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Sahel jihadist groups splinter
Today's Headlines
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Africa North
Cairo court affirms death sentences
A Cairo tribunal has upheld death sentences passed on seven Egyptian Coptic Christians in absentia for their involvement in a movie that ridiculed the Prophet Mohammed, a judicial source says.

The accused, including the director of the movie that triggered outrage across the Muslim world when it surfaced last September, are currently living in the United States.

Terry Jones, an American pastor based in Florida who is said to have promoted the film and who had also been sentenced to death in absentia, had his sentence reduced to five years in jail by the tribunal.

Egyptian courts usually hand out the maximum punishment - execution in this case for a blasphemy verdict - and send the decision to the state's top Islamic scholar to get his approval.

Tuesday's confirmation of the sentences occurred after his opinions were taken.

If the defendants do return to Egypt, they could get a new trial, according to legal experts.
Posted by: tipper || 01/29/2013 20:01 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
US Senate approves John Kerry as secretary of state
The US Senate has approved Senator John Kerry's nomination as secretary of state, after he was backed unanimously by the foreign relations committee.

His confirmation after a 94-3 vote was met with applause on the Senate floor.

President Barack Obama chose the Massachusetts Democrat to succeed Hillary Clinton, who is stepping down after four years, as his top diplomat.

A Vietnam veteran and senator since 1985, Sen Kerry was the Democratic presidential candidate in 2004.

Sen Kerry, 69, first came to national attention as part of his involvement with Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

He served on the Senate foreign relations committee himself for 28 years, and chaired it for four.

His nomination is part of Mr Obama's second-term cabinet reshuffle.
Posted by: tipper || 01/29/2013 17:52 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's the olde stacked deck reshuffle where the USA loses every time with 'nothing up my sleeve' Jawn F'n Kerry dealing.
Posted by: Mugsy Glink || 01/29/2013 18:23 Comments || Top||

#2  State is becoming the seat that the old Postmaster General position was, a patronage reward from the party.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/29/2013 19:27 Comments || Top||

#3 
Posted by: junkiron || 01/29/2013 21:59 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Zimbabwe has $217 in the bank: finance minister
After paying public workers’ salaries last week, the balance in cash-strapped Zimbabwe’s government public account stood at just $217, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said Tuesday.

“Last week when we paid civil servants there was $217 (left) in government coffers,” Biti told journalists in the capital Harare, claiming some of them had healthier bank balances than the state.

“The government finances are in paralysis state at the present moment. We are failing to meet our targets.”

Zimbabwe’s economy went into free-fall at the turn of the millennium, after President Robert Mugabe began seizing white-owned farms.

The move demolished investor confidence in the country, paralysed production, prompted international sanctions and scared off tourists.

After more than a decade — in which the country suffered hyper-inflation of 231 million percent and infrastructure that crumbled as quickly as prices went up — the situation is now more stable.

But public finances remain a mess and local business battles against unstable electricity supplies, lack of liquidity and high labour costs.

Zimbabwe’s government has warned it does not have enough money to fund a constitutional referendum and elections expected this year.

Biti said that left no choice but to ask the donors for cash.

“We will be approaching the international community,” he said.

The country’s elections agency said it requires $104 million to organise the vote.

Government’s national budget for this year stands at $3.8 billion and the economy is projected to grow 5.0 percent.

The mineral rich country is now using the US dollar and the South African rand.
Posted by: tipper || 01/29/2013 17:31 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  $217? That won't even buy a cup of coffee, will it?
Posted by: Bobby || 01/29/2013 18:26 Comments || Top||

#2  $217? That won't even buy a cup of coffee, will it?
Bobby, thats about $2.17 trillion times better than the US. Only problem they've got is that they don't have a reserve currency and no one in their tight mind would lend them a cent, unlike the US.
Posted by: tipper || 01/29/2013 19:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Noone in their right mind lends the US a cent.

