A U.S. Navy destroyer fired three warning shots at four Iranian fast-attack vessels after they closed in at a high rate of speed near the Strait of Hormuz, two U.S. defense officials told Reuters on Monday.
The incident, which occurred Sunday, comes as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office on Jan. 20. In September, Trump vowed that any Iranian vessels that harass the U.S. Navy in the Gulf would be "shot out of the water."
The officials said the USS Mahan established radio communication with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps boats but they did not respond to requests to slow down and continued asking the Mahan questions. The Navy destroyer fired warning flares and a U.S. Navy helicopter also dropped a smoke float before the warning shots were fired.
The Iranian vessels came within 900 yards (800 meters) of the Mahan, which was escorting two other U.S. military ships, they said.
The IRGC and Trump transition team were not immediately available for comment.
Notice that the reporter didn't ask the Obama administration for comment...
The official added that the warning shots fired on Sunday were just one of seven interactions the Mahan had with Iranian vessels over the weekend, but the others were judged to be safe.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/09/2017
09:19 ||
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#1
last couple chances to humiliate the shameless one
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/09/2017 10:16
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[Ynet] Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... says the man who planned a suicide kaboom in July outside of the mosque where the Prophet Muhammad is buried is one of the two murderous Moslems killed in a shootout with police in Riyadh.
Interior Ministry front man Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki said Taie bin Salem bin Yaslam al-Saya'ari was killed Saturday by police in the capital's northern Yasmeen neighborhood.
The July 4 bombing outside of the Medina mosque killed four Saudi security force members and maimed five.
Millions of Moslems from around the world visit the mosque every year as part of their pilgrimage to Mecca.
A sign of the times. Printed by the Diyanet, Turkey's ministry of religious affairs, it is being given to newlyweds in some communities run by Erdogan Bey's AKP party.
[DeutscheWelle] The Turkish city of Kütahya is known for fresh mountain air, ceramics - and now, for promoting misogyny: The city hands out a free guide on married life to newlyweds that says beating wives is justifiable in some cases.
a friend of Prof Jacobson writes
As reported extensively on this site, the Modern Language Association held its annual convention this weekend in Philadelphia.
At the meeting a resolution to boycott Israeli academic institutions was defeated and a resolution opposing academic boycotts was passed and is now before the general membership. For coverage see here and here.
I am an MLA member, and I was there. Unfortunately, for professional reasons, I am not able to write under my own name...
The atmosphere was tense. The sessions were highly charged and emotional. Speakers compared each other to the Judenrat and the Spanish Inquisition. People were visibly nervous.
For the other 99% of conference attendees, on the other hand, the MLA was business as usual. The bar in the lobby of the Philadelphia Downtown Marriott was constantly packed, the atmosphere was social, festive, and gregarious. In the corridors just outside the rooms where the BDS focused sessions were taking place, you'd be hard pressed to detect that anything other than great fun. It's not clear how many of the estimated 8,000 or so conference attendees even knew, much less cared, about the drama at the Delegate Assembly this weekend.
Inside Grand Ballroom GH, where the Delegate Assembly meeting was held, you could feel the tension, but you also couldn't help but notice how empty the room was. article goes on and on... if you have ever been involved in academic or professional orgs this may be interesting
Posted by: lord garth ||
01/09/2017
08:29 ||
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#1
Beware a room full of tense English professors...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/09/2017 10:41
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#2
Well, now it is past tense!
[bada-rum-bump-bump]
Cherry Picked excerpt from yet another 'follow the money' story:
[Townhall] Buy-and-Raise: $200 Drugs for $8,000.
Wall Street has a name for a dirty business practice that escalated under the Obama administration wherein drug companies charge the American taxpayers fake, or inflated, prices for decades-old drugs that should retail, at most, for $200. The term is "buy-and-raise."
Drug companies got everything they wanted in Obamacare thanks to slick negotiation from big Pharma lobbyist Billy Tauzin. Obama, congressional Democrats and Tauzin collaborated to ram the unconstitutional bill through congress in 2010 without a single Republican vote. (I encourage you to learn the full story of "Pimp Daddy Tauzin" and Obamacare.)
Unfortunately, drug companies gained at the price of patients. 300 doctors--whom I personally interviewed--say Obamacare will raise costs and lower the quality of healthcare for young Americans.
Buy-and-raise, the Los Angeles Times reported last month, is a practice that drug companies are utilizing to inflate prices by 1,000%.
Here’s how it works: drug companies offer patients "co-pay coupons" for common drugs like a simple skin cream called, Alcortin A and a basic pain reliever, Vimovo. The drugs retailed for $189 and $115 respectively less than two years ago. Today, they retail for $7,968 and $2,061 respectively. Patients and doctors rarely see the true sticker price as the drugs are covered by many insurance plans and drug companies give patients co-pay coupons that allow them to pay a negligible amount while, as the Los Angeles Times reports: "leaving America’s health system to pick up the rest of the price."
Taxpayers like you are picking up a hefty price indeed. Researchers from UCLA, Harvard and Northwestern recently found that drug companies have been reimbursed "as much as $2.7 billion" more "over five years" than "if the coupons were not used," reports the Los Angeles Times.
Profits from buy-and-raise tactics are padding the salaries of drug executives more often than saving patient lives. Horizon CEO Timothy Walbert’s compensation package increased by a factor of ten from 2014 to 2015 to $93.4 million. Drugs like Alcortin A and Vimovo cost drug companies little to make as they are based on ingredients discovered decades ago, but patients will not question five-figure costs that they never see.
[Wash Times] Senate Democrats are poised to throw away 20 years of friendship and a bipartisan working relationship with Sen. Jeff Sessions to wreak political vengeance on him this week as they consider his nomination for attorney general.
Highlighting the deep partisan divide and the bad blood between Democratic lawmakers and President-elect Donald Trump, the same senators who have socialized and co-authored reams of legislation with Mr. Sessions are under pressure from liberal interest groups to air accusations that he is a racist, a sexist and a homophobe.
Mr. Sessions, who has held an Alabama seat in the Senate since 1997 and has served as the state’s attorney general and as a U.S. attorney, is expected to win confirmation from his colleagues, including support from several Democrats. But it won’t be pretty.
Heading into two days of confirmation hearings that begin Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he serves as a member, liberal activist groups have gone so far as to label him a "white supremacist," and his Democratic colleagues have expressed doubt about his ability to enforce the law without prejudice.
Mr. Sessions has weathered protests in Alabama by the NAACP, which joined other racial minority groups in urging senators to oppose the nomination.
Be afraid you lawless, thieving bastids. Be very afraid.
[The Hill] Fiat Chrysler announced Sunday it will create 2,000 jobs in the United States, AFP reported.
The company will invest $1 billion by 2020 in two factories in Michigan and Ohio, where the new jobs will be based, according to a company statement.
"FCA US is further demonstrating its commitment to strengthening its US manufacturing base," it said.
Fiat Chrysler will upgrade a Warren, Mich., plant to produce new Jeep Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer models, CNN Money reported.
It will also make a new pickup truck at its assembly complex in Toledo.
President-elect Donald Trump has criticized automakers on Twitter several times since his election for potentially moving jobs and manufacturing out of the U.S.
Just last week, he blasted General Motors on Twitter, threatening a "big border tax" on the automaker’s models made in Mexico.
#4
How many are willing to give the 'last full measure of devotion' to any multinational corporation? "Citizens of the world" become a very small number when the proverbial crap hits the fan. Loyalty is to a tribe. A small one or a Big One (see national identity). If you have no loyalty to me, I owe you no loyalty in return. Maximizing the bottom line at the expense of the tribe means when the time comes, don't ask for protection or representation on your behalf.
[GP] Religion Of Peace ‐ 2017 Body Count: 314 Dead, 489 Injured, 17 Countries.
Scorecard for Week 1 of 2017. Islamic Terrorism has started 2017 with a bang (pun-intended). All the information in this report for week 1 of 2017 was gathered from The Religion Of Peace.
Jihad Report: December 31, 2016 ‐ January 06, 2017
Attacks: 53
Killed: 314
Injured: 489
Suicide Blasts: 10
Countries: 17
Number of Islamic Terror Attacks Since 9/11: 30,081+
[IsraelTimes] Residents are left with just 3 hours of power per day, and so use indoor bonfires and candles, leading to several fatal blazes.
A long-simmering dispute between Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, and the Paleostinian Authority over who has to foot the bill for the fuel that powers the Gazoo Strip’s power plant has severely curtailed electricity production. But for Paleostinians left to deal with the bitter winter cold with just three hours of electricity a day, the excuses are of little consolation.
"Yesterday, I had only three hours and 15 minutes of electricity at home," one Gazoo City resident, who asked to only be identified by the first letter of his name, Y, told The Times of Israel. "That’s it. The rest of the day there is nothing."
"Two, three months ago we still had eight hours of electricity [a day]," Y. said, adding that "now all of the Gazoo Strip receives just a little over three hours of electricity a day. During the winter weather, this can be dangerous."
Heating homes by means of indoor bonfires has become common in Gazoo, as has the use of candles as lighting, which has led to several fatal fires.
The latest crisis surrounding electricity supply in Gazoo did not start overnight. It is the outcome of a long-running disagreement between the Paleostinian Authority and Hamas over the payment of excise taxes for the fuel that is used in the power station in Gazoo.
The Paleostinian Authority purchases the gas at full cost -- including the excise tax -- from Israel before it is transferred to Gazoo. However, there's more than one way to stuff a chicken... the PA announced in 2015 that it is no longer prepared to bear the full burden of of the excise tax and told Hamas it needs to foot its share of the costs of buying diesel fuel for the power station in Gazoo. The station constitutes the main source of energy in the Gazoo Strip (apart from a small amount that comes from Israel and Egypt).
While the Paleostinian Authority is nominally responsible for the Gazoo Strip, particularly in official dealings with Israel, in reality, Hamas has been in charge since ousting PA forces, in a bloody uprising in 2007. Several rounds of reconciliation talks between the two have failed to reach an agreement, leading to these kinds of grey areas of responsibility.
Hamas, a terrorist organization which calls for Israel’s destruction, has refused to make any payments to Israel. The PA initially continued to pay the full cost of the fuel, but the disagreement was never resolved.
As a result, the Gazoo Strip has seen drastic swings in the electricity supply. Each time the PA refuses to shell out the funds for the excise tax, the electric company in Gazoo buys less fuel and in turn produces less electricity. This time, it appears that the crisis has become particularly severe, in light of the decrease in electricity supply from Egypt, due to technical problems with the power lines.
This latest crisis has caused a great deal of discontent in the Gazoo Strip, and, on Saturday, there were numerous protests in the coastal enclave, such as the one in the Nuseirat refugee camp, where Gazoo’s main power plant is located.
[IsraelTimes] Move follows online campaign celebrating infamous bomb maker; Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", asks supporters to find alternate social media site.
Hamas slammed the social media giant Facebook for closing down over a hundred pages belonging or sympathetic to the terror group in control of the Gazoo Strip.
