On Monday, the Palestinian Embassy in Tripoli announced that it had managed to secure the release of 32 Palestinians, who had been held for a lack of legal travel documents.
In a statement, the Embassy said that their release came after great efforts by the acting Ambassador, Mohamed Rahhal with the Libyan authorities. It pointed out that efforts are underway to correct their legal status, and residency in Libya.
Notably, a boat carrying about two dozen migrants capsized off the coast of Libya on Saturday. At least 19 people are presumed dead, authorities said.
The shipwreck is the latest tragedy involving migrants crossing the Mediterranean sea. Libya has emerged as the dominant transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East, hoping for a better life in Europe.
Human traffickers have benefitted from the chaos in the country. People are smuggled through the country’s porous borders, before being packed into ill-equipped rubber boats, in risky voyages through the perilous central Mediterranean sea route.
At least 192 migrants drowned along the central Mediterranean route in the first two months of 2022, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said. More than 2,930 were intercepted and taken back to Libya. Once back, the migrants are typically taken to government-run detention centers, rife with abuse and ill-treatment.
In 2021, an estimated 32,425 migrants were intercepted and returned to Libya. At least 1,553 are presumed to have drowned last year, according to IOM.
[An Nahar] More than a dozen U.N. agencies and international aid groups said Monday that 161,000 people in war-torn Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... are likely to experience famine over the second half of 2022 — a fivefold increase from the current figure.
The stark warning came in a report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, ahead of an annual fund-raising conference that the United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... is hosting on Wednesday. The IPC is a global partnership of 15 U.N. agencies and humanitarian organizations working in Yemen and funded by the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... , the USAID and UKAID. It tracks and measures food insecurity in conflict-stricken regions.
The report underscores the dire situation in the poorest Arab nation that plunged into civil war for in 2014, when Yemen's Iran-backed Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... rebels took control of the capital, Sanaa, and much of the country's north, forcing the government to flee to the south, then to Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... "These harrowing figures confirm that we are on a countdown to catastrophe in Yemen and we are almost out of time to avoid it," said David Beasley, head of the World Food Program, appealing for immediate funding to "avert imminent disaster and save millions."
The IPC report says 19 million people in Yemen — out of a population of more than 30 million — are likely to unable to meet their minimum food needs between June and December, up from 17.4 million.
Also, 2.2 million children, including 538,000 already severely malnourished, and about 1.3 million women, could be acutely malnourished by the end of the year, the report said.
"More and more children are going to bed hungry in Yemen," said Catherine Russell, UNICEF's executive director. "This puts them at increased risk of physical and cognitive impairment, and even death."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2022 00:00 ||
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#1
so one of the 4 horsemen better eat his wheaties!
[Dawn] Investigators probing the murder of a big shot of Pasban-e-Aza
...a Shiite organization in Pakistan...
feared the return of sectarian terrorism in the metropolis, as they believed that Syed Salman Haider Rizvi was killed because of sectarian reasons.
On Saturday night, Rizvi, the son of Pasban-e-Aza founder SM Haider, was shot full of holes by armed assailants near his home in Federal B Area’s Block 20.
Talking to Dawn, Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) official Raja Umar Khattab recalled that such a killing apparently based on sectarianism took place after a considerable period.
He feared the sectarian terrorism was again rearing its ugly head in the metropolis.
The official pointed out that the victim had been a close associate of Askari Raza, who was shot full of holes in a sectarian attack in the past.
Investigators treating Pasban-e-Aza leader’s murder as sectarian killing case
He said the initial probe revealed that four assailants were already waiting for Rizvi and when he got off the vehicle after reaching his home in Ancholi, one of the attackers approached him.
The official said that after a brief chat, in which the assailant probably asked Rizvi’s name, he fired at him and rode away along with his accomplices.
Spent bullet casings fired from a 9mm pistol had been collected from the scene of the crime and sent to police’s forensic science laboratory for cross-matching.
