[Al Ahram] Egypt's former minister of interior Habib El-Adly reportedly owns 42 palaces and villas, 75 feddens and a 'fleet' of luxury cars, state-owned Al-Ahram daily newspaper reported on Saturday. Al-Ahram has obtained official documents which will be handed to the country's illicit gains authority that include details about El-Adly's wealth, which is estimated at LE18 billion ($3 billion).
El-Adly and ousted strongman Hosni Mubarak are currently serving life sentences for failing to prevent the killing of protesters during last year's uprising.
Most of the former interior minister's properties are located in Sharm El-Sheikh, the North Coast, Mohandiseen and Zamalek, all in wealthy neighbourhoods.
El-Adly owns a villa in satellite 6 October City surrounded by a bulletproof glass façade, according to Al-Ahram.
It is reported that there are other undisclosed properties that have been registered under the names of his relatives.
In July 2011, El-Adly was sentenced to five years in prison for squandering public funds in the infamous number plates case. Earlier that same year the former interior minister was handed a 12-year sentence for corruption charges related to using his senior position to illegally gain profits.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/16/2012 00:00 ||
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DAKAR: Gambian President Yahya Jammeh announced Saturday he was suspending executions for prisoners on death row, after coming under intense criticism for resuming capital punishment.
The general public at home and abroad is hereby informed that President Yahya Jammeh has decided to put a moratorium on executions as a result of numerous appeals to that effect from the council of elders, women groups as well as youth groups across the country, his office said in a statement.
It is hereby made clear that it is only a moratorium on executions and what happens next will be dictated by either a declining violent crime rate in which case the moratorium will be indefinite or an increase in the violent crime rate in which case the moratorium will be lifted automatically.
The move came after the first batch of nine convicts were executed by firing squad following Jammehs August 19 announcement that the country planned to execute all death-row prisoners by mid-September.
Jammehs office said pressure from Ivory Coast, Mauritania and Senegal which surrounds Gambia, except for a strip of coastline, and had two of its citizens among the nine executed prisoners had played a part in the decision to suspend executions.
But the presidency insisted that no amount of bad mouthing or pressure can make the president shy away from upholding the oaths that he has sworn as president.
Rights groups estimate another 38 convicts face the firing squad in Gambia, where Jammeh, who seized power in a 1994 coup, rules the country with an iron fist and brooks no criticism.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/16/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Another guy who should be keeping an appointment with a Dragunov.
[Bangla Daily Star] Transparency International Bangladesh yesterday called for a law to end the culture of parliament boycott by the opposition.
The absence of a party from the House should be restricted to 30 days in a five-year term with no more than seven successive working days, the anti-graft watchdog said.
At present, the constitution allows a politician to remain absent from parliament for 90 consecutive sittings before his seat falls vacant, but it says nothing about collective absence.
TIB made the demands while unveiling a research work titled "Declaration on Parliamentary Openness" at Brac Centre Inn in the capital.
The programme was organised to mark International Day of Democracy. On the same day in Rome, 85 observatory groups from 60 countries, including TI, presented their findings on issues involving parliaments.
At the programme in Dhaka, TIB demanded a code of conduct for politicians and a law to prevent conflict of interest.
TIB Chairperson Sultana Kamal said parliament proceedings must be made accessible to people to ensure that politicians were accountable. At present, there was no mechanism to ensure their accountability, as people have little access to parliamentary proceedings, she added.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/16/2012 00:00 ||
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The British engineer killed in the French Alps secretly held extreme anti-Israeli beliefs which could be the key to the massacre that has baffled police, a close friend claims.
To his wealthy neighbours, Saad al-Hilli was a devoted family man. But behind closed doors he is said to have spent hours on his computer bombarding Arabic chatrooms with anti-Israeli posts. Now one of Saad's oldest friends believes he and his dentist wife Ikbal, 47, and her mother Suhaila Al Saffar, 74, could have paid a high price for his rants... in an execution by the feared Israeli secret service Mossad.
Tonight Gary Aked, who had known Saad for nearly 20 years, is being questioned by two Surrey police officers about his explosive new clues to the killings, which are contained in chatroom and online forum messages posted by Saad showing the dangerous depths of his hatred.
Gary, 52, became a close friend of Iraqi-born Saad after meeting him in 1993 when they worked for the same engineering firm. They even went on holiday together.
"He was a difficult man to get to know, but I did over the years," Gary said. "The one thing that always worried me about him was how vocal he was on internet chatrooms about Iraq and also the Arab-Israeli conflict.
