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'Friends of Syria' Recognize Syrian Opposition
Today's Headlines
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
American ignorance of Islam results in confused Syria policy
Posted by: tipper || 12/13/2012 19:38 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


U.S. imposes sanctions on Iran's nuclear energy chief
The United States stepped up pressure on Iran on Thursday over its nuclear program, imposing sanctions on seven companies and five individuals, including Iran's atomic energy chief.

The U.S. Treasury Department said the action would bar those companies and individuals from doing business with U.S. firms or citizens, and freeze any assets they have in the United States.

Among those sanctioned is Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization and a survivor of an assassination attempt that Iranian officials have blamed on Israel. At least four scientists associated with Iran's nuclear program have been killed since 2010; Abbasi-Davani was wounded.

Iran has accused Israel and the United States of plotting the killings to set back its nuclear program. Washington has denied any U.S. role and Israel has declined to comment.

Foreign banks that handle transactions for the companies and individuals listed by the Treasury could also lose their access to the U.S. banking system under the U.S. sanctions regime.
Posted by: tipper || 12/13/2012 19:24 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Rice withdraws as candidate for secretary of state
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/13/2012 19:08 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Rice OUT, makes Kerry likely State pick
U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice's abrupt withdrawal from consideration for Secretary of State today is likely to trigger another round of political musical chairs in the Bay State, as President Obama appears likely to offer the post to Sen. John Kerry -- setting up another special election here.

"Bring. It. On," was the official tweet from the Massachusetts Democratic Party shortly after Rice sent a letter to Obama withdrawing her name from the running.

Kerry had long been considered the likely niminee to replace Secretary of State Hillary Clinton until Rice’s name was floated this fall. It is unclear whether the Obama administration might have any other candidates in mind. If Kerry is offered and accepts the Secretary of State post, it would prompt a special election within 160 days — clearing the way for another run from Sen. Scott Brown who lost to Sen. Elect Elizabeth Warren.

Brown hinted during his farewell speech yesterday that he may soon be back. Other possibilities for the special election include U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano, Attorney General Martha Coakley, and potentially former Gov. William Weld.

Gov. Deval Patrick is likely to make a temporary appointment during that time, and Beacon Hill insiders have indicated that the appointee might also be able to run for office.
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/13/2012 16:59 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, better at State than at the DOD. Not much better. But still better. Sort of.

So John Kerry walks into a bar, and the bartender asks, "So, why the long face?"

I'm here all week. Try the veal and don't forget to tip your waitress...
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 12/13/2012 17:27 Comments || Top||

#2  The picture of Kerry says everything.
Posted by: Lowspark || 12/13/2012 18:20 Comments || Top||

#3  Much as I suspect Susan Rice of having bad judgement and being too partisan, I find Kerry worse.

I'd like at least one Senator to read aloud some of those 'Dear Commandante" letters he wrote sucking up to Ortega (this while he was a Senator and not just a protestor).
Posted by: lord garth || 12/13/2012 18:20 Comments || Top||

#4  He'll make Hillary look like Thomas Jefferson. But if it finally gets him out of Mass, I'm in favor of it. Call me selfish...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/13/2012 18:54 Comments || Top||

#5  not even the "B" Movie team!
Posted by: Water Modem || 12/13/2012 19:36 Comments || Top||

#6  at least we KNOW he'll sell us out. Rice was a little smarter about it til she fell for the "Benghazi Talking Points™" scam
Posted by: Frank G || 12/13/2012 20:20 Comments || Top||

#7  The same Kerry of Winter Soldier? The Traitor of Paris? Sec State? A travesty.
Posted by: KBK || 12/13/2012 22:04 Comments || Top||

#8  so has he paid the taxes on his boat yet? is tax evasion a felony? Al Capone seems to think so ( or did until he woke up dead one day) so can a felon hold federal office? where's the LSM outrage on this?(L=Lame)
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 12/13/2012 22:45 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Venezuelan government says Hugo Chavez suffered complications from surgery, recovering
VenezuelaÂ’s government says President Hugo Chavez suffered complications during his cancer surgery in Cuba but is recovering.

Information Minister Ernesto Villegas says Chavez suffered “bleeding” that required, as he put it, “corrective measures.”

He said on Thursday that Chavez was recovering favorably two days after the operation.
Posted by: tipper || 12/13/2012 13:26 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hmmm, Nicked a vein?
OR, he's a deader, and we'll find out in a few weeks.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/13/2012 15:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Nah, they hadda sew his head back on.
Posted by: Bobby || 12/13/2012 15:27 Comments || Top||

#3  Cuban Health Care. The finest health care in the Western Hemisphere.
Danny Glover told me...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/13/2012 15:31 Comments || Top||

#4  The risk of sepsis increases exponentially as other complications develop.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/13/2012 17:11 Comments || Top||

#5  Pray for sepsis.
Posted by: gromky || 12/13/2012 18:03 Comments || Top||

#6  Complications arising from missing large parts of his anatomy?
Posted by: gorb || 12/13/2012 21:23 Comments || Top||

#7  Money on nicked vein. If he was deader they wouldn't waste any time replacing/turning Chavez into a Saint.
Posted by: Charles || 12/13/2012 22:22 Comments || Top||


US net imports of Venezuelan oil hit 30-year low
Not so long ago, Hugo Chávez, the leftist Venezuelan leader, almost every month would threaten the US that he would shut down his country’s oil exports. Each time, Washington took the threats seriously because of the importance of Caracas for US energy supplies.

Not any longer. The US dependence of Venezuelan net crude and oil products exports (including the US Virgin Islands, which largely refined Venezuelan crude to export into the US) has dropped to levels last seen nearly 30 years ago.

The sharp drop is due to three factors. Overall US oil imports are down on the back of the shale boom. In addition, the closure of a large refinery in the US Virgin Islands co-owned by PetrĂłleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa) has further reduced imports of Venezuelan-origin oil products. And more recently, Venezuela has started to import large amounts of US-made gasoline to offset a local shortage.

The reduction in US imports of Venezuelan-origin crude and oil products has been going on for the last five years. The new factor is the surge in US exports of oil products into Venezuela. In September, US refiners shipped a record of 196,000 b/d of gasoline and other oil products to Caracas.

The International Energy Agency, the western countriesÂ’ oil watchdog, associates the surge in US exports to outages in Amuay and El Palito refineries in Venezuela.

The Amuay plant, part of the 955,000 b/d giant Paraguana Refining Center – the world’s second largest after the Jamnagar refinery in India – suffered an explosion and fire in August that killed nearly 50 people and injured more than 150. Although Caracas has said several times the refinery is returning to full production, the surge in oil products from the US suggests the contrary.
Posted by: tipper || 12/13/2012 13:09 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  US refiners shipped a record of 196,000 b/d of gasoline and other oil products to Caracas.

To be sold at 2 cents per gallon. Now that friends, is a subsidy.

Posted by: Shipman || 12/13/2012 14:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Maybe next time we threaten to cut of oil sales to them.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 12/13/2012 17:22 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
All 3 TIME readers pick Kim Jong 'Suet Face' Person of the Year...
Kim Jong Un is having a good year. After taking over the leadership of North Korea from his late father Kim Jong Il, at the end of 2011, he's solidified his control over the country, appeared on TIME's cover and he was even named 'Sexiest Man Alive.' (OK, that honor was actually bestowed as a spoof in the satirical newspaper, The Onion, but a Chinese news service mistook the Onion piece for real news and the story went global.)
Happens all the time! People often mistake what TIME produces as actual news...
This doesn't mean Kim is TIME's Person of the Year. That choice is made by the editors of TIME and will be revealed Dec. 19 on the Today show, on TIME.com and via TIME's Twitter handle. The poll allows readers to weigh in on the people--and things (Hello, Curiosity Rover!)--whom they think influenced the news, for better or worse, in 2012.
But of course Pugsley didn't really influence any actual news outside of his little prison kingdom - but don't let that fact get in the way...
He may not be the editors' choice for the award but they'll certainly pay attention to what their readers think.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/13/2012 11:50 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Nobel Peace Prize is next?
Posted by: Mugsy Glink || 12/13/2012 13:07 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
The .01 Percenters - VDH
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 12/13/2012 11:46 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Harry Belafonte goes full banana! Wants Obama to jail opposition like Dictator.
Seems now that the second buggering has begun and the true colors of the various Obama Tyrant supporters are making their 'wishes' known. Harry "Is that my coke?" Belafonte wants Obama to toss in jail everyone who is in his way.

My aren't we special?

It's amusing how much these "Enlightened, Reality Based, caring and compassionate people want to lock up or murder anyone who doesn't agree. It's not the Right that has fantasies of enslaved nations obeying their Dear Leader.

Who knows, if he's brave enough to try this, then maybe some of the country will actually wake up.
HT - Moonbattery through gatewaypundit
Ahem, commenters: let's remember the special rule here at Rantburg that says that we shall write no death threats or hints of death threats against any American citizen, no matter how odious, stupid or evil (those are not mutually exclusive). Not aiming this at anyone, just a gentle reminder.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division || 12/13/2012 11:39 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I got an idea... how about we just shoot them instead? Much cheaper.

Fucking idiot. You are first on my list of people to launch into the sun, fucktwit.
Posted by: DarthVader || 12/13/2012 13:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Phfft. Let him try.

1. This regime can't afford it.

2. If they tried, who would be left to tax?

3. We have guns.
Posted by: Iblis || 12/13/2012 14:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Launching toward the sun is too expensive. Harry is'nt worth it.

Besides - it'll be a shame to have those crosspieces on all those lampposts go to waste.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/13/2012 14:48 Comments || Top||

#4  Harry's just bitter from all those years he spent in the Bush Concentration Camps.
Oh, wait...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/13/2012 15:35 Comments || Top||

#5  Got FEMA all set to open the gulags.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 12/13/2012 16:09 Comments || Top||

#6  Make my day. You can take some people out of the third world, but you can't take the third world out of some people. Squirel-shot is cheaper than deportation back to their grass huts, their call.
Posted by: wr || 12/13/2012 17:07 Comments || Top||

#7  Time to retire ol Harry to the Banana Boat. He is a frickin nitwit. If he had any power, he would be dangerous.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/13/2012 17:46 Comments || Top||

#8  Got FEMA all set to open the gulags.
Already done EU
Posted by: tipper || 12/13/2012 19:08 Comments || Top||

#9  Has Harry done ANYTHING besides the Banana Boat Song - in 1957?
Posted by: Tarzan Speaking for Boskone1097 || 12/13/2012 20:44 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Japan scrambles fighter jets after Chinese plane seen near disputed islands
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 12/13/2012 11:32 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
NY Times notices that the Egyptian Brotherhood has brownshirts
CAIRO -- Islamist supporters of President Mohamed Morsi captured, detained and beat dozens of his political opponents last week, holding them for hours with their hands bound on the pavement outside the presidential palace while pressuring them to confess that they had accepted money to use violence in protests against him. Yehia Negm, a former diplomat, was detained and beaten. "It was torment for us," said Yehia Negm, 42, a former diplomat with a badly bruised face and rope marks on his wrists. He said he was among a group of about 50, including four minors, who were held on the pavement overnight. In front of cameras, "they accused me of being a traitor, or conspiring against the country, of being paid to carry weapons and set fires," he said in an interview. "I thought I would die."
However, the NYTimes still refuses to acknowledge brownshirt violence of the Occupy movement or big labor.
Posted by: lord garth || 12/13/2012 11:05 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Proposed CA Law Would Grant Homeless the Right to Urinate on Sidewalks
The measure would also protect:

-- Sleeping in public spaces such as sidewalks and parks

-- 24/7 access to bathrooms, showers, water and clean syringes

-- Car camping on city streets without restrictions

-- "Life sustaining activities" such as urinating and collecting recycling trash

-- Welfare cash payments

-- Meditating or praying in public

-- Panhandling

-- Payment for possessions seized in a roust

-- Right to refuse the offer of a homeless shelter

-- Right to a lawyer in most encounters with the law
Too lazy to get a job? Drunk? Stoned outta your mind? Come to California! The weather's fine. You can pitch a tent in the bushes or, if that's too challenging, you can sleep on the sidewalk. You can pee on the sidewalk. Hell, you can take a dump on the sidewalk. You can get an EBT card for your food and we got Medicaid if you need a doctor. If you need money for drugs you can panhandle and the cops won't hassle you for it.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 12/13/2012 10:59 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Terror Networks
Terrorism For Dummies
Posted by: tipper || 12/13/2012 10:31 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
IDF, Palestinians clash following teen's funeral
Clashes broke out in Hebron on Thursday ahead of the funeral of Muhammad al-Salaymeh, the Palestinian teenager killed by a Border Policewoman on Wednesday after she mistook his fake gun for a real firearm.

Army Radio reported that some 50 Palestinians threw stones at an IDF post in the city and the soldiers responded with dispersal methods.

Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported that IDF soldiers fired tear gas directly at Palestinians, injuring five, who were then evacuated to the hospital.

Security forces were placed on heightened alert in Hebron ahead of the funeral of the 17-year-old Palestinian who pulled out a fake gun and allegedly threatened an officer near the Cave of the Patriarchs.

Following the incident, dozens of Palestinians reportedly clashed with IDF troops, throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at the soldiers.

It has been widely reported that his brother is Awad Salima Ziyad Awad, who was arrested on December 17th 1993 and convicted of murder during a hostile act, attempted murder, throwing a Molotov cocktail, and membership in a banned organization. Awad was released in October 2011 in the first phase of the Schalit Deal.

Border police on Wednesday said that al-Salaymeh had raised the suspicion of the officers, and when they asked him for his identification card "he pulled out a gun and pointed it at the head of one of the soldiers."

