North Korea has started injecting fuel into its long-range missile and is on the brink of a launch.
The activity is ongoing at the North's launch pad in Dongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province, according to a Pentagon official who spoke to the Asahi Shimbun on the condition of anonymity.
The movements were captured using a U.S. reconnaissance military satellite that can identify objects on the ground as small as 12 inches, according to the report.
The satellite also detected movement of people and equipment beneath a roof that is covering the launch pad.
North Korea had announced that it plans to launch an "earth observations satellite" between Feb. 8 and 24, and on Friday South Korea military and intelligence officials said if Pyongyang has started injecting fuel into a rocket, the launch is likely to occur within the week.
In December 2012, North Korea began preparations about a week to 10 days prior to launching the "Unha-3" and started injecting fuel about three to four days before liftoff.
Critics have said the North Korea plan is a cover for a test of its ballistic missile technology. China, its closest economic partner and traditional ally, has issued multiple warnings to Pyongyang.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Friday the situation is "serious," but stressed the need to maintain necessary communication with North Korea and not just with the United States, South Korea and Russia, Yonhap reported.
"We do not want further heightening of tensions," Wang said on Hong Kong's Phoenix Television.
Chinese state media had warned North Korea would pay a "severe price" if it goes ahead with the proposed satellite launch, and Hong Kong TV commentator Qiu Zhenhai said the North was not "taking China's face into consideration."
But China is also wary of any future deployment of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, on the peninsula.
State television aired footage Friday of military exercises and the firing of Beijing's DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile, also known as a "carrier killer."
In an apparent move to show how serious the Pentagon is about countering conventional threats such as Russia and China, Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter announced Wednesday that the U.S. Navy would get a new ship-killing missile.
The SM-6 is a vertically launched system fired from the deck of destroyers and cruisers. The missile was designed and fielded to intercept ballistic missiles in flight while they are passing through the upper atmosphere, but now, with Carter's announcement, the SM-6 will be upgraded to defeat enemy ships.
"It makes the SM-6 basically a twofer," said Carter to an audience of sailors in San Diego. "[It] can shoot down airborne threats. And now you can attack and destroy a ship at long range with the very same missile."
The SM-6 is another step forward as the Pentagon moves to configure certain weapons systems to defeat enemy ships. In February 2015, the U.S. Navy showcased a video of a U.S. destroyer firing a Tomahawk cruise missile that hit a moving barge. Tomahawks are primarily used for hitting stationary land-based targets, so if they could be widely converted and used for anti-ship use it would give U.S. ships an additional, and much needed, long range anti-ship strike capability.
Carter admitted to secretly testing the SM-6 last month and added that the Pentagon's upcoming budget sets aside $2.9 billion to purchase 600 of the missiles.
Currently, the U.S. Navy's anti-ship missiles are the Harpoon variant, which have a range of only around 50 miles.
Writing in the national security journal War on the Rocks, the Hudson Institute's Managing Director for American Sea Power, Bryan McGrath, summarized the advancements in the Navy's anti-ship missile capabilities.
"What this means is that in the space of a year, the Navy's surface force, which many...had believed was becoming 'outsticked' by adversary surface forces, has gone from 50 ships capable of firing missiles out to 75 miles, to 90 ships capable of firing a subsonic anti-ship missile to nearly a thousand miles," McGrath wrote. "Add to this the Navy's plan to 'upgun' the Littoral Combat Ship with medium-range surface-to-surface missiles, and we see that the promise of distributed lethality...is beginning to be realized."
#1
Very nice, but still no match for an Anti-US US = Anti-American Amerikan OWG Globalist POTUS in the Oval Office as CIC + sitting atop the US National Command Authority.
In US Presidential histoire' or tradition, the policies or actions of one POTUS tends to be carried on by the Successor(s), espec iff the original POTUS' Party threatens to filibuster or shut down the Govt iff it isn't.
IOW, THE BAMMER'S + HIS ADMIN'S DECISIONS + POLICIES, ETC. WILL LIKELY GO ON IN ANY SUCCESSOR GOP-DEM ADMIN UNTIL SUCH TIME THE SAME ARE FORMALLY REPEALED OR AMENDED.
Sit up straight. Pay good attention. And have your affairs in order just in case . . . .
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un presided over a meeting of senior ruling party officials aimed at rooting out corruption and abuses of power ahead of a major congress to be held in May, its state media reported Thursday, calling the gathering the first of its kind.
The meeting this week focused on strengthening the ruling party and criticized "the practices of seeking privileges, misuse of authority, abuse of power and bureaucratism," according to a report by the Korean Central News Agency.
It is unusual for North Korea's state-controlled media to make note of such problems within the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, which Kim heads and which has been in power since the founding of North Korea in 1948.
The two-day meeting, which ended Wednesday and was "guided" by Kim, brought together members of the ruling party's Central Committee and the Party Committee of the Korean People's Army.
Though the article did not elaborate on the problems or suggested solutions, outside experts have long speculated that corruption and power abuse within the party are widespread and have been worsening in recent years amid the growth of a quasi-legal capitalist-style marketization of the North's officially socialist and centrally-directed economy.
In its annual report released last month, North Korea and Somalia were listed at the top of Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index for the second-straight year as the most corrupt governments in the world, scoring only 8 points on a scale of 100.
The meeting was held as world attention is focused on North Korea's Jan. 6 nuclear test, which it claims was the first of a hydrogen bomb, and its announcement it will launch a rocket this month to put its second Earth observation satellite in orbit. The U.N. Security Council is now discussing whether to slap new sanctions on the North over the nuclear test, which violated U.N. resolutions already in place.
North Korea's ruling regime, meanwhile, is heavily focused on preparing for the 7th Party Congress, a major event that will be closely watched for signs of new policies or priorities that could provide insights into how Kim -- who assumed power after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, in late 2011 -- intends to deal with his country's economy, domestic political issues and external relations.
The KCNA article said the congress, the first since more than 3,000 delegates gathered for the 6th Congress in 1980, will "be recorded as a new landmark in the history of the party."
It said Kim told this week's gathering that the party is faced with "manifold difficulties and ordeals," but added that he said "nobody in the world can block our way."
The marketization of the North Korean economy has been steadily growing since the famine years of the 1990s, when the breakdown of the state-run Public Distribution System that provided most North Koreans with food and basic necessities for free or at highly subsidized prices is believed to have forced many citizens to produce and sell goods on their own to make ends meet.
As such economic activity, often conducted in cash, grew on the fringes and has become more mainstream, it created opportunities for some individuals to amass wealth and has led to what many see as a nascent middle class that is growing in the North and particularly in places like the capital, Pyongyang.
But it is believed to have also opened up more avenues for officials in the party and the powerful military to seek bribes to look the other way or to demand kickbacks.
The insiders realize an administration has entered its terminal decline when they notice that foreign diplomats and senior journalists take a decidedly more relaxed view of their pronouncements than once they did. The invitations to the large receptions still come, but the intimate, probing lunches and dinners grow fewer. Your views are met neither with anxiety, nor urgent efforts to dissuade, but with a benign tolerance bordering on indifference. What is worse, you begin to notice that the foreigners are wining and dining advisers either to the opposition party or (worse in some ways) to the candidate of the incumbent party. The latter group—your former colleagues—have begun carefully but publicly edging away from the policies you and they once made together, and to blame you for having screwed them up.
An administration in its last year resembles a small woodland creature reaching the end of its life, seeking only a quiet burrow in which to meet its demise. Like that moribund animal, an administration will exhibit pointless twitches of frantic activity before the very end. These mostly involve extensive foreign travel to nice or particularly interesting places, which gets you away from the polite yawns of Congressmen and Senators (and worse, their staffs) that meet your opinions back home. But sooner or later you return to Washington, and there realize that your unglamorous duty consists chiefly in leaving the dog’s breakfast of a policy in the least-desperate shape you can for the next team.
Some officials, even the President, yield to delusions of major accomplishments still remaining. This is a particularly dangerous temptation for the woodland creature, whose stock of vital energy is dwindling steadily. In the final year of an administration an uneven team stumbles and bumbles more and more. The limbs are no longer coordinated, if ever they were. Everyone is exhausted. It is a bad time to try new things, particularly when it has sunken in, to friend and foe alike, that your time remaining is limited. A dying administration’s threats, like its promises, do not carry much weight, and for the same reason. Its increasingly strident defenses of itself convince no one—even some of those making them.
#1
It took roughly a decade before black american was willing to admit that O.J probably did it. How long until they are willing to admit that Obama caused a lot of damage to their community and the nation in general? I'm guessing 20 years or more.
He's like a cartoon villain, except that he's real.
He can be pretty amusing, except when he's terrifying.
He's a bit of a clown and more than a bit childish, but he's also one of the most powerful men in Russia.
It is pretty much impossible to ignore Ramzan Kadyrov and he knows it. And the rambunctious Chechen strongman seems to be getting more brazen by the day. Kadyrov was at it again this week, posting a video on Instagram showing opposition figures Mikhail Kasyanov and Vladimir Kara-Murza in the crosshairs of a sniper's rifle.
This comes just weeks after he called Vladimir Putin's foes "enemies of the people" and suggested in an article in Izvestia that they be placed in a psychiatric hospital in Chechnya--where he promised to double their injections. And, of course, he's widely believed to be behind the assassinations of the investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, human-rights activist Natalia Estimirova, and opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.
[snip]
What this suggests, according to some Kremlin critics, is that Kadyrov hasn't gone rogue at all. Instead, he is Putin's willing executioner-the leader of a death squad that can eliminate Putin's opponents with impunity, and with plausible deniability for the Kremlin.
Of course, Kadyrov the Frankenstein monster, Kadyrov the Kremlin's boogeyman and willing executioner, and Kadyrov the extortionist are not mutually exclusive. In fact, he's probably all of the above.
And, according to Moscow-based political analyst Nikolai Petrov, he may have made himself an indispensable part of Russia's political system-regardless of who is in the Kremlin.
"Kadyrov has the potential to be a tsar-maker," Petrov told The New Yorker's Yaffa. "Not because he has more men at his disposal than, for example, the minister of defense, but because his men, tens of thousands of them, will carry out his orders without thinking twice. If the minister of defense tells his troops to storm the Kremlin, he can't be sure that all of them will actually do it. But Kadyrov can."
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/05/2016
11:47 ||
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[Daily Beast] A CIA-backed anti-Assad militia reportedly killed at least one senior Russian military official this week with an American TOW anti-tank missile. Is this a Soviet-Afghan replay?
Evidence has emerged strongly suggesting that U.S.-armed rebels have used an American-supplied weapons system to kill a handful of senior Russian military officials in Syria.
Video footage, circulated by a known CIA-backed Free Syrian Army militia, shows a laser-guided BGM-71 TOWs anti-tank missile fired at a rooftop where unidentified uniformed personnel had gathered. The location of the building under attack is likely Latakia province, where the rebels have lately suffered setbacks as a result of intensified Russian airstrikes and artillery shelling aiding forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad's regime.
Everything is based on open-source intelligence and reporting from Syrian opposition, Turkish and Russian sources, all of which agree that at least one high-ranking Russian was killed in action in Syria. As of Thursday evening, U.S. officials would neither confirm nor deny to The Daily Beast whether an increase in resupplies to U.S.-backed rebel militias was in the offing as a result of the complete and utter breakdown of Syrian peace negotiations in Geneva.
#2
Perhaps the weapons used were among those allegedly behind the Benghazi debacle?
And perhaps the very well placed mortar rounds at Benghazi were dropped by..... In any event, the U.S. activities and sites in Benghazi appear to have been discontinued, with no plan for re-establishment.
#5
As a former platoon leader, and later company XO of a TOW company (E Co., 325th Inf (Abn)). I can confidently state that a TOW missile (with stand-off warhead) is great for penetrating armor, or putting a small hole in a wall. The warhead is a shaped charge, designed to project a small stream of highly destructive energy through a hole no bigger than your wrist.
It would be possible for collateral debris to injure or kill someone, and a direct hit on a human being would end his/her happy days - but using a TOW for an anti-personnel shot is pretty much ridiculous.
Hollywood makes "big booms" - the funniest being to watch some character fire a M72A2 LAW at some target - and see a huge explosion. The real rocket creates a hole about the diameter of a Mont Blac pen - and creates almost no visible display on the entry side of the shaped charge.
#7
Huh. The TOW now has 'wireless' versions. Plus:
"From FY 2012 to FY 2016, the U.S. military will only be purchasing the BGM-71F TOW 2B Aero variant and the BGM-71H TOW 2A bunker buster. The BGM-71F TOW 2B Aero is an extended range version of the TOW 2B anti-tank missile. This missile is used agains enemy armor and has a range of 2.8 miles (4.5 km). Compared to earlier TOW versions, the TOW 2B is designed to fly over enemy tanks and armored vehicles and hit them from above, where the armor is thinner. The BGM-71H (TOW 2A bunker buster) is used against buildings and field fortifications and has a range of 2.3 miles (3.75 km)." ty Aeroweb. Nice range.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
02/05/2016 13:16
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#8
Shaped charge technology is awesome, and critical to things outside the military - like perforating oil wells. We run perforating 'guns' down inside 2" ID tubing and fire a stack of a few dozen charges which make narrow conical holes through the steel tubing, a few inches of cement, steel casing, a bit more cement, and about 6 inches into the rock; the effective hole diameters through which the oil flows back to us are about 1/4 inch.
