North Korea has invited the International Atomic Energy Agency to return, three years after expelling its nuclear monitors, the agency said Monday. The U.S. said such a move would be welcome but remained critical of the North's missile test plans.
Without disclosing the North's terms, IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor said it received the invitation on Friday. That was the same day that Pyongyang announced it plans to test a missile by launching a satellite, a move that Washington has suggested could jeopardize a nuclear moratorium deal reached with the United States last month.
IAEA's announcement of the overture from the North came just hours after Ri Yong Ho, a senior North Korean nuclear negotiator, said Pyongyang was sending invitations to agency inspectors as part of implementing the moratorium agreement.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Washington had not been told of a formal invitation to the IAEA from the North — but said such a move would be positive, while repeating America's reservations about the planned satellite launch.
#1
See also TOPIX > NORTH KOREA BANKING ON MISSLE LAUNCH TO BRING IN BIG BUCKS. US to surrender to the DPRK on new, more massive Aid???
* SAME > CHINA GENUINELY ANGRY OVER NORTH KOREA'S LATEST LAUNCH THREAT.
Possible but I highly doubt it, as the DPRK is China's vassal, ward, + ally. Considering the levels of China's influence, local Security presence inside the DPRK, + how massive bilateral Sino-DPRK trade is, ITS HARD TO BELIEVE THAT NORTH KOREA COULD'VE DEV A SPACE PROG, i.e. "A BIG ROCKET THINGY", WIDOUT CHINA'S TECHNICAL HELP OR CONSENT.
China has said that the DPRK + Korean Peninsula is in its "Strategic/Core Interests" - it may allow the DPRK local autonomy on certain matters, but IMO the "independent" dev of a large, reliable Space Rocket, aka any potential Weaponized/Nuclearized IRBM or ICBM that could be used agz Beijing or Other, would NOT be one of them???
* SAME > SOUTH KOREA SAYS NORTH [covertly]WANTS [Space]ROCKET FOR NUCLEAR WEAPON. Civilian-Space Test Platform for future LR Nuke Missle.
OTHER = A Rocket/Missle that can reach California.
#3
It would seem unwise to step in the middle to support such an unpopular regime and become targets. Usually the Russians are a bit more pragmatic about such things. Guess the lessons of Chechnya are long forgotten.
#1
Last sentence: if it is to break the hold of criminal gangs on many of its cities, Mexico has no choice but to take a page from James Q Wilson's book. To undertake the Herculean labor of suppressing criminality from the bottom will have terrible consequences, as in Enrique Krauze's chilling analogy to the 1910 Revolution. The only thing worse is the alternative. It is not enough to arrest the drug lords; it is also necessary to attrite the ranks of their gunmen. How much will it cost? If you have to ask what it costs, you can't afford to be a country.
Then Mexico can't afford it.
IIRC, the terrorist Timothy McVeigh was arrested by a state trooper for driving without a license plate, and the trooper did not suspect him of involvement in the OKC bombing 90 minutes earlier.
#2
The USA is not actually following Wilson's book either. From today's LA Times (link):Gun-tracking operation caught top suspect, then let him go
Federal agents stopped the main target of the ill-fated Operation Fast and Furious in May 2010. After they questioned [and then released] him, he disappeared back into Mexico, and the program went on to spiral out of control.
#3
I wonder what James Q Wilson would say about factions of the government being involved in operations such as Fast and Furious which resulted in the deaths of U.S. law enforcement officers and Mexican nationals?
This war is unfolding within and between gangs of criminals, who commit violent acts that are fueled only by a competitive lust for money. This is strikingly different from the revolutions of 1810 or 1910, which were clashes of ideals."
Wow! Nothing of value changed hands! Amazing! Simply amazing! What a difference!
When I was last in China they were telling me that they were thinking of opening a factory in either Jordan or the West Bank. I said to them that I had one simple question to ask, were they stark, raving bonkers?
#1
I went to look at the comments after reading the article at the link; "comments closed". I wonder why. I thought the article was interesting, if biased.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
03/19/2012 15:04
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#2
They have a slanted narrow view of the situation!
#2
Elsewhere, I read a report that French Police believe that they suspect that some Neo-Nazi ex-paratroopers from the French Army carried out these attacks.
If so, it is unlikely that there is any Iran connection.
As some are asking, "Why Did The DHS Just Order 450 Million Rounds Of .40 Caliber Ammunition?" ATK Press Release:
ATK announced that it is being awarded an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) agreement from the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (DHS, ICE) for .40 caliber ammunition. This contract features a base of 12 months, includes four option years, and will have a maximum volume of 450 million rounds.
ATK was the incumbent and won the contract with its HST bullet, which has proven itself in the field. The special hollow point effectively passes through a variety of barriers and holds its jacket in the toughest conditions. HST is engineered for 100-percent weight retention, limits collateral damage, and avoids over-penetration.
"We are proud to extend our track record as the prime supplier of .40 caliber duty ammunition for DHS, ICE," said Ron Johnson, President of ATK's Security and Sporting group. "The HST is a proven design that will continue to serve those who keep our borders safe."
ATK will produce the ammunition at the Federal Cartridge Company facility in Anoka, Minn. Deliveries are expected to begin in June.
#5
What does the DHS and ICE need that many bullets for?
One year contract with four year option - pretty much standard federal contract.
Maximum volume of 450 million rounds. Likely will never reach that amount.
ICE has somewhere between 15000 and 20000 personnel. Estimate between 50-65 percent of that in an enforcement capacity. Figure qualification firing, familiarization firing, etc.
#9
Surprised nobody said the Glock 23. It is a .40, for standard sidearm at the FBI and still a favorite of a lot of agencies and people (self included).
Not sure what an agent load-out is, but figure at least two magazines per weapon carried. Again, factor in qualification firing, familiarization firing, etc.
#14
ATK is also a major subcontractor to Lockheed-Martin for the F-35 skins. They wind the majority of all the fuselage and nacelle skins in Utah as well as all 6 wing versions.
maybe some of this is to keep the books balanced when the JSF goes TU......
(wind, as in they have a contoured mandrel where a carbon fiber placement machine wraps carbon threads much like a spider does to its victim. after curing it gets trimmed into final shape. )
#2
"We're looking at the possibility of opening up 10 percent more of the monument to the public," said chief ranger Vandzura. "My gut feeling is that (smuggling) traffic is consistent or maybe at a slight downward angle."
How about establishing a bounty and let professional hunters take care of the problem?
The brother of al-Qaeda's leader has been acquitted of terrorism charges by an Egyptian court, overturning a 14-year-old death penalty case. So, can we drone-zap them now? Mohamed al-Zawahiri was part of a group convicted in 1998 for planning attacks and belonging to an extremist group.
He is the brother of Ayman al-Zawahiri, who ascended to the number one position in the terrorist group, al-Qaeda, after Osama bin Laden was assassinated last year by US forces in Pakistan.
Mohamed al-Islamboli - whose brother, Khalid, was behind the assassination of former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981 - was also acquitted of charges related to the same case.
Al-Zawahiri had been held in detention in Egypt, but al-Islamboli has lived in exile for more than 20 years, only arriving in Egypt following the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak last year.
During Mubarak's rule, it was not uncommon for Islamists to be found guilty of collecting money for Islamist groups and "funding terrorism".
Despite China's concerns, a senior North Korean nuclear negotiator reiterated his government's position on a planned long-range rocket launch after holding talks Monday with his counterpart in Beijing.
Ri Yong Ho said the launch of the satellite is separate from recent talks with the United States and North Korea over food aid. The United States promised the aid in exchange for a suspension of North Korea's nuclear programs and has warned that the launch could jeopardize that agreement.
"The launching of the satellite is part to our right to develop space programs," Ri said outside a government guesthouse in Beijing. He warned that the North would respond to any threats on its sovereignty.
"Regarding the peaceful purpose of the satellite launching, if others are practicing double standards or inappropriately interfere with our sovereign rights, we will be forced to react to it. But we will try our best for these things not to happen," he said.
The U.S., Japan, Britain and others have urged North Korea to cancel the planned launch, calling it a threat to diplomatic efforts and warning that it would violate a U.N. ban on nuclear and missile activity because the same rocket technology can be used for long-range missiles.
Despite saber-rattling from Jerusalem, Israeli officials now agree with the U.S. assessment that Tehran has not yet decided on the actual construction of a nuclear bomb, according to senior Israeli government and defense figures.
Even so, there is great concern in Israel about leaving Iran "on the cusp" of a bomb - explaining why Israel continues to hint at a military attack on Iran's nuclear installations before it moves enough of them underground to protect them from Israel's bombs.
Israel's leaders have been charging in no uncertain terms for years that Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons. Though officials say they accept the more nuanced American view, they warn that it is just a matter of semantics, because an Iran on the verge of being able to build a bomb would still be a danger.
The United States is playing up its assessment that Iran has not made its final decision in a public campaign to persuade Israel to call off any attack plan and allow the increasingly harsh sanctions against Iran time to persuade Tehran to back down.
#5
That mugger approaching me with a Glock in his right hand and a clip in his left hand, does not appear to have made an affirmative decision to mug me. Phew!
Posted by: Peter Carroll ||
03/19/2012 15:40
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#6
Lest we fergit, AFAIK there is still no formal or final verification or disverification that Iran received a number of black market Nukes + other WMDS after the collapse of the USSR back in the 1990's.
The nuke threat from Iran stems notsomuch from a Nuke-armed per se but ultimately the proliferation of military-oriented Nuke, Advanced WMD Techs to covert Militant-Terror Groups + their Regional, International Networks = NGOS/TANGOS, ala so-called "Unilateral/
Asymmetric Warfare".
