[Tolo News] Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... and Pak Prime Minister Yosuf Raza Gilani agreed on formation of a joint military commission to discuss missile attacks in border regions of Afghanistan.
A senior military official in defence ministry said under the order of President Karzai a delegation formed comprised of officials from defence institutions and Isaf and left Kabul for Islamabad.
Yesterday evening Pakistain's premier discussed the recent border shelling into Afghanistan by telephone and emphasised that such sort of attacks would be prevented in the future, a statement by Karzai's Office said.
The statement said Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak is a also included in the commission to discuss an immediate end to Pak missile attacks into Afghanistan.
Missile attacks that have continued for over a month have killed more than dozens and many others have been left homeless.
Afghans infuriated by the attacks yesterday held rallies in Kunar province ... which is right down the road from Chitral... and urged the government to bring an immediate end to the attacks.
Defence Ministry Spokesman General Zaher Azimi said: "Based on previous agreements between Islamic Theocratic Republic of Afghanistan and Pakistain and on the order of Mr President a delegation consisted of representatives from security organizations and an Isaf envoy today left for Pakistain to discuss issues regarding incidents in eastern regions of the country."
Pakistain has fired 760 missiles into Afghanistan targeting residential areas in eastern border regions and more than 40 people have been killed and 50 others have been maimed, based on statistics provided by security institutions.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2011 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] The southern branch of Sudan's ruling National Congress Party (NCP) has said it will split with the northern party and join the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), the ruling party in the south.
Riak Gai, the head of the NCP in Southern Sudan, said on Thursday that the split would take effect immediately.
The decision, coming just two days before South Sudan becomes an independent nation after January's referendum, will affect not just the southern parliament, but state governments as well, Gai said.
"Because my people have chosen independence from the north, we have also decided to delink from the NCP," he said at a presser in Juba, the soon-to-be southern republic's capital. "This is not an individual decision... but a decision taken by the NCP at all different levels."
Barnaba Marial Benjamin, the south's minister of information, said the announcement showed a commitment to open democracy. "The SPLM and the NCP can move past their differences," he said.
Gai also said that South Sudan would benefit from political competition, but stressed the importance of "unity" heading into Saturday's secession from the north.
"We in South Sudan, we need unity," he said. "Although we need pluralism too, but I think the right course of action for us is to join hands with our brothers and sisters in the SPLM."
A one-party state?
Despite Gai's ode to pluralism, the decision to join the SPLM further cements the party's control over southern politics.
The Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the 2005 deal that ended Sudan's decades-long civil war, gave the SPLM 70 per cent of the seats in South Sudan's parliament and its state governments. The SPLM further consolidated its grip on power during last year's election, when it won nearly 90 per cent of the seats in the southern parliament.
"Given its beginnings as a rebel movement during the south's long struggle, it is also the most broadly recognised and supported political entity," the International Crisis Group wrote in a report earlier this year. "It so dominates institutions of government that separating the SPLM from the [government of Southern Sudan] is no easy task."
Thursday's announcement means little in South Sudan's legislature, because the NCP only holds one seat.
It is more significant at a state level, party officials say, because it gives the SPLM further control over bureaucracies. The SPLM already holds nine of the 10 state governorships in Southern Sudan.
Southern Sudan will become an independent nation on Saturday, after which hundreds of southern officials serving in the northern government are expected to return home.
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07/08/2011 00:00 ||
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Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Thursday he was against NATO intervention in Libya but had to go along with it, an admission that exposed the fragility of the alliance trying to unseat Muammar Gaddafi.
NATO warplanes have been bombing Libya under a U.N. mandate, but the alliance is under mounting strain because of the cost of the operation and the failure, after more than three months, to produce a decisive outcome.
"I was against this measure," Berlusconi said. "I had my hands tied by the vote of the parliament of my country. But I was against and I am against this intervention which will end in a way that no-one knows."
Some of the alliance bombing missions over Libya take off from military airbases in Italy.
There was no suggestion following Berlusconi's comments that Rome would withdraw the use of the bases. But Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa said that the cost to Italy of the Libya operation would fall from 142 million euros in the first half of the year to less than 60 million euros in the second half as part of general defense spending cuts.
He said after a cabinet meeting on Thursday the aircraft carrier Garibaldi with three aircraft on board had been withdrawn, and their tasks would be taken on by land-based aircraft.
The comments from Rome came just a day after Libyan rebels made a big push toward Tripoli on two fronts.
Speaking at a book presentation in Rome, Berlusconi said: "I went to Paris and I said -- I can repeat this -- I would have stood with Mrs Merkel as far as this decision to intervene in the no fly zone is concerned."
He appeared to be referring to a March 19 meeting at which several Western powers decided to launch the military intervention. German Chancellor Angela Merkel chose not to involve her country in the operation.