Only idiotic China, and pensioners forced into "safe havens" (hahaha) buy T
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 01/29/2013 19:56 Comments || Top||

#4  Wow. There are very few nations that I can say I have more money in the bank than.
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/29/2013 20:14 Comments || Top||


Africa North
A few French 2-Rep Para shots from the North African front
Posted by: Ebbonter Thromock1650 || 01/29/2013 16:55 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Afican now African
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 01/29/2013 19:53 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
NAACP Pres: Our people are worse off under the Champ
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/29/2013 15:03 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Our People...

When you play the game of tribes, there's a time when not being part of the whole means its not important to pay attention to you. The other tribes get the attention. The other tribes who haven't sold their souls for a piece of the action have game to play. For those running the system you bought into, it's always been divide and rule.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/29/2013 19:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Who'd ya vote for, Benny?
Then shut the fuck up...
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/29/2013 20:20 Comments || Top||

#3  Is this due to the fact that he is half white? We could as easily consider him white as black. He's not really an oreo, more like vanilla fudge swirl. No wonder the brother are doing so poorly. We got another honkey in the white house.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 01/29/2013 21:22 Comments || Top||

#4  You people (yeah, I'm channeling Ross Perot here) sold yourselves down the river when you voted for yet another hustler playing race-based identity politics. I'd like to say sucks to be you, which it does - look at the unemployment rate, but unfortunately, your bad decision has affected us all. Thanks, a bunch!
Posted by: SteveS || 01/29/2013 21:46 Comments || Top||

#5  You chose your fate.

Now live with it, asshole.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/29/2013 22:16 Comments || Top||

#6  Good Lefty "Tribalism" = good for legal Sharia, Islamic Law in future Islamerikka.

USA suborned under anti-Nationalist, anti-sovereign, anti-US Constitutional OWG NAU 2015 = no Borders = Muslim, etal. Amerikkans cannot or should not generally rely on Washington for their security, econ livelihood, + "fairness/
justice".

THE NAU + HIGHER IS NOW BOTH GOD + COUNTRY, OR SOON WILL BE, MORESO THAN AMERIKKA???

"Borders" will officially technically still exist, but more as something fun or historical to teach the Kiddies in Grades K-8.

SOCIALISM-GOVTISM = NEW "SOVEREIGNTY".

After all, our fellow OWG NAU Member-States Mexico, Canada, + Greenland, etc. ideally premisorially aren't going to take Amerikka over, correct???

IOW, MUSLIM-AMERICANS/SHARISTS = AFRICAN-AMERICANS, HISPANICS, ASIANS, WOMEN, GLTB, ...ETC. = DA TIME IS N-O-W TO ATTAIN "SPECIAL RIGHTS" IN AMERICA = AMERIKKA BEFORE WASHINGTON SURRENDERS TO THE ANTI-US OWG + OWG NAU 2015 OR ASAP THEREAFTER.

NOW, NOW - spelled K-N-U-W - NOW, D *** NG IT!

The NAU + higher will have the Power, NOT Washington = USA = NAU Member-States.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/29/2013 23:04 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Consumer confidence socked by payroll tax hike
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/29/2013 14:51 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Quick Rantburgers, who DID NOT see this coming? Anyone?

Huh... no hands.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/29/2013 14:52 Comments || Top||

#2  The only ones surprised are the rubes who voted for You Know Who. Yeah, let's stick to those rich sumbitches!
Posted by: SteveS || 01/29/2013 15:24 Comments || Top||

#3  Ah liberals - defining down "rich" since... day 1.

And defining down "deviant" as well.
Posted by: OldSpook || 01/29/2013 23:47 Comments || Top||


Economy
The End of Charity?
Efforts to roll back tax deductions for charitable giving are ill-conceived and counterproductive.
Posted by: || 01/29/2013 13:54 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  One of the points made in the column is that government doesn't like the competition from charity - they can do a lot more with a lot less, which makes gov't look bad. So it's not all about the revenue.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/29/2013 14:37 Comments || Top||

#2  If the only reason you're giving to charity is for the tax deduction, it's not charity. It's more an option of where you'd rather the 'redistribution' goes to.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/29/2013 14:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Thou shalt worship no other god than the state.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 01/29/2013 15:06 Comments || Top||

