Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2011 00:00 ||
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Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Amy Adams aka Giselle in "Enchanted" aka Charlene Fleming in "The Fighter" aka Brenda Strong in "Catch Me If You Can" aka Bonnie Bach in "Charlie Wilson's War" aka Amelia Earhart in "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" aka Julie Powell in "Julie & Julia" aka Rose Lorkowski in "Sunshine Cleaning" aka Sister James in "Doubt" aka Ashley Johnsten in "Junebug" (age 37)
Yesterday we inadvertently 'poop-listed' a regular based on a comment made. There was nothing wrong with the comment. We're still trying to figure out how we did that, but in the meantime we fixed the comment and the status of our regular commenter.
When we make an oops, we'll fix it.
Sorry about that, Anonymoose. Our apologies.
AoS (moderator)
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/20/2011 00:00 ||
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Rantburgers are just awesome. Please never die Fred.
In which our hero, who we know as Achmadullah but who may be called something else by his family, discovers the value of map skills.
[Dawn] The criminals who kidnapped five tribal people of Kurram Agency ...home of an intricately interconnected web of poverty, ignorance, and religious fanaticism, where the laws of cause and effect are assumed to be suspended, conveniently located adjacent to Tora Bora... in Paktia province of Afghanistan last Sunday have demanded Rs6 million in ransom for their release.
Local people said the five residents of Parachinar, including a woman, were coming to their hometowns in Kurram from Beautiful Downtown Peshawar via Afghanistan owing to the closure of Thall-Parachinar Road.
Armed persons disembarked them from their vehicle at gunpoint when they reached Lajja area in Paktia province and shifted them to Qazi's guesthouse an undisclosed location.
The kidnap victims, belonging to Turi tribe, were identified as Munawwar Ali, Javed Hussain, Khial Hussain, Sultan Ali and wife of Sultan Ali. Sources said that kidnappers contacted families of the kidnapped persons and demanded Rs6 millions as ransom for their safe release.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wine tasting, Vince was about to start tasting his third quart... tribal elders living on both sides of Durand Line were trying to negotiate their freedom. The Afghan cops have also expedited search operation to recover the kidnapped Paks.
The Turi Bangash rustics and family members of the kidnapped persons have appealed to President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... and Prime Minster Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... to take up the issue with Afghan authorities.
JIRGA: A jirga of tribal elders has asked the government to arrange early repatriation of displaced persons and implement the Murree peace agreement to restore peace in Kurram Agency.
The jirga, held in Parachinar on Thursday, was convened by Political Agent Shahab Ali Khan to discuss the issue of rehabilitation of displaced families from Parachinar, Sadda and other violence-hit areas of the tribal region.
The elders of Turi, Bangash, Mangal and Jaji tribes and representatives of Sunni and Shia sects attended the jirga.
The participants thoroughly deliberated measures for solution of conflict among tribal people and rehabilitation of displaced people under Muree peace agreement.
The jirga was told that all stakeholders in Kurram Agency wanted peace and security to travellers on the main road. The participants of the jirga said that provision of security to people was duty of government. They demanded enforcement of Muree agreement in its true spirit to restore peace in the volatile region.
Asadullah and Attaullah, the representatives of displaced people, told the jirga that Parachinar was their hometown and they would continue efforts for strengthening brotherhood and fraternity among the people of the region.
Haji Hameed Turi and Prof Jamail Kazmi, the elders of Turi tribe, also addressed the jirga. They said that they had always played their role in restoration of peace.
They extended full support to government in establishing its writ and finding durable solution to sensitive issues. They demanded early repatriation of displaced people under Muree peace declaration. The jirga decided to hold second session after Eidul Fitr.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Eight people were killed as a wave of suicide kabooms rocked a British cultural centre in Kabul Friday, a public holiday marking Afghanistan's independence from Britannia in 1919.
Five blasts, claimed by the Taliban, struck the British Council offices in Kabul amid bursts of heavy gunfire that began in the early morning and were ongoing four hours later. A fresh kaboom hit the area at 10:00am.
The British Council is an official organization part-funded by London that promotes cultural relations in offices around the world.
Police said at least the first two blasts were the work of jacket wallahs.
"Eight people, mostly police, are killed and 10 others injured," said interior ministry front man Siddiq Siddiqui. "There's one person, one of the attackers who is still alive and resisting. The area has not yet been cleared." Kabul police front man Hashmat Stanikzai earlier said the dead included two coppers and two street cleaners who had been working nearby when the attackers struck.
The British embassy and 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... -led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan confirmed that the target was the British Council.
"I can confirm reports of an attack against the British Council compound in Kabul," said an embassy front man.
He added that the embassy was coordinating with Afghan authorities at the scene but could not provide information on casualties.
An AFP photographer at the scene saw British, US and French forces there, while an AFP news hound witnessed two large ISAF armoured vehicles arriving as helicopters circled.
It was not immediately clear if the helicopters were Afghan or foreign.
An ISAF front man, Captain Justin Brockhoff, said the force had sent a "limited number" of troops to the scene.
"We have a very small contribution to the Afghan-led response," he said.
Afghan cops are in overall control of security in Kabul.
Taliban front man Zabihullah Mujahid, contacted by AFP, claimed the Islamic exemplar group leading a 10-year insurgency in Afghanistan was responsible for the attack, which he said was to mark the nation's independence day.