"He would forever be talking about how the Israelis were taking over the world and specifically taking over America. He hated Israeli Jews taking big banks and strongholds in America.
"He thought 9/11 was an inside job by the Israelis to create hatred against the Arabic nations. After 9/11 his involvement in chatrooms increased dramatically. He was very passionate about his beliefs. He didn't believe the Jews should be in Israel. He thought the land should be Palestinian.
"When I heard Saad and Ikbal had been murdered my first thought was, "What has he said? What has he done?' I think it's possible he has offended someone and Mossad has taken offence and put a hit out on him."
And yet you did not find his views offensive enough to prevent a close friendship...
But despite Saad's extreme beliefs, Gary insists his friend was not a terrorist or member of a fundamentalist group and was a man of "words and beliefs", not action and violence. "I know that Saad was not a terrorist because he would have never done anything to put his family in danger.
Except mouth off for years on the internet, which everyone knows is bugged by the CIA and the murderous Mossad. The man ought to be counted as a Darwin Award winner even though it wasn't the Jooooooooos whut dunnit. And in the end he did get most of his family killed, so yes, his is exactly a person who would put his family in danger. And so did our brave Mr. Aked to his family by his long friendship with the man. Sleep well, Mr. Aked.
He was not a violent person," he said. Mossad don't whack people because they don't like their opinions. If they did there would be a corpse on every second street corner. I'm back to Al Hilli tried to sell something to the Iranians, and when they got what they wanted, they eliminated anyone who knew. My guess is he got the codes to decrypt surveillance satellite data.
#1
I agree with the comment in yellow ... Mossad does not kill people just because they are loud mouths. I am going to post an updated analysis of the Alps killings on the Monday morning Rantburg. Very likely this was a case of information sold to the wrong people.
#4
Good find, phil b. Raider, the bright yellow highlight is used for in-line comments by all non-moderator posters. Each of the moderators gets his or her own colour -- mine is that lovely, soft periwinkle purple, Dr. Steve is salmon (not pink!!!), and our generous host Fred Pruitt is Post-it note yellow, in memory of his days as a analyst, when they attached their comments on post-it notes as the papers circulated the group.
I look forward to seeing your thoughts tomorrow in the Opinion section. As they'll be your own, please add by Raider as the first line. Thank you.
#5
I look forward to your post as well. I too, agree with the highlighted portion of Phil's post. Plenty of targets available without hunting down truthers and bloggers. Saad al-Hilli had an enemy (amazing leap no?). The task at hand is to find out whom. Money and sex are the usual suspect motives. A place to begin perhaps.
BEIJING: Chinese leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping reappeared in public Saturday and made an impromptu speech following a two-week absence that had sparked rumors about his health and raised questions about the stability of the countrys succession process. State media said Xi toured exhibits at China Agricultural University in Beijing commemorating National Science Popularization Day, but offered no explanation of why he had dropped from sight.
Photos posted on the governments official website showed Xi walking in the sunshine dressed casually in an open-necked shirt and black wind breaker. Another photo showed him smiling as he looked at potted plants, showing no sign of disability or ill health.
A lengthy Chinese-language report from the official Xinhua News Agency did not address why Xi had not been seen publicly since Sept. 1, when he made a speech at the ruling Communist Partys official training academy.
Since then, he has canceled meetings with visiting foreign dignitaries including US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt. The Chinese government has yet to explain Xis public absence.
Speculation over Xis absence highlights the intense scrutiny Chinas succession process is under, tempered with uneasiness about the countrys opaque political system, which often seems at odds with its rising global importance.
The leadership needs to realize how the world perceives this. They may have their own reasons for keeping secret, but it is not beneficial to Chinas global status and position as a world power, said David Zweig, an expert on Chinese politics at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Xinhua said Xi, while visiting the university, spoke about food safety and made an impromptu speech in which he praised the university for sharing science with the public.
Xi is due to take over as head of the Communist Party at a leadership congress later this year, the first step in a generational power transition that will see him assume the presidency next spring, embarking on what is expected to be a decade at the helm of the worlds most populous nation and second-largest economy.
In addition to deciding personnel matters, Xi is heavily involved in drafting a major report to be delivered at the congress, as well as possible amendments to the partys constitution. While Xi hasnt indicated what if any changes he plans to make, expectations are high for gradual economic and political reforms to meet Chinas changing circumstances, three decades after its abandonment of orthodox Marxism.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/16/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
China's successor-in-chief XI lives, whil Japan's new Ambassador to China doth not.
