Millions of Texans could soon lose in-network coverage at dozens of hospitals and outpatient centers. That could double their out-of-pocket costs ‐ or worse.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, the state's largest insurer, is fighting over payment increases sought by Hospital Corp. of America, one of the nation's largest hospital chains. Care to guess which one made the biggst on campaign contributions to Harry and Nancy?
Blue Cross has reason to push back hard. Since the Affordable Care Act kicked in fully in 2014, the Texas Blue has lost $720 million on its exchange business. HealthCare.gov customers turned out to be sicker than expected, and its parent company, which includes Blues in five states, lost over $2 billion in the market niche. Unexpectedly.
Over the same two years, HCA Holdings earned $4 billion and revenue grew 16 percent.
Cost-sharing has already become a burden for many workers. Since 2010, deductibles have grown seven times faster than wages and inflation, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Unexpectedly!
Higher deductibles have helped hold down monthly premiums. So have higher co-pays, narrower networks and restrictions on prescription drugs. Before the ACA, insurers also limited risk by excluding people with pre-existing conditions. I wonder what percentage of people were denied due to pre-existing condition's? Bet they're all covered now! I don't know about coverage, but the pre-existing conditions piece has helped drive costs sky high.
Through surveys and the ACA exchange, customers have consistently shown they'll trade lower premiums for a narrower network. So they'll have to get used to changes, even the occasional extreme disruption. Coming soon! Even lower cost and fewer choices!
"This is an evolution, and people sometimes forget that in 2014, the insurance market fundamentally changed," Carpenter said. Anyone think that was unexpected?
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/17/2016
14:18 ||
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#1
I'll have 2 yrs of free-for-all costs between Cobra from 60-63 and Medicare at 65. Thanks, Obama!
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/17/2016 15:20
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#3
Electing new sets of criminals will not change things. The only way to fix this without a true (and bloody) revolution is to chop the size and power of the federal government. As long as that power and size is there, it will be used to the advantage of those within it.
Dozens of members of Hezbollah were killed last week in Aleppo in an "accidental" chemical attack carried out by the Syrian military, diplomatic sources reported to the Kuwaiti newspaper "Al-Jarida."
The report stated that Syrian fighter jets struck militants from the Shi'ite terror group when they mistakenly attacked the town of Al-Eis, south of Aleppo, in their efforts to retake the region. ROTFL
Refugee Resettlement: Wheaton Bible Church has partnered with World Relief to resettle refugees for over thirty years. Our commitment today is as strong as it was when World Relief opened its doors in DuPage County thirty years ago. We are committed to welcoming the stranger no matter their country of origin. Every weekend we welcome refugees from around the world to Worship with us. Twice per month we host an adult community made up of current and former Muslim’s to study the Bible together. We believe the movements of people is directed by the Hand of God. And we are responding to this opportunity to share or lives as Christ followers with any and all refugees.
Great civilizations are not conquered, they commit suicide.
~ Arnold Toynbee
#1
At least the fuckers moved out of Wheaton. They are now on the North side of North Ave, West of County Farm Rd. (It's a coin toss if it is the City of Carol Stream, or West Chicago or just unincorporated DuPage.) They sold their old church in Wheaton to the Missouri Synod Lutheran church. There is one church on the East edge of Wheaton that when it went belly up became a mosque. This article makes it more understandable. This is not the Black Baptist Church in Wheaton. Never heard of them ever having anything to do with Muslims. This one it tied in with Billy Graham's nuts and Wheaton College.
#4
For fun try applying with a job online at Wheaton College. Their application is only legal as they claim to be religious.
Most of the application (even for tech jobs) is how you came to be born again. (I applied once just for fun.) They want to know your flavor of Christian, who your pastor is, when you were divorced - everything.
They were not happy with me as my parents were Lutheran Missionaries to China and everybody knows Lutherans are not "Christian".
Even worse as a child I attended 4 years of school at a school they founded and sponsored in Taiwan. The more I got into their application and the more I learned about them they really just want to know stuff about you to hold over your head and make them feel superior to you.
They are welcome to sue me for all I care. I consider them to be down with the pond scum on the evolutionary scale. Tough ...
#5
Wow, if they don't think Lutherans are Christians, I wonder what they think about us Catholics.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
04/17/2016 16:23
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I wonder what they think about us Catholics
Papist degenerate scum, Rambler. (The young Wheaton lady I asked several years ago didn't quite say 'scum', but it was fairly close and she did use the word 'Papist' and 'degenerate')
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
04/17/2016 18:47
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Mullah Richard - places like these make me reconsider tax exempt status for religions.
[Miami Herald] WASHINGTON - Hillary Clinton recently blasted the hidden financial dealings exposed in the Panama Papers, but she and her husband have multiple connections with people who have used the besieged law firm Mossack Fonseca to establish offshore entities.
Among them are Gabrielle Fialkoff, finance director for Hillary Clinton’s first campaign for the U.S. Senate; Frank Giustra, a Canadian mining magnate who has traveled the globe with Bill Clinton; the Chagoury family, which pledged $1 billion in projects to the Clinton Global Initiative; and Chinese billionaire Ng Lap Seng, who was at the center of a Democratic fund-raising scandal when Bill Clinton was president. Also using the Panamanian law firm was the company founded by the late billionaire investor Marc Rich, an international fugitive when Bill Clinton pardoned him in the final hours of his presidency.
[Breitbart] The once wholesome Miley Cyrus has partnered with feminist artist Marilyn Minter to raise funds for Planned Parenthood, the abortion business announced Thursday in New York.
Minter photographed Cyrus, now 23, as if she was behind a steamy shower door. Only 50 of the limited edition prints are being sold at Artsy for $5,500 each, with 100 percent of the proceeds supporting Planned Parenthood. For those with a smaller piggy bank, Marc Jacobs will sell t-shirts featuring other more sexually provocative images from Minter’s session with Cyrus, including "Miley Hearts Planned Parenthood," and "Pro Choice Miley." The cost of the t-shirts is $60 each and will be available at Marc Jacobs shops on May 16.
#1
When [the conch is] first blown, it calls the children to an assembly, where Ralph is elected leader. They agree that only the boy holding the conch may speak at meetings to forestall arguments and chaos, and that it should be passed around to those who wish to voice their opinion. The conch symbolises effective democracy and, like Ralph, civility and order within the group. When Piggy is killed, the conch is smashed into pieces, signalling the end of order and the onset of chaos. Originally the conch is portrayed as being very vibrant and colourful, but as the novel progresses, its colours begin to fade, the same way society begins to fade on the island.
All goods and personnel flows between China and North Korea are halted due to US sanctions on North Korea. It's a slideshow, click through and use your left and right arrow keys to page around.
#2
Well, I really don't know what more can be done to convince you people. It is not in China's interest to support North Korea. The Chinese are utterly exasperated that they did not follow Burma's example and reform. Now they're blockading the Norks and you people won't believe it. OK, whatever!
#3
FT9033 - we're just skeptical from all the Kabuki in the past
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/17/2016 14:22
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My read is the ChiComs were quite happy to have their little pitbull-pekinese hybrid terrorizing the neighborhood. But now Pudge is going rogue and they want to reel him back in.
Be most embarrassing if the little scamp kicked off WWIII before the Chinese were ready.
#6
How about thinking independently about it and coming to the same conclusion as the rest of the world: it's not the Cold War any more and it's not in China's interest for North Korea not to reform and open up.
ChiComs? Seriously? Get into the 21st century. That's so dated.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] President Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, an economic bad joke for la Belle France but seemingly a foreign policy realist... said on Saturday that La Belle France would provide immediate additional military aid to Leb, and urged politicians to end a long-running crisis by electing a president as soon as possible.
Hollande also said he had decided to step up assistance for Syrian refugees in Leb, giving 50 million euros this year and 100 million euros over the next three years to cope with the crisis. Leb hosts more than 1 million registered Syrian refugees, a quarter of its population.
Hollande’s Beirut visit, the first stop on a Middle East tour, came weeks after 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... cut $3 billion of military aid to Leb, where violence has repeatedly spilled over from the Syrian war since it began in 2011.
"We will work to provide immediate assistance to strengthen the military capability of Leb, specifically to combat terrorism but also to confront other threats," he said after meeting Prime Minister Tammam Salam.
He said La Belle France’s defence minister, who travelled with him, would assess the "material means that can be put at Leb’s disposal to ensure its security," without giving further details.
The Lebanese military has recently received additional support from both the United States and Britannia as it seeks to defend the mostly non-existent border with Syria. The army is carefully balanced among the country's sectarian groups and is widely seen as the backbone of the weak Lebanese state.
Saudi Arabia decided to cut aid to the Lebanese army after the Beirut government failed to condemn an attack on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran in January which was prompted by the Saudi execution of a Shiite holy man.
Riyadh is concerned at the influence wielded by Shiite Hezbollah over Lebanese government, and has questioned the Lebanese military’s independence from the Iranian-backed group.
Hezbollah is part of a government grouping all Leb’s main political parties and headed by Prime Minister Salam. The government is struggling to take even basic decisions, including over rubbish disposal.
Political rivalries exacerbated by tensions in the wider region have left Leb without a president for almost two years. The position is reserved for a Maronite Christian.
Hollande urged politicians to elect a president as soon as possible, saying it was in the country’s and the region’s interests to ensure the post was filled. "The answer to that is not in my hands. It is up to you to," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2016
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[Iran Press TV] At least 140 people, including women and kiddies, have reportedly been killed after gunnies attacked an area near Æthiopia's border with South Sudan.
According to a Saturday statement from the Æthiopian Government Communication Affairs Office, the attack took place on Friday when gunnies from South Sudan raided the Jakaya area, in Æthiopia's Gambella region.
"140 civilians died in the attack carried out by bandidos that crossed from South Sudan," the statement said.
The statement added that Æthiopian troops had crossed the border to pursue the attackers, saying "60 of the assailants have been killed so far."
The Æthiopian region hosts thousands of South Sudanese refugees who fled conflict in the world's youngest nation. It is also home to Æthiopian and South Sudanese gangs that attack government installations and soldiers.
The statement also said that the gunnies had no relation with South Sudanese government troops or rebel forces that fought the government in the capital, Juba, in a civil war that ended with a peace deal signed last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2016
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[IsraelTimes] Cairo regularly accuses terror group of supporting attacks on its soil, has largely kept its border crossing with enclave closed since 2013
Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, began deploying additional forces on the Gazoo Strip border with Egypt on Thursday, the interior ministry said, in an apparent effort to ease Cairo’s concerns about security.
"National security forces started today to increase the number of its troops and double the security bases along all the southern border with Egypt to be able to control the border better," front man Iyad al-Bazm told AFP.
He said they had established three new bases immediately.
"This is a message that we are concerned with border security and stability," Bazm said, adding nobody would be allowed "to touch the security of Egypt."
Hamas forces were seen setting up about 10 temporary buildings along the border.
Bulldozers flattened the land near the frontier in apparent preparation for more temporary structures.
A Paleostinian security officer called the measures "important new security arrangements to reassure the brothers in Egypt the border is secure."
A delegation headed by Hamas political bureau member Moussa Abu Marzouk held talks in Egypt last month aimed at normalizing relations that have been strained since the overthrow of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in 2013.
Morsi had good relations with Hamas, the Islamist rulers of the Gazoo Strip, but his replacement President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has cracked down on his Moslem Brüderbund movement.
Cairo regularly accuses Hamas of supporting attacks in Egypt and has largely kept its border with Gazoo closed since 2013.
It has also destroyed hundreds of Paleostinian tunnels used to smuggle commercial goods, cash, people and, allegedly, weapons.
The Hamas interior ministry said 2015 was the worst year for the Rafah border crossing in recent years, saying it was open for just 21 days in total.
(IraqiNews.com) Kirkuk – A security source in Kirkuk Province announced on Saturday, that the Iraqi Sukhoi fighter jets destroyed a supply bridge and a headquarters belonging to ISIS south of al-Bashir village in southern Kirkuk.
The source said in a statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “Sukhoi fighter jets carried out an air strike, at noon today, on a bridge belonging to ISIS south of al-Bashir village, destroying the bridge completely.”
