h/t Instapundit
Fox News strategic analyst Ralph Peters appeared on "America's Newsroom" Thursday to discuss what he called President Obama's "disdain" for Israel, after the U.S. abstained on anti-settlement Resolution 2334 before the UN Security Council, allowing it to pass.
Peters began by describing Sec. of State John Kerry's speech at the State Department yesterday as a "tirade."
...Peters described the president's Mideast policy in just six words:
#2
If he was really "going to remain in charge" after leaving office, one would expect a good deal more subtlety, no?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/30/2016 12:43
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#3
, one would expect a good deal more subtlety, no? No. Not from this venal, evil, little scum, subtlety is not only not in his makeup it is unlikely to be in his vocabulary.
[Washington Free Beacon] Senior Obama administration officials are scrambling to provide explanations after multiple reports, including in the Washington Free Beacon, identified the White House as being a chief architect of a recent United Nations resolution condemning the state of Israel, according to conversations with multiple former and current U.S. officials.
The administration’s denials of this charge broke down during the past several days as multiple reporters confirmed the Obama administration worked behind-the-scenes to help shape and forward the resolution.
While the White House issued multiple denials, further reports from Israel and Europe have confirmed Vice President Joe Biden phoned Ukraine’s president. It also has come to light that Kerry held a meeting in December with senior Palestinian diplomat Saeb Erekat. Documents believed to have been leaked by Egypt confirm that Kerry and Erekat discussed forwarding the resolution, a charge that senior White House officials continue to deny.
As with the meeting between Kerry and Erekat, the phone call between Biden and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has been confirmed multiple times by a plethora of sources in the United States, Israel, and Europe following the Free Beacon’s initial report.
One senior Obama administration official who spoke to the Free Beacon said the White House did not help draft the resolution, as Israeli leaders have suggested in recent days. However, these claims have been disputed by multiple sources who spoke to the Free Beacon both on and off the record about the situation.
The administration has not yet addressed the discrepancy between its own narrative and that being revealed in the press.
#2
Götterdämmerung
I suspect the WH to unleash wave after wave of regulations, executive orders and pardons in acts of pure childish demands to Obama and his sense of power. As the end draws close, it will be more and more obvious even to leftards that the One is a malevolent hater of traditional America in all it's forms. Interestingly, Champ plans to stay in DC and lecture us for the entire Trump Presidency, unwittingly furthering the emasculation of the democrat party into minorities and intellectual socialists as they are swept into the dust in of history along with the Whigs, Bull Moose and IWW.
#5
Every regulations and executive order has a name or number. Trump just needs to put someone in charge of collecting those, writing up cancel Executive Order YYZ and having it ready for him to sign the first hour.
It really shouldn't be a big deal except that Obama will put things in like every black man gets 1 million dollars as slavery recompense and Trump cancelled it type thing to spoil any future approachment between Trump and african americans.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has declined to engage in a tit-for-tat after the US expelled 35 Russian diplomats over the hacking scandal. He said Russia would not "stoop" to the level of "irresponsible diplomacy" but would work to restore ties with America under President-elect Donald Trump. The Russian foreign ministry had formally asked him to expel 35 US diplomats in retaliation.Russia denies involvement in hacking, calling US sanctions "ungrounded". Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev accused the outgoing administration of President Barack Obama of ending in "anti-Russian death throes".
Posted by: John Frum ||
12/30/2016
08:21 ||
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#1
Besides, the costs of bringing everybody home and then sending them right back next month was ludicrous, so he just told them to burn some vacation time in England, and don't cancel any leases.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
12/30/2016 8:39
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#2
He said Russia would not "stoop" to the level of "irresponsible diplomacy"
TRANSLATION:
Good sources are difficult to recruit and develop.
#4
We reserve the right to retaliate, but we will not sink to the level of this irresponsible ‘kitchen’ diplomacy. We will take further moves on restoring Russian-American relations based on the policies that the administration of President-elect Donald Trump adopts,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a statement published by the Kremlin website.
BTW, remember the little thingy with the Russian ambassador to Turkey? You know how you aren't really screening the Muslim you're resettling? Remember you engaged in personally selecting hit lists for people in the Middle East? Then you should remember Mehmet Ali Ağca. Just remember when useful idiots are not longer useful. Karma.
#7
Bikers do a thing called a "chilly willy," where you snort a shot of bourbon up your nose instead of swallowing it down. I imagine having a shot of vodka come out your nose while laughing feels about the same...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/30/2016 13:05
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#8
Putin also invited all the Diplomat Kids and children of ex-pats to the big annual Kremlin New Years party, Ded Moroz is likely to show up with presents.
[Hot Air] It didn’t occur to me yesterday in my own consideration of Kerry’s speech, as we tend to be more sensitive to divisions on our own side. But various liberals have made the point today that the UN resolution last week and Kerry’s subsequent defense of it are arguably worse than useless. It’s not just that the resolution will no longer represent U.S. policy three weeks from now, and may very well end up poisoning American relations with the UN. It’s that the subject of pressuring Israel to make peace is far more fraught for the left than it is for the right. It’s one thing for Obama and Kerry to apply that pressure if they think it’ll produce tangible results — but what the hell is the point of doing it when they have one foot out the door, knowing that Netanyahu won’t listen, and further knowing that this is destined to put pro- and anti-Israel liberals in the U.S. at each other’s throats?
Matt Yglesias doesn’t get it. I don’t either. I joked yesterday that Kerry gave the speech because he’s been giving it in the mirror for years and wanted to seize his last shot at doing it on a stage, but that really might be the most plausible explanation. If you’re going to toss a foreign-policy grenade, why toss it at your own party?
#2
If one considers this related Daily Beast article, especially the odious J-Street capo, it appears to me more a matter of the Progs burning off the 'dross'.
[SA] Grace Mugabe is having a grand oll’ time at the expense of the country’s starving population. A Roman Catholic priest from the St Johns Parish reportedly called Batty Bob Mugabe’s wife "loveless" after she reportedly "acquired" a diamond ring valued around $1.35 million.
Father Rungano made the comments while delivering a sermon at the funeral of a woman who passed away while travelling from SA to Zim.
"There is a lot of corruption in this country and if people had love for each other, we would not be seeing someone buying a ring worth millions whilst the nation is hungry," Rungano reportedly said.
#1
Some people make expensive annual pilgrimages to Hawaii at taxpayers expense, others buy jewelry. On balance, I'd reckon jewelry is the better buy for the taxpayer.
[Huffpoo] U.S. intelligence officials appear certain that Russia was responsible for interfering in the presidential election -- though they haven’t fully detailed how they know. But a classified document leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden reveals that they’ve tracked Russian hacking before and that the information they gleaned may have helped this time around.
Russian hacking also occurred in the case of Russian journalist and American citizen Anna Politkovskaya, who was gunned down in 2006 in her Moscow apartment after writing articles critical of the Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Five men were convicted of her murder, but it’s still a mystery who ordered the killing.
A year before she was murdered, Politkovskaya’s email was hacked by Russian intelligence using malicious software not publicly available, according to an NSA document leaked by Snowden to The Intercept. Not only does the document reveal that U.S. intelligence knew about the hacking of Politkovskaya’s email, it also shows that the NSA is adept at tracking cyberattacks by Russian intelligence.
The classified internal NSA entry indicates that the NSA was able to use "intercept signals" to pinpoint the source of the attack. The attacks on Politkovskaya’s email account resemble the hacks of Democratic National Committee emails during the campaign that were damaging to Hillary Clinton, and the NSA could have used the same tactics to track the source as it did in Politkovskaya’s case.
#1
One does not hunt squirrels in a peach orchard. May we then conclude a connection between the crafty squirrel and the type of tree he inhabits? Tracking the 'hacker' has long been a source of knowledge regarding the hacker's requirements and information shortfalls.
Tracking the foibles and proclivities of democrats, what could possibly be gained from such an endeavor ? [sarc off]
For those who believe in coincidences, the assassination of Politkovskaya occurred on 7 Oct 2006, Vladimir Putin's birthday.
#2
Is there any kind of interference that has been alleged other than hacking and releasing Shrillary et. al. e-mail?
If so the "problem" is that truth that was hurtful to the Dems got out. So from that I conclude that the truth is anathema to the Dems/Progs/Left, true?
I think I've found the major problem with our countries politics.
Actually, she didn't, Just that California and New York was so overwhelming democrat that it made it seems like it. On a state by state basis, she lost the popular vote!
The electoral college system works like it's supposed to!
#10
For Thert Protector of the Chinese1357: you are right about the formation of various parts of speech from a root, but wrong in your conclusion. From the DNC website About:
Since 1848, the Democratic National Committee has been the home of the Democratic Party, the oldest continuing party in the United States.
Today we are millions of supporters strong, fighting for progress and helping elect Democrats across the country to state government, Congress, and the White House.
[Breitbart] Former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton told Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Raheem Kassam on Thursday, "Just as a matter of empirical reality, the two-state solution is dead. That’s about the only thing John Kerry came close to getting right yesterday."
Bolton was discussing out-going Secretary of State John Kerry’s anti-Israel speech delivered Wednesday, as reported by Breitbart News:
Lame-duck Secretary of State John Kerry blasted the Israeli government at the State Department on Wednesday, and attempted to defend the Obama administration’s decision to let an anti-Israel resolution pass at the UN Security Council last week.
Kerry delivered his remarks in the midst of a diplomatic fight with Israel, in which President Barack Obama stands accused of working with Palestinians secretly to undermine Israeli security, overturning decades of American foreign policy precedent in the process.
As for the now-infamous failure of the United States to veto the recent anti-Israel UN resolution, Bolton said, "The notion that this is simply consistent with prior U.S. policy, which is the Obama administration line, is flatly incorrect."
Bolton continued, "The failure to veto this Resolution 2334 reverses fifty years of American policy, ever since the 1967 war between Israel and the surrounding Arab states, which ended in the iconic Resolution 242, the so-called Land for Peace Resolution."
#1
In a War somebody Wins and somebody Loses. that is why they call the things War.
You win by breaking your adversary and taking away his capability and his will. You break him..permanently. You crush him and his will. OR you kill him and keep killing him until you take everything he has. You castrate him and take his wife and family and don't give anything back.
You don't negotiate with him. If he wants it, you piss on it and even if you yourself don't need it, you dump on it just because he wants it.
I want Israel to WIN. Keep up on the Settlements.They WORK, Do it again and keep doing it until you own it ALL.
#2
Its been dead since '48 when the Arabs et al failed to destroy Israel. The neighbors didn't give a flip for the Paleos till they realized they were never going to get the land back they lost in '67, even then, they treated them as the threat they were. See - Black September.
#3
Never a peep about Mexican settlements in the southwestern United States. It's the same thing, you know. It's the same with Arab settlements in Europe for that matter. You get your people out there in sufficient numbers to push the native population aside and dictate the agenda. I'll give the Palestinians credit for recognizing what's happening which is more than I can say for Americans and Europeans.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/30/2016 12:29
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#4
"I was bred and born in the briar patch, Brer Fox," he called. "Born and bred in the briar patch."