THE MAHA-RUSHIAN HISTOIRE' OF THE ANTI-ISRAELI ARAB-MUSLIM STRUGGLE DURING THE COLD WAR + AFTER INDICS THAT THESE DANGEROUS TECHS WILL END UP IN THE HANDS OF ASSORTED MILTERR GROUPS, NETWORKS REGRADLESS IFF IRAN DEVS NUCWEAPS OR NOT.
We've seen it countless times already - a Terror Incident(s) occurs, + the US-West find out that the One or Few MilTerr Groups whom formally claimed responsibility for the acts received mucho covert support + assistance in carrying out the attacks from many other MilTerr Groups, affiliated, "autonomous", "independent" or other, whom did not claim formal responsibility for same, NOR INTEND TO.
* POST-USSR BLACK MARKET NUKES-WMDS ASIDE, "JAPAN/EGYPT" MODEL = IRAN WILL EITHER DEV THE PROFICIENCIES + ECONOMIES TO QUICKLY PRODUCE NUCWEAPS IN TIMES OF "CRISIS", BUT "OFFICIALLY" WON'T; OR ELSE IRAN WILL HIDE ITS DEV + STORAGE OF NUCWEAPS, BUT ONCE AGAIN "OFFICIALLY" DENY IT HAS ANY.
As far as IRAN [+ Aligned] is concerned, the US + Israel started a major ME war because they unilater threatened + attacked a sovereign foreign country Iran that "officially" doesn't have NucWeaps, nor ever E-V-A-R! intended to dev any.
#1
FTA: astute financial observers are aware of the corruptive behavior of Mr. Corzine, certain regulators and the US justice system. Some are calling into question the security of the entire US financial system, not just the commodity industry.
I'm not an astute financial observer, I just follow the news and can work a calculator. I question not the security of the US financial system, but its legitimacy. For the last several years, it's been operating more like organized crime.
#2
There have been many in the web of fraudulent activity lately. The 11 largest bankruptcies in U.S. history represent quit a bit of sleaze:
1. Pacific Gas & Electric (2011, $36.15 B)
2. Thornburg Mortgage (2009, $36.5 B)
3. Chrysler (2009, $39.3 B)
4. MF Global (2011, $41 B)
5. Conseco (2002, $61.4 B)
6. Enron (2001, $65.5 B)
7. CIT Group (2009, $80.4 B)
8. General Motors (2009, $91 B)
9. WorldCom (2002, $103.9 B)
10. Washington Mutual (2008, $327.9 B)
11. Lehman Brothers (2008, $691 B)
#3
I must say, I went to the site and read the story. It's thinly sourced at best.
The comments are so whack-a-doodle they could have come straight from a Daily Kos - Ron Paul wedding reception.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/19/2012 21:03
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#4
I agree, Steve, but still, we suffered the destruction of at least an apparent decade's accumulation of wealth and no one was heal accountable. Not the politicians who rigged the system. Not the bankers who gamed it. Not the speculators. Not the appraisers. Not the crooked central bankers who bailed them all out. Not one single person.
KUWAIT CITY, March 5: US troops opened fire on a boat carrying six Iranians near KuwaitÂ’s territorial waters, a source told Al-Shahed daily, adding four Iranians were killed, one was wounded and another was reported missing.
According to the source, the Iranian boat approached a prohibited area that was under the control of US Navy and refused to obey orders. KuwaitÂ’s Coast Guards have been put on alert following the incident, which occurred northeast of the territorial waters of the country.
The source also added that US-Kuwait joint forces began searching for the missing Iranian, while the injured was referred to the US military hospital for treatment. The remains of the four Iranians were recovered by US troops and will be repatriated to Iran.
The US Army has launched an investigation into the incident and is keeping the damaged boat to find out why the Iranians wanted to enter the prohibited area.
'KUWAIT CITY, March 6: The US Navy has denied reports that its forces fired on a boat with six Iranians onboard near Kuwaiti territorial waters on March 5, killing four, wounding one and leaving one mariner unaccounted.'
...
“The article inaccurately depicts the search and rescue mission conducted by the US Navy from March 3-4, involving the US Navy Coastal patrol boat USS Firebolt (PC10) and US Coast Guard Cutter Maui (WPB 1304) which rescued an Iranian mariner from the capsized Iranian cargo dhow Abu Al Fazel in the north Arabian Gulf who was treated for shock and hypothermia. Through Firebolt’s civilian translator..."
#1
Despite many people interpreting this as nefarious, the bottom line is that it was examined and found to be little more than a revision of previous orders, with just administrative changes.
#2
Yes, released on Friday, a simple update, admin changes, and revisions. No need for concern. Everyone reports to whom again? Mention of the Congress? The States? Gold and silver buyers, see Sec 306.
Jan 4, 2012 ... “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” Those were the words of former Obama
administration Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel
#4
Except you miss the forest for the tree. The whole business of EOs to get around Constitutional limitations of power has been going on for most of the 20th Century. All those inconvenient processes of amending the base document have been avoided, much like various judicial decrees that 'interpret'.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/19/2012 9:33
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#6
Procopius2k: EO's are only part of the problem of an increasingly "imperial presidency" that has been growing in fits and starts since George Washington violated the constitution to put down the Whiskey Rebellion. He also created the dictation of presidential proclamations, usually over small things. Lincoln used that for his Emancipation Proclamation, however, and they have become useful tools to seize state lands, grant pardons to criminals, and other dubious practices.
Other milestones of presidential power grabs include:
Marbury v. Madison (1810), when the president refused to obey the ruling of the SCOTUS.
Andrew Jackson, with his nullification crisis, the Indian Removal Act, and his specie circular.
Abraham Lincoln, who really covered the gamut of presidential power grabs. He also started the use of major Executive Orders, that before had just been minor administrative directives to particular agencies.
Teddy Roosevelt, who effectively took defense appropriations away from congress by blackmail by sending the US Navy on a world tour, halfway around the world. Then the money ran out.
Woodrow Wilson, who nationalized the railroads for the use of every petty bureaucrat who wanted his own rail car. He also created the concept of executive branch "Czars".
"Ol' Frank" Roosevelt, who outdid Lincoln in seizing powers.
With Harry S. Truman began the practice of the widespread use of presidential memorandum (previously called presidential letters), which are one below EO's in authority), and presidential (national security) directives. He also directly authorized the creation of the NSA, which was only funded the following year by congress on a perpetual black budget.
Dwight Eisenhower was the first real Cold War president, and the first to go overboard with internal security and apocalyptic damage preparation. But this has been embraced by every president since.
Though created by James Monroe (1825), the presidential signing statement only became deeply controversial for multiple constitutional violations under Ronald Reagan. These have become perhaps the worst offense, in that they take power both from congress and the judiciary.
I skipped a whole bunch in there. But until some Republican president is elected who is willing to work with congress and the SCOTUS to *reduce* the power of the office of the presidency, it is likely that this situation is going to get progressively worse.
#8
I know one was also signed by Clinton and Bush and whatever, just this particular POTUS really does not adhere to the law and he will use any means to get what he wants.
A man on a cycle of violence has opened fire outside a Jewish school in La Belle France, killing a father and his two sons along with at least one other child, a Toulouse prosecutor has said.
Prosecutor: Gunman "shot at everything"
Minister: "Similarities" between shooting and previous attacks
Police open anti-terrorism probe into three incidents
Gunman opened fire as parents were dropping off children
Dead include teacher and his two sons
City on lockdown as police hunt killer
Prosecutor Michel Valet said the father, a teacher aged 30, was rubbed out along with his sons aged just three and six. He said another child aged between eight and 10 years old was also killed, while a 17-year-old was maimed.
Mr Valet described a chilling scene. "He shot at everything he could see, children and adults, and some children were chased into the school," he said.
The city is now believed to be on lockdown as police hunt the gunman, who decamped on a black scooter.
The government has ordered that security be tightened at Jewish schools and all religious buildings following the attack, which was condemned by French President Nicolas Sarkozy ...23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit... , Jewish organizations in La Belle France, and the Israeli foreign ministry.
The shooting comes just days after two other incidents in which soldiers were bumped off by a man on a motorbike in the same region.
French anti-terrorism prosecutors said they were opening investigations into all three incidents. Police stated there a similar calbre of gun was used in all three shootings, AFP reported, while Interior Minister Claude Gueant said on Monday there are "similarities" between the attacks. Mr Sarkozy, who called Monday's shooting "abominable" and "frightening", quickly cautioned that it was too early to draw links between the attacks."
Monday's attack occurred as students were arriving for morning classes at the Ozar Hatorah school, which has around 200 pupils. The gunman shot up the spot were parents were dropping their children off.
The city is now said to be in lockdown as police hunt the gunman. Some two hours after the attack, the children were still in the school. It was not clear if their parents were with them.
Mr Sarkozy said he is travelling immediately to the school, along with his education minister and the head of the CRIF, the umbrella representative group of Jewish organizations in La Belle France. François Hollande, Mr Sarkozy's presidential rival, has also said he is on his way to the school.
Mr Sarkozy called the shootings an "abominable drama" and a "frightening tragedy".
Patrick Rouimi, the father of a child at the school, told AFP that a man opened fire on a group of people standing at a spot where children were picked up for the school.
The shooting occurred at about 8.10am, just ahead of the start of classes in most French schools. The gunman initially used a 9-mm weapon but it jammed, so he switched to a .45-calibre weapon as he went into the Toulouse school, police said.
The gunman, wearing a helmet, decamped the scene on a black scooter, witnesses told BFM. A correspondent for the news channel said people in the area were in "immense shock".
La Belle France has Europe's largest Jewish community, estimated at up to 700,000 people.
The head of the Jewish students union of La Belle France (UEJF), Jonathan Hayoun, called on the authorities "to reinforce security at Jewish schools and synagogues."
