Barack Obamas health-care reform of 2010 had many virtues, especially its attempt to make health insurance universal. But it does little to reduce the systems staggering and increasing complexity. Every hour spent treating a patient in America creates at least 30 minutes of paperwork, and often a whole hour. Next year the number of federally mandated categories of illness and injury for which hospitals may claim reimbursement will rise from 18,000 to 140,000. There are nine codes relating to injuries caused by parrots, and three relating to burns from flaming water-skis.
Malik says 27 terrorist groups involved in Benazir's murder
It occurs to me that any country other than Pakistan would be concerned at the thought of hosting twenty-seven terror groups, let alone a large number demonstrably capable of working together. This does indeed look like a job for the ISI.
He blamed Baitullah Mehsud, the Haqqani network and the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for planning the murder and said 27 terrorist groups helped in executing the plan.
Malik and the Chief of Joint Investigation Team Khalid Qureshi gave a detail presentation with the help of audio/video footage, showing the suspects involved in the case.
The Sindh lawmakers were told that the conspiracy was hatched in Fata and funds for the purpose also came from the same region.
The session was told that al Qaeda and other terrorist organisations had made Bhutto their target since a long time.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
02/21/2012
17:32 ||
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An Iranian military commander has said Iran would take pre-emptive action against its enemies if it felt its national interests were endangered.
Mohammad Hejazi, deputy head of Iran's armed forces, made his comments to the Iranian Fars news agency.
Our strategy now is that if we feel our enemies want to endanger Iran's national interests, and want to decide to do that, we will act without waiting for their actions," Mr Hejazi told Fars.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
02/21/2012
17:28 ||
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#1
Sounds like the geopolitical equivalent of "Suicide by Cop" to me.......
#2
Possible but unlikely, as Iran needs time to dev + safely master its NucTechs - iff that means being "humble" + tolerating a US-NATO naval, etc. presence offshore, SO BE IT! Iran still has its various MilTerr Proxies whom can PDeniably act "autonomously" or "independently" from Tehran.
IMO what mattered to the Mullahs years ago was a formal US-Allied GROUND INVASION + OCCUPATION to stop thier NucProgs.
Police investigating the failed plot to bomb Israeli diplomats in Bangkok by a group of Iranians have discovered stickers posted on mile-long stretch of road that officers believe could have marked spots where attacks might be carried out.
The stickers bearing the word "SEJEAL" were also found in a room in the Bangkok house where one of the "sticky" bombs accidentally exploded, leading to the capture of three of the ring.
A Thai court issued an arrest warrant for a fifth Iranian, Nourzi Shayan Ali Akbar, 57, who was seen on CCTV footage leaving the house hours before the blast and was found to have caught a flight to Tehran. An arrest warrant was also issued for Leila Rohani, 31, who rented the Bangkok house but left for Tehran days earlier.
#1
Had to look up who this is. Has a decent resume...until one does the math and realizes he was a child extra in daddy's movies. His post-18 flicks are laughable, with two being behind the scenes stuff.
#4
So Ahmadinejad is misunderstood. So was Hannibal Lecter. But then Hollywood types are more "understanding" than you and me.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
02/21/2012 15:03
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#5
he almost sounded marginally plausible until he invoked GeeMe Carter's name.
Posted by: jack salami ||
02/21/2012 16:24
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#6
His agent told him it would be good for his career. Probably was right. Michael Moore scoffs at his play; Cindy Sheehan is probably mulling the possibilities.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/21/2012 22:05
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Peter H. Gleick, a water and climate analyst who has been studying aspects of global warming for more than two decades, in recent years became an aggressive critic of organizations and individuals casting doubt on the seriousness of greenhouse-driven climate change. He used blogs, congressional testimony, group letters and other means to make his case.
Now, Gleick has admitted to an act that leaves his reputation in ruins and threatens to undercut the cause he spent so much time pursuing. His summary, just published on his blog at Huffington Post, speaks for itself. You can read his short statement below with a couple of thoughts from me:
The Origin of the Heartland Documents
Peter Gleick
Since the release in mid-February of a series of documents related to the internal strategy of the Heartland Institute to cast doubt on climate science, there has been extensive speculation about the origin of the documents and intense discussion about what they reveal. Given the need for reliance on facts in the public climate debate, I am issuing the following statement.
At the beginning of 2012, I received an anonymous document in the mail describing what appeared to be details of the Heartland Institutes climate program strategy. It contained information about their funders and the Institutes apparent efforts to muddy public understanding about climate science and policy. I do not know the source of that original document but assumed it was sent to me because of my past exchanges with Heartland and because I was named in it.
Given the potential impact however, I attempted to confirm the accuracy of the information in this document. In an effort to do so, and in a serious lapse of my own and professional judgment and ethics, I solicited and received additional materials directly from the Heartland Institute under someone elses name. The materials the Heartland Institute sent to me confirmed many of the facts in the original document, including especially their 2012 fundraising strategy and budget. I forwarded, anonymously, the documents I had received to a set of journalists and experts working on climate issues. I can explicitly confirm, as can the Heartland Institute, that the documents they emailed to me are identical to the documents that have been made public. I made no changes or alterations of any kind to any of the Heartland Institute documents or to the original anonymous communication.
I will not comment on the substance or implications of the materials; others have and are doing so. I only note that the scientific understanding of the reality and risks of climate change is strong, compelling, and increasingly disturbing, and a rational public debate is desperately needed. My judgment was blinded by my frustration with the ongoing efforts often anonymous, well-funded, and coordinated to attack climate science and scientists and prevent this debate, and by the lack of transparency of the organizations involved. Nevertheless I deeply regret my own actions in this case. I offer my personal apologies to all those affected.
The Heartland Institute had already signaled that it plans to seek charges and civil action against the person who extracted its documents under a false identity. Foreshadowing todays events, on Friday, Ross Kaminsky, a senior fellow and former board member at Heartland, posted a piece on the American Spectator site naming Gleick as an obvious suspect. Now they have their man.
I wont speculate on how the legal aspects of this story might play out.
Another question, of course, is who wrote the climate strategy document that Gleick now says was mailed to him. His admitted acts of deception in acquiring the cache of authentic Heartland documents surely will sustain suspicion that he created the summary, which Heartlands leadership insists is fake.
One way or the other, Gleicks use of deception in pursuit of his cause after years of calling out climate deception has destroyed his credibility and harmed others. (Some of the released documents contain information about Heartland employees that has no bearing on the climate fight.) That is his personal tragedy and shame (and Im sure devastating for his colleagues, friends and family).
The broader tragedy is that his decision to go to such extremes in his fight with Heartland has greatly set back any prospects of the country having the rational public debate that he wrote correctly is so desperately needed.
You'd think after over ten years of this BS we'd all either know better than to 'desecrate' the holy Crayon, or have made a conscious decision to not give a s*it. These accidents and subsequent grovelings are counterproductive.
Troops on the U.S.' largest base in Afghanistan have inadvertently burned Qurans and other religious materials, triggering angry protests and fears of even larger demonstrations as news of the burning spreads.
The books were mistakenly thrown out with the trash (Bite tongue - er, fingers - and refrain from obvious comment)
at Bagram Air Field north of Kabul and were on a burn pile Monday night before Afghan laborers intervened around 11:00 p.m., according to NATO and Afghan officials.
By the morning, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside of Bagram and on the outskirts of Kabul. Some shot into the air, some threw rocks at the Bagram gate, and others yelled, "Die, die foreigners." Many of them were the same people who work with foreign troops inside the base. At one point, apparently worried that the base would be stormed, guards at the base fired rubber bullets into the crowd, according to the military.
I must say I have no sympathy with the protesters. I love my holy book too but I don't go nuts if somebody inadvertently handles it 'incorrectly'. These folks need an education, and rubber bullets may not communicate the point with sufficient pedagogic precision...
#2
Hey, Korans, Bibles, it's all equal opportunity. I guess they didn't get the decree that there is only one god, HHS told the Catholics that a couple weeks ago on the contraceptives deal and it isn't the one in the books.
#3
An honest work mistake and then the rent-a-crowd showed up to perform perfunctory seething and calls for death to foreigners? These folks are far too thin-skinned.
A youthful weekend stunt gone tragically wrong resulted in three criminal charges Monday against a 21-year-old Quebec man. "Into the paddy wagon avec vous!"
Alex Labbé was accused of causing the death of his friend in a so-called couch-surfing accident. "Here lies François Hallée, taken from us at a tender age in a tragic furniture accident..."
On a snowy night "It was a dark and snowy night..."
in the Quebec village of St-Benjamin, "... all was quiet in the peaceful Quebec village of St-Benjamin..."
Labbé was allegedly driving a vehicle "Suddenly there was the roar of an engine!"
that dragged a sofa "From out of nowhere came a couch!"
carrying two of his friends That'd be François and Jean-Pierre...
last Saturday. That's the most riotous night of the week in the peaceful little Quebec village of St-Benjamin. It's specifically reserved for riot and license on the civic calendar...
A vehicle travelling in the opposite direction "Look out!"
smashed into the rolling sofa, [SMASH!]
killing one of its passengers, 22-year-old Franßois Hallée. [THUMP!] "Aaaiiieee!" [rattle]
Labbe had already been charged with hit and run causing death and dangerous driving causing death. On Monday, prosecutors laid a third charge of criminal negligence causing death.
#2
These are the vacays which do not include pappy, those are considered business trips even though obtically it looks suspect when after announcing the purchase of Brazilian oil, they hit carnival and do a tour of native ruins and a planned caribbean adventure, before being shamed back home to announce some kinetic action which I think had something to do with eliminating static cling...until the tv was filled with tomahawks.
Jean-Marie Loret, who died in 1985 aged 67, never met his father, but went on to fight Nazi forces during the Second World War.
His extraordinary story has now been backed up by a range of compelling evidence, both in France and in Germany, which is published in the latest edition of Paris's Le Point magazine.