#5
30+ years in all phases of software showed me that women just as well or as poorly as men. However, there are damn few women that want to write code as all the requisite attributes are generally not part of their makeup.
Good coders have to be able to withstand the constant drumbeat of failure inflicted on them by an infallible machine, shrug it off and try again. This is a rare trait in all of humanity but rarer in the female of the species.
#6
Actually it is a logical extension: for all the guys out there with significant female others; why is it that you can never get a 'yes' or 'no' to a simple yes or no question?
So the coding ability isn't confined to a binary computer operation, its genetic.
#7
Granted, I didn't write code as long as AlanC did, but I could count the number of fellow female software engineers on one hand, and I was at six different companies. QA / Test does not count.
Posted by: Barbara ||
12/30/2016 21:05
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#14
I'd always thought women were good at multi-tasking and that the best code writers tended to be the opposite and that folks on the autistic spectrum make good coders because often they can fixate in away others cannot which is one reason Silicon valley is filled with aspergers.
#15
I once got into some minor trouble because I told my programming students that they should write error messages in their programs so that their grandmothers could understand them. I also added, "Unless your grandmother is Grace Murray Hopper. She'll understand whatever error message you produce".
People said I was being sexist. Actually I was being age-ist. Of course, the comment about RADM Hopper would still stand.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
12/30/2016 23:04
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#16
QA don't count. Yes, how most Requirements Phase meetings begin
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
12/30/2016 23:55
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[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] The B.O. regime, which is planning to unleash billions of dollars of new last minute regulations to shore up the president's legacy, is now also readying "midnight litigation" targeting businesses, lawsuits that are expected to kill jobs.
In advance of that move, several pro-business and anti-tax groups are urging the incoming Trump administration to junk the lawsuits on Day One.
In a letter to transition chief Mike Pence, the vice president-elect, the groups warned, "Should the B.O. regime bring non-routine, last minute, legally unorthodox midnight litigation, your administration should not hesitate to withdraw immediately from that litigation."
The letter, provided to Secrets and signed by groups such as Americans for Tax Reform, Frontiers of Freedom, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, added, "In such circumstances, the new administration should not be constrained by notions of deference and should not support suspect legal theories that could have devastating economic effects for decades to come."
The letter revealed the administration's plans.
"It has come to our attention that a number of departments and independent agencies are working furiously behind closed doors to bring significant, legally tenuous litigation against American business interests before January 20, 2017. Doing so will saddle the Trump administration with having to litigate cases based on job crushing liberal legal theories. Such 'midnight litigation,' particularly litigation that does not concern imminent threats to health or safety, must receive the strictest of scrutiny from the transition, and we urge the new administration in the strongest possible terms not to treat such litigation with deference."
Unlike regulations, which the Congress can overturn, lawsuits can only be stopped by the administration, which is why the warning letter was sent to Pence.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2016
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#1
... is now also readying "midnight litigation" targeting businesses, lawsuits that are expected to kill jobs.
New boss in town, soon enough to kill any lawsuit initiated since November. Lawsuits take time. They know that. Going for propaganda points? But, Trump doesn't care what the minions of the press scream and the louder they scream, the more they alienate and isolate themselves.
#3
I don't think you can create a law that occurs immediately so anything he does can be cancelled before it takes effect. Obama must know this and I suspect this is the typical booby trap type thing so liberals can claim Trump put lead in the water by cancelling some anti-lead bill demanding lead content be reduced into negative numbers or some foolishness.
[WASHINGTON TIMES] As he packed up his offices on Capitol Hill one final time, Rep. Charles B. Rangel reflected on the divisions in Washington and the political strife cleaving the American electorate.
The way the silver-haired Harlem Democrat sees it, he couldn’t have picked a better time to retire.
“I did not ever think about leaving. I have mixed feelings,” he told The Washington Times on a recent sunny afternoon on Capitol Hill. “But the way the political races have turned out, I can’t wait to get out of here.”
For 46 years Mr. Rangel has represented the same Harlem district where he grew up. He scaled the heights of congressional power, chaired the tax-writing House Committee on Ways and Means, plummeted in an ethics scandal that cost him the chairmanship and subjected him to the humiliation of censure on the House floor, and bounced back to win re-election to two more terms in the House.
The congressman, renowned for his genial disposition, didn’t try to hide his disgust with Donald Trump’s upset win of the White House, with the Republicans’ success in keeping control of both chambers of Congress or with the fellow Democrat — a bitter political rival — who is succeeding him in representing New York’s 13th Congressional District.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2016
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#1
Sorry, Chollie... Actually, not sorry at all. Can you take Maxine and Guam tips over guy with you when you go?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/30/2016 4:14
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#2
To me Rangel always seemed to have the saving virtue of a conman who knows he's a conman. Probably, will be replaced by somebody who really believes all that sh*t.
#2
...if you had deep pockets, maybe Israel could sponsor some refugee settlements in Europe, fund some refugee committees, and sponsor their voices at the UN. Or, maybe, get the incoming Administration to fund it through Israel.
[Wash Times] The historic surge in violent crime seen across the Windy City in 2016 unfolded as the Chicago Police Department drastically reduced the number of times its officers stopped and arrested civilians, new data reveal.
As 2016 comes to a close, Chicago has reportedly witnessed more than 700 murders during the course of the calendar year -- the highest number of homicides on record since the turn of the century.
As violent crime soared, however, police activity did quite the opposite, CBS News reported this week. Data obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests filed on behalf of its "60 Minutes" television program indicates officers across all of Chicago’s 25 police districts reported conducting fewer stops and arrests this year, the network said Thursday.
Specifically, CPD officers have stopped and questioned 80 percent fewer people since 2015 while the number of arrests fell by a third, according to its investigation.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported separately this week that arrests went down 28 percent this year compared to 2015 -- the lowest since 2001, and half of the number reported during all of 2010.
#5
Talked to an old friend who lives in ChIraq at Xmas. Said he had walked up to a uniformed cop on a street to ask a question (about the snow plow rules). It took three questions before the guy actually admitted to being a cop.
At SecondCityCop, they call it "be fetal".
Posted by: ed in texas ||
12/30/2016 8:50
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#6
In other news dog bites man.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
12/30/2016 9:06
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[Daily Caller] Palestinian terrorist group Hamas is ecstatic about passage of a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israel’s settlement policy, and its own incitement to violence.
Hamas issued a statement supporting the resolution Saturday, one day after its passage. The Obama administration abstained from voting on the measure, allowing it to pass. The move infuriated Israeli officials who saw it as an abandonment of the historical U.S. policy of vetoing such resolutions.
"We value the position of states that voted in favor of the resolution and welcome this significant transformation in international positions that support the Palestinian people’s rights," said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum in a press release.
The terrorist group’s keen support is surprising, given the resolution supposedly also condemns groups like Hamas for engaging in terrorism against Israelis. What’s more, Barhoum goes on to say his group supports further resolutions "backing the Palestinian people’s just cause."
[PJ] A university literally named after George Washington and located in the nation's capital just dropped its requirement for American history, for history majors. In order to graduate with a history degree from George Washington University (GW) in Washington, D.C., you do not have to study American history.
To make matters worse, the department said they made this stunning decision in order to kowtow to current trends and make history more popular. This change comes among other updates to the curriculum: history majors will no longer be required to take foreign language classes, can do an electronic capstone project instead of the traditional thesis, and will not have to study European, North American, or U.S. history.
"I think the main gain for students is that they have a great deal more flexibility than they had before, and they can adapt it to whatever their plans are for the future," Katrin Schultheiss, chair of the history department, told The GW Hatchet. "Whatever they want to do, there's a way to make the history department work for them."
In 2016, GW implemented a new funding formula, allocating money to the various departments based on the number of students enrolled in that major's classes. Each school receives $301 for every student in a class, incentivizing majors like history to offer classes that will be popular.
Indeed, enrollment in history has dropped since 2011, when there were 153 history majors. Only 72 undergraduate students majored in history in 2015, while 83 did so in 2016, the Hatchet reported.
#1
This change comes among other updates to the curriculum: history majors will no longer be required to take foreign language classes, can do an electronic capstone project instead of the traditional thesis, and will not have to study European, North American, or U.S. history.
Another 'Studies' piece of paper. See - paper mill
[Bangkok Post] A pickup truck used by a special operations unit of Rueso district police was damaged by a bomb explosion in Narathiwat province on Thursday morning. Police spokesman Marut Nilkosee said the pickup was carrying a six-man patrol team. As it neared the bridge, militants hiding in roadside bushes detonated a bomb planted on the road using a communications radio. The police vehicle was damaged but no one was injured by the blast.
[Al Jazeera] Rodrigo Duterte, the president of the Philippines, has threatened corrupt government officials by saying he would have thrown them off a flying helicopter, warning that he had personally carried out the action before and had no qualms about doing it again.
The former prosecutor and governor said that he once hurled a Chinese man suspected of rape and murder out of a helicopter.
"If you are corrupt, I will fetch you using a helicopter to Manila and I will throw you out. I have done this before. Why would I not do it again?" Duterte said during a speech to victims of a typhoon on Tuesday, a clip of which was posted later on a video feed of the president's office.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2016
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#1
Invented it himself, or was taught by green berets?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/30/2016 8:43
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#3
Years ago we referred to it as 'flying lessons'.
The key is at what altitude?
(Also saw a guy zip rappel out of Huey at 100ft using 75 feet of rope. Owie.)
Posted by: ed in texas ||
12/30/2016 8:56
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[Breitbart] Three radical Islamists have been incarcerated Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! in two separate counter-terrorism raids in southwestern La Belle France, one on suspicion of plotting a New Year’s Eve terror attack.
The counter-terrorism raids were conducted on Monday and Tuesday night in the department of Haute-Garonne, south-west La Belle France, a region where several hundred radical Islamists are being monitored. The two operations are indicative of the level of eminent threat anticipated by French security agencies, reports La Dépêche.
The first raid in Toulouse ...lies on the banks of the River Garonne, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The Toulouse metropolitan area is the fourth-largest in La Belle France... resulted in the arrests of two men, aged 42, on suspicion of plotting attacks against coppers. Both were identified as radical Islamists and one profiled as a potential jacket wallah. Small arms and light weapons were also seized. Le Figaro reports the men were illegal migrants colonists.
The second raid in Cugnaux, 10 miles south-west of Toulouse, resulted in the arrest of a 30-year-old man as part of an investigation conducted by the antiterrorist prosecutor’s office in Gay Paree. The suspect "is known to [police] services, he is suspected of wanting to carry out an attack on Dec 31," a police source told Rooters.
The man was known to several investigative units and had been subject to a search some months ago. Surveillance had been stepped up around this "potentially dangerous" target, a close source told La Dépêche.
The Haute-Garonne prefecture confirmed that since 15 November 2015, two days after the terrorist attacks in Gay Paree and Saint-Denis, 55 searches had been carried out in Toulouse and its suburbs.
