#8
In this case, the first one to smell it, is dead. Maybe he dealt it, maybe he didn't.
Posted by: Charles ||
12/09/2012 21:57
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#9
How do we know this isn't Assad's folks doing a false flag to cover later use and blame it on the rebels? Was anyone in the video identifiable as a rebel?
#10
Not just Rabbits, etc. but the Rebs now also claim to have video of what they claim is a Syrian Army attack on them + Civilians using said CHEM WEAPS???
Hugo Chavez has named Nicolas Maduro, his vice president and a radical foreign minster, as his chosen successor after announcing he was heading to Cuba for treatment following the return of cancer. Sounds like he got the bad news...
The Venezuelan president, who has previously undergone two operations, chemotherapy and radiation treatment, said in a televised address from the presidential palace that Mr Maduro, a former bus driver, should succeed "if something were to happen that would incapacitate me."
Mr Chavez said: "There are risks. Who can deny it? In any circumstance, we should guarantee the advance of the Bolivarian Revolution. I hope to give you all good news in the coming days. With the grace of God, we'll come out victorious.
"My firm opinion, as clear as the full moon - irrevocable, absolute, total - is that you elect Nicolas Maduro as president. I ask this of you from my heart. He is one of the young leaders with the greatest ability to continue, if I cannot."
Mr Chavez, 58, who has remained secretive about the details of his cancer, said he had suffered a return of "malignant cells" in the same area where tumours were removed before.
Different guy or different name - I can never tell. DERA ISMAIL KHAN: A US drone attack killed a senior al Qaeda commander in Pakistan's northwest on Sunday, military intelligence officials said, the second militant leader to be killed in strikes by the unmanned aircraft in three days.
The attack killed Mohammad Ahmed Almansoor and three others in a village close to Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, near the Afghan border. Local sources told The Express Tribune that the three other people killed were Almansoor's camp followers family members.
The drone fired missiles at a house with Almansoor inside, destroying two rooms and a car. Four drones were seen flying over the area during the attack, residents and government officials said.
The local sources added that Almansoor had been living in North Waziristan for a long time and used to wear the local dress. Like Cpl. Klinger?
An intelligence official told The Express Tribune that a foreigner was also reportedly killed in the attack, but his name and identity could not be ascertained as yet. Smith. John Smith.
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/09/2012
07:13 ||
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#1
Poor dead Polar Bears, always too much, too little, or just right but no calories. Climate catastrophes will always hit them hardest, cause they soo damn cute for a vicious omnivorousness.
Still Free Willie would kick their asses given a few wheels.
#2
M'Lady and I flew our plane there in 1995. Damned polar bear walking across the runway before we landed and had to be shooed away. Churchill is an interesting place. Has an old 5 sided stone fort on the north side. Brits built in centuries ago in defence of the French. When the French arrived in warships, the Brits were starving and surrendered without a fight. The French gave the Brits a ride out of there. We flew over hundreds of beluga over an area of the bay near Churchill. Needless to say we did not camp at Churchill like we did at Tadoole Lake the night before, heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/09/2012 12:54
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#3
Cool graphic, lord garth! Ima fraziled.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/09/2012 12:58
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#4
You lead such an interesting life, Paul.
(I'd be jealous, if I weren't so lazy. ;-p )
Posted by: Barbara ||
12/09/2012 13:29
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#5
Little play on words, there, if ye can find it.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/09/2012 17:28
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[Ynet] Italian authorities have thwarted a weapons smuggling attempt involving rocket launchers in the Port of Naples, the Italian news agency ANSA reported Saturday. One Egyptian citizen was tossed in the clink Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! According to the report, Israeli authorities provided Italian security forces with information on the containers that carried the weapons which were destined for Egypt.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will undergo another operation for cancer in Cuba, Xinhua reported.
In a televised speech, Chavez said he will return to Havana Sunday after doctors found malignant cells during tests.
The president had returned to Caracas Friday following a 10-day stay in Cuba for post-cancer treatment. Chavez, 58, has been battling with cancer since mid-2011.
#5
His designated heir is Cuba's boy, an ex busdriver, union thug etc. Not well known to the population that matters. Will have to face election soon. I still see Adan making a move as soon as his brother is properly chilled.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/09/2012 8:57
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#4
No question a horrific life (if all the charges are true). Still doesn't justify becoming a jihadi.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/09/2012 10:18
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#5
Now she can have a sense of belonging to another large community:
Convicts.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
12/09/2012 11:24
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#6
That could really screw up your head. Becoming a jihadist and working out your problems on someone else is not the answer either. Should have found a shrink to work out her $hit.
#7
Finding abused people with low self-esteem and then giving them a sense of purpose is the simple process for home grown jihad as well as gangs, drug smuggling, prostitution etc We have our share of these sad types of people in America, this is where we should be looking for jihadists recruiting efforts. So we can stop it. She, this Jane woman, should have done a lot of things; getting help would have never lent her to being exposed to these extremists. But then its a series of bad decisions that got her to where she was. Its more sad than angering
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
12/09/2012 12:37
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#8
Blacks in prisons with Muzzie chaplains are a good garden for jihadis, too.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/09/2012 13:08
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#9
People Blacks in prisons with Muzzie chaplains are a good garden for jihadis, too.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/09/2012 16:32
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#11
What about -- supposedly -- all those Hispanics and whites who've been seeing the benefits of throwing in with the Mohammedans, Frank G.? We've seen a number of stories of their arrests here at Rantburg over the years. Is the frequency overwhelmingly in the African-American direction rather than otherwise?
#16
The funny thing is, and one I can't get them not understanding, is that didn't the Prophet say something along the lines that the Black have the head of an ass and is good for nothing but slavery? (Note - I am not saying this - *he* did!) I believe it's in the Koran somewhere...
OCCD, were your black inmates Nation of Islam or Sunni?
Frank G, as I recall the largest number of Muslims in the U.S. are from the Indian subcontinent, then Southeast Asia, then Nation of Islam. Most Arabs in this country are Christians of one sort or another. Iranians divide between Muslims, Jews, and Baha'i. I've probably met some of each over the years, but not enough of any one group to draw personal conclusions, except that the Palestinians at my university were unpleasantly aggressive.
#19
Arabs and blacks, TW. It's an unpleasant reality, and un-PC. I take exception to your reference that most "Arabs in this country are Christians..." You are referring to Chaldeans for the most part and they have been non-violent, but in east San Diego not non-criminal (betting, drugs, etc.). I doubt they are the majority of Arabs imported unless if you exclude Somalis, Sudanese, etc.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/09/2012 19:35
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#22
"'Jihad Jane' converted to Islam for a 'sense of belonging'"
Fine, bitch idiot. Now you can belong with the other felons - IN JAIL.
Far as I'm concerned, it should be under the jail.
Posted by: Barbara ||
12/09/2012 21:24
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#23
You are referring to Chaldeans for the most part
Lebanese, actually. They've been coming over since the turn of the last century, and assimilated beautifully. That horrid but much-loved poet Khalil Ghibran was one of them.
Is a third intifada unavoidable? The recent Palestinian success in the UN, the deadlocked Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the achievements noted by Hamas during Operation Pillar of Defense have prompted greater agitation in the West Bank, and the IDF is concerned that the area may soon reach a boiling point.
According to Shin Bet data, the unrest in the area is ripe for the development of the kind of infrastructure that could potentially support a third intifada prolonged and violent unrest the likes of which Israel had to deal with in 1987 and 2000.
#2
if there is widespread violence in the West Bank, a lot of it will be anti PaleoAuthority violence.
the current leadership of the PA is old and insulated from the public-- add to this that many of the payroll and welfare checks have been late for month after month
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/09/2012 7:01
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#3
If Isreal gets attacked they'll treat it as a foreign State attacking. There will be no holding back.
Posted by: Charles ||
12/09/2012 7:37
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#4
the current leadership..... is old and insulated from the public-- add to this that many of the payroll and welfare checks have been late for month after month
Posted by lord garth
Is that the Palestinian Authority you're speaking of your Lordship, or the Congress of the United States along with some type of foretelling ?
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/09/2012 10:03
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#6
Now Israel won't be limited to pinpoint strikes on rogue jihadis. They can blame the Paleostinian government and go after infrastructure until it stops. Start with water and sewage treatment plants.
U.S. citizen who was abducted by Taliban insurgents was rescued by U.S. forces in an operation in eastern Afghanistan early on Sunday, NATO-led forces said in a statement.
The statement said the American, identified as Dr. Dilip Joseph, had been abducted on Wednesday in the Sarobi district of Kabul province. It gave few other details.
U.S. General John Allen, commander of NATO-led foreign forces in Afghanistan, said he ordered the mission when intelligence showed that Joseph was "in imminent danger of injury or death."
"Today's mission exemplifies our unwavering commitment to defeating the Taliban," Allen said in the statement.
"I'm proud of the American and Afghan forces that planned, rehearsed and successfully conducted this operation."
"Thanks to them, Dr. Joseph will soon be rejoining his family and loved ones."
#1
Typically, banks base their business model on borrowing short term and providing longer-term loans. The difference between the banks borrowing costs and what they earn when they lend or invest those funds is known as the net interest income.
Banks no longer pay interest (to amount to anything) on your cash deposits. They get all the long-term cheap money they need from the gov't. They no longer need traditional depositors or customers. Consequently, folks don't put much money in banks anymore.
Banks don't need customers, they have the gov't. Farmers no longer need to farm, they have the gov't. Property owners no longer need to insure against hazards, they have the gov't. Workers no longer need to work, they have the gov't. And so it goes.
citi isn't cutting retail banking because of margins
they are cutting because banking productivity is up - e deposits, e payments, ATMs, etc. because some of various troubled assets that will take some capital to resolve - and also of course for executive entertainment
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/09/2012 8:48
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#3
Near zero interest money and the banks still can't manage....
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
12/09/2012 13:01
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#4
Peer to Peer lending is coming up for statutory "regulation".
No-one had any problems, except the banks who hated to competition.
General Nasser Naji bin Farid, commander of military forces in central Yemen, was killed on Saturday in an ambush, army and tribal sources said, blaming Al-Qaeda.
"The convoy of General Bin Farid was attacked near Marib by armed men," a military source said of the incident in the city, 140 kilometres (87 miles) east of Sanaa.
Another officer, Colonel Hamid al-Qaher, was also killed, while gunmen wounded some of the soldiers in the convoy and seized two vehicles and several firearms, a tribal source said.
Both said the attack bears the hallmark of Al-Qaeda.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/09/2012
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[BBC.CO.UK] The President of Pakistain has visited a schoolgirl who is being treated in hospital in the UK after being shot in the head by a Taliban gunman.
President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ... also met the family of Malala Yousafzai during a private visit to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham on Saturday.
Malala was shot as she travelled home from school with two classmates in north-west Pakistain in October.
The 15-year-old was targeted for "promoting secularism."
'Thanked staff' Malala, known as a campaigner for girls' education, was shot in the Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... Valley on 9 October. Doctors said the bullet grazed the teenager's brain when it struck her just above her left eye.
She was flown to Birmingham to receive treatment unavailable in her own country.
The president described Malala as a "remarkable girl and a credit to Pakistain".
A statement released by the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust said the President of Pakistain, Asif Ali Zardari, visited the hospital to receive an update on the recovery of Malala.
The hospital said President Zardari, accompanied by his daughter Asifa Bhutto, met clinicians who have been treating Malala since her admission to the hospital on 15 October.
"They were brought up to date on the 15-year-old's medical progress and her future treatment plan by (the trust's) medical director, Dr Dave Rosser," the statement added.
President Zardari and Asifa Bhutto then had a short five-minute private meeting with Malala, her father Ziauddin and her brothers Khushal Khan and Atal Khan.
During the visit, the hospital added, the president had thanked staff for their outstanding care.
Tens of thousands of people have since signed a petition calling for her to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2012
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[Al Ahram] The past 24 hours have not been the easiest for Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr. He has been receiving calls from key advisors to President Mohamed Morsi, including Moslem Brüderbund member Essam Hadad, the effective foreign policy decision maker, and Ambassador Rifaa Tahtawi, Morsi's chief of staff. The angry questions and remarks relate to a communiqué that was issued and signed by close to 250 diplomats declining to participate in supervising the overseas referendum process for Egyptian expats on the draft constitution due Saturday ahead of the scheduled 15 December home referendum.
Amr, according to sources, has been appealing to diplomats to solicit "wisdom" from their colleagues. "He has been asking us to tell people that they should not be joining this statement because it violates the obvious bureaucratic commitment of the foreign service," said a member of Amr's staff. He insisted that "although I have not personally joined the statement, I am not going to be telling people what to do. If the minister wants to issue directives, he can do it."
Amr had not issued direct orders for diplomats to disavow the communiqué. However, there's more than one way to skin a cat... he issued a statement through one of his aides insisting that the foreign ministry, as part of the executive, is committed to honour its duties, including supervising an overseas referendum for Egyptian expats on the constitution.
"Ultimately, if the president decides to go ahead with the Saturday referendum for Egyptian expats there would be enough diplomats to do the job," said one assistant to the foreign minister. Indeed, he added that during the past day there have been "what amounted to quarrels" among members of some Egyptian diplomatic missions overseas over whether or not to boycott the referendum as some diplomats have decided to do.
According to a presidential source, the trouble with the boycott calling communiqué is the message it sends. "A very negative message of the executive declining to bow to the orders of its head, the president," he said.
Some diplomats who signed the communiqué told Ahram Online that their purpose is not to defy the president. Insisting that none of them wished to depart from the consensual language of the communiqué, some said the purpose of their statement is to signal that the president needs to reconsider his position.
"We cannot be part of a referendum over a constitution that has shed the blood of Egyptians," reads the communiqué.
This is not the first statement to be issued by a group of Egyptian diplomats declining presidential or ministerial orders. Only last month, a group of diplomats issued a statement declining directives of Foreign Minister Amr for them to support a controversial presidential decree issued 22 November that effectively froze the powers of the judicial branch and annexed some of its prerogatives to the president who already has legislative power along with executive power.
The 22 November constitutional declaration marked the beginning of the current political quagmire. "As diplomats, we are first and foremost Egyptians, and as Egyptians we decline the reintroduction of dictatorship," said another signatory of Wednesday's diplomat communiqué.
For one of the aides of President Morsi, it is specifically this rejection on the part of the executive corps that had originally prompted Morsi to issue his 22 November decree rendering his decisions immune to appeal.
"The president is being defied; the executive corps in large part is not bowing to his orders as its head, because they had wanted Shafiq (his presidential elections adversary)," said the presidential aide.
Aides to President Morsi say that Shafiq, the last prime minister of ousted president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... , has large in-roads into the executive as in the judiciary, and he is trying to give Morsi a hard time.
But several of the diplomats who signed Wednesday's communiqué say they did not vote for Shafiq neither in the first or the second round of the presidential elections in summer.
"The president cannot find any pretext for the kind of dictatorial decisions he has been making, one after the other. The ready-made accusation that this or that person is trying to reintroduce the Mubarak regime if he disagrees with the president has become overused to the point of being silly," said a third signatory to the foreign service statement.
He said that it any defiance that Morsi has been facing from within the executive -- adding "I am sure there has been some" -- could have been dealt with without resorting to the "recent wave of extra-ordinary decrees."
Some members of the foreign service openly joined the January 25 Revolution, with some taking time off from their overseas missions to join demonstrations in Tahrir Square.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2012
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[Dawn] The Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. High Court on Friday issued notices to the defence and interior secretaries, provincial home secretary and other relevant officials over the alleged enforced disappearance of the 'handler' of a would-be teenage jacket wallahlocked away Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! by police in the quiet provincial capital lately.
The notices were issued by a bench comprising Justice Mian Fasihul Mulk and Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth after preliminary hearing into a habeas corpus petition filed by Ahmad Jan, brother of the detainee Jehangir Khan.
The bench later fixed hearing into the case for Jan 9, 2013.Jehangir Khan was allegedly arrested by police along with teenage suicide bomber Bilal in the jurisdiction of Sarband cop shoppe on Nov 20, 2012. Several television channels had shown police
arresting him and the bomber with an explosives filled vest. The vest was later defused by the bomb disposal squad.
After the arrest, police told news hounds that Jehangir was the handler of Bilal, but the next day, they retracted their statement.