He also said in a statement that "anti-Semitic and racist speech has created a climate of insecurity for Jews in La Belle France".
Police in the area launched a major manhunt last week after the killing of three paratroopers and the wounding of another in two separate, but connected incidents. The perpetrator of both attacks decamped on a motorbike.
"One can't fail to notice the similarities between the attacks on our troops in Toulouse and in Montauban and then this horrible attack on children this morning," Mr Gueant said on Monday.
Witnesses described how the killer had time to turn over one of the maimed men who was trying to crawl away and fire three more shots into him before getting back on his scooter and making his escape.
Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said there was as yet no evidence to suggest the soldiers had been killed because of their service in Afghanistan.
Between 50 and 60 coppers, including anti-terrorist specialists, have been drafted in to the investigation.
Senior military officials have ordered troops based in the region not to wear their uniforms outside barracks. Mr Bockman told the BBC that the soldiers who were targeted were of ethnic origin. He said it appeared the gunman was deliberately targeting ethnic minorities in the area.
#3
On the plus side, the French police have a good reputation for coming down on terrorists hard.
Not too long ago, they had a special anti-terrorism judge, an "investigating magistrate", Jean-Louis Bruguière, who with his team of police had arrested some 500 terrorist suspects, and they were very scared of him.
#5
Update
The gun used in a school massacre that has rocked France was the same used in the murders of three soldiers last week, a police source has said.
The powerful motorbike that the gunman used to make his escape in all three incidents was also the same, a stolen Yamaha 500CC T-MAX, police said.
A village security team member was gunned down in Pattani province on Monday morning. Mahama Yamae, 43, was selling gasoline at his shop when two terrorists men arrived on a motorcycle, posing as customers.
The pillion rider terrorist then took out a pistol and fired three shots at Mahama, killing him. The two terrorists took Mahama's .38 pistol before fleeing.
[Dawn] Two gunnies on a cycle of violencerubbed out early Sunday an American teacher working at a language institute in a central Yemeni city, the region's provincial governor said.
Hamoud al-Sufi said the teacher was shot in his car in Taiz city. He did not have details on who the killers might be, and said an investigation is ongoing.
Much of Yemen saw a collapse of central state authority during the yearlong uprising against longtime leader 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... , who stepped down as president last month.
Militants affiliated with al-Qaeda took advantage of the chaos to seize control of towns in the south of the country.
Yemeni security officials said rustics kidnapped a Swiss woman working as a researcher in the western city of Hodeida on Tuesday.
Such kidnappings were common even before last year's uprising, with the hostages used as bargaining chips to secure the release of Yemeni prisoners or to get cash and services. Usually in such cases the hostages are released unharmed.
Tribesmen in the area denied the officials' account and said she was taken by bully boys.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2012
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia
#1
The teacher thought moving from Brooklyn (just a guess) to Yemen would be safer; he may have been right, but it still wasn't safe enough.
[An Nahar] Libya's interim authorities now control all ports of entry to the country's third city of Misrata, a government official said on Sunday.
"All the ports were handed over," including the airport, said Ziyad Abdelali of the interior ministry.
The local council of Misrata, which was elected last month, said in a statement that the city handed over control of the airport and the seaport along with its land checkpoints to the central authorities.
Brigades of former rebels had kept a tight grip on these strategic sites since the end of last year's conflict that ousted Muammar Qadaffy's ...a reminder that a single man with an idea can change an entire nation, usually for the worse... regime.
Abdelali said negotiations were still under way for the handover of the airport in the capital Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... which remains under the control of a Zintan brigade.
"It is a matter of time," he said.
On February 21, the interior ministry gave militias a two-week deadline to hand over to the authorities control of all of the North African country's land, sea and air frontiers.
Government front man Nasser al-Manaa said on March 14 that former rebels had agreed to transfer control of the airports and border points to the authorities.
Several militias remain bunkered in Tripoli, much to the dismay of residents who periodically stage rallies calling for their disarmament and departure.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2012
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[Bangla Daily Star] Following foreign media reports that former ISI chief Asad Durrani has told a Pakistain court of the Pak intelligence agency paying Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... Rs 50 million, the BNP yesterday claimed to have a copy of Durrani's statement, which "does not contain Khaleda's name".
Talking to news hounds at the party headquarters in the capital, BNP's acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said, "I have the affidavit copy with the full list of those who were named by Durrani. It does not contain names of any individuals outside Pakistain."
He also alleged that an Indian journalist had spread the "rumour that was not even covered by any Pakistain newspaper".
The BNP leader, however, did not specify the time when the statement was made. Durrani has made more than one statement in the court in a petition that alleges ISI rigged the 1990 general elections in Pakistain. The latest came on Wednesday, according to reports.
A March 14 report in Pak newspaper The Express Tribune says the statement Durrani made in 1999 is still a classified document.
According to media reports, names of the BNP and its chief cropped up during hearing on the petition over ISI's funding for politicians both "within and outside Pakistain". The intelligence agency had allegedly given the money to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party for the 1991 parliamentary polls.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2012
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[Dawn] THE first pin to the bubble came with Salala. Americans killing Pak soldiers en masse: it was a made-for-Khan moment.
He could bellow against the unpopular war next door and it would be lapped up by resentful Pakhtuns in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... and agitated patriots in the Punjabi heartland.
But the PPP-led coalition was for once alert to the possibilities.
Battered by memogate, unsettled by the rise of Khan, hammered by the PML-N, the coalition took a hard line on the Salala killings. It endorsed the closure of the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... supply route, gave parliament the nod to draw up fresh terms of engagement with the US and made all the noises necessary to make it known that it wasn't going to be business as usual with the Americans any more.
All of that put the coalition in lockstep with the army, which also leapt on Salala as a way to wrest back some space from the Americans and to counter the fallout from May 2 and PNS Mehran.
Suddenly, Khan's wasn't the only act in town banging the anti-US drum.
It's harder to argue that the state -- mostly the political government in Khan's imagination but also the security establishment to some extent -- is America's poodle when they're shutting off supply lines to a war effort and turning away important guests to Islamabad.
Khan's other public misstep was the boycott of the by-polls, partially triggered by his insistence that incoming members of the PTI abdicate public office.
Khan doesn't want his party tainted by what he's lambasted as tainted assemblies, but politics abhors a vacuum. From 1985, parties have figured out that boycotts are a bad idea. They give a chance to new forces or allow old forces to consolidate.
Anyone who's seen Gilani crowing since the record turnout for his son in Multan knows what consolidation can look like.
Spin it anyway they like, and the PTI is trying, but voters turned out for status quo options instead of staying home and waiting for PTI salvation at the next election. That really isn't a place a party hoping to crack the system wants to be in when elections are round the corner.
Anti-corruption and anti-incumbency -- which along with the anti-West/War on Terror mantra form the tripod on which Khan has built his electoral strategy -- have proved to be exactly the small-bore draws that many thought they would be in the patronage-driven politics of rural Pakistain.
In urban Pakistain, too, some of the sheen has come off. Khan's core supporter is young, educated and wants change. He or she is Moslem and fervently patriotic, but not quite of the crazy variety.
So the PTI's linkages to the Difaa-e-Pakistain Council, however nominal, will have some of the little Khanistas running around with face paint on and turning out to swell PTI rallies wondering what exactly is going on.
Support for the Afghan Taliban as noble nationalists fighting off foreign invaders is one thing; cosying up to sectarian monsters running around Pakistain's cities and towns threatening and killing ordinary Paks is quite another.
And all of this before the internal problems of organization and contending with the various egos that the PTI has assembled.
So far, the party hasn't really got anywhere with the nuts and bolts of winning electoral strategies. At the lower rungs,
recruitment of party workers who will help turn out voters on election day and take on funny business at the polling booth and in the counting process hasn't taken off. The little Khanistas with face paint on aren't cut out for that business.
At the candidate and leadership level, because Khan has already put on prime ministerial airs and talks about who he will appoint to head which public corporation and which ministry, egos are already being bruised or unwisely inflated. There's
nothing like the carrot of power and patronage to set off ugly intra-party battles.
And while Khan's unwillingness to listen to or learn from even senior party members isn't very different to that of other party leaders, the difference is that Khan really does know less about politics than your average party leader. So the more
experienced in the PTI leadership chafe all the more when their advice is ignored.
All of this doesn't mean that Khan is guaranteed to slide back into electoral insignificance. A major corruption scandal could yet inject new vigour into the PTI's anti-corruption mantra and gain fresh traction with the voting public.
The reopening of NATO supply routes will give Khan fresh ammunition to attack the government as American lackeys. And as the predictable infighting in the DPC escalates, it could fade from the national radar well before campaign season begins in earnest.
The Pak voter's mind is forgetful and forgiving and the little Khanistas may cheer up again.
But, whether Khan bounces back or not, the best hope for change he could have offered has already gone. Only to the most optimistic did it ever look like Khan could be propelled to power on the back of popular discontent the next time round.
But his rise did shake the PML-N and unsettle the PPP (Zardari has been candid in private about keeping an eye on the PTI, knowing the complications it could create for the PPP's projections in KP and south Punjab).
If Khan had seriously talked up matters of policy and sounded a more sophisticated note on the solutions to some of Pakistain's structural problems, he may -- may -- have forced some adjustments by the PPP and PML-N in their approach to governance and policy.
That alone would have been worth more than a few dozen PTI seats in parliament, assuming that power is only a means to an end, not the end itself -- admittedly a dangerous assumption in Pakistain.
But Khan has given us none of that. Instead, when Jahangir Tareen presented the PTI's power policy, he was promptly accused by Humayun Akhtar of stealing his plan. If the PML-Likeminded thinks you've copied their ideas -- whether true or not -- it doesn't really bode well on the policy front.
