h/t Instapundit
...The president-elect said this spring that he’s a fan of Rand and identifies with Howard Roark, the main character in "The Fountainhead."
...Tillerson prefers "Atlas Shrugged," Rand’s novel about John Galt secretly organizing a strike of the creative class to hasten the collapse of the bureaucratic society.
...Andy Puzder, tapped by Trump last week to be secretary of labor, is an avid and outspoken fan of Rand’s books.
...Mike Pompeo, who will have the now-very-difficult job of directing the Central Intelligence Agency for Trump, has often said that Rand’s works inspired him.
...An interesting wrinkle: Stephen Bannon, who will be Trump’s chief strategist in the White House, has been sharply critical of Rand.
After 17 years and 11 billion euros, the first Gotthard Base Tunnel passenger train departed Zurich on Sunday morning. The express train will save passengers 30 minutes on the trip. Was Governor Moonbeam on hand?
At 6:09 a.m. the EC11 express train to Lugano was the first regular passenger train to depart for the tunnel after thousands of test runs. I rode thru the Channel Tunnel this spring. Very boring.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/13/2016
10:36 ||
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#1
No. Moonbeam was not there. He might have big dreams but he has not the foggiest frickin' clue how to actually complete a project like this and he can't be bothered to ask the Swiss how they did it. Moonbeam's project is more of a gravy train for cronies.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/13/2016 11:01
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I rode thru the Channel Tunnel this spring. Very boring.
h/t Instapundit
Reports Friday that U.S. intelligence agencies believe Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential campaign to tilt the election in favor of Donald Trump have sown precisely the kind of confusion that American adversaries must have hoped for with their actions. In an effort to reach some sort of clarity, let's break the matter down into two separate questions--Was it Russia that hacked the Democratic National Committee's servers? Did the culprits hack the servers in order to secure a Trump victory? IMO, what smartest Americans don't understand - or are not willing to believe - is that post-Soviet Russians have much better understanding of Hillary & her supporters than Americans themselves. Russians understand that these people are Khmer Rouge with nukes.
#1
Under the fold, they also hack the RNC only to find boring management and business exchanges. That it was so boring it has sparked so little interest. The dog that didn't bark.
[CBS] DETROIT -- An incident on a Delta flight in Detroit was caught on camera Monday, as a woman was dragged down the aisle of the plane by police.
Detroit Metropolitan Airport said in a statement that the incident occurred at approximately 8 a.m.
"Delta Air Lines contacted Detroit Metropolitan Airport’s police department requesting assistance with a passenger who would not comply with boarding and baggage check procedures at a McNamara Terminal gate," DTW said in a statement.
Delta said in a statement to CBS News transportation correspondent Kris Van Cleave that Delta flight 2083 bound for San Diego incurred a slight departure delay "due to a passenger not complying with boarding and baggage check procedures."
When officers arrived, Delta stated the woman could not remain on board. Despite repeated requests by officers, the woman refused to leave the aircraft and had to be removed.
DTW said the woman is yet to be formally charged, but add "she was arrested for violation of airport ordinances, including failure to leave the aircraft."
The flight was able to continue without further incident.
#3
If she was a tea party type, that would have been the lede. Since it wasn't, you can guess...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/13/2016 10:48
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I heard she refused to comply and was tazed....the video showed a large woman, shirt pushed up because she was clearly dead weight and the aisle barely wide enough....
Posted by: One Eyed Speaking for Boskone7919 ||
12/13/2016 10:49
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[IsraelTimes] Prosecutors say eight defendants plotted stone-throwing and Molotov cocktail assaults when they met in prison.
Jerusalem District prosecutors filed indictments Monday against eight East Jerusalem teenagers accused of conspiracy to commit a crime, rioting, attacking a police officer and other offenses.
According to the indictments, filed at the Jerusalem Youth Magistrate’s Court, the defendants, aged 17-18, began planning attacks on Israelis when they found themselves incarcerated together for other offenses at the Megiddo Prison in 2015.
The group, all of whom come from the Tsur Baher and Issawiya neighborhoods, discussed plans for throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at Israeli security forces after their release, and one suggested they obtain guns for shooting attacks.
Some of the gang members were also indicted for rioting -- including incidents on the Temple Mount -- and inciting to violence in Facebook posts.
Four of the defendants had served time in prison for a 2013 stone-throwing attack that targeted the vehicle in which two-year-old Avigail Ben Zion was traveling with her parents in Armon Hanetziv, a predominantly Jewish Jerusalem neighborhood just over the Green Line.
Ben Zion, whose family was returning from a day out at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo, sustained a moderate head wound from the incident.
[AnNahar] The German city of Cologne ...a lovely city in Germany. They invented perfume there... Monday announced a ramped-up police presence, more CCTV and a fireworks-free zone at upcoming New Year's Eve celebrations to avoid a repeat of last year's mass sexual assaults.
Hundreds of women that night described being mugged and groped in a crowd of men of mainly Arab and north African appearance, incidents that shocked Germany and fueled criticism of 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 liberal refugee policy.
Cologne police chief Juergen Mathies said 1,500 officers would be deployed on the streets of the western city this year, up from some 140 last year, when police came under fire for failing to properly respond to the chaotic events.
Mathies told news hounds he regretted that officers last year were "not there for people when they needed the police."
"This must never happen again," he said at a presentation of the city's security plan for New Year's Eve.
The city will also be stepping up its video surveillance, with hundreds more CCTV cameras and more officers wearing bodycams, Mathies said.
Much of the increased security will focus on the square between the city's iconic Dom cathedral and the train station where most of the assaults took place.
Cologne mayor Henriette Reker said access to the square this year would be tightly controlled, with no firecrackers or other pyrotechnics allowed in the safety zone.
The square will also be flooded with light as part of a video and light installation by German artist Philipp Geist that will be projected onto the Dom.
Of the roughly 1,200 criminal complaints filed about last year's New Year's Eve incidents, more than 500 were for sexual assault, Cologne police reports showed.
The majority of the perpetrators were never caught. Of the suspects who were identified, many were migrants colonists from Morocco and Algeria.
Apparently, many of those arrested for their activities that night were "unaccompanied minors" so they were let go, though it's likely 2/3rds of them were actually fully adult males.
Similar assaults were reported during end-of-year festivities in other German cities.
[IsraelTmes] A British court on Monday enjugged Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! two men for up to eight years for handing money to Brussels and Gay Paree terror attacks suspect Mohammed Abrini when he visited Britannia last year.
Mohammed Ali Ahmed and Zakaria Boufassil gave £3,000 ($3,770) in cash to Abrini in the central English city of Birmingham in July 2015, knowing it would be used for terrorism.
Ahmed, a 27-year-old from Birmingham, had pleaded guilty to the offence last month and received an eight-year jail term.
Boufassil, a 26-year-old Belgian citizen also from Birmingham, had admitted meeting Abrini in a Birmingham park and holding the money for Ahmed, but said he had "no idea" of its intended use.
However, some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go... a jury dismissed this claim last week and he was sentenced to three years behind bars.
Judge Jeremy Baker said Ahmed was motivated by "extreme Islamist beliefs" but said Boufassil’s role was "more limited."
It emerged Monday, after the judge lifted reporting restrictions, that Boufassil claimed he was recruited by British intelligence agency MI5 after the meeting with Abrini. He claimed to have been given up to £3,000 in exchange for information, using it to go to Morocco to see his girlfriend. He was tossed in the clink Book 'im, Mahmoud! on his return in April 2016.
Boufassil’s lawyer tried to use the MI5 claim to argue that he did not hold any allegiance to a particular terrorist group or cause.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/13/2016
02:11 ||
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[AlAhram] Thirty-three people have been locked away You have the right to remain silent... as part of a Europe-wide investigation into the smuggling of migrants colonists from Iran to Britannia, the National Crime Agency (NCA) in London said Monday.
The suspects are believed to be "key members" of an organised crime gang that has smuggled hundreds of people across Europe to Britannia using fake identity documents, said Chris Hogben, from the NCA's border policing command.
Twenty-four of those arrested, aged between 26 and 45, were detained in Greece after a series of raids in Athens in a joint operation with Greek police, the agency said in a statement.
"All 24 were arrested for their suspected role in a transnational organised crime group believed to be facilitating the smuggling of Iranian illegal migrants colonists from Iran via The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , Greece, Spain, La Belle France, Germany, Italia, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... , the Netherlands, into the UK," it said.
Investigators believe the group would charge up to 10,000 euros ($11,000, £8,000) per person to supply migrants colonists with false identity papers and arrange their onward journey to Britannia.
Four forgery factories, where the group allegedly produced the counterfeited documents, were dismantled in the operation, the NCA said.
Forging equipment, 50,000 euros in cash and hundreds of documents were also seized.
British immigration officials last week arrested nine people suspected of being part of the UK-based arm of the gang, the NCA added.
Those arrests followed a series of raids in Glasgow, Manchester, in northern England, and Northampton, in central England.
[AnNahar] An Iowa man has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison after pleading guilty to charges related to the shipping of guns to Leb.
The U.S. Attorney's Office says Bassem Afif Herz was given the punishment Monday in federal court in Cedar Rapids. The 31-year-old Cedar Rapids man pleaded guilty in March to conspiring to deal in firearms without a license and illegally shipping firearms. He also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and violating a federal law that limits the exporting of weapons.
Besides eight years and one month of prison, Herz must serve three years of supervised release after his term.
Herz was among several relatives convicted in the case, which revolved around dozens of guns illegally shipped from Cedar Rapids to Leb.
#1
Interesting tidbit. While Iowa is not your normal terrorist trafficking hotbed, Cedar Rapids is home to the Mother Mosque, first in the States. It also is home to an established Lebanese/Syrian community from the turn of the last century, and various guest imams of concern have been there and once hosted a starving student working his way through college by forging documents that included some 9-11 players. He was deported to Morrocco years ago. But where did the weapons shipped from Iowa come from? It's not a port but is a trucking mecca with several large freighting firms based there, giving employment to immigrants and refugees over the years. There has to be more to this.
Posted by: One Eyed Speaking for Boskone7919 ||
12/13/2016 10:42
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But where did the weapons shipped from Iowa come from?
If I was a tinfoil-hatter, I go with a Lebanese version of Fast & Furious. Otherwise, I'd say it was the work of a ethnic-Lebanese crime syndicate.
[IsraelTimes] Police believe suspects helped arm Islamist radical who killed more than 80 people in Bastille Day terror attack.
French police on Monday incarcerated Please don't kill me! 11 people suspected of helping to arm the Islamist radical who crushed 86 people to death with a truck in Nice, sources close to the investigation said.
Ten suspects, including one or more Albanians, were arrested in various parts of Nice and another was detained in the western city of Nantes, the sources said.
The arrests come five months after Tunisian bad boy Mohammed Lahouaiej Bouhlel plowed a 19-ton truck into a crowd on the Nice seafront.
The 11 people arrested Monday are believed to have been in contact with three people, including two Albanians, arrested in July and charged with supplying Bouhlel with an assault rifle and a pistol.
Bouhlel used the pistol in a firefight with police who shot him dead at the scene, ending his bloody rampage.
"They (the 11) did not necessarily know about the attack but they are part of a criminal milieu involved in arms smuggling," a source said, adding that the person arrested in Nantes had previously lived in Nice.
Under La Belle France’s anti-terror laws, they can be held for four days before being brought before a magistrate to face charges or being released.
Six people have been charged so far over alleged links to the 31-year-old killer, but Sherlocks have yet to prove that any of them knew what he was planning.
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 moved quickly after the attack to claim Bouhlel as one of its followers.
The massacre on the palm-fringed Promenade des Anglais was the latest in a series of jihadist attacks that have rocked La Belle France over the past two years.
The attacks have hardened attitudes on security and immigration, fueling the rise of the far-right ahead of next year’s presidential election.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/13/2016
02:11 ||
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Six people have been arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences this morning
Four men from Derby aged 22, 27, 35 and 36, detained as part of series of dawn raids
27-year-old man from Burton upon Trent and woman, 32, from London arrested
Six properties in Derby, Burton and London being searched as part of the probe
Police said the arrests linked to 'international-related terrorism'
The raids follow the news that concrete barriers have been erected at Birmingham's German Market to prevent suicide bombers as armed police patrol Newcastle amid fears of terror attacks.
The bollards were put up this week to safeguard the thousands who flock to the seasonal city centre attraction each day.
[Bloomberg] The two top Republicans in Congress offered strong support for the intelligence community Monday, in sharp contrast to President-elect Donald Trump’s attack on the CIA after reports the agency found that the Russian government tried to help him win the presidency.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he had the "highest confidence" in the intelligence agencies, while House Speaker Paul Ryan praised them for "working diligently" to take on cyber threats from foreign governments. But both leaders also warned against using the issue for partisan gain or casting doubt on the outcome of the election.
McConnell singled out the Central Intelligence Agency for praise and said the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services panels will investigate findings by intelligence agencies that Russia hacked into e-mails and computers used in the presidential campaign.
