Egypt's security forces have foiled an "imminent" attack on a foreign embassy plotted by an Al-Qaeda cell, according to Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim.
The radical Islamists had been in contact with Al-Qaeda in Algeria, Pakistan and on the Syrian-Turkish border, where their contact is monitoring the inflow of jihadists into the war-torn country. Ibrahim claimed one of the suspects also traveled to combat training camps in Iran and Pakistan.
"The interior ministry was able to direct a qualitative blow to a terrorist cell which was planning to carry out suicide attacks against vital, important and foreign establishments," declared Ibrahim, who did not specify which country was to be targeted by the attack. He did, however, say that the extremists planned to use either a car stuffed with explosives, or a remotely detonated home-made device to carry out the terrorist act.
Ibrahim said the three suspects were captured with 10 kilograms of ammonium nitrate -- an ingredient in explosives -- and a computer containing bomb-making instructions.
The minister told journalists at a Cairo press conference that the radical Islamists had been in contact with Al-Qaeda in Algeria, Pakistan and on the Syrian-Turkish border, where their contact is monitoring the inflow of jihadists into the war-torn country. Ibrahim claimed one of the suspects also traveled to combat training camps in Iran and Pakistan.
A lawyer for the three men has told local Al-Ahram website that the charges against them were "fabricated."
A day-long congressional hearing into the deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi left open questions about al-Qaidas alleged connections to CIA operations in the Mideast.
A senior U.S. intelligence source deeply involved in the Libya investigation said the real test of the House probe will be whether lawmakers go beyond the Obama administrations account of the Sept. 11, 2012 events.
While the administration clearly put out a disinformation line that the terrorist attack was actually a spontaneous demonstration protesting a film slandering the Prophet Mohammed, the bigger issue is the secret Obama administration program to arm rebels in Syria via the CIA safehouse in Benghazi, according to the source quoted by Executive Intelligence Review.
If reports of a CIA gunrunning operation became the target of the congressional inquiry, they could affirm published allegations that the administration had a covert program to arm the Syrian rebels with weapons confiscated after the assassination of Col. Moammar Qaddafi.
In a new book, Benghazi: The Definitive Report, Brandon Webb and Jack Murphy accuse John Brennan then the U.S. counterterrorism chief of transferring the weapons to Syrian President Bashar Assads opponents.
#1
the bigger issue is the secret Obama administration program to arm rebels in Syria via the CIA safehouse in Benghazi."
I would think. How is this different from Iran/Contra? I mean, except that the president is a Dem. And that the "rebels" he is arming are even worse than the government they seek to overthrow. Or am I just being dense?
#2
no difference,just that if you say anything the Obama dictatorship you're automatically labeled racist. Also be expectting a visit from his brownshirts!
Posted by: chris ||
05/11/2013 22:30
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It's different because shut up.
So there.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
05/11/2013 23:02
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Car bombs in the southern Turkish town of Reyhanli near the border with Syria killed more than 30 people on Saturday, Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin said.
"The number of people who were killed or injured is more than 100 now. More than 30 people were killed, and the number of people injured has increased," Ergin told Turkish broadcaster NTV.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/11/2013
13:35 ||
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#4
Prior to this, I thought Turkey was gearing up to intervene in Syria. Their problem is they don't trust their military, and large scale troop movements could be used as cover for a coup.
The attorney for one of the Benghazi whistleblowers told TheBlaze Radio that he has more people who want to come forward to testify.
Joseph diGenova, attorney for acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Counterterrorism Mark Thompson, did not specify how many new witnesses there were, but said they had been on the ground and in the fight during the September assault that left four Americans dead. Thompson was one of three whistleblowers who went before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.
Weve been contacted by some people on the ground who were there, who were in the fight, who want to come forward but who fear if they do they will never get contract work with the agency again, diGenova told TheBlaze Radio host Jay Severin on Thursday. We are going to test the director of central intelligences word [that those who testify will not be penalized]. If these people decide they want to come forward, the first thing were going to do is go to the directors office and say here they are, how are you going to protect them?
DiGenova suggested there are more hearings on Benghazi to come, saying lawmakers crossed the Rubicon yesterday, theres no turning back after Wednesdays congressional hearing.
More questions have been raised about security in Benghazi and the Obama administrations handling of the situation after multiple senior-level intelligence officials confirmed to TheBlaze that Libya was under an elevated threat warning effective Sept. 8, 2012 three days prior to the assault. The warning about a potential attack went out to all impacted embassies, personnel numbers were reduced and requests for additional security were made.
Everyone in the intelligence community knew this attack was coming, one source said.
Additionally, a Sept. 10 conference call with senior intelligence officials discussed the warning and made sure diplomatic facilities in Tripoli and Benghazi were aware of the situation. One source estimated that at least 1,000 intelligence and State Department employees knew of the warning.
Bring the top dozen or so into the House for testimony. That'll be good for a day's worth of hearing, and we can watch the Democrats try to spin that one. It's one thing to allege that there were a few 'disgruntled' employees acting as whistleblowers, but it's hard to claim that a dozen -- or a hundred -- employees are all angry or crazy.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/11/2013
13:26 ||
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Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has gone, hat in hand, to health industry officials, asking them to make large financial donations to help with the effort to implement President Obama's landmark health-care law, two people familiar with the outreach said. Do they get to eat lunch with the Prez, too? They're having his dinner...
Her unusual fundraising push comes after Congress repeatedly rejected the Obama administration's requests for additional funds to set up the Affordable Care Act, leaving HHS to implement the president's signature legislative accomplishment on what officials have described as a shoestring budget. Budget? I remember it being "revenue neutral". Or was that only for those that don't contribute to revenue, anyways?
HHS spokesman Jason Young added that a special section in the Public Health Service Act allows the secretary to support and encourage others to support nonprofit groups working to provide health information and conduct other public-health activities.
Sebelius is working "with a full range of stakeholders who share in the mission of getting Americans the help they need and deserve," Young said. "Part of our mission is to help uninsured Americans take advantage of new, quality affordable insurance options that are coming thanks to the health law." My Daddy taught me you deserved what you could pay for.
Young said that Sebelius did not solicit for funds directly from industries that HHS regulates, such as insurance companies and hospitals, but rather asked them to contribute in whatever way they can. Who could contribute 2,500 bedpans, fer instance?
But dastardly Republicans charged that Sebelius's outreach was improper because it pressured private companies and other groups to support the Affordable Care Act. The latest controversy has emerged as the law faces a string of challenges from evil GOP lawmakers in Washington and skepticism from many state officials across the country.
"To solicit funds from health-care executives to help pay for the implementation of the President's $2.6 trillion health spending law is absurd," Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) said in a statement. "I will be seeking more information from the Administration about these actions to help better understand whether there are conflicts of interest and if it violated federal law."
Meredith McGehee, policy director for the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, which researches government ethics issues, said she was troubled by Sebelius's activities because the secretary seemed to be "using the power of government to compel giving or insinuate that giving is going to be looked at favorably by the government."
The success of the Affordable Care Act largely hinges on whether enough people sign up for insurance coverage. If only a small number of sick people participate, premiums would spike. Hence, the fine - excuse me - tax, if you don't sign up.
But spreading information about the law to the 30 million uninsured Americans has been a struggle, partly because there isn't enough money to fund the effort, HHS officials have argued. What about all the folks who lined up the day after it was passed, looking for their free health care? They don't need more information, do they? So set up a website, Kathleen...
The Affordable Care Act included $1 billion to be used in overall implementation of the law. Congressional Budget Office projections, however, estimated that federal agencies will need between $5 billion and $10 billion to get the law up and running over the next decade. I wonder how long it'll take to pay off they $10 billion 'investment' in order to achieve revenue neutrality?
And because many states have refused to partner with the federal government in setting up the law, the burden on HHS has grown.
In 2012, budget documents show that HHS pulled hundreds of millions of dollars from programs not specifically earmarked for the Affordable Care Act's implementation. On top of that, the agency announced Thursday that it would use $150 million in Affordable Care Act funds meant to build additional community health centers to train thousands of health-care outreach workers at facilities that already exist. How will they be able to demonstrate revenue neutrality with the funds shifting around like that? Oh. They can't? So revenue neutral was a ... prevarication?