I have been told the technical origin of shaped charges was for making the conventional explosive shell around the plutonium core of the atomic bombs.
#9
Assuming the story is true and they really are CIA-backed anti-Assad militia doing it, why? Why would the CIA provoke the Russians now? Over Assad's removal? That's bat$hit crazy.
[LA Times] They gathered at the Beverly Wilshire, the men in tuxes, the women draped in evening gowns. The finest black talent in Hollywood was there that night in 2002, Quincy Jones, Samuel L. Jackson, Morgan Freeman, James Lassiter, Doug McHenry and Sean "P. Diddy" Combs among them. The "Mystic Knights of the Sea" as depicted in the pre-1943 serial version of "Amos 'n' Andy" were clearly intended as a Masonic parody. Perhaps an Oscars parady is in order.
It was an annual gathering held at one posh hotel or another on the eve of the Academy Awards. Officially, it was called the Tree of Life Awards. But most people called it by its informal name: the Black Oscars. Can we bitch and moan that there aren't enough white people represented?
"It was always a celebration of what accomplishments black people had done in the film industry," said actress and director Debbie Allen, who was honored by the Black Oscars and its sister event, the Black Emmys. "Sound, music, directors, actors, whatever your participation was, you were honored."
The annual event was launched in 1981 at a time when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rarely recognized black achievements. By that time, only 27 African Americans had been nominated in the 52-year history of the Oscars, with only three winning. The Tree of Life Awards ended in 2007.
But with the academy nominating an all-white slate of actors for the second year in a row, Gil Robertson, president of the African American Film Critics Assn., says the circumstances that prompted the Black Oscars are prevalent again.
"It began as a way to fill a void in the city and in the community," he said. "People work hard and invest in their craft and were being ignored ... so the Black Oscars became a way for them to receive acknowledgment of their talents and their craft."
#1
But wait! You want to be represented in the established Hollywood Oscar programme, and a separate, non-integrated 'black only' Oscar system as well ?
I'm sure some accommodation can be made. Separate criteria, standards, and systems are already widely accepted.
The re-segregation of America driven by one community. Because it's really about Power not Integration.
[no one has mentioned the legion of other actors, producers, writers, et al who were passed over who coulda, shoulda have been nominated even through they weren't of the aggrieved community]
#3
To hell with Hollywood.. Don't patronize their trash. The Oscars are just a trade show.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/05/2016 10:22
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#4
The affirmative action Oscars?
Posted by: Albert Ebbeamble1562 ||
02/05/2016 12:28
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#5
The same laws that would prevent a "whites only Oscars" would prevent a "blacks only Oscars". They would have to include token Asian and white nominees.
Is that really what anybody wants?
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/05/2016 12:33
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#6
A valet scratched my Cadillac
With whitey on the screen
I bet did it cuz I'm black
And whitey's on the screen
I've cultivated urban tics
While whitey's on the screen
For half a century, no new tricks
But whitey's on the screen
Unlikely doc, or geek, or God
With whitey on the screen
My audience is deeply awed
Yet whitey's on the screen
I play myself so expertly
But whitey's on the screen
And all his roles were meant for me
Not whitey on the screen
Taxes takin' my living wage
The haters make me ess my aitch
Obama's way back in the rough
And if all that crap wasn't enough
The valet scratched my Cadillac
With whitey on the screen
And Hollywood don't got my back
Cause whitey's on the screen
With all that money I made last year
For whitey on the screen
I guess I'm still a millionaire
Thanks, whitey on the screen
But still, I've really had my fill
Of whitey on the screen
I'll send this reparations bill
Western Union
To whitey on the screen
#10
Well, Will Smith is not a good actor anymore, if he ever was, and NWA wasn't as cool as the grown up white suburbanites remembered. What does that leave for black actors/actresses?
Admittedly, I think Fifty Shades of Black should get some recognition for simply attempting the parody, though I have not seen either film.
[PJ] The former chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said with the "body of evidence" against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, FBI Director James Comey "really has no choice but to refer this for indictment."
"It does appear as though the administration continues to push for, if you will, double and triple and quadruple measuring," Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), now chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, told Fox Business Network. "But as you know, we have communications back and forth, the president from Hillary Clinton's private e-mail. We have 1,300 sensitive documents, 22 classified at the highest level."
"This is well past anyone claiming that they didn't know."
Clinton told ABC on Sunday that her email scandal "is very much like Benghazi... the Republicans are going to continue to use it, beat up on me."
Yes well, now that you've brought it up, were any of those... now classified emails [highly sensitive, SAP related traffic that we cannot see] penned during, or just after the attack at Benghazi ?
Too bad there was no time for a proper rescue, available forces, etc. I'm sure people were talking and discussing, top men, people in high places, etc.
#2
Bottom line, its political and the Democrats and the present democratic Party administration will not execute the Law, the same way that immigration and the American Borders are not enforced even if there are Laws. Laws are not observed by the Administration. They are ABOVE the Law. If you are one of the Masters you IGNORE the LAW, Laws are only for Peons.
Hillary is ABOVE the Law and if elected will still be above the Law. You would need Tanks parked around the White House to get the Democrats to admit that the United States has only ONE LAW for ALL Citizens. Some animals are More Equal than other Animals.
#6
Doesn't someone have to convene the Grand Jury? Who does that? I thought the FBI took the case to a court, convened the Grand Jury and let it go from there.
Wherever they choose to go, the US makes sure they are contained.
Islamic State fighters have streamed into Libya in recent months, a US official said Thursday, heightening fears the extremists are gaining ground and influence in the north African country.
About 5,000 IS jihadists are now in Libya, the defense official said, approximately double earlier estimates, while the number of IS extremists in Iraq and Syria has dropped.
The updated tallies come as the administration of President Barack Obama faces growing calls for the US military to step up action against the IS group in Libya, where the jihadists have already seized the city of Sirte and an adjoining length of Mediterranean coastline.
NATO defense ministers are meeting in Brussels next week to evaluate the ongoing US-led coalition campaign against the IS group and to discuss ways of redoubling efforts.
Patrick Skinner, a former CIA case officer now with The Soufan Group consultancy, said the United States has few good Libya options, but there is growing consensus something must be done.
"They are just terrified of it getting much worse, fast," Skinner told AFP.
"Once the Islamic State takes something, it's really hard and really bloody and really expensive to take it back."
The United States now believes there to be between 19,000 and 25,000 IS fighters in Iraq and Syria -- the group's so-called "caliphate" -- down from a previous count of 20,000-33,000.
But there are growing fears about the fate of Libya, which has been in chaos since the NATO-backed ouster of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.
Skinner pointed to the irony of Western leaders now scrambling for solutions in Libya.
"The international coalition is going to air-strike its way out of the chaos created by air strikes," he said.
"That's actually what people are considering. Something has to be done. The horrible reality is: what is that something?"
- Public executions -
IS fighters have capitalized on Libya's disarray and spread the group's influence into the north African nation, establishing a stronghold in Sirte, Kadhafi's hometown.
Life in the city, which IS fighters seized in June, now resembles that of other towns flying the jihadists' signature black flag. Witnesses have described public executions and say women are no longer allowed outside without a male guardian.
Reluctant to see its 18-month air campaign against the IS group in Iraq and Syria spread to a third country, the United States has repeatedly stressed the importance of finding cooperative local partners to help fight IS in Libya.
Washington has also pushed international allies -- especially former colonial power Italy -- to take the lead in any coalition operations there.
"We appreciate the leadership they've shown. We appreciate their contributions to the coalition to go after Daesh," State Department spokesman John Kirby said, using an Arabic abbreviation for the IS group.
US diplomats have also said any actions in Libya must be carried out alongside a functioning and unifying government.
Libya has had two rival administrations, with the recognized authorities based in the country's far east and a militia-backed authority in Tripoli since the summer of 2014.
- Ease of travel to Libya -
The decrease of IS fighters in Iraq and Syria is due to successes in the ongoing US-led air campaign and the relative ease of traveling to Libya from north African countries, the US official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
It's a "combination of battlefield deaths, desertions, internal disciplinary actions, recruiting shortfalls and difficulties that foreign fighters face traveling into Syria," the official said.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest confirmed the latest tally for Iraq and Syria, based on a new intelligence assessment.
Islamic State fighters "continue to be a substantial threat, but the potential numbers have declined," he said.
While Obama is not considering opening "a new front" against the IS group in Libya, Earnest said: "We're going to continue to watch how the threat in Libya evolves and we're going to continue to be prepared to take action."
The United States has already taken limited steps in Libya. In November, it launched an air strike killing top IS leader Abu Nabil, an Iraqi also known as Wissam Najm Abd Zayd al-Zubaydi.
And in December the Pentagon acknowledged that a group of US special operations troops who traveled to Libya to "foster relationships" was kicked out of the country soon after arriving.
Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution, said it's difficult to work with "moderate" militias, as illustrated in Syria, where a hodgepodge of armed groups are pursuing rival goals that don't always align with America's.
"I would expect Obama to go slow on this latter matter in Libya, just as he has in Syria," he said.
"But I think he will quite likely use airpower -- and perhaps the occasional commando raid -- if there is reason to think that can contain or modestly weaken IS."
#4
I suspect Putin is hammering ISIS in Syria and a few of them have decided working in Libya (away from the bombs) sounds healthier. Similar thing happened between Afghanistan and Iraq at one point.
I'd let them run to Libya and concentrate on Syria/Iraq. Humiliate them if possible, send them running like cowards.
#5
"Gaining ground + influence" > ditto as per SE Asia + ex-Soviet Central Asia -Stans.
'Tis worrisome enuff to cause China to begin dev of specialized Anti-Terror Commando units vee the PLA, + to weigh using them overseas or out-ot-country on covert elimination/decap missions.
I think I see how this is going to play out. The FBI will find some confidential emails here and there and then decide that it's a system-wide problem and give everybody a pass with a stern warning not to do it again. Nevermind that an unfinished tally of Hilla the Hun's email had a bazillion classifieds, dozens of top-secrets and also several so secret we can't even talk about them, she will also get to go along with the free ride, too.
[NYTimes] The State Department has discovered a dozen emails containing classified information that were sent to the personal email accounts of Colin L. Powell and close aides of Condoleezza Rice during their tenures as secretaries of state for President George W. Bush.
Two emails were sent to Mr. Powell's personal account, and 10 to personal accounts of Ms. Rice's senior aides. Those emails have now been classified as "confidential" or "secret" as part of a review process that has resulted in similar "upgrades" of information sent through the personal email server that Hillary Clinton used while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. The State Department did not say who sent the emails to Mr. Powell or to Ms. Rice's aides, or who received the messages.
It is against the law to have classified information outside a secure government account.
Of the nearly 30,000 emails from Mrs. Clinton's server that have been released by the State Department under a court order, 18 emails sent to or from her have also been classified as secret, and 1,564 others have been classified at the lower level of "confidential."
Last week, the State Department said that 22 emails had now been classified as "top secret" and would not be released, and would have part or all of their contents redacted, or blacked out. A review of 3,700 more emails by the department and intelligence agencies continues. More blah blah at link.
#1
Condi and Colin set up their own private servers? No
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/05/2016 5:46
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#2
Powell and Rice also had all of those questionable land investment deals, lengthy lists of dead associates, foreign pay-for-play schemes, money laundering Canadian based foundations, and presidential aspirations.
And to top it off, Powell and Rice were 'white black people' and evil Bushitler appointees !!!
Why must we continue to denigrate the helpless Clintons ?
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
02/05/2016 7:23
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#4
So they should indict Colin and Condi, too. Right after Hilly's indictment. Her trial and punishment can set a precedent for all the others. And future scofflaws.
[sigh] I ain't holdin' my breath.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/05/2016 7:48
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#5
My understanding is that these e-mails were only became classified AFTER they left. I'd be very interested to know exactly when they ended up getting these classification. Maybe in the last couple months?
Posted by: Charles ||
02/05/2016 12:11
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#6
My understanding is that these e-mails were only became classified AFTER they left.
Complete and total BS. Classified data were copied off the black internet and inserted into emails that resided on HRC's email server for the entire world intelligence communities to steal.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/05/2016 12:27
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#7
My understanding is that these e-mails only became classified AFTER they left. I'd be very interested to know exactly when they ended up getting these classification. Maybe in the last couple months?
No, it was a 'cut'n paste' or roving thumb drive operation by somebody or a group of somebodies. Hundreds or thousands of pieces of TS/SCI or SAP traffic are not classified after the fact. The classification markings were removed by unauthorized person(s) and the traffic was ported or re-keyed to an UNCLAS system. It's as simple as that.
Difficult to say what will come of all of this. My guess is nothing. Those involved [and there are probably many] are too big to fail
#8
What security officer would allow USB ports on a classified computer? Or if they did, wouldn't disable the mount removable drive software (or at least flag it to a security admin)?
I am guessing printed, brought outside, and scanned.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/05/2016 13:31
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#9
I wondered if a Dragon-type verbal recognition software wasn't brought into the SCIF (illegally) and used to write what classified was then read aloud by the staffer(s) who then used it to write to unclass email and send to Hilda. Saves the risk of carrying out classified and having the whole signature receipt risk for the criminal(s) who did this.
#10
Could do Dragon over the phone. Yes, that could work; Yikes. Hard to imagine admins letting users load their own software though.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/05/2016 13:45
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#11
If Dragon was on the other end of the phone outside the SCIF then yes, that would work.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/05/2016 13:47
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#12
"What security officer would allow USB ports on a classified computer?" DS had been screaming about this for years. It was not until Manning/Wikileaks that DOS decided to remove USB ports (though I think Manning copied some stuff on CDROM).