"Any foreign breach of our cybersecurity measures is disturbing and I strongly condemn any such efforts," McConnell told reporters. He added later, "The Russians are not our friends."
#2
Confirming that mistrust of that report is well placed
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
12/13/2016 9:44
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If their work is so solid, release it for public review. They want to overturn the election -- and risk a civil war -- so that's the least they should do.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
12/13/2016 9:59
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This is about keeping certain manila envelopes in locked drawers. Nothing more.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/13/2016 10:46
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This election is not Puton's fault, it is Bush's fault!
MOSCOW (AP) -- As the Soviet Union was breaking up 25 years ago, Mikhail Gorbachev expected the United States and its Western allies to provide vital aid. The former Soviet president thinks their failure to offer significant help wasted a chance to build a safer world and resulted from short-sighted gloating at a Cold War rival's demise.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, the 85-year-old Gorbachev voiced hope that Russia and the United States would do better and ease current tensions during Donald Trump's presidency.
"The relations between us are so important and concern everyone else, so we must take the interests of others into account," said the leader credited with helping to end the Cold War.
Gorbachev said he had expected Hillary Clinton to win the U.S. presidential race and was surprised by Trump's victory. He declined to offer an assessment of Trump, saying it remains to be seen what policies the new U.S. administration will pursue.
"He has little political experience, but, maybe, it's good," he said.
[PJ] The degree to which the Democrats have changed their tune on Vladimir Putin almost on a proverbial dime is either black comic or nauseating or both, depending on how you want to look at it. Whatever it is, it is a extremely obvious example of how party politics is conducted in our era (possibly always).
If your side does it, it's diplomatic genius bound to yield peace in our time. If the other side does the exact same thing, it's a horrendous mistake bordering on treason likely to cause a national calamity, if not global Armageddon.
If there were any decent, even semi-even-handed political science departments left in our country (okay, maybe there are one or two), what we might call the Democrats' "Great Putin Flip Flop" would be a textbook case for classroom discussion.
Let's start at the beginning, March 2009, but a few weeks after the first inauguration of Barack Obama, when a smiling Hillary Clinton presented Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov the red "reset" button, signaling the arrival of a supposed era of peace between the two countries. The new administration was greeted with hosannas for their great symbolism from their loyal claque at the New York Times, Washington Post, NBC, et al., who were oblivious, needless to say, that the word "peregruzka" printed in Cyrillic on the button, thought to mean "reset" in Russian by the linguistic geniuses in our State Department, was actually the word for "overload."
No wonder Lavrov has such a quizzical look on his face in the all the photos. (Imagine what the reaction of the press would have been had Trump's putative secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, done something similar. Media lynch mob?) Much more important, however, was the extreme ignorance of the Russian character, from the Czars through Lenin and Stalin and on into the present, evinced by such a naive, almost childish, "reset." Throughout the East, of which Russia has always been a signal part despite intermittent yearnings for the West, a powerful leader has always been the center of national and tribal life. Silly, symbolic gestures like "reset" buttons are seen as weakness, not compromises or attempts at global comity. They are something to exploit.
Do I believe Trump actually was the Russians' preference? That would be mighty optimistic on their part. How could they do better than Obama, considering the last eight years? And why not just as well elect a weakened Hillary?
My guess is, if (big if) they were the instigators of the hacking of the embarrassingly cyber-incompetent DNC, they were equal-opportunity hackers, anxious to create confusion and finger-pointing, rather than specific results that would be hard to control. This would be consistent with Russian/Soviet behavior over generations.
#4
If the Democrats were too stupid to secure their email server they have no business anywhere near the reins of power in this country.
Of course the Russians hacked that server. Anybody who has done the least bit of work having to do with cyber security knows the Russians are extremely active hackers. They always have been. But there are measures that can be taken to make a server secure from such attacks. For the DNC not to take such measure is an indication of gross negligence and incompetence. They are not the kind of people you want running the country.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/13/2016 11:13
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For the DNC not to take such measure is an indication of gross negligence and incompetence.
Especially given the excellent relations they've with IT barons.
The gurgle bunch? Suckerpurge? They are ad sellers. Not IT specialists. The IT specialists they employ are tasked to make everything easy to get at for ad selling purposes. I bet none of them personally do anything important to themselves online.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/13/2016 11:35
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#7
When I learned about how she sent classified mails using her own private account, ie on the clear and with her emails resting at hers and destinatary's ISP I was simply aghast: how could anyone just think in providing the nuclear codes to such frivolous, irresponsible woman? In three months they would have been in ISIS or AL Quaida's hands.
#8
A US policy determined by the highest bidder, sounds great.
Hillary would be a figurehead on a worm-eaten man-o-war. I think everyone and their Ghana hacked that server, or at least paid for a peep show.
Gonna put on my tin-foil ushanka and put this out:
Clintons to sell uranium to Iran, use Russia to launder the transaction. Russians wanting best price peek at the cards by hacking, monitoring SoS communications. Sometime after transaction is finalized, the hacks are discovered. Hillary gets pissed, vows revenge for shorting her. Russians get wind of this, begin preparation for war as election closes and Hillary is expected winner.
Just remembering the conversation between the US ambassador to Ukraine concerning the sluggish EU.
#9
*That being said, I am still in the camp that the initial releases was likely by a Sanders supporter familiar with the IT systems, on account of the timing - the DNC was in session and there was still not an official democrat delegate and it was obvious that the fix was in from the beginning.
#10
When does hillary go to prison anyways?
That investigation is not over, and since she wants to stir up sh!t, it's a great time to make sure her slimy lizard alien body does not slip through all the hooplah.
[Daily Caller] Prominent black civil rights attorneys have endorsed Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions’ appointment to become attorney general, in letters exclusively obtained by The Daily Caller.
Democrats have voiced concerns with the possibility of Sessions’ serving as attorney general. Democratic National Committee chairwoman Donna Brazile has said, "His demonstrated disdain for the rights of ordinary Americans, his history of discrimination and pattern of racist behavior make him unfit to serve as the next Attorney General."
Much of the criticism of Sessions stems from his failed 1986 confirmation to become a federal judge. At the time a former colleague of Sessions came out and claimed Sessions had made racist remarks, which the then-federal prosecutor denied. It is this failed confirmation that has led the head of the Alabama NAACP to come out against Sen. Sessions.
But Alabama native Fred Gray, who represented Rosa Parks after she was arrested for refusing to give up a Montgomery bus seat, certainly does not think Sen. Sessions is a racist. Gray sent Sen. Sessions a letter on November 22 obtained by The Daily Caller in which he praised the work the Alabama senator has done to help him.
#2
Hmmm... is it possible that some black leaders are starting to become just as sick and tired of the Democrats' absurd, knee-jerk accusations of "racism" as whites are?
One can only hope...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
12/13/2016 9:45
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After his liberal, black law school classmate stood up to defend him in very strong terms because, as he said, he was ashamed about not having done so in the past, others felt freed to join the chorus, it appears. Good for them.
[Daily Caller] Retired Army intelligence officer Tony Shaffer alleged Monday that CIA Director John Brennan is playing political games via a secret CIA assessment stating Russia interfered with the election to support GOP President-elect Donald Trump. SOLD or BINGO, or something similarly conclusive !
Speaking to WMAL radio Monday, Shaffer claimed that the secret CIA assessment, obtained by The Washington Post and described in an article last Friday, is a product of Brennan’s loyalty to President Barack Obama, The Washington Examiner reports.
"This is purely political, and I believe that John Brennan is a political animal," Shaffer said. He added he has been talking with former CIA officials about the report. "Everything they are telling me is Brennan is doing this out of loyalty to President Obama."
“It’s about undermining Trump, that’s what it is,” Shaffer said. “It’s called information operations, information warfare, and that’s what I believe is going on.”
#3
This site claims John Brennan over-rode his 2iC to stamp the visa applications of 19 highjackers of 9/11
cannot guarantee the truth of this, it's a blog not a fact-checked MSM site
plus i don't think the 19 came from Saudi to the US anyway half of them came via some other place like Germany
so it may be complete BS
but it does have the interesting point that he is close to Obama and was head of the CIA station in Jeda, Saudi Arabia, so he would have close links with the saudis
#6
Shaffer is on to something. I hope he is watching his 0600.
Prior to his DCIA appointment, John O. Brennan, was at one-time president and CEO of the Analysis Corp, which had contracts within the Department of State passport office. When the Analyisis contractors became snoopy about Obama's passport... they were fired. Interesting 'placement and access' for contract employees, no? CNN Link below (yes CNN): Chief of firm involved in breach is Obama adviser
#8
They know they are one to two presidential term away from converting this nation to a socialist/communist nation. A Trump election ruins everything. The attacks are just starting and will continue until the people say they have had enough. And so far the de,/socialist party is in full attack mode.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
12/13/2016 9:47
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#9
Re: #8. They are in full attack mode. Unfortunately for them, they really believe a Buzzfeed/huffpo attack will be worth anything...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/13/2016 10:50
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#10
Jerry Pournelle (a man always worth listening too) has a long discussion of the subject in today's chaos manor.
[Breitbart] (AP) Republican Donald Trump’s victory in Wisconsin was reaffirmed Monday following a recount that showed him defeating Democrat Hillary Clinton by more than 22,000 votes.
Wisconsin finalized its recount on the same day that a federal judge issued a stinging rejection of a Green Party-backed request to recount paper ballots in Pennsylvania’s presidential election and scan some counties’ election systems for signs of hacking.
Green Party candidate Jill Stein successfully requested, and paid for, the Wisconsin recount while her attempts for similar statewide recounts in Pennsylvania and Michigan were blocked by the courts. Stein only got about 1 percent of the vote in each of the states that Trump narrowly won on his way to the White House. She argued, without evidence, that voting machines in all three states were susceptible to hacking.
The numbers barely budged in Wisconsin after nearly 3 million votes were recounted. Trump picked up a net 162 votes and still won by more than 22,000 votes. The final results changed just 0.06 percent.
15 dedders found in well in Saf al-Tout ISIS doesn't quite get the hang of mass murder yet, not like the Mexican cartels, but I s'pect they'll get better as time goes on.
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi security forces found on Sunday 15 decomposed bodies of civilians strewn inside a water well south of Mosul, presumably executed by Islamic State militants, local officials said.
Head of the Shura district council, Khaled al-Gar, said in a statement that the bodies were found at a water well a Saf al-Tout, adding that security forces and concerned authorities were working to identify the dead civilians. He said initial information suggest they were executed by ISIS.
Shura had been recaptured by Iraqi joint forces late November.
Since taking over Mosul and several other Iraqi cities in 2014, ISIS has been notorious for heinous executions of civilians for either failing to comply with their extremist religious views or collaborating with security authorities.
Several mass graves have been discovered as Iraqi forces cleared several villages around the city center since October, when the government announced the launch of operations to retake the city.
Sources said Saturday the group executed seven people who declined to abandon their homes to give space to militants fighting Iraqi forces.
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Media officials with the Ministry of Defense announced on Sunday finding remains of people killed by the Islamic State’s members, in addition to a large cache of weapons and equipment, containing Katyusha Rockets, south of the city of Mosul.
The officials said in a press statement, “Intelligence and Security Directorate, backed by citizens and al-Hashd al-Shaabi in Shura area discovered a large cache of light and heavy weapons buried in the desert of an abandoned village in Hamam al-Alil, south of Mosul.”
“The cache contained large quantities of Katyusha Rockets and mortar shells, as well as explosive materials,” the statement added.
“Also, human remains belonging to citizens killed by the Islamic State (ISIS) were found in the area,” the statement explained.
On Friday, Commander of the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS), Abdel Ghani al-Asadi announced finishing the first phase of the battle to liberate Nineveh.
ISIS executes 17 in Hawija
Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) A local source in Kirkuk province revealed, that the Islamic State group (ISIS) executed 17 persons, by firing squad, inside a military air base near Hawija district, in western the province, Alsumaria News reported on Monday.
The source told Alsumaria News, “This morning, members of the ISIS executed 17 civilians, by firing squad, in al-Bakara Air Base near Hawija district.”
“The ISIS executed the civilians for collaborating with government forces and Kurdish Peshmerga,” the source added.
The extremist group filmed the civilian’s execution, after being sentenced to death by the so-called ISIS Sharia Court in the district.
Noteworthy, since imposing its control over Hawija disrict in June 2014, ISIS executed dozens of citizens on different charges, especially collaboration with security forces.
Iraqi forces discover ISIS prison east of Mosul
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) An officer at the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) revealed on Monday discovering a second prison belonging to the Islamic State extremist group in Mosul.
Major Ali Mohsen said in a press statement, “Our forces discovered another prison belonging to the Islamic State group, during search operations at the liberated area of al-Zohour, in eastern Mosul.”
“The prison was found empty of detainees,” Mohsen explained. “The prison contains dozens of solitary cells, as well as special rooms that were used to torture people fighting ISIS ideology,” Mohsen added.
