABOUT CHINA'S PROGRESS IN HIGH-TECH + WORK TO AGGRESSIVELY REBUILD + MAINTAIN REGIONAL SECURITY ALLIANCES OR BLOCS.
* NEWS KERALA > JAPAN NUCLEAR DISASTER NO THREAT TO RUSSIA: OFFICIAL, even iff a worst-case scenario should occur in Japan.
Read, Arctic + Pacific Winds, Ocean Currents don't blow-or-flow first towards Russia.
* PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > BATTLE TO CONTROL JAPAN [stricken = Fukushima] NUCLEAR PLANT MAY TAKE UNTIL [January] 2012.
* SAME > SOUTH KOREA CONSIDERS DEPLOYING NEW FRIGATES [ROKN = Naval] NEAR DISPUTED ISLANDS [ROK DOkdo = Japan-claimed Takeshima].
* SAME > TAIWAN: NEW US LASER COULD FEND OFF PRC BOATS [PLAN Stealth Missle Boats as part of general PLA attack + invasion agz Taiwan].
* SAME > TAIWAN DEPLOYING MARINES TO SOUTH CHINA SEAS [Taiwan-held DONGSHA + TAIPING ISLANDS = SPRATLYS/NANSHAS].
* MEMRI.ORG > SAUDI SHEIKH AL-SUDAYYIS, IMAM OF GRAND MOSQUE IN MECCA: NEED FOR ISLAMIC SOCIAL ORDER IN INDIA, MUSLIMS SHOULD "BRING KASHMIRIS OUT FROM INDIAN DESPOTISM".
[Dawn] No less than 23 suspect Orcs and similar vermin have been acquitted of the charge in the past six months by the trial courts in Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
That sounds alarming but only until one learns the reason -- weak prosecution.
Each of the 23 accused went free because the prosecution failed to connect them firmly with the seven terror attacks they were said to have a hand in. Mostly, the prosecution`s case collapsed because the trial judge found the witnesses and confessional statements unreliable.
"In my experience, the prosecution in suicide kaboom cases overwhelmingly relies on eyewitnesses to the incident who later identify the suspects during the identification parade in jail," said Advocate Basharatullah Khan who has represented accused people in such cases.
However, The infamous However... the prosecution case is usually very weak legally; for instance eyewitnesses are found by the Sherlocks after the accused have been tossed in the slammer. This weakens the case as ideally eyewitnesses` testimony should be recorded soon after the incident and not after the accused are tossed in the slammer, he pointed out.
This is exactly what happened in the case of Ghulam Mustafa Tabbasum and Shafiqur Rehman who were recently acquitted after having been tried for being involved in the suicide attack at the entrance of Rescue 15 in Islamabad in 2009.
The Margalla police in their preliminary investigation report did not mention any eyewitness. Later they added that two coppers claimed to have seen the two suspects roaming near the office of Rescue 15 two days before the suicide attack.
And if the eyewitnesses were found at the right time, the prosecution fails to fulfill legal requirements, making the testimony invalid. This was the mistake made by the prosecution which won the accused of the suicide attack on a police gathering near Melody Market in 2008, Qari Ilyas, his freedom.
The Aabpara police failed to fulfill all the legal requirements of holding the identification parade at the jail under the supervision of the judicial magistrate. The two police witnesses identified Ilyas in the absence of the magistrate and confirmed that they saw him `directing` the jacket wallah to attack the police gathering on July 7 2008. The testimony was thrown out of the court.
Lazy eyewitnesses also came to the rescue of Qari Ilyas in another case. Along with Mohammad Rizwan and Rao Shakir Ali, he was accused of a car boom blast outside the Danish embassy in Islamabad in June 2008.
The prosecution based its case on two police constables who said they saw the three outside the embassy soon before the blast. Later these two constables identified the three accused in a cop shoppe -- in violation of rules of the identification parade. In September 2010, all three were acquitted.
A month later, an anti-terrorism court acquitted five men in two suicide cases one -- outside the office of Islamabad police`s special branch and at the checkpost of Frontier Constabulary. The reason? The eyewitnesses.
One of the two witnesses never appeared in court and the other could not identify the five men in the court though he had earlier testified that he saw them near Jamia Faridia planning the suicide attacks.
"In all these cases, the Sherlocks had no legal means to link the suspected Orcs and similar vermin with the actual incident and as a result fabricated witnesses," Advocate Khan said.
A second main reason for the acquittal of terror suspects in the last six months is that the prosecution could not prove the circumstances in which the suspects were tossed in the slammer; in almost all the cases the families of the suspects alleged that the suspects had disappeared long before the police found them.
In support of their contention, the families could provide FIRs they had filed against the disappearance of their relative or moved the high court against the missing men, the lawyer added.
"Most recently, the Lahore High Court in Rawalpindi on April 12 acquitted nine men as it could not be proved that they had been tossed in the slammer from a house on the outskirts of Rawalpindi cantonment," the lawyer said.
These nine men had been tossed in the slammer and accused of the murder of Surgeon General Mushtaq Baig and for possessing explosives.
However, The wishy-washy However... they were acquitted earlier of the murder. But this year, though a magistrate had convicted the nine men for carrying kaboom and illegal weapons, the high court set aside the conviction. This decision came because the prosecution could not satisfy the court about the identity of the owner of the house in which these nine men were supposed to have been living at the time of the arrest, Basharatullah told Dawn .
However, The infamous However... in the last case, the prosecution`s blunder was so great that it has left observers bereft.
Former MMA MNA from Karak Shah Abdul Aziz was acquitted by a court from the charges of kidnapping and beheading a Polish geologist in 2008 in Jand, Attock. This is because the entire case was based on the confessional statement of Attaullah, the second accused. However, The infamous However... the case came to an abrupt end when it was discovered that Atta`s statement was written in English while he only spoke and understood Pushto.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
The model for Holder's prosecution of terrorists.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/20/2011 6:31
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[Arab News] Thousands demanded the overthrow of Syrian President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... on Monday at the funeral of eight protesters killed in the central city of Homs as unrest swelled despite a promise to lift emergency law.
Activists in Homs said the eight were killed late on Sunday during protests against the death in jug of a tribal leader.
A rights group claimed at least 12 people died countrywide in violence on Sunday. Ammar Qurabi, head of Syria's National Organization for Human Rights, said apart from the eight deaths in Homs, 160 km north of Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... , four protesters were killed in festivities between security forces and protesters in the northern cities of Latakia and Idlib.
"From alleyway to alleyway, from house to house, we want to overthrow you, Bashar," the mourners chanted, according to a witness at the funeral in Homs. YouTube footage showed thousands of people filling a wide city square.
At least four coffins were carried by the funeral marchers, said a witness. Security forces stayed away from the mourners in an apparent move to avoid confrontation, said the witness.
Assad, facing a month of demonstrations against his Baath party rule, said Saturday that legislation to replace nearly half a century of emergency law should be in place by next week. But his pledge did little to appease protesters calling for greater freedoms in Syria, or curb violence which human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... organizations say has killed at least 200 people.
"Homs is boiling. The security forces and the regime thugs have been provoking armed tribes for a month now," a rights activist told Rooters from the city. Civilians who erupted into the streets "were shot at in cold blood," he said.
Further north in Jisr Al-Shughour around 1,000 people called on Monday for "the overthrow of the regime," echoing chants of protesters who overthrew leaders in Egypt and Tunisia, at the funeral of a man they said was killed by security forces.
Foreign Minister Walid Muallem pledged Monday that Syria will go ahead with reforms as promised, but warned against "sabotage" committed by protesters, the state-run SANA news agency reported.
"Those who want reforms should not use weapons or violence or carry out acts of sabotage by torching state institutions and cutting off roads," he said.
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[Al Jazeera] Standard & Poor's (S&P) has threatened to downgrade the United States' prized AAA credit rating unless the B.O. regime and Congress find a way to slash the yawning federal budget deficit within two years. The only way to accomplish that is to start dismantling the enormous machinery of government and trimming what's left. Dump NPR, the Department of Education, Department of Energy, the EPA, the Department of Transportation, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, all the bureaucratic mess that's grown into fiefdoms over the years. We live in a computer age: rather than seeing government grow we should be seeing it shrink as computers pick up the paper shuffling.
S&P, which assigns ratings to guide investors on the risks involved in buying debt instruments, slapped a negative outlook on the country's top-notch credit rating, on Monday.
It said there is at least a one-in-three chance that it could eventually cut it.
A downgrade, which would leave Germany and La Belle France with a higher rating, would erode the status of the United States as the world's most powerful economy and the dollar's role as the dominant global currency.
If investors start demanding higher returns for holding riskier US debt, the rise in bond yields would crank up borrowing costs for consumers and businesses.
That would threaten to hurt the economy as it recovers from the worst recession since World War II.
"This new warning highlights the need for the US to take better control of its fiscal destiny if it is to avoid higher borrowing costs and maintain its central role at the core of the global economy," said Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive at PIMCO, which oversees $1.2tn in assets and has a short position on US government debt.
Major US stock indexes fell by more than 1 per cent on the day.
Longer-dated government bond prices initially fell but recovered to post solid gains as falling stocks took over as the main driver for price action in the Treasury market. Bond prices frequently trade inversely to stocks.
Although the dollar rose as more immediate fiscal problems in Greece hurt the euro and supported some US assets, it is down about 5 pertcent against major currencies in 2011.
S&P's move, coupled with record low US interest rates, will do little to make it more attractive, said Kathy Lien, director of research at GFT.
"Even though I don't think an actual downgrade would occur, in this very sensitive or vulnerable time for the US dollar, it's enough to spook investors from holding or buying dollars," she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Where is the Dem's "It's all Bush's fault!". Or maybe the Dem's are just running out of other people to blame?
#2
The dems are deliberately spending to take this country down. Either that or they are stupid. Or both.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/20/2011 1:58
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#3
Wiki had a section on criticism of S&P:
Credit rating agencies such as Standard & Poor's have been subject to criticism in the wake of large losses beginning in 2007 in the collateralized debt obligation (CDO) market that occurred despite being assigned top ratings by the CRAs.
Credit ratings of AAA (the highest rating available) were given to large portions of even the riskiest pools of loans. Investors, trusting the low risk profile that AAA implies, loaded up on these CDOs that later became unsellable. Those that could be sold often took staggering losses. For instance, losses on $340.7 million worth of CDOs issued by Credit Suisse Group added up to about $125 million, despite being rated AAA by Standard & Poor's.[5]
Despite common perception, Standard & Poor's didn't rate the two major Icelandic banks, Kaupthing and Landsbanki.[citation needed]
Companies pay Standard & Poor's to rate their debt issues. As a result, some critics have contended that Standard & Poor's is beholden to these issuers and that its ratings are not as objective as they should be.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/20/2011 2:06
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#4
So is S&P just 'suggesting' to the US Government that it needs to pay/pay more for its next rating?