Khan isn't dead and buried yet and the competition isn't getting ready to dance on his political grave. But the PTI's purported rivals, the besieged status quo powers, are closer to paying the ultimate political insult: looking in the PTI's direction and shrugging with indifference.
#2
the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI or Pakistan Movement for Justice) party first ran in the 2002 election. They got about 1% of the vote. Khan was the only member of the party to have a seat in Congress.
In 2008, the PTI boycotted the election.
In 2012, the PTI didn't get any candidates elected in the Senate elections.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
03/19/2012 12:42
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[Dawn] Severe differences erupted in the district chapter of Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... (PTI) after former director general of Intelligence Bureau Massod Sharif Khattak, who joined the party recently, announced names of candidates for a National Assembly and two provincial assembly seats in Karak, sources said.
They said that PTI district president Advocate Altaf Qadir and his cabinet members were annoyed with Masood Sharif. The district leadership of the party remained unaware about the public meetings and other political activities of Masood Sharif, they added.
Sources said that the rift divided PTI into two groups in the district. One of the groups was led by the district president and his cabinet while the other backed the former director general of Intelligence Bureau.
Sources added that the differences reached to its peak the other day when Masood Sharif said announced himself as candidate for National Assembly seat and former MNA Shamsur Rehman and Saleem Khan for two seats of provincial assembly in the district. The district organization of the party termed the nomination unconstitutional.
The PTI district organization has said that parliamentary board of the party would decide about awarding tickets to candidates for the next general elections as Masood Sharif has no authority to nominate someone for the elections.
Sources said that district organization of the party was backed by provincial leadership. The district organization was making preparations to name its own candidates for next elections, they added.
According to insiders, Masood Sharif has created unrest among the old workers of PTI as he is bypassing them and is running the party affairs according to his own will.
Sources said that the district organization tried its level best to persuade Masood Sharif to hold public meetings and carry out other political activities with consent of district cabinet of the party but to no avail.
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[An Nahar] Missiles fired from the sea slammed into Al-Qaeda positions in the southern Yemeni city of Zinjibar on Sunday killing at least 16 suspected bad turbans, a local official said.
He said the heavy shelling began overnight targeting the northeastern suburbs of Zinjibar, which jihadists have controlled since May following fierce fighting with government troops.
"Many bases of Al-Qaeda were destroyed," and 16 jihadists were killed, the official said on condition of anonymity.
The attacks were launched from the sea, he added.
Witnesses in the nearby town of Jaar said the bodies of 16 gunnies were buried in a makeshift graveyard in an ammunition factory. The corpses were torn to pieces.
Yemeni forces also launched air raids south of Jaar, another stronghold of Al-Qaeda, the official said.
Al-Qaeda cut-throats have exploited the weakening central government in Sanaa to strengthen their presence in the country, especially across the restive south and southeast.
Zinjibar is the capital of Abyan province, a stronghold of the jihadists' local affiliate Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, whose cut-throats fight under the banner of Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law).
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[An Nahar] Syria was hit by the third lethal car booming of the weekend on Sunday as U.N. teams readied for a government-led humanitarian mission and to work to launch a monitoring operation to end a year of bloodshed.
Clear demonstration that the takfiri types have come to stay in Syria. This is their type of attack. Next to follow are wimmins and kiddies with bombs strapped to their bodies. Our choices are Pencilneck or the Muslim-Brotherhood types...
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, in a statement, said the latest blast targeted political security offices in the northern city of Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... , killing three civilians and wounding more than 25 others.
State media, which have said that such attacks aimed to sabotage efforts to find a political solution to Syria's crisis, said it went kaboom! near residential buildings and a post office.
The attack left dead and maimed, causing heavy damage to apartment buildings and cars, state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
reported, without giving a precise casualty toll.
Activists in Aleppo, the target of car boomings on February 10 that killed 28 people, told Agence La Belle France Presse in Beirut on Skype that the blast rocked the city at 12:50 pm (1050 GMT).
On Saturday, twin car boomings killed 27 people and maimed 140 others in the heart of Syria's capital, mostly civilians, the interior ministry said, blaming "terrorists" for the attacks near police and air force headquarters.
The capital and Aleppo, Syria's second largest city, are both seen as having high levels of support for Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... and been relatively unscathed by the brutal crackdown on anti-regime protests.
"Yesterday's kabooms were carried out by faceless myrmidons supported by foreign powers which finance and arm them," charged Al-Baath newspaper, mouthpiece of Assad's ruling party of the same name.
"The two attacks... aim to disrupt Annan's mission and to foil international efforts to find a political solution to the crisis," it said, referring to U.N.-Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... peace envoy Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... A rally and prayers were held on Sunday at the site of the biggest kaboom, in the al-Qasaa district that is home to many members of Syria's Christian minority.
State television, which said victims were being buried Sunday, has repeatedly broadcast how the al-Qasaa blast had totally gutted the facade of a multi-story building, wrecked family homes and left behind blood-splattered pavements.
The opposition Syrian National Council accused the regime of staging the attacks to terrorize its own citizens and for Syria to be viewed as under threat from al-Qaeda.
The SNC, in a statement, called for the formation of an international commission of inquiry into the kabooms and the role of Syria's President Bashir al-Assad in "terrorist acts committed on Syrian soil."
"The Syrian regime wants to terrorize the large agglomerations, especially Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... and Aleppo where large demonstrations have taken place these past few weeks," SNC executive bureau member Samir Nashar told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Nashar stressed that the attack in Aleppo and one of the Damascus bombings hit districts which are home to many members of Syria's Christian minority.
"The regime is perfectly capable of carrying out such blasts to tell residents that the country is sliding into chaos," he said. "It also wants to send out the message abroad that al-Qaeda has made its way into Syria."
Ath-Thawra, another official daily, pointed the finger at Qatar and Soddy Arabia which have called for rebels fighting the Assad regime to be armed.
"The terrorism of Hamad and Saud is not a first. We know their blood-stained hatred, born of jealousy ... We have heard their call, and their incitement," it said, referring to the Saudi and Qatari ruling families.
Technical experts from the United Nations ...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involves making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country... and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, meanwhile, were to take part in a mission to assess the humanitarian impact of the crackdown on anti-regime protests since March 2011.
U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos, who held talks in Damascus this month, said they would at the weekend join the assessment mission to Daraa, Homs, Hama, Tartus, Latakia, Aleppo, Deir Ezzor and rural zones around Damascus.
The United Nations estimates more than 30,000 Syrians have decamped to neighboring states and another 200,000 have been displaced within the country by the past 12 months of deadly violence.
Activists say the year-long conflict has cost more than 9,100 lives.
Former U.N. chief Annan, who met Assad in Damascus last weekend, has ordered a team of experts to Syria to discuss a possible ceasefire and international monitoring mission, his front man said.
Annan's team are to head to Damascus from New York and Geneva on Monday, his front man said.
On the ground, security forces mounted operations Sunday in Aleppo, northwestern Idlib, the east's Deir Ezzor region and Daraa in the south, birthplace of the anti-Assad revolt, and Al-Raqqa, northeast, activists said.
In the Aleppo region, Atareb town was shelled for the 33rd straight day, said Mohammed al-Halabi, contacted by AFP from the Lebanese capital.
Raids by security forces killed three civilians, including a 14-year-old boy, in the mountainous Jabal al-Zawiya region of Idlib, said the Syrian Observatory, a Britannia-based monitoring group.
The Observatory said four soldiers were killed in festivities with rebels in the same region bordering Turkey, while security forces killed a civilian in Daraa, where deserters blew up a bridge near Khorbet al-Ghazaleh to cut a supply route.
It also reported that security forces beat up and jugged opposition figure Mohammed Sayyed Rassas, a National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change leader, which is normally tolerated, and several youths at a Damascus protest.
On Saturday, two "terrorists" were killed as a booby-trapped car they were driving blew up in a Paleostinian refugee camp in a suburb of Damascus, Syria's state news agency SANA reported.
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#1
Don't fret...they're just activists being...ummmm...active. Just call 'em The Opposition. Better yet...The Resistance. Yeah, noble cause and all that rot. Much better then blood-thirsty islamist terrorists don't ya think?
For a map, click here For a map of Tamaulipas, click here
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
Shootings and an apparent grenade attack took place in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas Saturday night starting at about 1930 hrs, according to compiled Twitter and Mexican news reports.
So far, no official accounts have been released, nor have any reports of deaths surfaced since Saturday night.
As of 1230 hrs Sunday afternoon EDT time, calm had been reported.
Shootings were reported on the road to Piedra Negras -- Mexican Federal Highway 2, on the west side of Nuevo Laredo -- and near the Soirana store on Avenida La Fe. A Mexican Army patrol surprised an armed group, sparking an exchange of gunfire which lasted several minutes.
Armed suspects also detonated a hand grenade at a Walmart store near Avenida Reforma and Mexico Federal Highway 85 near Zona Centro. A Twitter posting said several individuals were wounded in that attack.
Gunfire was also reported in Zaragoza, El Companario and Villas de San Miguel colonies, all along Tamaulipas Highway 1, which is usually an indication of a running gunfight between Mexican security forces and cartel shooters.
Roadblocks were reported in El Nogal and Los Fresnos colonies near Mexico Highway 85. Those neighborhoods are only about two kilometers west of the Walmart store on Avenida Reforma.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
[An Nahar] A Syrian rights group said on Sunday it had filed a war crimes complaint with French authorities against former Syrian Defense Minister Mustafa Tlass who was reported this week to be in Gay Paree.
The Syrian Association for Freedom provided AFP with a copy of the complaint it had filed with Gay Paree prosecutors on Friday accusing Tlass of responsibility in "several war crimes including the massacre in the city of Hama in 1982."
