[An Nahar] Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it. has accepted an invitation to visit South Sudan, his press secretary said on Tuesday, in the latest sign of easing tensions after border festivities.
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir telephoned Bashir with the invitation but no date for a summit has been set, said the presidential press secretary, Emad Sayed Ahmed.
"Yes, Salva Kiir asked President Bashir to visit Juba and he accepted the request," Ahmed told Agence La Belle France Presse.
The meeting would be Bashir's first trip to Juba since he attended South Sudan's declaration of independence on July 9, 2011, following a near-unanimous referendum vote for separation after a 22-year civil war.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/13/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Let's just hope some irate local whacks this psychopath.
I still can't believe we haven't airdropped half of Interpol on his house and drug his genocidal barbaric ass off in chains.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
03/13/2013 9:34 Comments ||
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[An Nahar] The United Nations ...an international organization whose stated aim of facilitating interational security involves making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country... has moved hundreds of peacekeepers to a troubled state in South Sudan ahead of an expected government offensive against a rebel group, a U.N. envoy said.
The deployment comes as U.N. leader the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... about extrajudicial killings by the South Sudan army and its "reprehensible" downing of a U.N. helicopter in December, in a report to be discussed by the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday.
The U.N. Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has moved the peacekeepers into Jonglei state, the scene of large-scale massacres ahead of a government operation against fighters loyal to rebel leader David Yau Yau.
"We are expecting a military operation against David Yau Yau to happen quite soon," UNMISS chief Hilde Johnson said.
The former Norwegian government minister raised fears that civilians could be caught up in the offensive.
"If the military operations start, as we think they might quite soon, we will have to be present on the ground to protect civilians to the maximum extent possible," she said at the International Peace Institute on Monday.
UNMISS has a mandate to protect civilians in South Sudan but does not carry out operations with government forces against rebel forces. "If the perpetrator also is the government's own army we have a challenge on our hands," she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/13/2013 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Egypt's general prosecution has ordering the detention, pending investigations, of eight Egyptians for attempting to break into the Moslem Brüderbund headquarters in the Cairo district of Muqattam.
Moslem Brüderbund members had formed 'popular committees' to protect their headquarters in the absence of sufficient police protection, with Egypt currently experiencing ongoing security challenges and a number of police strikes.
The Brotherhood office at Muqattam has a minimal security presence after police withdrew from its vicinity earlier this week.
The prosecution charged the accused with the possession of Molotov cocktails, illegal assembly and attempted vandalism. The accused denied all charges saying that they were wrongly incarcerated Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! by popular committees in the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/13/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Sounds suspiciously like fair play to me, after all they destroy any other religion's shrines daily.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/13/2013 13:57 Comments ||
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[An Nahar] Fifty-five Egyptian Christians nabbed Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! last month in Libya for allegedly seeking to convert Mohammedans have been freed, while four others are still behind bars, the Egyptian foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
"Our embassy has been assured of the release of 55 people and is actively working to seek the release of four others who are still in detention," deputy front man Nazih al-Naggary told Agence La Belle France Presse.
His comments come a day after a human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. lawyer said that one of those locked away Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! had been tortured to death in jug, prompting demonstrators to attack the Libyan embassy in Cairo.
Ezzat Hakim Attallah "died after being tortured with other detainees" in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, said Naguib Guebrayel, a Coptic Christian lawyer who heads the Egyptian Union for Human Rights watchdog.
On March 1, a Libyan security official said some 50 Egyptian Copts were arrested on illegal immigration charges, although they were suspected of proselytizing in Libya's second city, Benghazi.
He said they were found in possession of a quantity of Bibles, texts encouraging conversion to Christianity and images of Christ and the late Pope Shenuda of Egypt's Coptic Christians, none of which were for "personal use."
But the main charge was illegal entry into Libya, he said.
Four foreigners -- an Egyptian, a South African, a South Korean and a Swede with a U.S. passport -- were also arrested in Benghazi in mid-February on suspicion of trying to convert Mohammedans to Christianity, something Islam strictly prohibits.
The reported death of Attallah sparked angry protest Monday outside the Libyan embassy in Cairo, as dozens of demonstrators threw stones at the building, tore down Libyan flags and broke the name-plaque of the mission.
And they rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud hostile to the Egyptian government, accusing authorities of having done nothing to assist the Copts locked away Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! in Libya.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/13/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Mali's interim president defended the country's rights record Tuesday against accusations by the United Nations that the military was guilty of atrocities against ethnic groups in the war-torn north.
Dioncounda Traore, on a visit to the neighboring west African state of Senegal, said reprisals highlighted by a U.N. mission to Mali were rare but vowed that those found guilty of abuses would be hunted down and prosecuted.
"I am not aware of so many abuses," Traore told a media conference in the Senegalese capital Dakar, questioned about allegations against the Malian army.
"The media should not be echoing statements that do not correspond to reality" and reminiscent of "imaginary abuses", he said after meeting Senegalese leader Macky Sall at the end of a two-day visit.
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03/13/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The United Nations ...an international organization whose stated aim of facilitating interational security involves making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country... is likely to vote next month on a peacekeeping force for Mali, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Tuesday.
"We will move from the current framework... to a new diplomatic set-up, a peacekeeping operation which would probably be voted in April and implemented two months later," he told the National Assembly's foreign affairs committee.