The closures took place on Thursday, in light of a social media campaign by Hamas to celebrate the man who first manufactured bombs for it in the early 1990s, Yahya Ayyash, known as "the engineer." Ayyash was assassinated by Israel 21 years ago on Thursday.
"We condemn the arbitrary measures taken by Facebook management against the pages and accounts supporting the Hamas movement. We affirm that those pages have the right to express their points of view just as anyone else does," wrote Hamas front man Husam Badran in a statement posted on the terror group’s website.
Badran called on "Paleostinian activists and Paleostinian news sites with Facebook pages to search for effective replacements" for Facebook.
Hamas said a total of 90 Facebook pages belonging to Hamas or sites sympathetic to the group were taken down, as well as another 30 personal pages belonging to individuals.
Other Paleostinian news sites on Twitter said over 200 pro-Hamas accounts were closed by Facebook since Thursday,
On Thursday, official Hamas media and sites sympathetic to the group launched a social media campaign commemorating the 21st anniversary of the liquidation of Ayyash with the slogan "Be like Ayyash."
Happy unexpected death to you
Happy unexpected death to you
Have a wonderful slide to He-e-ell
Happy unexpected death to you!
And many moooooooooorrree...
Ayyash was assassinated by Israel in 1996 by a remotely detonated cellphone given to the bomb maker by a close friend who had been in the service of the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency.
Hamas has long accused Facebook of colluding with Israel against it and suppressing free speech for Paleostinians.
Israel has accused Facebook of facilitating Paleostinian incitement against Israelis, especially following a wave of hundreds of attacks that began in October 2015, which security services said was fueled by online incitement.
In April, Facebook shut down the Facebook page for the spokesperson of Hamas’s military wing the Qassam Brigades, only a day after it was opened.
However, those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... despite the closures of many Hamas-linked Facebook accounts on Thursday, the official page of the Qassam Brigades, considered a terror group by most Western governments, is still online.
Ayyash continues to be lionized not just by Hamas supporters but also by Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... ’s Fatah party, which on Thursday also published posts on Facebook and Twitter commemorating the death of "the engineer."
"The pledge of Fatah will remain the pledge of the deaders," read Thursday’s post on Fatah’s official Facebook page commemorating Ayyash.
Meanwhile, ...back at the dirigible, the pilot and the copilot had both hit the silk.
Jack! Cynthia exclaimed. Do you know how to drive one of these things?
Jack wiped some of the blood from his knuckles.
No, he said. Do you?... on Tuesday, the so-called Facebook bill, which would allow the state to seek court orders to force the social media giant to remove certain content based on police recommendations, passed its first reading in the Knesset.
The bill was proposed by Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked in July, two weeks after the two met with Facebook officials in the Knesset.
The government says the bill will only be invoked in cases of suspected incitement, where there is a real possibility that the material in question endangers the public or national security.
According to a front man for Erdan, Facebook recently agreed to remove just 23 out of 74 pages brought to its attention by Israel for spreading alleged Paleostinian incitement. "Their policy of removing [content] is very, very, very strict and the bar is set very high," the front man told The Times of Israel in July.
Posted by: lord garth ||
01/09/2017 9:40
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#2
I'd also bet it's possible some of these sites were created in-house at Facebook (think sock puppetry) just so they could be shut down with great fanfare.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/09/2017 10:44
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#3
M. Murcek, that may be the most cynical thing I've read in a long time.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Units from the infamous 42nd Brigade of the 4th Mechanized Division have mobilized around the strategic rebel-held bastion of Barada Valley.
This development comes after rebel forces reneged on the reconciliation agreement they signed with government official the previous day. Local sources believe foreign orders pressured the snuffies to continue fighting.
Nevertheless, it is unlikely that the rebels will resist for long given the 42nd Brigade's track record in Muaddamiyah, Darayya, and Khan al-Sheh where stubborn rebels ended up getting transported to Idlib via green buses. Ten MLRS vehicles and five field guns have been positioned on the hills overlooking the valley.
The Syrian government eyes the imperative Wadi Barada region to its Fijah Water Spring that quenches the thirst of Damascus's five million plus population. Mounting local pressure for a reconciliation agreement will only make fighting harder for the jihadists.
Damascus – Thousands of civilians fled the Ghouta al-Sharqiya district in Damascus suburb on Monday.
The mass displacement coincided with the Syrian regime’s army forces launching a major anti-rebel offensive near the capital Damascus.
Civilians evacuated main towns of the Ghouta al-Sharqiya district, including Hawsh al-Salihiya, al-Nashabiya and Zireqiya.
“We escaped Ghouta to save our children from the regime’s killing machine,” a father of five told ARA News, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The Syrian army launched on Sunday a major offensive on the rebel-held Ghouta al-Sharqiya [or Eastern Ghouta], conducting indiscriminate artillery bombardment and airstrikes.
“The bombardment mainly hit residential buildings in the towns of Ghouta on Sunday, causing dozens of civilian casualties,” local media activist Aladin al-Kurdi told ARA News over the phone.
“The heavy bombardment caused a state of panic among the people and pushed thousands to escape from the district,” the source reported.
In the meantime, clashes broke out between the Syrian regime’s troops and rebel fighters in the Ghouta al-Sharqiya.
The Syrian army was reported able to take parts of the Hazrama town in the district, forcing the rebel groups to retreat under fierce shelling.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/09/2017
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[Dhaka Tribune] The young prince leading Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... ’s drive for economic reform has laid out a three-pronged strategy to avoid a backlash from any religious conservatives opposed to his plan, according to remarks reported by Foreign Affairs magazine on Saturday.
Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the 31-year-old overseeing the kingdom’s biggest-ever overhaul of state and society, told visiting researchers last month punitive measures would be considered for any holy mans who incited or resorted to violence over the plan, one of the researchers wrote.
Prince Mohammed said he believed only a small percentage of the kingdom’s holy mans were too dogmatic to be reasoned with, the journal reported, while more than half could be persuaded to support his reforms through engagement and dialogue.
The rest were ambivalent or not in a position to cause problems, he is reported to have said.
There was no immediate comment from the royal court.
Prince Mohammed has couched his "Vision 2030" reform plan to wean the kingdom’s economy off oil in terms referencing Islamic tradition and has kept the focus on the economy, with scant concrete pledges of social change in the highly conservative kingdom.
But in a country that adheres to an austere brand of Wahhabi Sunni Islam, where gender segregation is mandatory and concerts and cinemas are banned, the plan’s seemingly anodyne goals to empower women, promote sports and invest in entertainment are controversial.
Saudi Arabia’s holy mans offer legitimacy and public support to a king who styles himself the guardian of Islam’s holiest sites. They retain control of the justice system but leave most other matters of governance to him, so long as his edicts do not contradict their interpretation of Islamic law.
The government started trying to rein in what it saw as murderous Moslem viewpoints in the clergy after Islamist murderous Moslem attacks inside the kingdom began in 2003, pushing hardline holy mans to renounce al Qaeda and violent tactics and sacking holy mans seen as disseminating radical views.
In the later years of the reign of King Abdullah, King Salman ...either the largest species of Pacific salmon or the current Sheikh of the Burnin' Sands, Cutodian of the Two Holy Mosquesand Lord of Most of the Arabians.... ’s predecessor, some senior holy mans who opposed his cautious social reforms too openly lost their jobs.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/09/2017
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#1
Could just dose the lot of them with enough acid to keep them high for the next 20 years... It's not like anybody could tell the difference...
The Turkish army destroyed 11 outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) positions in airstrikes against the terrorist group in northern Iraq, the Turkish military said late on Jan. 6.
According to a statement issued by the Turkish General Staff, fighter jets carried out the airstrikes in the Qandil region of northern Iraq on Jan. 6 between 6:58 and 7:55 p.m. (3:58 and 4:55 p.m. GMT).
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/09/2017
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#1
Still, none of the governments business overall. He should be not picking out anyone for any reason.
He should be focusing on making it more profitable and enticing to all business owners to run here.
The time he spends in the weeds is unbelievable.
He could maybe focus on making small business more attractive again instead of setting up idiot trade wars which again is stupid.
Tariffs and shit that failed before need to go by the wayside. Your Administration is not about punishing People or Nations, it is about rising them up.
We will check this out naturally, but again,
what is not Specifically outlined in the Constitution and Bill of Rights is reserved for the states.
#2
Precisely, the only reason that US car industry improved is because Japanese cars started to demonstrate how much better they were.
Maybe Trump wants USAAF with biplanes. That what happened with Italian airforce at start of 2WW after stupid Mussolini went autarchic and incapable of having a competitive fighter engine. Because his Government forbid manufacturers from developing inline engines.
#4
GM quickly denied Trump’s tweet, and in a press release that same day, the company claimed that all Cruze sedans sold in the US are “built in GM’s assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio”, and that GM builds the Cruze hatchback for global markets in Mexico, with only a small percentage being sold in the US:
#5
The time he spends in the weeds is unbelievable.
Because no one else has been checking on it for decades. When a failed commander is relieved, his replacement can not sit in the office and just issue orders. He has get out and look with his eyes at the problems and issues that created the problems, even kicking tires. Management by walking around. Bright subordinates pick up on the tenure and tone of the commander and start sticking their noses back to where they should have been focused before. The less than bright are fired and replaced. Accountability and ownership is reestablished. Then the new commander can pull back.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
01/09/2017 9:22
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#8
Newc I couldn't disagree with you more.
Trump's tweets are forcing companies with a history of offshoring US jobs to reassess the financial risk of making large capital investments to move or create jobs overseas. To pick on just a few components of that analysis: 1) overseas capex intended to support the manufacturing of goods that, in whole or part, will be sold within the US becomes significantly more risky as the belief that a tariff will be imposed on said goods becomes more solid; 2) this kind of publicity is to corporate America what sunlight is to vampires, it has an effect on the decision process all by itself; and 3) large businesses are herd animals, if Trump can stampede a few into staying others will begin to doubt their own decisions to go, some to the extent that they'll stay as well (don't believe me - go work at a high level in a Fortune 50 company for a while). Note that in none of these cases is an actual tariff necessary in order to begin modifying the decision process.
A bit outside my wheelhouse but from what I'm reading of the Trump tax plan:
In VAT tax nations, the VAT is (effectively) not levied on exports. Consider Mexico as an example: the price of a GM vehicle manufactured and sold in Mexico will include Mexico's 15% VAT. The same GM vehicle Manufactured in Mexico but imported into and sold in the USA escapes Mexico's 15% VAT while likely entering the US without any tariff applied and is thus cheaper here than the same vehicle had it been manufactured and sold in Mexico. Further, an identical vehicle manufactured in the US but sold in Mexico is slammed with all the effects of the world's highest corporate income tax rate, the world's worst regulatory environment and the world's worst legal environment (all on the US side of course) plus a VAT-equalizing tax levied by Mexico when it crosses the border. As I understand it our present "free trade" deals do not prohibit these VAT-equalizing tariffs being applied to US goods entering "free trade" partner nations but we assess not similar equalizing tax when their goods are brought here. That's a problem if one is interested in preserving business activity in the US.