That year forces loyal to the regime of President Hafez Assad, the father of current president Bashir al-Assad, bombarded Hama over four weeks to put down an uprising. Between 10,000 and 40,000 people were killed, according to various estimates.
The group's head, Abdelhnasser al-Hanidi, said it had 300 witnesses ready to testify in the case.
Syrian opposition representatives told AFP this week that Tlass, Syrian defense minister from 1972 to 2004, had arrived in Gay Paree with one his sons, but that they were not defecting.
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[Bangla Daily Star] A day in which the opposition returned to the Jatiya Sangsad
Bangladesh parliament, lit. National Assembly
was suddenly made rather exciting. Two politicians, one from the ruling Awami League and the other from the opposition BNP, almost got into a scuffle yesterday.
Taking part in the discussion on the thanksgiving motion on the president's address, BNP politician Rehana Akhtar Ranu used words in bad taste to attack the prime minister, home minister, state minister for law, a former chief justice and an incumbent High Court judge.
Her remarks sparked uproar in the House as treasury bench MPs instantly protested. Without microphone, Awami League MP Fazilatunnesa Bappy was heard shouting, "Shut up... or I will slap you". Her words almost triggered a scuffle between her and BNP MP Shammi Akhtar.
Thanks to the timely intervention of women chamber attendants and some ruling and opposition MPs, an embarrassing situation was averted in the House.
Having stayed away from parliamentary proceedings for 83 consecutive sittings since March last year, opposition leader Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... returned to the House yesterday afternoon along with her politicians.
Sources said the opposition MPs were earlier asked by Khaleda to play a "constructive" role in the House and not use indecent words in their speeches.
Earlier in the day, the BNP chief held a brief meeting with opposition MPs and advised them to strongly criticise the "poor performance" of ministers and protest the government's various "wrongdoings".
"Do not remain silent. You will counter, not using abusive words, rather in a constructive way," BNP MP Nazim Uddin Ahmed quoted the BNP chief as saying.
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[An Nahar] Technical experts from the U.N. and Organization of Islamic Cooperation are in Syria on a mission to assess the humanitarian impact of its year-long bloodshed, a senior OIC official said on Sunday.
"The joint OIC-U.N. mission entered Syria on Friday to carry out an evaluation of humanitarian aid," on a mission led by the Syrian government, its assistant secretary general, Atta al-Mannan Bakhit, told Agence La Belle France Presse.
He said the mission, with three OIC experts in the team, would cover 15 cities, after which a report would be submitted to the Saudi-based Islamic grouping and the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... on the humanitarian needs of the Syrian population.
The duration of the mission to devastated protest hubs was unclear.
U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos, who held talks in Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... earlier this month, has said the experts would join the assessment mission to Daraa, Homs, Hama, Tartus, Latakia, Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... , Deir Ezzor and rural zones around Damascus.
The U.N. experts and staff of the 57-member OIC would "accompany the mission and take the opportunity to gather information on the overall humanitarian situation and observe first-hand the conditions in various towns and cities," she said.
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[Dawn] Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. said on Sunday that the police has jugged 31 people jugged in extortion in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , DawnNews reported.
Extortion has been taking place since 15 years, however, the situation has been improving since the government took strict measures, Malik stated.
The minister also met with Chief Minister of Sindh, Syed Qaim Ali Shah and discussed with him the issue of extortion in Bloody Karachi.
Talking to the media after the meeting, Malik said that murders in Bloody Karachi have been stopped but the extortion problem is still continuing.
Qaim Ali Shah also said that Bloody Karachi's situation is improving and further stated that MQM is an ally of the government and will together participate in the next elections.
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[Dawn] A local official of Saudi Embassy's sub-office in the capital was killed at his private residence while the killers took away his car here on Saturday, police said.
The incident took place at the house located in street 90 of sector I-10/1 where Dr Hafiz Abdul Rasheed Azhar was strangulated to death allegedly by his two visitors. Dr Azhar belonged to Ahle Hadith sect and was a religious scholar.
He was also a director at Dawa Academy and an official of Maktab-e-Dawa (religious office) of Saudi Embassy's sub-office.
The incident came to light when the victim's son reached home and inquired about him from his mother.
In response, she told him that Dr Azhar had been busy with some guests for the last couple of hours and also took meal with them.
However, a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... the son told her that the car of his father was not parked in the house and on suspicion he went to the drawing room where he found the dead body.
According to police the visitors tied him with ropes and strangulated him to death.
Later the visitors, who had come over to meet the victim on pretext of being his students, took away cash, ATM card and his car.
Shortly after getting the information, police reached the spot and shifted the body to hospital.
Police claimed the circumstantial evidence suggested that he had acquaintance with the killers as he took meal with them.
Although, the killers tried to give an impression of robbery by taking away the cash and car of the victim yet the motive behind the murder seemed something else, police suspected.
Over the killing, dozens of people gathered at I.J. Principal Road in front of I-10/1 and blocked it for traffic.
They staged demonstration against the killing which continued till the filling of this report.
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Civil society groups in Kinshasa have asked the Democratic Republic of Congo Government to arrest Bosco Ntaganda and hand him over to the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... over war crimes.
Ntaganda is allegedly the main accomplice of Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga, who was convicted of war crimes last week in ICC's first ever verdict since it was set up 10 years ago.
At a presser in Kinshasa on Friday last week, Benoît Idolo of the National Council of Civil Society Organisations said it was odd to see the ICC finding Lubanga guilty of using child soldiers in Ituri District, eastern DRC, while Ntaganda, his alleged accomplice, remains a free man.
"Besides, he has been charged with huge responsibilities in the national army as the military coordinator of the operation called 'Amani Leo' in Walikale District, eastern DRC," said Idolo.
He further said the government should be logical in ensuring that Ntaganda, who allegedly committed mass murders in Ituri and Kiwanja in 2002 and 2009, faces justice.
The DRC government is uneasy with Ntaganda's case. While it would like to arrest and extradite him to The Hague, Ntaganda signed a secret deal with it when he toppled Laurent Nkunda, his commander, during the rebellion that threatened to see his group occupy the Goma city in 2009.
Ntaganda poses a threat to security in North Kivu Province because his troops, exclusively comprising members of his community, never accept to mix in the national army as expected. They never leave the North Kivu Province where they were based.
This means in case of any threat against him, the National Congress for the Defence of the People rebellion may break out again in the region. His troops constitute a separate unit in the national army.
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[Dawn] The memo commission was approached from an unliklely quarter on Saturday when the wife of Kashmiri leader Yasin Malik ...chairman of one of the two factions of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front. JKLF is a Kashmiri nationalist organization founded in Birmingham, UK in 1977. Branches weren't actually established in Kashmir for another ten years. It has the usual demands for separation of J&K from secular India so it can become an independent Islamic rathole. It seems to have no interest in Pak Kashmir breaking away to join it. In 1994 Malik renounced violence after he was released from jail and from that point he and his organization pursued peaceful means to impose their will on the area... submitted an application to become a party in the case.
Mushaal Malik said an allegation levelled by Mansoor Ijaz, the American businessman, that he had arranged a meeting between her husband and C. D. Sahay, a former Indian intelligence chief, had damaged his reputation.
Mr Ijaz, on his part, once again jolted the proceedings of the commission investigating the origin, authenticity and purpose of the controversial memorandum as he accused President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... of giving the go-ahead to the US president for the May 2 raid in Abbottabad ... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden.... without consulting the Army and the ISI.
In her petition, Yasin Malik's wife requested the commission to provide her husband an opportunity to explain his position. She said since Mr Malik was at present in Srinagar, he could appear before the commission next month.
At this point, Mr Ijaz's counsel, contrary to the stance taken by him earlier in the day, suggested to the commission to delete the portion of the testimony related to Mr Malik from the record.
He said acceptance of the application would open a new Pandora's box because the commission would have to summon the former Indian intelligence chief and a news hound of a foreign newspaper as well.
Advocate Bokhari requested the commission to accept the plea. "Since Mr Malik claims having some evidence against Mr Ijaz, he will be useful for the inquiry." The commission deferred the matter till Sunday.
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[Dawn] Maoist rebels have kidnapped two Italian tourists in eastern India, police said Sunday, in what is believed to be the first abduction of foreigners by the left-wing bad turbans.
Television reports said the kidnappers issued 13 demands for the release of the Italians, including asking police to free an unspecified number of prisoners and end their drive to root out Maoists from the region.
The abduction occurred Wednesday in scenic, but poverty stricken, central Orissa, police said, one of a string of states where Maoist rebels have been waging a decades-long armed battle to overthrow the government.
"Maoists have kidnapped two Italian nationals from Daringbadi area of Kandhamal district," regional police deputy inspector general Radha Krishna Sharma told AFP.
Officials identified the kidnapped Italians as Paolo Bosusco and Claudio Colangelo.
"I condemn the kidnapping. I urge the Maoists to release them on humanitarian grounds," Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik told news hounds in state capital Bhubaneswar.
Authorities were making strong efforts to secure the Italians' release. The pair were kidnapped from a spot 250 kilometres (150 miles) southwest of the state capital.
The Italian consul general in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata, Joel Melchiori, arrived in Bhubaneswar Sunday and said he was "hopeful of an early solution".
Bosusco had been living in the city of Puri in Orissa for a decade and was running an adventure tourism company, police said.
Sharma said the men asked police Monday to be allowed to travel around Kandhamal, but authorities denied permission, citing risks of Maoist violence.
"After that the two men and their Indian assistants were found roaming in these areas and on Wednesday, while they were taking a bath near a coffee plantation, Maoists kidnapped them," Sharma said.
Sharma said the Islamic fascistifreed the two Indian hostages on Sunday morning unconditionally.
