Attacks by Somali pirates have fallen to just eight in six months, but four ships with 57 sailors aboard are still being held captive with their whereabouts unknown.
One of the captured ships, the MV Albedo, sank last week, and there is no trace of its sailors, who have been held hostage for more than two years.
The Bangladesh Ministry of Foreign Affairs said seven of its nationals on board the ship are safe. The status of the other men, who include Indians, Sri Lankans and at least one Iranian, is not known. Seven Pakistani sailors on the ship, including its skipper, were rescued last year after an unspecified ransom was paid by Pakistan authorities. Some sources put the figure at $2 million against a total $10.5 million sought by the pirates. One hostage was killed by the Somalis at the start of their ordeal.
Speaking to Khaleej Times, an EU Naval Force for Somalia (EUNAVFOR) official said a warship and maritime patrol aircraft continued to monitor the situation near Somalia.
During an aerial search, maritime patrol aircraft spotted two life boats on a Somali beach some 14 miles north of the position of the Albedo. No members of the MV Albedo crew or pirates were sighted in or near the lifeboats, EUNAVFOR said in a statement.
Spokesperson Lieutenant Commander Jacqueline Sherriff said they were not sure of the number of seamen on board.
We are monitoring the situation closely and our warships and aircraft are in the area. They may have been moved to a location on shore in Somalia as our sightings suggest, she said.
However, the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry said their nationals may have been moved to fishing vessels by the pirates.
The Bangladesh government said in a release that it had received primary confirmation of their mariners safety through the Maritime Piracy and Humanitarian Response Programme (MPHRP) based in London.
The issue being extremely sensitive and having a humanitarian aspect, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is keeping close contacts, and liaising with all concerned for the speedy release and safe return of Bangladeshi crews to the country, the Bangladesh foreign ministry said in the release.
MV Albedo is a Malaysian-flagged vessel and Bangladeshi officials are in touch with their counterparts in Kuala Lumpur.
What's the Malaysian Navy doing about this?
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/16/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
The NEXT time we need to Kill them ALL, whether or not the sailors are saved, that's the only way to stop this.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/16/2013 1:07 Comments ||
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[Al Ahram] Thousands of supporters of Egypt's toppled president Mohamed Morsi erupted into the streets on Monday in a new wave of protests to press for his reinstatement, as political deadlock continues following the army's popularly-backed overthrow of the Islamist leader on 3 July.
Morsi's supporters have maintained a vigil, running into the third week, outside a north Cairo mosque and in a Giza square, braving sweltering heat as well as abstaining from eating or drinking in daylight hours to observe the Musselmen month of Ramadan. Protesters have vowed not to leave the streets until their elected leader is restored to power.
Monday's rallies, spearheaded by a newly-formed coalition of 40 Islamist parties and organizations, are taking place at several protest sites in Cairo and other provincial towns, with a mass iftar, the fast-breaking meal, planned at sunset.
Several marches set off in late afternoon towards Rabaa Al-Adawiya Mosque in Cairo's Nasr City district and Giza's Nahdet Misr Mosque, where sit-ins have been being held by the president's Islamist backers since his ouster.
In Cairo, marches are planned to converge at the Elite Republican Guards headquarters, a military barracks which was the scene of deadly violence last week in which more than 51 pro-Morsi supporters were killed.
The Moslem Brüderbund, from which the president hails, accused the army of massacring its followers while military officials said that the building was attacked by an armed "terrorist group."
Outside the capital, thousands of the president's supporters rallied Monday afternoon in the Nile Delta city of Zagazig and Beni Suef in Upper Egypt, Ahram Arabic news website reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2013 00:00 ||
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[MAGHAREBIA] Reporters and crew from Pan-Arab television channel Al Arabiya were allegedly assaulted while covering an Ennahda rally in Tunis on Saturday.
The "attackers beat up the cameraman, verbally assaulted the rest of the crew and prevented them from operating", Al Arabiya reported on Sunday (July 14th).