He said the attackers' target was the British Council and a United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... guest house. But a front man for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, Dan McNorton, denied any of its sites was involved.
"Taliban mujahideen stormed these two compounds and heavy fighting ... as opposed to the more usual light or sporadic fighting... is going on with the Afghan police," Mujahid said.
"Today is our independence day from Britannia. They recognised our independence 92 years ago -- today's attack was marking that day.
"Now the British have invaded our country again and they will recognise our independence day again." Britannia is the second-largest provider of troops to the international military effort fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan after the United States, with around 9,500 forces mainly in the south.
The incident was thought to have started at around 5:45 am when an AFP news hound heard two kabooms within about 10 minutes of each other.
At the scene was the burning wreckage of a car that had rammed into the wall of the British Council compound and went kaboom!. Ambulances and the emergency services shuttled back and forth rescuing injured people.
"I was asleep when the sound of a heavy kaboom woke me up," said eyewitness Mohammad Aber, who lives over the road from the building.
"I went to the roof. I saw a car was on fire, and there was suddenly a second kaboom, then the shooting started." The British Council's website says its work in Kabul is mainly focused on providing support for Afghans wanting to learn English, "for which there is an overwhelming demand".
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
NOT-LED-ZEPPELIN BRITS IN NON-KASHMIR, NON-KHARTOUM KABUL ... ...
versus
* WAFF > US TO TURKEY ON CYPRUS DRILLING: US MAY DEFEND ITS INTEREST IFF YOU ATTACK US ENERGY COMPANY [Noble Energy Co.].
ARTIC = Diplomacy is preferred but US believes US, Israeli, + Euro etc. energy companies have good right to be Cyprus.
[Ennahar] Three people including a soldier and a policeman, were killed Tuesday and Wednesday in two distinct attacks in Algeria attributed to Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), according to a hospital and a newspaper source.
A policeman pegged out Wednesday in the morning in an attack against a passenger vehicle on which he was travelling in Tala Bounane, near the town of blood-stained Tizi Ouzou (110 km east of Algiers ), in Kabylia, according to a local hospital source.
The driver of the vehicle was killed instantly in the attack attributed to members of AQIM. Two coppers who were on board another vehicle were also injured in the attack.
Tuesday, a soldier was killed and five maimed by a bomb kaboom while their convoy was passing in Thénia in the region of corpse-littered Boumerdes (50 km east of Algiers), according to the daily El Watan Online, attributed to the movement of AQIM.
Since the beginning of Ramadan on August 1, regarded as conducive to jihad by terrorist groups, the regions of blood-stained Tizi Ouzou and corpse-littered Boumerdes are the target of several attacks attributed by the press to AQIM.
Sunday, more than thirty people including two Chinese had been injured in a suicide kaboom against a cop shoppe in the center of the city of blood-stained Tizi Ouzou.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Libyan rebels said they seized control of Zliten from Moammar Qadaffy's ...whose instability has been an inspiration to dictators everywhere... forces on Friday, only hours after reporting they were in the center of the town, 150 kilometers east of Tripoli.
"Zliten is now under the control of our fighters, but the fighting is not finished," the Information Center For Misrata Military Council said.
"At 4:00 pm (1400 GMT) our people informed us they had advanced to the Zliten bridge. They captured a tank and several vehicles that they used against the enemy," the council said.
At midday, the rebels had announced they were inside Zliten's town center, after an offensive that began around 7:30 am (0530 GMT).
"The battle began with an artillery bombardment on the positions of Qadaffy's forces, followed by a swift movement forward by rebels," the rebels said.
"Qadaffy forces have used tanks to try unsuccessfully to repel the rebels. There are dead and injured rebels," they added.
Earlier, the forces of Evil reported to have pushed forward and seized positions "in the areas of Bazh, Gananat, the Ahamada and around Zliten hotel."
They also said they had advanced "to the south of Zliten" in an area called Sir Leslie, forcing Qadaffy loyalists to pull back.
"Between 40 and 50 Qadaffy forces were killed" in the fighting, while some 12 African mercenaries were captured, the statement said, adding that 40 forces of Evil were maimed, 10 of them seriously.
"The northern part of the city along the coast is now under our control," the rebels said, adding they had captured Colonel Ali Umran bin Salim, a Qadaffy loyalist and head of domestic intelligence in Zliten.
A number of families from Misrata, caught in Zliten and unable to leave, were freed by the rebels, the statement said. "We are trying to return them to Misrata as soon as we can."
Rebels claimed they seized seven military vehicles, as well as weapons and ammunition.
The rebels, who have been steadily advancing westwards from their enclave in Misrata, have been trying since early August to seize full control of Zliten, a strategic coastal town on the road to Tripoli.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Libyan rebels on Friday claimed to control the strategic town Zawiyah and its key refinery after seizing the hospital, an Agence La Belle France Presse journalist said.
"Zawiyah is free," said rebels as they took up positions in the hospital hours after pounding the center of the town, which is the last major barrier before the rebels can think about advancing on Tripoli from the west.
