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Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Opinion        Politix   
One Dead, 13 Hurt in Vienna Building Explosion
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
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2 13:13 Uncle Phester [5] 
22 21:40 Pappy [4] 
9 18:48 Barbara [2] 
2 12:43 Gleaque de Medici [2] 
3 12:03 Shipman [2] 
2 21:41 Pappy [13] 
2 12:46 John Frum [9] 
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1 20:31 Uncle Phester [2] 
3 12:58 Gleaque de Medici [1] 
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2 12:16 Beldar Grerenter4538 [1]
2 02:37 Zenobia Floger6220 [1]
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Page 6: Politix
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Marshall Islands Sues Israel, US For Nuclear Arsenal
[Ynet] Tiny Pacific nation takes nine nuclear-armed nations to the ICC for modernizing arsenals instead of negotiating disarmament.
Pay attention to meeeeeee!!!
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/27/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Marshall lawyers all think it horrific
Global powers won't be more pacific.
Well, we do have a pile,
And at least for a while,
Renewed tests would make nukes less prolific!
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 04/27/2014 2:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Weird, half of the Marshall Islands income comes from testing parts of the U.S. nuclear force. Google map is interesting, skip along the mostly tiny islands that make up Kwajalein Atoll and look at all the installations.

Here is an installation on Roi-Namur (site of my Dad's first assault landing) that's looking for someone with just the right background. Walter take a look:

Security Clearance: Applicant selected will be subject to a government security investigation and must meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information.
Required Skills: Direct experience in designing/implementing improvements with respect to vacuum tube, high power peak pulsed microwave transmitters. Must also have experience in the design, support and debug of general RF equipment. Must be familiar with CAD tools including microwave design software. Experience with standard RF Measurement Equipment such as spectrum and network analyzers, and power meters. Good verbal and written communication skills.

Desired Skills: Supervisory/Leadership experience.

Typical Experience: 10+ years Transmitter design or maintenance experience.

Education: BSEE (MSEE Preferred).

Kwajalein: Top 10 Reasons to Work in Kwajalein:
10 - FREE Furnished Housing
9 - FREE Utilities (excluding phone)
8 - Potential Tax Exclusion
7 - FREE meals for unaccompanied personnel without kitchen facilities
6 - FREE schooling for accompanied children
5 - PAID relocation, storage and shipment of household goods
4 - AMPLE recreational facilities and activities
3 - PAID medical, dental, life insurance, and vacation
2 - Beaches, Beaches, Beaches
And the No. 1 Reason - You Get Paid for This...
Posted by: Shipman || 04/27/2014 3:04 Comments || Top||

#3  Time to invade the Marshall Islands, so...
Posted by: Gleaque de Medici || 04/27/2014 12:58 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Locusts Appear in Sidon and Tripoli
[An Nahar] Residents of the southern city of Sidon and its suburbs spotted several locusts on Saturday, which some experts said is due to the hot weather that Leb is witnessing currently, media reports said.

Citizens and farmers of the coastal area fear that an increase in the number of locusts could threaten their fields and crops.

Voice of Leb radio (93.3) reported that some locusts also appeared in the northern city of Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
.

Environment activist Najib Sinjer appeased the people's fears and told the radio station that "the number of locusts are unlikely to increase, they are most probably residues from last year's flocks. They are the result of the hot weather that Leb is witnessing."

The wave of locusts witnessed in the region originate from Africa, and several numbers were able to infiltrate Leb where the warm weather is a welcoming factor, reports said.
Posted by: Fred || 04/27/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  One of the Biblical plagues, IIRC. To be followed, no doubt, in short order by water into blood and then Frenchmen.
Posted by: SteveS || 04/27/2014 3:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Mock him at your own peril.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/27/2014 6:52 Comments || Top||

#3  I've always thought AlGore would make an exceptional trailer park manager. I suspect he's still looking for his Randy. Not safe for children or Burger Lovers.

