[PULSE.NG] Ali Haddad, one of Algeria's top businessmen and a backer of ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika ... 10th president-for-life of Algeria. He was elected in 1999 and is currently on his third or fourth term. Maybe it's the fifth.... , was placed in durance vile Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! as he tried to cross into Tunisia, an Algerian security source said Sunday.
Haddad, who Forbes magazine describes as one of Algeria's wealthiest entrepreneurs, was detained overnight at a border post with neighbouring Tunisia, said the source speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... His arrest was also reported by Algeria's El Watan newspaper and the news website TSA.
Haddad was widely seen as a political tool of Bouteflika, 82, whose decision in February to seek a fifth term in office despite his failing health sparked nationwide protests in the North African country.
Protesters are also demanding a change of government and the departure of those close to Bouteflika, who uses a wheelchair and has rarely been seen in public since suffering a strike in 2013.
Reasons for his arrest were not immediately clear and there was no official explanation for his detention.
A judicial source said there were no arrest warrants for the business tycoon and that he did not face any travel ban.
Since 2014 Haddad was the president of the Business Leaders Forum, Algeria's leading employers' organization but he quit the post on Thursday as criticism mounted against him for supporting Bouteflika.
Haddad had backed Bouteflika's fourth term in office and had thrown his support behind him for his re-election in April polls but in March the president vowed not to seek a fifth term.
The 54-year-old businessman is also the founder and CEO of ETRHB, a private construction firm, owner of the football club USM Alger and of two television stations Dzair News and Dzair TV.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2019 00:00 ||
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[PRESSTV] Algeria’s president has decided to relieve many ministers of their duties in the cabinet while appointing a caretaker government led by Prime Minister Noureddine Bedoui.
Algeria’s state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
reported on Sunday that President Abdelaziz Bouteflika ... 10th president-for-life of Algeria. He was elected in 1999 and is currently on his third or fourth term. Maybe it's the fifth.... had carried out a new cabinet reshuffle while announcing that Bedoui, who only recently replaced former premier Ahmed Ouyahia, would lead a caretaker government.
The announcement comes after weeks of street protests which forced Bouteflika to announce on March 11 that he would not run for president for a fifth term. Protesters insist Bouteflika’s announcement is not enough and he should resign after 20 years in office.
In the new reshuffle, the second in less than a month, Bouteflika kept his title as defense minister while appointing Sabri Boukadoum as foreign minister. He also appointed central bank governor Mohammed Loukal as finance minister and Mohammed Arkab as energy minister.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2019 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[PRESSTV] Members of Bahrain’s parliament have condemned the invitation of several Israeli speakers to a business conference due in the Persian Gulf country next month. The Juice are ICKY!
The Global Entrepreneurship Congress, whose annual meeting this year is scheduled to be held in the capital, Manama, on April 15-18, has listed at least four Israelis on its official website among dozens of other people invited to speak.
One of the Israelis invited is the Tel Aviv regime’s Innovation Authority’s deputy chief Anya Eldan. We don't need no steenking Innovation! We have Allah! And oil!
Members of Bahrain’s National Assembly said in a joint statement on Sunday that they opposed the hosting of Israeli speakers in their country, which ‐ like most Arab states ‐ does not have open diplomatic relations with Israel. Only two Arab states, Egypt and Jordan, have open diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv.
"Parliament stresses its support for the just cause of the brotherly Paleostinian people, and it will remain a priority for the Bahraini and Arab people," read the statement, which was published on the parliament’s official Facebook page.
"The end of the Israeli occupation and the withdrawal from all Arab land is an absolute necessity for the stability and security of the region and for a fair and comprehensive peace," it added.
But the Arab governments of the Persian Gulf region and Israel are known to have been rather secretly cozying up to one another. Israel has recently stepped up its push to make its ties with Arab governments public and establish formal relations with them.
Last month, Israel’s Channel 13 news network reported that Bahrain had informed Israel more than two years ago that it was interested in normalizing relations with the regime.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2019 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran Proxies
#1
The denouncing is to be expected. What’s new is the invitation.
[Rudaw] Chechnya will repatriate all children taken to live under the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria, the controversial Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has confirmed. He did not however mention the fate of Chechen women who joined the group.
"We’ll solve this problem. We work every day and every hour. We won’t stop until we repatriate all those children," Kadyrov told Rudaw in the Chechen capital Grozny.
Chechnya is a federal subject of Russia. Around 400 Chechen women and girls are believed to have joined ISIS, many of them dying in fighting and in coalition Arclight airstrikes.
Many of those who survived are now in prisons in Iraq and Syria.