#6
If you want a shock, go to the Economist Intelligence Unit.
They rate the Government Finances of the US at a "4" out of 100. Countries with higher ratings include Mynamar, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iraq, Chad, Mali, Sri Lanka. The only countries lower than the US are Zimbabwe, Angola, Somolia.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/20/2011 11:00
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The Obama administration privately urged Standard & Poors in recent weeks not to lower its outlook on the United States a suggestion the ratings agency ignored Monday, two people familiar with the matter said.
Treasury officials told S&P analysts that they were underestimating the ability of politicians in Washington to fashion a compromise to curb deficits, a Treasury official said. They argued a change in ratings was not needed at this time because the debt was manageable and the administration had a viable plan in the works, the official said.
But S&P analysts told Treasury officials on Friday that they were unmoved and released a report that expressed skepticism that the political parties could come together on how to bring spending in line with revenue.
#12
No-interest savings accounts and high user fees, coupled with high-interest loans and huge credit barriers, won't end until the banks manipulate their way to solvency. The Financial sector is indifferent to interests other than their own. Obama should have been working towards devising new credit instruments, rather than subsidizing the banks and throwing money at non-productive job creation. Every Clinton-Bush era de-regulator kept his job under the Enlightened One.
#13
There are only two ways of cutting deficits; raise taxes or cut expenditure.
Leaving the cutting of taxes to one side and concentrating on expenditure cutting the major issue to address is the pain threshold(I prefer to call it the cold turkey syndrome, more descriptive)
A high threshold means a country can handle more pain, a low threshold less pain. A good example of a high threshold would be Ireland, where the populous has meekly accepted their medicine and most of the productive workers have stolen away to foreign shores, leaving the drones behind.
An example the low threshold would be Greece where there is low level civil war as exemplified by Keratea. As explosions boom, the town's loudspeakers blare: "Attention! Attention! We are under attack!" Air-raid sirens wail through the streets, mingling with the frantic clanging of church bells. Clouds of tear gas waft between houses as helmeted riot police move in to push back the rebels. This isn't a war zone, but a small town just outside Athens. And while its fight is about a rubbish dump, it captures Greece's angry mood over its devastated economy.
As unemployment rises and austerity bites ever harder, tempers seem to fray faster in Greece, with citizens of all stripes thumbing their noses at authority. Some refuse to pay increased highway tolls and public transport tickets. There has been a rise in politicians being heckled and even assaulted. Yesterday, in Thessalonika, scores of activists were arrested after violent clashes with police
Now if the US turns out to be a low threshold country and the rubes march on Washington and raze the Houses of Congress and the Senate to the ground before making the politicians perform the Highbury gig while suspended from the nearest lamppost, what would be the constitutional implications?
When could new elections be held, etc?
[Ennahar] Algeria assured on Monday La Belle France, during a telephone interview, that she had not provided several hundred armed vehicles to Qadaffy forces, said on Tuesday the head of French diplomacy, Alain Juppe.
"Perish the thought!"
"I had a very cordial discussion with my counterpart. I told him "there is information circulating that Qadaffy had received hundreds of armoured vehicles and carrying ammunition from Algeria," said French minister during a meeting with the Association of French Diplomatic Press.
"I asked him the question and he assured me that (...) it was not true," said Alain Juppe.
In a statement in Algiers, released earlier by the APS, the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not mention this aspect of the conversation by announcing that the head of Algerian diplomacy, Mourad Medelci, "spoke Monday through telephone with his French counterpart, Alain Juppe. The meeting focused on "the status and development prospects of bilateral relations between Algeria and La Belle France as well as the situation in the Maghreb region," added the statement.
Libyan rebels have repeatedly accused Algiers of supporting Gadhafi, what the Algerian government denied.
Questioned on his opinion on a "good start" after the announcement of reforms by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika ... 10th president of Algeria. He was elected in 1999 and is currently on his third term, which is probably why Algerians are ready to dump him... , considered insufficient by the independent press and opposition in Algeria, Alain Juppe said: "When we say it's a good start, it means that we need a result."
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[Dawn] Chief of the Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... announced on Monday transition of security responsibilities of the restive town of Sui in Dera Bugti district to Balochistan's Frontier Corps over the next two months.
He said the army battalion posted in Sui would return to the Quetta cantonment and once the troops got out of the town there would be no more army presence in the province outside cantonments.
He announced that no new cantonment would be established in Balochistan against the wishes of its people and the idea of building four other cantonments had also been dropped.
The army chief uncharacteristically spoke extempore on a number of occasions on the need for civilian law-enforcement agencies to put their act together, in an indication that the military was increasingly becoming distraught over their performance. His message was loud and clear that internal security was not military's job alone and others stakeholders needed to play their part.
Gen Kayani's announcement appeared to be aimed at pacifying bully boyz in the province. Baloch nationalists have been demanding for several years greater autonomy for their province, Baloch control over the resources of the province and end to military operations. They have also accused security forces and agencies of rights abuses. However, The ever-popular However... Gen Kayani did not touch any of these issues.
Speaking at a ceremony held to mark the launching of classes in the newly-established military college in Sui, he said: "We have converted the Sui cantonment to a military college and dropped the idea of establishing four new military cantonments in Balochistan because people don't want these. New cantonments will be built only when the people of the province wish for."
Gen Kayani said the decision was aimed at making the people believe that being a national institution, the army respected their opinion.
Gen Kayani rejected a perception that the army was deployed in different parts of Balochistan and claimed that there was no presence of army in any part of the province, except for Sui (cantonment) and from there too troops would leave after the
cantonment building was handed over to the college authorities in the next six months.
He said that a separate wing of the Frontier Corps would replace the army units in Sui to protect installations.
Gen Kayani made an impassioned plea to the civilian leadership and law-enforcement agencies to pull together with the military in its internal security job for a safe and secure Pakistain.
Dissatisfaction with LEAs' poor handling of security situation had been brewing for quite some time within the army which has lost about 2,500 troops in counter-insurgency operations mostly in tribal areas. But it was probably the first time that the top commander publicly aired such sentiments. Over the past few months there was a growing talk among military's top brass about LEAs' eroding capacity and their politicisation.
The army chief stressed the need for popular support for military's actions throughout the country, terming it "real strength for the army" -- a clear sign that he was referring to public backing for anti-militancy operations in tribal areas where the army is battling Taliban insurgency.
An ISPR statement said Gen Kayani had "emphasised the vital requirement of unified national support to the armed forces, without which no force can fulfil the mission of defending a state/nation".
He said the Frontier Corps had nothing to do with army because it was directly controlled by the interior ministry and worked in aid of the civil administration like police and levies.
The army chief said the people of Balochistan should look upon the Frontier Corps as their own force, and not as outsiders, because it had been deployed for their own security. He asked the FC inspector general to work for gaining the confidence of
people.
About the role of army in the development process, he said that being a national institution it was a partner of both federal and provincial governments and was playing an important role for the prosperity of the people of Balochistan.
The army chief also used his public appearance to warn against economic meltdown. He used the example of disintegration of USSR because of economic collapse to drive home the point that a country could not remain stable with a floundering
economy no matter how strong its army was.
Gen Kayani said it was crucial that steps were taken for putting the economic house in order.
Addressing the launching ceremony of Gwadar Institute of Technology, Gen Kayani said that 4,000 Baloch youths had joined the army after completing their training and another 5,000 would be recruited this year for which laws and standards relating to recruitment would be relaxed.
He said that no military operation was being carried out in any area of the province.
He said that about 4,500 Baloch youths had completed their vocational courses at institutes being run under the supervision of the army, adding that another 3,600 youths would join such classes this year.
He said the army would establish an Army Medical College, an Institute of Mineralogy and a Cardiac Treatment Centre in
Quetta to equip the Baloch youths with higher education in relevant fields.
Gen Kayani expressed the hope that the Balochistan government would extend its cooperation to the army to improve natural mines and mineral resources of Dukki and Musakhail areas.
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[Iran Press TV] A protest organized by Unite Against Fascism ...Fascism: a political system developed in Italy symbolized by the Roman fasces -- thin reeds, each flimsy in itself but unbreakable when bound into a bundle. The word is nowadays thrown around by all sorts of people who have no idea what they're talking about...
has been held at the French Embassy in London against a burqa ban which has come into force in La Belle France.
The protesters were holding placards reading, "Defend religious and cultural freedom" and "Face veil - a woman's right to choose." They called for a halt in Islamophobic attacks on veils.
Over 40 supporters of the racist group, English Defence League (EDL), attacked the peaceful protesters before the police surrounded and guided them away.
"It is unacceptable that a group of racist thugs has attacked a demo calling for freedom of religious and cultural expression for Mohammedan women," UAF Secretary Weyman Bennett said.
He said French president Nicolas Sarkozy ...23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit... has opened the door to racist and fascist groups by targeting Mohammedans through measures such as the burqa ban.
"It is clear the EDL is building a street thug movement that aims to smash anyone who stands up against racism, fascism and Islamophobia. ...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do... We will continue our efforts to oppose them," Bennett said.
The French president's rule on the unlawfulness of covering faces in public, is considered as the latest instance of the rising wave of Islamophobia all over Europe.
Meanwhile, ...back at the hoedown Bob finally got to dance with Sally... some feminists have supported the ban, claiming that wearing burqa or covering the face is a sign of women's repression. No! Reeeally?
Critics say regulations that force women to change their religion or the way they dress do not provide freedom for them, but are considered as a tool of oppression and prejudice.
This article starring:
Enough Coalition
Islam Expo
Islamic Forum of Europe
One Society Many Cultures
Unite Against Fascism
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#2
"Over 40 supporters of the racist group, English Defence League (EDL), attacked the peaceful protesters before the police surrounded and guided them away."
This is interesting. Leading up to the royal wedding (tm), the EDL are becoming increasingly belligerent against Muslim offenses, riots and disruptions. The Muslim burning of poppies on Armistice Day has enraged the Brits, and is now cited as the final straw.
I hope the Muslim troublemakers show up in force to meet the EDL at the train stations near Westminster, because win or lose, the EDL would no longer be passive, but actively fighting against them.
[Arab News] King of the Arabians, Sheikh of the Burning Sands, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah held talks here Monday with Bahraini Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al-Khalifa on issues of mutual concern, the Saudi Press Agency said.
Prince Khalifa conveyed his condolences to King Abdullah on the death of his sister Princess Seeta bint Abdul Aziz. The meeting was attended by Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal and Prince Bandar bin Sultan, secretary-general of the National Security Council.