Again not in my wheelhouse but what's been reported so far is that Trump is proposing a very low US "business" income tax rate, no taxation of profits from exported goods and an equalization tax applied to foreign goods crossing our borders that is levied at the same rate as our business income tax. That seems rather imminently reasonable as it merely attempts to put US goods on the same footing as foreign goods in the global marketplace. This is a sane, rational and measured step that's long overdue if we're interested in preserving economic activity and jobs related thereto in the US.
#10
Very well explained, Woodrow Sinatra7133. I would only add that senior management has been very frustrated that they've had to store profits made abroad out there, because the tax in bringing that money home is unacceptably high.
#11
Ahhh, if only more people were educated at Rantburg U!
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/09/2017 11:05
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#12
Very good point TW.
Paul Ryan the other day said that there were on the order of $2T in assets that could be repatriated and that they were considering legislation they believed would result in a net effective tax of 5.9% on repatriated assets. But then he went on to say that it would depend on what was being repatriated and that the rate might differ if the asset were "a building or something". How, precisely, one might go about repatriating a building is something only Congresscritters and tax lawyers could comprehend.
I'm curious as to whether the one-time repatriation will be followed by the elimination of all taxes on repatriated capital. At one point it was said that the only countries that taxed repatriated capital were the US and North Korea. If there's a shred of truth in that we might wonder why it has taken so long for an argument to appear against the practice.
#13
What WS7133 said - cut taxes, slash regulations, lower the cost of capital and make it worth their while to bring businesses back to the US - problem largely solved. The first ten Democrats to insist that the government should have a direct role in any 'job retraining' or similar bullshit should be catapulted into the middle of the Potomac.
Yes, I'm talking the Potomac in January - why do you ask?
#14
As a native Washingtonian I remember the pollution and how awful the smell was on the Potomac waterfront in Georgetown until they stopped putting sewage in the river. Now you want to put crap in it again Raj? Please use a landfill, perhaps near Chapaqua or Searchlight. Those places obviously have no olfactory senses anymore!
#16
Back to GM: Those bastards lost me when they rolled over for Bambi and killed Pontiac in exchange for the loan; then the 'New GM' would not be liable for 'Old GM' warranty/liabilities, then they lied about the Cobalt ignitions.
And that even overlooks the mid-80s when they stuffed Chevy motors in Oldsmobiles thinking nobody would notice.
No 'NEW' GM vehicle in my driveway on my dime.
Posted by: USN, Ret ||
01/09/2017 15:00
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#17
IMO the main problem is that the USA doesn't have a GST/VAT. If did, all imports would be taxed at the point of entry at the prevailing rate. Thus putting imports on the same tax base as domestic manufactured goods (ignoring other taxes like payroll taxes).
Trump has correctly concluded the solution is a blanket import tax.
While is being labelled a 'taffif' by the media, it's more like a tax regime equalisation charge.
#18
All a tax will do is make cars more expensive for you. All GM did was the same. The first bailout put Saturn out of business. Remember Saturn cars?
#21
Why do you think the Japanese auto companies started building manufacturing plants in the US when the first Oil Embargo had Americans streaming to their cars and abandoning gas guzzling domestics? [only to find out they were build better and no nickel and diming on the sticker]. Cause Detroit and its Congressional operatives were threatening to force a tariff. Now they're in a position to weather all of this.
[AA.TR] A pro-government militia has claimed it saved 115 hostages from the clutches of human traffickers in a desert along Sudan's border with Libya and Egypt, according to a militia official.
Mohammed Hamdan Dalgo, chief commander of the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces (RSF) under the command of the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS), told the media on Sunday the majority of victims were from neighboring countries, including Æthiopia, Eritrea ...is run by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with about the amounts of democracy and justice you'd expect from a party with that name. National elections have been periodically scheduled and cancelled; none have ever been held in the country. The president, Isaias Afewerki, has been in office since independence in 1993 and will probably die there of old age... and Somalia.
Dalgo said the victims were handed over to police.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/09/2017
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[National Review] Disclosure of embarrassing information should not be confused with disinformation.
There is a word missing from the non-classified report issued Friday, in which three intelligence agencies assess "Russia’s Influence Campaign Targeting the 2016 US Presidential Election." The FBI, CIA, and NSA elide any mention of . . . "Podesta."
Seems like a pretty significant omission -- not just because of how the 2016 campaign played out but also in light of the intelligence community’s recent history of politicizing its analyses. The report is replete with references to Russian "cyber espionage," "covert intelligence," "false-flag," "propaganda," and "influence" operations by which Vladimir Putin is alleged to have tried to put his thumb on the electoral scale.
Very sinister stuff, to be sure. But when the public hears these terms, it thinks of spies, misdirection, disinformation campaigns -- i.e., schemes intended to deceive the target audience. People don’t instantly think, "Oh, you mean an effort to publicize true but embarrassing information"; they don’t read "covert operation" and say to themselves, "That must mean they subjected only one side of a political contest to a high level of scrutiny."
That’s the kind of behavior people associate with the American media, not the Kremlin. The three intelligence agencies’ report pointedly declines to tell us what specific information gives them such "high confidence" that they know the operation of Vladimir Putin’s mind. They plead that the nature of their work does not allow for that: To tell us how they know what they purport to know would compromise intelligence methods and sources.
The report concludes that while Putin appears to have been rooting for Trump, the Russians assumed [like many of us] Clinton was going to win and were mainly trying to undermine the effectiveness of her anticipated presidency, not swing the election to Trump.
Emphasis added.
#6
No mention of Podesta's password which was "PASSWORD." No mention of all the shenanigans of Hillary with her home brew server? I started tuning out much of this as so much political noise at some point--particularly when no one really seemed very concerned about all the intelligence and pay-for-play transgressions of Hillary and Bill. It seemed like a case of "No need to look here, look over there "Unhingement Syndrome." When the MSM, the politicians and many of the Obama appointees to the intelligence agencies are all lined up pointing fingers at Russia, I begin to get suspicious--particularly in the absence of any proof that anyone can cite. I suspect that many in the outgoing government are connected in some way to the Clinton Foundation and that many are just trying to shush it up. Write it off to JohnQC's paranoia if you like, but much of this smells odiferous to me.
#8
First off, National Review, from its actions during the election year can... well, Raj can fill that in.
Second, judging by my research, it's likely that the Russian government or its authorized agents did whatever the IC said it did, for whatever reason it did.
Lastly, it's also interesting that the same USG non-IC entities and, more importantly, the media are not discussing the validity of any of the purloined information presented. Funny how that was done on the Wikileaks' Iraq or Snowden releases.
[NYT] Negotiations on Saturday appeared to have averted a protracted standoff between soldiers and the government in a military revolt in Ivory Coast, a country that has prided itself on political and economic stability in recent years.
President Alassane Ouattara said late in the day that the government had reached an agreement with disgruntled soldiers who had demanded higher salaries and better living conditions. But Mr. Ouattara criticized the soldiers for the way they had protested.
“I want to say that this way of making demands is not appropriate,” Mr. Ouattara said. “In fact, it tarnished the image of our country after all our economic development efforts.”
According to witnesses, gunfire erupted early on Saturday at a military camp known as “old Akouedo” in a residential area of Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s largest city and its economic capital. Rebellious soldiers from one battalion in the city erected barricades. Citizens in several cities reported that soldiers were patrolling the streets, some firing shots in the air. In Toulepleu, soldiers seized vehicles from citizens, said Serzh Kouehi, a resident there. Shots rang out throughout Friday in the cities of Korhogo and Bouaké. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Early on Saturday, Alain Richard Donwahi, the country’s defense minister, arrived in Bouaké, where the uprising appeared to have started, for talks with the rebellious soldiers, whose demands included raises, bonuses and shorter tenures of service.
After the deal was announced, local news media reports from Bouaké said renegade soldiers were preventing Mr. Donwahi from leaving the city. But Mayor Nicolas Djibo of Bouaké said late Saturday that the soldiers had never threatened Mr. Donwahi, and that the minister had traveled to the local airport after the talks.
The mutiny seemed to have taken Ivorian officials by surprise. Mr. Ouattara was in Ghana on Saturday for the inauguration of a new president there, but he returned to his country for an emergency meeting with his ministers. Mr. Djibo was away from Bouaké on Friday and rushed home after the mutiny began.
The Ivorian military has remained fractured as the government has struggled to integrate the rebels who helped install Mr. Ouattara in 2011 after his predecessor, Laurent Gbagbo, refused to accept an electoral defeat.
A similar revolt occurred in November 2014, when thousands of Ivory Coast soldiers left their barracks to demand back pay and benefits. At the time, the government agreed to meet the demands of the former rebel fighters, but those grievances have lingered.
[Libya Observer] Defend Benghazi Brigades a military coalition in Benghazi composed of Islamist and jihadist militias, including Ansar al-Sharia, Libya Shield 1, February 17th Martyrs Brigade, Rafallah al-Sahati Brigade, Jaysh al-Mujahidin, Brega Martyrs Brigade. It was formed in June 2014, in response both to the anti-Islamist Operation Dignity led by Khalifa Haftar, and the defeat of Islamist candidates in the 2014 Council of Deputies election.... (DBB) called on all of the February 17 revolutionary fighters to unite themselves and be ready for fighting away any attacks by what they described the forces of war criminal, Khalifa Haftar ... served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all... , stressing that the revolutionaries must be mobilized to be able to put an end to Haftar’s criminality against the February revolution.
In a statement, the DBB said the claims of fighting terrorism by Haftar are mere lies and have hence been proved to be irrelevant especially that he has coordinated the withdrawal of IS Death Eaters from Benghazi very recently.
"As he did in Derna, Haftar gave a safe corridor for IS Death Eaters out of Benghazi after their role, which is "demonizing Benghazi revolutionaries," had ended so that he can justify for the support of Egyptian and UAE warplanes and the foreign agenda he is executing in the city." The DBB’s statement reads.
"Cyrenaica locals must be aware of the conspiracies plotted against them and the country on the lam, and the encouragement of division among Libyans via the UAE-sponsored media outlets, which only aim at protracting conflicts in Libya." The DBB indicated.
They also said that what falsifies the claims of fighting terrorism by Haftar is his forces’ deliberate bombing of February revolutionaries, who have always fought terrorism, pointing out that the latest Arclight airstrikes on Bunyan Marsous ...(al-Bunyan al-Marsous, Solid Base) An operation carried out by Misratan forces loyal to the Libyan Goverenment of National Accord to dislodge ISIS forces from Sirte. 2,500 turbans were reported killed in the operation, which lasted from May through December.GNA's Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj officially announced the end of military operations on 18 December 2016... forces is a living example.
"Haftar does such acts while he and his forces look away from the IS myrmidons, who have always been an easy target for the forces and the warplanes whether in Sirte or in Derna. Haftar’s forces never attacked them." The statement adds.
IS Death Eaters withdrew from their positions in Benghazi’s Ganfouda and al-Sabri districts in western Benghazi on Thursday dawn and they headed toward the central region, according to a number of sources.