He said the U.N. force could comprise up to 10,000 troops. The current African force AFISMA is composed of about 6,300 soldiers and is supposed to be taking over from French soldiers. Gay Paree is due to scale back operations in Mali next month.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/13/2013 00:00 ||
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[AFP] PARIS (AFP) -- La Belle France's surprise intervention in northern Mali against Islamist fighters involved in lucrative drug-running has disrupted cocaine supply to Europe but smugglers are already finding new routes, analysts said.
The former colonial power sent its jets and troops exactly two months ago to eliminate Al-Qaeda-linked groups that had been controlling northern Mali for nine months and were threatening to move south towards the capital.
The jihadist network in Mali's north has funded itself by taking foreign hostages but also by levying a tax on smugglers running drugs from Latin America to feed Europe's ever-growing market.
Poverty and the lack of government presence in the vast desert expanse has provided an ideal ground for smugglers.
Typically, the drugs are shipped to the Gulf of Guinea or flown in directly from Venezuela, for example, into Mauritania or Mali, where they are stored and eventually taken overland to the Mediterranean's southern shores.
The route is known as "Highway 10″, in reference to the 10th parallel, a line of latitude which cuts through Colombia and Venezuela at one end, Guinea and Nigeria at the other and just misses Mali.
[Bangla Daily Star] The BNP has finally decided to counter the Gonojagoron Mancha movement by extending support to Islamist groups' agitations against the Mancha in different parts of the country.
The main opposition party has taken the decision as it considers the Gonojagoron Mancha "a major challenge" to the BNP-led 18-party alliance's one-point movement to topple the government, sources in the BNP said.
Under the banner of 18-party alliance, the BNP also wants to "expose" the Mancha as a platform sponsored by the ruling Awami League and the government, the sources added.
The BNP was in a quandary since the beginning of the Shahbagh movement spearheaded by the Gonojagoron Mancha on February 5 following a war crimes tribunal verdict on Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Mollah. Its leaders made confusing statements about the protests. But finally the party has taken up a strategy to use Islamic sentiments to counter the movement.
In line with its strategy, the opposition alliance at a rally in Chittagong city on Monday extended its support to radical Islamists who threatened to foil today's Gonojagoron Mancha rally there.
Hefazate Islam Bangladesh, a qaumi madrasa-based Islamist organization, has threatened to foil the rally in the port city, protesting the "anti-Islam activities of the Shahbagh atheist bloggers."
The 18-party alliance's big shot in Chittagong Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, also chief of port city unit of the BNP, announced at Monday's rally the alliance's support to the Islamists' agitations against the Mancha.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/13/2013 00:00 ||
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The bloody uprising against Bashar al-Assad is creating a new wave of jihadists in Britain, with Syria now the main destination for militant Muslims wishing to fight abroad, The Independent has learnt.
Syria has replaced Pakistan and Somalia as the preferred front line where Islamist volunteers can experience immediate combat with relatively little official scrutiny, security agencies said.
The worrying development has been taking place as extremist groups, some with links to al-Qaida, have become the dominant force in the uprising against the Damascus regime.
More than 100 British Muslims are believed to have gone to fight in Syria with the numbers continuing to rise. The situation presents a unique problem for Western security and intelligence services. In Syria, unlike Pakistan and Somalia, they have to keep track of jihadists who are being backed by Britain and its allies. chickens...home...roost
The Syrian rebels are drawing recruits from a variety of national backgrounds in the UK. Only a handful of those who have returned from the fighting there have been arrested and all for a specific offence: their alleged role in the kidnapping of a British freelance photographer, John Cantlie, in Idlib province last summer. Others who have been taking part in the armed struggle against the Assad regime are not deemed to be doing anything illegal. Thats why the British Government willingly pays them jizya(welfare) while they are fighting overseas.
SEOUL, March 12 -- South Korea's foreign ministry said Tuesday that an Armistice Agreement that ended the 1950-53 Korean War remains valid, despite the North's threats to scrap the cease-fire deal.
"The terms of the Armistice Agreement cannot be unilaterally invalid or terminated," foreign ministry spokesman Cho Tai-young said, demanding North Korea withdraw the threats.
North Korea said early this week that the armistice was "completely invalid," in response to tougher U.N. sanctions against the North's third nuclear test and ongoing joint military drills between Seoul and Washington.
Cho said South Korea will "strengthen coordination and cooperation with the U.S. and China, and sternly deal with any attempt from North Korea to scrap the Armistice Agreement."
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/13/2013 00:00 ||
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You really have to hand it to jihadists. They have all the fun and the stupid kuffars pick up the bill. They go from Dar al-Dawa where they and their brood can milk the welfare system. While they are overseas they still receive their welfare payments. If they are injured or suffer trauma they go back to kuffarland where they will receive the best of medical treatment. No need for the jihadists to waste money on rehabilitation for their troops.
The Netherlands has raised its terror threat level, citing concerns that Dutch citizens who have fought in Syria are returning more radicalised.
The authorities have put the level up from "limited" to "substantial" - the second highest category.
The government says there are also signs of growing radicalisation among young Dutch at home.
Security is expected to be a priority in two months when Crown Prince Willem-Alexander officially becomes king.
Hundreds of thousands of people are thought likely to arrive in Amsterdam for ceremonies marking his investiture and the abdication of Queen Beatrix.
'Significant threat'
"The chance of an attack in the Netherlands or against Dutch interests abroad has risen," said National Co-ordinator for Security and Counter-terrorism Dick Shoof in a statement.
"These jihadist travellers can return to the Netherlands highly radicalised, traumatised and with a strong desire to commit violence, thus posing a significant threat to this country."