The source, who asked anonymity, added, “Sukhoi aircraft also destroyed ISIS headquarters in the area,” indicating that, “The bombing was carried out based on information received from the Directorate of Military Intelligence.”
Posted by: badanov ||
04/17/2016
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Philippine security forces captured 2 Islamist militants in separate operations in Zamboanga City, several nautical miles south of Basilan province where military forces are currently fightg the Abu Sayyaf.
Police said an Abu Sayyaf militant, Johan Jaalam, was arrested Saturday. Officials say the militant faces a series of criminal charges.
A leader of the militant group Rajah Solaiman Movement – Melquiades Abrera II – was also nabbed on Friday in the village of Santa Barbara. Abrera, also known as Mikhail Abdulasis Abrera, was one of the organizers of the terrorist movement. It was not immediately known whether Abrera was planning an attack in Zamboanga.
The Rajah Solaiman Movement, founded by Ahmed Santos, a Muslim convert, seeks to establish an Islamic state in the Philippines and is working with the Abu Sayyaf.
In June 2008, Washington designated Santos and seven senior members of the Rajah Solaiman Movement – Angelo Trinidad, Pio de Vera, Redendo Dellosa, Feliciano de los Reyes, Dino Amor Pareja, Ricardo Ayeras and Reuben Lavilla – as Specially Designated Global Terrorists.
Oh my!
Posted by: ryuge ||
04/17/2016
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] ISIS made gains in northern Syria on Saturday from both government forces and their rebel opponents, a monitoring group said.
The northern province of Aleppo borders The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... and is criss-crossed with supply routes that are strategic for practically all of Syria's warring sides.
On Saturday, ISIS fighters seized another border village in their offensive against non-extremist rebel groups in the province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The ISIS counterattack has rolled back rebel gains in the border area, which had seen advance them from Azaz, a town eight kilometers (five miles) south of the Turkish border, towards ISIS bastions further east.
"The ISIS gains have cut off opposition territory around Azaz from rebels in the town of Dudyan further east," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.
"Now the rebels in Dudyan are practically surrounded by ISIS."
The murderous Moslem group also advanced against government forces near Khanasser, a battleground town southeast of Aleppo that has changed hands several times.
The road through Khanasser is the sole link between government-held areas in and around Aleppo and those in the rest of the country.
On Saturday, ISIS took several hilltops in the area but had not yet cut the supply route, Abdel Rahman told AFP.
In Aleppo itself, two non-combatants were killed by rebel fire on a residential neighborhood in the government-held west of the city, the Observatory said.
Aleppo was once Syria's commercial hub, but since rebels seized eastern districts in 2012 a front line has carved through the heart of the city.
The escalating festivities in Aleppo province have strained a fragile ceasefire in place since February 27, and left more than 200 combatants dead in the past week.
ISIS and its murderous Moslem rival Al-Qaeda are not party to the truce.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2016
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[Tolo News] At least 80 holy warriors have been killed and more than 50 others maimed in fighting between Afghan cops and the Taliban in Kunduz province, said local security officials.
"As a result of several hours of fighting, 80 holy warriors have been killed and more than 50 others maimed and Afghan cops seized a large number weapons from the Taliban," said Sayed Qurban Musavi, chief of the 20th Pamir Battalion staff.
The fighting started on Friday morning, when hundreds of holy warriors stormed Kunduz city, the provincial center, and several provinces from different directions.
"The enemies of Islam and Afghanistan, once again attacked Kunduz from different directions around 4:00 am on Friday. Our security forces however responded the attack with an iron fist. We have inflected heavy casualties on the Taliban," said Asadullah Omer, Kunduz governor.
The fighting between Afghan forces and the Taliban is still underway in four districts of the province and on the outskirts of Kunduz city.
"We will continue our operations till the complete elimination of the Taliban. Security forces have captured several villages from the Taliban and several of our soldiers have received injuries in the fighting," said Mohammad Qasim Jangal Bagh, Kunduz police chief.
The 20th Battalion said that two local commanders of the Taliban-- Shafiq and Malem Sher-- were also among those killed.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2016
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Tripoli was tense tonight with reports of heavy gunfire and the movement of two tanks through Hay Andalous.
Coming on top of this evening’s attack on a house belonging to Presidency Council member Ahmed Maetig and the dawn assault on the home of former GNC politician Juma Sayeh it appears that militias for and against the PC are coming into conflict.
Unconfirmed social media reports assert that two tanks, which were photographed in Hay Andalous, moved on to the former Girls’ Military Academy on the Suq Al-Tahlat roundabout, which is the base of the militia of Misratan Salah Badi. They are reported to have taken up defensive positions outside the base, where earlier there had been gunfire.
Meanwhile, further to the west in Gurgi, there was said to be particularly heavy gunfire and the roundabout there had been blocked off. There were also reports of firing near the city centre.
[Tolo News] An 18-year-old girl who was forced to marry a 60-year-old man at the age of 12 has said she wants a divorce.
The Balkh teenager, from Zari district, said that six years ago her family forced her to marry the man. She said she no longer wants to live with him and instead wants a divorce.
Samargul claims she is also a victim of domestic violence and has been beaten and tortured over the years.
"I was ignorant, I didn't know what was good, or what was bad, but now I want a divorce," said Samargul.
Samargul said that she is the victim of her brother's lust.
Samargul is the third wife of Mullah Faiz Mohammad. Faiz Mohammad has ten children from his two other wives.
Faiz Mohammad said his daughter had an affair with Samargul's brother and because of this, and based on local custom, Samargal was given to him.
"It has been six years since we married. She [Samargul] was with me and we didn't have any problems," said Faiz Mohammad. He accused Samargul of having an affair with another person and said he will not divorce her.
Fawzia Hamidi, Chief of the Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) Unit at the Attorney General's Office (AGO) in Mazar-e Sharif, voiced concern over the high number of domestic violence cases. She said they have registered 20 cases of violence against women in less than a month.
She added these acts of violence includes killing, beating, harassment, Baad (a traditional practice of settling disputes) and child marriages. She said that local armed people often prevent justice from being carried out in cases of violence against women.
"In most of the cases of violence, local strongmen in districts and villages, who also have arms, interfere and don't let the cases be made official and don't let justice be carried out," Hamidi said.
She said that with the support of police they are trying to bring perpetrators of violence against women to justice.
Balkh Police Chief, General Sayed Kamal Sadat, however said that bringing those accused of acts of violence against women to justice will take time.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2016
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#1
Ahh, the sweet strains of courtly love among the barbarians.
#2
Divorce? In the U.S. the guy would be facing hard time for violating a 12 year old. Moreover, when he got out, he'd have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. The guy is getting off easy if he gets only a divorce in this Islamic paradise (sarc on).
[HOSTED.AP.ORG] Chancellor Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom... 's decision to allow the possible prosecution of a TV comic for writing an intentionally offensive poem about The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's president prompted mixed reactions in Germany on Saturday.
Some commentators praised the move as a vote of confidence in the country's justice system while others accused Merkel of kowtowing to Turkey, whose president had filed a legal complaint against the comic.
In the unusual move, Merkel called a short-notice news conference Friday to personally announce that her government had granted Turkey's request to let prosecutors examine a criminal complaint against the comic for writing an intentionally offensive poem about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... . Under German law, the government has to grant permission before prosecutors can consider whether to press charges against someone for the crime of insulting a foreign head of state.
"It's not clear what reasons weighed so heavily that she had to take this legally, politically and morally unnecessary as well as disastrous step," wrote Torsten Krauel, chief opinion writer of the center-right German daily Die Welt.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2016
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#1
There's a saying about "when the only tool you have is hammer, all problems look like nails."
This is an illustration.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
04/17/2016 9:17
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[Iran Press TV] Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff has accused supporters of her impeachment of trying to grab power in order to avoid corruption charges against themselves, saying the country faces the threat of a coup d’état.
In a video and a newspaper column published on Saturday, Rousseff strongly denied No, no! Certainly not! she had committed an impeachable crime, saying the parliamentary bid to oust her from power is the biggest legal and political fraud in Brazil’s history.
"We are facing the threat of a coup d'état, a coup without guns that uses more destructive methods like fraud and lies to try to destroy a legitimately elected government," Rousseff, Brazil's first female president, wrote in the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper.
Rousseff accused Vice President Michel Temer and House Speaker Eduardo Cunha of leading a conspiracy against her.
Lower House politicians are due to vote on Sunday on whether to call for an impeachment. The pro-impeachment camp needs 342 votes, or two-thirds of the 513 votes in the chamber, to send the proceedings to the senate for a possible trial. Then a simple majority among the senators would see Rousseff out of power.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2016
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#1
The Olympics are going to be an epic shitshow - I can't wait!
#2
I am shocked to hear that someone wants to run Brazil.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
04/17/2016 9:27
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#3
Brazil is run by Socialists. Brazilians will tell you themselves quality of Brazilian products is low. Everyone buys American goods sold in Brazil. Taxes are extremely high. Money left over after taxes will take you a lifetime to pay for an un-air-conditioned car that is a standard transmission, not automatic. Most people ride motorcycles or bicycles.
Too many layers of inefficiency because the feds are everywhere duplicating positions that municipalities already have people for. Where you see one municipal police officer in a city, there are two military (federal) police officers. The military and state run operations is the only place to actually make a living. Numerous female Brazilians hold college degrees but are out of work. So they assume the traditional role of house wife and spend the day hanging out with their other girl friends on the front porch in the hammocks and watch the world go by and then everyone parties on the weekends (the carnivals). People learn to live in such environments.
When state owned oil company Petrobraus starting making money all of the politicians required kickbacks. Now it is $300 billion in the red and the numerous political parties are blaming each other for the demise.
[Dhaka Tribune] Pakistain Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... faces growing pressure and calls for his resignation, a Spanish minister has stepped aside, and more governments are pledging reform as fallout from the Panama Papers revelations continues. The timing of the visit of Nawaz Sharif immediately prompted rumors that Sharif might not return to Pakistain until investigations were completed. Also facing pressures because of his offshore holdings, Spain’s minister of industry, José Manuel Soria resigned on Friday.
[Ynet] German prosecutors said Friday that a 15-year-old girl who stabbed a police officer is being investigated on suspicion of supporting a terrorist organization.
Safia S., whose surname wasn't given due to privacy rules, was already being held on suspicion of attempted murder and serious bodily harm for attacking the officer with a kitchen knife at Hannover train station on Feb. 26.
Federal prosecutors said the German-Moroccan teenager "adopted the radical-jihadist ideology" of 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.... group from November 2015 onward and had been in online contact with members of the group in Syria.
Prosecutors said she traveled to Istanbul hoping to reach Syria but was brought back by her mother, but while in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... members of ISIS convinced her to carry out a martyrdom operation in Germany.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/17/2016
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[Reuters] Islamist militants seized four Indonesians on the crew of a tugboat in the southern Philippines on Friday night, the third attack on slow moving vessels in about a month, as troops battled Muslim insurgents on a nearby island.
Major Filemon Tan said seven gunmen in a blue speed boat attacked two Indonesian flagged tugboats off the southernmost island of Sitangkay in Tawi-tawi and took the four crewmembers. Tan said, "We don't exactly know who took them but the only lawless group operating in that area is the Abu Sayyaf," adding ten Indonesians and four Malaysians were also abducted in two separate incidents early this month in the area.
The Indonesian foreign ministry said six other crewmembers were left behind but one was shot. It said, "He is in stable condition now," the foreign ministry said, adding Malaysian water police evacuated the injured crew to a hospital in eastern Sabah state, where the two vessels were towed to safety.
The military said the militants have been targeting foreign crewmembers of slow-moving boats because increased security has prevented them from penetrating resorts and coastal towns in Sabah.
The Abu Sayyaf has stepped up activities on the remote islands. Last week, rebels killed 18 soldiers and injured more than 50 others in an ambush on Basilan island, prompting a massive military offensive with artillery and aerial bombings. The Philippine military said 28 militants had died in the week of fighting.
On nearby Jolo island, rebels gave a final deadline of April 25 for payment of $6.50 million ransom for each of the two Canadians and a Norwegian captive or they will behead the three hostages.