Mohsen also declared that the Counter-Terrorism Service found lists containing names of wanted persons and detainees inside the prison, located at al-Zohour area, in eastern Mosul.
“Our forces also found an explosives and IEDs laboratory inside an abandoned garage in the same area,” Mohsen further added.
Iraqi security forces discovered another prison belonging to ISIS, earlier, in al-Qadisiyah al-Oula area, in eastern Mosul.
Posted by: badanov ||
12/13/2016
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#1
"Does this well water taste funny?"
"Nope, none of the victims were clowns"
ISIS continues attacks west of Palmyra ISIS appears to be hitting Syrian forces with concentric attacks on the westernmost extent of the pocket the Syrians have held since the summer. It appears that once Aleppo started to rise in importance, the Syrians shifted their forces there and left a small contingent in Palmyra. ISIS sniffed it out and started to attack, and appear to be pressing their attacks westward.
[ARANews] Homs – Militant fighters of the Islamic State (ISIS) on Monday launched an offensive on the Syrian T4 Military Airport.
ISIS fighters assaulted the airport with mortar shells, Grad rockets and heavy machine guns.
“The group destroyed at least three warplanes in the T4 Airport and captured some parts of the base after clashes with the Syrian Army forces,” media activist Amro al-Hussein told ARA News, citing a military source.
Located in the eastern countryside of Homs, central Syria, the T4 Airport is a main base for the Syrian regime’s Air Force. ISIS was able to storm the base after taking security checkpoints from the Syrian Army in the nearby districts of Mashtal and Qasr al-Hir.
This comes just one day after the hardline group recaptured the ancient city of Palmyra east of Homs subsequent to heavy clashes with the Syrian Army. Activists and military sources confirmed the rout, reporting that the army had been forced to withdraw under fire.
“The army withdrew after the clashes reached the city center and it became impossible for them to push ISIS back,” local media activist Abas al-Omar reported.
Syrian regime forces were obliged to evacuate their headquarters in Palmyra, heading westward toward the Doua District and Tiyas Airbase.
According to al-Omar, ISIS had “continued shelling the army’s positions inside Palmyra with mortars and heavy artillery for hours, causing large losses in the army ranks.” Dozens of soldiers were killed on Sunday and a number of others remain unaccounted for, likely taken as prisoners.
Russia had supported the Syrian Army in Palmyra, with airstrikes and logistical support but their efforts were apparently insufficient to save the city.
ISIS first took over Palmyra in May 2015, following a protracted battle with Syrian regime forces. The Islamic State’s occupation was exceptionally brutal, even by the standards of Syria’s 5-year-long conflict.
ISIS published images of their jihadists massacring civilians and destroying ancient monuments, arguing that the monuments were idolatrous and locally worshiped.
[AlManar] Terrorists of the so-called ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ (ISIL) takfiri group used vehicles loaded with explosives and suicide bombers during their attack on Palmyra, and entrenched themselves at the suburbs of the city, the Russian Defense Ministry’s spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said on Monday.
“At dusk, ISIL terrorists used cars loaded with explosives and suicide bombers on one of the directions, broke through the defense of the city and entrenched themselves on its suburbs despite heavy losses,” Konashenkov said.
The spokesman added that the Syrian Army, supported by the Russian Aerospace Forces, had repelled two powerful attacks. The militants actively used cars loaded with explosives and driven by suicide bombers, as well as tanks and rocket artillery systems.
According to Konashenkov, the recent offensive by ISIL terrorists on Palmyra that forced the government forces to abandon the city clearly proves that the terrorists must not be given even a small chance to recuperate and regroup preparing for sudden strikes.
“The pressure on terrorists to thwart their attacks and later destroy them must be applied simultaneously in all regions where they operate — in Syria, Iraq and other countries,” Konashenkov said.
The ISIL attack on Palmyra showed once again that terrorists should not have the slightest opportunity for a pause that they always use to regroup and deliver sudden strikes,” he said.
The Syrian Army evacuated the residents of Palmyra and took up defensive positions on the outskirts of the city. “Russian aviation has not conducted airstrikes on Palmyra’s residential districts. Taking advantage of it, the militants intensified their attacks. The Syrian troops evacuated the residents, left the city and took up positions on its outskirts,” the spokesman said.
He underscored that Damascus was taking all measures to liberate the city. Konahsnkov said ISIL deployed significant forces to storm Palmyra after the US-led coalition suspended active operations in Raqqa.
“Taking advantage of the fact that active military operations of the United States and the international coalition near Raqqa were suspended until spring, ISIL redeployed significant forces to storm Palmyra.”
Konashenkov added that over the past two days, over 5,000 Daesh militants had made a few attacks on the Syrian troops’ positions near Palmyra.
On Sunday, ISIL terrorists again reoccupied the ancient city after attacking it for two days. Over 5,000 militants, including hundreds of suicide bombers, as well as dozens of vehicles relocated from the Provinces of Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor, reportedly participated in the offensive.
The governor of the Homs Province, where Palmyra is located, said the Syrian Army had evacuated 80 percent of the city’s population. The fate of the rest was of concern. The governor expressed hope the Syrian Army and militia would soon regroup and reclaim Palmyra.
[AlManar] Moscow said on Monday that threat of Palmyra’s loss is damage to the entire civilized world, not only to Syria and Russia, noting that lack of US cooperation led to recapture of the ancient city by Takfiri militants.
“We regret that we have yet to completely neutralize their offensive,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of the militants return to the fabled city after an eight-month absence.
“We also regret that there still is a lack of coordinated action and real cooperation with other states — with the United States first and foremost — that do not want to cooperate, and this cooperation could allow us to avoid such attacks by terrorists.”
Peskov added that jihadists from neighboring Iraq, had been flooding into Syria.
“Palmyra is a Syrian city. Not Russia is losing Palmyra, but the threat of Palmyra’s loss is damage to the entire civilized world, not to Russia. It is damage to the public image of the entire civilized humanity, [those] who… are not doing anything in reality to fight these international terrorists in the person of the Islamic State,” the Russian official told reporters.
Palmyra’s residents had been evacuated from Palmyra and the Syrian army was engaged in fierce fighting on the city outskirts with ISIL terrorists who had reportedly re-entered the city.
Earlier in March, Syrian troops backed by Russian air strikes and special forces on the ground recaptured the UNESCO world heritage site from ISIL terrorists.
ISIL Terrorists Suffer Heavy Losses before Syrian Army, Re-infiltrate into Palmyra That's not what we heard, but do go on...
[AlManar] Terrorists of the so-called ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ (ISIL) takfiri group suffered heavy losses in personnel and ordnance on Sunday as they engaged with the Syrian army units operating in Palmyra city.
Following clashes, the ISIL gunmen managed to infiltrate to the city in east Homs.
Army units courageously defended Palmyra city and fought fierce clashes with the takfiri group that attacked the residential city from several directions with more than four thousand gunmen,” state-run SANA news agency reported.
“The takfiri organization transferred to Palmyra large numbers of terrorists and vehicles from Raqqa and Deir Ezzor,” SANA said citing local sources..
The news agency pointed out that the ISIL terrorist group suffered heavy losses of personnel and equipment during the clashes, adding that the takfiri gunmen used in their attack many cars and booby-trapped vehicles loaded with large quantities of explosives.
ISIS digs in at Palmyra Nice stationary targets for Russian airstrikes
[AAWSAT] Beirut: Four days following its unanticipated attack, ISIS fighters have entrenched in Palmyra and took full control of the city, its airport, ancient city and its ancient castle.
Regime forces were therefore forced to retreat to the southwestern desert despite Russia’s extensive airstrikes.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, ISIS sent more than 300 members to Palmyra’s fronts and the countryside of the eastern Homs province. It also said ISIS had earlier brought 500 members from Iraq to Raqqa.
The Observatory said the fighters were sent following a meeting held between leader of Jaysh al-Sham (The Army of the Levant) and ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. The two men asserted that from now on, reinforcements would be sent consecutively in light of the dire military situation of ISIS fighters at Syria’s different fronts.
Both the Observatory and Homs Media Center said ISIS was capable to quickly control the ancient city of Palmyra because it relied on the factor of “promptness” in its attack on the area, which was almost empty from regime forces who were busy fighting in Aleppo.
Sham Network reported on Sunday that regime forces brought large military reinforcements to the outskirts of Palmyra, including foreign militias who were fighting in Aleppo’s fronts.
The Observatory’s Rami Abdel Rahman told Ahsarq Al-Awsat that the regime does not possess the sufficient tools to fight on several fronts in Syria. “The regime was also confident that ISIS was on its way to collapse, therefore it mobilized its members to Aleppo’s fronts. Later, Syria’s forces were surprised by the attack on the city of Palmyra,” Abdel Rahman said.
Mohammad Al-Sibai, spokesperson of the Homs Media Center told Asharq Al-Awsat that regime forces prevented Homs residents from fleeing the city, particularly young men who were arrested in large numbers. Al-Sibai said he expected regime forces to send those young men back to Homs and force them to fight at the Palmyra fronts.
“Regime forces only allow the exit of residents who pay money,” he said.
Meanwhile, Russia announced to have repelled an ISIS attack on Palmyra, saying it had launched 64 airstrikes overnight that killed 300 militants. But hours later, the activists said ISIS had seized a castle just outside the town that overlooks its famed Roman-era ruins.
Separately, civilians trapped in eastern Aleppo were waiting on Sunday the U.S. and Russian final decision concerning their situation.
Opposition officials with Aleppo rebel groups told Reuters on Sunday that the U.S. and Russia tabled a proposal to rebels in Aleppo that would offer safe passage from the city for fighters, their families and other civilians.
However, Russia later denied that any deal had been reached, saying that reports of the proposal do not “necessarily correspond with reality”.
The proposal would also require fighters from the jihadist group formerly known as Nusra Front to head to the northwestern province of Idlib. But it would allow fighters from other groups to go to other destinations including areas near the Turkish border to the northeast of Aleppo, which are held by groups fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army.
However, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Russia Today that “Washington insists on unacceptable conditions concerning the ceasefire.”
Posted by: badanov ||
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#1
Army units courageously defended Palmyra city and fought fierce clashes with the takfiri group that attacked the residential city from several directions with more than four thousand gunmen,” state-run SANA news agency reported.
It is very common for Arabs to attribute setbacks to overwhelming numbers of opponents ("there must have been a million of 'em!"). Take with a large grain of salt.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
12/13/2016 11:07
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BadMan noted yesterday it was likely taken on the march.
[NIGERIANOBSERVERNEWS] The Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai has charged Nigerian soldiers to finish off 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... remnants on time to enable Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) return to their homes.
The Chief of Army Staff gave the charge when he visited troops of the 81 battalion in Damboa Local Government Area in Borno state.
Buratai who reiterated the determination of the army towards enhancing the welfare of troops, said rotation of soldiers would take place after every six months of deployment.
"I am sure you have read and heard the message I sent across. If you are aware of it then we must work to get out of this place. We must work to get out of this operation very quickly. We must defeat Boko Haram.
"I was in one of the barracks and many of the troops were already there and I have assured your families that many of you will go back next Year.
"81 battalion is my unit too when I was a lieutenant Colonel This unit has seen it all. You fought along with the Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... ian troops in this battle which means you are better placed to deal with this criminals.
"We must continue with the aggressive actions, patrol and ambush. You must move into all the hideouts of these criminals and fish them out. Some of your colleagues in Sambisa Forest are dealing with them properly.
"You are better equipped, better motivated and mobile.The army has provided you with better equipment to fish Boko Haram out and deal with them completely.
"I wish to commend your effort and I urge you all to maintain the momentum and keep it high. Nigerians are proud of you. President Muhammadu Buhari the Commander in Chief is also pleased with you," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Jpost] The United Nations humanitarian adviser on Syria Jan Egeland said in a tweet on Monday that the Syrian and Russian governments must be held responsible for atrocities committed by militias loyal to President Bashar Assad in Aleppo. I wonder who he thinks should be held accountable for the atrocities committed by the "pro-Western" rebels?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru ||
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#1
I wonder who will be held accountable for allowing this farce to carry on in the first place.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Syria’s army seized a major district on Aleppo’s southeastern edges Monday, putting it in control of 98 percent of areas once held by rebels in the city, a monitor said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said forces loyal to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... seized the Sheikh Saeed district early Monday after fierce festivities ongoing since the previous afternoon.
"The army is now in full control of Sheikh Saeed," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
"Syrian regime forces are now in control of 90 percent" of the one-time rebel areas in Aleppo’s east, he said.
On Sunday Syrian rebels received a US-backed proposal to leave Aleppo along with civilians under safe passage guaranteed by Russia, rebel officials said as government forces closed in, but Moscow denied a deal had been reached.
Three officials with turban groups in Aleppo told Rooters that a letter outlining the proposal had been received, offering an "honorable" departure for the rebels to a place of their choice.
Rebel groups have yet to respond. But if fully accepted, the proposal would give Syrian President Bashir al-Assad and his military coalition of Russia, Iran and Shiite militias their greatest triumph in the civil war against the rebels who have fought for nearly six years to unseat him.