Mr Schoof said nearly 100 people had travelled from the Netherlands to Africa and the Middle East to fight in conflicts - many more from Europe as a whole. He said those who had returned to the Netherlands were being monitored.
It is the first time since 2009 that the terror threat in the Netherlands has been raised to "substantial".
#1
Everybody worried that trained radicals would come back to wreak havoc after adventuring in Afghanistan, than after adventuring in Iraq, in Somalia, in Pakistan, in Yemen... Does anyone have a feel for how many jihadis actually make their way home, itching to bring the battle to their neighbors?
After the accidental burning last year of Qurans by U.S. troops in Afghanistan sparked deadly rioting, an Air National Guard chaplain from Springfield stepped in and potentially saved countless American lives.
For his effort, Lt. Col. Jon Trainer received the prestigious Bronze Star a medal given for heroic or meritorious achievement in connection with operations against an armed enemy. And he did it with a PowerPoint presentation.
Trainer, whos now in the running to be named Chaplain of the Year for the entire Air Guard, was in the third month of his voluntary deployment to Afghanistan last February when U.S. troops at Bagram Airfield mistakenly burned copies of the Muslim holy book.
The ensuing outrage claimed more than 30 lives, including two U.S. troops and two U.S. military advisers. Within 48 hours, Trainer developed a PowerPoint presentation on the proper handling and disposal of Islamic religious material that was seen by every American military and civilian alike in Afghanistan. The presentation then was distributed to the U.S. for use in all pre-deployment training.
This entire mission, Trainer said from his office at the Springfield Air National Guard Base, could be undermined by an action like that.
All that good work. You realize how quickly that work can be undermined.
#1
You must also wash your filthy infidel lips before they come into contact with arab ass.
Why don't they just tell them to bend over?
The list of demands to avoid offending those people is growing faster than the national debt.
#2
An interesting uptick in blouse ribbons and pieces of tin lately. A sure sign the battle was lost when generals are relieved and Victoria Crosses are dispensed.
#6
For his effort, Lt. Col. Jon Trainer received the prestigious Bronze Star -- a medal given for heroic or meritorious achievement in connection with operations against an armed enemy.
So what they are basically claiming is that Muslims are an armed enemy.
#7
War on Climate Change would likely be over by the Navy Cross :(
Too bad he didn't get that ol' powerpoint deployed before the incident. Of course if any of them would have taken the time to read The Great Game, they'd know that any reason to riot will do, or they'd just make one up.
HATE cleric Abu Hamza is set to be fitted with a SPOON to replace his famous hook, it was revealed last night.
Hamza may be given a spork a cross between a spoon and fork, normally favoured by campers.
The radical preacher, 54, is facing 11 terror charges in the US after finally being extradited from the UK last year.
Hamza, who lost his hand and an eye in an explosion in Afghanistan, has been fuming since he was stripped of his metal hook by US jail staff because it was a security risk.
His lawyers say he is unable to use toilets properly and cant turn taps on or off.
Now they want him to have a new prosthetic hand with a spork. Lawyer Lindsay Lewis said: Weve been trying for five months now to get our client a better prosthetic limb but they keep changing the time lines. Its very frustrating for him. He finds it hard to eat, use the bathroom and even turn on the hot and cold taps.
His legal team are also demanding a LAPTOP so he can work on his defence from jail.
Meanwhile, prosecutors say they are only half-way through probing evidence against him.
They say they have to plough through 3,240 audio cassettes, 670 videos, 619 computer discs and 340 DVDs.
Egypt-born Hamza is facing a string of charges including kidnapping in Yemen and trying to set up a terror camp in the US.
He will go on trial in New York next year and faces life in jail if convicted.
- TALIBAN chiefs are holding daily peace talks with US officials in Qatar, Afghan President Hamid Karzai claimed yesterday.
A U.S. soldier accused of killing five fellow servicemen at a military combat stress center in Baghdad is set to appear at a pre-trial hearing on Tuesday as Army prosecutors and defense attorneys present motions concerning his mental health, Reuters reported.
Sergeant John Russell, who could face the death penalty if convicted, is accused of going on a shooting spree at Camp Liberty, near the Baghdad airport, in a 2009 assault the military said at the time could have been triggered by combat stress.
The state of Russell's mind has been the focus of legal proceedings over the past year in Washington state, after the soldier's attorney wrote in a memo that his client was "facing death because the Army's mental health system failed him."
Last May, Russell was ordered to stand trial in a military court, and the court martial is set to begin next month. Russell was ordered in December to undergo forensic hypnosis in a bid to unlock buried memories of the shooting. He has also been ordered to undergo a sophisticated brain scan and a battery of psychological tests.
During proceedings in November, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Robert Sadoff said he concluded Russell was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and psychosis at the time of the shooting spree. He also said Russell suffered from "dissociative disorder," or a lack of memory about the shootings.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/13/2013 00:00 ||
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US spy chief James Clapper on Tuesday warned that America faced a growing threat of a crippling cyber attack and voiced alarm over North Koreas recent belligerent rhetoric. In an annual assessment of global threats, the national intelligence director warned of an array of dangers around the world, from Pyongyangs bellicose stance to food shortages driven by extreme weather, but placed a particular emphasis on the threat posed by potential cyber attacks.
The United States faces a mounting danger from digital assaults on power grids and other infrastructure while cyber espionage threatens to undercut the American militarys technological edge, Clapper said in his report to Congress.
Citing increasing risk to US critical infrastructure, Clapper told the Senate Intelligence Committee that unsophisticated attacks could penetrate poorly protected computer networks for power grids or similar systems.
