#5
The Code that's the real problem is the one you wrote and signed. You can't start out with a lousy algorithm and get a good computer program out of it.
#7
You think we created this Website? We didn't create this website well all created this website and it could have been better if the Republican opposition knew a do-loop from a F-35!
But seriously, no one in this country gets away scot free from taking care of their fellows. It 's written in the big book, Am I my brothers Keeper? And of course the answer is hell yes, to the tune of 10 plus percentum over your current giving. So get the staples out of your wallet and stand up for America!
Police hunting a runaway terror suspect swooped on a mosque in West London and nabbed... a tabloid newspaper reporter.
The journalist had been distributing posters in the area around the mosque where Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed dodged the long arm of the law by donning a burka, offering a reward for the 27-year-old Somali-born Briton's arrest. A mob soon gathered and someone complained to Plod.
Uniformed officers arrived and took the reporter and his photographer to Acton police station on suspicion of "racially aggravated public disorder".
"You can't distribute those posters! Those are wanted men!"
The pair were quizzed under caution by detectives for four hours before being released.
Police say their investigation is "continuing" and charges could still follow. It seems to be open season on journos right now. They're so much easier to nick than fanatical al-Qaeda-trained jihadists, aren't they? For one thing, they don't cunningly disguise themselves in burkas.
I begin to imagine Chris Matthews in a burqa, then I throw up a little in my mouth...
This whole fiasco began when three terror suspects, including Mohamed, who were accused of tampering with their supposedly state-of-the-art monitoring tags, walked free from court after lawyers successfully argued their electronic tags were faulty. Mohamed was said to have damaged his tag accidentally while kneeling down to pray five times a day.
Accidentally while kneeling to pray and finagling it with a screwdriver. But mostly finagling it with a screwdriver...
After he was freed, Mohamed -- who has been linked to al-Shabaab, the terrorist gang behind the Kenyan shopping mall massacre -- walked in to the An-Noor Masjid Mosque and Community Centre in Acton. CCTV footage showed him wearing his everyday clothes.
When he left the building a few hours later, he was wrapped in an Islamic woman's burka.
The Met's Counter Terrorism Command, MI5 and the UK Border Agency have now joined forces to find him. But last night, Mohamed was still at large.
I'm not surprised. In the current climate, where the police tiptoe around, terrified of infringing anyone's human rights, it's a brave copper who suspects somebody lumbering down the street in a burka might actually be a man and asks her/him to take it off -- if you don't mind, madam/sir.
Who's to blame for this ludicrous state of affairs?
Home Secretary Theresa May ultimately carries the can. But the finger is being pointed at Deputy PM Nick Clegg's Lib Dems, forever sucking up to the civil liberties brigade, who persuaded the Coalition government to scrap Labour's controversial "control orders" which allowed fanatics -- including Mohamed, as it happens -- to be placed under virtual house arrest.
These have been superseded by the wishy-washy Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures, alias T-Pims -- which sound like some kind of trendy cocktails. Judging by what's happening now, they should be called out-of-control orders.
Not at all -- they nabbed the reporter, didn't they?
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/12/2013
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[Pak Daily Times] Two political workers of 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) were bumped off in an act of murder on Monday.
As per Pirabad police, the MQM workers were bumped off and another maimed in New Mianwali Colony.
Police officials said that the dear departed victims have been identified as Asif Ali Rizvi, 35, son of Syed Artaza Rizvi, associated with MQM's unit 132, Ashraf, Talib 36, son of Talib, and injured as Ilyas, 40, son of Ejaz.
The officials informed that they were on their way on a cycle of violence, when unidentified armed riders intercepted and
targeted them.
As a result all victims sustained bullet injures and were rushed to hospital, where doctors pronounced the death of two - Asif and Ashraf, and admitted Ilyas for medical treatment.
As per initial investigations, police suspect, it was a targeted attack, however, further inquiries are being conducted.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2013
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Mohammed Ahmed Mohameds escape is one of the oldest tricks in the book, so how did he flee police?
In many ways, it reads like an airport thriller.
A cheap airport thriller...
One dull afternoon in late autumn, a 27-year-old British man of Somali origin, with uneven teeth and chubby cheeks, became the latest terror suspect to disappear, making a mockery of the UK security services, police and judiciary.
After spending several hours in the dilapidated An-Noor Masjid (mosque) and community centre on Church Road in Acton, west London, he sliced off his electronic tag, slipped on a burka and vanished.
The fugitive had been subject to a controversial Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measure (Tpim) notice, which was supposed to restrict his movements.
The date was November 1; the time 3.15pm. That was the moment when Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed stepped out of the ranks of obscurity and became one of the most wanted men in Britain. On Friday, a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/12/2013
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#1
"making a mockery of the UK security services, police and judiciary."
The Keystone Kops and the Bendover Boyz.
How's that multicultural diversity workin' out fer 'ya?
[Pak Daily Times] Syria's Western-backed opposition agreed on Monday to attend planned peace talks in Geneva but said Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... could play no part in a transitional government aimed at ending the 2-1/2-year-old civil war.
The Syrian National Coalition also demanded the release of women and kiddies from Syrian jails and an easing of military sieges of rebel-held areas as a precondition for going to Geneva.
No date has yet been agreed for the peace talks, which have been repeatedly delayed by discord between Washington and Moscow and by the coalition's failure to define its stance until now. "The coalition agreed to take part in the conference on the basis of a transfer of power to a transitional ruling authority with full powers, including the presidency, military and security," it said in a statement after late-night talks.
There could be no role for Assad "or his aides whose hands are stained with Syrian blood" in Syria's future, it said.
The United States welcomed the coalition's decision to attend the talks and endorsed its conditions relating to prisoner releases and humanitarian access.
"We will continue to work closely with our international partners, including Russia, to urge the regime to take these steps and move towards convening the Geneva conference," a State Department front man said, without commenting on the coalition's rejection of any role for Assad in any interim government.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2013
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Italian police have arrested a Somali man suspected of organizing a migrant boat that capsized and killed hundreds of people off the island of Lampedusa last month.
An alleged accomplice has also been detained. Italian police said on Friday that the Somali man now being held at a facility in Sicily was suspected of having been one of the human traffickers, who organized the ship that capsized off the shores of the Italian island of Lampedusa on October 3, killing 366 people.
Most of the 155 survivors were Eritreans. Police identified the suspect as 34-year-old Mouhamud Elmi Muhidin, who they said had been spotted by survivors of the shipwreck in an overcrowded migrant center on Lampedusa where he had been living.
A Palestinian man, suspected of being a co-conspirator, was also arrested. The boat's Tunisian captain was arrested immediately after the accident and is facing charges of manslaughter.
Some of the survivors reportedly attacked both men after they were spotted and police said that had they not stepped in to arrest them, they could have been lynched.
Can't have that, can we...
Police said Muhidin was facing a series of charges, including kidnapping, sexual assault, people trafficking and criminal association with the goal of aiding illegal immigration.
"From what survivors of the October 3 shipwreck told us, we found out that all female passengers were raped by members of the criminal gang behind the migrant trade," the police chief in the Sicilian town of Agrigento, Corrado Empoli, told reporters. Italy has pledged to crack down on people smuggling rings believed to be responsible for a sharp upsurge in arrivals of asylum seekers on its shores.
More than 35,000 migrants have arrived on Italy's coast so far this year.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
A three hour tour... A three hour tour...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/12/2013 8:43
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North Korea publicly executed around 80 people earlier this month, many for watching smuggled South Korean TV shows, a South Korean newspaper reported on Monday.
The conservative JoongAng Ilbo cited a single, unidentified source, but at least one North Korean defector group said it had heard rumours that lent credibility to the front-page report. The source, said to be familiar with the Norths internal affairs and recently returned from the country, said the executions were carried out in seven cities on November 3.
In the eastern port of Wonsan, the authorities gathered 10,000 people in a sports stadium to watch the execution of eight people by firing squad, the source quoted one eyewitness as saying. Most were charged with watching illicit South Korean TV dramas, and some with prostitution.
Several of the cities, including Wonsan and Pyongsong in the west, have been designated as special economic zones aimed at attracting foreign investment to boost the Norths moribund economy.
The Seoul-based news website, Daily NK, which is run by North Korean defectors and has a wide network of sources, said it had no information on the executions. But another defector-run website, North Korea Intellectual Solidarity, said its sources had reported several months ago on plans for a wave of public executions.
The regime is obviously afraid of potential changes in peoples mindsets and is pre-emptively trying to scare people off, said one website official.
Watching unsanctioned foreign films or TV especially those from the capitalist South is a serious offence in North Korea. However, efforts to control their distribution have been circumvented by technology, with an increasing number being smuggled in on DVDs, flash drives and MP3 players.
As well as South Korean soap operas, US shows like Desperate Housewives are believed to have a small but avid following.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/12/2013
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#1
OK - I can see that for watching Maury Povitch or Oprah, but it's kinda harsh for soaps
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/12/2013 7:52
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#2
Missed my wife, and her oversized TV.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/12/2013 8:13
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Any one who watches Desperate Housewives deserves to be shot
[Pak Daily Times] The mourning of religio-political and most mainstream parties at the killing of Tehrik-e-Taliban Taliban (TTP) chief Hakimullah Mehsud in a drone attack by the US should not be surprising as these parties have been quite consistent for a long time in expressing their soft corner, if not outright support, for the Taliban movement.
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... chief, Munawar Hasan, who hit the headlines by declaring Mehsud a martyr, is on record as condemning the military operation against the TTP in South Wazoo in 2010. Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who is the lightweight's lightweight... never spoke a word of sympathy for the common people or army officers killed by the Taliban. Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... has been quite hypocritical in his stance about the bad boys, with no clear policy on terrorism.
Except for the Pakistain People's Party, the Awami National Party, 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... and Shia and Barelvi holy mans, no other party or religious outfit has ever opposed the Taliban. Liberal intellectuals and non-governmental organizations are also on the side of the anti-Taliban formation.
The country stands sharply divided over the issue of dealing with the Taliban with pro-Taliban groups in a dominant majority. Even the Pak media, especially the Urdu press, is rife with the supporters of the Taliban though some of them may be a little diplomatic in their posturing. The debate in the print and electronic media over Malala Yousufzai's book and drone attacks is a manifestation of the penetration of the Taliban mindset into the educated middle class.
The Taliban movement has very deep, wide roots in Pak society and it fulfills certain requirements of a majority of our people. One major factor behind the Taliban's acceptability is their anti-US role as these people rightly or wrongly consider the US to be an enemy of Moslems and Islam.
