[Telegraph.uk] Sudan and South Sudan have hammered out a deal on how to share their oil wealth, one of a series of disputes that brought the rivals to the brink of all-out war earlier this year.
"The parties have agreed on all of the financial arrangements regarding oil, so that's done," said Thabo Mbeki, ...former president of South Africa, succeeding Nelson Mandela. He now pops up periodically as a mediator when something catches fire in Africa... former president of South Africa and African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... mediator, after talks in the Æthiopian capital.
The two countries had faced an August 2 deadline set by the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... to resolve their differences on oil and borders, and Mr Mbeki said they would meet next month to try to find a compromise on the disputed region of Abyei.
Mr Mbeki said a timetable would now be drawn up for the resumption of oil production and exports, which are vital to the economies of both deeply impoverished countries.
"What will remain, given that there is an agreement, is to then discuss the next steps as to when the oil companies should be asked to prepare for resumption of production and export," he said.
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08/05/2012 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] A 10-party opposition bloc in Mauritania on Saturday signed a charter rejecting any solution to the country's political crisis that does not involve President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz' departure.
The Coordination of Democratic Opposition (COD) also refused to take part in any election in which "transparency is not guaranteed."
Legislative and municipal elections planned for 2011 were postponed and are meant to take place at the end of 2012.
The COD says there is a political crisis in the country, and has held weekly sit-ins, marches and protests since May to demand that Abdel Aziz step down, refusing all dialogue.
The opposition accuses the former general of despotism and mismanagement and having failed to heed commitments made in the Dakar accords that led to his election in 2009, a year after he seized power in a coup d'etat.
The president's mandate expires in 2014.
The opposition wants a transition government to take over from Abdel Aziz and find a way out of the crisis, dealing with issues such as unemployment, slavery and attacks on human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... The charter also criticises Abdel Aziz for attacks launched against al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) bases in neighbouring Mali by the Mauritanian army, saying it was a "war lost from the start."
With AQIM now behind armed Islamist groups who have seized the north of Mali, this "constitutes a threat to the country," it said.
The signing of the charter comes two days before Ould Aziz holds his annual "meeting with the people" to celebrate his inauguration as president in 2009.
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08/05/2012 00:00 ||
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[Yemen Post] Yemen's Interior Minister Abdul-Qader Qahtan has affirmed that Yemen's security services seek to root up al-Qaeda and expel it form Yemen, pointing out that it cooperates with its neighboring states to expel the organization form the destabilized state.
In remarks to a Saudi newspaper, Okaz, Qahtan said Yemen does best to find out the Saudi diplomat Abdullah Al-Khalidi who was kidnapped by Al-Qaeda.
He said that the ministry seeks to find out al-Khalidi, affirming that there is no confirmed information about his location.
He declined to give any information about the side that was behind the attack on the interior ministry in which about 15 persons were killed.
He further said that Yemen still suffers of child trafficking, singling out that it coordinates with 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 their national face... to stand against the phenomenon.
Saudi Arabia repatriated last month about 100 children who infiltrated to the Saudi land to the Yemeni authorities.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Esquimeau village our hero was receiving a quick lesson in aeronautics...... the Yemeni authorities in Haradh foiled attempts of trafficking 80 children to the Saudi land during the two past months.
According to the online website of Interior Ministry, the security authorities set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock Book 'im, Mahmoud! three child smugglers while they were attempting to smuggle a number of children who were all from Dhamar governorate.
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08/05/2012 09:41 ||
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Yemen suffers from complicated administrative and educational problems that have resulted in the lack of employability skills to meet the labour market needs and contribute to the economic development process.
British Charge d'Affaires in Sanaa, Sharon Wardle, said the lack of employability skills makes Yemen depend on external workforce to provide and improve services.
The lack of generic skills affects the economy of any country in the world because it is a key reason for unemployment and deterioration of traditional industries, she said, pointing out that the shortfall of this problem is blamed on the lack of motivating and guiding students toward special disciplines in line with the labour market needs.
There is a dire need of specialized, developed education because the current education system has failed to produce key competencies and suitable output in line with the countrys economic and investment trends, she said at a ceremony to present the award for the best innovator from the technical education and vocational training schools in Sanaa.
Furthermore, qualified and skilled workforce is a key factor to attract foreign investments, boost the national economy, accelerate social change and improve livelihoods.