If we were actually serious about 'homeland security' we'd fire all the TSA guys and work on ensuring that our power grid and internet could survive a concerted attack.
The threat of a large-scale digital assault that could cripple a regional power network was genuine but remained a remote possibility, his report said.
We judge that there is a remote chance of a major cyber attack against US critical infrastructure systems during the next two years that would result in long-term, wide-scale disruption of services, such as a regional power outage, it said.
The report placed more importance on cyber threats than previous years and devoted more words to the problem than to Islamist militants in Afghanistan.
With tensions spiking on the Korean peninsula, Clapper also told senators he was dismayed by very belligerent rhetoric coming from the Norths young leader Suet Face Kim Jong-Un. Asked for his view of Pyongyangs latest threats at the hearing, Clapper said he was very concerned about what they might do.
Clappers report said North Korea would likely only use nuclear weapons if it perceived a threat to its survival, but the United States remains uncertain how Pyongyang would define such a threat.
Although we assess with low confidence that the North would only attempt to use nuclear weapons against US forces or allies to preserve the Kim (Jong-Un) regime, we do not know what would constitute, from the Norths perspective, crossing that threshold, the assessment said.
The United States, however, faces a challenge trying to discern North Koreas strategic calculations when it comes to its nuclear weapons.
We do not know Pyongyangs nuclear doctrine or employment concepts, the report said.
North Koreas Kim has threatened to wipe out a South Korean island amid fresh international pressure and new sanctions over the Norths nuclear weapons and missile tests. While much of the Norths rhetoric has been dismissed as bluster, the latest threat to the border island of Baengnyeong, which has around 5,000 civilian residents, appears credible, analysts say.
That would almost certainly trigger a major war with the South -- there is no way Park and the ROK military would let that go if only for the enormous loss of face.
The intelligence report also addressed the state of Irans nuclear program, saying Tehran could not produce enough highly-enriched uranium for an atomic bomb without being detected.
Horse hockey. What have they been trying to do all along? And if it weren't for Stuxnet and other secret programs, they might be there now.
While Iran has made strides in its nuclear program, we assess Iran could not divert safeguarded material and produce a weapon-worth of WGU (weapons-grade uranium) before this activity is discovered, the report said.
Irans declared nuclear sites are subject to monitoring from the UNs atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, as well as clandestine surveillance from US and other spy services.
And the IAEA and CIA are never infallible...
The intelligence assessment, however, found that Iran has moved forward with its uranium enrichment efforts over the past year.
The assessment reiterated an analysis last year from intelligence agencies that Iran had not yet opted to build nuclear weapons and that the regimes policy was based on a cost-benefit approach.
We do not know if Iran will eventually decide to build nuclear weapons, he said.
But because Iranian leaders put a high priority on preserving their power and would carefully weigh the risks of obtaining nuclear weapons, the United States and its allies had an opportunity to exert influence over Tehrans ultimate decision, he said.
The American intelligence community also believed Iranian leaders are not seeking a direct confrontation with the United States, as it could risk their political control, the report said.
The Mad Mullahs don't even have to do this clandestinely: they could do it openly. Other than a 'sternly worded' rebuke, they know pretty much for a fact that Champ and his advisors, including Clapper, will roll over in the end.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/13/2013 00:00 ||
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A soldier accused of having an affair with a local woman has been stoned to death on the orders of tribal elders in north-west Pakistan, officials say.
Elders in Kurram tribal agency said scores of people threw stones at the soldier in a cemetery near the town of Parachinar until he bled to death.
Locals in the mostly Shia area opposed the alleged relationship because he was a Sunni Muslim and the woman a Shia.
There was no immediate response from the military.
The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says it is not uncommon for those deemed to be involved in illicit relationships to be shot in Pakistan, but few if any public stonings have been carried out.
#1
Taliban senior leaders also continue to be based in Pakistan, which allows them to provide strategic guidance to the insurgency without fear for their safety, the report said.
Which country are we fighting in Afghanistan?
Posted by: Ulump Darling of the Pixies3841 ||
03/13/2013 12:15 Comments ||
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#2
IIRC DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS [paraph]> PAKISTAN TO BREAK UP IFF ANOTHER STRONGMAN ELECTED.
I could be wrong as I've not been able to get normal or routine access to Pak news blogs, forums like before, besides also as per Chinese, Japanese, Korean [DPRK + ROK], + now Russian news blogs + forums.
THE ABOVE MAY, OR MAY NOT?, BE RELATED TO THE ON-GOING SENKAKUS/DIAOYUS CRISIS + NORTH KOREA [military censorship?]; ANDOR ALSO IRAN REPOR ALSO SHUTTING DOWN LOCAL ACCESS, INTERNATIONAL SITES IN ORDER TO SET UP ITS OWN WORLDWIDE "IRAN-NET"???
[Dawn] Minority member of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... Assembly from Awami National Party Asif Bhatti on Monday accused the Punjab government of patronising religious bad turbans, who, he said, torched around 200 houses and shops of Christians in Lahore on Saturday.
Speaking on a point of order in the House, the MPA said Christians had been subjected to violence in Punjab during the five years rule of Pakistain Moslem League-Nawaz in the province, and recalled the Gojra, Shanti Nagar and Sangla Hill incidents.
He said religious bully boyz torched houses and shops of Christians in Lahore without let or hindrance as coppers acted as silent spectators.
"The Punjab government has not only failed to protect Christians but also patronises bad turban elements," he said demanding immediate resignation of the Shahbaz Sharif-led government.