Until the Taliban are fighting the US forces in Afghanistan and the Pakistain establishment is seen as a US ally, the Taliban will remain popular. Maulana Fazlur Rehman Deobandi holy man, known as Mullah Diesel during the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ... has articulated this sentiment by saying that he would declare even a dog to be a martyr if it is killed by the US.
A large section of Pak society may be categorised as 'moderate Taliban', people who share the Taliban's interpretation of Islam and its enforcement but do not like their violent tactics such as suicide kabooms, murders and beheadings. For example, unlike the Taliban who banned all kinds of female education, the moderate Taliban want female education but with the observing of purdah (veil).
The moderate Taliban could be averse to the use of violence in the enforcement of their brand of Sharia at home, but not so while fighting a foreign force like the US-led forces in Afghanistan or Indian forces in Kashmire. The Taliban movement combines a puritan interpretation of religion with elements of anti-westernism, fascism ...a political system developed in Italy symbolized by the Roman fasces -- thin reeds, each flimsy in itself but unbreakable when bound into a bundle. The word is nowadays thrown around by all sorts of people who have no idea what they're talking about... and the trappings of populist rhetoric.
The Taliban movement is not a monolithic organization led by Hakeemullah Mehsud as a Taliban front man himself explained in a recent interview. It is a conglomerate of different groups and dozens of other affiliated sub-groups operating all over the country. It gains strength from the fact that except for organizations belonging to the Shia and Barelvi sects, all religious organizations are in support of the Taliban movement.
The rank and file of religio-political organizations, such as the Jamaat-e-Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl and Sami groups), Tableeghi Jamaat, different organizations of the Ahle-e-Hadith sect and the Jamaat-e-Islami, has an emotional and ideological attachment with the Taliban movement. The workers and leaders of these organizations have linkages with each other and provide boarding and logistical support to bad boys.
The Barelvi sect, which was in majority a few decades ago, has been shrinking in recent times, giving way to expansion of Deobandi and Wahabi sects. Spread of literacy, urbanisation and busy modern lifestyle have led to decline in the appeal of the ritualistic Barelvi sect. The urban, semi-educated people are more attracted to a rituals-free, puritan interpretation of the religion.
The Taliban's bad boy infrastructure may be concentrated in the northwestern tribal belt, Waziristan, etc, but Mumbai, 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... and Lahore are the ideological centres of the movement. The seminaries and holy mans based in these cities provide ideological direction and literature motivating the activists.
It is not without reason the Taliban honoured and positively responded to the recent appeal made by Deobandi holy mans (Learned Elders of Islam) of these cities to cease violence and start talks with the government. A Taliban leader was quoted as saying in the media that the edict (fatwa) of these holy mans for negotiations with the government has the status of an order for them. Had they not respected the edict, they risked losing support among the followers of these Learned Elders of Islam.
Following Karachi, the Taliban movement has now spawned in the interior Sindh as well, which hitherto has been a hub of Sufi (mystic) Islam. South Punjab is already a bastion of the Punjab Taliban, a nomenclature that is used as a variant for anti-Shia and Jihadi sectarian outfits known as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... , Sipah-e-Sahaba, Jaish-e-Muhammad, etc. There are hundreds of Taliban-affiliated seminaries in the entire region.
In central Punjab, Jihadi organizations such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba ...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI... , now working as Jamat-ud-Dawa and with other names like Anjuman Falah-e-Insaniat, etc, are closely allied with the Taliban. In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... , Deobandis constitute a very large majority of the population. The seminaries of Akora Khattak and Punj Sher (Swabi) have been the nurseries of the Taliban. The students and Learned Elders of Islam of these religious schools have played a key role in fostering the Taliban movement in Afghanistan and later in Swat.
What gives impetus to the Taliban movement is the fact that people across the country, in general, are fed up with the corrupt and inefficient state. A majority of people want resolution of their basic issues like unemployment, price hike and inefficient judicial system, whosoever provides these. They are more concerned with their survival issues than the ideas of freedoms and civil liberties.
Our ruling elite is so dishonest, callous in treating the poor and incompetent in governance and service delivery that a large number of people have lost hope in them. In this situation, certain sections of society are looking towards the Taliban as the messiah. The Taliban movement has an appeal for the poor, lower middle class and religious-minded people.
Unless the issues of governance, administration of justice, public education and fair distribution of wealth are addressed, the Taliban movement will keep gaining strength. An intensive military operation against the TTP in North Waziristan and other parts of the northwestern tribal areas may only provide a temporary respite. The Taliban phenomenon has much more to it than militancy. It is going to stay with us and cannot be wished away. We will have to find ways to live with it.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2013
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[Pak Daily Times] Unabashedly, the apologists of the Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP) are coming out of the cupboard. On television screens, they are screaming and wailing on the killing of Hakeemullah Mehsud. They are more vociferous in condemning his death than they ever were when thousands of civilians and military personnel were butchered by the Mehsud-led TTP.
Let us analyse the major arguments given by the political supporters of the TTP briefly. First, the claim that the US had droned Mehsud just when the government was about to start negotiations with the Taliban, and thus it was to destabilise Pakistain and sabotage the talks. What we tend to overlook conveniently or because our leaders lack courage is that the TTP strategy after the offer of talks was not to cease terrorist activities. Instead, they moved the ante up to boost their bargaining power by killing senior military officials, FC soldiers and stepping up terrorist attacks on civilians, for which they used their offshoots. That was always expected, as in all armed conflicts, along with talks each side tries to show its muscle.
On the other hand, the government looked weak and begging for peace without any show of power. In this background, if the US has bumped off the TTP leader, who had claimed the killings of many people in the videos released by the TTP and al Qaeda propaganda, the government should have used it as an opportunity to send the message that the TTP has to behave or else both Pakistain and the US power will take them on. On the contrary, the government is being forced into a corner by the contorted arguments of an emotional Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the brightest knife in the national drawer... . Instead of leading courageously, the government is following the right-wing leaders who have the audacity of honouring Hakeemullah Mehsud as a martyr.
Second, the TTP's political wing says that the US had done it in its own interest. Of course, only a fool would believe that in realpolitik, countries do something for altruistic reasons. They are also supported by some anti-American liberal and left activists. Here, they tend to forget the basics. The TTP and other al Qaeda franchisees have killed more people and armymen in Pakistain than we lost in many military adventures in the last 66 years. As General Pervez Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... rightly said in May this year, the gunnies are the biggest threat to the country. In such a case, there is a convergence of interests of the people of Pakistain and the US because both are endangered by the terrorist organizations. In politics, when it comes to dealing with any issue it is always important to mark who your possible allies and adversaries are. On a number of issues related to the economic model or US designs against China and Iran, the US can be our adversary. But the immediate existential threat is from the people who follow the al Qaeda ideology, which wants to take us back to the medieval period and dreams of bringing an Islamic revolution across the globe starting from the Moslem majority countries.
Time and again, Pakistain has protested that the drone attacks in the tribal areas are against international law and violate our illusory sovereignty. Here the question is: who are we joking with? The whole country knows that Pakistain has no control along the Durand Line. So the area where we do not have our writ and have failed to establish it in the last three decades is not under our sovereign rule. In reality it is a no man's land. At the same time, we know that the Taliban cross from the tribal areas to Afghanistan to carry out terrorist activities. If we cannot stop these insurgencies from Pakistain and abolish safe havens, how do we expect the world to sympathise with us when we cry that our illusory sovereignty is being violated? The other side has the right to hot pursuit. Let us first respect the illusory sovereignty of our neighbours by reigning in the jihadists and then demand that our land should not be violated.
Third, there is a bizzare debate whether Mehsud's death was an extrajudicial killing or not. Are we kidding? This is a civil war situation, my dears, in which the other side slits the throats of the people captured by them, supports the sectarian killings actively and proudly puts it on YouTube. What do you expect that the police or a few Rangers can walk in and arrest the likes of Mehsud and read them their legal rights? Nobody can even enter North Wazoo, and in such a situation you get a terrorist anyway you can.
Lastly, another dimension has been added by the establishment, which perhaps privately considers Mehsud's killing as good riddance. Two developments give strength to this argument: one that of late people close to the establishment have started saying that the TTP was working for the Afghan and Indian intelligence and two, a few days before Mehsud was killed, the Ministry of Defence told the National Assembly that the actual collateral civilian loss of life via drone attacks was very small as compared to the killing of terrorists.
Now the question for the conspiracy theorist is: if the TTP were working for the Indians and Afghans, then how is it that they were the enemies of the US? According to conspiracy theorists, both the US and India want to destabilise Pakistain, then why did they kill the TTP chief who was doing this job effectively? And why our Interior Minister, whose job is to fix up foreign agents, was so upset? The more one thinks about these conspiracy theories, the more holes are spotted and the situation becomes murkier.
Tailpiece: If the US would ask for the head money we had on the number of gunnies killed by them, I am afraid our coalition support fund's bottom line may go in the red.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2013
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For a map, click here. For a map of Tamaulipas state, click here
Updated with the corrected death toll in Reynosa prison.
A total of seven individuals were killed in Tamaulipas, including six prisoners in a prison brawl in Reynosa, according to Mexican news and official reports.
A news release published by the Tamaulipas state Procuraduria General de Justicia del Estado (PGJE) said that six inmates at the Centro de Ejecucion de Sanciones (CEDES) prison in Reynosa were killed in a prison brawl Sunday evening.
The dead were identified as José Guadalupe Marín Rocha, 41, Lauro Treviño, 31, Humberto Hernandez Gonzalez, 36, José Santos Gonzalez Villarreal, 41, Carlos Mario Grajales Garza, 31 and Rafiel Lopez Calzado, 30.
The news release said only that the victims had all been stabbed to death in the observation area of the prison at around 1900 hrs.
The news release said that three inmates, identified as Agapito Arredondo, 28, Humberto Gamez, 26 and Juan Manuel Bautista Cruz, 36, were identified as being responsible for the attack.
Meanwhile Monday, also in Reynosa, one unidentified armed suspect was killed and another was captured in an exchange of gunfire and pursuit with a Mexican Army road patrol.
According to a news account in El Diario de Coahuila news daily, several armed suspects were traveling aboard two vehicles in Juarez 5 colony when the drivers were signaled to stop. Instead, a pursuit ensued across two other colonies in the city ending in Lopez Portillo colony, where one of the vehicles crashed by overturning.
The other passengers in the crashed vehicle made their escape aboard the second vehicle. Indications in news account are that an undisclosed number of suspects had been wounded in the encounter, but had escaped and that weapons had been seized by security forces.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com
Uh... Tanks-achusetts? Gut nuthin'.
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- The family of a Silicon Valley engineer who amassed one of the nation's most extensive historic military vehicle collections is giving the tanks, missile launchers and armored vehicles to a Massachusetts-based museum that will preserve and display some of them.