Posted by: ryuge ||
04/17/2016
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The foreign ministers of La Belle France and Germany made an unannounced visit to Libya on Saturday in a show of support for the new unity government.
World powers see the Government of National Accord as a crucial partner in tackling turbans behind a string of deadly attacks in Libya as well as human traffickers exploiting the country’s turmoil.
La Belle France’s Jean-Marc Ayrault and Germany’s Frank-Walter Steinmeier flew into the capital for talks with the UN-backed unity cabinet at the naval base where it has set up operations.
Steinmeier described the visit as a signal that the international community is united behind the GNA.
"The way to peace and stability is through the implementation of the peace agreement and the government of national unity," he said in remarks released by his ministry.
It is the latest in a flurry of visits by European diplomats who had been absent since 2014 when EU member states closed their 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... embassies as fighting shook the North African nation.
Their return was prompted by the arrival of UN-backed prime minister-designate Fayez al-Sarraj by sea two weeks ago with a naval escort, after a rival Tripoli authority shut the airspace to try to keep him out.
"La Belle France was one of the first countries to back Sarraj, and the time has come to give a new impetus to that support," a French diplomat said.
The visit comes two days before a crucial vote by the country’s recognised parliament on whether to endorse the GNA, and ahead of talks in Luxembourg next week on a possible EU mission to assist Libya’s police and border guards.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2016
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Nine Yemeni prisoners from Guantanamo Bay have arrived Saturday in the Saudi capital’s King Khalid International Airport, Al Arabiya News Channel reported.
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... is receiving the nine prisoners for resettlement after a request by the Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi to do so.
While all nine are Yemeni, they have family ties to Saudi Arabia, the News Agency that Dare Not be Named reported.
None of the men had been charged and all but one had been cleared for release from the US base in Cuba since at least 2010. One was approved for release by a review board last year.
The prisoners include a frequent hunger striker whose weight had dropped to as low as 74 pounds (34 kilograms) at one point.
The release announced Saturday in a Pentagon statement brings the Guantanamo prisoner population to 80, including 26 cleared men expected to leave by the end of the summer.
"The United States is grateful to the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for its humanitarian gesture and willingness to support ongoing US efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility," the Pentagon said in a statement.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... said on Saturday civilians faced starvation and dehydration in a Paleostinian refugee camp on the outskirts of Damascus, where ISIS is battling other Islamist groups for control.
UN Relief and Works Agency for Paleostine Refugees (UNRWA) which aids Paleostinian refugees across the region said it estimated up to 10,000 civilians were trapped in their homes in Yarmouk, which is on the southern outskirts of Damascus.
"Whatever supplies of food and water they had have long been exhausted. Given the frequently intense fighting, the overwhelming risk of serious injury and death prevents civilians from leaving their homes to search for food, fetch water, or seek medical treatment for injuries," UNRWA said in a statement.
"Credible reports from inside Yarmouk indicate extensive, deliberate fire-damage to homes and other civilian buildings on a scale hardly seen before. The precarious security situation also prevents UNRWA from continuing its humanitarian missions to the adjacent area of Yalda," it said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britannia-based organization that reports on the war, says most of Yarmouk camp is now under the control of ISIS.
UNRWA said: "The fighting has been intense, and is taking place in the most densely populated areas of Yarmouk, with the use of heavy weapons, bombs and weapons of indiscriminate effect."
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[FRANCE24] A Rwanda court handed a life sentence on Friday to a former senior politician for hate speech aimed at stirring up killings of minority Tutsis during the central African country’s genocide more than two decades ago.
An estimated 800,000 Tustis and moderate Hutus were killed by myrmidon forces in the then Hutu-dominated regime over a period of 100 days in 1994.
The high court convicted Léon Mugesera, 64, who was then a regional vice chairman in the ruling party, of genocide and crimes against humanity.
During the trial, Mugesera was accused of having referred to the Tutsis as "cockroaches" who should be sent back to Æthiopia.
"The court finds that Mugesera is guilty of ... public incitement to commit genocide, persecution as crime against humanity and inciting ethnic-affiliated hatred," judge Antoine Muhima said.
In 2012 Mugesera, also a former university lecturer, was extradited to Rwanda from Canada where he had lived in exile for years and resisted efforts to return him to face trial on genocide charges.
He said he would appeal the sentence because the court had not heard any of his witnesses or been "impartial and independent."
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[OBSERVERS.FRANCE24] Thousands of people filled the streets of the Zim-bob-wean capital on Thursday in the largest protest against authoritarian President Bob Muggsy Mugabe Octogenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case... in nearly a decade. And for the first time in their memories, protestors did not face police or military repression.
As riot police stood by, supporters of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) called for the "dignified exit" of the president, who’s been in power since 1980.
The actual number of protestors was contested--some sources estimated 2,000 while activists reported 10,000. But everyone agreed that thousands had turned out to protest, except the state-controlled paper, which called the event a flop.
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#1
No one brought beer, so the Police decided why bother to go.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
04/17/2016 9:36
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'Dignified Exit' or regime change in Africa, anything with a death toll below 100,000.
Some six outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants, along with a “neighborhood representative” allegedly assigned by PKK founder Cemil Bayık, have surrendered to security forces in the Yüksekova district of the southeastern province of Hakkari, security sources said on April 15.
During a counter-terrorism operation against PKK militants, a sniper who was allegedly sent to the town by order of Bayık and proclaimed himself as the PKK’s representative of Yüksekova’s Güngör neighborhood, has surrendered to soldiers with six other militants.
Security sources have also revealed pictures of the militants to refute claims that “those who surrender are being killed.” Stating that the surrendered militants’ needs are being met and those who are wounded are treated and then sent the necessary authorities for procedural acts, sources called on militants to surrender “before it is too late” and called on parents to “take care of their children.”
The surrender came at a time when the security forces expanded their operations to rural parts of the Silvan district of the southeastern Diyarbakır province with the governor’s office declaring curfews in four neighborhoods of the town on April 14.
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[Iran Press TV] The United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... has acknowledged the receipt of new complaints of sexual abuse by peacekeepers.
Maman Sidikou, the head of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), told news hounds in the capital, Kinshasa, on Saturday that the mission had received seven new allegations of sexual abuse by its soldiers.
Five involve Tanzanian soldiers who arrived last September, one involves the South African contingent and the seventh case involves forces from Malawi, Sidikou said.
Earlier this month, the UN had announced it was investigating accusations regarding Tanzanian peacekeepers based in northeastern Congo sexually abusing and exploiting five women and six girls, leaving them all pregnant.
"All of these cases are presumed cases of either pregnancy or of paternity ... and eight of the victims are minors," Sidikou said.
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Not pretty and they don't fight.
[ARA News] ALEPPO ــ Subsequent to heavy battles with Syrian army forces, militant fighters of the Islamic State (ISIS) were able to capture Saturday several villages in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo, local sources reported.
Speaking to ARA News in Aleppo, media activist Omar Jassim, based in the southern suburbs, said that ISIS militants launched a major offensive on positions for the pro-regime forces near the town of Khanasser in the southern environs of Aleppo and have taken over the villages of Zaid, al-Hayat, Jeb al-Ali, Kwais, Qalia, al-Tuba, al-Jidaida, Serdah, Duraib al-Wawi and al-Ashanah.
The extremist group was able to reach Syriatel tower that overlooks the strategic area of as-Sifayra– Khanasser, according to the source.
A source close to the Syrian army told ARA News that ISIS jihadis were able to kill a number of soldiers and seize a large deal of military equipment, including five heavy guns, three tanks, two armored vehicles, a number of cannons [caliber 106 and 57], a large deal of ammunition and Katyusha rockets.
In the meantime, air force loyal to the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad conducted several raids on the ISIS positions in the vicinity of the town of Khanasser and the hills overlooking the town, amid reports of casualties among ISIS ranks.
ARA News could not verify the death toll among the group’s ranks.
On Friday, ISIS militants launched a major offensive on the southern suburbs of Aleppo in a bid to take over the town of Khanasser and cut the army’s supply lines to the city of Aleppo and its environs.
In February, ISIS clashed with the regime’s army troops in the southern countryside of Aleppo and were able to capture the Air Defense (Al-Difaa’ Al-Jawi) base near the Khanasser town. This came just two days after the group’s fighters took over the strategic Khanasser-Ithrayya road, cutting off a main supply line for the Syrian army between Hama and Aleppo.
The Khnasser-Ithrayya route was a main supply line for the regime’s troops fighting in Aleppo. The army relied on this line to receive military reinforcements from Hama to support its forces inside Aleppo, according to local activists.
Last Sunday, the Syrian regime’s Prime Minister, Wa’el al-Halaqi, announced that the Syrian army and Russian Air Force are preparing a major offensive to liberate the provincial capital of the Aleppo Governorate.
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Four soldiers were killed and two wounded when a bomb hit a military vehicle traveling in the southeastern Turkish province of Mardin on Friday, security sources said.
The vehicle was on patrol between the villages of Yazdir and Taslikli in Mardin’s Savur district when a handmade explosive was detonated, the security sources said. The two wounded soldiers were being treated in hospital, they said.
In another attack in Sirnak, east of Mardin, one police officer died and seven security force members were wounded by a bomb during the search of a house by security forces, security sources said.
Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast has been hit by waves of violence in clashes between government security forces and members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) after a ceasefire fell apart last year.
On Friday authorities lifted a curfew imposed to fight Kurdish militants in an area of southeast Turkey’s largest city, Diyarbakir. The one-day curfew in Silwan district was lifted from 4:30 p.m. (1:30 GMT).
Thousands of militants and hundreds of civilians and soldiers have been killed since the PKK resumed its fight for Kurdish autonomy last summer, ending a 2-1/2-year ceasefire and a peace process.
The government has ruled out any return to the negotiating table and has said it will crush the PKK, which is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.
The bombing of security force vehicles and installations is common in the southeast. On Monday a car laden with explosives smashed into a military base in Diyarbakir province, killing one soldier and wounding 20, hours after the government cabinet adjourned in the region.
More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict since the PKK took up arms in 1984.
The Tripoli home of former General National Congress (GNC) member Juma Sayeh was attacked and largely destroyed today. The house, next to the Swiss embassy in Ben Ashour, was blown up.
The attack follows the meeting in Benghazi three days ago of several former GNC members to decide whether to set up a state council in opposition to the one established in Tripoli. Sayah was one of the main speakers at the meeting and a prominent supporter of the move.
“That’s the cause,” Sayah told the Libya Herald. Those who had attacked his home were trying to intimidate him. But they would not succeed, he said, blaming Abdul Raouf Kara and Misratan forces for the attack. “We are supported by the tribes and the Libyan people,” he declared.
The attack, he said, was part of a continued campaign against him. The house was the fourth he owned in Tripoli to be assaulted, he stated. Fifteen other properties he had in the city had also been attacked. “They’re now in the hands of the Misratans,” he added. A further 42 properties belonging to various members of the family had also been attacked and seized.
“It is because we’re Wirshefani,” claimed Sayeh, who represented Annasiriyah in the GNC but currently resides in eastern Libya.
In the event, Wednesday’s meeting in Benghazi to decide whether to create an alternative state council (which would be based in the city) was inconclusive. Those attending the meeting decided to wait and see if the House of Representatives voted next week to approve the Libyan Political Agreement by amending the 2011 Constitutional Declaration.
The Tripoli State Council, itself controversial because it set itself up without the authorisation of the HoR, is now headed by Abdulrahman Sewehli. Ironically, his Tripoli home is just a stone’s throw from Sayah’s house attacked today.
Two guards are reported to have been killed and four kidnapped in an attack this evening on the Tripoli home of Presidency Council member Ahmed Maetig.
It is being claimed that the assault on the house in Hay Andalous was mounted by members of Haytem Tajouri’s Tripoli Revolutionaries’ Brigade. The men guarding the house are said to have been Tauregs. Four technicals were also reported to have been taken away by the raiders.
It is not known if any members of Maetig’s family were in the house at the time of the attack. Maetig himself remains with other members of the Presidency Council in the Bu Sitta naval base. Shortly after this evening’s assault, armoured cars arrived and formed a protective cordon around the building.