They even didn't name Jehangir in the FIR.
Zia ul Haq, lawyer for the petitioner, said both suspects were shown on television after arrest and the alleged bomber was produced before an anti-terrorism court but Jehangir had yet to be produced before any court of law. He said the anti-terrorism court had taken notice of the issue and sought explanation from the Peshawar capital city police chief, who claimed that except Bilal, no other suspect over the matter was in police custody.
He added that Jehangir's detention without production before any court of law was illegal and unconstitutional.
The respondents in the petition are the defence and interior secretaries, provincial home and tribal affairs secretary, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... inspector general of police, political agent of Khyber Agency, station house officers of Sarband and Badabher cop shoppes and others.
The petitioner, a soldier of Frontier Corps, said he belonged to Speen Qamar area of Bara tehsil in Khyber Agency.
According to him, his brother, a second year student, was arrested near Faqir Kalae on Feb 15 this year. Later, he was handed over to the joint investigation team, which cleared him and handed him over to the administration of Khyber Agency, which placed in long-term storage Book 'im, Mahmoud! him under the Frontier Crimes Regulation.
The petitioner said the court later ordered the Khyber Agency administration to free Jehangir on bail so that he could appear in his examination. He added that his brother passed all papers except that of Pakistain Studies for which he didn't sit examination.
The petitioner said Jehangir later appeared in the supplementary examination and that the results were awaited.
He claimed that the case against his brother was concocted by police in connivance with some of his rivals.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2012
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Syrian government troops on Saturday closed all roads leading to the capital, Damascus, after opposition rebels attacked checkpoints in various parts of the city, activists said.
This is beginning to sound a little like Saigon, 1975. I'm waiting for the Russian helicopters to start landing on top of their embassy...
"Around 13 army checkpoints were attacked at the entrances of the capital, Damascus. This prompted the government troops to close areas, especially those leading to the eastern, western and southern suburbs of the capital," Haytham al-Abdullah, a Syrian activist based in Damascus, told dpa.
He added that government troops were mounting a widescale crackdown eight kilometers from Damascus.
Rebels are at pains to seize the city's airport and a main road leading to it in an attempt to cut supply lines to government troops, say activists. Both sides have been fighting near the facility for more than a week.
Military commanders of several brigades from the rebel Free Syrian Army have agreed to unify their command. They selected a 30-member supreme military council, led by General Salim Idriss, in preparation for a decisive battle in Damascus, said activists.
Meanwhile, the newly elected National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces is to meet in Cairo on Saturday for talks on electing a prime minister and members of a transitional government in exile. The United States and other Western powers have been pressuring the coalition, launched in Qatar last month, to show unity and coordinate with forces fighting to oust al-Assad's regime.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/09/2012
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#1
I just hope they kill a helluva lot of each other
Decent reporting here by NYT, likely because the story doesn't hurt Champ...
CAIRO Struggling to quell street protests and political violence, President Mohamed Morsi is moving to impose a version of martial law by calling on the armed forces to keep order and authorizing soldiers to arrest civilians, Egyptian state media announced Saturday.
This is assuming the military, all of it, will obey...
If Mr. Morsi goes through with the plan, it would represent a historic role reversal. For decades, Egypts military-backed authoritarian presidents had used martial law to hold on to power and to punish Islamists like Mr. Morsi, who spent months in jail under a similar decree.
A turn back to the military would also come just four months after Mr. Morsi managed to pry political power out of the hands of the countrys powerful generals, who led a transitional government after the ouster of the longtime strongman Hosni Mubarak.
Just means a different group of generals are in charge today compared to a year ago. Morsi likely thought he had installed new generals who are loyal to him. He's about to find out if he was right...
The flagship state newspaper Al Ahram reported that Mr. Morsi will soon issue a decision for the participation of the armed forces in the duties of maintaining security and protection of vital state institutions. The military would maintain its expanded role until the completion of a referendum on a draft constitution next Saturday and the election of a new Parliament expected two months after that.
Imposing martial law would represent the steepest escalation yet in the political battle between Egypts new Islamist leaders and their secular opponents over the Islamist-backed draft constitution a standoff that has already threatened to derail Egypts promised transition to a constitutional democracy.
Calling in the army could overcome the danger of protests or violence that might disrupt the planned referendum and the parliamentary election. But resorting to the military to secure the vote could undermine Mr. Morsis hopes that a strong vote for the constitution would be seen as a sign of national consensus that could help end the political crisis over the Islamist-backed charter.
Not to mention the humorous hypocrisy...
Mr. Morsi has not yet formally issued the order reported in Al Ahram, raising the possibility that the newspaper announcement was intended as a leak warning to his opponents. Although the plan would not fully suspend the civil law, it would nonetheless have the effect of suspending legal rights by empowering soldiers under the control of the defense minister to try civilians in military courts.
Who needs a civil law when you have military courts?
There was no sign of military tanks in the streets on Saturday evening, but the military appeared for now to back Mr. Morsi. Soon after the news of the plans, a military spokesman read a statement over state television that echoed the reports of Mr. Morsis planned decree.
The military realizes its national responsibility for maintaining the supreme interests of the nation and securing and protecting the vital targets, public institutions, and the interests of the innocent citizens, the spokesman said, emphasizing the sorrow and concern over recent developments and warning of divisions that threaten the state of Egypt.
Dialogue is the best and sole way to reach consensus that achieves the interests of the nation and the citizens, the spokesman said. Anything other than that puts us in a dark tunnel with drastic consequences, which is something that we will not allow.
Moataz Abdel-Fattah, a former adviser to Egypts transitional prime minister who is close to Defense Minister Abdul Fattah el-Sisi, suggested that the generals might have prompted Mr. Morsi to announce the possibility of martial law as a warning to all the political factions to end the crisis.
The military is saying, Do not let things get so bad that we have to intervene, Mr. Abdel-Fattah said. In the short term it is good for President Morsi, but in the long run they are also saying, We belong to the people, and not Mr. Morsi or his opponents.
The militarys return to the streets at Mr. Morsis request would be a turn of events that was almost unimaginable when he took office in June.
The top generals had pushed for months to maintain a role in Egyptian politics and to limit the presidents powers in part, their supporters argued, as a safeguard against an Islamist takeover.
After taking office Mr. Morsi spent months courting the generals, sometimes earning the derision of liberal activists for his public flattery of their role. In an August decree, he relied on the backing of some top officers to remove the handful of generals who had insisted on maintaining a political role. And then last month, despite the protests of the same activists, the new Islamist-backed draft constitution turned out to include protections of the militarys autonomy and privileges within the Egyptian government, suggesting an understanding between the two sides that may now come into effect.
Under the presidents planned martial law order, the defense minister would determine the scope of the militarys role, Al Ahram reported. Military officers acting as police officers would be authorized to use force to the extent necessary to perform their duty, the newspaper said.
The move would cap an extraordinary breakdown in Egyptian civic life that in the last two weeks has destroyed almost any remaining trust between the rival Islamist and secular factions, beginning with Mr. Morsis decree on Nov. 22 granting himself powers above any judicial review until the ratification of a new constitution.
At the time, Mr. Morsi said he needed such unchecked power to protect against the threat that Mubarak-appointed judges might dissolve the constitutional assembly.
But his claim to such unlimited power for even a limited period struck those suspicious of the Islamists and fearful of a possible return to autocracy. It recalled broken promises from the Muslim Brotherhood that it would not dominate the parliamentary election or seek the presidency. And his decree set off an immediate backlash.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters accusing Mr. Morsi and his Islamist allies of monopolizing power have poured into the streets. Demonstrators have also attacked more than two dozen Brotherhood offices around the country, including its headquarters. And judges declared a national strike.
In response, Mr. Morsis Islamist allies in the assembly rushed out a draft constitution over the boycotts and objections of the secular minority and the Coptic Christian Church. Then, worried that the Interior Ministry might fail to protect the presidential palace from sometimes-violent demonstrations outside, Mr. Morsi turned to the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups to defend it, resulting in a night of street fighting that killed at least six and wounded hundreds.
The draft charter, ultimately rushed out almost exclusively with Islamist support, stops short of the liberals worst fears about the imposition of religious rule. But it leaves loopholes and ambiguities that liberals fear Islamists could later use to empower religious groups or restrict individual freedoms.
Mr. Morsis political allies, in turn, accuse their secular opponents of seeking to scrap democracy because the Islamists won.
On Saturday, Mohamed Badie, the Muslim Brotherhoods spiritual guide, held a news conference to argue that the group had been the victim of its opponents attacks and not an aggressor, at times almost pleading with its opponents not to let their fear of the Islamists keep them away from negotiating a resolution to the crisis.
I am telling everyone, Do not hate the Muslim Brotherhood so much that you forget Egypts interest, he said. You can be angry at us and hate us as much as you want. But he added: Protect Egypt. Its unity cannot take what is happening right now.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/09/2012
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#1
"You can be angry at us and hate us as much as you want."
"Because three weeks from now, we'll be in charge and we know who you are."
I believe him. Granted, I'm gullible, but even so.
[Dawn] Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Saturday said that the days of manipulating the elections are now over.
Addressing a gathering of Pakistain People's Party (PPP) workers here, the Prime Minister said that the verdict in the Asghar Khan case by the Supreme Court was an eye-opener and showed how the election results were manipulated in the past.
Ashraf added that the case had unveiled many things and that party workers need to study it to be aware of those who try to manipulate the results.
Moreover, he claimed that the PPP always succeeds with an overwhelming majority whenever there are free, fair and transparent elections.
The PM said that there was a time when everyone believed it was impossible to get rid of the dictatorial regime of former President Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... . However, alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk... it was the political acumen of President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ... that led to the ouster of the dictator, he claimed.
He said it also goes to the credit of President Zardari that all the powers of the President of Pakistain were handed over to the parliament.
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[Al Ahram] Hundreds of Tunisians, most of them Islamists, rallied on Saturday in the capital to demand that cronies of ousted dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali be put in the dock on corruption charges.
"The people want to clean up the country," demonstrators chanted in central Tunis, with some holding Salafist flags. "People, rise up against the cronies of the dictator," they said amid a heavy police presence.
The rally was organised by the League for the Protection of the Revolution, a group close to the ruling Islamist Ennahda party, which claims its mission is to protect the goals of the 2011 revolution that toppled Ben Ali.
The protesters' rage focused on businessman and influential politician Kamel Eltaief who has been banned from travelling since November and who is being investigated for "conspiracy against state security."
"Eltaief, your hour has come," they chanted. "No more corruption after the revolution."
Lawyer Mohamed Cherif Jebali, who lodged a complaint against Eltaief prompting the launch of the probe against the businessman, said the word on the street is: "Kamel Eltaief must be judged."
"This man spearheads the counter-revolution, and the judiciary are dragging their feet in his case," said Jebali, who said he was taking part in the rally like other activists over concerns that the uprising was being hijacked.
Eltaief, once considered Ben Ali's eminence grise and who helped him in decision-making, told AFP in an interview that he was in the crosshairs of the Islamists because of his current links to the opposition.
"Officials of the Islamist party Ennahda and their leftist allies want me in jail for political reasons," said Eltaief, an influential figure in Tunisian politics both before and after the revolution.
Demonstrators also called for the "purification" of the main labour union UGTT, saying that the General Union of Tunisian Workers was rife with "symbols of corruption" and diehard former regime figures.
"The UGTT has become the hostage of the left," said Hedi Belaid, a former leader of the union of aeronautical technicians. "It must stop delving into politics and continue its task of protecting the rights of all workers."
Tensions have escalated in Tunisia between the powerful union and the ruling Islamists, with the UGTT calling for a rare nationwide general strike for December 13.
It called the strike to denounce an attack on its headquarters this week that it says was carried out by the pro-Ennahda League for the Protection of the Revolution. The Islamists say the UGTT itself orchestrated the confrontation.
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The goals of Pak Americans in US politics may not align with those of Islamabad
It happens to every group of immigrants after they've been here a while...
Most of the correspondents of Pak news networks in Washington and New York were unable to understand why the anchors and commentators back home were not accepting what they were seeing on the ground - that Obama was winning the elections. The analysts back home had wishfully concluded that Willard Mitt Romney ...former governor of Massachussetts, the Publican nominee for president in 2012. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney has a record as a successful businessman, heading Bain Capital, and he rescued the 2002 Winter Olympics from the midst of bribery and mismanagement scandals.... would win, and that was what they wanted to hear. The US presidential election has shown that Pak opinion makers are in a state of denial. The expatriates are coming around to this reality and disagree with the views back home. Such diverging views may result in a change that may not be to Islamabad's liking.
While Paks back home, enraged by President B.O.'s remarks on Pakistain in a presidential debate, wished him to lose the election, an overwhelming majority of Pak Americans voted for all the candidates of the Democratic Party. From young students to the elderly, Pak Americans were incensed by Mitt Romney's rhetoric against immigrants, and concessionary views on student loans and social services, particularly health benefits. Republican Party, crusading against immigrants and asking Washington to deport many of them, had alienated almost the entire expatriate community, Hispanics in particular. Similarly, the conservative onslaught on human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... with racial undertones had angered the African Americans and others. In a way every minority group was unhappy with the conservative Republicans and forged a grand alliance to keep President B.O. in the White House.
Therefore, the Pak community decided to look out for its own interests in the country they live in, the US, and not for the one they have left.
Pak Americans' solidarity with other minority groups, based on self interest, was a refreshing behavioral change. In the past, majority of Paks had been supporting the Republican Party on the pretext that they were better for Pakistain. This time around, Pak Americans had realized that the foreign policies of both the mainstream US parties were similar. The Pak American intelligentsia argued that the US foreign policy was formulated by the State Department and the Pentagon, and the politicians and the administration (White House) did not have too much impact on relations with Pakistain. Therefore, the Pak community decided to look out for its own interests in the country they live in, the US, and not for the one they have left. Even leaders from 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), the most vibrant Pak-American political platform otherwise making noises against President B.O.'s drone policy, campaigned for Democratic candidates.
This change reflects demographic factors, maturation of the immigrant community, and the US hostility towards religious organizations that are suspected to be aiding Al Qaeda and Taliban. In terms of demographics, second generation, and in many cases third generation, Pak Americans have reached the voting age. These new Americans do not have as strong emotional ties with their home country as the first generation. It is true that a section of second generation youth has joined Death Eater religious parties, but they constitute a very small minority. An overwhelming majority is just like other Americans who are hardly aware of Pakistain-US relations. Similarly, as the first generation of expatriates is becoming old, they are becoming more conscious of the old-age benefits provided by the US government. Consequently, they are leaning towards the Democratic Party for its better record to guarantee economic benefits. Lastly, the US campaign against Death Eater religious formations has scared common expatriates, and therefore faith based organizations are no more the only political forums for Pak Mohammedans. Various mainstream political parties of Pakistain are branching out in North America.
The new composition of the Pak American expatriate community will have several consequences for Islamabad and organizations like the Overseas Foundation. Firstly and most importantly, Pak Americans are going to be more involved in issues relating to their own interests in the US and will not deploy a bulk of their resources for lobbying on behalf of Islamabad. There are groups of Pak physicians who have been lobbying for democratic institutions and human rights. There will be dwindling lobbying sources for selling the Pak establishment's policies in Washington. The new direction of Pak Americans may also affect the stream of remittances due to many reasons, one of which may be a call by the US government to refrain from such transactions. In essence, the goals of Pak Americans in terms of influencing US politics may not align with those of the people back home.
[Commentary] Last year, the B.O. regime and State Department promoted the Global Counterterrorism Forum, but acquiesced to Turkey's demand that Israel be excluded from the forum. Apparently, as seen by his repeated endorsements of Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan believes that terrorism is always bad, unless directed at Israelis.
Last July, Rick Richman and Jonathan Tobin noted that long after Secretary Clinton had promised to do what was necessary to win Israel's inclusion, forum meetings were going ahead without the Jewish state's presence. Well, it's happened again.
According to CNS's Patrick Goodenough, the State Department has acquiesced to the forum again excluding Israel. Goodenough reports, "Six months after the B.O. regime said it was 'committed' to involving Israel in its flagship international counter-terrorism initiative, there has evidently been little progress...."