FUNERAL
In the evening on Sunday, the Pasban-e-Aza leader was laid to rest.
His funeral prayers were held on Shahrah-e-Pakistain after Zuhrain, which was led by Allama Hasan Zafar Naqvi. Religious scholars, leaders of different parties and people belonging to different segments of society attended the funeral. He was laid to rest in the Wadi-e-Hussain graveyard on Superhighway.
The victim apart from being active for release of missing persons was associated with different organizations and trusts.
’CONSPIRACY FOR VIOLENCE’
Talking to the media after the funeral, Allama Baqar Zaidi demanded the arrest of the killers within 24 hours and warned that they would be compelled to hold a countrywide protest.
He added that under a well-planned ’conspiracy’, assassinations of Shia leaders had been started 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... after similar incidents took place in other parts of the country.
He expressed the fear that ’sectarian violence’ might be raising its ugly head again, but the rulers seemed to be busy in partisan politics.
The religious leaders urged the president, prime minister, chief justice and chief of army staff to take notice of the killing.
Separately, Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... Karachi chief Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman as condemned the murder of Pasban-e-Aza leader and the killing of the driver of JI leader Imtiaz Palarin in a gun attack on his car in Nooriabad early on Sunday morning.
Hafiz Naeem said the recent killings were aimed at triggering ’sectarian violence’ in the metropolis.
He claimed that the Sindh government and law enforcers had failed to protect citizens.
[IsraelTimes] One of the buildings in Erbil struck over the weekend by a missile fired by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was an Israeli training facility, a senior US official tells The New York Times
... which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... The US consulate was not the target of the attack, but the IRGC does not mind that it was nearby, the official adds.
Mustafa al Kadhimi is received by Masrour Barzani, prime minister of the semi-autonomous Kurdish-controlled region.
The Iraqi premier inspected damage caused by some 12 ballistic missiles that landed near the US consulate, which is new and unoccupied, and caused damage to a nearby local television channel.
Iran ...The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both... grabbed credit for Sunday’s missile barrage, calling it retaliation for an alleged Israeli strike in Syria that killed two members of its Revolutionary Guard last week.
A "strategic center for conspiracy and mischiefs of the Zionists was targeted by powerful precision missiles fired by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps," the Guards said in a statement.
Kurdish authorities have dismissed as "baseless" Iran’s claims of Israeli sites in the area.
Iran warns against ‘threats’ from Iraqi soil after missile strike on alleged Israeli site
[IsraelTimes] Iran ...The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both... warns it won’t tolerate "threats" coming from Iraq, a day after firing ballistic missiles at what it said was an Israeli site in the neighboring country.
"It is not at all acceptable that one of our neighbors that has deep relations with us... becomes a center for creating threats against the Islamic Theocratic Republic," says foreign ministry front man Saeed Khatibzadeh.
"Iran will not tolerate that a center near its borders becomes the center for sabotage, conspiracy and sending terrorist groups to Iran," he says at his weekly presser in Tehran.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Sunday they had targeted a "strategic center" belonging to Israel in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil, using "powerful precision missiles."
Kurdish authorities, however, insisted that Israel has no sites in or near Erbil, the capital of their autonomous region in Iraq’s north.
So unprofessional:
Update from @EricSchmittNYT: A senior Biden administration official refuted the earlier comment by a US official, saying the administration believes that the building that was hit was a civilian residence only and did not also serve as an Israeli training site.
[IsraelTimes] Users unable to reach sites with gov.il extension for an hour, as National Cyber Directorate reportedly declares state of emergency over incident.
Israeli government websites were downed for over an hour due to a major cyberattack on Monday evening, officials said.
Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel held an assessment with officials due to the "broad cyberattack" on government websites, a statement from his office said.
Users attempting to enter sites with gov.il extensions were unable to for at least an hour, before the sites slowly began to come back online.