Adolf Hitler, who attempted to follow in the steps of Haman son of Hammedatha, and wound up just as screwed in consequence, is said to have had an affair with Mr Loret's mother, Charlotte Lobjoie, 16, as he took a break from the trenches in June 1917.
Although he was fighting the French near Seboncourt, in the northern Picardy region, Hitler made his way to Fournes-in-Weppe, a small town west of Lille, for regular leave.
There he met Miss Lobjoie, who later told their son: "One day I was cutting hay with other women, when we saw a German soldier on the other side of the street.
"He had a sketch pad and seemed to be drawing. All the women found this interesting, and were curious to know what he was drawing.
"I was designated to approach him."
The pair started a brief relationship, which resulted in the birth of Jean-Marie, who was born in March 1918 after being conceived during a 'tipsy' evening in June 1917.
Miss Lobjoie later told Jean-Marie: "When your father was around, which was very rarely, he liked to take me for walks in the countryside.
"But these walks usually ended badly. In fact, your father, inspired by nature, launched into speeches which I did not really understand. "What the H-e-double-thistle-feeders did he mean by 'I shall make a liar of God'?
"He did not speak French, but solely ranted in German, talking to an imaginary audience. Even if I spoke German I would not be able to follow him, as the histories of Prussia, Austria and Bavaria where not familiar to me at all, far from it.
"My reaction used to anger your father so much that I did not show any reaction."
Jean-Marie was, like thousands of other French children with German soldier fathers, badly treated by his peers at school.
He was referred to as 'the son of the Bosh', and often had fights as he tried to defend his father, who had by now disappeared over the border back to Germany.
Miss Lobjoie, meanwhile, refused to discuss Jean-Marie's father, and ended up giving her only son away for adoption in the 1930s to a family called Loret.
His real father would not recognise Jean-Marie, but continued to stay in contact with Miss Lobjoie.
Incredibly, Mr Loret went on to fight the Germans in 1939, defending the Maginot Line before it was bypassed during the Nazi invasion which resulted in France being occupied from 1940 until 1944.
Mr Loret even joined the French Resistance, and was given the codename 'Clement'.
Just before her death in the early 1950s, Miss Lobjoie finally told Jean-Marie that his father was arguably the most infamous dictator in human history.
Mr Loret said: "In order not to get depressed, I worked non-stop, never took a holiday, and had no hobbies. For twenty years I didn't even go to the cinema." Sounds like a support group founded by Luke Skywalker, Atrus son of Gehn, and Tora Ziyal could have helped.
Mr Loret recently began investigating his past in great detail, employing scientists to prove that he has the same blood type as Hitler, and that they even have similar handwriting.
Photographs of the two also reveal an astonishing resemblance.
Other elements which corroborate the story are official Wehrmacht, or German Army, papers which show that officers brought envelopes of cash to Miss Lobjoie during the Second World War.
When Miss Lobjoie died, Mr Loret also found paintings in her attic which were signed by Hitler, who was an accomplished artist.
In Germany, meanwhile, a picture of a woman painted by Hitler looked exactly like Miss Lobjoie.
Francois Gibault, Mr Loret's Paris lawyer, said: "He first came to see me in 1979, but was a bit lost and did not know whether he wanted to be publicly recognised as Hitler's son, or to erase all that completely.
"He had the feelings of many illegitimate children: the desire to find a past, however heavy, but also the fear of returning to the old routine.
"I talked with him a lot, playing the role of psychologist rather than lawyer."
Mr Gibault said that Mr Loret's own children might now be in a position to claim royalties from Mein Kampf ('My Struggle'), Hitler's famous book which has sold millions of copies around the world. I'd feel très sale if I collected royalties from the likes of that.
Mr Loret wrote a book called 'Your Father's Name Was Hitler' in 1981, and it is now set to be re-published with all the new evidence.
Hitler, who was born in an Austrian village, frequently spoke of his love for France, and especially for Paris.
In December 1940, he paid an emotional visit to the capital city, where he was pictured saluting Napoleon's tomb in front of his bemused generals. He even chose the anniversary of Boney's invasion of Russia to start his own. Therefore, his forces, too, faced General Winter.
More intriguingly still, Hitler transferred from Vienna part of the remains of Napoleon II, Napoleon Bonaparte's son with Marie Louise of Austria.
Hitler often enthused about the greatness of Napoleon, saying that he wanted to have as big an impact on history as the Frenchman.
Although he never officially had any sons or daughters of his own, Hitler often spoke of his love of children despite sending many to the gas chambers and animals.
He married his mistress, Eva Braun, as the Red Army shelled his bunker in Berlin, in 1945, and committed suicide shortly afterwards. And may the Lord have mercy on his soul. Continued on Page 49
Khader Adnan, the Palestinian detainee who has been on a hunger strike for 65 days, said through his lawyer Tuesday that he has agreed to end his hunger strike in light of a deal struck between the state and his lawyers. The announcement came just before a scheduled High Court of Justice hearing on his petition demanding that he charged or released.
Shortly before the scheduled hearing, the state attorney's office submitted a request to the court to delete Adnan's petition. In its request, the state gave the court with a copy of an agreement which says that after the matter was brought before the attorney-general, the state agreed to offset the days in which Adnan was held under arrest in order that a criminal investigation could take place, and transfer them to his detention. The agreement says that, barring any significant new material being added to the case, it will not extend his detention beyond April 17.
In the light of events, Adnan's lawyers say that he has ended his hunger strike, according to the agreement.
#1
You have to be pretty darn fat to starve for 65 days and still be able to negotiate. Hopefully, he celebrates his victory sensibly with a Chicklet or one of those tiny marshmallows from a pack of hot chocolate.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/21/2012 22:09
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An Islamic organization in Australia is taking the countrys intelligence services to court over what it calls "constant harassment" and "bullying" against Muslims in the country.
In a press release, the Islamic Society of the Australian state of Victoria that they would press their case against security agents, who they said have been approaching Muslims daily, offering them jobs and demanding personal information.
Offering jobs? The horror!
The flasphoint of the lawsuit is Preston Mosque in Melbourne, where the Islamic Society says the intelligence agents have been harassing worshipers every day.
Baha Yehia, secretary of the Islamic Society of Victoria, said that the group plans to go to Canberra with their case if the issue cannot be resolved in Melbourne.
On Radio Australia, Yehia said that congregants are becoming more forceful in their refusal to speak with intelligence agents. He said, "People are more aware now and people know now that they can say no to ASIO we dont have to speak to you and we dont want to speak to you."
But there are concerns that the mosque itself is a location of radicalism, where seven alleged members of the mosque were arrested and charged with belonging to a terrorist organization in 2008.
Yehia disavowed their membership, saying, "None of these people used to practise or preach at the mosque. They used to attend the mosque. You know, mosques have a different structure than churches."
Yehia added that many congregants are being approached, despite public statements by ASIO that they are not against Islam. Yehia stated, "Theres a bit of mistrust in the community because nobody knows who is working for ASIO, because a lot of people have been approached. And theyve also been asked to work for ASIO."
An Indian court has remanded two members of an Italian navy security team accused in the fatal shooting of two fishermen in custody for two weeks.
They were detained on Sunday from the Italian ship Enrica Lexie and produced at the magistrate's court on Monday. The incident took place off the coast of the southern state of Kerala last Wednesday.
Italian officials said the Indian fishing boat had behaved aggressively and ignored warning shots. They said they opened fire, mistaking the fishermen for pirates. India said the fishermen were unarmed.
The incident has sparked a major diplomatic row between the two countries, with Indian police opening a murder inquiry into the deaths.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/21/2012
07:35 ||
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Afghan and international media reported that as many as 2,000 protesters had gathered near the base. According to The Associated Press, Afghan police said protesters shouted Die, die, foreigners!
After 9/11 the US took the high road and never properly defeated and/or punished the Afghans, hence their utter lack of fear and respect.
I offer my sincere apologies for any offense this may have caused, to the President of Afghanistan, the Government of the Islamofascistic Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and most importantly, to the treacherousmurderous noble people of Afghanistan.
Since rejecting and disrespecting the Koran or other religious symbols is perfectly legal protected speech in the US, this profuse apology is misleading...
unless acceptance of Rushdie rules for non-muslims in the West is now the official policy of ISAF.
</rant>
#4
Isn't the reason we are there is that about 19 people read that book and then flew fully loaded passenger planes into fully occupied buildings in New York City? And now our Generals are apologizing in regards to how American soldiers handled that book?
#5
It's the PC BS running rampant in the U.S. and other places that most ordinary Americans despise. Some people look for reasons to get bent out of shape about nothing.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been detained for questioning as a suspect in a corruption probe into alleged orgies with prostitutes in Paris and Washington paid for by two businessmen. The former IMF chief arrived at a police station in Lille, northern France, this morning to testify as a witness in the case but was immediately taken into custody for interrogation with a view to possible charges.
This man was not long ago bruited about as the next president of France. How lucky for France he was arrested for taking liberties with a maid in that queerly puritanical country across the pond
The timing of the arrest is a blow to the Socialist party, whose presidential candidate François Hollande is favored to win the race. The National Front's former leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen said what everyone was thinking it would be "astonishing" if the Socialist party were unaware of Mr Strauss-Kahn's sexual practices.
The 62-year-old has been detained on suspicion of "complicity in pimping" and "misuse of company funds" and could thus see his detention go from the normal 48 hours to 96 hours.
The probe is focused on a prostitution ring that allegedly supplied clients of Lille's luxury Carlton hotel. The potential charges depend on whether investigators are convinced Strauss-Kahn knew that the women he had sex with in restaurants, hotels and swingers' clubs in Paris, Washington and other European capitals were prostitutes paid for with company funds.
Strauss-Kahn's lawyer has said his client could have been "totally unaware" that the women he met in swinger sessions were prostitutes since "they were all naked at the time."
