[Al Jazeera] 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) has confirmed the death of its leader Qassim al-Rimi, according to a monitor, weeks after the United States said it had killed him in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors gang networks worldwide, said on Sunday that the announcement was made in an audio speech delivered by AQAP religious official Hamid bin Hamoud al-Tamimi.
In his speech, al-Tamimi also said that Khalid bin Umar Batarfi was AQAP's new leader, the monitor added.
Noted.
SITE said that Batarfi has appeared in many AQAP videos over the last several years and appeared to be al-Rimi's deputy and the group's front man.
US President Donald Trump ...His ancestors didn't own any slaves... announced earlier this month that his country had killed al-Rimi in an operation inside Yemen.
"Under Rimi, AQAP committed unconscionable violence against civilians in Yemen and sought to conduct and inspire numerous attacks against the United States and our forces," Trump said at the time.
"His death further degrades AQAP and the global al-Qaeda movement, and it brings us closer to eliminating the threats these groups pose to our national security."
[The Hill] The United States and the Taliban are on the verge of signing what would be a historic agreement aimed at winding down America's longest war, potentially fulfilling one of President Trump's key promises.
But first comes a weeklong test. A seven-day "reduction in violence" period started Friday afternoon Washington time, midnight Saturday Afghanistan time.
The initial agreement to reduce violence is aimed at building confidence ahead of signing a broader peace agreement.
If the reduction in violence holds, U.S. and Taliban negotiators will sign the broader agreement Feb. 29, starting a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops in exchange for Taliban guarantees that Afghanistan will not be used as a base for terrorist attacks against the West.
But that's not the end of the peace process. Intra-Afghan talks will start after the U.S.-Taliban deal signing ‐ a critical stage where the entire process has the potential to collapse.
Many details of the deal and how it will work remain murky. But here are five things to know now about the U.S.-Taliban deal.
[The News (Pak)] Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Wormtongue Qureshi ...a Pak political shape-changer. He is undistinguished except for his habit of periodically needing to have his lips reattached... on Saturday said the Afghan peace treaty would be signed in the presence of Pakistain because it was quite impossible to deliver goods without Pakistain’s participation in the final agreement.
Talking to the media here, he said efforts for the success of Afghan grinding of the peace processor were a Herculean task. Pakistain, he said, was making efforts to constitute an extensive delegation after Feb 29 to promote intra-Afghan dialogue. "It was not an easy task and Pakistain's honest efforts made the process finally successful and result-oriented," he added. He said Pakistain made the world realise that Afghan peace was only possible through peace talks and not war. "Pakistain convinced the world to make efforts for a political solution to the Afghan problem through dialogue. It was hard to convince Taliban ...Arabic for students... for the grinding of the peace processor, but Pakistain made them join the process," he added.
Qureshi said Pakistain played a key role in resumption of the grinding of the peace processor, which had been suspended since US President Trump tweeted about suspension of Afghan grinding of the peace processor after killings in Afghanistan. Pakistain made positive efforts for early resumption of dialogue, he added.
The foreign minister said Pakistain played a key role in the release of two abductees and got dialogue resumed in Doha, which was not an easy task. He said signs were positive as both parties in Afghan grinding of the peace processor had declared settling of affairs and reaching an agreement.
[Sudan Tribune] The Sudanese Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok on Friday formed an investigation committee to probe the use of violence against peaceful protesters on Thursday.
On Thursday, the police used tear gas and batons to disperse a protest calling to reintegrate pro-democracy military officers sacked recently by the army. The police crackdown on the protesters resulted in the injury of 53 people, according to the health ministry.
In a video message released on Friday evening, Hamdok announced the formation of an investigation committee on Thursday events.
He appointed the Attorney general at the head of the committee and ordered the committee to submit its final report within seven days maximum.
In his short speech, the prime minister said that the biggest challenge facing his government is restructuring the state machinery and its transformation to ensure the security and rights of the Sudanese.
He further strongly condemned the use of violence against civilians, stressing that such practice "is unacceptable in a government brought by the people".
Also, the head of the transitional government emphasized the importance of the role played by the youth in the defence of the revolution.
"They are guards of the revolution and its protectors," he said for the first time hinting on the need to keep the Sudanese street mobilized during the transitional period.
The Sudanese police released a statement on Friday saying they reacted to a small group of people who used the protest to commit "acts of vandalism".