However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... the sudden recapture by the ISIS of the ancient desert city of Palmyra on Sunday after a much-trumpeted army victory there in March has shown how difficult Assad may find it even after Aleppo to restore his rule across Syria.
Asked whether they had been contacted by the United States and Russia over talks between the two powers in Geneva to find a way out of the crisis, one of the officials with rebel groups that are present in Aleppo said:
"They sent us a letter, they are saying to safeguard the civilians ... you can leave in an honorable way to any place you choose and the Russians will pledge publicly that nobody will be harmed or stopped," said one of the officials. "We have yet to give a response."
A second official said a document "is being proposed to the factions, the fundamental thing in it is the departure of the all the fighters in an honorable way".
However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... Russia swiftly said it had not reached any agreement with the United States on a proposal to withdraw fighters from Aleppo and added that the Geneva talks were continuing.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Another defeat of Obama, his rebels and his CIA by pencil neck and Putin.
#2
The people of Aleppo have suffered enough. It's time to finish this thing.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/13/2016 10:51
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I just wonder if guys like Obama ever consider the possibility that their actions might result in this kind of a catastrophe and, if they do, do they care. Was whatever he thought might be gained worth the risk? What, exactly, did he think might be gained?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/13/2016 10:56
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Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/13/2016 14:31
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I just wonder if guys like Obama ever consider the possibility that their actions might result in this kind of a catastrophe and, if they do, do they care.
It's been implied to you Abu but the answers are NO and HELL NO.
These are evil people and they are amoral as humans can be.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A top commander of the Taliban group was killed during an operation in northern Parwan province of Afghanistan, the Ministry of Interior (MoI) said Monday.
"Yesterday, Afghan National Civil Order Police launched a special operation in the Siah Gard district of Parwan province, in which a Taliban’s key member Mullah Naiem Kor known as Umaduddin was killed," a statement by MoI said.
The statement further added that three other armed Talibs were maimed as well during the operation.
"Mullah Naiem was involved in many terrorist and destructive activities in this district and other areas of Parwan province," MoI added.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] The government plans to develop a mechanism to expose people who are viewing porn websites. Boy, that's gonna be a long list.
State minister for Posts and Telecommunication Tarana Halim said the government is planning to develop a mechanism to reveal the internet pornographic consumers in Bangladesh.
State Minister Halim says fear of being outed as a porn viewer will act as a deterrent.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
And I'll bet a very important part of that list is right over Halim's head.
#4
"A VPN, or virtual private network, is software that secures and privatizes data across the Internet by building an “encrypted tunnel.” When you access the Internet, your data passes through this tunnel which protects it from anyone who tries to intercept it. A VPN like PRIVATE WiFi encrypts everything: your email, your web browsing history, your IMs, your VOIP, everything. Another benefit of using a VPN is that even if your data is intercepted, your identity is protected, since a VPN masks your IP address." http://blog.privatewifi.com/ask-the-expert-can-a-vpn-protect-you-from-government-surveillance/
An F-16 fighter jet has crashed in Turkey's southeastern province of Diyarbakir late Monday, said military sources. The sources told Anadolu Agency that there were no casualties.
The fighter jet crashed near a village after a training session. The reason of the crash remains unknown. The pilot of the F-16 is alive thanks to the ejection seat, the sources said.
And he's an inch shorter...
Posted by: Steve White ||
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I can see some sort of move to cancel the results and continue Obama on an interim basis. If something along those lines begins, the 2nd Amendment will become real.
#5
Bubbling under some of this Electoral College crap is an undercurrent of deadly serious purpose - sedition. The Electoral College is not some Constitutional Star Chamber or House of Lords with power to divert the choices of the states they represent. To do so as if they have some high moral purpose only subverts the basic trust of the people. If such an act happened, we would have civil war in the streets, literal war with armed citizens and I suspect, military involvement.
This kind of foolish speculation and encouragement by those on the left must stop immediately. It no longer is merely an amusing display of childish pique by the idiot progeny of the left. It is dangerous.
[Right Scoop] Wow. Peters is even suggesting that Tillerson got ’dirty’ in his dealings with Putin!
I love how Peters says he’s not a conspiracy theorist, but even he is wondering why Trump will never criticize anything Putin does and why he constantly surrounds himself with people who are pro-Russia.
I do wonder if Tillerson’s name was floated out there this weekend so Trump could get a feel for just how difficult this nomination would be, knowing that since it isn’t official yet he can still nominate someone else. And from all the media reports, it looks like this is the one that would get the most scrutiny from the Senate.
#1
I believe Peter's is an RU linguist and regional expert whose last active duty assignment was with the POW/MIA commission. I suspect at least some of his contempt toward Russia stems from that assignment. I have an abiding respect for the man.
#4
I'm not adverse to Mr. Tillerson for Secretary of State. He has many years of international and domestic negotiating experience plus, already having made his money, won't turn the State Department into a storefront for money laundering.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/13/2016 8:34
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What's the flip side of getting along with the Russians? He appears to have survived his long-standing relationship with them. Perhaps Tillerson's expertise can be leveraged.
Ralph Peter's views aside, I suspect a great deal of the anxiety with Trump's appointments can be attributed to class envy.
At least one minor girl died and three others sustained injuries in a roadside blast in Spinwam tehsil of North Waziristan on Monday, DawnNews reported.
Security sources said the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was planted next to the school gate which went off when the gate was opened.
No classes were taking place today and the children were going to the Abakhel school to play when the bomb planted outside it went off.
The injured were shifted to Mir Ali Hospital and Miranshah Hospital.
Operations against militants in North Waziristan were stepped up after the government decided to implement the nation-wide National Action Plan for combating terrorism in the country. Suspected militants have also been killed in drone strikes in the region.
Zarb-i-Azb military operation which targeted local and foreign militants specifically in North Waziristan was spearheaded following an attack on Karachi's Jinnah International Airport on June 8, 2014.
According to official statements, over 3,500 militants have been killed in operation Zarb-i-Azb, while the offensive forced over a million civilians to vacate their homes and move to settled areas of the country.
The number of attacks in the country has fallen around 70 per cent but attacks on security and civilian targets continue to occur occasionally.
PESHAWAR - Unidentified gunmen on a motorbike shot dead an anti-terror police officer in Peshawar on Saturday.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) Riazul Islam was targeted at Charsadda Road when he and his son were on their way home after offering evening prayers in a nearby mosque at Madina Colony.
Riazul Islam, who earlier survived two similar life attempts, received three bullets in the attack. He was rushed to Lady Reading Hospital, but he succumbed to his injuries on the way. His son Fayyaz was admitted to hospital in a critical condition.
Zulfiqar Ali Babakhel, a spokesman for Lady Reading Hospital, said doctors working to save the son’s life.
CCPO Tahir Khan said Riazul Islam had survived two bomb attacks in the past three years, in one of which he was severely wounded. The attackers, who were reportedly two, left the scene after committing the crime, he added.
Following the incident, the police reached the crime scene and cordoned off the area and launched a search operation; however, no arrest was made till filing of this report.
No group has yet claimed responsiblity for the attack.
The country has been battling a militancy since shortly after it decided to ally with the US following its invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
Violence has declined in recent years following a series of military offensives in the northwest border areas as well as concerted efforts to block the militants’ sources of funding. But the remnants of militant groups are still able to carry out periodic bloody attacks, particularly in the northwest.
[All Africa] Despite its reluctance to officially set up a negotiating committee to hold talks with snuffies in the Niger Delta, the federal government has continued discreet talks with the belligerent groups in the region, THISDAY learnt yesterday. But don't tell nobody 'cuz it's a secret.
It was gathered that at least three meetings had taken place in the last few months between the snuffies and federal government emissaries coordinated by the National Security Adviser (NSA), Major General Mohammed Moguno (rtd).
The backroom discussions, which have incorporated other smaller aggrieved groups, are continuing, it was learnt, just as there is growing anxiety among elders and leaders in the region over the inability of the government at the centre to formally name its team of negotiators about six weeks after their meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.
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[Defense One] The drums of war are starting to beat in Washington over North Korea. On Dec. 1, retired Gen. Walter Sharp, former commander of U.S. Forces Korea, said that President-elect Donald Trump’s administration must be ready to launch a pre-emptive strike on North Korean missile sites the next time Pyongyang is preparing to conduct a test of a long-range rocket capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. A Council on Foreign Relations task force report, issued in mid-September, warned that the United States might have to consider military actions against North Korea’s nuclear and missile capabilities. And now the Pentagon is revising its contingency plans for military strikes on these missile sites.
All of them should holster their weapons.
Under the Obama administration U.S. efforts have failed to halt and reverse the growing North Korean nuclear and missile threat--in fact, it has grown worse over the past eight years. As a result, the Trump administration will find itself in a real pickle once it takes office. Progressively tougher economic sanctions have failed and will continue to fail to slow down the North’s progress on nuclear-armed ICBMs. Nor will it inherit an ongoing diplomatic process that might slow-down the North’s sprint to the finish line. Continuing the policies of the past eight years will guarantee the situation will be much worse and the options available to the United States even more narrow and dangerous four years from now.
[DAWN] At least 100 people were killed by the collapse of a church in south-eastern Nigeria, a resident and photojournalist who visited a morgue said on Sunday, but officials put the corpse count at just 27.
"At Uyo teaching hospital where I am now I could see over a hundred corpses, many are heaped on top of each other on the floor," said photojournalist Ini Samuel. "Eyewitnesses also said yesterday corpses were packed in four each bag."
Gary Ubong, a resident, said the church’s roof had collapsed on worshippers while a pastor was being consecrated as bishop in the presence of government officials.
"I saw more than 100 dead bodies brought out on loaders," said Ubong, who said he had rushed to the scene after the accident. "I also went to two hospitals and saw heaps of dead bodies difficult to count."
State police spokeswoman Cordelia Nwawe said 27 had been killed and 30 injured when the Reigners Bible church in Akwa Ibom state capital Uyo collapsed during a service on Saturday.
Etete Peters, Chief Medical Director of the University of Uyo teaching hospital, said 21 bodies had been delivered to his clinic and two of the injured admitted for treatment had died.
'Tis said the options for construction are on time, at cost and done right -- and you can have two out of three. They were rushing to get the roof done.
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Taiz- Fierce clashes erupted between pro-government forces and insurgency militias in Yemen’s Hajjah governorate, located just off the western front of Sanaa.
Fighting extended to Taiz as well, spreading across border territory shared with Saudi Arabia. Insurgency militias have recorded losses in both personnel and artillery.
Army intelligence based in the fifth military region, Midi district, reported the death of top militia commander Hussain Rashed Al Husowi along with 18 other militants. The militia ring was neutralized by an air raid staged by the Saudi –led Arab coalition forces.
Husowi was believed to have been responsible for the armament of insurgency gunmen across several battlefronts, especially those taking place in the Harad district. At least 27 other militiamen were injured by the strike.
The coalition’s command room also reported the destruction of a Tochka missile launch pad, along with a military wagon positioned west of the Harad district.
In 2015, Saudi Arabia along with other Arab states launched a military operation aimed at restoring the rule of Yemen’s internationally recognized President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Prior to the start of hostilities, Hadi’s government had been gradually overrun by an alliance comprised of Iran- aligned Houthi militiamen and loyalists of the former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, making up the Houthi-Saleh forces.
The airstrike followed hours of violent clashes between national army forces, backed by the Arab Coalition air force, and militiamen overrunning the 25 Brigade Mika sector found in the Ibn Abdullah valley, a near border location.
The air operation led to the death and injury of a number of militiamen, in addition to the destruction of a militia BMP infantry vehicle loaded with a ZSU-23-4- styled weapon.
In August 2016, the United Nations estimated that the war had killed at least 10,000 people. According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, there were 3,980 civilian casualties from the start of hostilities through September 2016. The war has taken a devastating toll on the population in a country long-considered the least developed in the Middle East and one of the poorest in the world.
“Militia forces continue staging fierce crimes and violations against unarmed civilians in Taiz, both against inner city residents and those residing in the countryside– the insurgency’s brutal shelling and destruction of homes is considered an escalation and an attempt to make up for losses,” military sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.
[DW] Police have detained 235 people including pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) officials over alleged ties to Kurdish turbans. One day prior, a PKK splinter group grabbed credit for bombings in Istanbul.
Counter-terrorism police conducted early-morning raids in 11 Turkish provinces on Monday, detaining officials in cities like Istanbul and Ankara, the ministry said. The raids appeared to also target officials from the pro-Kurdish HDP political party.
In Istanbul, police took 20 officials into custody, including the HDP's provincial head in the city, Aysel Guzel, Turkish authorities said. The party's main offices in the city were also reportedly searched.
Another 17 people involved in the party were detained in Ankara, including the provincial head Ibrahim Binici, Hurrieyet reported. To the south in Adana, a further 25 were taken into custody as part of a large police raid.
The sweeping police raids came after weekend attacks in Istanbul killed 44 people and injured 155, according to the latest figures from the health ministry in Ankara. Most of those killed were coppers.