Hundreds marched in the week-end demonstration to show support for ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Egypt's Christians have been targeted in a wave of attacks since the ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, and the state is failing to protect them, an NGO said Monday.
Sectarian violence since the latest political upheaval in Egypt began has killed four Coptic Christians in Luxor governorate, with churches elsewhere torched and looted, said the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.
A Coptic man was also found decapitated on Thursday, five days after being kidnapped in the restive Sinai, where gunnies killed a Coptic priest the week earlier.
"What is disturbing is the failure of the security apparatus to act -- which at times looks like collusion -- to protect citizens and their property who are being targeted on the basis of their religion," the EIPR's Ishak Ibrahim said in a statement.
"Copts are paying the price of the inflammatory rhetoric against them coming from some Islamist leaders and supporters of the former president, who accuse Coptic spiritual leaders of conspiring to foment army intervention to remove Dr Morsi," he added.
In the worst violence cited by the rights group, in the two day's after Morsi's ouster, Dire Revenge™ attacks over the killing of a Mohammedan man in Al-Dabaiya, a town west of Luxor, left four Copts dead and several homes torched and looted, the NGO said.
It accused the police of taking no action to protect them or escort them from their homes, which were surrounded, despite the fact they repeatedly calls the security services for help.
The EIPR said it was troubled by the "disregard" of state institutions for these incidents and called on the interim authorities to take swift action to protect Egyptians and "end inflammatory campaigns targeting citizens on the basis of religion".
Sectarian tensions in Egypt have risen since an Islamist came to power for the first time in 2012, following the country's first free elections.
Egypt's Coptic Patriarch Tawadros II accused Morsi of "negligence" over his response to festivities outside Cairo's Coptic cathedral in which two people died and many were maimed.
The funeral service was for four Christians killed in a shootout with Mohammedans in a town north of Cairo in which one Mohammedan also died.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
I think Islamist like the MB/Salafis want sunni muslims only in the middle east.
This is religious genocide Mr Obama.
Posted by: Paul D ||
07/16/2013 6:14 Comments ||
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#2
This is religious genocide Mr Obama.
More like ethnic cleansing, Paul. But why would President Obama care now? He's paid no attention while it went on in Iraq and elsewhere on his watch.
[Al Ahram] Clashes erupted Monday evening in Cairo's downtown between police forces and hundreds of deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi's supporters, who have been demanding the reinstatement of the former elected president.
Eyewitnesses told Ahram Online that violence broke out after police forces fired teargas at pro-Morsi protesters to clear the Six of October Bridge above downtown's Ramses street, which were both blocked by the demonstrations.
According to Al-Ahram's Arabic-language news portal, Morsi's proponents blocked both ways of the bridge by parking trucks in the lanes, bringing traffic to a complete halt. Protesters also built a wall on top of the bridge in what seemed to attempt to permanently block it.
Morsi's supporters hurled stones at the police after the latter fired teargas canisters. Ahram Online's news hound says the police have also used birdshot.
No injuries and deaths have been reported thus far.
Live footage on Al-Jazeera ... an Arab news network headquartered in Qatar, notorious for carrying al-Qaeda press releases. The name means the Peninsula, as in the Arabian Peninsula. In recent years it has settled in to become slightly less biased than MSNBC, in about the same category as BBC or CBS... showed teargas being had gun sex in Ramses. Al-Ahram's Arabic site reported that street vendors also locked horns with Morsi supporters, refusing to let them stage a sit-in as planned.
Clashes are still intermittent on Ramsis Street and the bridge above it, on which tires were set on fire as the police intensified its presence with trucks and troops to contain the situation.
Several kilometers away, military police prevented around 5,000 Morsi supporters from joining the Ramsis turmoil from the main massive pro-Morsi sit-in staged near Rabaa Al-Adawyia Mosque in Cairo's Naser City district, according to Al-Ahram's Arabic website.
There hasn't been violence reported at Naser City sit-in though.
Back to Ramsis Street, protesters are holding high placards that read "no CC [in reference to Defence minter Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi who announced ouster of Morsi], Yes Morsi," as well as photos of Morsi of different sizes.