Diversified education is very necessary in Yemen at the moment to cope with continuous labour market changes triggered by technological and industrial developments, she added.
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08/05/2012 09:40 ||
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#1
Stop shooting teachers, that'll help.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/05/2012 11:11 Comments ||
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The English Defence League (EDL) and a collection of far-right and anti-Islam groups are planning to come to Stockholm to hold an international meeting on Saturday.
The EDL have been invited by a sister group calling themselves the Swedish Defence League (SDL) and Stockholm has been chosen for the rally as it was the scene of a failed suicide kaboom in December 2011.
"Stockholm was chosen for the Global Counter Jihad rally because of the actions of an Iraqi-born Swedish citizen, Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, who travelled to central Stockholm on December 11, 2010 in order to commit mass murder," a group associated to the meeting explained in a statement.
According to Jonathan Möller at Swedish anti-racism newspaper Expo the various groups are united in their belief that there is an ongoing war between the West and Islam and that this will lead to the introduction of Sharia law in Europe and the US.
"They are going to have a large demonstration... to broaden and deepen, as they put it, the counter-jihad network," Möller told TV4 on Monday.
According to the group's own estimates some 200-300 people are to be expected to attend the meeting.
English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson is listed among the speakers as well as US anti-Mohammedan bloggers Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller.
Pamela Geller has made her name within the US Tea Party movement and was a frontline figure in the campaign to prevent the founding of a Islamic centre near to the Ground Zero site on Manhattan.
She is furthermore attached to the so-called "birther" movement which seek to cast doubt on Barack Obama In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died -- an entire town destroyed... 's nationality and thus credentials as US President.
News of the demonstration has led to the mobilization of anti-racist opposition groups who plan to hold a counter-demonstration under the slogan "Stop EDL - Breivik's footsoldiers" in reference to Anders Behring Breivik who killed 77 people in twin terror attacks in Norway last year.
Breivik wrote of having strong links to the English Defence League, had 600 EDL members as Facebook friends, and claimed that he was guided by an English mentor after having been recruited to a secret society in London.
The Local has made attempts to contact the English Defence League but our calls have not been returned.
[An Nahar] The deadly kaboom on Israeli tourists last month at Bulgaria's Burgas airport was planned abroad, but the bomb was likely made in Bulgaria, a top interior ministry official said Saturday.
"I can definitely say that the attack was plotted, prepared and implemented by people who are very far away from Bulgaria," ministry chief of staff Kalin Georgiev told the 24 Hours newspaper in an interview.
"They come, act and leave," he said, without elaborating on possible accomplices.
"We also cannot talk about so-called homegrown terrorism. The people who prepared the attack did not use small-time Mister Big structures for logistic support," he added.
The explosive itself, however, was likely assembled on Bulgarian soil, Georgiev said.
"There is nothing specific about its make. Our experts estimate that it was assembled somewhere close as no one would risk carrying an activated improvised bomb (IED)," he said.
The bomb's components were legally available in any shop both in Bulgaria and abroad, he noted.
"In the method of assembly or the fabrication of the IED, there are no characteristic features typical of any one terrorist structure," he added.
The bomber's identity still remains a mystery over two weeks after the attack, even if Sherlocks have reconstructed a portrait via computer technology based on his severed head, which was found at the site of the attack.
The probe is also looking at accomplices the bomber may have had, including a woman who reportedly stayed with him in a hotel before the attack, and another man.
It is unclear if the bomber, who killed five Israeli tourists and the Bulgarian driver of the bus on July 18, intended to die in the attack, whether he was killed as a result of his own mishandling of the device or whether it exploded from a distance.
"I cannot categorically confirm any of the leads but I can say that he is not the typical suicide kaboomer. There is a high probability that the terrorist fell victim to his own error," Georgiev said.
Confirming the attacker's identity was now "a prime task of the investigation," which was progressing, even if slowly, he added.
"It is important to know that we are solving an equation, in which until recently there were only unknowns," Georgiev told the newspaper.
Prosecutors said last week they were working with the authorities in Belgium, Britannia and Finland in an effort to identify the suspect's origin.
The daily 24 Hours also reported Saturday on a possible Hizbullah link, although this was not confirmed by Sherlocks.