A Border Police officer at the checkpoint saw what took place, fired at the youngster and critically wounded him. Later, a police sapper determined that the gun was a toy pistol made of metal.
Posted by: tipper || 12/13/2012 10:14 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria government 'losing control' - Russian official
A Russian official has said for the first time that the Syrian government may be defeated by opposition forces.

President Bashar al-Assad's forces are "losing more and more control and territory", deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov said on Thursday.

Russia was also making plans for a possible evacuation of thousands of its citizens in Syria, Mr Bogdanov said.

Russia has been one of the staunchest international allies of Mr Assad's government.

"Unfortunately, we cannot rule out the victory of the Syrian opposition," Mr Bogdanov said.

Russia, along with China, has used its veto at the UN Security Council to block resolutions condemning the Syrian government's use of violence.

Later on Thursday, Nato's Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the organisation believed the Syrian government was approaching collapse.
'Unacceptable price'

Mr Bogdanov repeated Russia's call for dialogue between the two sides, predicting that the fighting would grow more intense.

These comments are significant. Russia has been a firm supporter of President Assad, providing the Syrian government with political and military support; it has also protected the Syrian leader at the UN, by vetoing Security Council resolutions that would have increased the pressure on the Syrian president.

Now, for the first time, the Russians have publicly conceded that their ally faces possible defeat. Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said it was time to "face facts" and admit that the victory of the Syrian opposition "could not be ruled out".

Moscow's critics will argue that Russia has been too slow to "face facts"; if President Assad is ousted, the Russians may struggle to retain influence in the region.

He said tens, possibly hundreds of thousands of people would be killed if that happened.
Posted by: tipper || 12/13/2012 09:12 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Russia shouldn't worry too much about losing influence in the region- the work of propping up tyranny will go on and on.
Posted by: Grunter || 12/13/2012 9:46 Comments || Top||

#2  They'll be able to recoup their losses by selling weapons into the intramurals after Assad falls.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 12/13/2012 12:07 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
U.S. Terrorism Agency to Tap a Vast Database of Citizens
Hat tip Instapundit. Long piece from the Wall Street Journal so just a few paragraphs here. Imagine if a Republican administration were proposing this: the NYT and WaPo would already be awarding themselves Pulitzer prizes. This is very simply a serious erosion of civil liberties.
Top U.S. intelligence officials gathered in the White House Situation Room in March to debate a controversial proposal. Counterterrorism officials wanted to create a government dragnet, sweeping up millions of records about U.S. citizens--even people suspected of no crime.

Not everyone was on board. "This is a sea change in the way that the government interacts with the general public," Mary Ellen Callahan, chief privacy officer of the Department of Homeland Security, argued in the meeting, according to people familiar with the discussions.

A week later, the attorney general signed the changes into effect.
Anything to enhance the revolution, comrades...
Through Freedom of Information Act requests and interviews with officials at numerous agencies, The Wall Street Journal has reconstructed the clash over the counterterrorism program within the administration of President Barack Obama. The debate was a confrontation between some who viewed it as a matter of efficiency--how long to keep data, for instance, or where it should be stored--and others who saw it as granting authority for unprecedented government surveillance of U.S. citizens.

The rules now allow the little-known National Counterterrorism Center to examine the government files of U.S. citizens for possible criminal behavior, even if there is no reason to suspect them. That is a departure from past practice, which barred the agency from storing information about ordinary Americans unless a person was a terror suspect or related to an investigation.

Now, NCTC can copy entire government databases--flight records, casino-employee lists, the names of Americans hosting foreign-exchange students and many others. The agency has new authority to keep data about innocent U.S. citizens for up to five years, and to analyze it for suspicious patterns of behavior. Previously, both were prohibited. Data about Americans "reasonably believed to constitute terrorism information" may be
Posted by: Steve White || 12/13/2012 09:09 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Lovely little country we're becoming. Although to be fair, Dems and Pubs both have a blue vein boner for policies like this. What is it about the ruling class that makes them crave control over people's private lives? Is it mental disease?
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 12/13/2012 9:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Info war turned against our own citizens.
When people invented computers and the internet - little did they know it would lead to a future of digital slavery.
Posted by: Raider || 12/13/2012 16:11 Comments || Top||

#3  Everyone in the U.S. should change their name to John Galt. That would mess with their information system.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/13/2012 17:38 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian coalition opposes US decision on Nusra
SyriaÂ’s opposition leader, Moaz al-Khatib, called on the US on Wednesday to reconsider its decision to designate an extremist rebel group as a terrorist organisation, as more than 100 countries meeting in Morocco recognised his coalition as the legitimate representative of Syrians.

The Syrian National Coalition, the newly formed group that has sought to unite rebel forces, received a significant diplomatic boost at the Friends of Syria conference in Marrakesh, increasing the isolation of the regime of Bashar al-Assad and its supporters in Russia and China.

Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, said: “Today we are saying there is an alternative [to the regime].”

Speaking in Marrakesh, Mr al-Khatib, head of the SNC, welcomed WashingtonÂ’s recognition of his group but acknowledged the oppositionÂ’s differences with the Obama administration, particularly over the blacklisting of Jabhat al-Nusra, the extremist group, as an affiliate of al-Qaeda.

The moderate preacher, chosen as president of the SNC last month, expressed his rejection of extremist ideology but said the fact that religion motivated Syrians to fight against oppression was nothing to be ashamed of.

His attempt to distance the coalition from the US, while at the same time seeking American support, underlined the oppositionÂ’s difficulties in satisfying its increasingly Islamist and radicalised domestic audience as well as its western partners.

His words appeared aimed at Syrian rebel groups, many of whom were infuriated by the US move against al-Nusra and the perception that Washington has done little to help them in their cause.

Opposition officials say that groups such as al-Nusra, which include foreign jihadis, were welcomed into rebel ranks because of their military expertise and sources of funding, and at a time when appeals for foreign military intervention were ignored.

The Friends of Syria meeting brought together many western and Arab delegations opposed to the Assad regime in an unprecedented show of political support for the opposition. The SNC formed a military council last week in an attempt to unite most of the rebel factions on the ground.

The final communiqué said the countries present, which included western and Arab states but not Russia and China, recognised the coalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people and warned that the use of chemical or biological weapons would draw a serious response from the international community. Participants also recognised the “legitimate need for the Syrian people to defend themselves against the violent and brutal campaign of the Assad regime”.
Posted by: tipper || 12/13/2012 08:27 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan
Obama's deceitful military handbook on Islam exposed
Posted by: tipper || 12/13/2012 08:13 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  How has appeasement worked out in the past?
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/13/2012 17:52 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
BREAKING: First reports of big explosion in Gaza's Philadelphi corridor
Posted at Rantburg at 4:41 Eastern Time
[Debkafile] A loud explosion was heard Thursday morning from the Philadelphi corridor linking the Gaza Strip to Sinai. A large plume of smoke was seen from the Israeli side of the Kerem Shalom border crossing. No further details as yet.
Red wire-green wire problem?
Butter-fingered Abdul dropped a detonator in a tunnel?
Mahmoud the Weasel phoned in another tip?
Posted by: || 12/13/2012 04:38 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  nothing on JPost, Haaretz,, Ynet

possible in situ ordinance disposal
Posted by: lord garth || 12/13/2012 8:58 Comments || Top||

#2  Obviously it was the Juices blowing up another orphanage/fluffy ducky farm.
/sarcasm
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 12/13/2012 9:12 Comments || Top||

#3  Normally it is Vick attempting a 12 yard post route.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 12/13/2012 11:10 Comments || Top||

#4  I haven't seen anything else on it anywhere, so it looks like another Debka "scoop"...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/13/2012 12:17 Comments || Top||


Arabia
More Active, Less Lethal, Still Fictional
Terrorist attacks have been increasing every year since the 1990s, and especially since September 11, 2001. All this goes back to the early 1970s, when OPEC (the Arab dominated oil cartel) was formed and the price of oil more than doubled. Most of the new cash went to Saudi Arabia and a lot of it was donated to Islamic charities. These groups, and the Saudi government, then sent money (to build mosques and religious schools) and missionaries to Moslem countries to spread the very conservative brand of Saudi Sunni Islam. This and the Iranian revolution of 1979 (that created a Shia Moslem religious dictatorship in Iran during the 1980s) are the cause of most of the subsequent increase in Islamic terrorism. The Islamic radicals were inspired, and able to network, in Pakistan during the 1980s, where the Saudis supplied billions of dollars for weapons and other supplies to support Afghan tribesmen fighting Russians in Afghanistan. Thousands of Islamic radicals from all over the world went to Pakistan to help out. Moslems pitched this as a jihad and a victory, despite the fact that the Russians left more because of economic collapse in the Soviet Union than anything else. But Islam has always thrived on fictional victories and that continues.
Posted by: tipper || 12/13/2012 03:18 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
New Muslim Brotherhood Leader of Syrian Opposition Stands Up for Al Qaeda
In other news the UK is pressuring the US to act as the air force of the Free Syrian Army Al Qaeda. Sheikh Mouaz Alkhatib was supposed to be the face of the new “moderate” Syrian opposition, no longer associated with Islamists.

The first hint that this wasnÂ’t going to work out was that the entire conference was held in Doha under Qatari supervision. Even the Obama Administration has slowly admitted that Qatar was funneling weapons to Al Qaeda. So why give Qatar control over a conference meant to break the Syrian opposition from Al Qaeda? That question answers itself.

When Sheikh Mouaz Alkhatib was chosen to head the newly legitimate and US recognized Syrian opposition, he was repeatedly hailed as a moderate. Being hailed as a moderate Islamist by the media usually means that youÂ’re a violent bigot who wants to kill everyone who isnÂ’t a Salafi and to no surprise, Sheikh Mouaz Alkhatib was that kind of moderate Islamist.

Khatib’s website features numerous instances of anti-Semitic rhetoric. In one of his own articles, he writes that one of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s positive legacies was “terrifying the Jews.” He has also published others’ anti-Semitic observations on his site: In one article, written by Abdul Salam Basiouni, Jews are described as “gold worshipers.” Finally, in an obituary of a Gaza sheikh copied from IslamSyria, Jews are dubbed “the enemies of God.”

While Khatib used his post-election speech to call for equal rights for “all parts of the harmonious Syrian people,” his previous rhetoric toward his country’s minorities has been nothing short of virulent. One of his articles describes Shiite using the slur rawafid, or “rejectionists”; he even goes further, criticizing Shiites’ ability to “establish lies and follow them.”

Calling the Shiite rafawid is a fancy way of saying that they can be killed and their mosques can be burned. But according to every mainstream media outlet, Sheikh Mouaz Alkhatib is moderate. The BBC and the Guardian and the New York Times and the Washington Post say so.

The troika of Obama, Cameron and Hollande have elevated Khatib as their Moderate-in-Chief of the Syrian opposition while listing the Al-Nusra Front, an outlet of Al Qaeda, which with Qatari and Turkish help appears to be winning the war, as a terrorist group.
Posted by: tipper || 12/13/2012 02:58 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Because, it takes one to know one.
Posted by: newc || 12/13/2012 12:25 Comments || Top||


Economy
Federal Reserve sets new targets for interest rates
The US Federal Reserve has said it plans to keep interest rates at close to zero at least until the US unemployment rate falls below 6.5%.

The Fed previously had a date-driven target, rather than a data-driven one.

The Fed also said it will continue to buy $85bn (ÂŁ53bn) a month of government bonds and mortgage-backed securities to try to boost the economy.

But changes in the way it does this will mean more money is pumped into the economy.

"The committee remains concerned that, without sufficient policy accommodation, economic growth might not be strong enough to generate sustained improvement in labour market conditions," the Fed said in a statement.

US stocks rose after the announcement. The Dow Jones, which had been little changed before the statement, jumped 70 points to 13,318.
Numerical thresholds

Interest rates in the US have been close to zero for several years now, and the Fed again kept them at below 0.25%.

But in a surprise move, the Fed adopted numerical thresholds for future interest rate policy, something which had not been expected until next year. It said that it expects to keep rates at this exceptionally low range as long as:

the unemployment rate remains above 6.5%
inflation between one and two years ahead is projected to be no more than a half percentage point above the committee's 2% longer-run goal
longer term inflation expectations continue to be well anchored

The Fed had previously said it expected to maintain rates at their current level until 2015.
Meanwhile back in the real world:
First Hong Kong, Now Aussie Central Bank Gets Ugly Case Of Truthiness

"Central banks can provide liquidity to shore up financial stability and they can buy time for borrowers to adjust, but they cannot, in the end, put government finances on a sustainable course... They can't shield people from the implications of having mis-assessed their own lifetime budget constraints and therefore having consumed too much."

Posted by: tipper || 12/13/2012 02:34 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The federal Mirror reserve said that without more mirror bending, Americans would continue to appear to be fat.
It announced plans to double the curvature of mirrors in order to keep Americans thin and healthy.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/13/2012 6:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Keep printing money until all existing savings are effectively confiscated. Then what?
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/13/2012 9:14 Comments || Top||

#3  Then what?

Confiscate private homes and businesses. Those magic checks for the welfare recipients and public employees and grant recipients and rent seekers still have to be sent out, doncha know? Gotta fund 'em somehow. If they won't give these up willingly, just send the Lansing union guys to make sure they give them up.
Posted by: no mo uro || 12/13/2012 9:38 Comments || Top||

#4  If the interest rates had been allowed to rise to the actual cost of borrowing money ten years ago the housing bubble would have been mitigated to one extent or another. And we wouldn't be in nearly the mess we are in.

Interest rates need to go to at least seven or eight percent to cleanse the filth out of our economy. It will happen quickly and be over quickly. Better to rip a bandaid off then pull it off slowly.

I forget who said it first but the problem right now in America isn't that the wealthy and successful have it too easy but that those who have failed to thrive in the private sector aren't allowed to fail.

