[Tolo News] The Ahmad Shah Massoud Foundation endorsed front-running presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah ... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun... in Kabul on Monday.
Speaking at the event was head of the Massoud Foundation, Ahmad Wali Massoud, who said that the foundation will work with Dr. Abdullah and his team to improve the situation of Afghanistan.
"We will work together to advance the situation of Afghanistan; we will try together," Massoud said.
Dr. Abdullah took the stage after the announcement and asked that the people vote on Saturday to strive for democracy in Afghanistan.
The foundation was established in 2003 in honor of the late Ahmad Shah Massoud who is known to Afghanistan as a national hero.
He was the central leader of the Northern Alliance that was in resistance against the Soviet occupation and the emergence of the Taliban.
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[An Nahar] Egyptian police have placed in durance vile Please don't kill me! seven men accused of sexually assaulting women at celebrations marking President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's inauguration, officials said Monday, after outrage triggered by a graphic video of one attack.
The footage shows a crowd of men surrounding the young woman, who was stripped off her clothes and badly bruised, as police escorted her to an ambulance following Sunday's attack on Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square.
Shared widely on social media websites like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, it appears to have been filmed using a mobile telephone.
A security official authenticated the video, saying police had arrested seven men for assaulting and stripping the 19-year-old student.
The woman was transferred to a hospital and prosecutors had been asked to investigate the attack, the official said, alleging the seven were also involved in three other cases of sexual harassment.
"Sexual harassment in Tahrir... is absolutely disgusting. I have no words. So appalled and ashamed," said one Twitter user.
The Egyptian interior ministry said police had arrested seven men aged 16 to 49 as "they had (sexually) harassed a number of girls during the celebrations in the Tahrir area".
It did not specify whether the seven were involved in the assault of the girl seen in the video.
"It is shameful that security officials from the interior ministry did not adopt any measures or security plans to prevent such assaults, despite the fact they have repeatedly occurred," said the "I Saw Harassment" activist group.
It said it had documented five cases of sexual assault by mobs, with four victims needing medical aid on Sunday.
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[MAGHAREBIA] King Mohammed VI on Friday (June 6th) prayed alongside Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki at the Malik Ibn Anas Mosque in Carthage.
During his sermon, Imam Othmane Batikh called on the regional leaders to lay Muslim foundations for a stable, secure Maghreb free from the dangers of fanaticism.
All inhuman and violent views that lie at the root of social instability are contrary to the spirit of Islam, the cheikh said.
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[TIME] A horrific video of a nearly naked woman being attacked in a crowd at Tahrir Square, Cairo during the inauguration festivities for Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi Sunday has created a scandal in the wake of celebrations for the new leader.
The video shows a woman wearing only a black shirt, surrounded by a group of men who appear to be ripping off her clothes and beating her. She has enormous bruises on the lower half of her body, which is completely naked. At the end of the two-minute video she is carried, bloody and bruised, to apparent safety in a vehicle. The video went viral on Facebook and Twitter, prompting anguished debate on the sites of activists against sexual harassment and violence in Egypt.
The brutal attack is especially embarrassing considering Sisi's recent promise to end the the pattern of sexual assaults that have occurred in the crowds that have been gathering in Tahrir Square since the mass protests there three years ago. Sisi vowed during his campaign to "restore the sense of shame" to the perpetrators of sexual crimes, and his government recently announced it would toughen up the laws on sexual harassers.
The Interior Ministry said in a statement Monday that seven men had been placed in durance vile Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! for harassment during the inauguration festivities, but could not link the arrests directly to the men in the video. "The celebrations included large crowds that reached thousands and millions in some cases, and harassment happens in these crowds," Interior Ministry front man Hany Abdel Latif told the New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... , saying the attacks were difficult to prevent but that "the police confront it in a vigorous way."
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#1
As I recall, this kind of thing went un under Morsi, unpunished. That this government is punishing when there is evidence to identify the perpetrators is an improvement.
"Actually, it's more of a reason to run, because I do not believe our great country should be playing minor league ball. We ought to be in the majors," Clinton said, according to a transcript. "I view this as really apart from -- even a diversion from -- the hard work that the Congress should be doing about the problems facing our country and the world."