This is not the first time that a property owned by Maetig has been attacked. In June 2014, when the Misratan businessman was briefly prime minister-designate, his Tobacts hotel on Tripoli’s Shara Omar Mukhtar was shot up.
[MIRROR.CO.UK] Migrants hurled pieces of wooden pallets and other makeshift weapons in a mass brawl outside a Gay Paree metro station that forced police to use tear gas.
Disbelieving residents called police twice as the first fight, broken up some time after 9pm, was rekindled at about 11.30pm on Thursday night, Le Gay Pareeien reported.
Men can be seen hurling pieces of wood, bags and other missiles. At times the fighting is at close quarters but groups of the men later splinter apart, before police move in and tear gas is seen filling the air.
Four people were taken to hospital after the battle finished, it was reported.
The spot, underneath a rail bridge at the elevated Stalingrad station, was until the end of last month the temporary home of nearly 1,000 migrants colonists in a makeshift camp.
Anguper Hupomosing9418 submitted a Daily Mail article, which has lots of photos.
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(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A source in the Iraqi Ministry of Interior announced on Saturday, that ten people had been either killed or wounded in a bomb blast in western Baghdad.
The source said in an interview obtained by IraqiNews.com, “This morning, a bomb exploded near a popular market in al-Bakriya area in western Baghdad, killing two people and injuring eight others.”
The source, who asked anonymity, added, “A security force rushed to the area and evacuated the wounded to a nearby hospital for treatment and the dead bodies to the forensic medicine department, while a raid was carried out to search for the perpetrators of the bombing.”
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A police source revealed on Saturday, that a group of gunmen stole 550 million dinars from a currency exchange office in central Baghdad.
The source said in a statement received by IraqiNews.com, “Today, a group of gunmen stormed a currency exchange office in al-Arsat area in central Baghdad,” indicating that, “The gunmen stole 550 million dinars then escaped to an unknown destination.”
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added, “A security force cordoned off the area and opened an investigation into the incident.”
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A source in the Iraqi police said on Saturday, that two soldiers had been injured in a militant attack that took place in the area of Arab Jabour south of Baghdad.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said in a statement received by IraqiNews.com, “This evening, unidentified militants attacked a patrol belonging to the army in the area of Arab Jabour and opened their fire against its elements, resulting in the injury of two soldiers,” pointing out that, “A security force cordoned off the area of the incident and transferred the injured to a nearby hospital.”
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A source within the police force in Baghdad province said on Saturday, that an officer and a soldier had been killed and four others were injured in two bombings that took place north of Baghdad.
The source said in a statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “This evening, two explosive devices went off simultaneously in the area of al-Tarmiyah in northern Baghdad, while a convey belonging to the Iraqi Army was passing [in the area], resulting in the death of an officer and a soldier as well as the injury of four soldiers.
The source, who asked to remain anonymous, added, “A security force blockaded the area of the incident, while ambulances transferred the injured to a nearby hospital and the two dead bodies to the forensic medicine authority.”
[IsraelTimes] The PA president and Fatah leader halts money to DFLP, days after similar move with PFLP; seen as bid to tighten grip on power
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Paleostine ... a breakaway faction of the Pöpular Frönt för the Liberation of Paleostine. They are regarded as the most intellectual of Paleostinian fedayeen groups, smoking cheap cigarettes and drawing heavily on Marxist-Leninist theory to explain their crappy lives. They can occasionally be seen strutting through the streets of Paleostine, dressed up like soldiers and lugging firearms, though they seldom manage to hit anything and then usually by accident. This may be because of their habit of wearing black masks that cut off most of their vision. That would also explain their habit of occasionally walking into walls, which is a well-known attribute of those immersed in true understanding of the dialectic... confirmed Thursday that Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
Continued on Page 49
[DAWN] Pakistain says it desperately wants Lockheed-Martin Block-V F-16 fighter-bombers at $87 million apiece for fighting Death Eaters in tribal badlands such as North Wazoo. An order for eight jets has already been placed. The US Senate is sympathetic; a move to ban the sale was massively rejected by majority vote. Lockheed-Martin, which peddles its deadly wares to all who can pay, has already sold 4,500 F-16s to 25 countries. It must be pleased at this small, but tidy, deal of $700m.
But thoughtful Paks should be worried. Waging an aerial war against your own population is not a good idea. Even if you have to, shouldn’t much cheaper weaponised drones be preferred over advanced fighter aircraft whose real job is to shoot down other planes? A drone, technically known as UAV, is far more precise than any fighter because it can loiter undetected over a target, capture and collect information better, and reduce -- though never eliminate -- damage to innocents. India is currently negotiating with the US for buying 40 Predator drones.
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#1
The terror of Hindus rejecting the truth of Islam?
#2
Are there any additional questions regarding the regimes refusal to release portions of the investigation concerning PAK involvement in the suicide bombing at FOB Chapman in AFG ?
#3
If you see all this from the perspective of US foreign policy existing to provide commercial opportunity for US arms manufacturers, it all makes better sense.
Seriously, if your goal was actually simply peace, why would you sell anything to either side?
Posted by: ed in texas ||
04/17/2016 9:22
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#4
If you see all this from the perspective of US foreign policy existing to provide commercial opportunity for US arms manufacturers, it all makes better sense. Seriously, if your goal was actually simply peace, why would you sell anything to either side? Posted by ed in texas
[The Nation] As local residents celebrated Songkran [the traditional Thai New Year], unrest in the far South continued unabated, with several attacks yesterday in Pattani and Narathiwat provinces.
One incident, after midnight yesterday, saw a group of militants open fire at a local government office in Pattani's Mai Kaen district. A bomb was also detonated there, resulting in property damage.
Around dawn, four members of a paramilitary ranger unit were injured by a roadside bomb in Yarang district. Later that morning, a villager was shot by a gunman on a motorcycle in Nong Chik district. In Narathiwat a roadside time bomb went off in Rusoh district. There were no casualties.
Eight outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants, who carried out separate attacks on a number of police targets over the past few days, were killed by security forces, Diyarbakır governor's office said on April 16.
A police station, a gendarmerie command post and a police shuttle in southeastern Turkey were all attacked separately. PKK militants assaulted a gendarmerie command post in the Hani district on April 11 with a car bomb.
Separately, the PKK struck Diyarbakır’s Çinar Police Department on April 14 with rocket launchers as they also attacked a police shuttle bus on March 31 in the center of Diyarbakır.
According to the April 16 statement, eight PKK terrorists were killed and at least 12 others arrested while nine firearms and five hand-made grenades were seized.
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[DAWN] Personnel of Pakistain Army have taken over the operation against members of the Chotoo gang in the riverine area of Rajanpur, the military's media wing said on Saturday.
Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations Lt-Gen Asim Bajwa announced on Twitter that army troops have been deployed in the Kacha areas and have taken charge of Operation Zarb-e-Aahan.
A cordon is being reinforced, and police and Rangers already deployed will continue to participate under the command of the army, Bajwa said. He added that whatever resources are required will be employed to accomplish the mission.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A deal has been reached on Saturday to reinforce the fragile Yemeni ceasefire in its southwestern city of Taiz, sources told Al Arabiya News Channel.
Sources said the local committee tasked to supervising the ceasefire in Taiz has agreed with Yemen’s warring sides to start reinforcing the country-wide truce which started at midnight on April 10.
Unlike other parts of Yemen, the ceasefire in Taiz had been breached.
The sources said the ceasefire reinforcement will start at 2 PM local time (11 GMT).
While the deal was reached, sources told Al Arabiya News Channel that the Iran-backed 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 ... and its allied deposed President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... 's militias violated the ceasefire in Taiz when they attacked Brigade 35 headquarters belonging to the internationally-recognized 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... government.
The agreement will allow the opening of the two main thoroughfares connecting Taiz and the capital Sanaa from the east, and Taiz and Al-Hudaidah city from the west.
A source in the committee has also confirmed that each of the warring sides will bring lists of prisoners for a potential swap.
On Friday, the UN special envoy for Yemen, who will be leading peace talks next week between the internationally-recognized government and Houthi militias, said that peace has never been as close as it is today.
Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed urged the government and the Iranian-backed Houthis to "drop their destructive and belligerent attitudes," agree to overcome obstacles, and restore peace after more than 18 months of war.
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The head of Saiqa Special Forces investigation unit, Fadl Al-Hassi had a lucky escape yesterday when a mine exploded under the vehicle he was during operations near the cement factory in Hawari. The area is carpeted with mines left by Ansar Al-Sharia and Daesh.
Hassi was fine, a colleague told the Libya Herald. He had been travelling in an armed truck and that had saved him.
The existence of so many mines at the cement factory is said by the army to be the reason why it has not been taken so far. Several soldiers have been killed or injured by mines there – another died two days ago – and the military say they are moving very cautiously in the area.
Meanwhile today, heavy clashes continue in Hawari, Garyounis and Sabri with the air force continuing to carry out airstrikes.
[Tolo News] Heavy fighting ... as opposed to the more usual name-calling or slapsy... between Afghan cops and the Taliban is underway in more than 10 provinces.
According security sources, more than 160 bandidosbandidos bad boys have been killed and nearly 200 others maimed in the fresh fighting.
The Ministry of Interior (MoI) and Ministry of Defense (MoD), said several foreign krazed killers, including Pak nationals, are also among those killed.
"So far, Afghan cops have the upper hand," said Sediq Sediqqi, a front man for the MoI. He said that operations over the next 24 hours will be focused on inflicting more casualties on the enemy. Earlier this week the Taliban announced the launch of their spring offensive. Fighting between security forces and the Taliban has since intensified in different parts of the country.
The fighting is more intense in Kunduz province, said officials. The MoI and MoD, meanwhile said that the bandidosbandidos bad boys are receiving support from Pakistain.
"Quetta council is in Quetta. Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. council is in Peshawar. Miranshah ... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas... council is in Miranshah. Militants' sanctuaries are outside Afghanistan and they receive equipment and support from outside Afghanistan. We don't have a big terrorist center in Afghanistan, nor do our government and security forces allow gunnies to establish their centers [inside Afghanistan]," said Dawlat Waziri, front man for the MoD.
A number of politicians voiced their deep concerns over the rise in fighting and stressed the need for an increase in the number of troops in north and northeastern parts of the country.
"Insecurity has mounted in northern and northeastern parts of Afghanistan. Numbers of security troops should be increased in these important parts of the country," said Almas Zahid, another MP.
In addition to Imam Sahib, Dasht-e-Archi districts and the city of Kunduz, fighting is also underway in different districts of Baghlan, Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... , Faryab, 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.. , Uruzgan, Kapisa, Badakhshan, Nuristan and Kunar province ... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country..... s.
More than 40 Talibs have been killed in Faryab province alone. Police Chief for Balchragh has also been killed in the fighting.
The MoD said that six army troops have been killed or injured over the past 24 hours. The MoI said that 10 coppers have been killed or injured in the same period of time.
The districts, where fighting is underway, are as below:
Kunduz: Imam Sahib, Dasht-e-Archi, Kunduz city
Baghlan: Dand-e-Ghor, Dand-e-Ghori
Helmand: Sangin, Gereshk, Khanshin
Nangarhar: Khogyani, Achin
Faryab: Qaisar
Uruzgan: Charcheno
Kapisa: Ala Sai
Nuristan: Barg-e-Matal
Kunar: Ghazi Abad, Manogai, Sarkano, Watapor
Badakhshan: Argo, Baharak, Wardooj,
Jowzjan: Aqcha, Faizabad
Sar-e-Pul: Sayad, Kohestanat
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[Iran Press TV] A former US Senate candidate says 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... played a supporting role in the September 11 attacks, in which Israel had a key part.
"When we get to 9/11, there are series of clues and series of explanations that have been provided for us; they really get in the bottom of the fact that it was Israel that was the chief player in calling up 9/11," said Mark Dankof, who is also a broadcaster and pastor in San Antonio, Texas.
He made the remarks in a phone interview with Press TV on Saturday, commenting on a report about the Saudi's reported role in the attacks.
A New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... report on Friday, citing US officials and congressional aides, said the US administration has intently been lobbying the Congress to block the passage of legislation that would allow American courts to hold Saudi authorities responsible for any role in the attacks, which killed almost 3,000 people and caused at least $10 billion in property and infrastructure damage.