On Sunday, the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) - a radical splinter group of the PKK - grabbed credit for twin blasts outside a soccer stadium in Istanbul.
Following the claim, Turkish warplanes carried out air strikes against PKK targets in northern Iraq, an army statement said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... said in a published statement that those behind the attack would "pay a heavier price" for Saturday evening's attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least 7 loyalists 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.... of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group were killed in an Arclight airstrike conducted by the US forces I eastern Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province of Afghanistan.
According to the local security officials, the Arclight airstrike was conducted in Haska Mina district, using an unmanned aerial vehicle.
The officials further added that the murderous Moslems were targeted in Langari Kand area.
The anti-government armed Death Eater groups including the Taliban gunnies have not commented regarding the report so far.
This comes as a commander of the terror group who was actively recruiting for the terror group was killed during an operation in Khogyani district last week.
Both the Afghan and US forces conducted regular strikes against the loyalists of the terror group in this province.
The increased raids, usually involving dronezaps, by the US forces followed a broader role granted by the B.O. regime earlier this year.
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[DAWN] Iran has proposed the formation of a bloc of Moslem countries to fight terrorism and boost economic cooperation that would include its regional rival 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... Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani told a security conference on Sunday that the two countries, along with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , Egypt, Iraq and Pakistain, should join hands to promote "regional peace based on Islam, defending the Paleostinian people, fighting terrorism and [boosting] economic interests".
Iran and Saudi Arabia are bitter rivals, and support opposite sides in the civil wars in Syria and Yemen. Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties with Iran in January after Iranian demonstrators stormed Saudi diplomatic facilities in protest against the execution of a prominent Saudi Shia holy man.
Larijani said Saudi Arabia and other nations should know that Iran "is not their enemy". He said Iran was opposed to "warmongering in Syria and Yemen" and wanted to resolve regional conflicts through "national solidarity governments resorting to democratic methods".
"Iran is not after creating an empire and hegemony in the region," he said. "Our viewpoint is aimed at improving unity."
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Iran has proposed the formation of a bloc of Moslem countries to fight terrorism
Bwahaha! Looks like the Iranians have a sense of humor in there somewhere after all!
[Libya Observer] The corpse count of Sirte liberation war has risen to 715, the spokesperson of Misrata Central Hospital told The Libya Observer on Monday.
Akram Qaliwan said more than 3250 fighters have been maimed during al-Bunyan al-Marsoos military operation to eradicate ISIS from Sirte.
"Between 10-15% of maimed fighters are in critical health conditions," he indicated.
Sirte was announced fully liberated from the Death Eaters of ISIS last week after seven months of fierce festivities in the city and its suburbs. The majority of casualties are from the city of Misrata.
Qaliwan declared that doctors had conducted more than 2000 surgeries so far, adding that Misrata Central Hospital was overcrowded during the seven months of fighting, stressing that it had operated with 125% capacity.
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12/13/2016
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#1
I found myself packed into a corner, confused, like I had a Ford Cologne V6 spinning on my head, and low on oil. I found my legs, wobbly, and took a step into despair, failing to move, cannot see, cannot hear. Seconds turn into years. Clarity as I understand Maisha is in front of me, dark and quiet, desperately trying to not make noise as she fought the choking dust.
The moonlight flickers through Maisha's window, sparking the dust on the bottle of Caliph Calvert. The swig is muddy....near miss, RPG I would say by the smell. Oh no! moving by memory to my favorite seat, my fear is confirmed. The drawing by Mahmoud the Weasel is destroyed! Did the RPG miss us, or hit the target?
#2
My question is who hates Eddie Mercx so much they'd burn an RPG round on such a poor likeness? The BBQ here is bad, like the Camel Calvert, magic-8-ball sez lite out.
[THEEAGLEONLINE.NG] The Governor of Adamawa State, Senator Muhammad Umaru Jibrilla Bindow, is considering to have a temporary review of the use of hijab in security prone areas as part of measures to contain jacket wallahs.
Bindow stated this through the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mallam Ahmad Sajoh, on Sunday in Yola.
Sajoh was addressing newsmen on the outcome of an emergency security meeting on Friday’s twin kabooms in Madagali market that killed and injured many.
Sajoh said Bindow would meet with members of the Adamawa Moslem Council and other stakeholders to discuss the possibility of taking that temporary measure, adding that those that carried out the Madagali suicide kaboom were in hijab.
Sajoh said the meeting also underscored the need for people to be more vigilant during this festive period and in places like markets, motor parks, churches and mosques.
He said: "We also resolved in the meeting, based on security recommendations, to assist members of vigilance groups in the areas in view of their contribution to security agencies.
"We also want to appeal to the media on sensational reporting and the need to verify their facts before reporting.
"The media need to know that the gunnies are banking on such sensational reports."
The commissioner said victims of the attack were responding to treatment in Michika General Hospital and already the governor had directed all health personnel in neighbouring Hong and Mubi Local Government Areas to move to the affected area.
Sajoh said: "The State Emergency Management Agency has also been directed to give urgent support to victims and relations of victims."
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I suppose we'll have to stock a photo of him now. It'll be a change.
[DAWN] Former Portuguese prime minister Antonio Guterres was sworn in Monday as Secretary General of the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... , becoming the ninth UN chief in the body's 71-year history.
The former UN refugee chief was elected to the top job by acclamation in the General Assembly in October.
He takes over from the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon on January 1.
Guterres, 67, performed well in answering questions before assembly members and his executive experience as prime minister and as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees from 2005-2015 propelled him to first place among 13 candidates vying for the job in informal polls in the council.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2016
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#1
Another Socialist asshole - hope Trump defunds these fuckers.
[al-Manar] Turkey hit Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq less than 24 hours after twin attacks in Istanbul killed 38 that were claimed by a Kurdish splinter group, local media reported Monday.
Late Saturday, a car bomb exploded outside the home stadium of football giants Besiktas and less than a minute later, a suicide attacker blew himself up by a group of police at a nearby park. Thirty police officers and seven civilians were killed, while there is one person who has yet to be identified.
The attacks were claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), which is seen as a radical offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
The Turkish military, quoted by Dogan news agency, said it hit “separatist terrorist organization members” on Sunday evening, referring to the PKK. The armed forces said it struck targets in the Zap region of northern Iraq destroying the militants’ headquarters as well as nearby shelters and gun positions.
The PKK command is based in the Qandil mountains of northern Iraq and the group is proscribed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.
Posted by: badanov ||
12/13/2016
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#1
I trust Trump will fix this imbalance in forty-three days.
"I'd like a second opinion..."
[ARANews] Raqqa – Kurdish-Arab alliance of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Monday continued their progress against Islamic State’s (ISIS) jihadists in Syria’s northeastern Raqqa Governorate.
The SDF seized control of four new villages in western Raqqa, including Bir Shallal, Um Salim, Safakher and Ajaj.
“The advance came after the Syrian Democratic Forces hit ISIS headquarters in western Raqqa with heavy artillery,” a spokesman for the SDF Media Office told ARA News.
“ISIS evacuated those four villages subsequent to clashes with the SDF,” the source said.
At least 18 ISIS militants were killed in Monday’s clashes.
In the meantime, the Syrian Democratic Forces called on ISIS jihadists in Raqqa to “surrender or die”.
“To the jihadists of the so-called Islamic State, the SDF fire will soon reach Raqqa downtown and by then you won’t be able to escape. This is a final call: Either you surrender to the Syrian Democratic Forces or die under our fire,” the SDF said in a statement on Monday.
This comes just one day after the SDF expelled ISIS militants from six other villages west of Raqqa.
“The liberated villages included Merwaniya, Krajah, Hamer Saghir, Hamer Kabir, Qerefdan and Draniya,” an SDF spokesman told ARA News.
The Syrian Democratic Forces on Saturday announced the begin of the second phase of Euphrates Wrath Operation to combat Islamic State’s militants in their de facto capital Raqqa.
The SDF and allies have so far liberated 37 square-kilometer in western Raqqa as part of the second phase of the operation.
“This stage is aimed at liberating the western countryside of Raqqa from ISIS, beside completing the isolation of Raqqa City,” said Cihan Shekh Ehmed, spokesperson of the SDF-led Euphrates Wrath Operation. “The operation will continue until all goals are accomplished.”
During the first phase of Euphrates Wrath, SDF soldiers captured an area measuring approximately 560 km2, containing dozens of towns, villages and farms. Military sources told ARA News that more than 200 ISIS jihadists have been killed since November 6. The operation’s long-term objective is the isolation and elimination of the Islamic State in Raqqa.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Angry protesters on Sunday have stormed a meeting held by Iraq’s former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in the country’s most southern city of Basra.
News of Maliki touring Basra prompted protesters to take to the streets asking the former premier from 2006 to 2014 to leave the city. Maliki was scheduled to hold the meeting at the Cultural Center in Basra.
In one of the videos published, protestors outside the center were heard chanting: "Maliki you are trash, head of the thieves."
Iraqis from the south to the north have long complained about their living conditions and standards compared to the prosperity enjoyed by their politicians, whom they deem as corrupt.
In another video, one protester said: "In truth, Maliki is corrupt, a thief and a murderer," adding that since Sunday early morning, "we were looking out for him."
Maliki was also Iraq’s vice president from 2014 to 2015. He is currently secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party.
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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Commander of Baghdad Operations, Major General Jalil al-Rabiei, announced on Monday seizing a vehicle carrying explosives belts and IEDs, in western the capital.
Rabiei said in a press statement, “Security forces confiscated a vehicle carrying explosive belts and a number of improvised explosive devices at Abu Gharib checkpoint.”
“The vehicle was moving toward Baghdad,” Rabiei explained. “The security forces also arrested the vehicle’s driver,” Rabiei added.
Earlier today, Baghdad Operations announced seizing another vehicle carrying explosive devices on Mohamed al-Qassim highway, in central the province.
Posted by: badanov ||
12/13/2016
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#1
I'm sure the Iraqis will follow all the rules for incarceration and interrogation of the drivers of these vehicles.
[TheGuardian] Egypt has declared three days of mourning on Sunday after a bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt’s main Coptic Christian cathedral killed 25 people and wounded another 49.
In a statement, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi encouraged Muslims and Coptic Christians to band together “to emerge victorious in the war against terrorism, which is the battle of all Egyptians”. He stressed that the government would be harsh in its response to the attack, one of the deadliest carried out against the religious minority in recent years.
Those who pray regularly at St Mark’s Cathedral described a system of security within the compound that appeared strong, but could be lax. “People who commit such acts do so with impunity,” said one man, declining to be named as he stood close to the blast site and held up a small wooden cross. “There are normally police on both entrances to the cathedral and to the chapel.” Asked whether everyone who entered the cathedral compound was searched, he answered: “Sometimes yes, sometimes no”.
As the death toll rose and nearby hospitals called for blood donations, there was grief and anger in the streets. Hundreds of people crowded outside the cathedral, including a large crowd of young men who made clear their complaints against conservative Muslim groups, Egypt’s ministry of the interior and even the president. “As long as any Egyptian blood is cheap, down with any president,” they chanted.
“You ask for our emotions? Look in there,” said one man, pointing at the angry crowd. “What do you expect us to feel? People were killed while they were praying. They didn’t even die in their homes,” he said.
The Egyptian government has staked its mandate on the fight against Islamist groups as well as the Sinai chapter of Islamic State. Protecting the minority Christian population is the cornerstone of this pledge, but Sunday’s attack caused some to question whether the government is living up to its promise to provide security to all Egyptians.
“The government doesn’t protect us. They can’t protect us against terrorism in general,” said one man, who also wished to remain anonymous.
“Lots of Christians supported the current regime out of fear of being targeted by Islamist extremists,” said Mina Thabet, an expert on religious minorities at the Cairo-based Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms. “Many Christians supported Sisi as he represented himself as a protecter of Christians against extreme groups. Today’s event may affect their support.”
Other members of the Coptic community were unshaken in their support for Egypt’s government.
“This is an injury to all Egyptians,” said Father Boules Haliem, spokesman for the Coptic Church of Egypt. “This is about more than the Coptic community, this is an attack on all Egyptians.”
[AlAhram] The kaboom on Cairo’s cathedral complex on Sunday was carried out by a 22-year-old jacket wallah, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said during an address at a state funeral for the 24 victims of the blast.
El-Sisi named the man as Mahmoud Shafiq Mohammed Mostafa.
"Since yesterday the police have been gathering the scattered remains of Mahmoud Shafiq Mohammed Mostafa," Sisi said, adding that four people have been enjugged Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! , including one woman, for alleged involvement in the incident, while two more suspects are being pursued.
Twenty-four people were killed and 49 injured after a bomb went kaboom! inside a church attached to the Coptic cathedral in Cairo on Sunday, one of the deadliest attacks on Egyptian Christians in recent years.
[AlAhram] The Ministry of Interior released Monday afternoon a statement saying that security forces have apprehended further suspects sought for their involvement in the deadly bombing of the Cairo Coptic cathedral complex on Sunday that left 24 people dead and 49 injured.
