Sheikh Aziz-u-Rahman - head of the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in Herat - ordered shopkeepers in Herat province to remove mannequin's heads
They said models are 'idols' which are banned under their strict version of Islam
Initially, shopkeepers were told they had to dispose of mannequins completely
But after complaints it would ruin business, Taliban ruled only heads had to go
The ruling was issued this week by the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in Herat, which is responsible for administering the Taliban's strict interpretation of Islam.
Since recapturing Afghanistan over the summer in a rapid advance behind the back of withdrawing American troops, the Taliban has been slowly restricting the freedoms of its population while claiming to the world that it has 'reformed'.
Women and girls were immediately confined to their homes for 'safety', while the Taliban set about largely removing them from workplaces and schools.
In recent weeks, the Islamists also banned women from taking long-distance road trips without a male guardian and said they must also wear a veil while in the car.
At the same time, they banned all music in vehicles and said that 'intoxicating' substances were also prohibited.
Drivers should also stop their vehicles at prayer times in a 'proper place' so that prayers can take place, the ruling added.
Afghanistan, propped up for two decades by support funds from western nations and aid money, has all-but collapsed since the Taliban retook control.
Aid money has dried up, and while western nations have promised billions in funding, they are still wrangling over ways to get in into the country without handing it to the Islamists.
[AlAhram] Afghanistan's former president said he had no choice but to abruptly leave Kabul as the Taliban ...Arabic for students... closed in and denied an agreement was in the works for a peaceful takeover, disputing the accounts of former Afghan and US officials.
[AlAhram] Mali's military-dominated government on Thursday suggested that the poor Sahel country might take five years to return to democratic rule after holding a four-day "reform conference".
A transition of between six months and five years will enable the junta to "carry out structural institutional reforms and (organise) credible, fair and transparent elections", according to a document read out at the end of the forum.
"The government will put in place a timetable aimed at ensuring a peaceful and secure constitutional restoration," junta boss Assimi Goita said in a closing speech.
In August 2020, young officers led by Goita toppled the country's elected president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, after weeks of street protests over perceived corruption and his handling of a bloody jihadist insurgency.
Under pressure from La Belle France and Mali's neighbours, Goita pledged that Mali would return to civilian rule in February 2022 after holding presidential and legislative elections.
But in May this year, he staged a de facto second coup, forcing out an interim civilian government and disrupting the timetable.
The former French colony has a long history of national consultations.
But several major parties and social organizations have snubbed the process this time, demanding the swift holding of elections or criticising the discussions as fruitless.
Also Thursday, a member of Goita's entourage said the junta would send a delegation to the regional grouping ECOWAS to present the planned timetable.
Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop will be among the envoys, the official told AFP.
The postponement of promised elections sparked international condemnation and sanctions from ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States.
[An Nahar] Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Fifteen of the nineteen WTC hijackers were Saudis, and most major jihadi commanders were Saudis, to include Osama bin Laden. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman quietly folded that tent in 2016, doing terrible things to the guys running it, and has since been dragging the kingdom into the current century... 's King Salman ...either the largest species of Pacific salmon or the current Sheikh of the Burnin' Sands, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and Lord of Most of the Arabians... bin Abdul Aziz urged Lebanon Hezbollahstan ...The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers, a practice dating back to the heady days of human sacrifice to Baal Moloch... on Thursday to stop "the hegemony of terrorist 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... over the state."
King Salman said in a speech before the Consultative Assembly of Saudi Arabia (Shura Council) that "KSA stands by the Lebanese people."
"KSA urges all Lebanese leaders to prioritize the interests of their people and to work on achieving what the Lebanese aspire to in terms of security, stability and prosperity," the king said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/31/2021 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Jordanian Emad Al Swealmeen was killed by bomb he made with ’murderous intent’ outside Liverpool hospital in November, according to British authorities
A coroner ruled Thursday that a man who died in a taxi blast outside a Liverpool hospital was killed by a bomb he created to kill others.
The inquest found that 32-year-old Emad Al Swealmeen died when the taxi he was traveling in as a passenger went kaboom! and caught fire outside Liverpool Women’s Hospital in northwest England on November 14.
Iraq-born Swealmeen made the improvised bomb with "murderous intent," said senior coroner Andre Rebello at Liverpool and Wirral Coroner’s Court.