USB ports were available during the Beast's term as SecState. Mr. B has it right IMHO - print out class material and hand jam it into uncles system and/or USB airgap from one system to the other. They did it willing and knowingly and none of them will ever be punished.
If I did it I would be placed on admin leave pending dismissal/criminal charges, my office would be sealed with crime scene tape, and my clearance suspended in a flipping heartbeat.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
02/05/2016 14:02
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#13
Amusing that State wants more time to produce Hil's mail, but they do have the resources to root around in Colin Powell's old correspondence.
#14
I can see going back into legacy material to see if anything else was sabotaged. Colin Powell may never have known that the emails sent to him contained classified material, since they WERE sent to him. It depends on who sent them, when, and why. If some of Ms. Rice's senior aides had received classified emails and KNEW they were classified, there was a problem. Several big differences between this and Hillary: Neither Powell nor Rice created an exclusively non-governmental server, and did all their business through it. There is (yet) no evidence that any of either of them routinely received classified material on their personal accounts. Neither of them tried to HIDE their personal email account. And (so far) TOP SECRET Codeword material hasn't been discovered, as it was on Hitlery's account. If Hillary doesn't burn, you can put a fork in the United States -- it's dead.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/05/2016 23:44
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[IsraelTimes] Chief of staff says improved weaponry will serve as deterrent 'against enemies'
The commander-in-chief of Iran's army disclosed on Thursday plans for an upgraded missile program and brushed off the threat of new sanctions.
"Iran's future missile program will become more precise and stronger, and these are deterrent weapons that pose no threat to our neighbors and friends, but are against enemies," the Iranian Tasneem agency quoted Major General Ataollah Salehi as saying.
Ballistic missile tests by Iran were prohibited under Security Council resolution 1929, which was passed five years ago and remained valid until July's nuclear deal went into effect January 16. Since then, in line with another Security Council resolution passed immediately after the nuclear deal, Iran is "called upon" to refrain for up to eight years from any work on ballistic missiles designed to carry nuclear weapons.
Iran has been repeatedly accused of breaching the terms of the previous and current resolutions. It has maintained that its missile program is for defensive purposes only and thus is not bound by the restrictions.
Last month, the US warned Iran regarding a series of missile tests which it said violated the terms of previous agreements including the nuclear deal, and said they could result in fresh sanctions on the Islamic Theocratic Republic. Washington has since said that plans for new sanctions are on hold.
Addressing the threats of renewed sanctions due to missile development, Salehi was defiant, saying that the Islamic Theocratic Republic would not abide by any such resolutions and they were of no concern to his military.
Last month, the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps had rebuffed US threats, saying that Iran would "keep producing missiles for as long as the United States supports Israel" and that it has so many missile it "doesn't know where to put them."
Iran says it has ballistic missiles with a range of 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles), which are capable of striking Israel -- which it refers to as the "lesser Satan," with the United States being the "great Satan." Threatening Israel with complete destruction is a common theme in statements by Iranian leaders and military officials, though they are usually careful to note that such a move would only be in a "defensive" context.
[Ynet] Five Paleostinians were tossed in the clink Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! overnight Wednesday in Qabatiya in the West Bank as part of the Shin Bet's investigation into to terror attack at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem that claimed the life of a Border Policewoman.
The Shin Bet were searching for the accessory to the three terrorists, who took them from the village to Jerusalem.
In addition, the homes of the three holy warriors were mapped out ahead of their planned demolition, and troops searched for weapons in the city.
[Ynet] COGAT, Maj.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai ordered on Thursday to freeze all work and trade permits of the extended families of the three turbans from Qabatiya who committed the attack at the Damascus Gate the previous day.
This is the first time in this round of attacks that sanctions are taken against the extended families of terrorists.
I have no idea what COGAT means, but it sounds awfully official.
[AlAhram] Russia's air force hit 875 "terrorist targets" in Syria this month, the defence ministry said Thursday, after peace talks on ending the country's brual war broke down.
Planes conducted 237 combat sorties, striking 875 "terrorist" targets in the provinces of Aleppo, Latakia, Homs, Hama and Deir Ezzor, the defence ministry said in a statement. A ministry spokeswoman told AFP the strikes had taken place on February 1-3.
[AlAhram] Donor nations pledged on Thursday to give $11 billion in aid to Syrians by 2020 as world leaders tried to tackle the world's worst humanitarian crisis, while The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... reported a new exodus of tens of thousands fleeing air strikes.
With Syria's five-year-old civil war raging and another attempt at peace negotiations called off in Geneva after just a few days, a donor conference in London sought to address the needs of some 6 million people displaced within Syria and more than 4 million refugees in other countries.
Continued on Page 49
[IsraelTimes] Europeans said helping Paleostinians establish 'territorial contiguity' without Israeli permission; EU: Construction is 'humanitarian'
Israel is preparing to lock horns with the European community over what it claims is illegal European building in the West Bank aimed at helping the Paleostinians to establish territorial contiguity.
Army Radio reported Thursday that Israeli inspectors were having difficulty keeping up with the pace of prefabricated homes which, it said, are delivered flat-packed in the dead of night to be assembled early in the morning.
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#2
The European Union folk do not realize that by condoning and encouraging terror against Israel they are, in the Arab mind, condoning terror against all Western targets, including themselves. And they are beginning to reap the harvest of that foolishness. Terror in Europe will continue to grow as a direct consequence of their own behavior, in condoning and encouraging it. I wish them luck in dealing with it..
#3
"We are just concerned about the five kilometers of 3 meter metal piping, as well as the five meter thick reinforced concrete roof. Seems excessive for uhemn....a baby. milk. factory?"
ISIS Bad Guy dies of embarrassment from an improper Tweet by an assistant, and lead poisoning, but mostly by lead poisoning...
[LibyaHerald] There are unconfirmed reports that a fourth IS commander has been killed by a sniper in Sirte.
Abu Aisha Al-Khazdrawi, who is said to be a Libyan, was supposedly shot dead today from a considerable distance. The claim was made by the Sirte Revolutionary Brigade. No other details were given.
The sniper is becoming a social media celebrity but there is no independent confirmation of the killings. IS has not mentioned any deaths of senior commanders, which may be unsurprising.
What has been confirmed is a continuing campaign of executions and punishments by the terrorists. On Wednesday an IS web site posted pictures of three murders. Two men were shot on open ground on the edge of the town and photographed before and after they were killed. The third was crucified in another of the terrorists’ grim tableau.
The shock value of this last image was increased because the executioner was an IS fighter in sitting in a wheelchair, who held the rope with which the victim’s body would later be hoisted onto the frame of the former advertising hoarding in the middle of a roundabout in the west of the town.
There has been much speculation about the wheelchair-bound terrorist. He appeared to show no wounds nor disability. But there has been general agreement that by himself, he would not have been able to haul up the murdered man.
Meanwhile IS has published pictures of “re-education” sessions being held for Sirte citizens in Ouagadougou.
(IraqiNews.com) Dohuk – A local source in Dohuk province said on Thursday, that Turkish warplanes attacked a village near the district of Zakho, while stressed that the villagers were forced to leave their homes for fear of being targeted.
The source reported for IraqiNews.com, “Turkish warplanes launched, at noon today, an attack on the area surrounding the village of Senava southeast of the city of Zakho north of Dohuk,” noting that, “The attack resulted in inflicting material losses.”
The source added, “The bombardment lasted for more than half an hour and the villagers were forced to leave their homes for fear of being targeted.”
(IraqiNews.com) Erbil – On Thursday, a number of eyewitnesses revealed, that Turkish warplanes attacked the headquarters of Kurdistan Workers’ Party in Qandil Mountains north of Erbil, while emphasized that the attack continued for several hours.
One of the eyewitnesses called Ibrahim Kadim told reporters, “Yesterday, Turkish warplanes carried out an attack on the headquarters of Kurdistan Workers’ Party in Qandil Mountains,” pointing out that, “The attack included Īndizah, Liyūzah, Puskreskan and Zarkili areas.”
“The attack continued from 12 am until 4 am and inflicted material losses in the areas,” the eyewitnesses added.
[AlArabiya] An air strike believed to have been carried out by a US drone has killed six Al-Qaeda suspects in south Yemen, a security official said Thursday.
The unmanned warplane targeted an al-Qaeda vehicle in Rodhoum area, in Shabwa province, late Wednesday killing its six passengers, the official said.
The United States is the only country known to operate armed drones over Yemen, home to what it considers to be the extremist group's most dangerous affiliate - al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
It has kept up strikes on extremists during months of fighting between pro-government forces and Iran-backed Houthi rebels who control the capital.
Militants, including AQAP and ISIS, have gained ground in the south, with AQAP fighters seizing the town of Azzan in Shabwa, earlier this week.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/05/2016
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#1
Needs a picture of a cockroach about to be pounded by an arm wielding the heel of a shoe.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/05/2016 11:17
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[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] A high-ranking Department of Veterans Affairs official on Tuesday defended the VA's failure to discipline two employees accused of misconduct, and blamed the outrage over their lenient treatment on "considerable external pressure" by the media and Congress to punish personnel who may not have done anything wrong.
Sloan Gibson, deputy VA secretary, praised a judge's recent decision in personnel cases that stopped the demotions of Diana Rubens and Kimberly Graves, two VA officials accused of together stealing more than $400,000 in benefits from the government.
The allegations against Graves and Rubens came in a September 2015 inspector general report, which found the two officials had created job openings for themselves in far-away cities and gamed a VA program meant to pay the moving expenses of agency employees.
But Gibson said Tuesday the inspector general report was flawed, arguing Graves and Rubens should never have been demoted in the first place.
According to the inspector general, Graves had pressured a colleague to leave his job so she could manipulate the VA's employee relocation program and pocket nearly $130,000 in benefits. The same report found Rubens had created a less-demanding position for herself at the VA's regional office in Philadelphia, then netted $274,000 in moving benefits to take the job while retaining the same six-figure salary.
Gibson denied either official had stolen taxpayer money.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2016
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#1
Gibson and the other two should be part of a Jan 21st housecleaning
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/05/2016 5:42
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#2
Repeal the Civil Service Act. If they're going to be crooks and operatives for one party, they might as well be cleaned out every four or eight years.
#3
Patronage was intended to be for the senior leaders of government agencies to be selected to reflect the current administrations policies that were approved by the voters since they elected the President based on them. Essentially lifetime tenure in the Civil Service and a massive disparity in ethnic, demographic, and political positions held by civil service workers now, along with their overwhelming Union political contributions, have made them a permanent overclass for the democrat party. Democrats have salted away a massive and permanent constituency in places like Justice Civil Rights Division, the IRS, the EPA, increasingly DHS, Treasury.....and they make all the tens of thousands of regulations and rules that are choking the Republic.
A unit of the Libyan National Army stationed in the south-eastern oasis town of Kufra is said to have smashed a gang of rebel Sudanese gunmen from Darfur operating a checkpoint 200 kilometres north of the town.
Military commander Abdurrahman Hashim is quoted as saying that his men launched a surprise attack on the Burazeg checkpoint yesterday, killing 20 members of the gang, capturing six and destroying five of their vehicles. Four soldiers from his Subul Assalam unit were injured in the operation, he stated.
There are reports that the unit is not part of the LNA and is a Salafist outfit. However, a local Kufra council official claimed that the operation was supported by LNA airstrikes.
The gunmen are claimed to have used the checkpoint to rob travellers hold them for ransom or even kill them. They are reported as being members of both the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM). These are not the same, although one splinter group of the SLM joined with former members of JEM in 2010.
JEM, which became the major rebel force in Darfur at the height of the uprising there was backed by Qaddafi and during the revolution, it acted as his army in and around Kufra. According to a local Kufra council official, the gang moved into the area four months ago.
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A source in the Iraqi Ministry of Interior announced on Thursday, that ten people had been either killed or wounded in a bomb blast in the south-east of Baghdad.
The source said in a statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “A bomb exploded, this morning, near shops in Nahrawan area south-east of Baghdad, killing one person and wounding nine others.”
The source, who requested anonymity, added that “A security force rushed to the area and transferred the wounded to a nearby hospital for treatment, and the dead body to the forensic medicine department, while cordoned off the area and prevented approaching it.”
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A source in the Iraqi police said on Thursday, that four soldiers had been injured in a bomb blast that targeted their patrol in southern Baghdad.
The source said in a statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “Today, an explosive device that was emplaced on the road side of the main road in the area of Arab Jabour in southern Baghdad had targeted an army patrol resulting in the injury of four elements and material damages to their vehicle.”
The source added, “A security force transferred the injured to a nearby hospital and carried out raids in search of the perpetrators of the incident.”
[ALMANAR.LB] The US state of Georgia executed its oldest death row inmate Wednesday, just days before his 73rd birthday, in a move critics denounced as emblematic of capital punishment's excesses.
Brandon Jones received a lethal injection at a state prison in Jackson, a corrections front man told AFP.
The African American man had spent more than 36 years behind bars for the 1979 murder of a white convenience store clerk. It doesn't matter what color the convenience store clerk was, but why did Mr. Jones spend half his life on death row? Presumably he was filing appeal after appeal, but it's an indication of the sickness of the legal system that they weren't dealt with by, say, 1980.
