Welcome to our rolling coverage of the Dutch election, with the latest news, views and reactions to the divisive race.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte's center-right VVD party is attempting to fend off populist leader Geert Wilders in parliamentary elections that have garnered international attention.
In a diplomatic spat Turkey has accused Netherlands of Nazi practices and of being responsible for the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, reportedly playing into the popularity of VVD.
Six main parties are predicted to enter parliament: the ruling VVD, Wilder's Party for Freedom, the centrist D66, Green-Left, the Socialist Party and the social democrat Labor Party ((PvdA)
Voting closed at 9pm local time (2000 UTC/GMT), with pollsters Ipsos set to publish the first exit poll results immediately after.
Some key posts as of 4:35 p.m. EDT. Go to the link to see the latest:
21.15 Gert Wilders' anti-Islam PVV tied with two other parties in second place, taking just over 12 percent of the vote and 19 seats.
21.10 Exit polls show Prime Minister Mark Rutte's liberal VVD party leading the Dutch parliamentary elections, taking a projected 31 seats. It looks like a victory for the incumbent, but the party will have to reckon with 10 fewer seats in the 150-member lower house.
20.10 Ipsos reported just before 8pm that the turnout rate was 73 percent - that's considerably higher than at the same time in 2012 (60 percent) but slightly lower than in 2006 (70 percent).
18.00 Turnout hits the 55 percent mark, Dutch public broadcaster NOS reports. The high turnout has forced the city of Amsterdam to print 25,000 additional ballots.
15.30 DW's Rebecca Staudenmaier reporting from Venlo noted that no-one she had talked to would admit to supporting Wilders, but that immigration was an issue for many of them.
12.16 Rutte says the elections can send a message to the world. "We have the upcoming French and German elections. And this is a chance for a big democracy like the Netherlands to make a point - to stop this toppling over of the domino stones of the wrong sort of populism," he said.
11.24 Many voters are complaining about the sheer size of the ballot papers - about 900 names from 28 parties are on the paper, the Telegraaf reported.
In a rare move, polling stations in Rotterdam and The Hague were allowed to stay open beyond the 2000 GMT closing time in order to allow all those in line to cast their ballots.
In The Hague's city center where many residents are from Turkish, Moroccan or Surinamese backgrounds, a steady flow of voters -‐ many of them women wearing headscarves ‐- came and went at polling stations.
One Moslem voter told AFP she was afraid of Wilders' fiery ...a single two-syllable word carrying connotations of both incoherence and viciousness. A fiery delivery implies an audience of rubes and yokels, preferably forming up into a mob... anti-Islam rhetoric.
"If you have one person who criticizes, it's OK. But every time another person comes and then another one... then it's really hard to defend yourself," student Khadiga Kallouh, 22 said.
"My mother has never voted before, but now she has and encouraged the whole family to do so because the situation is serious," said another headscarf-wearing woman.
[Daily Caller] Scientists discovered a 400,000-year-old fossil human cranium in Portugal, altering the understanding of how humans evolved.
The cranium is one of the oldest fossils of its type ever discovered and the westernmost human fossil from the mid-Pleistocene epoch ever found in Europe. Other mid-Pleistocene fossils found by scientists are often poorly dated and lack a clear archaeological context.
"This is an interesting new fossil discovery from the Iberian Peninsula, a crucial region for understanding the origin and evolution of the Neandertals," Dr. Rolf Quam, an anthropology professor at Binghamton University, said in a press statement Monday. "The Aroeria cranium increases the anatomical diversity in the human fossil record from this time period, suggesting different populations showed somewhat different combinations of features."
The cranium was near abundant animal remains and stone tools, including numerous hand axes. Its proximity to these these things indicates the humans of the region were more modern and diverse than originally believed as they were hunting and using tools.
[Defensetech] The U.S. has increasing security concerns about China’s first overseas military base close to the hub of operations for U.S. Africa Command in Djibouti, a U.S. commander told Congress Thursday.
Marine Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, commander of AfriCom, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he expected the Chinese base on the Horn of Africa to be operational later this summer.
Without getting specific, Waldhauser said he recently met with Djibouti’s President Ismail Omar Guelleh "and expressed our concerns about some of the things that are important to us about what the Chinese should not do at that location."
The Chinese base would be about four miles from the U.S. base at Camp Lemonnier, one of the Pentagon’s largest and most important foreign military installations, where about 3,000 U.S. military personnel and contractors are assigned to Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa.
Camp Lemonnier is also home to Special Operations Command (Forward) ‐ East Africa, which has carried out operations against Al Shabab militants in Somalia and the Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula group in Yemen.
#3
A Jew in Djibouti one Christmas,
Enjoying a new Chinese business,
Encountered his chaplain.
"Verklempt, eh?" asked Kaplan.
"No, kafir, it's just my strabismus."
#5
Me too. A couple of the ancestors (not Jews but sharpies from polyglot environment who picked up whatever they heard) spoke some, but I rarely saw them. Pidgin German and old records usually gets me the gist, but yeah, it'd be fun to do it for real. The catch has always been that crazy alphabet. And laziness. Maybe it's time.
Irony alert
A suicide bombing killed at least 25 people Wednesday in the Palace of Justice, the main courthouse in Damascus, Syrian state TV reports, citing police.
A number of people were wounded in the attack, which occurred during work hours. The Syrian prosecutor general said the strike was timed to inflict many casualties
Police tried to prevent the attacker from entering, but he was able to force his way into the location and blew himself up.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/15/2017
09:06 ||
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[MAXIM] Next time you pass by a sexy stranger, rather than imagining her identity or fanciful ideas of your future life together, simply snap her photo and track down her Facebook. Hey, it's not creepy or invasive at all! Requires annual (15 April) updating. Use Form 4868 if an extension is required.
A new app developed by British entrepreneur Jack Kenyon called "Facezam" is seeking to become the Shazam of faces. While the latter lets you identify music you like through audio recognition, Facezam matches your photos of strangers with their Facebook accounts.
It works scanning billions of Facebook profile shots by second and can reportedly match up with the right out in just 10 seconds and with 70 percent accuracy. "He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead." Revelation 13:16
The technology could help reduce crime by making everyone identifiable, Kenyon had claimed, adding that the public implications of the app couldn't be predicted. "There may be a mix of positives and negatives," he said.
The Biometric Automated Toolset (BAT) and the Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment (HIIDE) system also are used in Iraq and Afghanistan. Link
#5
It is creepy and invasive and borders on or is stalking. "You don't know me but I took your picture in a crowd, looked you up on Facebook, and tracked you down. Do you want to go out?"
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/15/2017 13:20
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#9
#3 Time to buy that paste on groucho mustache and ugly pair of sun glasses...
Was playing the other day with a neural network to recognize images. Got me wondering about using bold streaks of face paint to defeat facial recognition. Rather like dazzle camouflage for ships back before radar became The Next Big Thing.
[Ynet] German authorities on Tuesday raided apartments linked to a mosque in the city of Hildesheim visited by Tunisian failed asylum seeker Anis Amri, who drove a truck into a Berlin Christmas market in December and killed 12 people.
The local state interior ministry said more than 300 police searched the apartments of eight people and shut down the mosque and the association which ran it, saying it recruited young Moslems to join 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.... murderous Moslems in Iraq and Syria.
"The ban of the association breaks up a hot spot of the radical Salafist scene in Germany," Lower Saxony Interior Minister Boris Pistorius said, referring to Moslems who espouse a strict interpretation of Sunni Islam.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/15/2017
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[Ynet] Two suspected members of Yemen's al-Qaeda were killed on Tuesday in an air raid on the southern Hadramawt province, a security official said.
The two, going by the names Abu Jandal al-Hadrami and Abu Hashim al-Sharuri, were killed in what appeared to be a US air strike, the official said, requesting that his name be withheld.
The United States has conducted more than 40 air raids, including dronezaps, against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000... (AQAP) in March alone.
Many of the strikes have targeted towns in southern provinces where the radical group is known to operate.
At least 25 suspected AQAP members have been killed in the raids.
The United States regards AQAP as the Islamist Death Eater network's most dangerous branch. However, we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by... Washington rarely reports on its drone raids on Yemen, which began in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Hadramawt, Yemen's largest governorate, is currently under government control. AQAP continues to hold limited sway in the province.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/15/2017
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[AlAhram] Employers may bar staff from wearing visible religious symbols, the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... 's top court ruled on Tuesday in its first decision on the issue of women wearing Islamic headscarves at work.
On the eve of a Dutch election in which Moslem immigration has been a key issue and a bellwether for attitudes to migration and refugee policies across Europe, the Court of Justice (ECJ) gave a joined judgment in the cases of two women, in La Belle France and Belgium, who were dismissed for refusing to remove headscarves.
"An internal rule of an undertaking which prohibits the visible wearing of any political, philosophical or religious sign does not constitute direct discrimination," the Court said in a statement.
"However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... in the absence of such a rule, the willingness of an employer to take account of the wishes of a customer no longer to have the employer's services provided by a worker wearing an Islamic headscarf cannot be considered an occupational requirement that could rule out discrimination."
#1
"an undertaking which prohibits the visible wearing of any political, philosophical or religious sign does not constitute direct discrimination," the Court said in a statement."
I've got a feeling that Muslims will ignore this ruling; instead Sharia Law will be the law they obey--particularly in those areas where police do not go.
Does this court have any teeth to enforce such a law? What penalties arise from such a ruling for someone who ignores the decision?
#3
How will Khallid Shabazz handle “the spiritual affairs of 14,000 mostly Christian soldiers”?
