has scooped the largest share of the vote in the country's first free municipal elections since the removal of President-for-Life Zine El Abidine Ben Ali ...who departed by popular demand in January, 2011, precipitating the Arab Spring... and his government in 2011, according to to reports on state-run TV.
The Ennahdha party reportedly won an estimated 27.5 percent of votes in Sunday's ballot, ahead of the Nidaa Tounes party, which came second with an estimated 22.5 percent.
In total, more than 57,000 candidates - half of them women and young people - ran for office in Tunisia's 350 municipalities.
Official results are expected to be announced by May 9.
Analysts predict that the Ennahdha Movement and Nidaa Tounes, Tunisia's two political heavyweights, will come out on top in nearly every district.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
Nidaa Tounes is a secularist political party, currently the largest in the Tunisian parliment.
Ennahdha is the islamist party.
Posted by: lord garth ||
05/07/2018 0:12 Comments ||
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claimed victory late on Sunday in the country's first free local elections, citing vote counts observed by the party.
Top Ennahda official Lotfi Zitoun told Rooters the party was more than 5 percent ahead of secularist rivals Nidaa Tounes. Borhan Bsais, a Nidaa Tounes official, said his party probably trailed Ennahda by 3 to 5 percent.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/07/2018 00:00 ||
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[PRESSTV] Ottoman Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has warned that his country will retaliate against the United States if Washington halts the sale of certain weapons to Ankara.
Cavusoglu said in an interview with broadcaster CNN Turk on Sunday that a proposal by US politicians to temporarily stop weapons sales ‐ including the sale of F-35 jets ‐ to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... was wrong, illogical, and not fitting of the alliance between the two NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... allies.
"Next week I will go on a visit to the United States. It’s about the fact that the cancellation of the sale of the F-35 is not acceptable, and if it (the cancellation) happens, then they (the Americans) will receive an appropriate response from Turkey," Cavusoglu said.
Lawmakers in the US House of Representatives on Thursday introduced a resolution aimed at blocking the transfer of 116 Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighters to Turkey and preventing Ankara from receiving intellectual property or technical data required for the maintenance of the warplanes.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
You know all those bogus parts DoD got stuck with....
[PRESSTV] Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... has vowed to launch further cross-border military operations into Syria following Ankara’s two previous large-scale offensives into the war-torn country, as he announced his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP)’s manifesto ahead of snap elections on June 24.
"The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... will launch additional offensives like Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch operations to clear its border of terror organizations in the new era," the Ottoman Turkish leader said at an AK Party’s congress held in Istanbul on Sunday.
Ankara carried out the so-called Operation Euphrates Shield against purported targets of the ISISTakfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... terrorist group between August 2016 and March 2017, and launched the ongoing Olive Branch offensive against the purported positions of the US-backed People's Protection Units (YPG) Kurdish militia in Syria’s western enclave of Afrin earlier this year.
The Ottoman Turkish government considers the YPG as a terror group and as the Syrian branch of the PKK bully boy group that has been fighting for an autonomous region inside Turkey since 1984.
Both offensives were conducted in flagrant defiance of Damascus.
Addressing thousands of his supporters, Erdogan said that his government’s cross-border operations into the Arab country would continue "until not a single terrorist is left."
"We shattered the terror corridor being formed on our southern border with these operations. Our soldiers, who lastly wrote an epic in Afrin, are ready for new missions," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2018 00:00 ||
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Baghdad (Iraqinews.com) ‐ Iraqi and Jordanian foreign ministers discussed on Sunday forming a joint military committee to protect borders from any possible terrorist threat, Elaph news website reported.
Speaking at a presser along with his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi, top Iraqi diplomat Ibrahim al-Jaafari stressed the importance of "forming this committee as soon as possible" to control joint borders and protect them from terrorist groups.
"It is wrong to believe that the terrorist threat was eliminated from a certain country," Jaafari told news hounds, warning that "the threat of terrorism and ISIS (Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... ) still exists."
The Iraqi foreign minister admitted that both Baghdad and Amman are now involved in talks to "overcome their differences, and develop and deepen bilateral relations."