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08/05/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] A local Pak court has sent one of the key suspects in the so-called UK Olympics visa scam, Abid Chaudhry, for a 14-day judicial remand, DawnNews reported.
The Federal Investigative Authority (FIA) presented Chaudhry, who is associated with the Dream Land travel agency, in court on Saturday.
FIA officials informed the court today that the passport scandal was currently being further investigated, after which civil judge Matiur Rahman ordered Chaudhry to be sent on a 14-day judicial remand.
Previously, the court had ordered a two-day physical remand for the defendant.
The scandal came to the fore after the British tabloid "The Sun" published a report of an alleged scam involving fake documents for travel to London, in connection with Pakistain's Olympic contingent.
However, the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits... an investigation conducted by the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) had dismissed the claims, calling the report a "fake scam."
"The Sun" said its report was based on information backed by a footage of Abid Chaudhry (an agent for the Dream Land travel agency) claiming how for around £7,000 he could get its man a two-month visa...and smuggle him into London 2012 as part of Pakistain's Olympic squad.
Chaudhry claims he is innocent and that the real culprit is Mohammad Ali Asad.
The Pak government has started the paperwork but haven't done much else against Asad for fraud, impersonation and mis-declaration, and is seeing his deportation from the United Kingdom, while also declaring him as the main accused in the case.
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Seven months after the last U.S. troops left their country, Iraqis are surprisingly optimistic about the future, given the horrors of war they have endured for nearly a decade. Not to mention the 30+ years of brutal, repressive, dictatorial rule.
Housing developments, shopping centers and hospitals are rising from the rubble, stores that had been closed for years are reopening, and old familiar sights -- busy ice cream parlors and Baghdad's famous red double-decker buses -- are returning.
Violence has dropped sharply from its height in 2006 and 2007, but people are murdered with bombs and guns every day, just not as many as in Chicago and Detroit. Coordinated bombings on July 23 killed more than 100 people and wounded dozens more, the bloodiest day in Iraq in two years.
Oil production and revenue are surging back to levels not seen since before former president Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990. Yet the government barely provides the basics of life: schools, clean water and electricity on summer days that routinely crack 120 degrees. We used to get weekly reports of electricity produced. IIRC, 1/3 of the time was pretty good in 2005.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq's democratically elected leader, presides over a government that -- according to critics from international human rights groups to Baghdad bus drivers -- is ineffective, increasingly authoritarian and repressive toward its political enemies. Experts and bus drivers - they ought to know! I'd trust the bus drivers, they have their fingers on the pulse of the public...
In dozens of interviews this summer across Iraq, many people said that their lives were safer and more prosperous under Hussein and that the U.S. invasion was not worth the price both countries have paid. Could we see how the questions were phrased, please? How many Kurds were in the poll?
Even those who were grateful that the Americans ousted Hussein were happy the U.S. troops are gone. At least now, they said, Iraqis would rise or fall on their own.
New development is everywhere. An eight-story Baghdad Mall is being built by a Turkish developer, and Maximall, a huge new department store, attracts thousands of shoppers. New car dealerships, shops, houses and offices are rising, along with a luxury spa offering expensive, trendy treatments using tanks of little fish that nibble away damaged skin. How progressive!
Families play in riverfront parks with Ferris wheels, merry-go-rounds and cotton candy. Young men whiz in and out of traffic on in-line skates, grabbing rides on bumpers, dodging cars while chatting on their cellphones. Yeah, but can they text while they skate?
Nearly a decade of American presence here has left a clear impression on Iraqi culture. On the sidewalks, young men are virtually indistinguishable from their American counterparts, wearing jeans and T-shirts and tattoos. Kids sport T-shirts featuring American cultural images, from "The X-Files" to professional wrestler John Cena to folk icon Arlo Guthrie.
At Burger Joint, a brand new restaurant in Mansour, the vibe is as American as the burgers on the grill: The waiters take orders on iPads as Sinatra and Motown classics play in the background. Burger Joint is the first unabashedly American-style eatery in Baghdad -- and it is packed nightly. The menu, in Arabic and English, also offers hot dogs and milkshakes and apple pie.