Well, there is that question begging an answer. I would suppose there are other Christian chaplains who can be sought out in the army for spiritual needs.
[Townhall] Conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza claimed Monday that he was targeted in his 2014 prosecution for political reasons and that former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara acted as a "henchman" for the Obama administration.
D’Souza told "Fox & Friends" that Bharara’s office had been blocking a congressional oversight committee from obtaining his case file but Congress has now received it. The document, he said, shows "a revealing window into Bharara’s way of doing business."
"The first thing that's highlighted inside my case file is I’m a conservative. I am a prominent critic of the Obama administration. Now, this should be completely irrelevant in the decision about whether to prosecute me, it should be beside the point," he said. "But, of course, in Bharara’s case it was the point. So, there is evidence in this case file and -- and there is a lot more that this was a political prosecution conducted by Bharara as the henchman for the Obama administration."
In 2014 D’Souza was sentenced to five years’ probation, eight months in a "community confinement center" and a $30,000 fine after being found guilty of violating federal campaign finance laws.
#1
D'Souza got a raw deal. How many left-wing politicians have violated campaign finance laws with impunity? Obama did tend to punish enemies by weaponizing the government against them. There's a lot of "splaining" to do and things unaccounted for the past 8 years.
h/t Instapundit
[NationalReview] The Organization Man, whom we first met in 1956, is still very much with us. And his eccentric career since that time partly answers a question that mystifies many contemporary conservatives: Given that progressives profess to hate corporations, why are our corporate leaders so progressive? It is easy to understand their taking a self-interested stand against the Trump administration over things such as the H-1B program and visa waivers, which interfere with their access to workers and customers, respectively. But 130 corporate leaders -- including the CEOs of American Airlines and Bank of America -- getting together to come down on North Carolina over public-bathroom rules that annoy transgender activists? Together with business leaders who have no presence in North Carolina and nothing to do with the state or its politics?
Is it only cravenness -- or something more? Long but informative. IMO, People on top, don't really like vertical mobility
#1
I thought it was to have the government protect their ass...ets.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/15/2017 7:21
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#2
OPM. Other People's Money. It is easy to enjoy the selfish glow of faux virtue when you can donate money that belongs to others. The shareholder don't need their dividends when it is for the children (but your golden parachute has to sparkle!)
h/t Instapundit
As the northeastern U.S. gets pummeled by Winter Storm Stella, it’s worth remembering The New York Times published an op-ed predicting the "end of snow" more than three years ago. Newspaper of Record
#4
That's why they now call it "climate change" instead of the old "global warming". C'mon, you guys. Try to keep up.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/15/2017 12:52
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#5
If you make enough outlandish predictions, you will eventually get one right and can tell everyone "I told you so!". For sufficiently large values of 'eventually.
#6
I recall in the 1970's that the so called 'climatologists' were screaming and hollering about how "we're all gonna freeze!" due to temperature dropping world wide.
[Right Scoop] Ok this is a pretty incredible story from Judge Napolitano on Fox News. He alleges, via three intelligence sources who’ve come forward to Fox News, that Obama actually used the GCHQ ‐ the British Intelligence Agency who he says has 24/7 access to the NSA’s database ‐ to get spy on Trump’s phone calls during the campaign and his transition period to president. Need a small favour, it's those pesky Russians again.
Three intelligence sources have informed Fox News that President Obama went outside the chain of command. He didn’t use the NSA, he didn’t use the CIA, he didn’t use the FBI, and he didn’t use the Department of Justice.
He used GCHQ... They have 24/7 access to the NSA database. So by simply having two people go to them saying ’President Obama needs transcripts of conversations involving candidate Trump, conversations involving President Elect Trump’, he’s able to get it.
And there’s no American fingerprints on this.
Judge Napolitano goes on to explain how a ’wiretap’ works these days, which he says is all done electronically by computer. He explains that the NSA has 24/7 365 access to every mainframe of every telecom provider and computer service provider that does business in the US. And they share that information with other intelligence services like the GCHQ.
Then he adds "What happened to the guy who ordered this? Resigned three days after Donald Trump was inaugurated."
#2
There is one problem with this scenario: GCHQ is run by the US and UK 50/50. Therefore any request to the GCHQ would be considered "going through the chain of command" with all the legal liability that goes with it.
Also, why go through the trouble of getting a FISA Court warrant if you can just get an "informal" tap from the British?
More likely the answer comes from the recent WIKILEAKS dump: The CIA has a hacking/cyber warfare capability that dwarfs that of the NSA. However, they have declassified all of their code. If you can find it, you can use it. Everyone, from the DNC to contractors for the NSC to ex-MI6 can use the same suite of tools to hack Trump Tower.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
03/15/2017 13:19
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#3
The CIA has a hacking/cyber warfare capability that dwarfs that of the NSA. However, they have declassified all of their code. If you can find it, you can use it. Everyone, from the DNC to contractors for the NSC to ex-MI6 can use the same suite of tools to hack Trump Tower.
A binary extension of their gun running and shi* disturbance operations as it were.
#4
The CIA/NSA and MI5/6 have a long running agreement with each other: You spy on our citizens and we'll spy on your subjects, and then share all info equally.
That way nobody's violating laws against spying on their own people, technically.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/15/2017 19:27
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[Free Beacon] A group of leading senators is calling on newly installed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to immediately launch an investigation into efforts by the Obama administration to sway foreign elections by sending taxpayer funds to "extreme and sometimes violent political activists" that promote leftist causes, according to a copy of the letter.
The lawmakers disclosed multiple conversations with foreign diplomats who outlined active political meddling by the Obama administration's State Department, including the use of taxpayer funds to support leftist causes in Macedonia, Albania, Latin America, and Africa.
A portion of this State Department funding appears to have gone to organizations supported by the controversial liberal billionaire George Soros, according to the letter, which was authored by Republican Sens. Mike Lee (Utah), Jim Inhofe (Okla.), Thom Tillis (N.C.), Ted Cruz (Texas), David Perdue (Ga.), and Bill Cassidy (La.).
The senators are asking Tillerson to launch a full-scale investigation into these funding efforts in order to determine how exactly the Obama administration sought to promote left-leaning causes and political parties across the globe.
#4
A portion of this State Department funding appears to have gone to organizations supported by the controversial liberal billionaire George Soros....
#5
Can it be the first sign of ValJar's fingerprints begin to emerge? Consider each issue in light of how it affects Iran's needs and influence, not American interests.
[IsraelTimes] Jordanian woman charged in connection with 2001 terror attack on Jerusalem pizzeria that killed 15; sought by Justice Department over deaths of US citizens.
The US has charged a Jordanian woman in connection with a 2001 bombing of a Jerusalem pizza restaurant that killed 15 people and injured dozens of others.
The case against Ahlam Aref Ahmad al-Tamimi was filed under seal in 2013 but announced publicly by the Justice Department on Tuesday.
Al-Tamimi pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in an Israeli court in 2003 and was sentenced to life in prison. But eight years in to her sentence, she was released as part of a prisoner exchange with Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, for IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, and returned to Jordan in 2011.
US officials are seeking to take her into custody, though it was not clear Tuesday that she would ever be brought to the US to stand trial.
The charge against al-Tamimi stems from an August 9, 2001 bombing at a Sbarro restaurant that, in addition to killing 15 people, also injured roughly 122 others. Two of those killed were US nationals.
The criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday charged al-Tamimi with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction outside the US against US nationals.
It accuses her of having agreed in the summer of 2001 to carry out attacks on behalf of the military wing of Hamas and having traveled with the restaurant jacket wallah to Jerusalem. Prosecutors say she instructed the bomber to detonate the bomb, which was hidden in a guitar, in the area.
It wasn’t immediately clear if she had a lawyer.
Mary McCord, the acting head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, called al-Tamimi an "unrepentant terrorist."
"The charges unsealed today serve as a reminder that when Death Eaters target Americans anywhere in the world, we will never forget ‐ and we will continue to seek to ensure that they are held accountable."
The FBI has added al-Tamimi to its list of Most Wanted Terrorists.
[FoxNews] Red flags about the program have been raised for years. In 2004, seven top officials of the Holy Land Foundation – then the largest Muslim charity in the country – were indicted for providing material and upward of $12 million in financial support to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. The indictment stated that several of the religious leaders established the now-defunct charity by submitting false R visa applications on behalf of more than 200 immigrants from the Middle East.
[AnNahar] Prominent Lebanese businessman Qassem Tajeddine, who is close to Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... , has been tossed in the clink ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... in Morocco at Washington's request, media reports said on Tuesday.
LBCI television said Tajeddine, 61, was arrested at Casablanca's airport on Monday morning.
Information obtained by LBCI said the arrest was made "at the request of U.S. intelligence."
MTV said Tajeddine arrived at Casablanca's airport from Africa and was scheduled to travel to Beirut aboard a Royal Air Maroc plane.
Residents of the southern town of Hanaway, Tajeddine's hometown, described the arrest as a "kidnap," noting that "U.S. intelligence agencies have pressed Morocco to detain him."
According to MTV, Tajeddine's family has communicated with the Foreign Ministry and Minister Jebran Bassil is "following up on the case in person."
"Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, a member of AMAL, a not very subtle Hizbullah sock puppet... has also been following up on the issue from the very first moment," MTV added.
Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... had on Monday urged Lebanese authorities to follow up on the case.
"Regardless of the motives and circumstances behind Hajj Qassem Tajeddine's arrest, logic says that our State should ask about him," Jumblat tweeted.
The man and his brothers, Hussein and Ali, have been blacklisted by the United States since 2009.