The issue is not simply Israel's exclusion, or the State Department's belief that more intolerant states like Leb and Turkey might stay away if Israelis were at the same forum. Rather, the problem is that these hard boyz believe that U.S. acquiescence to their refusal to allow Israel's inclusion is an implicit U.S. endorsement of their drive to delegitimize Israel completely. Clinton's refusal to pull the carpet out from under the meeting by putting U.S. participation on the line not only undercuts global counter-terrorism by signaling that terrorism against Israel needn't be on the table, but also convinces the Erdoğans of the world that momentum is on their side.
#2
convinces the Erdoğans of the world that momentum is on their side
Fortunately, Islam is a parasitic culture---it can't survive without the "West" feeding it (see Egypt). And the "West" is in a bit of the decline right now.
The Kurdish autonomy of Iraq has reduced oil supplies to the central government on account of non-payment of debts to foreign companies operating on its territory. Ali Hussein Balou, an adviser to the Kurdish Ministry of Natural Resources made this statement, the Government of the Kurdish autonomy's website reported.
According to Balou, the Kurdish autonomy reduced supplies from 250,000 barrels per day to 100,000 barrels per day.
"The central government of Iraq following an agreement on the payment of debts to foreign companies made the payment to the sum of $650 million in October 2012. However, in November Baghdad suspended payment of its debts. According to the agreement, in November the central government had to pay $350 million," Balou said.
Fail to pay your bills long enough and people turn off the spigot. Champ and Timmy will figure this out eventually when the Chinese refuse to buy more bonds. No doubt they'll be as surprised about that as Baghdad is today about the oil...
Earlier, in September 2012, the central government of Iraq and the Kurdish autonomy reached an agreement on oil payments under which Baghdad will return all its debts to the autonomy for oil exports and will pay for the work of foreign companies. The Kurdish side in turn, would continue to supply oil to the central government, interrupted four months ago.
Relations between the Kurdish administration in northern Iraq and Baghdad deteriorated in October 2011 after US-based Exxon Mobil received permission from the Kurdish authorities on the exploration and production of oil in this Iraqi region. Baghdad considered the deal illegal and warned the company that if it did not abandon the agreement with the Kurds, its deals with the central Iraqi government may be revised.
The Kurdish administration in northern Iraq has oil reserves of 45 billion barrels.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Azerbaijan, Baku -- The U.S. intends to provide Turkey with two batteries of Patriot air defence missile complexes to be situated in the border areas with Syria, online newspaper Sabah reported on Saturday. Thus, Turkey will receive six Patriot batteries from NATO. Previously, Germany and the Netherlands have stated their intention to provide two Patriot batteries each to Turkey.
The newspaper also reported that three of the six systems will be installed in the provinces of Adana, Malatya and Diyarbakir. Turkish Armed Forces have not yet made a final decision on the locations of the other three Patriot batteries.
Turkey appealed to NATO in the second half of November with a request to provide it with Patriot systems to protect against Syria's possible air attack. NATO said that it will consider the request as a priority. A NATO delegation together with representatives of the Turkish Armed Forces completed choosing the sites for the Patriot systems.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
And wen one of those Patriot systems turns up missing, wat then ?
[Xinhua] Jordanian King Abdullah II conveyed U.S. assurances to Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... that Washington will not allow a new Israeli settlement plan to pass, a Paleostinian official said Thursday.
The United States will put pressure on Israel to cancel a recent building plan, in exchange for not starting the Paleostinian efforts to join UN agencies, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The United States, Israel and Canada were among the nine UN members which voted last week against the Paleostinian request to upgrade their status in the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... to that of a non-member observer state.
During the vote on the Paleostinian bid at the UN General Assembly, 138 countries voted in favor, while 41 abstained.
King Abdullah II, the first head of state to visit the Paleostinian territories after the UN vote, told Abbas that U.S. President Barak Obama's administration will not impose sanctions on the Paleostinian National Authority.
He also said that Washington will work on preventing the construction of new housing units in the E1 area, which connects the West Bank settlement of Ma'ale Adumim with Jerusalem. Israel's construction there is highly controversial since the corridor blocs a possible formation of a Paleostinian state in the West Bank with a territorial continuity.
The Jordanian king also urged Abbas to look for "a suitable formula" allowing the resumption of peace talks with Israel.
The Israeli-Paleostinian negotiations stopped in 2010 over a dispute on Jewish settlement activities in the West Bank
#1
"...Washington will not allow a new Israeli settlement plan to pass..."
I suspect that the Juices are in a 'don't really care so much what the Ligthbringer thinks' mode.
[Al Ahram] As he ends decades of exile, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal is expected to deliver a speech in which he will outline the priorities of the movement in the coming future, and the implementation of reconciliation with Fatah
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The Muslim Brotherhood's number two deputy guide Khairat 'William' El-Shater accused foreign and local parties today of aiming to overthrow the regime led by President Mohamed Morsi by bringing chaos to the country.
"We will not allow the revolution to be stolen again," El-Shater said during a press conference held for the Coalition of Islamic Forces.
El-Shater added that the battle for Islamists is not their headquarters (referring to recent attacks on many Brotherhood offices across the country, including in Cairo), "but rather a battle for protecting legitimacy."
"It's enough that one of the figures that is talking about saving Egypt said in an interview with an American newspaper that the opposition will unite with the remnants of Mubarak's regime," said El-Shater, referring to head of the Constitution Party and leading member of the National Salvation Front Mohamed ElBaradei.
El-Shater further accused remnants of Mubarak's regime of mobilising for chaos in the country, adding that the president has chosen to avoid direct conflict with them out of concern for stability in the country.
"There are those who want to spoil the democratic experience in Egypt," added El-Shater, arguing that ongoing protests by the opposition have not exceeded 30,000 protesters while there were a million protesters in the "Legitmacy and Sharia" protest organised by Islamists, he claimed.
He further denounced the media, accusing it of not representing the truth.
So Egypt has at least one thing in common with the West...
"The media during the time of Mubarak was working against the Islamists, and still when people got the chance they voted for us," added El-Shater.
During the press conference, El-Shater argued that current political instability is hindering any hope of investment or development in Egypt.
"In the past four months I have met with thousands of investors who are genuine about wanting to invest in Egypt. However, I can not advise them to put their money in at a time of instability," said El-Shater.
The press conference also featured a number of Salafist figures who asserted that their demand for implementing Sharia is non-negotiable, accusing the opposition -- namely ElBaradei -- of agitating against Sharia in Egypt.
"The hostility against Islam is clear, but a constitution that does not represent our Sharia is unacceptable," said Saeed Abdel-Azim, a leading member of the Salafist Calling, who added that the group is willing to offer more martyrs to protect legitimacy.
The Coalition of Islamist Forces comprises 10 parties and groups affiliated with political Islam, including the Muslim Brotherhood and its political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party, Al-Gamaa Al-Islamyia and the Salafist Calling.
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Another washed up former pop star gives us all what we have been begging for: his unfiltered views of the Bush years. The CNS video won't embed. Sorry... From TFA:
(CNSNews.com) James Taylor said he "really suffered" under eight years of "Cheney/Bush," while speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on Friday about election reform.
"It was sort of natural, being so politically active over the years, that I would get involved in the campaign of 2008," Taylor said. "I really--I was hugely motivated also by eight years of Cheney/Bush, and I say it in that order on purpose." A lot of us felt the same way, Hames, but what can you do? Bush was the president.
"Those were--it was a tough time for me," he said. "I really suffered." Somehow you muddled through, as we will after eight years of the Champ
"It made me deeply ambivalent about my country that we would choose that, even if we may not have chosen it," Taylor said. "But that, that was our, that's what represented us in the world. I felt as though after September 11, the diversion, the distraction of the nation's concern and energy into Iraq was unpardonable." Iraq was unfinished busienss of a bloody dictator who would not hold to the truce and kept shooting at our aircraft
"I felt that it was inept, corrupt and opaque," he said. "Those were tough years for me." If it was opaque, you weren't paying attention
"And I was very deeply motivated in 2008 to see Barack Obama--this wonderful, sort of a surprise, really, I couldn't believe our luck that we had gotten such a real person -- as to make it through the filter system of our politics," said Taylor, a five-time Grammy Award winner. "So, it meant a lot to me and I know it would've meant a huge amount to my father, because I think of him often.
Taylor, who campaigned for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, said supporting Obama "restored" his faith in the country. Go to hell Hames. My faith in my country is unshakeable whether I go to the polls or not, and it is not dependent on political winds...
"It was the largest grassroots event that we've ever seen in this country and the people involved were such, just fundamentally such good people I felt that it really meant a lot to me to be involved in it," he said. "They were smart, too, the people who handled his campaign." You'll get no argument from me. It is not for nothing they call the republican party the party of stupid.
"They did it really well and they were committed to this mission, they really carried it out beautifully," Taylor said.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
12/09/2012 8:49
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#6
Well luckily he helped in 2008 to defeat Cheney/Bush reelection. Did so well you couldnt even find them on the ballot. And disrupted all those plans for dismantling elections and a perm draft.
Thank god too because if Cheney/Bush won they might have screwed up the economy and increased drone strikes without shuttind down guantanimo and then where would we be?
Posted by: Barbara ||
12/09/2012 13:32
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#11
No comment from Carly Simon, who suffered under James Taylor...
DINGDINGDINGDINGDING!!! We have a winner, folks!
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
12/09/2012 13:36
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#12
As to JT's political efflatus, all I have to say is "meh." It's the typical leftist BS from a lightly-educated celebutard who spent most of his adolescence and early adulthood in varying degrees of pharmaceutically induced impairment. That being said, I'll confess to a tendency to divorce my loathing of his politics from my continuing enjoyment of his music - at least his early-'70s stuff. Nearly any cut from "Sweet Baby James" can transport me back to the first day of 8th-grade English class and ending up seated next to a beautiful, friendly green-eyed blonde named Sharon...
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
12/09/2012 13:47
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#13
you wanna suffer, nancyboy? Go hunting with Dick
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/09/2012 14:04
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#14
Just a gentle warning, don't call him a lunatic.
North Korean leader Suet Face Kim Jong-un has apparently stationed around 100 armored vehicles at his house, summer home and other facilities for fear of a military coup or uprising, sources say.
Fat Boy Kim "is extremely nervous about the possibility of an emergency developing inside North Korea," claimed an informed source.
According to the source, Kim recently ordered officials to "place top priority" on his personal security and to keep his itinerary top secret. As a result, the venues of events he attends are swarming with guards carrying automatic rifles and hand grenades, while his personal plainclothes bodyguards can also be spotted carrying long, black bags apparently containing heavy weapons.
Just a tad nervous, is he...
Security agents cordon off areas surrounding events attended by Kim and confiscate watches and cigarettes from pedestrians. Mobile phone signals are also jammed.
On July 26, all mobile phone signals in downtown Pyongyang were jammed from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. while Kim attended a performance marking the 59th anniversary of the armistice in the 1950-53 Korean War.
The security service, which runs its own university, established a three to six-month course to train surveillance experts.
"Kim Jong-un desperately needs to bolster his personal security detail due to mounting opposition to his efforts to rein in the military," said one diplomatic source.
And just how does he trust his own security detail? If I were in the opposition that's how I'd get to him...
North Korea continues to import riot-control equipment from China, including helmets, bulletproof vests, road blocks and tear gas, for fear of public unrest.
North Korea watchers say there is growing public discontent with the young leader. There has apparently been a surge in disobedience and a lack of discipline in the military. Sources say military officers grumble at the appointment of Choe Ryong-hae as director of the People's Army General Political Bureau, a top military position, despite the fact that he has no military experience.
"Choe appointed members from the Socialist Youth League, where he comes from, to key military posts and has assumed control of various businesses run by the military, losing trust and loyalty among the troops," the source said.
Since the troops are losing their revenue streams and now are eating like commoners .. which is to say, they aren't eating...
The abrupt sacking of former Army chief Ri Yong-ho in July has also damaged morale in the military, which was allowed to metastasize into a state within the state under former leader Kim Jong-il's "military-first" doctrine.
Veteran officials in the North's Workers Party are also unhappy with the young leader's confusing reshuffles and impulsive orders. They apparently complain secretly that the inexperienced leader is "running wild."
Perhaps they should just get him a mistress...
Kim's efforts since June to improve the North's economy floundered on fierce opposition from party hardliners afraid of losing their grip on power. High-ranking party officials ignore Kim's orders and write them off as unrealistic, and are instead busy watching their backs or looking for ways to make money, the source said.
"Even Kim Jong-un as the ruler of the notorious North Korean regime cannot unleash an unrestrained reign of terror," said one intelligence official here. "He probably chose to launch a rocket now to gain some credibility."
And when it fails?
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
Lest we fergit, WORLD NEWS > NORTH KOREA HAS GOTTEN ITSELF INTO SERIOUS FINANCIAL TROUBLE AFTER SPENDING US$110.0MILYUHN ON TRIBUTE TO THE LATE KIM JONG-IL.
Many NKPA Soldiers + ordinary NOKORS are repor upset at China's ever-increasing influence = seeming domination of the DPRK Govt-State, which they blame on Jong-un, Dynasty + Pyongyang Boyz.
INTERESTING - iff true, IIUC MANY NOKORS WOULD RATHER FACE LACK OF FOOD + STARVE THAN BE UNDER CHINESE CONTROL???
After years of campaigning for higher taxes, it is beginning to dawn on liberal residents of blue states that the effects, for them, will not be pretty. Most of the nation's "rich"--those earning over $250,000 a year, or, depending on President Obama's mood, $175,000--live in the blue states. Moreover, the deductions that are likely slated for reduction or elimination, including state taxes and home mortgages, mostly benefit blue state residents. So the New York Times, a prime agitator for higher taxes, appears to be having second thoughts:
#1
This is going to backfire. The bluestaters will move to redstates and vote for blue policies all over again. Something about a dog and his own vomit...
[Dawn] London's Metropolitan Police has confirmed it raided the Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... 's office located in Edgeware in connection with MQM leader Imran Farooq's murder, the BBC reported on Saturday.
Is it normal for a nation's political parties to have offices halfway round the world?
According to the report published on the BBC Urdu website, the Metropolitan Police's press office told the BBC late on Friday that MQM chief Altaf Hussain's business address was searched for a period of two days.
An officer of the Metropolitan Police, named only as Jonathan, told the BBC over the telephone that the office was raided on Thursday and a comprehensive search was completed by Friday evening, says the report.
The MQM is a member of Pakistain's ruling coalition government and is the largest political party in the commercial hub 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... Dr Imran Farooq had co-founded the All Pakistain Mohajir Students Organisation (APMSO), the predecesser to the MQM, with Altaf Hussain. He was deputy convener of the party, technically next to the MQM chief.
Farooq's body was found with multiple stab wounds and head injuries on September 16, 2010, outside his home at Green Lane, Edgware, north London.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wrecked scow, a single surviver held tightly to the smashed prow... Pakistain's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement released late Friday that it would be premature and wrong to draw any conclusion about the police raid.
"We are confident that the investigation would eventually help clear all misgivings about MQM which is not only a coalition partner but also represents secular forces in the country," said the statement by the Foreign Office front man.
It was reported on Friday that the police had raided a business office in London with the MQM leader's murder, and that some important documents had been taken into custody.
However, today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday... the BBC reported on Saturday that the Metropolitan Police officer did not give any details about any evidence recovered from the office.
An investigation regarding Imran Farooq's murder is currently underway, the BBC reported the officer as saying.
It was also reported that several people were interrogated but no one was taken into custody.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] The 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 maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. 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... , encouraged after enforcing December 4 hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... , seeks to drive the whole opposition to launch a tougher anti-government movement.
The party made the hartal a "success" with the BNP and other small partners of the18-party alliance supporting it, Jamaat leaders said. It has now been convincing those parties to pressurise the main opposition BNP to prepare for street agitations demanding release of Jamaat's top leaders facing war crimes trial.
This strategy of Jamaat worked ahead of the hartal, sources in the parties, including Islamic Party, National Peoples Party, Khelafat Majlish and Bangladesh Labour Party, said. Their spontaneous support to the hartal had compelled the BNP to extend its moral backing.
BNP's "go slow" policy had annoyed the alliance's other partners who wanted immediate action to force the government to fulfil their demands, including the restoration of the caretaker government system, some members of the alliance told The Daily Star.