"We posed very precise questions to the protagonists of this initiative -- that's to say President Sarkozy and Prime Minister David Cameron -- in the most recent meeting of the heads of government in Brussels," he said.
"The answer was that the war will end when there is, as we expect, a revolt by the population of Tripoli against the current regime."
[An Nahar] Bahrain's main Shiite opposition formation will shun parts of the national dialogue which the authorities say aims to bring forward reforms in the restive kingdom, a member said on Thursday.
"We will boycott the meetings of the economic and social committees but will continue to attend the meetings of the political and rights committees," Khalil al-Marzooq a leading member of the Islamic National Accord Association (al-Wefaq), told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"We believe the dialogue should discuss major political and security issues," Marzooq said.
"This dialogue will not lead to a solution ... and it does not fulfill the needs to pull Bahrain out of its political crisis," Marzooq said.
Al-Wefaq's former MP said that the dialogue participants do not fairly represent society and that those participating are not being given chance to speak during the sessions.
Bahrain on Tuesday held the first session of its national dialogue, which is attended by about 60 participants each in simultaneous sessions on politics, the economy, human rights ...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... and social issues -- the four axes on which the dialogue is to focus.
The sessions are scheduled for three times a week -- on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
The dialogue comes after Bahraini security forces carried out a mid-March crackdown on Shiite-led protesters who had been demonstrating for reforms in the Sunni-ruled, Shiite-majority kingdom since February 14.
Authorities said 24 people, most of them demonstrators, were killed in the unrest.
The national dialogue was officially launched on Saturday, with over 300 people invited to attend, including representatives of al-Wefaq.
Al-Wefaq, which made an 11th-hour decision to participate, only has five representatives at the dialogue, despite winning 18 out of 40 seats in the lower house of parliament in the last elections.
Marzooq told AFP on Tuesday that all options were open, including pulling out of the dialogue if it fails to address "the will of the people."
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07/08/2011 00:00 ||
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(KUNA) -- Turkmenistan has rejected Israel's designated ambassador for the second time, claiming that the proposed envoy is a Mossad operative, Haartz daily reported on Thursday.
The daily added, Turkmen Foreign Ministry says Israel's designated ambassador Haim Koren's past employment as instructor at the National Security College is proof of his involvement in espionage.
The Turkmen Foreign Ministry recently informed Israel that it will not accept the credentials of Haim Koren, who was appointed in August 2010, because his resume indicates that he spent three years as an instructor at the National Security College in Glilot.
A Foreign Ministry source in Jerusalem said the Turkmen government saw that as proof that he was a Mossad spy, rather than a diplomat, Haaretz said.
The Foreign Ministry tried repeatedly to explain that the college was an educational institution and not an intelligence body, but could not convince the Turkmen officials.
Turkmenistan had refused in late 2009 to accept Israel's first candidate, Reuven Daniel, who had served in the Mossad in the past. After Turkmenistan refused to accept him, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman made Daniel ambassador to Ukraine as a consolation prize.
The Foreign Ministry's assessment at the time was that Turkmenistan refused Daniel because in 1996, when he headed the first Mossad office in Moscow, he was expelled from Russia after he was caught accepting classified satellite photos from Russian officers.
Koren's rejection deeply embarrassed Foreign Ministry officials, since this is the first time a foreign country has ever rejected Israel's proposed ambassador twice. They also regarded it as strange, since Koren was a professional appointment, not a political one.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2011 00:00 ||
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#3
All ambassadors are spies. They develop contacts, gather information, and send reports home, usually privy to the Foreign Affairs Ministry or State Department [and apparently Wikileaks]. Next statement of the obvious.
The European Union will send 50 Korean-speaking officials to North Korea to monitor food aid distribution in the Stalinist country. Radio Free Asia cited the European Commission as saying the agents will make sure recently pledged foodstuffs worth US$14.5 million are not diverted for other purposes but delivered to women, children and the elderly in the North's Hamgyong and Ryanggang provinces.
The EU says it plans to conduct 400 random checks at various locations where the aid packages will be sent.
How random will they be in a country where the secret police and the army control everything?
Meanwhile, Voice of America reports that the World Food Programme and Save the Children will transport 20,000 tons of rice, corn, beans and other food products to North Korea starting later this month.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/08/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
"EU Officials to Get Their Cut of Food Distribution in N. Korea"
Fixed.
Posted by: Barbara ||
07/08/2011 18:15 Comments ||
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(KUNA) - The European Parliament (EP) Thursday adopted a resolution strongly opposing the reintroduction of border controls within the Schengen area. The influx of migrants and asylum seekers cannot justify them, said the resolution.