Until now, the $30 million fleet of tanks has been refurbished and housed in seven storage sheds on a family estate up a winding, forested road above Silicon Valley; they are visited only under privately arranged tours.
#4
Maryland has a field full of old Tanks on the way to Baltimore, I think. Its on a military base, can't remember the name. You can see it from the highway. Fun for kids. They even has an old japanese tank built for some little guys. And a T34 which looked like it was designed for Monkeys with no shoes.
#5
Could they swing by the White House, I'd love to see our Coward in Chief run away again.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/12/2013 7:56
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#4 that would be Aberdeen Proving Grounds and the Army Ordnance Museum which is in the process of being moved to Fort Lee, outside Petersburg, Virginia.
#7
...Redneck Jim: Yes, it would be interesting to watch PrezBo flailing his arms while exclaiming "The tank corpse is coming! The tank corpse is coming!"...
[Pak Daily Times] The Taliban on Monday warned an upcoming elders' assembly against endorsing a deal allowing US troops to stay in Afghanistan after 2014, saying they would be punished as "traitors" if they did so. Around 2,500 tribal elders and civil leaders are expected to take part in an assembly known as a "loya jirga" this month, to decide whether to accept the draft Bilateral Security Agreement between Afghanistan and the US.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[DEADLINE] You would not be saying TGIF in cable newsland if you were Alec Baldwin or Rachel Nichols last week.
The actor's 10 PM MSNBC show Up Late and the former ESPN news hound's Unguarded on CNN both hit demo lows on November 8. With guests Cristina Tzintzun of the Workers Defense Fund and the Coalition for the Homeless' Mary Brosnahan talking immigration reform and anti-poverty programs, Up Late With Alec Baldwin pulled in just 101,000 viewers among adults 25-54 on Friday. That's a 41% drop from the 172,000 demo results of the one-hour show's October 11 debut. While Baldwin's total viewers were up to 395,000 from the 354,000 low of its November 1 show, the demo was down from that show's 130,000.
For CNN's Unguarded, the numbers were even more dire. The Nichols-hosted sports-themed show not only hit a demo low but a viewership low too. The 10:30-11 PM show had a very weak 41,000 viewers in the news demo and just 133,000 viewers overall. That's a 55% free fall in the demo from Unguarded's already soft October 25 premiere. It's also a 54% slide from the 288,000 overall viewers who watched the show's launch.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2013
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#2
And far less effective. Proven by the very low ratings.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/12/2013 7:48
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#3
Rachel Nichols was a horrible reporter whose every report had "so I asked him and he told me *wink*". Glad to see her removed from ESPN to obscurity. Baldwin is a walking POS. Nuff said
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/12/2013 7:59
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#4
A person's got to really hate himself or herself to be watching either of these shows. Such people do exist...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/12/2013 8:42
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#5
Unguarded: can't make a shot.
Likely some of them are professionally required to watch. Others, likely waiting for the Viking short comedies.
Five children were killed and 27 people wounded when mortar rounds hit a school in the Syrian capital Damascus on Monday, state television reported.
The toll in the terrorist targeting of the St. John of Damascus school with mortar rounds has risen to five dead, all of them children, and 27 injured, a news alert on Syrian state television said.
Earlier, the interior minister told the official Al-Ikhbariya channel that 11 children had been hurt at the school in the majority Christian district of Qassaa, in central Damascus.
State news agency SANA also reported a second mortar hit a school bus in the Bab Touma neighbourhood, injuring five children. Bab Touma is another central Damascus area that is majority Christian.
Rebel fighters arrayed in districts on the outskirts of the capital regularly launch rockets and mortar rounds at central neighbourhoods, causing damage and sometimes fatalities.
They particularly like killing Christians, the rat bastards.
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[Pak Daily Times] The chief fundraiser of the Haqqani krazed killer network -- one of the most feared groups fighting US-led forces in Afghanistan -- has been rubbed out in the Pak capital, the Taliban said Monday.
Unidentified gunnies attacked Nasiruddin Haqqani, a son of the group's founder, on the edge of Islamabad on Sunday evening, the snuffies told AFP. The Haqqanis have been blamed for spectacular attacks on Afghan government and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... targets across Afghanistan as well as for kidnappings and murders. Eyewitnesses described attackers on cycle of violences spraying Haqqani with automatic gunfire as he bought bread from a shop in Bhara Kahu on the northeastern edge of the city. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the killing, which comes just over a week after a US drone strike assassinated Pak Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud in North Wazoo Agency. Washington holds the Haqqanis responsible for some of the most high-profile attacks in Afghanistan, including a 2011 siege of the US embassy and, in 2009, the deadliest attack on the CIA in 25 years. "I can confirm that Nasiruddin Haqqani, 36, was rubbed out in Islamabad's Bhara Kahu area on Sunday night. At least four gunnies opened fire on him," a senior Afghan Taliban source from the Haqqani network told AFP.
Haqqani's body has been taken to Miranshah ... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas... , the main town of North Waziristan, for burial, the source said. A front man for the Pak Taliban confirmed the death and vowed to take Dire Revenge, accusing the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of killing him. "Nasiruddin Haqqani has been martyred by ISI," Shahidullah Shahid, the main front man for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP), told AFP. "He was killed because he bravely supported Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud." Afghanistan's NDS spy agency also confirmed Haqqani's death but blamed it on an "internal conflict". It did not give further details.
The United States put the Haqqani network on its terror blacklist in September 2012 and the Pentagon said the group represented a "significant threat" to national security. The UN followed up with global sanctions on the network two months later, saying in its designation that the group was linked to al Qaeda, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and a string of krazed killer groups in Pakistain including the TTP. The Haqqanis have been a source of friction in US-Pakistain relations. The outgoing top US military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, in 2011 called the group a "veritable arm" of the ISI.
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#1
Living in Islamabad carefree and people wonder who we are fighting in Afghanistan?
A US federal court may provide an answer in a trial that opened in Washington DC this past week of a Somali official who helped win release of a hijacked Danish cargo ship and crew for $US1.7 million ($A1.80 million) ransom, but who played no part in seizing the vessel or holding it for 71 days.
US courts have convicted dozens of Somali pirates in recent years, part of a vast multinational effort that has helped curtail the rampant hijacking of oil tankers, freighters, sailboats and other ships off the Horn of Africa.
But the federal judge in the latest trial says the Justice Department went too far by charging Ali Mohamed Ali with piracy, which carries a mandatory life sentence.
The federal judge, of course, has never had his life disrupted by piracy, terrorists or renegades...
Defence lawyers say Somali tribal leaders sought Alis help because he spoke fluent English, a by-product of living 26 years in the United States. After the ransom was parachuted to the pirates, the cargo ship, the CEC Future, and its 13 mostly Russian crew members were released unharmed in January 2009.
In April 2011, Ali was acting director of the Education Ministry in Somaliland, a semi-autonomous region in northern Somalia, when US authorities lured him to American soil by inviting him to an education conference. He was arrested when his flight landed at Dulles International Airport outside Washington.
If he hadn't fallen for that they would have lured him by telling him that he'd won Super Bowl tickets. That works every time...
He then began 30 months in detention that US District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle, the trial judge, said raises serious due process concerns after a prosecutor told Ali during a pre-trial hearing, No one thinks youre a pirate.
In a later hearing, Huvelle scolded the prosecutors for pursuing the piracy charge, calling it government overreaching.
Which the government frequently does, but let's hear the evidence...
This gentleman doesnt merit mandatory life in prison, she said.
Legal experts say the prosecution is unusual because Ali acted as an intermediary and translator, not as an armed pirate.
None of this is to say that hes a perfectly lovely guy, but its a very, very odd and ambitious prosecution, said Tara Helfman, a law professor at Syracuse University who has followed the case.
Who also has never been terrorized...
These negotiators are used all the time, she added. Theyre called upon not only by ship owners but also by insurance companies to secure the release of hostages. Thats what makes this very strange.
Federal prosecutors argued in opening statements Monday that even though Ali didnt seize the CEC Future or carry a weapon, he was key to the pirates scheme to secure a ransom.
He was the most important gun on board, said Julieanne Himelstein, an assistant US attorney. Because that was the gun that got them the money.
Over the last five years, a coalition of more than 60 countries and organisations has increased naval patrols in the Indian Ocean, conducted airstrikes against pirate dens on land and jailed more than 1100 suspected hijackers. To crack down further, US authorities arent just chasing the pirates, who are mostly impoverished young fishermen. Officials increasingly target the transnational network of crime bosses, human traffickers, money launderers and others who bankroll the pirate trade and grab most of the profits.
Sorta like going after the mob's financiers, or the money men for the big drug cartels. You do it because it works.
This case shows our resolve to prosecute pirates and those who profit from crimes on the high seas, Ronald C Machen Jr, US attorney for the District of Columbia, said in announcing Alis arrest in 2011.
Those who negotiate and collect these ransoms are every bit as responsible for these crimes as the pirates who commandeer the ships.
Last year, a federal judge in Norfolk, Virginia, sentenced a Somali man, Mohammad Saaili Shibin, to 12 life sentences for negotiating ransoms for two hijacked ships, including a yacht owned by a Californian couple. The two couples aboard the yacht, all Americans, were killed by pirates in February 2011. Justice Department officials called Shibin the highest-ranking pirate ever brought to the United States.
Lawyers for Ali, a thin, bespectacled man in his early 50s who wore an argyle sweater to court, described him in far different terms. According to defence lawyer Matthew Peed, Ali came to the United States in 1981 as a 19-year-old student of management economics at the State University of New York at Old Westbury. He later settled in the Washington area and offered his Somali and Arabic language skills to Department of Homeland Security officials after the September 11 attacks in 2001, but returned to Somaliland in 2007 for family reasons, Peed said.
Ali was brought aboard the CEC Future as a negotiator
...by who? That would answer a fair number of questions right there. If the insurance company brought him in because he knew the lay of the land, that's one thing, but if he was suggested by the pirates or their bag-men, then he's an accessory.
three days after it was hijacked in November 2008. Prosecutors say he first demanded $7 million ransom for the crews release. He later agreed to $1.7 million but then secured an additional $75,000 for himself, Himelstein told jurors.
Alis lawyers say the extra money was for the hijackers bosses on land, not for him.
In addition to piracy, Ali is charged with aiding and abetting pirates, conspiracy to commit piracy and hostage-taking, all of which carry heavy prison sentences. His trial is expected to last several weeks.
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#1
So, yer "honor", you say bust the underlings, but not the one who runs the thing and schmoozes with the bankers? Put YOUR ass on a boat and leave you to the tender mercies of this fellow's compatriots. Might change your mind about enablers - and applying the RICO style laws we have in the books.