He said officers holding responsible positions in Punjab failed to take any action against perpetrators of violence against Christians.
Mr Bhatti said Holy Prophet Mohammad always preached peace, love and tolerance and urged Moslems to take care of religious minorities, but some wanted to earn a bad name for Islam by subjecting minorities to violence.
"More than 200 copies of the Bible have been burnt in Lahore. Tell me if those who burned copies of the holy book will ever be locked away Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
These people have forgotten the teachings of Holy Prophet Mohammad," he said.
The MPA, who tied black armband to protest Lahore incident, said it was unfortunate that police were present on the occasion when mob attacked the houses of Christians.
He said the Christian member of the then Punjab Assembly had voted for Pakistain and that Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah had said there was no Moslem, no Christian and no Hindu and all were Paks, but some forces were out to divide the society on religious, ethic and linguistic lines to achieve their ulterior objectives.
"There is no divide among the people," he said.
Mr Bhatti later staged a walkout to register protest against the Lahore incident.
Later responding to the point of order, Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain condemned the Lahore incident and said some elements were trying to destabilise Pakistain by targeting religious minorities.
He added that like Christians, Shias, Sunnis, the army, police and places of worship were also being targeted.
The minister said the torching of an entire hamlet had never happened in a civilised world and that the people committed the heinous crime under the banner of Islam.
Later, the House passed four bills, including The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Finance (Amendment) Bill, 2013, The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Workers' Compensation Bill, 2013, The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Maternity Benefits Bill, 2013 and The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Factories Bill, 2013.
Also, three bills, including The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Arms Bill, 2013, The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Explosives Substances Bill, 2013 and The Provincial Motor Vehicles (Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa) (Amendment) Bill, 2013 were introduced.
Speaker Kiramatullah Khan Chagharmatti, who was in the chair, later adjourned the session until 4pm today (Tuesday).
Posted by: Fred ||
03/13/2013 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] As many as 21 suspected arsonists were remanded in judicial custody on Monday.
Police obtained four-day physical remand of 14 others. Police teams took 23 more suspects into custody in ongoing raids against arsonists.
As many as 35 jugged Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! suspects were produced in Anti-Terrorism Court by the police with request for 10-day physical remand.
However, some men learn by reading. A few learn by observation. The rest have to pee on the electric fence for themselves... the judge after hearing arguments from both parties handed over 14 suspects to police on physical remand.
They were Amjad, Irfan, Latif, Afzal, Imran, Riaz, Khalil, Muhammad Imran, Nadeem, Imran Butt, Saleem, and Rashid Ahmad.
While 21 others had been sent to jail for identification parade.
INVESTIGATION: Police investigation into the arson attack continued on different lines.
Senior coppers apparently avoided news hounds to share pace of investigation as no officer neither responded to calls nor replied to text messages.
A police source claimed that the officers remained busy in meetings to speed up efforts to arrest the remaining accused after chief minister's pressure.
He said the suo motu ...a legal term, from the Latin. Roughly translated it means I saw what you did, you bastard... notice had also upset the government and the police authorities.
The source said all sections of life had openly blamed the police for non-professional handling of the situation, adding that coppers were under immense pressure.
Compensation: District Coordination Officer Noorul Amin Mengal on Monday distributed compensation cheques among those whose houses were completely or partially damaged in Badami Bagh arson attack.
He asked the residents to get their bank accounts opened through the help desk officials in order to receive compensation.
Talking to residents during a visit to the locality, he said the CDGL had established a help desk here to facilitate the affected people.
Mengal inspected the construction work along with Senator Kamran Michel at Joseph Colony. He directed the officials to accomplish the task at the earliest.
Reviewing arrangements for the affectees in different camps, he asked the officials concerned to remain active in the entire process of rehabilitation of the affected people. "We will not tolerate any sort of negligence on the part of any official."
He directed the works and services department to reconstruct and repair houses with quality material.
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03/13/2013 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] On Monday, Wafaqul Madaris organised a major sit-in at D Chowk, where 5,000 madressah leaders, workers and students gathered to protest the killing of religious scholars in Karachi, Quetta and the Tribal Areas.
Students sat in rows on the street and recited the Quran, while religious leaders delivered speeches.
Speakers called for justice for the recent target killings in Quetta, and condemned the Badami Bagh incident in Lahore, in which over 100 Christian homes were burnt.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/13/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
I wouldn't protest f ALL Imams died.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/13/2013 20:01 Comments ||
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[Dawn] Even as one considers the possibility of a property issue being the real motive behind the recent mob attack in Lahore's Joseph Colony, representatives of the Christian community have not ruled it out -- with some saying it was indeed the driving force behind the attack that left over a hundred houses burnt beyond recognition.
President of Pakistain Minority Front's Lahore chapter, Saleem Shakir told Dawn.com that weeks before the incident took place, "a group from the land mafia in the city's Misri Shah market had started threatening the colony's residents to vacate the area".
Situated close to Joseph Colony, Misri Shah is famous for being an old steel and scrap market in Lahore, similar to Shershah in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , with a shanty town, for instance, the Henry and Joseph colonies, located nearby.
"The issue was to move these people so that the scrap market could be extended," said Shakir.
When asked about Imran Shahid and Sawan Masih's 'drunken' brawl that preceded the attack, Michael Javed, who heads the Pakistain Minority Front in Karachi, said the allegation against Sawan Masih was "used as the perfect excuse to drive residents out of the area".
"The two were friends," added Javed. "They used to chat and drink together. I know for a fact that after the brawl, there was a lot of instigation to make it seem like a religious issue."