BEIJING: Thousands of Chinese besieged the Japanese embassy in Beijing on Saturday, hurling rocks, eggs and bottles as protests broke out in other major cities in China amid growing tension between Asias two biggest economies over a group of disputed islands.
Paramilitary police with shields and batons barricaded the embassy, holding back and occasionally fighting with slogan-chanting, flag-waving protesters who at times appeared to be trying to storm the building.
Return our islands! Japanese devils get out! some shouted. One of them held up a sign reading: For the respect of the motherland, we must go to war with Japan.
Protester Liu Gang, a migrant worker from the southern region of Guangxi, said: We hate Japan. Weve always hated Japan. Japan invaded China and killed a lot of Chinese. We will never forget.
Japan said its foreign minister had cut short a visit to Australia and flown back to Tokyo.
The long-standing territorial dispute escalated dramatically on Friday when China sent six surveillance ships to a group of uninhabited islets in the East China Sea, raising tension between the two countries to its highest level since 2010. China, which has similar disputes elsewhere with other neighbors, was responding to Japans decision on Tuesday to buy the islands, which Tokyo calls the Senkaku and Beijing calls the Diaoyu, from a private Japanese owner despite Chinese warnings against doing so.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/16/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Most people in the West don't appreciate the extreme nationalism taught in Chinese schools. Basically they are taught that China was abused and exploited for 200 years by the West and Japan.
#3
Basically they are taught that China was abused and exploited for 200 years by the West and Japan..
...after abusing their neighbors for a thousand plus years. Then again, it's much more fun doing it to others than having it done to you.
Back in the 19th Century when the Euros starting showing up, China and Japan took different courses. The Chinese said their shortcomings were the result of failure to keep to the 'old ways'. The Japanese said it was the technology and promptly sent out teams to gather the knowledge of the West.
The Japanese showed they learned well first with the Sino-Japanese War, kicking Chinese butt, and then the Russo-Japanese War, kicking Euro butt. That would be followed by the invasion of China in the 1930s, which the elders in Beijing probably won't forget.
It took the Chinese nearly a hundred years to figure out what the Japanese had understood since the 19th Century. That the Chinese now are following the rabid nationalistic model previously employed by the Japanese will only lead to a similar outcome in the end.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
09/16/2012 17:53 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Looks like Japan is striking back ...
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > WSJ: JAPAN LAUNCHES AD BLITZ TO DRIVE HOME TERRITORIAL CLAIMS, as per TAKESHIMA [ROK = Dokdo], SENKAKUS [China = Diaoyus/Tiaoyutai], + NORTHERN TERRITORIES [Russia = South Kurils].
* CHINA DAILY FORUM > JAPANESE PROTESTORS SHOUT SLOGANS AT MARCH DENOUNCING SOUTH KOREA + CHINA.
Not-a-few obscenities + obscene protest signs, ON BOTH SIDES.
* SAME > JAPANESE ACTIVIST SNUBS SEOUL SUMMONS OVER PROVACATIVE "DOKDO" POST.
Got other better thingys to do today than respond to the demands of territory-stealing South Koreans.
Oh my.
* SAME > [Japan] FIVE LDP CANDIDATES, IN SECOND DEBATE, PUSH FOR [harder] HARDLINES AGZ CHINA.
#8
Meanwhile, "EXPENDABLE 2" + "COURAGE" fans, on the China side ...
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > ANALYSIS: FROM CHINA'S VIEWPOINT, JAPAN SHOULD'VE KEPT ISLES' PROBLEM SHELVED.
- Japan opened up a "Pandora's Box" vee China by its action to purchase + nationalize Chinese islands.
- Japan has reneged on a "tacit understanding" between it + mainland China.
- PH NODA AIDE = JAPAN CANNOT RULE OUT SCENARIO THAT CHINA WON'T MOBILIZE ITS MILITARY FORCES TO PROTECT ITS TERRITORIAL CLAIMS.
* SAME > JAPAN REPORTED A TOTAL OF EIGHT CHINA PATROL SHIPS [CMS] ENTERED THE DIAOYU ISLANDS.
* SAME > EVENTS CANCELLED AS JAPAN-CHINA ISLE TENSIONS ESCALATE.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > CHINA SUBMITS BASELINES OF THE TERRITORIAL WATERS AROUND THE DIAOYU ISLANDS.