Strauss-Kahn's name was linked to the Carlton case as part of a probe into a prostitution ring linked to notorious Belgian pimp Dominique Alderweireld, nicknamed "Dodo la Saumure".
Strauss-Kahn admits taking part in orgies arranged by "friends" as part of his "uninhibited sex life", but that "he never paid a centime" and never asked if his sex partners were being paid. He is quoted as saying, "I have a horror of prostitutes and pimping."
Scrub yourself hard, then, as they seem not to have had a horror of you. Odd, that.
#3
I'm sure some poor shop in the Pentagon is studying the value of a Don't Ask Don't Tell policy with regard to bestiality. I'm sure everyone in that office owns a voodoo doll of their detailer.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/21/2012 22:27
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#1
You could always do 'sensitivity' training the other way, having the ladies dragging a large encumbered bleeding screaming male with missing legs 50 meters to a medic with bullets flying all around to understand what the very existence of the organization all too often entails for the other gender.
More sensitive to the physical demands of pregnant women without the emotional baggage of skinny jean emo hipster boy-children.
Already done, but without the embarassment of being filmed in b00bsuits, get enough of that with the wife dress-downs.
"Actually honey, yes I do know what it is like to carry and extra 60lbs all day long in highly emotional situations and end the day with swollen ankles and sore back."
"Whaddya mean `honey` you SOB! rant rant rant"
Not to say she was wrong and I didn't learn to just watch my mouth but tit-for-tat, to show the recording of the ensuing rant, post-pregnancy, would be educational.
#6
One of the things I remember from being in the Army when I was under dumb ass democrat rule. It was torture - these pansy classes. It's time to depart the army now. The war is at home.
#8
you do not create a warrior ethos and belief system this way. You only make the males shamed and angry as they bridle under the discipline. Do they make the women wear balls or shave or do any number of irksome male tasks? this is just stupidity mandated by those who rarely serve.
I did 29 years and never saw such stupidity under the guise of making the military better at winning wars/
An Islamic terrorist militant accused of beheading Philippine soldiers and other attacks was arrested on Tuesday after being surprised in his remote island hideout. Security forces captured Abdulpattah Ismael, a member of Abu Sayyaf, in a raid on a village on the southern island of Basilan, said regional police chief Superintendent Napoleon Estilles.
Estilles said, "He did not resist. He was taken by surprise. He did not expect this so he did not have time to react."
Ismael faces murder charges for his role in an ambush on Basilan in 2007 in which 14 Marines were killed, 10 of whom were beheaded, in one of the worst attacks by the Abu Sayyaf on the Philippine military.
Estilles said Ismael also was involved in a raid on a Basilan jail in 2009 that led to the escape of 31 inmates, including Muslim terrorists militants, and the death of a guard.
Three suspected terrorists insurgents were killed and three security personnel were injured on Tuesday in Thailand's southern province of Pattani.
The gun battle took place as a group of ten government soldiers and paramilitary rangers were building a roadside checkpoint for a village defense unit when seven armed terrorists men in a pickup truck began shooting at them. The exchange of gunfire lasted about 30 minutes.
Two terrorists gunmen were instantly killed at the site of the first clash. The soldiers followed the terrorists attackers who fled in separate directions. A third terrorist assailant was gunned down in a clash during the pursuit, while the other four terrorists escaped. M16 assault rifles with fully-loaded ammunition clips were discovered near their terrorist bodies.
An investigation found that security personnel were aware of a possible terrorist attack targeting village leader Vorakit Nisorn, whose home is located near the clash sites and for that reason officials had deployed security forces in the area before the incident.
#3
That's the point of the headline, isn't it? To tell us about the article. The summary tells us more. Here, we have a pig in a poke. Who knows if the article is worth reading or not? My time is valuable and I already click on too many worthless links.
The intent was to draw attention to the paranoia and absolute hypocracy of Sub-Saharan Africa to even the slightest hint, or appearance of a US presence. Not so many years ago, railing against the evils of apartheid, the US and the West turned a blind eye to Cuban involvement in that particular nation's quest for independence. Today that same nation and much of the region embraces Chinese Communist investment and military assistance.
MOSCOW: Russia needs to modernize its military arsenals to deter China others from grabbing its resources, Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said in article published Monday.
Putin, who is running to reclaim presidency in March 4 election, laid out his vision of military modernization in an article published Monday in the government daily Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
"Amid global economic upheavals and other shocks there always is a temptation to solve one's problems by using force to apply pressure," Putin wrote. "It's not accidental that even today we can hear voices saying that soon the issue of national sovereignty not applying to resources of global significance would "objectively" emerge."
Putin in his article didn't name any specific nation eyeing Russian mineral riches, but in the past he had repeatedly accused the United States of trying to weaken Russia in order to sideline a rival.
"We mustn't tempt anyone with our weakness," Putin said.
Putin said that the government plans spending about 23 trillion rubles (about $770 billion dollars) over the next decade to purchase more than 400 intercontinental ballistic missiles, more than 600 combat aircraft, dozens of submarines and other navy vessels and thousands of armored vehicles.
So the U.S. plans to cut its nuclear arsenal by up to 80 percent while Russia builds 400 new ICBMs. Smart, Mr. Obama, real smart...
He said that Russia will respond to the planned US missile defense by developing weapons capable of penetrating it, adding that "there can't be too much patriotism" on the issue.
Putin said in the article that Russia also needs to look 30-50 years ahead to foresee threats posed by prospective new weapons technologies. While a nuclear conflict looks unlikely, scientific progress leads to the emergence of new weapons that could change the character of war, Putin said. He specifically referred to precision long-range non-nuclear weapons, saying they emerge as key instrument of modern warfare.
While Putin on Monday stopped short of naming any nation developing the technology, Russia has long voiced concern with US plans to re-equip some of its long-range nuclear missiles with conventional warheads.
Experts have warned that the obsolete equipment and aging workforce at Russian defense plants put a challenge to the ambitious weapons modernization program.
Putin said the government would need to focus on modernizing weapons-making plants, promising to encourage private investments in arms production.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/21/2012
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RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Egypt has agreed to help ease Gaza's chronic power shortages as part of a three-stage plan that would eventually hook up the isolated territory to the regional grid, a Palestinian energy official said Monday.
Such a deal would represent a major leap in Cairo's involvement in Hamas-ruled Gaza, and another step away from Egyptian cooperation with the Israeli blockade imposed after the militant group's 2007 takeover.
Gaza has suffered frequent blackouts and fuel shortages since the blockade was imposed. Rolling power cuts intensified last week when Gaza's only power plant shut down because of a growing shortage in black market fuel reaching the territory through underground tunnels.
Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had sided with Israel in enforcing the Gaza blockade, trying to isolate the Islamists on his doorstep. However, since taking over last year, Egypt's new rulers have eased Gaza's isolation.
Since the new rulers and Hamas are from the same extended family...
The Gaza energy deal, outlined by Palestinian officials on Monday, was struck between Egypt and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas, a longtime Hamas rival. An Egyptian intelligence official said Hamas was also involved in the contacts.
The Egyptian official confirmed plans to gradually increase the Gaza power supply, both by sending more power from Egypt and by repairing the power plant, and to hook up Gaza to the regional grid.
Omar Kittaneh, head of the Palestinian Energy Authority, said Egypt proposed a three-stage plan for the power shortages, to be funded by the Islamic Development Bank. In the first stage, Egypt would increase its electricity flow to Gaza by three to five megawatts in coming days.
In all, Gaza's 1.7 million people need about 360 megawatts per day. Of that, Egypt supplied about 17 megawatts, Israel provided 120 megawatts against payment while the local power plant produced about 70 megawatts, Kittaneh said.
In coming weeks, engineers will set up a new transmitter and try to restore the Gaza power plant -- hit in an Israeli air strike in 2006 -- to full services, Kittaneh said. The repairs and the new transmitter should increase electricity output by at least another 140 megawatt, he added.
In the final stage, Gaza would be linked to the regional grid that includes Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Lebanon.
The Egyptian official said the energy deal is part of a wider Egyptian effort to cut down on smuggling to Gaza.
Or to let the tunnel rats focus on moving weapons, ammo and cash...
Most of Gaza's fuel came through the tunnels, along with cement and other items Israel still won't allow to pass through its crossings. In recent weeks, black market fuel being shipped to Gaza through Egypt's Sinai Peninsula largely dried up, prompting the current energy crisis in Gaza.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/21/2012
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#1
How much more popular will the Palestinian cause become to the Egyptian on the street when his family sits in the cold darkness to support the cost of light and heat in Gaza?
For a map, click here. For a map of Zacatecas click here
By Chris Covert
Mexican Policia Federal (PF) and Zacatecas state police agents killed six armed suspects and detained eight others in Zacatecas in a brief running gunfight Monday morning, according to Mexican news accounts.
The shootout took place at about 0730 hrs between the communities of Buenavista de Trujillo and San Cristobal in Fresnillo, where state police agents observed the drivers of two trucks take evasive maneuvers when they saw the police, prompting at attempt at a traffic stop.
The drivers then attempted to flee, prompting a pursuit and an exchange of gunfire.
Reads almost like the RAB...
Previous versions of the story were that agents had detained an unidentified Los Zetas Valapraiso cell leader, and that the appearance of several armed suspects was an attempt to free the leader. That version was not denied by Zacatecas attorney general, Arturo Nahle Garcia however, subsequent reports from Zacatecas do not refer to the arrest. Arturo Nahle Garcia said an arrest had been made, and that several suspects did attack state police agents.
A version of the story published Monday afternoon by El Diario de Coahuila news daily was that when the state police agents were intercepted, they called for backup and that a Polica Federal road patrol unit showed up to provide relief.