#13
Might be time for some national recognition, a date, a ceremony. Perhaps a memorial at Arlington. Possibly something on the order of the Lockerbie Cairn, and placed nearby. This event and betrayal should be permanently etched into the minds of our citizens.
John Christopher Stevens is buried in his family's ancestral plot in Grass Valley, California.
Tyrone Woods was buried at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery.
Glen Doherty and Sean Smith, internment locations unknown.
#16
A total of 16 years with this couple in the WH? The voters would have to be out of their minds if they allowed that to happen. Bill would have another run at the interns for eight more years. We could have some silly, distracting arguments about the meaning of sex, is, it, what, in, who, and what difference does it make.
[An Nahar] U.N. chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... on Monday condemned an attack on Pakistain's largest international airport that killed 30 people and called on the government to address terrorism and religious extremism.
Ban also condemned suicide kabooms targeting Shiite Moslems in Pakistain's southwestern province of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... , which a local official told Agence La Belle France Presse killed at least 24 pilgrims.
The U.N. secretary general strongly condemned the two attacks and is "deeply concerned by this upsurge of violence across Pakistain," his front man Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
"While acknowledging the measures already taken to maintain security, he urges the government of Pakistain to further increase its efforts to address terrorism and religious extremism, including with a view to protecting the rights of all people to safely practice their religion, and to bring the perpetrators of such attacks to justice," the front man added.
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#1
Afghanistan is not the problem Pakistan is Mr Obama.
[DAWN] In the aftermath of the deadly gun and kaboom at 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... airport on Sunday night, the government on Monday summoned an emergency meeting of the Cabinet Committee on National Security (CCNS) to discuss the future of peace talks.
While a date for the meeting has not yet been disclosed, it is learnt that the CCNS will convene this week at the PM House, with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... in the chair.
The decision to convene a meeting was announced hours after the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) in a statement grabbed credit for the airport attack that left 18 dead.
Talks to end the TTP's bloody seven-year insurgency have been under way since February.
Earlier on March 1, the TTP had announced a month-long ceasefire breaking a deadlock that was reached between mediating teams of the government and Taliban committee.
Within 24 hours of the ceasefire announcement, the government had also made public its decision to halt air strikes on krazed killer hideouts.
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[DAWN] Security was beefed up at the Allama Iqbal Airport and its adjacent old airport following terror attack on the Jinnah International Airport, 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 additional deployment of security personnel and enhanced patrol on Monday.
The Airport Security Force (ASF) deployed its reserved force at the Lahore airport and set up more pickets in the area while the Pakistain Air Force (PAF) increased security at the old airport which is under its control.
"The ASF today enhanced security at all points from where the infiltration could be possible," an official told Dawn. He said over 150 reserved personnel had been deployed at the airport.
Similarly, the Civil Aviation Authority also held a meeting with the ASF and the immigration wing of the Federal Investigation Agency and worked out a strategy to enhance security.
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[DAWN] The weapons and explosives used in the attack on Quaid-e-Azam International Airport 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... on Sunday night might have been transported into the building prior to the arrival of the gunnies there, security officials told Dawn on Monday.
The security forces recovered a huge quantity of weapons after killing the attackers, but it would have been impossible for the gunnies to enter the airport carrying the weapons on their bodies.
This suggested that the attackers slipped into the premises carrying a small quantity of weapons.
Officials in the Karachi police, airport and the interior ministry said the National Crisis Management Cell (NCMC) of the Ministry of Interior in a letter on June 8, 2012, had alerted the departments concerned, including the security and law enforcement agencies, about such a modus operandi of snuffies to target airports and airbases.
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[DAWN] The outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) on Monday grabbed credit for the attack on 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... airport in Dire Revenge™ for the killing of their leader. Hakeemullah Mehsud died in a US drone strike in November.
"We carried out the attack on Karachi airport to avenge the death of Hakeemullah Mehsud," TTP front man Shahidullah Shahid told AFP.
"[The] Pakistain [government] used peace talks as a tool of war; it killed hundreds of innocent tribal women and kiddies. This is our first attack to avenge the death of Hakeemullah Mehsud," he said.