At some point I really think that if you are a lazy, low skill loser you really have been given enough government forbearance.
Posted by: no mo uro || 12/13/2012 9:45 Comments || Top||

#5  So next year we'll have

7.5% unemployment
M1 increasing at 10% year over year
2% inflation
3.3% mortgage 30 yr rate
25% of GDP as federal taxes and fees
approaching $1 Trillion in student debt

and Obama still being worshipped as a hope and change savior

45% of GDP as federal expenditures
Posted by: lord garth || 12/13/2012 11:04 Comments || Top||

#6  25% of GDP as federal taxes and fees
45% of GDP as federal expenditures
Therefore
Real GDP is ~80% of the current value.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/13/2012 11:40 Comments || Top||

#7  "At some point I really think that if you are a lazy, low skill loser you really have been given enough government forbearance."

If you're a lazy, low-skill loser, you're due NO forbearance, as far as I'm concerned, no mo.

If the clowns in the gummint want to give to support the losers, they should have to use their own money. How much "forbearance" do you think there'd be then? >:-(
Posted by: Barbara || 12/13/2012 13:18 Comments || Top||

#8  I'm with you, Barbara.

My post was an attempt at a play on words with Champ's comment about, "...at some point you've made enough money".

Posted by: no mo uro || 12/13/2012 16:35 Comments || Top||

#9  Barbara I disagree. Somehow the lazy, no-skill, losers must be embraced by our society and allowed to work for their livelihood and dignity.

Right now, with licensing rules for mani-pedi providers, cab drivers, bikini-waxers, and nutrition-advisers, minimum wage laws and mandatory unemployment and health insurance, these sorts of people cannot get any employment whatsoever.

Shall we let them die from exposure and hunger?

That is the Minnesota way, but the weather doesn't cooperate in California or Florida quite the same.

Let's find ways to permit the least able American to survive today, and hope for a better tomorrow.
Posted by: rammer || 12/13/2012 21:14 Comments || Top||

#10  "Somehow the lazy, no-skill, losers must be embraced by our society and allowed to work for their livelihood and dignity."

I'd love it if they worked, rammer. I'm just tired of the legions who think I'm supposed to work to support them.

I agree we're far too over-regulated, both locally and nationally.
Posted by: Barbara || 12/13/2012 21:49 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraq attacks kill seven, inmate detonates explosives
[Al Ahram] Shootings and bombings killed six Iraqi security forces members and an academic on Wednesday, while an inmate detonated explosives in a Storied Baghdad
...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
prison in an attempted suicide kaboom, officials said.
Gunmen killed four police near Fallujah,
... the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called Center of Prosperity or a really nice place to raise your kids...
west of Storied Baghdad, a police captain and a medical source said, while gunnies in Mahmudiyah, south of the capital, shot intelligence service Captain Muntasser Abdul Rizzaq, according to an interior ministry official.

A doctor said Rizzaq later died in Mahmudiyah Hospital.

Gunmen armed with silenced weapons killed a policeman at a checkpoint east of djinn-infested Mosul in north Iraq, a police officer and a doctor said.

And a magnetic "sticky bomb" killed a department head in the College of Agriculture on the Tikrit University campus, a police lieutenant colonel and a doctor said.

The interior ministry official also said that an inmate belonging to Al-Qaeda went kaboom! in the prison in central Storied Baghdad, wounding three guards and a fellow prisoner.

"The prisoner was able to gather the explosives over a number of days" and apparently formed them into an boom belt, the official said, without providing details on the source of the explosives.

A police officer confirmed that the bomber survived the blast and was taken to Al-Kindi hospital.

Justice ministry front man Haidar al-Saadi said in an emailed statement that the bomber, named as Ahmed Majid Hamid al-Shammari, had been sentenced to death under Iraq's anti-terrorism law, and that he used fuel from cigarette lighters in the attack.

The bombing came a day after prisoners were allowed family visits, Saadi said, without specifying if Shammari's family had visited him, or if it was suspected that materials used in the attack had been smuggled in that way.

Prisons in Iraq are periodically hit by escape attempts, uprisings and other unrest.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq


Southeast Asia
Philippine-MILF peace talks resume
Posted by: ryuge || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Revolution time again for Egypt?
That could be fun...
[JPost] Far from abating, mass demonstrations against Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and the regime of the Moslem BrĂĽderbund are intensifying to the extent that there is now real potential for a new revolution.

Though the president was elected through free elections, every day he loses a bit more of his legitimacy.

He is confronted today by a large coalition of non-Islamist parties belonging to all opposition forces. The Left, the Nasserists and the Liberals are now coordinating their action through a common National Salvation Front headed by former UN nuclear watchdog head 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.
, assisted by a number of important leaders such as former MP Hamdeen Sabahi and former Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
head 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 ...
This week, in a new and major blow for the regime, nongovernmental media joined the fray: Independent newspapers, papers belonging to political parties and a number of television channels are now openly opposing the president.

Several presidential assistants resigned.

This is no longer a transient phenomenon that Morsi -- who is well aware of the fact that he received barely 25 percent of the vote in the first round of the presidential election -- can afford to ignore. He is facing a massive popular uprising very similar to what happened in the first days of the revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
two years ago.

In fact, this week, by having his government issue a decree calling on the army to help police and security forces ensure the protection of the referendum on the constitution, Morsi essentially admitted that he had lost his legitimacy and had to rely on the army to keep his seat and implement his program. To that end, the army was tasked with protecting civil institutions and granted extraordinary powers, such as the right to arrest civilians and bring them to justice.

In theory, those powers are limited in time and will expire with the conclusion of the referendum and the publication of the results. Nevertheless, this is a return to the infamous emergency laws of the previous regime that were canceled by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. By letting the army intervene in internal affairs, the regime is acknowledging that it is no longer in control and cannot rely on the civilian institutions in charge of keeping law and order -- such as the police, security forces and judiciary.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  True democracy is not that far removed from mob rule. Meanwhile, how are those tourist visas going, guys?
Posted by: Bobby || 12/13/2012 8:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Is that the camel he rode in on?
Posted by: Spot || 12/13/2012 8:04 Comments || Top||

#3  They seem determined to ruin another tourist season
Posted by: European Conservative || 12/13/2012 8:40 Comments || Top||

#4  A new revolution? They've hardly chewed the flavor out of the last one.

Meanwhile, I'm off to find backers for my new musical, "Springtime for Morsi".
Posted by: SteveS || 12/13/2012 10:45 Comments || Top||

#5  A new revolution? Is it Friday already?
Posted by: Barbara || 12/13/2012 13:10 Comments || Top||


-Obits-
Ravi Shankar passes away
[Bangla Daily Star] Indian iconic sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar, who led worldwide spread of Indian music, died early yesterday in San Diego of United States.

He was 92.

Shankar, who was unwell for the last several years, underwent a surgery on December 7 at the Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, California where he breathed his last.

The composer was admitted to the hospital last week following complaints of breathlessness.

"It is with heavy hearts we write to inform you that Pandit Ravi Shankar, husband, father, and musical soul, passed away today," the sitar maestro's wife and daughter, Sukanya and Anoushka Shankar Wright, said in a joint statement yesterday.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh paid rich tributes to Shankar, saying the "unsurpassable genius" was the country's one of the "most effective cultural ambassadors across the world".

"An era has passed away with Pandit Ravi Shankar. The nation joins me to pay tributes to his unsurpassable genius, his art and his humility," Manmohan said.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A YouTube video from 1997
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/13/2012 5:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Saw him at a concert about 35 years ago with the future wife. He was playing up until recently. I was surprised to know Nora Jones was his daughter.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/13/2012 17:56 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Governor Says Pa. Won't Set Up Health Exchange
"They're falling like dominoes, sir! Whatever will we do?"
"Build a wall around the remaining states to keep them in line. We shall call it.... the Obamacare Wall. It'll do nicely to advertise the next round of shovel-ready stimulus. And Boner won't be able to stop it. Bwahahahah!"
[Hosted.AP.org] Pennsylvania will not set up its own health care exchange under the federal Affordable Care Act, at least not for now, Gov. Tom Corbett said Wednesday, putting the state on a course to join others led by Republicans that will let President Barack Obama
The Cambridge police acted stupidly...
's administration run its exchange.

Setting up a state-based exchange would be irresponsible, Corbett said, as he faulted federal authorities for what he called inadequate answers to his questions about cost and other issues.

"Health care reform is too important to be achieved through haphazard planning," Corbett said. "Pennsylvania taxpayers and businesses deserve more. They deserve informed decision making and a strong plan that responsibly uses taxpayer dollars."

The Corbett administration also is rejecting the option of running the exchange as a partnership with the federal government, spokeswoman Christine Cronkright said. But she also noted that the administration has the ability under the law to re-evaluate every year whether to get involved.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  My bet is the Feds will set up an 'exchange' for the states that do not, and force it on them; makes no difference whether that is in the law or not.
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/13/2012 9:12 Comments || Top||

#2  Obama will just issue an executive order to fix the problem. Who needs Congress when you can rule by decree?
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 12/13/2012 9:27 Comments || Top||

#3  We shall call it.... the Obamacare Wall.

I guess the Maginot Line was already taken.
Posted by: SteveS || 12/13/2012 10:55 Comments || Top||

#4  In the short term, good for PA!

In the long term, the law is designed to fail. When it does the Feds will rush and 'save' it by nationalizing health care. That was the plan all along. Anything that speeds up the failure is just fine by Reid/Pelosi/Champ.
Posted by: Iblis || 12/13/2012 17:10 Comments || Top||

#5  And we know how easily the Maginot Line was defeated, Steve. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara || 12/13/2012 19:47 Comments || Top||

#6  According to CNBC, only 15 states have chosen to set up exchanges.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/13/2012 20:59 Comments || Top||

#7  that leaves...umm...carry the two...42 left?
Posted by: Frank G || 12/13/2012 22:13 Comments || Top||

#8  Oh, at least...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/13/2012 22:27 Comments || Top||


Europe
U.N. Court Sentences Srebrenica Commander to Life for Genocide
[An Nahar] The U.N.'s Yugoslav war crimes court found Bosnian Serb general Zdravko Tolimir guilty of genocide for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, Europe's worst atrocity since World War II, and sentenced him to life in jail.

"The majority of the court finds you guilty" of crimes including genocide, judge Christoph Flugge told the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

"Zdravko Tolimir, you are hereby sentenced to life imprisonment," the judge then told the gaunt former commander Wednesday, who crossed himself three times before the verdict was handed down.

After the sentencing, commotion ensued when members of a Srebrenica victims' organization confronted Tolimir's relatives outside the courtroom, screaming: "May God let you cry -- I have never found my youngest child."

The majority of the court's judges agreed with prosecutors who had asked for a life sentence, saying Tolimir, now 64, was involved in "massive" crimes committed at the Srebrenica and Zepa enclaves in July 1995.

They said they were "of a massive scale, severe in (their) intensity and devastating in (their) effect."
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  how long is that in the UN? 10 years?
Posted by: Frank G || 12/13/2012 21:15 Comments || Top||

#2  More like 10 minutes, Frank. :-(
Posted by: Barbara || 12/13/2012 21:50 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Xi Travels to China's Guangdong Echoing Deng Visit in 1992
[Bloomberg] Xi Jinping visited Guangdong province in his first trip since taking over as head of China's Communist Party, drawing parallels to a 1992 tour by paramount leader Deng Xiaoping that spurred economic opening.

The visit included stopping Dec. 8 at a statue of Deng built in the city of Shenzhen to commemorate the late leader's visit two decades earlier, according to footage broadcast by Phoenix Television. Xi was shown telling members of his entourage, which Phoenix said included retired officials who had accompanied Deng on his trip, that China's reforms were correct and must continue.

Xi, 59, who succeeded Hu Jintao as the Communist Party's general secretary last month, confronts economic growth this year forecast to be the lowest since 1999. The trip may signal that his tenure will follow that of Deng, whose 1992 visit to Guangdong was credited with helping rekindle China's push to overhaul its economy after growth plummeted following the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Commies


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Khatib Urges U.S. to Reconsider Al-Nusra Blacklisting
[An Nahar] The opposition National Coalition, newly recognized by Washington as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people, on Wednesday urged the U.S. to review its blacklisting of the jihadist Al-Nusra Front.

"The decision to blacklist one of the groups fighting the regime as a terrorist organization must be re-examined," the bloc's leader, Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, said at a meeting in Morocco of the Friends of Syria group that includes the United States.

"We can have ideological and political differences with certain parties, but the revolutionaries all share the same goal: to overthrow the criminal regime" of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Despoiler of Deraa...
On Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama
Why can't I just eat my waffle?...
recognized the National Coalition as the legitimate representative of the nation's people. It also blacklisted as a terrorist group the al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front, which U.S. officials fear seeks to hijack the revolution.

Khatib's comments came after strong criticism of the U.S. move by a key mainstream rebel commander on the ground and by the influential Moslem BrĂĽderbund, which is an important component of the opposition coalition.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra


Africa North
Benghazi Bomb Wounds Four Policemen
[An Nahar] Four Libyan coppers were maimed on Wednesday when a bomb went kaboom! in front of their station in the eastern city of Benghazi, security sources said.

"The blast coincided with a traffic police vehicle passing in front of Al-Fwihet station," police officer Adel Jibril told Agence La Belle France Presse.

"Two traffic coppers inside the vehicle were seriously maimed," along with two coppers who were posted outside the station, he added.

Jibril said preliminary investigations suggested the blast was caused by a suitcase full of explosives.

"We still do not know if the bomb was placed in front of the station or in the car," he continued.

Another officer, Ezzedin al-Fazzani, said the car was "completely wrecked" by the kaboom, which left a large crater in front of the station and partly damaged the building's facade.

Security forces deployed to the scene to secure the perimeter and scan the area for any other explosives, an AFP journalist at the scene said.