An EP statement noted that the Schengen system has recently come under pressure, with some EU countries considering the reintroduction of national border controls in the face of the sudden influx of migrants from North Africa. The current Schengen Borders Code provides for the possibility of reintroducing internal border controls "only where there is a serious threat to public policy or internal security," points out the resolution.
Under the current system, any decision to reintroduce border controls is taken unilaterally by EU Member States.
The EU Parliament, however, wants the new Schengen evaluation mechanism to be made into an EU system.
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07/08/2011 00:00 ||
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The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) have decided to bury the hatchet and past acrimony in order to work jointly as an effective opposition in the elected institutions of the country.
In a meeting in Islamabad on Wednesday their senior leaders committed themselves to jointly struggle within the constitutional ambit and rule of law for resolution of peoples problems and for confronting the daunting challenges faced by the country at a critical juncture of its history. By avoiding the expression of grand alliance the two sides have exhibited realism because of serious difficulties to achieve that in the immediate future. But realignment of these two parties has ended Nawaz Sharifs isolation skillfully crafted by President Asif Ali Zardari by luring most political parties in the government. The MQM will benefit in diluting PML-Ns resistance in Punjab to its efforts to expand outside urban Sindh. In fact its grouse against the PPP stemmed from the belief that it is being confined to its Urdu-speaking base.
Beyond that a concerted campaign by combined opposition seems a distant prospect at the moment in the absence of a clear goal and minimum agreed programme. Sharifs eagerness to oust the government and force an early election would require a huge effort. The MQM, despite its rhetoric, has yet to adopt this extreme posture.
The regrouping of the opposition is a healthy development good for consolidation of the existing fragile democratic dispensation. Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan has welcomed it and the prime minister says it poses no challenge to his government which is strong enough to withstand any opposition pressure. This confidence stems from its alliance with the PML-Q which has provided enough votes to sustain government majority in parliament. In his usual optimistic mode he has also alluded to possible rapprochement with MQM. Yet it appears to be an understatement keeping in view Altaf Hussains current mood. Besides if other opposition parties and groups also gel into a united front, the government will face formidable challenges. There are some preliminary signs of such a development.
The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has backtracked from previous position that Sharif is biggest hurdle in the opposition alliance and has shown willingness to accept him as leader of the alliance. The Pakistan Tehrik-e-Pakistan of Imran Khan and the Jamaat-e-Islami have voiced reservations. Imran feels it difficult to coalesce with Sharif whom he is posing a significant challenge in Punjab while painting him as a leader committed to preserving present corrupt system. The JI has traditional ideological and territorial feuds with the MQM. In the end, however, all these parties may forget mutual differences and adopt a common plan to get elections sometime this year before the PPP secure absolute dominance of the Senate in polls in March.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/08/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] A Pak general strongly denied No, no! Certainly not! on Thursday a report that he took $3 million in cash in exchange for helping smuggle nuclear technology to North Korea in the late 1990s, while the nation's foreign office called the story "preposterous." Mahmoud! Bring my limo around! NOW!
The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistain's nuclear bomb, had released a copy of a letter from a North Korean official dated 1998 detailing a $3 million payment to Pakistain's then-chief of army staff, General Jehangir Karamat.
"I was not in the loop for any kind of influence and I would have to be mad to sanction transfer of technology and for Dr Khan to listen to me," Karamat told Rooters in an email. The story, he said, is "totally false."
In addition to the payment to Karamat, the letter says former lieutenant general, Zulfiqar Khan, was given a half-million dollars and some jewellery. He also denied the accusation.
"I have not read the story," Khan told Rooters, "but of course it is wrong."
The Pakistain Army declined to comment. But Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tehmina Janjua told news hounds at a weekly press briefing that "such stories have a habit of recurring and my only comment is that this is totally baseless and preposterous." Still, kinda funny such stories have a habit of recurring, ain't it, Tehmina? Why do you think that is?
Despite Pak protests, Western intelligence officials said they believed the letter was authentic, the Post reported.
It appears to be signed by North Korean Workers Party Secretary Jon Byong, the newspaper said, and other details match classified information previously unrevealed to the public.
In exchange for the money, generals Karamat and Khan were to help Khan give documents on a nuclear program to North Korea, the Post said.
The newspaper said it was unable to independently verify the account.
Khan has admitted giving centrifuges and drawings that helped North Korea begin making a uranium-based bomb. It already has nuclear weapons made with plutonium.
Former military leader General Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... wrote in his memoir that Pakistain and North Korea were involved in government-to-government cash transfers for North Korean ballistic missile technology in the late 1990s, but he insisted there was no official policy of reverse transfer of nuclear technology to Pyongyang.