"Some of the girls who are now in a Baghdad prison were previously incarcerated by the Popular Mobilization Forces (Hashd al-Shaabi)," Malika, whose daughter joined the group, told Rudaw in Grozny.
The Committee of Russian Mothers, an informal network of women searching for their daughters, estimates up to 600 women and 1,200 children from Russia joined ISIS.
To date, just 60 have returned ‐ most of them children.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/01/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
What's Putin have to say about that?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/01/2019 17:24 Comments ||
Top||
[PRESSTV] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... ’s opposition Republican People’s party (CHP) has claimed clear-cut victory in mayoral elections in the city of Istanbul despite a statement by President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... suggesting his ruling AK Party had the upper hand in the votes.
CHP candidate Ekrem Imamoglu said on Sunday that it was "very clear" his party had won the mayoral election in Turkey’s largest city of Istanbul.
"I know we won in Istanbul, it is very clear," Imamoglu told news hounds in Istanbul while accusing the rival candidate of "manipulation" by declaring victory in the votes.
The statement came after AKP candidate and former prime minister Binali Yildirim declared victory in Sunday’s mayoral elections in Istanbul.
It also came just before Erdogan said that his AK party remained "the number one party" in Turkey despite admitting that it may have lost in Istanbul.
[Ynet] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire.... 's President Tayyip Erdogan said that his AK Party had lost some cities in Sunday's mayoral elections, and pledged that his government would now focus on implementing strong economic plans.
Speaking at a news conference in Istanbul, Erdogan said the next elections would be held in June 2023 and that Turkey would carefully implement a "strong economic programme" without compromising on free market rules.
Turkey's main opposition party appeared on course to seize control of Ankara in the local elections and defeat Erdogan's AK Party in the capital for the first time since Erdogan came to power 16 years ago.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP looked set for defeat in the capital Ankara and faced a dead heat in Istanbul after Sunday’s local election delivered a blow to a party in power for a decade and a half.
With 99 percent of the ballot boxes counted, the joint opposition candidate for Ankara mayor was winning with 50.89 percent of votes and the AKP on 47.06 percent, Anadolu state agency reported citing preliminary results.
But in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city and economic hub, the race for mayor was deadlocked with the AKP candidate claiming victory with 48.70 percent of votes, but his opponent on 48.65 percent also claimed he had won, after almost all ballot boxes were counted.
The Turkish leader suggested if his party lost in Istanbul, they would still control the district council even if the opposition held the mayor’s office.
Voters on Sunday elected scores of mayors, municipal councils and other local officials.
In Ankara, Mansur Yavas — the candidate for both the opposition Republican People’s Party or CHP and the nationalist Good Party — claimed victory in a large rally full of supporters waving red Turkish flags and setting off fireworks.
During voting, two members of Saadet (Felicity), a religiously conservative party, died after a fight between two groups in Puturge in eastern Turkey, private DHA news agency reported. The Malatya governorate said four individuals were detained.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2019 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
[Jpost] The new device, named ’Roar,’ was used during Saturday festivities along the Gazoo Border.
Israel had developed a new non-lethal method to disperse crowds called ’Roar’ [in Hebrew, Sheaga], Arutz Sheva reported on Sunday.
The device uses radio waves.
Not much had been published on the new system. It is likely to be derived from existing Long Range Acoustic Devices [LRAD] which emit warning tunes at a very high frequency humans cannot tolerate and may cause long-term damage to hearing if exposed to over time.
LRAD has been used since 2009.
Non-lethal methods to disperse crowds include sticky riot foam and high-impact water cannons.
#4
I think the frequency of the emitted sound is about 2500 Hertz.
At this frequency, the decibel level decreases pretty quickly with distance from the source so protesters at the border fence suffer a lot but those 100 meters away are just annoyed.
Posted by: lord garth ||
04/01/2019 13:06 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Db Intensity is of interest to myself. 2500 most have normal hearing but 4000 loss is most common. Boom booms will do some damage. Ringing after high Dbs if damaged ringing occurs. Ringing might go away or might not ever go away.
#7
This sounds similar to the microwave set that made people feel as if their skin was on fire. It was non-lethal and effective so Obama made it illegal to use.
[Jpost] Hamas, a regional Iranian catspaw, said on Sunday that it is waiting to hear from Egyptian mediators what Israel’s response is to the proposed ceasefire understandings between the Paleostinian factions in the Gazoo Strip and Israel.
Egyptian intelligence officials headed from the coastal enclave to Israel on Sunday to continue their discussions about ways of reaching new ceasefire understandings.