His lawyers had launched last-minute appeals to halt the execution, including with the US Supreme Court, but they were rejected.
Critics point to his case as an example of the "double punishment" faced by some death row prisoners -- spending decades in solitary confinement with no prospects but death. Why does it take 36 years for the appeal process to exhaust itself? The obvious solution to the long wait for an execution never seems to be broached in court...
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer spoke out last year against "unconscionably long delays that undermine the death penalty's penological purpose."
Death penalty opponents note that many death row inmates were sentenced to death at a time when they lacked a satisfactory defense system and that if they were tried today, the outcome would be different. Murder a clerk at a convenience store today while committing a robbery? There are any number of state prosecutors today that will seek the death penalty, and a fair number of judges and jurors who will impose it. Be careful what you wish for...
"Jones's case raises questions of proportionality and discriminatory application of the death penalty," the Death Penalty Information Center said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2016
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#1
The death penalty another one of those things that 2/3rds of Americans want, but the elites and your betters keep dragging out, obstructing, and shutting down. Remember, it's an oligarchy.
#2
but the elites and your betters keep dragging out, obstructing, and shutting down
Keeps the lawyers employed too, dontcha know.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
02/05/2016 9:09
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#3
Of course the elites want to end the death penalty. They are deathly afraid of:
1) its utter, final irrevokability, with no do-overs if they are wrong.
2) the fact that it could be applied to them. Visions of Tumbrels, the screaming mob, and Therimidor are dancing in their heads.
#4
Of course they ignore the literally thousands of 'executions' that happen in their cities, neighborhoods, schools, businesses, et al without any 'due process' or appeal. And you wonder why people won't talk to the authorities. When you avoid certain places, fear for your children when the sun goes down, and lock yourself into your abode at night, don't tell me the death penalty has no effect.
#6
He shouldn't have been executed on account of he had spent so long on death row that it amounted to double punishment - that makes for a great argument, drag out the appeal long enough and win because the appeal took to long.
[DAWN] ON Nov 5, 2013, Brian Holt, a hospital porter, died after colliding with a lorry in East London. His death marked the start of a two-week period that would see five more cyclists die in a series of accidents across London.
When another cyclist -- the sixth in a fortnight -- died from a similar collision on Camberwell Road, in a remarkable show of solidarity, more than 1,000 cyclists staged a 'die-in' protest outside Transport for London's headquarters in Southwark. As the protesters lay on their backs with their cycles flattened across the floor, they demanded greater governmental spending on improving road safety for cyclists. The government responded and Metropolitan Police launched Operation Safeway -- an effort to improve road safety by deploying officers at key junctions across London during rush hours.
A little more than a year later, and several thousand kilometres away, seven gunnies from the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) stormed the Army Public School in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Is it not Allah's will?
Irony aside, the author makes a good point which leads me to believe that he was educated in England.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/05/2016 11:14
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Berlin has warned Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... over the flow of refugees saying it will continue security operations in Afghanistan only if arrival of refugees stopped.
The country's Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere has said that Germany will stay in Afghanistan for providing security support as long as it is necessary but the influx of refugees be stopped.
"We're staying here as long as it's necessary. But we also expect that the Afghan population stays here," Maiziere said. "We want the influx of refugees to be stopped."
Maiziere said German police and soldiers will remain in Afghanistan "as long as it asks for security," but stressed, "because we want to stay, we do not want that many Afghans to leave their country."
The minister quashed any expectations Afghans may hold upon coming to Germany, stressing chances of asylum seekers finding success were slight.
"There is no welcome money in Germany. There is no guarantee of a job or an apartment," he told state broadcaster ZDF, warning Afghans not to succumb to propaganda spread by people.
Maiziere promised to bolster deportations of Afghans from Germany, using current flight routes between the countries and hiring charter planes. He also offered Afghanistan financial help to reintegrate returned migrants.
Germany has nearly 1,000 troops under NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... 's Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2016
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least two suspects have been tossed in the slammer Please don't kill me! in connection to the rape case of a 5-year-old child in central Bamyan province of Afghanistan.
According to the local security officials, the incident involving rape of the 5-year-old child took place late on Saturday night.
Provincial police chief Abdul Mubeen Izadyar said the rape case unveiled after the child was admitted to the provincial hospital for the treatment.
He said an investigation is underway in connection the incident and two suspects are in jug of the police.
Incidents involving rape of the children are rarely reported from the central Bamyan province of Afghanistan despite sexual abuse and rape of children have been rampant in Afghanistan, specifically in northern parts of the country.
The latest incident involving rape of a child was reported from northern Jawzjan province of Afghanistan earlier in September last year.
Earlier a teenage girl was gang-raped by a group of four men in northern Samangan province of Afghanistan.
The incident took place in Dara-e-Suf district of Samangan province late in the month of April where the girl was initially kidnapped and was repeatedly raped by the men.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2016
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#1
Please don't tell me they are going to stone this girl to death. Or is she underage and therefore innocent?
[NEWSWEEK] A Russian soldier has been killed after coming under fire by holy warriors in Syria, the Russian Ministry of Defence and the Kremlin have said.
On Wednesday independent news agency Interfax cited a Ministry of Defence source, reporting that a soldier had been killed in Syria. The soldier, whose name was not given, was reportedly killed on Monday after sustaining fatal wounds from shelling by the holy warrior group Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS).
During his daily press briefing on Thursday, Kremlin front man Dmitry Peskov said the serviceman, had in fact been killed but highlighted that the man had not taken part in fighting. He was there as part of a group of experts on Russian military gear.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2016
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[HOSTED.AP.ORG] The Belgian who led the Nov. 13 attacks on Gay Paree bragged that he slipped into La Belle France with a group of 90 gunnies from Europe and the Middle East, according to testimony from the woman who tipped police to his location.
In an interview aired Thursday by RMC television and confirmed by her lawyer, the woman identified only as Sonia said Abdelhamid Abaaoud was proud of the attack that killed 130 people.
The 42-year-old woman was with Abaaoud's female cousin on Nov. 15 when the younger woman got a call from a Belgian number. It was Abaaoud, asking for a hideout.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2016
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[DAILYMAIL.CO.UK] A barbaric new ISIS video shows a young, English speaking boy sawing the head off an unarmed hostage.
With his dagger pointed down the camera lens, the child issues a chilling threat to the United States for arming rebel groups to fight the terror group in Syria.
He says: 'Oh America, these are the soldiers you armed and you spent money on to fight the Sharia of Islam.
'We will destroy them as we destroyed the [inaudible] of Iraq... You can't escape,' he adds in the propaganda video which is thought to have been filmed in Aleppo, Syria.
The boy then says ISIS will meet their enemies 'on the hills of Dabiq' - a small Syrian town where some Muslims believe the final, apocalyptic battle against the West will be fought.
It is thought the boy, dressed in a grey tunic, is the son of ISIS fighter Abu Darda who was killed by a U.S. Arclight airstrike in Aleppo.
ISIS's hostage, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, was thought to be a fighter for the Levant Front rebel faction - a coalition of groups who came together to destroy the fanatics.
He is forced to give an interview entirely in Arabic before he is shackled and marched to an area of woodland.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Wow. I can't get my 10 years old to chop vegetables for salad.
Police officers and soldiers have intensified security operations in areas bordering Somalia and Boni Forest, Kenya Defence Forces spokesman David Obonyo has said.
Col Obonyo said the forces have launched a major operation in the forest to flush out Al-Shabaab militants. The KDF spokesman added that the militants had been conducting raids in certain areas because information volunteered by the public at times took long to reach security agencies.
He was, however, quick to add that cooperation between security forces and residents was helping win the war against terrorism.
“Attacks have taken place in several areas but it should be noted that KDF officers cannot be in every place at the same time,” he said.
“We also must verify information from the residents before we act. The public has of late volunteered very helpful information. We will definitely win this war.”
The statements came just two days after soldiers killed four suspected Al-Shabaab militants in the forest. The military said two other terrorists escaped with multiple bullet wounds.
During the Monday encounter between soldiers and the militants, officers recovered a police vehicle stolen by the terrorists at Milihoi Village on December 16.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/05/2016
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(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – The Commander of al-Hashed al-Shaabi in southern Mosul Fares Sabawi announced on Thursday the liberation of three villages belonging to Qayyarah area (60 kilometers south of Mosul), while pointed out to the death of 18 ISIS fighters during the past two days.
Sheikh Fares Sabawi said in a brief statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “We liberated three villages in Qayyarah area south of Mosul with the participation of 800 fighters of al-Hashed al-Shaabi, Nineveh Operations Command and the international coalition, as well as the Kurdish Peshmerga forces,” pointing out that, “We managed to kill 18 ISIS members, including five foreign members and destroyed eight booby-trapped vehicles.”
Sabawi added, “The operations will continue until the liberation of Qayyarah and the surrounding villages in order to cut ISIS supply lines between Mosul and Salahuddin.”
The Nineveh Operations Command announced early this month the liberation of a village in Qayyarah southwest of Mosul (405 km north of Baghdad), while emphasized that 31 ISIS members were either killed or wounded during the operation.
(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – On Thursday, Kurdish sources announced, that the Peshmerga forces and Arab tribes backed by the international coalition aviation have launched a massive attack on the so-called ISIS headquarters near Makhmour area south-east of Mosul, while managed to retake three villages, including the village of Kodila.
In Anbar, security sources revealed the killing of 11 members of ISIS during clashes with the security forces in Husaybah area east of Ramadi.
The sources also stated, that the joint forces stormed ISIS defense lines in different areas east of Ramadi, while a large number of ISIS fighters escaped during the clashes in Khalidiya Island.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/05/2016
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[DAWN] US President Barack Obama visited a mosque in Baltimore on Wednesday and assured Muslims that “inexcusable political rhetoric” against them had no place in America. "No matter what you do in the name of your religion."
“Attack on one faith is an attack on all faiths,” he declared. “We cannot be bystanders to bigotry.” Does that mean that neo-Aztecs are free to sacrifice a few folks to Quetzalcoatl?
Mr Obama told the congregation that the mosque, like many in this country, was “an all American story”. Right. Hard work. Application. Neighbors helping neighbors... Oh. Wait. Not infidels.
To those Americans who have never visited a mosque, he said: “Think of your own churches and synagogues, where people come to worship, to express their love for God and to each other.” And bonk their heads toward Mecca.
Mr Obama said that he was not the first US president to be called a Muslim, Thomas Jefferson’s opponents also called him a Muslim. “So, I am in good company.” Then there was that thing with the Barbary Pirates. He did attempt to negotiate for a while.
It was in these mosques, he said, where an overwhelming majority of Muslims worked to build “bridges of understanding with other faiths, Christians, Jews” and ran health centres and taught their children. Ummm... Where was that?
He said he was now going to say two words that Muslim “do not hear often enough, thank you. Thank you for serving your community and for helping us keep united as one American family”.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#3
Unless of course you attack Christians for being bitterly clinging untermensch, in which case it only applies to them and is not an attack on a tone else.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
02/05/2016 5:16
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#9
If Obama wasn't so heavily engaged in his own war on the first amendment there would be no need to reassure Muslims about safeguarding their first amendment rights.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/05/2016 11:34
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#14
Has NPR started covering for Barry by playing call to prayer intro to Thomas Jefferson Hour?
srzly, Jefferson's opponents would have had to think of the worst possible thing to call this fountainhead of enlightenment and it would be a muslim; trollface here gets called a muslim, giggles, and says stuff like the future not belonging to those who insult moomoo.
As a point of order, for those who believe in such things, Obama just compared himself to a slave owner during black history month, called the slave owner good company. Yeah, I know they are in their safe space with a black bag over their head, closing their eyes and thinking about Bernie.
The security authorities of Tajikistan have expressed concerns regarding thousands of militants concentrated along Tajikistan-Afghanistan border, it has been reported.
According to the authorities, the number of militants concentrated along the border has been estimated to be up to 5,000.
“Our intelligence agencies are not only closely following the situation in the inhabited localities in this and other districts of Kunduz Province, but also took additional security measures by reinforcing the Panj border detachment,” a spokesman for Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security (SCNS) told Russia’s TASS news agency on Wednesday.
The official further added that the insurgents belonging to Taliban group, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and Jamaat Ansarullah as well as few dozen natives of Tajikistan are among those gathered along the border.
The official also added that Dushanbe neither “underestimated nor overestimated these groups’ danger” having sufficient forces to rebuff the attacks and also “having strategic military allies in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), primarily Russia.”
This comes as sources close to the Secretary General of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) said in mid September last year that the Russian forces may return on Tajikistan’s border with Afghanistan amid fears the deteriorating security situation may affect the security of Central Asian countries.
The Russian officials had earlier expressed concerns regarding threats posed to Tajikistan from the South due to deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan amid presence of terrorist groups and emergence of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) loyalists.
#2
More this slightly-wet-yet-sunny, cool Guam AM ...
* RELATED BIG NEWSNETWORK > [RFE] [Russia] CASH CRUNCH, [Over]STRETCHED MILITARY SPURS RUSSIAN TROOP CUTS NEAR AFGHAN BORDER.
ADVANTAGE = ISIS/ISIL + aligned Hard Boyz iff Russia's economy collapses. The US-West/Allies have a vested interest in preventing anything that destabilizes Russia [+ China + India, etal.]
+ gives the ISIS/ISIL, Hard Boyz + Global Jihad the advantage.
* SAME > [ANI] ISIS PENETRATION IN AFGANISTAN IS UNLIKE OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD: [CEO of Afghanistan] ABDULLAH ABDULLAH.