According to a report published on 7 November 2016 by the Ministry of the Interior, more than 4,000 searches took place in one year, and 95 house arrests are still in force in the country. These searches ended in the seizure of nearly 600 firearms "of which 77 were weapons of war," confirmed then-Minister of the Interior Bernard Cazeneuve.
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] The presence of the PKK in the Sinjar region of Iraq is a "major obstacle to reconciliation" and the return of displaced people, the U.S. said Tuesday.
"We believe that the PKK which is a U.S. designated terrorist organization should have no role in Sinjar," State Department front man Mark Toner said.
Toner’s comments comes after Iraqi Kurdish regional government Prime Minister Nechervan Barzani threatened to use military force to remove the PKK from the predominantly Kurdish Yezidi city of Sinjar.
The PKK has sought to establish a foothold in the region that falls to the northeastern mountainous outskirts of Nineveh province, since ISIS was driven out last year by Peshmerga and local forces with the help of the U.S.-led coalition.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2016
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#1
Now war in ME is complete without Kurds getting back stabbed.
[al-Manar] The Syrian army controlled on Thursday the hills which surround Sharifa village in south of Tifur airport and killed 70 ISIL terrorists.
The Syrian military also repelled a major terrorist attack on its positions in north of Tifur airport in Homs countryside.
More than 126 terrorists of ISIL were killed in fires of the Syrian Army in the framework of its continuous war against terrorism in Palmyra area in the eastern countryside of Homs, according to SANA.
The Syrian Army units killed a number of the terrorists’ leaders and destroyed one of al-Nusra’s radio-controlled airplanes in Daraa southern province, SANA added.
In Daraa al-Bald area, an army unit downed a radio-controlled airplane belonging to al-Nusra terrorists and destroyed it in the surroundings of the Post Building without any human casualties, SANA reported.
Posted by: badanov ||
12/30/2016
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[Dhaka Tribune] Nearly 11 months since the heist, there's no sign if any of the six investigating agencies involved are close to cracking the case.
A top investigator into the electronic theft of $81m from the Bangladesh central bank is turning his attention to some IT technicians from the bank whom he suspects hooked up its transactions system to the public Internet, giving hackers access.
In a series of interviews this month, Mohammad Shah Alam, a Bangladesh police deputy inspector general who is heading investigations in Dhaka, went into some detail about how insiders at Bangladesh Bank may have helped in the execution of one of the world’s biggest cyber-heists last February.
For instance, Alam said he was focusing on why a password token protecting the SWIFT international transactions network at Bangladesh Bank was left inserted in the SWIFT server for months leading up to the heist. It is supposed to be removed and locked in a secure vault after business hours each day.
The failure to remove the token allowed hackers to enter the system when it was not being monitored, first to infect it with malware and then to issue fake transfer orders, he said.
Alam’s comments follow months of assertions by Bangladesh authorities that central bank officials were guilty of nothing more than negligence in the heist, in which hackers moved money out of the bank’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and sent it to individual accounts in the Philippines.
Rooters could not independently confirm Alam’s claims. He declined to name any of the suspects.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2016
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#1
Hell, I thought this was about somebody getting a Red Ryder Daisy and loading up...
Posted by: ed in texas ||
12/30/2016 11:00
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#2
And MY first thought was about the New Jersey getting underway......
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] A front man for a major Syrian rebel group said Thursday it had reservations about an agreement for a nationwide cease-fire and resumption of negotiations and was not among the groups that had signed it.
"Ahrar al-Sham ...a Syria jihadi group made up of Islamists and salafists, not that there's that much difference, formed into a brigade. They make up the main element of the Islamic Front but they don't profess adoration of al-Qaeda and they've been fighting (mainly for survival) against the Islamic State. Their leadership was wiped out at a single blow by a suicide kaboom at a crowded basement meeting in September, 2014... has a number of reservations over the proposed agreement and the negotiations linked to it, and therefore has not signed it. We will make clear our reservations in due course," Ahmad Qura Ali, a front man for the powerful Islamist group, wrote on his Twitter account.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2016
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At least 30 insurgents have been killed and wounded in recent Afghan security forces' clearance operations in Kunduz province, officials said Thursday.
In a statement released by the 20th Pamir Army Division several villages in the province have been cleared of insurgents and more than 30 militants have been killed and wounded.
However despite a heavy presence of security forces in several towns and districts in the province, security threats still plague Kunduz city, the provincial capital.
However 20th Pamir Army Division has emphasized it will recapture areas under insurgent control.
According to 20th Pamir Army Division, in recent operations, seven villages were cleared of insurgents in the province.
Meanwhile Kunduz police said they will not let the insurgents suppress the residents.
At the same time Kunduz residents said they have suffered through this and want the battles to end.
[WASHINGTONTIMES] Matt Drudge wondered aloud Thursday evening whether his popular site was the object of a U.S. government cyberattack.
Via the Twitter account for his Drudge Report, he said his news-aggregation site is the victim of the "biggest DDoS since site’s inception," referring to a Distributed Denial of Service attack.
"Is the US government attacking DRUDGE REPORT?" he asked, adding that there was "VERY suspicious routing [and timing]."
In a later tweet, Mr. Drudge said the "Attacking [was] coming from ’thousands’ of sources. Of course none of them traceable to Fort Meade," referring to the Maryland base that houses the headquarters of United States Cyber Command and the National Security Agency.
Mr. Drudge’s news-aggregation site was one of the highest-profile outlets to take a favorable tack on Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
"Is the US government attacking DRUDGE REPORT?" he asked, adding that there was "VERY suspicious routing [and timing]."
A notable decline beyond 4:00 pm? Nothing on Saturday or Sunday? Nothing on MLK Day ?
#2
No, the guys at DHS had finished the attacks on all the states and major cities, and were just out joy riding the system.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
12/30/2016 8:44
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#3
"This is only a test. Had there been a real attack, all alt-right would have been directed to the nearest re-education facility. This is only a test."
#5
If you were planning a cyber attack against Russian sites, but wanted to see actual effects on a major site in the US so there would be no danger of catastrophic consequence, why not the site of an annoying political opponent ( in your opinion since only the WaPo and NYT are honest reporters).
[DeutscheWelle] Prominent Turkish journalist and author Ahmet Sik has been detained in Istanbul. Sik is a sharp critic of the government and the Gulen movement, which the government blames for July's failed coup attempt.
Investigative journalist and author Ahmet Sik announced on Twitter on Thursday morning that he were tossed into the calaboose.
"I'm being detained. I'm being brought before a prosecutor for tweets," Sik told his 555,000 Twitter followers.
Continued on Page 49
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[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Paleostinian president the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... said Wednesday he was ready to resume peace efforts with Israel if it stopped settlement building, reacting to a major speech by US Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, unsuccessful presidential candidate, and utterly failed Secretary of State... "The minute the Israeli government agrees to cease all settlement activities... and agrees to implement the signed agreements on the basis of mutual reciprocity, the Paleostinian leadership stands ready to resume permanent status negotiations on the basis of international law and relevant international legality resolutions... under a specified timeframe," he said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2016
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#1
Eventually, we'll give you "Peace" - in the only way you understand.
[ARA News] Erbil – During the second phase of the operation to capture Iraq’s northern city of Mosul from ISIS, a coalition airstrike on Thursday possibly killed civilians, the US-led coalition said in a statement.
“During operations to liberate Mosul on Dec. 29, a Coalition airstrike struck a van carrying ISIS fighters observed firing a SPG9/RPG recoilless rifle before loading the weapon in the van and driving off,” the coalition said. “The van was struck in what was later determined to be a hospital compound parking lot resulting in possible civilian casualties.”
This comes as US-backed Iraqi forces started the second phase of the battle for Mosul against Islamic State’s (ISIS) militants.
The coalition said that they will take all allegations of civilian casualties seriously and investigate the incident.
“[The US-led coalition] releases monthly reports covering our tracking and investigation of allegations of civilian casualties. Coalition forces comply with the Law of Armed Conflict, work diligently to be precise in our airstrikes, and take all feasible precautions during the planning and execution of airstrikes to reduce the risk of harm to civilians,” the coalition said.
The Iraqi security forces on Thursday opened up new fronts in Mosul. “Iraqi forces this morning launched simultaneous offensives across three new fronts into east Mosul following tactical refit and reinforcement,” Brett McGurk, the coalition anti-ISIS envoy said on Thursday.
“We are proud to support Iraqi forces as they fight on behalf of the world to rid ISIS from Mosul while protecting its civilian population,” McGurk said.
In eat meantime, Iraqi troops backed by the US-led coalition’s airstrikes and artillery pushed deeper into eastern Mosul in a multi-pronged assault against ISIS militants in the city. Elite special forces pushed into the Karama and Quds neighborhoods, while army troops and federal police advanced into the nearby Intisar, Salam and Sumor neighborhoods. Columns of dark smoke rose overhead as explosions shook the city and heavy machine gun fire echoed through the streets.
Posted by: badanov ||
12/30/2016
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[ARA News] Damascus – More than four million people in the Syrian capital Damascus suffer deteriorating living conditions amid acute shortage of drinking water, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on Thursday.
Damascus and surrounding areas have been cut off from the main water supply since 22 December.
“Two primary sources of clean and safe drinking water that serve 70 per cent of the population in and around Damascus are not functioning, due to deliberate targeting resulting in the damaged infrastructure,” OCHA reported.
The UN expressed deep concerns about the fate of millions of Syrians for lack of drinking water, stressing that the crisis could lead to waterborne diseases, particularly among children, beside the financial strain this is having on families.
Throughout Syria, close to 15 million people are in need of water assistance and households spend up to 25 per cent of their income to meet their daily water needs, according to the UN.
“The United Nations calls on all parties to reach peaceful agreements to alleviate the suffering of civilians, and that basic services, essential for survival, such as water supply, must be safeguarded and protected at all times,” it emphasized.
As the Syria crisis enters its sixth year, civilians continue to bear the brunt of a conflict marked by unparalleled suffering, destruction and disregard for human life.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that 13.5 million people require humanitarian assistance, including 4.9 million people in need trapped in besieged and hard-to-reach areas, where they are exposed to grave protection threats.
#3
The UN expressed deep concerns about the fate of millions between courses at the popular 4 star restaurant while waiting for the next service of 1999 Burgundy.
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Tunisia’s Prime Minister Youssef Chahed on Thursday said all murderous Moslems returning from foreign battlefields would be immediately tossed in the calaboose Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! and judged according to the country’s counter-terrorism law.
"The Tunisian state has not signed any deal on the return of murderous Moslems and the government’s position on the matter is clear: it does not support the return from areas of tension," Chahed told state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
El Wataniya.
"Those who do return will be immediately arrested on their arrival to Tunisian territory and will be judged. And the counter-terrorism law will be applied against them," said the premier, who met President Beji Caid Essebsi on Thursday afternoon.
Concern about the return of murderous Moslems has risen since Tunisian Anis Amri, 24, was identified as the suspected attacker who mowed down 11 people with a truck at a Berlin Christmas market last week and also killed the driver.