Earlier in an arrival statement, Prince Khalifa highlighted the strong relations between Soddy Arabia and his country. He thanked King Abdullah and the Saudi government for supporting Bahrain.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/20/2011
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[Arab News] Heavy fighting ... as opposed to the more usual light or sporadic fighting... raged Tuesday in the western Libyan city of Misrata, witnesses said, while a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... commander complained the alliance was having trouble destroying Muammar Qadaffy's mortars and rockets attacking rebels there and Perfidious Albion said it would send senior military officers to advise the opposition in the east.
A senior Libyan official, meanwhile, ruled out the possibility of allowing foreign troops to escort humanitarian aid convoys in Libya, saying the government would view such a deployment as a military mission.
Explosions and gunfire were heard in central Misrata, Libya's third-largest city, with festivities between government troops and rebels, said a resident who identified himself only by his given name, Abdel Salam, for fear of retaliation. The city has been besieged by government forces for more than a month.
NATO planes flew over Misrata while the shelling from Qadaffy forces continued, he said, adding that the only targets the alliance hit were radars and air defenses north of the city on Monday night.
NATO Brig. Gen. Mark van Uhm said fighting has been intense in Misrata for the past 10 days, and he said his forces have destroyed more than 40 tanks and several armored personnel carriers there.
"The situation on the ground is fluid there, with ground being won and lost by both sides," van Uhm said at NATO headquarters in Brussels, adding: "Qadaffy's forces have shelled Misrata indiscriminately." But he cautioned that "there is a limit to what can be achieved by airpower to stop fighting in a city." "We are doing everything to prevent civilian casualties by our own attacks (while) degrading (Qadaffy's) ability to sustain forces there," he said.
Adm. Giampaolo Di Paola, the chairman of the alliance's military committee, said in Rome that even though NATO operations have done "quite significant damage" to the Libyan regime's heavy weaponry, what Qadaffy has left is "still considerable." Asked if more NATO air power and bombing are needed, Di Paola said any "significantly additional" allied contribution would be welcome.
Given NATO's humanitarian mandate reflecting the UN Security Council resolution on Libya, which does not allow ground forces, "it's very difficult" to stop the regime's firepower on Misrata, he said.
"It's not a conventional war," the admiral said, declining to say just how much of the regime's firepower has been eliminated or put out of action by NATO's operations so far.
"What is significant is we're preventing Qadaffy from using the full potential of his firepower. Unfortunately we're not able so far to deny him use of all his firepower," Di Paola said.
Di Paola said the alliance had "yet to succeed" in neutralizing the mortars and rockets, especially inside Misrata, where it is "very hard" to destroy that firepower without inflicting civilian casualties.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/20/2011
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#1
PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > MISERATA EMERGES AS A DEADLY TRIAL OF NATO'S CLOUT IN LIBYA.
and
* SAME > LIBYAN REBELS TELL NATO: SEND IN GROUND FORCES OR "WE WILL ALL DIE".
IOW, REBELS = NATO-Coalition Airpower nice, but is not a substitute for Combat Grunts, GADDAFI WILL WIN UNLESS NATO INVADES.
ARTICS = Waffling or failure of NATO to send in potent ground troops may seriously damage or destroy NATO's credibility wid the Rebels + ME Pro-Democracy Movements.
[Ma'an] Two suspects in the murder of an Italian activist died and another sustained injuries Tuesday when Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, security forces raided a building in Gazoo City after a short standoff outside, officials said.
The Hamas-run Interior Ministry said Abdul-Rahman Al-Breizat and Bilal Al-Umari were killed in the raid. Both were identified as suspects in the killing of Vittorio Arrigoni.
Al-Breizat threw a grenade at Al-Umari and then shot himself, the ministry said. The third suspect, Mahmoud Muhammad Nimir Salfiti, was injured and jugged by security forces.
Earlier, security forces surrounded a home in central Gazoo where the three men were hiding. Special forces closed in on the house and evacuated homes in the area.
The owner of the home, Amer Abu Ghulah, surrendered to police. Security officials were urging suspects inside to give themselves up and snipers were positioned on the roofs of neighboring homes, witnesses said.
A statement from Gazoo's Interior Ministry declared the area a closed security zone "because of the suspicion of the presence of the runaways." Roads leading to the building were blocked, Rooters reported.
"The operation is under way," a security official said earlier.
On Monday, the Gazoo government released photos of the three suspects in the murder of Arrigoni, who was found hanged hours after his abduction by a group demanding the release of Salafi prisoners.
On Sunday, Gazoo Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh ...became Prime Minister after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank... offered police a reward for the arrest of those involved, and police announced a closure of sectors of the Strip in an attempt to close in on the suspects.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/20/2011
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#1
I wonder if they're actually guilty---of this specific thing, I mean.
[Tolo News] Three would-be-jacket wallahs were tossed in the slammer in Spinboldak district in southern Kandahar province, provincial officials said on Tuesday.
Kandahar Governor Toryalai Weesa said the would-be-suicide bombers were tossed in the slammer by border police forces while crossing into Afghanistan from Pakistain.
That's pretty sad, actually.
Two of the suicide bombers are Paks and one other is Afghan, Governor Weesa said.
"They were jugged in Spinboldak bordering area while crossing into Afghanistan," Governor Weesa said.
A top provincial security official in Kandahar province said the would-be-suicide bombers are around 15 years old and had been trained in Quetta city of Pakistain.
"They were trained in a religious school in Quetta which is run by Mullah Abdul Rahim. They were told they would make it to paradise if they blew themselves up," a senior provincial security official in Kandahar, Abdul Razaq, said.
Southern Kandahar province had recently been the scene of a huge wave of myrmidon-led violence.
Four days ago Kandahar Police Chief Khan Mohammad Mujahid was hit in a suicide kaboom.
Afghan officials see Pakistain behind most of the attacks, something often denied by Pakistain.
Recently National Directorate of Security announced that 90 percent of myrmidon attacks are sketched on the other side of Afghan borders.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/20/2011
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[Straits Times] MALAYSIAN authorities have sent 66 Mohammedan schoolboys identified by teachers as effeminate to a four-day camp where they will receive counseling on masculine behaviour to discourage them from being gay, an official said on Tuesday.
Gay rights advocates decried the measure as a symptom of widespread homophobia in this Mohammedan-majority country where gay sex is illegal.
The boys between 13 and 17 years old reported on Monday for what is officially being called a 'self-development course' after their schoolteachers in Terengganu state identified them as students who displayed effeminate mannerisms, said Razali Daud, the state's education director.
They will undergo religious and motivational classes and physical guidance, Mr Razali said. He declined to give further details.
The camp is meant 'to guide them back to the right path in life before they reach a point of no return,' Mr Razali told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named. 'Such effeminate behavior is unnatural and will affect their studies and their future.'
It is the first such program in Terengganu, a conservative state.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/20/2011
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#1
The funny as hell part is that about half of male homosexuals are very masculine in appearance and behavior, to the point that when entering a blue collar bar, it is always a very good idea to examine the situation closely.
There is even a suggestion that in Nazi Germany, there was in effect a "war" between the "blue" and "pink" homosexuals. The SA was filled with "blues", including their leader Ernst Rohm, which savagely persecuted the "pinks."
[Iran Press TV] Bahrain police have kidnapped six female teachers from school in Muharraq following the regime's crackdown on anti-government protesters.
The teachers were kidnapped on Tuesday, witnesses said.
On Monday, Bahraini security forces placed in durance vile eight teachers and several pupils in the town of Hamad. So they weren't actually kidnapped. They were arrested. Meanwhile, ...back at the shouting match, a new, even louder, voice was to be heard... the Bahraini education ministry formed a committee tasked with taking action against school officials taking part in anti-government protests and strikes.
Reports said some heads of schools, administration staff as well as teachers have already been summoned for questioning.
To express solidarity with the ongoing revolution, thousands of teachers, called by the Bahrain Teachers Society, went on a strike in February and again during in March.
People in Bahrain have been protesting since February 14, demanding an end to the rule of the Al Khalifa dynasty.
Demonstrators maintain that they will hold their ground until their demands for freedom, constitutional monarchy as well as a proportional voice in the government are met.
Bahraini forces with the help of Saudi, the UAE and Kuwaiti troops have cracked down on the anti-regime protesters. Many people have gone missing since the beginning of the revolution.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/20/2011
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#1
ION IRNA > BAHRAIN SLIDING INTO ABSOLUTE DICTATORSHIP, WARN TRADE UNIONS [ITUC].
and
* WAFF > IT COULD BE CATASTROPHIC.
ARTIC = Bahrain [+ Yemeni] Crisis could revive ancient War/Conflict between ARABS + PERSIANS [Iran].
* SAME > ANALYSIS: NATO NEEDS ESCALATION TO BREAK LIBYA STALEMATE.
[ENERGIZER Bunny here].
* PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > EU ONLY NEEDS UN APPROVAL TO SEND GROUND TROOPS INTO LIBYA.
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > LIBYAN WAR ACCELERATES [internal CPC-Govt] CHINESE DEBATE OVER FOREIGN "NON-INTERVENTION".
ARTIC = NATO's UN-approved NFZ in Libya has seriously undermined China's economic position in Libya + forces Beijing to consider options which will best protect or guarantee China's interests; LIBYAN CRISIS ILLUSTRATES THE STEADILY SHARPENING RIVALRY/COMPETITION AMONG THE WORLD'S MAJOR POWERS FOR RAW MATERIALS, MARKETS FOR GOODS-N-SERVICES, + SPHERES OF INFUENCE - UNLESS THE WORKING CLASS CAN EFFEC ABOLISH THE PROFIT SYSTEM, TENSIONS WILL LIKELY EXPAND TOWARDS DE FACTO MIL CONFLICT.
** VARIOUS CMF POSTERS > believe ...
> HONG KONG may become another "YUGOSLAVIA" [Bosnia-Herzegovina], espec as due to 250,000 Non-Chinese? Muslims in HIng Kong becom at odds wid Locals???
> "BOSNIA-STYLE" CIVIL WAR IN THE UK BY 2030???
#2
There are no riots now, there is no danger to anyone.
There never were any protestors, they were always rioters. They killed several workers, tortured them and then slaughtered them then threw them in the streets.
It was horrifying. We couldn't leave our homes until this state of security was announced.
Why does everyone believe them to be peaceful? I am a woman and I remained at home, because they went to the University and attacked girls and women there. The rioters.
The police only came out to protect us.
I am from the people of Bahrain. I am safe now. That is all that matters.
#5
I'm sure they're both putting their own spin on things.