Earlier on Monday, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi announced in an address at a state funeral for victims of the blast that the attack was carried out by a 22-year-old suicide bomber named Mahmoud Shafiq Mohamed Mostafa, adding that four suspects had been arrested.
Iran and Turkey held secret talks on peace proposals for Syria in 2013 and as recently as this year, but the talks broke down amid mutual suspicions, according to a new report to be published on Tuesday. The report on the Iran-Turkey relationship by the International Crisis Group (ICG), is based on interviews with top officials. It is being published as pro-regime forces, including Iranian-led militias, storm the last rebel-held districts of Aleppo amid reports of massacres.
The report is the latest of a series of accounts of failed diplomacy throughout the nearly six years of the Syrian conflict, which has cost the lives of up to half a million people. It says that in September 2013, three months after the election of pragmatist president Hassan Rouhani, Tehran presented Ankara with a peace proposal that had been formulated in consultation with Qassem Suleimani, the head of the powerful Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guard.
The plan envisaged a ceasefire followed by a national unity government and constitutional reform aimed at constraining presidential powers. Most importantly, there would then be presidential and legislative elections under UN supervision. The plan was the subject of several months of shuttle diplomacy between the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, and his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoğlu, but it eventually collapsed over the future role of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.
“We agreed on every detail, except a clause in the final phase of the plan which called for UN-monitored elections. Turkish leaders wanted Assad barred,” Zarif is quoted as saying in the report. “I noted that this should not be a concern in an internationally monitored election, particularly if, as Turkey holds, Assad has a dreadful record and a minority constituency. But Davutoğlu refused... and our efforts came to naught.”
According to the report, titled Turkey and Iran: Bitter Friends, Bosom Rivals, the Turkish government did not believe that Assad would accept any transition process that would weaken his grip on power and Ankara still thought his military defeat was inevitable.
The Turkish president at the time, Abdullah Gül, told the ICG “our government did not pursue an agreement with Iran because it thought Assad would be toppled in a few months”.
“From Ankara’s perspective, Assad’s battlefield losses would remove need to compromise or at least improve a deal’s terms,” the report said.
The ICG said a second opening for a Tehran-Ankara deal presented itself after the abortive military coup in Turkey in July this year, when Iran promptly stated its support for president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, creating a temporary thaw in relations and a resumption of talks on Syria. At the same time, military advances by Kurdish YPG forces in northern Syria had led to a simultaneous reconciliation between Ankara and Moscow.
Although the Iranians and Turks still disagreed on Assad’s fate, they focused their discussion on other issues, including whether there should be a presidential or parliamentary system and how power should be shared in general. After two high-level rounds, the report says, the talks got mired in mutual distrust heightened by Turkey’s decision to intervene directly in Syria, in an operation codenamed Euphrates Shield, to prevent the YPG securing all the border zone for the Kurds.
“Iranian officials expressed surprise Turkey had not notified them of the operation despite the presence of a senior Iranian official in Ankara the day before. Turkey may have feared that Iran would tip off the YPG,” the report suggests.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/13/2016
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Iranian officials expressed surprise Turkey had not notified them of the operation
[DAWN] LAHORE: A man was allegedly rubbed out by his wife and nephew in Nawab Town early on Sunday. "Khalid, I'm leaving you. No, wait! The life insurance! I almost forgot! [BANG!]"
Police said they received a call late on Saturday that a man had been rubbed out by two faceless myrmidons for resisting a robbery in Rasoolpura village and the assailants had fled from the scene. A heavy police contingent reached the spot and started investigating. "Muldoon, take the fat boys out there and see what happened!"
"Right, chief!"
Police said Khalid Mahmood, 42, of Rasoolpura was found dead in a room of his house. The doors and windows were locked.
They called the 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.... Forensic Science Agency scene of the crime unit which collected evidence and also recorded statements of witnesses. Police later shifted the body to morgue for an appointment with Dr. Quincy. "Maybe I shoulda studied internal medicine, Sam!"
"Or proctology. Or podiatry. Anything but this!"
Chuhng Circle Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Moaaz Zaffar said they recorded statements of the family and found that the victim’s wife Salma, who had alerted the police, was changing her statements. She told them two unidentified gunnies barged into their house, looted cash and jewellery and shot her husband dead over resistance. "Dat's what happened, officer."
"They shot him once from the front and once from the back?"
"Which one shot first?"
"All three of them fired at the same time."
"How'd the doors and windows get locked?"
"They had a key."
The ASP said police took the woman into custody for interrogation who initially remained tight-lipped but later confessed to her crime. "Dat's right! I dunnit an' I'm glad!"
Quoting Salma, he said the woman wanted to marry her husband’s nephew Asif and the two had been planning to kill Mahmood for some time. "He vas... He vas my BOYFRIEND!"
The ASP said Salma called Asif on Saturday evening and when her husband Mahmood came home they shot him twice in the head, abruptly ejecting him from the gene pool. She collected cash and jewellery, handed it to Asif and told him to leave the scene. "Here! Beat it, lover! We'll be fixed for life!"
He said they constituted a team led by the Nawab Town station house officer who conducted raid at a house in Chungi Amar Sidhu and tossed in the slammer Please don't kill me! Asif and also recovered cash, jewellery and pistol from his custody. "Into the paddy wagon wit' yez!"
ASP Zaffar claimed the suspect had also confessed to his crime of killing his uncle. He said police later registered a murder case against Asif and Salma on the complaint of the victim’s brother Ashiq.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2016
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#1
A man was allegedly rubbed out by his wife and nephew in Nawab Town early on Sunday.
In the part of the world where you actually can make a wife of your nephew.
[Libya Observer] The member of the Presidential Council of the UN-proposed government, Ali al-Gotrani, proposed Sunday a transitional phase under the governing of what he called "the national army" led by Khalifa Haftar ... served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all... in order to have a full grip tightened on Libya and then reorder the political issues in accordance with other parties.
In a statement to Sputnik, al-Gotrani said the new proposal will end the role of all the institutions in the state except for the House of Representatives, while the "army" will be the supreme authority in the country.
"Every city and district in Libya will be ruled by an appointed military governor and the army will then start disarming the civilian people so that it can control all the country’s borders." He indicated, adding that the state of emergency will be declared across Libya and provisional laws will be applied around the country.
"Once our country is stable, democracy can take place and all parties can take to the ’safe polls’ as the constitution drafting committee would be then resuming work as well as presidential and parliamentary elections would take place." al-Gotrani remarked.
He stated that Haftar has the right, among all parties, to be nominated for presidential elections if he desired.
Answering a question regarding al-Gotrani’s statement, the front man of the Presidential Council (PC), Ashraf al-Thalthi, said in a presser Monday that al-Gotrani’s words speak for himself only and have nothing to do with the PC.
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[AXISOFLOGIC] Russian Defence Ministry confirms surrender of over 1,200 Jihadi fighters on Saturday morning; Fars reports 4 al-Qaeda commanders tossed in the clink Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! as they try to flee. Russian military also confirms 50,000 civilians leave formerly Jihadi controlled eastern districts of Aleppo by arrangement with Russian military.
The refugee flood from eastern Aleppo is swelling, with the Russian military reporting that 50,000 people fled eastern Aleppo by arrangement with the Russian military over the course of the last 2 days, with 20,000 leaving this Saturday morning.
In addition it seems that more than 1,000 Jihadis gave up and surrendered to the Syrian military this morning.
Here is what the Russian Defence Ministry has said:
Defense ministry organizes mass escape for Aleppo civilians via humanitarian corridor.
"Only in the first half of the day, from eastern districts have escaped more than 20 thousand civilians, and 1,217 gunnies have laid arms."
The Russian Defence Ministry has also issued a pointed warning to the Jihadis who have still not surrendered and to their foreign backers. This includes a stern rebuke of the way Western governments have sought to exploit the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo for propaganda purposes
"We warn snuffies and gunnies from the so-called moderate opposition, and also address their supervisors. Do not try undertaking whatever provocations or even firing on civilians using the humanitarian corridors for the escape.
We address those, who for the recent several months announced readiness to send over to Aleppo their humanitarian assistance: to representatives of the US, Great Britannia, La Belle France, Canada, the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... and international organizations. It is time to verify your intentions.
For the time of the humanitarian escape, the Syrian forces have stopped the attack. As the people flee the eastern districts, the Syrian forces will continue the combat operation to push out or kill the bad boys."
[AlManar] Media sources disclosed that the top commander of Jaish Al-Fatah terrorists in Aleppo city was killed by Syrian government forces in the Eastern neighborhoods of the city.
The Arabic language al-Hadath news website reported that top Commander of Jaish al-Fatah militants, Abu Walid al-Oqab, was killed by the direct fire of the Syrian pro-government forces in Eastern Aleppo on Monday.
Abu Walid was previously the top commander of al-Shamiyeh Front terrorist group.
The army soldiers also discovered several warehouses of terrorists in newly-freed neighborhoods of Aleppo city. The terrorist groups had hoarded a large volume of food stuff mostly produced in Turkey in these warehouses.
The Arabic language al-Mayadeen’s photographer released several images of hoarded food stuff by the militants, disclosing that the militant groups had collected a large volume of food stuff in their warehouse in anticipation of long-time battle with the Syrian army.
The Al-Mayadeen report went on to say that the militants that were besieged by the army men were preventing distribution of the food stuff among people in Eastern district of Aleppo.
Meantime, large volumes of Turkish food stuff have been discovered in the bases of al-Tawhid terrorist group in Aleppo city.
Syrian soldiers also found a tunnel that the terrorists wanted to detonate below the army soldiers’ positions.
The Russian Peace Coordination Center in Syria announced on Monday that the army troops and popular forces are now in control of over 95 percent of Eastern Aleppo, while other sources said the army has 98 percent of the city under its control.
“Over the past 24 hours, the Syrian armed forces have liberated three districts of the Eastern part of Aleppo. Thus, over 95 percent of the territory of Aleppo is under government control,” the Russian center said in a statement, adding that terrorists are squeezed now in a very small area.
In the meantime, the Arabic language Elam al-Harbi news website disclosed that the army and popular forces have tightened siege on militant in Southeastern Aleppo, cornering terrorists of Jaish al-Fatah in only five sq/km that is only two percent of Aleppo city’s total area.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2016
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#1
They can store the prisoners in containers.
Tip: Containers can store about twice as many jihadis if you stand the containers on their end vs. laying them on their belly.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A Pak official has admitted that some leaders of the Haqqani terrorist network are based in Pakistain but rejected that the terror network uses Pak soil for terrorist attacks in Afghanistan.
Pakistain’s Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry also claimed that the majority of the Haqqani terrorist network leaders are based in Afghanistan.
The Afghan officials have long been criticizing Pakistain for allowing the terrorist network and the Taliban group leadership councils to use the Pak soil for planning and coordinating attacks in Afghanistan.
Chaudhry was speaking during an interview with the state-run television and said Islamabad has categorically told India and US that the Pak soil will not be used by anyone or group for terrorism in any shape.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2016
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#1
I thought they were always based in pakistain.
Posted by: chris ||
12/13/2016 9:10
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iraq’s joint operations command said on Saturday that counter-terrorism forces regained control of 31 neighborhoods on the left coast of the city of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... They continue to advance in three other neighborhoods after inflicting heavy losses on ISIS during recent battles.
The joint operations’ command also said that their forces are less than two kilometers away from Mosul’s bridges, adding that the coalition’s air force continues to destroy ISIS gatherings in east Mosul.
Two days ago, Abdul Ghani al-Assadi, commander of the counter-terrorism apparatus, said the first phase of military operations in the battle to restore Mosul ended after 50 days of launching it.
He added that his forces will completely control the left coast of Mosul after seizing the last few neighborhoods.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Hubba Hubba Club, Big Shirley was still trying to snatch Nunzio bald-headed. She was already halfway there... security sources said counter-terrorism forces raided al-Taameem neighborhood and are fighting fierce battles to expel ISIS members from it.
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Forces on Sunday moved inside the district of Fallaghat, eastern Mosul’s biggest district, as part of operations to clear the eastern section of the city from Islamic State militants.
The forces commander, Abdel Wahab al-Saedi, said in statements that the forces made incursions at the outskirts of Fallahat, preparing to clear the whole neighborhood from ISIS.
He said the operation was faring well despite resistance from ISIS combatants.
CTS commanders said two days ago they had become in control over 24 eastern Mosul districts, accounting for at least 50 percent of that region. The success comes as part of operations that launched in October to retake the city from ISIS.
ISIS remains in control over most of the western regions adjacent to the Syrian borders, but Iraqi government and militia commanders say the city has become isolated from Syria, with supply routes for the group from Syria almost cut.
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Al-Hashd al-Shaabi militia recaptured on Sunday the villages of Riziya and Ta Ghazal near the strategic town of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, from Islamic State militants.
“Al-Hashd al-Shaabi forces totally liberated the village of Riziya from ISIS control after intense battles with terrorists,” the militia’s media services said, adding that a number of militants were killed in process.