According to reports, the U.S. Treasury has put him on its sanctions lists and accused him of laundering money and using the funds to "support terrorist activities."
Tajeddine is also accused of running several companies that "cover up for Hizbullah's activities in Africa."
Angola had frozen the economic activities of the Tajeddine family in recent years, "also at Washington's request," media reports have said.
Together with his two brothers, Qassem Tajeddine has built a global foodstuffs and real estate network in several countries across the world. The man is also involved in real estate projects in Leb.
In 2003, he was placed in durance vile Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! for two months in Belgium where he was interrogated over charges of "laundering money on behalf of Hizbullah."
#5
She claimed it was legal for her to do so under the First Ammendment Not true, another lie. By federal law, it is illegal to publish an unauthorized tax return:
“It shall be unlawful for any person to whom any return or return information (as defined in section 6103(b)) is disclosed in a manner unauthorized by this title thereafter willfully to print or publish in any manner not provided by law any such return or return information. Any violation of this paragraph shall be a felony punishable by a fine in any amount not exceeding $5,000, or imprisonment of not more than 5 years, or both, together with the costs of prosecution.”
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/15/2017 10:40
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#6
I read on instapundit that the 2005 taxes were released last year, so she didn't even get a scoop.
[HOSTED.AP.ORG] President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... earned $153 million and paid $36.5 million in income taxes in 2005, paying a roughly 25 percent effective tax rate thanks to a tax he has since sought to eliminate, according to highly sought-after tax documents disclosed Tuesday night.
The pages from Trump's federal tax return show the then-real estate mogul also reported a business loss of $103 million that year, although the documents don't provide detail. The forms show that Trump paid an effective tax rate of 24.5 percent, a figure well above the roughly 10 percent the average American taxpayer forks over each year, but below the 27.4 percent that taxpayers earning 1 million dollars a year average, according to data from the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.
The form were obtained by journalist David Cay Johnston, who runs a website called DCReport.org, and reported on MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show." Johnston, who has long reported on tax issues, said he received the documents in the mail, unsolicited.
Trump's hefty business loss appears to be a continued benefit from his use of a tax loophole in the 1990s, which allowed him to deduct previous losses in future years. In 1995, Trump reported a loss of more than $900 million, largely as a result of financial turmoil at his casinos.
Tax records obtained by The New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... last year showed the losses were so large they could have allowed Trump to cheat on taxes for up to 18 years. But Trump's 2005 filing shows another tax prevented him from realizing the full benefit of those deductions.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2017
01:05 ||
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#1
Gee, I wonder if any of this was NOT allowed by the IRS rules and laws passed by Congress?
I wonder if any in the media give a meadow muffin about legality?
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/15/2017 7:23
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#2
The spin on NBC news this morning is that President Trump's deductions ae legal, but lower than the level that the average American pays, that it is not illegal to hire someone to do your returns for you, and that he has not released his recent returns.
#3
Tax records obtained by The New York Times last year showed the losses were so large they could have allowed Trump to cheat on taxes for up to 18 years
It's not cheating if the IRS allows it, bugwit.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/15/2017 7:48
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#7
Bobby, She claimed it was legal for her to do so under the First Ammendment Not true, another lie. By federal law, it is illegal to publish an unauthorized tax return:
“It shall be unlawful for any person to whom any return or return information (as defined in section 6103(b)) is disclosed in a manner unauthorized by this title thereafter willfully to print or publish in any manner not provided by law any such return or return information. Any violation of this paragraph shall be a felony punishable by a fine in any amount not exceeding $5,000, or imprisonment of not more than 5 years, or both, together with the costs of prosecution.”
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/15/2017 10:42
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#8
Another thing the media will never tell you - IRS audit teams practically live at businesses like Trump's.
#10
IRS audit teams practically live at businesses like Trump's.
Posted by: Raj
Practically nothing, they do LIVE there in a business sense. I've worked at a couple of places where the IRS has their own offices right next to the internal auditors and the external auditors. They usually all seemed quite friendly, especially when the business was a defense contractor.
#3
I'm curious why this particular nomination seemed like a good idea.
Yeah, and in a post 9/11 United States I'm deeply concerned that roughly half of our congress and roughly the same portion of our population feel that national security is a "touchy issue" rather than Job 1.
[DW] Police in Spain have released photos of automatic rifles and other weapons covering a warehouse floor. Authorities fear the trove fed criminal and terrorist organizations in Europe.
After two months of examination and categorization, Spanish police on Tuesday finally revealed the extent of the massive weapons haul they undertook in January 2017.
According to the published police statement, the cache included 9,000 CETME fully automatic rifles, anti-aircraft guns, 400 shells and grenades, pistols, and revolvers.
Photos published by the police show piles of assault rifles, guns and weapons parts lying in stacks and leaning against the walls of a warehouse.
Cracking down on Europe's black market weapons
Spanish police originally seized the firearms in a raid undertaken on January 12 and 13 in the northern regions of Catalonia, Cantabria and the Basque country. The operation was initiated after the May 2014 shooting at the Jewish Museum in Belgium that left four dead and spurred authorities across Europe to crack down on black market weapons.
Police reported the group bought decommissioned weapons that they then reactivated. The pieces needed for such reactivation were found in the trove.
Alongside the thousands of arms, authorities also discovered material needed to falsify arms documentation and tools required to change the weapons' identification numbers. Europol, the EU police force that worked alongside Spanish authorities in the operation, believe the illegal firearms were intended for sale in Spain, La Belle France and Belgium.
"The seized weapons had an easy journey in the black market and posed a significant risk of being acquired by organized crime groups and terrorists," Europol said in a statement.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim spoke with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi over the phone on Tuesday about the fight against the Daesh terror group, Anadolu reported citing the Prime Ministry's press office in Ankara.
Yildirim said Turkey's contribution to the international coalition in the fight against Daesh would continue. He also expressed Turkey's position and expectations in the fight against terror, particularly against the PKK/PYD.
Abadi also said Iraq would not let any threat reach Turkey from Iraqi territory.
Define "Iraqi territory"...
In mid-February, Iraqi forces -- backed by a U.S.-led air coalition -- began new operations aimed at dislodging Daesh terrorists from western Mosul. The offensive came as part of a wider campaign launched last October to retake the entire city, which Daesh overran in mid-2014.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/15/2017
00:00 ||
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The Syrian Army units, aided by the Syrian air force and in cooperation with the supporting forces, thwarted an ISIL terrorist attack on the axes of the eastern direction of Deir Ezzor city.
SANA reporter said Tuesday that the army units clashed with ISIL-linked terrorist groups on the axes of the airport, Liwa al-Taamin and al-Jafra village and in the surroundings of al-Faoj, inflicting heavy losses upon the terrorists in personnel and equipment.
The source added that the Syrian air strikes against the terrorists who fled away left many on them dead and injured and destroyed their vehicles and fortifications.
Posted by: badanov ||
03/15/2017
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A United Nations probe announced on Tuesday that the regime in Syria intentionally bombed the Ain al-Fijeh spring in December, leaving more than five million people in Damascus without access to water.
“The information examined by the Commission confirms that the bombing of (the Ain al-Fijeh) spring was carried out by the Syrian regime,” the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria said in a report that branded the strike a “war crime.”
The report meanwhile dismissed regime allegations that rebels had contaminated the water.
Around 5.5 million people in Damascus and its suburbs were cut off from water when fighting intensified in Wadi Barada near Damascus in late December.
The regime accused the rebels of poisoning water resources and cutting off the mains, while the armed opposition said regime bombardment had destroyed the infrastructure.
The UN experts, who have never been granted access to Syria and who base their reports on interviews and documents, said they had found no “indications that the water was contaminated” before the spring was bombed on December 23.
“On the contrary, interviewees say that Wadi Barada residents used water up until the bombing of 23 December and no one experienced any symptoms of contamination,” the report said.
Following the bombing, the water was contaminated after shrapnel damaged fuel and chlorine storage facilities, it said. The bombing itself indicated that the “spring was purposely targeted,” the report found.
“While the presence of armed group fighters at (the Ain al-Fijeh) spring constituted a military target, … the damage caused … was grossly disproportionate to the military advantage anticipated or achieved,” it said.
“The attack amounts to the war crime of attacking objects indispensable for the survival of the civilian population, and further violated the principle of proportionality in attacks,” the report concluded.
At the end of January, Syria’s army regained control of Wadi Barada, which rebels first seized in 2012.
Earlier on Tuesday, the top UN human rights official called for tens of thousands of detainees to be released from Syria’s prisons and for torturers to be brought to court as part of a lasting peace.
Former Syrian detainees also testified before the UN Human Rights Council about their suffering and concern for men, women and children still in custody of the regime or of extremist groups including al-Nusra Front and ISIS.
“Today in a sense the entire country has become a torture-chamber; a place of savage horror and absolute injustice,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein.
“Ensuring accountability, establishing the truth and providing reparations must happen if the Syrian people are ever to find reconciliation and peace,” he told the Geneva forum.
Zeid urged the warring sides to halt torture and executions and to free detainees or at least provide basic information to their families.
The Syrian regime delegation did not attend but has denied allegations of systematic torture. The envoy from Russia, its main ally, called the event a “waste of valuable time”.
Noura Al-Ameer, a former detainee and activist, cited the case of Ranya, a woman detained in 2012 with six of her children and still missing.
“Many other women are detained with their children, detained in places not even fit for animals, let alone fit for children,” al-Ameer told the council.
Paulo Pinheiro, chairman of the UN Commission of Inquiry, noted that its 2014 report found that the scale of deaths in prisons indicated that the Assad regime was responsible for “extermination as a crime against humanity”.