Egypts interior minister has indicated that a curfew and state of emergency will expire on Wednesday as scheduled.
Unless of course new festivities break out...
Gen. Mohammed Ibrahim told the official news agency Monday that he will boost security forces after the curfew is lifted to tighten control and instill a feeling of confidence and security in citizens.
Egypt imposed a curfew based on a state of emergency that was passed on Aug. 14, when security forces violently dispersed two Cairo protest camps of supporters of ousted President Mohammed Mursi. Hundreds of people were killed and the days of unrest that followed left more than 1,000 dead.
It would require a public referendum to extend the state of emergency.
The curfew has been 7 p.m. on Friday and 1 a.m. on all other days.
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[Pak Daily Times] Sri Lanka had hoped this week's Commonwealth summit would showcase its post-war revival but the event is turning into PR disaster with the leaders of Canada and India deciding to boycott over human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... concerns.
The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) opens in Colombo on Friday, hoping to tackle a range of economic, social and diplomatic issues affecting the 53-member bloc.
Prince Charles will represent the organization's ageing titular head, Queen Elizabeth II.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse said he was looking forward to highlighting the island nation's "tremendous transformation" after "suffering for decades from a brutal war against terrorism" that ended in 2009.
But the war's bitter legacy has dominated the build-up, with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announcing Sunday he would skip the summit after coming under pressure from some of his ministers to send a signal about alleged abuses committed during the conflict.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper urged his peers in April to follow him in boycotting the meeting to protest Sri Lanka's refusal to probe its troops over allegations 40,000 mainly ethnic Tamil non-combatants were killed at the end of the separatist war.
British Prime Minister David Cameron ... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ... has said he will take part, but has pledged to push for an international investigation into the allegations, while New Zealand leader John Key said on Monday his attendance did not imply support for the Sri Lankan government.
Cameron said he would put "serious questions" to Rajapakse, after watching a "chilling documentary" about the events of 2009 that shows footage of alleged war crimes.
Sri Lanka's alleged abuses will almost certainly not be formally discussed during the three-day event given the island's staunch denials of wrongdoing and even as it faces international censure for failing to investigate them.
"The Commonwealth is not a forum to pass judgement on each other's problems," Foreign Minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris told news hounds.
"All countries have problems. But those issues must be resolved by the governments of those countries in keeping with the aspirations of their people." He drew support from Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who on Monday reaffirmed his intention to attend, adding that he did not want Australia to "trash one of the very longstanding and important bodies that we are a senior member of".
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[Pak Daily Times] Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) Mohmand Agency ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... leader Umer Khalid Kharasani has said that political parties and Pakistain Army have "always deceived the Taliban" and latest fiddle was in form of a drone attack which killed their chief Hakimullah Mehsud.
Talking to a group of news hounds at some holy man's guesthouse an undisclosed location on Monday, Kharasani held political parties and Pakistain Army responsible for the death of Hakimullah Mehsud and vowed to take Dire Revenge™ for the killing.
He said the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain spokesperson's statement regarding peace talks issue was his informal assertion, adding that the formal standpoint of TTP would be issued after meeting of its Majlis-e-Shura to be presided over by new TTP chief Maulvi Fazalullah.
To a question regarding contour of the TTP Shura, he said it consisted of 15 to 17 members from every tribal agency.
He also ruled out reports regarding rifts in the ranks of Taliban and said that they are united under the leadership of Maulvi Fazalullah.
He said the US and India are enemies of Taliban but the "Pak government has always followed the dictation of America and inflicted damages on TTP".
He alleged that Pak Army and government were not in favour of peace dialogue and ending military operation as they are afraid of termination of foreign aid as a reaction to their action.
Some of the political parties, including Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... (PTI), 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) and Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam ...the political wing of the Pak Taliban... -Fazl (JUI-F), are in favour of restoration of peace through talks but government was using various tactics aimed at not letting their efforts to be fruitful, Kharasani added.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain leader also rejected the notion that dialogues were impossible with the Taliban under the leadership of Fazalullah and said that all decisions of the outfit were taken in consensus with the Majlis-e-Shura and not by chief solely.
He said that gorilla action of Taliban was underway in Mohmand Agency, Swat, Bajaur and other tribal agencies.
To a question regarding creating hurdles in the way of development and destroying educational institutions, he said that Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain was neither against development nor resisting promotion of education but was only against the NGOs working executing these projects on foreign aids.
According to Kharasani, the current education system is "anti-Islamic" and if reforms are introduced, the Taliban would not oppose them.
Regarding attacks on workers of polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... vaccination teams, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain leader said that they are following the foreign agenda and if all the holy mans jointly declare polio vaccination permissible then Taliban would stop the attacks.
He also rejected the reports published in the foreign media about losses caused by drone attacks and said that mostly innocent people become victim of such strikes.
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[Pak Daily Times] The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) has transported 'blue bombs' in different cities of Punjab to conduct terrorist activities, according to a report intelligence agencies have sent to the federal government.
The TTP plans to wage a new wave of terrorist activities to take Dire Revenge™ for the killing of its chief Hakimullah Mehsud.
The days chosen for the terrorist activities are 9th and 10th of Muharram. The report, which narrates in detail the 'sabotage plan' of the TTP, has also been shared with the Punjab government.
It says that a group of five snuffies has transported more than dozen small-sized blue cylinders of kaboom to target different cities of Punjab, particularly Lahore on or before the 10th of Muharram.
Intelligence agencies told the Interior Ministry in their report that a group of TTP snuffies had left Miranshah ... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas... and Mir Ali area of North Wazoo Agency on November 7 -- in the guise of pilgrims of Tablighi Ijtima in Raiwind.
The TTP plans to target Islamabad and Rawalpindi after Lahore, the report said.
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[Forbes] Even as stories pour in of Americans facing steeply higher health insurance premiums and canceled coverage, Team TISI 0% Obama just imposed new regulations that will make those problems worse. It's almost like they can't help themselves.
On Friday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced new regulations mandating health insurers cover mental and behavioral health to the same extent they cover physical health care.
A "mental health parity" mandate was passed by Congress in 2008, but Obama officials claim health insurers aren't fully complying. (You'll just have to overlook the irony of the B.O. regime, which has postponed several provisions of Obamacare without any legal authority to do so, complaining that others aren't complying with some law.)
The more likely explanation is the administration is desperately trying to redirect peoples' attention from the Obamacare rollout that has become a non-stop string of stories about failed websites, higher premiums and canceled policies.
President B.O.'s latest effort to divert public attention ignores a fundamental problem: it's much easier to know when a broken bone has healed than a broken mind. That ambiguity opens the door to overtreatment and fraud.
Health insurers and actuaries have a lot of experience in this area because most states have passed some form of mental health parity legislation.
The Council for Affordable Health Insurance used to publish an annual chart tracking the number of state mandates, and health actuaries provided a general estimate of how much various mandates added to the cost of a basic health insurance policy. Depending on what it required, mental health parity was one of the most expensive mandates, adding between 5 percent and 10 percent. [Full disclosure: I ran CAHI for eight years.]
a
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Sign that a new Debt-bustin' "QE" = "Stimulus" is on the way, for that kinder, gentler US$26.0Trilyuhn national debt level come April 2014???
#6
Mental health data will be secure, and not leaked for political purposes, and consultations about any mental health issues at all will not be communicated to BATF and they will not come and inspect homes for and confiscate any firearms there to prevent them from falling into the hands of the mentally ill. Right?
#7
I remember having to re-do paperwork at the hospital after Obamacare was passed, in there was a clause which stated my info could be used in the event that a foreign dignitary was threatened. I suppose a clever lawyer could mean that to be any politician involved in foreign nation negotiations. If then, then municipalities who pick and choose which immigration laws to enforce auto qualify as foreign negotiators. It would not be too far a stretch at that point to include school board, emergency management, chamber of commerce, so forth.
A bit of stretch armstrong, but remember sebelius doesn't take a crap without marching orders on how to set the roll of toilet paper; all mouth and no head.
In an apparent attempt to bring North Korea's all-powerful military to heel, the country's immature young leader Fat Boy Kim Jong-un has reshuffled all the top brass over the last two years.
Hardline officers who were purged or replaced include the military Politburo chief, the Army chief, the director of the Reconnaissance General Bureau and the minister of the People's Armed Forces. In April last year, Pudgy Kim appointed Choe Ryong-hae, who has no military background, as Politburo chief and replaced the military, security and intelligence chiefs several times.
Several lower-ranking officers have also been demoted and then restored to their original posts, which resulted in weakening their control over troops.
Lee Soo-seok at the Institute for National Security Strategy said Suet Face Kim sees the military as a threat because it had grown too powerful as a result of his father's "songun" or military-first doctrine. He said Kim reshuffled officers to "weaken the power of the military and eliminate threats like a coup d'etat." Instead, he has been trying to strengthen the Workers Party.
The regime's two-track strategy of bolstering nuclear weapons and pursuing economic development also undermined the military's power.
Chung Sung-jang at the Sejong Institute said it seems Kim Jong-un wants to break with his father's "military first, economy second" policy because he believes that he cannot stay in power for long without some tangible achievements.
Fancy that, achievements in North Korea. Staying alive is a notable achievement there...
Kim's focus on the economy over the military can be traced in his public appearances. Out of 151 public appearances he made last year, about one-third involved the military, while only around 20 percent had to do with the economy. But until the end of October this year, one-third each of his 176 public appearances involved economic matters and the military.
Also, the military dominance of state businesses is weakening. One researcher at a state-run think tank here said Kim has transferred control of money-making businesses from the military to himself the party. He added that Kim is trying to emerge from his father's shadow and establish his own power base "by sacking the old guard to weaken the power of the military while strengthening the power of the party."
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One researcher at a state-run think tank here said Kim has transferred control of money-making businesses from the military to himself the party
Substitute "his handlers" for "Kim" and it'd be more accurate.
[Pak Daily Times] 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), Information Secretary of 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... chapter, Zahid Askari said that JI leadership has explanted its statement and despite clarification, passing the resolution in provincial assembly is groundless and an injustice. While talking to Daily Times, he said that JI always gave respect to Shuhdah (deaders) of Pakistain armed forces. "JI always pays tribute to the families of deaders," he said. Statement of ISPR is also out of context as Army must not meddle in political matters, he said. Calling out opportunists, Askari said the party (MQM) that has tortured Pak flag and was found guilty of killing armed forces personnel was taking advantage of the situation.
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ADDIS ABABA, Nov 9 Ethiopian troops will join the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) as part of renewed efforts to combat terrorism in the Horn of Africa region.
The dreaded Æthiops are going to despoil the wimmins and cattle, you wait and see...
Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn has said Ethiopian troops will join Kenya and Ugandan troops that are part of AMISOM fighting Al Shabaab insurgents inside Somalia.
Speaking when he hosted Deputy President William Ruto at his office in Addis Ababa Ethiopia, the premier said his countrys security chiefs were already engaged in strategy talks with their Kenyan counterparts on the joint operation.
Desalegn said there was a renewed terror threat in Ethiopia and this called for a joint security operation to eliminate the threat. The threat is real and the war against terror should continue in all fronts, said Desalegn.
Deputy President Ruto said Kenya had borne the brunt of terrorism and welcomed Ethiopias decision to join AMISOM in order to fight terrorism. Recently, we had a terror attack that left several people dead and many others injured, and we welcome every effort to fight terror, he said citing the recent terror attack at the Westgate mall.
The Deputy President said as part of a campaign to eliminate the threat of terror, an estimated one million Somali refugees would be repatriated under an agreement to be signed in Nairobi on Sunday. The refugees in Kenya continue to pose a security threat to us in Kenya and we hope to throw them the hell out of our country eliminate that threat through repatriation, Ruto said.
Seems like Somali refugees are almost as unwelcome as Palestinian refugees. Wonder why?
The repatriation programme is being undertaken by the Kenya and Somalia government together with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR.
The two leaders also discussed border security that they said continued to undermine development along the Kenya/Ethiopia border. The two agreed that there was need to engage communities living along the border in other economic activities such as agriculture in order to minimize perennial border conflict.
Its against this background that the Ethiopia Prime Minister said his government was keen to partner with Kenya in creating an economic zone in Moyale under the Lamu Port and South Sudan Ethiopia Transport corridor project LAPSSET. The Ethiopian PM described the LAPSSET project as a land mark that could turn the economic fortunes of millions of people in the region. There is a lot for us in Ethiopia to gain from this project, he said.
Ruto said works on the project were underway with bids for supply of power to the project already invited.
On the ICC, the Deputy President said Kenya was grateful to the Ethiopian government and the Prime Minister in particular for its stand on the matter under the African Union. Ethiopia is spearheading a campaign to have the ICC cases against President Uhuru Kenyatta and Ruto deferred for at least one year. An African Union resolution on the deferment is pending at the United Nations Security Council.
We are not taking your support for granted. The people of Kenya are indeed very grateful, said Ruto.
The Ethiopia premier said the AU position on the ICC was not just about Kenya but Africa. He said Kenyan leaders should be allowed to discharge their responsibilities to the people who elected them without interference. We are telling the international community that Africa will no longer accept to be influenced by forces outside the continent, Desalegn said.
The Deputy President was accompanied MPs Vincent Musyoka of Mwala constituency, Moyales Roba Duba, Mathias Robi of Kuria West and Migori Governor Zacharia Okoth.
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[WATCHDOG.ORG] Scranton could be headed towards another fiscal crisis like the one that resulted in city workers having their pay cut to minimum wage in 2012, according to a major credit ratings agency.
In a weekly publication, Moody's warned investors that Scranton could be facing the threat of default or bankruptcy thanks to a $20 million budget gap for the fiscal year that begins Jan. 1. The city is supposed to approve a new budget by Nov. 15, which would have to close that deficit to balance the budget.
Without a balanced budget, the ratings agency warned that two financial institutions could withdraw from scheduled debt financing for the beleaguered northeastern Pennsylvania city.
"The resulting liquidity squeeze would leave the city with few options to meet its financial obligations, raising the threat of default or bankruptcy," warned Moody's analysts.
A similar crisis hit the city in July 2012, which lead to Mayor Chris Doherty cutting all city workers' pay to minimum wage for several weeks, a move that made national headlines.
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#7
Just declare bankruptcy and walk away. Let the voters fend for themselves without government services. They don't need the police and fire departments after all as long as the welfare checks keep coming.
[BALTIMORE.CBSLOCAL] Days after a Republican was elected mayor of Annapolis, City Council members say they will revisit legislation that would strip the mayor's office of much of its power.
Democratic Alderman Ross Arnett of Ward 8 tells The Capital he will introduce a charter amendment to move Annapolis to a council-manager style of government. The city manager would report directly to the City Council, not the mayor. When the city next elects a Democrat as mayor does the Council then restore his power?
Under Arnett's legislation, the mayor's post would be largely ceremonial. The mayor would retain a single vote on the council. Arnett says the change would stabilize the city's management.
If the measure is approved, it would mean the Democratic-dominated council would be removing the powers of the first Republican mayor elected since 1997.
Last week, Republican Mike Pantelides defeated Democratic incumbent Josh Cohen.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Dems CAN'T STAND LOSING, now can they.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/12/2013 7:41
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If the measure is approved, it would mean the Democratic-dominated council..
And there in lies the key feature about power. The issue at hand is what is the 'threshold' to exercise the power. As much as everyone talks about the balance of executive-legislative-judicial powers in the national government, a clear reading of the Constitution shows that with 2/3rd control of both the House and Senate, a single minded party can impeach judges and presidents and send a flurry of amendments to the states or call for a convention thereof.
Traditionally, that kind of behavior has been kept in check by cultural tradition, but as noted in these pages, one political philosophy has been pushing to alter the culture and pushing damn hard at grasping, expanding, and imposing that power which has worn that threshold to a very thin margin.
#3
Yes, Maryland has had years of political inbreeding. First symptoms to be observed are a compulsive disorder to vote Democrat and join welfare programs.Even if it means lower standard of living. Willful neglect.
#5
Err, isn't that defying the power of the people? I know if I were an Anapolis citizen, even a Democrat one, I would be hopping mad about it and would require the impecahment for any Councelor who voted for this.
#6
I know if I were an Anapolis citizen, even a Democrat one, I would be hopping mad about it and would require the impecahment for any Councelor who voted for this.
That's very hard to do, JFM. You have to get up off of your butt, walk away from the television and go talk to your neighbors. That is very, very hard.
#7
...per Fox News, Mr. Arnett has now backpedaled and there shall be no amendment proposed...but I'm sure he, and those of like mind, are still entertaining the idea...
MARKA, Somalia -- At least ten Al Shabaab militants were reportedly killed in a heavy fighting between two Al Shabaab factions in Lower Shabelle region of Southern Somalia on Sunday afternoon, Garowe Online reports.
Red-on-red, the more, the better...
The battle occurred in Bulo-Marer town; 120 km south of Mogadishu after Al Shabaab militiamen attacked militants loyal to Al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab groups Chief Ahmed Godane, sources said.
The clashes erupted on the outskirts of the town and a senior Al Shabaab official named Jiinow who was the head of fighters against Godane militia was killed, a resident of Bulo-Marer told Garowe Online.
As dissension and splitting continue to spread within Al Shabaab ranks, in an audio recording provided to Somali media in August, Ahmed Godane, Al Shabaab chief said an enemy wants to split 'Mujahedeen" lines.
Here's hoping they succeed...
Death squads loyal to Ahmed Godane previously executed Godane's deputy Ibrahim Haji Jama (Micad) and Abdihamid Hashi Olhaye (Moallim Burhan) in Barawe, a coastal town in Lower Shabelle region.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/12/2013
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#2
conflict between anti Godane Al Shabaab and pre Godane Al Shabaab is over the issue of external jihad.
Godane has pledged to assist Al Q in its world wide efforts which means sending fighters and money outside the Somalia (but probably with Godane taking a cut of the money).
Posted by: lord garth ||
11/12/2013 10:30
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[FINANCE.YAHOO] Fitch Ratings has downgraded the credit worthiness of reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown's ... home of Al Capone, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel,... bond debt because of its public pension problems.
Fitch dropped the rating from AA- to A- on $8 billion in general obligation bonds, backed by property taxes.
It also dropped the rating on $497 million in sales tax bonds -- paid for by both the city's local sales tax and its share of the state sales tax. And the rating was downgraded on $200 million in commercial paper notes, financed by a general obligation pledge from any available city fund.
Friday's downgrade stems from "the lack of meaningful solutions" to the city's pension situation. City and fire pension programs have no more than 30 percent of the money needed to cover obligations.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2013
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When does Fitch get its U.S. offices raided by the SEC?
[Pak Daily Times] Western powers will turn down a Syrian request for military transport equipment to ship out chemical weapons material, saying the armoured trucks and other gear could be used to fight the revolt, diplomats told Rooters. Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Terror of Aleppo ... 's administration presented what envoys from two Western governments called a "long shopping list" to fit out and protect road convoys from Damascus to the coast through the conflict zone. But, they said, the agency overseeing Syria's chemical disarmament would reject this on the grounds most items could aid Assad's army in the civil war. "There is no way that the regime will be supplied with equipment that could be used by the army to kill more innocent Syrians," said one diplomat, whose government could block any consensus in the executive of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) at The Hague. "It's not going to happen." Diplomats said Syria asked the OPCW on Oct. 21 for dozens of armoured vehicles, generators and field kitchens among gear it said it needed to move 1,300 tonnes of chemicals to the Mediterranean port of Latakia to fulfil a UN-backed deal to eliminate its capacity to engage in chemical warfare.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2013
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[Pak Daily Times] India is prepared to give Pakistain"the benefit of the doubt" as the two countries strive for peace, Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid has said. India regularly accuses Pakistain's army of providing covering fire for armed rebels who cross the border and then mount attacks, and in an interview with The Australian newspaper published Monday, Khurshid admitted the relationship was fraught. "We talk to Pakistain periodically and in terms of personal gestures we receive great warmth," he said. "But the on-the-ground reality and the results of our meetings are very disappointing." However, a woman is only as old as she admits... with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... last month vowing to go the "extra mile" to make peace with India, Khurshid said Delhi would take him at his word.
"Pakistain has a lot of very, very difficult issues to deal with at home," he was quoted as saying. "Our view is that we should give them time, not at our cost, of course, but that we should give them the benefit of the doubt. "When Mr Nawaz Sharif says he wants peace and good relations with India, we take him at his word." But with recent shootings at the border among the heaviest since a ceasefire agreement in 2003, Khurshid pointed out that Pakistain has not yet followed through on its promise of top-level military meetings to sort out better arrangements in Kashmire. "If they can address the dismantling of the infrastructure of terrorism, that would be a good start," he told the newspaper.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2013
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#1
perhaps you should make them earn it?
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/12/2013 7:56
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Documents disclosed by whistleblower Edward Snowden reveal that both America's National Security Agency (NSA) and Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) have infiltrated the computer network of the the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
In January 2008, the NSA department in charge of energy issues reported it had accomplished its mission. Intelligence information about individual petroleum-exporting countries had existed before then, but now the NSA had managed, for the first time, to infiltrate OPEC in its entirety.