#4  Eliminating charitable deductions and mortgage interest as proposed IF they go to a flat tax without exception. It is the only way to equitably raise revenue (taxes). SS is broken because the income ceiling is only $113,000 unfairly taxing the most those who are dependent upon it the most. The 98%s have some legit beefs but the proposed fixes are ill-conceived if not flat out destructive--taking us down a black hole and destroying the nation as we know it.
Posted by: Kojo Wholuse5660 || 01/29/2013 15:59 Comments || Top||

#5  I vote we confiscate all wealth and property belonging to demonrats and sell their organs.


sarc


maybe
Posted by: Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division || 01/29/2013 16:12 Comments || Top||

#6  Kojo, SS has an income ceiling because it also has a benefit ceiling. That was the selling point in the 1930s: you got back a pension based on what you paid in. If the payout was capped, it stood to reason that the contribution would be capped as well.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/29/2013 16:43 Comments || Top||

#7  > flat tax without exception. It is the only way to equitably raise revenue

All taxes on earned income (and thus spending) are morally wrong.

Become capitalist and tax land rental values like Adam Smith and David Ricardo (no friends of Marx and Malthus respectively).
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 01/29/2013 16:48 Comments || Top||

#8  But what about planned parenthood and PBS? Oh wait I already pay for them through taxes. How about elimating tax dollars to charity.
Posted by: Airandee || 01/29/2013 17:51 Comments || Top||

#9  "I vote we confiscate all wealth and property belonging to demonrats and sell their organs."

Money and property OK, SB, but who the hell would want their organs?
Posted by: Barbara || 01/29/2013 18:59 Comments || Top||

#10  ...the Chinese? Better the organs from the well fed than prisoners.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/29/2013 19:25 Comments || Top||

#11  How about letting people direct the money they would pay in tax to charities instead...

None of this charitable deduction... Just You (not bureaucrats) directing your tax @ charity
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 01/29/2013 19:58 Comments || Top||

#12  Money and property OK, SB, but who the hell would want their organs?

Not the livers, that's for sure (c.f Ted Kennedy) - but the brain would be relatively unused.
Posted by: OldSpook || 01/29/2013 23:51 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
Israel boycotts UN rights council in unprecedented move
Representatives of Israel have boycotted its regular review by the UN Human Rights Council, the first time a country has ever taken such action.

The move was expected as Israel has long been angered by what it claims is unfair criticism from the body.

A decision last year to investigate Jewish settlements in the West Bank prompted Israel to announce it would no longer co-operate with the council.

Tuesday's meeting was suspended and a course of action will be decided.

"After a series of votes and statements and incidents we have decided to suspend our working relations with that body," Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told the Financial Times on Tuesday.

"I can confirm that there is no change in that policy."

Council spokesman Rolando Gomez told the Associated Press that Israel's unprecedented absence had put the council in "new territory" because attendance of the Universal Periodic Review was mandatory.

Haitian representatives failed to appear before the council in 2010, but on the basis that their country had suffered a devastating earthquake.

Otherwise, so far all countries - even Syria and North Korea - have attended.

Israel's action has prompted concern that it might undermine the UN's human rights work, says the BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva, where the council is meeting.

Human rights experts fear other countries facing awkward questions might follow suit.
Posted by: tipper || 01/29/2013 12:35 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "don't question mah authoritaaay!"
Posted by: Frank G || 01/29/2013 14:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Israel's action has prompted concern that it might undermine the UN's human rights work, says the BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva, where the council is meeting.

No. Your own hypocrisy and toothless edicts does that.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/29/2013 14:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Out of Zion shall come forth the Law
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/29/2013 14:38 Comments || Top||

#4  Should have just put a strawman with a Star of David in, they wouldn't have noticed.
Posted by: Charles || 01/29/2013 18:22 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Muslim Brotherhood Member Elected to Israeli Parliament Can’t Decide Which Wife to Take Along
Posted by: tipper || 01/29/2013 12:10 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Camel's nose inside the tent.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/29/2013 12:18 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Gateshead head-severing: Karl Bestford jailed for murder
A man who tried to cut his landlord's head off in a row over rent arrears has been jailed for life for his murder.