And Jamaat took the advantage of this situation. It expressed solidarity with those parties to drum up support for its cause.
On December 3 at the secretary general's meeting of the alliance at the BNP's Naya Paltan office, Jamaat brought up its plan to enforce a dawn-to-dusk hartal the following day. At that time the majority of the alliance instantly extended their support to Jamaat.
But the BNP took ten hours to announce that it was on Jamaat's side.
"The Dec 4 hartal proved that Jamaat is alone capable of holding any programme successfully at any time," Jashim Uddin Sarker, legal affairs secretary of Jamaat, said.
That was the first such move taken by Jamaat in the last four years.
Jammat was making moves in its own way, Jashim said.
Jamaat activists across the country were prepared for today's eight-hour road block programme intended to show their strength, some party leaders said.
Whenever Jamaat erupted into the streets or held any protest, it was strongly resisted or harassed by the law enforcers, Sheikh Shawkat Hossain Nilu, chief of the National Peoples Party (NPP), said.
But Jamaat in a programme held by the alliance can easily raise its demand for the release of its incarcerated Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! leaders, a Liberal Democratic Party leader said whishing not to be named. Jammat has all support from the small parties and so it is using them to get BNP's backing for a hardline stance, he added.
Talking to The Daily Star, a number of leaders of the BNP-led 18-party alliance echoed this view.
Jamaat at the alliance's chairman-level meeting on December 6 also requested BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... to take a hardline stance against the government, said Islamic Party Chairman Abdul Mobin who was present there.
"In response, Khaleda expressed her sympathy for Jamaat and said they would go for tougher programmes like hartal and blockade if the government did not meet their demands."
Many parties in the alliance thought that the opposition should launch a protest programme now, said the NPP chief Nilu.
The BNP, however, was not yet ready for such action, he said, and it had support from the Liberal Democratic Party and the Bangladesh Jatiya Party ...aka Jatiya Front; a political party established by Bangladictator Lieutenant General Hussain Muhammad Ershad in 1986 to lend a veneer of respectability to his rule. Since nobody was amused he was forced to resign by popular demand in 1990. The party remains in existence with about a dozen seats in Bangla's parliament... in this case.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2012
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Interesting thesis. The writer weaves together a fair bit of facts we know and some things that weren't exactly public knowledge. If this was Israel's goal then it explains why they stopped when they did -- it truly was mission accomplished. First few paragraphs here but the whole article is worth the read.
HAIFA, ISRAEL Hundreds of Iranian-made, long-range missiles already smuggled into Gaza provided a secret sense of urgency behind Israel's recent campaign against Hamas, and the the Jewish state acted with the Obama administration's full knowledge, intelligence experts told FoxNews.com.
Jonathan Schanzer, a former counter-terrorism analyst at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, said the real agenda behind Israels assault last month on Hamas munitions stockpiles and smuggling tunnels was not simply to end the daily barrage of relatively primitive rockets that have become part of daily life in Israel. The real mission was to eliminate as many as 100 Iranian-built Fajr5 missiles - with the power to reach Tel Aviv - that had been sneaked into Gaza through Egypt. The Obama administration knew in advance of the operation and agreed that the missiles, built in a Sudanese factory, had to be neutralized to protect millions of Israeli citizens who were now within range of the deadly Iranian weapons, according to Schanzer.
The U.S. was fully aware of what was going to come in Gaza, Schanzer, now vice president of research at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, told FoxNews.com. They said nothing for the first few days of the operation; there was dead silence from [Obama]."
Israel essentially achieved its main aims within the first few days, said Schanzer, noting that Michael Oren, Israels ambassador to the U.S., said as much when he remarked on Day Three of the campaign: "We have run out of good targets.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/09/2012
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The rockets will be back, only new and improved upon.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/09/2012
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And a positively absolutely categorically undeniably .... @etc. invincible Brigade it isn't!
See DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [Tehran Times] IRGC CONFIRMS THAT IRAN HAS [CAPTURED] "SCANEAGLE", [AAI RQ-7] "SHADOW", + "RQ-170" US DRONES.
* As for "going Japanese", also from SAME > ZIONISTS EXTEND INFLUENCE TO NAURU, OTHER PACIFIC MICRO-NATIONS.
After all, Iran claims it is its Islamic + Revolutionary duty to stop the Zionist-Crusader Global Imperialists anywhere + everywhere, by any + all means necessary.
Rising China = Beijing repor fears ...
- USSR-style implosion.
- "Arab/Islamic Spring(s)" in China.
[Al Ahram] Doha climate change conference approves an agreement that extends the live of Kyoto Protocol for a second period, the only binding pact on curbing Earth-warming greenhouse gas emissions
Posted by: Fred ||
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Imtiaz Alam challenges state
Quoted on the front page of Jinnah secretary general of South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA) Imtiaz Alam stated that unless the state is able to protect the lives of citizens under democracy it will lead to a military takeover. Responding to an earlier statement by President Zardari, he said that no president ever admits lack of state capacity to defend citizens. If conditions will improve by saying that we are not a part of America's war then declare it openly. All religious parties and jihadis should come out in the open and elect Mullah Umar as their leader and put their programme in front of the nation. But if they can't do that then they should not kill innocent Mohammedans in the streets. The state should never openly admit defeat. He said a large army was built in order defend the people of Pakistain. He said today if the MQM was scared of the Taliban then the others will simply surrender (kis bagh ki mooli).
Habib Bank scandal and Mehran Bank scandal
Writing in Dunya Rauf Klasra stated that the Supreme Court had rendered judgement on the Habib Bank scam and not the Mehran Bank scam. Aslam Beg ...occasionally incoherent retired four-star general who was the Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army, succeeding the creepy General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, after the latter was rubbed out died in an air crash in 1988. The general was involved up to his hairy ears in the Mehran bank scandal, shuffling millions in public money to buy or lease politicians, and is believed one of the prime movers in the sale of Pak nuclear technology to Iran. He ranks second only to Hamid Gul in the volume and flavor of his anti-Western vitriol.. had asked a Habib Bank officer Younis Habib that he arrange a large sum for bribing IJI in 1990. Younis Habib deposited Rs 14 crore with ISI and MI which was distributed by General Durrani. Mehran Bank scandal was a different scandal. This happened in 1992 when Aslam Beg and Durrani had retired and 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... was prime minister. Younis Habib was kicked out of Habib Bank for fraud but he founded his own bank Mehran Bank with the help of PMLN chief Nawaz Sharif, minister Sartaj Aziz and Sindh chief minister Jam Sadiq Ali. Nawaz Sharif got loans from Mehran Bank for his industries and Sartaj Aziz got a lot (bahut kuchch) for his son Adnan. Jam Sadiq also got crores for letting the bank be opened. There is a list of other recipients in existence. In 1993, after the PPP returned to power, many of its leaders too benefited from Mehran Bank, including President Farooq Leghari.
Mushahid Hussain's dubious wedding gift
Daily Dunya quoted Indian journalist Kuldip Nayar as saying that Mushahid Hussain got him to meet Dr AQ Khan for a crucial revelation about Pakistain's nuclear programme as a 'wedding gift' of Mushahid to the world. Nayar said that Dr Khan was made to cough up the secret of Pakistain's bomb by getting him to fly into a rage. In truth, Pakistain wished to threaten India through Dr Khan. General Zia was not pleased and became angry with Dr Khan.
Fazal Karim's angle on Malala
Leader of Barelvi Sunni Ittehad Council Fazal Karim told Ausaf that the man who tried to kill Malala was in the custody of the US army in Afghanistan, implying that the attack was planned by the Americans. He further said that Taliban were acting on behalf of the US and the government should finish off (qala-qama) the American Taliban.
Admiral who went 'mirasi'
Quoted in Nawa-e-Waqt Admiral (Retd) Javed Iqbal said he had been reduced to the status of a mirasi (low caste praise singer) of Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who who convinced himself that playing cricket qualified him to lead a nuclear-armed nation with severe personality problems... who had turned into a party despot. He said Imran Khan had imposed slavish-to-America politicians (kuttay nehalanay walay) while he Javed Iqbal had challenged Musharraf (lalkara).
Jews did 9/11
Famous columnist Abdul Qadir Hasan wrote in Express that America was not what it used to be in old times. It had become a tormentor of the world robbing it of peace and tranquillity. The incident of 9/11 was staged by the Jews to make America attack the world of Islam. But some Arab countries still had remnants of ghairat (honour) in them because after some years they staged what is called Arab Spring although in Pakistain nothing of the sort happened because it had no honour. The Arabs had simple guns but in their heart was great emotion (walwala). In Pakistain a leader (Musharraf?) started selling Paks to America because bay-ghairati was common in Pakistain.
'Aslam Beg told me to bribe politicians'
Famous ISI ex-boss General Asad Durrani was quoted in Jang as saying that he was ordered by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan's adviser Ijlal Zaidi and Army Chief Aslam Beg to spend the crores gathered from the donors 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... as 'chanda' to the IJI politicians. The industrialists of Bloody Karachi were opposed to the return of the PPP to power, he said.
Abida Hussain will return the bribe!
Quoted in Nawa-e-Waqt former minister and senior politician Syeda Abida Hussain stated that she had indeed received money from the ISI in 1990 in order to defeat the PPP in elections. She said she was prepared to return the sum along with interest.
GIK ate a lot of guava
Writing in Dunya famous columnist Haroon Rashid stated that he always revered President Ghulam Ishaq Khan because he was an extraordinary man despite the grave mistakes he had made. He was told by Qazi Hussain Ahmad ... third president (19872009) of the Pak Jamaat-e-Islami. Qazi was also head of the Muttahidah Majlis-e-Amal until his ego became bigger than the organization. Qazi is what is known as a fiery preacher, which means he has lots of volume, a good delivery, and not a lot of reverence for coherence. He was the patron of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Rasool Sayyaf and Osama bin Laden during the war against the Soviets. He used to recommend drining camel's urine to maintain good health before his kidneys started to go... that GIK would not give him food if he called on him. On the contrary he gave him dinner and himself ate like a trooper despite his old age. Dr AQ Khan reported that GIK was also partial to guava fruit and ate it copiously.
Ijazul Haq renews attack on Aslam Beg
Quoted in Ausaf son of late General Zia, Ijazul Haq said that ex-Army Chief Aslam Beg was the criminal mastermind of the Bahawalpur air-crash that killed his father. He vowed that he would take the death of his father at the hands of Aslam Beg to the Supreme Court.
Religious organizations attack school
Reported in Nawa-e-Waqt religious organizations in Lahore got together and attacked a private school Farooqi Girls High School after parents protested that a teacher had distributed blasphemous material among students in the class. Instead of recourse to law the parents began agitation and were soon joined by religious elements who set fire to the school and its van before taking to the roads and stoning the passing cars. The police lathi-charged the mob then placed in long-term storage Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! the principal-owner of the school who said the whole affair was a plot to close down his school. It was discovered that the papers distributed in class were wrongly stapled.
Chief news hound attacks fashion shows
Chief news hound of daily The News wrote in Jang that fashion shows and catwalks were being organised in the beginning of the month of Hajj which was a sacred month in the Islamic calendar. Allah had given Mohammedans opportunity of avoiding the fire of Hell but the catwalks were promoting nakedness (uriani) and shamelessness (bay-hayai). According to him, he had earlier written a column about this obscenity which was greatly praised by people in Pakistain, leading to a notice by the Supreme Court which ordered the stoppage of all obscenity on the media. Yet the TV channels went on showing half-naked fashion models in violation of the Constitution. Bloody Karachi became the hub of this lascivious activity but 'no louse crawled on the ears of the Bloody Karachi administration' (had no effect).
Sudanese activists have blamed the authorities for the deaths of at least three student protesters and are calling for more demonstrations. Police in Gezira state, an agricultural area south of the capital Khartoum, confirmed two students had been found dead in a canal, and a third was missing, but said there were no signs of violence. It all depends on your definition of "violence."
And the students at Columbia and San Francisco State think they're oppressed...
Arab-African Sudan has avoided the mass protests that have swept across much of the Middle East, but rising food prices and other grievances have inspired smaller demonstrations over the last two years.
Students from Darfur - a western region the size of Spain that has been torn by war for nearly a decade - had staged a sit-in at Gezira University demanding an exemption from tuition as they say a presidential decree required, a spokesman for a Darfur student association said.
He said the sit-in was broken up on Wednesday by what he called militias loyal to the ruling National Congress Party. A number of students disappeared and three were found dead on Friday in the canal near the university, he added, asking not to be named.
"We hold the university administration and the ... students of the National Congress Party responsible for the death of these students," he said.
Sudanese youth activist groups including Change Now and Girifna issued statements blaming security forces for the students' deaths and calling for protests.
Small demonstrations erupted across Sudan in June after the government announced cuts to its costly fuel subsidies and other tough austerity measures to contain an economic crisis brought on by last year's secession of oil-producing South Sudan. The protests calling for the resignation of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's government petered out after a security crackdown and the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] South Korean megastar singer Psy, famed for his runaway hit "Gangnam Style", apologised yesterday for anti-American performances a decade ago, ahead of a planned show before US President Barack Obama.
In 2002 the singer smashed a model US tank at a protest over the American military presence in South Korea and the death of two South Korean teenagers who were struck by a US military vehicle. Two years later he joined a performance of a song where he used controversial expletive-laden lyrics calling for the killing of "Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives".
"Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law, and fathers. Kill them all slowly and painfully," he rapped.
Psy performed the lyrics at a concert after a South Korean evangelist was beheaded by Islamist militants in Iraq during the US-led conflict, after Seoul rejected their demand to halt a troop deployment to the country.
"I will forever be sorry for any pain I have caused by those words," the 34-year-old singer said in a statement. He said the performance and lyrics were part of a "deeply emotional reaction" to the war in Iraq and the death of the two schoolgirls that was "part of the overall anti-war sentiment shared by others around the world".
"But everyone is doing it, Ma!"
"If everyone was going over Niagara Falls in a barrel, would you do that, too?"
"While I'm grateful for the freedom to express one's self, I've learned there are limits to what language is appropriate and I'm deeply sorry for how these lyrics could be interpreted."
How about we skip all that interpretation stuff -- one needs a PhD in English lit. to do it right, anyway, with all the proper Jungian references -- and stick with the literal meaning of the words. That, my dear, is quite enough to get you hung in certain precincts, and thoroughly beaten with a tire iron in others. You'll fit in perfectly with the current White House crowd.
"I have been honoured to perform in front of American soldiers in recent months -- including an appearance on the Jay Leno show specifically for them -- and I hope they and all Americans can accept my apology."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2012
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How come the first time I ever heard of this "megastar" and his "runaway hit" was...yesterday?
I must get out more...
#3
".... I've learned there are limits to what language is appropriate.."
Yeah.
Anti US comments- just pretend to apologize
Anti gay marriage comments - officiate at 10 gay marriages to atone
Anti Islam comment - you must die
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/09/2012 7:25
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Sounds like the kid is saying I was trying to make a move towards the top, saw a chance a got a little traction. I'm sorry, it was stupid. Hell cut the little twerp some slack.
#5
His 15 minutes of fame suddenly plunged to about one or fewer minutes. For those who didn't care about or never heard of the guy, the clock never started for him.
[BBC.CO.UK] It was an unprecedented scene - a who's who of Hamas, lining up on the stage in Gaza City.
The Hamas political leader, Khaled Meshaal, beamed and waved at the crowd as he stood by prime minister Ismail Haniyeh and other top officials from his Islamist group.
It was Mr Meshaal's first visit to Gaza, after decades living in exile, and this was the first time he had addressed such a crowd.
Tens of thousands of Hamas supporters filled Kattiba Square roused by nationalist speeches and songs. They waved green Hamas flags and wore caps, scarves and full outfits to match.
Some small children dressed as militants and carried toy guns and rockets.
This was the start of celebrations to mark the 25th anniversary of Hamas and an occasion to restate its founding goals.
Standing in front of a huge model missile bearing the legend "Made in Gaza", Khaled Meshaal insisted there would never be acceptance of Israel's right to exist and restated the commitment to armed struggle.
Some children at the rally were dressed as Hamas fighters
"We are not giving up any inch of Palestine," he said. "It will remain Islamic and Arab for us and nobody else. Jihad and armed resistance is the only way."
