[Libya Observer] The Council of Tajoura Elders said in a statement on Sunday that it has some qualms over the continued detention of three persons who have been locked away You have the right to remain silent... for "Mitiga incidents" despite the fact that the remainder of persons involved in the incidents are now freed after Souq Jumua and Tajoura's agreement.
"The three prisoners have not been released and are being mistreated as well as their families have been harassed while visiting them in Mitiga prison." The council said.
It also said that if the airport has not been evacuated from the armed formations, tensions could rise, referring to the Special Deterrence Force (SDF.)
They also called for allowing legitimate authorities to be in control of the airport and for handing the control of the prison inside the airport to the justice ministry, urging for probing violations of human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... inside the prison.
"We are ready to cooperate with all efforts to establish justice and stability in Libya." The council added.
Souq Jumua and Tajoura signed an agreement days ago to end the tension between them and set free the detainees from both sides.
The Presidential Council issued an order releasing inmates from different prisons including the SDF-run Mitiga prisons, excluding the prisoners charged with criminal and terrorist counts.
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10/01/2018 00:00 ||
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[Libya Observer] The chief of the Libyan security arrangements committee of the Interior Ministry, Ramadan Zarmouh, said they are closely following the implementation process of the security measures to end any possible resurfacing of fighting in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... .
Zarmouh said in a TV interview on Sunday that there is no pressure by the UNSMIL to implement the security arrangement, adding that he talked to the big shots of the gangs like Salah Badi ...a Misrata militia commander, self-appointed colonel and a member of the Wafa Islamist bloc. He was cashiered from the Libyan army in 1992 because he was nuts... and Hashim Besher as well as to some Tarhouna elders.
"My communication with the parties led to the ceasefire agreement and to the withdrawal of armed formations from the battlefield. They want to enhance security but the reasons that pushed them into fighting in Tripoli must be removed first." He remarked.
He said that they all agreed that the interior ministry is responsible for the establishing of security through police and security apparatuses.
"The gangs don't have political or financial goals but aim to improve the conditions in Tripoli. They only controlled state institutions because the state security apparatuses are weak." He added.
Zarmouh also said that the measures are being taken with the help of the interior minister to secure all areas and state institutions in Tripoli, adding that military forces will be inside their camps only.
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10/01/2018 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] Thousands of rival demonstrators hit the streets of Cologne ...the largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the fourth populated city in Germany.... as Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... opened the country's largest mosque at the end of his visit to Germany.
The inauguration on Saturday capped a controversial three-day state visit aimed at repairing frayed ties with Berlin after two years of tensions.
During his stay in Berlin, Erdogan met twice with Chancellor Angela Merkel ...chancellor of Germany and the impetus behind Germany's remarkably ill-starred immigration program. Merkel used to be referred to by Germans as Mom. Now they make faces at her for inundating the country with Moslems .. for talks, with both leaders signalling their interest in a cautious rapprochement, but also disagreements in a wide variety of issues.
The German Chancellor stressed that "deep differences" remained on civil rights and other issues, while Erdogan blamed Germany of harbouring terrorists.
Before returning home, Erdogan travelled to the western city of Cologne where several thousand critics turned out to protest against The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire.... 's record on human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... , press freedom and its treatment of minority Kurds.
At one of the rallies on the bank of the Rhine river, demonstrators waved banners reading: "Erdogan not welcome".
Erdogan supporters meanwhile gathered near the Cologne Central Mosque as police cordoned off a large area around the mosque for safety reasons.
However, a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... thousands of Erdogan supporters spilled into the side streets, hoping for a glimpse of the Ottoman Turkish leader.
Many waved Turkey's red and white flag or held up pictures of Erdogan, with crowds cheerfully breaking into regular chants of the president's name or shouting "Who is the greatest? Turkey".
SOURED RELATIONS
Both Cologne mayor Henriette Reker and the state's premier Armin Laschet declined to attend the mosque opening ceremony.
Can Turkey and Germany restore their broken relationship?
The snubs echoed the lukewarm welcome the Ottoman Turkish leader received at a state dinner on Friday evening hosted by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, which several opposition politicians boycotted. Merkel also skipped the banquet.
Ties between the two NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... countries soured after Berlin criticised Ankara's crackdown on opponents following a failed 2016 coup, which saw tens of thousands nabbed Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! .
Tensions eased somewhat after several high-profile German-Ottoman Turkish nationals were released this year, but five remain behind bars.
Merkel, whose country is home to more than three million ethnic Turks, stressed the need for continued dialogue to overcome disagreements.
But she also highlighted Germany's interest in a "stable" Turkey, which she relies on to help stem the flow of refugees to Europe.
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10/01/2018 00:00 ||
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[PRESSTV] German Chancellor Angela Merkel ...chancellor of Germany and the impetus behind Germany's remarkably ill-starred immigration program. Merkel used to be referred to by Germans as Mom. Now they make faces at her for inundating the country with Moslems .. warns the United States against "destroying" the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... without having a replacement first.