On the streets, people said they were disgusted that Maliki's government has been incapable of stopping the daily violence, and has actually created more by feeding sectarian tensions. Another American feature -
Corruption is rampant, and people complain that political donations bribery is the only way to get a job, a building permit or a government contract. Transparency International listed Iraq as the 175th worst out of 183 countries in its 2011 annual corruption survey. I wonder where Champ's 'most transparent regime ever' fits in?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/05/2012 10:48 ||
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Former U.S. defense secretary tells Fox News that international sanctions have had no impact on the Iranian regime Given leaks at White House, Rumsfeld says he would not notify U.S. of Iran plans if he were in the Israeli government.
They should let it slip to the Bambi administration (accidently, of couse) that they've decided not to do anything to Iran.
Just before they bomb Iran back to the Stone Age.
Posted by: Barbara ||
08/05/2012 19:58 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Iran has not closed off the Persian Gulf + the Strait of Hormuz, ergo present no threat to World Trade - by most Pert accounts, Iran has no Nukes + there is no evidence that is or will proliferate dangerous Nuke-WMD Techs to Radical Islamist Militant-Terror Groups or aligned.
IN IRAN'S VIEW, THE US-ISRAEL HAVE NO REASON TO ATTACK IT, WHILE THEIR NATION'S RIGHT TO NUKES IS MORALLY + LEGALLY CONSISTENT WID INTERNATIONAL LAW + "GLOBALISM".
That leaves Pakistan vs. Taliban, etal. + 2014; + newly MilPol-aggressive Rising-China-vs-Everybody in the East + South China Seas [First Island Chain]. "POST-US" WORLD #1 WANNABE,
"MANIFEST DESTINY" HAPPY CHINA WANTS OVERSEAS PLA BASES, + ITS NOT TAKING "NO" FOR AN ANSWER.
Unless Iran does something singularly moronic e.g. de facto close off the Gulf + SoH, or get caught tranferring Nuke-WMD Techs to MilTerr Groups, A US-IRAN WAR WILL MOST LIKELY OCCUR AS FOLLOW-ON TO ANOTHER REGIONAL MIL CONFLICT(S) THAT BROKE OUT EARLIER.
Again, while it nuclearizes Iran will desire to stay on the strategic defensive AMAP ALAP. Pesky Persians like to be Pesky but NOT to the point of causing a US-led war + ground invasion.
#5
I don't trust Israel to keep our secrets and I'm sure Israel doesn't trust us to keep theirs.
I agree with Rumsfeld's assessment. I would also expect the US not to tell Israel before it would go in until the operation was underway and then tell them to fire up Iron Dome. Shit may be incoming from Iran.
Israel is getting tough with Arab countries that do not recognize Israel and bars them from crossing Jordan to Ramallah.
The Foreign Minister explained that diplomats from Cuba, Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh are not being allowed to attend a mini-Non-Aligned Movement conference in the Palestinian Authority headquarters because their governments do not have diplomatic ties with Israel.
A delegation from Algeria was to be barred, but the country told its officials to return home before Israel could bar therm.
The conference was to be held to back PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas; renewed attempt to win recognition from the United Nations, this time as an observer state, but the PA said it will cancel the meeting because of Israels action.
Other countries that were to attend include those who have ties with Israel, such as Egypt, Jordan, India, Colombia and South Africa.
#1
Surprised they didn't do that long ago. I understand Israeli hospitals are the place to go if you are a rich Saudi in need of urgent care. Israel helped them out hoping to buy good will but that just doesn't seem to work with neighbors that take all signs of civilization as weakness.
Saudi King Abdullah invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for an extraordinary summit of Muslim leaders to be held this month in the holy city of Mecca, state news agency SPA reported Sunday. The Saudi monarch "sent a written letter to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inviting him to attend the extraordinary Islamic solidarity meeting which will be held in Mecca" in mid-August, SPA reported.
Tensions have been running high between the Sunni-dominated kingdom and Shiite Iran as both regional powers had taken opposite stances on the uprisings in Bahrain and Syria. Hmmm. Wonder if this is another data point indicating our ol' buddy Bandar Bush drew the short straw in the Archduke Franz Ferdinand Memorial Sweepstakes?
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
08/05/2012 19:01 ||
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[Jerusalem Post] Ships with up to 360 marines will arrive in Syrian port by early next week, Russian agencies report.
Israel is closely tracking Russian naval movements in the Mediterranean Sea amid reports that several ships are heading to Syria to secure the Tartus Port and possibly military assets Moscow maintains in the country.