* SAME > PANASONIC, TOYOTA REPORT DAMAGES IN CHINA AS PROTESTS WIDEN.
* CHINA DAILY > CHINA ANNOUNCES GEOGRAPHIC CODES FOR DIAOYU ISLANDS.
* SAME > [UNCLOS] UNO TO GET SHELF SUBMISSION, as per China's East China Sea continental shelf claims.
#9
At last check, China's latest or newest "tactic" vee Japan oer Diaoyus appears to be deploying armed Patrol Boats [CMS = PLAN?] to protect an estimated 1000 Fishing Boats whom will likely return to the fishing grounds in + around the Diaoyus = Senkakus, once the seasonal East China Sea Fishing Moratorium is lifted as per routine.
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > ****!, A THOUSAND CHINESE BOATS SAIL TOWARDS DIAOYU ISLAND.
* WAFF > JAPAN TO UP [improve] SECURITY IN DSIPUTED ISLANDS.
versus
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > [Yu Zhirong = State Oceanic Admin] A SENIOR CHINESE OFFICIAL SUGGESTED THE COUNTRY WAS WILLING TO RISK A "MINOR CONFLICT" [military?] | CHINA WILLING TO RISK "CONFLICT" ON CLAIMS TO WATERS AROUND SENKAKUS.
ARTIC > YU ZHIRONG = China will have to "beat/chase off" any Japanese Coast Guard vessels intruding on Chinese territorial waters.
* SAME > [Mainichi Shimbun] JAPAN: OVER 50 PERCENT [56%] SUPPORT REVISION TO WAR-RENOUNCING ARTICLE OF [National] CONSTITUTION: POLL | SIXTY-FIVE PERCENT FAVOR REVISING POST-WAR CONSTITUTION: MAINICHI POLL.
* WORLD MILITARY FORUM > PLA: USE OF MILITARY FORCE IS BOTTOM LINE FOR CHINA TO PREVENT JAPAN SDFS FROM ENTERING DIAOYU ISLANDS.
* SAME > UNIVERSITY OF MACAU PROFESSOR-EXPERT: RUSSIA + CHINA ARE NOT SIGNATORIES TO THE 1951 TREATY OF SAN FRANCISCO, US SUPPORT OF JAPAN ON DIAOYU ISLANDS' ISSUE INDIRECTLY FOSTERS A RETURN BY JAPAN TO A NEW AGE OF AGRESSIVE MIITARISM IN ASIA-PACIFIC.
* SAME > ANALYSIS OF US RAND THINK-TANK:INTERVENING US MILITARY FORCES FACE INEVITABLE DEFEAT IN ANY DE FACTO SINO-JAPANESE WAR OVER THE DAOYU ISLANDS DUE TO US INABILITY TO MAINTAIN CONSTANT LOCAL LONG-RANGE AIR SUPERIORITY OR DOMINANCE FROM GUAM ISLAND. JASDF AIR- AND NAVAL BASES ARE LIKELY FIRST TARGET IN CHINESE CONVENTIONAL MILITARY PREEMPTIVE OR "FIRST-STRIKE".
IOW, IIUC China may not strike at incoming US Milfors + CVBGS as long as they do NOT intervene in its combat agz Japan - GUAM-CNMI, + possibly the Philippines, will be the only US Milbases
"safe" from PLA, PLAAF attacks in + around Japan per se. SAFE TO SAY SOUTH KOREA [Taiwan?] WILL ALSO BE GONE + DENIED TO US INTERVENING FORCES.
#10
OOOPPPSIES, forgot WORLD MILITARY FORUM > LOS ANGELES TIMES US MEDIA: SINO-US "GREAT GAME" IS THE CAUSE OF EAST ASIA ISLANDS' DISPUTES, in both East China Sea + South China Sea.
and
* IIRC XINHUA > US AND RUSSIA: A TALE OF TWO "PIVOTS" IN ASIA-PACIFIC.
Well, them Siberian Cranes successfully flew alongside the US Babe years back, but went mostly their own way when Studly Manly VLAD recently tried to be their "MOM/LEADER".
And once again, Virgina, we learn why the Klingon Empire ordered the extermination of each + every cute-n-cuddly furball Tribble across the galaxy.
D *** NG IT, CLEARLY SIBERIAN CRANES ARE A DEADLY/MORTAL THREAT TO SIBERA!
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.