Posted by: Shipman || 04/27/2014 12:03 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Over 100 dead, thousands left homeless by Afghan floods
[Egypt Independent] More than 100 people have been killed and thousands left homeless by flash floods in north and west Afghanistan, officials said on Friday, prompting desperate pleas for help from the impoverished provincial authorities.

Thousands of homes have been engulfed by flood waters in four provinces after three days of heavy rain in what is traditionally a wet period at the start of spring.

In the northern province of Jawzjan, police chief Faqer Mohammad Jawzjani said 55 bodies had been recovered, and that the number of dead would increase over the coming days.

"Providing aid or help from the ground is impossible," he told Rooters. "We have carried 1,500 people to safe areas of neighboring districts by helicopter. We need emergency assistance from the central government and aid agencies."

The governor of neighboring Faryab province said 33 people had died there and another 80 were missing.

"Ten thousand families have been affected and more than 2,000 houses have been destroyed," Mohammadullah Batazhn said.

Another 13 people were killed in the provinces of Badghis and Sar-e Pol, local officials said.
Posted by: Fred || 04/27/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Ukraine PM Says Russia Violations 'War Provocation' as Rebels Accuse Detained OSCE Team of Being 'NATO Spies'
[An Nahar] Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Saturday that Russian military aircraft had crossed the country's airspace seven times "to provoke Ukraine to start a war."

"Russian military aircraft today overnight crossed and violated Ukrainian airspace seven times. The only reason is to provoke Ukraine to start a war," he told journalists at a briefing in Rome, following a meeting with Pope Francis and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

However,
we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by...
shortly after the Ukraine PM's statement, Russia's defense ministry denied claims by the Pentagon and Yatsenyuk that its planes had repeatedly violated Ukrainian airspace in recent days.

"Russia's airspace monitoring systems have not registered any violations of air borders of the states adjacent to Russia, including Ukraine," the defense ministry said in a statement carried by the state ITAR TASS news agency.

The Pentagon had said Russian warplanes had violated Ukraine's airspace several times on Thursday.

The Ukrainian PM also said the seizure of 13 international OSCE observers by pro-Kremlin rebels who accuse them of being "NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
spies" was "another proof and evidence that these so-called peaceful protesters with Russian ideas are terrorists."

Russia pledged Saturday to help free the observers, who were sent to Ukraine to monitor an April 17 accord signed in Geneva between Russia, Ukraine, the United States and the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
that was meant to de-escalate the dangerous crisis in the ex-Soviet republic.

But pro-Russian rebels holding the OSCE observers accused them of being "NATO spies" and vowed to continue detaining them.

"Yesterday, we tossed in the slammer
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
some NATO spies... they will be exchanged for our own prisoners. I don't see any other way they will be freed," Denis Pushilin, the head of the turbans' self-declared Donetsk Republic, told news hounds.

Pushilin was speaking in front of the SBU security services building in rebel-held Slavyansk, where the OSCE team was being held.

The town's self-styled mayor, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, also told Russian TV news crews that the OSCE members were being considered "intelligence officers of NATO country members".

"Military personnel from Denmark, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria I think and -- from somewhere else, I can't immediately recall -- have been detained," he said in broadcasts seen in Moscow.
Posted by: Fred || 04/27/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Saturday that Russian military aircraft had crossed the country's airspace seven times "to provoke Ukraine to start a war.'"

Seriously?!
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 04/27/2014 20:31 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Turkish President Signs Law Expanding Spy Powers
[An Nahar] Turkish President Abdullah Gul approved a controversial law expanding the powers of the spy agency, a move critics say will tighten the graft-tainted government's control over state institutions.

The new legislation, adopted last week by parliament after heated debates, provides expanded scope for the MIT agency to tap private phone conversations and collect intelligence related to terrorism and international crimes.

It also offers spy agents greater immunity from prosecution and provides for prison terms of up to 10 years for journalists and others who publish leaked information.

The law was signed by Gul late Friday and came into force after being published in the Official Gazette on Saturday.

It is seen as the latest ammunition being deployed by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi only they haven't dumped him yet...
after leaked telephone conversations implicating him in a widening corruption scandal and revealing high-level security talks on Syria became public.

Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) argues the law will make the agency more efficient.

Erdogan, in power for 11 years, has accused former ally Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based Moslem holy man, and his loyalists in the police and the judiciary, of being behind the corruption probe and the leaks.

The government has reacted by embarking on a mass purge of police and prosecutors and launching an Internet crackdown that saw Twitter -- used to spread the leaks -- banned for two weeks.

Despite the corruption scandal and the highly criticized measures, the AKP won a resounding victory in March 30 local elections.
Posted by: Fred || 04/27/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Turkish President Abdullah Gul approved a controversial law expanding the powers of the spy agency, a move critics say will tighten the graft-tainted government's control over state institutions.

Clapper, Brennan, and Morell nod their approval, respond with polite golf clap.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/27/2014 12:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Paging Matahari

Posted by: Gleaque de Medici || 04/27/2014 12:43 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Alleged Hillary Clinton shoe thrower arraigned
"U.S. Magistrate Judge Cam Ferenbach then granted the government's request to keep Ernst in federal custody, saying she was a flight risk and danger to the community. She is being held at a jail operated by a federal contractor in Pahrump, 63 miles west of Las Vegas
Enough with the Nevada, already
"Ernst wasn't a credentialed conference attendee and should not have been in the ballroom, authorities said. She somehow got past people checking tickets at the entrance, they said, and she was arrested immediately after the shoe was tossed."
I dunno. Something about this story stinks. For starters, was this a Khrushchev shoe trick, or was the lady partially shod on the way out?
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 04/27/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Pawrump, Nevada? Contractors, shoefly, dead cows ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/27/2014 6:16 Comments || Top||

#2  She's lucky the fedgov didn't deploy 20 of the meanest foreign mercenaries money can buy.
Posted by: badanov || 04/27/2014 6:36 Comments || Top||

#3  That militia teleconference piece you posted yesterday was absolutely unbelievable. What a total cock-up.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/27/2014 6:46 Comments || Top||

#4  Growing pains...
Posted by: badanov || 04/27/2014 7:29 Comments || Top||

#5  Well, why does this matter?

See missed. Get over it.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 04/27/2014 8:08 Comments || Top||

#6  They screw much longer with this minor event they fall into the 'right to speedy trial' zone. How hard is it to put together the case. They're just using their power to punish without due process. She used a shoe. Even though the TSA makes you take them off, you can still fly with them.
Posted by: P2kontheroad || 04/27/2014 8:42 Comments || Top||

#7  BTW, Pahrump, home to Sheri's Ranch and the Chicken Ranch.
Posted by: P2kontheroad || 04/27/2014 8:46 Comments || Top||

#8  No bail? She must be a real dangerous felon
Posted by: John Frum || 04/27/2014 10:09 Comments || Top||

#9  Funny that no mention is made of the stellar security at the door checking off the names of the 'credentialed conference attendees' as they entered. No doubt still being de-briefed then the Bundy Range Wars......
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 04/27/2014 11:46 Comments || Top||

#10  The Beast is both angry and envious. Ernst's shoe removal was.... unassisted.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/27/2014 11:48 Comments || Top||

#11  Her only mistake was throwing the wrong shoe

Posted by: Gleaque de Medici || 04/27/2014 12:50 Comments || Top||

#12  A) Won't get on MSM Narrative.
B) Won't get called political prisoner like Bush's shoe thrower was.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/27/2014 13:56 Comments || Top||

#13  I heard she made an anti-Islamic video for the Interwebz too
Posted by: Frank G || 04/27/2014 15:04 Comments || Top||

#14  Well, maybe the shoe thrower was enraged by an anti-muslim video. Now that is a possible theory.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/27/2014 15:05 Comments || Top||

#15  Dammit all, Commodore Frank!!! I came up with a creative original idea, and you beat me with the Original Idea (TM) by one minute.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/27/2014 15:08 Comments || Top||

#16  ;-)
Posted by: Frank G || 04/27/2014 15:12 Comments || Top||

#17  Conviction should be a shoe in.
Posted by: European Conservative || 04/27/2014 15:39 Comments || Top||

#18  What does it matter now?
Posted by: Clirt Smiter of the Hemps || 04/27/2014 16:10 Comments || Top||

#19  Another shoe bomb detonation failure ?
Posted by: junkiron || 04/27/2014 16:38 Comments || Top||

#20  In the local Native American dialect I believe the word pahrump means "waterhole".