Shakir further noted that the police cleared up the area before the mob marched in. "If the police knew there was going to be an attack, why didn't they do anything to prevent it?"
This is not the first time the Christian community has been attacked in Pakistain. In August 2009, seven Christians were burnt alive in Gojra over the alleged desecration of the Holy Koran.
In Saturday's attack, Javed said two churches and more than a hundred bibles were also set ablaze.
And although police clashed with the arsonists and made some 25 arrests following the incident, Zohra Yusuf of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistain (HRCP) believes those nabbed will be set free after some time, saying "the police does not investigate such matters".
The police's role has also come into question over the events that preceded the arson where it had alerted the residents to the possibility of an attack and had advised them to leave the area.
Calling it "criminal negligence" on part of the law enforcement agencies, Yusuf, who heads the HRCP, said the incident could have been averted "had the Punjab government not tolerated krazed killer organizations and launched a crack down on their activities".
She said those protesting on Sunday against the arson attack in Karachi and Lahore were dispersed through tear gas and baton-charge, asking "why the same tear gas was not used against the mob on Saturday?"
However, there's more than one way to skin a cat... speaking to Dawn.com, Pakistain director at Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... , Ali Dayan Hasan, said: "It is encouraging that there has actually been some movement in arresting the culprits of the Badami Bagh incident. If these individuals are held legally accountable, it will be the first tangible evidence that the state is doing something other than appeasing beturbanned goons." However, there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly... it remains to be seen whether accountability will actually take place or not, he added.
"Both the federal government and the Punjab government have apprehended those involved in similar violence in the past also, only to release them quietly once the attention shifts. Deterrence comes, above all, from accountability," he added.
In this respect, Dawn.com made several attempts to contact officials in the Punjab government who remained unavailable for comment.
What transpired on March 9 takes us back to the fundamental questions surrounding the country's blasphemy laws and to the calls that have been made for their reformation. And although, former information minister and Pakistain People's Party leader Sherry Rehman had proposed an amendment to the laws, she eventually withdrew her private member bill following pressure from the party machinery.
"The situation as it stands is indicative of an ethical crisis, a legal quagmire and the impotence of a corrupt, incompetent and bigoted criminal justice system. It is for the state to perform its due role as a neutral arbiter between citizens and to ensure that a rights-respecting rule of law prevails," Hasan said.
And for that purpose, the blasphemy laws need revisiting, Yusuf said, adding that if the issue is not tackled effectively, "the state may slide toward further chaos".
The attack and the debate that has followed again redirect us to the issue of increased religious fanaticism in the country, with religious minorities questioning the protection afforded to them by the state.
"In the short term, those inciting and perpetrating violence against vulnerable groups need to be tossed in the calaboose Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! and charged under relevant legal provisions to ensure that they are unable to abuse with impunity. In the long term, Pakistain needs to end legal discrimination that enables abuse against minorities and the political cowardice and myopia that facilitates it," Hasan said.
Javed said a number of Moslemholy mans had condemned the attack and had been stressing the need to foster religious harmony. He, however, lamented that Section 295-C of the Pakistain Penal Code (PPC) had often been used to justify persecution of the Christian community and other vulnerable individuals and groups.
He asked: "Why is the same law not being applied on those who have torched churches and desecrated the Holy Bible?"
Posted by: Fred ||
03/13/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Thanks goodness we have "eminent domain" for this.
Security officials Wednesday morning are preparing for what they expect will be a day of clashes between Palestinian-Arab rioters and IDF forces which are sure to ignite after the funeral of Mohammed Titi, a Hamas terrorist who was killed Tuesday night during clashes in the Al-Fawwar refugee camp south of Hevron.
Titti's funeral will take place today at 12:30 in the cemetery on the outskirts of the refugee camp. The IDF said there is a high chance that riots will break out in the surrounding area after the funeral procession.
Iran plans to sue filmmakers that contribute to anti-Iran propaganda like Oscar-winning film Argo, CNN reports.
Irans state-run Press TV reports that in addition its making its own film in response to Argo, the country is hiring a controversial lawyer to sue Hollywood filmmakers.
I will defend Iran against the films like Argo, which are produced in Hollywood to distort the countrys image, French lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre told Press TV, according to CNN.
Iranian press has dubbed Coutant-Peyre an anti-Zionist lawyer. She is married to Venezuelan terrorist and self-proclaimed revolutionary Ilich Ramírez Sánchez or Carlos the Jackal who is currently serving a life sentence for killing two French policeman and an alleged informant in 1975 during a jailhouse ceremony in 2001.
Coutant-Peyre also said that she plans to take legal actions against other films that have promoted Iranophobia, according to UKs The Guardian.
It is not clear exactly who in Hollywood will be sued. Other films that have Iranians up in arms reportedly include 300, The Wrestler and the 1991′s Sally Field film Not Without My Daughter, according to Deadline.
#2
On a related note I hear that those 'Killing Jews is worship' bus signs are up in San Francisco. And the usual suspects and Terrorist Apologists are all in a tizzy about the 'hateful, Islamaphobic' message is for simply quoting the terrorists themselves.
And yes - they are too stupid to realize that they are just proving the point behind the bus-signs.
The latest assessment on the human rights situation in Iran sounds like it was written by the United States and its European allies, Iran said.
And we can't have that, can we?
U.N. Special Envoy on the Human Rights Situation in Iran Ahmed Shaheed,
...bummer of a name, dude...
expressed concern about the lack of civil rights in Iran. He said restrictions on free speech and free assembly would undermine the legitimacy of Iranian elections planned for June.