Hundreds of rebels armed with assault rifles marched from the central square, a stronghold of forces loyal to Moammar Qadaffy ...dictator of Libya since 1969. From 1972, when he relinquished the title of prime minister, he has been accorded the honorifics Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya or Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution. With the death of Omar Bongo of Gabon on 8 June 2009, he became the longest serving of all current non-royal national leaders. He is also the longest-serving ruler of Libya since Tripoli became an Ottoman province in 1551. When Chairman Mao was all the rage and millions of people were flashing his Little Red Book, Qadaffy came out with his own Little Green Book, which didn't do as well. Qadaffy's instability has been an inspiration to the Arab world and to Africa, which he would like to rule... , onto the hospital, which was decorated with green flags and portraits of the veteran leader.
Rebels also held Zawiyah's refinery, which is the only one in western Libya and vital to the Qadaffy regime, as it supplies fuel to Tripoli.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2011 00:00 ||
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ADEN: A Yemeni jet bombed the southern coastal town of Shaqra shortly after militants took control of the area, killing at least five of them, a local government official said. In the raids staged on Thursday, the jet also attacked two sites where militants had gathered in the town of Zinjibar, the official told Reuters. He was unable to give details of casualties there.
Shaqra fell to the militants on Wednesday, becoming the third Yemeni town they have seized following Jaar in Abyan province in March and Zinjibar, the provincial capital, in May.
In a separate incident, 10 people mostly women and children were injured in an explosion at a clothes market in Al-Qatn in the southern Hadramout province on Thursday, which targeted an army officer and his family, a security official told Reuters. Eyewitnesses said they saw a man throwing a hand grenade who then fled in a car. The officer and his family survived unhurt, the official said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/20/2011 00:00 ||
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[Yemen Post] Hundreds of thousands of Yemeni people erupted into the streets in the southern Taiz city in support of a national council to run the popular revolution formed by the opposition, reject any dialogues with President-for-Life Saleh ... exemplifying the Arab's propensity to combine brutality with incompetence... , and call for the ouster of the remaining officials in his regime.
The Joint Meeting Parties and its partners formed on Wednesday the national council to lead, accelerate and escalate the anti-regime uprising.
The move was described by the government as putting the final nail in the coffin of a GCC power transition deal and as a call to war.
The demonstrators rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud urging an immediate revolutionary solution by all honest political and armed forces as well as putting an end to the illegal acts by the remaining officials in the regime.
They also condemned the latest speech of Saleh which observers said conveyed war and violence messages as well as the continuous military operations in Arhab district outside the capital Sanaa. In his speech two days ago, Saleh attacked and accused the opposition of involvement in all crises in the country and stealing the youth-led revolution.
He also said that the opposition and the revolutionaries are attacking military and constitutional facilities, as he urged dialogue and putting the country's interest ahead of anything else.
On the other hand, the armed forces who have lately defected to the revolution in the freedom square in downtown Taiz conducted a military parade.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2011 00:00 ||
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[Yemen Post] The security forces in Yemen's southern Shabwa province have been placed on high alert after reports that Al-Qaeda Islamic fascistiwere heading to the province to occupy it and declare it as an Islamic emirate, security officials said on Thursday.
"The authorities are doing their best to face Al-Qaeda infiltrators to prevent repeating the Abyan scenario," the officials said, adding that the security forces and other authorities are now coordinating to hunt and arrest terrorists.
In March, Al-Qaeda took over several cities in Abyan and declared the southern province as the first Islamic emirate in Yemen. In response, the army has been fighting the Islamists or Sharia supporters for months, killing and arresting many of them and regaining cities.
Few days ago, Islamists took over a new city in Abyan, Shuqra, raising grave concerns, mostly by the West, that Al-Qaeda is exploiting the political and security vacuum to boost its presence in Yemen hit by a six-month uprising seeking the ouster of the regime and associated crises.
The officials said Al-Qaeda Islamic fascistientered some areas in Shabwa but not as attackers. "The Militants are unarmed and are trying to control mosques and convince the people in these areas to comply with their rules".
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2011 00:00 ||
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[Yemen Post] The Yemeni government accused on Thursday an opposition official and a military commander who defected to the popular revolution of involvement in the liquidation attempt to kill President-for-Life Saleh ... exemplifying the Arab's propensity to combine brutality with incompetence... in June.
"There are accusations that Hamid Al-Ahmer, a prominent opposition politician and businessman, and Ali Muhsen Al-Ahmer, commander of the first armored division which announced peaceful support to the Yemeni revolution, were involved in the liquidation attempt," said Abdul Janadi, deputy information minister, told a news conference in Sana'a.
Saleh is now convalescing in Soddy Arabia after almost nine surgeries for burns he suffered in the blast in his palace in June that injured 87 bigwigs including Parliament Speaker, Prime Minister and his two deputies and Shura Chairman and killed 12 of Saleh's bodyguards.
The embattled president, whose regime is facing six-month protests seeking its ouster, was reported to have been pressured by the U.S., the EU and other countries to sign a GCC power transition deal and warned not to return home.
But he delivered a speech on Tuesday assuring his supporters he will come back soon .
Aj-Janadi also attacked the national council to lead and accelerate the popular revolution on Wednesday, saying the move by the opposition and its partners translated the speech of President Saleh this week that the opposition had stolen the youth-led revolution.