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[Yemen Post] A twenty-member team of activists who visited last week the governorate of Hajja has cautioned against the deteriorations of human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. conditions, pointing out that the number of displaced persons constantly increases.
In a presser held on Thursday in Sana'a, members of the team said 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.... fighters were surrounding some farms and blocking a main road linking between districts of Mastaba and Kashar of Hajja.
They said the prices of foodstuff highly raised between 50-70 per cent owing to sieges imposed by the Houthi fighters in some areas.
The team said that about 94 persons were killed and 154 were maimed by the Houthis, pointing out that 2750 persons lost their jobs as a result of the fighting.
Local sources say that about 15,00 left their homes as a result of the interment conflicts erupted several months ago between the Houthi group and tribes of Hajja.
According to the activists, the locals of the Hajja appealed to the government to urgently intervene and put an end to their tragedies and suffers.
They affirmed that the government completely absent in these areas, pointing out that the ceasefire lately reached between the Houthis and tribes of Hajja is fragile.
The activists said that about nine schools and 20 mosques were shut down by the Houthis as they refused to use slogans of the Houthis.
The Houthi group whose main slogan is "God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews." accused the tribes of fighting a proxy war with America and Israel.
Prominent local human rights organizations such Hood, Seyaj, the Yemeni Observatory for Human Rights, and other organizations and activists took part in this mission.
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[An Nahar] The Abdullah Azzam Brigades denied on Saturday that it has any links to the takfir ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... i network in the Ein el-Hellhole Paleostinian refugee camp, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.
It denied all links to the network in a statement that was published on various websites.
It revealed however that it had received an offer by undisclosed sides to "assassinate Druze leader MP Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... in return for the release of a number of jihadists in Syrian jails."
No further details were offered.
The army intelligence bureau in the South demanded the Paleostinian factions and the Islamic parties in Ein el-Hellhole Paleostinian refugee camp to detain Abu Mohammed Toufiq Taha and hand him over to the Lebanese judiciary, As Safir newspaper reported on Friday.
Abu Mohammed is the head of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, who is accused of planning attacks against the Lebanese army.
He resides in the Ein el-Hellhole Paleostinian refugee camp near the southern city of Sidon but his whereabouts are unknown.
The Lebanese army had discovered a "takfiri" network in which two soldiers, allegedly involved in the cell, had planned to carry out attacks against the army.
The army jugged a group that consists of six people, who are affiliated with the Abdullah Azzam Brigades -- al-Qaeda network, as the army is seeking to arrest the head of the network.
On Friday, the army intelligence succeeded in arresting Mohammed Fayyad Ismail, the chief of the gang that had kidnapped a manager of the dairy company Liban Lait in the Bekaa town of Britel on November 30, which was also behind several other kidnappings.
"Army intelligence agents placed in long-term storage Ismail and some members of his gang in the Bekaa town of al-Qasr," MTV reported.
The gang is based in the Hermel District town of al-Qasr and was responsible for the abduction of a Syrian businessman in the Bekaa town of Barelias in August 2011.
Ismail and his gang have also been found to be responsible for the attack against the army on April 13, 2009.
The attack left four soldiers dead and a fifth severely maimed.
Liban Lait manager Ahmed Zeidan was kidnapped on November 30, 2011 as he entered the company's headquarters in the Baalbek District town of Hawsh Sneid.
The kidnappers demanded a ransom back then, but the army managed in December to rescue Zeidan in a raid on Britel's barren mountains.
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[Bangla Daily Star] A recent hearing on a petition against an illegal disbursement of money to politicians and individuals brings to light the dirty role of Pakistain's controversial spy agency ISI.
The petition was filed by Air Marshal (retd) Asghar Khan against money doling up to anti-Benazir Bhutto ... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in... politicians in 1990 allegedly from the establishment through the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
It came up for hearing before the Pakistain Supreme Court on February 29. The case was, however, adjourned because of the absence of certain key witnesses, the Dubai-based Khaleej Times reported in its issue of March 3.
The chief justice said notices must be issued to former ISI chief Gen Asad Durrani and former chief of Mehran Bank Younus Habib to appear before the court at the next hearing on March 8.
The report based on earlier court statements says Durrani, by his own admission, had directly delivered the money to politicians and groups as ordered by the "boss" -- the then army chief Gen Mirza Aslam Beg.
In turn, Gen Beg had named the "chief executive" (former president Ghulam Ishaq Khan) for "supervising the entire exercise", the newspaper writes.
"Its sinister purpose was to defeat the Pakistain People's Party (PPP) under Benazir Bhutto in the 1990 elections. A total of Rs 140 million was disbursed after Mehran Bank illegally advanced it to the ISI account."
The events combined, in which millions of Pak rupees were paid to politicians and political parties using the spy agency, is widely known as the Mehran bank scandal, also Mehrangate.
"Another Rs 50 million was allegedly paid to Bangladesh's Khalida Zia to help her in polls against Hasina Wajid's Awami League generally perceived by Pakistain's security establishment as pro-India," the Khaleej Times adds.
The exact text of any court statement of the ex-spy boss was not available and The Daily Star could not verify whether BNP chief Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... had received money from the ISI.
However, today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday... the Pak media elaborately wrote about Pak politicians and professionals who received ISI money.
Durrani in his testimony gave details of amounts given to each leader.
The Pak news service, News Online, said former DG ISI Asad Durrani in an affidavit submitted before the apex court recently admitted to having disbursed money to Mian Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... (Rs 3.5 million), Lt General Rafaqat, who was head of ex-president Ghulam Ishaq Khan's election cell (Rs5.6 million), late Mir Afzal Khan (Rs 10 million), ex-PM late Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi (Rs5 million), late Jam Sadiq Ali (Rs 5 million), late ex-PM Mohammed Khan Junejo (Rs 2.5 million), late Pir Pagaro (Rs 2 million), lawyer Abdul Hafeez Pirzada (Rs 3 million), ex-governor Sindh Yusuf Haroon (Rs 5 million) which he confirmed having received for Altaf Hussain of the MQM, Muzaffar Hussain Shah (Rs0.3 million), Syeda Abida Hussain (Rs 1 million), Humayun Marri (Rs 5.4 million) and 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... (Rs 5 million), among other individuals and groups.
Most of these individuals and political parties have denied receiving any money from the ISI. "No, no! Certainly not!"
On March 8, Mehran Bank chief Younus Habib made a statement before the Supreme Court, saying he was forced by former president late Ghulam Ishaq Khan and former army chief Aslam Beg to arrange Rs 340 million in the "supreme national interest", the leading Pak daily Dawn reports.
According to Habib's statement, Rs 140 million was paid through Gen Aslam Beg to politicians -- Rs 70m to former Sindh chief minister Jam Sadiq Ali who was provided another Rs 150m (from Mehran Bank's funds) for arranging licence to set up Mehran Bank, Rs 15m to Pir Pagaro through Jam Sadiq, Rs 70m to Younus Memon on the instructions of Ishaq Khan and Gen Beg for the politicians who wished not to receive the money directly from the ISI. Some of the money was also dished out to the Army Welfare Trust.
Also on March 8, in his latest statement submitted before the apex court, Durrani said he had used the Military Intelligence (MI) for the disbursement of the money deposited by Younus Habib, according to The News International, Pakistain.
In his original affidavit of 1994, Durrani had revealed, "In September 1990 as DG ISI, I received instructions from the then COAS General Mirza Aslam Beg to provide 'logistic support' to the disbursement of donations made by some businessmen of Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... to the election campaign of IJI [Islami Jamhoori Ittehad]. I was told that the operation had the blessings of the government."
Now after 18 years of his initial affidavit, Durrani in his two-page statement submitted before the apex court on March 8, said, "Mr Yunus Habib did deposit Rs 140 million in various branches in the accounts opened, on my orders..."
The Supreme Court bench had taken up the 1996 petition of Tehrik-e-Istiqlal chief Asghar Khan accusing the ISI of financing several politicians during the 1990 elections to create the IJI and prevent Benazir Bhutto's PPP from winning.
On March 8, two sealed documents, one comprising a report by a commission tasked to review the working of security and intelligence agencies, were opened in court.
The other document contained two audio-cassettes and unsigned statements/cross-examination of Maj-Gen (retd) Naseerullah Babar and Lt-Gen (retd) Asad Durrani recorded during an in-camera session of the court.
A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez accepted Younus Habib's sworn handwritten statement that he read loudly in open court.
Younus Habib said Gen Beg and ISI's Brigadier Hamid Saeed had provided a number of certain accounts in certain banks for depositing the amount while the counterfoil of the deposit slip had been handed over to one Colonel Akbar.
Both Gen Beg and Asad Durrani were in court, quietly listening to Habib's affidavit, the Dawn reports.
"In all I was asked to arrange Rs 350 million by the former president and the army chief before the 1990 general elections," said Habib while reading out the affidavit.
Habib said he had told them that arranging such a huge amount was not possible through legal means for which he had to manipulate the system. At this, Ishaq Khan told him that he would have to do whatever he could for the "national cause".
Habib submitted a photograph, along with his affidavit, in which he is seen with former president Ishaq Khan and a uniformed army officer having conversation with Gen Beg. The court made the photograph part of the record.
The March 3 report of Khaleej Times says the ISI brought together various conservative and religious parties and groups under the banner of IJI to collectively face the PPP. It effectively checked the Benazir tide in 1988, denying her an absolute majority.
Former ISI chief Gen Hamid Gul The nutty former head of Pakistain's ISI, now Godfather to Mullah Omar's Talibs and good buddy and consultant to al-Qaeda's high command... unabashedly takes credit for fathering the IJI in 1988 to stem Benazir's tide. "She would have swept the polls," he once admitted.