Zeid and Pinheiro pledged support to a new UN mechanism which will collect evidence and prepare criminal files for prosecution by national authorities or an international court.
The regime detains 87 percent of those in custody, said Fadel Abdul Ghani, executive director of the Syrian Network for Human Rights.
“The regime is trumping everyone else with nearly 92,000 individuals that are still inside its detention centers,” said Abdul Ghani. Many suffer “horrendous acts of torture”, he said.
Mazen Darwish, a lawyer freed in 2015 after three years in jail, voiced outrage at the lack of international action.
“We are speaking of a daily massacre going on for six years. Why are we here? Today there are women, men, children, innocent people who are being killed under torture…It is strange that in front of all this evidence we do not see a real movement.”
Posted by: badanov ||
03/15/2017
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#1
UN experts, who have never been granted access to Syria and who base their reports on interviews and documents
Google Map at the link
Diyala (IraqiNews.com) Tigris Operations Command announced on Tuesday destroying a hideout belonging to the Islamic State group, in addition to dismantling an improvised explosive device in al-Zor basin area, northeast of Baqubah, the center of Diyala Province.
Commander of Tigris Operations, Major General Mazhar al-Azzawi, said in a press statement, “Joint security forces, backed by al-Hashd al-Shaabi militia, destroyed a hideout of the Islamic State in al-Zor basin area.”
The security forces also discovered an improvised explosive device near the hideout, and dismantles it without causing any casualties.
Azzawi also added that Tigris Operations managed, in the few last months, to destroy several hideouts belonging to the Islamic State, especially in the area of al-Zor basin.
Posted by: badanov ||
03/15/2017
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[Breitbart] President Donald Trump will lay a wreath on former president Andrew Jackson’s grave on Wednesday before holding a rally for supporters in Nashville, Tennessee, according to CNN.
It’s another symbolic gesture towards Jackson’s legacy as a self-made man who represented the common people over the elites enraged by his rise. Trump hung a portrait of the seventh president in the Oval Office five days into his presidency.
"There hasn’t been anything like this since Andrew Jackson," Trump said at the time of his inauguration. The president admires Jackson, calling him "an amazing figure in American history--very unique so many ways." Trump especially respected Jackson’s "ability to never give up."
Trump’s advisors have compared him and his populist, nationalist movement to Jackson. White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon called Trump’s inauguration speech "Jacksonian," and said in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter that "like Jackson’s populism, we’re going to build an entirely new political movement."
"I’d say [Donald Trump] is the best public orator since William Jennings Bryan, and he has a better sense of the pulse of the people than any President at least since Andrew Jackson," White House Senior Adviser Stephen Miller told ABC News in February.
As Breitbart News’ Warner Todd Huston pointed out, the elites excoriated Jackson for letting the common man make themselves heard. Like Trump, Jackson rallied enormous numbers of Americans together while pursuing a populist agenda.
"No one who was at Washington at the time of General Jackson’s inauguration is likely to forget that period to the day of his death," journalist and author Arthur J. Stansbury recalled at the time, as explained in a biography of Francis Scott Key.
"To us, who had witnessed the quiet and orderly period of the Adams administration, it seemed as if half the nation had rushed at once into the capital. It was like the inundation of the northern barbarians into Rome, save that the tumultuous tide came in from a different point of the compass," he continued. "The West and the South seemed to have precipitated themselves upon the North and overwhelmed it. On that memorable occasion you might tell a ’Jackson man’ almost as far as you could see him. Their every motion seemed to cry out ’Victory!’"
The Obama administration had wanted to remove Jackson from the $20 bill.
Read Breitbart News’ explanation of Jackson’s legacy, and the Trump agenda’s connection to it, here. The "Noble Savages"™ are not going to like this.
#8
The Obama administration had wanted to remove Jackson from the $20 bill.
It cheaply (political cost) gives a thrill to the Reparation Justice crowd of the Progressives. The Native American Tribes have an understandably visceral hatred of Jackson because of the Trail of Tears. Put a LibProg icon on the 20-bill and strike an Old White Guy equals a Win-Win.
#11
The Cherokee cast their lot with the British and lost...who knows what would've happened had they sided with the Patriots. It aint all one sided here in Tennessee...the Cherokee were rezponsie for their share of war crimes.
#12
and they (allegedly) gave us Senator Elizabeth Fauxcahontas Warren. For that they should've paid, and paid dearly
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/15/2017 11:58
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#13
g(r)omgoru, if by the author you mean me, that answer would be San Diego California.
Rest assured our universities have been teaching of the horrors against the Native Americans (even when they had to invent a few horrors such as small pox blankets).
It'd be nice if Trump can stick a face to those horrors. A face that also happens to be the Founder of the Democrat party.
#16
War with Mexico was going to happen regardless due to the Bear Flag Revolt. The Battle of Olampali is unique in that it was the only battle of the Bear Flag Revolt that resulted in casualties - and simultaneously can also claim to be the 1st battle of the War with Mexico. The incidents leading up to the battle at Olompali would have continued in scope and desperation - it was just a matter of time. Following the battle, Ford's men then commandeered a boat - made way to the Spanish fort at San Francisco, disabled the cannon there and then returned to Sonoma.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
03/15/2017 15:17
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#17
g(r)omgoru, I'm not a liberal anguishing over the ills. If the native Americans were not dispossessed by Anglos (and a lot of Scots and Germans) they would have been dispossessed by other Europeans, many of whom were a lot nastier.
So in other words the trail of tears doesn't bother me so much, but it does bother liberals and knowing it was one of the Democrat leaders is bound to cause some hair pulling and tears.
#18
#15, right on. These are exciting times. Trump far outclasses these phonies. Far more intelligent than they realize. Watch him play these phonies and enjoy. This is history as dramatic as sending man to the moon. The future is now.
#19
RJ, consistency is not a hobgoblin of the liberal mind (apologies to Joel Rosenberg). They'll integrate the fact that Andrew Jackson founded the democratic party in their worldview the same way they've integrated the fact that Abraham Lincoln, a republican, freed the slaves.
You want to hurt a liberal - use a stick.
#20
Native American males were a warrior people. They called them savages for good reason. Read what they did to captives and carcasus during the French and Indian war.
The Cherokee were more civilized, but their women married whites at the drop of a hat because they were still more civilized.
I met several Cherokee during my lifetime and unfortunately their culture still contains considerable strife amongst their own circles.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) One civilian was killed and four others were wounded on Tuesday when an explosive device exploded in a district in southern Baghdad, security sources said.
The bomb was planted near a commercial area in al-Sehha district, south of the capital, police sources were quoted saying.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the bombing, but Islamic State militants have said
they had been responsible for several bloody explosions and attacks that hit the capital in the past months, leaving casualties among civilians and security troops.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) says violence in the country left nearly 392 dead and 613 injured, excluding security members, during February. Baghdad was the second most affected province with 120 deaths and 300 injuries, according to the organization’s monthly casualty count.
Some observers believe Islamic State have begun to escalate attacks outside the city of Mosul, where the group has been losing ground and personnel since October, so as to relieve pressure by government forces on that front and to divert attention from group losses. There are fears that Islamic State will still pose a security threat by shifting to lone wolf attacks and guerrilla-style war once defeated in Mosul, its biggest bastion in Iraq.
The senior North Korea diplomat who defected to the South from Pyongyang's Embassy in London said Kim Jong Un's nuclear ambitions could bring about state collapse. Thae Yong-ho, who recently compared Kim to the Roman emperor Nero, said North Korea is headed down a dangerous path as it seeks recognition as a nuclear weapons state like "India or Pakistan," Voice of America reported Tuesday.
"The Kim Jong Un regime will never give up nuclear weapons," Thae said.
The high-profile defector added North Korea could "fall apart" if the regime decides to conduct a major nuclear test at its Punggye-ri nuclear site, where Pyongyang conducts tests of weapons of mass destruction.
Recent satellite images show tunnel digging continues at the site, which lies below the 800-meter Mount Mantap. According to 38 North, the activity indicates North Korea may be prepared to conduct additional underground nuclear tests.
Thae said Tuesday the site is located on a road that connects Pyongyang to Hamgyong Province, and that "roads and railways that go up north pass by the nuclear test site."
"If a large explosion takes place and the area becomes contaminated with radiation while Pyongyang loses control of the border region of North Hamgyong Province, mass defections could take place," Thae said.
The tests are done underground for a reason. I suppose the Norks (or the Pakistanis) could be stupid enough to do an underground test in a way that contaminates the country-side but the odds do seem to be against such a thing...
A nuclear failure in a "small country like North Korea" could lead to disaster, the defector said, adding China and the international community must be aware of the danger.
Thae also said Kim Jong Un is trying to achieve parity with South Korea's relatively more powerful military with his nuclear weapons program. In an annual ranking of militaries around the world, South Korea troops ranked the 11th most powerful in 2016, while North Korea's military strength ranked 25th in the survey by website Global Firepower.
There's a numerical disparity, yes. The issue is, if the two tangled, who'd fight and who wouldn't?
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/15/2017
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#1
After Saddam and Gaddafi, one lesson dictators learnt was that they need a bomb.
Taliban insurgents cut off an 18 years-old boy’s hand a foot in Herat province for allegations of theft, local officials said Tuesday.
Jelani Farhad provincial governor spokesman confirms the incident in Oba district of Herat province.
The boy was arrested over theft allegations month ago and the Taliban cut off his right hand and left foot on Monday after a public trial, Farhad said.
The boy is hospitalized in Herat regional hospital for treatment and he is in a stable condition.