According to the report, US courts would be allowed to freeze assets held by the Saudis, if the legislation passes.
The Times wrote that the families of victims accuse the current administration and the former one of George W. Bush of covering up the Persian Gulf kingdom’s involvement in the attacks in order to "protect US-Saudi relations."
Dankof, however, said, "When you look at this entire situation, the United States government is interested in trying out the 9/11 event in terms of propaganda purposes."
He argued that Washington is "more than happy to allow these families to appeared official events that might support the government propaganda line of who and what was behind 9/11."
"The American people will continue to have a complete misunderstanding of who the real enemies are or why we are likely to be in a war after the American 2016 elections," he concluded.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2016
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#1
It is the Iran Press and they will try to obtain any advantage they can against the West such as pitting the U.S. against Israel. Iran really doesn't need to do this as Obean has already accomplished this. So the 28 missing pages will be released and transparency will be served? We will find that SA is not our friend as many of us have thought?
Intelligence sources have warned that Al Shabaab is using the western part of the country as a new recruitment frontier. And the Government is responding to these increased terror threats by tightening security laws, enhancing operations and institutional capacity to combat terrorism.
The National Intelligence Service (NIS) alerted President Uhuru Kenyatta that the terror group has added Rift Valley, Nyanza and Western to its traditional Coastal and Northern Kenya regions as new “fertile grounds for recruitment”.
The report adds a chilling disclosure that while the Kenyan Al Qaeda cell earlier consisted of mostly foreigners, “more recently Kenyan locals are joining the terrorist cell”. And terrorist recruiters are targeting university and secondary school students as well as prisons to breed terrorists ready for deployment.
“This radicalisation of the youth has led to frequent unrests in learning institutions and to several Kenyan youths being recruited as fighters,” the State of National Security Annual Report to Parliament partly reads.
The aggressive campaign is part of the group’s strategy to enhance its overall terror threat to the country.
According to the report, technological advances have enhanced terrorists’ mobility and made them lethal as they are now able to easily facilitate the spread of extremist ideologies and propaganda on their activities.
But the Government has enhanced intelligence collection and sharing both locally and internationally, as well as enhanced and sustained security vigilance across the country. “Intelligence has pointed out that Al Shabaab operatives and “Amniyat” (intelligence wing of Al Shabaab) are keenly looking for fertile grounds to recruit, radicalise and possibly attack targets within the country,” the report partly reads.
According to intelligence sources, local grievances such as marginalisation are being exploited by Al Shabaab to infiltrate and recruit. Unemployment is one of the pull-and-push factors that have seen some Kenyan youths join terror groups in Syria and other countries, says the report. The terrorists are also using social media to recruit, indoctrinate, gain sympathy and stir inter-religious animosity, the report adds.
“The radicals have developed an elaborate propaganda network which includes use of electronic media (videos and CDs) and mass media, and are more pronounced on social media to… justify their actions, intimidate moderate clerics and incite inter-religious animosity to derail the Government’s counter-radicalisation efforts,” the report says.
Other new techniques being employed by the terror group to drive its agenda include deploying Kenyan returnees and radicalised youth to execute terror activities. Linked to this is the alarming report that more Kenyans are joining terror groups for training, and later are being used to attack the country.
The report also warns that the terrorists are using the tactic of fomenting and exploiting inter-religious and ethnic conflicts among communities. It said the terror group is also sponsoring well-calculated programmes to indoctrinate Kenyan Muslims with extremist ideologies through madrassas.
The militiamen are also going for soft targets such as malls, churches, learning institutions and settlements inhabited by non-Muslims.
The intelligence report warns that terror groups are now targeting university and secondary school goers to create a pool of radicalised youth, who could be easily deployed for “terrorism mission… and the ultimate goal of creating an Islamic caliphate”.
“A protracted state of instability, long porous borders and coastline has made Somalia a safe haven for international terrorists recruitment, training and launch pad for conducting operations across the region,” observes the 42-page report.
Al Shabaab has waged a campaign of terror against Kenya that has claimed hundreds of lives. The deadliest were on Garissa University College in which 148, mostly students, were killed last year and Westgate Mall in Nairobi that saw the killing of 67 people in 2013.
Kenya went into Somalia in November 2011 under the Operation Linda Nchi, in hot pursuit of Somalia elements who had violated its territory by kidnapping tourists and aid workers inside Kenya.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/17/2016
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A group of Iraqi politicians announced their withdrawal on Saturday from a session of parliament aimed at selecting a replacement for the speaker, apparently leaving it without the necessary quorum.
Iraq was on course to have two rival claimants to the speakership, further increasing chaos in parliament, which has already seen a vote to sack speaker Salim al-Juburi, a fistfight among MPs and a sit-in this week.
The political turmoil had sidelined Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s efforts to replace the current cabinet, a setback for the premier.
Both the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... and Washington have warned that the political wrangling could undermine Iraq’s fight against ISIS group, which overran large areas in 2014 but has since lost significant ground.
MP Qassem al-Araji announced that 23 politicians from the Shiite Badr bloc were withdrawing from the session, saying the parliamentary division could result in two governments and undermine the fight against ISIS.
"We were living with two parliaments, and that could lead to two governments," Araji told journalists, warning that might result in "the collapse of the front" against ISIS.
"We are against dividing the parliament and we want to maintain the democratic political process in Iraq," Araji said.
Juburi rejected the Thursday vote to remove him on the grounds that the session lacked a quorum and called parliament to meet on Saturday, but cancelled the session over an unspecified security risk.
But his opponents insisted that the vote to sack him was legitimate and planned to hold their own session on Saturday to nominate replacements for Juburi and his two deputies.
The Badr withdrawal effectively precludes the session from being held, though it was not immediately clear if it was final or just a strategy to gain concessions.
Badr chief Hadi al-Ameri is a top commander of Shiite paramilitary forces fighting against IS, and also aspires to a senior government post.
MP Kadhim al-Shammari, a member of another bloc involved in the anti-Juburi session, called on the Badr politicians to return and "participate with their brothers in writing a new history for Iraq."
Abadi has called for the current cabinet of party-affiliated ministers to be replaced by a government of technocrats, but has faced significant resistance from the powerful parties that rely on control of ministries for patronage and funds.
Those efforts have been put on hold by disputes over the new lineup and by the move to oust the speaker.
Meanwhile, ...back at the pond, Gloria slowly backed away from the eight-foot bull frog. If the creature croaked she would surely be deafened... popular Iraqi Shiite holy manMoqtada Tater al-Sadr ... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah... gave the parliament 72 hours to vote to form a cabinet of technocrats.
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[ARA News] DUHOK – Although the Kurdish Peshmerga forces and allied local fighters, backed by the US-led coalition, have recaptured the Yezidi district of Sinjar (Shingal) and the surrounding villages in northern Iraq from the radical group of Islamic State (ISIS), the displaced Yezidi civilians are still reluctant to return home.
The anti-ISIS battles in Shingal left a great damage in the infrastructure of the area, according to locals. This is why the majority of Yezidis prefer to stay in the refugee camps set up by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
Some displaced Yezidis complained about the ISIS-led mass destruction in their towns and villages in Shingal and its surroundings, while others expressed their concerns about the fragile security situation that surround the Yezidi areas in northern Iraq. The ghost of ISIS still overshadows the whole scene of the region, they argued.
ISIS still poses threat to Shingal
Speaking to ARA News, Shaban Khalaf, a displaced Yazidi from Shingal based in the refugee camp of Bajdkandala near the town of Zakho in Iraqi Kurdistan, said: “One of the reasons why Yezidis do not return to Shingal is ISIS presence in the nearby areas. Current ISIS positions are not very far from Shingal.”
“Who knows? Daesh may launch a surprise attack on our areas once again, especially the clashes are still ongoing between the Peshmerga forces and Shingal Protection Units (YBS) on the one hand, and ISIS terrorists on the other, in southern Shingal,” he argued, using an acronym for ISIS.
“The terror group still poses a threat to Shingal,” he told ARA News.
Khalaf pointed out that Shingal’s infrastructure has been destroyed due to the heavy shelling and bombings by the conflicting parties.
“Dozens of houses in the area have been looted and robbed,” Khalaf added, pointing out that Shingal needs also an intensive reconstruction campaign “after this devastating war”.
“If we did not rebuild the region’s infrastructure, Yezidis would not be able to live in the area from now on,” he stressed.
Abduction
Yasser Kaalo, a displaced Yezidi man, spoke to ARA News in the Shariya camp [in Duhok] for Yezidi refugees in Iraqi Kurdistan, saying that most of people fear to face a similar scenario as thousands of women and children are still held hostages at the hands of the terror group.
“Also, the fate of hundreds of people is still unknown,” he added. “This had put a negative impact on us.”
Kaalo emphasized that also the land-mines planted by ISIS terrorists in Shingal region hinder his return with his family to their hometown.
Yezidis need International Protection
Asfar Darman, another displaced Yezidi, told ARA News: “I believe that there were no guarantees and protection from international powers under a UN resolution to protect the Yezidis in Shingal region, they will not go back home and this will encourage them leave Iraq heading the European countries in search of a better and secured life.”
“Unfortunately, Yezidis have lost confidence in everything, they would not easily come back to Shingal, especially if the situation continues as it is,” Darman concluded, saying “the international community should bear its responsibility to regain security and stability in the whole region.”
In August 2014, ISIS radicals took over the region of Shingal, causing a mass displacement of nearly 400,000 people to Duhok and Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan. Tens of thousands of Yezidis remained trapped in Mount Sinjar, suffering mass killings, kidnappings and rape cases, according to local and military sources. Also, more than 3000 Yezidi girls have been taken by the radical group as sex slaves.
On November 13, the Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Iraqi Kurdistan, backed by an air cover from the US-led coalition forces, announced the liberation of the entire Yezidi district of Shingal in the northern Iraqi province of Nineveh after fierce battles with ISIS extremists. The Kurdish forces have recently discovered more than five mass graves in the Yezidi region, where hundreds of Yezidi civilians have been summarily executed and buried by ISIS jihadis.
[NYTIMES] 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... has told the B.O. regime and members of Congress that it will sell off hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of American assets held by the kingdom if Congress passes a bill that would allow the Saudi government to be held responsible in American courts for any role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Oooohh, a fire sale! I'm sure us locals will be happy to take advantage of the situation.
The B.O. regime has lobbied Congress to block the bill’s passage, according to administration officials and congressional aides from both parties, and the Saudi threats have been the subject of intense discussions in recent weeks between politicians and officials from the State Department and the Pentagon. The officials have warned senators of diplomatic and economic fallout from the legislation.
Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister, delivered the kingdom’s message personally last month during a trip to Washington, telling politicians that Saudi Arabia would be forced to sell up to $750 billion in treasury securities and other assets in the United States before they could be in danger of being frozen by American courts.
Several outside economists are skeptical that the Saudis will follow through, saying that such a sell-off would be difficult to execute and would end up crippling the kingdom’s economy. But the threat is another sign of the escalating tensions between Saudi Arabia and the United States.
The administration, which argues that the legislation would put Americans at legal risk overseas, has been lobbying so intently against the bill that some politicians and families of Sept. 11 victims are infuriated. In their view, the B.O. regime has consistently sided with the kingdom and has thwarted their efforts to learn what they believe to be the truth about the role some Saudi officials played in the terrorist plot.
"It’s stunning to think that our government would back the Saudis over its own citizens," said Mindy Kleinberg, whose husband died in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 and who is part of a group of victims’ family members pushing for the legislation.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2016
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#1
Reuters reports that the Obama administration is lobbying against the Bill
so Obama is siding with the Saudis over US Citizens, victims of 9/11
I see why Trump is popular - Saudis can afford large campaign donations, get their sympathisers jobs in the administration -> lobby for Saudi
#2
The 9/11 Commission said there was “no evidence” to tie the Saudi government to the terrorist attack but a 28-page portion of the report is still classified. Link
WTF! First the Clinton emails admitting knowledge of the Benghazi attack as terrorism, then the PAK story about ISI payments and the Chapman bombing, now THIS! My world, my shadow presidency it's, it's crumbling.