ARTIC > Abdullah Abdullah = comments appear to illustrate Kabul's desire = willingness to push Afghanistan forward by allowing the Taliban to give up insurgent violence and become a full-fledged domestic Political Party-Movement involved in formal National Governance.
[TAGHRIBNEWS] The Head of Khalidiya Council in Anbar Province Ali Dawood announced on Wednesday, that the nephew of the ISIS leader His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us... was killed in an Iraqi Arclight airstrike east of Ramadi, along with eight of his lover companions.
Dawood said in a statement that "Today, Iraqi Air Force conducted an Arclight airstrike on the so-called ISIS sharia court in Albu Bali area in Khalidiya Island east of Ramadi."
Dawood added, "The strike resulted in the death of Abu Ahmed al-Samarrai the nephew of the ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, along with eight of his lover companions, as well as Adel al-Bilawi, the Military Commander of Albu Bali area."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2016
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#1
3rd wife's brother's 4th wife's son?
Posted by: Bov Flimbers ||
02/05/2016 23:43
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[ARA News] ERBIL – Subsequent to fierce clashes with militants of the Islamic State (ISIS), the Peshmerga forces of Iraqi Kurdistan recaptured a strategic town in the vicinity of Makhmur in northern Iraq, military sources reported on Thursday.
Kurdish forces of the Peshmerga launched an attack on ISIS headquarters in Makhmur suburb, bombing the militants’ positions with heavy artillery.
After two days of clashes in the area, the Peshmerga troops, backed by local tribal forces, were able Thursday to recapture Koudellah in western Makhmur after expelling ISIS militants from the town.
“Koudellah was constantly used by ISIS terrorists as a military base from which they have repeatedly attacked the Peshmerga army,” Peshmerga officer Reshid Sufi told ARA News in Erbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.
“Recapturing the town would help the Peshmerga’s operations to eventually liberate the whole district from ISIS terrorists,” Sufi said.
He added that the participation of local tribal groups in the battle against ISIS “reflects the people’s belief in the ability of the Peshmerga to regain areas under ISIS control”.
Koudellah was also deemed a main supply route for ISIS militants between Mosul and Qayarrah, two important bastions for ISIS in northwestern Iraq.
Backed by the western coalition’s air support, the Kurdish Peshmerga army has been combatting ISIS in northern Iraq for more than two years.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/05/2016
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[ARA News] ALEPPO – Militant fighters of the Islamic State (ISIS) on Thursday launched an offensive on positions of the Syrian regime’s army in Aleppo province, killing and wounding dozens of soldiers.
ISIS launched two car bomb attacks at Syrian army bases in the towns of Afsh and Tal Maksur in the eastern countryside of Aleppo, before firing dozens of mortar shells on the army positions.
“At least 35 Syrian soldiers were killed and dozens more wounded in the offensive on Thursday,” local media activist Hussein al-Dahir told ARA News in Aleppo.
The Syrian army had recaptured the towns of Afsh and Tal Maksur earlier this week subsequent to clashes with Islamist rebels.
“Both towns were announced as military zones for the regime’s troops. ISIS launched its offensive after reports about large military reinforcements arriving in Afsh and Tal Maksur,” the informed source said.
Also on Thursday, clashes broke out between ISIS fighters and Syrian army troops in the vicinity of Khanasir-Athriya highway in Aleppo –which is considered the main supply route for the regime’s army in the province.
The clashes left casualties on both sides, before the withdrawal of ISIS fighters towards their headquarters in eastern Aleppo on Thursday evening.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/05/2016
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[REUTERS] Spanish authorities evacuated all passengers and crew from a flight bound for Riyadh at Madrid's Barajas international airport on Thursday after a bomb threat, which the airline later said was a hoax.
The Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... n Airlines (Saudia) flight was grounded before take off after the pilot noticed a note with a bomb threat onboard, Spain's interior minister, Jose Fernandez Diaz, said in parliament.
A front man for Saudia said the threat was a false alarm and the airline was taking all the necessary precautionary formalities.
"It's just another hoax that all airlines are subjected to," he said.
Spain's airport operator Aena said they had downgraded the alarm from general to local, meaning the alert would not affect other flights and the airport would continue operating as normal.
Flight SVA 226, which had been due to leave just before 1000 GMT with 112 passengers and crew and was seen at the airport with the inflatable ramps extended and fire and security services nearby, has since been isolated while the investigation is carried out.
El Pais newspaper said the note, with "bomb threat" written in English, was attached to a baggage compartment in the plane with a knife.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] 16 people have sustained injuries in a hand grenade kaboom in eastern Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province.
Governor's spokesperson said that security guards of Ali Baba Company were in a vehicle when one of them accidentally went kaboom! a hand grenade.
Ataullah Khogyani added that three of the victims are security guards of the company who were shifted to Nangarhar Regional Hospital following the blast this afternoon.
One of them was announced to be at death's door.
Other victims are civilians who were present at the site when the blast took place near Gumrak Jumat area in the second police district of Jalalabad city.
They include three children.
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02/05/2016
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[ALMANAR.LB] Russia urged North Korea on Thursday to avoid escalating tensions with a planned rocket launch, expressing "grave concern" over the announcement.
The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement that it had summoned the North Korean ambassador in Moscow over Pyongyang's announcement that it will launch a satellite-bearing rocket sometime between February 8-25.
Moscow said it had issued an "urgent appeal to refrain from actions that could further escalate tensions in the region" and called for "unconditional observance of the relevant United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... Security Council Resolutions".
It urged North Korea to return to talks over its nuclear program and other issues.
North Korea has notified three UN agencies that it plans to launch an earth observation satellite as early as Monday, just weeks after carrying out its fourth nuclear test.
The call from Russia, which last year said it would strengthen military ties with Pyongyang, joins a global chorus of warning against the launch.
UN Secretary-General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday called it a "deeply troubling development."
UN sanctions prohibit North Korea from any use of ballistic missile technology.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2016
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#1
UN sanctions prohibit North Korea from any use of ballistic missile technology
That ship has sailed. What are you going to do about it? Declare another red line?
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/05/2016 12:07
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[REUTERS] Berlin police had a previous lead that the German capital could be the target of an attack when conducting raids on Thursday in a search for men suspected of links to Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... holy warriors, a front man said.
"We had a lead some time ago of a possible attack in Germany, in Berlin. We do not have, as far as I know, anything more concrete," Berlin police front man Stefan Redlich said in a podcast.
"What is circulating on the Internet and in some media -- that Alex(anderplatz) is an attack target, or Checkpoint Charlie -- we don't have anything on that. We can't confirm that," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[DAWN] The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) claim to have tossed in the calaboose Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! eight members of banned groups on Wednesday.
A CTD front man said after receiving information about the presence of suspected members of banned ...the word banned seems to have a different meaning in Pakistain than it does in most other places. Or maybe it simply lacks any meaning at all...
organizations, they conducted raids in different parts of the city and arrested eight suspects.
He claimed the suspects belonged to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... , Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain ...a Sunni Deobandi organization, a formerly registered Pak political party, established in the early 1980s in Jhang by Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi. Its stated goal is to oppose Shia influence in Pakistain. They're not too big on Brelvis, either. Or Christians. Or anybody else who's not them. The organization was banned in 2002 as a terrorist organization, but somehow it keeps ticking along, piling up the corpse counts... and Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistain. Interestingly enough, you never seem to hear about Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistain shooting anybody up. It's almost like it's just there for balance against the other two Murderous Moslem organizations, which do rack up an annual corpse count that's awe-inspiring -- despite being "banned."
The front man further said they also recovered illegal weapons, proscribed literature and kaboom from their possession. Identities of those arrested were not disclosed.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[ALMANAR.LB] The terrorist organizations are losing many of their members, including 40 Jaish al-Fateh gunnies in Hama, and more of their equipment as the army operations against their positions continue.
Hama
The Syrian Air Force carried out during the last 24 hours intensive sorties targeting gatherings and sites of "Jaish al-Fateh" gunnies in the northern countryside of Hama.
A depot containing TOW and Grad rockets ...Soviet-developed 122-mm rockets, usually launched from trucks. Newer versions are reported to have a range of up to 30 km.... in addition to number of vehicles equipped with machine guns were destroyed and at least 40 bad boyz were potted in the strikes.
Deir Ezzor
Army units confronted ISIL gunnies who tried to reach Deir Ezzor military airport's fence from the direction of Hweijet al-Mrei'iyeh in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor province, a source on the ground told SANA.
The army members managed to destroy two vehicles packed with large amounts of explosives which the gunnies used in their attack before they reached the fence.
One of the two boom-mobiles was destroyed amidst a large gathering of terrorists, with all of them getting killed or injured, the source explained.
More ISIL bad boyz were potted and their equipment was destroyed as the army hit their positions in the villages of al-Mrei'iyeh, Hweijet al-Mrei'iyeh and surrounding farms and al-Jafra.
Daraa
In southern Syria, an army unit destroyed vehicles, a fortified position and a heavy machinegun for gunnies in Daraa al-Mahatta area in Daraa city.
Members of a terrorist group were killed or injured during an army operation against their site in al-Manshiyeh neighborhood in the city, while a vehicle was destroyed in al-Abbassiyeh neighborhood in Daraa al-Balad area.
The army targeted a gathering of gunnies in the area between the villages of Sama al-Hneidat and al-Mleiha on the border between Daraa and Sweida.
Sources on the ground told SANA that an army unit destroyed with a rocket a launching pad for anti-tank missiles set up on a building in al-Yadouda town in Daraa northwestern countryside.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2016
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[ALMANAR.LB] The Syrian Foreign and Expatriates Ministry wondered at the statements of the foreign ministers of La Belle France and the US on the Syrian Arab army's recent victory in Aleppo.
The French and U.S. statements, which imply bewilderment at the army's victories, are quite odd, an official source at the Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
The army sealed an important victory on Wednesday by breaking the long time terrorist siege of Nubbul and al-Zahraa towns in the northern countryside of Aleppo province, which followed a series of other previous victories.
The siege, which was imposed by the two terrorist organizations of Jabhat al-Nusra ...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli sh-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ... and Ahrar al-Sham ...a Syria jihadi group made up of Islamists and salafists, not that there's that much difference, formed into a brigade. They make up the main element of the Islamic Front but they don't profess adoration of al-Qaeda and they've been fighting (mainly for survival) against the Islamic State. Their leadership was wiped out at a single blow by a suicide kaboom at a crowded basement meeting in September, 2014... among others, lasted for three and a half years, during which the locals showed "an unrelenting resilience and unshakable confidence in victory over the terrorists," according to the source.
With this victory, over 60,000 Syrians were freed as the "brutal siege" came to an end, said the source.
It highlighted that the French and U.S. foreign ministers' statements belied their feigned care for the Syrian people.
They have further indicated the close connection between the faceless myrmidons and the countries conspiring against Syria that are moving ahead unbridled with their involvement in shedding Syrian blood, said the source.
It also underscored these countries' continued support to the faceless myrmidons and their tools of the mercenary opposition groups through providing them with the political cover to veil their responsibility for the Syrian people's prolonged suffering.
The source stressed that the Syrian people, hand in hand with the Armed Forces, are now more determined than ever to continue their fight against terrorism.
The Syrian people, the source added, are also committed to serious work to find a political solution to the crisis through dialogue among the Syrians.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Odd is about the best thing you could say about any French or US statements about anything in the ME.
[REUTERS] A Syrian army source said the city of Aleppo would soon be encircled by government forces as rebels pounded by Russian air strikes expressed hope that the failure of Geneva peace talks would encourage their foreign backers to send better weapons.
The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , a major sponsor of the insurgency against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators... , said there was no point to peace talks while Russia carried out attacks in Syria. Moscow confirmed a Russian military trainer was killed in Syria this week, but denied that Russian servicemen were fighting on the ground.
The United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... on Wednesday suspended the first peace talks in two years, halting an effort that seemed doomed from the start as the war raged unabated on the ground and government forces severed a major rebel supply route into strategically-important Aleppo, Syria's biggest city before the war began.
Turkey said on Thursday that tens of thousands of refugees from Aleppo were moving towards the border due to air strikes.
Four months of Russian air strikes have tipped the momentum Assad's way after rebel advances earlier in 2015 that posed a growing threat to his control of crucial areas of western Syria.
With the help of Russian air power and allies including Leb's Hezbollah and Iranian fighters on the ground, the overstretched Syrian army is regaining ground on key fronts in the west, where Syria's most important cities are located.
But vast swathes of the country are in the hands of armed rebels, including a mosaic of groups in the west, Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... in the east, and Kurdish militia in the north.
The refugee crisis created by the five-year-long war moved back into focus as donors convened in London on Thursday, with U.N. agencies seeking billions in aid to help the victims of a conflict that has forced millions from their homes.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[NPR.ORG] Donald Trump nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
[Washington Times] Thousands of people around the world are allowed to make nominations for the prestigious award, including members of parliament and government ministers, former prize winners and some university professors.
The Nobel Institute accepts all valid nominations, which must be posted by Feb. 1, but the names of the nominees are secret.
In other words, in most cases the mere fact of the nomination is meaningless.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2016
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Go ahead. Give it to Trump. Or the gal who cuts my hair. Whatever.
His campaign makes sure every room is packed. Lately, that's because an overflow audience is interested in hearing from the surging candidate. But other times his aides have cut the room in half with drapes, ensuring it's a standing-room-only crowd.