Benghazi, cradle of the 2011 revolt that toppled veteran strongman Muammar Qadaffy
...a reminder that a single man with an idea can change an entire nation, usually for the worse...
, has recently witnessed several kabooms and a wave of attacks targeting coppers and military officers.

The new authorities, who are struggling to rebuild the national army and form a professional police, have failed to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Bangladesh
Hartal from 6am to 2pm today
[Bangla Daily Star] The BNP-led 18-party opposition alliance is enforcing an eight-hour countrywide hartal
... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ...
from 6:00am today protesting against the arrest of BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and demanding restoration of the caretaker government system.

The BNP and its allies yesterday staged demonstrations in all municipalities, upazilas, and districts across the country and urged people to make today's hartal a success.

The main opposition also warned the ruling party leaders of "public curfew", and said it should not be long when the ministers would not be able to go outside their homes.

"People will siege the houses of ministers and ruling party leaders," said Tariqul Islam, coordinator of the opposition's agitation programmes, at a press briefing in BNP central office in the capital's Nayapaltan area.

He also claimed that the government had filed the case against Fakhrul using fake signature of a city corporation driver, who was on leave during Tuesday's hartal.

At least eight vehicles were set ablaze in the capital last night ahead of today's hartal. One of the vehicles was a bus that used to ferry coppers. It was torched at Bangla Motor intersection. Several homemade bombs also went off in Dhaka last night.

Home Minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir has meanwhile vowed to resist the shutdown.

"Those who are enforcing hartal and blockade are the nation's enemy. Khaleda Zia
Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ...
and her allies are doing these only to protect the war criminals," said the home minister while addressing a programme on Bangabandhu Avenue yesterday.

Meanwhile,
...back at the alley, Slats went for his rosco...
the Thakurgaon district BNP yesterday enforced a six-hour hartal demanding release of Mirza Fakhrul, who was tossed in the calaboose
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
on Monday and sent to Kashimpur jail yesterday. Local units of the party also brought out processions in many districts protesting the arrest.

In Barisal, at least 30 people including an assistant police commissioner and five cops were maimed in a clash between police and pro-hartal activists yesterday around 4:30pm, reports our correspondent.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israeli Border Guards Kill Palestinian in West Bank
[An Nahar] Israeli border guards rubbed out on Wednesday a Paleostinian teenager armed with a pistol in the West Bank city of Hebron, sparking stone-throwing attacks on troops in the area, police and witnesses said.

"A Paleostinian brandished a pistol as he approached a post of border guards, who opened fire and killed him," a police spokeswoman said.

Paleostinian sources named the gunman as Mohammed Ziad Salaima, aged 16, and witnesses said that Paleostinians began throwing stones at Israeli troops in the area following his death.

On Monday, Israeli troops killed a Paleostinian who wielded an axe following a traffic accident in the northern West Bank, police said.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority

#1  "brandished" a weapon?
"This ain't a 7-11, punk".


*bangety bang bang..........bang*

"halt!"
Posted by: Frank G || 12/13/2012 20:27 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
UN Security Council Condemns Korean Rocket Launch
[VOA News] The United Nations
...what started out as a a diplomatic initiative, now trying to edge its way into legislative, judicial, and executive areas...
Security Council has condemned North Korea's rocket launch, saying it violates two council resolutions prohibiting Pyongyang from using ballistic missile technology. The council will consider stronger action in the coming days.
"Wang, bring me...The Strongly Worded Letter™."
"Right away, sir."

In a quick response Wednesday, the 15-nation council condemned the launch and reminded Pyongyang that in April the international community demanded it not proceed with any further launches that use ballistic missile technology.

The Security Council president, Moroccan Ambassador Mohammed Loulichki, told news hounds after the emergency session that consultations would continue among members on an "appropriate response."

Diplomats said that could include a resolution that might strengthen existing sanctions, including designating additional individuals and entities to sanctions lists. But any action would largely depend on how far China - North Korea's main ally - is willing to go.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies


Africa North
Mauritania urges Mali crisis settlement
[Magharebia] Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz on Tuesday (December 11th) called for a settlement "as soon as possible" of the Mali crisis and voiced hope that "the common heritage of humanity" would be saved, AFP reported.

The Mauritanian president spoke to news hounds in Gay Paree after a meeting with UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova.

In a joint declaration, Bokova and Ould Abdel Aziz urged all UNESCO member states to join forces in order to ensure the safeguarding and protection of Mali's cultural property, and to "prevent the illicit trafficking of Timbuktu's cultural property and manuscripts" for present and future generations.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Ansar Dine


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Lindsay Lohan Probation Revoked!
[TMZ] Lindsay Lohan's probation was revoked this morning in court ... just like we told you it would be ... and the judge has now set a hearing to decide whether to lock Lindsay up for the better part of a year.

Lindsay -- who wasn't present -- was arraigned this AM on charges that she lied to cops and drove recklessly when she crashed her Porsche on Pacific Coast Highway last June.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Osama had Whitney, Obama has Obama Girl [ditto Romney], + Ozzie Ozbourne's Whats-a-Bieber has, or had, Selena ...
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/13/2012 1:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Slow News day?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/13/2012 6:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Bad news coming...
Posted by: Pappy || 12/13/2012 8:46 Comments || Top||

#4  I've lost count of all her run ins with the law. Which one is this?
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/13/2012 17:57 Comments || Top||

#5  Which one is this?

The nth, JohnQC. More information is superfluous.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/13/2012 19:09 Comments || Top||

#6  "Lohan arrested" draws 27,600,000 hits on Google, so I guess this would be 27,600,001...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/13/2012 19:15 Comments || Top||

#7  Off to jail with her...lickety split! ;-)
Posted by: Secret Asian Man || 12/13/2012 21:16 Comments || Top||

#8  I can eat 50 eggs.
Posted by: Lindsay Lohan || 12/13/2012 21:51 Comments || Top||

#9  LOL - my Lucille Lindsay
Posted by: Frank G || 12/13/2012 22:11 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Asteroid passes inside moon's orbit, buzzes Earth
[CBS News] A newfound asteroid gave Earth a close shave early today, zipping between our planet and the moon just two days after astronomers first spotted it.

The near-Earth asteroid 2012 XE54, which was discovered Sunday (Dec. 9), came within 140,000 miles of our planet at about 5 a.m. EST Tuesday (Dec. 11), researchers said. For comparison, the moon orbits Earth at an average distance of 240,000 miles or so.

Astronomers estimate that 2012 XE54 is about 120 feet wide -- big enough to cause substantial damage if it slams into Earth someday. An object of similar size flattened 800 square miles of forest when it went kaboom! above Siberia's Podkamennaya Tunguska River in 1908.

Asteroid 2012 XE54 also passed through Earth's shadow a few hours before its closest approach, generating an eclipse on the space rock's surface, researchers said.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...just two days after astronomers first spotted it.
I'm thinking somebody is hitting the eggnog early.
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/13/2012 0:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Actually if that asteroid had exploded above New York in Tunguska fashion, NYC would be history.
Posted by: European Conservative || 12/13/2012 2:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Don't get me excited, EC, it's too early in the morning! Whaddabout Detroit? Mecca? Qom? So many target, so few asteroids!
Posted by: Bobby || 12/13/2012 5:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Detroit? Who would notice the difference?
Posted by: European Conservative || 12/13/2012 8:35 Comments || Top||

#5  North America has thirteen big impact craters. So does Africa. South America has two, but a lot of South America has not been adequately surveyed. Europe has four big impact craters. Asia has five but again, a large area has not been adequately explored and the Tunguska strike was catastrophic and spectacular but it was not a metallic or stone meteor but largely an Ice meteor with no Crater effect after the event, to speak of.
Sweden has a crater nine km across. Finland has one 23 km across. Russia has one 14 miles across, near the arctic circle.
Arizona has that teeny one which is only a mile across. canada has multiple impacts. One is 28 km across and another is 100 km. wide.

The one off Yucatan was 170 km across and may have led to the extinction of a great deal of Earth life forms. There are Iridium traces from that one.The only others in South America are only 12 km across & Its in the Amazon. Most of AfricaÂ’s impacts were relatively small, a mile wide or so, except for one which was about 14 Km wide. Saudi has a cluster out in the middle of sand hell but they are negligible.

Tajikstan has one 45 km across. Australia has one 90 km across and another 24 km across the rest are small. India has a couple of small ones less than a mile across.
The spread across time is vast. Most are long before the human species.Germany has a relic crater which is very old about 300 Km across.

And only God knows how many fell in the Ocean over 500 million years. We get hit all the time if you consider Time, itself, as a very long measure. I own three meteors and a collection of Tektites. The biggest I have is about a foot across, the rest you can hold your hand. Those happen every day. Its not dangerous, just a curiosity. You just pay attention to your driving and settle your bills on time.
Posted by: Threater Flusoper9823 || 12/13/2012 8:40 Comments || Top||

#6  i looked into this stuff in detail a few years back. it's not possible for astronomers to see these "small" chunks of rock until they are a few days out (from collision with the Earth). nobody's really looking for them. NASA mostly checks the big asteroids that could annihilate the planet - they don't worry about the ankle biters. a chunk of rock the size of a football field could take out any major city on the planet. but right now we're really pretty blind - they either hit or they don't. move on folks ... nuthin' to see here.
Posted by: Raider || 12/13/2012 14:03 Comments || Top||

#7  Wow nice collection TF. The big one stony or metallic?
Posted by: Shipman || 12/13/2012 14:50 Comments || Top||

#8  Not dangerous, TF9823? What about Mrs. Hodge's hip? She could hardly walk after being wacked by one!

By the way - nice compilation of craters!
Posted by: Bobby || 12/13/2012 15:26 Comments || Top||

#9  Bobby you left out DC.
Posted by: AlanC || 12/13/2012 15:37 Comments || Top||

#10  Not big enough to fulfill the Mayan calendar prophecy of 12/21/12. These prophecies are worth about a dime a few dozen.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/13/2012 18:05 Comments || Top||

#11  Asteroid... well its better than branes in the multiverse impacting ours.
Posted by: Water Modem || 12/13/2012 20:44 Comments || Top||


Africa North
HRW demands investigation of 'Brotherhood's abuse of protesters'
[Al Ahram] Human Rights Watch
... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world...
(HRW) released a statement Wednesday demanding Egypt's public prosecutor investigate the detention and abuse of anti-Morsi protesters at the hand of Moslem BrĂĽderbund members during last Wednesday's festivities at the presidential palace.

The charge is based on testimonies of journalists, eyewitnesses and victims of the events as well statements of the Moslem BrĂĽderbund and its Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) officials.

"At least 49 protesters opposed to President Mohamed Morsi were unlawfully held outside the Ettihadiya presidential palace gate, an area then occupied by the Moslem BrĂĽderbund and overseen by riot police, detainees and witnesses told Human Rights Watch. The detentions followed armed festivities that resulted in the deaths of 10 people, mostly Moslem BrĂĽderbund members, and injuries to 748 more, according to the Health Ministry," reads the HRW statement.

The HRW release also criticised Essam El-Erian's stance, a leading FJP member. During the festivities on the evening of 5 December, El-Erian gave a live television interview, saying, "Everyone must go now to Ettihadiya and surround the thugs and separate the real revolutionaries out for one or two nights and then we can arrest them all."

Similar calls were made over social media. Soon after, Morsi supporters began apprehending and detaining anti-Morsi protesters.

"The police," the statement added, "took into custody at least another 92 people on the night of 5 December. The next day the 49 held at Ettihadiya were turned over to prosecutors. The prosecutors soon released 133 without charge for lack of evidence and four because they were minors. Four remained enjugged
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
as of 10 December. Lawyers representing the detainees told Human Rights Watch that prosecutors had ordered the referral of 95 detainees to forensic medical doctors for examination, a step indicating that physical abuse may have occurred."

Last Wednesday, festivities erupted after Morsi supporters arrived at the presidential palace where an opposition sit-in and protest was taking place. The two sides have been swapping accusations on responsibility for the ensuing violence.

After the bloody confrontations, a number of videos circulating on the internet showed civilians being tied up, physically abused and interrogated by bearded men in the vicinity of the presidential palace. One of the victims was a former Egyptian diplomat, Yehia Negm, who alleged during an interview with Al-Hayat TV channel that Brotherhood members tortured him for several hours.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


India-Pakistan
Bannu jailbreak case: KP prison dept sacks 11 wardens
[Dawn] Authorities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have sacked 11 jail wardens after declaring them responsible for a prison break incident which freed nearly 400 prisoners, including the mastermind of an assassination attempt on former President Pervez Musharraf.

The Pakistani Taliban said it was behind the brazen assault in April on the prison in Bannu, claiming the armed militants had inside information.

The KP Home Department took the decision under Rule 14 of the Efficiency and Discipline Rules 2011 after hearing and assessing the replies of the employees in response to show cause notices served on them, said the document.

The officers whose services have been terminated include; Mir Laiq Khan, Sayed Khan, Hafiz Mir Hassan Shah, Abidullah, Asif Ali Shah, Muhammad Ibrar, Gul Mir Dali, Ameenullah, Saqib, Nasib Gul and Raqibaz Khan.

Khyber Pakhtunkhawa Prisons Department terminated the services of the 11 jail wardens on account of "their involvement and their gross misconduct" in the worst jail break incident in Pakistan's history, said a communiqué issued on Wednesday by the KP Home Department.

The attack was the biggest jail break incident in the Pakistan's history wherein over 200 heavily armed militants, comprising locals and foreigners, stormed the prison, freeing over hundred imprisoned Taliban fighters -- among them the high profile Adnan Rashid said to be the mastermind on the suicide attack on Musharraf.

Rashid, a former junior technician of Pakistan Air Force, was convicted after a bomb planted under a bridge in Rawalpindi near Islamabad in December 2003 exploded moments after the passing of Musharraf's motorcade.