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At least 3 people were reported dead and 17 others wounded following twin explosions in the Somali capital of Mogadishu on yesterday evening, Garowe Online reports.
Banadir region Spokesman, Abdifatah Omar Halane, confirmed the blasts to the local media and stated that hand grenades were used to attack the tea-shop located at Tarabuunka intersection, which is frequented by government soldiers. The Spokesman said the death toll could rise as some were critically injured from yesterday’s attacks.
According to residents, the explosions were heard from other parts the city, which happened at around 19:00 local time.
Following the blasts, security authorities have arrived the scene, carried out investigations and captured a score of suspects, who were transferred to the CID headquarters for beatings further investigations, according to the official.
Police authorities have accused Al Qaida linked Al Shabaab group behind the attacks that targeted government soldiers.
The incident comes amid surge in terrorist attacks in Mogadishu city in the past weeks by the Al Shabaab group, who vowed to disrupt the ongoing Somali election in the country.
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Turkish police have identified an alleged Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militant who attacked a famous nightclub in Istanbul as Uzbek national Abdulkadir Masharipov.
The attacker arrived in Istanbul from the Central Anatolian province of Konya on Dec. 15, 2016, to stage the attack on Jan. 1. According to recently obtained information, an ISIL cell in Konya that consists of Uzbeks continued to provide logistical support to Masharipov, whose code name is “Ebu Muhammed Horasani.”
The attacker remains on the run after escaping the Reina nightclub despite the massive deployment of police to prevent attacks targeting New Year’s celebrations.
Masharipov is accused of killing 39 people and wounding 65 others at the club, although some eyewitnesses have suggested there was more than one attacker.
According to the investigation carried out by Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, it was determined that Masharipov has been in Turkey since 2011, daily Milliyet reported. Police have now begun focusing on the ISIL militant’s activities in Turkey in the past.
Meanwhile, new footage of the attack has emerged from inside the Reina nightclub. Masharipov is seen being kicked by a person as he was trying to hide among the wounded right before leaving the nightclub, daily Hürriyet reported. In the footage recorded at 1:20 a.m. on Jan. 1, people are seen running around in panic, as well as trying to drag the wounded out of harm’s way. Others are seen trying to hide under their tables as the ISIL militant continues shooting.
At around 1:26 a.m., Masharipov is seen taking of his coat and beret. He then takes off his shirt and is seen with another shirt and trousers. He passes by people lying on the floor and then returns. Masharipov, who was carrying a stun grenade, is seen being kicked by someone who is trying to hide at 1:27 a.m. After being kicked, the stun grenade in Masharipov’s hand explodes, resulting in wounds to his hand. Masharipov remained motionless on the floor for about 10 or 15 seconds as a result of the explosion, but soon regained consciousness before departing the nightclub, according to the footage.
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[War on the Rocks] In early 2015, the U.S. Air Force was about to begin work on its next-generation air-to-air fighter, commonly known as F-X. When beginning such a program, military services usually start with an "analysis of alternatives" to help them define the desired attributes of new systems. The objective of this analysis is to determine the most rational investment decisions prior to committing taxpayer dollars. Key funding decisions typically follow shortly on the heels of this analytic effort. As the Air Force approached these decisions, it had to decide how much of its topline budget authority it was willing to allocate to the emerging F-X program. Out of this came a cost estimate for the F-X program based on trends from similar programs in the past. The result was not pretty.
The two most recent examples analysts had available were the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II. As has been written extensively elsewhere, both programs experienced cost issues throughout development. Such issues eventually drove Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to truncate the F-22 program at 187 aircraft and also led to a re-baselining of the F-35 program in 2010. Comparing the expense of these fifth-generation aircraft programs to fourth-generation F-16 and F-15 programs, experts predicted F-X would cost substantially more than any prior fighter program in history. Additionally, Air Force planners evaluated the development timelines experienced during fifth-generation aircraft development. The combination of historically poor schedule performance with historically high costs led planners to conclude the earliest the Air Force could expect and afford to field F-X would be around the year 2040.
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Four Iraqi soldiers were killed and three others were wounded on Sunday when Islamic State militants attacked an area recaptured recently by security forces west of Anbar province.
Nazem al-Jughiefi, an intelligence commander at al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units) in the town of Haditha, said IS militants attacked a security force securing al-Sakra region, which was recaptured on Saturday by security and tribal forces. He said four soldiers and four militants were killed in the attack.
He added that the forces also seized arms and vehicles used in the attack by the extremist group.
Islamic State militants have been holding locations west of Anbar, close the borders with Syria, since the group emerged to the scene in Iraq in 2014 to proclaim the establishment of a self-styled Islamic State across many regions of the country. Since then, it had launched occasional attacks on civilians and security in Anbar from those strongholds, with security forces, backed by fighter jets from a US-led military coalition, responding with recurrent airstrikes.
Last week, the Iraqi army command in Anbar announced a first security campaign backed by tribal militias to liberate the western regions of the province.
But most of attention is given to a battle running since October 2016 to retake Mosul, IS’s biggest stronghold in Iraq, the recapture of which would represent the strongest blow to the group’s existence in the country.
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[AA.TR] The Turkish military has dismissed claims civilians were effected during its ongoing military operation in northern Syria.
"The allegations that civilians were affected during the ongoing Operation Euphrates Shield do not reflect the facts on the ground and are ill-intended," the General Staff said in a statement Sunday that did not specify the source of the allegations.
"To not harm the civilians is one of the basic principles of the Turkish Armed Forces," it added.
The operation began in late August to improve security, support coalition forces, and eliminate the terror threat along The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's border with Syria with the help of opposition fighters backed by Turkish artillery and jets.
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[DAWN] TOBA TEK SINGH: A man allegedly chopped off an arm of his wife and also injured his 10-year-old daughter who came to her mother’s rescue over some dispute at Basti Oddanwali near Pirmahal on Saturday.
Police said Nazir Shah attacked his wife Tasleem Bibi with an axe in a fit of rage over some dispute. The woman not only had her arm chopped off but suffered multiple injuries and their daughter also was injured when she tried to rescue her, they said.
Tasleem Bibi was taken to Pirmahal’s Tehsil Headquarters (THQ) hospital from where she was referred to the DHQ hospital. At the city’s major health facility, the doctors allegedly refused to treat the patient and sent her to the THQ hospital of Kamalia on the plea that it was a medico-legal case.
Later, it is learnt, doctors referred her to Allied Hospital in Faisalabad ...formerly known as Lyallpur, the third largest metropolis in Pakistain, the second largest in Punjab after Lahore. It is named after some Arab because the Paks didn't have anybody notable of their own to name it after... due to her critical condition. Her daughter was admitted to the Pirmahal health facility.
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More from the brief notice yesterday. You may commence ululating...
Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani died in hospital on Sunday after suffering a heart attack, the ISNA and Fars news agencies reported.
Rafsanjani, who was 82, was a pivotal figure in the foundation of the Islamic republic in 1979. He had been admitted to the Shohadaa Hospital in northern Tehran, one of his relatives, Hossein Marashi, was quoted as saying by the agencies.
Was it AIDS, sushi poisoning or a sucking chest wound?
Rafsanjani served as president twice between 1989 and 1997.
He was badly beaten in the 2005 presidential election by much more hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a conservative backlash. But rather than retreating from public view because of that humiliation, he remained in the limelight, emerging as a supposedly moderate counter-figure to the ultra-hardliners clustered around Ahmadinejad, under whom Iran's relations with the West plummeted.
He was NEVER a "moderate."
In recent years, his influence within state institutions had waned.
In 2013, his candidacy for the presidential election was rejected because of his advanced age. The next year, he delivered crucial support for the eventual winner, Hassan Rouhani, a supposed moderate with whom he has a warm rapport.
He held the chairmanship of Iran's main political arbitration body, the Expediency Council, since 1990, when he was appointed by the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Which means he was one of the major, if not the major, political figures in the collective dictatorship. And never a moderate.
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] 2 top Haqqani network leaders hailing from Pakistain killed in Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. Two senior commanders of the Haqqani terrorist network were killed during an operation of the Afghan National Police (ANP) Special Forces.
The Ministry of Interior (MoI) in a statement said the two top Haqqani leaders were killed in eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.
The statement further added that the operation was conducted in Nasafi village of Lalpur district.
The two senior Haqqani commanders have been identified as Omran Khan also famous as Dr. Zakria and Shaheen who are originally hailing from Pakistain.
According to MoI, the two senior commanders were having a key role in organizing terrorist attacks, specifically coordinated suicide kabooms.
Two more members of the Haqqani terrorist network jugged Please don't kill me! during the operation and at least 11 hand grenades along with some weapons were confiscated, MoI said, adding that the two Lions of Islam were identified as Sarbuland and Zia-ur-Rehman.
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Mexican authorities are on the hunt for a gunman who was disguised as a nurse when he shot and wounded a U.S. consular official in the city of Guadalajara.
The US consulate in Guadalajara posted a video on Facebook on Jan. 7 showing the shooter, dressed in blue and wearing a wig, waiting outside a shopping center’s garage at 6:20 p.m. on Jan. 6 (00:20 a.m. GMT Jan. 7), AFP reported. He then raises his gun and fires at the car before fleeing. The shooting left a bullet impact on the car window while the U.S. consular official is seen opening his door.
Moments before the shooting video from different cameras showed the official, dressed in shorts and a sleeveless shirt, paying his parking ticket at an automated machine. The gunman is seen following him.
“According to the four videos, it was a direct attack,” Jalisco state attorney general Eduard Almaguer Ramirez said.
The gunman was wearing a wig and a blue nurse uniform, Almaguer said.
The U.S. official, who is in stable condition, interviews visa applicants at the consulate, Almaguer said. A U.S. government official told AFP that the official is a vice consul, adding that no motive for the shooting has been established.
The western city of Guadalajara has been hit by violence perpetrated by the powerful Jalisco New Generation drug cartel in recent years.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation offered a $20,000 reward for information about the shooter. The FBI is helping with the investigation, Almaguer said.
“The safety and security of our employees overseas is among our highest priorities,” the U.S. embassy said in a statement.
“We are working closely with Mexican law enforcement in this matter,” the statement added, saying it would provide more details “due to privacy considerations.”
The embassy issued a security message later on Jan. 7 urging U.S. citizens in Guadalajara to “restrict their movements outside their homes and places of work to those truly essential.”
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#1
They have ID'ed an un-named US citizen. Doesn't sound like a cartel hit. And you wouldn't open a car door to an armed stranger in Mexico. Ergo, he knew the perp and ID'ed him to the cops.
#3
It has been reported that the perp shot once. The attacker doesn't appear to try to approach the official while he is walking, but instead waits for him to exit the parking garage in his vehicle and fires a round into the car's windshield. The perp does not appear to be a professional hit man with only one shot into the windshield from some distance away.
[Libya Observer] The front man of the Special Deterrent Force (SDF) Ahmed Salim, said they have filed a case at the Attorney General’s Office including the number and names of the women placed in durance vile Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! on charges of terrorism so that they be readied for deportation to their countries of origin.