No doubt you're correct, Ebbang Uluque6305. So we've got a desirous-of-liberty Shiite underclass vs. a status quo Sunni ruling class. There doesn't seem any way this can end well, but it will certainly keep Iran's ruling mullahs engaged until they complete their nuclear devices... at which point they're going to have to decide whether they prefer getting Jewish/Israeli or Sunni/Saudi-Pakistani nukes on the return salvo. Or am I reading this all wrong?
#6
The only part I'm not sure about is the desirous-of-liberty part. I mean, you gotta wonder how much of this is merely a result of Mad Mullah agitation.
[Arab News] The Paleostinians say that if a peace treaty with Israel isn't reached by September, their first choice is to go to the UN Security Council with such strong support and arguments that it would recommend admission of Paleostine as a new member of the United Nations. ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... That would require convincing the US, Israel's ally, not to veto a resolution supporting membership for an independent Paleostinian state, which won't be easy.
But Riyad Mansour, the top Paleostinian diplomat at the UN, said in an interview with The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that there are other options to achieve the goal through the UN.
He said September looms large for the Paleostinians because "there are so many things that will converge." First, Israel and the Paleostinians agreed on President Barack B.O. Obama's target of September 2011 for a peace agreement, a date endorsed by the European Union and much of the world. Second, the two-year program to build the infrastructure of a Paleostinian state will be complete, and third, the Paleostinians hope two-thirds of the 192 UN
member states will have recognized Paleostine as an independent state, Mansour said.
Obama announced in September 2010, as US-brokered direct Israeli-Paleostinian negotiations resumed, that a peace treaty should be signed in a year, but those talks collapsed weeks later after Israel ended its freeze on building settlements.
The Paleostinians insist they will not resume peace talks until Israel stops building settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem -- lands it captured in the 1967 Middle East war and which the Paleostinians want for their future state. Israel maintains that the Paleostinians should not be setting conditions for talks and that settlements didn't stop them negotiating in the past.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/20/2011
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#2
a corrupt violent welfare state that destabilizes everything it touches? A perfect fit
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/20/2011 8:52
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#3
I wonder if they mean only the West Bank/Palestinian Authority to be the new Palestinian state, leaving Gaza/Hamas twisting in the wind with no official status? Because the two parts of the Territories are at very different places in terms of developing the infrastructure to manage a normal country, compared to a terror organization grafted onto a community.
#4
tw, the obvious solution to the problem of West Bank vs Gaza is to admit BOTH of them as states - so each can wield a vote. And when Gaza splits between the "moderate" Hamas and the Salafist snuffies, give the new state a seat as well.
If this means that there are too many countries in the UN, just kick Israel out.
/sarcasm (in case any of you were wondering.)
My hope would be that the US would have the sense to veto any application from the Palestinians. Unfortunately, with the current administration, I don't think we'll see that.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
04/20/2011 20:15
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[Dawn] The interlocutors and guarantors of Kurram Agency ...home of an intricately interconnected web of poverty, ignorance, and religious fanaticism, where the laws of cause and effect are assumed to be suspended... peace deal will meet in Islamabad on Tuesday to chalk out a strategy for recovery of 35 passengers, who were kidnapped from Thall-Parachinar Road last month.
They will discuss ways to salvage the peace agreement that collapsed only after month it was put into effect. "The stakeholders will sit together to find out solution to lingering issue of Kurram," Malik Waris Khan Afridi, former federal minister and head of the jirga that brokered peace agreement, told Dawn on Monday.
Well informed sources said that some outsiders, who were guarantors of the peace deal, were expected to attend the crucial talks to be held at an undisclosed place in the federal capital.
Mr Afridi also confirmed participation of main guarantors in the negotiations. The elders of rival tribes would also take part in the talks. He said that recovery of the 35 kidnapped people and compensation package worth Rs1 billion for the affected families of Kurram were on the agenda of the jirga.
The jirga will discuss breach of peace deal and kidnapping on Thal-Parachinaar Road, which was reopened in February this year after a four-year closure.
Militants had attacked three vehicles heading from Beautiful Downtown Peshawar to Parachinar, the headquarters of Kurram, in Baggun on March 26. Three people were killed and two others got injuries while 35 passengers were kidnapped in the incident.
The whereabouts of kidnapped people is still unknown and no group has grabbed credit for the attack so far.
According to sources a local bad boy group is believed to have hand in the kidnapping as it wants to force government for accepting its demands, including release of its members. However, The essential However... Mr Afridi said that he didn't know about the kidnappers and their motives.
Sajid Hussain Turi, a parliamentarian from Kurram, said that recovery of the kidnapped persons was on the top of jirga's agenda.
He said that elders and parliamentarians had worked hard to implement the agreement, signed in October 2008 for restoration of peace in the area, in letter and spirit but a series of attacks on vehicles plying on Thall-Parachinar Road had jeopardised the accord.
He said that 12 persons were killed in an attack on a passenger coach near Mamo Khwar. "The government is guarantor of the peace deal but it has failed to ensure safety of people of Kurram. Security forces have not supported efforts of the elders," he said.
The federal government has released Rs1 billion out of a total relief package of Rs2.2 billion for the people of violence-hit Kurram Agency.
He said that those who had violated the peace deal would be identified by both the tribes within 15 to 20 days.
Both the tribes were liable to take action against them, he added. "In this case such action would be taken but only after the recovery of the kidnapped persons," Mr Turi said.
He alleged that Hakimullah Mehsud-led gun-hung tough guys were responsible for kidnappings as tribal elders were receiving messages from them that they wanted to press government for release of some bad boys. "They also want to extort money by such kidnappings," he alleged.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/20/2011
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#4
time for Congressional hearings with Janet Incompetano in the hot seat
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/20/2011 9:42
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#5
No, time for peoples Tribunals with Congress and all Cabinet level and Czars in the hot seat. Followed by some old fashioned dispensing of harsh justice. The kind that precludes any recidivism.
#6
We need to line up the raped and beaten women these smugglers bring across and hold Janet Nappyhead accountable! What goes on with the border crossings and our not intercepting it is criminal!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
04/20/2011 12:12
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#7
This is how they turn Arizona into a blue state just like they did with California. They'll get "community organizers" from Acorn to register those illegals to vote.
#8
Intentional manipulation of basic law enforcement and border security to give dishonest numbers for political use by the Obama Administration. There was a time when people got prosecuted and impeached for such abuse of elected/appointed public office.
That time needs to return and this administration needs a flushing to clear out the excrement.
[An Nahar] Syria imposed on Tuesday a total ban on all demonstrations after warning of a crackdown on an "armed revolt" by Islamist bully boyz and security forces fired on protesters in the city of Homs, killing at least four.
Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim al-Shaar told people "to refrain from taking part in all marches, demonstrations or sit-ins under any banner whatsoever," state news agency SANA reported.
He warned that if demonstrations were held, "the laws in force in Syria will be applied in the interest of the safety of the people and the stability of the country."
Shaar was understood to be alluding to the emergency law in place since 1963. Its repeal has been a central demand of reformists demonstrating since March 15, and President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... promised at the weekend to rescind it within a week.
The law restricts civil liberties, imposes restrictions on public gatherings and freedom of movement and allows the "arrest of anyone suspected of posing a threat to security."
When the protests first began, the authorities relaxed its enforcement to permit peaceful gatherings, but Shaar's announcement would appear to close that loophole.
The announcement came hours after the authorities vowed to suppress what they called an "armed revolt" in the country by Salafists, Mohammedans who espouse an austere form of Sunni Islam that seeks a return to practices common in the early days of the faith.
The authorities said three army officers and three children were killed by "armed criminal gangs" around the city of Homs.
"Armed criminal gangs who block roads and spread fear in the area, came upon General Abdo Khodr al-Tellawi, his two children and his nephew, and killed them in cold blood," the official news agency SANA reported. The victims' bodies were "mutilated", SANA added.
Two other officers "fell as deaders to armed criminal gangs' bullets in Homs", the agency said.
An activist said "the sit-in was dispersed with force. There was heavy gunfire," an activist reached by telephone told Agence La Belle France Presse.
He said that very early Tuesday the security forces swarmed into Al-Saa Square, where some 20,000 people were staging a sit-in, scattering protesters who had vowed not to leave until Assad stepped down.
Another said four people were killed, but gave no details.
At least 200 people have been killed by security forces or plain-clothes police since the start of the protest movement, according to Amnesia Amnesty International.
Just hours before the attack on Al-Saa Square, the government vowed to suppress "armed revolt" it said was undermining national security.
"The latest incidents have shown that ... armed Salafist groups, particularly in the cities of Homs and Banias, have openly called for armed revolt," said an interior ministry statement carried by SANA.
It accused such groups of killing soldiers, coppers and civilians, and of attacking public and private property, and warned that "their terrorist activities will not be tolerated."
The authorities "will act with determination to impose security and stability in the country" and will "pursue the hard boyz wherever they are in order to bring them to justice and end the armed revolt", it said.
The demonstrators arrived in their thousands at Al-Saa Square on Monday, many setting up tents, a day after 11 people were killed by security forces in Homs and a nearby town during a day of massive nationwide protests.
Inspired by popular uprisings that toppled hardline rulers in Tunisia and Egypt, the protesters vowed not to leave Al-Saa Square in the center of Homs until Assad's regime fell.
They dismissed as insufficient Assad's pledge to repeal the emergency law and demanded the release of all political prisoners and an end to arbitrary arrests.
Since the beginning of the protest movement more than a month ago, the authorities have repeatedly blamed violence on "armed gangs."
Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said Syria will proceed with reforms as promised, but warned against "sabotage" by protesters, SANA reported.
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[Tolo News] Afghan senators on Tuesday described the recent attack on Afghan defence ministry as "embarrassing" and urged the minister's resignation.
Senators say security transition process is to begin in July this year, but security officials are seen unable to shoulder the burden and to ensure security.
"The defence minister should have called news hounds and announced his resignation right after the attack on the defence ministry," Abdul Wahab Irfan, Afghan Senator, said.
"This would have been honourable for defence minister if he offered his resignation today and if he refuses to resign the Senate House must press him to step down, because he is unable to provide security to people," another member of Senate Hafiz Abdul Qayum said.
Yesterday Afghan Defence Ministry came under attack from inside that led to the death of two soldiers and 7 others were hurt.
It is believed that the man dressed in Afghan army uniform had entered into the ministry by a car with security card and then opened fire.
Right after the attack the Taliban grabbed credit.
The Taliban said French Defence Minister who was due to visit the ministry was their main target.
Senators called on President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... to seriously ask security officials about the incident.
Experts viewed the attack as an alarm to Presidential Palace which is not so far from the defence ministry.
Experts voiced concern about an increasingly growing influence of foreign intelligence organisations in particular that of Pakistain into Afghan bodies and they said the attacker wouldn't have been able to attack from inside if there was no cooperation from inside the ministry.