He said he would continue to seek the release of Palestinians held in Israeli jails and mentioned a prisoner swap last year when a captured Israeli soldier was exchanged for more than 1,000 Palestinians.
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About 40 armed men in military-style uniforms yesterday raided a village defense volunteers' outpost in Pattani province and stole five assault rifles.
The outpost was surrounded by the men about 5:30 a.m. The group tied up the volunteers before making off with four AK-47s and one M16 along with five bullet-proof vests, a communication radio and a number of mobile phones. The armed men left without harming the volunteers.
All security units in the deep South have been alerted to take extra precautions for possible attacks following the raid. According to sources, terrorists insurgents are preparing to launch attacks and weapons heists may intensify during this period.
Meanwhile, security units have been told to look out for a silver Toyota Vigo pickup truck, which was stolen from Pattani's Khok Pho district on Thursday. Officials believed the vehicle could be loaded with bombs to target the local community.
Sources say recent attacks on teachers may have been in response to the murders of an Islamic religious teacher and a local imam during the past two months.
Mahama Ma-air, a teacher at Yala's Thammawithaya Islamic School, was gunned down on Oct 30 in Pattani's Yarang district, while Abdullateh Todir, the chairman of the Muslim religious leaders of Yaha district and a member of the Yala Islamic Committee, was gunned down on Nov 14.
A source said, "The Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre has set up an investigation panel to look into the cases."
[Al Ahram] At least eight copperswere maimed in Northern Ireland overnight as riots sparked by a decision to remove the British flag from Belfast City Hall spread across the province.
Dozens of youths threw bricks and petrol bombs at police in Newtownabbey, a predominantly Protestant area 12 kilometers (8 miles) north of Belfast city centre. Seven people were cooled for a few years Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! , including a 13-year-old boy, police said.
They were protesting against a decision by Irish nationalist councillors from Sinn Fein and the SDLP to take down the flag which had flown above the quiet provincial capital's city hall every day since it opened in 1906.
The decision means the flag will be flown on only 17 days during the year, as is the case at the provincial assembly at Stormont in the British-controlled province.
Smaller protests took place across Northern Ireland on Friday during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as America's Blond Eminence and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Jeremiah S. Black ... . She said the violence showed the province's grinding of the peace processor was not yet complete.
At least 3,600 people were killed over three decades as Catholic nationalists seeking union with Ireland fought British security forces and mainly Protestant Loyalists determined to remain part of the United Kingdom.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Natural Selection once again happily at work. They'd have to be drunk and quarreling over something or they'd not be proper Irishmen. A flag is actually as good an excuse as any.
[Al Ahram] Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal rejected on Saturday any territorial concession with Israel or recognition of the Jewish state. "Palestine is our land and nation from the (Mediterranean) sea to the (Jordan) river, from north to south, and we cannot cede an inch or any part of it," he said during a mass rally marking the 25th foundation of Hamas. "We cannot recognise the legitimacy of the occupation of Palestine or recognise Israel," who is on his first ever visit to Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas.
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[Al Ahram] Two Iranian warships docked in Port Sudan on Saturday, a witness said, marking the second port call by the Iranian navy in Sudan in five weeks.
The Iranian navy said the 1,400 ton frigate Jamaran and the 4,700 ton support ship Bushehr "docked in Port Sudan, after successfully carrying out their assignments in the Red Sea and were greeted by high-ranking Sudanese naval commanders."
It did not say how long the warships would stay in port.
Long enough to unload the missiles meant for transshipment to Gazoo...
Khartoum said it was a "normal" port call but Israeli officials have expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... about arms smuggling through Sudan.
They have long accused the African country of serving as a base of support for Death Eaters from the Paleostinian Islamist movement Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, which rules the Gazoo Strip.
Posted by: Fred ||
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The South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command raised the alert level on the peninsula from Watchcon 3 to Watchcon 2 on Thursday as North Korea's rocket launch approaches.
"North Korea is believed to have completed mounting the rocket on a launch pad in Tongchang-ri" on its western coast, a military source here said. "As such we have raised the alert level."
Under Watchcon 2, which is issued when there is concern of a "vital threat" to the nation, South Korean and U.S. forces double their spy satellite and surveillance aircraft activity and call in more intelligence experts.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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AFAIK this rocket is once again intended to land near the Philippines, unfortunately whose new ex-HAMILTON-CLASS US hand-me-down Cutters [2 tote]don't possess any ABM/BMD capabilities. SOMEONE HAS TO SHOOT IT DOWN IFF A MALFUNCTION BECAUSE THE PHILIPPINES CAN'T.
* INDIAN DEFENCE FORUM > NORTH KOREA MAY CHANGE ROCKET LAUNCH WINDOW.
* RELATED TOPIX > NORTH KOREA MAY DELAY PLANNED ROCKET LAUNCH, TECHNICAL PROBLEMS SUSPECTED.
versus
* TOPIX > REPORT - NORTH KOREA REPLACING [defective] ROCKET STAGE, LIKELY TO [still] LAUNCH AS PLANNED, this December as scheduled.
FYI Japan is planning to keep its BMD-capable JMSDF surface ships on red/high alert to shoot down the DPRK's rocket as necessary.
Again, under Jong-un's predecessors the DPRK may NOT have been willing to appear "too successful" in the eyes of watchful overlord China as per any indigenous advanced Missle, Nuke Tests, etc. - IN THE PRESENT, DOES JONG-UN POSSESS THE GUMPTION TO DO WHAT BIG DADDY JONG-IL + FORBEARS COULD NOT DO, OR WOULD NOT DO, VEE MAINLAND CHINA = BEIJING???
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > PHILIPPINES NEEDS 48 FIGHTER JETS, SIX SUBMARINES, ANTI-SHIP CRUISE MISSLES: CNAS, vee China in South China Sea.
IMO Manila needs to recognize that the above is "JUST FOR STARTERS" AGZ CHINA - widout a strong, innovative, + stable Military-Industrial base of its own, + widout massive US-WEstern military assistance, it will take the PHIL many many decades just to unilater achieve MINIMAL = "SUFFICIENT" DETERRENCE agz China, e.g. agz China's "Coast Guard" = CMS fleet???
THE PHIL SHOULDN'T BE WANTING NEW TOYS IT CANNOT EITHER MAINTAIN OR SUPPORT.
[Al Ahram] Spokesperson of the Armed Forces Ahmed Mohamed Ali stated Saturday that national dialogue is the best way to reach consensus for the good of the country, asserting that the army will not allow violence to continue. "Those who engage in violence will be thumped!"
"The Armed Forces are always on the side of the people. "Of course, there are lotsa varieties of 'people' we can choose among..." "We support the call for national dialogue, If there's only one side loguing it's called a 'monologue.'
"...to reach a consensus that unites all segments of the nation," read the statement published on the spokesperson Ali's Facebook page. "Those who don't unite might as well make reservations at the bone yard..."
Wednesday witnessed fierce festivities between opponents and supporters of President Mohamed Morsi after a sit-in of anti-Morsi protesters was attacked by Morsi supporters. At least six people were killed during subsequent festivities. Seems to me that if the Morsi supporters attacked the Tahrir Square people who were waving nothing more deadly that their fists that the Morsi supporters are in the wrong and should be held accountable.
Ali added that polarisation would only lead the country down "a dark tunnel that will have disastrous results." "Polarization" comes about because there's more than one opinion in the vicinity. When everybody is hooting in favor of the same old dictator, or maybe the latest old dictator, it's actually not a good thing. "Disunity" in the community (I saw the 'Unity in the Community' sign in ten foot letters emblazoned on the side of an appropriately derelict building in Baltimore a few years ago and both the vision and the symbolism have stuck in my mind ever since) means you've got more than one way of looking at things, which leaves room for originality. There are times when you've got to dig in and stand up for what you believe is right, maybe even correct, and if somebody else is doing the same thing on the other side you've got "polarization." But you can't overcome "polarization" just by cracking the heads of the other side, at least not until you've packed the lot of them off to the bone yard. But it's a far, far better thing to sell your own ideas and convince 51 percent or better of the stoopid bastards on the other side to come over to your side of sweet reason and cool logic.
"The Armed Forces have always ensured the security and safety of the nation and its people, and will continue to do so," added Ali. Think "45-year state of emergency."
In response to the Armed Forces statement, Abdel-Khalq Al-Sherif, a bigwig in the Moslem Brüderbund, told Rooters that the statement was balanced and is a "step in helping to end a political crisis that did not take sides." Sounds like al-Sherif expects the army to be on his side, regardless of whether his side started the thumping.
Al-Sharif added that it was right for the military "not [to engage] in political manoeuvres." "Not engaging in political maneuvers" would actually have included keeping its collective and institutional trap shut.
On Friday, Al-Ahram daily reported that a decree would soon be issued by the president authorising the army to arrest civilians. ... which is the definition of martial law.
Posted by: Fred ||
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At least seven companies from China, India, South Korea and South Africa continued to have investments in Iran's oil and gas sectors in 2012 even as Tehran came under international scrutiny for its nuclear ambitions, a U.S. government watchdog said on Friday, Reuters reported.
A new U.S. law signed in August gave the Obama administration the authority to sanction firms that help Iran develop its energy resources, a key source of revenue for the country.
Except that Champ is giving out exemptions to the law, which he's allowed to do and loves to do...
For a report to Congress required under that August law, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reviewed publicly available reports and data, and contacted the companies involved to check whether they have stepped back from Iran.
"We did not attempt to determine whether the activities for which the firms are listed in our reports met the legal criteria for sanctionable activities," the GAO said, noting the State Department is responsible for those types of determinations.
The State Department reviewed the report ahead of its publication but declined comment, the GAO said.
The United States and European Union have targeted Iran's energy sector for sanctions, an effort to pressure Iran to stop pursuing nuclear weapons. The United States requires buyers of Iranian oil to make significant cuts to their oil purchases, or risk being cut off from the U.S. financial system.
Most of the companies still involved in Iran's energy sector are from countries that on Friday received six-month waivers called "exceptions" to the sanctions because they have reduced oil trade.
How about requiring them to cut their purchases some more?
Chinese activity included Sinopec's 51 percent stake in Iran's Yadavaran oil field, and China National Petroleum Corp's interest in a project to develop the Azadegan field, the GAO said.
South Korea's Daelim Industrial Co is helping develop the South Pars gas fields and is also involved in a liquefied natural gas project at Tombak, the report said.
Three Indian companies with stakes in the Farsi Block gas field -- Indian Oil Corp Ltd, ONGC Videsh Ltd and Oil India Ltd -- told the GAO that their exploration service contracts had expired and they had no plans to pursue further work on the project.
South Africa's Sasol has been active in a joint venture in Iran but recently stated it is trying to divest, the GAO said.
There were another eight companies from China, Malaysia, India, Croatia and Venezuela whose recent involvement in Iran was difficult to confirm, the GAO said. The companies did not all respond to the GAO's questions.
The GAO also examined whether foreign firms were selling refined petroleum products to Iran -- another activity now sanctionable under U.S. laws.
Syria's Sytrol has been reported to have sold gasoline to Iran, and was sanctioned by the United States on August 10.
The GAO found 12 of 17 firms had stopped selling petroleum products to Iran. The watchdog said it could not confirm whether an additional four firms from China and Venezuela were still active in the market.
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[Al Ahram] Egypt Prime Minister Hisham Qandil stated Saturday that he expects President Mohamed Morsi to issue a new constitutional declaration "within hours" to put an end to the ongoing political turmoil, with mass demos staged to protest a previous declaration and the draft constitution.
"The [political] forces that met at the presidential palace in the dialogue that President Morsi has called for agreed on forming a committee to draft the final constitutional declaration," Qandil said in an interview with Mehwar TV.
"President Mohamed Morsi is keen to make this dialogue work and put an end to the current predicament. He accepts the option of making amendments to the constitutional declaration."
Fierce protests broke out last week after Morsi issued a constitutional declaration 22 November that made his decisions immune to judicial challenge. Critics argue the decree puts Morsi above the law and constitutionality.
While Morsi's supporters believe that the decree enables the president to nip in the bud the manoeuvres of the former regime, including replacing Mubarak-era prosecutor general Abdel-Megid Mahmoud, anti-Morsi protesters believe the elected president betrayed democracy in favour of dictatorship.
"The purpose of this declaration was protection [of the president's decisions] and not creating a new dictators like some people say," Qandil said.
The opposition also argues -- among other criticisms -- that the draft constitution, which should be put to a public referendum soon, limits many freedoms by imposing a stricter version of the Islamic Sharia law.
On the draft constitution, Qandil commented: "There is no way all political forces will agree on the constitution by 100 per cent; they are not used to conducting this kind of dialogues."
"I would like to ask all political current to get back home; the real dialogue has already begun."
Over 40 figures took part in the dialogue, including Al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayeb, former Islamist presidential candidate Mohamed Selim El-Awa, the Salafist Nour Party chairman Emad El-Din Abdel-Gafour and Gamal Gebril, chairman of the System of Government Committee of the Constituent Assembly tasked with drafting the constitution.
However, the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits... the majority of opposition political forces refused the president's overtures made Friday as mass protests congregated at the presidential palace.
The National Salvation Front, the main opposition group led by former presidential candidates Mohamed ElBaradei Egyptian law scholar and Iranian catspaw. He was head of the IAEA from December 1997 to November 2009. At some point during his tenure he was purchased by the Iranians. ElBaradei and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for something in 2005. After stepping down from his IAEA position ElBaradei attempted to horn in on the 2011 Egyptian protests which culminated in the collapse of the Mubarak regime. ElBaradei served on the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group, a lefty NGO that is bankrolled by the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as George Soros' Open Society Institute. Soros himself serves as a member of the organization's Executive Committee. , Hamdeen Sabbahi and Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa ... who was head of the Arab League for approximately two normal lifespans, accomplishing nothing that was obvious to the casual observer ... , was among those who skipped the meeting.
The Front said in a statement on Friday that it is ready to be involved in a "serious" dialogue to put an end to the ongoing political impasse.
The presidential office announced Friday during mass protests that Morsi was willing to hold off the referendum slated for 15 December. Morsi already postponed the expat vote, which was scheduled for today.
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[Pak Daily Times] Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... said on Saturday a suicide kaboom that maimed the country's spy chief was planned in Pak city of Quetta, and added he would raise the issue with Islamabad.
Islamabad, of course, will tut tut with feeling, then do absolutely nothing. Or nothing helpful, anyway.
The president did not openly blame Pakistain over the attack on Asadullah Khalid in Kabul on Thursday but said the Taliban would not have been able to carry out the bombing and that "bigger hands were involved". The Taliban had grabbed credit for the attack on the head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), which was carried out by an attacker posing as a Taliban peace envoy with a bomb hidden in his underwear.
"We know that this man who came in the name of a guest to meet with Asadullah Khalid came from Pakistain. We know that for a fact. That is clear," Karzai told news hounds. "This attack was plotted... from the (southwestern) city of Quetta in Pakistain. I will raise this issue with Pakistain." He added that the Taliban "cannot carry out such attacks". "It was an absolutely professional and engineered attack -- bigger hands were involved," he said.
Kabul last year blamed Pakistain for the liquidation of the head of Afghanistan's High Peace Council, Burhanuddin Rabbani ... the gentlemanly murdered legitimate president of Afghanistan... , also killed by a bomber posing as a Taliban peace envoy, claims which Pakistain rejected. Relations between the neighbours are often tense and Kabul has accused Pakistain of supporting the Taliban, accusations Islamabad has always rejected, insisting it is committed to fighting the thugs.
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[Dawn] Pakistain on Saturday rejected Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... 's claim that a suicide kaboom that maimed his intelligence chief was planned in the Pak city of Quetta.
A front man of the Pak foreign ministry said that the Afghan government should share information or evidence it might have about the attack before it starts leveling charges.
"Before levelling charges, the Afghan government would do well if they shared information or evidence with the government of Pakistain that they might have with regard to the cowardly attack on (Khalid)," said the front man.
Earlier, President Karzai stopped short of blaming the Pak government directly. But he told a news conference he would raise the issue with Islamabad.
The ministry also offered to help the Afghan government investigate any lapses it had in the intelligence chief's security. "They would also do well by ordering an investigation into any lapses in the security arrangements around (Khalid)," said the front man.