He urged the youth-led protesters, who have been conducting six-month sit-ins inside squares of change and freedom in most Yemeni cities, to be careful because many wanted suspects are among them.
The so-called change square include those who killed and kidnapped foreigners in Yemen and those who killed and displaced people and attacked and burned public offices in downtown Sana'a, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2011 00:00 ||
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Five bodies found in Acapulco, two outside Sam's Club & three on the tourist strip (can't be good for tourism.) The perps scalped and de-faced (is there a better term for scalping all the way down to the chin?) some of the victims (stuffing the scalps in ladies purses???) and chopped the bodies into lots of little pieces. They really wanted to make some kind of statement. As yet they haven't found the heads of the tourist strip victims.
Karachi, Pakistan -- In one of Pakistan's deadliest attacks in recent years, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a packed mosque Friday, killing at least 50 worshipers and injuring more than 100 in Pakistans tribal belt of Khyber.
Good thing it's Ramadan. Who knows how bad it would be in Pakistain if it wasn't a religious holiday in which killing Muslims is forbidden...
Around 400 tribesmen were at the main Madina Mosque in Jamrod performing Friday prayers when the bomber detonated his bomb. The explosion caused the roof of the mosque to collapse, burying many of the worshipers.
I was offering prayers when the blast hit us. I fell unconscious and when regained consciousness I could only see clouds of smoke, dead and injured around me," says Hashmat Ullah Kooki Khel, a witness the Monitor reached by phone.
Most of the victims belong to THE Kookikhel tribe
best shortened as the 'Kooks'...
that is largely considered to pro-government and anti-Taliban. The Pakistani Taliban has not claimed responsibility but officials have blamed the terrorists militants for the bombing.
They're a convenient scapegoat at any rate...
This is [a] cowardly attack by Taliban and the attackers cannot be Muslims to kill innocent worshipers in the holy month of Ramadan, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister of Khyber Pakhtoon Khawa province, told reporters.
Funny, the 'attackers' say the same thing about you. Oh, Allan must surely be perplexed as both sides of the faithful appeal in his name...
They are weakened and the operations by security forces have broken their backbone, so it could be [a] revenge tactic, Mr. Hussain said.
The Khyber region is known as being a hotbed of militants from Ansar-ul-Islam and Lashkar-e-Islam. Lashkar-e-Islam (Army of Islam) is headed by militant commander Manghal Bagh, while its rival Ansar-ul-Islam operates under Qazi Mohib. Both groups are fighting against Pakistani forces in Khyber.
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08/20/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] The police here have set up a team to interrogate the two men tossed in the clink overnight while smuggling ammunitions from the tribal areas to Bloody Karachi.
District Police Officer Dr Mohammad Akhtar Abbas told Dawn on Thursday that subdivisional police officer Pindigheb circle would lead the two-member interrogation team.
The ammunition was being transported in a car (IDF-2989) from Dara Adamkhel in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... to Bloody Karachi when it was intercepted at the Dullian checkpost on Attock-Talagang road.
The DPO said the ammunition included 1,400 bullets of SMG, 700 bullets of 44-bore rifle, 100 of 30-bore pistol; one 44-bore rifle, 11 30-bore pistols and one 9mm pistol.
The police tossed in the clink the car driver, Zarbad Khan, along with another man identified as Iftikhar Khan and started the paperwork but haven't done much else against them.
The DPO said the two accused told the police they had delivered a smuggled consignment of weapons to Bloody Karachi in the past.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] The city police on Friday claimed arresting over 100 suspects involved in terrorist activities and said that it had started an indiscriminate operation against terrorists, DawnNews reported.
City police chief Saud Mirza said that although fresh incidents of violence that had started from Wednesday could not be completely stopped, terming it a failure of policing would not be correct.
Police would conduct a focused operation in the affected areas and the places where the victims' bodies were found, he added.
While reiterating that Death Eaters would be taken to task, Mirza expressed the hope that normality would soon return to the city.
Moreover, police and Rangers claimed rounding up 25 suspects involved in an armed clash that took place in the Godhra Colony of New Bloody Karachi. There were also reports of more arrests from other parts of the city.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] A US drone strike in the South Wazoo tribal region on Friday killed at least two people, DawnNews reported.
The unmanned aircraft fired two missiles, hitting a house in the Shin Warsak area of the tribal region, wounding two other people, security officials told AFP.
South Waziristan was largely under the control of the Pak Taliban until October 2009, when the Mighty Pak Army launched an operation there.
However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... cut-thoat activity is still occasionally reported in the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] No space was left in the mortuary of the Civil Hospital Bloody Karachi to keep bodies being taken there that were found mostly in the city's downtown areas on Thursday.
Since 2am till evening as many as 29 bodies were brought to the Civil Hospital's mortuary mainly found rubbed out in the downtown areas of the city and Baldia Town, a police surgeon told Dawn.
Because of the 'unprecedented situation', the bodies are being kept on concrete slabs as there are only three post-mortem examination tables in the mortuary and the attendants there find it difficult to place the bodies.
Relatives of the missing people thronged the CHK mortuary after learning that several bodies stuffed in gunny bags were found in the city.
Emotional scenes were witnessed at the hospital where the families were crying uncontrollably for the loss of their loved ones.