"Investing in health centers for outreach and enrollment assistance provides one more way the Obama administration is helping consumers understand their options and enroll in affordable coverage," Secretary Sebelius said in a statement.
Health insurers plan to run their own outreach campaigns alongside the work of the Obama administration. They have a vested interest in recruiting Americans to enroll in their specific products rather than those of their competitors.
"As open enrollment gets closer, health plans will be engaged in a variety of innovative outreach activities," spokesman Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for the trade association America's Health Insurance Plans, said.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/11/2013
11:40 ||
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#1
Congress repeatedly rejected the Obama administration's requests for additional funds to set up the Affordable Care Act
Funny, Congress did the same thing to South Vietnam. And that was viewed as a "good thing".
#4
Wonder if she is using her real email account to do the on line begging........
this is beyond repulsive, just when you thought the bambi regime coundn't go any lower, they broke out a whole bunch of new shovels..
#5
I loath that woman. That narrow face and those beady eyes.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
05/11/2013 18:28
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#6
"they broke out a whole bunch of new shovels"
Naaaahhh, USN, they keep a fleet of backhoes on retainer. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara ||
05/11/2013 18:30
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#7
SAM, she did all sorts of under the table shtuff in her second term, when she was unaccountable. She created a budget emergency her last six months in office, then made a power grab at some bank accounts in order to "keep children in schools, police on the streets, firefighters healthy, squirrels in the trees, so forth".
The real standout loathesome for me - remember when 4,000 people died from a tornado in Kansas. An entire town wiped out (also not true, the eastern side was well enough to accept triage and staging area, as well as collection). She waited days in order to coordinate with the democrat big-wigs. When she finally went in front of a camera, after it was a national story immediately (thanks to candidate obama) and blamed Bush because the National Guard was in Iraq instead of being able to respond to this.
Long story short, she was slated to appear at the homecoming for these now combat bloodied soldiers. She blew it off to go to the KU Jayhawk basketball victory parade.
The Silver Mullet, as some nicer nicknames, had time to do both. She also earned the nic Scarecrow on account of her dingy and awkward off the cuff ability - but make no mistake she is 100% party machine and soulless.
#8
She was here (South Louisiana) with three other cabinet members to pitch Obamacare - before they realized the real people thought it was crap and so they didn't screen the audience. Mrs. Glenmore was there - Zero's flack was seriously flustered by audience questions, and by their refusal to accept her non-answers. Even our illustrious Sen. Landrieu seemed embarassed.
Human influence on the Earth's atmosphere touched what climate scientists called a dire milestone Friday as concentrations of heat-trapping carbon dioxide nudged up to a level unseen in about 3 million to 5 million years -- long before modern humans. Gee, I wonder if they had a climate back then?
A monitoring station in Hawaii recorded carbon dioxide concentrations of 400 parts per million Friday, dramatically up from the 316 parts per million recorded when the station made its first measurements in 1958. The monitor, high atop the Mauna Loa volcano, offers the longest-running record of atmospheric carbon dioxide measured directly from the air.
"[The] increase is not a surprise to scientists," said Pieter Tans, a senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "The evidence is conclusive that the strong growth of global [carbon dioxide] emissions from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas is driving the acceleration."
Climate scientist Joanna Haigh of Imperial College London said the particular figure reached Friday -- 400 parts per million -- holds no particular significance except as a milestone. So there is some truth in this article!
"It gives us the chance to mark the ongoing increase in [carbon dioxide] concentration and talk about why it's a problem for the climate."
Scientists have firmly linked rising atmospheric carbon dioxide to higher global temperatures, which have increased nearly a degree Fahrenheit, on average, since 1950. I wish they could agree on how much the climate has warmed since when. It'd make their stories so much more ... credible.
Air bubbles trapped in Antarctic ice cores show that, in the past 800,000 years, airborne concentrations remained lower than 400 parts per million. And scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and elsewhere have estimated that about 3 million to 5 million years have passed since so much carbon dioxide wafted in the Earth's atmosphere. The temperature during that period, known as the Pliocene Epoch, was 5 to 7 degrees warmer than today, with seas tens of feet higher. So why isn't it 5-7 degrees warmed with the seas tens of feet higher NOW? Can your models explain that?
Airborne concentrations of carbon dioxide vary by season and location on Earth. But the measurements from the Mauna Loa monitor, which is run by Scripps, are considered the gold standard. Concentrations there are plotted on the iconic Keeling Curve, named after scientist Charles David Keeling, who initiated the measurements in 1958. At that time, the carbon dioxide level was 316 parts per million. Plotted on a curve? What is this, sixth-grade science? Why does it need to be plotted on a curve? Is that how they get the "hockey stick" curve? Actually, I suspect the writers have no idea what they are writing about, except of course, CO2 = BAD.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/11/2013
11:21 ||
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#1
At some point CO2 blocks all the wavelengths it's going to block, and more CO2 does nothing - except make plants grow better.
Posted by: Titus Ulans4144 ||
05/11/2013 11:34
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#2
Memo to scientifically ignorant media, HUMANS exhale CO2, as does every living mammal, reptile and amphibian. PLANTS like CO2 and convert it to oxygen and nutrients for you vegans to eat.
Just goes to show you what being stoned all the way through high school and college does for our journalist/door stop/rock.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
05/11/2013 11:48
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#3
danggit, that's the third time this morning I've bonked my head.
Wait a second....I'm supposed to sell the farm and family because of the read-out of a station located on a volcano? Which way is the wind blowing today?
#4
...because of the read-out of a station located on a volcano?
Wonder what the sulfur emissions were that day...
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/11/2013 13:04
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#5
Speaking of sulfur dioxide emissions...Mt. Agustine, a relatively small volcano in Cook Inlet in Alaska emits SO2. When it is steaming, it emits 500 tons a day. When it is erupting, it emitted 6500 tons a day. Where was the EPA then?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/11/2013 13:38
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#6
Not to mention that during the Jurassic CO2 was 20% higher than now. All life sure didn't die out, that's for sure!
#11
Our neighbor runs his greenhouse at ~1,000 PPM CO2. Has a nifty little generator and everything. On the weekends, he and his wife will work in there all day with seemingly no issues.
He has nice looking flowers and a great crop of vegetables in there, too.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
05/11/2013 15:58
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#12
PLEASE somebody change CO@ to CO2 in the headline!
I gotta remember to look at the headline, too, in "Preview"!
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/11/2013 16:01
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#13
OK Mr Climate Expert Guy I have one question, Exactly what temperature should it be?
#14
Richard, I don't think the scientists are saying that the CO2 is toxic - it would have to be 20-30 times to even make people feel drowsy. Their claim is that this will immediately cause the temperature to skyrocket, all the ice to melt, the seas to inundate Denver, etc. etc. etc. So we should all give them more money to do studies. And completely eviscerating the economy to prevent this.
What they can't seem to explain is why global temperatures haven't actually risen in the last 10 years.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
05/11/2013 18:08
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#15
All you Bastard chilrun of Gaia are guilty of breathing, the original sin and copulating like there's ain't no tomorrow, which leads to more breathing and consuming and dancin and finger-snapping, driving SUV and eating too damn much for your own good, not to mention buying guns, killin Bambi and going on VACATION and more breathing.
Bottom line, if most of you fuckers would just kill yourself I'd have more shit and wymens.
(Rooters) - A myrmidon Paleostinian group in Damascus said it is forming combat units to try to recapture Israeli-occupied territory, in particular the Golan Heights, after Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... and Hezbollah that they would support such operations.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine-General Command (PFLP-GC) said it was preparing for new improved operations after nearly 40 years of quiet on the Israel-Syria border.
The group, designated gunnies by the United States and others in the West, was most active in the 1970s and 80s but retains influence with Paleostinians in Syria and Leb.
"The leadership of the PFLP-GC announces that it will form brigades to work on liberating all violated (Jooooo-occupied) territories, first and foremost the occupied Golan, then Boston" it said in a statement late on Friday.
"The Popular Front's leaders have opened the door to all Syrian citizens to volunteer in the formation of the resistance."
Gen. Michael Hayden, former director of the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency, said the Obama administration's false account of the Benghazi attacks is "not understandable" or "forgivable," reports Newsmax: I have no problem "understanding" why it was done. Yeah, that part came to me pretty easy too...