He further called on Jordanian investors to play a role in reconstructing Iraq during the coming period. "When the anti-terror in Iraq is over, we will commence the reconstruction phase immediately, but the remnants of war will take a long period of time."
Jaafari extended thanks to Jordanian authorities for their support for Iraq over the past period and their cooperation to arrest and bring to trial Iraqi criminals living in the kingdom.
The Jordanian foreign minister, for his part, reiterated that Jordan "will continue to help and support Iraq, and step up mutual coordination at the security and defense levels to face the threat of terrorism."
Speaking about the Syrian crisis, Safadi stressed his country’s unshakable stance towards maintaining Syria’s independence and unity, and ending the humanitarian disaster there.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/07/2018 00:00 ||
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[IsraelNationalNews] The Knesset is expected to vote Monday on a bill aimed at penalizing the Palestinian Authority over its payments to jailed terrorists and the families of terrorists killed by Israeli security forces.
The bill, which was drafted in part by the Defense and Justice ministries with the backing of Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, would require Israel to deduct PA tax money collected by Israel on the PA’s behalf. For every dollar the PA pays out to terrorists each year, Israel would deduct on dollar from taxes collected for the PA, and transfer the money to compensate Israeli victims of Arab terror attacks.
Ahead of tomorrow’s vote, the Defense Ministry revealed information regarding the PA’s payments to some of the most notorious terrorists responsible for the murder of Israeli Jews in terror attacks over the past few years.
Nineteen-year-old Omar al-Abed, for instance, who was convicted in February of murdering three members of the Salomon family in their home in Halamish (Neve Tzuf) last July is expected to be paid a pension totaling 12,604,000 shekels ($3,485,812) over the next sixty years.
Karem Lufti Fatahi Razek, a gunman in the attack that saw Naama and Eitam Henkin shot dead in front of their children in Samaria in October 2015, has received 40,600 shekels ($11,230) thus far, and is expected to be paid a total of 11,232,000 shekels ($3,106,367) total by the time he turns 80.
One of Razek’s accomplices in the double murder, Zir Ziad Jamal Amar, was also paid 40,600 shekels ($11,230) by the PA following the attack, and is expected to receive 10,056,000 shekels ($2,781,000) from the PA by the time he turns 80).
Another gunman in the attack, Yahia Muhammad Naif Abdullah Hajj Hamad, has also received 40,600 shekels ($11,230) from the PA, and will get a total of 10,080,000 shekels by the time he turns 80.
Abed al-Karim Adel Assi, the 19-year-old terrorist who murdered Rabbi Itamar Ben Gal in a stabbing attack in Ariel earlier this year, is expected to be paid 12,604,000 shekels ($3,485,812) over the next sixty years.
In other cases, the families of terrorists killed during or after attacks receive money from the PA.
The family of Ahmad Nasser Jarar, for instance, one of the terrorists responsible for the murder of Rabbi Raziel Shevach outside of Havat Gilad earlier this year, receives a monthly pension from the PA of 1,400 shekels ($390).
Defense Minister Liberman decried the PA’s funding of terrorists and their families, and urged lawmakers to pass the proposed legislation to deduct money from transfers to the PA for its support for jailed terrorists.
"I call on every Knesset member to join us and vote in favor of this bill that will put an end to this absurdity. Every shekel that goes to murderers will be deducted from the tax transfers to the PA. We will stop funding terrorism."
[Times of Israel] Iran is planning to retaliate for recent deadly airstrikes in Syria attributed to the Jewish state by having its proxies fire missiles at military targets in northern Israel sometime in the near future, defense officials warned on Sunday.
Tehran vowed revenge after the T-4 army base in Syria was struck in an air raid on April 9, killing at least seven members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. The strike was widely attributed to Israel, though Jerusalem refused to comment on it. (T-4 was the base from which Israel said Iran launched an attack drone into Israel in February.) Late last month, a second strike, allegedly conducted by Israel, against an Iranian-controlled base in northern Syria was said to have killed more than two dozen Iranian soldiers.