Many women were wailing for their departed sons and husbands after identifying their bodies.
Police Surgeon Dr Hamid Pariyar said that three medico-legal officers were performing their duties and handing over the bodies to their heirs after the arrival of police.
He criticised the police, saying that most of the time the police who were supposed to remain there were absent from work which created difficulties for the doctors in handling the situation.
The relatives of the victims vent their anger on medical staff and smashed windowpanes and ransacked furniture in the mortuary, the police surgeon added.
The hospital staff said that the police were not staying in the mortuary to attend to legal formalities out of fear that they would have to face the anger of victims' relatives.
"I and my staff is present to deal with the flow of bodies arriving here since 2am Thursday morning," Dr Pariyar said.
He also complained about the absence of some mechanism to deal with the onslaught of relatives and families coming to hospital to identify bodies of victims who were being brought to the mortuary.
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08/20/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Twelve more people were killed since Thursday night as corpse count during last three days rose to 59 in the city, DawnNews reported.
Two people were bumped off in the areas of Gulshan-e-Iqbal and Shireen Jinnah Colony while three bodies were recovered from Lyari, Kharadar and New Bloody Karachi.
The city plunged into the fresh wave of violence on Wednesday when a former politician of the Pakistain People's Party was rubbed out.
Earlier on Thursday, at least 21 bullet-riddled and tortured bodies stuffed in gunny bags were found in different parts of the city as more than 30 people were killed in the city on the second day of a renewed wave of violence that police saw blended with an 'ethnic colour', taking the two-day corpse count to nearly 50, a report published in Dawn said.
Thursday's casualties that emerged as the largest single-day toll in current spree of violence left people in a state of constant fear.
Despite measures promised both by the federal and provincial administrations, no credible action from the law enforcers was witnessed.
The trend of brutal incidents that emanated from the city's south district on Wednesday evening stretched to the west on Thursday and police said victims were kidnapped and tortured before being rubbed out. Their bodies were stuffed in gunny bags and dumped at various places.
Most of the victims, police said, were common wage-earners who had been kidnapped mostly on Wednesday evening while returning home from their workplaces. In some cases they were dragged off public transport.
With the latest round of abductions, torture and brutal killings, Lyari and other parts of old Bloody Karachi and its adjoining neighbourhoods have remained in grip of extreme ethnic tension.
Accusations and counter accusations by various politicalgroups over the past 24 hours clearly suggest that the latest round of killings in old Bloody Karachi has very little to do with the ongoing war between Lyari's criminal gangs.
Eyewitnesses and political observers say ethnic and political rivalries were the dominant factors behind most of the killings over the past three days.
They point out that while most of those kidnapped and bumped off earlier in the week were pre-dominantly Lyari's local Baloch, including footballers and a former MNA, many of those forcibly taken away and rubbed out in overnight violence belonged to the Urdu- speaking community.
Allegations levelled by the PPP-backed Lyari Amn Committee and Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... against each other confirm that divisions during the current wave of violence in old parts of Bloody Karachi are along ethnic lines.
Alleged involvement of some Lyari gangsters in the Haqiqi-led attack on an MQM stronghold in Landhi-Malir area last month, a protest campaign by many traders of Kharadar and adjoining areas against so-called 'protection money', and retaliatory action by the extortionist mafia and other affected groups were also said to be factors behind the latest phase of assassinations.
Saud Mirza, Additional IG of Sindh police, said the violence was triggered by a clash between two criminal gangs in Lyari on Wednesday evening.
"But somehow over the hours it turned into an ethnically motivated affair. We have found that criminal gangs are targeting Urdu-speaking and Baloch common men in their respective areas," he said.
He said the most affected areas were those adjacent to Lyari and pockets in trans-Lyari, including Kharadar, Meethadar, Pak Colony, Rizvia and Baldia Town, and the law enforcers were all set to launch an operation there to arrest the criminals.
The overnight scattered grenade attacks and intense firing sowed fear in the south district where residents of old city areas and Baldia Town spent a sleepless night.
In a rare admission of failure, a depressed Home Minister Manzoor Hussain Wasan said the government and law-enforcement agencies had not been able to quell violence.
"Today is not a good day for the Sindh government, police and other law-enforcement agencies," he said while briefing the media on decisions taken at a meeting convened by the chief minister on the law and order situation.
Accompanied by provincial police chief Wajid Ali Durrani, he said: "We are quite aware of the hands behind this killing spree and disturbance and the government is well aware of its responsibility to protect the life and property of people."
He said the fresh bout of killings could be an attempt to sabotage the ongoing reconciliation talks between the Pakistain People's Party and the MQM in Islamabad.
But the MQM alleged that "certain leaders in the government" wanted to derail the reconciliatory process between the two parties.
"President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... ... known as 'President Ten-Percent' and not as 'Father of the Country' ...
wants to promote the process of reconciliation in Pakistain and he wants better relations between the PPP and the MQM. The president must think what benefit the public will get from the reconciliatory process if the killing of innocent citizens continues," MQM leader Raza Haroon said at a presser.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2011 00:00 ||
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[Jerusalem Post] Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu visited injured soldiers at Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheba Friday, where he said that the killing of the PRC leadership in Gazoo was only Israel's first response to the terror attack that killed eight people near Eilat on Thursday, a PMO front man said.