[THEHILL] The State Department is hoping to bring an average of nearly 1,500 Syrian refugees to the United States per month in order to meet President B.O.'s target of settling 10,000 refugees in the country by September.
About 1,300 refugees have already been placed in the United States since Obama first made the commitment in September.
That's far fewer than those taken in by European countries such as Germany, who has dealt with an unprecedented wave of migrants colonists fleeing Syria's civil war, as well as 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.... in Iraq and Syria.
Yet the settlement has provoked a significant backlash, mostly from Republicans, who argue it puts the U.S. at risk from terrorism.
"It's clear that ISIS wants to, has planned on attempting to infiltrate refugee populations. This is a problem. If one person gets through who is planning a terrorist attack in our country, that's a problem," House Speaker Paul Ryan ...U.S. Representative for Wisconsin's 1st congressional district, serving since 1999. He is a member of the Republican Party. He proposed an alternative to President Obama's 2011 budget and made himself the target of both Democrat and Republican verbal pies... , who recently returned from a trip to the region, said Thursday.
"The administration -- whether it's Homeland Security or the FBI, cannot tell us that they can adequately screen people. There isn't really a Syrian to talk to on that end of the equation to vet people, so it is a problem," Ryan told news hounds.
The State Department says it has fallen behind schedule in meting Obama’s goal partly due to a lack of personnel available to interview refugees.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2016
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#1
Because "Hispanics" don't measure up when it's comes to criminality?
#2
Last year the Marine Corps, which often deploys to remote locations, declared its version of the F-35 ready for deployment “without conducting deployability tests of ALIS.”
Evidently they weren't planning to pay attention to maintenance anyway.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
04/17/2016 9:35
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#3
This is the previuosly reported here problems.with the software the Israelis are avoiding altogether on theirs.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A Bahraini police officer has been killed and two others were seriously maimed in a gasoline kaboom in the tiny island kingdom, its Interior Ministry said.
The ministry announced the officer’s death Saturday night, saying the attack happened in the village of Karbabad. It said an investigation into the attack was ongoing as locals said a large security presence had gathered around the area.
The ministry did not elaborate on who throw the bomb and said it was a "terrorist act."
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[DAWN] Pakistain has been steadily reforming its education system and has also removed a number of offensive references from its textbooks, Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani said in his reply to a US report about objectionable material in Pak textbooks.
While reviewing the report "Teaching Intolerance in Pakistain", Ambassador Jilani noted that the report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) was a follow-up to an earlier study.
"Using that study as a baseline, the report concludes that majority of examples of religious intolerance found in 2011 textbooks had been removed. This conclusion drawn in the report clearly indicates that there is work in progress," he said. "I consider this an incremental but positive change," added the ambassador. "Teaching intolerance in Pakistain", was released at the National Press Club in Washington on Wednesday afternoon. It urged Pakistain to reconsider its education policy and stop teaching material that creates hatred.
"This kind of education closes all doors for a new generation of Pak Muslims to see a peaceful future with Hindus of India," said the report, adding that "And worse yet, it provides a rationale to treat Pak Hindus as outsiders. In contrast, it ignores how Hindus and Muslims have cooperated and coexisted peacefully for centuries in the Sub-Continent."
The report claims that the textbooks portray non-Muslim citizens of Pakistain as sympathetic towards its perceived enemies: Pak Christians as Westerners or equal to British colonial oppressors and Pak Hindus as Indians.
In his statement, Ambassador Jilani said education was a provincial subject in Pakistain and the report had acknowledged progress made in at least two provinces.
Curriculum reforms, he claimed, needed to be viewed as an ongoing process in Pakistain. "Its importance has been duly recognised and is being addressed in the implementation of the National Action Plan as well as National Internal Security Policy," the ambassador said.
"Pakistain is an increasingly introspective society. We are open to and welcome constructive engagement by USCIRF and other such bodies in the ongoing process of review and reform. We believe that this process will yield positive results," he added.
"These grossly generalised and stereotypical portrayals of religious minority communities signal that they are untrustworthy, religiously inferior, and ideologically scheming and intolerant," the report noted.
"These messages are reinforced by the absence of deeper content addressing the complexity of religions, the rights of religious minorities, and the positive contributions of religious minorities in the development and protection of Pakistain."
Using a baseline of 25 examples of religious intolerance found in the 2011 textbooks, the study concluded that most had been removed from the current textbooks.
However, man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them... the study noted that later, new religiously intolerant passages were inserted in the corrected textbooks as well.
The study’s review of 78 current textbooks exposed 70 new examples of religious intolerance and biases in 24 books, similar to the kind of materials found in the earlier study. Of the 70 new examples, 58 (84 per cent) came from books published by the Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... and Sindh authorities, while the remainder came from Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... (seven) and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... (five).
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Removed objectionable things from textbooks. Words, for example...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/17/2016 6:34
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However, the study noted that later, new religiously intolerant passages were inserted in the corrected textbooks as well.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... said on Saturday it would support Iran’s bid to join the World Trade Organization but it urged Tehran to refrain from further ballistic missile tests after the highest-level talks with Iran in more than a decade.
Seeking to capitalize on last year’s nuclear deal, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini led a team of seven European commissioners on a one-day trip to Tehran where they agreed to cooperate on everything from banking to energy to transport issues.
"It is in the European interest and in the Iranian interest to make sure that banks engage and feel confident to come to Iran and facilitate and support this new economic engagement," Mogherini said at a news conference with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Tehran.
With a view to opening a full EU diplomatic mission in Iran an EU liaison team will be sent to Tehran, Mogherini and Zarif said in a joint statement.
"Today is a new beginning in Iran and EU relations. We hope this cooperation between the land of the Medes and the Persians and European Union brings about shared interests and global development," Zarif was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA.
He also urged the United States to remove obstacles to Iran gaining access to the global financial system, saying this was the main goal of its nuclear talks with world powers.
The EU executive’s visit comes on the heels of trips to Tehran by European governments seeking to revive ties with Iran after the July 2015 nuclear deal.
The EU and Iran will exchange business missions in the second half of this year and Brussels will assist Iran in becoming a member of the WTO, the statement said.
On the issue of human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. , which also figured in discussions, Mogherini said the EU would continue to be firm on its principles while maintaining dialogue with Iran.
The EU is troubled by the more than 1,000 executions in Iran last year, its ballistic missiles and its funding of blacklisted Death Eater groups.
Mogherini repeated that she did not see Iran’s recent ballistic missile tests as a breach of the nuclear accord between Iran and world powers, though she added it was a "worrying step."
"This doesn’t mean that we are not concerned," Mogherini said. "On the contrary, we see this as a worrying step ... and we are encouraging (Iran) to abstain from further steps."
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ support for Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... puts Tehran directly at odds with the West in Syria.
Mogherini said the nuclear deal was important for improving the security landscape in the Middle East and the two sides had agreed to work together to foster dialogue in the region.
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[AnNahar] A radicalized Swede, who was tossed in the slammer Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! after his mother reported him to authorities, went on trial charged with terror offenses Friday after he allegedly tried to build a bomb similar to ones used in the 2013 Boston Marathon attacks.
Sevigin Aydin, a 20-year-old teaching student who acknowledged having wanted to "die a martyr," was arrested in February by Swedish intelligence services when his mother alerted police after finding purchases by her son of equipment often used to make bombs.
Aydin, who grew up in a leafy suburb north of Stockholm, has denied any intention to carry out an attack on Swedish soil.
"I deny the charges, altogether," Aydin said in court. "I never intended to hurt anyone or manufacture any bomb."
His father threw away the alleged bomb-making equipment before police arrived. Authorities did, however, have receipts for some of his purchases.
The court indictment, of which AFP obtained a copy, shows that Aydin bought six bottles of acetone -- a common, highly flammable solvent often found in nail polish remover -- as well as matches, steel balls, electric wire and batteries.
Components such as these can be used to make bombs similar to the ones used by attackers during the 2013 Boston Marathon attack in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, according to expert testimony given to the Attunda District Court, north of Stockholm.
Acetone also appears in investigations into the attacks in Gay Paree and Brussels.
When was asked what he intended to use the six liters of acetone for, Aydin said: "I thought I might need it one day. It's always better to have more than less."
Video surveillance footage also showed him buying a pressure cooker from Ikea, also a common device used in bomb making.
Investigators also seized a mobile phone. Its password was "jihad."
Aydin made no secret of his sympathies for the jihadist 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.... group. He wanted to leave Sweden and go to Syria to "defend women and kiddies against the infidels," according to the indictment. He also mentioned the possibility of a strike inside Sweden.
Aydin also regularly visited jihadist websites to listen to sermons and "probably" tried in June 2015 to travel to Syria via The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , which expelled him twice.
His mother had alerted security at Stockholm Arlanda Airport, saying that she was worried he would join the jihadists. The trial is set to last for three days.
If found guilty, he could be sentenced to life in prison.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[ARA News] ERBIL – Two children suffered from serious injuries as a result of the explosion of leftovers of explosives planted by the Islamic State’s (ISIS) militants near Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) in Syria’s northeastern Hasakah province, the Kurdish police said on Saturday.
Unexploded devices are a daily threat to Kurdish civilians not only in Kobane, but also in the Hasakah province.
“On Friday, two children with the names A.Z (7) and A.M. (6) were heavily injured in the al-Kantry village near the town of Serikaniye, after playing with a metal object,” the Kurdish police said. They were transported to the al-Salam hospital in the city of Qamislo (Qamishli).
“We note that Asayish Forces warned people not to get close to explosives and report them immediately to the nearest office of Asayish security forces,” the Kurdish police –also known as Asayish in Kurdish– said.
Unexploded devices are a huge threat to Kurdish civilians in Syria.
“What we saw in Kobane was beyond our worst nightmares: a significant part of the city is vastly destroyed and unexploded weapons contamination of all kinds have reached a density and diversity that
has hardly ever been witnessed before,” said Frédéric Maio, Handicap International’s Mine Action Program Development Manager in a public statement.
“The unexploded devices and booby traps pose a daily threat to the people who fled Kobani (Kobane) and are now trying to return home. This explosive pollution will make it impossible for people to reconstruct their lives, and blocks access to several areas. It also prevents humanitarian organizations from operating safely and providing the necessary support to this vulnerable population.”
It is most likely that the mines will continue to threaten Kurdish civilians and fighters of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
Speaking to ARA News, Abdulrahman Hemo, head of the reconstruction board of Kobane, said that the explosives continue to threaten civilian lives, and that more financial support for Kobane is needed.
“Until now, 50 per cent of the civilian death toll in Kobane was caused by explosives in the ground,” he said. “But we have not seen any practical help yet, so many NGOs got money from donors, but we have not seen any support in Kobane yet,” he said.
“ISIS militants are experts in the use of mines,” German fighter of YPG Heval Cihan told ARA News, suggesting that ISIS is using traps and decoys, which had killed one of the YPG’s mine experts in Ayn al-Issa town.
“After the liberation of Kobane, most martyrs were not killed by attacks, but by mines,” he said. “Some of them [YPG fighters] have no discipline, and open doors, or try to take [booby-trapped] weapons,” he added.
A French volunteer agree. “Mines are our biggest threat,” YPG member Heval Ernesto told ARA News in Kobane.
Posted by: badanov ||
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#1
Teams of Dyn Corp, Lockheed Martin, or General Dynamics deminers operators should be dispatched immediately to buy back recover the ordnance. Another Business Development opportunity missed.
Bad precedent I suppose, that 'returning home' piece. How can Islam be colonized if everyone simply returns to their homes ?
Yes, that will certainly fix the problem. Who's for tea?
[ARA News] ERBIL – Syrian rebel groups launched indiscriminate attacks on a Kurdish neighborhood in Aleppo that killed at least 18 civilians, including seven children, five women and injured 68, Kurdish officials told Human Rights Watch.
“A decrease in casualty numbers brought a much needed respite for Syrians, but many civilians are still dying in unlawful attacks,” said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East director for Human Rights Watch, blaming both the Syrian government and Syrian rebels for killing civilians.
