[RTE] In Afghanistan, there is a saying: زمستان مرگ غریب است (winter is the death of the poor).
Millions of people in Afghanistan this December are at risk of famine and are taking extraordinary and devastating measures to survive.
Parents are selling their organs and children to buy food. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some are also sedating their children, to help them forget about hunger.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Whenever the White House is occupied by a corrupt tyrant, we pay a price. The price paid by people in the 3rd world is magnified especially among those who struggle to survive.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/30/2022 11:22 Comments ||
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[KhaamaPress] The United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... and its humanitarian partners are committed to the delivery of life-saving services to the people of Afghanistan during these difficult times, a UN envoy for Afghanistan said on Thursday.
In a media briefing, in New York, on Thursday, Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for Afghanistan said, despite the Taliban ...Arabic for students... -run administration’s decision to ban women from working in non-governmental organizations, the UN and its partners will deliver the much-needed humanitarian aid to the people of Afghanistan during these tough times.
Noted.
"Humanitarian needs of the (Afghan) people are absolutely enormous, and it’s important that we continue to stay and deliver," Ramiz Alakbarov, UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for Afghanistan, told a press briefing at the UN headquarters in New York.
"We do not believe that it is possible to deliver a comprehensive humanitarian action without the participation of women," he said.
This comes as Afghanistan’s interim government announced a complete ban on women employees working for private and international non-government organizations effective from December 24. The move prompted massive condemnations on national and international levels, calling on the ruling regime to reverse the decision and allow women to return to work with humanitarian aid agencies.
Furthermore, the de facto authorities had also banned women from attending universities nationwide, accompanied by global condemnations. Amid the dire economic and humanitarian crisis, the recent decisions by the Taliban authorities have further complicated the living conditions for ordinary people. The temporary suspension of the humanitarian aid programs by some NGOs across the country puts the lives of millions of vulnerable people at immediate risk.
[ToloNews] The United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... in a statement said that some agencies in Afghanistan have stopped their activities and warned that some other programs will also halt their operations because of the Islamic Emirate’s decision to ban women from working in non-governmental organizations.
UN’s Principals of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee on Afghanistan in a statement said that banning women from working in humanitarian non-governmental organizations is a major blow to vulnerable communities, women, children, and the country.
The committee added that women are teachers, nutrition experts, team leaders, community health workers, vaccinators, nurses, doctors, and heads of organizations, and have access to populations that male employees cannot reach, their participation in aid delivery is not negotiable and must continue, some organization for lack of female staff has to pause their activities.
"We foresee that many activities will need to be paused as we cannot deliver principled humanitarian assistance without female aid workers," the committee said.
The UN committee urged the Islamic Emirate to reverse the ban on women’s schools, universities and work.
Meanwhile, ...back at the shootout, Butch shot Ike through the elbow. Take that, Ike! he yelled...... foreign ministries of 12 countries, including the US and the UK, in a statement expressed grave concern about the Islamic Emirate’s decision to bar women from working in NGOs. They said that the decision puts at risk millions of Afghans who depend on humanitarian assistance for their survival.
"NGOs will be unable to reach the country’s most vulnerable people to provide food, medicine, winterization, and other materials and services they need to live, this would also affect the humanitarian assistance provided by international organizations, as international organizations utilize NGOs to deliver such materials and services," the statement said.
They called on the Islamic Emirate to reverse immediately their decision to ban women from working in NGOs.
According to international organizations, over 28 million people in Afghanistan, including millions of women and kiddies, require assistance to survive as the country grapples with the risk of famine conditions, economic decline, entrenched poverty and a brutal winter.
[AnNahar] A Ottoman Turkish court Thursday refused to release a top doctor who faces years in jail for demanding a probe into the army's alleged use of chemical weapons ...have not been used since WWI except for in Iraq, by the late, unlamented Saddam Hussein and in Syria, but really, honest, not by the Syrian government. And in Germany in WWII, but that was against civilians. Lots of them, just one of many reasons Hitler's also late and unlamented except among devout Moslems... against Kurdish fighters in Iraq.
Ottoman Turkish Medical Association head Sebnem Korur Fincanci was detained in October for using a television interview to highlight claims that first surfaced in media close to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The militia said 17 of its fighters had died in Ottoman Turkish chemical weapons attacks in the mountains and caves of northern Iraq.
The PKK is proscribed as a terrorist organization by Ankara and its Western allies for waging a bloody insurgency that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 1984.
President His Enormity, 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. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than there are in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really most important... accused Fincanci of "speaking the language of terrorism" while the defence ministry called the allegation "slander".