"Killing the leaders of the terrorist organization responsible for yesterday's attacks was just our initial response," Netanyahu said during the visit.
"We have a policy of making anyone who attacks us pay dearly for it," he added. "We are implementing this policy in the field."
On Thursday, Netanyahu said, "We all witnessed today an attempt to escalate the terrorist war against Israel by launching of attacks from the Sinai. If there is someone who thinks that the State of Israel will let this pass, he is mistaken."
He continued: "I have set out a principle -- when the citizens of Israel are attacked, we respond immediately and with strength. That principle was implemented today. Those who gave the order to murder our citizens, while hiding in Gazoo, are no longer among the living."
Netanyahu commended the IDF and security services for their swift retaliation against the senior terrorist officials in Gazoo, thereby preventing an even greater tragedy.
"If the terrorist organizations believe that they can attack our citizens and get away with it, they will soon learn how wrong they are. We will exact a price, a very heavy price," he said.
On Thursday evening the IAF bombed the southern Gazoo Strip, killing the leadership of the PRC, who Israeli officials said had orchestrated the attacks.
The PRC members killed in the retaliatory IAF air strike included the head of the terror group Kamal Nirab, who the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said had personally directed and planned the attack.
Another man killed in the strike was identified as Amas Hamed, commander of the PRC's military wing and a resident of Rafah. The Shin Bet said that Hamed was involved in the abduction of IDF soldier Gilad Schalit in June 2006 and oversaw numerous attacks against Israel including suicide kabooms and rocket attacks.
Two other known PRC terrorists, including one who was also involved in Schalit's abduction, were also killed in the air strike.
"The gun-hung tough guys were directly involved in the attacks along the Israeli-Egyptian border," a security official said.
The PRC has denied any involvement in the attack, the group told AFP on Friday.
A PRC front man praised the attack, but said his group doesn't claim responsibility for launching it. "The occupation wants to pin this operation on us in order to escape its own internal problems," he said, according to AFP.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Thursday that the IDF would escalate its response to the attacks. Egypt had lost its grip over Sinai Peninsula and terrorist organizations were able to move around there freely, he said.
"The IDF has already struck the heads of the PRC in Gazoo and if there will be a need, the strikes will intensify," Barak said. "The IDF will use all of the force necessary to protect Israel's citizens and to enable a normal way of life in the country."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Popular Resistance Committees
#1
Whew, thank God, for a second there methought the NCAA put out a contract hit wid Israel on the Chinese Govt. for that Bayi-vs-Georgetown B-Ball brouhaha.
#2
If the Israelis are going to do this, they should do it properly. That is, create a level of horror among their enemies that they cannot shrug off.
Revenge that is just a matter of "tag back" achieves little.
A better way would be to kidnap and execute one of their leaders, then send the bad guys a picture of a grave with a dead pig in it. They are free to interpret that in any way they choose.
#3
The IDF obviously knew where these guys were all along. Got to them too fast for it to be otherwise. Why wait until after the deed is done?
Is Netanyahu's tough guy plan to commit national suicide more slowly than the Israeli liberals want?
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
08/20/2011 12:21 Comments ||
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#4
Netanyahu is smart guy first and foremost. As long as the current EU/USA elites hold power, there is little Israel can do. Fortunately, they're rapidly running out of other peoples money.
#5
Never forget, the Israelis spend years gathering intel on their enemies and then tend to attack in a flurry against them, taking them down all at once. As well, this approach makes trading information to the Mossad for a pass on the next leadership purge more likely among the Paleos themselves. If Leader X only gets his house and car blown up, it looks like the Israelis tried but failed to get him, not that he is feeding the location of his more blood-thirsty rivals to the Mossad. You have to be alive to take advantage of Arab corruption, that is why Arafat was a multi-billionaire at the time of his death.
[Iran Press TV] Two Paleostinians have been killed in an Israeli Arclight airstrike on the besieged Gazoo Strip, raising the corpse count to 13 for the past two days.
On Friday, Israeli warplanes struck several targets in the Paleostinian territory in a continuation of the Arclight airstrikes that began on Thursday, shortly after eight Israelis were killed near the Red Sea resort town of Eilat.
Medical sources said two Paleostinian boys aged three and 13 were among the fatalities of the attacks on Thursday.
Dozens of Paleostinians have also been injured in the Arclight airstrikes of the past two days.
Israeli officials have blamed a Gazoo-based hard boy group called the Popular Resistance Committee (PRC) for Thursday's attack and have vowed a "full force" response targeting Gazoo.
Israel said the attackers had infiltrated from the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-run Gazoo Strip, although the PRC, which is not affiliated with Hamas, denied involvement in the incident.
Hamas has said that it had nothing to do with the assault and has warned against any act of aggression against the Gazoo Strip.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
It never ceases to amaze me how quickly Pali sources know the exact number and exact ages of all kids supposedly killed by Israeli reprisals.
The dust doesn't even settle and they know their birthdays even.
Jerusalem police faced the most violent Friday so far in the month of Ramadan, a traditionally tense time when thousands of people pour into the Old City to pray at the Al Aksa Mosque. Seven were arrested in clashes at Damascus Gate and the entrance to the Dome of the Rock Plaza in a variety of incidents.