Besides Rashid, the escaped convicts included 20 other prisoners on death row.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Putin: Russian Families Should Have Three Children
[An Nahar] President Vladimir Putin
...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...
on Wednesday encouraged Russians to have more children, saying three per family should be the average, as he seeks to battle an acute demographic crisis upon returning for a third Kremlin term.

"For Russia to be sovereign and strong, there should be more of us," Putin said in his annual speech to the Federal Assembly of both houses of parliament.

"I am sure that a family with three children should be the norm for Russia. But much needs to be done to make this happen."

During his presidential campaign earlier this year, Putin vowed to reverse the shrinking of Russia's population, a demographic crisis exacerbated by unhealthy lifestyles and blatant disregard for safety protocols.

Russia's falling population in the 1990s seemed like "the final verdict on the country", Putin said. But "we were able to break this destructive trend. This is our key achievement."
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hey, Vlad, how about a Homestead Act for Siberia? Get some sod busters out there and they'll need the younguns to help with the farmin'.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 12/13/2012 11:25 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Seven 'Killed in Bombings outside Syrian Interior Ministry'
[An Nahar] Explosions outside the Syrian interior ministry, including a boom-mobile, killed seven people and maimed 50 others on Wednesday, a security official said.

Interior Minister Mohammad al-Shaar and other top ranking officials escaped unharmed, state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
reported.

State news agency SANA said earlier that three bombs struck outside the ministry in the capital's southwestern district of Kfar Sousa, one of them a boom-mobile.

"Three terrorist kabooms, including one caused by a boom-mobile, struck the interior ministry in Kfar Sousa," SANA said. "Several people were killed and injured."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 25 people were killed and maimed.

Images from the scene broadcast by the pro-government al-Ikhbariya television channel showed piles of rubble, and blood on the ground.

The adjacent building housing the Egyptian embassy was also hit, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported.

"An embassy employee was injured, and the building was damaged," MENA quoted Egyptian diplomat Alaa Abdel Aziz as saying.

Several bombings have struck Damascus
...The capital of Iran's Syrian satrapy...
since an uprising against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Horror of Homs...
's rule erupted in March last year, among them suicide kabooms.

Most blasts have targeted government and security buildings.

Earlier on Wednesday, two kabooms killed one person and maimed others in Damascus and a southeastern suburb of the capital, SANA reported.

[An Nahar]
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


India-Pakistan
Over 60 per cent of Pakistani lawmakers evade taxes: report
[Dawn] More than 60 per cent of Pakistain's cabinet and two thirds of its federal politicians paid no tax last year, according to a report released Wednesday on tax evasion among the country's politicians.

The study entitled "Representation without Taxation" by investigative journalist Umar Cheema takes Pakistain's elected leaders to task for paying little or no tax despite an estimated average net wealth of $882,000.

"The problem starts at the top. Those who make revenue policies, run the government, and collect taxes have not been able to set good examples for others," said the report, likely to increase pressure on Pakistain to implement tax reform.

There was no immediate reaction from top politicians, although a front man for the main opposition Pakistain Mohammedan League-N party told AFP it was up to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to take action against any evaders.

Pakistain has one of the lowest tax-to-GDP ratios in the world, estimated at 9.2 per cent. Only 260,000 out of 180 million citizens have paid tax consecutively for the last three years, according to the FBR.

According to the findings, President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari
... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ...
did not file a tax return in 2011 and neither did 34 of the 55 cabinet members including Interior Minister Rehman Malik
Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship.
Information was not available for one cabinet minister.

Of the 20 cabinet ministers who did pay, most made only negligible contributions, including Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, with 142,536 rupees ($1,466) and Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar with 69,619 rupees ($716).

The cabinet member who paid the most was state minister for commerce, Abbas Khan Afridi, who paid 11.5 million rupees last year ($118,677). Religious Affairs Minister Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah paid the least with 43,333 rupees ($446).

Among all the politicians in the upper and lower houses of the federal parliament, 67 per cent failed to file tax returns in 2011; 28 per cent did and five per cent were not possible to verify, according to the report.

It also found that 78 members of parliament are still not registered with a national taxation number.

Pakistain's refusal to implement sweeping tax reform was instrumental in the collapse of a $11.3 billion IMF bailout programme in November 2010.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Heh, well, I think about 85 percent of all Pakistanis dodge taxes, so the politicians are doing OK relative to their constituents.

On paper, the tax burden on the average Pakistani is pretty high because they owe secular taxes, Islamic zakat, and if they're a farmer they owe secular agricultural taxes and the Islamic ushr.

I wouldn't pay it all either.
Posted by: American Delight || 12/13/2012 6:47 Comments || Top||

#2  The fatal flaw of the protection racket known as Islam has been Jizya. Under Sharia conquered people had to either pay Jizya, convert or die. It didn't take those conquered people long to realize that they could evade Jizya by converting but it decimated the tax base.
Muslim countries lived in extreme poverty until some of them found oil.
Not paying tax is in the DNA of Islam.
Posted by: tipper || 12/13/2012 9:46 Comments || Top||

#3  probably about the same percentage for US lawmakers as well. Give or take one or two Timmie Gietners
Posted by: airandee || 12/13/2012 11:23 Comments || Top||


Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Birthday Gam Shot

Florine McKinney [Filmography](Died in 1975 at age 65)




Florine attending a Gamboree

Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 12/13/2012 0:10 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Hariri Says Assad is a 'Beast' and Should be Tried as an Assassin
[An Nahar] Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri
Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's liquidation. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too.
described on Wednesday Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...
as a "beast," who should be brought to trial for taking part in liquidations and sending explosives to Leb.

"Assad is a beast who has lost humanitarian and political ethics" and will be eventually held accountable by the Syrian people, Hariri said in a statement issued by his press office in response to Syrian arrest warrants issued against him along with al-Mustaqbal
... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri...
bloc MP Oqab Saqr and Syrian opposition member Louay al-Meqdad on charges of "arming and financing terrorist groups in Syria."

The Syrian president "will also definitely appear before the Lebanese judiciary for he has participated in premeditated liquidation and terrorism operations, and has sent explosives to ignite strife among the Lebanese," the al-Mustaqbal movement chief said.

Assad will be brought to trial for "bloodshed in Leb, Paleostine and Iraq and for killing children and massacring the Syrian people, he added.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said the Interpol's office at the Internal Security Forces received the warrants on Tuesday, almost two weeks after OTV and al-Akhbar newspapers aired and published audio recordings of Saqr allegedly discussing with a Syrian opposition member ways to supply rebels with arms.

But Saqr later denied the accusations, broadcasting the original audiotapes during a presser he held in Istanbul in which he claimed he was negotiating the release of Lebanese pilgrims held in Syria.

The Syrian warrants came a day after Leb's military tribunal called for Syrian security official Ali Mamlouk, an officer identified as Brig. Gen. Adnan and Assad's senior advisor Buthaina Shaaban to be summoned over their role in ex-minister Michel Samaha's plot to transfer explosives to Leb to carry out terrorist attacks aimed at igniting strife.

Mamlouk and Adnan have already been charged along with Samaha with plotting the attacks. The warrant says Shaaban should be summoned as a witness.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


China-Japan-Koreas
US Hesitant In Condemning North Korean Launch
WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is drawing no "red line" for North Korea after a successful long-range rocket test, tempering the public condemnation to avoid raising tensions or possibly rewarding the reclusive communist nation with too much time in the global spotlight.
Now imagine Champ's reaction if Israel launched a satellite...
The U.S. has told the world that it won't tolerate Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons or Syria's use of chemical stockpiles on rebels. North Korea, in some ways, is a trickier case.

The U.S. wants to forcefully condemn what it believes is a "highly provocative act," and that was the first public reaction from the White House late Tuesday. But it also is mindful of the turmoil on the Korean peninsula and treading carefully, offering no threat of military action or unspecified "consequences" associated with other hot spots.
We somehow managed to have a (mostly) straight spine around the Soviet Union for 50 years...
Just two years ago, the North allegedly torpedoed a South Korean warship and shelled a South Korean island. Some 50 South Koreans died in the attacks that brought the peninsula to the brink of war.

North Korea already has the deterrent of a nuclear weapons arsenal. The U.S. is bound to protect next-door South Korea from any attack, but has no desire now for a military conflict.

Raising the rhetoric can even serve as a reward for seeking attention to a government that starves its own citizens while seeking to leverage any military advance it makes into much-needed aid.
That might make sense to Rachel Maddow...
"No doubt Pyongyang is pleased.
Yes, Pudgy had a huge election...
It again has unsettled its leading adversaries. And it is in the news around the world," said Doug Bandow, senior fellow at the Cato Institute. "The allies should have responded with a collective yawn. After all, the plan is nothing new. The DPRK has been testing rockets and missiles for years."
Only the success is new...
The United States remains technically at war with the notoriously unpredictable North Koreans, whose opaque leadership has confounded successive American administrations. With no peace agreement, only the 1953 armistice ending the Korean War keeps the U.S. and the North from hostilities. Some 28,500 U.S. troops remain in South Korea to deter potential aggression.

Wednesday's surprising, successful launch raises the stakes, taking North Korea one step closer to being capable of lobbing nuclear bombs over the Pacific. As the North refines its technology, its next step may be conducting another nuclear test, experts warn.

The three-stage rocket is similar in design to a model capable of carrying a nuclear-tipped warhead as far as California. The rocket launched a satellite into space. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the U.S. would study the launch.
You bet. Let's all put our thinking caps on and take our stupid pills. Then we'll be experts...
"I think we still have to assess just exactly what happened here," Panetta told CNN in an interview Wednesday. He said part of the assessment would examine the final stage that launched the satellite "to determine, really, whether or not that did work effectively or whether it tumbled into space. I mean, that's the issue that we need to assess."

Despite its technological advances and military bluster, it's doubtful that the North intends to strike first against the U.S.
We know that how, exactly?
Even so, Panetta said the U.S. has the capability to prevent such a strike.

"I'm very confident that American defense capabilities are able, no problem, to block a rocket like this one," he told CNN when asked about the capability of U.S. missile defense systems.
Isn't that the ballistic missile defense we were told would never work?
North Korea has spent decades threatening but avoiding a direct confrontation with the tens of thousands of American forces in South Korea and Japan. The government has remained firmly in power despite a drought-plagued agricultural sector that leaves many North Koreans in search of food and a crumbling economy that affords few any chance of social betterment.
Goes to show what brute force, complete amorality and rat-shit insanity in the right combination can do...
"It is regrettable that the leadership in Pyongyang chose to take this course in flagrant violation of its international obligations," White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters. He said the U.S. would try to further isolate North Korea in response.
Shaddup, Jay, you don't know what you're saying.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland called the launch "highly provocative and a threat to regional security." It will only further impoverish North Koreans, she said.

Neither Carney nor Nuland elaborated on possible consequences.
Because they don't know of any...
The White House's initial statement referred only to potential action at the U.N. Security Council, which condemned North Korea on Wednesday and said it would urgently consider "an appropriate response." The threat of sanctions is unclear; China, North Korea's benefactor, holds veto power.
North Korea does nothing that China forbids...
Analysts were mixed on whether a tougher reaction was appropriate.

"There has been an unspoken tendency in the United States to discount these tests as yet another foolish attempt by the technologically backward and bizarre country," said Victor Cha, a Korea expert at Georgetown University and former White House policy director for Asia. "This is no longer acceptable. The apparent success of this test makes North Korea one of the only nonallied countries outside of China and the Soviet Union to develop long-range missile technology that could potentially reach the United States."
Posted by: Steve White || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Eh, North Korea is not a Chinese puppet. The Chinese have tried to persuade the North Koreans to do an economic opening up like they did, but the Norks will have none of it. Several highly invested investment parks are tits-up after the Norks ripped off the Chinese.
Posted by: gromky || 12/13/2012 0:11 Comments || Top||

#2  FREEREPUBLIC has an NBC News Artic where US Officials are quoted as saying that North Korea's new satellite is "tumbling of control".
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/13/2012 1:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Let's see where it is tumbling to
Posted by: European Conservative || 12/13/2012 2:42 Comments || Top||

#4  "...determine, really, whether or not that did work effectively or whether it tumbled into space. I mean, that's the issue that we need to assess."

Horse hockey. Supposing it is in perfect orbit. So what? Tumbling out of control? So what? How about we assess the throw weight of the vehicle? Maybe its' circular error probability?
Posted by: Bobby || 12/13/2012 6:36 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Report: Obama To Talk To Iran, Leave Israel In The Cold
Without consulting Israel, Obama has decided to hold direct negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.

U.S. President Barack Obama
Why can't I just eat my waffle?...
plans to soon propose to Iran that it negotiate directly with the Americans about its nuclear program, Channel 10 News reported on Tuesday.

The report, which cited a senior American official, said that Obama's move was made without any coordination or consultation with Israel.

According to the report, the Americans probably will allow a period of four to five months for negotiations with Tehran. If the talks fail, they may then resort to the military option. As well, Obama is planning to set preconditions for contacts with the Islamic Theocratic Republic, including that it halt its uranium enrichment and agree to allow external monitoring of its nuclear facilities.

This is not the first time that Israel and the United States do not see eye to eye on the issue of Iran arming itself with nuclear weapons, but this is the first time that action was taken at such a high level of importance without informing Israel, noted Channel 10.

According to Channel 10, the White House believes that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is personally responsible for the leaks to the media of the IAEA report on the Iranian nuclear program, as was reported by the British Guardian on Monday.

The Guardian report indicated that Israel is suspected of carrying out a series of leaks implicating Iran in nuclear weapons experiments, in an attempt to raise international pressure on Tehran and halt its nuclear program.

The report said that Western diplomats believe the leaks may have backfired, compromising a UN-sanctioned investigation into Iran's past nuclear activities and current aspirations.