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] Former drug company CEO Martin Shkreli came to Congress Thursday, refused to answer questions from Congress about his decision to jack up an anti-parasite drug, and then called members "imbeciles" over Twitter.
Shkreli, who boosted the price of an anti-parasite drug by 5,000 percent last year, attended a House Oversight Committee hearing Thursday on high drug prices. Shkreli, wearing a suit instead of his usual hoodie, took the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer questions.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
You don't tug on superman's cape
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask off that old lone ranger
And you don't mess around with Jim
#2
They're not 'imbeciles.' They're just envious and curious regarding your method of margins and handsome 5000 percent profit. Shkreli, Big Pharma, and the congress are all on the same team. Why can't we just get along ?
[ALMANAR.LB] German police Thursday tossed in the slammer Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! two Algerians suspected of links to the ISIL group (so-called Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... in Iraq and Levant) and hunted two others after raids targeting several sites including refugee shelters where some of the suspects lived.
The four "from the jihadist scene are under investigation over suspicions that they are planning a serious act threatening the security of the state", Berlin police said.
The alleged involvement of Algerian nationals in any IS plot as well as a link to refugee shelters is expected to add fuel to a raging debate over the 1.1 million asylum seekers that Germany took in last year.
North African colonists were already in the spotlight after they were blamed for a rash of sexual assaults during New Year Eve's festivities in the western German city of Cologne ...a lovely city in Germany. They invented perfume there... But the latest arrests risk compounding fears that jihadists are taking advantage of the massive influx of asylum seekers to Europe to slip inundetected.
The operation came as a huge police deployment was underway in Cologne to avoid a repeat of the New Year rampage during the giant week-long carnival festivities which begin Thursday.
One of the two men captured on Thursday is sought by Algerian authorities for his links to IS, police said, adding that "investigations show that he has been trained militarily in Syria."
The second Algerian was arrested for having falsified identity documents.
A woman was also detained in the course of the raids, although police did not specify the reason.
Some 450 officers took part in the operation sweeping Berlin, and the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony, and carried away computers and mobile telephones.
Among locations searched were "the refugee shelters where the suspects lived," Berlin police front man Stefan Redlich told news channel N24.
According to Ynet, the arrested woman , also wanted by Algeria, s the wife of the Algerian who trained in Syria; cell phones, computers, and other material were picked up during the arrests, and:
The men jugged Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! on Thursday have used aliases, claiming to be Syrian and French, Redlich said.
Steltner said the suspects had been in Germany for varying lengths of time, from late last year in the case of the man arrested in Attendorn to as much as 15 years.
Posted by: Fred ||
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DERA MURAD JAMALI: A Frontier Corps (FC) man was killed and two others were injured in an attack in Chattar area of Nasirabad district on Thursday.
According to official sources, an FC convoy on its way to Dera Murad Jamali came under fire from unidentified attackers when it was about 30km from the town.
An FC soldier was killed and two others were injured. The FC personnel travelling in other vehicles took positions and fired back at the assailants. However, the assailants escaped.
The body and the injured were taken to a local hospital before being shifted to the Combined Military Hospital, Quetta.
Security forces launched a search operation to trace the attackers and have taken some suspects into custody.
[TheIntercept.com] Responding to tough talk by presidential candidates about price gouging by drug companies, pharmaceutical executives have told investors that they are working actively to influence the political debate. And in a move that reveals how much leeway drug firms actually have over pricing decisions, some are even saying that they have minimized price hikes in recent months to avoid attracting attention.
Democratic contenders Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have both called for the government to do much more to bring down the price of medications. And last week, Republican candidate Donald Trump came out in support of allowing Medicare to negotiate for cheaper drug prices, a move that places him even to the left of some leaders in the Democratic Party. Drug prices are jacked up in the USA. The same drugs are far cheaper in Canada. This could be easily fixed by passing a US law requiring that all drugs sold in the USA must have a price no more than the lowest price offered anywhere in the world.
We could easily have Canadian prescription drug prices in the U.S. In fact, we already do at the VA. The VA accomplishes it the exact same way Canada does: by negotiating with the manufacturers the price they are willing to pay for medications, and by strongly restricting which medications their patients may get. The VA,and Canada, only allow prescribing older, cheaper medicines, most of which have come off patent and are made by generic producers... and don't work nearly as well as the newer meds, as well as having nastier side effects.
It is very expensive to develop a new medication, only partially because the FDA has become more risk averse over the years. As of a few years ago, it cost $2.87 billion -- with a B -- to turn a scientific discovery into that prescription your doctor writes, a process that takes on average ten to twelve years. And that's for the discoveries that are successfully turned into medications.
Venture capitalists expect that only 25% of the ideas they invest in will go on to turn a profit, ie. they have a 75% failure rate. New drug research has a 98% failure rate, which means that the overhead each successful drug carries is a great deal more than the mere $2.87 billion mentioned above -- there is no guarantee that out of any fifty projects, one of them will work. So pharmaceutical companies have to have hundreds of projects going at once, hoping that at least one of them will pan out.
But where pharmaceutical companies are not allowed to "jack up" their prices to cover research costs, they simply stop doing research. To do otherwise would bankrupt them within months. (This is why we haven't had a significant new antibiotic in decades -- at a time when more diseases are becoming resistant to the current antibiotics. I really, really don't want to go back to the old days of hygiene and hope, but that's where we're headed.) Generic drug companies in the US don't do original research. They just have to show that their products contain the same amount of active ingredient as the name brand that spent $2.87 billion and twelve years to develop the thing.
Which brings up another issue: patents. Drug patents, as I recall (it's been a while since I worked in a lab), are good for twenty years, after which anyone can make them. Drug companies take out a patent as soon as they think they have something viable -- because what's the point of spending all that time and money if someone else can claim prior discovery, and therefore sole right to manufacture the result? Out of a twenty year patent, the company therefore has on average eight years to make enough money to pay off the cost of development plus the overhead to keep the company going before they will have to drop the price to near that of the generic companies if they want to keep selling the medication at all.
This is why most of the new drug research in the world is done in the US, with most of the rest done in Israel. Take that away, and you will get to have the latest research from 1990, just like they do in Canada, and never know that it could have been better. Or in cases like mine, or anyone infected by the Zika virus, that there could have been any treatment at all.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/05/2016
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It's been some time since I practiced but ....
The patent timeline is only going to get more negative from here on out. Until a couple of years ago the US, alone, utilized a "first to invent" system. However a couple of years ago our illustrious political masters implemented a longstanding dream of our European and Asian competitors and "harmonized" the US system with the rest of the world by adopting a "first to file" system. This incentivizes earlier and more frequent filings.
In light of the rather extraordinarily protracted timelines involved in bringing new drugs to market, thanks largely to our hyper-regulatory state and the unlimited liability to which we subject pharmaceutical companies, this incentive to file even earlier will only shorten the effective profitable term of any patents that actually issue for useful compounds. Recall that the term of a patent is presently 20 years from the filing date, itself a worse deal for patent owners than the prior 17 years from issue date regime. Thus, even earlier filing + constantly lengthening lead time to market = ever shortening window in which to recoup one's investment. Which, in turn, leads to higher prices during said shortened widow.
As noted above many single-payer systems simply won't allow new treatments. Other nations regulate the cost to less than necessary to keep the lights on in a third world factory (forget about recouping research costs or meeting FDA manufacturing requirements). Much of the world does not recognize drug or other medical patents. Many of those governments encourage, even actively participate in, counterfeiting. The free rider problem here is as enormous as it is intractable; a few hundred million persons, primarily in the United States, essentially pay the cost of all the world's pharmaceutical R&D.
One cannot have unlimited liability, absolute safety, heavy-handed regulation, a trend towards lessening the financial value of IP and a robust pipeline of new treatments. Sadly, it's the latter that will die while the others march on.
[ALMANAR.LB] Developments on the Turkish-Syrian border give serious grounds to suspect that Ankara is planning a military invasion in Syria, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
"We have serious grounds to suspect intensive preparations by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... for a military invasion on the territory of the sovereign state of Syria," Major General Igor Konashenkov, Defense Ministry front man, told journalists.
"We are recording more and more signs of concealed preparations by the Turkish military," he added.
The front man reminded that Moscow had previously provided the international community with irrefutable video evidence of Turkish artillery firing on Syrian populated areas in the north of Latakia Province.
"We are surprised that the talkative representatives of the Pentagon, NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... and numerous organizations allegedly protecting human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... in Syria, despite our call to respond to these actions, still remain silent [on the shelling by Turkey]," he said.
Turkey is trying to conceal its illegal military activity on the border with Syria and has canceled an agreed Russian surveillance flight over its territory because of that, Konashenkov said.
"Such steps carried out by a country, which is a NATO member state, in no way contribute to the strengthening of trust and security in Europe," the front man told journalists.
Konashenkov called the cancelation of the Russian surveillance flight over Turkish territory "a dangerous precedent and an attempt to conceal illegal military activity near the border with Syria."
The violation of the Open Skies Treaty by Ankara won't go without a proper response from Moscow, he said.
Konashenkov also said Russia has boosted all kinds of intelligence and surveillance activities in the Middle East.
"So if someone in Ankara thinks that the cancelation of the flight by the Russian observers will enable hiding something then they're unprofessional."
The front man reminded that 32 foreign observation flights took place in Russian air space in 2015, in accordance with the treaty, with four of them carried out by Turkish observers.
The earlier agreed observation flight over Turkish territory was canceled on February 3, after Russian experts revealed the route, which would have included airfields and areas near the Turkish-Syrian border.
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#3
Cyprus Intervention v2.0? A Win-win for the Grand Turk: (1) establish Turkmen puppet state and (2) ethnic cleansing relocation of Kurds out of Northern Syria.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The First Vice President Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum ...ethnic Uzbek warlord who distinguished himself fighting the Soviets and the Taliban. The story that he had a bad guy run over with a tank is an exaggeration. It was an armored personnel carrier... rejected reports suggesting his intention to step down from the government of national unity.
Admitting shortcomings that often lead to tensions with the government leaders, Gen. Dostum raised questions regarding the reports, saying "How it would be possible to distance from the government that we put efforts into for its establishment?"
The First Vice President was speaking during a gathering organized by the Youth Congress of Hezb-e-Junbish Millie led by him.
He said he will never allow any step to be taken for the collapse of the government, insisting that he has things to say and those sayings often lead to conflicts and tensions.
Gen. Dostum admitted that he has not been able to fulfill the majority of the commitments he made during the presidential campaigns, specifically pointing towards the Kunduz city incident which was overrun by the Talibs last year.
He offered apologies fo the residents of Kunduz province and called on his supporters to remain patient emphasizing that the issues and problems are gradually resolved.
Gen. Dostum also called on youths of the country to take all necessary steps to prepare for the upcoming parliamentary election, promising that he will do everything he can to support the youth of the country, politically and financially.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2016
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[DAWN] Shelling by Yemen's Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... rebels in the heavily contested western city of Taiz struck a museum housing rare manuscripts and the possessions of a deceased ruler, activists said on Wednesday.
Activist Reham al-Badr, who inspected the National Museum in Taiz, told said that rebels have routinely shelled the district where it is located, which is defended by local fighters.
She said the museum was struck on Sunday.
The interior walls of the building were torched black and the museum was filled with rubble and twisted metal. Al-Badr, who visited the museum earlier on Wednesday, said it housed a collection of watches, guns, swords, gifts from foreign visitors and manuscripts belonging to Imam Ahmed, who ruled until the 1960s.
Houthi spokesmen declined to comment. Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... has been torn apart by conflict since 2014, when the rebels allied with troops loyal to a former president and captured large swaths of the country, including the capital, Sanaa.
Taiz, Yemen's third-largest city, lies along a main route from the port city of Aden, held by a loose array of forces allied with the internationally recognised government, to Sanaa. Residents and aid groups say the Houthis have been indiscriminately shelling Taiz and blocking the delivery of humanitarian aid.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2016
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[NEWSWEEK] The Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... Lion of Islam group (ISIS) released images of a wheelchair-bound executioner purporting to crucify an alleged spy in the central Libyan city of Sirte late Tuesday.
The images, marked by the official logo of ISIS's Wilayat Tarabulus (province 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... ) in which Sirte is located, are captioned with the words "the execution of spies in the city of Sirte" and show the murder of three accused spies.
Two of the accused are shown lying lifeless on the ground while another bloodied man is shown strung up by rope on a wooden structure, with the word "spy" attached to his abdomen to identify him.
The wheelchair-bound Lion of Islam sits next to the alleged spy, kneeling before he is crucified, in front of an ISIS flag.
However, a hangover is the wrath of grapes... no Lion of Islam is shown carrying out the crucifixion and it is unclear if the man in the wheelchair is actually incapacitated, as ISIS regularly stages propaganda acts for shock value.
ISIS does not identify the three men in the images and the other pictures are too graphic for publication.
The group published the images in what appears to be an attempt to consolidate its hold over the former hometown of deposed Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffy ...who single-handedly turned a moderately prosperous kingdom into a dictator's fantasyland and was then murdered by his indignant subjects 42 years later... amid a series of attacks against the radical Islamist group.
"This is most likely linked to the series of anti-ISIS attacks we saw during the past week, ISIS is retaliating and using scare tactics," says Michael Horowitz, analyst at the Tel Aviv-based risk consultancy The Levantine Group, adding that the incapacitated man may have been a victim of an anti-ISIS attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2016
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[DAWN] The detection of 50 ghost employees in the Rawalpindi education department has landed the City District Government Rawalpindi (CDGR) in trouble during its last days before the formulation of the new local government.