Merkel made the remarks during a stump speech in Bavaria, where she celebrated multilateralism after a 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... speech by US 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... against it.
She denounced Trump for thinking "that multilateralism is not the answer to our problems," describing the US chief executive as "one who only assumes that there can only be one winner in any given situation, who - unlike me - does not believe in win-win situations."
Trump, therefore, "questions multilateral systems that go far beyond Europe, like the climate protection agreement, the functioning of the United Nations," she added.
"The United Nations was founded on the ruins of the Second World War. And yes, it is not perfect. We've been wanting a reform of the Security Council, for many years. But ladies and gentleman, to destroy something without having built a replacement, that is highly dangerous as far as I am concerned, and can destroy our community of peace sooner than we think," the German head of state asserted.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2018 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under:
#1
"Ve vill not give up international system where USA pays for everything!"?
Your doing a bang up job sweetie.
All I want is for the US to get out of it and take care of ourselves. You can let the rabble run your country. You've already started that. When does Erdogan the magnificent move into his new German palace?
Posted by: Alan C ||
10/01/2018 9:12 Comments ||
Top||
#7
You are welcome to move the UN to Germany and continue to play dress up all you want. America and her real allies will perhaps form a new coalition or simply move on in enlightened self interest, beholden only to treaties that we make.
#8
"...We've been wanting a reform of the Security Council, for many years."
"Ve hav been vanting to replace the UN Security Council vith the true Masters of der World -- the EUropean Union Council! Seig Heil!"
FIFY...
[ARABNEWS] Results from Iraq’s Kurdish election on Sunday are expected to bolster the plans of veteran statesman Massoud Barzani ... hereditary head of the Kurdish Democratic Party, maybe a little too close to the Medes and the Persians for most people's tastes. After the defeat of Daesh he pushed through the Kurdish independence referendum, which caused the Iraqs to turn on him. Resigned in November, 2017... to sweep aside his main rival just days before a push to secure the presidency in Baghdad for his party.
Voters chose from more than 700 candidates to win 111 seats in autonomous Kurdistan’s Parliament, a year after a failed independence referendum to separate from Iraq.
Ever since, Kurdish parties have been deeply divided inside and outside the region. Irbil, the capital of Kurdistan, insisted on conducting the referendum amid the turmoil of ISIS’s demise in the country and despite widespread international and local objections.
The relationship between the two biggest and most powerful Kurdish parties, Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), was severely damaged.
The referendum led to the Iraqi government imposing administrative and financial sanctions on the region to force the Kurdish Regional government to abandon its results. Baghdad launched a military offensive to retake control of disputed areas from Kurdish forces, including the oil hub Kirkuk.
BETRAYAL
KDP leaders accused the PUK of betrayal by abandoning independence efforts after the referendum and siding with Baghdad. They said the PUK’s aim was to thwart KDP efforts to dominate Kurdish politics inside the KRG and in Baghdad. The party refused to fight the Iraqi security forces as they retook Kirkuk and the other disputed areas located outside the constitutional border of the Kurdistan region.
The regional elections were limited to the four provinces of Irbil, Dohouk, Sulaimaniya and Halabja. Polling closed at 6 p.m. local time and it is not clear when results will be announced. Parties said the turnout was expected to be around 40 percent. No security problems were reported.
Initial signs indicate that the KDP is likely to win the majority of votes after the decline in influence of the PUK. The party had previously received a third of its votes from Kirkuk and the disputed, which were not included in voting this time.
Ghoran, the third biggest Kurdish party, has also lost much of its strength over the past two years due to the death of its founder, Nushirwan Mustafa, and the dissension of many of its leaders. The party is not expected to win enough seats to play a key role in the regional parliament. The small Islamic Kurdish parties and minorities will have little impact unless they join forces with one of the three main parties.
INFLUENCE
"Despite all the tremors that the KDP suffered after the referendum, it is still the only party that has maintained the same areas of influence and the same public support," Yassir Emad, a local Kurdish journalist told Arab News.
"All reports that we got today indicate that the KDP will get the majority of the votes in Dohuk and Irbil, while PUK, Ghoran and the other small parties will share the votes of Sulaimaniya and Halabja."
The election will determine which party will have the final word in the next regional government.
The KDP, which has adopted radical policies on Kurdish independence, has led most of Kurdistan’s governments since it was declared an internationally protected zone in 1992.
But the new government may contribute to resolving the outstanding problems with Baghdad.
During campaigning, the KDP’s leaders said they were seeking to achieve a strong majority in the regional Parliament.
"If the party (KDP) achieves great success in the elections, it will undergo major change and reform," Massoud Barzani, head of the KDP and the most prominent Kurdish leader, said last week during a rally in Sulaimaniya. "There is a lot of talk about rearranging and unifying the Kurdish house. We will continue our efforts in this area, but we cannot unite with those who do not believe what we believe in."