The statement denied the use of live bullets and regretted the use of violence saying it was a "natural result for such frictions". In addition, it said over 60 coppers have been maimed and several of its vehicles have been damaged.
[PUNCHNG] Senator representing Plateau North in the National Assembly, Istifanus Gyang has condemned the bill seeking to create an agency for repentant Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... terrorists, describing it as an insult to Nigerians.
The bill for the creation of National Agency for Education, Rehabilitation, De-radicalisation and Integration of repentant faceless myrmidons in Nigeria which was sponsored by Senator Ibrahim Gaidam, a former Governor of Yobe State representing Yobe East Senatorial passed first reading in the Senate last week
Senator Gyang who dissociated himself from the bill, in a statement in Jos on Sunday said the Bill is not only uncalled for but assaults the sensibility of Nigerians in view of the fact that most of the victims and communities affected by insurgency, banditry and violent attacks are still languishing from neglect and lack of the much-needed government attention and intervention despite repeated calls.
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02/24/2020 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] London says it’ll look at tens of millions given to UN refugee agency; one physics book discusses use of slingshots against IDF soldiers, others praise terrorists.
Textbooks were found to praise Paleostinian "deaders," including Dalal al-Mughrabi, who led the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre during which Paleostinian gunnies hijacked a bus and murdered 38 Israelis.
The materials revealed by the Daily Mail and their translations were provided to the paper by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se).
The UK has given some $427 million in aid to UNRWA over the past five years with another $84 million pledged for the coming year. Roughly 62 percent of that funding goes to schools in the Paleostinian territories, which could be using such textbooks.
Responding to the Daily Mail report, UNRWA said in a statement that it "cannot alter host government curriculum as this is a matter of national illusory sovereignty, but it does have robust systems in place to ensure education delivered in its schools reflects UN values."
Last May, the Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... an Union announced that it would conduct an examination of new Paleostinian school textbooks following a study that found them to be more radical than in the past and containing incitement and rejection of peace with Israel.
The development came after the European Parliament in April 2018 passed legislation geared to prevent hateful content in Paleostinian textbooks. In October of that year the parliament’s budgetary committee recommended freezing more than $17 million in aid to the Paleostinian Authority over incitement against Israel in its textbooks.
The EU hands the PA 360 million euros ($404 million) per year, with most earmarked for its education ministry. In addition, the European body donates $178 million to UNRWA, much of which goes to its schools that teach the PA curriculum.
[GatestoneInstitute] French President Emmanuel Macron has announced new measures aimed at countering political Islam in La Belle France. The changes would limit the role that foreign governments have in La Belle France in training imams, financing mosques and educating children.
Macron also vowed to fight what he called "Islamist separatism" and to lead what he described as a "Republican reconquest"
...a very strong image, not lightly thrown around...
aimed at reasserting state control over Moslem ghettoes ‐ so-called no-go zones (zones urbaines sensibles, sensitive urban zones) ‐ in La Belle France. Bring forth the tumbils! Continued on Page 49
#7
Macron shows us what a Buttfug administration here would be like. A glib and callow youth busy with lots of faux-moderate symbolism; a weird marriage; general fecklessness.
#10
I guess I've heard the same rumour. This is all damage control before 2022 to make sure LePen doesn't sweep the floor with him. Leftist snobs insult the intelligence of their citizens all the time. Then they get sent away. He will too. Every casualty in France to islamists; rape victims, survivors of murders, victims of gangs ... all are on him.
[The News (Pak)] Interior Minister Ijaz Shah Saturday said the government was making efforts to apprehend the former spokesperson of the Tehrik-e-Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... Pakistain (TTP) and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA) who beat feet from the state's custody a few weeks ago.
The interior minister was speaking to media after a tree plantation ceremony at the District Commissioner's office. Talking about Ehsanullah Ehsan ...formerly the front man for the Pak Taliban, then the lips and tongue of the Jamaatul Ahrar splinter group in Mohmand Agency... 's escape from custody, he said that efforts were being made to arrest him.