Iraqi forces capture locales in Mosul Google map at the link
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi Federal Police recaptured Tuesday a railway station near western Mosul’s Old City as forces sweep through areas near the strategic Islamic State stronghold.
Alsumaria News said in a breaking news that Federal Police took over the Nineveh Railway Station, with operations continuing to clear western Mosul from IS militants amid tough resistance from the group coupled with inclement weather conditions. Other news reports said the police also took over the nearby Baghdad Garage.
The railway is part of Mosul al-Jadida (New Mosul), a district near the Old City which the Iraqi Joint Operations Command said took over on Monday.
Iraqi generals view Mosul’s Old City as decisive in realizing victory against IS in western Mosul. It remains, however, a serious challenge given its extremely narrow alleyways and dense population, factors that render the troops incapable of storming it with combat vehicles.
Iraqi government forces recaptured the eastern section of Mosul from Islamic State on January 24th after three months of battles, and recently said they became in control of 30 percent of western Mosul since another offensive launched in February to retake the region.
Iraqi troops have made remarkable victories in the western region by recapturing major government facilities, a military base and the city’s airport. Commanders also said they had cut off main roads between the city and extremists’ supply routes fro Syria and also from the rest of Iraq.
Iraqi forces capture parts of west Mosul Musta hired on a new editor at Iraqi News: Google map at the link Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi army forces recaptured Tuesday a village in northwestern Mosul as operations press on to clear the region from Islamic State militants.
The Defense Ministry’s War Media Cell said army forces took over Sheikh Mohamed village east of the town of Badush, raising Iraqi flags there.
Pro-Iraqi government paramilitary forces also said they killed two suicide bombers from the Islamic State near Badush.
Al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units) said through its media the force killed two suicide attackers and destroyed a booby-trapped vehicle the town that has been a stage for continuous operations against Islamic State militants.
Al-Hashd said the pair was killed before an attempted attack on the PMUs at the outskirts of Badush.
Iraqi forces have recaptured several villages and neighborhood around Badush since operations to retake western Mosul from IS launched in February. They also recaptured the town’s famous prison where hundreds of inmates were executed in 2014 by the extremist group.Al-Hashd said recently the forces discovered a mass grave of 500 dead people believed to have been executed in the prison.
Iraqi government forces recaptured eastern Mosul from Islamic State on January 24th after three months of battles, and recently said they became in control of 30 percent of western Mosul since the start of offensives on the western region.
Iraqi troops have made remarkable victories in the west by recapturing major government facilities, a military base and the city’s airport.
9 ISIS Bad Guys now Pining for he Fjords in airstrike Google map at the link
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Fighter jets from the U.S.-led military coalition killed nine senior Islamic State members in western Mosul on Tuesday, while the group continues to burn civilians’ homes, according to an Iraqi officer.
Col. Dureid Saeed, from the army’s Counter-Terrorism Forces, told Bas News that the strikes killed the militants in al-Islah al-Zerai district. He added that the extremist group continued to burn civilian-owned homes, with the latest round of fires arsons seen at ten houses evacuated from their dwellers in al-Rafai district.
Security officers and civilians say IS burn homes in a bid to create smokescreens that blur vision for assaulting aircraft.
Iraqi government forces recaptured eastern Mosul from Islamic State on January 24th after three months of battles. Security commanders recently said they became in control of 30 percent of western Mosul since another offensive launched in February to retake the region.
Iraqi troops have made remarkable victories in the west by recapturing major government facilities, a military base and the city’s airport. Iraqi and coalition generals have predicted the city to be free within six months from the beginning of battles. Though admitting fierce resistance from IS, the commanders believe the group, currently deprived from escape routes, have no other option but to fight to death.
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) A security source revealed on Tuesday, that Federal Police and Rapid Response Forces managed to storm into three new neighborhoods in western Mosul, while pointed out to the killing of 13 members of the Islamic State during the confrontations.
Captain Tarek Jassim said in a press statement, “Forces from Iraqi Federal Police and elite Rapid Response Unit managed to storm into the neighborhoods of al-Khatuniyah, Amo al-Bakal and the area of the Great Mosque, west of Mosul.”
“The confrontations resulted in the killing of 13 members of the Islamic State, and injury of others,” Jassim added.
Jassim also declared that security forces opened safe havens for civilians in the besieged areas, and approached the fifth bridge that links between the two sides of Mosul.
Nineveh Province is witnessing extensive military operations, after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced launching an offensive to liberate the western side of the city of Mosul.
Meanwhile, Security forces continue liberating the remaining areas controlled by the Islamic State in the province of Nineveh, as well as inflicting heavy human and material losses on the group.
Iraqi forces capture village in western Mosul Google map at the link
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) We Are Coming, Nineveh Operations Command announced on Tuesday liberating al-Jamaliyah in the western side of Mosul.
Commander of operations, Lieutenant General Abdel Amir Yarallah, said in a press statement, “Troops of the army’s 16th infantry brigade liberated al-Jamaliyah Village.”
“Security forces continue liberating all villages and areas east of Badush,” Yarallah further added.
Nineveh Province is witnessing extensive military operations, after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced launching an offensive to liberate the western side of the city of Mosul, in addition to capturing the last stronghold of the Islamic State in the city.
ISIS Big Turban, 7 others die in western Mosul Google map at the link
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Commander of the 2nd brigade of Imam Militia (one of al-Hashd al-Shaabi brigades) announced on Tuesday, that a leader of the Islamic State group was killed, along with seven of his aides, by a proactive operation in western Mosul.
Karim al-Khaqani said in a press statement, “Forces from al-Hashd al-Shaabi conducted a proactive operation in Badush area, between western Mosul and Tal Afar District.”
“The operation resulted in the killing of the lslamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Iraqi, along with seven of his aides,” Khaqani added.
Khaqani explained that the operation was carried out based on accurate intelligence information.
Nineveh Province is witnessing extensive military operations, after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced launching an offensive to liberate the western side of the
MOSUL: Iraqi forces said Tuesday they recaptured Mosul train station, once one of the country’s main rail hubs and the latest in a series of key sites retaken from radicals.
Baghdad’s forces launched a major drive last month to oust Daesh from west Mosul, a battle that has pushed more than 80,000 people to flee their homes in less than three weeks.
Iraqi forces have taken back a series of neighborhoods as well as sites including the city’s airport, the Mosul museum and the provincial government headquarters since the operation began.
Some, including the museum which was vandalized by the terror group, have been heavily damaged, and it will likely be a long time before trains are again plying the rails to and from Mosul.
But retaking the sites are symbolic victories for Iraqi forces and also bring them closer to fully recapturing west Mosul, though tough fighting remains ahead.
Lt. Gen. Raed Shakir Jawdat, the commander of the federal police, said his forces have retaken the train station as well as a nearby bus station, both of which are located southwest of Mosul’s Old City.
The station was the “main corridor from the north to the south and carries goods from Turkey and Syria to Baghdad and Basra,” Salam Jabr Saloom, the director general of Iraq’s state-owned railway company, told AFP.
Because of its importance, the station was “exposed to many terrorist attacks before the entry of Daesh,” Saloom said.
The station was built in the 1940s and was “very important from a trade standpoint” as it was a “launch point for trains carrying goods to Syria and Turkey and back,” railway company spokesman Abdulsattar Mohsen said.
“But it stopped after the Daesh attack on Mosul,” Mohsen said, referring to a terror offensive that overran the city and swathes of other territory north and west of Baghdad in 2014.
Trains once carried passengers to and from Mosul as well, but have not done so since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s government by US-led forces in 2003, he said.
Iraqi forces are operating on the edge of the Old City, a warren of narrow streets and closely spaced buildings where hundreds of thousands of people may still reside.
The area, in which they will have to advance on foot when armored vehicles cannot enter the small streets, could see some of the toughest fighting of the Mosul campaign. Iraqi forces are also battling Daesh outside the city, with the Joint Operations Command announcing that soldiers had recaptured the village of Sheikh Mohammed, northwest of Mosul.
Some 238,000 people are currently displaced due to the fighting in the Mosul area, while more fled but later returned to their homes, the IOM said.
Posted by: badanov ||
03/15/2017
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#1
would rather they be ejected from the train....
The Libyan National Army (LNA) launched a major offensive yesterday to finally rid Benghazi’s Ganfouda of Islamist fighters. An unknown number of militants remain holed up in the “12 Buildings” complex situated between Busnaib and Ganfouda.
A spokesman for the LNA’s 130 Artillery Brigade told the pro-Beida LANA News Agency that its forces had made important gains and were able to consolidate its hold on critical areas of the complex.
He claimed his forces had killed an unspecified number of Benghazi Revolutionaries Shoura Council (BRSC) fighters. However, a spokesman for the LNA’s Saiqa Special Forces, Milad Al-Zwai, told LANA three of his solders had been killed and another four injured in the attack. LNA fighter jets had supported the offensive, Zwai also revealed.
Nonetheless, he insisted the BRSC fighters remained trapped in the “12 Buildings” complex with no chance of escape. The LNA would not stop until the militants were crushed, he added.
A few dozen civilians are reported to be holed up in the buildings. Zwai alleged they were being used as human shields by the fighters and, as such, his men were advancing cautiously to prevent innocent casualties.
The bodies of 21 Libyan National Army soldiers have been brought to hospitals in Benghazi and Ajdabiya, local sources told the Libya Herald. All were killed in today’s fighting that saw the LNA recapture the Sidra and Ras Lanuf oil terminals.
No figures have been released for the number of soldiers injured nor for the dead and wounded among the Benghazi Defence Brigades.