When the NSA used the Internet to infiltrate OPEC's computers, its analysts discovered an internal study in the OPEC Research Division. It stated that OPEC officials were trying to cast the blame for high oil prices on speculators. A look at files in the OPEC legal department revealed how the organization was preparing itself for an antitrust suit in the United States. And a review of the section reserved for the OPEC secretary general documented that the Saudis were using underhanded tactics, even within the organization. According to the NSA analysts, Riyadh had tried to keep an increase in oil production a secret for as long as possible.
Saudi Arabia's OPEC governor is also on the list of individuals targeted for surveillance, for which the NSA had secured approval from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The documents show how careful the Americans were to suspend their surveillance when the Saudi visited the United States. But as soon as he had returned to Riyadh, the NSA analysts began infiltrating his communications once again.
According to a 2010 report, one of the analysts' conclusions was that the Saudis had released incorrect oil production figures. The typical "customers" for such information were the CIA, the US State Department and the Department of Energy, which promptly praised the NSA for confirming what it had suspected for years.
The British, who also targeted OPEC's Vienna headquarters, were at least as successful as the NSA. A secret GCHQ document dating from 2010 states that the agency had traditionally had "poor access" to OPEC. But that year, after a long period of meticulous work, it had managed to infiltrate the computers of nine OPEC employees by using the "Quantum Insert" method, which then creates a gateway to gain access into OPEC's computer system. GCHQ analysts were even able to acquire administrator privileges for the OPEC network and gain access to two secret servers containing "many documents of interest."
Now that we've been successful let's tell everyone...
OPEC appears in the "National Intelligence Priorities Framework," which the White House issues to the US intelligence community. Although the organization is still listed as an intelligence target in the April 2013 list, it is no longer a high-priority target. Now that the United States is less dependent on Saudi petroleum, thanks to fracking and new oil discoveries, the fact that OPEC is not identified as a top priority anymore indicates that interest in the organization has declined.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/12/2013
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#1
Umm, so what? THIS is what they are supposed to do! Not spy domestically, but on the external worlds.
Are these writers/reporters morons in that they cannot differentiate between the two?
#3
No, the reporters are apparently from the era when gentlemen did not read other gentlemen's mail. Of course, the would also be the first to scream that the government should have been aware of the terrorist plots before they happened.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/12/2013 9:44
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#4
Are these writers/reporters morons in that they cannot differentiate between the two?
Sorry OS but they can't differentiate between the two. Most reporters now consider themselves "citizens of the world" and superior to any archaic nationalist or legal ideas.
They aren't easily classified with a particular ideology other than their self appointed elitism. They are part of the ELITE and superior to all others.
[Pak Daily Times] Undeterred by the ire of Pakistain Army and refusing to apologise, 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) has said that its ameer, Syed Munawar Hassan ... The funny-looking leader-for-life of the Pak Jamaat-e-Islami. He joined the National Students Federation (NSF), a lefty student body, and was elected its President in 1959. He came into contact with the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT) Pakistan and studied the writings of Mawlana Syed Abul Ala Maududi, The Great Apostasizer. As a result, he joined IJT in 1960 and soon he was elected as President of its University of Karachi Unit and member of the Central Executive Council. He was Assistant Secretary General of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistain in 1992-93, and became Secretary General in 1993. After years of holding Qazi's camel he was named Amir when the old man stepped down in 2009... 's statement regarding the Pakistain Army is correct and according to sharia.
Munawar Hassan's recent controversial announcement to give certificate of martyrdom to Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) chief Hakimullah Mehsud and derision of military personnel who have rendered sacrifices in the war against terrorists, drew strong ire of the army which asked the JI chief to tender an unconditional apology. Jamaat-e-Islami General Secretary Liaquat Baloch on Monday said the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) had issued a political blurb, which was unbecoming of a military force.
Responding to the ISPR blurb over Munawar Hassan's remarks, Baloch said the army did not have the right to interfere in political affairs. He spoke with news hounds following the meeting of the JI Majlis-e-Shura, which was also attended by Munawar Hassan. Baloch said the ISPR had issued a political blurb to achieve a specific purpose. "The issue at hand is the closure of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... supplies and drone attacks."
The JI leader said his party was willing to offer any kind of sacrifice for the country. He said it has always rendered sacrifices to safeguard the ideological as well as geographical boundaries of the country and has always acknowledged Pakistain Army's sacrifices. Baloch said "we condemn Upper Dir and Salala incidents, but army has no right to question any political party directly". According to the JI leader, attention was being diverted to personal debates with a specific purpose.
Earlier on Monday, the JI chief said he stood by his statement in which he termed Mehsud a "martyr", as his party's Majlis-e-Shura (Advisory Council) met to discuss the issues of local bodies' elections, drone attacks and the controversy caused by the Mehsud remark. During the Majlis-e-Shura meeting, Baloch said the country would have to get out of the drone war in order to establish sustainable peace. He said that the JI chief did not attack the reputation of the army, therefore no questions should be aimed at his statements.
He further said that martyrdom was a dignified rank which could only be conferred by "none other than Allah". Baloch refused to answer questions put forward by media and wrapped up the presser by saying "the struggle will continue". The JI has decided to write to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... about the issue. Media reports said that the correspondence would ask Nawaz to ensure immediate ceasefire and dialogue with Taliban, while the party has also decided to condemn the ISPR statement against its chief.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2013
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[Pak Daily Times] At least five persons of Pakistani died and nine others wounded in road accident near Madina Manawra on Monday. According to details, Pakistani pilgrims were coming to Mania after visiting 'Wadi-e-Jin' near second holiest city of Muslims by road. The pilgrims met with an accident while travelling to Madina from Wadi-e-Jin when their van crashed into a bus coming from opposite direction.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2013
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#3
It could have been worse. Some Moslems will go through your pockets and pull out your gold teeth while you are waiting for the ambulance. Even a "moderate" Moslem might do that.
[Pak Daily Times] The United States remains ready to upset key allies Israel and Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... by securing a swift nuclear deal with Iran despite the failure of talks in Geneva, US-based analysts say.
While Tehran remained under the greatest pressure to reach a speedy deal with the major powers, they said, Washington was anxious to take advantage of Iran's willingness to negotiate an accord and avert future conflict in the Middle East.
Three grueling days of discussions between Iran, the United States, China, Russia, Britannia, La Belle France and Germany ended early Sunday without agreement.
The parties had been hoping to broker an accord that would curb Tehran's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.
By searching for a deal in Geneva, the US was "maybe trying to go a little too far, too fast, but they were induced by the Iranian enthusiasm," according to Hussein Ibish, a senior fellow at the American Task Force on Paleostine.
"It is really the convergence of US and Iranian desires to avoid an even deeper confrontation over the nuclear file that makes an agreement possible at this stage," he added, citing the 10-year impasse concerning the nuclear program, which Western powers suspect of being geared towards producing an atomic bomb rather than peaceful civilian uses.
Alireza Nader, a senior international policy analyst at the RAND Corporation think-tank, questioned the suggestion that the United States was "rushing" to reach a deal at any cost with Iran, with whom it has had no diplomatic relations since 1980.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2013
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#1
As Teacher used to say, "Class/Everyone, please give a warm welcome to Amerika's new BFF, + OWG Global Co-Superpower whom is also the World's future first Islamic Superpower".
PERSONALLY I BLAME MICHELLE'S BRIGADE, SEXY SLINKY SHORT SHORTS + GUJU BEADS, HUGO'S PARROT + MILWAUKEE BEER.
#2
After the affordable care act became the abominable care act OBumbles really needs something to seal his 'legacy'. And he doesn't care who he sells down the river to do it.
He, like Chamberlin, believes he can 'achieve peace in his time.' with a piece of paper signed by people who believe deceit is honorable. And who have stated time and time again that their goal is to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.
He thinks he can seal his 'legacy' with a middle east peace but will most likely seal it with a middle east nuclear war.
Poor fool is going to get a few million people killed. But then what's a few million deaths to Obama's 'legacy'?
As per WORLD MILITARY FORUM + DEBKAFILE, Israeli PM Benji Netanyahu repor believes that the US = Bammer Admin has misled or deceived Israel "every step of the way" as per common US-Israeli anti-NucProg agenda + proposed Nuke Talks.
VERSUS
* TOPIX, WORLD NEWS > ROUHANI SAYS "RED LINES" CANNOT BE CROSSED, i.e. Iran can never give up its nuclear rights to enrichment.
Looks like "20%" Enrichment is back as Iran's minimally acceptable condition for talks???
* SAME > SYRIA-BASED GROUPS SAY TALKS MAY BE "LAST CHANCE" FOR PEACE.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > GENERAL AYOUB: SYRIAN ARMY [total = complete] VICTORY NEARING, CONSPIRACY IN LAST CHAPTER.
RELATED SAME > [Nation.PK] IRAN MP SUGGESTS "HOT PURSUIT" [Iranian Border Guard-killing Bad/Hard Boyz] INTO PAKISTAN, + also more, better border security + protocols.
Iran to "HOT PURSUE" AL-Qaeda, etal. from Syria + Iraq, etc. in lieu of the Bammer + USDOD???
#4
US ready to risk Israel, Saudi wrath to seal Iran deal
You mean Obama's ready to screw Israel?
What surprise, NOT,
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/12/2013 8:11
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#5
This is going to end well.
Geez, not only is he screwing Israel, he's screwing Saudi Arabia????
I don't think we'll have a friend left in the world after his term is up...and the French will (are) the foreign policy leaders of the western world.
It will take a faith healer to fix our international prestige and it will take years of butt kissing to fix all of the relationships he's screwed.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
11/12/2013 9:00
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#6
another irony (I couldn't think of a better word that wasn't obscene) is that essentially all foreign sources are taking JFKerry's statements about the negotiations as less credible than that of the Iran team who, notwithstanding that they represent a dictatorship, have, at least stuck to the facts without obviously contradicting themselves.
Posted by: lord garth ||
11/12/2013 11:05
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#7
Obamanible Care Act, if that sticks will be it.
And that's where I think the goal is to insure, maybe pun intended, against any international crises so that the admin can keep focus on a domestic agenda. The foreign policy is a disaster publically highlighted by the red chalk line of Syria. It looks like a huge policy defeat for the USA, paying danegold. After years of shuffling and whatevs suddenly there is a rush?
#10
Looks like a war of words has erupted this AM between Iran + the USA = SecState Jaaawhn [NOT the Bammer] over whom is responsible for the walkout in Geneva.
Various Perts from the Muslim World + Asia are IMO essens blaming accusing SecState Jaaawhn of trying to be "Presidential" vee the Bammer for a possible POTUS run agz former SecState + 1990's + "Madame President" Hillary in 2016.