"Most of the women are from Tunisia and their country has not yet contacted us about their cases." Salim indicated.
He added that expelling those terror-charged women will be done under the supervision of the Attorney General’s Office as per the legal procedures in the country.
According to Hakaekonline ‐ a Tunisian news website ‐ there are about 20 women arrested in Libyan jails.
The SDF has, more than once, arrested Tunisian nationals who have ties with IS in Libya, the last of whom were the Tunisians captured in Sirte.
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[DAWN] While law-enforcement agencies picked up 15 suspects in connection with the Friday grenade and gun attacks in North Nazimabad, a bigwig of the Counter-Terrorism Department on Saturday believed that the attacks were the handiwork of snuffies of Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS).
On Friday, two men riding a cycle of violence first threw a grenade at the North Nazimabad Police Complex that also houses the Taimuria cop shoppe and then fired at personnel of traffic police at the Five Star traffic intersection, killing a rickshaw driver.
Police and paramilitary Rangers launched a joint combing operation in North Nazimabad and took into custody 15 criminals involved in "terrorist activities", said a Rangers spokesperson in a statement on Saturday.
The held suspects were handed over to the police for further legal action, he added.
Officials said they were pursuing all angles to identify the assailants and the possible motive behind the two attacks.
"The modus operandi appears to be of banned jihadi outfits as they had been involved in similar acts of terrorism in the same vicinity of North Nazimabad and other localities," said CTD official Raja Umer Khattab.
He suspected the involvement of banned AQIS in both the incidents.
He believed that the AQIS network in the city had been weakened following the April 2016 arrests of their members who were involved in some improvised bomb (IED) attacks on law-enforcement agencies in the metropolis. Since the Taimuria cop shoppe came under grenade attack, it indicated that the banned krazed killer outfit now lacked IED-making expertise, he added.
Regarding their possible motive, the CTD official said that the snuffies wanted to make their presence felt in the city.
Regarding the assassination'>assassination of Sub-Inspector Iqbal Mehmood, who was bumped off on Wednesday night on main Rashid Minhas Road, he said that Sherlocks had ruled out the involvement of any banned krazed killer outfits in the killing.
He said that the Sherlocks were looking into the cases on which the slain officer was working and some progress was made in ascertaining the identity and motive of the killers.
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Taliban holy warrior group reacted on US military plan to deploy around 300 soldiers in southern Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province of Afghanistan, claiming that the deployment of additional forces indicate the defeat of the Afghan and US forces in Helmand battle. "How'd ya come to lose that chunk of meat in the small of your back?"
"Bit myself."
"Yesterday American military commanders announced that 300 extra US troops will be deployed to Helmand in the upcoming spring to help their local puppet forces.
This announcement comes after 100 American SOF troops were also deployed last summer to defend Lashkar Gah but was promptly pulled back to Camp Bastion after they suffered heavy losses," a statement released by Taliban front man Zabiullah Mujahid reads.
"At the same time the American military brass has kept hundreds of troops active in a key military base named Camp Dwyer in Garmsir district of Helmand province away from the sight of their citizens," the statement said, adding that "This on top of hundreds of more foreign invaders residing at Camp Bastion in Helmand’s Shorab."
"Announcing the deployment of more forces to Helmand on top of presence of the above American troops is solely to lend morale to the defeated troops of the stooge Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... administration in hopes they hold out until spring," the statement added.
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[RUDAW.NET] A senior ISIS member in Kirkuk responsible for many civilian and Peshmerga deaths, was killed in a joint operation between Kurdistan's Counter-Terrorism forces (CTD) and the international coalition, the Kurdistan Region Security Council announced in a statement Sunday afternoon.
In the operation that took place on January 5 in Hawija, Islam Taha Mohamad al-Obaidi, also known by his nom de guerre Dr. Moawiya, was killed.
"Al-Obaidi was Chief Emir of ISIS's Health Department (Diwan) in Kirkuk Province and responsible for killing tens of civilians in Kirkuk Province. He took part in the martyrdom of four Peshmerga in January 2015 and played a key part in harming Kurdish Yazidi women in Hawija," reads the statement from the Security Council.
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[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says his administration has reached an agreement with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... over Baghdad’s demand for the withdrawal of Turkish military forces from a camp in the north of Iraq.
Abadi made the announcement on Saturday after he met with visiting Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim in the capital.
During a joint presser, Yildirim said that the issue of Turkish troops in Bashiqa camp near djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... will be solved with Iraq in a friendly way in line with clearing ISIS terror group. Explaining that the troops were stationed in Bashiqa out of a necessity, Yildirim said that great measures have been covered to clear ISIS from the region.
Yildirim added that two parties have agreed to make the necessary efforts will be made in coordination with Peshmerga and Iraqi troops to clear Sinjar from terrorist elements, referring to PKK presence in the area. "For us, terror is the same no matter where it comes from. Therefore, Sinjar poses a primary threat for Turkey and we thank Dear Prime Minister’s sensitivity to leave this threat aside. We are ready to do necessary cooperation in this issue too," Yildirim said.
Yildirim expressed his gratitude to Abadi for his latest statement that said Iraq won’t allow PKK to use its sovereign territory to damage Turkey.
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#1
Duringa joint press conference, Yildirim said that the issue of Turkish troops in Bashiqa camp near Mosul will be solved with Iraq in a friendly way in line with clearing ISIS terror group.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The jihadist rebels of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham ...formerly al-Nusra, the current false nose and mustache of al-Qaeda in the Levant... (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) carried out a VBIED (vehicle borne improvised bomb) attack at a Syrian Arab Army (SAA) checkpoint outside the town of Beit Jinn on Sunday, killing at least 5 people and wounding 15 others.
Among the many casualties from this terrorist attack conducted by the jihadist rebels on Sunday were many women and kiddies seen awaiting to cross the Syrian Arab Army checkpoint.
The VBIED attack on Sunday was conducted out of frustration by the jihadist rebels; it was meant to antagonize the Syrian government for their recent success in the West Ghouta.
Earlier this week, the jihadist rebels in the West Ghouta surrendered several towns to the Syrian Arab Army in exchange for the transfer of their fighters to the Idlib Governorate; this deal did not include Beit Jinn.
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The so-called "Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham" (ISIS) continued their campaign of executions around the eastern countryside of Syria, killing 3 men for allegedly spying on their fighters in the Deir Ezzor Governorate. The picture tells you everything you need to know, unless you're into ISIS porn.
Using children no older than 5 years of age to kill the 3 men, the Islamic State carried out these executions in an unknown area in Syria this week.
The horrific images were taken from a video released by the terrorist group's propaganda wing on Sunday.
The children in the video are likely foreigners that were brought to Syria by their parents who joined the Islamic State's military wing.
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least ten Taliban forces of Evil were killed in the latest infighting among the Taliban factions in western Farah province of Afghanistan.
According to the local officials, the latest infighting was ignited following a roadside kaboomkaboom that left several murderous Moslems dead.
The officials further added that the incident took place in Bakwa district after a landmine planted by Taliban group targeted the other rival group as they were on their way from Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... to Farah.
District administrative chief Ghawsuddin confirmed the incident and said the latest infighting took place between the supporters of Mullah Rasool and Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada ...Deputy to Taliban supremo Mullah Akhtar Mansour... He said it is yet not clear the supporters of which group was targeted in the blast but confirmed that both the kaboom and infighting left at least 10 Taliban forces of Evil dead.
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With President-elect Donald Trump demanding more ships, the Navy is proposing the biggest shipbuilding boom since the end of the Cold War to meet threats from a resurgent Russia and saber-rattling China.
The Navy's 355-ship proposal released last month is even larger than what the Republican Trump had promoted on the campaign trail, providing a potential boost to shipyards that have struggled because budget caps that have limited money funding for ships.
Boosting shipbuilding to meet the Navy's 355-ship goal could require an additional $5 billion to $5.5 billion in annual spending in the Navy's 30-year projection, according to an estimate by naval analyst Ronald O'Rourke at the Congressional Research Service.
The Navy's revised Force Structure Assessment calls for adding another 47 ships including an aircraft carrier built in Virginia, 16 large surface warships built in Maine and Mississippi, and 18 attack submarines built in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Virginia. It also calls for more amphibious assault ships, expeditionary transfer docks and support ships.
In addition to being good for national security, a larger fleet would be better for both the sailors, who'd enjoy shorter deployments, and for the ships, which would have more down time for maintenance, said Matthew Paxton, president of the Shipbuilders Council of America, which represents most of the major Navy shipbuilders.
"Russia and China are going to continue to build up their navies," he said. "The complexities aren't going to get any easier. The Navy, more than any of the services, is our forward presence. We're going to need this Navy."
Many defense analysts agree that military capabilities have been degraded in recent years, especially when it comes to warships, aircraft and tanks.
The key is finding a way to increase Navy shipbuilding to achieve defense and economic gains "in a fiscally responsible way that does not pass the bill along to our children," said independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, a member of the Armed Services Committee.
Even when Trump takes office, no one envisions a return to the heady days during the Cold War when workers were wiring, welding, grinding, pounding and plumbing ships at a furious pace to meet President Ronald Reagan's audacious goal of a 600 ship Navy.
The Navy currently has 274 deployable battle force ships, far short of its old goal of 308 ships.
Lawrence J. Korb, a retired naval officer and former assistant defense secretary under Reagan, said the Navy's request isn't realistic unless the Trump administration is willing to take the budget "to levels we've never seen."
As in, an extra $5 billion a year Mr. Korb? We're spending $4.5 trillion a year, a fair bit of which goes for stupid stuff. I think we can do a little more for defense.
"You never have enough money to buy a perfect defense. You have to make trade-offs," said Korb, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.
Wow -- yahoo and AP actually identified his affiliation?
But investors apparently are betting on more ships. General Dynamics, which owns Bath Iron Works, Connecticut-based Electric Boat and California-based NASSCO, and Huntington Ingalls, which owns major shipyards in Virginia and in Mississippi, have both seen stock prices creep upward since the election.
I do think we need investment in our military. But the Navy had better learn the lessons of the LCS, the F-35 and the DDX programs, or all that new money is going to be peed away.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/09/2017
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#1
#1 son is now in Week 5 of Naval Boot camp in Michigan, hoping to get into nuclear power school in February and serve on a CVN. Still praying for him, as well as thanking God for Trump.
#3
Congratulations, ptah! Your son comes from good stock. So long as young men and women such as he continue to think this country is worth stepping forward to protect, despite the almost-previous president's egregious nonsense, we'll be ok.
#4
Plan and execution will split as cost overruns and delays eat up available funds. See - Littoral ship. Until the procurement culture is keel hauled and the pursuit of the next best promising technology is throttled too many contracts will become money pits.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/09/2017 14:29
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#7
Yay PTAH! Go NAVY!