Ex-abattoir worker Karl Bestford stabbed and mutilated Simon Meech, 46, after inviting him round to his flat in Gateshead, on 28 July last year.

The 35-year-old had denied murder but was found guilty by a jury, at Newcastle Crown Court.

He was ordered to serve a minimum of 22 years, after "partially severing" his victim's head at the flat in Bensham.

Bestford had told the court Mr Meech pulled a knife on him during the meeting at the Rayleigh Grove flat.

Northumbria Police welcomed the sentence and said a "dangerous and violent" man was "off the streets".
More at the link. This guy worked in an abattoir (slaughter house) so he was trained in this sort of thing. Not a nice man. A pic at link. He looks mean and evil.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/29/2013 12:08 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Actually, I think he looks like Curly from the Three Stooges.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 01/29/2013 13:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Curly isn't sane. None of the Three Stooges is sane, Snowy Thing.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/29/2013 21:33 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Barack Obama’s plan for same-sex rights could complicate immigration reform
President Barack Obama is expected to propose that same-sex couples be treated the same as heterosexual marriages in a campaign-style event Tuesday to announce his plan for giving millions of illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship, as well as making improvements to the legal immigration system and border security.

However, the same-sex rights proposal could complicate the process of immigration reform in the United States, as Sen. John McCain — who is part of a bipartisan panel of senators who put forward a framework for immigration reform– signalled he might oppose Obama on the issue.

The proposal, according to numerous U.S. reports, would recognize of same-sex couples where one partner is American and another is not.

Speaking on “CBS This Morning” Tuesday, McCain called the gay rights proposal a “red flag.”
Posted by: tipper || 01/29/2013 11:53 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Gee, John, the whole White House agenda is one big Red Flag.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/29/2013 12:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Update
President Obama makes immigration reform push
Posted by: tipper || 01/29/2013 17:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Because any version of Donk immigration reform will not include closing/controlling the borders, I'm for anything that complicates it. First close the border. Shut off the flow of illegal immigration and then talk about immigration reform. It is insane for any country to allow people to come into your country as they want to. These clowns are going to try to push immigration reform down our throats like they did health care and they are going to say you have to pass it to read it.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/29/2013 18:03 Comments || Top||

#4  Once again, its meaningless to push immigration reform while doing little or nothing to seal the border - its a self-defeating cycle or concept whose only real purpose is to keep expanding the Welfare-State + by extension US Deficit Spending + Debt.

Lefty inverted, corrupt, special interest or nepotist agendas like this is why AMERICA = COMMIE-SOCIALIST AMERIKKA = FUTURE SHARIST ISLAMERIKKA.

Nice-n-Legal, wid Eyes Wide Open, N-O-T Eyes Wide Shut.

LAWYERS, N-O-T JIHADIS/MILTERRS WID NUKES-WMDS.

Moreso because IMO US Politicos covertly know US-specific, "Sole" Sovereign Power-n-Authority, etc. will unilaterally be given or tranferred to the future OWG + OWG NAU [+ extra-NAU Trans/
Interim higher Govt?], BUT IMO AREN'T FULLY CERTAIN YET JUST HOW MUCH.

NAU = EU = a desired Entity or Polity formal State or Group Orgz, Duties, + COntributions etc. are a "Work/Development-in-Progress"

IN SHORT, THE PCORRECT-DENIABLE, UNAPOLOGETIC GOP-DEM DRIVE TO IMPOSE SOCIALISM IN AMERICA IS THE ONLY "BETTER-SAFE-THAN-SORRY" WAY FOR THE FED TO ASSERT NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY, OR REMNANT/REMAINDER THEREFROM, IN THIS AGE OF ANTI-NATIONALIST, ANTI-SOVEREIGN "GLOBALISM" + FUTURE [anti-US?]OWG-NWO.