The town of Pahrump Nevada appears to be located around several famous ones.
Posted by: junkiron || 04/27/2014 17:23 Comments || Top||

#21  She threw a shoe at Shrillery?

"At this point, what difference does it make?"
Posted by: Barbara || 04/27/2014 18:45 Comments || Top||

#22  She is being held at a jail operated by a federal contractor in Pahrump, 63 miles west of Las Vegas

Imagine what would have happened to her had she thrown the shoe in D.C.
Posted by: Pappy || 04/27/2014 21:40 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
India tests high-altitude interceptor missile
India has successfully test-fired an anti-ballistic missile capable of intercepting targets outside the earth's atmosphere, a major step in development of a missile defence system that is available to only a handful of nations.

The missile dubbed as Prithvi Defence Vehicle (PDV) was launched from a ship in the country's Bay of Bengal at 9:07am on Sunday. It can engage targets in the exo-atmosphere region at more than 120km altitude.

"In an automated operation, radar based detection and tracking system detected and tracked the enemy's ballistic missile," a statement of India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said.

The test fire has been hailed as "significant milestone" achieved in the direction of developing a two-layered Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) system.

Currently, only a small club of nations including the United States, Russia and Israel possess an anti-ballistic missile system.

"This (test) is part of the ballistic missile defence system which we are developing...," said Ravi Kumar Gupta, DRDO spokesman.

"The mission has been completed and the interception parameter has been achieved."

DRDO, which has developed the missile, said the computer network with the help of data received from radars predicted the trajectory of the incoming ballistic missile while PDV that was kept fully ready, took-off once the computer system gave the necessary command for lift-off.

"Both, the PDV interceptor and the two stage target equipped with motors were specially developed for the mission. The target was developed for mimicking a "hostile" ballistic missile approaching from more than 2000 km away," DRDO said in the statement.

Sharing borders with nuclear armed China and Pakistan, India is developing a two-tier missile defence system that aims to provide a multi-layered shield against ballistic missile attack. India, China and Pakistan are all nuclear powers.

India has fought three wars with Pakistan and came close to a fourth one in 2001. It lost a brief Himalayan border war with its larger neighbour China in 1962 and has ever since strived to improve its defences.
Posted by: John Frum || 04/27/2014 09:54 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=566602460103750

Interceptor launch video
Posted by: John Frum || 04/27/2014 10:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Glad to hear it, I think.
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 04/27/2014 13:13 Comments || Top||


Pakistan to be the last place where polio will exist, WHO meeting told
[DAWN] Recent reports have painted a bleak picture of Pakistan's fight against poliovirus.

"Pakistan which currently stands at the top in the last three polio endemic countries in the world for housing big wild poliovirus (WPV) reservoirs, will be the last place on earth in which polio exists," is a disturbing information shared at a meeting of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) held in the first week of this month in the World Health Organisation's headquarters at Geneva.
Posted by: Fred || 04/27/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  thought Syria and Nigeria had it as well?
Posted by: Frank G || 04/27/2014 10:51 Comments || Top||

#2  They are all making progress on eradication. Pakistan on the other hand....
Posted by: John Frum || 04/27/2014 12:46 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Scientists have built an 'off switch' for the brain
Methinks they're late to the, er, party. [LINK]
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 04/27/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Optogenetics 'off switch' is it? I was only aware of the erogenous override.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/27/2014 6:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Scientists have developed an “off-switch” for the brain to effectively shut down neural activity using light pulses.