Posted by: USN, Ret ||
01/09/2017 14:55
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Is the Burke the current go-to destroyer? I was looking over its specs and the WWII Mahan specs, big differences.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
01/09/2017 15:41
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Yes WM, the Burke class is the current configuration of DDGs. There is very little similarity between the WWII classes of DD and today's DDGs (size, staffing, weaponry, etc.)
[AA.TR] Polygamist President-for-Life Jacob 'Six Wives' Zuma has urged South Africans to not visit Israel unless it is related to "fostering peace" in the region.
Addressing thousands of supporters during the 105th birth anniversary of his ruling African National Congress (ANC) in the capital Johannesburg on Sunday, Zuma said: "The people of Paleostine continue to suffer in their rightful quest for self determination."
Zuma, who is also the ANC president, said his party had pledged its "ongoing solidarity and support for the just cause of the Paleostinian people."
He said: "We firmly discourage travel to Israel for causes not related to fostering peace." Visit Antwerp and shop die Diamantkwartier (the Diamond Quarter) please.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
South Africa actually has 3 capitals and Jo'berg isn't one of them.
#4
You were expecting some sort of presidential message of sympathy with regard to the recent terrorist truck ramming attack and murder of Israeli soldiers ?
#6
Never let your subjects know about what representative government can do and especially evil white overlords for a country without abundant natural resources.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Video footage emerged showing Iraqi Army drones targeting jihadist gatherings in the Wadi Akkab region of southern djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... A few months following the initiation of the Mosul military campaign, the Iraqi Armed Forces and their supporting Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) have managed to capture approximately 50% of the province and about two-thirds of eastern Mosul.
Expelling the terror group from eastern Mosul seems only to be a matter of time at the current pace of advances. Fighting is expected to intensify when the Iraqi Army crosses into Mosul's eastern bank where ISIS is expected to mount stiff defenses.
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi security forces continued operations on Sunday to clear eastern Mosul from Islamic State militants, pushing towards new districts in the north and south of that region.
A security source was quoted by Shafaaq News website as saying that government artillery bombarded Islamic State locations in al-Kindi district, north of the eastern section of Mosul, preparing to storm the neighborhood.
Earlier on the same day, the army’s elite Counter-Terrorism Service forces invaded Sokkar and Baladiyat districts, also in the north.
Shafaaq News also quoted other security sources as saying that forces from the army’s 9th division and Federal Police waged an attack on Sumer and Domiz neighborhoods in the southeast.
Military officials said Saturday they became closer to the Tigris River, which bisects the city. Iraqi generals hope they will soon move onwards to the river’s western bank, where IS still maintain strongholds near the borders with Syria.
The Iraqi government launched operations last October, with backing from a U.S-led international military coalition, to retake the city of Mosul, IS’s biggest stronghold in Iraq which fell to the extremist group in 2014. PM Haider al-Abadi said in December he predicted the city to be cleared from militants in two months. Iraqi generals have said they became in control over 70 percent of the city’s eastern part.
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Members of the Islamic State extremist group set a maternity hospital and some buildings of the University of Mosul ablaze, before withdrawing from them, BasNews reported on Sunday.
Commander of Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Forces, Abdel Wahab al-Saedi, in a press statement said, “The Islamic State group burned al-Khansa Maternity Hospital, as well as the buildings of faculties of Dentistry, Education, Arts and Economy in the University of Mosul, before withdrawing from them, due to the significant development achieved by security forces in the area.”
So far, Iraqi forces have retaken around 70 percent of eastern Mosul from the Islamic State militants. However, the western half of the city remains under the full control of Islamic State, which is fighting to hold on to its largest stronghold with snipers and suicide car bombs.
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi security forces managed to kill 10 militants from the self-proclaimed Islamic State, after repulsing their attack using four car bombs on a residential neighborhood, north of Mosul, a source told Al Mada Press on Sunday.
The source said that troops of the army’s 16th brigade managed, today, to destroy four booby-trapped vehicles belonging to the Islamic State, while trying to approach the area of al-Hadba apartments, north of Mosul.
“Security forces were able also to kill ten fighters of the Islamic State group during the attack,” the source added on condition of anonymity.
Noteworthy, security forces liberated the majority of the eastern side of Mosul since the start of operation ‘We Are Coming, Nineveh’ in October 17, 2016.
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[Dhaka Tribune] A top terrorist among 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.... 's ranks was married to a London-born woman of Bangladeshi origin, according to an exclusive The Atlantic report.
Joya Choudhury Tania, who has since returned to the UK having divorced the right-hand man of the recently killed IS chief strategist Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, married Yahya Abu Hassan when she was 20, before travelling to Syria with him.
Yahya is currently the most senior western member of the group.
Born John Georgelas to upper-middle class American-Greek parents in Texas, Yahya met Tania online in 2003 on a Moslem matrimonial site, according to the Atlantic report. Yahya abandoned his military family in Texas after converting to Islam in 2001.
Tania, born to a Bangladeshi immigrant father who worked as a postmaster, was to all intents and purposes westernised and with no interest in religion, reveals The Atlantic story. However, the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach... she became increasingly radicalised while studying for her A-levels in East London.
Though Tania’s parents and four siblings had apparently neglected their religion as they assimilated into British middle-class culture, after meeting Yahya online, which was apparently not uncommon among her peers at college, Tania married him in 2003, later officially exchanging vows in Rochdale, pregnant at the time.
Within a year the couple had surrounded themselves with radical Islamist preachers, such as Jordanian Abu Isa al-Rifai.
After leaving London for Texas while pregnant with their first child, Yahya was sentenced to 34-month in prison for hacking the website of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, though Tania stood by him and awaited his release.
In 2011, Yahya’s parole expired and the couple moved to Egypt with their two sons, with Tania giving birth to a third not long after. It was here that the couple met European Islamists, as Yahya made a name for himself as something of a scholar.
The pair left Egypt after the fall of the Moslem Brüderbund-led government and Yahya took his family to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... Reports suggest Tania was unaware of the destination when her husband said he was taking the family on a trip ‐ which turned out to be to Syria. She is one of around 800 Britons to have joined the radical group in Syria, approximately 100 of whom are thought to be women.
However, the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach... it did not last long and Tania abandoned Yahya not long afterwards in 2013, and, according to The Times, while heavily pregnant with her fourth child with him. After flying back to London, she ultimately returned to Dallas to live close to her mother and father-in-law. She divorced Yahya in 2014.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Why isn't she on trial for treason?
Why aren't the people who made her a koranic literalist on a flight or in jail?
[ALMASDARNEWS] Abu Essa Alshikh, the leader of Liwa Suqour al-Sham has said that his forces will continue attacking pro-government forces despite the nationwide ceasefire.
The ceasefire has been holding in most parts of the Country, despite a few attacks, such as the bombing outside of a courthouse in Azaz. From Wikipedia:
English: Falcons of the Levant Brigade, also known as the Sham Falcons Brigade, is an armed rebel organisation formed by Ahmed Abu Issa early in the Syrian Civil War to fight against the Syrian Government. It was a member of the Islamic Front and a former unit of the Free Syrian Army and the Syrian Islamic Liberation Front. They have a history of coordinating with Ahrar al-Sham and the Al-Nusra Front (a group which has re-branded itself Jabhat Fateh al-Sham). In March 2015, the Suqour al-Sham Brigade merged with Ahrar ash-Sham, but left Ahrar al-Sham in September 2016. Also in September 2016 they joined the Army of Conquest which Ahrar al-Sham is also a member
Posted by: Fred ||
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KISMAYO, Somalia- Al Shabaab fighters have retaken control of Bulo-Gadud near the port town of Kismayo from Jubbaland state forces backed by the African Union (AU) troops, who seized it earlier on Friday, Garowe Online reports.
Residents said the militants had encountered a light resistance from the allied forces during the takeover. Bulo-Gadud lies some 30 km away from Kismayo, and is now under Al Shabab’s control.
Jubbaland troops with the support of Ethiopian forces serving with the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) have earlier pushed out Al Shabaab from several villages in the outskirts of the coastal town of Kismayo last week.
However, AMISOM and Jubbaland are yet to release a statement concerning the fall of Bulo-Gadud district to Al Shabaab militants.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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[RUDAW.NET] Iraqi army’s Join Command confirmed that a group of trainers who were described as foreigners by the Shiite paramilitary of Hashd al-Shaabi were stopped from entering a location under their control in Diyala province on Saturday morning for "lack of prior coordination" with the group.
The Joint Command said its statement was to clarify remarks made by the Shiite Nujabaa Movement, a group under the command of Hashd al-Shaabi who claimed that their forces stopped an American team from entering an area in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad.
"There was presence of a number of trainers with the special operations regiment of the Counter Terrorism Service who wanted to conduct training in the field in Makhul mountain," the statement from the Iraqi armed forces said without mentioning the identity of the trainers. "The training includes drills on sniper and artillery fire. The Counter Terrorism Service forces returned to where they came from upon the refusal from the force that held the unit for lack of prior coordination."
The spokesperson for Nujaba Movement told Rudaw on Saturday that the foreign troops were Americans.
"This morning the American forces made an advance and tried to enter to places where we are present at, places that we have held for a long time and face counterattacks every day from the ISIS gangs." Hashm al-Musawi told Rudaw. "We had said earlier that we will not allow the American forces into unstable places and liberated places as that is against Iraq’s illusory sovereignty--that is first."
"And second," he added. "The Americans have dirty games, plans, and secret aims--because we believe the terrorist project of ISIS is an integral part of American projects in the region, and therefore these forces are not welcome, not wanted at all."
Al-Musawi said that they will deal with American forces in the same way they are treating the Shiite forces.
"The American forces always put red lines. They prevent anyone, any party or any force of Hashd al-Shaabi from entering fronts that they hold. As they put red lines, they also exercise veto [on this]. We will deal with them in kind." al-Musawi explained.
This development comes amid shifting US policy towards the Shiite paramilitary that was recognized by law las month, training hundreds of its members despite concerns over the group’s violations of human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... In late December US Commanding General of the anti-ISIS global coalition forces Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend described the Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi as "remarkably disciplined" and following orders from Baghdad.
The US general said that, as a national force, the Hashd al-Shaabi could help make Iraq more secure as long as they are not influenced by Iran. The US government, Townsend said, "is going to try to shape" the law that legalized the Shiite force.
Al-Musawi said that there were designated places for foreign advisers which did not include areas under the control of their forces.
"We reject the return of occupation in all forms and shapes," he said, in reference to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
The water, it has got to be something in the water. Or maybe the Kool-Aid
#4
This is what happens when you invade a country without bothering to *crush* your opponents in the process. I blame the Bush administration just as much as I do anything that took place after he left office.
At least 68 fighters have been killed in two days of fierce battles between Yemeni forces and Houthi rebels near the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait, military officials said Sunday.
Government forces launched an assault Saturday, recapturing the coastal Dhubab district, just 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of Bab al-Mandab which links the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. Since then at least 55 Houthis have been killed in fighting and 72 others wounded, military and medical sources said.