In the largest clashes, dozens of worshippers tried to force their way through a police checkpoint outside Damascus Gate. Police broke up the rioting up using water cannons and shock grenades. Two people were arrested.
"There is no longer any truce with the enemy," Hamas announced on radio; Three rockets explode in Eshkol Regional council, no injuries reported; seven injured by Grad rocket that explodes in Ashdod yeshiva.
Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, announced early on Saturday they were no longer committed to a more than two-year de facto truce with Israel since the end of a war in early 2009. The statement was broadcast over a Hamas radio station in Gazoo after Israel pounded coastal Gazoo for two days with air strikes in response to rocket salvoes and attacks on Thursday that killed eight Israelis.
"There is no longer any truce with the enemy," the statement said in a move seen as paving the way for Hamas to escalate the violence with Israel.
The IAF launched an Arclight airstrike late Friday night against a terrorist cell in the central Gazoo Strip after the cell fired a rocket into Israeli territory, the IDF Spokesman's Office said in a statement. A direct hit was identified in the strike, the statement added.
Minutes earlier, the Iron Dome rocket defense system intercepted a rocket fired from the Gazoo Strip toward Ashkelon. Earlier, three rockets went kaboom! in the Eshkol Regional council Friday night over a period of several hours. No injuries or damages were reported. In the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council, an kaboom occurred near a local kibbutz Friday evening. Local officials said a Kassam rocket landed in an open area. No injuries or damages were reported. An hour earlier, two rockets fired from Gazoo fell in northern Lachish not far from Kiryat Malachi. No injuries were reported although the kaboom sparked a fire, which spread to an empty building. The building was lightly damaged before firefighters put out the fire.
Police have asked members of the public in the affected areas to follow instructions from the home front command.
One person was maimed and another moderately injured after a Grad rocket fired from Gazoo landed in the courtyard of a yeshiva in Ashdod on Friday morning. Four other people were treated for shock following the attack. All were taken to Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot. An additional Grad that failed to explode subsequently fell in the area and was neutralized by the bomb squad.
Light damage was caused to the building as a result of the rocket fire.
The rocket attack came less than a day after a three-stage terror attack near Eilat killed eight people.
Earlier on Friday, at least 10 rockets were fired at various targets in the South including Ashkelon and Beersheba.
All of the rockets landed in open territory and no injuries or damage were reported.
IAF aircraft struck seven Hamas security installations in Gazoo early Friday morning, killing at least one Paleostinian, in further retaliation for the attacks on Thursday.
Gazoo residents said three compounds controlled by Hamas were hit in the overnight raids. Medical officials said a 13-year-old boy in a nearby building was killed and 17 people were maimed.
Defense sources said the attackers infiltrated from Gazoo via Egypt's Sinai desert, despite stepped up efforts by Egyptian security forces in recent days to rein in Paleostinian terrorists.
"If anyone thinks the State of Israel will resign itself to this, they are wrong," Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said in a brief television address about the most deadly attack in Israel since 2008.
The IDF said seven gunnies were killed in southern Israel, including two who blew themselves up in suicide kabooms on one of the buses and in a confrontation with soldiers.
Egyptian soldiers apparently rubbed out two gunnies, the military said.
#1
Ona separate note, iff the Bammer is hoping for post-Mubarak positive rapprochement wid Muslim Brotherhood EGYPT, I gotta wonder how his Admin will treat the PRO-INDEPENDENCE OR AUTONOMY SINAI BEDOUINS IFF THEY MAKE A SERIOUS PUSH FOR THEIR RIGHTS VEE EGYPTIAN CONTROL???
#3
My pedantic nerd good man Steve, you do not have a Paleo mind
Posted by: Frank G on the road ||
08/20/2011 10:23 Comments ||
Top||
#4
If Hamas wills for war, Israel needs to take it serious. If Israel is going to commit to military action, they need to wipe out Hamas totally. Take back Gush Katif.
[An Nahar] The Special Tribunal for Leb has established jurisdiction over three attacks relating to former ministers Marwan Hamadeh and Elias al-Murr and former head of the Lebanese Communist Party George Hawi, said the STL in a blurb.
Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen has also ordered that the Lebanese authorities provide the relevant files to the Prosecutor, it added.
On June 30, 2011, Fransen received a request from the Office of the Prosecutor to determine whether or not these cases are connected to the February 14, 2005 liquidation of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, it continued.
Fransen ruled confidentially on August 5 that the Prosecutor had presented prima facie evidence that each of the three cases are connected, and are thus within the Tribunal's jurisdiction, explained the statement.
"Fransen has today issued three deferral orders requesting the Lebanese judiciary to comply within the next 14 working days," it said.
"The Pre-Trial Judge authorizes the Prosecution to share his confidential decision on the connected cases with the Lebanese authorities," it continued.
The decision on connectedness otherwise remains confidential so as not to compromise the investigation, and to protect the victims and potential witnesses.
"According to the Tribunal's Statute, a case is connected to the February 14, 2005 attack if it is of a 'similar nature and gravity' and has a number of elements in common with it, such as 'the criminal intent (motive), purpose behind the attacks, the nature of the victims targeted, the pattern of the attacks (modus operandi) and the perpetrators'," explained the STL statement.