The driver managed to escape the vehicle and survived the earth-shattering kaboom, which was declared a terrorist incident by police.
It was the second attack in Britannia within a month, after an MP was stabbed to death as he met constituents in October. This prompted the government to raise the terror threat level to "severe."
Swealmeen had bought 2,000 ball bearings to pack the device and rented a flat to use as a "bomb-making factory," the inquest said.
The coroner concluded that "it is clear from the evidence... this device could only have been manufactured with murderous intent, fortunately there was only one victim."
Counter-terrorism police have previously said that Swealmeen planned the attack for at least seven months, using "many aliases" to purchase the ingredients for the bomb.
The coroner said it was unclear whether Swealmeen had deliberately detonated the device outside the hospital, minutes before events to honor Remembrance Sunday.
The blast blew out the car’s windscreen and damaged hospital windows.
Swealmeen had previous convictions and had falsely claimed asylum as a Syrian refugee in the United Kingdom after arriving legally on a Jordanian passport.
His asylum claims had been refused and a counter-terrorism police officer suggested to the inquest that Swealmeen might have recently converted to Christianity with the aim of strengthening his case to stay.
[An Nahar] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire... 's currency crisis turned increasingly political on Thursday after a top minister urged citizens to sue economists who comment on social media about the lira's slide.Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati's unusual remarks late Wednesday followed the banking regulator's decision to file complaints against more than 20 people -- including a former central bank governor -- over their Twitter posts.
Turkey's beleaguered currency entered a tailspin that saw it lose nearly half its value from the start of November to the moment President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
12/31/2021 00:00 ||
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[OneIndia] Following the recovery of seven mobile phones, the investigating agencies are probing if the Ludhiana bomber was getting instructions from inside a jail.
The police have sent the phones to the forensic laboratory for analysis. In the blast that took place at the Ludhiana Court complex on December 23, dismissed cop, Gagandeep Singh was killed and six others were injured.
Singh was dismissed from service in 2019 and had spent two years in the Ludhiana jail in connection with a drug related case. The phone seized by the police were used by Ranjit Singh and Sukhwinder Singh who were lodged with Gagandeep in the same jail. Gagandeep was out on bail in September.
Sources tell OneIndia that there were international calls too made from these numbers by Sukhwinder and Ranjit. The Indian Intelligence agencies had learnt that the plot to bomb the court complex was planned in Germany and Pakistan.
The CCTV footage shows that Gagandeep had used a bus to reach Ludhiana from Khanna on December 23, the day of the blast. Meanwhile the police have questioned both his wife and a girlfriend serving in the police force. The girlfriend was questioned as he was staying with her in a hotel before proceeding to Ludhiana.
Wife and fellow cop girlfriend, a Sikh bomb, and inappropriate drugs? His police captain was spoilt for choice. Probably just as well Gagandeep Singh alias Gaggi went kaboom, saving the good guys from having to do all that paperwork.
[DW] Financing terror, chemical weapons, forensics and digital archives: The ex-German prosecutor now heading the UN's special team on crimes of the so-called "Islamic State" explains where the search for justice will focus.
Who profited from the rise of the Death Eater group known as the "Islamic State" (IS) in Iraq and where are they today? This is just one of the questions that former German federal prosecutor Christian Ritscher hopes to answer over the course of the next year.
In September, Ritscher was appointed to head UNITAD, the United Nations
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/31/2021 00:00 ||
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[RIA Novosti] US allegations that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was found by the US military in a pit where he was allegedly hiding are not true, an Iraqi translator who worked with the US military told RIA Novosti.
Thus, he refuted the canonical version of the United States about the detention of Hussein, used by the Americans for propaganda purposes. Thursday, December 30, marks the 15th anniversary of the execution of Hussein after the US invasion of Iraq under the pretext of searching for weapons of mass destruction, the presence of which in the country has not been confirmed.
"After his arrest, the situation was fabricated so that the American administration headed by (President George) Bush would get out (out of the situation), so that the coalition he had created against Iraq would not be defeated, so that US authority would not suffer because of the attack on Iraq under the pretext of having weapons. mass destruction and an imminent threat to the world," said the translator, who wished to remain anonymous because of fears for his safety.