Clashes since Saturday have also killed 13 loyalists forces, including an army general, Brigadier-General Abdul Aziz al-Majidi, a loyalist commander, told AFP. They said fighting was still underway Sunday as loyalist forces were trying to retake from the rebels a key military base in the Dhubab region.
Al-Omari base is located in a mountainous region that overlooks the coastal road linking Bab al-Mandab region to Dhubab, and opens the way to rebel-held Hudaida port on the Red Sea.
The Houthis, and allied fighters, on Sunday fired two ballistic missiles that were intercepted by the Saudi-led coalition that backs the Yemen government, a loyalist military source said.
Landmines planted by the rebels had slowed down the advance of government forces, military officials said.
The government and its allies in the Saudi-led coalition recaptured Bab al-Mandab strait in October 2015, pushing the Iran-backed rebels further north. But the rebels still control nearly all of Yemen's Red Sea coast to the north, posing what the coalition says is a threat to international shipping.
Pro-government troops seized Dhubab in early October 2015, but the rebels managed to recapture the area in February.
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Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri ... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area assuming he's not dead like Mullah Omar. He lost major face when he ordered the nascent Islamic State to cease and desist and merge with the orthodx al-Qaeda spring, al-Nusra... has denounced what he said was a dishonest propaganda campaign by rival group ISIS against his organization, in an audio message released Thursday. In the message found and translated by US-based watchdog the SITE Intelligence Group, the Egyptian myrmidon accuses ISIS leader His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us... of slandering his group.
In his message, the 65-year-old Zawahiri complained that al-Baghdadi had alleged that al-Qaeda opposes sectarian attacks on Shiites and was prepared to work with Christian leaders.
"The liars insist upon their falsehood, to the extent that they claimed we do not denounce Shiites," Zawahiri said, according to the translation of the message, which was released by al-Qaeda’s media arm. Zawahiri denied he had said that Christians could be partners in the governance of a future Islamic caliphate, having only said that they could go about their affairs within it.
"What I have said is that they are partners in the land, such as agriculture, trade, and money, and we keep their privacy in it, in accordance with the laws of our Sharia," he said. And he insisted he had not called for Shiite Moslems to be spared, but had suggested focusing attacks on Shiite-led Iraqi forces and not on random atrocities against civilians.
"I had told them several times to stop kabooms in markets, husseiniyats and mosques, and to concentrate on military, security and police forces and Shiite militiamen," he said. A husseiniyat is a Shiite place of worship and the Iraqi security forces, in their battle against ISIS, are backed by Shiite religious militias.
Zawahiri also denied al-Baghdadi’s charge that al-Qaeda had supported ousted former Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, an Islamist who attempted to rule through the ballot box. Thursday’s message did not include any footage of Zawahiri speaking.
[RUDAW.NET] The United States disagreed with Iraqi Vice President Nouri al-Maliki’s remarks that Israel is a bigger threat to the Middle East than terrorism and that Iran and Iraq should fight the Zionist enemy side by side.
"We certainly don’t agree with the sentiment that Israel is a terrorist threat," said US State Department front man John Kirby on Friday in response to a question about Maliki’s statement. "I mean, that just flies in the face of fact."
Al-Maliki, the former Iraqi prime minister, made inflammatory statements towards US allies Israel, Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... and the Kurdistan Region at a presser in the Iranian capital Tehran on Wednesday.
"I tell you of the threat that surpasses terrorism which is the Zionist enemy and we should all stand on one front against this threat and Israeli political, cultural, economic and media plots," al-Maliki had remarked.
Kirby was also asked of US government support for the Iraq and about al-Maliki saying that the Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitary could be deployed to Syria.
"I would just tell you that we remain proud of the support that we are offering to the Government of Iraq in Baghdad ‐ military support, economic support, some of which we just talked about, certainly the political support to the reforms that the prime minister (Haider al-Abadi) is pursuing," he responded.
Maliki said that Iraq was grateful to Iran for its support in the form of arms and ammunition in the fight against ISIS and Kirby added that it was understandable that Iraq wanted to work with its neighbors to counter ISIS.
"All we require is that those nations who are going to be thus involved, that they do it in a way that supports the legitimate, democratically elected government in Baghdad," Kirby said. "And does so also in a way that doesn’t inflame sectarian tensions."
Posted by: Fred ||
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#3
During the Pelosi / Reid years it was clear that the Democrats would sabotage aid for him and his regime. How much was principled aversion to a thug and how much was naked anti-Bush partisanship is open to debate. Iran however courted him and the rest is history.
[AA.TR] A total of 4,500 civilians have fled northern Iraqi city of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... over the past three days as government forces launched the second phase of battles to retake the city form ISIS terrorists, an Iraqi aid official said Sunday.
Iyad Rafid of Iraqi Red Islamic Thingy told Anadolu Agency that civilians who fled from south and east of Mosul were settled in camps by the Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration along with local and international aid agencies.
"1,500 civilians were placed in Hazir refugee camp while another 3,000 were settled in al-Jad'ah camp [outskirts of Mosul]," he noted.
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Eighty families fled the areas held by the Islamic State group in Qaim District toward the liberated areas, a member of Anbar Provincial Council revealed on Sunday.
Ezzal al-Fahdawi, member of Anbar Provincial Council, said in a press statement, “Iraqi security forces received 80 families who fled the areas held by the Islamic State in Qaim District, west of Anbar.”
“The families are mostly women and children, and they were transferred to a displaced camp in Khalidiyah District, in eastern Ramadi,” Fahdawi explained.
“The majority of families who fled Qaim paid 700 USD per person to the Islamic state’s members to allow them flee the district,” Fahdawi further added.
Fahdawi also declared that the coming days will be the hardest due to the displacement of hundreds of families from the western areas, which will need extra aids for the displaced families.
[ARA News] Raqqa – Islamic State (ISIS) militants ransacked civilian houses on Sunday, in Syria’s northeastern Raqqa Governorate. Local sources reported that ISIS-controlled al-Hisba police confiscated dozens of satellite receivers and arrested the owners.
ISIS extremists executed at least 12 people in Raqqa for possessing satellite devices, activists told ARA News.
ISIS claimed that the confiscations and executions were part of a broader campaign against “corrupt television.”
“The jihadist group beheaded 12 men in the Meshallab neighbourhood in central Raqqa for using satellite receivers,” media activist Khalid al-Omari told ARA News.
“The victims were brutally executed in public on charges of violating the Caliphate’s rules,” the source said.
ISIS militants destroyed the collected devices, and threatened to mercilessly punish anyone in possession of satellite receivers.
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[RUDAW.NET] A jacket wallah killed at least 12 people and maimed 39 at a prominent Baghdad market in an apparent ISIS attack on Sunday morning.
"A soldier at the gate of Jamilah Market opened fire on a suicide boom-mobile after noticing a suspect vehicle but the terrorist blew up his car," government front man Saad Maan said in a televised statement.
Jamilah is the city's primary vegetable market and located in the primarily Shiite district of Sadr City northeast of Baghdad.
ISIS claimed the attack on a popular terrorist website, using a nom de guerre indicating the bomber was Iraqi and saying that he targeted members of Iraq's Shiite Moslem majority, AFP news agency reported.
As an international coalition continues to drive ISIS fighters out of major Iraqi cities like Fallujah and djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , attacks in the capital have increased in frequency. In the past week about 100 people were killed.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) A security source revealed, that 19 civilians were either killed or wounded in a suicide bombing that hit a popular market blBaladiyat area, in eastern Baghdad, Alsumaria News reported on Sunday.
The source said, “A suicide bomber, wearing an explosive vest, blew himself up in a popular market in Baladiyat area, eastern Baghdad, killing six civilians and wounding 13 others.”
“Security forces cordoned off the area of incident, while ambulances transferred the wounded to a nearby hospital and the bodies to the forensic medicine department,” the source added on condition of anonymity.
Today, Baghdad witnessed several terrorist attacks, using booby-trapped vehicles and suicide bombers that targeted civilians and security forces, and left dozens of casualties.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) A booby-trapped corpse exploded inside a morgue of a hospital in al-Sadr City, east of Baghdad, a security source told Alsumaria on Sunday.
The source said, “A corpse placed inside a morgue in Sadr Hospital, in al-Sadr City, exploded at noon today, causing material losses but no human casualties.”
“The corpse belongs to the suicide bomber who blew himself up, this morning, in Jamila area, east of Baghdad. Explosive material found on the corpse’s abdominal area,” the source added on condition of anonymity.
Earlier today, a suicide attack hit Jamila area, east of Baghdad, leaving seven dead and 15 wounded.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) A security source revealed that one person was killed and four others were wounded in a bomb blast near a playing-field in al-Madain, southeast of Baghdad, Alsumaria reported on Sunday.
The source told the Iraqi media outlet that an improvised explosive device, emplaced near a popular football playing-field in al-Wardiyah area in Madain district, exploded this evening, killing one person and wounding four others.
Security forces cordoned off the area of incident, the source added. Ambulances evacuated the wounded to a nearby hospital and the body to the forensic medicine department, the source explained on condition of anonymity.
Today, a suicide attack hit Jamila area, killing seven persons and wounding 15 others, while another attack in a popular market in Baladiyat area left 19 casualties.
Also, another IED attack took place near Diyala Bridge, south of Baghdad, and resulted in the injury of three civilians.
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[DAWN] MANY in the West view Pakistain as a safe haven for transnational terrorist organizations, and India is attempting very hard to exploit this global opinion. In reality, however, terrorist violence kills more innocent civilians and security personnel in Pakistain compared to all of Europe in any given year. Regrettably, Western societies ignore the causalities of terrorism inside Pakistain and apply different standards for valuing Pak life.
India has consistently attempted to ban and blacklist the founder of Jaish-e-Mohammad ...literally Army of Mohammad, a Pak-based Deobandi terror group founded by Maulana Masood Azhar in 2000, after he split with the Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin. In 2002 the government of Pervez Musharraf banned the group, which changed its name to Khaddam ul-Islam and continued doing what it had been doing before without missing a beat... (JeM) Maulana Masood Azhar ...One of the major players in Pak terrorism. In early 1994, India incarcerated him for his terrorist activities. In 1995, foreign tourists were kidnapped in Jammu and Kashmir. The kidnappers included the release of Masood Azhar among their demands. One of the hostages managed to escape but the rest were eventually killed. In 1999, he was freed by the Indian government in exchange for passengers on hijacked Indian Airlines Flight 814 that had been diverted to Kandahar. The hijackers were led by Masood Azhar's brother, Ibrahim Athar. Once he was handed over to the hijackers, they fled to Pak territory despite the fact that Islamabad had earlier stated that any of the hijackers would be jugged at the border. The Pak government had also previously indicated that Azhar would be allowed to return home since he did not face any charges there. Shortly after his release, he made a public address to an estimated 10,000 people in Karachi, firing up the rubes against America and India... through a United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... Security Council sanctions committee. Such efforts have been repeatedly blocked by China which is acting in support of Pakistain as the latter views India’s attempts as politically motivated and intended in the long run to discredit the genuine Kashmiri freedom movement. Indeed, the ban seems to only serve a symbolic purpose. It would mean no more than a global travel ban and an asset freeze; in any case Azhar has been living mostly under protective custody, and JeM is already classified as a terrorist organization -- banned by both Pakistain and the sanctions committee, and subject to a strict UN sanctions regime which Pakistain is presently bound to enforce regardless of Azhar’s status.