A weak coalition under Benazir became an easy prey for Ishaq Khan to be sent home packing within less than two years. The 1990s saw similarly fragile arrangements alternating after every two years and being dispensed with by the president in collaboration with the army chief.
Democracy was thus not allowed to take firm roots and was given a bad name for incompetence and corruption.
#2
The only reason you can say that Pakistan has a government is the fact that the President, Prime Minister, Parliment, Military, and ISI have offices in the same city.
Pakistan is a collection of places, people, and government agencies that no one else wanted. India was smart to give the Moslems their own patch of dirt, can you imagine trying to govern with these people on the loose?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
03/19/2012 14:36
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#1
If you get the gold and silver purchase "pop ups" when you open this link, please disregard. Sec 306 of the attached will soon make them null and void.
#2
Seems I read recently how the Muslims have a term for what she did here when she said “I am criticizing (people) who support Assad because they think he resists Israel.”
That's not exactly a lie because the original statement was ambiguous enough that it can technically be interpreted in different ways. But you know damn well what she really means. Can't remember the term or where I read it but it's not taquiya. It seems they have made a whole science out of lying.
[An Nahar] Syrian security forces mounted operations on Sunday in the northern province of Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... , northwestern Idlib, the east's Deir Ezzor region, Daraa in the south and al-Raqqa in the northeast, killing at least 37 people across the country, activists said.
Five rebels from the Free Syrian Army and three children were among the 37 casualties, the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said.
Twelve people were killed in Idlib, four in Daraa, seven in the central province of Homs, six in the restive countryside around Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... , two in the Qalamoun region, two in Aleppo province and four in Deir al-Zour, the LCC said.
In the Aleppo region, Atareb town was shelled for the 33rd straight day, said Mohammed al-Halabi, contacted by Agence La Belle France Presse from the Lebanese capital on Skype.
Raids by security forces killed three civilians, including a 14-year-old boy, in the mountainous Jabal al-Zawiya region of Idlib, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britannia-based monitoring group.
The Observatory said four soldiers were killed in festivities with rebels in the same region bordering Turkey, while security forces killed a civilian in Daraa, where deserters blew up a bridge near Khorbet al-Ghazaleh to cut a supply route.
It also reported that security forces beat up and jugged opposition figure Mohammed Sayyed Rassas, a National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change leader, which is normally tolerated, and several youths at a Damascus protest.
On Saturday, two "terrorists" were killed as a booby-trapped car they were driving blew up in a Paleostinian refugee camp in a suburb of Damascus, Syria's state news agency SANA reported.
It said the blast in Yarmouk camp on Saturday, the same day as authorities said 27 people were killed in two suspected car boomings in central Damascus, also damaged parked cars and shattered windows of nearby buildings.
SANA gave no further details.
Yarmouk is the largest Paleostinian camp in Syria, which hosts around half a million registered Paleostinian refugees.
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Syria said Sunday that two deadly kabooms in Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... were aimed at sabotaging peace efforts, as U.N. experts prepared to join a government-led humanitarian mission to devastated protest hubs.
"Yesterday's kabooms were carried out by beturbanned goons supported by foreign powers which finance and arm them," charged Al-Baath newspaper, mouthpiece of Syria's ruling party of the same name.
"The two attacks... aim to disrupt Annan's mission and to foil international efforts to find a political solution to the crisis," it said, referring to U.N.-Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... peace envoy Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... Two huge kabooms killed at least 27 people and maimed 140 others in the heart of Syria's capital on Saturday, the interior ministry said, blaming "terrorists" for the attacks near police and air force headquarters.
Opposition activists blamed the regime, as in past lethal kabooms in the capital and the northern city of Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins...
Ath-Thawra, another official daily, pointed the finger at Qatar and Soddy Arabia which have called for rebels fighting the regime of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators... to be armed.
"The terrorism of Hamad and Saud is not a first. We know their blood-stained hatred, born of hatred and jealousy... We have heard their call, and their incitement," it said, referring to Saudi and Qatari ruling families.
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Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
03/19/2012 6:45
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#3
"looking a bit chunky" has zippo to do with ancestry and everything to do with eating too much. Let's remember our ladies when they were young and beautiful, and not dwell on what they look like now.
Maria Alba (Spanish) aka Saturday in "Mr. Robinson Crusoe (1932)" aka Elena Nitto in "Great God Gold (1935)" aka Dolores in "West of the Pecos (1934)" aka Rosita in "Flirting with Danger (1934)" aka Nadji - Princess of Egypt in "The Return of Chandu (1934)" aka Dolores Mendez in "Kiss of Araby (1933)" (Died in 1999 age 89)
#8
I don't think Ken Livingstoned wants to be elected as Mayor. London consists of 8.5% Muslims--no where close a majority unless there are a lot of dhimmis living there.
[An Nahar] Egyptian Bedouin in the Sinai kidnapped two Brazilian women tourists on Sunday in the third such abduction in the peninsula this year, security officials said.
The tourists were returning from a visit to the historic monastery of St Catherine in southern Sinai when the rustics seized them and an Egyptian tour guide, the officials said.
They gave conflicting accounts of the tourists' ages. They had earlier said both were teenagers, but a police official said one was 18 and the other 40 years old.
A police official said one of the kidnappers was the father of a man sentenced to prison on drugs and weapons charges, and that he wanted his son's release.
The two armed Bedouin stopped a tour bus containing 38 tourists and kidnapped the two women and a guide at gunpoint, before driving off with them towards the peninsula's mountains, another police official said.
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#1
Two brazillion? I thought that was the national debt (brushes blond hair out of eyes.)
[Dawn] Three persons identified as Abdul Rasheed, Khalil and Zubair were killed while three others were maimed in firing by unknown motorcyclists at Ghausia Road, Agra Taj Colony, Lyari ...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot.... on Sunday.
Abdul Rasheed, who was attached with construction business was sitting along with others outside his office at Ghausia Road when unknown motorcyclists sprayed bullets on them, front man of Katchhi Rabita Committee (KRC) and Edhi sources told APP. The Edhi Foundation is the largest welfare organization in Pakistain, analogous to the work Mother Teresa did in Calcutta. The Katchhi Rabita Committee is, I believe, an organization of Kutchis, who originated in the Rann of Kutch.
Abdul Rasheed, who was a big shot of the KRC, succumbed to injuries on his way to Civil Hospital Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , a KRC front man and Edhi sources said.
According to the Edhi sources, the injured have been identified as Tahir Rasheed, Yasir and Danish. The incident took place in the jurisdiction of cop shoppe Kalri, Lyari, District South.
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[An Nahar] Iraq moved on Sunday to diversify its oil export routes to reduce the impact of a potential closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran on Storied Baghdad's ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... oil-dependent income, as well as the world economy.
The plans, recommended by the cabinet's energy and economics committees, include efforts to ramp up exports along a pipeline to Turkey, increase the amount of oil transported by road, and "urgently" fix disused transport pipelines, according to a statement from government front man Ali al-Dabbagh.
He said Iraq's cabinet on Sunday adopted the recommendations which also included working to reopen the Banias-Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of thich is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... pipeline that runs from Syria to Leb but has been closed since 1990, and, if thawing Iraq-Saudi relations continue to improve, a disused pipeline through Soddy Arabia as well.
The committees "also recommended that in the short term there be more efforts to convince the Iranian and American sides of the necessity of avoiding the closure of the Strait of Hormuz because it will damage the global economy, and Gulf countries especially."
Iran has threatened retaliation for fresh Western sanctions over its nuclear program, including a possible disruption of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a Gulf chokepoint for global oil shipments, including 80 percent of Iraq's oil exports.
Dabbagh told Agence La Belle France Presse in an interview last month that Iraq was worried by U.S.-Iran tensions and would be one of the worst countries affected if the strait were closed to shipments of crude oil.
Planning Minister Ali Yusuf al-Shukri also said last month that Iraq was mulling its options in case Iran blocks the vital waterway.
Iraq currently produces more than three million barrels per day (bpd), with exports averaging about 2.1 to 2.2 million bpd. Crude sales account for the lion's share of Storied Baghdad's government income.
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#1
Iran is repor mulling more major cutbacks in its international oil exports in response to the SWIFT action.
IIRC SWEDEN = has formally determined that the proposed TAPI Pipeline is not only too costly but also NOT VIABLE. I may be wrong but I believe I read that China has already backed out of financing same for simil reasons???
[An Nahar] Bahraini security forces clashed with youths on Sunday after the funeral of a protester who allegedly died after inhaling tear gas fired by riot police, witnesses said.
The festivities erupted in the Shiite village of Al-Muqsha, north of the capital Manama, following the funeral of Jaafer Jassem Ridha, 41.
The main Iranian catspaw Al-Wefaq said Ridha died after inhaling tear gas fired at a recent demonstration that was violently dispersed by riot police.
An awful lot of people seem to have died recently after inhaling tear gas. Odd, that.
It's not the tear gas, it's the truncheons and batons that follow close behind...
Catches 'em when they're not looking...
Hard to look when one is crying, I s'pose.
Al-Wefaq also said on Sunday that another Bahraini, 27-year-old Sabri Mahfoud, had died after inhaling tear gas, without elaborating on the circumstances or date of the incident.
The interior ministry said on Twitter that a group of people "provoked acts of violence and barricaded the streets" after Ridha's burial, adding that necessary "lawful measures" were taken to contain the situation, without saying what these were.
The ministry also announced on Sunday the opening of a probe into claims that a policeman had thrown a petrol bomb, as a video posted online appeared to show.
The inquiry could lead to disciplinary measures against the suspect, a senior ministry official said in a statement received by Agence La Belle France Presse.