On Sunday, all of Israel’s nightly news broadcasts reported that the Israeli military and intelligence services had identified preliminary efforts by Iran in Syria to carry out its reprisal, using its IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps), the Hezbollah terrorist group and local Shiite militias to launch a barrage of precision-guided missiles, likely at Israeli military targets in the north.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
05/07/2018 02:48 ||
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#1
If they can get all those docs out of country, just think of what they can get in.
#2
An Iranian strike against Israel will signal the end of our Iranian nuclear deal.... as well as an end to the Iranian nuclear prgramme and our problem. The downwind drift could also assist our efforts in AFG. Who knows ?
#5
They seem a little bullish. It does not take much to destroy a refinery, basically you just get the fire started and let the rest take care of itself. A port takes a little more work, okay 20 bombs instead of 10. I have no idea how Iran thinks it comes out ahead on any head to head fight with Israel.
[Al Jazeera] The Paleostinian Olympic Committee (POC) has blasted Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for sending two cycling teams to participate in the 101st Giro d'Italia cycling competition, which kicked off on Friday in Jerusalem.
For the first time in its history, a competitive leg of the world-famous race was held this year outside of Europe.
After starting in Jerusalem, the 21-day race continued over the weekend from Haifa to Tel Aviv and from Be'er Sheva to Eilat in the south. The event, which features 176 cyclists from 22 teams, is now set to continue in Italia where it will conclude in the capital, Rome.
However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... the decision to kick off the event in Jerusalem was met with widespread condemnation from Paleostinian officials and activists who accused organisers of "whitewashing Israel's ongoing crimes".
In a statement on Sunday, the POC also urged the UAE and Bahrain national committees to withdraw their participants from an event it described as "a disgrace to anyone who stands behind it or participates in it".
The committee called out the Arab cyclists for their "disloyalty" and for participating in a "free service for the [Israeli] occupation that does not recognise international laws, resolutions and charters of the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... on the rights of the Paleostinian people and continues to deny the right of the Paleostinian Arab people to establish their independent state on their land with Jerusalem as its capital".
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
A few things: 1) Why bother to complain about this after the three stages in Israel are over? Today's a rest day whilst they go back to Italy to continue the other stages of the race. 2) The two teams in question are UAE- Team Emirates with one rider from Morocco, Anass El Abdia and Bahrain Meridia Pro Cycling Team, with zero Arab riders. The three Grand Tours (Giro, Tour de France and Vuelta e Espana) are where teams generate maximum exposure, so the goal for all pro teams is to get a squad into these races (and get stage wins, wear a leaders jersey for a few days, etc.) or you're not going to be a squad for very long. A pretty weak 'outcry' if you ask me.
[PRESSTV] Former head of the political body of the so-called Jaish al-Islam ...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful... bad boy group has reportedly stolen millions of dollars from the money donated by regional sponsors of Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... terrorist outfits in Syria, and used the money to buy restaurants and commercial centers in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire.... and Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... The Arabic-language Damascus Now news website reported on Sunday that Mohammed Alloush has appropriated some $47 million over the past few years, and hid it from the leaders of the terrorist organization.
The report added that Alloush then used the money to purchase real estates in Turkey and in Saudi Arabia, including Ewan Restaurant, car washes and body shops in Istanbul besides Rebou al-Sham Restaurant and three textile markets run by Bilal Oyoun in the Saudi capital city of Riyadh.
Jaish al-Islam commanders have reportedly called on Alloush to return the stolen sum but all to no avail.
Alloush was one of the founders of Jaish al-Islam bad boy group, and until recently led its political office.
He resigned from his post on May 3, after the group sustained a series of humiliating defeats in battles against Syrian army forces and pro-government fighters from popular defense groups in Eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of Damascus.
Many leaders of Jaish al-Islam have been accused of corruption over the past few years.
Alloush’s older brother and the founder of Jaish al-Islam, Zahran, was accused by other gangs in the Eastern Ghouta of stealing more than $12 million back in 2015, months before he was killed in a counter-terrorism operation conducted by Syrian government forces in the enclave.
Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The Syrian government says the Israeli regime and its Western and regional allies are aiding Takfiri terrorist groups that are wreaking havoc in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
He resigned from his post on May 3, after the group sustained a series of humiliating defeats in battles against Syrian army forces and pro-government fighters from popular defense groups in Eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of Damascus
"I'm SO outta here. Feets don't fail me now!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/07/2018 10:50 Comments ||
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[PRESSTV] President Hassan Rouhani says the US will regret a possible withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal, assuring that Iran has plans in place to counter any fallout from the decision.
"If the United States opts to pull out of the JCPOA, you will soon see the historic remorse which the move will bring about for" Washington, Rouhani told a crowd in Sabzevar in northeast Iran on Sunday.
The president said he had directed related bodies months before to devise necessary measures in response to US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... 's threat to abandon the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
"Orders have been issued to the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and a few days ago, I spoke with bigwigs of the organization about the programs ahead," he said without elaboration.
"Our path is quite clear. The economic sector has also received the necessary orders," Rouhani said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2018 00:00 ||
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[8 views]
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#1
...You have gotta believe that they are climbing the walls there because we ain't following the script...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
05/07/2018 4:44 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Wasn't the deal basically that they'd give up their nuke program - which they haven't - if we'd give them a bunch of money - which we have? What's left to give up by withdrawing?
[AnNahar] Preliminary results started emerging around mmidnight Monday after Leb voted in its first parliamentary elections in nine years.
Media reports said the Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... -AMAL Movement coalition won all seats in south Leb's second and thirds electoral districts.
The coalition's campaign meanwhile said its list won four seats in Beirut's second district -- one for Hizbullah, one for AMAL, one for al-Ahbash and one for the Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... According to media reports, the list of Prime Minister Saad Hariri Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too. 's al-Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... Movement won six seats in the district as the businessman Fouad Makhzoumi won a Sunni seat.
In Beirut's first district -- Ashrafieh, Saifi, Rmeil and Medawar -- the list backed by the Lebanese Forces A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb... and the Kataeb Party won three seats as three seats went to the list backed by the Free Patriotic Movement and the Tashnag Party Socialist party representing the Armenian diaspora in Leb. They're Christians, but they try to remain neutral, which means they get shot at without shooting back... and two went to the Kollouna Watani civil society coalition -- Joumana Haddad and Paula Yagoubian.
Also according to media reports, MP Bahia Hariri retained her seat in Sidon as Popular Nasserite Organization chief Osama Saad won the city's second Sunni seat and his ally Ibrahim Azar won a Maronite seat in Jezzine.
The FPM meanwhile won two seats in Jezzine, including that of incumbent MP Ziad Aswad.
Elsewhere, FPM chief Jebran Bassil announced that he won a Maronite seat he ran for in Batroun and that the FPM has won a seat in Akkar.
The Marada Movement the personal militia of Suleiman Franjieh, president of Lebanon at the outbreak of the civil war, currently Syrian toadies, but you never know when that could change... meanwhile announced that it won four seats in the Batroun-Koura-Bsharri-Zgharta district as three went to the coalition of the Free Patriotic Movement, al-Mustaqbal Movement and Michel Mouawad and three other seats were clinched by the Lebanese Forces-Kataeb Party alliance.
In Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... -Minieh-Dinniyeh, the lists of ex-PM Najib Miqati, al-Mustaqbal Movement and ex-minister Faisal Karami were leading the vote count.
In Baabda, the Hizbullah-FPM coalition won four seats as the LF and the Progressive Socialist Party managed to win two seats.
In northern Metn, the leading candidates at 12:30 am were Sami Gemayel, Ibrahim Kanaan, Eddie Abi al-Lamaa, Michel Murr, Hagop Pakradounian and Elias Bou Saab.
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 Jazeera] Tunisia's Ennahdha Movement 
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed...
[IsraelNationalNews] The Knesset is expected to vote Monday on a bill aimed at penalizing the Palestinian Authority over its payments to jailed terrorists and the families of terrorists killed by Israeli security forces.
...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful...
Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too.
Najib Miqati