Last week, Shah admitted for the first time that the ex-TTP spokesperson had escaped the state's custody after an audio message of the holy warrior stating the same started doing the rounds on social media.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Pope Francis ...Argentine liberation theologist, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio. He was elected pope in 2013. Rather than setting up shop in Avignon, where he belongs, the first Jesuit Pope chose to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae guesthouse instead of the papal apartments. He is big on climate change, against consumerism, and in favor of throwing a blanket over homosexual activity within the clergy. He's not real sure about the Resurrection, about Christ's divinity, and a few other things that would have gotten him burned at the stake a few hundred years ago, but he's hot for a certain South American Earth Mother Goddess... has cautioned against "unfair" solutions aimed at ending the conflict between Israelis and Paleostinians.
In a speech Sunday during a visit to the Italian southern port city of Bari to reflect on peace in countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, Francis lamented the many areas of war and conflict, including in the Middle East and Northern Africa.
Francis spoke of "the still unresolved conflict between Israelis and Paleostinians, with the danger of not fair solutions, and, thus, presaging new crises."
The pope didn’t cite any specific proposals.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2020 00:00 ||
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#1
Every Pope I've seen in my 70 years around has been worthy of some measure of respect.
[AlAhram] Syria's Kurds on Sunday renewed their appeal for international aid to put on trial thousands of captured members of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group, including Western nationals.
Almost a year since the March 2019 fall of the last IS bastion in Syria, the victorious US-backed and Kurdish-led forces still hold about 12,000 suspected IS members in the country's northeast.
Most of them are Syrian or Iraqi nationals but their ranks include between 2,500 and 3,000 nationals from around 50 other countries.
In the face of Western hesitation to repatriate their own nationals, the Kurds have resigned themselves to having to put those detained on trial in Syria.
The semi-autonomous Kurdish authorities "need international cooperation", Fener al-Kait, a foreign affairs official, said in the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli.
"We need a lot, at the judicial and technical levels," he told AFP, adding that several countries were expected to come forward with assistance "in a month of two", without identifying them.
Kait on Sunday met with a parliamentary delegation from Belgium, 15 of whose nationals are held by the Kurds, while more than 60 Belgian women and kiddies remain in camps for suspected IS family members.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/24/2020 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Iranian President Hasan Rouhani likened US sanctions to coronavirus on Sunday, saying sanctions by Washington make panic more than reality.
Speaking with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Austria Alexander Schallenberg, Rouhani said the Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... an Union "is expected to stand up to US’ illegal actions."
He described Tehran-Vienna relations as very good and friendly.
"The two countries have good potentials, especially in economic fields, for cooperation and we hope that Austria disregards the Americans’ illegal pressures in developing its cooperation with Iran."
"We believe that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) can still be saved," Rouhani said, as quoted by Mehr news agency.
He stressed, meanwhile, that the nuclear deal does not just belong to Iran, Europe or the P5+1, but it can contribute to regional and global peace and security.
The Iranian president said that the nuclear deal could have been a good basis for building new trust between us and the West, including the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... and the United States, emphasizing that the Islamic Theocratic Republic has been committed to the deal for its own part.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2020 00:00 ||
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#1
Just a panic? Okay, let's see how the virus does in Iran. China cut it off at about 80,000 cases with very tight population movement control and other measures. Are the mullahs going to work at home now and broadcast their sermons on the Internet? Nah, I didn't think so .. let's fill up those mosques!
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.
[Al Jazeera] al-
...Arabic for 
[Sudan Tribune] The Sudanese Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok on Friday formed an investigation committee to probe the use of violence against peaceful protesters on Thursday.
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
[IsraelTimes] London says it’ll look at tens of millions given to UN refugee agency; one physics book discusses use of slingshots against IDF soldiers, others praise terrorists.
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
[GatestoneInstitute] French President Emmanuel Macron has announced new measures aimed at countering political Islam in 
...formerly the front man for the Pak Taliban, then the lips and tongue of the Jamaatul Ahrar splinter group in Mohmand Agency...
...Argentine liberation theologist, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio. He was elected pope in 2013. Rather than setting up shop in Avignon, where he belongs, the first Jesuit Pope chose to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae guesthouse instead of the papal apartments. He is big on climate change, against consumerism, and in favor of throwing a blanket over homosexual activity within the clergy. He's not real sure about the Resurrection, about Christ's divinity, and a few other things that would have gotten him burned at the stake a few hundred years ago, but he's hot for a certain South American Earth Mother Goddess...
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
[Al Jazeera] Lowest parliamentary vote turnout since 1979 revolution reflects disillusionment among reformist backers, analysts say.