“Key countries pushing for negotiations in Syria – notably the U.S. and Russia – need to press the warring parties in Syria to end unlawful attacks.”
“In Aleppo, opposition armed groups fired locally made rockets, grad, and mortars,” Emad Dawud, a local council member in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, told Human Rights Watch. Local activists said that the armed groups began their attacks following clashes with the Kurdish forces of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) over the control of a key thoroughfare.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the armed groups also struck the neighborhood with 23 rockets on March 6, killing nine civilians including four children.
On March 19, four civilians, including two children, died when rockets were fired into Sheikh Maqsoud from the al-Halk neighborhood, which armed groups control.
Human Rights Watch said it reviewed a video posted on March 7 showing rebels from the Thuwar al-Sham brigade preparing locally made cylindrical rockets in preparation for a launch into Sheikh Maqsoud.
A local journalist in Sheikh Maqsoud, Pervin Roj, said on April 8 that the heavy shelling that began on April 5 had not stopped. She said that the hospital was overrun with dead and injured.
“There are still people under the rubble that the rescue teams cannot reach,” Roj said.
Video of the aftermath of the April 5 attacks showed victims being treated for difficulty in breathing. Photos of the aftermath showed children buried under destroyed buildings and others bloodied and covered with blankets after being lifted from the rubble.
Both the Syrian National Coalition (SNC) and Jaysh al-Islam confirmed that civilians were targeted in attacks.
On April 7, the official spokesperson for Jaysh al-Islam, Islam Alloush, issued a statement saying that “during confrontations [with the Kurdish fighters], a local commander in Jaysh al-Islam used weapons that are not authorized to be used in these types of confrontations, which is considered a violation of the group’s internal rules, and he was referred to the military judicial system of the army [Jaysh al-Islam].”
Speaking to ARA News in an exclusive interview, Alloush confirmed that Jaysh al-Islam was part of the rebel coalition that fights against the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Sheikh Maqsoud.
“The Kurds are trying to control Sheikh Maqsoud to facilitate their control of the Castello road, which is the only supply line for civilians in the liberated areas in Aleppo, and the Kurds want to cut off this route, to besiege the city, and to implement the schemes of the regime,” he told ARA News.
However, Kurds disagree and suggest the YPG are trying to protect civilians from the Syrian rebel groups.
“I think the People’s Protection Units (YPG) protect people from the opposition factions’ attacks launched from three points, including Al Castelo,” Nidal Hassan, a Kurdish activist from Efrin, told ARA News. “The Kurdish units are responding to the attacks by rebels who use Castillo supply line as a pretext to bomb the neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsoud,” he added.
“Today and yesterday was calm compared to the previous days, but shelling and attacks continue. People are now concerned about the spread of diseases (tuberculosis, smallpox) due to the lack of medicines and malnutrition because of the blockade,” he said.
[DAWN] THERE was a joke doing the rounds on social media wherein it was said that a Pakistain offshore account holders’ convention was being organised this week at one of London’s most expensive addresses, One Hyde Park.
The obvious reference was to reports or, let’s say, suggestions that two of the country’s top politicians (or their immediate family members) have bought properties in the exclusive development on Knightsbridge with unmatched views of Hyde Park; the first a while ago, and the second rather recently.
Former president Asif Ali Zardari was already in London and now Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2016
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#1
So, you've noticed powerful individuals tend to move their wealth out of your country, eh?
Why would they be doing such a thing?
Posted by: ed in texas ||
04/17/2016 9:25
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl has warned that Europe can’t become "a new home" for millions of migrants colonists, in a veiled criticism of incumbent Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom... ’s liberal asylum policies.
His comments, published in Sunday’s Tagesspiegel daily, come as the ex-chancellor is set to meet Tuesday with Hungary’s right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a fierce opponent of Merkel’s open-door stance towards migrants colonists.
"Europe cannot become a new home for the millions of people in need throughout the world," Kohl was quoted as saying.
Germany’s liberal refugee policy last year ushered in 1.1 million asylum-seekers from Syria, Iraq and elsewhere.
Orban ‐ whose country has erected razorwire border fences to deter migrants colonists ‐ earlier this year said that an uncontrolled influx exposes Europe to the risks of "terrorism, criminality, anti-Semitism and homophobia".
Kohl’s own warning is contained in a preface to the new Hungarian-language version of his book "Aus Sorge um Europa" (Out of concern for Europe).
The solution to the migrant crisis, he argues, lies not in Europe but has to come from the regions that are seeing the exodus.
"National policies of the lone-knight variety must be left in the past," said Kohl, considered the father of German reunification, without mentioning Merkel or her policies directly.
Many migrants colonists "come from different cultural environments," he added.
"For the most part they have a belief which is different from the Judeo-Christian beliefs which form part of the foundations of our social order and our values."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2016
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#1
Just import a shitload of goats and make the 'migrants' happy, CDU Guy...
[Dhaka Tribune] As US-led offensives drive back Dae’sh in Iraq, concern is growing among US and UN officials that efforts to stabilize liberated areas are lagging, creating conditions that could help the bandidosmurderous Moslems endure as an underground network.
One major worry: not enough money is being committed to rebuild the devastated scenic provincial capital of Ramadi and other towns, let alone Dae’she-held djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , the ultimate target in Iraq of the US-led campaign.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2016
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#1
I wonder (rhetorically) why the other middle-eastern governments are not contributing hundreds of millions of dollars for reconstruction?
Rather give it to the Paleos to fight the Zionists? Don't approve of the religions preference of the party in power? Don't have any cash to spare because of U.S. fracking?
All these interesting issues not considered by the Dhaka Tribune - or any other journalistic rag.
Maybe it's as simple as, "It's Uncle Sugar's job."
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/17/2016 8:04
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(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – A source in the Joint Operations Command announced on Saturday, that 20 members of the so-called ISIS had been either killed or wounded in a bombardment carried out by the Iraqi Sukhoi aircraft on ISIS headquarters north of Ramadi, while pointed out to the destruction of an explosives cache and four ISIS vehicles.
The source said in a statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “Iraqi Sukhoi aircraft conducted an air strike on ISIS headquarters in Albu Ali al-Jassim area north of Ramadi, killing and injuring 20 ISIS members.”
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added, “The bombing also destructed an explosive devices cache and four vehicles belonging to ISIS members,” noting that, “The operation was carried out based on intelligence information from the army’s 10th brigade.”
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – A source in the Joint Operations Command announced on Saturday, that the security forces managed to liberate two villages south of Heet District west of Anbar from the ISIS control, while affirmed the death of ten ISIS militants during the battles.
The source said in press statement received by IraqiNews.com, “The Anti-Terrorism forces backed by Abrams tanks carried out a military operation in the villages of al-khawda and al-Mashtal south of Heet, and were able to liberate and cleanse the road linking between the two villages, as well as killing ten ISIS fighters.”
The source, who asked anonymity, added, “The operation also resulted in the destruction of three car bombs and a booby-trapped tank, in addition to dismantling 58 explosive devices.”
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – Heet District Council in Anbar Province announced on Saturday, that the security forces arrested 40 members of the so-called ISIS while trying to escape with the families who were evacuated from Heet west of Ramadi.
The Head of Heet council, Mohammed Mohannad al-Hiti, said in press statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “The security forces managed to arrest 40 ISIS members, during checking the information of the civilians who were evacuated from Heet District,” pointing out that, “The arrested ISIS members were trying to escape from the city with the evacuated families.”
Hiti added, “The detainees included the so-called ISIS Wali of Mahbobiyah area in central Heet,” indicating that, “The arrested ISIS members were transferred to a security detention center for interrogation.”
(IraqiNews.com) The commander of Anbar Operations Command, Maj. Gen. Ismail al-Mahalawi, announced on Friday shooting down an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) belonging to the ISIS north of the city of Ramadi.
Mahalawi said in a statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “Today, a force from the Tenth Division belonging to Anbar Operations managed to shoot down an unmanned aerial vehicle belonging to the ISIS, using medium weapons, in the area of al-Juraishi north of Ramadi,” adding that, “A force from the Engineering Battalion of the Sixteenth Division was able to cleanse 30 booby-trapped houses in the area of al-Aramel south of Ramadi.”
(IraqiNews.com) The commander of Anbar Operations Command, Maj. Gen. Ismail al-Mahalawi, announced on Saturday shooting down the second unmanned aerial vehicle belonging to the ISIS in the province during the past 24 hours.
Mahalawi said in a press statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “A force from the army’s Eighth Division was able to shoot down an unmanned aerial vehicle belonging to the ISIS by using medium and light weapons in Euphrates River in the vicinity of al-Ameriyat (23 km south of Fallujah),” adding that, “This is the second unmanned aerial vehicle for ISIS that had been shot down by the army in Anbar during the past 24 hours.”
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – Baghdadi Council in Anbar Province revealed on Saturday, that the so-called ISIS mobilized its members to attack al-Baghdadi area in Heet District from three axes, while pointed out that the security forces are ready to repel the attack.
The Head of Baghdadi Council Malullah Barzan al-Obeidi said in a press statement received by IraqiNews.com, “ISIS mobilized its members to attack al-Baghdadi vicinity from three axes.”
The statement added, “The security forces started to reinforce its troops that are stationed at the entrances and axes of Baghdadi to repel any potential terrorist attack.”
(IraqiNews.com) al-Anbar – A source in the leadership of the army’s Seventh Division said on Saturday, that the ISIS elements fled in a mass escape from al-Baghdadi Island west of the city of Ramadi.
The source said in a statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “This morning, elements of the ISIS began a mass escape from al-Baghdadi Island and the area of Noaam northeast of al-Baghdadi vicinity (90 km west of Ramadi),” noting that, “The [ISIS] elements headed towards the district of al-Qaim.”
The source, who requested anonymity, added, “The reason of the escape in the liberation of Heet by the security forces and supporting clans, in addition to cutting the ISIS supplies from the district.”
Posted by: badanov ||
04/17/2016
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[Dawn] LAHORE / D.G. KHAN: Formally launching a grand operation against hardened criminals on Friday, military forces resorted to shelling at their hideouts in the troubled riverine area of Rajanpur district.
Helicopter gunships were used to hit suspected positions and bunkers set up by the Chotoo gang criminals, a senior security official told Dawn. The initial air strikes lasted about 20 minutes. The security forces taking part in the operation, codenamed Zarb-i-Aahan, also had the backup support of mortar shells fired by Rangers.
The army has imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew (6pm to 6am) in some areas.
The official said the Chotoo gang and its allies were putting up resistance and the area echoed with heavy gunfire, bomb explosions and shelling.
There was no immediate information about any injury or casualty in the wake of the shelling.
The Inter Services Public Relations said information would be shared with the media on completion of the operation.
Witnesses said there was a heavy deployment and movement of military troops in Rojhan tehsil, adding that SSG commandoes had taken positions around the troubled island of Kacha Jamal and Moro where the Chotoo gangsters built permanent hideouts.
Some TV channels claimed that the Chotoo gang and some other notorious criminals had offered to surrender, but security forces rejected it.
Addressing officers at the Central Police Office in Lahore on Friday, Punjab Inspector General Mushtaq Sukhera said the Zarb-i-Aahan operation had been launched in collaboration with other law enforcement agencies.
He said that before launching the operation, security personnel were properly trained and equipped.
“During training sessions, 50,000 rounds were fired and use of mortars and other equipment were demonstrated,” the IG said, adding that two retired colonels from the Special Services Group were on board in the operation.
All personnel had been provided bulletproof jackets, helmets and five magazines of rounds, along with all essential gadgets and ammunition.
The IG claimed that during the operation police killed seven hardcore members of the Chotoo gang. He identified them as Ali Gulbazgeer, Pandi, Pehlwan alias Pallu, Bahadur, Faqeer Mohammad, Majeed Bakhrani and Aindar.
About the 24 missing policemen, a spokesperson for the Punjab police said they were in custody of the criminals.
RALLIES: Relatives of the captured policemen held demonstrations in Rajanpur and Layyah, asking the government to strike some sort of a deal with the Chotoo gang for their release.
According to sources, members of the gang were making calls to relatives of the captured policemen, asking them to do whatever they could to save their lives.