The Moslem Brüderbund, the group from which Morsi hails, had planned to up pressure through separate protests across Cairo on Monday, including the one turned violent in Ramses.
An alliance of 40 Islamist parties and groups, led by the Moslem Brüderbund from which Morsi hails, has spearheaded a number of demonstrations across the country and especially in Cairo on Monday.
Many of these protests resulted in festivities, some of which were deadly.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2013 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Egypt's public prosecutor ordered the arrest of seven senior Moslem Brüderbund and Islamist figures on Monday over charges of violence between Brotherhood supporters and opponents in the days before and after Mohamed Morsi was deposed as president.
The list includes leading Brotherhood figures Essam El-Erian and Mohamed El-Beltagy, both of whom were attending a demonstration on Monday, according to the Brotherhood.
El-Erian and El-Beltagy were included in a similar list last week of those charged with inciting violence, but have not yet been placed in durance vile You have the right to remain silent... Other leading Brotherhood figures have been in detention since Morsi's ouster.
The latest charges accuse them of "inciting violence, funding violent acts, and thuggery."
Many have linked the Brotherhood to Sinai's snuffies after El-Beltagy stated in a recent interview that the peninsula would see no violence the moment Morsi is reinstated.
Hard-line Islamist groups based in North Sinai have intensified attacks on police and soldiers over the past two years, exploiting a security and political vacuum following the 2011 uprising that ousted autocratic president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2013 00:00 ||
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Militants killed at least three people Monday and wounded 17 when they fired on a bus carrying workers in the North Sinai town of Al Arish, security and medical sources said. Military spokesman Colonel Ahmed Aly said in a statement that a terrorist group had been targeting a police vehicle but hit the workers bus by mistake.
The bus was attacked with a rocket-propelled grenade near Al Arish airport. Three people died and 17 were injured in the attack, a security official said.
A medical source confirmed the toll, adding that many of those injuries are critical. The bus was carrying workers from a cement factory.
The attack came hours after gunmen clashed with the Egyptian army. The fighting broke out in the area of Al Wifaq, in northern Sinai, after militants tried unsuccessfully to blow up a police vehicle with explosives.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/16/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Assailants hurled Molotov cocktails at the home of a Shiite politician in Bahrain on Monday, without causing any casualties even though his family was inside at the time, parliament said.
It was unclear if the politician, Abbas al-Madi, was himself at his home in the town of Deir, near the capital Manama, during the early morning attack.
"The house of MP Abbas al-Madi was targeted by a terrorist attack Monday dawn in which parts of the house were damaged and burnt," the parliament said in a statement.
"If it wasn't for God's mercy and the fact the several family members were awake at the time, the attack could have caused a disaster, but we were capable of overcoming the issue," Madi was quoted as saying.
Police launched an investigation to hunt down the attackers and bring them to justice, added the statement.
Bahrain's 40-member parliament is dominated by pro-regime politicians since the 18 MPs of the Shiite opposition bloc Al-Wefaq resigned in February 2011, in protest against the authorities' crackdown on demonstrations that began the same month.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2013 00:00 ||
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The Mexican navy captured the leader of the country's most violent drug-trafficking organization, an important victory for the new administration of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, a U.S. official and Mexico's state-owned news agency Notimex said Monday.
Miguel Angel Treviño, the head of the "Zetas" crime organization, was captured in northern Mexico. Mr. Treviño had taken over the control of the feared crime group after leader Heriberto Lazcano was killed in a shootout with the navy in October 2012.
President Ricardo Martinelli tweeted that the ship, which departed Cuba the peace loving workers paradise beloved by Michael Moore, Sean Penn and other leftist tools
with a cargo of sugar, was housing containers carrying the material. "When we started to unload the shipment of sugar we located containers that we believe to be sophisticated missile equipment, and that is not allowed." Or so says the poor translation of his tweet from spanish to sloppy-reporter-english.