On Thursday, a jacket wallah posing as a peace messenger maimed Afghanistan's intelligence chief, Asadullah Khalid, in another sign that the Afghan government is struggling to improve security ahead of the withdrawal of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... combat troops by the end of 2014.
The Afghan Taliban grabbed credit for the operation, although it often makes exaggerated claims about attacks on foreign troops or government targets.
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[Al Ahram] The national dialogue between Egypt President Mohamed Morsi with public figures got underway Saturday with both side attempting to reach an agreement amid amplifying disputes over the draft constitution and Morsi's recent constitutional declaration, announced presidential spokesperson Yasser Ali.
Morsi attended briefly, along with Vice President Mahmoud Mekki, sitting down with over 40 figures. However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... the majority of opposition political forces refused the president's overtures made Friday as mass protests congregated at the presidential palace.
The National Salvation Front, the main opposition group led by former presidential candidates Mohamed ElBaradei Egyptian law scholar and Iranian catspaw. He was head of the IAEA from December 1997 to November 2009. At some point during his tenure he was purchased by the Iranians. ElBaradei and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for something in 2005. After stepping down from his IAEA position ElBaradei attempted to horn in on the 2011 Egyptian protests which culminated in the collapse of the Mubarak regime. ElBaradei served on the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group, a lefty NGO that is bankrolled by the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as George Soros' Open Society Institute. Soros himself serves as a member of the organization's Executive Committee. , Hamdeen Sabbahi and Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa ... who was head of the Arab League for approximately two normal lifespans, accomplishing nothing that was obvious to the casual observer ... , was among those who skipped the meeting.
Among those in attendance were Al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayeb, former Islamist presidential candidate Mohamed Selim El-Awa, the Salafist Nour Party chairman Emad El-Din Abdel-Gafour, founder of the Ghad El-Thawra Party Ayman Nour, the moderate Islamist Al-Wasat Party leaders Abul-Ela Madi and Essam Sultan, and Gamal Gebril, chairman of the System of Government Committee of the Constituent Assembly tasked with drafting the constitution.
Also attending were Islamic preacher Amr Khaled, Al-Ahram columnist Fahmy Howeidy, Montasser El-Zayat, a well-known lawyer for Islamist groups in Egypt, Egypt's top publisher Ibrahim El-Moalem, and former head of the Legislative Committee of the now-dissolved People's Assembly, Mahmoud El-Khodairy.
It is not yet known if the meeting yielded any agreements.
Fierce protests broke out last week after Morsi issued a constitutional declaration 22 November that made his decisions immune to judicial challenge. Critics argue the decree puts Morsi above the law and constitutionality.
While Morsi's supporters believe that the decree enables the president to nip in the bud the manoeuvres of the former regime, including replacing Mubarak-era prosecutor general Abdel-Megid Mahmoud, anti-Morsi protesters believe the elected president betrayed democracy in favour of dictatorship.
The opposition also argues -- among other criticisms -- that the draft constitution, which should be put to a public referendum soon, limits many freedoms by imposing a stricter version of the Islamic Sharia law.
The presidential office announced Friday during mass protests that Morsi was willing to hold off the referendum slated for 15 December. Morsi already postponed the expat vote, which was scheduled for today.
However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... the opposition insists Morsi must annul the constitutional declaration before holding any talks with him.
In the ensuing violence of the past few days, at least seven were killed and over 1000 injured. Assailants on both sides used firearms and bladed weapons.
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[Dawn] Activists of the outlawed Hizbut Tahrir ...an al-Qaeda recruiting organization banned in most countries. It calls for the reestablishment of the Caliphate... beat feet from their hideout moments before a raid jointly conducted by the police and other law enforcement agencies here Thursday night.
The capital police along with its Crime Investigation Department (CID) and an intelligence agency cordoned a house in Sector E-11 after getting information that the activists had been spotted there. However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... when the raiding team entered the house, there was no one inside.
However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... nothing objectionable was found in the house.
A police officer on the condition of anonymity said that the raid was conducted on a tip-off that the activists of the banned outfit, who were behind a series of protests and pasting of pamphlets against the government and the army in the city, were staying in the house.
They were wanted by the Kohsar police for chanting slogans and pasting pamphlets against the army at Super Market on November 11.
The police started the paperwork but haven't done much else against 24 persons, including Khalid Mehmood, Taimur Khalid, Syed Khalid, Waqar Ahmed, Aqeel Arshad, Usman Nazir, Omar Farooq and Aslam, under different sections of the Pakistain Penal Code.
The police suspected that the accused had got information about the raid and escaped.
After the unsuccessful raid, the police started collecting details about the house and its owner to trace the activists, another police officer said, adding preliminary investigation suggested that the house was recently taken on rent and used by the HuT activists.
The Sherlocks are trying to locate the house owner to get his help in reaching the people who had taken it on rent, he said.
It may be mentioned that HuT started its anti-government and anti-army activities in Islamabad last month.
Besides the protest at Super Market on November 11, scores of pamphlets against the army and its chief were also spotted pasted in and around F-8 Markaz on November 26.
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Bomb attack on Maulvi Nazir may not set off an all-out battle between his men and the TTP, but will spur tribal rivalries in South Wazoo
Key Taliban capo Maulvi Nazir survived a deadly suicide kaboom on November 29, when he and his associates were visiting Rustam Bazaar in Wana, the administrative headquarters of South Waziristan. At least seven gunnies were killed and a dozen others were maimed in the attack.
Nazir suffered minor injuries on his face and legs, his front man Amir Nawaz told local news hounds. No group has grabbed credit for the attack so far, and security analysts say Nazir has a long list of enemies. Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) are the main suspects. Maulvi Nazir has also been targeted by US drones on several occasions, but survived each time. The most recent such attack was in June 2012.
Nazir belongs to the Kakakhel tribe, which is a sub-clan of the Ahmedzai Wazir tribe. His family lives on both sides of the Durand Line. During the Soviet Afghan war, he was affiliated with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar ... who used to be known in intelligence circles as The Most Evil Man in the World but who now seems merely run-of-the-mill evil... 's Hizb-e-Islami and later joined the Taliban. He became the head of the Wana Taliban in late 2006 after challenging local commanders Haji Sharif and Haji Omar. Nazir's group is allied with bad turban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur who US officials believe is sheltering the Haqqani network in the neighboring North Waziristan Agency.
Bahadur was made the deputy chief of TTP when it was formed under the leadership of Baitullah Mehsud in 2007. TTP is an umbrella organization of various bad turban groups operating in FATA. After disagreements over attacks on Pak security forces and because of tribal rivalries, he joined hands with Maulvi Nazir and formed his own anti-TTP bloc. The two leaders fall in the military establishment's 'good Taliban' category because they do not carry out attacks inside Pakistain.
There are two main tribes in South Waziristan - the Ahmedzai Wazirs and the Mehsuds. The Ahmedzai Wazirs live in Wana subdivision, while the Sarawakai and Ladha subdivisions are dominated by the Mehsuds. With the help of the Ahmadzai Wazir tribes, gunnies led by Nazir threw out Uzbek gunnies of the IMU from Wana and other Wazir-dominated areas of South Waziristan in a spring 2007 uprising against Uzbek brutality.
The Uzbek gunnies had arrived in the area after their bases in Afghanistan were closed down in late 2001. Many of them relocated to North Waziristan and Mehsud-dominated areas of South Waziristan after their eviction from Wana. The IMU lost around 250 gunnies in the festivities with Nazir's group. Pak security forces helped Nazir's men secure the bases vacated by the Uzbeks.
"It seems that the attack (on Nazir) was criminal masterminded by the IMU-linked Uzbek bad turbans," a local tribal leader said. He said the frustrated Uzbeks had also killed Maulana Noor Muhammad, a prominent elder of the Ahmedzai tribe and former parliamentarian, along with 30 other people in a suicide attack in a mosque in Wana in August 2010.
Two days after the November 29 attack, loudspeakers in Karikot, Shakai, Azam Warsak, Spin and Toi Khulla towns of Wana announced Nazir's ultimatum to the Mehsud rustics to vacate the areas by December 5. Locals found guilty of sheltering the Mehsuds would be fined up to Rs 1.5 million and their houses will be demolished, said the warning.
The announcement indicates Maulvi Nazir holds the TTP responsible for the attack, security analysts say. "The TTP is largely dominated by Mehsud rustics from South Waziristan, and Nazir made no distinction between the internally displaced Mehsud rustics and the bad turbans," said a local journalist based in Wana. A large number of Mehsud families have moved to other areas after the warning, he said. Hours after the attack, gunnies loyal to Nazir bumped off two TTP gunnies in Wana, local sources said.
The Mehsud population had to leave their homes when a military operation codenamed Rah-e-Nijat (Path to Salvation) started in October 2009. The operation has not ended yet. The Mehsuds were sheltered in IDP camps or began living in rented houses in Wana, Tank, Dera Ismail Khan ... the Pearl of Pashtunistan ... and 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... Nazir has been at loggerheads with the TTP leadership over a September 2009 incident in which he alleges 11 of his men were killed by TTP gunnies in Mehsud territory in Salay Rogha, South Waziristan. They were on their way to Wana. Mehsud Taliban fighters have also been warned by the Nazir group not to use their soil for attacks against security forces.
Pir Zubair Shah, a former New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... news hound from South Waziristan, believes the attack on Nazir was likely planned by local Wazir commanders Haji Omar and Maulvi Abbas, who had sided with the Uzbek gunnies and were thus evicted from Wana in 2007. "Although some of these Waziri gunnies had made peace deals with Nazir and were allowed to come back, it seems the tension still exists," he said.
Security analysts and tribal elders think the Ahmedzai jirga's decision to ask the Mehsuds to leave Wana could trigger a bloody clash between the Mehsud and Wazir tribes. "I don't think this attack will result in an all-out war between the Nazir-led group and the TTP. The clash between the two will be actually a clash between the Mehsud and Wazir tribes," Shah said. He said the eviction notice was an effort by the government to sideline the TTP which draws its strength from the Mehsuds.
Similar efforts are also being made in North Waziristan where the local Utmanzai tribal elders and Bahadur-led gunnies decided in a November 22 jirga to form a militia (lashkar) against "criminals and terrorists".
"Kidnappers, beturbanned goons and those involved in attacks on security forces should leave the North Waziristan Agency immediately," the jirga announced.
Creating divisions between Al Qaeda, the Afghan Taliban and the TTP has long been part of the American strategy in the region, and Pakistain's goal has been to weaken the TTP, said Arif Ansar, a security analyst associated with PoliTact, a Washington-based think tank. "Far from media attention, one can sense that the US and Pakistain have agreed on some kind of a quid pro quo in this regard," he said.
[Dawn] IN understanding how much damage can be done by failing to crack down on the wide dissemination of divisive ...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled... speech, the case of Death Eater leader Fazlullah is instructive. He was amongst the first faceless myrmidons to turn to FM radio to cast the shadow of fear over parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... , so much so that he became popularly known as Mullah Radio. It was only after his group virtually took over Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... and imposed upon it an bully boy version of religion that the Pakistain Army was moved to push it out in 2009. But the problem of hate speech being broadcast by FM radio remains; diverse Death Eater and/or bully boy outfits continue to use the medium to spread their divisive views. Indeed, the bloody battle fought in the Khyber Agency between the Lashkar-e-Islam and Ansar-ul-Islam occurred in part over the illegal FM channels each group broadcast.
Given this background, it is a step in the right direction that about a dozen unlicensed FM radio channels have been shut down, and their equipment seized in Swabi district over the past few days. They were being used to air programmes concerning different religious schools of thought of a nature that made the authorities fear breakdowns in law and order. However, women are made to be loved, not understood... the state needs to bolster this crackdown on illegal radio stations by creating incentives for legal, licensed channels that produce superior and non-controversial programming. The further one is from the urban and settled areas, the lower the penetration of FM programming -- even though a sizeable audience is clearly available. Lowering licence fees and making it possible to apply for an FM radio licence -- instead of having to wait for Pemra to announce an auction, as is currently the case -- would go a long way as an incentive. True, a large portion of the northwest is covered by Radio Pakistain's medium-wave transmissions; but FM has appreciably better broadcast quality and in a region that Pakistain needs to develop, a case can be made for the plurality of voices. Responsible radio programming can make a difference. The rest of Pakistain has benefited from the FM revolution; so should the northwest.
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#1
Can someone translate Rush Limbaugh into Pashto? No? What about Click and Clack? How about translating those two into English? No? What about Dr. Wuth?
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
12/09/2012 17:11
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[Bangla Daily Star] Twenty-six judges of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate's Court have received threats through SMS for "not granting bails to leaders and activists of Islam".
The anonymous message was in Bangla written in English fonts and sent from mobile phone number 01981611914 between 3:00pm and 7:00pm yesterday.
"You are the enemies of Islam. You are keeping the leaders and activists of Islam in detention instead of granting them bail. We have beaten up coppers; now we will cut your tendons and that of your family members. We will kill you. Be ready. Allahu Akbar," reads the translation of the text.
The judges include Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Bikash Kumar Saha, additional CMMs Md Ali Hossain and Md Shahidul Islam Faruque, Keshab Roy Chowdhury, MA Salam, Shahriar Mohammad Adnan, Rezaul Karim, Ashiqur Rahman, Mustafizur Rahman, Ismail Hossain, and Tanvir Ahmed.
Preferring anonymity, one of the 26 judges said the members of 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 maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. 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... and Islami Chhatra Shibir ... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh... might have sent the message. "The language of the message indicates it has been sent by their men."
However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... Matiur Rahman Akanda, assistant publicity secretary of Jamaat central committee, outright rejected the allegation. "None of us has sent such massage as we do not believe in covert activities," He said.
Several hundred Jamaat-Shibir members, including the top brass, are behind bars on charges of war crimes and various other offences.
Contacted, Additional CMM (1) Md Shahidul Islam Faruque said, "I have no idea who may have sent the message and why."
Harun-ur-Rashid, deputy commissioner of Lalbagh division police, told this paper they were informed of the matter and have ensured the judges' security.
Home Secretary CQK Mustaq Ahmed said, "If it is true, we have modern technologies to identify the man who have sent the message. Law enforcers and intelligence officials would take proper action."
Meanwhile, ...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth had turned a paler shade of blue. Star-A-Star had struck again... Mahbubul Alam, nazir of the CMM Court, filed a general diary on behalf of the judges in connection with the threats, said Sub-Inspector Rokibul Haque of Kotwali Police Station.
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For a map, click here
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
A military reform three years in the making has finally won approval and is on its way to be coming law, according to Mexican news accounts.
The Mexican Ley Organica de Armada provides Mexican naval commanders with added flexibility in dealing with internal security matters. Before, the Mexican constitution restricted the Mexican Navy to two roles, mainly that of guarding the coasts and holding to naval missions inside of Mexico. The main problem is that before the law was amended it did not permit naval commanders flexibility to adapt to new missions, especially in the fight against organized crime. Even though the Mexican Constitution holds that the president of the republic is the commander in chief of the Mexican Navy, orders which placed its activities in the realm of law enforcement were legally questionable. It was a reform which was needed.
Originally the reform law was introduced by former Mexican President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa in October of 2009 because, as press reports noted, the Secretaria de Marina (SEMAR), or Mexican Navy, was not operating with local and state government officials in a constitutionally permitted way, according to an October, 2011 article which appeared in the online edition of El Sol de Mexico news daily.
Last Thursday the changes were approved by the full Chamber of Deputies with 386 members voting to send the new law to the executive, or President Enrigue Pena Nieto for publication.
Other than the amount of time it took to make a few changes to the laws which govern the Mexican Navy, what stands out about the changes is that it is one of several reforms advanced by the Calderon administration which was routinely blunted by politicians with the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) deputies with an eye for electoral gains in the presidential election the following year. The charge against PRI deputies has been advanced since 2011 and even into the 2012 election season.
One good example of PRI's political maneuvering was in the first debate when then candidate Pena Nieto told the Mexicans on national TV he supported political reform in the form of whittling down the massive number of at-large deputies, which keeps the Chamber of Deputies at 500 members. During the debate, Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) president Gustavo Madero Munoz quipped on Twitter: "Hallelujah! [PRI candidate Enrique Pena Nieto] read the PAN proposal presented in 2009 by [President Felipe Calderon] to reduce the at-large 100 deputies and 32 senators."