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[Straits Times] THAI authorities have summoned 18 leaders of the opposition 'Red Shirt' movement to face charges of sedition and insulting the revered monarchy, a top official said on Tuesday.
The accused include acting chairwoman Thida Thavornseth as well as Red Shirt politician Jatuporn Prompan and other key figures, said the head of Thailand's Department of Special Investigation (DSI), Tarit Pengdith.
'I have signed the summonses and sent them to all those 18 Red Shirt leaders,' Mr Tarit told AFP.
He said the leaders were charged with breaching state security by insulting the monarchy and inciting unrest, and would have to report to the authorities to answer the allegations early next month.
Lese majeste - insulting the monarchy - is a serious offence in Thailand punishable by up to 15 years in jail.
The charges stem from speeches made at a Red Shirt rally held on April 10 that drew tens of thousands of people, to mark the first anniversary of deadly festivities between the movement's supporters and armed troops in central Bangkok.
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[The Nation (Nairobi)] A mutiny in Burkina Faso ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and may be in the process of being chased out now... spread as soldiers went on the rampage today in the northern town of Kaya, even after President Blaise Compaore's government warned they would face the law.
Soldiers and paramilitary police poured into the streets of Kaya late Sunday and shot into the air until around 6am today, residents said.
It was the first time police had taken part in the uprising that began in the central capital Ouagadougou late Thursday. An official said they were demanding their wages and were to be paid today.
Kaya was the fourth town to be affected in the landlocked west African state after Ouagadougou and the small centres of Po and Tenkodogo, in the southwest and southeast.
The mutinous forces in Kaya torched the home of a chief of an army regiment and ransacked that of the regional military chief, residents told AFP by telephone.
Meanwhile, ...back at the precinct house, Sergeant Maloney wasn't buying it. It was just too pat. It smelled phony... youths staged a violent street protest today in Koudougou in western Burkina Faso, burning down the premises of the ruling party and a home of ex-prime minister Tertius Zongo, witnesses said.
The uprising erupted Thursday as mutineers ran riot in the capital, demanding better pay and housing and food benefits.
To try to control the situation, veteran leader Compaore, who has ruled for more than two decades, dissolved his government and on Friday named a new head of the armed forces.
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[Tolo News] Pak Premier has presented his country's demands to Afghan government, a source close to the issue has said.
Experts say the demands, which are yet to be announced officially by the government, threaten Afghanistan's illusory sovereignty and independence. It takes an expert to discern the cleverly hidden demand that Afghanistan become a colony of Pakistain.
Experts highlighted that any hasty move of the government about the demands would be a big mistake and treachery to Afghans that history will record.
Pakistain should be consulted on training and number of Afghan forces, Pakistain share in Afghan mines and development projects should be cleared, implementation of Pakistain strategies in future governments in Afghanistan, recruitment of Pak cadres in government institutions and Pakistain should be kept aware of any sort of agreement between Afghanistan and its western allies including the US and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... are the demands suggested in written form by the Pak Premier Yusuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... during his recent visit to Kabul.
Afghan government has yet to officially comment on the demands suggested by the Pak premier.
"How utterly idiotic!" would not be diplomatic, of course. No doubt Pakistan is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel as the time of President Obama's oft-promised withdrawal approaches. This is why such promises ought never be made.
Experts see some of the demands as obvious intervention of Pakistain into Afghan's domestic affairs.
"Pakistain has never been honest with us. Now Pakistain has made a close friendship with Afghan government and it was hidden before," Noor-ul Haq Ulomi, an Afghan political analyst, said.
No doubt a translation issue -- there is nothing friendly about such demands.
Experts say in the past ten years Pakistain has increased its influence in almost all government organisations and even into foreign institutions and an increase in violence is part of Pakistain's pressures to make Afghan government accept the demands.
"Unfortunately Mr President has begun to negotiate covertly with Pakistain and the government's preparation to provide more concessions to Pakistain for reconciliation with the Taliban is one of the biggest mistakes it is making," Haroon Mir, an Afghan expert, said.
Experts urged the government to present the demands before Afghans and the House of Representatives.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/20/2011
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#1
See also DAILY TIMES.PK > IMRAN KHAN DECLARES LEGAL WAR AGZ [US] DRONE ATTACKS.
A total of 44 individuals were murdered in ongoing drug and gang related violence, which included a Juarez police commander shot to death at his residence last Friday.
Two unidentified individuals were shot and wounded in an attack at an veternarian's office in Juarez last Thursday. The shooting took place near the intersection of calles Niños Heroes and Porfirio Diaz in the Melchor Ocampo colony. Reports say extortion may have been a factor in the shooting.
An unidentified man said to be an attorney was shot and wounded in Juarez Thursday. The victim was driving his Pontiac Grand Am sedan near the intersection of calles Norzagaray and Cloro when he was fired on. The victim then drove his vehicle to the Puente Sante Fe to seek refuge where a Mexican Army unit had set up a checkpoint.
Three children were burned to death in an attack in Juarez Thursday. The children's mother said individuals threw a Molotov cocktail at her residence in the Alta Vista colony. The three victims, aged 4 and 3 years old, and 18 months old, were unable to escape, but the mother did with minor injuries.
An unidentified man was shot to death and his female companion was wounded in Juarez Thursday afternoon. The victims were walking together near the intersection of Zaragoza and Ramon Rayon in the Zaragoza colony when shooters aboard a vehicle fired on them.
An unidentified man and woman were shot to death in Juarez Thursday. The victims were travelling aboard a Ford Explorer in the Linda Vista colony when they were pursued by armed suspects for a brief time before they were shot.
A skeleton was found in the Juarez-Casa Grandes highway Thursday. The victim's remains were scattered around a 60 meter radius in the Plaza de Acuña colony.
A Juarez police commander was shot to death at his residence in Juarez Friday. Commandante Mario Ramon Gonzalez Echevarria was shot at his home near the intersection of calles Posada Pompa and San Juan.
An unidentified man was shot to death Friday in Juarez. The victim was performing maintenance on a vehicle near the intersection of calles Rincon de Extremadura and Ramon Rayon in the Rinconada del Torres colony when armed suspects shot and killed him. Nine 9mm spent cartridge casings were found at the scene.
An unidentified man was shot to death in Chihuahua, Chihuahua Friday. The victim was near a convenience store filling station when armed suspects travelling aboard two SUVs shot and killed the victim.
Two unidentified men were shot to death in Chihuahua, Chihuahua in two separate incidents Friday, according to the Mexican news daily La Polaka.
A Chihuahua municipal police officer was shot to death near the intersection of calles 24 and SecretarÃa de Hacienda. Reports say armed suspects travelling aboard a Toyota SUV were the shooters.
An man was shot to death near the intersection of calles OrquÃdeas and 2 de abril. The armed suspects involved matched the description of another armed group which murdered another man earlier in the day in northern Chihuahua city.
A man was shot to death in Juarez Friday night. Victor Alonso Chavez was shot twice outside his residence near the intersection of calles Justo Sierra and Che Guevara in the Manuel Valdez colony.A message was left with the victim, but its contents were not revealed.
Two unidentified men were wound executed and mutilated in Chihuahua, Chihuahua early Saturday morning. The victims were found in the Venceremos colony with a message left presumably by their executioners. The content of the message was not revealed.
A search Sunday of the Centro de Readaptacion Social (CERESO) in Serdan Achilles turned up numerous contraband, including two .380 caliber pistols, 161 rounds of ammunition for various weapons, 114 doses of marijuana, a cigarette rolling machine, 18 doses of cocaine, five cell phones, 44 doses of methamphetamine and six gallons on homemade liquor.
An unidentified man was found beheaded and mutilated in Juarez Sunday morning. The victim's head had been placed on a stick near the intersection of calles Paraguay and Malecon in the Hidalgo colony. A message was scribbled on a wall as a warning to El Chapo. the street name of Oaquin Guzman Loera, leader of the Sinaloa cartel.
Two unidentified men were found murdered in two separate incidents in Juarez Sunday, according to the Mexican news weekly La Polaka.
A man was found shot to death and wrapped in a blanket near then intersection of calles Miguel de la Madrid and Aerojuarez.
A man was found tortured to death in an abandoned office building on Calle 20 de Noviembre.
An unidentified man in his 20s was found beaten to death in Chihuahua, Chihuahua Sunday. The victim was found in an arroyo in the El Mirador colony.
An unidentified man was found shot to death in Juarez Sunday evening. The victim was found bound hand and foot and gagged with duct tape, then dumped in an abandoned dump near the intersection of calles La Conquista and Lamprea. He had a single gunshot wound to the head.
A man was shot to death in Juarez Sunday evening. Jesus Manuel Carmona, 43, was near the corner of calles Octava and Hermanos Barragan in the 2 de Octubre colony when three men shot him, and then fled aboard a vehicle.
Two unidentified individuals were shot to death and one man was wounded in two separate incidents in Juarez late Sunday night, according to the Mexican news daily La Polaka.
A man was shot to death in the Infonavit Salvarcar colony aboard a pickup truck and then dumped on the streets. A companion was also shot but survived the shooting.
A man was forcibly removed from his vehicle near then intersection of calles Manuel Ponce and Municipio Libre and then shot to death.
A woman was shot to death a remote location late Sunday night. Judith Gabaldon Gaytan, 23, was shot on the Chihuahua-Juarez highway near the Siete Cabecitas monument. She was a resident of Juarez.
A woman was shot to death in Meoqui, Chihuahua early Monday mrning. Rubi Elizabeth Renteria Villareal, 36, was shot inside a commercial establishment called Snack. Several AK-47 assault rifle spent cartridge casings were found at the scene.
An unidentified man was shot to death in Juarez Monday. The victim was aboard a step van near the intersection of calles China and Fiji in the Infonavit Tecnológico colooy near the Jose Marti primary school. Six 9mm spent cartridge casings were found at the scene.
Two unidentified men were shot to death at a tire shop in Juarez Monday afternoon. The victims were at the shop located near the corner of calles Mora and Granjero when they were attacked. Several .40 caliber and AK-47 assault rifle spent cartridge casings were found at the scene.
Three young men were shot to death in Chihuahua, Chihuahua Monday afternoon. Reports say the victims were pursued by armed suspects who were riding aboard two vehicles near the intersection of calle Che Guevara in the 20 Aniversario colony when they were shot.
An unidentified teenager was shot to death in Juarez Monday. The victim was practicing dance moves in a residence near the intersection of calles Pez Espada and Cangrejo in the Apapra colony when armed suspects shot him.
Two individuals were shot to death in two separate incident in Sonora, according to the Mexican news daily Critica.