After the gunfight, a total of eight suspects were detained: Martin Hernandez Torres, AKA El Mongo, 35, Inocencio Pizaña Ramirez, 25, Everardo Daniel Casanova Mejia, 21, Hidalgo Jerez Cajbon Caal, 18, Eduardo Ramirez Arteaga, 37, Marcos Ivan Bojorquez Corona, 25 José Ordaz Razcoc, 31 and Domingo Beb Caal, 39.
All the detainees are from Guatemala, according to El Sol de Zacatecas news daily.
Materiel seized in the aftermath include: 87 weapons magazines, 2,156 rounds of ammunition, 63 "stars", communications and tactical gear, and two vehicles: a Dodge Double Cab pickup truck and a Cadillac Escalade SUV, both reported stolen. El Diario de Coahuila reported six rifles and a rocket launcher was also seized following the confrontation.
BAGHDAD: Iraqs embattled Sunni vice president on Monday slammed government charges that he ran death squads as politically motivated and called on all honest Iraqi people to rise up in his defense.
In a half-hour speech, Tariq Al-Hashemi vigorously defended himself against charges that he said were based on coerced statements. He also questioned why he was being singled out by the Shiite-led government, noting that many insurgents and militias are still free after killing thousands of people in the years Iraq teetered on the brink of civil war.
His comments starkly underscored the divisive sectarian tensions the case has injected into Baghdads already turbulent political system. The charges are politically motivated, Al-Hashemi said in the speech broadcast from the northern Iraqi city of Irbil, where he has sought haven from arrest in the autonomous Kurdish region. The aim has become very clear: to tarnish the political picture by using lies, forgery and deceit.
I have no suspicious activities, he said. This is the truth and anything other than that is false.
Last week, a judicial panel in Baghdad concluded that Al-Hashemi was behind at least 150 bombings and assassinations since 2005. The conclusions stemmed from a review of a December warrant for Al-Hashemis arrest accusing him of paying his bodyguards $3,000 to kill security forces and government officials. At the time, state TV broadcast television footage showing purported confessions by men said to be Al-Hashemis bodyguards.
On Monday, Al-Hashemi said his bodyguards were tortured into giving the confessions, and still have been unable to see lawyers in the case. We have pictures of bruises on their faces and bodies, Al-Hashemi said.
He lashed out at the judicial panel, which was appointed by Iraqs highest court to investigate the charges. The panels results arent legally binding but they have been passed along to a criminal court which could choose to charge Al-Hashemi with even more crimes. The panel touted its findings as the first independent review of Al-Hashemis case, but critics and some experts said its judges were named by officials sympathetic to Al-Maliki.
Our judicial system is still working to satisfy some influential people, said Al-Hashemi, who is Al-Malikis longtime political foe.
Al-Hashemi also called on Iraqis to stand behind him and reject the charges, although he did not specifically call for demonstrations or other specific displays of support.
The issue of Al-Hashemi is the issue of every citizen who does not tolerate humiliation and who rejects oppression, the vice president said. Confronting the conspiracy against Al-Hashemi and defending him has become an obligation and a duty that must be carried out by all honest Iraqi people hoping for a country clear of injustice and corruption.
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02/21/2012
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SEOUL: South Korea conducted live-fire military drills near its disputed sea boundary with North Korea on Monday despite Pyongyangs threat to respond with a merciless attack a threat it did not immediately make good on.
Analysts said North Korea was unlikely to respond with more than words because it is focusing on internal stability two months after the death of leader Kim Jong Il. North Korea is also days away from its first nuclear disarmament talks with the US since Kims death.
Washington and North Koreas neighbors are closely watching how Suet Face Kim Jong Un, Kim Jong Ils son and successor, navigates strained ties with rival South Korea and a long-running standoff over the countrys nuclear weapons programs. In another potential point of tension, US forces will be conducting annual military exercises with ally South Korea over the next few months.
South Koreas drills took place Monday in an area of the Yellow Sea that was the target of a North Korean artillery attack in 2010 that killed four South Koreans and raised fears of a wider conflict. North Korea didnt threaten similar South Korean firing drills in the area in January, but it called the latest exercise a premeditated military provocation and warned it would retaliate for an attack on its territory.
A North Korean officer told an Associated Press staffer in Pyongyang on Sunday that North Koreans would respond to any provocation with merciless retaliatory strikes.
North Korea is fully prepared for a total war, and the drills will lead to a complete collapse of ties between the Koreas, the Norths Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a statement carried Monday by the official Korean Central News Agency.
Such rhetoric has been typical of North Korean media in the past.
Later Monday, South Korean troops on five islands near the disputed sea boundary fired artillery into waters southward, away from nearby North Korea, a South Korean Defense Ministry official said on condition of anonymity, citing department rules.
North Koreas military maintained increased vigilance during Mondays drills, which ended after about two hours, though Seoul saw nothing suspicious, a South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff officer said on condition of anonymity, citing department rules.
South Korean military officials said they were ready to repel any attack. Residents on the front-line islands were asked to go to underground shelters before the drills started, according to South Korean officials.
A series of military exercises between the United States and South Korea will extend over more than two months. Seoul and Washington say their long-planned annual drills are defensive in nature, but North Korea calls them preparation for an invasion.
South Korea began joint anti-submarine drills Monday with the United States, but the training site is farther south from the disputed sea boundary, South Korean military officials said. About 28,500 US troops are stationed in South Korea as what US and South Korean officials call deterrence against North Korean aggression.
South Korean and US troops will start 12 days of largely computer-simulated war games next week, and two months of field training drills in early March.
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#1
ION WMF > "NEW CHINA PRESS" JAPAN: CHINA TO "PURCHASE" US OKINAWA BASE AT KADENA? MANY CHINESE BUYING UP LAND AROUND KADENA FROM JAPANESE OR OKINAWAN OWNERS. EXAMPLE FOR CHINESE TO DO SAME TO OTHER OKINAWA BASES?
Perhaps the ultimate threat to South Korea from the North - Nippon economically surrendering to DPRK overlord China's $$$ "threat".
Two Iranian warships have docked at the Syrian port of Tartus, state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
reported on Monday, adding that their crew would be training Syrian sailors.
"The two ships, one which is a supply vessel and the other a destroyer have docked in Tartus, a port city north west of Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... , and as per a bilateral agreement they will be involved in training the Syrian navy," the report said, without indicating when the vessels went into port.
Iran's navy chief, Admiral Habibollah Sayari, said on Saturday that Iranian ships "have passed through the Suez Canal for the second time since the (1979) Islamic Revolution."
Their passage was to show Iran's military "might," he said, without giving details of their mission.
On Monday, Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said the transit of the two ships through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean "is a symbol of our nation's marine capability."
"The presence of Iranian warships in the high seas is Iran's natural right," Vahidi was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.
#1
just what the Syrian military needs right now - naval power. Hopefully the training will cover "abandon ship."
Pretty lame destroyer by the way. Using faux destroyers that are really corvettes as a show of force is not very impressive to anyone except primitive screw-heads. Hard to explain the heroic end what to two of four ships in the corvette class as well.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/21/2012 0:43
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Iran's military announced on Monday it has launched four days of maneuvers in the south of the country aimed at boosting anti-air defenses protecting nuclear sites.
"These exercises aim to reinforce the integrated abilities of the country's anti-air defenses," said a statement from the Katem-ol-Anbia military air base coordinating Iran's anti-air and ballistic missile systems.
Missiles, anti-aircraft artillery, radars and warplanes were being deployed, it said.
The declaration, reported by the official news agency IRNA, came as officials from the U.N. nuclear watchdog were holding talks in Tehran on Iran's suspect nuclear program which has unsettled the West and Israel.
It also coincided with increasing speculation that Israel was mulling air strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities.
"These maneuvers aim to reinforce the coordination between the military and the Revolutionary Guards for a total coverage of the country's sensitive facilities, especially nuclear sites," the statement said.
The exercises, named "Sarollah" (a word borrowed from Arabic meaning "God's vengeance"), covered a zone of 190,000 square kilometers in southern Iran, it said.
The protests that took place over the past two days in Damascus' Al Maza neighborhood have turned the Syrian capital - especially its heated neighborhoods - into a besieged and closed-in zone. According to reports by activists of the Syrian opposition, numerous security forces have been streaming into the capital, dozens of barriers have been erected in some of the main streets, and "there's a sense of war in the city."
There were severe shortages of electricity in Homs and Damascus after large generators that were supplying the cities with electricity were damaged either by bombardments of the Syrian army or by sabotage. In Damascus there is talk of insane price rises of 50%-80% on basic goods, hawkers -- who were once removed from the streets by police -- have opened improvised stalls to replace licensed stores, skyrocketing gas prices have caused increased taxi fares, and even the Iranian tourists who once visited holy sites for Shi'as in Damascus have stopped coming in light of the recommendations of the Iranian immigration authorities, who blamed the ban on Syria's dilapidated security situation.
Syrians sense war in Damascus while Assad tries to score points
Syrians report electricity shortages in Homs and Damascus, as Syrian President Bashar Assad tries minimizing pressure by a referendum on changes to the constitution that do not satisfy the opposition.
The protests that took place over the past two days in Damascus' Al Maza neighborhood have turned the Syrian capital - especially its heated neighborhoods - into a besieged and closed-in zone. According to reports by activists of the Syrian opposition, numerous security forces have been streaming into the capital, dozens of barriers have been erected in some of the main streets, and "there's a sense of war in the city."
Nonetheless, there is not yet talk of crowds bursting into the streets of Damascus. There are concerns that the Syrian army intends to "conquer" the city of Homs after explosions in the neighborhood of Baba Amar failed to suppress protesters, and in light of the shots that could be heard this morning, while clashes took place in the cities of Daraa, Hama and Idlib.