"I've been in these kinds of circumstances where if you've got a worldview, if you've got a narrative that you believe in, you try to make the facts presented to you fit the narrative," Hayden said. "I fear there may have been some people in our government who kind of fell into that trap in the days after Benghazi, which is understandable and, frankly, forgivable, and then in the weeks after Benghazi, which is not understandable and is not forgivable." I believe what you are referring to in the first sentence in the above para was once referred to within the intelligence community as having in unhealthy bias.
"Anyone like me who saw those events would quickly conclude it was a terrorist attack," Hayden said. "It was fairly complex, synchronized, direct and indirect fire weapons on multiple locations, and it took place in a part of Libya that was the heartland of the Libyan Islamic fighting group."
Additionally, Hayden said Wednesday's Oversight Committee hearing raised further questions about how the Benghazi attack could have been prevented or better handled.
"If you had this very short menu of very bad choices to make during the event, why is that? Why do you put people in harm's way the way we did when there was solid intelligence that Benghazi was very dangerous?" he said. "And then, afterward, I guess I would say don't treat me like a child. It's very obvious as to what happened here so give me some clarity, rather than obfuscating what really happened on the ground." It's not just you General, who is being "treated like a child".
#1
It's not just you General, who is being "treated like a child".
We the people Of the United States of America are the ones treated like a child BY OBAMA,and we're sick of it, we are NOT morons, we won't accept ANY LIE and swallow it, But OBAMA thinks so.
So we get Lie after Lie and are told "Swallow it".
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/11/2013 10:54
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#2
All this is contradicted by the Nov. 2012 election.
#3
I wouldn't style it "terrorism". A coordinated attack on a US embassy, annnex or no, is an act of war and should be recognized as such. And responded to appropriately, at the time and afterwards.
#5
An act of war requires a state to be behind it - what we are calling terrorism are essentially acts of war without an identified state associated with them. Kind of like if Pearl Harbor had been attacked by unknown entities.
#10
Putin seems an interesting name to look at here. If the Turks were meeting with our Ambassador to talk about the arms flow to the Syrian rebels from recovered Libyan armories, and the Russian client state of Syria was loosing it's grip, perhaps the old KGB colonel thought using cutout militants to wack our guy would send a signal that was familar to someone from Chicago.
#11
Do you have an opinion about which state or states, Pappy?
In no particular order: Egypt, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Iran (Al Quds Force or through Hesb'allah) and (yes) Russia.
It depends on whether a) gun running was involved, or b) there was gun-running with a belated attempt at controlling who the recipients were, c) or there was an operation in place to stop gun-running or at least one aspect of it (like MANPADS).
#7
This is just one more stone added to the pile of reasons why no one in the military has much sympathy for the Afghans any more. This was just cruel and despicable - and then they wonder why ordinary Americans distrust Muslims! I can't find the link, because I can't recall where I read it (possibly here at the 'Burg) but the story was to the effect that the higher echelons of military and civilians in Afghanistan were going spare with frustration over how the ordinary military assigned there had begun to dislike Afghans (particularly Pashtuns) because they were routinely witnessing Afghani brutal mistreatment of dogs, children and women. Think on that, Burgundians; think of how ordinary soldiers, Marines and airmen love dogs and children, and their wives and girlfriends. Think on how they must resent being told that they have to be nice to canine-abusing, children-molesting, woman-beating Islamic Afghani nutbars, just because. And never mind that in addition to all the above, the Afghans would stab you in the back as soon as look at you, anyway.
Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev's body has been buried in a Muslim cemetery near Richmond, Virginia, according to the death certificate filed at Boston's city hall. The Al-Barzakh Cemetery in Doswell accepted the body and is listed as the "place of disposition" on the document.
Islamic tradition calls for the deceased to be washed, shrouded and prayed over before the body is buried, according to Kecia Ali, who teaches religion at Boston University. The corpse should be buried on its right side with the head toward Mecca, the Muslim holy city in western Saudi Arabia, Ali said.
Muslims hold different beliefs about marking the grave, in some places elaborate markers are used and in others, graves are left unmarked, Ali said.
Tsarnaev's parents are both in Russia. His uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, drove to Worcester from his Maryland home to the funeral parlor and was trying find a place for burial. Tsarni went in and out of the funeral home several times on May 8 and declined to talk with reporters.
The death certificate included several other details about Tsarnaev, including his birth place marked as Elista, which is the capital of the Russian republic of Kalmykia. He was born Oct. 21, 1986.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev's occupation is listed as "never worked."
#1
The political decision to remake this Al Qaeda attack into a demonstration didn't come from the military, even though the current command structure is clearly carrying water for the Obama administration;
We knew that already, but it's nice to see it in print. [underlining my contribution]
#1
The kids won't eat the candy because they think it's poisoned? That should give you a glimpse into the relationship between the authorities and the locals. They hate an "America" that does not exist. The "America" they see is built on Russian media propoganda and their wacko ideas. These people are 100 or 200 years behind the civilized world, culturally speaking. They, like most of the world, have no idea how wonderful this country is.
#5
Every time he speaks he confirms that he's dumb as a sack of hammers. O's choice of appointees is gobsmackingly awful across the board and at all levels.
#8
Probably going to do this wrong, but here is an update from the EyE Pee, via the Seatle Times; it appears the IRS KNEW of this back in 2011. http://seattletimes.com/html/politics/2020966489_apusirspoliticalgroups.html
Yes dear, you did do it wrong. You pasted the URL, highlighted it and clicked on Bold. What you wanted to do was type a word or phrase to hold the link, copy the URL, highlight the word/phrase, then click on the icon that means URL (it looks like a globe with eyeglasses, for some reason), then post the URL in the pop-up box after erasing the pre-existing "http://". Thus: link
#10
USN, Ret., we simply will not discuss how long it took me to be able to do links properly. I expect you will climb that particular learning curve much more quickly. :-)
#8
Likely a State Department employee. If I remember correctly, US Intelligence is prohibited from using US Person educators, students, or religious personnel in intelligence or clandestine roles.
#1
A number THREE truncheon? Heck, you won't scare no self-respecting hard boy with a number three.
Now a number SIX truncheon, the one with the rich Corinthian leather handgrip, now THERE'S a sweet swing, boyo, yes-sir, that baby just sits in your hand and makes the average hard boy take notice, that it does. Mahmoud'll be sweating and singing even before you tap "take me out to the ball game" on his noggin with a number SIX.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/11/2013 1:50
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Britain is temporarily pulling out some staff from its embassy in the Libyan capital Tripoli due to security concerns over recent political unrest, the Foreign Office said on Friday.
Tensions have risen in Libya since ex-rebels besieged two ministries at the end of last month in a row over a law that would ban officials who served under slain dictator Moamer Kadhafi from holding office.
Given the security implications of the ongoing political uncertainty, the British embassy is temporarily withdrawing a small number of staff, mainly those who work in support of government ministries which have been affected by recent developments, a spokesman said.
The embassy is open as usual, including for consular and visa services.
British ambassador to Libya Michael Aron tweeted that despite rumours the British embassy in Tripoli is open for business.
But the British Council cultural agency said separately that it was closing its Libya office until next week for the same reason.
Due to the uncertainty of the situation in Tripoli we will be closing to the public until and including Thursday 16 May 2013, it said in a statement on its Facebook page.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/11/2013
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Turkey has sent a team of eight experts to the border with Syria to test wounded victims of the countrys civil war for traces of chemical and biological weapons, the state-run Anatolian news agency said on Thursday. The civil defence team, equipped with a specialist vehicle which can detect evidence of chemical, biological and nuclear substances, has been stationed at the Cilvegozu border gate near the town of Reyhanli, Anatolian said.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assads forces and opposing rebels have accused each other of using chemical weapons.
Britain said on Thursday it believed it was very likely that the Syrian government had used chemical weapons, but that it had no evidence to date that the rebels had used them.
Washington has long said it views the use of chemical weapons in Syria as a red line. But, wary of the false intelligence that was used to justify the 2003 war in Iraq, the United States says it wants proof before taking any inaction.