The military media service said also that al-Hashd al-Shaabi freed the village of Tal Ghazal, south of Tal Afar airport.
Earlier on Sunday, Al-Hashd said that they had repelled a suicide attack by ISIS which relied on suicide bombers and booby-trapped cars attack.
Tal Afar, 50 kilometers west of Mosul, is a vital target for Iraqi government and popular militia troops seeking to liberate Mosul from ISIS militants. The town, according to Iraqi security and militia commanders, had become isolated, depriving ISIS from supplies from Syria. Al-Hashd are reportedly preparing to storm the town’s center as part of a wide-scale operation to retake Mosul that launched in October.
Police forces said Saturday they were preparing to open a new front against ISIS in western Mosul, while Iraqi joint forces are still working to retake eastern districts towards the eastern shore of the Tigris River.
Nineveh (Iraqinews.com) US-led international coalition air forces bombarded on Sunday the Old Bridge of Mosul which links the city’s east and west, effectively disconnecting both sides of the Tigris River, according to a security source in Nineveh.
“International coalition jets completely destroyed the old metal bridge linking the eastern and western shores,” said the source, explaining that the latest strike means that all of the five bridges linking the two sections were completely destroyed.
Coalition jets had only inflicted damage on the last old bridge in the last strike in November, with coalition commanders saying the strike was only meant to render the bridge unusable.
The bridge, which was constructed British occupation, is the city’s oldest, and Islamic State militants resorted recently to booby-trap it to stymie advancement by Iraqi security troops.
On friday, the Defense Ministry’s War Media Cell said the number of districts recaptured from ISIS since operations launched mid October has so far reached at least 24.
Military and police commanders said recently that government forces became in control of nearly 50 percent of the eastern section of Mosul. ISIS remains in control of most of the western region adjacent to the group’s strongholds in Syria, but Iraqi security commanders and Al-Hashd al-Shaabi militia leaders say they had managed to cut ISIS’s supply and escape routes to and from Syria.
(reuters) An Iraqi military commander was wounded and one of his bodyguards killed when Islamic State militants fired mortar shells at his convoy south of Mosul on Sunday, officers from the local military command told Reuters.
They said a convoy carrying Lieutenant-General Jumaa Inad, head of operations in Salahuddin province, came under attack near the town of Shirqat where Iraqi forces are fighting to retake an Islamic State-held enclave.
He had wounds to his head and arm and was flown to a hospital in Erbil, they said.
The fighting around Shirqat, in Salahuddin province, is part of a wider military campaign against Islamic State in the north of the country. U.S.-backed Iraqi force has been battling for eight weeks to crush the militants in Mosul, the largest city under Islamic State control in Iraq and Syria.
Inad was visiting troops in the village of Ganous, on the eastern bank of the Tigris river about 90 km (60 miles) south of Mosul.
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Badr Organization announced on Sunday liberating three villages and repulsing an attack using two booby-trapped vehicles, west of Mosul.
The organization said in a press statement, “Security forces liberated the villages of Tel Ghazal, Tel Majan and Shouwaira, as well as repulsing a suicide attack using two booby-trapped vehicles and Kornet Rockets, before approaching the forces, west of Ramadi.”
“163 civilians were evacuated and an explosives laboratory was found in the area,” the statement added.
Joint security forces, backed by Army Aviation and international coalition continue liberating the city of Mosul from the ISIS control.
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) An army officer announced on Monday, that Iraqi army forces repulsed attacks launched by the Islamic State extremist group (ISIS) in eastern Mosul.
Captain Iyad Ziad said in a press statement, “The Islamic state’s terrorists attacked an army’s headquarters near the television area, in eastern Mosul.”
“The [army] forces managed to repulse the attack, and also killed 13 ISIS terrorists,” Ziad added. “Four army soldiers we killed as well during the confrontations near the headquarters,” Ziad explained.
Meanwhile, Iraqi forces repelled another attack, at dawn today, in the liberated area of Shokak al-Khadra, in eastern Mosul. The security forces also killed dozens of the Islamic State’s members.
(Reuters) Several thousand Iraqi federal police are ready to join the assault against Islamic State in east Mosul, a spokesman said on Monday, reinforcing troops who have faced weeks of fierce counter-attacks from the militants.
The extra forces are being deployed as the gruelling U.S.-backed campaign to crush Islamic State in its Iraqi stronghold enters its ninth week. Elite army troops have retaken a quarter of the city, but their advance has been slow and punishing.
The federal police units, around 4,000 strong, have been moved to southeast of the city, near an area where an army tank division last week made the deepest incursion into Mosul so far, briefly seizing a hospital used as a base by the militants.
The troops were forced to pull back from the Salam hospital, less than a mile (about 1 km) from the Tigris river which runs through the centre of Mosul, when they were attacked by suicide car bombs, mortar volleys and machine gun fire.
A spokesman for Iraq’s federal police commander, Lieutenant-General Raed Shakir Jawdat, said the three brigades from the police Fifth Division were ready to move in, although he suggested they might not go into action immediately.
They are currently near Qaraqosh, about 15 km (10 miles) from the southeast edge of the city and are “fully prepared now to start the attack to control the eastern side of Mosul,” the spokesman said.
However he said they were waiting for advances elsewhere on the eastern front, where elite Counter Terrorism Services (CTS) have made steady street-by-street progress, unlike last week’s dramatic push by the armoured division towards the hospital.
“We are waiting for orders from the supreme commanders to start the offensive to defeat Daesh (Islamic State) and clear the eastern part (of Mosul),” he said.
The CTS forces said on Sunday they had captured another district of east Mosul, the al-Nour neighbourhood.
Accounts from Mosul are difficult to confirm since authorities have increasingly restricted international media access to the battlefronts and areas retaken from Islamic State in and around the city.
POLICE DIVERTED FROM SOUTHWEST
The police and CTS troops are part of a 100,000-strong Iraqi alliance which launched the campaign to retake Mosul on Oct. 17. It includes soldiers, security forces, Kurdish peshmerga fighters and mainly Shi’ite Popular Mobilisation forces, and is backed by a U.S.-led international coalition.
Defeating Islamic State in Mosul, the biggest city it controls in Iraq or Syria, would be a crushing blow to the self-styled caliphate it declared in large parts of both countries two years ago, and might see it revert to more covert militant operations in Iraq.
Iraqi commanders say progress has been slowed by the fierce defence waged by the jihadists, who they say have used a network of tunnels under the eastern half of the city and exploited more than 1 million civilians as human shields.
The fight in crowded residential areas has also restricted the use of heavy weapons and air strikes from the U.S.-led coalition, the military says.
For weeks, commanders have also talked about opening a new front in southwest Mosul to stretch Islamic State defences. But the despatch of the units to the southeast may delay that plan.
The forces in Qaraqosh had been due to join other police units who have reached within 3 or 4 km (2 or 3 miles) of the airport on Mosul’s southwestern edge, and were expected to open the new front inside the city on the west bank of the Tigris.
Nearly two months into the campaign, the United Nations says 91,000 people have been registered as displaced from Mosul and nearby towns and villages. That figure excludes thousands more forced as human shields back into Mosul by retreating militants.
Most people though have stayed put, and 1 million are likely to be still living in remaining Islamic State-held areas of the city. With the militants largely sealed off, civilians are enduring increasingly siege-like conditions, with shortages of fuel, food and water as winter sets in.
[AlManar] Iraqi Hashed Shaabi fighters (Popular Mobilization Forces) liberated on Monday Tel Askaa area northwest of Tel Abta, and the village of Northern Abu Senam west of Mosul, and inflicted terrorists heavy losses.
PMF website said “the PMF managed to liberate Northern Abu Senam western Mosul village after clashes with ISIL gunmen and killed dozens of terrorists,” in reference to the so-called ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ takfiri group.
“PMF is continuing progress according to the plans until cleansing the western axis of ISIL control,” the website added.
Moreover, 25 ISIL militants were also killed as they were going to escape from the village of Aziz Agha west of Mosul. In the meantime, PMF engineering corps started to lift containers from the village roads and to dismantle booby-trapped houses.
Furthermore, PMF website received 200 families fleeing from the ISIL tyranny west of Tal Afar, pointing out that “Hashd Shaabi forces greeted those families, provided them with the necessary services and transferred all the families to safe places outside the combat zones.”
It is noted that PMF leadership confirmed that ISIL gunmen are taking families as human shields and preventing them from going out in an attempt to disrupt the PMF progress to liberate the west of Mosul cities from the control of the criminal group.
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[DAWN] A charged mob of around 1,000 people which reportedly besieged an Ahmadi place of worship in Chakwal was dispersed by police on Monday, officials said.
The place of worship located in the limits of the Chowas Saidan Shah cop shoppe area in Chakwal's Dhalmial district was 'attacked' by nearly 1,000 people, according to the Jamaat-e-Ahmaddiya Pakistain Spokesperson Saleem-ud-Din.
Saleem-ud-Din said a mob armed with batons and weapons was throwing stones and firing on the premises. The mob was "attempting to seize Ahmadiyya property," he said.
Deputy Commissioner Chakwal Mahmood Javed Bhatti said the mob hurled stones and bricks at the place of worship before storming the building, adding that gunnies opened fire on Ahmadis in the area. The DC said that police have now dispersed the crowd and secured the building.
Rashid Ahmad, a local police official, said the mob also set fire to part of the building.
Station House Officer Chowas Saidan Shah Sub Inspector (SI) Muhammad Nawaz told Dawn that police had dispersed the crowd. The situation is under control now, he confirmed, adding that police had not decided on what action to take.
District police officer Chakwal said that a dialogue between local religious leaders and district administration is ongoing.
SI Muhammad Nawaz added that there had been no reports of any casualties.
The Jamaat-e-Ahmaddiya Pakistain spokesperson, however, claimed that there had been one killed in the incident, but was unable to identify the dead.
The Government of 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.... earlier said it was "following up" on the Chakwal incident.
The provincial government's Twitter claimed, "As per details, a misunderstanding developed between the two groups. Home Department is vigilantly following up the issue."
It is unclear which groups were involved in the incident.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called on Egypt to "fight terrorism together" after a bombing killed 25 people in a Coptic Christian church in Cairo.
"Israel condemns the reprehensible terrorist attack at the Coptic cathedral in Cairo," a statement from the premier’s office said.
"Israel shares in the grief of the families of the victims and of the Egyptian people. We must unite forces and fight terrorism together."
Sunday’s was the deadliest attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt since 2011, when more than 20 were killed outside a church in the northern coastal city of Alexandria.
Media in Israel say the Jewish state and Cairo cooperate in the struggle against jihadists fighting Egyptian security forces in the Sinai Peninsula.
Israel gave its green light for the Egyptian army to use tanks, aircraft and infantry against jihadists in the Sinai, which was demilitarized under the peace treaty the two countries signed in 1979.
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[DAWN] The body of singer-turned-preacher Junaid Jamshed was identified on Monday with the help of dental and facial x-rays, reported DawnNews.
"The body was identified with the help of samples from teeth and x-rays of his face," said Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Capt (r) Mushtaq Ahmed.
Earlier, the remains of at least 23 victims of the the PK-661 plane crash near Havelian were transported to the Pakistain Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) in Islamabad for DNA testing.
The remains of the victims will be handed over to their surviving relatives after identification.
PIA flight PK-661 carrying 48 passengers and crew crashed on the way to Islamabad from Chitral on December 8 at 4:42pm PST.
The Civil Aviation Authority confirmed there were no survivors from the ill-fated flight.
The passenger list confirmed there were 31 men, 9 women and 2 infants on board the flight, including singer-cum-evangelist Junaid Jamshed and his family, as well as three foreigners.
The ATR-42 aircraft departed from Chitral at around 3:30pm and was expected to land at Islamabad's Benazir Bhutto ... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in... International Airport at around 4:40pm but crashed in Havelian near Abbottabad ... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden.... shortly after a distress call was sent to the control tower.
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MOSCOW: Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Monday that 728 Syrian rebels laid down their weapons over the past 24 hours and relocated to western Aleppo.
The Defense Ministry also said that 13,346 civilians left rebel-controlled districts of Aleppo over the same period.
[DAWN] The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... government on Saturday rejected the request of the federal government to allow Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... i princes to hunt the houbara bustard in the province.
MPA Ishtiaq Urmar, an advisor to CM Pervaiz Khattak for Environment, Forests and Wildlife, told DawnNews he had received a letter from the interior ministry seeking permission for Qatari princes to hunt the protected bird which was refused.
The federal government's request was refused as the houbara bustard is a rare and protected bird, Urmar said.
"Following the 18th Amendment, provinces are sovereign in taking such decisions," Urmar said, adding that "strict action will be taken against those found hunting rare animals and birds."
The houbara bustard is not only protected under various international conventions and agreements signed by Pakistain but its hunting is also banned under the local wildlife protection laws.
Sources earlier told Dawn newspaper that while the other three provinces -- Sindh, 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.... 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... -- allowed Arabs with permits to hunt the houbara bustards, KP did not. They added that a while ago, a Qatari who had been hunting in the province had been caught and fined.