Chahed said Tunisia "has lists of all (Tunisian) murderous Moslems who are in areas of tension and who have been part of terrorist organizations. We know each and every one of them and have all the data on them."
His comments came after a ministerial meeting to decide on an action plan to tackle the issue did not take place on Thursday as planned.
Last week, Interior Minister Hedi Majdoub told parliament that 800 murderous Moslems had already returned from the front lines, stressing however that the authorities have them on their radar.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Be sure and disarm them before you arrest them.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
12/30/2016 11:13
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[Dhaka Tribune] Investigators have said that the grenades they found from the raid in a terrorist den in city's Ashkona area earlier this week were all handmade, as were the boom jackets.
Militants at this New JMB den were using the same sort of materials and techniques used by JMB for making the bombs, but they were connecting several bombs together in boom jackets to make them deadlier.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s (DMP) Counter Terrorism and Transnational (CTTC) Unit recovered and defused 19 grenades from that den, 10 of them tied inside two boom jackets and two unwent kaboom! grenades from the body of the female bully boy Shakira.
A CTTC bomb disposal unit official told the Dhaka Tribune that the grenades recovered from the den were similar to the ones found in Mirpur last year. The bombs were made using old JMB techniques using local materials.
However, a lie repeated often enough remains a lie... unlike the old group, New JMB bomb makers put the grenades in vests.
The three vests found in Ashkona, one on the body of Shakira, who blew herself up during the police raid, were crudely sewn by hand.
On the other hand, the two found in Mirpur last year were manufactured belts with shoulder straps, the official said.
The official said Death Eaters were using four to six individual bombs to make a single vest.
The grenades manufactured by JMB usually contained pins to release the pressure, but the grenades on the Ashokona vests were connected through wires so that the bombs could be went kaboom! at the same time.
To generate required power within the vest, the Death Eaters had increased the number of batteries in the grenades.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2016
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Note the plastic mag the Bad Guy has in his trusty rusty AK
[AlManar] Boko Haram’s elusive leader Abubakar Shekau appeared in a new video on Thursday to dispute a claim that the Takfiri group had been routed from its Sambisa Forest stronghold.
“We are safe. We have not been flushed out of anywhere. And tactics and strategies cannot reveal our location except if Allah wills by his decree,” Shekau said in the 25-minute video, flanked by masked armed militants.
“You should not be telling lies to the people,” he said, referring to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari who said on Christmas Eve that the extremist group had been defeated and driven away from the forest, its last known bastion.
“If you indeed crushed us, how can you see me like this? How many times have you killed us in your bogus death?” he asked.
It was not immediately clear where the new video was shot, but Shekau who spoke in both Hausa and Arabic said it was filmed on Christmas Day.
Shekau last appeared in a video in September where he disputed a claim by the Nigerian military that he had been wounded in battle.
He vowed to continue fighting on until a so-called “Islamic state” was imposed in northern Nigeria.
“Our aim is to establish an Islamic Caliphate and we have our own Caliphate, we are not part of Nigeria.”
Buhari had announced that a months-long military campaign in the 1,300 square-kilometer (500 square-mile) forest in northeastern Borno state had led to the “final crushing of Boko Haram terrorists in their last enclave in Sambisa Forest”.
Posted by: badanov ||
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[Al Jazeera] A ceasefire across Syria has gone into effect after the government and some armed opposition groups accepted a truce agreement brokered by Russia and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... Thursday's ceasefire began at 12am local time (22:00 GMT), and, if it holds, will be followed by peace negotiations in Kazakhstan's capital Astana within one month.
Turkey and Russia have pledged to act as guarantors to the cessation of hostilities.
Previous UN-backed attempts to end the Syrian civil war, which started as a largely unarmed uprising against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Scourge of Qusayr... in March 2011, have failed and often led to fierce fighting.
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 the Levant (ISIS) group and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham ...formerly al-Nusra, the current false nose and mustache of al-Qaeda in the Levant... group [formerly al-Nusra ...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ... Front] have been excluded from the ceasefire, according to reports.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[AnNahar] Russian officials probing the crash of a Syria-bound military plane said Thursday that there was no kaboom on board, but equipment was functioning abnormally when it plunged into the Black Sea.
"There was no kaboom on board, I can say that for certain," said Sergei Bainetov, head of flight safety for the Russian airforce. "But an act of terror is not necessarily an kaboom, so we are not discarding this version."
Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said the probe has established that the plane was not working normally but will not issue any conclusions before January, cautioning journalists not to jump on any theories.
"It is obvious that the equipment was functioning abnormally. Why that happened is up to experts to work out," he said at a joint presser on the crash which killed all 92 on board, including scores of performers from a feted Red Army Choir troupe.
The Soviet-era Tu-154 plane went down shortly after takeoff from the Sochi airport Sunday morning, after stopping to refuel on its way to Syria.
The military ensemble was due to give a concert to Russian soldiers at the Hmeimim base, Moscow's main outpost for its bombing campaign in support of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now... Bainetov said that the Tu-154, which is not used by commercial airlines, has been grounded by the air force "until the first conclusions" are made about the crash.
Sokolov said that the "main phase" of the major search operation for plane debris mounted off the coast of the southern city has finished.
"At this time, everything that has to do with the plane's crash has been brought to surface," he said.
So far only 19 bodies and some 230 body parts have been discovered, Sokolov said.
[GEO.TV] JHELUM: An eye-witness for a doctor who was killed by her husband to protect his ’honour’ has emerged. He happens to be her 14-year-old son.
In a statement recorded to the police, the son Ammar said that his father first had gun sex and then shot his mother dead. "I tried to stop him but he did not listen to me," he said.
Police also recovered a pistol used in the crime.
Earlier, Ammar had told police that he asked his father to teach him how to use a pistol. He said that his father taught him to fire shots and one of them accidentally hit his mother.
On Wednesday, Shahbaz allegedly killed his wife Dr Uzma who practised medicine in Germany.
On a recent visit to Pakistain, Shahbaz brought his wife to Jhelum from her family's house in Kharian and killed her. He was planning to flee after the murder, and had also bought a ticket to travel abroad.
The couple had married 16 years ago. This was Dr. Uzma's second marriage; she had divorced her first husband and married Shahbaz, an investigation officer said.
Police is still investigating the matter.
Dr Uzma was laid to rest in Kharian on Wednesday. Police has detained Shahbaz and his friend.
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There is growing concern that terrorists from Sirte are regrouping in the hills near Bani Walid. Bunyan Marsous forces have joined police from the town to scour the area for what are thought to be IS training camps.
The BM media office has published pictures of technicals and their crews forming road blocks and heading out on patrols. The operations room in Bani Walid is meanwhile reported to have strengthened local security. BM forces are operating out of the town’s police station.
The extent of the intelligence that has led to the belief that terrorists are concentrating in the area is unclear. There are unconfirmed reports of the arrest and questioning an unarmed IS fighter who confessed that he had managed the escape from Sirte just before it fell. He may have been heading toward a pre-arranged rendezvous.
It is not thought there have been any engagements with terrorists around Bani Walid. Nor is clear that there has been any aerial reconnaissance. Nevertheless it is clear why BM commanders would want to find IS camps. Well before the fall of Sirte, sticks of terrorists were being fed out of the town.
In the last weeks of the campaign, a series of gun and IED attacks was launched on both military and civilian vehicles running between Misrata and Sirte. These were blamed on IS members. At one point security on the highway became so bad, there was a ban on overnight travel and BM commanders tried to organise guarded convoys.
Meanwhile the Libyan National Army today announced it had set up a checkpoint on the coastal highway just 65 kilometres east of Sirte near Harawa. The LNA says that the position is due to be built up and reinforced in the coming days.
Earlier this month the army beat off an attack on Ben Jawad and Nufliya by the Benghazi Defence Brigade and members of Ibrahim Jadhran’s Petroleum Facilities Guard. Bot small towns had been taken by the army at the end of its advance into the oil crescent export terminals.
Now pushing its frontline further towards Sirte may be designed to give better warning of a renewed attack by the BDB and PFG forces or an assault by IS groups. The terrorists last sought to attack the Sidra and Ras Lanuf terminals this January when they were still in control of Sirte.
Posted by: badanov ||
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#1
Libyan militia begins hunt for ISIS positions
For a second, I thought it was related to job-hunting.
[AlAhram] Tunisian security forces said on Thursday that they had broken up an al Qaeda-linked holy warrior cell with 10 members that was active near the coastal city of Sousse.
The interior ministry said in a statement that the group had used the Telegram encrypted messaging system to communicate with associates inside and outside Tunisia, and was plotting to carry out "terrorist operations", without giving further details.
The cell had links to Okba Ibn Nafaa, an al Qaeda-linked group based in the Mount Chaambi range near the Algerian border that has claimed attacks against Tunisian security forces, the statement said. Its members were aged between 25 and 45 and included two women, it added.
Tunisia has struggled to contain Islamist militancy since its 2011 uprising, suffering three major attacks last year including one in which 38 foreign tourists were killed by a gunman on a beach in Sousse.
Tunisian security forces said recently that they had dismantled 160 jihadist cells in the first 10 months of this year, about 45 percent more than during the whole of 2015.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[RUDAW.NET] A coalition Arclight airstrike near Raqqa this week killed a senior ISIS military leader, the coalition confirmed in a statement published Thursday.
Abu Jandal al-Kuwaiti, "was a previous member of the ISIS's War Committee and was involved in their retaking of Palmyra, Syria, before being reassigned to Tabqa to try to improve ISIS's defenses against the Syrian Democratic Forces," reads a statement from the Combined Joint Task Force of the US-led global coalition fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
Al-Kuwaiti was killed on Monday in an Arclight airstrike near Tabqa Dam, west of Raqqa where the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are fighting the bully boys.
The statement added that al-Kuwaiti "was involved in the use of suicide vehicles, IEDs and chemical weapons against the SDF."
Tabqa city, 40 kilometres west of Raqqa, is of strategic importance ‐ it is home to both a major dam and a former airbase.
The conflict monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated that "leading figures" of ISIS live in the city, which also houses the murderous Moslem group’s largest prison where key prisoners are being held.
As of the early this week, the SDF are within five kilometres from Tabqa Dam.
The global coalition has been supporting the SDF in their offensive, including providing heavy air support. The US has carried out more than 100 Arclight airstrikes near Tabqa Dam since December 9, US Special Presidential Envoy to the coalition Brett McGurk tweeted on Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2016
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At least four soldiers have been killed in the latest round of confrontation between Armenia and Azerbaijan
...the secular Turkic former Soviet republic whose people are Shiite and fond of Israelis. Until recently the best schools in the country were Gulenist "Turkish schools", but since Erdogan Bey "the much beloved" broke up with his BFF, they've been transferred to local management...
along the shared border of the two Caucasus countries.
Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman, Artsrun Hovhannisyan, said Thursday that three Armenian troops had been killed in the shootout that erupted near the Armenian village of Chinari.