Raul Trinidad Arteaga, a teacher at the Escuela Secundaria General Manuel Ãñiguez Camberos numero 7, was shot to death as he boarded his Ford Lobo (F-150) pickup truck on calle Francisco Villanueva in the Algodones colony in Ciudad Obregon last Friday. His unidentified daughter was in the vehicle when the attack took place but was unharmed.
A municipal police officer in Huatabampo, Sonora was found shot to death in Jiconhueca, Sonora. Alberto Escarcega Robles, 49, was a 20 year law enforcement veteran, and was found in an irrigation ditch tortured and shot.
The 70 year old mother of a former police officer was stabbed to death in Ciudad Obregon, Sonora Monday. Alejandrina Vivian GarcÃa, 70, was stabbed to death in front of her son, Alejandro Vivian Garcia, who was found bound and stabbed in chains at a residence near the intersection of calles Zaragoza and Sonora in the Ezperanza colony. Alejandro Vivian Garcia was formerly with the Ciudad Obreon tactical response unit before he was dismissed earlier last year.
Two unidentified men in their 20s were shot to death in Caborca, Sonora Monday. The victims were found on the Las Calabazas road.
Two men and two women were shot to death, and one woman was wounded in Tijuana, Baja California, Monday. Police were dispatched to a residence on Calle Benito Juärez in the Niño Artillero colony in the Sanchez Taboada delegation, where they encountered a woman in her 30s who apparently had been wounded in the shooting. Inside the residence were found Alma Delia Urrutia Carrillo, 38, Jose Manuel Navarro Zaragoza, 35, Carlos Veläsquez Zaragoza, 30, and Diana Esmeralda Godines Rodriguez, 30. Reports say eight 9mm spent cartridge casings were found at the scene.
A six year old girl was shot in Torreon, Coahuila Sunday morning. The victim was caught between two armed groups when a stray round hit her in one of her buttocks. Her wound was classified as minor and she is expected to survive the shooting.
One man was shot to death and another was wounded in a shootout in a nightclub in Torreon, Coahuila late Friday night. Jose Arredondo Corrujedo, 49, died early Saturday morning while Sergio Delgado, 35 was released after being treated. The shooting took place at the Boomerang night club near the intersection of bulevars Miguel Aleman and Rebollo Acosta. Reports say at least two shooters were involved
[Tolo News] Chairman of La Belle France's foreign affairs committee, Axel Poniatowski, has urged allies to put boots on the ground in Libya, reports say.
Poniatowski has also said that La Belle France should deploy commandos to Libya to guide the air strikes.
A good idea, actually; ground air controllers are worth their weight in gold. Problem is, they can't hang out there by themselves and they can't depend on the rag-tag rebels to protect them. So now you need a squad -- or more -- around each one. They have to be supplied, etc. You can do it on the fly and cheap as we did in Afghanistan in late 2001, but in the end such a move serves as the 'thin edge of the wedge' to a more robust ground force.
By the way, who has the ground air controllers? France? Britain? Italy?
La Belle France was the first country to intervene in Libya and carry out the first air strikes.
Force of occupation on Libyan soil is forbidden by the UN resolution to protect civilians, but some of the allies have stubbornly urged deployment of ground troops and possible arming of the Libya rebels.
French officials had recently criticised NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... for not doing enough in Libya and pushed other allies to step up air strikes against Qadaffy.
Despite calls for more pressure on Col Qadaffy, the recent Berlin meeting also ended with no commitment on the issue.
NATO seems to be acting cautiously to avoid being seen the Libyan rebels' air force.
Too late...
Libyan government front man has previously argued that those who took up armed could not be referred to as civilians.
NATO took the lead in Libya after President Barack B.O. Obama came under pressure by US politicians accusing him of being unable to define the US Libya mission.
It comes as festivities are continuing and the rebels have claimed they have made some gains in Misrata which is under heavy threat from Qadaffy forces.
Misrata has remained under siege and the humanitarian situation has been reported worsening. Government forces have also been pressing the eastern town of Ajdabiya.
UK recently vowed to help stranded migrant workers flee the city.
Fighting has intensified after the recent efforts by the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
peace delegation headed by the South African President failed to reach any positive conclusion.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/20/2011
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Why not send in the many Muslims who have taken over whole sections of France. They are experts at car-b-cues, etc.. Let them fight along side the rebs.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/20/2011 11:56
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So, are they hesitant because now we can sit in the peanut gallery and make haughty criticism of their lack of perfection in execution or take an isolated 'oops' and make it a full blown crime against humanity?
Look what dey done to my boy...
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The father of a Jordanian man who died Tuesday during a raid on a building in the Gaza Strip suspected of housing the killers of Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni says Hamas killed his son. "It does not make sense that he killed himself. Islam forbids that. They killed him," Mohammad Al-Birizit said in Amman, disputing the interior ministry's claim that his son Abdul-Rahman committed suicide. Yeah, well...you know, Islam forbids a lotta things.
"My son used to read the Koran, pray and fast Ramadan." Jeez, pops, maybe he shoulda got laid more often. Although, if it was unibrow guy, I can see why he didn't...yeesh!
"We do not know what to do now. If we are officially informed of his death, the family will meet to decide," he told the Agence France-Presse news agency. Decide...what? Dire Revenge?
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is using nuclear weapons development to maintain his firm grip on power, but a compilation of North Korean state media reports the Unification Ministry has gathered since June 2000, the reclusive leader has never visited the main Yongbyon nuclear complex.
Experts say this is unusual given that Kim has undertaken more than 100 of his so-called on-the-spot guidance tours this year alone, to anything from shoe factories to military units. One theory is that the site is simply too dangerous. Yongbyon "is such a 'sensitive' location that he may have made secret visits, but there is a good chance that he avoided visiting the site due to fears of radiation," an intelligence official said. Sensitive locations do not normally put Kim off. Some years ago he made two visits to a long-range missile base and a nuclear testing site in North Hamgyong Province.
At present, the Yongbyon nuclear complex contains a 5MW graphite-moderated reactor, plutonium extraction facilities, a nuclear fuel processing plant, a half-built 50 MW reactor, two unreported storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel, one storage facility that has been reported, and a light-water reactor that may or may not be completed by 2012.
The plutonium extraction facility is the main reason for the radioactive contamination. "Radioactive materials such as neptunium, americium and curium are released in the process of extracting plutonium by melting spent nuclear fuel rods with nitric acid," said Hwang Il-soon, a nuclear scientist at Seoul National University. "The problem is that these materials have half-lives of hundreds of thousands of years." That means the radioactive contamination possibly caused by the Yongbyon nuclear facility is a problem that will not go away.
There are also facilities in Yongbyon that store the nitric acid and other liquid waste generated from melting spent nuclear fuel rods, but they were covered with dirt, while new buildings have been built over them to cover them up. Other landfills storing solid radioactive waste, including spent nuclear fuel rods, have been covered with soil and trees. Since North Korea expelled IAEA inspectors in 2002, nobody knows for sure what is going on in Yongbyon.
One intelligence official said, "A bigger problem is the light-water reactor slated for completion in 2012. We don't think North Korea is capable of building it, but if the North compromises safety by hastily finishing it, we might witness a nuclear disaster."
"North Korea has operated its nuclear facilities ignoring safety standards recommended by the IAEA," said a South Korean government official. "The level of radiation in Yongbyon is staggering."
One source familiar with North Korean matters said, "I know that many researchers at Yongbyon suffered from hair loss, nausea and dizziness." There are also accounts that North Korean officials avoid escorting foreign visitors to Yongbyon. There are presently around 3,000 people working there, including around 200 scientists.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/20/2011
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Many Perts believe ditto for MANY OF MAINLAND CHINA'S NUCPLANTS but Beijing is keeping any datums under tight, pain-of-prison-or-death control.
#2
A graphite moderated reactor, ya say? What could go rhong?
/channeling Chernobyl
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/20/2011 1:56
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#3
So if you're a North Korean school boy who displays flashes of intelligence, the Party notices and sends you to the good schools. Next thing you know you're studying nuclear physics and they're giving you food that is actually edible. They don't tell you that they're grooming you for a job at the world's most dangerous nuclear weapons factory, they just send you there one day and tell you to get to work. You would have been better off starving on grass and tree bark in the countryside but it's too late. Kimmie wants you at Yongbyon and that is where you will remain until your hair falls out.
#5
Looks like anything leaking from the nuke plant will go into the river and then into Korea Bay. I am sure that all the rice and fish in the area are perfectly safe to eat.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/20/2011 13:13
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And they have the ability to cover up nuke catastrophes; at least until other countries are radiated. Then they will blame the US.
[Maghrebia] The week-end corpse count for Algerian soldiers reached 20 on Sunday (April 17th), after a roadside kaboom killed an army captain and four troops in corpse-littered Boumerdes. The daytime blast reportedly sent the soldiers' vehicle into a ravine in Doukane, near Ammal.
Another bomb kaboom Sunday in Bouira killed a gendarme and maimed three others. The al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) brigade led by Abdelmalik Droukdel ... aka Abdel Wadoud, was a regional leader of the GSPC for several years before becoming the group's supremo in 2004 following the death of then-leader Nabil Sahraoui. Under Abdel Wadoud's leadership the GSPC has sought to develop itself from a largely domestic entity into a larger player on the international terror stage. In September 2006 it was announced that the GSPC had joined forces with al-Qaeda and in January 2007 the group officially changed its name to the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb.... deputy Abu Selmane was suspected in the attacks, Tout sur l'Algerie reported.
On Friday, 14 soldiers died when hard boyz besieged their Azazga military camp. At least 50 hard boyz attacked the army outpost between Azazga and Yakouren at 8pm. The assailants planted bombs and blocked nearby roads with trees to prevent access by military reinforcements before attacking the ANP troops with machine-gun fire, bombs and grenades.
The hard boyz opened fire in the air just meters away from the unit to attract the attention of the army elements. Meanwhile, ...back at the scene of the crime, Lieutenant Queeg had an idea... another group of hard boyz fired on the army personnel with Kalashnikovs. The clash continued for more than two hours. Two bad boyz were potted in the fighting, according to security sources.
The attack was the deadliest mounted against Algerian troops since July 29th, 2009, when a terrorist ambush on a military convoy in Damous (Tipaza region) killed more than a dozen soldiers.
According to security sources, the hard boyz seized a significant quantity of weapons. A dozen soldiers were stabbed with knives and sustained serious injuries. Helicopters were used to transfer maimed troops and the bodies of the dead.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Al Jazeera] Burkina Faso's ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and may be in the process of being chased out now... president has appointed a new prime minister following days of riots and protests involving soldiers, police and students in the West African country.
Luc-Adolphe Tiao, Burkina Faso's ambassdor to La Belle France, was named as prime minister late on Monday, three days after his predecessor, Tertius Zongo, was dismissed by president Blaise Compaore.