A senior CDGR official told Dawn that the detection of ghost employees in the department had forced CDGR to halt the salaries of the ghost employees, worth Rs5.5 million, immediately.
He said the 50 fake employees included two in BPS-16, while the rest were in BPS-14 and BPS-9.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2016
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#1
Petty cash compared to US Ed Dept ghosts or otherwise useless employees.
President Nicolas Maduro called the owner of Venezuela’s largest privately-held company a “thief” and a “traitor” Thursday, blaming him for the country’s economic woes. In televised address, Maduro accused Lorenzo Mendoza, head of food giant Empresas Polar SA, of conspiring against his socialist government and meeting with his political opponents outside Venezuela’s borders.
“He’s a true thief,” Maduro said to a crowd of red-clad supporters. “I call on the people to unmask Lorenzo Mendoza in the streets. I’m waiting for you Lorenzo Mendoza.”
Polar’s billionaire owner this week has criticized the government’s stewardship of the economy and called on the Maduro administration to provide private businesses with much-needed foreign currency for imports. In televised news conference on Tuesday, Mendoza said it was “absolutely critical” that the government fix liquidity issues if it hoped to resolve nagging food shortages.
Maduro has long maintained that Venezuela’s triple-digit inflation and deepening recession are the result of a smear-campaign waged by his rivals. Maduro’s opponents counter that the state of the economy is the result of more than a decade of state controls and government incompetence.
And while discontent over soaring prices and shortages of everything from chicken to car parts largely fueled the government’s defeat in congressional elections last year, Maduro has so far doubled down on his socialist model.
“If you can’t handle your companies, hand them over to the people,” Maduro said.
That is, hand them over to him so that he, like Hugo's daughter, can grow rich...
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/05/2016
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#1
Is there anyone left to blame?
Does this mean that all the economic sectors they nationalized before were not to blame and therefore nationalized by mistake?
[POLITICO] In a strongly worded editorial on Thursday, The Des Moines Register called on the Iowa Democratic Party to move quickly to prove that Monday's results are correct.
The piece titled "Editorial: Something smells in the Democratic Party," starts out: "Once again the world is laughing at Iowa."
It gets sharper from there. "What happened Monday night at the Democratic caucuses was a debacle, period. Democracy, particularly at the local party level, can be slow, messy and obscure. But the refusal to undergo scrutiny or allow for an appeal reeks of autocracy," the DMR reads. "The Iowa Democratic Party must act quickly to assure the accuracy of the caucus results, beyond a shadow of a doubt."
The editorial cites Clinton's razor-thin victory as too close "not to do a complete audit of results."
The newspaper editorial also said there were too many opportunities for error to arise.
"Too many accounts have arisen of inconsistent counts, untrained and overwhelmed volunteers, confused voters, cramped precinct locations, a lack of voter registration forms and other problems," the editorial reads. "Too many of us, including members of the Register editorial board who were observing caucuses, saw opportunities for error amid Monday night's chaos."
The editorial ends by calling on the state's Democratic Party to "work with all the campaigns to audit results. Break silly party tradition and release the raw vote totals. Provide a list of each precinct coin flip and its outcome, as well as other information sought by the Register. Be transparent." The state Democratic Party, of course, ignored them...
There's a reason those back rooms are smoke filled.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2016
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#1
"like old fish"
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/05/2016 5:40
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#3
Iowa's caucus rules were for a different era, that is, when the caucus was a forum for neighbors to meet and discuss before making their choice known.
Its long past time to go to a primary system with secret ballots.
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/05/2016 8:07
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#4
"Once again the world is laughing at Iowa."
Was there another reason you placed yourself at the head of the line?
Posted by: ed in texas ||
02/05/2016 8:23
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#5
"Too many accounts have arisen of inconsistent counts, untrained and overwhelmed volunteers, confused voters, cramped precinct locations, a lack of voter registration forms and other problems"
#6
"Too many accounts have arisen of inconsistent counts, untrained and overwhelmed volunteers, confused voters, cramped precinct locations, a lack of voter registration forms and other problems"
Standard operating procedure when Democrats are involved. Nothing to see here.... move along...
Embattled Afghan troops have appealed for reinforcements in Sangin district amid reports that government forces have lost control of the key strategic town.
Soldiers who are apparently under Taliban siege have said that they are running out of food and ammunition and are unable to break the siege and clear the area of militants.
Dozens of troops are reportedly still under siege and no one is addressing the problem, a number of troops fighting Taliban in Sangin district said on Thursday.
Meanwhile, members of Helmand provincial council have confirmed the reports - which have however been dismissed by senior Afghan security officials including the Ministry of Defense and provincial police chief.
Sangin, once a Taliban stronghold - has witnessed fierce fighting over the past two months with several areas of the district in the north still under control of the insurgents.
There are reports that the militants have cordoned off all overland routes to the area, leaving air transport as the only way to reach troops.
"Two months have past since the war erupted, several troops were wounded and martyred," an Afghan National Army ANA soldier said in Sangin adding that despite numerous pleas, no reinforcements have been sent in.
"They (officials) promised that they will do it today or tomorrow, but promises weren't kept. The entire bazaar is under Taliban siege. They (officials) tell us lies. It is now four days that we did not eat," said the soldier.
Insurgents however have planted landmines on the routes leading to Sangin district in an effort to inflict more casualties and curb the advance of troops.
"There are problems and pressures, Taliban alongside foreigners and opponents mounted their pressure. They (insurgents) had decided to seize control of the entire area in northern Helmand in a bid to establish strong command centers. However, insurgents failed to reach their objectives," Dawlat Waziri, a defense ministry spokesman said.
Waziri said they have been supporting Helmand fully, but promised to discuss certain issues facing troops in Helmand with the chief of army staff in order to address the problems.
While Waziri dismissed claims made by the embattled forces in Sangin, members of the provincial council said that troops fighting Taliban in Sangin are under serious threat and are facing a food shortage.
"The national army and border police forces live inside a fort, supply routes are closed and they face food shortages. According to our information, it is four or five days that they have not eaten food," a member of Helmand provincial council, Abdul Majid said.
"A limited area is under control of government forces which is also under the siege of the armed opponents. Government cannot supply them. Because the main road is also under siege of the armed opponents," another member Bashir Ahmad Badalshakir said.
Criticism has mounted against the central government in recent months after reports surfaced that government in Kabul has ignored calls from embattled troops for reinforcements.
"It is a laughable report to claim that there is no food, water and bullets, it means that the district is protected by ghosts. It is a totally baseless claim. How members of the provincial council know this, I can assure you that everything exists there and all necessary things are dispatched there," Helmand police chief Abdul Rahman Sarjang said.
This comes at a time that the Afghan security forces are still battling the Taliban in various regions of the volatile province and Taliban insurgency shows no sign of ending.
[ALMANAR.LB] A total of 46 gunnies were killed and a radio station belonging to the so-called 'Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and the Levant' (ISIL) takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... group was destroyed after US-led coalition forces carried out Arclight airstrikes in Afghanistan's Paktika ...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo... and Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. eastern provinces overnight, government officials said Wednesday, two months after the group took to the airwaves in a sign of their growing reach.
The Pashto-language "Voice of the Caliphate" beamed ISIL propaganda in irregular nightly broadcasts from some holy man's guesthouse an undisclosed location in Nangarhar province bordering Pakistain.
The Afghan defense ministry said the program was broadcast from a moving vehicle and air strikes on Monday destroyed the transmission equipment hidden in the basement of a house in volatile Achin district.
"The radio program has not been heard since Tuesday," Achin district governor Haji Ghalib told AFP.
President Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. recently vowed to "bury" the ISIL's affiliate in Afghanistan, while voicing alarm over their growing reach.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[THEGUARDIAN] Italian authorities are demanding a full investigation into the death of an Italian student whose body was found in Cairo bearing signs that he had been tortured.
The body of Giulio Regeni, a 28-year-old who was pursuing a PhD at Cambridge, was found in a ditch in the suburbs outside Cairo on Wednesday night, days after the Italian government announced it was growing increasingly concerned about his disappearance.
The Egyptian prosecutor leading the investigation team on the case said Regeni's body had been found with marks on it, cuts to the ears and signs of beatings and a "slow death". A source at the Giza public prosecutor's office said Regeni's body was found on the Cairo-Alexandria desert road, on an overpass close to Cairo's 6th October district and that his body appeared to have been dragged along the ground. Responding to earlier reports, the source added that the body did not have any noticeable stab wounds, but that other marks could have been cigarette burns.
More details about Regeni's body and possible cause of death will likely be clarified soon. An autopsy report was delivered to the Italian embassy in Cairo on Thursday evening.
Ansa is reporting that Egyptian authorities have turned Regeni's remains over to Umberto I Italian hospital in Cairo, citing anonymous sources. The Italian news agency also reported that a team of seven Sherlocks - from the state police, carabinieri and Interpol, would be leaving for Cairo on Friday to closely follow the investigation.
Reports in local media said he was found naked from the waist down. It is believed that he may have been killed days earlier.
The Italian foreign ministry released no new details about the murder on Thursday. It summoned the Egyptian ambassador in Rome, Amr Mostafa Kamal Helmy, to express concern about Regeni's death. "Helmy expressed profound condolences for Regeni's death and assured us Egypt will cooperate fully in finding those responsible for this criminal act," the Italian foreign ministry said. Italia has asked for Regeni's body to be repatriated as soon as possible and has demanded that Egypt open a joint investigation to ascertain the truth about his death in conjunction with Italian experts.
Regeni is a Cambridge University PhD student who was conducting research in Egypt on trade unions after the 2011 uprising.
Rooters published additional details of the Italian citizen, which showed that he spoke four languages and had won several scholarships.
Ahram Online spoke to one of Regeni's Egyptian friends, who preferred to remain unnamed, who indicated that he received several emails and phone calls from Regeni asking for contacts of labor rights activists so that he could interview them for his research. The friend said the Regeni vowed that he would not go out for any interviews or fieldwork until after the January 25 anniversary.
"Then, on the morning of January 25, Regeni texted me asking me if there were any plans for a birthday celebration for one of our friends. Then I never heard from him again," his friend told Ahram Online.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2016
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#1
(1) Contacted the wrong people, was taken for an CIA/MI5/Mossad spy.
(2) Homosexual.
(IraqiNews.com) al-Anbar – Member of Anbar Provincial Council Azal al-Fahdawi announced on Thursday, that the Iraqi joint security forces had managed to liberate the area of al-Sajariyah east of Ramadi.
Fahdawi said in a press statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “A force from the Anti-Terrorism Directorate as well as the army and police brigades had managed to fully liberate the area of al-Sajariyah east of Ramadi from ISIS control,” adding that, “The security forces raised the Iraqi flag over a building in the region.”
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – On Thursday the Commander of the 3rd special operations brigade in the Anti-Terrorism Bureau Major General Sami Kadim al-Aredi announced, that the Anti-Terrorism forces advanced toward the center of al-Sijariya, while pointed out to the killing of 17 members of the so-called ISIS.
Aredi said in a press statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “Today the Anti-Terrorism forces managed to enter the center of al-Sijariya area east of Ramadi,” pointing out that, “The Anti-Terrorism forces clashed with ISIS fighters and were able to kill 17 fighters of the organization.”
“The international coalition aviation, Iraqi Army Aviation and Iraqi Army dealt with ISIS hideouts in the area,” Aredi added.
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – The Commander of Karma Brigade in al-Hashed al-Shaabi in al-Anbar Province announced on Thursday, that ISIS military official in al-Karma District was killed, along with three of his assistants in a security operation in eastern Fallujah (62 km west of Baghdad).
Colonel Khamis Bahr Halbusi said in a brief statement received by IraqiNews.com, “The security forces carried out a large-scale military operation on ISIS gathering in Rashad area in al-Karma District (19 km east of Fallujah), killing ISIS military official Omar al-Lahibi, along with three of his assistants, in addition to destructing six vehicles equipped with medium and heavy weapons and a rocket launcher.”
Halbusi also pointed out, “The troops from the army, police and tribal fighters in Anbar Province are achieving a significant progress in the liberation battles.”
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – Khalidiya Council in Anbar Province announced on Thursday, that the security forces cleansed Albu Soda area in Saqlawiyah District in northern Fallujah (62 km west of Baghdad), while indicated that 18 fighters of the so-called ISIS were killed during the operation.
The Head of the security committee in Khalidiya Council Ali Dawood said in a brief statement obtained IraqiNews.com, “The security forces managed to cleanse Albu Soda area (17 km north of Fallujah) and were able to kill 18 ISIS fighters, in addition to destructing four booby-trapped vehicles.”
Dawood added, “The security forces stationed in the surrounding areas of Albu Soda in order to advance to Albu Shihab and al-Mhamda areas to liberate them from ISIS,” indicating that, “The army and police troops achieved a notable progress in the cleansing battles of Saqlawiyah and the eastern axis of Ramadi, and working to cut off ISIS funding lines and destroy its strongholds.”
Posted by: badanov ||
02/05/2016
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(IraqiNews.com) Kirkuk – A security source in Kirkuk province announced on Thursday, that an element of al-Hashed al-Turkumani had been killed by a sniper belonging to the ISIS south of the province.