LNA spokesman Ahmed Al-Mismari claimed this afternoon that the remnants of the BDB had fled to Misrata and Jufra. He told a Benghazi press conference that BDB fighters had been captured trying to escape to Jufra but he did not say how many.
Mismari added that Hafter had ordered his commanders to oust the BDB from Jufra and that LNA units were already concentrating to liberate the town.
According to social media, warplanes could be heard operating overJufra and Hun this evening
Meanwhile, the UK, US, French and Italian ambassadors have expressed their “strong concern” over the fate of Libya’s oil facilities. They called for an end to hostilities in the Oil Crescent to protect Libya’s most critical oil asset.
“Oil infrastructure, production, export and revenues belong to the Libyan people and must remain under the exclusive control of the National Oil Corporation,” they said.
All these ambassadors, save the Italian, came up with similar remarks eleven days ago when the BDB first attacked LNA positions in Sidra and Ras Lanuf.
The House of Representatives president Ageela Saleh has praised the LNA for retaking the oil terminals and offered his condolences to the families of those soldiers killed.
Posted by: badanov ||
03/15/2017
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I'll believe it when they parade the 1,000 or so Ansar Bayt al Maqdisniks to the line of waiting prison transport busses and drive them straight to the prison courthouse for their show trials.
[AlAhram] Major General Mamdouh Shahin, the Egyptian defence minister's deputy for legislative and constitutional affairs, told MPs on Tuesday that the army is on the brink of eliminating terrorism in North Sinai.
In a meeting held by parliament's agriculture committee and attended by governor of Ismailia Yassin Taher, Shahin said that "the elimination of terrorism in North Sinai, which is very near, will pave the way for revoking the emergency measures that have been in effect there since 2013."
The army has been battling an intensified Islamist insurgency in North Sinai since the ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in 2013.
Shahin told MPs that the government and the army are keen on seeing Sinai become an attractive environment for investment.
"Sinai will see a lot of progress very soon in terms of economic development after all terrorist elements in this integral part of Egypt are obliterated," said Shahin.
Shahin said that "emergency measures, including long curfew hours, were imposed in Sinai in order to safeguard its citizens against terrorism and help prevent it from infiltrating all of Egypt."
However, death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate... Shahin said "the army has always been of the mind that emergency measures in Sinai are to be implemented on a very limited scale so that the citizens of Sinai can move easily and live a normal life."
MPs complained that most of the roads leading to North Sinai are in bad condition and that it is very difficult for farmers there to use fertilisers necessary to grow their crops.
Hesham El-Shini, head of parliament's agriculture committee, said that the poor road conditions have led to hundreds of citizens losing their lives in car accidents.
"It is hard for the citizens of North Sinai to suffer from both terrorism and bad roads," said El-Shini.
El-Shini said the committee will send Minister of Defence Sedki Sobhi a memorandum requesting that the army's engineering authority take charge of renovating roads leading to Sinai.
MP Fathi Qandeel complained that farmers in both Sinai and Ismailia have suffered much in recent years because they have not been allowed to use "nitrate and urea fertilizers, which are necessary to grow their crops.
In response, Shahin said the army decided three years ago that "nitrate and urea fertilisers be banned from use in Sinai and Ismailia after it had found that they were used in manufacturing explosives."
Ismailia governor Yassin Taher said "it is highly dangerous that Death Eaters get the material they need to manufacture explosives and use them near the Suez Canal area ‐ which is highly strategic to the Egyptian and the world economy."
Taher said that "farmers in Sinai and the Suez Canal area can use other kinds of fertilisers for the time being and terrorism is completely obliterated."
Taher proposed that the Ministry of Agriculture set up a fertiliser production factory in Ismailia to help provide farmers in Sinai with the quantities they need and after making sure that they will not be used in any terrorist activities.
[MSN] The Justice Department unsealed a fresh indictment Tuesday charging eight current and former Navy officials -- including an admiral -- with corruption and other crimes in the "Fat Leonard" bribery case, escalating an epic scandal that has dogged the Navy for the past four years.
Among those charged were Rear Adm. Bruce Loveless, a senior Navy intelligence officer based at the Pentagon, several Navy captains and a retired colonel from the Marine Corps. The charges cover a period of eight years, from 2006 through 2014. Sadly, there is much more.
#1
...If found guilty, those O6s and 07s need to do hard time at Leavenworth, in addition to losing all the bennies. That will get people's attention.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/15/2017 4:50
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#2
Regarding the Admiral, Bruce Loveless: I work with a woman who was in his class at Annapolis. She said he has been working at the Pentagon for three years WITHOUT A CLEARANCE!
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
03/15/2017 8:41
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#3
Regarding the Admiral, Bruce Loveless: I work with a woman who was in his class at Annapolis. She said he has been working at the Pentagon for three years WITHOUT A CLEARANCE!
Which means he's been assigned to 'F Troop' (probably Pentagon off-site location in Crystal City) pending the outcome of an investigation, enjoying full pay and allowances. Obviously the investigation has been ongoing, but now culminating under a Republican administration.
#6
Loveless has been working in a supervisory position in naval intel over people who are not allowed to show him things because he had his clearances pulled.
No $hit.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/15/2017 19:22
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#7
While I welcome this development, I cannot fathom how much our national security was compromised during HRC's time as SoS. It blows my mind that her mealy-mouth non-excuses have thus far allowed her and every single soul associated with that time to evade charges.
[IsraelTimes] The mayor of Rotterdam says that specialized armed security forces he sent to a standoff with a Turkish minister on Saturday night had permission to open fire if necessary.
Speaking late Monday night on a television talk show, Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb says he sent the special armed intervention unit to the Turkish consulate amid fears that a 12-man security detail that had driven to the Netherlands from Germany with Turkish Family Affairs Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya could be armed.
Aboutaleb says on the Nieuwsuur show that it was important to “be sure that if it came to a confrontation that we would be the boss” and that the unit had been given “permission to shoot.”
The Turkish minister was eventually escorted out of the Netherlands in the early hours of Sunday. Earlier, the Dutch also had refused Turkey’s foreign minister permission to visit. Both ministers wanted to address rallies about next month’s constitutional reform referendum on giving President Recep Tayyip Erdogan more power.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte repeats Tuesday, on the last day of campaigning for Dutch elections that have been overshadowed by the diplomatic crisis, that Dutch authorities are working to de-escalate tensions with Ankara.
[IsraelTimes] The governor of a German state says that she wants to prevent Turkish government officials from holding political rallies there before Turkey’s constitutional referendum. The western state of Saarland says it would use “all opportunities” to prevent such rallies. Governor Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer says in a statement that “Turkish domestic conflicts have no place in Germany. Campaign appearances that threaten the domestic peace in our country should be banned.”
The move would mirror a similar move by the Netherlands that has stoked tensions between Turkey and Western Europe.
So far, Germany’s federal government has said that it won’t impose a blanket ban on members of the Turkish government holding political rallies in the country.
Kramp-Karrenbauer, who faces a state election on March 26, is a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Christian Democratic Union. It’s unclear whether Turkish officials had any plans to campaign in Saarland, a small state on the French border.
[Ynet] The Netherlands' Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Tuesday said that Turkish sanctions against the Dutch government in the wake of a diplomatic clash were "not too bad" but were inappropriate as the Dutch have more to be angry about.
The sanctions include freezing all diplomatic communication but no economic measures.
"On the other hand, I continue to find it bizarre that in Turkey they're talking about sanctions when you see that we have reasons to be very angy about what happened this weekend."
Uninteresting verbal nonsense emanating from Turkey can be read at the link if you're curious, dear Reader, but also Deutsche Welle reports:
The German Foreign Ministry meanwhile updated its travel advisory on Turkey, saying that Germans there should be worried about "heightened political tensions and protests that could be directed at Germans."
The revision also recommends that German visitors to Turkey "stay away from political gatherings and from larger groups of people in general."
The Netherlands followed suit and also revised their travel advice for Turkey, urging Dutch citizens visiting Turkey to exercise caution.
"There have been diplomatic tensions between Turkey and the Netherlands," the ministry wrote."Be alert and avoid large crowds."
[AnNahar] German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere on Tuesday said Ankara was playing the role of the victim with its broadsides against NATO allies, as it seeks to galvanize support ahead of a key referendum.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu had sparked consternation when he made an ultra-nationalist hand-sign known as the "Wolf's Greeting" during a campaign appearance in Hamburg.
While stopping short of pronouncing an all-out ban on future rallies by Turkish politicians in Germany, De Maiziere signaled that he has had enough of Ankara's provocations.
"There are clear limits beyond which my tolerance ends, this includes when the limits of what is punishable are crossed -- when foreign ministers make the Wolf's Greeting on German soil, or discredit our country with disrespectful Nazi comparisons," he said.
He also voiced displeasure that Turkish domestic political tensions are being increasingly imported to Germany.
Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) Islamic State militants executed three civilians late Monday in Kirkuk over charges of collaboration with security forces as the security campaign mounts against the extremist group.
A security source told Alsumaria News that the militant group beheaded the trio in Hawija, IS’s most prominent stronghold in southwestern Kirkuk. He added that the three were executed at one of the group’s camps and prevented their families from receiving their dead bodies.
According to the source, the three civilians were arrested three months earlier, and an IS tribunal issued the verdict finding them guilty of cooperation with security forces.
Since it occupied large areas of Iraq in 2014, Islamic State has posted movies of heinous executions of civilians, security personnel, and foreign workers over multiple charges, most commonly collaborating with security authorities, as well as violating its extreme religious rules.