"I assured the world that the proliferation was a one-man act and that neither the government of Pakistain nor the army was involved," Musharraf wrote. "This was the truth, and I could speak forcefully."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Just pause for a moment and quietly ask yourself, "Do I really believe that?"
Did a Pak really turn down a 3 million dollar bribe? Are the North Koreans the sort of people who offer other people bribes?
Only Kimmie's hairdresser really knows. Right?
Like the man sez, "Mahmoud! Bring my limo around! NOW!"
Posted by: de Medici ||
07/08/2011 8:34 Comments ||
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#2
If the Pakistanis truthful, Khan would be hanged for treason, yet he's a superstar on "house arrest". Someone got paid and he's protected.
BAGHDAD - Secession by any group in Iraq will lead to bloodshed, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Thursday. Maliki did not refer directly to speaker of parliament Osama al-Nujaifi but appeared to be responding to comments by the senior Sunni politician, who recently said minority Sunnis could consider seceding if the central government did not treat them more fairly.
Maliki said the Iraqi constitution, written following the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein, allowed provinces a certain amount of autonomy but did not permit secession.
Whether you want to form an (autonomous region) or to separate, I say show mercy to the Iraqi people and the unity of Iraq, Maliki said in a speech to tribal leaders. Because if it (secession) happens, people will fight each other and blood will reach to the knee.
Increasing political tensions could hamper Iraqs fractious governing coalition as it tries to stabilise the country after years of war and decide whether to ask U.S. troops to stay beyond an end-year deadline for their withdrawal.
Nujaifi said in an interview with al-Hurra television last month that Sunnis were frustrated and felt like second-class citizens instead of real partners in power.
He said the issue should be treated wisely and quickly before things develop to reach the (point where Sunnis are) thinking of a kind of separation to guarantee rights.
Nujaifi later said he was only trying to describe a situation rather than calling for secession. But his comments were widely criticised, particularly by members of his own political bloc.
Nujaifi is a senior leader of the Iraqiya bloc headed by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. Iraqiya won the greatest number of seats in parliament in a March 2010 election but failed to forge a governing majority.
Maliki formed a Shiite-led government last December that includes Sunni-backed Iraqiya. Allawi has accused Maliki of reneging on the power-sharing agreement.
Many Sunnis, who dominated Iraq during Saddams 24-year rule, felt politically marginalised as majority Shiites rose to power after the invasion.
No one is marginalised in Iraq at the current time. There is no marginalisation at all in Iraq, Maliki said.
Our problem in this country is that we do not consider each other as partners. Lets do that, and the problem will be ended. Not accepting others as partners intensifies the situation and threatens the unity of Iraq, he said.
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07/08/2011 00:00 ||
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WASHINGTONThe top U.S. military officer accused Iran on Thursday of shipping new supplies of deadly weapons to its militia allies in Iraq, in what he described as Tehran's bid to take credit for forcing American troops to go home.
Adm. Michael Mullen, speaking to the Pentagon Press Association, said Iran had curtailed weapons shipments, including powerful rockets and roadside bombs, in 2008 but resumed them recently. Top-level officials in Tehran know about the weapons shipments, he said.
"Iran is very directly supporting extremist Shiite groups which are killing our troops," said Adm. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "There is no question they are shipping high-tech weapons in there that are killing our people. And the forensics prove that."
That won't stop Bambi, Biden and the rest of the Dhimmicrats from wanting a bug-out from Iraq.
On Thursday, two more U.S. troops were killed by a roadside bomb outside a Baghdad military base. Officials believe an explosively formed projectile, many of which are manufactured in Iran, was responsible. The weapons are designed to penetrate layers of armor.
In another day and time that would have been an act of war...
The alleged arms transfers come at a time when the U.S. and Iraq are flirting with the idea of keeping as many as 10,000 American troops in Iraq after the Dec. 31 withdrawal deadline. U.S. officials favor a continued presence, but promise they will withdraw fully unless invited to stay by Baghdad.
Discussions over a longer-term U.S. presence have focused on the numbers of troops that could remain and the military capabilities the Americans could help the Iraqis develop if they did so, Adm. Mullen said.
"There are clear capability gaps the Iraqis security forces are going to face," he said. Iraqis need help with their air force, air defenses and integrating and using intelligence, Adm. Mullen said.
Adm. Mullen said a decision on whether the U.S. stays in Iraq is up to Baghdad's government and President Barack Obama, but he said the U.S. presence in Arab countries has been a "stabilizing" force in an important, volatile region.
Hint hint, Bambi...
Adm. Mullen said he believed Tehran was trying to play an outsized role in Iraqi politics. "There is no question they want influence, particularly in the south," a Shiite-dominated area, he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/08/2011 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.
North Korea
Pervez 