Most call it a "TV".
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 04/27/2014 9:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Great! Now we'll hopefully be able to figure out what's wrong with liberals.
Posted by: gorb || 04/27/2014 9:54 Comments || Top||

#4  #2 - my first thought on reading the headline was the same
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 04/27/2014 10:04 Comments || Top||

#5  Now they just need to invent an "on switch" for the O administration
Posted by: European Conservative || 04/27/2014 12:00 Comments || Top||

#6  Yeah, who is going to turn you back on ?

Posted by: Gleaque de Medici || 04/27/2014 12:41 Comments || Top||

#7  vow, nowadays you've to go school and then university to get the same result
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/27/2014 15:04 Comments || Top||

#8  Great! Now we'll hopefully be able to figure out what's wrong with liberals.

They already know what's wrong with liberals.
They just needed to shine some light up the right orifice.

The problem with liberals is that even with their brains "switched off" their mouths keep on running.
Posted by: junkiron || 04/27/2014 18:46 Comments || Top||

#9  Too late!

The Leftists already invented it (for themselves, at least).
Posted by: Barbara || 04/27/2014 18:48 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Gunfight Erupts between Two Families in Dahiyeh
[An Nahar] The army deployed heavily on Saturday in Beirut's southern suburbs to end festivities that erupted between two families in al-Jamous neighborhood, media reports said.

According to the state-run National News Agency, gunbattles broke out between Nassereddine and Meqdad families in the neighborhood.

Heavy fire was heard in nearby areas.

The reason behind the incident remains unknown.

MTV quoted later the army command as saying: "We will not tolerate any security breach and will strike with an iron fist."

NNA said that several injuries were reported and an apartment was set ablaze after it was hit by a mortar shell.

The army command issued a communique later saying: "at 11:00 am an individual dispute occurred between two families in Beirut's southern suburbs."

The statement described the dispute erupted over previous disagreements between the two families.

"The dispute developed into shootouts between members of the families, prompting an army unity to deploy in the area and restore calm."

The statement said that the army is carrying out raids to detain those involved in the incident and refer them to the competent authorities.
Posted by: Fred || 04/27/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [13 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Rojos and Baxters?
Posted by: Frank G || 04/27/2014 10:52 Comments || Top||

#2  "Plenty of money to be made in this town..."
Posted by: Pappy || 04/27/2014 21:41 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
22[untagged]
3Govt of Pakistan
3Arab Spring
2Palestinian Authority
2TTP
2Govt of Syria
2Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis
1Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant
1Lashkar e-Jhangvi
1Seleka
1Thai Insurgency
1al-Qaeda in Pakistan
1Govt of Iran
1Govt of Iraq
1al-Qaeda in North Africa

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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.

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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2014-04-27
  One Dead, 13 Hurt in Vienna Building Explosion
Sat 2014-04-26
  Syria militants suffers heavy losses across Aleppo
Fri 2014-04-25
  Yemen Qaida Gunmen Seize Hospitals to Treat Wounded
Thu 2014-04-24
  Three Americans gunned down in Kabul hospital attack
Wed 2014-04-23
  Saudi Arabia Sentences 8 To Death For 2003 Riyadh Attack
Tue 2014-04-22
  33 killed, dozens injured in terrorist attacks across Iraq
Mon 2014-04-21
  30 'Qaida' Suspects Killed in Yemen Drone Strike
Sun 2014-04-20
  Hamid Mir wounded in Pakistan gun attack
Sat 2014-04-19
  Drone Kills 15 'Qaida', 3 Civilians in Yemen
Fri 2014-04-18
  Afghan woman MP shot in Kabul
Thu 2014-04-17
  Al-Nusra Chief Killed by Rivals in Syria
Wed 2014-04-16
  Deputy Minister Kidnapped in Kabul
Tue 2014-04-15
  Twin bomb blasts kill 71, injure 124 in Nigeria
Mon 2014-04-14
  Boko Haram massacres students, kills 200 others in Borno
Sun 2014-04-13
  Gunmen storm 'pro-govt' Pak village, kidnap 100 men


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