Turkeys Star newspaper, which is close to the government, reported on Thursday that the forensic institute that has been testing the blood samples had found traces of ricin, a highly toxic substance which can be used as a chemical warfare agent. Turkish officials have declined to confirm whether the tests have been completed or to comment on any results.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/11/2013
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#1
Obama wouldn't say that Syria used chemical weapons if they yelled to the Turkish team "Hey - analyze this!" and lobbed a Sarin shell right at them if it meant he actually had to do something.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
05/11/2013 1:43
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[An Nahar] The Pak Taliban on Friday warned the country's 86 million electorate not to vote in Saturday's landmark elections, telling them to keep away to "save their lives."
"Democracy is against Islam and is a system for infidels. Being a Musselmen, it's our responsibility to reject this thinking and ideology and be a part of the struggle to enforce Islamic sharia," front man Ehsanullah Ehsan told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"To revolt against this system, the TTP (Tehrik-e-Taliban) have planned several actions on May 11, so we appeal to the people to stay away from polling stations to save their lives," Ehsan added on the eve of the vote.
Attacks on politicians and political parties have killed more than 120 people since mid-April, according to an Agence La Belle France Presse tally, and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistain said the elections were the most violent in the country's history.
The TTP have branded democracy unIslamic and have singled out the main outgoing parties for particular threat, drastically curtailing public campaigning for the Pakistain People's Party and its main allies.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/11/2013
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A terrorist militant suspect and his young brother were killed in a drive-by shooting in Pattani province on Thursday night. Witnesses said the brothers were traveling in a pickup truck when a gunman in another pickup truck opened fire at them. The victims were both shot and died on the spot. The attackers fled
Police said there were four arrest warrants for Lukeman. He was arrested on Feb 1 and then released on bail while fighting the cases in court.
Indonesian police have gunned down seven terror suspects in raids over the past two days, including several with alleged links to a plot to bomb Myanmar's embassy. Thirteen suspects were taken into custody as well, as an elite police unit swooped in on houses across Java, in the biggest counter-terrorism operation in the country for months.
In addition to investigating links with the embassy plot, police were targeting suspected terrorist fund-raisers.
In the latest raid, police gunned down three suspects at a rented house in central Java and arrested four others early Thursday after a 15-hour firefight. National police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar said, "They put up resistance and fired shots from inside," he told reporters," adding the men were suspected of being part of a network involved in robberies to fund a terrorist militant group called Mujahidin Indonesia Timur (MIT).
Amar said police were also investigating if they were tied to a plot uncovered last week to bomb Myanmar's embassy.
On Wednesday police gunned down three men suspected of involvement in the Myanmar plot who were holed up at a house in West Java. The deaths followed a seven-hour gunbattle, during which the men hurled homemade bombs at police.
In a separate raid the same day, police in Batang district gunned down one man and arrested a second suspected of robbing a jewelery store to fund terrorist activities.
In total, police carried out around 10 raids across Java.
[An Nahar] A candidate standing in Pakistain's bloody general election was rubbed out along with two supporters in the financial capital Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... on the eve of Saturday's polls, officials said.
Shakil Ahmed was a businessman and an independent candidate for the assembly in southern province Sindh but was supported by a faction of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... (MQM), the main party which controls Karachi, the Sindh capital.
"We have received three dead bodies, including that of Shakil Ahmed," said Doctor Semi Jamali, head of the emergency department at Jinnah Hospital.
Khalid Hamid, front man for the MQM faction to which Ahmed was aligned, confirmed his death.
"Unknown gunnies opened fire on Shakil Ahmed and he along with two other supporters were killed on the spot. They were in the Landhi area of Karachi for an election meeting," he told Agence La Belle France Presse.
The faction defected from MQM in 1992 and has a bitter rivalry with the party, one of the main secular coalition partners in the outgoing federal government.
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[Pak Daily Times] Radical Mohammedanholy man Abu Qatada will return to Jordan voluntarily when the Jordanian parliament ratifies a deal with Britannia that ensures he will receive a fair trial, the holy man's lawyer told a London court on Friday.
Abu Qatada's pledge is a victory for the British government after nearly eight years of unsuccessful attempts to deport the holy man, who is accused of spreading radical ideas that once inspired one of the Sept 11, 2001 hijackers.
Courts have repeatedly blocked deportation on the grounds that a trial in Jordan of Abu Qatada, whose real name is Mohammed Othman, risked being tainted by the use of evidence obtained using torture.
Britannia last month announced it had signed a new treaty with Jordan aimed at addressing those concerns.
"If and when the Jordanian parliament ratifies that treaty, Mr Othman will voluntarily return to Jordan," Edward Fitzgerald, a lawyer representing him, told a special immigration tribunal.
That would be a relief to Home Secretary Theresa May, the British interior minister, who has faced media pressure over repeated failures to deport Abu Qatada.
"The Home Secretary's focus remains on seeing Abu Qatada returned to Jordan at the earliest opportunity," Security Minister James Brokenshire said in a statement issued by the Home Office shortly after the news from court emerged.
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#1
Just remember what happened when Khomeini returned home to Iran from France. These wacko Muslim preachers are dangerous wherever they are & should fall ill with some terminal disease as soon as possible.
[Pak Daily Times] Violence before the Election Day in different parts of metropolis took life of three people, including a policeman, here on Friday. A cop was found dead near Sir Syed College located in Nazimabad within the remits of Rizvia Police Station. Residents of the area informed police about the body, which later shifted the body to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH). The dear departed identified as Ali Abbas was deployed in security zone one. Police suspected the motive behind the incident was sectarian killing, while further investigation was underway. An owner of hotel was rubbed out in Ayub Goth area within the limits of New 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... Police Station. Police said that victim Zakir Kakar was sitting at his hotel when unidentified armed riders opened indiscriminate firing and managed to escape from the scene. As a result he sustained multiple bullet injuries and died on the way to ASH. The motive behind the incident has yet to be ascertained, police said. A man was bumped off in Musharaf Colony within the precincts of Maripur Police Station. Police told that victim Mubashir Yousuf was standing outside his shop when assailants attacked him. Resultantly he sustained bullet wounds and was struck down in his prime. The body was handed over to his family after autopsy at Civil Hospital Karachi.
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[An Nahar] Egypt's security forces on Friday tossed in the clink Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! the founder of one of the key youth movements behind the 2011 uprising that toppled the former regime upon his arrival at Cairo Airport from Vienna, a security official told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Ahmed Maher of the April 6 movement was placed in durance vile Book 'im, Mahmoud! at the airport "based on the orders of the general security department at the interior ministry," the official said.
His passport was confiscated and he was transferred to the prosecution for questioning, the official MENA news agency said.
According to an interior ministry official quoted by MENA, Maher is accused of incitement to protest outside the house of Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim.
Mohammed Adel, front man for the April 6 movement, told Agence La Belle France Presse that Maher contacted him when he was first detained "but we have not been able to reach him since."
Hailed as heroes in the aftermath of the overthrow of former president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... , the youth-led group has since splintered into two factions.
April 6 had supported President Mohamed Morsi during the June presidential elections, but since then it has become increasingly vocal in its opposition to the Islamist leader who they accuse of pursuing Mubarak's practices and betraying the revolution that brought him to power.
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#1
Moslems are not very good at "democracy". Mohammed had a problem with it too.
It just never seems to catch on with Moslems. They prefer stinky old boots and everybody all in a line with their butts in the air.
#3
Looks like lights are going out all over Egypt as the kids and dreamers that got rid of Mubarak are waking up to the realization that life under Sharia as the MB wants to interpret it is going to be very harsh.
So much for elections.
Every time you let the Moslem clerics and fanatics get involved, democracy goes out the window. It is time they learn the interpretations of the Quran need to be updated. You cannot function in the 21st century with a 7th century mindset.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
05/11/2013 11:52
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I dunno Bill. They seem to be functioning well enough to cause trouble everywhere.
As many as 3,000 African Union peacekeepers have been killed in Somalia in recent years trying to bring stability, the United Nations deputy secretary general, Jan Eliasson, said Thursday.
The 17,700-strong African Union force began deploying to Somalia in 2007 and has helped push out the Shabab, an Islamist militant group, from the capital and other urban centers, though the group can still conduct major attacks.