IT WOULD APPEAR THE DEMS OR DEMOLEFT AREN'T WORRIED ABOUT THE GOP COME 2016???
To rehash...
* TOPIX > [Atlas Shrugs] DESPITE OBAMA'S CRUSHING CAPITULATION, IRAN BACKS OUT OF NUCLEAR DEAL.
* SAME > FRANCE STEPS IN, HALTS NUCLEAR DEAL, CALLS OBAMA A "SUCKER".
------------
* ION HAARETZ > US DEMANDS EXPLANATION FROM ISRAEL, PALESTINIANS THREATEN TO CALL OFF PEACE TALKS.
* Also from HAARETZ > US BREAKS WID ISRAEL - DOES NOT RECOGNIZE THE LEGITIMACY OF [Israel's poposed plans for 20,000 new WB] SETTLEMENTS | US DEMANDS ISRAEL EXPLAIN PLANS FOR 20,000 NEW WEST BANK HOMES.
FYI PM Netanyahu hs repor put off plans for the neW homes for the time being.
* FRANCE 24 > [AFP] [Tougher] NEW IRAN SANCTIONS
WOULD RISK [putting US on March to ...] WAR, WHITE HOUSE WARNS.
SecState Jaaawhn to formally notify Iran of such.
* RELATED TOPIX > [ThinkProgress] WHITE HOUSE ON IRAN DIPLOMACY:"THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DO NOT WANT A MARCH TO WAR".
Ditto as per CHINA-VS-JAPAN,PHIL/ASEAN, INDIA???
* SAME > [Examiner] IRAN TO US: "SLIGHTEST MISTAKE COULD SET OFF IRAN'S NUKES", agz the USA.
IMO Artic likely refers to Iran-ordered Proxy/Surrogate Nuke-WMD Terror agz CONUS + overseas US = US-Allied targets, but thats why Allan invented NORTH KOREA, isn't it???
* TOPIX > [Jawa Report] WHEN SYRIA ENDS, EUROPE IS GOING TO GET BLOODY.
* INDIAN DEFENCE FORUM > [Voice oF Russia] OBAMA EXTENDS STATE OF EMERGENCY AGZ IRAN FOR ANOTHER YEAR.
IMO read, SUMMER, FALL? 2014.
Sub-read, BAMMER RECOGNIZES UTILITY OF POTENS US-SUPPORTED, NEW ASSAD, IRAN-LED? WAR AGZ AL-QAEDA, ETAL FOREIGN MILITANT GROUPS???
GOOD FOR ANTI-US OWG-NWO GLOBALISM + 2014, 2016 US ELECTION CAMPAIGNS.
[Pak Daily Times] Pakistain People's Party (PPP) leader Chaudhry Fawad Hussain has sent a legal notice to 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) leader Syed Munnawar Hassan for calling the slain Taliban leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, a "martyr".
Advocate Chaudhry Faisal Hussain sent the notice to Munnawar Hassan on behalf of Fawad Hussain, demanding that the JI leader withdraw his statement and tender an unconditional apology to the nation especially from the families of those who have been killed in terrorist attacks.
Fawad also warned that if Munnawar Hassan did not tender an apology, he would take legal action against the JI leader.
"You completely discounted the bloodshed of innocent Pak citizens including women and minor children and issued the above referred loathsome, preposterous and illegal statements with aim to ridicule and scorn the sacrifices of our great deaders, who lost their priceless lives, to save the lives of millions of Pak citizens, living in the breadth and length of this country, in the monstrous and ruthless terrorist attacks carried out by the banned outfits including TTP and its allies," the legal notice read.
Fawad also believed that Munnawar Hassan's statement was part of the "vilification propaganda campaign aimed to harm, defame and denigrate the prodigious sacrifices of the soldiers of Pakistain and with criminal object to glorify the enemies of the state, who openly defy the constitution and laws of Pakistain".
He also said that such statements had established a ridiculous impression and caused suspicion, hatred and prejudice against the armed forces and civil armed forces of Pakistain.
"Your action is prejudicial to the fundamental principles enshrined in the Constitution of the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Pakistain. Being a common citizen as well as the Ameer/leader of a registered political party namely Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistain, you were under a prime duty to be loyal to the state of Pakistain and also to bare inviolable obligation to show obedience to the laws and the Constitution of Pakistain. Hence you have, in letter and spirit violated Article 5 of the Constitution of Pakistain 1973."
The notice further read, "You issued/rendered the above referred statements with a criminal intention to disrupt and frustrate the public order and to create law and order situation within Pakistain by causing hatred and dislike against and in the armed forces and civil armed forces of Pakistain."
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GAROWE, Somalia -- As many as, 100 people are believed dead in Somalias northeastern region of Puntland after a powerful tropical cyclone storm unleashed high wind speeds and flooding that washed away hundreds of houses and livestock across its path along the vast coast of Puntland State, Garowe Online reports.
Puntland President Abdirahman Mohamed Farole who Monday held a press conference in Puntland Capital of Garowe has declared, a Natural Disaster Emergency in the worst-hit areas of the state and called for immediate response to the calamity, urging the international aid agencies to organize emergency supply delivery via airdrops.
He said, as the storm pattern is expected to expand further inland and continue up to Wednesday, there would be substantially more casualties if the much-needed relief efforts are not coordinated properly soon.
The government said in statement that many people are without access to food, water and medical care, endangering more lives in the aftermath of the tropical cyclone storm.
According to the government press statement, the storm made landfall in the vast coastal area of Puntland, particularly between Eyl, Beyla, Dangorayo and Hafun districts along the eastern coast to Alula district at the tip of the horn of Africa.
Local reports add that faraway Bari regional district of Alula and a number of nearby fishing villages have been witnessing massive destruction and loss of life since Saturday when cyclones with life-threatening flooding began to wreak extraordinary damages in Somalias northeastern coastal towns and villages along the Indian Ocean.
Reliable sources tell Garowe Online News Agency that nomadic communities remain most affected by the storm and Puntland government has began to deploy teams who would handle the victims amid struggle for survival and set up makeshift evacuation shelters and command posts for the people displaced by the storm surge.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Pakistain's two main rightwing religious parties 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) and Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam ...Assembly of Islamic Clergy, or JUI, is a Pak Deobandi (Hanafi) political party. There are two main branches, one led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and one led by Maulana Samiul Haq. Fazl is active in Pak politix and Sami spends more time running his madrassah. Both branches sponsor branches of the Taliban, though with plausible deniability... Fazl (JUI-F) have come under fire after their leaders issued controversial statements in praise of the Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP) leader Hakeemullah Mehsud who was killed by a US drone strike. Although PTI and PML-N also lean towards the right in Pakistain's political spectrum, they have been more circumspect as they strongly condemned the US for disrupting the dialogue process that was allegedly about to take place between the Pak government and the TTP, but were cautious not to glorify the dear departed TTP leader. JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur-Rehman's statement started a row in religious circles and amongst the populace in general when he passed a ludicrous statement in which he mockingly said that he would consider even a dog to be a martyr if it was killed by the US. This statement was not received well as it not only denigrated the revered concept of martyrdom, but also showed Maulana's sympathy for Hakeemullah Mehsud and his banned outfit. This statement had not been fully digested when JI chief Munawar Hasan dropped an even bigger bombshell when he termed Hakeemullah Mehsud a martyr and went as far as to say that the young Pak soldiers who died fighting the TTP were not worthy of being granted the status of martyrdom as they were supporters of the US. This statement received condemnation from all corners as it undermines the sacrifices rendered by the brave soldiers who laid down their lives in protecting the Pak state against terrorists, a service that is worthy of the highest honour. The Pakistain military, which normally abstains from voicing its opinion on political matters, was so enraged by this statement that the ISPR issued a statement calling for an unconditional apology from Munawar Hasan. However, alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk... instead of showing remorse, the JI has rallied around its leader and has advised the army to refrain from passing political statements. The response from religious circles, voiced by the Sunni Ittehad Council and the Sunni Tehrik ...formed in Karachi in 1992 under by Muhammad Saleem Qadri. It quickly fell to trading fisticuffs and assassinations with the MQM and the Sipah-e-Sahaba, with at least a half dozen of its major leaders rubbed out. Sunni Tehreek arose to become the primary opposition to the Deobandi Binori Mosque, headed by Nizamuddin Shamzai, who was eventually bumped off by person or persons unknown. ST's current leadership has heavily criticized the Deobandi Jihadi leaders, accusing them of being sponsored by Indian Intelligence agencies as well as involvement in terrorist activities... , has also been unanimous in condemning the statements passed by the leaders of the two religious parties and in stating that Hakeemullah Mehsud was responsible for the murder of a multitude of innocent civilians and is in no way worthy of the exalted position of a martyr.
As inappropriate as these statements were, in essence they are a manifestation of the anti-US sentiment amongst Pakistain's religious parties. It is ironic that these very religious parties greatly supported the US for decades after Pakistain's inception right uptil the downfall of the USSR. Back then the communists were portrayed as the greatest threat and the religious parties had no qualms in receiving aid from the US and lending their support in the struggle against communism. The end of the cold war saw a change in alignments and the religious parties found a new enemy in the form of their former benefactor, the US. There is no doubt that Pak society is divided about whether to support a faction of the Taliban, who were used as a proxy force against the Soviets, that went rogue and is now engaged in efforts to enforce its brand of Shariah in Pakistain, the TTP being a prime example. It seems as if the religious parties are fully trying to exploit this divide and their track record shows that they sympathize with these banned terrorist organizations that are not only a threat to Pakistain but also to the world on the lam. There are numerous examples of bully boyz being captured in the residences of prominent JI leaders, such as the infamous Waheed brothers. This whole ruckus over whether Hakeemullah Mehsud is a martyr or not has rendered the service of exposing the JI and JUI-F. Their sympathy with enemies of the state is preposterous and highly unpatriotic. Moreover, it shows their retrogressive mindset. There can be no greater cause than to defend one's country from internal and external threats so that the lives of millions of innocent peace loving citizens can be protected. If any entity has a soft corner for terrorists, who are self-righteous delusional criminals who think they have an obligation to force their version of Shariah on others and to undermine the writ of the state in the process, then it is acting against the interests of the state. The need of the hour is to unite against the TTP and to back Pakistain's brave soldiers and their families who have rendered incalculable sacrifices to protect this country.