Representatives of the Pentagon after the arrest of Saddam 13 December 2003 stated that it was found in a tunnel vertical depth of about 1.8 meters next to a farm. According to the translator, Hussein was actually in the room at the time of his arrest, he did not understand what was happening.
Gaddafi donated money to defend Saddam Hussein in court, lawyer said:
"Hussein was in the room, let the world know. "He was sitting in the room, I think he was praying because he was dressed in a dishdasha (traditional Arab clothing - ed.) ... He came out in this dress, he was put on ... let's say it is fabricated, as if he was detained when he was in the pit," said the man.
According to him, he himself could not climb into the pit, it was too narrow, and the president was already weak at that time.
"I was wearing a bulletproof vest, took it off and was able to climb into the hole through force, I could also get out with difficulty. Yes, there was a hole, but the information that the president was detained in the hole ... I tell you, he was in the room , he was detained in a room," the translator said.
According to him, it was "an ordinary room" with no means of communication. "It had only a wardrobe, two beds, a radio, a dictaphone, a small TV set, some clothes and shoes."
#3
after the US invasion of Iraq under the pretext of searching for weapons of mass destruction, the presence of which in the country has not been confirmed.
Verb tense error in the translation software. The correct phrase is "was never confirmed." The entire WMD was a lie from the beginning. They just wanted to launch an illegal war of aggression and make a mint doing it.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/31/2021 9:21 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Saddam's own generals believed they had gas, and asked for permission to use it during the invasion.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
12/31/2021 11:54 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Whether was wmds or not the man need to be removed and should have been in the first Iraq war, instead of bullshitting with him for another decade or so.
Posted by: Chris ||
12/31/2021 13:43 Comments ||
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[JPost] Refueling. Hmmmmm With a range of 11,830 km and the capacity to carry 207,000 pounds of fuel, the KC-46 can refuel over 64 different types of aircraft and allow dozens of jets to remain airborne for up to 12 hours
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/31/2021 07:36 ||
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#1
...The Israelis had already verbally committed to purchasing the -46 some time ago, and just recently they asked if we could speed up the deliveries. Their B707 based tankers are sufficiently elderly that anything pointed at Certain Other Countries might be kinda dicey.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/31/2021 8:14 Comments ||
Top||
#2
All the Bidet admin will get for slow-walking the deliveries is that the Israelis will find another way.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/31/2021 8:26 Comments ||
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[IsraelTimes] Online imposters who infiltrated network backing opposition leader repeatedly asked duped protest organizer to pass their ideas to Yair Netanyahu, according to TV report
A group of hackers ostensibly tied to Iran ...Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979... who targeted activists in opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party tried to make contact with his son Yair Netanyahu, according to a Thursday TV report.
Continued on Page 49
[IsraelTimes] al-Jazeera has reported on a Hamas, the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®, exercise in Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... simulating the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier and attacks on Israeli military targets.
The Middle East Media Research Institute, providing a video from the drill, cites Hamas commander Muhammad Abu Nasira as saying the exercise is part of the preparation for a "war of liberation."
2/2 Hamas-Led Joint Military Drill in Gaza Simulates Kidnapping IDF Soldiers, Attacking Israeli Military Positions, Vehicles; Fighters Pledge to Liberate Prisoners pic.twitter.com/z4tGa9j7OW
[An Nahar] The Presidency on Thursday snapped back at those who criticized President Michel Aoun ...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... over the administrative and financial decentralization remarks in his latest speech."Politicians and journalists have deliberately taken out of context parts of President Michel Aoun’s address to the nation, interpreting them in a manner that contradicts with reality, for objectives that are no longer concealed from anyone," the Presidency said in a statement.
It also "clarified" some points to "those who went too far in their imaginations, whether deliberately or due to misinterpretation."
"President Aoun reminds those keen on Lebanon Hezbollahstan ...a strong argument in favor of European colonialism, even French colonialism... ’s unity and claiming to be against its partitioning that he was the one who launched his famous slogan, ’Lebanon is too big to be swallowed and too small to be partitioned,’ during an official visit to Washington in 1978," the Presidency added.