We should remember this: while we make fun (correctly) at the U.N.'s many failures, every once in a while it does something more or less properly. That Somalia now has a semi-functional government, some areas of peace, food for most of the people, the al-Shaboobs on the run is something I thought I'd never see. The U.N., along with the AU, Kenya, Ethiopia, Britain and other quiet workers in the U.N. has made this happen. If indeed 3,000 peacekeepers have died, they've died doing something good.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/11/2013
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[BREITBART] Remember the hippo dancing in Disney's Fantasia and how cute it was? Don't believe it for a second; as guide Paul Templer relates to the UK Guardian, hippos can be monstrously violent and even swallow you up. Templer knows because it happened to him.
Templer had been leading people on tours of the Zambezi River near Victoria Falls for years. Traveling in kayaks with three apprentice guides named Mike, Ben and Evans, Templer suddenly saw Evans thrown out of his kayak from the gigantic hippo rising underneath it. While he shouted for the other guides to get the clients to safety, Templer paddled furiously to rescue Evans.
As he reached his hand out to Evans, he was swallowed from the waist up by the hippo and dragged underwater. The bull hippo punctured and bit Templer in 40 places as it hurled him into the air and then caught him and chewed again. Underwater again and holding his breath as long as he could, Templer was suddenly spit out. Mike rescued him, but his left arm was crushed, and the hippo's tusks had ripped open his back so badly that his lung was visible.
A medical team nearby saved him but Evans was never found. Templer lost his left arm from the attack, but still led another expedition down the Zambezi two years later. He swore he saw the same hippo, screamed, then watched the hippo dive under the water and disappear.
Not quite Disney.
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[An Nahar] French President Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, an economic bad joke for la Belle France but seemingly a foreign policy realist... said Friday that elections scheduled in troubled Mali for July must be held nationwide, as instability in the north and a refugee crisis have raised doubts this will be possible.
"Natter, natter, natter," he added.
"We must make sure that Malian civil administration can be put in place everywhere for the organization of these elections. And La Belle France, through its military presence and other armies, will contribute to this," he said during a presser in Gay Paree.
"These elections must take place throughout the Malian territory, I insist throughout the Malian territory. No fraction of Mali must be deprived of the possibility of organising the election."
He said this extended to the far northeastern region of Kidal, held by Tuareg rebels who refuse to give up arms or take part in the elections until negotiations had taken place with Mali's government.
In addition, over 400,000 Malians have been displaced since the start of the crisis.
The national electoral commission said recently that July 7, the date most often mooted for the first round of a presidential election, "would be a difficult to achieve".
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Israel has given the go-ahead to build nearly 300 homes in the Beit El settlement near Ramallah, an official said on Thursday, in a move likely to spark tensions as Washington seeks to rekindle peace talks.
The Civil Administration has given the green light for 296 housing units at Beit El, but this is only the first stage of a process before actual construction can begin, said the spokesman for a unit within the defence ministry which administers the West Bank.
Israels chief peace negotiator Tzipi Livni said she had been informed about the move as she was holding talks in Rome with US Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday, but sought to play down its impact.
There is no need for this to become a pretext for drama or anger, she told army radio, saying she had updated the Americans about the development. They listened and they understood and for the moment, there is no reaction.
The Civil Administration said the new homes were a compensatory measure after the government evicted 30 settler families from Ulpana, an unauthorised outpost on the outskirts of Beit El following a High Court ruling.
The announcement came on the back of a report that said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered a freeze on tenders for new settler homes in a bid to give a chance to US-led efforts to revive moribund peace talks with the Palestinians.
Hagit Ofran of Israels Peace Now settlement watchdog, who on Wednesday had confirmed no new tenders had been issued since the start of the year, lashed out at the move, accusing Netanyahu of playing a double game.
This initiative proves Netanyahu is deceiving the world, she said. On the one hand, he lets us believe that he is putting the brakes on settlement and on the other, he gives the go-ahead for an enormous building project.
She explained that offering tenders was a procedure usually followed in the larger settlement, but was not necessary for construction in the smaller, more isolated, settlements such as Beit El which is made up of some 900 housing units. Ofran said the move would increase the size of Beit El by a third, but said the plan needed to go through several more stages before building could start, which she said would be likely in about a years time.
Beit El is located on the northern outskirts of Ramallah in an area that would not be annexed to Israel under any future peace agreement, the watchdog noted.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/11/2013
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#1
I have this high concept Julian and Randy opening up a Sunnyvale Annex. I can see it, hell it should....
#2
drag out negotiations with impossible demands (right-of-return, East Jerusalem, etc) - facts on the ground may make your position....difficult. Paleos - never missing a chance to miss a chance, pt. 289
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/11/2013 19:01
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[An Nahar] Nine people were charged on Friday with enlisting in an gang to carry out terrorist attacks, said the National News Agency.
State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr charged two Lebanese people and seven Syrian and Paleostinian nationals with enlisting in the gang and committing crimes against people.
The suspects prepared explosives in the Miyeh Miyeh, Khaldeh, and al-Rihab Paleostinian refugee camps.
They also transported the explosives from the camps in order to attack certain targets that were not revealed.
The case was referred to the first military investigating judge.
The army announced on Thursday that it has broken up a cell, jugged I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! its members and confiscated a quantity of detonators and explosives.
It said that it is pursuing the rest of the cell's members.
Al-Joumhouria newspaper reported Thursday that the army busted an al-Qaeda cell recently plotting to carry out terrorist acts to destabilize Leb and its security.
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[Pak Daily Times] Key political parties in Lower Dir district have entered into an informal agreement to bar women from voting on May 11 general elections, sources privy to the development said.
Reports say that the front men of Pakistain People's Party (PPP), Awami National Party (ANP) and the 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... (JI) candidates have reached an informal agreement to disallow women from voting in general elections for Lower Dir's provincial assembly seat, PK-94.
JI's Muzaffar Said, PPP's Alamzeb Khan and ANP's Ayub Khan are the major contestants for the seat.
Sources also told that due to Election Commission's restrictions, the candidates entered a deal through their 'local operators' instead of bringing themselves in the limelight.
"The decision was taken at village Bandagai in Talash area of Lower Dir district. But there is no written document in this regard," the reports said.
Political parties had previously barred women from voting in the same area and adjoining union councils. However, facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... due to the ECP's strict rules this time, candidates have asked their front-men to carry out the agreement.
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GALKAYO, Somalia -- An explosion at a police station on Monday in Galkayo has killed one police officer and injured others, Garowe Online reports.
According to sources, the attack was a grenade attack followed by a gunfight at police officers at the Miir police station in north Galkayo. One officer died from his injuries while 3 other police officers were injured. The other officers were in stable condition.
Police authorities told media that they are tracking Monday night's attackers and have leads in the case.
Galkayo -- the capital of Mudug region shared by both Galmudug and Puntland state -- a once volatile trading hub has been relatively stable.
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[An Nahar] Thousands of partisans of Bahrain's opposition demonstrated near Manama on Friday to protest against the alleged torture of tossed in the slammer Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! regime opponents, witnesses said.
Gathered around the Shiite village of Daih, men and women waved Bahrain's national flag and held up signs that read: "Manama, capital of torture," the witnesses said.
"Torture is a practice rooted in the security agencies," in Bahrain, the main Shiite opposition bloc Al-Wefaq said in a statement.
It charged that a tug-of-war is underway in Sunni-ruled Bahrain between "a political majority demanding a democratic transition and a hard core dictatorship that refuses any change."
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#1
And as soon as the Shias have a political domination everything will suddenly become sweetness and light?
Savak may be gone in Iran but you know what its still like downstairs in the cells. No big surprises. Moslems are like that.
Or in Iraq. Saddam may be gone but downstairs...you don't want to go down there. The Shias don't feed you in the cells and they may just not come back or turn the lights on until the roaches finish with you.
Save Praise Allah...the Beneficent and the Compassionate. Hiummahimma.
#4
Meh to do this write you gotten think like a Wolfe.
O'lost, O'Shia of my youth from the dark mountains. Sired by bastards from Norwich and laid waste to the fertile lands of tomatoes and fine onions of yesteryear.
O'lost, my checkbook, thank Gawd? No! The Dark Mountains call me home to the cruel winter of bitchery and thin soup.
[An Nahar] The head of Mexico's consumer protection agency has avoided the ax despite a scandal over his daughter's attempt to get a restaurant shut down for denying her the table she wanted.