“In the early hours of Thursday morning, Azerbaijani armed forces attempted a subversive intrusion into Armenian territory,” Hovhannisyan said, adding that the fighting was still underway, “with both sides using grenade launchers and sniper rifles."
Meanwhile, Baku rejected Yerevan’s claim that it had initiated the clash, saying it was the Armenians who triggered the clash by sending a "subversive group" to Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that the Armenian group “was ambushed as it attempted to violate the Azerbaijani state border.”
"The enemy suffered heavy losses and was forced to retreat,” it said, adding that one Azerbaijani soldier was killed in the combat.
For more than 20 years, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in a bitter dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, an area which is recognized as part of Azerbaijan’s territory but controlled by Armenia-backed separatists.
A bloody war over the territory, which killed some 30,000 people, ended in a truce in 1994, but cross-border fire has continued along the frontline and across the border. The two ex-soviet states are yet to sign a permanent peace deal.
Hostilities escalated in April, when Armenia and Azerbaijan were nearly on the brink of a full-out war. The surge in violence claimed at least 110 lives from the two sides before Russia intervened and brokered a ceasefire. Attempts for re-launching a peace process have failed since then.
ISTANBUL: Russian warplanes have for the first time bombed jihadist targets around the town of Al-Bab in Syria held by Daesh extremists but surrounded by Turkish forces, a report said Thursday.
The Dogan news agency, citing military sources, said the air strikes took place on Wednesday. The report was published after the announcement of a deal brokered by Turkey and Russia for a nationwide cease-fire in Syria.
There was no official confirmation of the report. The agency did not specify if the strikes were coordinated with Turkey.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said “strikes suspected to be Russian” had been hitting Al-Bab for the last two days “in support of the Turkish operation.”
There was no comment from the Russian army.
Turkey has for four months pressed an incursion against Daesh jihadists inside Syria in support of pro-Ankara fighters.
But they have faced stiffening resistance in the battle to take Al-Bab, taking increasing casualties.
Turkey has in the last days stepped up criticism of US-led anti-Daesh coalition forces for failing to back the Turkish incursion inside Syria with air support.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who this week accused Washington of backing Daesh jihadists, on Thursday again attacked the US for its “support” for terror organizations in Syria.
Posted by: badanov ||
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[Al Jazeera] The New York Police Department has relaxed its policies to allow Sikh and Moslem officers to grow beards of 1.27cm long for religious reasons, in a move aimed recruiting more minorities.
Police Commissioner James O'Neill announced the new rule on Wednesday following a graduation ceremony for new police recruits.
Under the revised rules, Sikh officers will also be allowed to wear turbans in place of the traditional police cap, O'Neill said.
Officers would need approval to wear the turban that would have to be navy blue and have the NYPD insignia attached.
"We're making this change to make sure that we allow everybody in New York City that wants to apply and have the opportunity to work in the greatest police department in the nation, to make sure we give them that opportunity," O'Neill was quoted by the New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2016
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#3
Meanwhile in India... The Supreme Court on Thursday has come out with its view on the much controversial debate on growing beard on religious ground and then sporting it officially in government jobs. The apex court has given a thumbs up to the sacking of any Air Force man who keeps a long beard, terming it as a regulation to ensure discipline and uniformity in the armed forces. Led by Chief Justice of India T S Thakur, the bench further added that the regulations are not meant to interfere in the religious rights of an individual, but to ensure discipline.
Posted by: John Frum ||
12/30/2016 9:53
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#4
Justifying its move, the IAF told the court that all Muslims do not have beard and the practice of growing beard is optional. The force also said that sporting a beard is not universally considered in the religion of Islam and hence it cannot be said that cutting of hair or shaving is prohibited in the Muslim religion.
Posted by: John Frum ||
12/30/2016 9:55
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#5
The story doesn't cover the larger question of whether Muslim police officers should wear their bomb vests inside their bulletproof one or vice versa.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
12/30/2016 11:06
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#6
#5 gets snark o the day vote from me...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/30/2016 13:17
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#7
Ed should give us a warning before such a beautiful snark as that.
Sadly, no name is given, so we don't know if this is a genuine Number Three or merely a patrol leader.
[AnNahar] A dronezap in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... likely carried out by U.S. forces on Thursday killed a local al-Qaeda chief and his guard, a security official said.
The strike hit a vehicle at Sawmaa in al-Bayda province, killing Jalal al-Seydi, who was the "emir" of al-Qaeda in the town of Loder, in the neighboring southern province of Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... , the official said.
The United States is the only country operating drones over Yemen, but it only sporadically reports on the long-running bombing campaign against the country's powerful al-Qaeda branch.
The U.S. authorities consider al-Qaeda's Yemen-based franchise, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000... , to be its most dangerous.
[IranPressTV] Dozens of militants with the Takfiri Boko Haram terrorist group have surrendered to Nigerien authorities, less than a week after Nigeria announced that its troops captured the group’s last key bastion in the country’s northeast.
“Thirty one young people from Diffa, who were enrolled a few years ago in Boko Haram, decided to surrender,” Nigerien Interior Minister Bazoum Mohamed said.
The troubled Diffa region, located in the southeasternmost part of Niger, borders Nigeria’s volatile Borno State, where Boko Haram hides in the dense Sambisa Forest.
One of the deserters appeared on a Nigerien public television program and recounted why they had decided to give themselves up to local authorities.
“We have deserted Boko Haram because we found that what the organization stands for is not acceptable. We expect a pardon from the government so that we can participate in the development of the country and help us get rid of the trauma,” he said.
The Nigerien government has reportedly assured that it will grant an amnesty for all the deserters providing that they undergo a de-radicalization program, after which they will be enrolled in socio-economic reintegration projects.
Back in June, tens of thousands of people were forced to abandon their homes in Diffa as Boko Haram terrorists launched a sweeping offensive across the region, and in September, at least five Nigerien troopers were killed by the terror group near the village of Toumour, about 65 kilometers northeast of Diffa.
Niger has been one of the countries affected by the more than seven years of Boko Haram militancy in Nigeria. The Takfiri terrorist group has routinely launched attacks across Nigerian borders into Niger, Chad and Cameroon. More at the link
[Breitbart] Islamist militants from the Boko Haram terror group are instructing their teenage recruits how to sexually assault women as part of their training, both as a means of terror and an incentive for the young militants.
Posted by: badanov ||
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[Daily Excelsior] Two Army men were maimed today in a shootout with Lashkar-e-Taiba ...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI... bandidosforces of Evil in Shahgund area of Hajin in North Kashmire’s Bandipora district.
Sources said that on a specific input about the presence of bandidosforces of Evil in the area, Army and Special Operations Group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmire Police launched a joint operation in Shahgund Hajin area early today.
At least three bandidosforces of Evil of LeT, who were hiding in the village, shot up the troops who were laying cordon around Gulshanpora Mohalla of Shahgund in Hajin, injuring two Army men. The injured Army men were shifted to hospital for treatment but the bandidosforces of Evil under the cover of heavy fire and darkness fled.
The security forces cordoned off the adjacent areas but could not trace out the bandidosforces of Evil who were hiding in the village and fled after a brief shootout.
Sources said that these were the same bandidosforces of Evil who fled from the cordon in Parray Mohalla Hajin, when Army’s 13 Rashtriya Rifles, Special Operations Group (SOG) Bandipora and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) cordoned it off last week.
They said that these bandidosforces of Evil identified as Musaib and Maviya and Khitab, all Paks, infiltrated into Kashmire this year and are operating in this area for past few months. Security forces have been tracking them for last few months in the area.
This is for the second time that bandidosforces of Evil fled from the cordon since last evening in Kashmire.
A group of bandidosforces of Evil fled after security forces cordoned off Bandzoo village in Pulwama district of South Kashmire last evening. Security forces received specific information about presence of a group of bandidosforces of Evil in the orchard area of the village last evening.
Sources said that local bandidosforces of Evil of LeT and Hizbul Mujahideen had a meeting in the orchards to chalk out the strategy and security forces after receiving information cordoned it off but the bandidosforces of Evil managed to flee.
Security forces later conducted searches of these orchards but bandidosforces of Evil had fled. They, however, recovered two pouches, one magazine, 60 rounds of ammunition and some food items.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2016
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#1
training needed in "surrounding" and "cordon off"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/30/2016 9:13
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[al-Manar] Iraq’s counterterrorism apparatus chief announced Thursday the start of the second phase of the anti-ISIL operations in Mosul city.
The campaign will be concentrated on the eastern neighborhoods of the northern city, knowing that the Iraqi army and security forces, backed by the mobilization forces and allies, achieved a great battlefield progress, especially in Tal Afar, and inflicted heavy losses upon ISIL terrorists during the first phase of the operations.
[Al Arabiya] Iraqi security forces have begun the second phase of the battle to retake Mosul from ISIS militants on Thursday in several southeastern districts of the city, Al Arabiya's correspondent reported.
Breaking a two-week lull in fighting, Iraqi troops backed by the US-led coalition’s airstrikes and artillery pushed deeper into eastern Mosul in a multi-pronged assault against ISIS militants in the city.
Elite special forces pushed into the Karama and Quds neighborhoods, while army troops and federal police advanced into the nearby Intisar, Salam and Sumor neighborhoods. Columns of dark smoke rose overhead as explosions shook the city and heavy machine gun fire echoed through the streets.
Stiff resistance by the militants, civilians trapped inside their houses and bad weather have slowed advances in the more than two-month-old offensive to recapture Iraq’s second largest city, the extremist group's last urban bastion in the country. It is the biggest Iraqi military operation since the 2003 US-led invasion.
The battle began around 7am on a bright but chilly December day and continued until shortly before sundown.
The counterterrorism forces, also known as the Golden Brigade, captured about half of the Quds neighborhood by early afternoon.
A statement by the US-led coalition said Thursday’s offensive opened two new fronts in eastern Mosul, increasing pressure on the militants' “dwindling ability to generate forces, move fighters or resupply.”
It said that, at the request of the Iraqi government, coalition warplanes had “re-struck” two bridges over the Tigris River in Mosul on Tuesday, and a day earlier “disabled” the last bridge crossing in the city.
“The strikes were conducted to reduce enemy freedom of movement, and to further disrupt ISIL's ability to reinforce, resupply, or use vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices in East Mosul,” said the statement.
In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Lt. Gen. Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi, commander of the special forces in eastern Mosul, said his forces have been bolstered by reinforcements and were less than 3 kilometers from the Tigris River, which slices the city in half.
Posted by: badanov ||
12/30/2016
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[DeutscheWelle] The 40-year-old was allowed to walk free on Thursday, after German authorities determined that he was not a "possible contact person for Anis Amri," front man Frauke Köhler told news hounds on Thursday.
The man was detained a day before, after the authorities found his phone number stored in Amri's cell phone, which had been found at the scene of the Berlin attack.