> SOCIALISM = form of SOVEREIGNTY???
> NATIONALISM = form of LIMITED/LIBERAL/MODERATE GLOBALISM???
> Rightist "Fascism" = 1990's Limited Leftism- Communism-Socialism = 2013 Limited Globalism-Socialism.

POTUS Obama's polices = GOOD FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, + GOOD FOR JIHAD, SHARIA [+ Other]IN AMERIKKA.

Iff the Secular DemoLeft does NOT give support to Islamic Sharia in post-Nationalis, OWG Globalist Amerikka, IT WILL BE INTERPRETED BY ISLAM = THEO-SOCIALISTS AS PROOF OF HYPOCRISY, DECEPTION, + MALICE ON THE PART OF THE SECULAR + US-WESTERN LEFT, VALIDATING VIOLENT JIHAD AGZ THE US-WEST.

Thats a Beheadin'.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/29/2013 18:56 Comments || Top||


Europe
Islam takes another step to German recognition
Bremen is the third German state to recognize Islamic organizations as official religious bodies. Holidays, funerals and pastoral care will be regulated by state contracts. Other states will likely follow suit.

For Erol Pürlü, spokesman for the German Muslim coordination council, the signing of the contract with the city-state of Bremen marked a "day of joy". Three Muslim associations were officially recognized as religious bodies. "That sends a clear signal that Islam belongs to Germany," said Pürlü.

Bremen is the third German state to confer this status on Islamic organizations. Hamburg made a similar agreement last November, while Hesse officially recognized two Islamic organizations and allowed them to offer their own religious classes in schools in December.

The relationship between German states and Muslim associations had been stalled for decades until the breakthrough came in 2010. Large organizations like the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB) and the Association of Islamic Cultural Centers (VIKZ) had been campaigning to be recognized as religious bodies for a long time.
Posted by: tipper || 01/29/2013 11:46 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fear Radical Islam's lawyers + political lobbyists, notsomuch its violent Jihadis armed wid Nukes-WMDS, ala LEGAL "CREEPING SHARIA/ISLAMIC LAW".

* ION WAFF > JOINT ARMED FORCES OF TURKIC-SPEAKING COUNTRIES FORMED.

Rest of ex-Soviet Stans = CAR Region, + Hungary, + Finland may join in near future.

WAFF BLOGGER = opined that new Union wid a tote population of 300Milyuhn should be big enough + econ, mil strong enough to offset or influence the policies of the US, NATO-EU, Russia, China, + India.

AND

* SAME > MERKEL DEMANDS [all-Euro only] EUROPEAN ARMy, replete wid proper resources, manpower, + organization as separate + distinct from US-led NATO.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/29/2013 23:25 Comments || Top||

#2  OOOOPPSIES, forgot TOPIX > WEST ASIA ISLAMIC UNION TO CONTAIN RUSSIA, in the near future???

Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkey, Azerbaijan, + Iran, to start.

TURKIC UNION to deter or counter GERMANY + RUSSIA; WEST ASIAN ISLAMIC UNION to deter or counter RUSSIA + CHINA???

So-called MEDITERRANEAN UNION to .....???

AND

* SAME > [Russia]REVISING THE CONCEPT OF EURASIA.

* SAME > RUSSIA SEES IRAN AS KEY PART IN ARCHITECTURE FOR REGIONAL SECURITY.

* SAME > SCHOLAR WARNS OF ASEAN "FRACTURE".
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/29/2013 23:36 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Pakistan policeman gunned down while guarding polio workers
UN-backed vaccination campaign target of violence due to militant propaganda, Zero Dark Thirty confusion
Gunmen riding on a motorcycle shot and killed a police officer protecting polio workers during a UN-backed vaccination campaign in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, police said.

The attack took place as dozens of polio workers — including several women — were going door-to-door to vaccinate children in Gullu Dheri village in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a mountainous region near the Afghanistan border.

None of the polio workers the police officer was protecting were hurt in the attack, said senior police officer Izhar Shah

"The polio workers were terrified and immediately went back to their homes after the attack," Shah told The Associated Press.

"The anti-polio drive in that village has been suspended."