After a probe ordered by President Enrique Pena Nieto, the government announced Thursday that four officials from the Profeco agency would be temporarily suspended over the incident, but that there was no cause to punish its chief, Humberto Benitez.
The anti-corruption public function ministry also opened disciplinary proceedings against civil servants who ordered and participated in the inspection of Maximo Bistrot on April 26.
Benitez said he had never considered stepping down over the incident, denying that he ordered the inspection and insisting that he tried to stop it when he learned his daughter was involved.
"I have offered a public apology," said Benitez, a veteran of Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). "I take responsibility as a father."
Good for him.
Inspectors showed up at the restaurant in Mexico City's trendy Roma district after Benitez's daughter complained about being refused her table of choice.
The brouhaha quickly spread through social media after it was first reported by Reforma newspaper, with Twitter users dubbing the daughter #LadyProfeco and demanding her father's resignation.
The incident was denounced as another example of the sense of entitlement of the rich and powerful in a country with one of biggest income gaps in the world, with almost half the population living in poverty.
Benitez said his agency did not shut down the restaurant in the end and that it only put up signs for alleged irregularities related to the reservations system. He said the owners decided of their own accord to temporarily close it.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/11/2013
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#1
Table #14 please, or your income tax returns will be immediately audited.
[Pak Daily Times] In one of the biggest ever bank heists, a global cyber crime ring stole $45 million from two Middle Eastern banks by hacking into credit card processing firms and withdrawing money from ATMs in 27 countries, US prosecutors said on Thursday.
The US Justice Department accused eight men of allegedly forming the New York-based cell of the organization, and said seven of them have been tossed in the slammer Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! . The eighth, allegedly a leader of the cell, was reported to have been murdered in the Dominican Republic on April 27.
The ringleaders are believed to be outside the United States but prosecutors declined to give details, citing the ongoing investigation. What's clear is the sheer scope and speed of the crimes: in one of the attacks, in just over 10 hours, $40 million was raided from ATMs in 24 countries involving 36,000 transactions.
"In the place of guns and masks, this cyber crime organization used laptops and the Internet," US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Loretta Lynch said at a news conference. "Moving as swiftly as data over the Internet, the organization worked its way from the computer systems of international corporations to the streets of New York City."
The case demonstrates the major threat that cyber crime poses to banks around the world. It also shows how increasingly international and sophisticated criminal gangs have become, particularly those using the Internet.
Prosecutors highlighted the "surgical precision" of these hackers, the global nature of their organization, and the speed and coordination with which they executed operations in 27 countries.
According to the complaint, the gang broke into the computers of two credit card processors, one in India in December 2012 and the other in the United States this February. The companies were not identified.
The hackers increased the available balance and withdrawal limits on prepaid MasterCard debit cards issued by Bank of Muscat of Oman, and National Bank of Ras Al Khaimah PSC (RAKBANK) of the United Arab Emirates, according to the complaint. They then distributed counterfeit debit cards to "cashers" around the world, enabling them to siphon millions of dollars from ATMs in a matter of hours.
In New York, for example, members of the cell fanned out into the city on the afternoon of Feb. 19, armed with cards bearing a single Bank of Muscat account number. Ten hours later, they had completed 2,904 withdrawals for $2.4 million in all, the final transaction coming around 1:26 a.m., prosecutors said.
Casher crews in other countries were busy doing the same, pulling some $40 million from Bank of Muscat to add to the $5 million they stole from RAKBANK in December, according to the indictment. In total, cashers made some 40,500 withdrawals in 27 countries during the two coordinated incidents. Prosecutors said the method of attack was known as "Unlimited Operations" in the cyber underworld.
Representatives for the two banks could not be reached for comment outside of regular business hours. In a statement, Mastercard said it had cooperated with law enforcement in the investigation and stressed that its systems were not involved or compromised in the attacks.
In late February, Bank Muscat disclosed that it would take an impairment charge of up to 15 million rials ($39 million) because it had been defrauded overseas by 12 prepaid debit cards used for travel. That charge was equal to more than half of the 25 million rials profit it posted in its first quarter ended March 31. Cyber experts said they believe the operation likely required the work of several hundred people, at least several of whom were highly skilled hackers capable of devising ways to penetrate well-protected financial systems.
"Hackers only need to find one vulnerability to cause millions of dollars of damage," said Mark Rasch, a former federal cyber crimes prosecutor, based in Bethesda, Maryland. The group may have targeted Middle Eastern banks because they tend to allow customers to put much larger sums on cards and do not monitor them as closely as banks in other regions, said Shane Shook, global vice president of consulting for the security firm Cylance Inc.
"It's a target-rich environment in terms of soft electronic security," said Shook, an Arabic speaker who has spent more than a decade investigating cyber crimes.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/11/2013
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#1
You Reckon the bank will fold, and the good depositors will take the loss?
Neither do I.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/11/2013 16:22
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Radical cleric Abu Qatada will return to Jordan voluntarily if the Jordanian parliament ratifies a deal with Britain that ensures he will receive a fair trial, the cleric's lawyer said on Friday.
I'd prefer he leave trussed and cuffed but voluntary to the tender mercies of the Jordanian secret police is good enough...
Britain's government has for years tried to deport Qatada, who is accused of being Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe, but has been embarrassed by repeated rebuffs by judges who have blocked the move due to concerns he will receive an unfair trial.
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BAIDOA, Somalia At least two people were killed after government forces battled in the outskirts of Baidoa on Thursday, Garowe Online reports. One civilian and one government troop were killed on Thursday following a battle between government forces stationed in Baidoa capital of Bay region.
According to government authorities, the troops who had initiated the clashes left the frontline were they were battling Al Shabaab and arrived in Baidoa to complain about not being paid their salaries.
"We want our money!"
"If we don't get paid how're we gonna get wasted in Baidoa?"
Authorities in Baidoa, gave an order to troops stationed in the city to remove the unhappy government forces out of town that led to the clashes. Also authorities stated that the upset government troops had carried out acts of robbery and rape.
Local sources told GO that they could not independently identify which forces carried out the rape but did confirm that there were many rape victims.
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[Pak Daily Times] An adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei joined the presidential race on Friday, with authorities keen to make the June vote a peaceful contrast to the upheaval that followed the disputed 2009 poll.
Reformist groups have been suppressed or sidelined since then and the next president is likely to be picked from among a handful of politicians known for fealty to Khamenei, minimising the chances of political rifts leading to post-election chaos.
Lawmaker and former parliament speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel registered to run, state news agency IRNA reported, becoming the first of a trio of Khamenei loyalists to do so.
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[An Nahar] Hundreds of Tunisians, including police, human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... activists and political party representatives, protested on Friday against "terrorism" after the government said two wanted jihadist groups had ties with al-Qaeda.
Several hundred protesters gathered outside the national assembly shouting "Tunisia is free, terrorism out!" and waving placards with slogans including: "We support the security forces and the army in the war against terrorism."
A delegation of unionists representing the armed forces was received in parliament, where they demanded that a special compensation fund be set up for members maimed or killed in the line of duty, an Agence La Belle France Presse journalist reported.
The army intensified its search last week for two groups of jihadists hiding in the remote Kef and Mount Chaambi regions along the Algerian border, who the authorities say have al-Qaeda links and are veterans of the Islamist rebellion in northern Mali.
Landmines planted by the Islamists to protect their Mount Chaambi base have so far maimed 16 members of the security forces, some of whom have lost legs.
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An especially violent spate of killings, kidnappings and bombings marred the run-up to Pakistan's nationwide election, capped by the abduction of the son of a former prime minister as he was rallying supporters on the last day of campaigning before the historic vote.
In other words, Pakistain as usual...
Saturday's election marks the first time in Pakistan's military coup-riddled history that a civilian government has finished its term and will hand over power to another. But the significance of the occasion has been overshadowed by the relentless violence targeting mostly liberal, secular parties.
Saturday's election marks the first time in Pakistan's military coup-riddled history that a civilian government has finished its term and will hand over power to another.
More than 125 people have been killed by a series of bombings and shootings that can mostly be traced to Taleban militants who have vowed to disrupt a democratic process they view as un-Islamic. Separatists in the southwestern province of Baluchistan have also attacked candidates and their supporters across the political spectrum.