On December 19, the 24-year-old Tunisian citizen Amri drove a truck through a Christmas market in central Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring 48. He is also believed to have killed the Polish driver of the truck he used. Contrary to some reports, the authorities discovered no knife wounds on the body. Preliminary info suggests that the 37-year-old Polish national died close to the time of the attack. However, corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds... the full autopsy results are expected only in January.
Investigators also retrieved a .22 caliber bullet from the cab of the truck. The caliber matches the weapon Amri used in the shootout with the police in Milan. The ballistic experts are currently performing tests to confirm the same gun was used in both incidents, Köhler said.
The spokesperson also confirmed that a video in which Amri is seen pledging allegiance to Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... was authentic.
"We are coming to slaughter you, you pigs," Amri says in the apparently self-made video.
German authorities are continuing their search for other suspects and accomplices.
Also on Thursday, Italian police searched three houses in and around Rome where Amri may have spent time, a judicial source said.
"Five years ago he was not a jihadist ... In desperation, in isolation, in alienation, he found the conviction to follow the path of radicalisation," Italy's anti-terrorism chief Franco Roberti was also quoted as saying in an interview with la Repubblica newspaper on Thursday.
Roberti said lone-wolf attackers like Amri needed the help of small-scale criminal networks, such as those in Italy and Spain, for logistical support including acquiring false documents.
"From this point of view, Italy and Spain are the cradles," Roberti said.
Amri's undetected passage to Italy, via France, from Germany after the attack, has prompted eurosceptic parties to call for the reintroduction of border controls that were removed by the continent's open-border Schengen pact.
Italy tried to deport him to Tunisia after he completed a four-year jail term for attempting to set fire to a building, but Tunisian authorities refused to take him, so he was released from the centre.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/30/2016
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[IranPressTV] Yemeni forces have shot down a Saudi Apache helicopter in the kingdom’s southern Najran Province in fresh attacks in response to Riyadh’s deadly military aggression.
Yemen's al-Masirah television reported that the chopper was brought down on Thursday as it was attacking positions held by the Yemeni fighters.
The report further noted that the Yemeni forces destroyed an Abrams tank and killed five Saudi soldiers at Najran’s Qiyadah military base.
Three other Saudi soldiers lost their lives in Talah military base in Najran.
Two more Saudi tanks were destroyed in Najran’s Rajla military base and southwestern Jizan Region.
Moreover, Yemeni snipers killed Saudi soldiers in neighboring Asir Region. More at the link
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Syrian Kurdish groups and their allies said on Thursday they approved a blueprint for a system of federal government in northern Syria, reaffirming their plans for autonomy in areas they have controlled during the civil war.
The blueprint amounts to a constitution, known as the social contract, an official told Rooters this week.
It aims to cement the autonomy of areas of northern Syria where Kurdish groups have already carved out self-governing regions since the start of the war in 2011, though Kurdish leaders say an independent state is not the goal.
"The social contract draft was ratified," Mansour al-Salloum, joint head of the Founding Council of the Federal System, told Rooters in Rmeilan in northeast Syria.
"The executive committee will prepare for elections" first to regional administrations and later to a central body, he said, without giving a date for the votes.
Salloum said that for areas currently outside the control of the Kurds and their allies, such as 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.... -held Raqqa, the local population would ultimately decide whether they wanted to be part of the federal system.
Separate forces are fighting against IS Death Eaters around Raqqa including the Kurdish YPG and its allies backed by the United States, and the Syrian army backed by Russian air strikes. Turkish-backed rebels are fighting the jihadist group further northwest.
Syrian Kurdish groups and their allies have made their moves towards regional autonomy in the absence of any international deal for a political settlement to the nearly six-year Syrian war.
[RUDAW.NET] The founding members of the self-declared Kurdish enclave in northern Syria have dropped the word Rojava -- a Kurdish word for Western Kurdistan -- from the official name of the federation of northern Syria.
The ruling Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is the main group in Syria’s Kurdistan and rules over an area also known as Rojava, and a number of other parties in northern Syria have discussed the draft constitution of the federation for the second day on Wednesday in a meeting held in the Kurdish city of Rmelan, the Kurdish Hawar News Agency reported.
The official name, which received the majority of the votes, is the Democratic Federal System of Northern Syria.
Rojava officials are saying that it is a move to include other ethnic and religious components in northern Syria.
Kurdish authorities declared in mid-March the Democratic Federal System of Rojava-Northern Syria, a federal entity within Syria which was declared unlawful by the Syrian regime.
The federation includes three predominantly Kurdish territories, namely the cantons of Kobane, Cizre, and Afrin.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2016
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[Reuters] At least 33 people were hurt after two bombs exploded during an amateur boxing match in a central Philippine town, government and police officials said on Thursday. The attack took place in Hilongos town in Leyte province, about 380 miles southeast of Manila, late on Wednesday, the second on a public place in less than a week.
The explosions took place when people were watching a boxing match that was part of an annual Roman Catholic holiday festival. Police recovered an 81-mm mortar cartridge from outside a mall in Leyte province. The homemade explosive devices were detonated remotely by a mobile phone during the fight.
Police not identified the attackers, and no group has yet claimed responsibility. Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said a probe has been launched into the attack.
There are conflicting reports on the number of wounded. It is thought to include at least ten children aged between seven and 15 years. Hilongos Mayor Alberto Villahermosa said, "There were two blasts ... Luckily, the second blast wasn't perfect... The bomb expert said the detonating cord wasn't long enough. It wasn't made properly. The explosion wasn't very strong."
The twin blasts follow a grenade attack on Christmas Eve that injured 16 people outside a Catholic church on Mindanao. However, there is no indication that both the attacks are linked, police said.
Another unexploded bomb was also found in the town, which is about 620 kilometres (385 miles) south of Manila, said the town’s mayor Albert Villahermosa.
A bomb went off on a highway on the southern island of Mindanao barely an hour later, wounding six people, the military said.
“A lamppost was catapulted from the impact of the explosion,” said Lieutenant Colonel Edgar Delos Reyes.
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Kurdish-led Syria Democratic Forces took new ground from the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... in the western countryside of Raqqa city, the U.S.-backed militia said in statement Wednesday.
The SDF fighters captured Haddaj village after two days of festivities with ISIS. The ongoing advance will be to control the strategic village of al-Mahmoudelly near Raqqa, the de facto capital of ISIS.
On Tuesday, Tlal Sillo, a front man for SDF said the fighters, with the support of U.S., French and British special forces, have driven ISIS from dozens of villages and farms in recent days and are now about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the Euphrates Dam.
The SDF, a coalition of Kurdish and Arab fighters, has been on the offensive in Raqqa province since early November, advancing with the aid of U.S.-led Arclight airstrikes. The operation is aimed at encircling and eventually retaking Raqqa, the de facto capital of the bad boy group's self-declared caliphate.
The city is home to nearly 200,000 mostly Sunni Arabs and an estimated 5,000 ISIS fighters.
"The ongoing operation is the second phase west of Raqqa," Sillo said, adding that the first phase was north of the city. "More phases will come later to isolate the city and then to begin liberating it."
The capture of the dam, which controls the flow of water to parts of Syria and neighboring Iraq, would deal a major blow to the bad boy group, which has held the facility for more than two years. Behind the dam lies Lake Assad, which at 640 square kilometers (247 square miles), is Syria's largest reservoir.
Both sides claim to have inflicted heavy casualties on the other. The ISIS-linked Aamaq news agency reported Monday that 24 SDF fighters were killed in the area, while Sillo said his forces had killed dozens of bad boys.
The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fate of a top ISIS military commander known as Abu Jandal al-Kuwaiti is still unknown after he was targeted by U.S.-led coalition aircraft. The Syrian army said Abu Jandal was killed fighting in the Tabqa area near the dam. ISIS supporters on social media confirmed he was killed.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2016
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[IsraelTimes] Russia’s security agencies arrest seven people suspected of preparing New Year’s terror attacks in Moscow on orders from 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 in Syria.
Russia’s main domestic security and counter-terrorism agency, the FSB, says its agents tossed in the calaboose Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! the suspects in the North Caucasus province of Dagestan ...a formerly inoffensive Caucasus republic currently bedevilled by low-level Islamic insurgency, occasional outbreaks of separatism, ethnic tensions and terrorism, primarily due to its proximity to Chechnya. There are several dozen ethnic groups, most of which speak either Caucasian, Turkic, or Iranian languages. Largest among these ethnic groups are the Avar, Dargin, Kumyk, Lezgin, and Laks. While Russers form less than five percent of the population, Russian remains the primary official language and the lingua franca... . The FSB says the suspects were preparing attacks with automatic weapons and explosives in crowded places.
Islamist Death Eaters in Dagestan have mounted frequent attacks on police and officials, and some have sworn allegiance to the Islamic State group.
The Daily Mail has photos of the arrest here. Those of you who know about weapons will get more out of them than I did.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/30/2016
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[Libya Herald] The head of Misrata’s Third Force based in Sebha, Jamal Treiki, has spurned a demand from the Khalifa Hafter’s Libyan National Army (LNA) that it withdraw from the south.
Earlier this week, the LNA’s Colonel Mohammed Ben Nayel said that the Third Force, first sent to Sebha to try and keep the peace there three years ago, had to evacuate the entire region.
The demand followed Nayel’s peaceful takeover three weeks ago of the Brak al-Shatti airbase from the Third Force, which had effectively given it up.
Just two days ago, however, there was fighting at the Gwirat al-Maal checkpoint 17 kilometres north of Sebha as Nayel’s men, said to be a mix of Magarha and Qaddadfa members plus Tebus and members of Sudan’s Darfur rebel Justice and Equality Movement, tried to seize it from the Third Force.
Both sides currently claim to hold it.
The checkpoint is important as it is just a few kilometres from Tamenhint airbase.
There are fears of an impending LNA operation to smash the Third Force in the south carried out in tandem with an attack on the strategically important Jufra airbase, 330 kilometres to the north and also held by the Misratans.
For many years during the Qadaffy era Jufra was the country’s main military base. It can control all movement east, south and west.
Following Monday’s Arclight airstrike on the airbase by LNA planes, the head of the Petroleum Facilities Guard loyal to Hafter in Sidra reportedly then warned that there would be a fresh attack on it, but that locals in nearby Hun and Waddan need not be afraid; the land offensive would target only "terrorists". This was seen as referring to the members of the Benghazi Defence Brigades and Benghazi Revolutionaries Shoura Council, stationed at the base.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2016
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[AlAhram] French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve on Thursday warned troops stationed in Africa's Sahel region ... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas... that they should "prepare for a long war" against Islamist bully boys. He also promised Chad, where French troops have been stationed since 2014 under Operation Barkhane, his nation's financial support.
"Our country must continue to make clear and ambitious budgetary decisions in support of our armies," Cazeneuve said on his first overseas visit as prime minister.
The Barkhane forces' mission is to target Islamist bully boy groups that are active in the Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert. The operation was launched after French military interventions in Mali and Chad.
"We must prepare for a long war in an environment that has undergone dramatic shifts," Cazeneuve said.