The source said in a statement received by IraqiNews.com, “This evening, an element of al-Hashed al-Turkumani’s 16th brigade was targeted by a sniper belonging to ISIS in the district of Taza (25 km south of Kirkuk), resulting in his injury,” pointing out that, “The element had died while being transferred to the hospital.”
The source also added, “The dead body was taken to the forensic medicine department for the purpose of transfering it to his family.”
Posted by: badanov ||
02/05/2016
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[DAWN] The Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside an election tribunal's order that had declared the chief of the banned Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat ...which is the false nose and plastic mustache of the murderous banned extremist group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain, whatcha might call the political wing of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi... (ASWJ), Maulana Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi, as the successful candidate from NA-89 (Jhang).
Consequently his opponent, PML-N's Sheikh Mohammad Akram, who had earlier bagged the National Assembly seat from NA-89 in the May 11, 2013 polls, was held to be the returned candidate.
On Dec 8, 2015, a three-judge Supreme Court bench, headed by Acting Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, had reserved ruling on the election dispute between the two candidates. The ruling was reserved on a petition instituted by Sheikh Akram, after the Faisalabad ...formerly known as Lyallpur, the third largest metropolis in Pakistain, the second largest in Punjab after Lahore. It is named after some Arab because the Paks didn't have anybody notable of their own to name it after... election tribunal declared Maulana Ludhianvi the returned candidate from the constituency in his place, without ordering repolling.
The tribunal had accepted Maulana Ludhianvi's petition on the grounds that Sheikh Akram had not disclosed in the nomination papers that there was a pending criminal case against him.
The constituency of NA-89 (Jhang) has always been considered a hotbed for sectarian strife. The seat went to Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, founder of what was then known as the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain ...a Sunni Deobandi organization, a formerly registered Pak political party, established in the early 1980s in Jhang by Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi. Its stated goal is to oppose Shia influence in Pakistain. They're not too big on Brelvis, either. Or Christians. Or anybody else who's not them. The organization was banned in 2002 as a terrorist organization, but somehow it keeps ticking along, piling up the corpse counts... (SSP), in the 1988 general elections.
"The mandate given by the electorate must not be interfered with on hyper-technical grounds," observed Justice Qazi Faez Isa, who wrote the judgment that was released by the Supreme Court in the open court on Wednesday.
"The appeals are allowed and the impugned judgement of April 9 [2014] of the election tribunal is set aside," Justice Isa said while announcing the verdict.
"Consequently, the earlier election results notified by the Election Commission of Pakistain, which had declared the appellant (Sheikh Akram) to be the elected candidate from NA-89 Jhang-I constituency [are] maintained," the judgement added.
"Unfortunately the tribunal not only set aside the election of the most popular candidate chosen by the people to represent them, but did so for factors wholly extraneous to the law," the verdict regretted, adding it substituted the elected candidate with a defeated one without satisfying whether another candidate was entitled to be declared elected as per the legal requirements.
The judgement explained that the present case was not one where the appellant was found to have committed any corrupt practice, nor was it a case where a mistake had been committed in counting the votes or compiling the results or where a recount or recompilation had produced a different result.
Since Sheikh Akram was not disqualified from contesting elections the votes polled by the appellant, who had incidentally received the majority of votes, could not have been disregarded, nor could it have been presumed that the runner-up would have got the appellant's votes, the judgment said.
"The people of the constituency elected the appellant from a field of 21 candidates. Would the electorate, or a sufficient number of them to change the result, not have voted for him if they knew about the pendency of the same case," the judgment asked.
"We need to consider whether due to non-disclosure of a traffic offence for rash driving, the appellant who had won the elections, should have been unseated and the voters who had voted for such a candidate be disenfranchised," the verdict said.
A candidate is not ineligible or disqualified to contest the elections merely because a criminal case is pending against him. Non-disclosure of a pending case cannot be equated with the non-disclosure of a criminal case in which a person has been convicted and one which may entail his disqualification, the judgment said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Emirates247] A provincial police chief in southern Yemen was wounded after a suicide bomb attack on his convoy in the port city of Aden late Wednesday, a security official said.
Colonel Adel Al Halemi was wounded and a number of other people killed or hurt when the assailant blew up his vehicle near the Lahj police chief's home in Aden, the official said, without giving more details on the casualties.
The attack follows a string of killings and bombings against government targets in southern Yemen.
Pro-government forces backed by a Saudi-led coalition have since July recaptured Aden, Lahj and three other southern provinces from Houthi rebels.
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad- The leadership of the Federal Police announced on Thursday the killing of 11 members of the so-called ISIS, including snipers and a suicide bomber during security operations carried out in different parts of Salahuddin.
The Federal Police Captain Raed Shakir Jawdat said in a press statement received by IraqiNews.com, “Today, a force from the army’s 20th brigade bombed three headquarters belonging to ISIS with mortar shells in Hamrin Mountains east of Tikrit, destructing the headquarters of ISIS and a vehicle.
Jawdat added, “A force from the same brigade managed to kill three ISIS snipers near a petrol station in Ajil fields east of Tikrit,” pointing out that, “The security forces killed seven ISIS members while trying to booby-trap the roads in Makhoul Mountains north of Tikrit.”
Posted by: badanov ||
02/05/2016
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[REUTERS] Former Secretary of State Colin Powell and aides to his successor Condoleezza Rice both received classified emails on personal email accounts, the top Democrat on a key congressional oversight panel said on Thursday.
House Oversight Committee ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings ...Representative-for-life from Maryland, representing half of Baltimore City, which makes his district ultra-safe, and most of Howard County, which is out-populated by the city. Cummings' politix are so liberal they're tedious... said the disclosures about the emails were made by the State Department's Inspector General, who is reviewing email practices of five previous secretaries of state.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2016
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The question is not whether they received classified info over their email. The question is did they send any out over their open email.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
02/05/2016 8:19
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Well, was it stored on a PRIVATE, unsecured, non ".gov" e-mail server? Did it have the classification markings stripped? Do you have an E-mail from Colin Powell telling subordinates to strip the markings from the e-mails? Are there over a thousand of such e-mails? What did the law say then? What was the technology back then and was it easier to circumvent it back then than now?
yeah, he may have said the truth, but it isn't the whole truth, and that is how these perverts turn truth into a lie...
#3
Sure, and the George Wallace bureaucracy supported institutionalized 'hate crimes'.
So what?
How does that apply as a license for permissiveness now?
Remember the low-information-voter is very unlikely to know about the extent of Hillary's involvement or the scope. The media certainly won't enlighten them.
Man sucked out of passenger jet after bomb exploded was suicide bomber who smuggled his device on board in his WHEELCHAIR, claim investigators
Lots of texts and pics at the link. Some days it doesn't pay to go to work, eh Abdisalam?
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/05/2016
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#1
Survivor Hassan Mohamed Nur ‘I blame the cause the bad weather. Imagine if the cause was a bomb, could the plane make a safe landing within 15 minutes after take off?’
Man-made global warming causes airplanes to make emergency landings!
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/05/2016 7:55
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#2
yeah bad weather creates explosions INSIDE airplanes all the time
surprised he didn't blame it on Israel or the US
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/05/2016 15:07
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[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] In a shocking reversal of policy, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are being told to release undocumented Democrats and no longer order them to appear at deportation hearings, essentially a license to stay in the United States, a key agent testified Thursday.
What's more, the stand down order includes a requirement that the whereabouts of illegals released are not to be tracked.
"We might as well abolish our immigration laws altogether," suggested agent Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council.
Where's the written order? Who signed it?
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2016
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[ALMANAR.LB] Two Paleostinian girls were detained after attempting to attack an Israeli occupation soldier at a bus station in the central Israeli city of Ramla on Thursday, according to media reports.
The two girls as 13-year-olds from the al-Jawarish area of Ramla.
The two arrived at the central bus station in Ramla, when the Zionist soldier asked them to identify themselves before going into search machine, they stabbed him.
The Rishon Lezion Magistrate's court on Thursday ruled the two 13-year-old Israeli Arab girls who stabbed and lightly maimed a security guard earlier in the day will remain in jug for another five days.
The teens told police the attack was "Dire Revenge for the situation in the Al-Aqsa Mosque," and was in protest of Israel's "killing of Paleostinians."
The two suspects, from Ramle's mixed Arab-Jewish Jawarish neighborhood,
...no discrimination there...
were jugged I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! with the knives in their possession. One was carrying a school backpack, a police spokesperson noted.
The stabbing took place at the central bus station in the center of the working-class city outside Tel Aviv. The building also houses a mall and government offices.
An initial police investigation found that the two girls approached the bus station's entrance, where the guard asked them to identify themselves. They pulled kitchen knives out of their clothing and stabbed him in the leg and hand.
A soldier and an armed civilian quickly subdued the two. They were detained and taken to Ramle Police headquarters for questioning.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2016
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At least 25 Taliban insurgents have given up fighting in the restive northeastern Bakhshan province of Afghanistan, local officials said Thursday.
The militants were previously fighting the government forces in Tashkan district of Bakhshan.
Provincial governor spokesman Ahmad Naweed Frotan said the militants surrendered to the security forces during the past two days.
Frotan further added that the militants handed over their weapons by surrendering to the security forces amid ongoing operations to clean Tashkan and Tagab districts.
The Taliban militants group has not commented regarding the report so far which comes amid rampant insurgency led by the group across the country.
Badakhshan is among the relatively volatile provinces in northeastern Afghanistan where anti-government armed militant groups are actively operating in a number of its districts and often carry out insurgency activities.
The Afghan security forces took control of Tagab district from Taliban militants following a military operation launched late last month, leaving at least 15 Taliban insurgents dead and 20 others wounded.
[ARA News] AFRIN – Kurdish forces of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) reported Thursday new gains against the al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo.
Subsequent to clashes with Nusra militant fighters, the YPG advanced in the northwestern countryside of Aleppo and recaptured two villages in the Sherawa district of Afrin.
The Kurdish units regained control of the villages of Al-Ziyara and Khrebka, forcing al-Qaeda-linked militants of Nusra Front to evacuate their strongholds there on Thursday evening.
Speaking to ARA News in Afrin, YPG spokesman Rezan Heddo said that at least six Nusra militants were killed and five more were wounded in the clashes, adding that two Kurdish fighters lost their lives in the same clashes in Sherawa district.
“When our forces entered the liberated villages after expelling the Nusra militants, the villagers have showen a full support to the YPG for liberating them from the suppression of the terror group,” Heddo said.
“The main objective for the YPG is to free people from the fist of those terrorists,” he said. “our operations will continue until liberating the entire region from radical groups like Nusra and ISIS.”
In the meantime, a special team from the YPG has started dismantling landmines and explosive devices left behind by Nusra militants in Al-Ziyara and Khrebka.
[DAWN] Security forces foiled a potentially massive terrorist attack by intercepting an explosive-laden vehicle in Giddir area of Kalat district on Wednesday.
A would-be jacket wallah detonated the explosives he was wearing, killing himself and two accomplices and blowing up the vehicle. Three security personnel were maimed.
According to official sources, personnel of the Frontier Corps ...a provincial paramilitary force. Total manpower is about 80,000. They are tasked to help local law enforcement in the maintenance of law and order, and to carry out border patrol and anti-smuggling operations.... (FC) and an intelligence agency, on a tip-off about the entry of an explosive-laden pick-up in Giddir area, launched a search operation. They spotted a suspected vehicle carrying three persons and tried to stop it.
"But the driver sped up the pick-up which was chased by security forces. In the meantime, the suicide bomber detonated his explosives in an act of desperation," an FC front man said. "The pick-up was smashed into pieces and its three occupants were killed. Three paramilitary soldiers were maimed in the blast that rocked a vast area."
"The Death Eaters apparently belonged to a banned myrmidon organization," official sources said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2016
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#1
I am guessing that the stooge jacket wallah's handlers were caught by surprise.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/05/2016 12:29
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#2
"In the meantime, the suicide bomber detonated his explosives in an act of desperation"
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
North Korea has started injecting fuel into its long-range missile and is on the brink of a launch.
He's like a cartoon villain, except that he's real.
[ALMANAR.LB] The US state of Georgia executed its oldest death row inmate Wednesday, just days before his 73rd birthday, in a move critics denounced as emblematic of capital punishment's excesses.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least two suspects have been 
[HOSTED.AP.ORG] The Belgian who led the Nov. 13 attacks on 
[DAWN] US President Barack Obama visited a mosque in Baltimore on Wednesday and assured Muslims that “inexcusable political rhetoric” against them had no place in America.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] 16 people have sustained injuries in a hand grenade 
North Korea
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[ALMANAR.LB] German police Thursday 
[TheIntercept.com] Responding to tough talk by presidential candidates about price gouging by drug companies, pharmaceutical executives have told investors that they are working actively to influence the political debate. And in a move that reveals how much leeway drug firms actually have over pricing decisions, some are even saying that they have minimized price hikes in recent months to avoid attracting attention.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The First Vice President Gen. Abdul Rashid 
President Nicolas Maduro called the owner of Venezuela’s largest privately-held company a “thief” and a “traitor” Thursday, blaming him for the country’s economic woes. In televised address, Maduro accused Lorenzo Mendoza, head of food giant Empresas Polar SA, of conspiring against his socialist government and meeting with his political opponents outside Venezuela’s borders.
[ALMANAR.LB] A total of 46 
[DAWN] Security forces foiled a potentially massive terrorist attack by intercepting an explosive-laden vehicle in Giddir area of Kalat district on Wednesday.