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[Bangla Daily Star]The trial of the much-talked-about August 21 grenade attack case is set to begin on March 28, as a Dhaka court yesterday framed charges against 30 accused in the supplementary charge sheet of the killing case.
The newly indicted include former prime minister Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... 's elder son Tarique Rahman ...the elder son of former President of Bangladesh Ziaur Rahman Bir Uttam, and Khaleda Zia, former Prime Minister of Bangladesh. He is the Senior Vice Chairperson of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). His nickname is Pino. There are allegations that Pino took a rakeoff from every foreign investment into the country while Mom was in office... , her nephew Saiful Islam Duke, the then state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar, four other BNP leaders and a Jamaat leader.
Among others, three are former IGPs, two ex-NSI officials, three former CID officials, two ex-senior police officials, and three former high-ranking officials of the army and the navy.
The 13 high-ups were in service when the grenade attack was made on an Awami League rally at Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital on August 21, 2004. Twenty-four AL leaders and workers were killed and 300 others were maimed in the attack.
The gruesome attack was aimed at assassinating Awami League President Sheikh Hasina, then leader of the opposition.
[An Nahar] Marxist FARC rebels attacked a Colombian army unit Saturday and killed 11 soldiers, the army said.
The troops were hit by an "indiscriminate" strike by rebels with the 10th front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia FARC or FARC-EP, is either a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary guerrilla organization or a narco mob based in Colombia. It claims to represent the rural poor in a struggle against Colombia's wealthier classes, and opposes United States influence in Colombia, neo-imperialism, monopolization of natural resources by multinational corporations, and the usual raft of complaints. It funds itself principally through ransom kidnappings, taxation of the drug trade, extortion, shakedowns, and donations. It has lately begun calling itself Bolivarian and is greatly admired by Venezuela's President-for-Life Chavez, who seemingly fantasizes about living in the woods and kidnapping people himself. He provides FARC with safe areas along the border. (FARC) in Arauca department, in the east of Colombia, the army said.
A mid-ranking official and 10 privates were killed, the statement said. Two other people were maimed, it added.
The FARC officially renounced abduction of civilians late last month, but still holds 10 members of Colombian security forces, though it has pledged to release them soon.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos says he will open a direct dialogue with the FARC only when all hostages are released and the group vows to cease "terrorist" actions.
He also wants the FARC to stop recruiting children.
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[Dawn] At least 51 faceless myrmidons and four soldiers have been killed in air strikes and festivities with Pak security forces in the restive northwest over the past week, officials said Sunday.
On Sunday, Pak planes bombed the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, killing 26 thugs, a senior paramilitary official told AFP.
"Pak jet strikes today killed 26 faceless myrmidons and maimed 15 others and destroyed their seven hide outs in different areas of Upper Orakzai and Kurram (tribal districts)," the official said.
Most of Upper Orakzai is in Taliban hands and is the scene of frequent festivities between security forces and thugs.
Separately, at least 25 faceless myrmidons and four soldiers were killed in Bara, a restive town in Khyber tribal district in shootouts between March 12 and Sunday, the official said.
"Four security forces personnel embraced martyrdom and 12 others were maimed in shootouts which left 25 faceless myrmidons dead," he said.
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[Dawn] Two watchmen were maimed early on Saturday when bully boyz blew up the building of Government High School for Boys in Babozai area of Katlang tehsil in Mardan district, locals and police officials said.
Locals told Dawn that they were awakened at 2:45am by the loud kaboom of an bomb at the school and rushed to the premises and found watchmen Wakif Khan and Iftikhar with multiple injuries.
They said the two were shifted to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared condition of Mr Wakif critical.
The bomb disposal squad said that explosives used in the blast weighed around 20 kilograms.
Katlang police said the kaboom destroyed three classrooms, two staff rooms and the veranda completely, while the examination hall and restrooms were partially damaged.
They said they had registered an FIR against unidentified krazed killers.
Later in the day, senior police officials inspected the building. There followed the launch of an operation in Katlang and adjoining areas to hunt down bombers.
During the current week, it is the second krazed killer attack in Mardan city. Earlier, bully boyz blew up a CD market in Takht Bhai city on Malakand Road.
In southern district of Tank, over a dozen gunnies wearing military uniforms stormed the house of leading trader Sheikh Allah Nawaz in Pathankot area Saturday morning and took him away along with his servant in his car.
The trader's brother, Qayyum Nawaz, informed local police that five of the attackers entered the house, while others stayed outside holding them after covering his eyes with a piece of cloth.
He said that he heard gunshots before attackers decamped with his brother and his servant. He said he later found his nine-year-old daughter injured as he was shot at by trespassers.Local police registered FIR against unidentified attackers and began
investigation.
However, ars longa, vita brevis... no arrests could be made until Saturday night.
Over the last few weeks, the area has reported many cases of assassinations and kidnapping of influential people, including members of peace committees.
In Darsamand area of Hangu district ... Hangu is famous for its greenery, hills, beauty and water. Most of the people of this area are Bangash & Orakzai Pashtuns. Part of the Bangash are Shia. The Orakzai and the Sunni Bangash are determined to kill them... , the terrorists' bid to blow up a bridge was thwarted by the bomb disposal squad on Saturday as they defused a 10kg bomb attached to it.
Locals said they spotted the bomb and informed police about it before the latter called in the bomb disposal squad for help.
Doaba police started the paperwork but haven't done much else against unidentified cut-throats and began investigation.
On Friday morning, cut-throats blew up a primary school for boys in the remote area of Kotangi Marchoongi. However, if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... no damage to human life was reported.
In Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, police on Saturday foiled a bombing bid by cut-throats on Sango Road in Sarband area.
Sarband cop shoppe's official Fazal Maula told Dawn that the remote controlled bomb was planted to target the patrol vehicle.
"We got information through informers and quickly called in the bomb disposal squad to defuse it. The bomb weighing 12 kilogrammes and placed in a cooker was successfully defused by the squad," he said.
He said police had started the paperwork but haven't done much else against unidentified cut-throats before beginning investigation.
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[Yemen Post] The Military Commission tasked to remove armed manifestations resumed on Saturday its activities in Sana'a, calling all sides of conflict to commit to instructions of the commission.
According to the Yemeni News Agency, the commission that was formed under the GCC-mediated power transfer deal embarked on its tasks in An-Nahdha and Sofan of Sana'a.
It further removed sand bags, trenches from streets and checkpoints set up since protests began in February 2011 against the former President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh's . ... 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... According to Saba, the commission presided by President Abdo-Rabo Mansour Hadi determined a plan to compeletely carry out its agenda aiming at removing all armed manifestations and evacuating streets and neighborhoods of gunnies.
The commission assigned to end the violence and restore peace to Yemen after months of unrest approved formed field teams to open the road linking between Bait Dehrah of Sana'a governorate and Mbarib as well as other roads, the agency said.
Spokesman of the military commission Ali Saeed Obaid affirmed that the commission will continue its tasks until returning the capital to normality.
The commission will also aims to reconstruct the military and security services which are still divided between those pro-revolution divisions and those divisions that are run relatives of the former President-for-Life Saleh ... exemplifying the Arab's propensity to combine brutality with incompetence... Hundreds of officers and soldiers have been protesting for months, demanding to sack commander of the Air Forces, Mohammad Saleh Al-Ahmar, half-brother of the former President Saleh.
High-ranking officials had lost their positions as a result of what is called the revolution of institutions that has hit many public authorities and resulted in the ouster of tens of corrupt officials.
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[Dawn] Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... said on Sunday that Pakistain has not sought any apology from the United States on the Salalah post incident but is seeking new directions in relations with America on key issues. How about hostile isolation?
Speaking to the media at his residence on Sunday, the prime minister said the Parliament will debate ties with America on Monday with input from key stakeholders before the new rules of engagement and proposals are settled.
The relations between the countries touched a new low following the killing of 24 Pak soldiers, by US troops, on their border post in the restive tribal region in November last year.
"We want the full support of Parliament on this issue, which will also deal with Pakistain's ties with NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... and ISAF as the two organizations combine a total of 48 countries," he said.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Dawn] Two 
Khaleda Zia
[Dawn] THE first pin to the bubble came with Salala. Americans killing Pak soldiers en masse: it was a made-for-Khan moment.
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...
Interior Minister 
A local official of Saudi Embassy's sub-office in the capital was killed at his private residence while the killers took away his car here on Saturday, police said.
International Criminal Court
chairman of one of the two factions of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front. JKLF is a Kashmiri nationalist organization founded in Birmingham, UK in 1977. Branches weren't actually established in Kashmir for another ten years. It has the usual demands for separation of J&K from secular India so it can become an independent Islamic rathole. It seems to have no interest in Pak Kashmir breaking away to join it. In 1994 Malik renounced violence after he was released from jail and from that point he and his organization pursued peaceful means to impose their will on the area...
Asif Ali 
Maoist rebels have kidnapped two Italian tourists in eastern India, police said Sunday, in what is believed to be the first abduction of foreigners by the left-wing
Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling...
[Bangla Daily Star] A recent hearing on a petition against an illegal disbursement of money to politicians and individuals brings to light the dirty role of Pakistain's controversial spy agency ISI.
Nawaz Sharif
Hamid Gul
[An Nahar] Egyptian Bedouin in the Sinai kidnapped two Brazilian women tourists on Sunday in the third such abduction in the peninsula this year, security officials said.
[Dawn] Three persons identified as Abdul Rasheed, Khalil and Zubair were killed while three others were 
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
At least 51 
[Dawn] Two watchmen 
In southern district of Tank, over a dozen 
The Military Commission tasked to remove armed manifestations resumed on Saturday its activities in Sana'a, calling all sides of conflict to commit to instructions of the commission. 
[Dawn] Prime Minister Syed 