As humorous as Madero's quip may have been, it did little to hide the deep frustration PAN politicians have with PRI politicians in advancing reforms they see as necessary in Mexico.
A column penned by Raul Carranca y Rivas which appeared in the April, 2010 online edition La Prensa put it succinctly, when addressing another reform, La Ley de Seguridad Nacional, itself shelved since the fall of 2011, "It is lamentable to see them tangle, with the exclusion of a knowledgeable minority, over nothing less than the peace and tranquillity of the nation. It is a serious thing to delay urgent laws, but more serious is falling into the darkness of confusion and ignorance."
A second more recent reform, which has been much more controversial, and the first reform proposed by the new Pena administration, was the law that moved the Mexican national Secretaria de Seguridad Publica (SSP) from a separate agency to a sub agency of the Secretaria de Gobernacion, or interor ministry.
The SSP is the controlling agency for the Policia Federal (PF).
The new proposal, known as La Ley de Administracion Publica, would increase the power of SEGOB in a manner that made PRI's bitterest political rivals, the Mexican left and its component parties, the Partido de Revolucion Democratica (PRD), Partido Trabajo (PT) and Movimiento Ciudadano (MC) afraid of a return to the old PRI, where successive PRI presidents used their immense military and police powers against the Mexican left.
The proposal which passed the senate with 114 votes in favor was passed without controls, as PAN politician Roberto Gil Zuarth put it, to "prevent an abuse of power."
One of those controls was likely the amendment to the law that eliminates the requirement that the Mexican Senate vet all appointments to SEGOB. Because of that amendment PAN and the PRD left the senate to deny PRI and their legislative allies a needed quorum to pass the law in its state.
Both the senate and Chamber of Deputies are evenly divided, so the going for reforms advanced by the PRI has been so far anything but easy.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
The Egyptian government has nabbed a major terrorist tied to the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, according to the Wall Street Journal. And that terrorist has direct, longstanding ties to al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri
The captured terrorist is Muhammad Jamal al Kashef (a.k.a. Abu Ahmed), who served as a senior Egyptian Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Mohammedan Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the liquidation of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... (EIJ) terrorist in the 1990s and was imprisoned for years. The EIJ was headed by Ayman al Zawahiri, who merged the group with the late Osama bin Laden ... who has left the building... 's operation.
After his release from prison in 2011, Kashef established training camps in Egypt and Libya. Some of Kashef's trainees took part in the Benghazi attack, according to multiple reports.
Kashef is the most senior terrorist cooled for a few years You have the right to remain silent... in connection with the Benghazi attack to date. Importantly, the publicly-available details of his biography show that he has numerous al Qaeda connections.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Kashef "petitioned al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri ... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is... to establish a new Qaeda affiliate he called al Qaeda in Egypt" and also received financing from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Al Hayat, a London-based Arabic newspaper, previously reported that Zawahiri gave Jamal the go-ahead to launch terrorist attacks in Egypt, Libya, and elsewhere.
On October 24, Egyptian authorities raided an apartment in Nasr City, Cairo, arresting several bully boyz in the process. One suspected terrorist was killed during the confrontation when one of his bombs detonated, setting the apartment building on fire.
The Nasr City terrorist cell has ties to Kashef, the attack in Benghazi, as well as al Qaeda's operations inside Libya, the Egyptians say.
Days after the Nasr City raid, the Egyptians cooled for a few years Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! Sheikh Adel Shehato, an EIJ official who openly declares his adherence to al Qaeda's ideology. Shehato is accused of founding and financing the Nasr City cell. Shehato was reportedly locked away Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! en route to Libya with a large sum of cash.
THE WEEKLY STANDARD previously reported on Kashef and Shehato. It was the Egyptians' investigation of the Nasr City cell with help from American intelligence officials that led to Kashef's arrest.
Shehato was one of several al Qaeda-linked jihadists who helped instigate the Sept. 11 protest in Cairo. The other jihadists who incited protesters in Cairo are part of Kashef's circle, too. Later that same day, snuffies attacked the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, killing four Americans.
#2
After his release from prison in 2011, Kashef established training camps in Egypt and Libya. Some of Kashef's trainees took part in the Benghazi attack, according to multiple reports.
#3
One problem in supporting rebels is that you are never quite sure what groups make up the rebels and to what extent they are dominant. Could end up arming your enemies.
$623 million worth of cars have been imported into Iran in the first eight months of the current Iranian calendar year which began on March 20, the Mehr News Agency reported.
According to Mehr, 27,472 cars valued at around $623 million, were imported during the eight month period, showing an 18 per cent rise in value and 9.6 per cent rise in the number compared to the same period in the previous year.
The UAE, South Korea, and China were the main exporters of cars to Iran. The average price of the imported cars was $22,663.
Meanwhile, 38,792 cars, valued at around $230 million were exported from Iran during the same period. Iraq, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan were the main importers of Iranian cars. The average price of the exported cars was $5931.
So they buy expensive quality Chinese and SKor cars, and export cheap cars to Iraq.
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#4
Has Iran figured out how to use nuclear fuel in their imported cars since their nuclear efforts are all for peaceful purposes (sarc)? Saw an all electric car down in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago. Have seen a few Leafs on the road in Tennessee.
In 2009, President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace prize for numerous accomplishments, which may have included:
A fifth-place award in the 7th-grade spelling bee
No tardies during the school year of 1970, and
Winning the Boy Scout Pine-Car Derby 3 years straight.
Obama also received a red poppy pin for contributing to the war in Afghanistan and a giant stuffed Tasmanian Devil for sinking 3 baskets at the Maryland state fair. There's no stopping this man.
#7
Ditto B. His entire biography and history was a made up fiction anyway so who really knows anything about Champ. I'm thinking he is more like the Manchurian Candidate.
[Dawn] Nine people, including three unidentified youths and two activists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... , were bumped off in different targeted attacks on Friday, police said.
The three youths' bodies stuffed in gunny bags were found at around 7am in an auto-rickshaw parked outside gate No. 4 of the 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... Zoological Garden within the jurisdiction of the Garden cop shoppe.
Police shifted the bodies to the Civil Hospital Bloody Karachi without removing the gunny bags. "The bodies have not yet been identified by anyone but they look like ethnic Baloch from their appearance and features," said Garden ASP Mufakir Adeel.
"We've obtained fingerprints of the bodies for the purpose of identification," he said. The victims' ages ranged from 24 to 28 years and they had been shot in the head with a single bullet each, he said, adding there were no other torture marks on the bodies.
The auto-rickshaw bearing registration number D-84687 had been snatched in a locality falling within the remit of the Nabi Bukhsh cop shoppe on Wednesday night and the incident had been reported to police.
Sources in the civil hospital said the bodies were trussed up and their mouths were gagged with a tape. It seemed the victims had been put to death immediately after their kidnapping somewhere in the old city area, said police.
The bodies were shifted to the Edhi morgue after having undergone medico-legal formalities at the hospital.
Earlier, two MQM activists were bumped off in different incidents by gunnies in the old city area of Napier late on Thursday night.
Two more activists of the MQM were bumped off on Friday.
According to police, Mohammad Safeer, 20, was hit in the head while standing outside his house in Ibrahim Villas within the remit of the Al-Falah cop shoppe late on Thursday night. He was rushed to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre where he died on Friday morning.
The station house officer of the Al-Falah cop shoppe, Sarfaraz Gondal, said the victim was a second year student of intermediate and an active member of the MQM. Tension gripped the Al Falah locality after the killing.
The other MQM activist was rubbed out by cycle of violence-riding assailants at Nishan-e-Haider Chowk in Sector 11 of Orangi Town within the remit of the Pakistain Bazaar cop shoppe on Friday.
Nasir Fareed, 35, was passing through the area on his cycle of violence when he came under attack. He was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where he was pronounced dead. He's dead, Jim! on arrival. He had suffered two gunshot wounds, said police.
The victim lived in Madina Colony, Sector 11 of Orangi Town and was worker of MQM's unit 120, said police.
Shops and markers were shuttered after the killing.
Labourer bumped off
A labourer who had recently arrived in the city from Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... was killed in New Muzaffarabad Colony near Tauheedi Mosque in the Quaidabad area on Friday.
Iqbal Zada, 28, was walking homewards after offering Friday prayers when the attackers, lying in wait for him in the street, opened fire on him and fled, said police.
The victim suffered fatal gunshot wounds and was struck down in his prime. Police said the dear departed was a labourer and had arrived in the city just two weeks ago from Swat.
Rickshaw driver rubbed out
A rickshaw driver, Sarmandh Khan, 30, was rubbed out by gunnies in Mianwali Colony of Pirabad area on Friday when he was passing through the area in his tri-wheeler.
The victim was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where he died before getting medial help. He lived in Islamia Colony and belonged to Swat, said police, suspecting the murder might be an offshoot of a personal enmity.
Estate agent killed
An estate agent, Jehanzeb Khan, 50, was killed by cycle of violence-riding attackers in Janjal Goth in Shorab Goth area on Friday when he was going somewhere on his bike.
The victim suffered two gunshot wounds and was struck down in his prime. His body was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities.
Police said the killing appeared to be linked to the victim's trade as he had been into several property related disputes. He was father of six and had come from Bajaur, said police.
Motorcycle-riders kill man
A man was killed by cycle of violence-riding assailants in Machhar Colony within the remit of the Docks cop shoppe on Friday night.
Jehanzaib, 45, who was a driver by profession and father of two, suffered two fatal wounds and died before he could be taken to a hospital, said police.
The victim had married out of his community, SHO Madad Ali Zardari said, citing it as a possible motive for the killing.
Police shifted the body to the Civil Hospital Bloody Karachi for medico-legal formalities.
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Egypt President Mohamed Morsi called off late on Saturday the controversial constitutional declaration that prompted violence and political turmoil the past few days.
Islamic scholar Mohamed Selim El-Awa, who was among more than 40 national figures attending a lengthy meeting that Morsi called for in a bid to ease growing tensions between the president and opposition, revealed that a new constitutional declaration will replace the 22 November decree.
The announcement, however, heeds only one of the two key demands of the anti-Morsi protesters.
El-Awa said the referendum on the new draft constitution, slated for 15 December, will go ahead as scheduled, defying the demonstrators who believe the proposed national chart does not fulfill the aspirations of Egyptians.
It fulfills the aspirations of the Muslim Brotherhood, however, so it will be 'voted' upon and it will be 'approved', no doubt about it...
"If the people voted no to the referendum, a new Constituent Assembly will be formed within three months via general elections, after which it will write a new constitution within six months," El-Awa read out one of the articles of the new constitutional declaration.
But they won't vote no, will they...
The new constitutional declaration is also immune from legal challenge as Morsi, who has been in office for around five months, seeks to avoid a fresh impasse.
It remains to be seen whether new constitutional declaration will be sufficient to appease the anti-Morsi protesters, many of whom have camped put in front of the presidential palace since last Tuesday.
"The president does not have the authority to postpone the referendum in order not to violate the March 2011 constitutional declaration," El-Awa added.
He has the power to do anything else, including give himself new powers, but he can't postpone the vote?
Last year's constitutional declaration, which was issued by then-ruling military council, stipulates that a referendum on draft constitution must be held within 15 days after the president receives the draft from a Constituent Assembly. The contentious draft constitution was handed to Morsi by the outgoing Constituent Assembly on 1 December and the president scheduled a referendum on the chart for 15 December.
More than enough time for a vote -- two weeks gives the printers plenty of time to print up all the 'yes' ballots needed. Sadly, there's not nearly enough time to print up any 'no' ballots, but such is the price of Islamic progress...
"If the people voted yes, the country will begin the process of building institutions to achieve stability," El-Awa stated.
Egypt has been craving for stability and economic recovery since the 2011 revolution, which instigated the ouster of former president Mubarak.
Egypt has been craving for stability since the invasion of the Visigoths and the fall of the western Roman Empire...
Many prominent opposition figures have boycotted Saturday's National Dialogue, with reform campaigner Mohamed ElBaradei describing it as "arm-twisting."
The National Salvation Front, which was set up by ElBaradei and ex-presidential candidates Hamdeen Sabbahi and Amr Moussa to oppose Morsi's recent decisions, insisted that the president revoke the decree before a dialogue is held.
However, Morsi wanted to meet opposition "without any preconditions."
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A senior Saudi official says Gulf Arab states must quash any Arab Spring-inspired unrest or risk threats to their leadership across the oil-rich region. The comments by Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah, the Saudi deputy foreign minister, echo calls by Gulf authorities to widen crackdowns on perceived opposition such as rights activists and Islamist factions.
His remarks also seek to justify the intervention last year in Bahrain by a Saudi-led Gulf military force after an uprising by the kingdom's Shiite-led majority. Bahrain remains the Gulf's main flashpoint.
It's okay when they do it...
Prince Abdulaziz says Gulf states "cannot tolerate instability" that could lead to challenges to the Western-allied leaders from Kuwait to Oman. He spoke Saturday at an international security summit hosted by Bahrain.
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[Al Ahram] Former parliamentarian Mohamed Abou Hamed filed a report Friday accusing President Mohamed Morsi, Moslem Brüderbund Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and several Salafist preachers of inciting violence against him.
"Badie and his people are the ones who attacked me, they are supporters of the president," said Abou Hamed, who is widely known for his critical stance on the Moslem Brüderbund, in a video showing his face bruised and cut and his head wrapped with bandages.
Abou Hamed added that several religious preachers have issued religious edicts calling for his killing, accusing him of abandoning Islam.
Earlier, on 23 November, former presidential candidate Abou El-Ezz El-Hariri accused "thugs" of the Moslem Brüderbund of attacking him and his wife in Alexandria.
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And American production, that which wasn't destroyed by our own overly wet growing season, is being turned into automobile fuel. So y'all couldn't buy food if you had the wherewithal to do so. Could it be that Allah is trying to get your attention?
[Dawn] Neither the floods spared us nor did the landlords. They are telling us to pay for the expenses incurred on crop cultivation without realising the fact that the entire harvest has been destroyed in the floods. It wasn't our fault but God's will," protested a farmer waiting for his turn to receive a free ration bag in Khukharani Lara village of Jacobabad district.
There were hundreds of people standing in the long queue, waiting for handouts for past many hours. Most of them had come from different villages of the Ahmed Pur union council. The relief distribution was organised by a non-governmental organization.Seven union councils of Jacobabad district are still flooded and at least 5,000 people are living in relief camps while many have set up makeshift tents on elevated grounds closer to their homes. The government has yet to initiate efforts to drain water as relief distribution is largely being done by non-governmental organizations.
"Water is still standing in our villages where we had grown rice and with government machinery yet to move to drain the water, the hope that we can grow crops even in coming months seems to be fading away," lamented Dur Mohammad of Ghulam Nabi Jakhrani village.
He said farmers of the flood-hit areas of the district were compelled to look for work that could help them earn between Rs100 and Rs400 a day. "But there are days when we can't find work and have to borrow money," he said, adding that the situation had become harsher than the past when they had to bear with exploitation by landlords.
"This is so because earlier we somehow sustained our lives on the agricultural produce and cattle heads despite being caught in the vicious cycle of debt. But the floods left us completely devastated, reducing us to begging," added another.
The locals said that there was widespread disease in their villages where people were consuming brackish water. Among them, there were some who had not received the first instalment through the Watan Card because they had lost their national identity cards in the 2010 floods.
Basit Ali Shah of Save the Children told Dawn that it was the fourth day of the second cycle of relief distribution initiated this month while more than 6,000 families had benefited from the first round of free ration distribution.
"We are giving away wheat flour, oil, biscuits, lentils and salt. We've planned to distribute the food among more than 2,000 people this time in the union council in four days," Mr Shah said.
Sardar Muqeem Khan Khoso, a former member of the provincial assembly, who was visiting the relief distribution camp, told journalists that the entire district of Jacobabad had been badly affected by the floods and only two to three union councils could be saved.
While responding to a question, he said: "There are no disputes between Sindh and Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... over how to drain the rainwater and efforts are under way in this regard."
Asked about a timeframe for the drainage of rainwater, he said that he was not a technical person but he couldn't see that happen before April next year, considering the large size of the area in the district inundated by floodwaters.