"It's just the beginning, we have taken Dire Revenge™ for one, we have to take Dire Revenge™ for hundreds."
Umar Media, the media wing of the TTP, claimed on their Facebook page that just six bully boyz had attacked the airport.
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[DAWN] The bodies of 24 pilgrims killed in suicide kabooms and firing at two hotels in the border town of Taftan were brought to Quetta by helicopters on Monday.
The dead included 13 men, 10 women and a child. Eighteen people were maimed in the Sunday night attack.
Three of the bodies were handed over to their families in the city's Hazara Town.
They were buried in Hazara graveyard in the presence of a large number of people. They belonged to the Shia Hazara community and worked in one of the hotels which came under the attack.
Twenty-one bodies were taken to their native town of Hangu in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... in a C-130 plane.
Chaghi Deputy Commissioner Saifullah Khetran said the corpse count rose to 24 after one of the injured died in Taftan hospital on Monday morning. He said that 14 of the seriously injured people, including seven women, had been shifted to Quetta.
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[DAWN] Pakistain has firmly rejected allegations of its involvement in the attack on Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah ... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun... and termed them as irresponsible. "Tut tut, my good man!"
"Pakistain is deeply disappointed by such allegations because they serve to vitiate the positive environment created between the two countries through constructive efforts over the past months," Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said in the first ever reaction to such allegations.
Regrettably, these allegations fall in the familiar pattern of certain elements in Afghanistan sparing no occasion to malign Pakistain and its security institutions and shifting the blame to others for their own security failures, the spokesperson remarked.
"We are sure that neither the Afghan people, nor the international community would be misled by these motivated allegations," the spokesperson commented.
She said Pakistain's interests were not served by disruption of Afghan elections.
"On the contrary, a peaceful election and a smooth democratic transition would advance our interest in having a stable Afghanistan. Accordingly, we remain committed to supporting all efforts for a free and peaceful election which includes enhancing security along the Pak-Afghan border," the spokesperson said.
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[DAWN] Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... on Monday ordered action against perpetrators behind the twin suicide kaboom which killed 24 Shia pilgrims in Taftan near the Pakistain-Iran border, officials said.
Sharif directed the Inspector General of the Frontier Corps to personally lead the operation against terrorists.
The bodies and injured were shifted in six army helicopters from Pak-Iran border Taftan to Quetta on Monday morning.
Akbar Hussain Durrani, the Home Secretary in Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... , said a C-130 plane arrived in Quetta to shift the bodies of the Shia pilgrims to Kohat from Quetta. "Around 40 heirs of the victims would also be shifted through the C-130," he said.
Qambar Dashti, the Commissioner Quetta Division, said 14 of the total 18 injured persons were at death's door.
The attack late Sunday night came when a bus carrying Shia pilgrims returning from a visit to holy Mohammedan sites in Iran stopped at a restaurant in Taftan, around 700 kilometres southwest of the bustling provincial capital Quetta.
Durrani said ten buses carrying Shia pilgrims had entered Pakistain from Iran Sunday night. "When the buses were parked at two hotels, there were kabooms," Durrani said.
He said the blasts were followed by intense firing near the hotels. "We fear rise in casualties," he added.
Frontier Corps and Levies personnel were called to bring the situation under control.
However, the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach... the front man for Frontier Corps, Khan Wasey, told Dawn.com that the forces killed the remaining two turbans during the operation averting another terror act close to the hotel.
He said the forces were deployed in and around the hotel and sweeping was conducted in the area to avoid another attack.
A Sunni-militant group Jaishul Islam has grabbed credit for the attack.
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[DAWN] 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... airport has been reopened for passengers and all flight operations, said Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Asim Saleem Bajwa ... who is The Very Model of a Modern Major General... .
Earlier on Sunday, a five-hour attack by gunnies on the international airport in Karachi left at least 28 dead, including ten terrorists.
The attack was claimed by banned turban organization Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP).
"Karachi airport has been cleared and handed over to Civil Aviation Authority and the Airport Security Force," Major Asim said while speaking to Dawn.com.
Meanwhile, ...back at the pie fight, Bella opened her mouth at precisely the wrong moment... Pakistain International Airlines (PIA) will resume its flight operation by 4 pm Monday afternoon after security clearance, a front man of the national flag carrier told APP on phone.