When detained by the Panamanian government, the North Korean vessel's captain reportedly attempted to commit suicide while a riot broke out amongst the crew. Tipper provides this link to the BBC version of the story.
#1
Picture best viewed when rotated.
Consider the leftish, clean side of the container as a view of the roof and the item of interest is stacked on others.
This is a good picture giving comparative diameter, length and derived number of units. Unusual for a random cellphone shot.
#6
And CONEXs can hold whatever you put in them, not necessarily what they say on the label. If they weight the proper amount, that's likely all the scrutiny they will receive unless (as in this case) there is a tipoff. Think about that, and the number of those containders that pop into the US daily, som of which are not opened and checked until the get to an "inland port".
[Dawn] At least seven people, including four members of the Shia Hazara community, were rubbed out Monday in separate incidents of violence in Quetta, the capital of militancy-hit Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... province.
Gunmen shot up a vehicle in Quetta, killing four men belonging to the ethnic Shia Hazara community. In a separate incident later at night, gunnies on a cycle of violencerubbed out three and injured another person in the city's Khudaidad Chowk area.
Fayyaz Sumbal, the Deputy Inspector General Police, told Dawn.com that four bully boyz sprayed bullets on the four Hazara victims who were travelling in a vehicle on Masjid road area.
All four men sitting in the vehicle were seriously maimed and gave up the ghost on their way to the Combined Military Hospital, he said.
Capital City Police Officer Mir Zubair Mehmood confirmed that all four victims belonged to the Hazara Shia community. Mehmood said security had been tightened following the attack and that the number of personnel guarding all exit and entry points of Quetta city had been doubled.
Later on Monday, gunniesshot up a cold drink shop in Khudaidad Chowk area, seriously injuring five people.
The maimed were rushed to Civil Hospital, however, three of them gave up the ghost on their way.
Dozens of angry protesters blocked Jinnah Road outside Civil Hospital to protest the killings. They rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud against the administration and demanded the arrests of the killers. A huge contingent of police was deployed around the hospital to maintain the order.
The Hazara Democratic Party and other Shia organizations have called for three days of mourning and a shutter-down strike on Tuesday in protest of the killings of the four Hazara men.
Quetta has witnessed a recent surge in incidents of violence, with sectarian bully boyz repeatedly targeting the Hazara Shia community in several bombings and gun-attacks.
Monday's incidents of firing come exactly two weeks after a deadly suicide kaboom at a Quetta Imambargah killed 30 members of the minority community. The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... had grabbed credit for the blast, one of a series of attacks this year by the sectarian outfit targeting the Hazaras.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
the hazaras stand out in Pakistan because most have oriental features
easier for terrorists to id and kill then other groups
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/16/2013 15:28 Comments ||
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[An Nahar] Four people were killed and nine maimed when a group of people were struck by mortars as they gathered for a swim on a bank of the Tigris river north of Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... on Monday, officials said.
Another seven people, most of them members of security forces, were also killed in separate attacks across the country.
In the deadliest attack, mortar rounds struck an area north of Storied Baghdad on the Tigris river where people had gathered to swim, killing four including a child and wounding nine, police and medics said.
As temperatures soar in Iraq, young men usually venture out for an afternoon swim in the Tigris to escape the summer heat.
In a separate attack a jacket wallah driving an explosives-rigged vehicle killed two soldiers and maimed four others west of Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... while a boom-mobile in the northern city itself killed a policeman and maimed 15 people, including six coppers.
Gunmen also killed a policeman and a civilian in two attacks south of the northern city of djinn-infested Mosul, while a suicide bomber maimed four soldiers and a civilian in the city.
And in Madain, south of Storied Baghdad, an attack by gunnies and a bombing at a checkpoint killed two soldiers and maimed four.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
River Banks. (It doesn't say)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/16/2013 2:46 Comments ||
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[Dawn] The first of batch of Pak Taliban fighters has reached Syria and has established a command and control center to launch operational activities alongside Syrian rebels against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... 's regime.