The 63-year-old forensic medicine expert could be incarcerated Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! for up to 7.5 years if found guilty of promoting "terror propaganda."
Fincanci told the presiding judge in the second week of her trial that Erdogan's comments made an impartial hearing impossible.
"The president could call me a terrorist," she told the packed Istanbul courtroom.
"After this statement, how could public institutions and the judiciary make an independent ruling?"
The judge ended the hearing by sending the doctor back to prison and setting the next hearing for January 11.
- 'TURKEY'S BRAVEST VOICE' -
Fincanci is known in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... as both a forensics expert and a human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... campaigner who openly speaks out against Erdogan's government.
Her initial detention sparked protests on the streets of Istanbul that resulted in dozens of arrests.
The Ottoman Turkish Medical Association she chairs covers around 80 percent of the country's doctors.
But its past forays into national political debates have seen several of its top members come under investigation.
The union said in a statement to news hounds outside the courtroom that all 11 of its executive committee members were now under formal investigation for potential "membership of a terrorist organization."
"If I am a terrorist, I wonder what organization I am a terrorist of," Fincanci told the court.
"They treat me as if I am the most dangerous suspect in the world in order to influence you," she told the presiding judge.
Fincanci's case has drawn an outpouring of support from international rights groups as well as some European officials.
German human rights commissioner Luise Amtsberg called Fincanci "one of Turkey's bravest voices."
Amnesia Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch issued a joint call with five other organizations for Fincanci's release pending her trial.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/30/2022 01:23 ||
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#1
Gassing the Kurds has become a century old tradition.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/30/2022 11:35 Comments ||
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[News18] Pakistain’s Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah has said that the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban ...Arabic for students... Pakistain (TTP) Death Eater group has between 7,000 to 10,000 fighters in the Pakistain-Afghanistan border ...also known as Pashtunistan, home of ignorance, poverty, and automatic weapons... area.
Sanaullah also revealed that the rebels were accompanied by 25,000 members of their families.
His remarks to Dawn News TV come at a time when the TTP has stepped up its countrywide attacks, including the first suicide kaboom in the capital Islamabad since 2014.
The TTP has increased the attacks on security forces since November when they ended a months-long cease-fire with the Pakistain government.
Sanaullah pointed out that some locals were also involved in crimes such as extortion and blackmail and alleged that the provincial government had failed to stop them, Dawn newspaper reported.
"The biggest reason for this is the failure of (the) Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government and Counter Terrorism Department (...) It is their job to stop it," the interior minister said, blaming the provincial government led by ousted prime minister Imran Khan ...aka The Great Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree... ’s Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... : party.
He said that Pakistain had its Army for the protection of the borders, adding that if the provincial government cannot handle the situation, it can request the federal government.
"The Army will eliminate all such elements of terrorism." Commenting on the prevalent viewpoint that TTP took the dialogue and ceasefire excuse to regroup, Sanaullah said the group never scattered and was further bolstered by the success of the Afghan Taliban.
Agreeing with the idea of an all-party conference or a national security meeting on the emerging threat of terrorism, the minister said such huddles must take place but stressed that the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government first needed to sit with the federal government and talk.
"The KP government needs to inform the federal government about the law and order in the province — the counter-terrorism department is in peril and the police are demoralised — and ask what help the Centre can extend and it is ready to assist them.
"We held two meetings in Islamabad where the chief minister was invited but the latter didn’t show up as he was planning to mount on the capital (for a long march) and was not allowed by party chief Imran Khan," Sanaullah claimed.
A policeman along with two suspected faceless myrmidons was killed and at least six others, including four coppers, were maimed in the bombing on Friday in the upscale residential area. The bombing was claimed by Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP)-a banned terrorist group that has reactivated after the capture of Kabul by the Afghan Taliban.
The TTP, believed to be close to al-Qaeda, has been blamed for several deadly attacks across Pakistain, including an attack on army headquarters in 2009, assaults on military bases, and the 2008 bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad.
In 2014, the Pak Taliban stormed the Army Public School (APS) in the northwestern city of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistain's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire... , killing at least 150 people, including 131 students.
The Friday attack was the first suicide kaboom incident in Islamabad since the 2014 courthouse bombing that killed 10 people.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/30/2022 00:40 ||
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu swore in Israel’s 37th government on Thursday, promising that his right-religious coalition will deliver political stability after five bumpy back-to-back elections since 2019.
Confidence in the government was confirmed by 63 of the 64 coalition members, constituting a relatively solid and cohesive majority in the 120-seat Knesset. Fifty-four MKs voted against.