The Egyptian delegation is headed by Gen. Ahmed Abdel Khaleq, a bigwig with Egypt’s General Intelligence Service.
"We’re waiting for timelines and clear programs [from Israel] for the implementation of the understandings reached between the resistance groups and the occupation," said Hamas front man Abdel Latif al-Qanou.
Israel, he said, has "no choice but to commit to these understandings."
On Sunday, Israel reopened the Kerem Shalom crossing for commercial goods and the Erez crossing for pedestrian traffic, as a sign that a shaky calm has been restored between Israel and Hamas.
The IDF closed the two crossings last week, in response to Paleostinian rocket fire from Gazoo that destroyed a home in central Israel.
Still, Paleostinians fired five rockets at Israel overnight that fell in open territory and did not cause any damage. One rocket was fired during the day and landed in Gazoo.
IDF tanks fired in response at a number of Hamas targets in the Strip.
On Sunday morning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, "I have ordered that IDF forces remain fully deployed around the Gazoo Strip. This includes tanks, artillery, ground forces and air forces."
He added, "We are prepared for any scenario and ‐ if need be ‐ an extensive campaign. We will do what needs to be done for the security of Israel."
Qanou warned that Israeli failure to honor the purported understandings would lead to an escalation of the weekly protests near the Gazoo-Israel border. "We will continue the pressure until the demands and rights of our people are met," he cautioned.
Hamas and the Paleostinian factions in Gazoo are determined to oblige Israel to commit to the understandings, he said, adding that Israel was facing a "real test."
According to the Hamas official, the anticipated easing of restrictions imposed on the Strip are the "fruit of the pressure" of the weekly protests, known as the Great March of Return and Breaking the Siege.
Qanou said that the purported understandings include solving the shortage of power supply, expanding the fishing zone and reopening the border crossings between Israel and the Gazoo Strip, as well as several humanitarian and infrastructure projects.
The Paleostinian ruling by the Fatah faction on Sunday attacked Hamas for reportedly agreeing to ceasefire understandings with Israel.
Deputy Fatah head Mahmoud al-Aloul said that by signing a "truce agreement without national consensus," Hamas was paving the way for the implementation of US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... ’s yet-to-be-announced Middle East peace plan, known as the "Deal of the Century."
Hamas, he said, "does not understand the priorities and its agreement [with Israel] comes at the expense of our people in a way that serves the deal of the century."
In an interview with the PA’s Paleostine TV, the senior Fatah official said that Hamas does not understand the seriousness of Trump’s upcoming plan. The plan, he claimed, is aimed at liquidating the Paleostinian issue. He also claimed that Israel was working towards separating the Gazoo Strip from the West Bank.
[IsraelTimes] The two crossings between the Gazoo Strip and Israel reopened Sunday morning despite rocket fire from the Paleostinian territory overnight.
The Erez pedestrian crossing and the Kerem Shalom commercial terminal were both shuttered last Monday after a rocket fired from Gazoo toward the central Israeli village of Mishmeret destroyed a home and left seven people maimed.
A fishing ban that has been in place since then was also lifted on Sunday morning.
Israel committed to reopening the crossing after Hamas, a regional Iranian catspaw, reined in a massive border protest on Saturday, under an informal ceasefire deal brokered by Egyptian mediators after a violent week in the coastal enclave.
The new commitment to calm was challenged early Sunday, when five rockets were fired from Gazoo at Israel, officials said, triggering sirens in the Eshkol region starting at about 12:40 a.m.
There were no reports of injuries or damage from the rocket fire, the Eshkol Regional Council said in a statement.
Israel Defense Forces planes struck at Hamas posts on the border in response, though Israeli officials were quoted in Hebrew media reports as saying the rockets were likely launched by the Iran-backed Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... organization.
The reopening of the Kerem Shalom and Erez crossings Sunday morning suggests Israeli and Hamas officials are committed to the calm, and means goods will flow once more to Gazoo from Israel.
Over 40,000 Paleostinians took part in the rallies at the Gazoo border Saturday afternoon, with some rioters throwing grenades and explosives toward the security fence as well as lobbing rocks at troops and burning tires.
The enclave’s Hamas-run health ministry said three 17-year-old Paleostinians were killed during the protests, while at least 300 were maimed. Another Paleostinian was shot and killed in the early morning before the main demonstration began, reportedly as he approached the border fence during overnight protests.
IDF front man Ronen Manelis said Israeli forces had observed hundreds of Hamas members wearing orange vests spread out between the crowd and the fence, preventing the masses from rushing toward the border.