An elite group of soldiers also called for an end to the unrest, saying that they wanted their colleagues to stop protesting. They also apologised for the disturbances.
"We invite our brothers in arms around the country to stop the protests because we now see the damage that can be caused within the civilian population, which we are well advised to protect and defend," said Moussa Ag Abdoulaye, a member of the group.
Earlier, Burkina Faso's state TV said students had burned down the ruling party headquarters and the prime minister's house in the central city of Koudougou, the News Agency that Dare Not be Named news agency said.
In the northern town of Kaya, soldiers and paramilitary police fired shots in the air, torched the home of an army regiment chief and ransacked that of a regional officer, residents told the AFP news agency by telephone.
The incidents follow a mutiny by soldiers that started last week in the capital, Ouagadougou, and has spread north and east.
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[Emirates 24/7] Jordan's interior minister on Sunday described an attack by Islamist Salafist ...Salafists espouse an austere form of Sunni Islam that seeks a return to practices that were common in the 7th century. Rather than doing that themselves and letting other people alone they insist everybody do as they say and they try to kill everybody who doesn't... demonstrators on police as "a terrorist act," after more than 90 people were hurt in the violent protests two days ago.
"The aggression on coppers and citizens by a Takfiri group was a real terrorist act, and I am not exaggerating," Saad Hayel Srur told a news conference.
"They had the ill intention to escalate and carry out their attack, thinking that they can to achieve whatever is in their minds even through bloodshed."
More than 90 people, most of them coppers, were hurt on Friday when protesters from the ultra-conservative Sunni Mohammedan Salafi movement armed with swords, daggers and clubs attacked police in the northern city of Zarqa.
"So far 103 members of the Salafi group have been incarcerated," Srur said.
A member of the Salafist movement told AFP on Saturday that 22 prominent figures of the Islamist group including its chief in Jordan, Abdul Shahatah al-Tahawi, were among those jugged.
Prime Minister Maaruf Bakhit has accused the Islamists of belonging to an armed organisation, and said his government would take a tough line against rioters.
Unlike pro-reform protests in Jordan in recent weeks, the Salafist demonstrators have been demanding the release of 90 Islamist prisoners.
Among those they want freed is Abu Mohammed al-Maqdessi, the one-time mentor of slain Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was from Zarqa.
The group has been protesting for several weeks and has also staged demonstrations in Amman.
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[Ennahar] Syrian forces opened fire to disperse protesters early in Homs Tuesday, activists said, the latest city to be swept by the tide of unrest against President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad's One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... authoritarian rule.
By midday Tuesday they said the center of Homs resembled a ghost town, with shops, markets and schools all closed in the city of around 700,000 people, where 17 protesters were killed Sunday night.
Security forces including Assad's irregular "shabbiha" militia "chased people in the streets of Homs until 6 a.m. (0300 GMT)," one activist in the city said. "The streets are empty."
Another said that 25 maimed people were in hospital.
Rights groups say more than 200 people have been killed in the protests which swept across Syria after demonstrations first broke out in the southern city of Deraa a month ago, inspired by the Arab uprisings which toppled leaders in Egypt and Tunisia.
The protests, the first such revolt since an Islamist uprising was ruthlessly put down in 1982, comprise all shades of society, including ordinary Syrians, secularists, leftists, tribals, Islamists and students.
The rallying cry in the protests has been "Freedom, Freedom. God, Syria and Freedom only. Some shouts of Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest) resonated after Friday prayers.
Assad, who has ruled for 11 years since assuming power on the death of his father Hafez al-Assad, has responded with a combination of limited concessions and fierce crackdowns.
In a sign that authorities would offer no ground to protesters, the Interior Ministry Monday night described the unrest as an insurrection by "gangs belonging to Salafist organizations" trying to terrorize the population.
Salafism is a strict form of Sunni Islam which many Arab governments equate with bad turban groups like al Qaeda. Assad and most of his inner circle are from Syria's minority Alawite community, adherents to an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.
The government says Syria is the target of a conspiracy and authorities blame the violence on armed gangs and infiltrators supplied with weapons from Leb and Iraq, a charge opposition groups say is unfounded.
State news agency SANA said Tuesday that an army brigadier and three family members were ambushed and killed on Sunday by "armed criminal groups" in Homs. Two other officers were also killed in the city on the same day, it said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
GHOST TOWNS
versus
* TOPIX > "SYRIA UNDER US PROXY ATTACK", SAYS AL-WATAN NEWS AGENCY, vee mainly anti-ASSAD Salafist forces controlled by the USA + KSA + Lebanon?
ARTIC > This WILY DASTARDLY US IMPERIALIST CONPIRACY includes:
> CORRUPT SYRIAN ELITES = CITIZENS-RESIDENTS.
> SALAFIST GROUPS.
> "MUSLIM BROTHERS" = MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD? as controlled by the USA + KSA.
> REGIONAL GOVTS-STATES = that support the US, KSA, or else have an interest in getting rid of the Assad regime.
[Straits Times] A SUICIDE attack at a mosque in an Indonesian cop shoppe last week fits a pattern of 'individual jihad' aimed at local targets by small groups of myrmidons, a think-tank said on Tuesday.
The International Crisis Group (ICG) said a trend was emerging that favoured assassinations over indiscriminate bombings, local over foreign targets and individual or small group action over more hierarchical organisations.
In a new report entitled 'Indonesian Jihadism: Small Groups, Big Plans', the Brussels-based ICG said the two approaches were complementary.
Larger jihadi organisations have the networks and funds to support religious outreach by Death Eaters espousing myrmidon principles through the media and religious study sessions, the report said.
Groups like regional terror network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and hardline Islamic group Jemaah Anshorut Tauhid (JAT) are placing greater focus on local 'enemies' seen as 'oppressors', including the police, Christians and the minority Islamic sect Ahmadiyah.
ICG senior advisor Sidney Jones said the emergence of small groups undertaking jihad on their own highlighted the urgent need for prevention programmes 'which are virtually non-existent in Indonesia'.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/20/2011
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#1
See also TOPIX/WORLD NEWS > INDONESIAN PRESIDENT WARNS OF RISING [religious = domestic] RADICALISM.
ARTIC = Lack of RELIABLE GOVT-LED PUBLIC SECURITY/ORDER is inducing locals to take matters into their own hands, i.e. engage in COVERT VIOLENT VIGILANTISM.
IIUC, MUSLIM + PUBLIC MISTRUST OF THE REGULAR INDONES NATIONAL GOVT. IS GROWING.
[Arab News] The UN children's fund says 26 children have been killed during violent protests in Yemen over the last two months.
What kind of parents bring children to violent protests instead of finding a babysitter?
UNICEF spokeswoman Marixie Mercado said Tuesday that most of the children killed in festivities between security forces and anti-government demonstrators died of wounds from live ammunition.
Opposition groups in Yemen have staged a series of protests demanding the ouster of longtime President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, after serving as a lieutenant colonel in the army. He had been part of the conspiracy that bumped off his predecessor, Ibrahim al-Hamdi, in the usual tiresome military coup, and he has maintained power by keeping Yemen's many tribes fighting with each other, rather than uniting to string him up. ... .
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[Al Jazeera] Omar Suleiman, ... Now former Vice president of Egypt. From 1993 until his appointment to that office in 2011 he was Minister without Portfolio and Director of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate (EGID)... the former Egyptian vice-president, has been questioned in connection with violence against protesters during the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... the president, the general prosecutor's office has said.
Suleiman, the country's long-time chief of intelligence, was questioned about "information held by the intelligence services on the events of the January 25 revolution," the prosecutor's office said on Tuesday.
He was asked about "the killing of protesters during peaceful [anti-regime] protests and over the wealth of the former president and his family," it said.
Mubarak, who had ruled Egypt since 1981, named Suleiman his first ever vice-president on January 29 in a bid to placate the growing protest movement.
Nationwide protests that erupted on January 25 and eventually toppled Mubarak's regime, left at least 800 people dead and more than 6,000 injured.
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[Tolo News] At least two Taliban fighters were killed in festivities with Afghan forces in Maidan Wardak Province on Monday, local officials said.
The festivities happened at 05:00 pm local time in Khir Abad district of the province during which two Talibs were killed and one Afghan soldier was maimed, Shahidullah Shahid,a front man for governor of Maidan Wardak told TOLOnews.
There is no report of any civilian casualties in the festivities, he added.
The Taliban have not yet commented about the incident.
Insurgents have previously attacked on Afghan forces' check posts and vehicles, but suffered heavy casualties.
Insurgents are active in most villages of the province and use Improvised Explosive Devices to target Afghan and foreign forces.
Recently gunnies have attacked on Afghan forces' bases, vehicles, check posts and and targeted some Afghan officials in the province.
Isaf on Monday said Insurgents have lost the potential to "challenge"
Afghan forces and foreign troops in the war amid a dramatic surge in Taliban-led violence.
At a joint presser with NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... Senior Civilian Representative's spokesperson, Dominic Medley, in Kabul Isaf Spokesperson Gen. Josef Blotz said 60 percent of thug-led attacks target civilians, tribal elders, religious leaders and government officials.
General Blotz said this year's statistics indicate an increase in assaults striking civilians, tribal leaders and government officials.
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#1
Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Carmen Electra aka Linda Porter in "Date Movie" aka Drew Decker in "Scary Movie" aka Mystique in "Epic Movie" aka The Beautiful Assassin in "Disaster Movie" (age 39)
Kadafi's forces have been able to intensify their counteroffensive while NATO members don't appear willing to escalate their intervention.
In which the LA Times attempts to keep up with Tolo News and Arab News for the sake of their readers...
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#1
In LIBYUH, desired OWG-NWO "REGIONALISM" runs headsmack into Muslim-on-Muslim "ISLAMIC PCORRECTNESS".
ION ...
To wit,
* WAFF > LIBYA'S TEST [Libyuh = a Test] OF THE NEW INTERNATIONAL ORDER, as per the US, Europe, BRIC Nations, + UNO's ability to effec lead, respond to various Crisis as a UNIFIED ENTITY.
IOW, LIBYUH CRISIS = A TEST OF "GLOBALISM" + DESIRED FUTURE OWG-NWO.
versus
* TOPIX > [AllAfrica] THE LIES BEHIND THE WEST'S WAR IN LIBYA.
ARTIC= Europe desires to maintain Colonial-style hegemony + domination oer an INTENTIONALLY [West]DIVIDED, SECTARIAN AFRICA; THE EU SUPPORTED THE CREATION OF A "UNION FOR THE MEDITERRANEAN" [UPM]IN ORDER TO DETER + PREVENT THE RISE OF A "UNITED STATES OF AFRICA" VEE KEEPING [Oil-Rich] NORTH AFRICA POL, ECON SEPARATE FROM [Black?] AFRICA.