"According to Article 1 of the Statute, the Tribunal has jurisdiction over attacks that occurred in Leb between October 1, 2004 and December 12, 2005 but only if their connectedness to the Hariri attack is determined by the Pre-Trial Judge," it added.
"While the Pre-Trial Judge's rulings do not mean that an indictment will necessarily be issued by the Prosecution, it allows them to continue investigating these cases," it said.
"It is for the Prosecutor to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to support an indictment in any of these three connected cases," concluded the statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hezbollah
[An Nahar] The EU announced late Friday that 20 new names have been added to a list of Syrian individuals and businesses hit with sanctions, with a deal also now close for a ban on oil imports.
European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... governments meeting in Brussels also decided to prepare detailed plans for an embargo on the import of Syrian crude oil into the bloc and suspending assistance to Syria by the European Investment Bank.
"Today, the European Union has reached political agreement on the addition of 20 Syrian individuals or entities to the list of those targeted by an asset freeze and travel ban," the bloc's foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement.
"Moreover, political agreement has been reached to extend the scope of the EU restrictive measures against the regime," she added.
"Proposals are now being prepared for an embargo on the import of Syrian crude oil," she said, as well as "suspending the technical assistance of the European Investment Bank" and imposing an asset freeze and travel ban on those benefiting from or supporting the regime's policies.
These will be examined by ministers "early next week," she said.
Ashton reiterated a call for Syrian President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... to quit power, saying "indiscriminate military force" used against protesters in a months-long crackdown meant a "complete loss of the Syrian regime's legitimacy."
The EU has already adopted a series of sanctions against Syria since it began its bloody crackdown on anti-regime protesters. They include asset freezes and travel bans against 35 people and four businesses, as well as an arms embargo.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2011 00:00 ||
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[1 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
The EU mulls things so much... with all their rules mania I am sure they have at least sourcing and location based rules for mulling wine... so any idea as to the bureaucracy for mulling dictators that sell oil to them?
Posted by: Water Modem ||
08/20/2011 0:10 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Hmm, Europe won't sanction Hezbollah because they have "valid" grievances. But Europe gets a whiff of human rights violations from Hezbollah's Syrian benefactors & Europe says sayonara, Syria!
Posted by: American Delight ||
08/20/2011 5:36 Comments ||
Top||
[An Nahar] Syrian banking deposits are being withdrawn from the Arab country, with some of them being placed in Lebanese banks, reported Robert Fisk in The Independent on Friday.
He said: "The real fear for Syrian President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... is not oil sanctions, but banks."
He explained that Assad is concerned with the £12 billion in foreign reserves that used to be in the Syrian Central Bank in February.
This sum is now being reduced by as much as £50 million a week, said Fisk.
This prompted Syria to turn to cheap Iraqi oil to tackle the demand, he added.
"Nearly 10 percent of Syria's banking deposits disappeared in the first four months of 2011; £1.8bn was withdrawn, some of it ending up in Lebanese banks," he stated.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
because historical safety of Leb's banks?.. like this case: "The British Bank of the Middle East in January 1976 in Beirut £25 million the equivalent of £100 million today. This bank robbery was executed by the PLO."
Posted by: Water Modem ||
08/20/2011 0:13 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Assad is concerned with the £12 billion in foreign reserves that used to be in the Syrian Central Bank in February.
You can learn a lot by just reading.
Mistakes were made, the 12 billion used to be in the Syrian Central Bank, but not currently.
The truth is plain, all we gotta do is figure out which novel this is, Rabbit Run or Rabbit is Dead.
[An Nahar] Syria's security forces killed at least 22 protesters as tens of thousands swarmed the streets after Friday prayers, activists said, piling pressure on President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... after Western leaders demanded he step down.
Fifteen people, including two children, were killed in separate shootings on protesters in the southern province of Daraa, while three were killed in the central city of Homs and two in the Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... suburb of Harasta, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The shootings come a day after Assad told the U.N. chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... that his security forces ended operations against civilians.
Russia and Turkey meanwhile dismissed growing calls for Assad to quit, which were led on Thursday by U.S. President Barack B.O. Obama, offering the embattled Syrian leader rare support even as he faced tougher international sanctions.
On the political front, a group of "revolutionary blocs" formed a coalition vowing to bring down the regime and paid tribute to more than 2,000 civilians killed in crackdown on protesters since the uprising began mid-March.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2011 00:00 ||
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[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
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.
Kurram Agency
Asif Ali 
Eight people were killed as a wave of suicide 
Libyan rebels said they seized control of Zliten from Moammar 
[An Nahar] Libyan rebels on Friday claimed to control the strategic town Zawiyah and its key refinery after seizing the hospital, an Agence 
The police here have set up a team to interrogate the two men 
The city police on Friday claimed arresting over 100 suspects involved in terrorist activities and said that it had started an indiscriminate operation against terrorists, DawnNews reported.
Wazoo
No space was left in the mortuary of the Civil Hospital 
Twelve more people were killed since Thursday night as 
[Jerusalem Post] Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu visited injured soldiers at Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheba Friday, where he said that the killing of the PRC leadership in 
[Iran Press TV] Two Paleostinians have been killed in an Israeli 
[An Nahar] The Special Tribunal for 
President-for-Life Bashir 
al-Assad
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