On Friday, Russian news agencies quoted a top military source as saying that Russia was sending three naval vessels and up to 360 marines to Syria. The reports claimed that the vessels, which are already in the Mediterranean, will arrive in Tartus this week or early next week with supplies for Russia's only permanent port outside the former Soviet Union.
'
Russia's Defense Ministry however later issued a statement denying the warships would go to Tartus but left open the possibility they would do so if they remained at sea longer than expected.
For Israel, Moscow is something of a weather vane for gauging what is happening in Syria. A similar situation happened on the eve of the Yom Kippur War in 1973 when Russia pulled its diplomats and military advisers out of Egypt shortly before the war.
"Russia has a better feel for what is happening in Syria, and by following what it does it is possible to better gauge when Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... might fall," a defense official explained.
According to a report published last week by the Washington- based Institute for the Study of War, the Tartus Port is being used as a "as a political lever, both to affect the outcome of the Syrian civil war and to maintain legitimate access to a strategically located facility nested in the Arab world."
The report also suggested that if Assad decided to withdraw from Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... and fall back to a more defensible position in the Alawite coastal basin including Latakia and Tartus, Russia would be able to maintain its naval presence there. If, however, Assad's regime completely collapses, it is unlikely that a new Sunni regime would allow Russia to continue docking in Tartus.
Russia's Interfax news agency said on Friday that the loss of Tartus would be a strategic blow to Russia.
"Tartus is of extreme military- strategic importance for the Russian Navy, as the backup for the task forces in the Mediterranean. Therefore, its loss would entail deep negative consequences and the actual loss of influence in this key region," Interfax quoted a militarydiplomatic source as saying.
[BBC] Just a few months ago, Thwaiba Kanafani was leading a normal life with her husband, six-year-old son and three-year-old daughter in Canada.
An engineer by training, she had been working in the oil industry.
But now she has left all that behind.
When we met up in the city of Adana in southern Turkey, she had just fled across the border from the Syrian city of Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... after a mission with rebel forces that went wrong.
Two male colleagues who were acting as her minders, were killed.
At the end of June she joined the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and was given a particularly dangerous role to fulfil.
As a woman she has able to move more easily around the streets of Aleppo than the men.
"Lots of women are working with me and we do a lot of spying work," she says.
"We usually check the locations of regime people [military forces] and check where would be the best points to locate the Free Syrian Army.
"We also spy on high-ranking people in the government so we can help the FSA arrest and capture them."
In the midst of all this, she speaks on the phone with her family every day to reassure them she is fine.
"I wonder why I am not afraid of being shot through the head," she says pointing to her forehead.
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DUBAI -- Iran has successfully test-fired a new short-range missile equipped with a guidance system that it plans to install on all future missiles it builds, Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said Saturday.
"With the fourth-generation of the Fateh 110, the armed forces of our country are able to target and destroy land and sea targets, enemy headquarters ... missile seats, ammunition sites, radars and other points," Vahidi said in quotes carried by Islamic Republic News Agency.
The Fateh 110 has a range of around 180 miles, IRNA reported, meaning it would only be able to strike Iran's immediate neighbors.
"Using new guidance methods, target-striking systems were installed on the missiles and during the flight test... its ability to hit the target without deviation was proven," Vahidi said according to IRNA. "In future programs all future missiles built by the Defense Ministry will be equipped with this capability."
Vahidi also said the missile was intended as a defensive weapon. "These capabilities are defensive and would only be used against aggressors and those who threaten the country's interests and territorial integrity," he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/05/2012 00:00 ||
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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.
Sudan and South Sudan have hammered out a deal on how to share their oil wealth, one of a series of disputes that brought the rivals to the brink of all-out war earlier this year.
Yemen suffers from complicated administrative and educational problems that have resulted in the lack of employability skills to meet the labour market needs and contribute to the economic development process. 
Saudi King Abdullah invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for an extraordinary summit of Muslim leaders to be held this month in the holy city of Mecca, state news agency SPA reported Sunday. The Saudi monarch "sent a written letter to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inviting him to attend the extraordinary Islamic solidarity meeting which will be held in Mecca" in mid-August, SPA reported. 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
DUBAI -- Iran has successfully test-fired a new short-range missile equipped with a guidance system that it plans to install on all future missiles it builds, Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said Saturday. 