IOW, ARTIC = the West wants Black Africans to be factionaliszed, weak, + permanently poor = dependent on foreign aid???
Contrary to the West's view, LIBYA'S GADDAFI is perceived by many Black Africans as a GENEROUS PERSON, A HUMANIST [Progressive], + A DEDIC STAUNCH OPPONENT AGZ SOUTH AFRICA'S POLICY OF APARTHEID.
#2
The fact that the west, including the US, has spent/borrowed and PC'ed itself into a crumbling wreck lends a certain piquancy to the idea of a new world order.
What do you think the BRIC would do as the leaders of the world in such situations as exist in the ME and Africa?
#4
g, Russia & Brazil would be bettet off without it.
Better off without ME oil, or better off without Chinese control over ME oil? Given Russian sales to China I can see where they would object to China getting a new, wholly owned subsidiary, as there primary supplier.
Brazil will help the Argies take over the Falklands, right? 8^)
[Yemen Post] The number of the antigovernment protesters who were maimed in Hodeida province climbed on Monday to 88 people after pro-government bullies had attacked a demonstration by the students calling for an immediate ouster of President-for-Life Saleh..
The regime supporters attacked the protest in Al-Kornish Street firing live bullets and teargas at the students, who were chanting: No teaching and no studying until the president was ousted.
Medical sources said at least five were shot by live bullets and dozens of others suffered inhalation and cramp due to teargas.
They were rushed to the field hospitals in the square of freedom in downtown the western province and to private hospitals.
The students also rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud expressing their refusal to any initiative that does not call for an immediate ouster of the Saleh regime and trying those who were responsible for killing and injuring the antigovernment protesters in various cities.
Local sources said that some of the protesters were maimed when the riot police dispersed the demonstration coinciding with massive demos in other cities as the unrest is continuing to escalate.
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[Ennahar] Soldiers patrolled the streets in Nigeria's mostly Mohammedan north Tuesday and aid workers began to assess the toll from deadly rioting against President Goodluck Jonathan ... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau... 's election victory.
The Red Thingy said many people were killed, hundreds injured and thousands displaced in protests across northern Nigeria on Monday by supporters of Jonathan's northern rival, former army ruler Muhammadu Buhari, who say the election result was rigged.
Churches, mosques, homes and shops were razed.
There were pockets of violence outside main cities early on Tuesday, where there was less of a military presence.
"There was an upsurge in areas of Zamfara, Katsina and Kaduna (states) outside the state capitals," said Umar Mairiga, national disaster management coordinator for the Red Thingy.
Rescue workers said they had been unable to reach the worst-affected neighborhoods and could not yet give a corpse count, although a curfew imposed across at least five states appeared to have been relaxed to allow movement in some areas.
Charred tyres lay in side streets for block after block in the Tudun Wada neighborhood of Kaduna. Soldiers manned checkpoints every few hundred meters. The injured spilled onto the street outside an army hospital, several with bloodied bandages around their heads.
Christian residents who decamped to military and police barracks in Kano to shelter during the unrest blamed Buhari, whose party has refused to accept results which say Jonathan won Saturday's election with 59 percent of the vote.
"How can he allege rigging. Jonathan won across the nation. They should accept the results rather than killing and destroying people and property," said Olaoye Ade, who decamped with his wife and children to a police barracks in Kano.
"I am here with my family in the barracks instead of celebrating the nation's new-found democracy."
POLARISED
The election results show how polarized the country of 150 million is, with Buhari, 68, sweeping the north and Jonathan, 53, winning the largely Christian south.
Observers have called the poll the fairest in decades in Africa's most populous nation, which has a long history of votes marred by fraud and intimidation.
Diplomats, analysts and ruling party supporters criticized Buhari, who has strong grass roots support in the north, for failing to come out clearly to call for calm and condemn the violence being perpetrated in his name.
"He has not asked anyone to engage in any violent conduct. He had the capacity to call people out and he didn't. He understands that people feel cheated," Buhari's front man Yinka Odumakin told Rooters.
"General Buhari cannot turn off the tap. He is not the one behind this. He is not the one who did the rigging.
Nigeria is home to more than 200 ethnic groups spread across the country who generally live peacefully side by side, but unrest in the north which is perceived to target Christians has in the past led to reprisals against Mohammedans in the south.
Dozens of members of the northern Hausa ethnic group took refuge in barracks in the southern cities of Enugu and Onitsha fearing attacks by Christian Igbos.
Jonathan appealed for unity in an acceptance speech broadcast to the nation Monday, saying it must "quickly move away from partisan battlegrounds."
Security analysts said they believed the curfews and a show of military force in the north should contain the violence for now but feared that governorship elections in the 36 states in a week's time could become another flashpoint.
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President Goodluck? Sounds like he's gonna need it.
[Arab News] Syrian security forces fired tear gas and live ammunition Tuesday at anti-government protesters who took over a main square in the country's third-largest city, witnesses and activists said.
An eyewitness said police used loudspeakers to call on protesters camped out at Clock Square in the center of the city of Homs to evacuate the area. Shortly afterward, security forces moved in, firing first tear gas, then live ammunition at the protesters who had brought mattresses, food and water to the site in an Egypt-style sit-in, vowing to stay until President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... is ousted.
"They shot at everything, there was smoke everywhere," an activist in Homs said by telephone. "I saw people on the ground, some shot in their feet, some in the stomach." Other protesters confirmed his account, and said the exact number of casualties was not clear. All of the activists spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
At least 200 people have been killed in the past month in Syria as security forces have launched a deadly crackdown on a growing protest movement, human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... groups say.
The protesters have also become bolder. More than 5,000 anti-government demonstrators took over the square in Homs on Monday, vowing to stay until Assad's ouster.
The government, however, has blamed the weeks of anti-government unrest in the country on ultraconservative Mohammedans seeking to establish a fundamentalist state and terrorize the people.
The Egypt-style standoff in Homs followed funeral processions by more than 10,000 mourners for some of those killed in festivities Sunday that a rights group said left at least 12 people dead.
Many Syrians also say pro-government thugs -- known as Shabiha -- have terrorized neighborhoods with tactics such as opening fire into the air.
The government has in the past blamed "armed gangs" seeking to stir up unrest for many of the killings, such as the ones who fatally shot seven people, including three army officers, on Sunday in Homs.
On Monday, the Interior Ministry identified the gangs as "armed Salafi groups," referring to an ultraconservative form of Islam that has its roots in Soddy Arabia and can be found all over the region.
The statement carried by the state news agency said they were seeking to establish "emirates" and were "abusing the freedoms and reforms launched in the comprehensive program with a timetable by President Bashir al-Assad."
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[Maghrebia] Mauritania's 25 February Movement announced a series of new protests this month, Journal Tahalil reported on Sunday (April 17th). The youth group called for peaceful demonstrations to begin April 18th in the Nouakchott neighbourhoods of Toujounine and Dar Naim. The sit-ins at the capital city's prefecture offices will run through April 23rd, with a large rally planned for April 25th.
Meanwhile, ...back at the laboratory the fumes had dispersed, to reveal an ominous sight... teachers' unions SNES and SIPES will begin a three-day strike on May 8th, Pana reported. Demands include increased transport and housing allowances.
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[Iran Press TV] At least 31 people have been injured in fresh festivities that erupted between protesters and security forces in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
Three of the injured were shot at with live bullet near Sulaymaniyah University, located 260 kilometers (161 miles) north of Storied Baghdad, ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... a Press TV correspondent reported on Tuesday.
A number of journalists have also been incarcerated.
The festivities came after around 100 people were maimed in Peeramard Street in the city on Monday.
Meanwhile, ...back at the buffalo wallow, Tex and his new-found Indian friend were preparing a little surprise for the bandidos... Kurdish regional Prime Minister Barham Saleh on Tuesday offered to step down from the party leadership in protest.
On Sunday, at least 35 people, including seven coppers, were maimed after police and protesters clashed in the region's second largest city of Sulaymanieh.
Thousands of people have spilled out into the streets to protest against corruption and lack of freedom in recent months.
President of Iraq's Kurdistan region Massoud Barzani ... hereditary head of the Kurdish Democratic Party, maybe a little too close to the Medes and the Persians for most people's tastes... announced plans last month to shake up the regional government and enact reforms, but demonstrators demanded more reforms.
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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.
While the International Criminal Court has announced that it is investigating charges of war crimes against Muammar al-Gaddafi and other members of the Libyan regime, harrowing video evidence has emerged that appears to show atrocities committed by anti-Gaddafi rebels. Among other things, the footage depicts summary executions, a prisoner being lynched, the desecration of corpses, and even a beheading. The targets of the most serious abuse are frequently black African prisoners. The ultimate source of the footage appears to be rebel forces or sympathizers themselves.
Rep. Darrell Issa has tired of waiting for the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms to respond to his subpoenas in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee's probe of the ATF gunwalker scandal. In a letter today to ATF's director, Issa warned of contempt proceedings if the DoJ and White House continue their refusal to comply with subpoenas, and pointedly explained why the DoJ's current investigation isn't germane to the issue:
Dismissing concerns over possible links between Libyan rebels and al Qaeda, the Obama administration has notified Congress it is providing $25 million in nonlethal aid to the rebels' effort to drive Col. Moammar Gadhafi's regime from power.
The Obama administration privately urged Standard & Poor's in recent weeks not to lower its outlook on the United States -- a suggestion the ratings agency ignored Monday, two people familiar with the matter said.
Goodluck Jonathan
Pervez 
David Cameron
Senior Chinese officials on four occasions invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's son and heir Jong-un to China during recent visits to Pyongyang, the National Intelligence Service says. The NIS officials were quoted by members of the National Assembly's Intelligence Committee as briefing them on Monday. 
Karachi
Bouteflika
Chief of the Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez 
[Iran Press TV] A protest organized by 
[Arab News] 
[Ma'an] Two suspects in the murder of an Italian activist died and another sustained injuries Tuesday when 
jacket wallah
[Straits Times] MALAYSIAN authorities have sent 66 
Kurram Agency
[An Nahar] Syria imposed on Tuesday a total ban on all demonstrations after warning of a crackdown on an "armed revolt" by Islamist 
[Tolo News] Chairman of 
[Al Jazeera] 
al-Assad's
[Tolo News] At least two Taliban fighters were killed in 
The number of the antigovernment protesters who were 
[Arab News] Syrian security forces fired tear gas and live ammunition Tuesday at anti-government protesters who took over a main square in the country's third-largest city, witnesses and activists said.
On Sunday, at least 35 people, including seven 