Speaking to the Lebanese al-Mayadeen TV channel Saturday night, Hamas deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri said "there is a good chance of reaching understandings in the coming few days."
However, Switzerland makes more than cheese... Arouri clarified that any long-term truce reached with Israel would not mean a cessation of their "resistance" efforts.
"As far as we are concerned, there is no political or national commitment. We...will continue to [participate] in all national activities and [undertake] all forms of resistance against the occupation in every place on the Paleostinian land," the Hamas official said.
[DAWN] Pope Francis joined Morocco’s King Mohammed VI on Saturday in declaring Jerusalem the "common patrimony" of Christians, Jews and Moslems, on the first day of a visit to the North African country.
The spiritual leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics was invited by King Mohammed VI for the sake of "interreligious dialogue", according to Moroccan authorities.
In a joint statement, the two leaders said Jerusalem was "common patrimony of humanity and especially the followers of the three monotheistic religions," during the pontiff’s visit to Rabat.
"The specific multi-religious character, the spiritual dimension and the particular cultural identity of Jerusalem... must be protected and promoted," they said in the declaration released by the Vatican.
Their statement came after US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... ’s landmark recognition of the disputed city as capital of Israel, sparking anger across the Moslem world, especially from Paleostinians who see Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.
Improving relations with other religions has been a priority for the Argentine pontiff, whose papacy has been marred by a wave of child sex abuse allegations against clergy.
Addressing thousands of Moroccans who had braved the rain to attend the welcome ceremony, Pope Francis said it was "essential to oppose fanaticism".
He stressed the need for "appropriate preparation of future religious guides", ahead of meeting trainee imams later on Saturday.
Catholics are a tiny minority in the country where 99 percent of the population is Moslem. The king is revered across West Africa as "commander of the faithful".
[PULSE.NG] A Vietnamese woman suspected of assassinating the North Korean leader's half-brother accepted a lesser charge Monday and looks set to be freed soon, after her Indonesian co-accused was released last month.
Doan Thi Huong smiled and said "I'm happy" after prosecutors presented her legal team with the new charge in a Malaysian court and they announced the details.
She has been on trial since 2017 for the murder of Kim Jong Nam at Kuala Lumpur airport with a toxic nerve agent in a Cold War-style hit.
It came after authorities last month rejected her initial request for her murder charge to be dropped entirely -- a shock decision after the attorney-general agreed to withdraw the charge against her Indonesian co-defendant, Siti Aisyah, and she walked free.
Salim Bashir, one of her lawyers, told news hounds outside the High Court in Shah Alam, outside Kuala Lumpur, that the 30-year-old had been offered a charge of causing hurt by dangerous weapons instead of murder.
Soon afterwards, the new charge was read in court to Huong and she pleaded guilty. The charge carries a maximum 10-year jail term but the lawyer said she would likely receive a shorter sentence.
It is "very likely she could walk out free today", he said.
DENIED MURDER
Both women had always denied murder, saying they were tricked by North Korean spies into carrying out the liquidation that shocked the world using a highly toxic nerve agent, and believed it was a prank for a reality TV show.
Their lawyers presented them as scapegoats and said the real criminal masterminds were four North Koreans accused alongside them, but who fled Malaysia shortly after the liquidation.
If released, it will mean that no one is facing murder charges for the killing in February, 2017 of Kim Pudge Jong-un ...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished... 's estranged relative, who was once considered heir apparent to the North Korean leadership until he fell out of favour.
South Korea accuses the North of ordering the hit, a claim vehemently denied by Pyongyang.
There were dramatic scenes in court when Huong's initial bid for immediate release was rejected -- she sobbed in the dock and had to be helped out of court by two coppers.
Vietnam reacted angrily to the decision, which came just days after the Indonesian defendant was released, and started stepping up pressure on Malaysia to free Huong.
A murder conviction carries a mandatory penalty of death by hanging in Malaysia. The government vowed last year to scrap capital punishment but recently indicated that it might backtrack.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2019 00:00 ||
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[Rudaw] Clashes with guards, violent factional quarrels and a new strain of ultra-extremism ‐ the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group's territorial "caliphate" may be defeated, but a camp in eastern Syria is emerging as a fresh jihadist powder keg.
Dislodged in a final offensive by a Kurdish-led ground force and coalition air strikes, thousands of wives and children of IS fighters have flooded in from a string of Syrian villages south of the camp in recent months.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/01/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
Or you could, you know, just kill them all
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/01/2019 7:16 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I first read the headline as "ultra-extremists fuel fire" and thought; well that's probably a good use for them.
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.
Bouteflika
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
North Korea