No worse than the previous elections were undermined...
Mohammed-Javad Larijani, secretary-general of the High Council for Human Rights in Iran, said the report was "unprofessional" and echoed sentiments from "the United States and some European countries," reports state-funded broadcaster Press TV.
Who ever thought that a special rapper for human rights would sound like a European?
Iran said it was watching for foreign meddling in the country's electoral affairs. Elections in 2009 were marred by violence not witnessed in Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Eric Harroun is an Arizona native who rioted with rebels in Cairo and fought in Syria for Al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Al Nusra.
He's also a former U.S. Army servicemember who was discharged following a vehicle accident. He was left with full disability pay, his father Darryl Harroun, tells Fox News.
Fox also dug up a bit of his past:
Harroun's descent into Islamic fanaticism seems to have begun sometime after his discharge from the military. With seemingly no way to pursue his lifelong dream of being a soldier, he fell in with two Iraqi brothers, Maadh and Hayder Ibrahim, who he met while attending Pima Community College in Tucson, and began to identify himself as a Muslim, according to people who know him.
Harroun, who talked briefly with Fox via Skype, says that he's now in Istanbul, Turkey. His father isn't sure if Harroun will make it home alive.
"Maybe Gaza is next for me, maybe [the] West Bank," Harroun told Fox.
#2
At one time, US Army pensioners fighting under the flag of a foreign power (non-U.S.) or defacto mercenary forced required special authorization from the US State Department. Rules may have changed over time, but I suspect his VA disability pay might be subject to review for this reason alone. Do I think anything will come of it? No.
#3
This is taking the old "going native" stuff a bit too far.
It's one thing to go fight in a foreign civil war it's another thing to adopt the religion and going all wobbly on top of it.
I spent three weeks in Anbar, trying to get a contract with the CPA to do some architecture, and I wound up helping a local Sheikh duke it out with some visitors. They are all lousy shots and live with the spray and pray "rock and roll" selector switch on...that's why they need so much ammo.
Anyway, I didn't go native and I sure as hell didn't violate my Scotch Irish Welsh Roman Catholic roots while I was teaching Assad and Achmed how to get a good sight picture instead of lighting up the night sky with gun sex...which is what most of the fire fights are over there.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
03/13/2013 9:26 Comments ||
Top||
#4
What's the chances he's in contact w/the CIA to keep tabs on the looneys over there? Just curious.
The relationship between Iran and al-Qaida has become strained over the past year, in part due to the Syrian civil war, The Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing US officials and terrorism experts.
Iran has publicly backed and provided financial and military support for the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, while al-Qaida-affiliated groups are among the chief armed opposition to Damascus.
The Post quoted US officials and experts as describing a distrustful relationship between the Sunni terror group and the Shi'ite leadership of Iran.
According to the report, the terrorist group has long been given sanctuary in Iran, however three prominent al-Qaida figures have left the country in the last year.
Osama bin Laden's son-in-law, Suleiman Abu Ghaith, was detained by US authorities in Jordan after having been expelled from Iran. He is currently on trial in New York for conspiring to kill Americans.
The Islamic Republic and Iran still cooperate, however, with Iranian territory serving al-Qaida operatives moving to and from South Asia, The Post quoted David S. Cohen, the US Treasury Departments undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence as saying.
Following the defeat of the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001, Iran allowed several prominent al-Qaida figures refuge in the country, but the case of Abu Ghaith appears to show a change in policy, according to the report.
While it was not clear whether the other two al-Qaida figures who left Iran in the past year did so by choice or coercion, Abu Ghaith was expelled in a way that would ensure his capture, according to US officials. Abu Ghaith was not allowed to return to his native Kuwait via Pakistan, but was forced to travel through Turkey and Jordan, where he was detained by US intelligence officials.
What were seeing is a slightly more confrontational al-Qaida policy, suggesting that Iran is becoming more uncomfortable in hosting these guys, The Post quoted Dan Byman, a counterterrorism expert at the Brookings Institution, as saying
Dang, some guys just don't get the picture. What part of Iran on Al Assad's side and Al Qaeda(unfortunately, however, a civil war does make strange bedfellows, heck we even had blacks fighting for the South in our festivities) are fighting on the OTHER side. That means they are trying to kill each other.
Saying Iran and Al Qaeda's relationship is strained is like saying OJ and Nicole had an argument.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
03/13/2013 9:30 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I recommend adding a box of brewer's dry yeast and a quick flush.
#3
Maybe the Iran Al Qaeda disagreement is a good thing...if they keep killing each other, will the mad mullahs stop letting sissie Al Qaeda leaders hide in their boundaries between drone strikes?
One can only hope?
Do you suppose the Iranians will rat out Zawahiri? or is he still in Pakistanarchy?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
03/13/2013 13:16 Comments ||
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[An Nahar] Iranian judges, media officials and a special police Internet monitoring unit linked to the death of a dissident in custody were added Tuesday to the EU's sanctions list against Tehran for grave human rights violations.
The Iranian Cyber Police unit was set up in 2011, taking on anti-revolutionary and dissident groups who organised protests in 2009 against the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the European Union's Official Journal said.
It said it was this Cyber Police unit which arrested blogger Sattar Beheshti who was found dead in his Tehran prison cell in November shortly after his arrest for criticizing the government online.
Beheshti was "believed to have been tortured to death by the Cyber Police authorities," the Official Journal said.