The latest leak, published by the News Agency that Dare Not be Named (AP), purported to be an Iranian diagram showing the physics of a nuclear blast, but scientists quickly pointed out an elementary mistake that cast doubt on its significance and authenticity.

The IAEA has accused Iranian authorities of undermining its effort to probe suspected nuclear weapons research at the Parchin facility by carrying out possible clean-up operations.

The head of the UN agency, Yukiya Amano, said last week that despite the clean-up, inspections at the military complex near Tehran would be "very useful".
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  See also TOPIX > REAL CLEAR WORLD > [Times of Israel] OBAMA PLANNING NEW TALKS WID IRAN, US WILL STRIKE IRAN IN 4-5 MONTHS IFF THEY DON'T BEAR FRUIT, ISRAELI TV REPORT SAYS.

Presuming that the deadline is still March 2013 for Iran to surrender to the UNIAEA, that makes the war window July-August = Mid-Late Summer 2013 at the earliest.

Towards EOY 2013 [> Jan 2014?] iff Russia, etc. chooses to oppose as usual at the UNSC.

The good news for Iran is that IMO China is NOT going to wait that long for Japan + ASEAN to surrender in the East China Sea + South China Sea. SUBJECTIVELY SPEAKING, THE US COULD BECOME INVOLVED IN A MAJOR OVERSEAS SHOOTING WAR ANYTIME JANUARY 1ST 2014 WHEN CHINA'S NEW SOUTH CHINA SEAS DECREE GOES INTO EFFECT. Vietnam's own SCS Decree goes into effect on January 21st, 2014.

The above doesn't even include the very real Domestic + Economic threats Obama faces in 2013.

2014 = RISE OF THE "NEW CONFEDERACY" AGZ THE OWG GLOBALIST "UNION".

POTUS ABE LINCOLN TO CALL FOR 75,000 VAMPIRE SLAYERS TO VOLUNTEER TO JOIN THE GRAND ARMY OF THE SOVIET STATE GLOBO-REPUBLIK OF AMERIKKA???

Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/13/2012 1:08 Comments || Top||

#2  OOOOPPSIES, forgot WAFF > US MILITARY TO BOOST PHILIPPINES PRESENCE, CHINA TELLS ARMY TO BE PREPARED, to wage "military struggle".

and

* RELATED TOPIX > BEIJING: XI TELLS ARMY TO BE READY FOR "REAL COMBAT".

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > PAKISTAN AND THE "ISLAMIC BOMB".

* SAME > [Gujurat Chief] MODI TO PM [Mammohan Singh]: DON'T EVEN THINK OF GIVING SIR CREEK TO PAKISTAN, lest India risk the destabilization of Gujurat border security vee Pakistan [Militant cross-border raids, insurgency].

Nostradamus + Guam Taotamonas strike again.

And once again again, Virgina, we learn what happens when Lindsay Lohan dyes her hair!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/13/2012 1:19 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
U.S. Says Excessive Force Used against Sudan Protests
[An Nahar] Sudanese authorities have used excessive force against Darfuri students protesting for their rights, the U.S. government's senior adviser for Darfur said on Wednesday.

"We've also been very unhappy about the excessive force used against Darfuri students demonstrating for their rights under the agreement," Ambassador Dane Smith told news hounds, referring to a 2011 peace agreement signed between Khartoum and an alliance of Darfur rebel splinter factions.

Protests, sometimes involving hundreds of people, have occurred since Saturday outside Khartoum universities and elsewhere in support of four dead youths who were originally from the conflict-plagued Darfur region.

Their deaths, following a crackdown on a tuition protest at Gezira University south of Khartoum, have sparked the largest outpouring of Arab Spring-style discontent since anti-regime protests in June and July.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan


Caribbean-Latin America
Chavez Recovering after Cancer Surgery in Cuba
[An Nahar] Venezuelan His Excellency President-for-Life, Caudillo of the Bolivarians Hugo Chavez was recovering in a Cuban hospital Wednesday following six hours of surgery to treat a cancerous lesion in an operation his vice president said ended "successfully."

Chavez would soon begin a "post-operative phase" that would last several days, Vice President Nicolas Maduro, who has promised regular updates, said in a late Tuesday address to the nation in Caracas.

Chavez, 58, flew to Havana for surgery on Monday after revealing that his cancer had returned just two months after his triumphant re-election to a new six-year term that begins on January 10.

The president was first diagnosed with the disease in June 2011. After three rounds of surgery, in addition to chemotherapy and radiation, Chavez had assured Venezuelans earlier this year that he was cancer-free.

Tuesday's operation "ended correctly and successfully," Maduro, to whom Chavez delegated power before flying to Havana, told Venezuelans. "In these coming hours, we will be very attentive."

The vice president described the procedure as a "corrective surgery of a lesion" that occurred in the pelvic region, but did not elaborate.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Chavez dies and Venezuela turns towards capitalist, the Cuban economy will be further in the dumper. Cuba is getting oil on the cheap now from Hugo.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/13/2012 18:00 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Fresh Libya Request for Niger to Extradite Gadhafi Son
[An Nahar] Libya on Wednesday reiterated its call for the extradition of slain Libyan strongman Muammar Qadaffy
... who had more funny outfits than Louis XIV...
's son Saadi from Niger, which has granted him asylum since September 2011 on "humanitarian" grounds.

"The Libyan party has noted the threat posed by the presence in Niger of members of the former Libyan regime," said a government statement issued after a visit to Niamey by Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan.

Libya "renewed its request for the extradition of those wanted people... and stressed that their trial in Libya would comply with international law."

The statement said that Libya has insisted that the former regime officials not be extradited to any third country.

"So far, we have not decided anything, consultations should continue, based on the terms of the Libyan request and existing provisions in international law," Niger's foreign minister Mohamed Bazoum told Agence La Belle France Presse.

Three of Qadaffy's sons were killed in the 2011 uprising that brought down Qadaffy's 42-year rule, including Mutassim who was murdered by rebels on the same day as his father.

Several key members of the Qadaffy clan have survived however, including Qadaffy's erstwhile heir apparent Seif al-Islam, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court
... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ...
but locked away
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
in Libya.

Former Libyan Olympic Committee chief Muhammad and Hannibal, who made headlines with his scandal-packed European holidays, are believed to be in Algeria, as is the fallen tyrant's daughter Aisha.

Saadi Qadaffy, who found shelter in neighboring Niger when his father's regime was crumbling, was best known as the head of Libya's football federation and a player who payed his way into Italia's top flight.

Niger justified the move as motivated by "humanitarian" reasons, arguing it had insufficient guarantees Libya's new rulers would give Qadaffy's son a fair trial.

Around 30 senior regime officials are believed to have crossed into Niger at the same time but the authorities in Niamey have not said how many remain on their soil.

Interpol had issued a "Red Notice" for Saadi Qadaffy for "allegedly misappropriating properties through force and armed intimidation when he headed the Libyan Football Federation."
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Europe
Scuffles and Bare Boobies as Ukraine Parliament Opens
Oh goody. Frostbite on the bits farthest away from the warm central core.
[An Nahar] Activists from Ukraine's feminist group Femen staged a topless anti-corruption protest on Wednesday outside the ex-Soviet country's newly-elected parliament as a fight erupted between politicians inside.

The opening session of the Verkhkovna Rada began in a typically raucous fashion, after the October 28 parliamentary elections which were condemned by the West as a setback for democracy.

Four young women jumped over the fence surrounding parliament and stripped naked to protest outside the entrance, with only black panties protecting them from freezing temperatures, an AFP photographer witnessed.

The activists, who said on their Facebook page that they were protesting against corruption among politicians, were quickly tossed in the slammer
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
by security guards.

In the meantime, a fight erupted in the chamber between opposition MPs and two deputies whom they accused of defecting to the pro-government camp.

Several politicians from the opposition nationalist Svoboda group chased two men they called "turncoats" -- a father and a son -- to prevent them from taking the oath.

Ukraine's parliament has seen several physical confrontations in recent years amid bitter confrontation between opposition and pro-government camps.

It is due later Wednesday to vote on reinstating as prime minister President Viktor Yanukovych's ally, Mykola Azarov.

With support from Communists and some independent deputies, Azarov's candidature has a good chance of success, a source close to the ruling Party of Regions told the Interfax news agency.

All three opposition factions in parliament -- nabbed
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko's Batkivshchyna, boxer Vitali Klitschko's UDAR (Punch) and Svoboda -- which together hold 170 of the 450 seats, refused to vote for Azarov.

Femen specializes in topless activism, supporting women's rights and fighting prostitution and trafficking and its slogan is "We came, we undressed, we conquered".
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Just one pic at the link, but she beats the hell out of Boobs Not Bombs by a mile.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 12/13/2012 9:58 Comments || Top||

#2  Looks like the cop is copping a feel.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 12/13/2012 11:43 Comments || Top||

#3  The ponytail on the panties is a nice touch.

Doubtlessly Berlusconi, Sarkossy and Clinton are wondering "Why don't we ever get protesters like these?"
Posted by: Frozen Al || 12/13/2012 12:21 Comments || Top||

#4  Let'em freeze.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/13/2012 15:28 Comments || Top||

#5  a stick pony?
Posted by: Frank G || 12/13/2012 21:12 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Students at "Govt Malala College" protest renaming fearing backlash
[Dawn] Angry Pak girls protested on Wednesday against the renaming of their school after shot teenage activist Malala Yousafzai, saying the move would make them a target for myrmidons.

Around 150 students boycotted classes at what is now the Government Malala College for Girls in Saidu Sharif, 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, tearing up and stoning pictures of the 15-year-old, accusing her of abandoning Pakistain by going to Britannia for treatment.

The Pakistain government has renamed numerous schools in honour of Malala, who was shot in the head by the Taliban in October for championing girls' education in Swat and is now recovering in a British hospital.

The students at what was previously known as the Government College for Girls said they had repeatedly asked the principal to remove the plate with the new name, fearing it would invite the attention of myrmidons.

"We came out when the principal finally refused to accept our demand," student Shaista Ahmed said. "We feel the college would be the potential target of myrmidons.

"I joined others who rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud against Malala and pelted stones on her picture because she had left the country to settle abroad. We are poor, we cannot afford it and we will suffer because she has fled to Britannia."

Local government official Niaz Ali Khan told AFP the protesting students were "very angry and aggressive" and tore up a portrait of Malala which the authorities had erected on a college wall after the Taliban attack.

"The students ended their protest after we promised to convey their demand to the authorities," he said.

Student Mah Noor, 19, said: "Malala herself is in Britannia but other girls will remain in Swat. She will not come back to Pakistain, then what is the need to rename the college after her?"

Malala first rose to prominence aged just 11 with a blog for the BBC Urdu service in 2009 in which she described life in Swat during the bloody rule of the Taliban.

Taliban hit-men shot her on her school bus in Mingora, the main town in Swat, for the "crime" of campaigning for girls' rights to go to school, but she survived after surgery in Pakistain.

She was sent to Britannia for further treatment and her courage has won the hearts of millions around the world, prompting the United Nations
...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involves making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country...
to observe a "global day of action" for her last month.

Malala's father Ziauddin Yousafzai, a former teacher and headmaster, has been appointed UN adviser on education.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Blast in Karachi kills two
[Dawn] At least two people bit the dust on Wednesday after a bomb went kaboom! near a local restaurant in a busy locality 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...
, Pakistain's commercial capital, DawnNews reported.

According to initial reports, the loud kaboom shook the Muzzafarabad colony area of Landhi, injuring an additional six people.

Eight people were initially said to have been injured. However,
there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly...
it was later reported that two of the maimed died while being shifted to the hospital.

Initial reports also suggested that the bomb was placed near the wall of Ghareeb Nawaz hotel, a local restaurant in the busy neighbourhood.

The injured were shifted to Jinnah Hospital.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Afghanistan
Afghanistan, Pakistan pursue peace despite attack
[Dawn] The leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistain are determined to press ahead with peace efforts after a meeting in Turkey, the country's president said Wednesday, despite an attack that maimed the Afghan intelligence chief.

President Abdullah Gul described the bombing, which Afghanistan believes was planned in Pakistain, as an attempt to derail dialogue between the two countries.

At the end of a meeting aimed at easing tensions and increasing cooperation between the governments in Kabul and Islamabad, Gul said both had "renewed trust and are determined to work together." He was flanked by counterparts Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai
... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use...
of Afghanistan and Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistain.

Afghan intelligence chief Asadullah Khalid was maimed last week when a jacket wallah posing as a Taliban peace envoy detonated an explosive, dealing a setback to fragile efforts to reconcile with the Taliban and find a political resolution to the war in Afghanistan.

Karzai has said the attack was planned in Pakistain, but stopped short of directly holding Islamabad responsible for the kaboom that was claimed by the Taliban.

Karzai said Wednesday the two leaders had "very good conversations" about the liquidation attempt, but refused to go into details. Afghan officials said Karzai would present evidence to Zardari during their meetings about the attack.

"Hopefully the fight against extremism and terrorism will take itself to a conclusion where the populations of the two countries are not threatened by these attacks," Karzai said.

"The environment of dialogue is better than it has been," Karzai said. "At the same time, we are seeing unfortunate incidents of terrorism both in Afghanistan and Pakistain."

For his part, Zardari distanced his country from the attack on Khalid.

"They (terrorists) don't want us, the governments, to get together and to be able to lead the nations to peace," he said. "It is in the interest of Pakistain that Afghanistan prospers," he said. "It is in my interest that peace returns to Afghanistan and Pakistain."

A joint statement issued at the end of the meeting said a "joint working group" would address the attempt on the intelligence chief's life.

Pakistain is seen as a key player in the Afghan grinding of the peace processor. Pakistain helped the Taliban seize control of Afghanistan in the 1990s, providing funding, weapons and intelligence, and the Afghan government and the US have accused Islamabad of continuing to support the group.