IS has held southwestern Kirkuk regions since 2014, which prompted thousands to flee to refugee camps.
There has not been an official security campaign targeting IS bastions in Kirkuk, but it is expected that the Iraqi government will charge at IS locations across Iraq after it is done with a campaign running since October to expel the group from Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city and IS’s key stronghold in Iraq.
ISIS torches cement factory in western Mosul Google Map at the link Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) An officer in the elite Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) informed on Tuesday, that members of the Islamic State group burned Badush Cement Factory, in western Mosul.
CTS Officer, Major Ali Mohsen, said in a press statement, “The Islamic State group set Badush Cement Factory ablaze, after looting its contents.”
“Security forces also clashed with the Islamic State fighters, killing 15 militants and wounding 3 others,” Mohsen added.
Noteworthy, Islamic State group is burning facilities and houses, as well as destroying bridges, to hinder the security and military operations that were launched to liberate western Mosul, and drive out the group’s militants.
(IraqiNews.com) The Islamic State group started to evacuate the families of its members and leaders, and all women and children from the Syrian city of Raqqa, with the approaching battles in the city, BasNews reported on Tuesday.
Activists in Raqqa said that the Islamic State started, yesterday, to evacuate the families of its leaders and members, as well as civilian women and children, from the city of Raqqa, to its-held areas in eastern the province.
The terrorist group also prohibited the exit of men and youths, and forced them to build berms in all streets in the city, while announced Raqqa as military area, the activists added.
Noteworthy, battles between the Islamic States and the Syrian Democratic forces are few kilometers away from the city of Raqqa, while the US-led coalition intensifies its air strikes on the group’s headquarters in the city.
Posted by: badanov ||
03/15/2017
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[AlAhram] Eni expects the first gas to start flowing from Zohr by the end of 2017
A bigwig with Italia's oil and gas company Eni says the discovery of a huge natural gas deposit in Egyptian waters has boosted hopes of other such finds in the eastern Mediterranean that could help meet Europe's energy needs.
Eni Chief Exploration Officer Luca Bertelli told a gas conference Tuesday that his company's "milestone" discovery of Zohr, estimated to hold 30 trillion cubic feet of gas, has reinvigorated the interest of other major oil and gas companies in the region.
He said waters off Cyprus hold potential for new discoveries while exploration opportunities are coming up with Leb and Israel soon offering offshore areas, or blocks, to bidders for exploration licensing.
Bertelli said Eni expects the first gas to start flowing from Zohr by the end of 2017.
#4
The Med near Syria is a tight box of overlapping claims with Turkey, puppet North Cyprus, Cyprus, Syria, and Lebanon. Is part of Turkey's plays in Cyprus and N. Syria to leverage a bigger slice of the offshore pie?
The European Union Naval Force has sent a maritime patrol aircraft to the coast of Somalia to investigate reports that Somali pirates have seized a commercial vessel, a spokeswoman for the force said Tuesday.
“The aircraft is en route,” she told DPA. “We don’t know what happened. We are not categorizing it as a piracy incident at this time.”
The spokeswoman said the ship was flagged in Sri Lanka. She was unable to confirm reports that it was carrying fuel to Somalia.
The force known as EU Navfor runs anti-piracy operations in the area, where piracy flourished until security was tightened in 2012.
Somali officials say pirates have hijacked a ship off the coast of the Horn of Africa nation.
One official in the semiautonomous state of Puntland ...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion... says the incident occurred on Monday. The official says over two dozen men boarded the merchant ship off Somalia's northern coast. Another official in Puntland says the ship is a Sri Lankan-flagged freighter and is now being moved toward the coast. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
A spokeswoman for the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... Naval Force operation off Somalia, Flt. Lt. Louise Tagg, confirms that an incident involving an oil tanker has occurred off the coast of Somalia and an investigation is underway.
Somali pirates are suspected to have hijacked a Sri Lankan-flagged fuel freighter after the ship sent a distress call, turned off its tracking system and altered course for the Somali coast, a piracy expert told Reuters on Tuesday.
The Dubai-owned Aris 13 is believed to be carrying eight crew members, said John Steed of the aid group Oceans Beyond Piracy. Steed, a former British colonel, has worked on piracy for nearly a decade and is in close contact with naval forces tracking the ship.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#5
I have no idea, of course, but I suspect the aircraft belongs to one of the EU countries' national navies, and has been sent for the purpose with the crew wearing special EU Naval Force berets. When its turn in the rotation is up, the berets will be handed on to the next aircraft's crew.
Indonesia has transferred a convicted US citizen to its so-called execution island, prompting fears among rights organisations that the government may be preparing another round of firing squads.
Human Rights Watch said Frank Amado, who faces the death penalty for drug trafficking, had been moved to facilities on Nusa Kambangan island, the site of previous recent executions.
It's not how I'd handle drug traffickers but how many such folk don't understand how serious Indonesia (and Singapore) is?
Indonesian press is reporting six other foreign nationals on death row may have moved along with him, including Chen Weibiao, Xiao Jin Zeng and Lo Tin Yau, from China; Malaysian citizen E Wee Hock; Frank Nwaomeka from Nigeria; and Lai Siu Cheung Anika, from Hong Kong.
No US citizen has ever been executed by the Indonesian government.
“This is a worrying development. But we can’t be entirely certain if these transfers are part of preparations for new executions, due to the lack of transparency that is just one of many problems with Indonesia’s penal system,” said Ricky Gunawan, director of the Community Legal Aid Institute, an organisation in Jakarta that has worked with Human Rights Watch to monitor Amado’s case.
“The most recent executions were preceded by transfers to Nusa Kambangan, which is often called execution island here, but the government also sometimes moves prisoners there for other reasons.
“There are serious irregularities in Indonesia’s death penalty system and we call for a halt to this round of executions with a view to implementing a new moratorium and then abolition.”
After a halt on executions between 2009 and 2012, Indonesia has carried out three rounds of executions, the last of which took place in July 2016. Four of 14 death row prisoners were executed, and legal experts in the country are still unsure why the other 10 had their deaths postponed.
Human Rights Watch and Gunawan say Amado technically has one more appeal round available to him, but that in the past the Indonesian government has carried out the death sentence in similar situations.
These two groups are not working closely with the other death row prisoners reportedly transferred recently, but like many international organisations they call for a stop to all executions in the country.
Amado has said in previous interviews that he was involved in the storing of shabu, a local name for a drug similar to crystal meth, but that since his arrest in 2009, he has seen that the Indonesian justice system is marked by abuse and corruption.
In 2011, US government representatives said they would not intervene in the case.
Neither the US embassy in Jakarta nor the Indonesian attorney general’s office immediately responded to requests for comment.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/15/2017
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#1
Does a US Citizenship exempt one from the laws of a sovereign nation? I think not.
Little different than the AFG sex trafficers in the UK. Hang'em high.
#2
Not surprised the State Department washed their hands of him. Doesn't matter if he's innocent, they HATE dealing with American citizens abroad. Hate our guts.
#3
It's not how I'd handle drug traffickers but how many such folk don't understand how serious Indonesia (and Singapore) is?
Nasty old no-talent Charlie Daniels cheer-leads for exactly this approach. Lots of his fans nod their heads in agreement in between binges on granmama's oxy pills...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/15/2017 17:05
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#4
Frank Amado's case will make a very good episode on "Locked Up Abroad" on NatGeo. No happy endings for this one.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/15/2017 17:44
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#5
Cry me a river.
Posted by: Jack Salami ||
03/15/2017 20:45
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#6
Not all "Franks" are great guys....
ask my ex
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/15/2017 20:54
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Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has hinted that if the European Union does not grant a visa exemption to Turkish citizens, the migration agreement struck last year between Turkey and the EU could be abolished.
The Turks are pressing really hard for something that the EU governments, having been burned badly by the border problems (as in having no borders) and migrant crisis, really don't want to do. Politics is supposed to be the art of the possible, and this isn't possible right now. So why do the Turks keep pushing?
“We see that the European Union has been stalling us. But our patience is not unlimited. Our citizens also have expectations. If visa liberation does not come, we will take steps regarding the migration deal,” Çavuşoğlu told reporters on March 14.
He said Turkey has so far met the requirements of the migrant deal, calling on the EU to “not stall,” otherwise Ankara “will take necessary measures.”
Çavuşoğlu also suggested that the EU was on the “verge of falling apart.”
“The situation that Europe has fallen into is really driving us to worry. Gradually they are going off a cliff, like the period before the Second World War. The European Union is falling apart,” he said.
On March 13, Turkish EU Affairs Minister Ömer Çelik also said Ankara “should re-evaluate” a key part of a 2016 deal to stem the flow of migrants to the EU.
Çelik said Turkey should look at its policy on preventing migrant flows across land borders, although it would keep halting the illegal and dangerous sea crossings as a matter of human responsibility, state media reported.
“Turkey has no obligation at this stage to continue the agreement as the EU has failed to comply with it,” he added.
Turkey agreed last year to work to keep migrants from crossing into the EU in return for funds to help it deal with some 3 million refugees. The deal included a 6 billion euro ($6.8 billion) aid package to help Turkey care for millions of refugees hosted in the country. However, Turkey has so far received only 677 million euros ($716 million), with Brussels citing demands that Ankara loosen its tough anti-terror legislation. The agreement also allowed for the acceleration of Turkey’s EU membership bid and visa-free travel for Turkish nationals within the Schengen area.
So in other words, the EU welched on a good part of this, and the Turks are angry. After these several centuries, do they not know the Europeans?
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Joint Afghan security forces are advancing in Helmand’s Maiwand 17 operation which stared a week ago, officials say.