The French military is currently battling Islamist bully boy in two regions -- in the Middle East against 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.... (IS) bully boys, and in the Sahel where it has deployed 4,000 soldiers as part of the Barkhane force.
Operation Barkhane covers five nations: Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other... and Chad.
Cazeneuve hailed troops fighting on fronts "thousands of kilometres away from their homes".
"You risk your lives to save others'," he said.
Four French troops have been killed in Mali this year. Barkhane forces are working alongside Malian troops in the search for Sophie Petronin, a French aid worker who was kidnapped last weekend.
The prime minister also pledged La Belle France's help for poverty-stricken Chad.
"La Belle France will always help Chad surmount its difficulties," said Cazeneuve after a meeting with President Idriss Deby.
Like its neighbour, oil giant Nigeria, Chad has been undergoing a severe financial crisis as a result of a several months-long slump in the price of crude.
Yesterday was President Obama's thesis, in old-fashioned Marxist analysis, which makes Russia's response the antithesis...
[IsraelTimes] Moscow politicians say retaliatory measures possible, accuse Obama of ’unpredictable, aggressive’ foreign policy meant to hinder plans of incoming administration.
The move puts Trump -- who has expressed open admiration for Russia and Putin, and who has dismissed the hacking allegations -- in the position of having to decide whether to roll back the measures once in office.
Trump has yet to comment but Obama’s sanctions on Russia have garnered some support from the Republican leadership.
Stewart Baker, former general counsel for the National Security Agency and former head of policy at the Homeland Security Department, said the administration’s public response to Russia’s hacking activities was "better than nothing" but "more symbolic than real."
"On its face, this is more than a slap on the wrists but hardly an appropriate response to an unprecedented attack on our electoral system," Baker said.
...and Mr. Trump's response to both is the synthesis.
[IsraelTimes] President-elect, forced to choose whether to back moves by Obama, says he’ll meet with spy heads next week over hacking allegations.
Before Trump’s comment, the sanctions garnered some support from the Republican leadership, with House Speaker Paul Ryan ...U.S. Representative for Wisconsin's 1st congressional district, serving since 1999. He is a member of the Republican Party. He proposed an alternative to President Obama's 2011 budget and made himself the target of both Democrat and Republican verbal pies... calling the measures "overdue" and "appropriate."
Republican Senators John Maverick McCain ... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution... and Lindsey Graham ... the endangered South Carolina RINO... said the sanctions were "a small price" for Russia to pay for interfering with US elections. They said they’ll lead efforts in Congress to impose stronger sanctions.
McCain, of Arizona, and Graham, of South Carolina, called Russian cyberattacks on the 2016 election a "brazen attack on American democracy" and said retaliation measures announced by Obama were long overdue.
#1
Trump can do without this backstabbing Rhino Congress. England, Russia, Israel and other nations with Trump as well as Trumps corporate alliances and strong people coming in will restore this nation. Every time the establishment makes a move veto it.
If Trump can succeed in DeBlassio's New York, he can succeed in Paul Ryan's cesspool.
#3
What EVIDENCE does the FBI provide for pointing the finger at Russia?
It looks to me as a matter of we are just expected to take their word for it.
If it a matter of ,"Just take my word for the damn thing." then anyone's word can be eligible. Obama will soon be gone, Trump will assume Power and his word is the the People's word at present. Is Trump's word good?
If no EVIDENCE has to be provided then allow me to suggest that Trump can decide to enforce the Sanctions against Russia.... or NOT to enforce them.The precedent of the American BORDERS under Obama comes to mind.
Tell Putin the Sanctions will not be enforced. Then ignore the Sanctions. Sauce for the Goose, and suck it up DEMs and Rhinos.
Meet Putin and negotiate who gets what and when. The US gets and good luck on Syrian ceasefire. Israel gets and the US backs them to the hilt. Russia can have Ukraine and we split the EUroweenies.... you get their Oil business and we get their corporations. Shake.
#5
Meet Putin and negotiate who gets what and when.
First off, it's completely reasonable to suspect a Russian entity is responsible for the recent cyber espionage. Now whether the IC knows it was a shadow-op or sanctioned by Vlad himself is,in a sense, irrellavent. It needs to be presented as speculation. (Sources, methods, and all that rot) Advocating that PE-Trump and Putin become Super-pals and start dividing up the Global spoils is just fucking stupid. Oh and by the way, before digging on congress critters for their lack of partisan loyalty just remember Trump has elevated the term RINO to an unprecedented level.
#7
Just about three more weeks now, right? Hang in there.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/30/2016 12:15
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#8
...remember Trump has elevated the term RINO to an unprecedented level.
And that is exactly what needed to happen! Shine a giant spotlight on these RINO pigs and and watch them scurry. We need to target them for primaries and use the momentum of Trumps election to drive them out.
Posted by: Elmons Darling of the Danes1888 ||
12/30/2016 17:10
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#9
Shine a giant spotlight on these RINO pigs...
I should clarify. Trump is a RINO of legendary proportion. Perhaps there is none nor will there ever be another that embodies that moniker more than DJT. Until his campaign, most of his adult life he has been a Democrat. And he's never explained his pivot. He has and continues to hold traditional Republican orthodoxy in contempt. He supports policies on trade, deficit spending,gun control, abortion,entitlements, and on an on that can best be described as Progressive. It's beyond ironic to champion Trump and then berate others for their lack of conservative bona-fides in the same breath. Perhaps, Gall is the most accurate term.
#10
More like a Kennedy era Democrat, ie Scoop Jackson. All of whom would be Trunks today compared to the raving socialists who've taken over the Donk party.
#11
who has expressed open admiration for Russia and Putin A slightly incorrect term. He does respect the Russian people and Putin. He does not underestimate them, like Obama, he understands Putin runs a powerful nation that has the potential to bring us to our knees in a war neither would win. Trump needs a strategic engagement plan, not some half baked send some diplomats home bullshit that does nothing.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
12/30/2016 20:58
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#12
My cat told me that the Russians snuck into the house last night and barfed on the carpet.
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... to recruit Syrian young refugees as police and security units in ISIS-freed areas near the Turkish borders, sources said Tuesday.
Sources from the camps of Islahiya1 and Islahiya 2, in Gaziantep city said Turkish government announced via the camps’ microphone that voluntary recruitment is open for young men aged between 20 and 35 years to join the security and police forces are intended to be founded in Syrian areas in Jarablus city which were recently liberated from 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.... by the military operation of Euphrates Shield.
A young man live in Islahiya2 confirmed that recruitment is voluntary, not mandatory like what was claimed over social media. He mentioned that many young men intended to join the police and security forces and they contacted the designated body for that.
General Abdul-Razaq Aslan, head of Security and Police forces in Jarablus city reported that police and security system in the Jarablus is part of a wider already prepared plan, which follow specific programme determined to found security force within Euphrates Shield area.
In a phone call with Zaman al-Wasl, General Aslan added that main task of security forces would be establishing stability and security to the area and eradicate the state of lawlessness in cities and towns have recently been liberated by the help of Turkish friends.
Abdul-Razaq confirmed that forming security and police forces will be founded according to international regulations and law specified to police system. He revealed that training sessions have started already for 500 volunteers, with possibility to increase the number according to the need.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
how will anyone know whether the volunteers are not ISIS symps
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/30/2016 1:03
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[AlAhram] Three Afghan migrants died and another 11, including six children were injured in a traffic accident in southern Serbia on Thursday when a passenger car crammed with people swerved off the road and hit a safety barrier, the interior ministry said. The driver, a suspected smuggler, fled the scene, while all the injured were transported to the hospital in the nearby city of Nis, 200 kilometers (124 miles) south of Belgrade, the ministry said in a statement.
Serbia was a focal point for migrants last year, when hundreds of thousands fleeing wars and poverty in the Middle East and Asia travelled up through the Balkans to reach wealthy Western Europe. Although that route was closed off in March, Serbian authorities estimate a further 110,000 migrants have passed through the country, many using smugglers to travel across Serbia and cross its barbed-wire border with Hungary.
On Monday, Serbian authorities arrested three men on suspicion of people trafficking after 77 migrants were found hidden in cargo vehicles.
According to the UN refugee agency, around 7,000 migrants are stranded in camps in Serbia.
[Ynet] As the new year approaches, child migrants who left Calais after their "Jungle" camp was demolished are again gathering in the northern French town hoping to reach Britain, migrants and charity workers said.
Last month, France moved more than 1,600 child migrants from the site which had been razed by bulldozers to reception centres across the country after a row with Britain over who should take care of them. But some children have returned to Calais, just 21 miles (33 km) from Britain, after learning they would not be allowed to enter the UK under a change to immigration law which permits the country to take in vulnerable unaccompanied child refugees.
Last Friday, dozens of child migrants launched a legal challenge against the British government seeking a written explanation of why it ruled that it was not in the children's "best interests" to be resettled in the UK, their lawyers said.
First, give each "child" a physical to establish actual age, while also collecting photos, fingerprints, DNA, copying their papers, and cloning their phones. Deport any who are not actual children back to their countries of origin immediately. Any remaining actual children can then be evaluated for suitability.
[DeutscheWelle] So far this year around 55,000 migrants voluntarily left Germany to return to their country of origin, the largest number in 16 years, the daily "Süddeutsche Zeitung" reported. The number is nearly double the estimated 25,000 forced deportations carried out so far this year. Most of the migrants came from the western Balkans, with around 15,000 people returning to Albania up to November. That was followed by another 5,000 migrants each from Serbia, Kosovo and Iraq. The figures are based on internal documents from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF).
People from the Balkans have little chance of receiving permanent residency rights in Germany. By voluntarily repatriating, they avoid forced deportation and a permanent ban on reentering Germany, and may also be eligible for monetary support.
German police have denied entry at land borders, ports and airports to 19,720 people between January and November 2016. That compares to 8,913 entry denials in all of 2015. A large portion of those stopped at the border came from Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Nigeria, according to the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung" newspaper. But the number of migrants stopped at the border is deceptive as the border controls were implemented only with Austria, meaning migrants may have entered using alternative routes. Nearly 75 percent of border denials were at the Austrian-German border.
Many asylum-seekers and migrants have arrived in Germany without ID documents, either because they don't have them or they purposefully destroyed them knowing it would slow down deportation. Now the CSU is calling for restricting entry to people without ID documents. Whoever arrives at the border without a passport or other ID documents should be "held at the border and stay in transit centers until their identity is clarified," the CSU's Bavarian state lawmakers proposed in a policy paper.
[DeutscheWelle] As security and refugee debates heat up in Germany ahead of federal elections in 2017, politicians in the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), are looking to propose a drastic shift in how Germany, and Europe, handle migrant arrivals, according to a new position paper set to be unveiled next week.
The CSU will hold a party convention next week and are set to call for tens of thousands of migrants intercepted in the Mediterranean Sea to be sent back to North Africa, according to an internal policy paper obtained by the "Rheinische Post" newspaper.
Some 181,000 migrants from the Middle East and Africa have been registered in Italy in 2016 after braving the central Mediterranean route, which has claimed some 5,000 lives this year. Many migrants are intercepted by rescue boats and European navies before being brought to the EU.