Pakistain has denied the allegations.
No, no! Certainly not!
but many analysts believe the country continues to see the Taliban as an important ally in Afghanistan to counter archenemy India.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


India-Pakistan
Nearly three-quarters of Pakistani girls not in school: report
[Dawn] Nearly three quarters of young Pak girls are not enrolled in primary school and the number finishing five years in education has declined, a new UN and government report showed Wednesday.
It's all part of the Publicans' campaign against women and minorities...
The findings expose the miserable state of education for millions in Pakistain, where the Pak Taliban shot 15-year-old Malala Yousufzai in the head in October to silence her campaign for the right to an education.

"Nearly half of primary school age children are not enrolled in school and among eligible girls the out of school proportion is closer to three-quarters. In absolute numbers, out-of-school girls outnumber their male counterparts," it said.

"Completion rates to the fifth year of schooling have actually declined in the past five years," it said. Fifty-five per cent of all Pak adults are illiterate and among women the rate is closer to 75 per cent, it added.

The report said women are denied their basic right to education and to a decent life.

"Females in Pakistain face discrimination, exploitation and abuse at many levels, starting with girls who are prevented from exercising their basic rights to education either because of traditional family practices, economic necessity or as a consequence of the destruction of schools by bully boys."
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Still, at least they are safe at home with their fathers and brothers.
Posted by: Grunter || 12/13/2012 9:48 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraq postpones Libyan executions
[Magharebia] Iraqi judicial authorities on Sunday (December 9th) postponed the execution of two Libyan nationals held on terror charges, according to the Libyan foreign ministry website.

The ministry said the death penalty was put off after a telephone conversation between Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zidan and his Iraqi counterpart Nouri al-Maliki.
... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party....
One of those set to be executed was Derna native Adel al-Shaalani. He stood accused of entering Iraq illegally and participating in violent crimes.

Former Libyan Foreign Minister Ashour Bin Khayal said Sunday that four prisoners were released from Iraqi jails and that there were errors in data related to four other Libyan detainees.

Bin Khayal added that there were number of other Libyan prisoners in Iraq to be released. The cases are being studied and followed up at all levels by government agencies and civil society organizations, according to the minister.

Iraq still holds 30 Libyan prisoners, including four sentenced to death, according to Al Jizz.

The latest stay of execution follows intense pressure from Libyan government officials. Interim Justice Minister Salah al-Mirghani appealed to the Iraqi government, international human rights
...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty...
organizations, the Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
and the United Nations
...When talk is your weapon it's hard to make yourself heard over the artillery...
to halt the implementation of the death sentence.

The minister said in a telephone interview with Magharebia that he directly appealed to Iraqi authorities, particularly the justice minister, to intervene to stop the execution. He asked the Iraqi minister to "stop for the sake of human rights, our Islamic faith and the brotherhood between the people of Libya and Iraq".

Last Saturday, Benghazi residents and friends of the detainees in Iraq rallied outside the Tibetsi Hotel, urging Libyan authorities press for the prisoners' release. They also demanded that the death sentence against al-Shaalani not be carried out.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq

#1  kill em gently, slowly
Posted by: Frank G || 12/13/2012 20:48 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Former Libya NTC leader accused of power abuse
[Magharebia] Libyan military prosecutors on Tuesday (December 11th) accused former Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil of abuse of power, AFP reported.

"Mustafa Abdel Jalil was accused of abuse of power and undermining national unity" by military prosecutors who questioned him over the 2011 liquidation of Abdel Fatah Younes, prosecution official Majdi al-Baraasi told AFP.

Prosecutors allowed Abdel Jalil to "go free on bail but a travel ban was issued against him until he appears before a military court in Benghazi on February 20th", added Baraasi, who took part in the interrogation.

General Younes, the highest-ranking military figure to join the uprising last year, was killed in July 2011 in murky circumstances after being recalled from the front line for questioning.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Arabia
Oman Court Upholds Jail Terms for Activists
[An Nahar] An Omani appeals court upheld on Wednesday jail sentences ranging from six months to one year against 23 activists convicted for defaming the sultan and taking part in pro-reform protests last year.

The court in Muscat confirmed a one-year jail term against 11, including writers and bloggers and a young woman, accused of insulting the sultan and cyber crimes, ONA state news agency said.
... and if you can't believe the state news agency who can you believe?
The activists were sentenced in August but are out on bail. They were each ordered to pay a fine of 200 rials ($550) at the time.

The court also confirmed six-month jail terms against 11 other activists convicted of taking part in an unauthorized public gathering and ordered them to pay each a 200-rial fine, ONA said.

Meanwhile,
...back at the Esquimeau village Jack was learning how to rub noses with Nootka's wife......
the court also upheld the suspension of a six-month jail term against a man convicted of insulting the sultan.

The defendants are part of a group of 36 activists tossed in the slammer
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
in June for demanding political reforms in the Gulf state that has been ruled by Sultan Qaboos for the past 42 years.

The usually calm Oman was hit by a wave of protests last year demanding political reforms. Riot police dispersed the demonstrations with force.

Sultan Qaboos responded by reshuffling the cabinet and increasing the powers of the consultative assembly.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Science & Technology
Fossil Find Challenges Tree of Life as We Know it
[An Nahar] Organisms long thought to have been the ancestors of early marine creatures may in fact have lived on land, said a fossil study Wednesday that may prompt an overhaul of the tree of animal life.

If correct, the finding could challenge the commonly held theory that life had thrived in the oceans for hundreds of millions of years before spreading to land.

The fossils, dubbed Ediacaran and dated to 542-635 million years ago, were unearthed in south Australia in 1946, and were long thought to have been the remains of jellyfish, worms and flowery seafloor-dwelling creatures known as sea pens.

Now a geological scientist from the University of Oregon, using state-of-the-art chemical and microscopic analysis techniques, has concluded the fossils more likely belonged to land-dwelling organisms and were not animals at all.

They may have been lichen -- a composite of a fungus and an algae or bacteria -- or colonies of micro-organisms.

"The discovery has implications for the tree of life because it removes Ediacaran fossils from the ancestry of animals," said Gregory Retallack, author of the study published in the journal Nature.

The fossils represent "an independent evolutionary radiation of life on land that preceded by at least 20 million years the Cambrian evolutionary explosion of animals in the sea," he wrote.

Retallack added this did not mean that all Ediacaran fossils everywhere were terrestrial.

If his theory is correct, it would indicate that some organisms mastered the transition from marine to non-marine life much earlier than currently thought, Paul Knauth of Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration wrote in a comment on the report.

It may even "support the possibility that the transition went the other way".

In a separate comment, Shuhai Xiao of the Virginia Tech department of geosciences called the proposition dubious, and stressed it "would represent a fundamental change in our picture of evolution".
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I have an Ediacaran fossil jellyfish in the shed in Adelaide. Found it in a creek bed near Hawker.
Did Mr Retallack's theory mention all the current ripples in the rocks containing the Ediacara fossils? No?
Posted by: Grunter || 12/13/2012 8:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Their brains only hold room for one "Science" fact at a time. Two facts causes overload, panic attacks and screaming about doom cause nature is going to kill us.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division || 12/13/2012 8:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Obviously some of the the lifeforms the Old Martians brought with them when they left home as their planet started to lose atmosphere and die. The only remaining traces here on Earth are the Ediacaran fossils and LISP, the native tongue of the Old Ones.
Posted by: SteveS || 12/13/2012 10:53 Comments || Top||

#4  sadly, lichens don't make for good villains in sci fi 'back to the past' movies

"Look out Jim, you'll get a stain on your shoe" just doesn't have the same ring as "Look out Jim the Tyrannosaurus is after you"
Posted by: lord garth || 12/13/2012 11:14 Comments || Top||

#5  They said that about Triffids too, until it was too late.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 12/13/2012 11:16 Comments || Top||

#6  How do you get the most attention / money?

Make extraordinary, sweeping claims on the basis of minimal evidence.

Worked like a champ for the Gerbil Warming crowd.
Posted by: AlanC || 12/13/2012 15:33 Comments || Top||

#7  Looks like this will need "further study".
Johnson, where's that grant paperwork?
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/13/2012 15:39 Comments || Top||

#8  How about three roots which support nine worlds of creatures?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 12/13/2012 16:52 Comments || Top||

#9  I have some very nice crinoids and a Lampshade shell I found in southern Kentucky and a trilobite and some ferns I found near Birmingham, Alabama.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 12/13/2012 19:00 Comments || Top||

#10  even more mysteriously, several voted in the last election
Posted by: Frank G || 12/13/2012 21:30 Comments || Top||

#11  Nothing mysterious about it, Frank.

After all, they all voted Democrat.
Posted by: Barbara || 12/13/2012 21:51 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Saudis, Bahrainis will overthrow monarchies in 2013 : Analyst
[Iran Press TV] A political analyst tells Press TV that the spread of demonstrations in Riyadh and Jeddah, the heartlands of Saudi Arabia have made the US worried that the days of the House of Al Saud are numbered.

The comments came after Saudi protesters staged anti-regime demonstrations in several cities to demand the immediate release of prisoners of conscience and those held in prisons without charge for a long time.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Chris Bambery, author and Middle East expert, to further discuss the issue. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  Getting harder-n-harder for those that want to see the Bammer impeached over Benghazi-gate + other.

Will Base-too-far QATAR stand its ground, the world wonders?
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/13/2012 0:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Wishful thinking on the part of the Iranians but it might be amusing to watch. Why is it that Arab Spring is good for Qdaffy, Mubarak, Assad, etc, etc but not for the Soddy king? Is he not every bit as repressive as any of the others? Most likely even more so?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 12/13/2012 12:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Well at least Bahrain is peaceful and quiet ...not
Maybe the US and Russia could make a deal to protect their bases, you stay out of Syria and we'll stay out of Bahrain.
Posted by: tipper || 12/13/2012 21:19 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
'Friends of Syria' Recognize Syrian Opposition
[VOA News] A group of more than 100 nations calling for Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
to step down has formally recognized a newly formed Syrian opposition coalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.

In another development, a senior U.S. official says the Syrian government recently fired Scud missiles at jihad boys. There was no indication the missiles carried chemical weapons.

The use of Scud missiles could be seen as an escalation of the nearly two-year conflict in Syria, and it comes as more international favor has shifted toward the rebels.

"We want to accelerate the political transition in Syria to stop the bloodshed in this country," said Moroccan Foreign Minister Saadeddine el Othmani, host of the "Friends of Syria" conference in Marrakech that endorsed the opposition Syrian National Coalition.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


India-Pakistan
Facebook removes Pakistani Taliban recruitment page
[Dawn] Facebook has taken down a page used by the Pak Taliban to recruit new fighters, a front man for the US-based social network site told AFP on Wednesday.

Earlier, the US-based SITE Intelligence Group said the Umar Media TTP page used Facebook as "a recruitment" tool.

This month, 270 users clicked a link to say they "like" the page. The account appeared to have been created in September and has just a handful of messages, written in English.

"At Facebook, we have rules that bar direct statements of hate, attacks on private individuals and groups, and the promotion of terrorism," a Facebook statement said.

"We have a large team of professional Sherlocks both in the US and abroad who enforce these rules. Where abusive content is posted and reported, Facebook removes it and disables accounts of those responsible.

"Whenever we become aware of possible violations of our terms, we will investigate these instances and take action if violations of our Statements of Rights and Responsibilities take place."

In Pakistain, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) front man Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP this month that the faction was "temporarily" using the page "to fulfill its requirements" before launching its own website.

The TTP mainly operates in Pakistain's tribal areas along the mostly non-existent border with Afghanistan, where it has links with the better-known Afghan Taliban, and during a five-year insurgency has carried out many attacks inside Pakistain.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
East Asia Students Tops in Math, Science, Reading
[An Nahar] Pupils in smaller, prosperous nations and territories in East Asia lead the world in math, science and literacy, according to a set of global studies released Tuesday in the United States.

Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan were the top performers in both fourth- and eighth-grade mathematics in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).

"At the eighth grade, clearly the East Asian countries ... are pulling away from the rest of the world by a considerable margin," the report said in its executive summary.

In science, Singapore and South Korea held the top two tiers at both grades, indicated the studies, which are conducted every four years since 1995 by the International Association for the Evaluation of Education Achievement (IEA).

The parallel Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) named Hong Kong and Singapore among the top performing countries in fourth-grade reading comprehension.

Worldwide, out of 45 participating countries, only 12 nations had average achievement below the PIRLS centerpoint of 500, the study observed, and in nearly all countries girls scored better at reading than boys.

Students in the United States surpassed the international average, but lagged behind their East Asian and, in some cases, European counterparts.

The IEA, which conducts its research out of Boston University, posted the studies on its website: timssandpirls.bc.edu.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Don't know enough about the US system of education but I agree 100% with this critique of Aussie education.
Rigid education system means our children will suffer
Posted by: tipper || 12/13/2012 9:04 Comments || Top||

#2  To bypass digital pass copy and paste headline into Google and then enter through Google.
Posted by: tipper || 12/13/2012 9:24 Comments || Top||

#3  I think 1/3 of our problem is the reality tunnel we tend to believe and pass on to our kids: "It's Toooooooo Hard" and not worthwhile.

1/3 the rest of the educational system.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 12/13/2012 10:52 Comments || Top||

#4  What about the Asian students "self-esteem" and "feelings"? //sarc off
Posted by: borgboy || 12/13/2012 12:54 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Schools in southern Thailand shut down again
Teachers at 1,200 schools in the southern Thailand have decided to suspend classes for two days following a spate of attacks by terrorists insurgents. The Confederation of Teachers in the Southern Border Provinces (CTSBP) decided to suspend classes after meeting school administrators Wednesday. The confederation called an urgent meeting with school administrators in the three southermost provinces yesterday after a fresh terrorist insurgent attack on teachers earlier this week.