There were severe shortages of electricity in Homs and Damascus after large generators that were supplying the cities with electricity were damaged either by bombardments of the Syrian army or by sabotage. In Damascus there is talk of insane price rises of 50%-80% on basic goods, hawkers -- who were once removed from the streets by police -- have opened improvised stalls to replace licensed stores, skyrocketing gas prices have caused increased taxi fares, and even the Iranian tourists who once visited holy sites for Shi'as in Damascus have stopped coming in light of the recommendations of the Iranian immigration authorities, who blamed the ban on Syria's dilapidated security situation.
In the meantime, Arab diplomatic pressure is building up on Syria.
Despite all that, the Syrian regime still does not appear to be retreating, nor willing to cease the attacks on its citizens. Official Syrian media are reporting that the government is offering relief for loaners by retracting fines on late repayments, offering extended hours of free electricity, offering new housing projects as well as tax breaks for university students. This Sunday, Assad is expected to hold a referendum over changes to the constitution, which include, among other things, cancelation of the monopoly of the Baath party and limits to the tenure of the president to two terms of seven years. Assad will request to use the referendum and new constitution to prove how serious his intentions are to apply reforms, and in doing so, also try to convince at least some of the Arab states to remove the sanctions imposed on Syria, while giving Russia and China "ammunition" to continue supporting him.
#1
See also TOPIX > ASSAD: SYRIA FACING [dedicated foreign/external] ATTEMPTS TO DIVIDE IT.
and
* SAME > IRAN RAID SEEN AS HUGE TASK FOR ISRAELI JETS.
* SAME > SOUTH CAUCASUS NATIONS FEAR IRAN-ISRAEL [US-Iran] WAR.
Azerbaijan = fears Iran invasion, Georgia = caught in the middle be it US-vs-Iran or US-vs-Russia, + Armenia = desires to preserve Iran diploamtic ties.
KHARTOUM - A rebel group in Sudan's Darfur region said on Monday it has released 49 international peacekeepers it had captured earlier.
"All peacekeepers are free but we are holding three Sudanese accompanying them," said a front man for the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).
The rebels had earlier on Monday said they had captured 52 international UNAMID peacekeepers.
A spokeswoman for UNAMID said the peacekeepers had been allowed to leave but they were staying in the area in north-western Darfur since they did not want to leave three jugged civilians behind.
As usual, use your own judgement on how much of this is Israeli psyops and how much is real.
After a high-ranking US delegation headed by White House National Security Adviser Tom Donilon failed in three days of tough talks (Feb.18-20) to dissuade Israeli leaders to back off plans for a military strike against Iran's nuclear sites, the White House invited Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for talks with President Barak Obama on March 5. He will try and break the stalemate which ended his advisers' talks with Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz.
After all, we all know how persuasive Bambi is. Look at how he's changed behavior all around the world...
The defense minister, addressing his Independence Party later Monday praised Israel's security relations with the US as very good and very important for a strong Israel. The dialogue between the two governments, he said, is marked by openness, mutual respect, understanding and attentiveness. At the same time, Barak hinted at discord by adding, "Both are sovereign nations which are ultimately responsible for their decisions in relation to themselves and their future."
Continued on Page 49
#2
MIL FORUM POSTERS = opine that there is "NO WAY" THAT IRAN CAN PULL OFF ANY POST-INVASION "VIETNAM" STYLE OF ANTI-US/COALITION/ UNCOM ARMED RESISTANCE unless Mama Russia is willing to risk the destabilization of the Stans + Caucasus vee Iran-led BASIJ, MIL OPS CONDUCTED FROM ITS NEIGHBORS' TERRITORIES.
Even iff most or all the ex-Soviet Muslim Stans say "Yes" to Iran as per anti-US, the betting pool is on Mama Russia saying "No" + backing it up wid the threat of mil intervention vee the Russian Armed Forces.
#3
Is there anyone *more* unlikely to convince Netanyahu of anything than our Pres, given their history?
No one with half a brain thinks sanctions are going to work. If I were playing a deep game, I would use these "failed talks" as leverage to move the Iranians. Hey, we tried, but can't talk no sense to them crazy Juices. You know how they are. We can't hold 'em back...
#6
Obama is looking for denyability. Irael will be blamed anyway if they do what has to be done. The US is kind of chicken-shitting this, in my opinion. Better to provide the political cover and any assistance the Israeli's need.
Hell we should have been building a (real or fictious) Iranian exile army for the past decade or so. Take some tomcats out of mothballs and paint them up. Put them into the mix to confuse things.
Iraq's runaway Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi said his bodyguards and other employees are being held in secret prisons and subjected to torture, in an interview broadcast on Monday.
Authorities have charged Hashemi, a Sunni, with running a death squad. He has been hiding out since December in the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, where the authorities have so far declined to hand him over.
However, a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all... members of his bodyguard and employees of his office have been jugged in connection with the case.
"All the nabbed people from my bodyguards and the employees of my office are being held in secret prisons over which the ministry of justice has no authority, and confessions are being taken from them through torture," Hashemi said in the speech, which was broadcast on various Iraqi channels.
"We have pictures and evidence proving that the bodyguards were tortured, physically and psychologically," Hashemi said.
Alleged confessions by Hashemi's guards have been broadcast on television.
Hashemi also called on Iraqis "not to believe what the front man of the Higher Judicial Council said regarding the accusations."
The Higher Judicial Council "became a partner in influencing public opinion" over a case that should be investigated in secret, he charged.
Hashemi said he wants "to appear in front of a fair judicial system, and in circumstances that can lead to the truth."
The judicial council's front man, Abdul Sattar Birakdar, has said "there are more than 150 crimes mentioned in the confessions of Hashemi's bodyguards" and called on Kurdistan authorities "to move to hand over the vice president."
In a joint letter with 11 other conservative leaders, the Prime Minister urges greater labour mobility within the European Union to help people move abroad to places with the best job opportunities.
Mr Cameron has claimed that mass immigration in Britain has led to discomfort and promised voters that he will bring immigration down to the tens of thousands.
Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers from Eastern Europe have settled in Britain since countries such as Poland joined the European Union.
However, Mr Cameron is now leading a coalition of countries claiming that Europe should have a more integrated open labour market.
The European leaders, including the prime ministers of Italy, Ireland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Latvia, want migrants to settle where there are jobs amid high unemployment rates across the continent.
#3
Trading changing a few diapers for having tons of drinks and fun in your twenties just isn't in the Euro genome any more, even if it means extinction.
No kids = this sort of thing.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
02/21/2012 5:37
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#4
Intra-European labor exchange is actually a good thing for the Europeans: it gets the motivated Europeans into the countries that need the labor to get the drab work done. And it keeps the Labour/Social Democrat parties in Europe from bringing in hundreds of Muslim Third World stealth jihadists to do the same work. Other than Albania and Bosnia, there are not major European native Muslim populations, and the Albanians and Bosnians have demonstrated little tolerance for the radical mullah types in their countries. UNLIKE all of Arab North Africa.
KARACHI: Armed clash between two tribes over a piece of land in Bin Qasim, on Monday left over half a dozen people including two women injured, giving Bin Qasim police who controlled the situation in almost an hour, a tough time.
SHO Hazoor Bux Solangi said the two groups of Bugti tribe in Behram Bugti Goth of Bin Qasim town had a longstanding dispute over a piece of land and both sides claimed its ownership. The situation turned ugly when one of the groups deployed its gunnies on a particular piece of land and it was taken as a forceful attempt to encroach by its rivals. He further said men from both sides went into a heated debate that led to a scuffle.
In the meantime, someone fired shots in the air, which sparked panic at both sides, and they started shooting at each other, he added. Luckily, only one man received a bullet and all others were maimed by stones and batons lash. SHO Solangi said both sides denied firing first and blamed the other side for triggering the armed clash. The police claimed to have jugged a total of eleven suspects from both sides and recovered two TT pistols.
An official informed that the man maimed by bullet has been identified as Amanullah. Police shifted all injured to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medical treatment whereas case could not be registered till filing of this report.
Reports are appearing about unrest and signs of a possible awakening of Mt Fuji volcano in Japan. According to a report which includes an unclear photo of the area, a row of new craters, the largest 50 m in diameter, has appeared on the eastern flank of the volcano at 2200 m elevation. Steam was observed erupting from these vents.
The observation joins other signs suggesting a gradual reawakening: A swarm of earthquakes including 4 of magnitude 5 have occurred northeast of Mt Fuji on and after 28 January. An earlier 6.4M quake occurred under the volcano on 15 March 2011. The report also mentions increased activity from a fumarole vent at 1500 m elevation and hot spring areas at the eastern flank observed since 2003.
These locations seem to be aligned geographically, and are probably connected. Dr. Masaaki Kimura of Ryukyu University is quoted to admit that there is an increased risk of and eruption on the eastern flank and that the status of the volcano should be closely monitored.
On Feb. 12, Henrique Capriles Radonski, a 39-year-old Venezuelan state governor, won a primary election to become the oppositions candidate against Hugo Chavez in Octobers presidential election. He won 1.8 million of an astonishing 3 million votes double the turnout predicted by most analysts.
The next day, Capriles, a devout Catholic, was greeted by a commentary on the government-run Web site of Venezuelan National Radio titled The Enemy Is Zionism. Capriles, it explained, is the descendant of Jews. (In fact, his grandmother was a Holocaust survivor who emigrated from Poland to Venezuela.)
Thus began the latest and what will surely be the ugliest political campaign by Chavez, a ruler who has served as a friend in need to Moammar Gaddafi, Bashar al-Assad and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and who now is facing his own homegrown democratic uprising.
Algeria has uncovered a large cache of weapons believed to originate from Libya, including dozens of shoulder-held missiles that can be used to shoot down airliners, newspapers said Monday.
According to the French-speaking el-Watan, 15 SA-24 and 28 SAM-7 Russian-made man-portable surface-to-air missiles were found at a location in the southern desert called In Amenas. Such missiles require no specific training to operate and maintain and can be used to shoot down planes or helicopters in mid-air, the newspaper said.