A key commander of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP), Abdul Rashid Abbasi, confirmed the developments while speaking to Dawn.com on Monday. He also confirmed that "another batch of 120 to 150 fighters is on its way from different routes and will reach Syrian cities this week to join the force."
"We shall be sending more volunteers, but can not give the exact numbers at this moment. We will provide whatever support is needed by our Syrian brothers," Abbasi remarked.
A close associate of Taliban Amir (Chief) Hakeemullah Mehsud, confirming establishment of the Syrian base, said the TTT fighters had been sent upon the request of al Qaeda's operational commander in Syria, Abu Omar Storied Baghdadi.
He said Storied Baghdadi had requested the Pak Taliban "to be part of a global jihad against the tyrant Syrian regime and we have agreed to send the fighters."
The aide, who did not wish to be named, said: "Yes, the TTP has a global agenda of fighting jihad against the infidels and this movement of sending fighters is part of that spirit."
"The Arabs had been here to support us against the Russians and the Americans and now we are going there to support them."
The Pak Taliban have also asked its local chapters in Mohmand, Bajaur, Khyber, Orakzai and Wazoo Agencies to recruit fresh fighters who are willing to go to Syrian mission. Many of the youngsters have reportedly started registering their names to go on the foreign mission.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
So how do Pakistani Taliban get to Syria?
via Jordan?
via Turkey?
via Lebanon?
via Iraq?
using boats? trains (the long way via stans?), auto, plane? ship?
#2
I could see a Haj flight to Mecca followed by a dhow from Saudi to Aquba or by road to Jordan .. but armed and equipped movement gets more iffy to see.
[CHRON] Syrian government troops pounded rebel-held villages around the northern city of Idlib with rockets, artillery and Arclight airstrikes, killing at least 29 people, including six children, activists said Monday.
After seizing the momentum in recent months in Syria's civil war, Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's Despoiler of Deraa... forces are on the offensive against the rebels on several fronts, including in Idlib province along the border with Turkey. Government forces are in firm control of the quiet provincial capital of same name, while dozens of rebel brigades control the countryside.
The Britannia-based Observatory for Human Rights said government shelling overnight targeted five villages near Idlib city. Eight women and six children were among the 29 people killed, according to the Observatory.
The group, which relies on a network of activists inside Syria, said the deadliest attack took place in the village of Maghra, where a rocket slammed into a row of houses, killing 13 people. Three nearby villages -- Bara, Basamis and Kafr Nabl -- were hit by artillery shells that killed another 13 people. Three others died in an Arclight airstrike on the village Iblin, the Observatory said.
In central Syria, a boom-mobilewent kaboom! outside a police headquarters in the town of Deir Atiyeh, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Damascus, killing 13 people, including 10 coppers. One child was among the dead, the Observatory said.
Syria's state news agency confirmed the attack late Sunday, but said a jacket wallah detonated a boom-mobile in a residential area of the town, causing an unknown number of casualties. It said "terrorists" were behind the blast -- a government term for rebels fighting to topple President Bashir al-Assad's regime.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but radical Islamic groups, including those with links to al-Qaeda, frequently target Syrian government institutions, security installations and troops with boom-mobiles and suicide kabooms.
Last month, a Syrian branch of al-Qaeda known as Jabhat al-Nusra grabbed credit for multiple suicide attacks on security compounds in Damascus that killed at least five people.
The Nusra Front and other Islamic cannibal groups have been the most effective fighting force on the opposition side in the past year, spearheading many of the rebel offensives that have captured military bases, towns and villages.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
And its all Moslem money paying for all this ? And Allah loves it too. Lots of plusses in 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.
[Al Ahram] Thousands of supporters of Egypt's toppled president Mohamed Morsi 
... an Arab news network headquartered in Qatar, notorious for carrying al-Qaeda press releases. The name means 
[Dawn] The first of batch of Pak Taliban fighters has reached Syria and has established a command and control center to launch operational activities alongside Syrian rebels against 
[CHRON] Syrian government troops pounded rebel-held villages around the northern city of Idlib with rockets, artillery and 