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Hit the link and you'll see why he's known as "Mr. Big"...
The president-elect of the Gambia has demanded that Yahya Jammeh step down immediately, as African leaders prepared to fly in and persuade the country’s autocratic leader to reconsider his refusal to accept defeat and resign.
After 22 years in power in the west African nation, it came as a surprise to many when Jammeh, an autocratic leader who had said he would rule for “a billion years if Allah willed it”, accepted defeat in a televised call to Adama Barrow, the leader of the opposition coalition.
However, a week later he declared that the vote was “fraudulent and unacceptable” and vowed to take the matter to the country’s supreme court. Barrow and his coalition said Jammeh’s plans were “illegal” and he should resign.
Continued on Page 49
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A Bahraini court ruled to uphold a nine-year jail sentence handed down to Ali Salman, leader of the country’s dissolved al-Wefaq National Islamic Society. A judicial source said the verdict was issued during a Monday trial session.
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[PHILLY] Former U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah was sentenced to 10 years in prison Monday, one of the longest terms of incarceration ever imposed on a member of Congress convicted of federal corruption crimes.
Addressing the court, the West Philadelphia Democrat expressed regret for some of the decisions he had made and how his conviction had affected his co-defendants and constituents, but stopped short of fully acknowledging his guilt.
"The investigation and the trial has been the most disappointing event in my now 60-year life," he told U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III. "I've helped tens of millions of people and that has nothing to do with the fact that I have been found on the wrong side of these questions by a jury."
Bartle, however, called Fattah's crimes "astonishing" and "extremely serious" - especially for an elected official representing one of the poorest congressional districts in the country and one whose own income put him among the "1 percent." He ordered Fattah to report to begin serving his sentence Jan. 25.
"You abused the trust they placed in you time and time again," he said of the voters who elected Fattah 11 times to represent them in Congress. "Your flagrant behavior undermines the confidence of the citizenry in all public institutions."
Fattah's sentence fell below the 17 to 22 years recommended by federal prosecutors but remains the second-highest prison term ever received by a member of Congress - capped only by the 13 years former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson (D., La.) received in 2009 for soliciting millions of dollars in bribes.
"That's about as good as we could have expected," Fattah lawyer Albert S. Dandridge turned to tell a courtroom packed with supporters and family members moments after the sentence was imposed.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
"The investigation and the trial has been the most disappointing event in my now 60-year life,"
"I've helped tens of millions of people and that has nothing to do with the fact that I have been found on the wrong side of these questions by a jury."
#3
Interesting we know the affiliation of the La. guy in the slammer for 13 years, and we know (at the link) the guy who defeated Fattah in the primary is a (D), but no mention made of Fattah's party. I guess, being from Philly and all, it's understood.
However, unlike many others, he resigned immediately after his indictment. Oops. Sorry, after his conviction he resigned. Wikipedia
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/13/2016 8:01
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Odds that he'll be on the January presidential pardon list?
#5
Odds that he'll be on the January presidential pardon list?
Low. He wasn't much of a player outside philthy.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/13/2016 10:13
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#6
Anyone notice the near complete MSM blackout of this story?
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
12/13/2016 10:29
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Anyone notice the near complete MSM blackout of this story?
Yeah. It's part of a very big story about how philthy, detoilet, Austin, Minneapolis and a lot of other big cities did not deliver the goods for swillary. It's a big, behind the scenes autopsy and the results will not be made public...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/13/2016 11:01
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Low.He wasn't much of a player outside philthy.
Concur, to a point. Mr. Obama still needs to maintain the support of a given 'demographic' post-presidency.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least 14 Death Eaters were killed and 11 others were seriously maimed in an Arclight airstrike conducted close to Lashkargah city, the scenic provincial capital of southern Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province.
The Ministry of Defense (MoD) said the Arclight airstrike was conducted in the past 24 hours but did not elaborate further.
It is yet not clear if the Arclight airstrike was conducted by the Afghan Air Force or the US forces based in Afghanistan.
Both the Afghan and US forces conduct regular Arclight airstrikes against the turbans to suppress their activities amid deteriorating security situation.
The US forces in Afghanistan resumed Arclight airstrikes after they were granted broader role by the B.O. regime earlier this year.
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[DAWN] BADIN: Police investigations into a theft in Badin district have brought to life two murder cases long dead and buried -- by all but the kith and kin.
One of the murders -- that of a seven-year-old boy -- took place seven years ago while the other -- that of a six-year-old boy -- occurred one year ago.
Sikander Bagerani, who was tossed in the slammer Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! in a case of theft on Saturday by the Tando Ghulam Ali police, has confessed to the murder of the two boys.
The suspect said he kidnapped the two boys, killed them and threw their bodies into waterways in the area.
He claimed that he was a "trainee in black magic" and was following the instructions of his uncle, Ahsan Bagerani.
"I committed the crime on the directions of my maternal uncle so he could train me further in the black arts," he told police.
Badin’s SSP Abdul Qayyum Pitafi said on Sunday that he had instructed the officers concerned to investigate the deaths and submit a report as soon as possible. He said he had assured the boys’ parents that police would bring the culprits to justice soon.
Villagers told journalists that both the suspects were known to have been involved in "exorcism" since long. The suspect had also confessed to dumping the body of the six-year-old boy in Naseer canal after killing him, said the villagers.
In an FIR registered with the Tando Ghulam Ali cop shoppe, Ali Hassan said his seven-year-old son’s body had been found in a pond in Haji Juman Bagerani village seven years ago. His son had been strangled, the complainant said.
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[All Africa] Zim-bob-wean First Lady Grace Mugabe has been dragged to court for allegedly occupying three properties of a Lebanese businessman in a dispute over the purchase of a $1.4m diamond ring, reports said on Friday. Dividends of another western orchestrated 'regime change' gone terribly wrong.
A Zim-bob-we Independent report said that Grace together with her son Russell Goreraza have gone to war with the Lebanese gem dealer Jamal Ahmed over the diamond ring which was meant to be Mugabe's wedding anniversary present to Grace.
The year 2016 marked the 20th anniversary of the Mugabes' wedding.
The report said that Grace had been sued together with Russel (1st repondent) and Kennedy Fero (3rd respondent), who according to court papers, was part of Grace's security personnel.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Pity she just couldn't get it 'loaned' to her, like our First Lady does with her outfits.
Alternative headline: Syrian Army forms new brigade in Aleppo in recruitment drive
Over 4,000 males who fled Eastern Aleppo into Syrian regime-held territories have been forced to join regime forces, activists inside Syria are saying.
According to Karam Alhamad, a Syrian activist based in Turkey, the men were forced to shave and immediately join the army in the battles against the Free Syrian Army.
Posted by: badanov ||
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#1
Seems they could start fragging the commanders near them and put an end to that.
#3
"Sure, we'll let you park your wimminfolk and kiddies in the safe zone with us... but only as long as your commander reports you are wearing our uniform and following his orders. Your choice, dude -- and I'll need an answer in the next thirty seconds, or you all can turn around and go back to the war zone."
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) A local source in Anbar province revealed, that security forces discovered three explosives labs belonging to the Islamic State group (ISIS), west of Ramadi, Alsumaria News reported on Sunday.
The source told Alsumaria, “Forces from the army’s 7th brigade, intelligence of the 29th brigade and tribal fighters managed to discover three explosives labs belonging to the ISIS in Heet city and Kabisa area.”
“These laboratories were found by the citizens of Heet and Kabisa who informed the security forces,” the source explained. “Army’s engineering teams defused the explosive materials in these laboratories,” the source added.
Security forces and tribal fighters continue searching areas and neighborhoods liberated from the ISIS in Heet, in preparation for the return of displaced people.
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi security forces imposed a comprehensive curfew on the city of Fallujah, Alsumaria News reported on Sunday.
Alsumaria News stated, “Security forces imposed a comprehensive curfew on people, vehicles and markets in the city of Fallujah, and until further notice.”
“The curfew was imposed after the explosion of two booby-trapped vehicles in the city of Fallujah,” Alsumaria added.
Earlier today, a local source in Anbar province revealed that a number of persons were either killed or wounded in the explosion of two booby-trapped vehicles that targeted checkpoints in central and western Fallujah.
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Nine people were injured on Monday when suspected militants attacked the office of National Party (NP) in Balochistan's Turbat district, police officials said.
The attackers lobbed a hand grenade inside the NP office targeting the workers inside, officials said.
Three NP workers were seriously injured whereas three others suffered minor injuries. The blast also caused damage to the office.
Two of the injured have been referred to Karachi for medical treatment.
The president of National Party, Senator Mir Hasil Bizenjo has condemned the incident and termed it as an act of terrorism.
"We will not bow down before the elements playing in the hands of foreign powers," said Bizenjo.
The assailants escaped unhurt from the spot and no one has claimed the attack so far.
Security personnel and workers of Baloch nationalist parties have been frequent targets of attacks in Turbat in the past few years, with several of these orchestrated by Baloch separatists and sectarian outfits.
PENSACOLA (CBSMiami/AP) -- A fun holiday event turned into a scary situation over the weekend in northern Florida.
A woman is recovering after being run over by a float in the Pensacola Christmas parade.
Officer Tony Garza tells the Pensacola News Journal 59-year-old Miriam Mimms stepped into the street to pick something up along the parade route Saturday evening when she was apparently bumped from behind and fell into the path of a float.
Officials say a safety person walking with the float saw Mimms fall and pulled her head away from the path of the float’s tire. Authorities say the float ran over the left torso.
The parade was delayed for about 30 minutes. The incident is under investigation.
Mimms was in stable condition when she was taken to the hospital.
MANILA: At least 10 members of the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf ...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder... terror group were killed while six others were maimed in the latest encounter with government forces on the island province of Sulu in restive Mindanao, the military reported on Monday.
Major Filemon Tan, the front man of the military’s Western Mindanao Command, said the latest casualty figure for the Abu Sayyaf was validated by intelligence information as well as civilians on the ground.
Earlier, Tan said three soldiers were killed and 17 others maimed when government forces clashed with about 150 Lions of Islam in a mountain "barangay" (village) in the town of Patikul, Sulu on Saturday morning.
He added Philippine Air Force helicopter gunships and artillery fire supported the soldiers in the heavy fighting that lasted about two hours when the Death Eaters withdrew.
The Death Eaters were headed by Radullah Hapiron, the one-armed leader and one of the most desperados in Mindanao, Tan said.
He added government forces remained focused on their "search and destroy" campaign against the Abu Sayyaf on orders of President Rodrigo "Rody" Duterte since July.
Since then, Tan said myrmidons’ total corpse count has reached 105 with 14 others locked away You have the right to remain silent... .
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Only ten? They will just go down to the Maluso High School and pick up ten more.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
12/13/2016 9:50
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African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) has released a statement confirming that its soldiers have thwarted a bomb attack on Burundian peacekeepers in middle Shabelle region on Monday. According to a Twitter post, the AU mission said An IED targeting an AMISOM convoy travelling from Biyo Cadale to Miirtigo was detected and destroyed. No damage or injuries were reported.
AMISOM said in a statement posted on it Twitter account that its troops are vigilance and continued collaboration with SNA will eliminate the trauma caused by the Al shabaab and bring peace to Somalia.
Al shabaab has said it killed several AMISOM soldiers and destroyed an armored vehicle in a land mine blast planted on a semi-forest road near Mahaday town in southern Somalia, a claim AMISOM denies.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/13/2016
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Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
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.
After 17 years and 11 billion euros, the first Gotthard Base Tunnel passenger train departed Zurich on Sunday morning. The express train will save passengers 30 minutes on the trip.
[Bloomberg] The two top Republicans in Congress offered strong support for the intelligence community Monday, in sharp contrast to President-elect Donald Trump’s attack on the CIA after reports the agency found that the Russian government tried to help him win the presidency.
Ref #1. I will also go with 'confusion and finger pointing.' 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A top commander of the Taliban group was killed during an operation in northern Parwan province of Afghanistan, the Ministry of Interior (MoI) said Monday.
PESHAWAR - Unidentified gunmen on a motorbike shot dead an anti-terror police officer in Peshawar on Saturday.
[DAWN] At least 100 people were killed by the collapse of a church in south-eastern Nigeria, a resident and photojournalist who visited a morgue said on Sunday, but officials put the 
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
[al-Manar] Turkey hit Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq less than 24 hours after twin attacks in Istanbul killed 38 that were claimed by a Kurdish splinter group, local media reported Monday.
[DAWN] LAHORE: A man was allegedly 
[DAWN] A charged mob of around 1,000 people which reportedly besieged an Ahmadi place of worship in Chakwal was dispersed by police on Monday, officials said.
[DAWN] The body of singer-turned-preacher Junaid Jamshed was identified on Monday with the help of dental and facial x-rays, reported DawnNews.
[DAWN] The 
PENSACOLA (CBSMiami/AP) -- A fun holiday event turned into a scary situation over the weekend in northern Florida.