"Operations have been carried out by communications companies in order to return the service as soon as possible, and the service is gradually returning," the Communications Ministry said.
"The ministry will continue to monitor [the situation] until full restoration," it added.
Internet-access advocacy group NetBlocks tweeted that a "significant disruption has been registered on multiple networks supplied by Israel’s leading [internet] providers," with a graph showing connectivity interruption.
An official cited by Hebrew-language media reports said the National Cyber Directorate declared a state of emergency in order to study the extent of the damage caused by the "massive" cyberattack.
According to assessments, the Israeli sites were taken down via a denial-of-service attack, which bombards websites with junk traffic to render them unreachable, though this remained unconfirmed.
Israeli officials did not immediately say who was behind the attack, but some media reports were quick to point the finger at Iran.
Israel and Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites.... have for years been involved in a largely quiet cyberwar, which occasionally bubbles to the surface.
Jerusalem Post reported that an allegedly Iranian-affiliated hacker group had grabbed credit for the apparent attack. The ministries of health, interior and justice as well as the prime minister's office were all at least briefly down Monday.
Access to some of the sites had been restored, the government said. While the homepages of some government pages were down, subdomains continued to work, The Jerusalem Post reported.
Iranian state TV said Iran ...They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... had thwarted an attack on the nuclear site in Fordow. Iran has previously accused Israel of carrying out similar attacks in the past on the country's nuclear facilities.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/15/2022 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Tehran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian will head to Moscow on Tuesday, his ministry said, days after negotiations on an Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... nuclear deal stalled amid new Russian demands.
Amir-Abdollahian will "go to Moscow on Tuesday" to continue discussions on the nuclear deal, ministry front man Saeed Khatibzadeh told news hounds on Monday.
Ten months of talks in Vienna have brought major powers close to renewing a landmark 2015 agreement on regulating Iran's nuclear program.
But the negotiations were halted again after Russia on March 5 demanded guarantees that Western sanctions imposed following its invasion of Ukraine would not damage its trade with Iran.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has dismissed as "irrelevant" the Russian demands for guarantees, saying that they "just are not in any way linked together".
The current round of negotiations started in late November in the Austrian capital between Iran and Britannia, China, La Belle France, Germany and Russia, with the U.S. taking part indirectly.
The 2105 deal gave Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.
But the US unilaterally withdrew from the accord in 2018 under then-president Donald Trump ...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party... and imposed tough economic sanctions on different sectors, including oil exports.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2022 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Wally Jumblat ...Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... has stressed on Leb ...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... 's deeply-rooted Arab affiliation.
He told the PSP's al-Anbaa news portal, in remarks published Monday, that fixing the relations with the Gulf Cooperation Council is a "high priority."
He said that every effort must be put to "return Lebanon to the Arab fold," and urged the government for positive dialogue with the GCC countries.
In a social media statement on Monday Jumblat slammed the government, accusing it of ignoring the electricity file and the ration card.
"This government has decided to completely blackout the electricity file after promises about Egyptian gas and Jordanian electricity," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2022 00:00 ||
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Human interest rather than actionable intelligence. But the lady made her way back to sanity, thanks to her open minded and thoughtful daughter, so there is hope for others in a like situation.
[IsraelTimes] Catherine Perez-Shakdam ignites a media firestorm in Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites.... after publishing a ToI blog post; she appeared in Iranian state media for years before reconnecting with her Jewish roots.
On the eve of Iran’s 2017 presidential election, Ebrahim Raisi, who would become president in 2021, sat down to give an interview to the Russia Today news outlet. His interlocutor was a French citizen, Catherine Perez-Shakdam, then a practicing Shi’a Moslem.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/15/2022 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.
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the 
...The word 
...The word 
[IsraelTimes] Users unable to reach sites with gov.il extension for an hour, as National Cyber Directorate reportedly declares state of emergency over incident.
...They hate 
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