On Tuesday, five armed men entered a school in Pattani and opened fire, killing the school director and a teacher. Last week, a teacher was also killed and another seriously wounded in attacks in Narathiwat.

Boonsom Srithongprai, the confederation chairman said security plans must be rolled out by Monday. The group also called for the transfer of both Muslim and Buddhist teachers in high-risk areas to safer locations. Schools are expected to resume class on Monday if the demands are met but teachers would take further action if nothing is done, Mr Boonsom said.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said she will travel to Pattani today to gather information and give support to people affected by the violence. She will be briefed on the situation upon her arrival at Pattani City Hall this morning.

Meanwhile, a villager, Siteerohema Sama, 70, who was wounded in a tea shop attack in Narathiwat province a couple of days ago, has died, bringing the death toll from Tuesday's attack to six. A combined force of 60 security officers yesterday combed Rangae district to hunt for the gunmen. Sawawi Putae, 20, was caught in the raid after officials discovered he was wanted for the theft of a pickup truck on Oct 18 in Yala province. Authorities believe the vehicle was to be used to make a car bomb for a local attack.
Posted by: ryuge || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Thai Insurgency


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Damascus: Failure to Hand over Hariri, Saqr, Meqdad is Violation of International Law
[An Nahar] Syria accused on Wednesday former Premier Saad Hariri
Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's liquidation. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too.
, Mustaqbal
... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri...
MP Oqab Saqr, and Syrian opposition member Louay al-Meqdad of committing terrorist crimes, reported Syria's SANA official news agency.

Damascus
...The place where Pencilneck hangs his brass hat...
' First Attorney-General Mohammed Marwan al-Loji stated: "Failure to bring Hariri, Saqr, and Meqdad to justice is a violation of international law."

"They are involved in crimes of terrorism and therefore considered to be hard boyz who can be captured by international criminal law," he told SANA.

Interpol's office at the Internal Security Forces received on Tuesday from Syrian authorities arrest warrants against Hariri, Saqr, and Meqdad.

They were charged with the crime of arming the Free Syrian Army.

A security source later told Agence La Belle France Presse however that the Interpol has nothing to do with the arrest warrants.

Loji revealed that the warrants were issued in light of the airing of audiotapes revealing Saqr's contact with Meqdad and other Syrian rebels and their striking of an arms deal.

He added that the Lebanese authorities should have immediately lifted Saqr's immunity as soon as the recordings were broadcast.

"Charges will be filed against anyone found to be involved in the terrorist activity in Syria," he stressed.

The warrants come in light of requests by the Lebanese judiciary to question Syrian security chief Ali Mamlouk, a colonel identified only as Adnan as suspects in the case of former Minister Michel Samaha and Buthaina Shaaban, Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
The Scourge of Hama...
's media adviser, to be questioned as a witness in the case.

Samaha was tossed in the clink
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
in August on charges of forming a criminal gang aimed at carrying out attacks in Leb at Syria's behest.

OTV and al-Akhbar newspaper recently revealed that Saqr had been carrying out arms deals with Syrian opposition members, with the television station airing leaked recordings of conversations between the politician and Meqdad.

Saqr said in a statement on Tuesday that the arrest warrants prove that the Assad regime "forged the recordings."

He previously accused OTV and al-Akhbar of tampering with the audiotapes and saying that he will file a lawsuit against them.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Africa North
U.N. Says Convoy Fired at in Libya, No Casualties
[An Nahar] Unknown attackers fired at a convoy transporting United Nations
...Parkinson's Law on an international scale...
personnel east of the Libyan capital on Wednesday, a U.N. spokeswoman told Agence La Belle France Presse, adding that no one was hurt.

"Yes, indeed there has been an incident. A U.N. convoy was shot at. There were no injuries," said Radia Achouri, confirming reports that the attack took place in Khoms, 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Tripoli.
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
This is the second attack on a U.N. convoy in Libya this year.

On April 10, an bomb was thrown at a convoy carrying Ian Martin, then head of the U.N. mission to Libya, wounding one person.

Security is the biggest challenge faced by the North African nation in the wake of a conflict that toppled strongman Muammar Qadaffy
... the like of whose wardrobe will never be seen again. At least that's what we hope...
last year.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Tunisia arrests 11 after deadly border attack
[Al Ahram] Tunisian security forces hunting gunnies that killed a policeman near the Algerian border this week have tossed in the clink
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
11 suspects, a security official said on Wednesday.
"Eleven men, bearded ones, were captured, and another one is still on the run," the official told AFP, using the word "bearded" to designate Islamist orcs.

On Monday, gunnies shot and killed Anis Jlassi, head of the cop shoppe in the western region of Kassarine and maimed four of his men.

Security forces had been hunting for the gunnies near Dernaya.

At the beginning of the operation, the security services said they were seeking five "bearded" men and that they had located their camp, where an item of Algerian origin and a Tunisian SIM card were discovered.

Earlier on Wednesday, a security official said Tunisian forces had lost track of the gang.

Meanwhile,
...back at the pool hall, Peoria Slim swung his cue at Hurley's head...
the interior ministry said security forces defused on Tuesday an bomb that a man had left on a bus in Kairouan in central Tunisia. It did not provide any other details.

Clashes, strikes and attacks by hardline Islamists have multiplied across Tunisia in the run-up to the second anniversary of the start of Tunisia's revolution, which will be marked on Monday.

Members of Tunisia's orc Salafist movement, thought to number between 3,000 and 10,000, have been implicated in numerous acts of violence since last year's revolt.
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Three arrested in Dagestan over Sufi leader's killing
Three suspects have been arrested for allegedly helping a female suicide bomber kill an influential moderate Muslim leader in Russia's Republic of Dagestan.

Officials in the North Caucasus republic said on December 12 that the suspects escorted the bomber to the home of Dagestan's leading Muslim Sufi cleric, Said Afandi Atsayev, in August. Atsayev and six others were killed in the attack. A provincial spokesman said the suspects were detained on December 9 during anti-terror raids on three villages.

Several attacks on moderate Muslim leaders in Dagestan followed Atsayev's murder.
Posted by: ryuge || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Congressman's Kid Pleads Guilty to Assaulting Girlfriend
[Weekly Standard] Democratic congressman Jim Moran's
Democrat Congressman-for-Life from Northern Virginia...
son, Patrick Moran,
This was the guy Project Veritas got on tape telling how to set up a little voter fraud.
has pleaded guilty to beating his girlfriend.
I doubt that'll actually hurt his political career. By the time Dad retires in 2066 it'll be a youthful peccadillo.
The assualt outside a nightclub left Moran's girlfriend with bloody nose and a fractured skull.
Not just a little game of slapsy with her, but a full-fledged thumping. He must feel ever so manly...
"MPD Sgt. Paul, S from the Fifth District Vice unit along with ABRA investigator Stewart, Craig observed a white male, later found to be known as D-1 (Moran) grab a white female by the back of her head with his hand and slam her head into the metal trash can cage in front of the nightclub 'The Getaway'.
So he didn't notice the vice cop unobtrusively hanging around when he thumped her. The vice cop must not have realized he was the son of a Congressman-for-Life, mistaking him instead for a frisky pimp. No doubt the cop's career is over, since the arrest can't be undone...
After both parties were separated investigation revealed that the female (CW-1) was D-1's girlfriend
"Yeah! She's my girlfriend, so piss off! I wanna call my Dad!"
and they had been in an argument inside the nightclub over D-1 talking to another female inside the club. CW-1 stated that she and D-1 have been together for six months," the report continues.
"Yeah! Six months! Wanna see my bruises?"
"Shuddup! You love me, baby!"
"People like you are the reason undercover cops don't carry nightsticks, kid!"

"The argument filtered outside
"I'm leaving!"
"No, you ain't!"

where D-1 then assaulted CW-1. Officer Murphy (4041) and Officer Anderson (Curfew 42) responded to assist.
"[Rrrrrrrrrr!] [Screech!]"
Officer Murphy observed CW-1 to be bleeding heavily from her nose
"Jeez! She looks like she's been kicked in the face by a horse!"
and also observed that her nose and right eye were extremely swollen.
"Did yer nose always point to the left like that, miss?"
"Doe!"
"Then I think it's busted!"

Ambulance 11 responded to the scene
"[Rrrrrrrrrr!] [Screech!]"
for treatment and transportation to Howard Hospital.
I'm guessing that's Howard University Hospital, rather than Howard County, which is pretty far from there...
The medical technician advised Officer Murphy that CW-1's nose looked to be broken and that her right socket could possibly be fractured which is actually considered a skull fracture.
"It's an eye socket! How can you consider that a skull fracture!"
"Shuddup, kid! Eye sockets are on the skull that's why."
"I wanna call my Dad!"
"Shuddup."

"D-1 was placed under arrest for Felony Assault, Domestic Violence
"You have the right to remain silent..."
"I wanna call my Dad!"

and was transported to the Fourth District for processing.
"Book him, Muldoon!"
Officer Murphy who is a certified crime scene technician processed the crime scene."
"Jones, get me a cast of that trash bin! Jackson, [FLASH!] take some pictures!"
The Washington City Paper reports that the younger Moran plead guilty to the assault.
Good idea, since he did it in front of a vice cop and they got pictures of the bloody trash bin.
Wonder if I'd get probation if they had that kind of evidence on me. On second thought, I don't wonder at all...
Patrick Moran was fired from his father's campaign earlier this year
"Son, you're fired! Pack your spit and get out!"
"I wanna call Mom!"

after a video exposed him of conspiring to commit voter fraud.
"But really, I was just joshing!"
"You didn't look like you were joshing!"
[SLAM!]
"Owww! My eye socket!"

"I hope their privacy will be respected," Congressman Moran told the paper. "They look forward to putting this embarrassing situation behind them."
[RING!]
"Hi! This is Tiffany! I'm not at my phone and if you're Patrick Moron I never will be again! Please leave a message at the tone!"
[BEEP!]
"You love me, baby! Call me!"

CW-1? Things got a little out of hand. It's just this damn war and that lying son of a bitch Johnson Bush Obama Bush and...I would never hurt you. You know that...
Posted by: Fred || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Take it, CW-1...

The female identified herself as Kelly Hofmann, Moran's girlfriend of six months. The two had been drinking heavily and arguing inside the bar about Moran talking to another woman.

Hofmann was bleeding from her nose, and her right eye was "extremely swollen," the report said. A medical technician on the scene said that Hofmann's nose looked broken and noted to officers that her eye socket was potentially fractured. Hofmann was taken to Howard University Hospital.

In a statement released by Jim Moran's office, Hofmann called the police report "inaccurate" and denied that Moran caused her any physical harm.

"Pat and I were arguing, one of my high heels gave out, and I fell into the side of a trash can. On impact, I fractured my nose," Hofmann said. "I hope our privacy will be respected."


Ah, Ye Olde Broken High Heel Trick. Must be why he copped a plea.
Move it along, nuthin to see here....
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/13/2012 1:32 Comments || Top||

#2  D-1? If it stands for Douchebag-1, then it really should be Douchebag Jr. or D-2...
Posted by: Frank G || 12/13/2012 12:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Great in-line.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 12/13/2012 17:47 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Philippine clan leader pleads not guilty to massacre
A Philippine politician charged with helping plan the country's worst political massacre pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to organising the murder of at least 57 victims. Zaldy Ampatuan, allegedly one of the main plotters of the 2009 attack in the country's south, entered a plea after the court struck down months of maneuvers challenging the legality of his arrest.

The Ampatuan clan allegedly carried out the massacre in November 2009 to keep a rival candidate from challenging one of their members in upcoming local elections. At the time Zaldy Ampatuan was governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, a self-rule area where then-president Gloria Arroyo armed hundreds of the clan's supporters to help the military fight Islamic terrorists guerrillas.

The family patriarch and his son are also among 75 suspects on trial. The two are accused of plotting the murders along with Zaldy Ampatuan and other clan members.

Andal Ampatuan Jr. allegedly led a group of about 100 gunmen in stopping a convoy of cars carrying relatives of the rival candidate, their lawyers and journalists, and then gunning them down in a remote area. The massacre, in which the victims were buried in mass graves using an excavator owned by the provincial government, shocked the nation.

Philippine police said 103 people have been arrested over the massacre. However more than 90 other suspects remain at large, raising fears the clan may still be able to intimidate potential witnesses.
Posted by: ryuge || 12/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:



Who's in the News
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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.
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Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2012-12-13
  'Friends of Syria' Recognize Syrian Opposition
Wed 2012-12-12
  Syria Fires Scud Missiles at Insurgents, U.S. Says
Tue 2012-12-11
  North Korea 'launches long-range rocket'
Mon 2012-12-10
  Rebels Seize Chunk of Aleppo Base as Fighting Rages across Syria
Sun 2012-12-09
  Mohammad Ahmed Almansoor Drone-zapped in North Wazoo
Sat 2012-12-08
  Abu-Zaid al Kuwaiti Drone-zapped During Breakfast
Fri 2012-12-07
  6 dead, 450 injured in clashes at Egypt's presidential palace
Thu 2012-12-06
  Two Dead as Egypt Islamists Overrun Opposition Tents
Wed 2012-12-05
  Hundreds of thousands besiege Egypt's presidential palace to protest draft constitution
Tue 2012-12-04
  Syria FM Spokesman 'Defects' from Regime, Leaves Syria
Mon 2012-12-03
  Car bomb in Syria's Homs kills 15: State media
Sun 2012-12-02
  Mullah Nazir orders out Mehsud Taliban fighters
Sat 2012-12-01
  Egypt assembly approves new draft constitution
Fri 2012-11-30
  Damascus fighting cuts off airport, Emirates suspends flights
Thu 2012-11-29
  Bomb injures top Talibunny Mullah Nazir

Better than the average link...



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