Pakistain, however, must keep its eyes on the ball. Today, it is uncontested that terrorism is a very serious internal threat to Pakistain, and geopolitics aside, Pakistain must seriously realise that its national and international obligations for combating terrorism are not mutually exclusive. By implementing its domestic laws on combating terrorism against minority groups, while in concert respecting the fundamental human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. and freedoms of individuals enshrined in the Constitution, Pakistain can automatically comply with virtually all of its counterterrorism international legal obligations.
Even though it might be politically hard to swallow, the government must act against influential leaders of radical organisations engaged in spreading hate and terrorism — and not just against those which it classifies as involved in anti-state activities — by designating them as “proscribed persons” under Article 11EE of the Fourth Schedule of the ATA. This would allow the government to constantly monitor and keep under tight surveillance such proscribed persons and punish any violators who misuse religious institutions to provoke terrorist violence against the most venerable segments of society.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/09/2017
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Pakistain must seriously realise that its national and international obligations for combating terrorism are not mutually exclusive.
A military official says at least five people were killed, and scores wounded in airstrikes carried out by suspected Ruritanian U.S. warplanes in Al shabaab controlled areas near the coastal city of Kismayo on Sunday.
The officer told Radio Shabelle that the fighter jets fired at least 20 missiles on several Al shabaab camps, including Singaleer and Tuulo Kuusow, about 30Km north of Kismayo.
The airstrike has inflicted heavy casualties on residents in the villages under the Al shabaab control. According to the reports, the raid has left many livestock dead.
The aerial bombing comes as Al shabaab has retaken Bulo-Gadud area after the pull out of Jubbaland and Ethiopian forces who seized the area on Friday from the militants following a joint operation.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/09/2017
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Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
[Miami Herald] Annika Dean was waiting for her luggage at the Fort Lauderdale airport when she heard gunshots and turned to see a man walking toward her with a gun in his hand. Mr. Bartosiewicz and wife at the photo to the right.
As a teacher in Broward County schools, Dean had received disaster training, but during the school shooting drills there had always been somewhere to hide. Under a desk, in a utility closet, behind a locked classroom door. But at the airport, with the gunman just 30 feet from her, Dean had nowhere to go.
"There was no way I could have escaped," she said. "I would have been right in his path if I had tried to evacuate through the doors."
Instead, Dean dove to the ground next to a luggage cart and kept her eyes on the carpet, afraid to look up. People all around her had dropped to the floor. Dean stayed still and quiet, but a few passengers shouted obscenities at the shooter. He continued shooting, not speaking.
For the first 30 seconds, Dean prayed fervently that she would survive and that her two children would not be left without a mother. Then a man dropped down and lay on top of Dean, quietly telling her that he would protect her. The shooter walked over to them, the man later told Dean, and began to shoot over them, but Dean kept her eyes down and didn’t realize how close the shooter was.
It was hard to know exactly where the shooter was because he didn’t say a word. "He wasn’t talking, he was very quiet," said Dean. "Other than the gunshots, which were very loud," Dean didn’t hear anything else. "Sometimes he sounded close, sometimes he sounded farther away," she said.
After what Dean said felt like a minute and a half of shooting, the police arrived. By then, the gunman was on the other side of the baggage-claim area, and when it was clear that he had been detained, Dean and the man who had saved her got up from the floor, both unharmed.
"The first thing I said to him was I thanked him and told him that it was terrifying and what he did brought me comfort, that it was just so comforting," she said. "I thanked him throughout the day and told him he was a hero."
The man who saved Dean, identified by the Sun Sentinel as Tony Bartosiewicz, could not be reached for comment. His daughter told the Sun Sentinel that her father was on a cruise and could not be reached. She said he was a retired electrician from Rochester, New York, who was traveling with his wife, Jennifer Cleeton, who was in a different part of the baggage-claim area when the shooting occurred and was also unharmed.
[DAWN] The juvenile housemaid allegedly tortured by the family of an Islamabad additional district and sessions judge, has been recovered, police sources told DawnNews.
Police sources said that the girl Taiba was recovered from a house in the suburb area of Islamabad.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wreckage, Captain Poindexter wished he had a cup of coffee. Even instant would do... Islamabad police officials are reluctant to either confirm or deny the development, saying that the matter is sub judice so they are unable to comment over the issue.
The 10-year-old had been working as a domestic servant at the house additional judge in Islamabad when she was recovered by police 24 hours after a neighbour complained that Taiba was being severely mistreated by the couple.
The judge and his wife were facing an inquiry for their alleged involvement in keeping the juvenile housemaid in wrongful confinement, burning her hand over a missing broom, beating her with a ladle, detaining her in a storeroom and threatening her with dire consequences, when a person claimed to be the father of Taiba appeared before a court of law and forgave the accused.
The Supreme Court (SC) had on Friday ordered DNA tests to confirm the identity of the parents of the 10-year-old child maid who was allegedly tortured by her employers ─ an influential judge and his wife ─ and ordered a full police probe into the allegations.
The 10-year-old child maid was allegedly tortured by her employers ─ an influential judge and his wife.
The court took suo motu notice of the case after the girl's parents 'forgave' her alleged tormentors.
The court took suo motu ...a legal term, from the Latin. Roughly translated it means I saw what you did, you bastard... notice of the case after the girl's parents 'forgave' her alleged tormentors. The location of the child is presently unknown.
Adding to the confusion, two women previously unheard of appeared before the Chief Justice of Pakistain (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar in court today, each claiming the girl in question is their child, after which the judge requested DNA tests.
CJP Nisar, who is heading a two-member bench hearing the suo motu case, remarked, "No 'agreements' can be reached in matters concerning fundamental human rights." One man's rights are another man's existential threat. "Even parents cannot deny children their fundamental rights," the judge observed. "How did they reach a settlement on torture against the child?"
Posted by: Fred ||
01/09/2017
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[BostonHerald] Like Chipotle, the Cleveland Browns and the Democratic Party, the bust-out Boston Globe is trying to “reinvent” itself.
Hey! Hey! The Browns have hope!
In a memo to his decimated staff this week, editor Brian McGrory says the Globe will no longer be the “paper of record” (as if it ever was). Instead, he said, the Globe will be an “organization of interest.”
Sorry, not interested.
McGrory’s memo reads like it was composed by a recent graduate of an ESL program, or perhaps translated from another language, most likely consultantese. Everything is to be interesting, “relentlessly interesting.”
After all these years of printing dreary left wing agitprop, how will the Globe become interesting?
“We’ll set up an Audience Engagement team,” McGrory writes. “We will refine and refine again the Hubs system that was proposed by the Mission working group.”
Yeah, that should bring back the readers all right. The Registry of Motor Vehicles couldn’t have put it any better.
Check out the job titles in the memo — senior deputy managing editor for local news, deputy managing editor for audience engagement, deputy managing editor for operations, etc. More at the link
#3
... TRANSLATION: "We're doing this crap to give the senior stockholders a chance to sell before the stocks attain roughly the same value as used Kleenex. The end is near, but we're part of the Media; we don't dare admit it's over until the morning we lock the doors without telling anyone and then we'll blame it on the Deplorables."
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/09/2017 10:33
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
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.
GM quickly denied Trump’s tweet, and in a press release that same day, the company claimed that all Cruze sedans sold in the US are “built in GM’s assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio”, and that GM builds the Cruze hatchback for global markets in Mexico, with only a small percentage being sold in the US: 
...(al-Bunyan al-Marsous, 
At least 3 people were reported dead and 17 others wounded following twin explosions in the Somali capital of Mogadishu on yesterday evening, Garowe Online reports.
Turkish police have identified an alleged Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militant who attacked a famous nightclub in Istanbul as Uzbek national Abdulkadir Masharipov.
[DAWN] TOBA TEK SINGH: A man allegedly chopped off an arm of his wife and also injured his 10-year-old daughter who came to her mother’s rescue over some dispute at Basti Oddanwali near Pirmahal on Saturday.
[Libya Observer] The 
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Taliban
[RUDAW.NET] A senior ISIS member in Kirkuk responsible for many civilian and Peshmerga deaths, was killed in a joint operation between Kurdistan's Counter-Terrorism forces (CTD) and the international coalition, the Kurdistan Region Security Council announced in a statement Sunday afternoon. 
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says his administration has reached an agreement with 
[ALMASDARNEWS] The so-called "Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham" (ISIS) continued their campaign of executions around the eastern countryside of Syria, killing 3 men for allegedly spying on their fighters in the Deir Ezzor Governorate.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least ten Taliban 
With President-elect Donald Trump demanding more ships, the Navy is proposing the biggest shipbuilding boom since the end of the Cold War to meet threats from a resurgent Russia and saber-rattling China.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Video footage emerged showing Iraqi Army drones targeting jihadist gatherings in the Wadi Akkab region of southern 
[Dhaka Tribune] A top terrorist among the 
KISMAYO, Somalia- Al Shabaab fighters have retaken control of Bulo-Gadud near the port town of Kismayo from Jubbaland state forces backed by the African Union (AU) troops, who seized it earlier on Friday, Garowe Online reports.
At least 68 fighters have been killed in two days of fierce battles between Yemeni forces and Houthi rebels near the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait, military officials said Sunday.
Zawahiri
[RUDAW.NET] The United States disagreed with Iraqi Vice President Nouri al-Maliki’s remarks that Israel is a bigger threat to the Middle East than terrorism and that Iran and Iraq should fight the Zionist enemy side by side.
[AA.TR] A total of 4,500 civilians have fled northern Iraqi city of 
...One of the major players in Pak terrorism. In early 1994, India incarcerated him for his terrorist activities. In 1995, foreign tourists were kidnapped in Jammu and Kashmir. The kidnappers included the release of Masood Azhar among their demands. One of the hostages managed to escape but the rest were eventually killed. In 1999, he was freed by the Indian government in exchange for passengers on hijacked Indian Airlines Flight 814 that had been diverted to Kandahar. The hijackers were led by Masood Azhar's brother, Ibrahim Athar. Once he was handed over to the hijackers, they fled to Pak territory despite the fact that Islamabad had earlier stated that any of the hijackers would be jugged at the border. The Pak government had also previously indicated that Azhar would be allowed to return home since he did not face any charges there. Shortly after his release, he made a public address to an estimated 10,000 people in Karachi, firing up the rubes against America and India...
A military official says at least five people were killed, and scores wounded in airstrikes carried out by suspected 
[Miami Herald] Annika Dean was waiting for her luggage at the Fort Lauderdale airport when she heard gunshots and turned to see a man walking toward her with a gun in his hand.
[DAWN] The juvenile housemaid allegedly tortured by the family of an Islamabad additional district and sessions judge, has been recovered, police sources told DawnNews.