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[Pak Daily Times] Law enforcers claimed to have apprehended around 28 suspects during separate targeted raids and operations across the metropolis on Monday. In the first happening, Pakistain Rangers Sindh conducted targeted raids in Mehran Town, Memon Goth, Dawood Goth, Model Colony, Paposh Nagar, Liaquatabad and Landhi. Snap checking was carried out at Bengali Morr, Abdullah Shah Ghazi Goth, Jammat Khana-Kharadar and Toll Plaza. Rangers tossed in the slammer Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! 19 criminals including Lyari ...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot.... gangsters. Weapons including SMGs and mixed ammo were also recovered. Separately, police nabbed nine suspects from various parts of the city and recovered two 9mm pistols, snatched cycle of violence and drugs from their possession.
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[Pak Daily Times] Leaders of different political parties on Monday expressed their reservations on JI chief Syed Munawar Hassan ... The funny-looking leader-for-life of the Pak Jamaat-e-Islami. He joined the National Students Federation (NSF), a lefty student body, and was elected its President in 1959. He came into contact with the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT) Pakistan and studied the writings of Mawlana Syed Abul Ala Maududi, The Great Apostasizer. As a result, he joined IJT in 1960 and soon he was elected as President of its University of Karachi Unit and member of the Central Executive Council. He was Assistant Secretary General of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistain in 1992-93, and became Secretary General in 1993. After years of holding Qazi's camel he was named Amir when the old man stepped down in 2009... for issuing a controversial statement against the martyred of armed forces and those who had laid down their lives in the war against terrorism. In his message on social website Twitter, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto said Hassan's statement was not a political one. He insulted our soldiers and praised the enemy. Army had every right to issue that statement, he tweeted. A day earlier, Bilawal had urged the Supreme Court (SC) to take suo moto notice on the statement The Awami National Party (ANP) asked the JI chief to review the controversial statement against the martyred of security forces. Talking to news hounds outside the Parliament House, ANP leaders Zahid Khan and Afarasiab Khattak said their party had moved an adjournment motion against the JI in the Senate. They regretted that that Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam ...the political wing of the Pak Taliban... -Fazl (JUI-F) and Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI) had not yet responded to the statement of JI chief. Opposition leader in National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah also criticised the JI Chief Manwar Hassan for issuing a controversial statement against the martyred of armed forces. "The statement of JI Chief has anguished the sentiments of the families of martyred, who have sacrificed their lives to safeguard frontiers of the motherland," he told news hounds outside Parliament House. Shah said Munwar Hassan had declared Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) chief Hakeemullah Mehsood martyred while in past he had even said that he did not know him. Meanwhile, ...back at the barn, a little lightbulb figuratively appeared over Bossy's head... Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) announced to stage nationwide protest against Munawar Hassan on coming Friday. Media reports said the SIC said in its statement that Munawar committed an act of treason, calling Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) chief Hakimullah Mehsud a martyr. Majlis Wahdat-e-Musselmeneen (MWM) said that dead gunnies could not be declared as deaders, JI chief should tender apology for controversial statements. Addressing a presser on Monday, MWM chief Allama Nasir Abbas Jafri said it is wrong to express sympathies for terrorists. Separately, a local Jirga in Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... called for apology from Munawar Hasan for declaring gunnies as martyrs. The jirga, which was held in Naik Pekhel area of Swat on Monday, asked Hasan to backtrack from his controversial statement.
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[Pak Daily Times] Attacks north of Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... killed five people on Monday, officials said, while police found two corpses bearing signs of torture, a scene reminiscent of the country's all-out sectarian war.
In the northern city of djinn-infested Mosul, three separate shootings killed one soldier, maimed another and left two civilians dead, police and medical officials said. Near the University of djinn-infested Mosul, a taxi driver was killed when a magnetic "sticky" bomb was attached to his car. Elsewhere in the city, police found the body of a soldier in the Tigris River. The soldier had been kidnapped the previous day. In Salaheddin province, police found another corpse bearing signs of torture. Also on Monday in restive Diyala province, gunnies assassinated a local official from the Ministry of Water Resources. Attacks in western province of Anbar, meanwhile, badly damaged a power plant and left two Death Eaters dead. Near the former myrmidon bastion of Fallujah, ... the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called Center of Prosperity or a really nice place to raise your kids... police rubbed out two Death Eaters wearing boom jackets, including one who was driving a vehicle rigged with explosives, at the entrance to a cop shoppe.
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[Pak Daily Times] The government told the National Assembly on Monday that the dialogue process with the Pak Taliban cannot move forward if drones attacks continued unabatedly.
Speaking on the floor of the House, Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan stated: "If drone attacks continue, the talk of dialogue would merely be an illusion." However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... he remained silent on the issue of blocking the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... supplies if drone attacks continued. This has been a demand of Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who who convinced himself that playing cricket qualified him to lead a nuclear-armed nation with severe personality problems... , and he reiterated it in the House later when he took the floor.
Nisar said that the dialogue can also not be pursued if the government works for it vigorously and the other side, an apparent reference to Pakistain Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP), keeps on refusing to it. "This cannot happen if we devote ourselves to talks and the other side escapes from it," Nisar said. He claimed that there still are elements in the TTP that are in favour of talks with the government despite the fact that United States' killing of Hakimullah Mehsud has severely damaged the dialogue process.
The interior minister admitted that the atmosphere is not ripe for dialogue after the killing of Mehsud, but he added that the government would strive to move forward on this front. "Now we have to pick up the pieces," Nisar said, adding that the government would have to analyse how the next four to six weeks turn out to be. He said that for the sake of the country, the political and military leadership have to get on the same page.
The interior minister also touched upon the debate triggered by 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) chief's statement regarding deaders and termed it damaging at this critical time. "Any kind of controversy related to the armed forces is worse than poison for Pakistain," he remarked. Showering praise on the armed forces for rendering sacrifices in the war against terrorism, Nisar said that the morale of the army should not be lowered by such controversies.
Criticising former military dictator Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... 's "misuse of the army", the minister said the armed forces are not an individual, but an institution, and in the case of talks with the Taliban, the military had exercised great restraint and created an environment conducive to talks, despite ongoing terrorist attacks. Taking the floor, Imran Khan invited all the political forces to join him to block NATO supplies on November 20 as a mark of protest against drone strikes, receiving only the support of Jamaat-e-Islami and Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed.
"We are not waging a war by blocking the NATO supplies but only exercising our right as a mark of protest against these strikes," Imran said. The PTI chief expressed disappointment over the public reaction on the drone strike that killed Hakimullah Mehsud, saying that he was hoping the entire nation, including the media and opposition, would be on the same page and that we would show a stern reaction to America. However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... he noted that this did not happen.
Imran blamed the United States for what he said was "droning" of Pakistain's grinding of the peace processor when a drone strike took out Mehsud hours before dialogue was to commence. "I felt dejected when people called me the supporter of snuffies when I termed the attack attempt to sabotage the (peace) process," he said. Imran underlined the need for Pakistain to present a united front so that drone strikes are discontinued. He opined that the attacks had only served to divide Paks.
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[Pak Daily Times] Bangladesh cabinet ministers submitted their resignations on Monday to allow Prime Minister Sheihk Hasina to form an all-party government to prepare for polls, a plan rejected by the opposition which wants a neutral caretaker government.
The move comes as the impoverished South Asian country has been gripped by a four-day nationwide general strike to force Hasina's ruling Awami League to stage the elections under a technocrat-led government.
Hasina last month proposed the all-party interim government in a bid to break a deadlock over upcoming parliamentary polls slated for January.
But the main opposition BNP and its 17 allies have said they will not accept any government with Hasina in charge and are sticking to their demand for a caretaker government to organise the elections.
The Bangladesh ministers tendered their resignation letters to Hasina on Monday as the prime minister forged ahead with her plan to create the all-party government.
"The ministers are resigning to make way for a polls-bound government," the government's principal information officer Aminul Islam told AFP.
The ministers' resignation letters are now subject to the approval of the president, said another official.
The latest general strike -- one of a series that began on October 25 to press for a neutral interim administration -- was launched Sunday.
At least 23 people have been killed in nationwide festivities during the newest wave of protests, which have pitted BNP supporters against ruling party activists and police.
Zia, who has twice served as premier, has branded the current government "illegal" and says a neutral caretaker government must be set up three months before the polls.
Hasina scrapped the caretaker system, arguing that it enabled the army to seize power in a country which has witnessed at least 19 coups since 1975.
Hasina has rejected Zia's demand for her to step down, calling it unconstitutional.
Bangladesh has been ruled alternately by Hasina and Zia since 1991, apart from when a military-backed government ran the country between 2007 and 2008.
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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.
Police hunting a runaway terror suspect swooped on a mosque in West London and nabbed... a tabloid newspaper reporter.
[Pak Daily Times] Two political workers of 
Mohammed Ahmed Mohameds escape is one of the oldest tricks in the book, so how did he flee police?
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Nawaz Sharif
Maulana Fazlur Rehman
...the creepy-looking former dictator of Pakistain. Zia was an Islamic nutball who imposed his nutballery on the rest of the country with the enthusiastic assistance of the nation's religious parties, which are populated by other nutballs. He was appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976 by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whom he hanged when he seized power. His time in office was a period of repression, with hundreds of thousands of political rivals, minorities, and journalists executed or tortured, including senior general officers convicted in coup-d'état plots, who would normally be above the law. As part of his alliance with the religious parties, his government helped run the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, providing safe havens, American equipiment, Saudi money, and Pak handlers to selected mujaheddin. Zia died along with several of his top generals and admirals and the then United States Ambassador to Pakistain Arnold Lewis Raphel when he was assassinated in a suspicious air crash near Bahawalpur in 1988...
[DEADLINE] You would not be saying TGIF in cable newsland if you were Alec Baldwin or Rachel Nichols last week. 
[Pak Daily Times] The chief fundraiser of the Haqqani
Wazoo
When is a pirate not a pirate?
David Cameron
Mohmand Agency
In an apparent attempt to bring North Korea's all-powerful military to heel, the country's 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Syed Munawar Hassan
[Pak Daily Times] At least five persons of Pakistani died and nine others wounded in road accident near Madina Manawra on Monday. According to details, Pakistani pilgrims were coming to Mania after visiting 'Wadi-e-Jin' near second holiest city of Muslims by road. The pilgrims met with an accident while travelling to Madina from Wadi-e-Jin when their van crashed into a bus coming from opposite direction.
[Pak Daily Times] Law enforcers claimed to have apprehended around 28 suspects during separate targeted raids and operations across the metropolis on Monday. In the first happening, Pakistain Rangers Sindh conducted targeted raids in Mehran Town, Memon Goth, Dawood Goth, Model Colony, Paposh Nagar, Liaquatabad and Landhi. Snap checking was carried out at Bengali Morr, Abdullah Shah Ghazi Goth, Jammat Khana-Kharadar and Toll Plaza. Rangers 
Pervez 