The cache, 43 kilometers from the Libyan border, also included large amounts of ammunition. The weapons were buried in the sand and discovered at an unspecified date thanks to information provided by smugglers operating in the area.
"SAM-7 missiles are a serious threat to civil aviation. They can strike aircrafts flying at an altitude of 11,000 to 13,000 feet," el-Watan said, quoting an anonymous official. "It's a threat to planes landing and taking off from the region's airports, notably the Zarzaitine airport in In Amenas."
Algerian and other officials have repeatedly voiced concern that the chaos in Libya last year had scattered slain leader Muammar Qadaffy ... who is now deader than a rock... 's considerable arsenal across the region.
According to the Ennahar daily, the new Libyan government's defense ministry has handed over maps retrieved from the ousted regime's offices showing the location of weapons caches in Algeria. Qadaffy, who was killed in October shortly after Western-backed rebels toppled his regime, had allegedly hidden away more weapons in Mali and Niger in anticipation for a long battle to reconquering power, the paper said.
Ennahar, quoting another unnamed official, said Algiers has reportedly agreed to hand the weapons back to Libya.
CAIRO - The Moslem Brüderbund on Monday voiced its strongest criticism yet of Egypt's army-appointed government, saying it was failing to deal with crises in security and the economy, and reiterating a call for a new national unity cabinet.
The Freedom and Justice Party, the Brotherhood's political wing and the biggest group in the newly elected parliament, also stated its opposition to the government's request for a new World Bank loan.
"Egypt is suffering from escalating economic and security crises which confirm the failure of the government," the FJP said in a wide-ranging statement on domestic and foreign policy issues. "There is a desire that has become clear to export more crises to any future government."
Brotherhood leaders have this month made repeated calls for a new coalition government representing the parties in parliament. The existing cabinet is led by Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri, a 79-year-old who served in the post under Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... and was appointed by the military council in November.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/21/2012
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#1
Translation: The Moslem Brotherhood wants the power.
Some of the biggest winds in the world blow through the stormy South Atlantic, but none stormier than the political hyperbole that's sweeping through the region lately. It's just 30 years since the Falkland Islands war that took 900 young lives and saved the government of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher while bringing down one of South America's foulest military dictatorships. All this for possession of some 770 chilly islands totaling about half the area of Los Angeles County and with about the same year-round population (3,200) as Santa Catalina Island. Not counting seals, albatrosses, penguins and about 500,000 sheep.
#3
The UK has owned it longer than living memory. How long must one possess a piece of land before we start to laugh off other claims? Every chunk of land goes back to someone. We are a migrating conquering species.
The entire AngloSphere should shut down our embassies in Argentina until they end this idiocy. If it all happened on one day, or a cascading effect of a few a day for a week it would send a powerful message.
* DPC leaders warn against resumption of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... supplies
* Condemn US Congress resolution on Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... ISLAMABAD: The Difa-e-Pakistain Council (DPC) on Monday staged a sit-in the federal capital to condemn a US Congress bill on Balochistan, terming it a direct interference in Pakistain's affairs.
Speaking on the occasion, the leaders of the DPC expressed solidarity with the people of Balochistan and vowed that they would take them into confidence. An All-Parties Conference on Balochistan will be held in Quetta on February 27 in which at least 30 political parties would participate, they said.
Three prominent leaders of the DPC, Jamaat-ud-Dawa ...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba... chief Hafiz Saeed ...founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba and its false-mustache offshoot Jamaat-ud-Dawa. The United Nations declared the JuD a terrorist organization in 2008 and Hafiz Saeed a terrorist as its leader. Hafiz, JuD and LeT are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Pak intel apparatus, so that amounted to squat... , Maulana Ahmed Ludhianwi and Dr Khadim Hussain Dhillon did not participate in the sit-in.
According to leaders, the decision was taken to avoid any clash with the government as DPC is purely non-political and peaceful council, aiming at to defend the country on cultural, geographical and ideological basis.
DPC Chairman Maulana Samiul Haq said that the council was working on a three-point agenda; to defend the country from internal and external threats, to safeguard borders of the country and to struggle to transform Pakistain into a welfare state.
"The people gathered at Aabpara Chowk are against the possible resumption of NATO supplies, US and Indian occupation hegemony and to strengthen the country's defence," he asserted.
Condemning the bill moved in the US Congress, he claimed that the US intended to disintegrate Pakistain.
The DPC, comprised of 40 politico-religious parties, was formed after a NATO strike on a border post in Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... Agency that killed 24 soldiers. Since then, the DPC has organised a series of rallies across the country in which it has targeted US and India. However, there's more than one way to stuff a chicken... it is perceived to have been formed in response to the US threats to halt the millions of dollars in economic and military aid for the country.
According to reports, at least 3,500 people attended the rally in the harsh cold weather.
Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... chief Syed Munawar Hussan condemned Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtar's statement regarding aerial permission for NATO supplies on "humanitarian grounds". Hassan said that Mukhtar had never condemned drone attacks being carried out by NATO on innocent people of FATA.
He said the APC was being organised to express solidarity with the people of Balochistan. "Pakistain belongs to the people of Balochistan and the province was an integral part of Pakistain," he asserted.
"US long had designs to capture Moslem world's resources, and is hatching conspiracies against the illusory sovereignty and solidarity of the country and wants to usurp Balochistan's natural resources," he maintained. The JI chief said the US was facing a defeat in Afghanistan against Taliban and their economy was facing a collapse due to this war.
Hassan claimed, "The US wants to create anarchy in the country and is creating fears about our nuclear assets falling in the hands of beturbanned goons."
He also alleged that President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... was following the US policies, adding military operations against the countrymen are also being conducted on Washington's orders.
The JI chief alleged that the ANP government was taking dollars from the US against its cooperation. He also expressed solidarity with missing persons and said Punjab government was proving to be a silent spectator in this regard.
"The Pak nation will not allow the resumption of supplies to NATO troops in Afghanistan. If the rulers side with US aggression, the nation will rise against them," he warned.
SANAA: Iran is becoming more active in Yemen and could pose a deeper threat to its stability and security, the US envoy to Yemen said on Monday, highlighting what would be yet another layer of uncertainty in a near-failed state.
US Ambassador Gerald Feiersteins warning is likely to reinforce long-held fears among Sunni Gulf monarchies that Shiite Muslim power Iran is trying exploit regional unrest.
We do see Iran trying to increase its presence here, in ways that we believe are unhelpful to Yemens stability and security, Feierstein said in an interview one day before Yemenis head to the polls to elect a new president to replace Ali Abdullah Saleh, ending his three decades in power.
I think that we are seeing increasing Iranian outreach to various actors, Feierstein said.
The northern Houthi rebels, who draw their name from a tribal leader, control Saada province bordering Saudi Arabia, which intervened military in Yemen in 2009. There is ongoing fighting between the Houthis, who are members of the Zaydi branch of Shiite Islam, and Salafis - Sunni Muslims whose puritanical creed mirrors doctrines widespread in Saudi Arabia, and classes Shiites as heretics.
We do definitely see a rise in Iranian finance, efforts on the part of Iran to increase its influence not only with Zaydi Shia elements but with Sunni elements as well, Feierstein said.
We do think that we have evidence of Iranian activities that will build up military capabilities as well. Its a relatively recent phenomenon, Iran is taking advantage of this period of political instability and loss of government control over large parts of the country.
The US Ambassador also said that while there were signs that the Houthis were willing to engage in dialogue to bring some stability to the country, the group was also expanding its territory.
But were also concerned about conflicts between Houthis and others in the north and a fairly aggressive effort on their part to expand their territory and their control and so we hope that through this process of national dialogue they will engage politically and work in a positive way that will end this conflict.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/21/2012
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#1
Iran must see itself as a Neo-Soviet player on the world stage. It is in a way. A way that is sort of crappy, second-rate and in need of a breath mint. By crappy, I mean crappy as compared to the Soviet Union which was crappy itself.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/21/2012 0:16
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#2
People need to pay attention to the religious doctrine of the Iranian nut jobs that are now in power. They believe they can precipitate the coming of the Mahdi. Learn about the prophesy they believe to be true. Their goal is the taking over of the holy cities of Saudi Arabia. Their prophesy speaks of an Army from the South (Yemen?) and an Army from the North (Iraq/Syria) converging on Saudi Arabia.
They believe that if they create the conditions mentioned in the prophesy, they can cause the Mahdi to appear. It would be like a Christian who believes that if they create the conditions written about in Revelations, they can precipitate the second coming.
These people are crazy, it would do us well to listen to what they are saying as they believe it.
#4
IIRC see also STRATEGYPAGE > SAUDI SHIA SUPPRESSED.
All of the Saudi Govt's = Royal Family's new or expanded Public Benefits for Muslims isn't enuff to placate or replace Shia-perceived Govt + Sunni PERSECUTION, DISCRIMINATION, + MISSING RIGHTS, ETC. AS MUSLIMS.
A delegation from Hizbullah held talks on Monday with Sunni Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani on the various local and regional developments.
The Mufti stressed after the talks the need to "fortify Leb against the developments in the region."
The delegation included Sheikh Abdul Majid Ammar and former MPs Amin Sherri and Mohammed Saleh.
Qabbani stressed the importance of dialogue to resolve disputes, in addition to Islamic and national unity to thwart strife. "All sides should adhere to the state and its institutions and ease the concerns of all parties," he noted.
"Wise political rhetoric should be adopted because it will reflect positively on the people and alleviate sectarian tensions," he continued.
For his part, Ammar reiterated the Mufti's statements that Leb should be fortified against the developments in the region. "We were in agreement on the need to bolster Islamic and national unity to confront all challenges."
"We should therefore cooperate in order to support security and stability in Leb to allow it to avert the repercussions of the regional developments," he remarked.
"We don't consider Leb to be an open ground for foreign powers," he said.
"Hizbullah seeks to maintain contact with all sides ... and we do not fear the eruption of Sunni-Shiite strife," added Ammar.