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Iran has condemned the United States for the subcritical nuclear test recently conducted in Nevada, saying the test undermines world peace and global stability and shows the United States' hypocrisy on the issue of nuclear disarmament, Press TV reported.
On Friday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said the test proves Washington is still following a policy based on reliance on weapons of mass destruction, disregarding international calls for total nuclear disarmament.
The test, known as Pollux, was conducted jointly by the Nevada National Security Site, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories on Wednesday. The US National Nuclear Security Administration said the 27th subcritical experiment was conducted to ensure that Washington "can support a safe, secure and effective stockpile" of nuclear weapons.
However, the experiment has drawn sharp criticism from residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which are the only cities that have ever been attacked with nuclear weapons.
"I wonder why [US] President [Barack] Obama, who said he would seek a nuclear-free world, carried out the test," said Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui.
Hirotami Yamada, the secretary general of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors Council, said the experiment "is proof that the United States could use nuclear weapons anytime."
That's right. Think about it. It should condition your behavior, don't you think?
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#1
Pull'em off the shelf, dust'em off and warm'em up.
Drop your...um, well grab your socks little bombs. Somebody is going for a ride.
#2
See also WORLD MILITARY FORUM > IFF ALL ELSE FAILS [diplomacy], THE US WILL STRIKE IRAN IN 2013, SAY FORMER ADVISORS TO US PRESIDENTS CLINTON, BUSH, AND OBAMA.
and
* SAME > JOHN GLASER: HAS THE US SET A MARCH 2013 DEADLINE TO LAUNCH WAR ON IRAN? AIR ATTACKS ON IRAN'S MAIN NUCLEAR FACILITIES MAY CAUSE UP TO 10,000 OR MORE IRANIAN CASUALTIES FROM ALL CAUSES, REQUIRE A FOLLOW-UP LAND INVASION AND OCCUPATION DUE TO COSTS OF IRAN WAR [$$$, lives lost] BEING GREATER THAN THAT INCURRED BY THE US-ALLIES FOR IRAQ + AFGHANISTAN.
versus
* WAFF, TOPIX > NEW CHINA LEADER [Xi Jinping]CALLS FOR POWERFUL MISSLE FORCES, that are also technologically-advanced in order to achieve de facto "military parity" agz China's enemies.
[Dawn] Police 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... placed in long-term storage Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! 54 suspected persons, including Asmatullah, a son of the deputy chief of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain's Bloody Karachi chapter, 15 runaways and one proclaimed offender, DawnNews reported.
The Khwaja Ajmer Nagri police arrested Asmatullah from near the North Bloody Karachi grid station.
Moreover, different cop shoppes in the city's west zone arrested 21 suspected individuals during the past 24 hours.
A rifle, nine TT pistols, narcotics and other material was recovered from the possession of the suspects.
Separately, Bloody Karachi's east zone police arrested 33 suspected individuals, including 15 runaways and one proclaimed offender. Weapons and narcotics were recovered from the possession of the arrested persons.
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[Al Ahram] Syrian troops battled rebels near Damascus ...The place where Pencilneck hangs his brass hat... on Saturday and launched air strikes on opposition strongholds in the south of the capital and on its northeastern outskirts, a watchdog said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights gave an initial toll of 49 people killed nationwide, including 16 civilians and 16 rebels killed in Damascus province alone.
To the northeast of the capital, seven civilians including a child were killed in heavy army shelling on the town of Misraba.
Nearby, warplanes bombarded the town of Douma and areas between Harasta and Irbin, said the watchdog, adding that 10 rebels were killed in fierce festivities with troops in the area.
The Observatory also reported three rebels and two civilians killed in shelling on southern areas of the capital, including in Daraya, where troops had launched a major military operation to try and seize control of the town.
For several days, the army has pounded rebel strongholds on the capital's outskirts, where the fighters have set up their rear bases, raising fears of a looming ground assault.
Abu Kinan, an activist in Daraya, said that festivities had broken out between the rebel Free Syrian Army and government troops to the east and west of Daraya.
"The army is getting reinforcements and has tossed in the calaboose Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! more than 80 displaced people who were living in the surrounding areas, just because they are from Daraya," he told AFP via Skype.
He said that the army had not yet succeeded in entering the town, the scene in August of the single deadliest massacre of the 21-month conflict.
State television reported that the army had "destroyed a number of vehicles and cycle of violences used by terrorists" in Harasta and Daraya.
The Observatory said that the army mounted attacks on rebel positions near the borders with Turkey and Israel.
Air strikes struck the northern town of Tal Abyad near Turkey, the Britannia-based watchdog said, while shells fell on the villages of Bir Ajam and Al-Buraykah in the Syrian side of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
In the northwestern province of Idlib, four men were killed in air strikes on the village of Kfar Lateh, and warplanes also bombed Maaret al-Numan and the nearby village of Has, killing two men and leaving 15 others maimed.
In 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... province in the north, warplanes pounded the towns of Aazaz and Jarablus, and targeted rebel positions around the Meng military airport which is ringed by several battalions.
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[Al Ahram] The Maian transitional government in Bamako which still has control over Mali's southern half made a fresh appeal to the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... Security Council on December 5 for a 3,300-strong regional standby force to intervene.
UN chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... however gave a lukewarm response, arguing that a more detailed plan was needed for the Security Council to give its backing and that talks should be given a chance.
The UN's peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous and the world body's special envoy to the Sahel region ... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas... have both warned that any deployment was unlikely for another nine months.
Some Malians however -- be they government officials, military planners, fighters or simple residents of the impoverished desert north where Al Qaeda-linked groups are enforcing an extreme form of Islamic law -- are losing patience.
"In any case, at one point, the Malian army will have to do what it has to do. Preparations are already afoot for us to take our fate into our own hands," a high-ranking defence ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
That feeling is shared by some of the Malian troops on the ground, where the only fighting to have taken place in recent months was a few skirmishes between the Islamists and rival secular rebel groups.
"All we are waiting for are orders from the political echelon to march on the north," a Malian soldier said from his base in Sevare, a town near Mopti and just south of the dividing line.
Western powers Mali's north could become what Afghanistan was to Al-Qaeda before the 9/11 attacks but diplomats say Washington has been reluctant to throw its weight behind a fully-fledged African intervention.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, its offshoot the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) and Ansar Dine enjoyed a weapons bonanza after when Moamer Qadaffy scattered his arsenal across the region in his fall.
Mali's army is still licking its wounds after a March coup that, however short-lived and half-hearted, toppled the regime and left one of western Africa's most promising democracies in tatters.
While the military odds would seem to favour battle-hardened rebels who have reportedly been reinforced by hundreds of imported muscle, some people in Mali argue a unilateral offensive could spur the world into action.
"The liberation of the north is chiefly our own army's responsibility. Let the army launch operations and you'll see how the United Nations will change tack," said Lassana Traore, a young resident of Bamako's Magnambougou neighbourhood.
"Ban Ki-moon doesn't live on the same planet as us. When I hear that we should wait until September 2013 for anything to happen, that makes me sick," he said.
Residents of the north -- where Islamist fighters have flogged, amputated and sometimes executed sharia violators -- are even more eager to see an end to diplomatic palaver and a start to military operations.
"I am furious at the international community. I wonder if they understand the full extent of the people's suffering here," said Mohamed Toure, a resident of the city of Timbuktu, which is under the control of group called Ansar Dine (Defenders of Faith).
On Saturday, around 1,000 people marched through the streets of Bamako to demand swift international action.
"We cannot allow half of our country to remain in the hands of criminals. The international community must understand that and help Mali," said one of the demonstrators, student Hamadoun Diallo.
The authorities have launched a December 1-10 campaign aimed at enlisting 2,000 new recruits to fight in the north and more than 4,000 had already signed up by Saturday.
Armoured vehicles that Mali had bought under the ousted regime of Amadou Amani Toure and had been blocked in Guinea by regional bloc ECOWAS as a result of the coup were finally delivered in Bamako this month, to cheers from local residents.
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#1
"Ban Ki-moon doesn't live on the same planet as us. When I hear that we should wait until September 2013 for anything to happen, that makes me sick"
Obviously you have no respect for your betters, Mr. Traore. I suggest a four-year intensive program in international diplomacy at Harvard. You should have no problem applying, and scholarship loans are available.
[FOXNEWS] Rebel commanders from across Syria have joined forces under a united command they hope will increase coordination between diverse fighting groups and streamline the pathway for arms essential to their struggle against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... While many of the brigades involved in the fighting are decidedly Islamist in outlook and some have boasted about executing captured soldiers, two of the most extreme groups fighting in Syria were not invited to the rebel meeting in Turkey or included in the new council -- a move that could encourage Western support.
Disorganization has bedeviled Syria's rebel movement since its birth late last year, when some protesters gave up on peaceful means to bring down Assad's regime and took up arms, forming the base of what became the Free Syrian Army.
But the movement has never actually been an army. Scores of rebel groups battle Assad's forces across the country, many coordinating with no one outside of their own area. While some say they want a civil, democratic government, others advocate an Islamic state.
The new body, expected to be announced officially on Sunday, hopes to form the basis of a united rebel front.
Some 500 delegates elected the 30-person Supreme Military Council and a Chief of Staff on Friday and planned to meet soon with representatives from the opposition's newly reorganized politicianship, participants said.
"The aim of this meeting was to unify the armed opposition to bring down the regime," said a rebel commander from near Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... who attended the meeting. "It also aims to get the situation under control once the regime falls."
The move toward greater unity on the armed front comes as the U.S. and others try to strengthen the opposition's leadership while sidelining myrmidon factions that have become a vital part of the rebels' ground forces.
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#1
What's the betting the regime fakes a chemical attack against its own troops, then starts using chemicals against the rebels?
[Al Ahram] Egyptian authorities have enjugged Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! a suspected terror network ringleader whose operatives are believed to have carried out a deadly attack on a US mission in Libya, a report said Friday.
Muhammad Jamal Abu Ahmad -- a former member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Mohammedan Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the liquidation of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... , who was freed from prison in March 2011 following the ouster of Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... -- was captured in the past week, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed US officials.
When asked about the report, one US official confirmed to AFP that Ahmad were tossed into the calaboose, without providing further details.
US intelligence played a role in the detention, one official told the Journal. It was not immediately clear where or how the suspect -- who is thought to be about 45 years old -- was caught.
The US ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans were killed in the September 11 assault on the US mission in Benghazi.
Since his release from prison, Ahmad has been assembling a team of operatives, with training camps in Libya and Egypt, and he has received funding from Al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen, the Wall Street Journal said.
Egypt has yet to announce Ahmad's capture. US officials have not yet been able to question the suspect, the report said.
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[Al Ahram] Syria warned the United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... on Saturday that rebels may use chemical weapons after they gained control of a factory producing toxic chlorine east 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... city.
"Terrorist groups may resort to using chemical weapons against the Syrian people... after having gained control of a toxic chlorine factory," the foreign ministry said, adding that Syria would never use chemical weapons.
The statement may be referring to the Syrian-Saudi Chemicals Company (SYSACCO) factory near the town of Safira, which was taken over earlier this week by rebel fighters from the jihadist Al-Nusra Front.
This factory, which produces sodium hydroxide and hydrogen chloride, is in an agricultural area and has been the subject of numerous complaints from farmers for polluting the local water supply.
The ministry sent separate letters to the UN Security Council and UN Secretary General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... , reiterating that Syria would "not use chemical weapons under any circumstance, if they exist."
Syria "is defending its people against terrorism, which is supported by known countries, with the United States at the forefront," it added.
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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.
Hugo Chavez has named Nicolas Maduro, his vice president and a radical foreign minster, as his chosen successor after announcing he was heading to Cuba for treatment following the return of cancer. 
DERA ISMAIL KHAN: A US drone attack killed a senior al Qaeda commander in Pakistan's northwest on Sunday, military intelligence officials said, the second militant leader to be killed in strikes by the unmanned aircraft in three days. 
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will undergo another operation for cancer in Cuba, Xinhua reported.
U.S. citizen who was abducted by Taliban insurgents was rescued by U.S. forces in an operation in eastern Afghanistan early on Sunday, NATO-led forces said in a statement.
General Nasser Naji bin Farid, commander of military forces in central Yemen, was killed on Saturday in an ambush, army and tribal sources said, blaming Al-Qaeda.
President Asif Ali 
...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat...
[Dawn] The 
[Dawn] Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Saturday said that the days of manipulating the elections are now over.
Pervez 
[Al Ahram] Hundreds of Tunisians, most of them Islamists, rallied on Saturday in the capital to demand that cronies of ousted dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali be put in the dock on corruption charges.
The goals of Pak Americans in US politics may not align with those of Islamabad
[Commentary] Last year, the 
[Al Ahram] As he ends decades of exile, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal is expected to deliver a speech in which he will outline the priorities of the movement in the coming future, and the implementation of reconciliation with Fatah
The Muslim Brotherhood's 
North Korean leader 
[Dawn] London's Metropolitan Police has confirmed it raided the 
[Bangla Daily Star] The 
Khaleda Zia
[Al Ahram] Doha climate change conference approves an agreement that extends the live of Kyoto Protocol for a second period, the only binding pact on curbing Earth-warming greenhouse gas emissions
Imtiaz Alam challenges state
Nawaz Sharif
[Bangla Daily Star] South Korean megastar singer Psy, famed for his runaway hit "Gangnam Style", apologised yesterday for anti-American performances a decade ago, ahead of a planned show before US President Barack Obama.
[BBC.CO.UK] It was an unprecedented scene - a who's who of Hamas, lining up on the stage in Gaza City.
Hillary Clinton
[Al Ahram] Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal rejected on Saturday any territorial concession with Israel or recognition of the Jewish state. "Palestine is our land and nation from the (Mediterranean) sea to the (Jordan) river, from north to south, and we cannot cede an inch or any part of it," he said during a mass rally marking the 25th foundation of Hamas. "We cannot recognise the legitimacy of the occupation of Palestine or recognise Israel," who is on his first ever visit to Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas.
[Al Ahram] Spokesperson of the Armed Forces Ahmed Mohamed Ali stated Saturday that national dialogue is the best way to reach consensus for the good of the country, asserting that the army will not allow violence to continue.
At least seven companies from China, India, South Korea and South Africa continued to have investments in Iran's oil and gas sectors in 2012 even as Tehran came under international scrutiny for its nuclear ambitions, a U.S. government watchdog said on Friday, Reuters reported.
[Al Ahram] Egypt Prime Minister Hisham Qandil stated Saturday that he expects President Mohamed Morsi to issue a new constitutional declaration "within hours" to put an end to the ongoing political turmoil, with mass demos staged to protest a previous declaration and the draft constitution.
Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa
[Pak Daily Times] 
[Dawn] Pakistain on Saturday rejected 
[Al Ahram] The national dialogue between Egypt President Mohamed Morsi with public figures got underway Saturday with both side attempting to reach an agreement amid amplifying disputes over the draft constitution and Morsi's recent constitutional declaration, announced presidential spokesperson Yasser Ali.
[Dawn] Activists of the outlawed 
Wazoo
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
[Dawn] IN understanding how much damage can be done by failing to crack down on the wide dissemination of 
[Bangla Daily Star] Twenty-six judges of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate's Court have received threats through SMS for "not granting bails to leaders and activists of Islam".
The Egyptian government has nabbed a major terrorist tied to the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, according to the Wall Street Journal. And that terrorist has direct, longstanding ties to al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri
Zawahiri
[Dawn] Nine people, including three unidentified youths and two activists of the 
Egypt President Mohamed Morsi called off late on Saturday the controversial constitutional declaration that prompted violence and political turmoil the past few days.
[Al Ahram] Former parliamentarian Mohamed Abou Hamed filed a report Friday accusing President Mohamed Morsi, 
[Dawn] Neither the floods spared us nor did the landlords. They are telling us to pay for the expenses incurred on crop cultivation without realising the fact that the entire harvest has been destroyed in the floods. It wasn't our fault but God's will," protested a farmer waiting for his turn to receive a free ration bag in Khukharani Lara village of Jacobabad district.
[Dawn] Police in 
[Al Ahram] Syrian troops battled rebels near 
[Al Ahram] The Maian transitional government in Bamako which still has control over Mali's southern half made a fresh appeal to the 
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Al Ahram] Egyptian authorities have 
[Al Ahram] Syria warned the 