The advance started from the Lashkargah city PD 3 area to retake parts of Nad Ali district.
Local officials said that security forces have cleared PD 3 of Lashkargah city of insurgents and have reopened the route to Nad Ali which was closed for nearly six months.
Security forces are now in the Nadi Ali district center and they are trying to reopen the Marja district route too.
PD 3 is located in the South West of the Lashkargah city and is one of the key locations that connect routes of Nad Ali and Marja districts.
Security forces said that due to Taliban land-mining the area, the operation is progressing slowly. The added that the Taliban have suffered heavy causalities and foreign forces are backing Afghan security forces from air.
Last night Afghan commando forces conducted an operation in the Chah-e-Marz area of Nad Ali district and rescued 32 civilians and 4 local policemen from a Taliban prison.
A source told TOLOnews on Monday evening that foreign forces conducted an airstrike in Loye Manda area of Nad Ali which killed 15 Taliban including their local commander Haji Esmat. Two others were wounded.
Government officials have not commented about the Taliban and security forces casualties.
Taliban did not comment also regarding the operations and causalities.
The operations conducted at a time while in past one year Taliban insurgents intensify their attacks on several parts of Helmand province.
Officials said that due to clashes hundreds of families flee their areas.
Three people, including two police officers, were injured in Lahore on Tuesday morning when they were fired upon by unidentified persons, DawnNews reported.
Speaking to reporters following the incident, DIG Operations Haider Afzal said three people were injured, which included police officers Zafar and Rizwan, who belonged to the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA), and a "private" accomplice named Afzal.
The team, along with Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Shoukat, were headed towards Tibi City area to conduct a raid when they were intercepted on Fort Road by the assailants, DIG Afzal told the press conference.
The wounded personnel were shifted to Mayo Hospital's emergency department where the injured police officers were declared to be in critical condition, while their accomplice Afzal is out of danger.
ASI Shoukat remained unharmed in the incident, he added.
[Iraq News] Iraqi Ministry of Defense announced on Monday repulsing an attack launched by 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.... on the area of Harariyat and Makhoul Mountains, north of Salahuddin, and killing 32 members of the terrorist group.
The ministry said in a press statement that forces from Salahuddin Operations Command, backed by the Army Aviation, repulsed an attack launched by the Islamic State group on the troops stationed in al-Harariyat Intersection and Makhoul Mountains.
Security forces also managed to kill 32 members of the Islamic State, as well as destroying two vehicles, armored truck and two hideouts, the statement added.
Furthermore, the statement revealed that detachments of Salahuddin Operations Commands stationed on Makhoul Mountains destroyed four hideouts, using four Kornet rockets and killed their occupants.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2017
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Video at the link
The Saudi warplanes raided on Tuesday the Yemeni city of Saada with cluster bombs, inflicting heavy losses upon the civilians.
The Saudi-led coalition, as well as its mercenaries, continued raiding the various Yemeni cities, causing heavy human and materialistic damages.
In response, the Yemeni army and popular committees launched several attacks on Saudi posts in Jizan and the gatherings of the mercenaries in several areas, inflicting heavy losses upon them.
Local officials in Paktia province on Monday expressed outrage over what they described as years of domination by the Taliban insurgents of the chromium mine in the Janikhail district.
Powerful local elements are coordinating with the Taliban in the illegal extraction of Chromite, they said.
"Those who extract chromite for the state are doing so in the national interest and that is to be welcomed. Anyone doing so illegally are criminals,” said Zalmai Wesa, the provincial governor.
While the Taliban controls the chromium mine in the district, illegal extraction continues, said Sharifullah Sarhadi, Janikhail's district governor. The province borders Pakistan.
“The mine is located in the Khadan area and valuable stones are under Taliban control,” said Sarhadi.
Local residents in Paktia have said that after extracting chromium from the mine, the Taliban sends it to Pakistan to finance their war machine.
“Taliban are dominant on those areas and with the help of some people, the Taliban control those mines,” said Eid Mohammad a resident.
“The chromium is extracted by the Taliban and exported to Pakistan,” said Sardar Khan, a tribal elder.
Paktia officials say the Taliban have signed a contract for extraction of chromite with a Pakistani company.
At least two policemen were shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Kabul city late on Monday evening, security officials said Tuesday.
The incident took place in the vicinity of the 8th police district of the city after unknown gunmen opened fire on the policemen who were busy conducting search operation in the area.
Kabul police chief Hasan Shah Frogh confirmed that the two policemen were shot dead by unknown gunmen in Bani Esar area.
He did not disclose further information regarding the incident but added that an investigation is underway regarding the attack.
No group or individual has so far claimed responsibility behind the incident.
This comes as Kabul city was hit by some of the deadliest attacks during the recent days which left scores of people dead.
The incident in Bani Esar area took place hours after an explosion ripped through a van carrying employees of a telecommunications company.
According to the security officials, a woman was killed and at least nineteen others including four women were wounded.
No group including the Taliban insurgents has so far claimed responsibility behind yesterday’s attack but the ministry of interior officials are saying that three people have been arrested in connection to the attack.
[Ynet] Public Security Minister Erdan signs order shuttering the east Jerusalem agency whose mandate was to conduct surveillance and investigations into Arabs who sold real estate to Jews.
A Paleostinian Authority government agency secretly operating in east Jerusalem was shut down on Tuesday on the order of Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan.
The PA agency, operating in the Beit Hanina neighborhood, was carrying out surveillance and registering of Arabs who sold land to Jews.
The Paleostinian Authority used to have a bureau in Jerusalem that dealt with "map issues." The bureau would perform registration and monitoring of Paleostinian lands in east Jerusalem and record changes carried out by Israel as "land theft" by the Israeli government.
The Jerusalem Police Department has recently discovered the bureau had renewed its activities under the guise of a "geographic consulting firm." It is funded by the PA and is in regular contact with PA security forces.
Police investigation also learned that the names of Arabs wishing to sell homes and land to Jews were given to security services in Ramallah. PA security services investigates any suspicion of forgery or intent to sell a home or land to Jews.
"The activities of this Paleostinian Authority agency are part of a plan to undermine our illusory sovereignty in Jerusalem and terrorize Arabs who sell real estate to Jews," said Erdan. "We will continue to act with determination to prevent any Paleostinian government foothold in Jerusalem."
Al Ahram adds:
Israeli police closed on Tuesday a Paleostinian research centre in Jerusalem and jugged Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! its director, a prominent cartographer, accusing him of working for the Paleostinian security services.
The office of cartography in occupied east Jerusalem was shut down for six months, a police statement said.
Israeli officials accused its head Khalil Tafakji of working with the Paleostinian Authority to monitor the sale of land by Paleostinians to Israeli Jews in east Jerusalem.
Israel seized east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed it in moves never recognised by the international community.
Israeli internal security minister Gilad Erdan said Tafakji's work had been "part of the Paleostinian Authority's plan to undermine our illusory sovereignty in Jerusalem and terrorise Arabs selling real estate to Jews in the city."
"I'll continue to act assertively to prevent Paleostinian illusory sovereignty in Jerusalem."
Selling land to Israeli settlers is punishable by death under Paleostinian law.
Tafakji has been mapping the Paleostinian territories for decades and is regularly quoted by both international experts and the world press. He works within Orient House, which was long a hub of Paleostinian culture in Jerusalem under the Paleostinian Liberation Organisation but was closed in 2000 by Israel.
#1
For the Israelis OWN LAND.
They Paid for Fought for.
For Yerusalem, where there would be no fake mosque.
For a fake prophet that skipped all the others and turned the Entire Earth into a bloodbath.
An Abomination that causes desolation upon the Temple Mount. And the Daily Human Sacrifice must stop.
Suspected militants 'kidnapped' three government school teachers in Balochistan's Awaran district Tuesday evening, a security official told DawnNews.
Levis official Muhammad Jan told DawnNews via telephone that the 'militants' allegedly abducted the three teachers as they were returning from a training session facilitated by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics for the upcoming national census in Awaran's Giskhor area.
Jan identified the abducted teachers as Rashid Ali, Elahi Bakhsh and Rasool Bakhsh. The men are part of a team in the district that will collect data for the census.
The Levies launched a search operation in the area to recover the teachers but were unsuccessful, the official said.
There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the 'abduction'.
Pakistan will launch its first population census after a lull of 19 years across the country on March 15.
Some 200,000 army personnel and 91,000 civilian enumerators will accompany the census teams in the provinces, at a cost of over Rs14 billion to the national exchequer.
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.
[MAXIM] Next time you pass by a sexy stranger, rather than imagining her identity or fanciful ideas of your future life together, simply snap her photo and track down her Facebook. Hey, it's not creepy or invasive at all! 
Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling...
The senior North Korea diplomat who defected to the South from Pyongyang's Embassy in London said Kim Jong Un's nuclear ambitions could bring about state collapse. Thae Yong-ho, who recently compared Kim to the Roman emperor Nero, said North Korea is headed down a dangerous path as it seeks recognition as a nuclear weapons state like "India or Pakistan," Voice of America reported Tuesday.
[MSN] The Justice Department unsealed a fresh indictment Tuesday charging eight current and former Navy officials -- including an admiral -- with corruption and other crimes in the "Fat Leonard" bribery case, escalating an epic scandal that has dogged the Navy for the past four years.
The European Union Naval Force has sent a maritime patrol aircraft to the coast of Somalia to investigate reports that Somali pirates have seized a commercial vessel, a spokeswoman for the force said Tuesday.
[Iraq News] Iraqi Ministry of Defense announced on Monday repulsing an attack launched by the 