Two warships that Iran sent last week to the Mediterranean, arrived in the Syrian port of Tartus for a mission of "training" with the Syrian navy, reported Monday an Iranian TV channel. These two ships, the destroyer Naghdi and tanker Kharg , "should participate training with Syrian navy under the agreement [of military cooperation] " between Tehran and Damascus, said the report. It gave no details on the nature of this "training" .
However, Egyptian security sources and members of the Syrian opposition are claiming that the two ships docked off the Syrian coast are equipped with "military communications jamming devices that are disrupting communications made by the Syrian opposition via satellite," the London-based newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reported Monday.
#1
I guess jamming capability is possible on a corvette from the 60's and an oiler from the 80"s. Seems unlikely to me. Why not throw the equipment on a truck and drive it to where it will be used.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/21/2012 0:30
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#2
More liklihood that they are early warning and ADA platforms for Iran to cover one of the air corridors for the upcoming strike. Perhaps the air tanker corridor for the returning strike aircraft. In any case, when the strike comes, they are probably toast.
#3
Interesting thought. In that scenario the Israelis would have to take these ships out very early. No matter how they did it, the Iranians would know something is coming their way.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/21/2012 7:44
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#4
I understand accidents happen in that part of the world all the time.
Iraq's interior ministry said on Monday its forces had fended off "smugglers and infiltrators" trying to cross the border from Syria.
"Border guards were able to fend off groups of smugglers and infiltrators who were trying to cross the border from Syria into Iraq," a statement on the ministry's website said, without specifying when this occurred.
The guards forced the groups to retreat into Syria, the statement said, adding that the incidents took place in areas of Nineveh province.
Welcome news though a few years late...
A statement released on Saturday by the Iraqi premier's office said Iraq is taking measures to secure its border with Syria against weapons smuggling and the unauthorized movement of people.
Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... has been carrying out a bloody crackdown on an uprising against his rule, in which activists say more than 6,000 people have been killed since March 2011.
While there are still regular civilian protests that turn deadly in Syria, the focus has now also shifted to armed conflict with regime forces.
Iraq's interior minister said in an interview with Agence La Belle France Presse that jihadists were moving from Iraq to Syria and arms are also being smuggled across the border to opponents of Assad's regime.
Heres the paradox the documentaries have overlooked so far: The most palpable legacy of the WikiLeaks campaign for transparency is that the U.S. government is more secretive than ever.
The Obama administration has been much more aggressive than its predecessors in pursuing and punishing leakers. The latest case, the arrest last month of John Kiriakou, a former C.I.A. terrorist-hunter accused of telling journalists the names of colleagues who participated in the waterboarding of Qaeda suspects, is symptomatic of the crackdown. It is this administrations sixth criminal case against an official for confiding to the media, more than all previous presidents combined.
From the New York Times, no less.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/21/2012 6:11
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#3
The latest case, the arrest last month of John Kiriakou, a former C.I.A. terrorist-hunter accused of telling journalists the names of colleagues who participated in the waterboarding of Qaeda suspects, is symptomatic of the crackdown.
This Kerry aide gave out the real name of the guy who waterboarded Abu Zubaydah in Thailand. It should be interesting to see whether this vainglorious tool gets a less severe sentence than Scooter Libby.
QUETTA: Unidentified persons blew up an 8-inch diameter gas pipeline in the Pirkoh area of Dera Bugti on Monday. According to official sources, an bomb was attached to gas pipeline, which was later detonated. As a result, gas supply from well No15 to purification plant was suspended. A heavy contingent of security forces reached the spot and cordoned off the area. Repair to damaged pipeline was started soon after the incident. A manhunt to arrest the culprits has been launched in the area.
A foreshadowing of the fun and games to come, should the pipeline from Iran actually be built.
Bangkok Police believe that a number of stickers bearing the word "Sejeal" found posted along a road in the city may have been used by the Iranian men tossed in the calaboose in a terror plot last week to mark potential targets, the Bangkok Post reported on Monday.
The stickers were found posted at 52 locations along a road which leads to the Israeli embassy in Bangkok and is frequented by Israeli officials. Similar stickers were found at the house where a blast occurred last week, believed to be a work accident which took place while the suspects were planning a terror attack. The stickers were also discovered at another house linked to the suspects and under the seat of a cycle of violence believed to be the property of one of the suspects.
According to the report, the word written on the stickers, "sejeal," may refer to a passage in the Koran. Paleostinians snuffies have referred to their rockets and mortar shells as "sejeal stones," referencing the Koran passage.
The Bangkok Post added that Thai police were planning to seek an arrest warrant for a sixth suspect believed to be involved in the terror plot. An official said that the suspect is believed to have left Thailand for Iran already.
More than 500,000 people were allowed into Britain unchecked due to the repeated suspension of vital checks, opening up an "unacceptable" breach in the country's defences against terrorists and criminals, an official investigation has found.
At times immigration staff acted potentially illegally by relaxing the supervision of travellers entering this country at least 15,000 times in the last five years, John Vine, the independent inspector of the Border Agency, found.
This was the Labour plan to hold power for a long time, by opening the doors and bringing in many new immigrants who would be grateful and vote for them.
Such was the confusion and mismanagement uncovered that Mr Vine raised concerns about security during the London Olympics.
His report, published yesterday afternoon, left Theresa May, the Home Secretary, facing fresh questions about her grip on border security and the Coalition's failure to get a grip on problems she claimed had began under Labour.
Labour accused her of "hiding from her responsibilities" by blaming her staff after figures showed the number of times that restrictions were relaxed increased significantly after the Coalition came to power in May 2010.
The staff being a lot of Labour hold-overs, I'm guessing...
Mr Vine last night said that ministers, senior officials and border staff must all share the blame for potential security breaches.
The 84-page report paints a picture of confusion, mismanagement and miscommunication.
"Overall, I found poor communication, poor managerial oversight and a lack of clarity about roles and responsibilities," he concluded.
Mrs May responded to the report by announcing that the UK Border Force would be split off from the UK Border Agency and made directly accountable to ministers. She also told MPs that the problems began under Labour.
"There is no getting away from the fact that UKBA, of which the Border Force is part, has been a troubled organisation since it was founded in 2008," she said.
However, Mr Vine's report suggested that relaxations of border checks have been more frequent and widespread under the Coalition.
#3
Yep, allowing all those German tribe across the Rhine into the Roman Empire worked out OK for someone.
We could take up a collection to promote repatriation of former inhabitants of the Roman province of Hispania if a projection of a population shortage is an issue.
It may not be the equivalent of the Iranian Hostage Crisis of 1979-81 or the subsequent seizures of American citizens in Lebanon, but the Obama administration has a hostage crisis of sorts on its hands, and how it handles it will be of considerable importance not only to the presidents standing but the countrys.
Kabul - The Afghan government said on Monday that police had rescued 41 children from becoming jacket wallahs as they were about to be smuggled across the mountains into Pakistain.
And as usual, the news is brought to us by some third-line MSM agency and not the New York Times...
To be fair, we rarely check to see what the New York Times reports -- while they have a few outstanding journalists on their payroll, the majority seem to see themselves as paid propagandists.
Interior ministry spokesperson Sediq Sediqqi told a news conference that the children aged six to 11 had been released on February 15 from the clutches of four gun-hung tough guys in eastern Kunar province ... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country..... He told AFP their families "were fooled by terrorists", who promised to send them to seminaries in Pakistain where they would be "brainwashed" and "prepared for suicide kabooms against Afghan and international troops in Afghanistan".
Police set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock the four suspects and the children were returned to their families, the spokesperson said.
The Afghan government has accused madrassas in Pakistain of teaching violent extremism and sponsoring Islamist violence, a legacy of Afghanistan's 1979-89 US and Pak-sponsored mujahideen uprising against Soviet troops.
On February 12, Afghan authorities announced the arrest of two 10-year-old would-be suicide bombers allegedly planning to attack Afghan and international forces in the southern province of Kandahar, the Taliban's birthplace.
They had been reportedly released last August, along with 18 other children, after receiving a pardon from Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... The Taliban, which is leading a 10-year insurgency against Karzai's government and 130 000 US-led foreign troops, have reportedly used children and teenagers to conduct attacks on security forces.
Yemen's future president Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi has pledged to southern separatists and northern rebels that he will address their concerns, as fears mounted over election boycotts and escalating vote-related violence.
Both the separatist Southern Movement and the northern Iranian catspaws are boycotting Tuesday's presidential vote, and attacks on polling stations and festivities between troops and anti-election protesters in the south have raised fears that polling day could be marred by violence.
Hadi in a televised speech late on Sunday said "dialogue and only dialogue" can resolve these long-standing conflicts.
"The southern issue and its implications, and what happened, and what is still happening in Saada (the rebel stronghold in the north), must be given priority ... and must be addressed with an open heart and without prejudice," he said.
Interior Minister Abdul Qader Qahtan also tried to reassure voters. "We have taken preventive measures to deal with groups that want to block people from carrying out their electoral duty," he told news hounds, urging a vote "for the security and stability of Yemen."
Escalating poll-related violence on Monday left one soldier dead and another maimed as troops clashed with separatists at a checkpoint in Yemen's southern Daleh province, a military official told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Seven armed protesters, chanting "revolution in the south" were maimed in the exchange of fire, a Southern Movement member told AFP. Troop reinforcements and dozens of armored vehicles arrived in the southern port city of Aden late Sunday, security officials said.
The deployment came as Death Eaters in the southeast province of Shabwa seized a polling station, triggering festivities with security forces who fired tear gas and live ammunition to force their retreat, witnesses and activists said. No serious injuries were reported.
Earlier, troops and separatists exchanged fire in Aden's Mansura neighborhood, a stronghold of the movement, where a mass protest against the poll was expected later on Monday.
A security official said police on Sunday and Monday carried out "arrest raids on armed hardliners" from the Southern Movement trying "by force to prevent citizens from participating in the elections."