#1
Another quarter of the Pakistan snakepit is heard from. That the US provides foreign aid to this failed state is stupid at best, criminal at worst. (I wonder whatever happened to the dam the US was helping to fund in Pakistan's far northeast?)
(IraqiNews.com) Diyala – Diyala Police Chief Maj. Gen. Jassim al-Saadi announced on Saturday, that the security forces arrested two people on charges of terrorism in Baqubah.
Saadi said in a press statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “The security forces from the police’s emergency regiment carried out raids in Balad Ruz and al-Khales Districts, and were able to arrest two people on charges of terrorism.”
Saadi added, “The operations were carried out based on accurate intelligence information.”
[ALLAFRICA] The Nigerian military has successfully repelled an attack by the Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... turbans against their positions in parts of Borno state, and rescued 455 hostages.
The Director of Army Public Relations (DAPR), Col. Sani Usman, said in a statement on Saturday that the turbans had in the early hours of Friday, armed with five gun trucks, cycle of violences and two Golf cars laden with Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) from Sambisa forest axis attempted an attack on 121 Task Force Battalion at Pulka.
"The ever alert and vigilant troops rose to the occasion and successfully repelled the attack and killed seven Boko Haram terrorists, maimed several others and recovered 4 AK-47 rifles, three AK-47 rifle magazine and 92 rounds of 7.62mm (NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... ) belt ammunition.
"We wish to state that our troops are hale and hearty," Usman remarked.
In a related development, he said, troops of 3 Battalion caught a suspected Boko Haram terrorists' spy near the Battalion Headquarters at Gamboru Ngala.
According to him, the suspect confessed on interrogation that he was sent to spy on the troops from Wulge.
Consequent upon this, he said, the troops organised a fighting patrol comprising elements of Army Headquarters Strike Group and Civilian JTF to Wulge and Walamari.
"The troops had encounter with Boko Haram turbans in which they killed 27 of them, recovered five cycle of violences and 8 bicycles. They also cleared 12 terrorists' camps and recovered an AK-47 rifles as well as a Dane gun," he disclosed.
Usman said that the troops also rescued 455 persons and escorted them to Gamboru Internally Displaced Persons' (IDPs) camp.
He however confirmed that they lost one of the Civilian JTF, adding that the troops' morale remains very high.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2016
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EXCLUSIVE: Since 1775, the U.S. Marine Corps has prided itself on being “The Few" and "The Proud." But while the Corps takes pride in doing more with less, senior Marine officers are warning that the Corps' aviation service is being stretched to the breaking point.
Today, the vast majority of Marine Corps aircraft can’t fly. The reasons behind the grounding of these aircraft include the toll of long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the fight against ISIS and budget cuts precluding the purchase of the parts needed to fix an aging fleet, according to dozens of Marines interviewed by Fox News at two air stations in the Carolinas this week.
Out of 276 F/A-18 Hornet strike fighters in the Marine Corps inventory, only about 30% are ready to fly, according to statistics provided by the Corps. Similarly, only 42 of 147 heavy-lift CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters are airworthy.
U.S. military spending has dropped from $691 billion in 2010 to $560 billion in 2015. The cuts came just as the planes were returning from 15 years of war, suffering from overuse and extreme wear and tear. Many highly trained mechanics in the aviation depots left for jobs in the private sector.
“Quite honestly, it is coming on the backs of our young Marines,” Lt. Col. Matthew “Pablo” Brown, commanding officer of VMFA(AW)-533, a Hornet squadron based at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina. “They can do it, and they are doing it but it is certainly not easy.”
Brown's squadron is due to deploy to the Middle East in the coming days.
Lack of funds has forced the Marines to go outside the normal supply chain to procure desperately needed parts. Cannibalization, or taking parts from one multi-million dollar aircraft to get other multi-million dollar aicraft airborne, has become the norm.
To get one Hornet flying again, Marines at Beaufort stripped a landing gear door off a mothballed museum jet. The door, found on the flight deck of the World War II-era USS Yorktown, was last manufactured over a decade ago.
China is unlikely to defend North Korea in case tensions escalate on the Korean peninsula over Pyongyang's nuclear provocations Âdespite a mutual defence pact between the two communist allies, mainland scholars say. The more tension the Norks create, the more neighboring countries feel it's OK to arm themselves, and the worse that is for China.
Professor Pang Zhongying, an international relations expert at Renmin University, said Pyongyang's nuclear development, which Beijing viewed as a threat to its security interests, had irreversibly damaged Sino-North Korean relations and rendered the treaty effectively null and void.
"The treaty is China's only legally binding bilateral security pact remaining in force. But it exists only in the legal sense and it is highly unlikely that China will provide military aid in the event of a conflict or war," he said.
Professor Shen Jiru of the Institute on World Economy and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said Beijing should not be bound by the treaty if Pyongyang continued to pursue its programme to develop nuclear weapons.
"The treaty was a relic of the cold war which made no mention of specific circumstances under which China would provide military aid,"he said.
He noted when the treaty was signed in 1961, the Chinese government was "immature and diplomatically inexperienced" in entering into a vaguely worded defence treaty.
Kerry Brown, professor of Chinese studies at London's King's College, said the treaty put China in "permanent quandaries".
"In 1961, I guess the treaty was a means for China to control North Korea against Soviet influence. But now the tables are turned and it is North Korea which is blackmailing and controlling China," he said.
Shen also said the treaty did not make any sense in the light of the national security concept Beijing has adopted since Jiang Zemin was president, namely opposition to military alliances with other countries.
When asked at a press conference last month on the sidelines of the ÂNational People's Congress meeting whether China would help defend North Korea in case of a conflict or war as Beijing did during the 1950-53 Korean war, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China would neither tolerate instability on the Korean peninsula, nor accommodate Pyongyang's pursuit of a nuclear and missile programme.
In a sign of China's growing frustration and impatience with North Korea, China backed a United Nations resolution early last month to toughen sanctions against Pyongyang. Last week, China's Ministry of Commerce rolled out new bans on imports of coal, iron ore, gold, titanium and rare earths, and exports of a range of products, including jet fuel, to North Korea.
#4
Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China would neither tolerate instability on the Korean peninsula, nor accommodate Pyongyang's pursuit of a nuclear and missile programme.
Didn't quite answer the question of "whether China would help defend North Korea in case of a conflict or war," did it?
[AnNahar] European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... 's top diplomat during a visit to Tehran Saturday admitted difficulties in implementing Iran's recent nuclear deal with world powers, but maintained that the agreement was on track.
Federica Mogherini's comments, in a joint presser with Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, underscored tension in Tehran over the accord, which has been in force for three months.
Under the deal, all nuclear-related sanctions were lifted but Iranian officials have accused the West, particularly the United States, of failing to honour its side of the bargain.
Among their grievances is the contention that U.S. government officials are scaring off European banks from investing in Iran for fear of falling foul of regulations that saw massive fines imposed in recent years.
Mogherini, on her first trip to Iran since the nuclear deal came into force in January, said the diplomatic gains of the agreement must now be turned into "benefits in Iranians' daily lives."
But Zarif echoed remarks from other Iranian officials about the deal not producing discernible benefits.
"It is necessary that the other side's cooperation, especially the United States, is made good in practice, not only on paper," Zarif said, alluding to Seif's comments.
"We warned the U.S. and we will put some pressure on them, to pave the way for cooperation between non-U.S. banks and the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran."
Mogherini sought to play down concern, saying that three months of "challenges" on the deal's implementation was nothing compared to the 12 years of diplomacy it had taken to produce the nuclear agreement.
"We obviously have not finished the work on implementing the JCPOA," Mogherini said, referring to the nuclear deal by its official name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, describing it as "an ongoing task".
- 'Doing all that we can' -
Put to her by a news hound that the banking issues were obstacles, Mogherini countered: "There are challenges in implementation, it is true."
She cited 50 pages of guidelines that have been issued to European financial institutions that detail how business can now be conducted with Iran.
"We are doing all that we can to reassure our financial and banking system that all the new information on the new system is provided."
Mogherini pointed to other evidence of cooperation, saying the EU has agreed to support Iran's bid to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) for example, and Iran will take part on a joint dialogue on human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... But Mogherini also raised with Zarif the EU's concern about recent ballistic missile tests by the elite Revolutionary Guards, which a UN panel said breached Security Council resolutions.
She said the EU did not regard the missile tests as a breach of the nuclear deal.
"We see this as a worrying step. Any step that could pass different messages (other than cooperation) is not welcome."
Mogherini, who personally helped negotiate the nuclear deal between Iran and Britannia, China, La Belle France, Russia and the U.S. plus Germany, was accompanied by other top EU officials.
The six powers led by the United States agreed in July last year to lift sanctions that had locked down much of the Iran's economy for years in exchange for limits on Tehran's nuclear programme.
The move allowed Iran to resume a higher level of oil exports when the deal was implemented, as well as opening up more trade opportunities.
But with the U.S. still maintaining some sanctions, including on what it says is Iran's sponsorship of designated terror organizations, Iran's access to global finance remains limited.
Mogherini said the conflicts in Syria and Yemen, where the West has been looking for Iran's cooperation with peace efforts, as well as Iran-EU cooperation on energy production and technology were also discussed.
[DAWN] Law enforcement agencies claim to have foiled a bid to smuggle a large cache of arms and ammunition from Afghanistan to Pakistain. The weapons shipment was intended for a banned holy warrior organization but the law enforcers managed to botch the delivery in the border area of Noshki district after a heavy exchange of fire.
Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti disclosed this at a presser, where he was accompanied by Deputy Inspector General of 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) Brigadier Tahir Mehmood and Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... Government Spokesman Anwar-Ul-Haq Kakar, here on Friday.
"The consignment was sent by the Indian spy agency, RAW, for the banned Baloch Liberation Army," he said, adding that it was being smuggled into Balochistan for carrying out subversive activities.
He said that the Afghan spy agency, National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... , was also helping RAW against Pakistain.
The home minister said that on receiving a tip-off regarding the weapons delivery, FC and intelligence agency personnel had set up a check post in the area. When the vehicle approached the check post, the FC personnel tried to flank it down, but the suspects raced away, leading to a long chase.
"Security forces chased the vehicle for around 35kms towards the Afghan border before they managed to seize the consignment after a heavy exchange of fire," the home minister said, adding that the suspects managed to escape into Afghan territory. "The suspects were either killed or injured in the exchange of fire as blood spots were discovered in the area," he said.
Mr Bugti said that RAW was using Afghan soil to carry out subversive activities in Balochistan. "Afghan soil is being used against Pakistain," he said, adding that the Pakistain government had taken up the issue with its Afghan counterpart on numerous occasions but to no avail.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2016
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#1
That's it! Blame India. The likelihood is that someone forgot to pay-off the Frontier Corps.
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.
Cost-sharing has already become a burden for many workers. Since 2010, deductibles have grown seven times faster than wages and inflation, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
When [the conch is] first blown, it calls the children to an assembly, where Ralph is elected leader. They agree that only the boy holding the conch may speak at meetings to forestall arguments and chaos, and that it should be passed around to those who wish to voice their opinion. The conch symbolises effective democracy and, like Ralph, civility and order within the group. When Piggy is killed, the conch is smashed into pieces, signalling the end of order and the onset of chaos. Originally the conch is portrayed as being very vibrant and colourful, but as the novel progresses, its colours begin to fade, the same way society begins to fade on the island. 
Philippine security forces captured 2 Islamist militants in separate operations in Zamboanga City, several nautical miles south of Basilan province where military forces are currently fightg the Abu Sayyaf.
[Reuters] Islamist militants seized four Indonesians on the crew of a tugboat in the southern Philippines on Friday night, the third attack on slow moving vessels in about a month, as troops battled Muslim insurgents on a nearby island.
[FRANCE24] A Rwanda court handed a life sentence on Friday to a former senior politician for hate speech aimed at stirring up killings of minority Tutsis during the central African country’s genocide more than two decades ago.
[Iran Press TV] The 
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Paleostine.png)
Wazoo
[Iran Press TV] A former US Senate candidate says 
Moqtada 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[AnNahar] A radicalized Swede, who was 
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl has warned that Europe can’t become "a new home" for millions of 