The CSU's plan would call for expanding cooperation with North African countries and convincing them to take back migrants. "This is the only way to put pressure on organized criminals in the Mediterranean," the policy paper said.
In addition, the CSU is advocating limitations on family reunification for certain classes of asylum seekers beyond 2018. Germany had tightened asylum laws earlier this year by - among other things - suspending family reunification for asylum seekers granted so-called "subsidiary protection" for two years.
[DeutscheWelle] Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) said up until December 27, out of the 921 reported offenses against refugee homes, 857 of them had a suspected far-right background. That compares to a total of 1,031 offenses in 2015, 923 of which were suspected of having a far-right background.
Investigators said most of the crimes were for damage to property including graffiti. But more than 150 cases involved violence against migrants.
The figures revealed 66 arson attacks, down by almost a third on 2015, and four explosions, the number of which had halved compared to last year.
The number of migrants arriving in Germany has fallen significantly since its peak in 2015. Around 305,000 had registered for asylum in Germany by the end of November, compared to 890,000 last year, according to German government figures.
Police Ban German Far-Right New Year’s Eve Protest in Cologne
29 Dec 2016
Police in Cologne have banned the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) from holding a demonstration at the Cologne cathedral square on New Year’s Eve over safety concerns.
Italy Says Another 900 Migrants Picked up in Mediterranean
And so the asinine activity continues, virtue signallng all the way to Armageddon.
29 Dec 2016
Another 900 migrants have been rescued from stricken boats off Libya, Italy’s coastguard said Wednesday, three days before the end of what is already a record year for arrivals at the country’s southern ports.
Nearly Half of Young Tunisians Considering Move to Europe
28 Dec 2016
More than 45 per cent of young Tunisians want to migrate illegally to Europe according to a new study, and an estimated 35,000 have already done so in the last few years.
Number of Syrian Migrants in Germany Could DOUBLE Due to Family Reunification
28 Dec 2016
The vice president of the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, fears that the number of Syrian migrants will double due to family reunification laws alone.
Disguised as refugees and able to cross borders without being identified: ISIS general who blew up a hostage with a rocket and decapitated another prisoner is 'back in Europe with 400 soldiers' after fleeing Syria
29/12/16
Kosovan Lavdrim Muhaxheri and his men are among thousands who have fled Syria after ISIS suffered devastating losses in war-torn Syria, according to sources in Italian intelligence. Many of the fighters are feared to have disguised themselves as refugees in order to get into Europe, according to information leaked from the spying agency.
Spanish ISIS widows arrested while trying to return to Europe from Syria after their barbaric husbands were killed
29/12/16
Spanish national Asia Ahmed Mohamed, 26, and Fatima Akil Laghmich (pictured), 21, were arrested by Turkish authorities as they tried to enter the country from Syria.
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] The Syrian regime forces on Thursday have continued their ground and aerial campaign on the villages of Wadi Barada valley northwest of the capital for the ninth day where about 100,000 civilians live in deteriorating living conditions.
Local activists said more than 60-barrel bombs had been dropped on the mountainous villages on the border with Leb, killing five people and threatening the main water supply of Damascus to be dried.
The regime army escalated aerial bombing on valley about 18 km (11 miles) northwest of the capital to recapture the strategic area where a major spring provides most of the capital's water supplies, rebels and residents said.
They said the army shelled and bombarded several towns in Wadi Barada valley in a major offensive launched since last Friday. The roads leading to the towns in the valley and the mountain cliffs surrounding the area are under the control of elite Republic Guards and the Lebanese Shi'ite Hezbollah group, they said.
Residents said fighting focused on Baseimeh village at the edge of the valley where the army and its allies are pushing to advance deeper in an enclave where 10 villages are inhabited by an estimated 100,000 people.
The rebels said the army was emboldened by gaining full control of Aleppo city and was seeking to force them to either leave or face all out war.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2016
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
Assad (along with ISIL and a plethora of bloody acronyms) has done a good job of leveling Syria. Eventually, who do you think the United Nations will approach to fund Syria's reconstruction?
[Dhaka Tribune] A husband succumbed to his burn injuries at Rangpur Medical College Hospital on Thursday after his wife and mother-in-law had allegedly set him on fire following a dispute regarding the wife’s extramarital affairs.
Deceased Rony Mohanto, son of Lakhhan Chandra Mohanto of Shahapara area in Badarganj upazila, tied knot to Ashtami Rani, daughter of Dipak Mohanto at adjacent Hajipara village, one year ago, said locals and relatives of Rony.
After several months, Ashtami developed a relation with her former private tutor and most of the time, remained engaged in conversation with him through Facebook Messenger.
Rony and Ashtami would have fights over the issue very often.
A few days ago, Ashtami went to her parents’ house following a dispute with her husband.
On Wednesday night, Rony went to his in-laws house in response to his wife’s phone call to take her back home..
When he reached there, an altercation ensued between Rony and his in-laws, including his wife and mother-in-law Arati Rani.
At one stage of the quarrel, Ashtami and her family members tied up Rony’s hands and legs and set him on fire pouring petrol on his body, alleged family members of Rony.
Locals rushed him to a hospital in a critical condition.
Abdul Hamid Polash, assistant professor of Rangpur Medical College Hospital, said although 27% of his body had received burn injuries, Rony died of the burnt in his respiratory tract.
Babul Chandra, elder brother of the dear departed, said he had submitted a written complaint to Badarganj police in this connection.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2016
00:00 ||
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E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"At one stage of the quarrel, Ashtami and her family members tied up Rony’s hands and legs and set him on fire" I'm thinking that this was the final stage.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
12/30/2016 11:03
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Top||
#2
Second wave feminism on the Indian subcontinent.
At least five insurgents were killed and eight other wounded in an Afghan security forces operation in Laghman province, local officials said Thursday.
According to security officials in Laghman, the operation was conducted in Alishing district.
Laghman governor's office said the operation was conducted to remove security threats in the district and province.
Meanwhile six Taliban insurgents including their local commander Mullah Rahmatullah were killed in Arghandab district of Zabul province.
Zabul Security Chief Jailani Khan Farahi, confirmed the clash said that Lashkar-e-Jhangvi are active in those areas.
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.
[Hot Air] It didn’t occur to me yesterday in my own consideration of Kerry’s speech, as we tend to be more sensitive to divisions on our own side. But various liberals have made the point today that the UN resolution last week and Kerry’s subsequent defense of it are arguably worse than useless. It’s not just that the resolution will no longer represent U.S. policy three weeks from now, and may very well end up poisoning American relations with the UN. It’s that the subject of pressuring Israel to make peace is far more fraught for the left than it is for the right. It’s one thing for Obama and Kerry to apply that pressure if they think it’ll produce tangible results — but what the hell is the point of doing it when they have one foot out the door, knowing that Netanyahu won’t listen, and further knowing that this is destined to put pro- and anti-Israel liberals in the U.S. at each other’s throats?
[Huffpoo] U.S. intelligence officials appear certain that Russia was responsible for interfering in the presidential election -- though they haven’t fully detailed how they know. But a classified document leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden reveals that they’ve tracked Russian hacking before and that the information they gleaned may have helped this time around.
[Breitbart] Former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton told Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Raheem Kassam on Thursday, "Just as a matter of empirical reality, the two-state solution is dead. That’s about the only thing John Kerry came close to getting right yesterday."
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] The 
[Daily Caller] Palestinian terrorist group Hamas is ecstatic about passage of a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israel’s settlement policy, and its own incitement to violence.
[PJ] A university literally named after George Washington and located in the nation's capital just dropped its requirement for American history, for history majors. In order to graduate with a history degree from George Washington University (GW) in Washington, D.C., you do not have to study American history.
[Bangkok Post] A pickup truck used by a special operations unit of Rueso district police was damaged by a bomb explosion in Narathiwat province on Thursday morning. Police spokesman Marut Nilkosee said the pickup was carrying a six-man patrol team. As it neared the bridge, militants hiding in roadside bushes detonated a bomb planted on the road using a communications radio. The police vehicle was damaged but no one was injured by the blast.
[Breitbart] Three radical Islamists have been 
[al-Manar] The Syrian army controlled on Thursday the hills which surround Sharifa village in south of Tifur airport and killed 70 ISIL terrorists.
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] A 
At least 30 insurgents have been killed and wounded in recent Afghan security forces' clearance operations in Kunduz province, officials said Thursday.
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Paleostinian president 
[ARA News] Erbil – During the second phase of the operation to capture Iraq’s northern city of Mosul from ISIS, a coalition airstrike on Thursday possibly killed civilians, the US-led coalition said in a statement.
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Tunisia’s Prime Minister Youssef Chahed on Thursday said all 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[GEO.TV] JHELUM: An eye-witness for a doctor who was killed by her husband to protect his ’honour’ has emerged. He happens to be her 14-year-old son.
There is growing concern that terrorists from Sirte are regrouping in the hills near Bani Walid. Bunyan Marsous forces have joined police from the town to scour the area for what are thought to be IS training camps.
[AlAhram] Tunisian security forces said on Thursday that they had broken up an al Qaeda-linked
[RUDAW.NET] A coalition 
At least four soldiers have been killed in the latest round of confrontation between Armenia and Azerbaijan 
ISTANBUL: Russian warplanes have for the first time bombed jihadist targets around the town of Al-Bab in Syria held by Daesh extremists but surrounded by Turkish forces, a report said Thursday. 
[Daily Excelsior] Two Army men 
[IranPressTV] Yemeni forces have shot down a Saudi Apache helicopter in the kingdom’s southern Najran Province in fresh attacks in response to Riyadh’s deadly military aggression.
[Reuters] At least 33 people were hurt after two bombs exploded during an amateur boxing match in a central Philippine town, government and police officials said on Thursday. The attack took place in Hilongos town in Leyte province, about 380 miles southeast of Manila, late on Wednesday, the second on a public place in less than a week.
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Kurdish-led Syria Democratic Forces took new ground from the 
[IsraelTimes] Russia’s security agencies arrest seven people suspected of preparing New Year’s terror attacks in Moscow on orders from the 
[Libya Herald] The head of Misrata’s Third Force based in Sebha, Jamal Treiki, has spurned a demand from the Khalifa Hafter’s Libyan National Army (LNA) that it withdraw from the south.
[AlAhram] French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve on Thursday warned troops stationed in Africa's 
John 
Lindsey Graham
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] 
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] The Syrian regime forces on Thursday have continued their ground and aerial campaign on the villages of Wadi Barada valley northwest of the capital for the ninth day where about 100,000 civilians live in deteriorating living conditions.
[Dhaka Tribune] A husband succumbed to his burn injuries at Rangpur Medical College Hospital on Thursday after his wife and mother-in-law had allegedly set him on fire following a dispute regarding the wife’s extramarital affairs.
At least five insurgents were killed and eight other wounded in an Afghan security forces operation in Laghman province, local officials said Thursday.