"Four PIA employees were martyred in the terrorist attack," he said. They were identified as Farrukh Leghari, S.M. Ilyas, Fazal Zubairi and Tanvir A. Khan, he added.
A report on the Karachi airport attack, which was presented to Prime Minister Sharif on Monday, revealed that turbans wanted to destroy all the aircraft.
It also disclosed that turbans had entered the airport from two separate locations.
Special Assistant to Prime Minister Nawaz on Aviation Shujaat Azeem had said that the Karachi airport would be made operational at 4 pm today.
He moreover said that security was heightened at all the airports.
Meanwhile, ...back at the saloon, Butch got the bill for the damage caused by the fist fight, the mirror broken in the shootout, and drinks for everyone...... the CAA front man had said that air traffic control operations and other activities would also be resumed with the revival of normal flight operations.
Earlier, Prime Minister Sharif had ordered authorities to reopen the Karachi airport for public as soon as possible.
He also directed the CAA to facilitate the passengers in every possible manner.
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Foreign. Domestic. That about covers it, I guess. Anybody left out?
[DAWN] Almost a day after an armed attack on 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... airport killed at least 29 people including bad boys, Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Monday night said that foreign as well as local elements were involved in recent terrorist attacks in Pakistain, DawnNews reported.
Speaking at a presser held at the airport here, he said at least 19 security personnel including 11 Airport Security Force (ASF) personnel were killed in the brazen attack. There are reports of 29 others maimed in the attack also, he added.
Chaudhry Nisar praised security and law enforcement forces for the successful and timely completion of the operation against the assailants.
"Rangers troops reached the airport in seven and armed forces in 10 minutes time," he said.
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[An Nahar] The International Committee of the Red Thingy and Syria's Red Islamic Thingy have made rare aid deliveries in rebel-held territory in northern Aleppo province with government consent, a front man said Monday.
"Together with the Syrian Arab Red Islamic Thingy (SARC), we were able to deliver food assistance and other essential items such as kitchen sets, hygiene kits, blankets, mattresses to an area called Arum in western Aleppo that is under opposition control," ICRC front man Ralph El Hage told AFP.
Although the seven-truck convoy carried enough aid for 30,000 people, El Hage said that "relative to the needs in the area this is little."
He said the delivery came a day after the organization delivered medical aid to two government hospitals and two others in rebel-held parts of Aleppo city.
The city has been divided between government control in the west and rebel control in the east since shortly after fighting began there in mid-2012.
"Together with SARC, we were able to deliver medical assistance to two hospitals on the government side, Ar-Razi government hospital and Al-Askari military hospital," he said.
"And we delivered to two hospitals on the opposition side, in Sukkari and Shaar districts, crossing through the Bustan al-Qasr crossing with the SARC."
Syria's government has rarely granted permission for aid deliveries to opposition-controlled areas, and the ICRC operates only with consent from both rebels and regime.
Other aid groups have opted to deliver aid to rebel territory in northern Syrian via the nearby border with Turkey, defying Syrian government objections that such actions violate illusory sovereignty.
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[An Nahar] Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... on Monday announced a "general amnesty" for all "crimes" committed to date, a week after a controversial election held amid raging conflict, state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
said.
The amnesty decree is the most wide-ranging since the beginning of a revolt against Assad in March 2011, and for the first time extends to those accused under Syria's controversial July 2012 anti-terrorism law.
The government has dubbed all those opposed to Assad's rule -- armed opposition fighters and peaceful activists alike -- of "terrorism", and used the law to imprison high-profile dissidents.
Should the amnesty be applied, tens of thousands of prisoners held because of their opposition to the regime are expected to be freed.
But rights groups have said previous amnesties were not fully implemented, leaving tens of thousands still languishing in jail.
Previous amnesties had excluded "terrorists" and "runaways".
A human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... lawyer and activist in Damascus said the decree should extend to both those who have been sentenced and to the many thousands being held without charge in security establishments across the country.
It is also the first amnesty that offers clemency to foreign jihadists fighting for the opposition, as long as they hand themselves in within a month.
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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
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