"These elements are trying to create a state of fear among citizens by spreading rumors that February 21 will see acts of violence," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Hadi is the only candidate in Tuesday's poll,
How convenient. How democratic. The Kos Kiddies must be jealous...
a condition of the Gulf-brokered transition deal signed by outgoing President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... after months of protests and international pressure demanding his ouster.
Hadi will be president for an interim two years after which presidential elections and parliamentary elections will be held.
Which he'll win, because the new constitution will mandate it. Then he'll write another new constitution...
"It is every Yemeni's duty to vote, because only these elections can prevent wars and allow Yemen to enter a new phase," said Amine Haykal, a 28-year-old civil servant from Sanaa.
On Sunday Hadi, currently vice president, outlined his two-year plan, promising "radical reforms" and stressing the need to reunify the army. Hadi also pledged to fight al-Qaeda and its growing influence in the lawless south and eastern provinces where the Death Eaters have seized several towns in recent months.
In Zinjibar, scenic provincial capital of Abyan province, two soldiers were killed on Monday in festivities with al-Qaeda orcs, security officials said.
Troops have been battling the self-proclaimed Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law) in Zinjibar since last May when the cut-throats took most of the city.
In the north, Iranian catspaws, who have fought six wars with Saleh's regime since 1994, have also boycotted the poll, though they pledged to allow people to vote.
"The polling stations are open and working normally ... we are boycotting, we are not preventing" people from voting, Mohammed Abdul Salam, a front man for the Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates.... rebels, told AFP.
Mohammed Yahya, Chairman of the Electoral Commission, said 103,000 soldiers have been deployed to guard polling stations.
More than 12 million Yemenis are eligible to vote.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/21/2012
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#1
Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Lucille Bremer aka Rose Smith in "Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)" aka Sally Hessler in "Till the Clouds Roll By (1946)" aka Princess in 'This Heart of Mine' / Moy Ling in 'Limehouse Blues' in "Ziegfeld Follies (1945)" aka Kathy Lawrence in "Behind Locked Doors (1948)" aka Lady Bianca in "Adventures of Casanova (1948)" (Died in 1996 at age 79)
The Syrian National Council and other opposition groups will take part in an international conference on the Syrian crisis in Tunis on Friday, Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem said.
"The Syrian National Council and other opposition groups will be represented at the Tunis meeting," Abdessalem told news hounds after a meeting of foreign ministers from Mediterranean states in Rome.
Schools across the country took part in a Home Front readiness drill on Monday, held to practice emergency procedures in the event of an earthquake.
Colonel Efi Mashov of the Home Front Command said Sunday evening that the drill is part of this year's theme of preparing students for the case of an earthquake. Such natural disaster preparedness is important , he said, "because the more they practice the more they will be prepared in real life as well."
Those who were on the ground floors of the buildings were asked to evacuate and gather in outdoor areas, while those on higher floors were asked to gather in safe areas within the buildings.
A similar Home front drill was held at schools across the country last spring, to simulate not only an earthquake, but also a missile strike on the home front.
Violence killed 15 people across Syria on Monday as regime troops massed around Homs, sparking calls for women and kiddies to flee the besieged flashpoint city, as Iranian warships docked at the port of Tartus in a show of force.
The reported buildup came as Mediterranean states meeting in Rome agreed to preserve Syria's territorial integrity and avoid an "Iraqi scenario," according to Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem.
U.S. General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said any intervention in Syria would be "very difficult" and that it was "premature" to arm the opposition.
China's influential People's Daily warned that any Western support for the rebels would trigger a "large-scale civil war."
But, despite a weekend appeal by a visiting Chinese envoy for all sides to stop the violence, monitors said forces of embattled Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... targeted the central city of Homs for a 17th straight day.
Attacks on Homs killed nine out of the 15 people killed across Syria so far on Monday, according to reports by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and official state media.
Shelling of Baba Amr, the main rebel stronghold in Homs, killed five civilians, while another four died when rockets crashed into al-Malaab district, said the Britannia-based Observatory.
The official SANA news agency said a lieutenant colonel and a sergeant were killed in a clash between border guards and an "armed terrorist group" in Athraya, central Hama province.
Activists and state media reported at least 14 people were killed Sunday, adding to the more than 6,000 people who have died in the Assad regime's 11-month crackdown on dissent.
"Infantry troops arrived yesterday (Sunday) in Homs," Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told Agence La Belle France Presse on the telephone Monday.
A Homs-based activist voiced fears of an imminent attack on Baba Amr, the main rebel stronghold in the central city, speaking of "unprecedented military reinforcements coming from Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... "News has been leaked to us from army officers about a bloody attack that will burn everything in Baba Amr," Hadi Abdullah of the General Commission of the Syrian Revolution said Sunday.
"We were expecting the attack two nights ago, but it could have been just delayed because of the snowstorm," he said.
A day after saying Baba Amr was being hit at the rate of up to five rockets a minute, Abdullah on Monday demanded a safe passage to allow women and kiddies to leave the district.
"We want women and kiddies to be allowed to leave," he told AFP, adding that "people were suffering from the weather while their conditions are miserable."
Abdul Rahman was cautious about the timing of the expected attack.
"We do not know when the attack might happen," he said.
Elsewhere, two warships from Iran, a key backer of the Syrian regime, docked at the port of Tartus, Tehran's state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
reported on Monday, adding that their crew would train Syrian sailors.
Iran's navy chief, Admiral Habibollah Sayari, said on Saturday that the ships, a destroyer and supply vessel, had passed through the Suez Canal to show the Islamic republic's military "might."
In Damascus, regime forces remained on alert after two days of large and unexpected protests, and after a call for a "day of defiance" was observed in restive neighborhoods, according to activists.
"Following the surprising demonstrations (on Friday and Saturday), the regime is reconsidering its security measures," in the capital, said Abdul Rahman.
Mohammed Shami, a front man for activists in Damascus province, said security was bolstered in some areas in the tense neighborhood of Mazzeh, including around the Iranian embassy.
Two masked men flew a large green, white and black flag of "independence" from a bridge in Kfar Sousa neighborhood, according to amateur video footage uploaded by activists to YouTube.
Activists reported Sunday a security clampdown on Mazzeh, thwarting plans to stage large protests in the area, scene the day before of a funeral that became a huge anti-regime rally.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Hubba Hubba Club, Nunzio had his hands full of angry bleached blonde... the Syrian authorities freed blogger Razan Ghazzawi, symbol of an 11-month uprising, and six other female activists incarcerated last week, human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... lawyer Anwar Buni said.
The women were released on Saturday, but were ordered to report to police daily in order to continue their questioning, he said.
They were part of a group of 14 activists people incarcerated Thursday in a raid on the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, a group headed by rights activist Mazen Darwish.
Yesterday, the New York Times devoted considerable space to the story of one Islam Dar Ayyoub, a 15-year-old Palestinian from a village near Ramallah. According to the story, Ayyoub's childhood was stolen from him when he was thrust into Israel's military court system a year ago. Ayyoub is the Times' candidate for the position of poster child for what it calls Israel's "harsh, unforgiving methods" in dealing with Palestinian violence. But though the purpose of the story was to indict Israel, anyone reading between the lines of Ayyoub's sob story could see the real villain of this tale is not Israel's military but the Palestinian "activists" who have exploited their children. They are recruited into gangs explicitly tasked with starting violent confrontations with Israelis by the throwing of stones and other lethal weapons, hoping the soldiers will defend themselves and kill one of the kids.
Ayyoub is depicted as a victim because he gave up his confederates to the Israelis and in particular a local Palestinian adult named Bassem Tamim, who was the overseer of what in any other context would be called a violent youth gang. "Human rights" activists think the prosecution of this person should be scrapped because the kid who dropped the dime on him didn't have a lawyer or his parents present when he talked. That might be what would happen on an episode of "Law and Order," but the realities of the Middle East conflict are such that Israel's tactics are justified.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A youthful weekend stunt gone tragically wrong resulted in three criminal charges Monday against a 21-year-old Quebec man.
An Islamic organization in Australia is taking the countrys intelligence services to court over what it calls "constant harassment" and "bullying" against Muslims in the country.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been detained for questioning as a suspect in a corruption probe into alleged orgies with prostitutes in Paris and Washington paid for by two businessmen. The former IMF chief arrived at a police station in Lille, northern France, this morning to testify as a witness in the case but was immediately taken into custody for interrogation with a view to possible charges. 
Three suspected 
MOSCOW: Russia needs to modernize its military arsenals to deter 
RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Egypt has agreed to help ease Gaza's chronic power shortages as part of a three-stage plan that would eventually hook up the isolated territory to the regional grid, a Palestinian energy official said Monday.
? 
Reports are appearing about unrest and signs of a possible awakening of Mt Fuji volcano in Japan. According to a report which includes an unclear photo of the area, a row of new craters, the largest 50 m in diameter, has appeared on the eastern flank of the volcano at 2200 m elevation. Steam was observed erupting from these vents.
On Feb. 12, Henrique Capriles Radonski, a 39-year-old Venezuelan state governor, won a primary election to become the oppositions candidate against Hugo Chavez in Octobers presidential election. He won 1.8 million of an astonishing 3 million votes double the turnout predicted by most analysts.
Algeria has uncovered a large cache of weapons believed to originate from Libya, including dozens of shoulder-held missiles that can be used to shoot down airliners, newspapers said Monday.
Asif Ali 
SANAA: Iran is becoming more active in Yemen and could pose a deeper threat to its stability and security, the US envoy to Yemen said on Monday, highlighting what would be yet another layer of uncertainty in a near-failed state.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Kabul - The Afghan government said on Monday that police had rescued 41 children from becoming 
Yemen's future president Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi has pledged to southern separatists and northern rebels that he will address their concerns, as fears mounted over election boycotts and escalating vote-related violence.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