Among the nine individuals added to the EU's blacklist were the new head of the notorious Evin Prison, three judges, two prosecutors and the head of a special commission, Abdolsamad Khoramabadi, in charge of Internet censorship.
In state media, the EU named Mohammad Sarafraz and Hamid Reza Emadi, senior officials linked to the security forces and held responsible for "violating the right to due process and fair trial."
EU foreign ministers agreed Monday to renew European Union rights sanctions for another 12 months, with the nine new names bringing the blacklist to 87 Iranians subject to an EU travel ban and asset freeze.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/13/2013 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Syria warned Tuesday it is ready to fight "for years" against rebels, as world powers worked on a new initiative to find regime officials suitable for peace talks with the opposition.
The UN children's agency, UNICEF, said meanwhile that an entire generation of children risked being lost in the spiralling conflict between forces loyal to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... and the bad turbans.
As the bloodletting approached a third year without a solution in sight, La Belle France said it was working with Russia and the United States to draw up a list of regime officials with whom the opposition can negotiate.
"We worked together on an idea... of a list of Syrian officials who would be acceptable to Syria's opposition National Coalition," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told the foreign affairs committee of the National Assembly.
Opposition chief Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib has offered to talk to regime representatives without "blood on their hands", while his National Coalition has ruled out any solution that includes Assad and his top military command.
Fabius said La Belle France had discussed Khatib's "very brazen" offer "with the Russians and the Americans" and that there had been "exchanges to seek a political solution".
In Strasbourg, meanwhile, Israeli President Shimon Peres told the European Parliament the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... should be empowered to act in Syria with UN backing since Western intervention could be perceived as "intervention".
Posted by: Fred ||
03/13/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Assad has held out this long because of help from the Mullahs and Hezbollah. However since the rebels have been on offense most of the time for the past year, it seems it will take a bigger commitment of Hezb and the Basij to hold the line.
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/13/2013 14:12 Comments ||
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#4
yes Alanc, I agree that on the balance, a long casualty heavy balance of power struggle between Iran and its proxies vs Salafists of all kinds, is in our interests.
However, there are many, many collateral victims.
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/13/2013 16:29 Comments ||
Top||
The navies of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and Iraq have signed an agreement to expand cooperation between the naval forces of the two countries, Press TV reported.
The agreement was signed on Tuesday by the IRGC Navy Commander Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi and Commander of the Iraqi Navy Vice Admiral Ali Hussain Ali.
The document calls for expanding cooperation among the two countries' navies, arranging mutual visits for naval forces and holding joint drills. Fadavi described the agreement as a beginning for more cooperation between the two countries in the north of the Persian Gulf region.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/13/2013 00:00 ||
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[FoxNews] He's a U.S.-trained soldier turned Moslem warrior who moves between America and countries where the winds of the Arab spring blow, fighting alongside jihadists and America-hating Islamic fascistiwhile celebrating his bloody exploits on YouTube videos.
Eric Harroun, 30, grew up in Phoenix before joining the U.S. Army in 2000. Although Harroun was never deployed during his three-year hitch, he has seen plenty of combat fighting with Syrian rebels and, more recently, Jabhat al-Nusra, a group the U.S. State Department classifies as an alias for Al Qaeda in Iraq.
His father, Darryl Harroun, told FoxNews.com that his son was discharged from the Army after he was maimed while riding in a pickup truck that hit a tree. He was left with full disability pay and a steel plate in his head, according to his father.
"Now he has mood swings and what-not," said Darryl Harroun, who lives in Arizona and talks to his son by phone frequently. "He was already suffering from depression before that, and the accident just kind of multiplied it."
Darryl Harroun said his son is seen as an adventurer by friends and relatives, who call him "Arizona Jones."
"He just loves that part of the world," said Darryl Harroun, who said his family has been in the U.S. for several generations and is not Moslem. "We scratch our heads and wonder what the hell he's doing. I told him, 'You're never going to change those people's minds over there.' But he says they treat him like a hero.
Harroun's descent into Islamic fanaticism seems to have begun sometime after his discharge from the military. With seemingly no way to pursue his lifelong dream of being a soldier, he fell in with two Iraqi brothers, Maadh and Hayder Ibrahim, who he met while attending Pima Community College in Tucson, and began to identify himself as a Moslem, according to people who know him.
He became active on anti-Israeli message boards, posting virulent rants against Zionism as well as his own uploaded images and videos.
In Syria, Harroun has become so well known that a pro-regime video was created claiming that "The American" is a "criminal from Miami." A mugshot and rap sheet are provided as proof of Harroun's criminal past, but the picture in the video does not resemble Harroun.
In recent months, Harroun has appeared in several online videos alongside Syrian rebels fighting in Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... . Described in his Facebook profile as a Sunni Moslem, Harroun has posted in several threads claiming to have personally killed several Shabiha (supporters of the Assad regime), Syrian soldiers and an Iranian.
"I hate bad guys like Bashar [Assad]," Harroun told FoxNews.com. "I hate Iran, too. I am a freedom fighter."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/13/2013 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.
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
[Al Ahram] Egypt's general prosecution has ordering the detention, pending investigations, of eight Egyptians for attempting to break into the 
[AFP] PARIS (AFP) -- 
[Dawn] Even as one considers the possibility of a property issue being the real motive behind the recent mob attack in Lahore's Joseph Colony, representatives of the Christian community have not ruled it out -- with some saying it was indeed the driving force behind the attack that left over a hundred houses burnt beyond recognition.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[FoxNews] He's a U.S.-trained soldier turned 