FEDERAL POSITIONS
The KDP and PUK have been controlling the Kurds’ share of federal positions in Baghdad since 2003.
Under a 2005 gentlemen’s agreement between Iraq’s political forces, the position of president is among the posts held by the Kurds. The candidate of the PUK has held the office for the last three governments in exchange for the regional president post among others, which were filled by the KDP.
Both parties are used to resolving their differences in Kurdistan and negotiating with their Shiite and Sunni rivals in Baghdad as a united front, but the situation has completely changed this time as Iraq struggles to build its next government after May elections.
The PUK nominated Barham Salih, the veteran politician, to be their candidate for president. The KDP, however, nominated Fuad Hussein, Barzani’s secretary, for the same post.
The Shiite Reform alliance, sponsored by Moqtada Tater al-Sadr ... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah... , and the rival Iran-backed alliance, al-Binna’a are the only parties that can provide the 210 votes required to win the post.
Both alliances asked the Kurds to agree on one candidate before going to parliament to avoid the dispersion pf MP’s votes and the rise of a candidate that has not been agreed upon.
Barzani, who gave up his post as head of the Kurdish region last year after the failed referendum, insisted on refusing to elect the president in Baghdad before knowing the results of the regional election, Shiite and Kurdish negotiators told Arab News.
Barzani and KDP leaders have said the post belongs to the Kurds, and whoever represents the Kurdish majority, should be rewarded with the position.
MAJORITY'S CHOICE
"This post is for all the people of Kurdistan... and the candidate for the president (post) must represent the majority of the people of Kurdistan," Masrour Barzani, Massoud’s son and adviser of the Kurdistan Region Security Council, said on Sunday.
"So we believe that the KDP should present its candidate this time for this post ... and we hope that all parties will support the majority’s choice."
Massoud Barzani’s insistence on the post of president for his party and rejection of all other PUK questions, has raised questions about the KDP’s goal, especially as the president has no executive powers and his post is largely ceremonial. "Barzani is looking to crash his Kurdish rivals inside and outside the region, so he is just pressuring the PUK, his biggest rival by using the post (of president) as a tool," Abdulwahid Tuama, a political analyst, told Arab News.
"The post of president represents the last lifeline of the PUK to continue as a key player in Baghdad and a balancing factor for the forces in Kurdistan.
"If the KDP got the post, then the PUK will gradually evaporate from the scene in Kurdistan as Barzani plans to exclude them from the next regional government and politically terminate them in Baghdad."
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10/01/2018 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] A Syrian rebel alliance has not pulled any heavy arms from the country's north, its front man told AFP on Sunday, denying reports it had begun implementing a demilitarisation deal there.
Moscow and Ankara reached a deal earlier this month to create a buffer zone around the opposition stronghold of Idlib that would be free of both bully boyz and heavy arms.
The National Liberation Front (NLF), a pro-The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor.... rebel alliance, welcomed the deal but said on Sunday it had not yet moved any heavy arms from the planned zone.
"There have been no withdrawals of heavy weapons from any area or any front. This report is denied, completely denied," NLF front man Naji Mustafa told AFP.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor had earlier said one faction of the NLF began withdrawing its heavy weapons under a Ottoman Turkish-Russian agreement to create a buffer zone in the area.
It said Faylaq al-Rahman, whose fighters number between 8,500 and 10,000, were leaving areas in the planned zone on Sunday "with heavy weapons, including tanks and cannons".
A front man for Faylaq al-Rahman also told AFP on Sunday it had not moved any forces or arms.
"There have been no changes in the location of weapons or redistribution of fighters, even as we remain committed to the agreement reached in (the Russian resort of) Sochi," said Sayf al-Raad.
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[PRESSTV] Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif fires back at his American counterpart, Mike Pompeo, who had earlier claimed that the United States would hold Iran to account for attacks on American targets in Iraq.
Speaking on CNN’s "Fareed Zakaria GPS" on Sunday, Zarif denied US allegations that American interests in the Arab country were facing "increasing threats" from the Islamic Theocratic Republic.
"We of course have influence in Iraq but that does not mean we control people in Iraq, as the United States doesn't control people in countries with whom it has good relations," Zarif said.
"Mr. Pompeo and [White House national security adviser] Mr. Bolton, instead of making these irrelevant threats that would produce no positive results, need to look at their own policies," Zarif said.
The United States announced on Friday it would effectively close its consulate in Basra "following increasing threats from Iran and Iran-backed militia, including rocket fire," Rooters reported.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...the largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the fourth populated city in Germany....
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
...chancellor of Germany and the impetus behind Germany's remarkably ill-starred immigration program. Merkel used to be referred to by Germans as 
Massoud Barzani
Moqtada 