With a total of 15 years in two stints in the country’s top seat — he is now beginning his third — Netanyahu is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. This will be his sixth government, and by allying far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties to his right-wing Likud, it will be his and the country’s most hardline to date.
According to coalition agreements signed between Likud and each of its five partner parties, as well as its published guiding principles, the incoming government will prioritize comprehensive judicial reform, including a commitment to pass a High Court override law designed to reduce judicial checks on executive and legislative power, expand settlement and consider West Bank annexation policy, combat the cost of living, and further centralize ultra-Orthodox control over state Jewish services.
Lots of political inside baseball at the link, for those interested.
Inside the plenum, Netanyahu was interrupted by heckles from the opposition as he outlined the three main missions of his government: stopping the Iran nuclear program, developing state infrastructure with emphasis on connecting peripheral communities to the country’s center, and bolstering law and order.
In his speech, Netanyahu accused opposition lawmakers of not accepting the results of the November 1 election, despite the fact that the legitimacy of the ballot has never been questioned.
“I hear the constant cries of the opposition about the end of the country and democracy,” Netanyahu said.
“Losing elections isn’t the end of democracy — it’s the essence of democracy,” he said.
The note echoed a similar handwritten letter with the words “be right back!” that was left for Naftali Bennett on the desk of the Prime Minister’s Office when he arrived to take over as premier last summer.
Who’s who in the new Netanyahu-led government
A look at the 31 ministers, just 5 of them women, in Israel’s 37th government from Likud and its far-right and ultra-Orthodox partners, and some of their newly created ministries
[IsraelTimes] A month after announcing its plan to open an embassy in Tel Aviv, Baku’s government taps Deputy Education Minister Mukhtar Mammadov to head the mission.
[AlAhram] Iran ...Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979... appointed a new head of its central bank on Thursday after the currency crashed to its lowest level ever against the dollar amid mass protests and ongoing Western sanctions.
Iran appointed a new head of its central bank on Thursday after the currency crashed to its lowest level ever against the dollar amid mass protests and ongoing Western sanctions.
Mohammad Reza Farzin, 57, a senior banker and former deputy finance minister, was tapped to replace Ali Salehabadi, who resigned after 15 months at the post, the official IRNA news agency reported. "Please don't kill me!"
The rial was trading at around 430,000 to the dollar on Thursday, down from 370,000 earlier this month. Already battered by years of Western sanctions over Iran's nuclear program, the rial was trading at 315,000 when anti-government protests erupted in mid-September.
The protests were ignited by the death of a woman who was detained by the country's morality police. The demonstrations rapidly escalated into calls for an end to more than four decades of holy manal rule.
At least 508 protesters have been killed and more than 18,600 people have been arrested, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that has closely monitored the unrest. Iranian authorities have not provided an official corpse count.
Iran's currency was trading at 32,000 rials to the dollar at the time of the 2015 nuclear accord that lifted international sanctions in exchange for tight controls on Iran's nuclear program. That deal unraveled after then-President Donald Trump ...His ancestors didn't own any slaves... unilaterally withdrew the United States from it in 2018.
The Biden administration (aka the Wilmington comorra) ...the collection of boodlers, grifters, hangers-on, and self-proclaimed experts affiliated with the Biden Crime Family. Entrusted with an entire nation as the result of a suspicious election, they set about happily implementing stuff they absorbed in college, all of which blew up and splattered the rest of us... had been trying to restore the agreement up until the protests broke out, but those talks hit a deadlock several months ago.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/30/2022 01:10 ||
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#1
You got to love a personnel change without a policy change. I would take a permanent international vacation with all my stuff if I was the guy who got booted. Things aren’t going to get better; make them work to scape goat me. I would become an Edmonton Eskimos season ticket holder.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/30/2022 11:33 Comments ||
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[AlAhram] Iran's army begins Thursday military exercises in strategic southern regions east of the Strait of Hormuz, state news agency IRNA reported.
Joint drills involving air, land, and naval forces -- including both drones and submarines -- will take place around the southeastern port of Jask "east of the Strait of Hormuz", deputy coordinator of the armed forces Admiral Habibollah Sayyari told IRNA.
The Strait of Hormuz is the strategic chokepoint at the head of the Gulf through which a fifth of world oil output passes.
Exercises will involve "infantry, armored and mechanized units of the ground forces, defense systems of the air defense force (and) subsurface and surface vessels", he said.
Naval forces with the support of "strategic bombers of the air force" will also take part.
Sayyari said that drones will practice "information-gathering operations against attacking forces as well as reconnaissance operations".
During similar exercises last year, Iran's military said it warned off two US drones that overflew waters where the drills were being held.