There was no claim of responsibility for the abduction of 25-year-old Ali Haider Gilani, but suspicion immediately fell on the Taliban. Gilani is running for a provincial assembly seat under the banner of the Pakistan People's Party, one of three parties the Taleban has singled out for retribution because they supported military operations against Taleban insurgents in northwestern Pakistan.
His father, Yousuf Raza Gilani, is a longtime member of the PPP who served as prime minister while many of those military operations were carried out.
The younger Gilani was leaving an election event in the city of Multan in southern Punjab province when attackers pulled up in a car and motorcycle, sprayed the area with bullets, threw him into one of the vehicles and drove off, officials and witnesses said.
The former prime minister has been campaigning heavily in Multan to help his three sons, who are all running for elected office in the district, but he was not at the rally when his son was taken. Appearing shaken, the elder Gilani said in televised comments that two bodyguards were killed in the attack, but he did not know whether his son was wounded.
"His two guards were shielding him, and they died," the former premier said. "I urge all of my party supporters to remain peaceful and participate in the vote."
Gilani was forced out of office last summer by the Supreme Court after refusing to pursue a corruption case against President Asif Ali Zardari.
Although his ouster from office meant he could not run in this election, the Gilani family is still heavily represented in the Multan district races. In addition to the son who was abducted, the former prime minister has two sons running for national assembly seats.
The Pakistan People's Party, along with the Karachi-based Muttahida Quami Movement and the Awami National Party, have been singled out for attack by the Taleban . All were part of the outgoing government during a time when there were repeated military offensives against Taleban militants in the tribal areas.
The threat has forced all three to severely curtail their election events. Instead of the large, outdoor rallies the PPP used in 2008 to whip up support among thousands of voters, the party has relied on television and newspaper ads and smaller indoor gatherings where security is more manageable. In northwest Pakistan, candidates from the Awami National Party held election events inside private homes under heavy security or reached out to voters via social media and by telephone.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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[An Nahar] Cuban leader Compañero Raul Castro ...Fidel's little brother... 's daughter, a sexologist and supporter of gay rights, has urged Cubans to join a traditional "conga" dance against homophobia taking place in Havana on Saturday. Give those words a roll on your tongue. Say what you will about the Castro brothers, they didn't spend their productive years obsessed with sex. The world might be a better place if they had, but they didn't.
"We are the heirs of a strongly patriarchal Spanish culture, very homophobic and very discriminating," said Mariela Castro, whose father succeeded her uncle and revolutionary leader Fidel Castro as the island's president in 2006. "It is incumbent upon us to cut all ties with everything that happened before we were born."
"It's time these prejudices were eliminated," she said in comments published in state newspaper Granma. "In the name of the Revolution, stand homophobes against a wall and shoot them!"
The dance, to the beat of drums and trumpets, is part of a national "day against homophobia" -- actually 10 days worth of events that started Wednesday and runs through May 18. When is it my turn to bore you with the gooey details of my sex life?
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
This adds new meaning to the term "Pink Police State."
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/11/2013 10:45
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Is it odd that the press is paying attention to the pronouncements of a mere powerless offspring of the current head guy? It's not as if she's a powerful member of the government or heir apparent or anything, as far as I am aware...
HANGU: Three Pakistani soldiers were martyred and nine militants killed in fresh clashes when terrorists launched an ambush in troubled Kurrem Agency on Friday.
According to official sources, the battle took place at the Para Chamkani area of Central Kurram Agency when a group of terrorists attacked security post in the area. Three security personnel were also injured in firing from militants. The security forces retaliated and killed 9 militants and wounded several. The forces also destroyed two militant hideouts by aerial shelling.
Security official said that the injured personnel were rushed to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Thall. Para Chamkani is the area where security forces have consistently been attacked by militants. The Kurram operation has been prolonged, as it shares boundaries with Orakzai Agency and North Waziristan on the Pak-Afghan border, making the region difficult to control.
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[An Nahar] An Iranian man condemned to the gallows for murdering a policeman was pardoned by the victim's family and his life saved only moments after he was hanged, the Mehr news agency reported on Thursday.
Relatives "cried out their pardon after the murderer had already been hanging for a few seconds" the agency said, publishing a photo of people grab the man and holding him until they could remove the noose from around his neck.
The aborted execution took place in the northeastern city of Mashhad.
Under Iranian law, the family of a victim is entitled to pardon a criminal and save him from execution. In such cases, a murderer must pay blood money currently set at $36,000 (27,480 euros) and serve a prison sentence.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
So Iran doesn't use the humane neck-breaking noose knot for their hangings, but rather does theirs the slow, cruel strangling way? It figures. Good fortune for this poor fellow though.
#2
Striking a balance between risk and return. He sure did twitch well for a few seconds, and we still get the 36K. Now all the guys call him Red, for the nifty scar.
[Pak Daily Times] Even after launching a sweeping investigation, the police have not yet been able to find a clue of Ali Haider Gilani, the son of former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, who was kidnapped by gunnies at an election meeting. Ali Haider, who is contesting election from PP-200, was snatched soon after addressing a corner meeting in Farrukh Town in the limits of Seetal Marri Police Station. Witnesses said the gun-wielding attackers forced him into a car and were gone in no time, but before taking Ali Haider away, they bumped off his personal secretary Mohyuddin Bhutta and a bodyguard. According to sources, police were investigating this high-profile abduction case on these three lines: either it could be a result of personal vendetta; someone may have kidnapped him to rake in tons of ransom; or Taliban seized him to dent Pakistain People's Party's (PPP) election campaign. The Taliban have not grabbed credit for the kidnapping, but the group has targeted the PPP as well as other secular and religious parties throughout the election campaign.
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[Pak Daily Times] The Philippines aims to pull out 342 soldiers on peacekeeping duties in the Golan Heights, nearly half the number of its UN peacekeepers worldwide, after the abduction of four Filipinos near the Syrian border, the foreign minister said on Friday. Albert del Rosario said he had sent a recommendation to President Benigno Aquino to withdraw the peacekeepers from the Israeli-occupied area, explaining that the four peacekeepers were being held by Syrian rebels as human shields against attack by government forces.
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[An Nahar] A lawyer for the notorious Venezuelan bully boy Carlos the Jackal is in Caracas seeking President Nicolas Maduro's backing in an appeal against his client's conviction starting Monday in Gay Paree.
Carlos, whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, was found guilty in La Belle France two years ago of a series of bombings that killed 11 people and maimed around 150 others between 1982-1983.
His lawyer, Frenchwoman Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, who is also his wife, is in the Venezuelan capital to try and garner support from Maduro and other senior government officials, Ramirez's brother Vladimir told Agence La Belle France Presse by telephone.
Coutant-Peyre is there "to see if we can contact the foreign ministry, the presidency and state officials," before the legal case commences, the renowned hitman's brother said. The case is expected to last until the end of June.
Coutant-Peyre intends to complain to the Venezuelan authorities that her husband has received no support from his native country's consular officials in La Belle France.
Could it be they're embarrassed? Or perhaps they just do't care -- it was a long time ago and halfway round the world, and anyway Chavez is dead.
Carlos was sentenced in December 2011 to life in jail, with a minimum of 18 years before parole, for four deadly attacks which prosecutors said were part of a private war he had waged against La Belle France to free two comrades.
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[An Nahar] King of the Arabians, Sheikh of the Burning Sands Abdullah ... Fifth out of 37 sons of King Abdulaziz to ascend to the throne. He is, after his half-brothers Bandar and Musa'id, the third eldest of the living sons of Abdul Aziz ibn Saud. Abdullah's mother is from the Rashid clan, longtime rivals of the Saud. He has 6 sons and 15 daughters and about $20 billion. His youngest son is just seven years old... has dismissed and retired air force chief General Mohammed al-Ayesh by royal decree, the official SPA news agency reported on Friday, without elaborating on why.
The monarch named General Fayadh bin Hamed al-Rowaili to succeed him, the agency added.
In April, the deputy defense minister, Prince Khaled bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, a member of the royal family who played a key role in the 1991 Gulf War over Kuwait, was also dismissed by royal decree.
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without elaborating why
The important part of this story is not written. At least not yet.
[An Nahar] Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... on Friday urged the Central African Republic's new government to reign in its rebel forces, accusing them of "horrific abuses" such as pillage, summary executions, rape, and torture.