"As for those who deliberately or inadvertently misunderstood the idea of broad administrative and financial decentralization in the President’s message, the Presidency would like to stress that administrative and financial decentralization go together, according to the Document of National Accord (Taef Accord)," the Presidency said.
It also stressed that "public services at the local level do not violate the central state’s system of public finance, security and foreign policy."
In his televised address on Monday, the President had said that the solution for Lebanon’s crises "requires transiting to a civil state and a new system based on broad administrative and financial decentralization."
"The coming elections must be a referendum on this," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/31/2021 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Mount Lebanon Hezbollahstan ...The land area formerly occupied by the state of Lebanon, before that Phoenicia... 's prosecutor Judge Ghada Aoun said Thursday in a statement that Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh ...Governor of Lebanon'scentral bank, Banque du Liban since April 1993. Salameh was appointed Governor by decree, approved by the Council of Ministers for a renewable term of six years. He was reappointed for four consecutive terms; in 1999, 2005, 2011 and 2017. Salameh chairs the Banque du Liban Central Council, the Higher Banking Commission, the AML/CFT Special Investigation Commission and the Capital Markets Authority. Salameh is a member of the board of governors at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and at the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF). Salameh is the longest-serving central bank governor in the world.... is not only prosecuted abroad, but also in Lebanon.According to Aoun, there are two lawsuits against Salameh.
The governor’s first offense is "interfering in currency speculation along with a bank," Aoun said.
The second is allowing the transfer abroad of $5 billion in cash.
The judge said that the source of 4 out of the 5 billion is unknown.
"Without Salameh’s intervention, these crimes would not have happened," Aoun claimed.
She added that "if the Court of Cassation decides to grant him an edict, that would be another issue."
Aoun pointed out that "there are evidences and numbers from Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... that can’t be disregarded" in a lawsuit pending before the Public Prosecution.
She questioned why this lawsuit is going round in circles, "although allegation is based on suspicion."
"Is there no suspicion despite all these facts?" the judge asked. "Let someone read the Swiss request for judicial assistance!"
Posted by: Fred ||
12/31/2021 00:00 ||
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Day 3 can be seen here. Day 2 can be seen here, Day 1 here. Photos can be seen at the link.
[IsraelTimes] Satellite images taken this week over the Syrian port of Latakia show the smoldering wreckage after an alleged Israeli missile strike, hours after firefighters contained a massive blaze. The images suggest the fire was caused by a high precision strike on Tuesday that appeared to hit only one container.
Satellite photos obtained by The News Agency that Dare Not be Named from Planet Labs PBC Thursday showed heavy smog over the container terminal on Wednesday, likely from the struck container still smoking.
The Latakia seaport handles most of the imports to Syria, a country ravaged by a decade-old civil war and Western-imposed sanctions.
The predawn strike marked the second time Israel has allegedly hit the key cargo hub in a month. The attack caused significant damage with stacks of containers catching fire.
The blast damaged a nearby hospital and offices, and also shattered windows of residential buildings and cars parked in the area near the port. The explosion could be heard miles away.
Maj. Mohannad Jafaar, head of the Latakia fire department, said 12 fire trucks worked for hours to contain the blaze.
For years, Israel avoided conducting strikes against the Latakia port due to the large presence of Russian forces nearby, though Israel believes that this well-known policy has led Iran ...The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both... to seek to protect its arms transfers to its proxies in the region, notably the Lebanese Hezbollah terror group, by conducting them near Russian-controlled areas.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[AlAhram] Afghanistan's former president said he had no choice but to abruptly leave Kabul as the 
[AlAhram] Mali's military-dominated government on Thursday suggested that the poor Sahel country might take five years to return to democratic rule after holding a four-day "reform conference".
...The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers, a practice dating back to the heady days of human sacrifice to Baal Moloch...
[OneIndia] Following the recovery of seven mobile phones, the investigating agencies are probing if the Ludhiana bomber was getting instructions from inside a jail.
[DW] Financing terror, chemical weapons, forensics and digital archives: The ex-German prosecutor now heading the UN's special team on crimes of the so-called "Islamic State" explains where the search for justice will focus.
...Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979...
...a strong argument in favor of European colonialism, even French colonialism...
...The land area formerly occupied by the state of Lebanon, before that Phoenicia...
...The word 
Hezbollah