In May, state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
broadcast footage of an air base for drones under the western Zagros Mountain range.
Iran's army unveiled its first division of ships and submarines capable of carrying armed drones in July when US President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. Being a self-defined foreign policy whiz kid means never having to say you're sorry... was touring the Middle East.
In August, the army launched large-scale drone drills across the country involving 150 unmanned aerial vehicles.
The United States and Israel, arch-enemies of Iran, have previously accused Tehran of using drones and missiles to attack US forces and Israel-linked ships in the Gulf.
The Islamic republic has also faced rounds of sanctions by Western countries as they accuse Iran ...Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979... of providing drones to Russia to be used in the Ukraine war, a claim Tehran has roundly rejected.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/30/2022 01:09 ||
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#1
Hopefully, they will sink their carrier again this year.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/30/2022 11:24 Comments ||
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[Rudaw] Iraq is set to repatriate more than 150 people from northeast Syria’s (Rojava) al-Hol camp at the beginning of next year, the displacement and migration minister said on Thursday, adding that there are currently over 8,000 Iraqi families in the notorious camp.
Iraqis have made up more than half of the population of al-Hol camp in Rojava’s Hasaka province for years. The camp houses over 50,000 residents, most of which are wives and children of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) fighters.
"We have over 8,000 families in al-Hol camp. The process of their repatriation will resume from the beginning of next year," Ivan Fayaq, Iraq’s displacement and migration minister, told news hounds on Thursday, adding "over 150 people will be repatriated at the beginning of next year to al-Jada camp."
Fayaq said that the individuals will be repatriated following the completion of security checks, stressing that they will especially focus on repatriating women and kiddies that have "no connection to ISIS at all."
The individuals will undergo a rehabilitation program for at least a month inside al-Jada camp before returning to their original places of residence, she added.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrested thousands of ISIS fighters and their wives and children when they took control of the group's last stronghold in Syria in March 2019.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/30/2022 00:03 ||
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[Rudaw] The United States Central Command (CENTCOM) on Thursday said that over 300 operations were carried out by US forces and their partners against the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) in 2022, in which more than 680 operatives of the murderous Moslem group were killed.
"These operations degraded ISIS and removed a cadre of big shots from the battlefield, to include the emir of ISIS and dozens of regional leaders," said CENTCOM in their end of year update on the mission against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
According to the report, a total of 122 operations were conducted against ISIS is Syria throughout the year, killing 466 ISIS operatives and detaining 215 others. As for Iraq, a total of 191 operations resulted in 220 operatives killed and 159 others detained.
"No US forces were maimed or killed in these operations," it added.
The yearly review lauded the role of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Iraqi security forces in "ensuring the enduring defeat of ISIS."
"The emerging, reliable and steady ability of our Iraqi and Syrian partner forces to conduct unilateral operations to capture and kill ISIS leaders allows us to maintain steady pressure on the ISIS network," the report cited Major General Matt McFarlane, commander of Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve, as saying.
The US security relationship with Iraq fully transitioned into an advising and assisting role in December 2021, but the US forces to carry out unilateral operations against ISIS in Syria.
ISIS in November announced the death of the group’s leader Abu al-Hassan al-Hashemi al-Qurashi, saying he had been killed while combatting "the enemies of Allah," without elaborating when and where he died.
There are currently over 10,000 ISIS bandidosturbans held in detentions facilities throughout Syria, and more than 20,000 held in facilities in Iraq, according to the update.
CENTCOM commander General Michael "Erik" Kurilla stated there are over 25,000 children in northeast Syria’s (Rojava) notorious al-Hol who are "prime targets for ISIS radicalization," calling on the international community to repatriate and rehabilitate the children, as it is "the only viable long-term solution."
"The international community must work together to remove these children from this environment by repatriating them to their countries or communities of origin while improving conditions in the camp," the yearly review cited Kurilla as saying.
ISIS rose to power across swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014 but it was territorially defeated five years later. Despite the group being devoid of any territorial control, it continues to pose security risks through kidnappings, hit-and-run attacks, and bombings in the both countries.
The SDF arrested thousands of ISIS fighters and their wives and children when they took control of the group's last stronghold in Syria in March 2019.
Housing over 50,000 ISIS affiliates, al-Hol camp has been branded a breeding ground for the murderous Moslem group and described as a "ticking time bomb" by Kurdish and Iraqi authorities.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/30/2022 00:02 ||
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#1
If they resulted in arrests, they were not worth fucko.
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.
...Arabic for 
...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. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than there are in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really most important...
...aka 
...Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979...
...Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979...
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