The rights watchdog said that after the Seleka rebel coalition seized power on March 24 in a bloody coup, its bully boyz "went on a looting spree, killing civilians, raping women, and settling scores with members of the Central African Armed Forces."
Some 5,000 fighters took part in the battle for Bangui, the rights group said and many of the post-coup killings happened "in broad daylight."
The rebel coalition, which ousted President Francois Bozize after a peace deal fell apart, is made up of four rebel groups which have been operating in the northern part of the country since 2003.
The rights group had previously reported that in this region in 2007, Bozize's armed forces engaged in grave abuses such as summary executions, unlawful killings, house burnings, and using child soldiers.
"If the Seleka coalition, as it claims, wants to undo the wrongs of the previous government, it should immediately end its horrific abuses," said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
"The government should show it is committed to the rule of law by investigating and prosecuting attacks by Seleka troops against civilians."
The HRW report follows a 10-day investigation in Bangui in late April.
According to the group, the new transition government accused members of the ousted Bozize regime or "fake Seleka" of carrying out the abuses, and insisted it had control over its troops.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Probably file this under Central AFRICA rather than Central AMERICA. Locale fixed.
Though I remember something of the sort in Nicaragua with the Sandinistas, which Carter ignored much like Obama is ignoring Syria.
A tremor measuring 3.5 on Richter scale jolted port city of Bandar Lengeh in Irans southern province of Hormozgan on Wednesday evening.
The tremors epicenter was at 26.64 degrees latitude and 54.67 degrees longitude and in depth of 27 kilometers underground, (IRNA) news agency reported citing a report of the seismography center affiliated to Tehran University Geophysics Institute.
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Posted by: Frank G ||
05/11/2013 13:44
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3.5? Is that a typo? There are probably dozens of 3.5's a day around the world, and they're barely noticeable. Musta been a really slow news day in the islamic paradise.
#6
When Allah speaks, People LISTEN, the problem is Allah speaks and they hear WRONG, he says "Forgive" and they hear "KILL", happens all the time.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/11/2013 16:27
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When your building techniques are not much advanced since the Muslim conquest, and even then building inspectors are bribed not to notice broken rules, little earthquakes can be quite noticeable.
[Pak Daily Times] The corpse count from last month's collapse of a garment factory complex in Bangladesh rose past 1,000 Friday as piles of bodies were found in the ruins of a stairwell where victims had sought shelter.
Brigadier General Siddiqul Alam Sikder, the army officer overseeing the operation on the outskirts of the capital Dhaka, told AFP that the corpse count now stands at 1,035 after dozens more remains were discovered overnight.
Alam said that many of the bodies were now little more than skeletons, 17 days on from the implosion of the nine-storey Rana Plaza compound in Savar.
And the stench from under the rubble suggested that many more bodies are still to be located, he said.
"We have found a huge number of bodies in the stairwell and under the staircases. When the building started to collapse, workers thought they would be safe under the staircases," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[An Nahar] A 22-year-old Austrian had the shock of his life when he received a tax bill for more than 29 million euros ($38 million), a newspaper reported Wednesday.
Agadir B. told the Heute daily he got the bill after filing his tax return for 2008, when he earned around 600 euros a month as a trainee, with the demand that he paid one percent -- 290,420.13 euros -- immediately.
"I completely flipped out," he said. "My mum nearly had a nervous breakdown."
His mother even phoned the tax office to query the bill and was told: "You don't have a discussion at the checkout at Billa (a supermarket chain), you just pay," he said.
However, a lie repeated often enough remains a lie... a second letter later came through from the tax office, declaring the first one void and apologizing for the "technical error," the paper said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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It's a new idea in revenue raising. The mark citizen pays upfront 1 time based on his highest average income figured out 30 years then lives a fruitful life. Sort of a reverse balloon payment.
[Pak Daily Times] President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ... has voted by post in Pakistain's landmark general election, a front man confirmed on the eve of polls which the Taliban have vowed to attack with jacket wallahs. "Yes he has cast his vote through a postal ballot," presidency front man Farhatullah Babar told AFP.
On the other hand the chairman of the outgoing Pakistain People's Party -- denied a postal ballot -- will not vote in Saturday's elections because of threats to his life, a senior party official said.
A senior PPP leader Taj Haider praised the election commission for allowing Bilawal's father, President Asif Ali Zardari, a postal ballot, but at the same time expressed sorrow that the same privilege had been denied to Bilawal. "We cannot take the risk that he physically casts his vote," Haider repeated. The precise whereabouts of Bilawal is unclear. The Taliban have directly threatened Zardari's Pakistain People's Party (PPP) and its main secular coalition partners, which the party says dramatically curtailed its ability to campaign in public.
Posted by: Fred ||
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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.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has gone, hat in hand, to health industry officials, asking them to make large financial donations to help with the effort to implement President Obama's landmark health-care law, two people familiar with the outreach said.
Human influence on the Earth's atmosphere touched what climate scientists called a dire milestone Friday as concentrations of heat-trapping carbon dioxide nudged up to a level unseen in about 3 million to 5 million years -- long before modern humans.
Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine
Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev's body has been buried in a Muslim cemetery near Richmond, Virginia, according to the death certificate filed at Boston's city hall. The Al-Barzakh Cemetery in Doswell accepted the body and is listed as the "place of disposition" on the document. 
Britain is temporarily pulling out some staff from its embassy in the Libyan capital Tripoli due to security concerns over recent political unrest, the Foreign Office said on Friday.
Turkey has sent a team of eight experts to the border with Syria to test wounded victims of the countrys civil war for traces of chemical and biological weapons, the state-run Anatolian news agency said on Thursday. The civil defence team, equipped with a specialist vehicle which can detect evidence of chemical, biological and nuclear substances, has been stationed at the Cilvegozu border gate near the town of Reyhanli, Anatolian said.
Indonesian police have gunned down seven terror suspects in raids over the past two days, including several with alleged links to a plot to bomb Myanmar's embassy. Thirteen suspects were taken into custody as well, as an elite police unit swooped in on houses across Java, in the biggest counter-terrorism operation in the country for months.
[An Nahar] A candidate standing in Pakistain's bloody general election was 
[Pak Daily Times] Radical 
[Pak Daily Times] Violence before the Election Day in different parts of metropolis took life of three people, including a policeman, here on Friday. A cop was found dead near Sir Syed College located in Nazimabad within the remits of Rizvia Police Station. Residents of the area informed police about the body, which later shifted the body to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH). 
[BREITBART] Remember the hippo dancing in Disney's Fantasia and how cute it was? Don't believe it for a second; as guide Paul Templer relates to the UK Guardian, hippos can be monstrously violent and even swallow you up. Templer knows because it happened to him.
Israel has given the go-ahead to build nearly 300 homes in the Beit El settlement near Ramallah, an official said on Thursday, in a move likely to spark tensions as Washington seeks to rekindle peace talks.
GALKAYO, Somalia -- An explosion at a police station on Monday in Galkayo has killed one police officer and injured others, Garowe Online reports.
[Pak Daily Times] In one of the biggest ever bank heists, a global cyber crime ring stole $45 million from two Middle Eastern banks by hacking into credit card processing firms and withdrawing money from ATMs in 27 countries, US prosecutors said on Thursday. 
Radical cleric Abu Qatada will return to Jordan voluntarily if the Jordanian parliament ratifies a deal with Britain that ensures he will receive a fair trial, the cleric's lawyer said on Friday.
[An Nahar] An Iranian man condemned to the gallows for murdering a policeman was pardoned by the victim's family and his life saved only moments after he was hanged, the Mehr news agency reported on Thursday.
[Pak Daily Times] Even after launching a sweeping investigation, the police have not yet been able to find a clue of Ali Haider Gilani, the son of former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, who was kidnapped by 
[An Nahar] A lawyer for the notorious Venezuelan
[An Nahar] 
A tremor measuring 3.5 on Richter scale jolted port city of Bandar Lengeh in Irans southern province of Hormozgan on Wednesday evening.
[Pak Daily Times] The 
[An Nahar] A 22-year-old Austrian had the shock of his life when he received a tax bill for more than 29 million euros ($38 million), a newspaper reported Wednesday.
President Asif Ali 