It was the second day of a three-day campaign against polio that was launched by the provincial government. No one claimed responsibility for the killing, but suspicion fell on militants.

Some Islamic militants in the area have previously accused health workers of acting as spies for the U.S. and claim the polio vaccine is intended to make Muslim children sterile.
Bin Laden’s killing heightens suspicion

Militant suspicion of vaccination campaigns was racheted up after it was revealed that a Pakistani doctor helped the U.S. hunt for Osama bin Laden.

Physician Shakil Afridi ran a hepatitis vaccination campaign on behalf of the CIA to collect blood samples from bin Laden's family at a compound in Abbottabad, in Pakistan's northwest, where U.S. commandos later killed the al-Qaeda leader in May 2011.

The samples were intended to help the CIA match the family's DNA to verify bin Laden's presence in the garrison city.
Posted by: tipper || 01/29/2013 11:16 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Niger (yes, right next to Mali) to host US drones
Niger's president has agreed to let the US use the country—which borders Mali—as a base for surveillance drones, a source tells Reuters.

The drones would be used to spy on militants with al-Qaeda ties in Mali and the Sahara as a whole, according to the insider, who says President Mahamadou Issoufou didn't hesitate to approve yesterday's request.

Reuters reports drones could end up being stationed in the deserts of the country's north, which abuts Algeria and Libya as well.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/29/2013 10:58 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Niger is the fourth ranking producer of uranium in the world today.

In 2011 it produced 4351 tU, and cumulative production from the country was 114,346 tU to the end of 2010. About 62,000 tU of this was from underground, and 52,000 t from open pit mining.

Uranium is mined close to the twin mining towns of Arlit and Akokan, 900 km north-east of the capital Niamey (more than 1,200 km by road) on the southern border of the Sahara desert and on the western range of the Air mountains. The concentrates are trucked to ports in Benin and exported for conversion, mostly to Comurhex in France.

Would be good to keep islamic terrorists away from this country.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/29/2013 12:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Just don't tell Joe Wilson.
Posted by: lotp || 01/29/2013 14:01 Comments || Top||

#3  It's all about oil the atom.

(France has some 54 nuclear power plants)
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/29/2013 14:32 Comments || Top||

#4  Be very, very careful how you say and spell the name.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 01/29/2013 16:40 Comments || Top||


Economy
Schiff: Bernanke to Oprah: "I've Been Doping for Years"
Posted by: tipper || 01/29/2013 10:38 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Ancient Manuscripts in Timbuktu Damaged During Fighting
The Ahmed Baba Institute, an Islamic learning center in the town of Timbuktu in the West African nation of Mali, holds thousands of ancient drawings and writings from the Quran and everyday life in this point along a historic Saharan caravan route.

On Monday, Timbuktu's Mayor Ousmane Halle said from Mali's capital Bamako that he had gotten word Islamist fighters had torched the library as well as his office before retreating. The Malian army, backed by French forces, are working on driving back rebel forces from cities they had taken over last year.
Anyone surprised by this? Anyone? Bueller?
Posted by: Steve White || 01/29/2013 10:16 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So will outrage boy be in the streets about this report of the desecration of his holy book or as long as other Muzzies do it, it's OK?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/29/2013 11:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Headline is wrong. The arson was done BEFORE any fighting. Just the continuing Islamist attitude toward anything older than six years.
Posted by: tipover || 01/29/2013 11:26 Comments || Top||

#3  Not just the Islamic stuff, but the texts dating back to the 13th century on everything from medicine to culture, with book's in language including Hebrew, burned. Two library locations. It was more Cultural Heritage of centuries lost.

They were previously buried around Timbuktu but were brought together to be digitally scanned and put into the Libraries, one old and one newer building built for the specific purpose of housing the manuscripts.

At least Afghanistan was just one Statue. This is... Well, Alexandria's library type stuff.
Posted by: Charles || 01/29/2013 18:17 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Seattle gun buyback fail - People show up and outbid police
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/29/2013 10:04 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bwwwahhhhhhh. Unintended consequences bite you in the butt sometimes.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/29/2013 10:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Capitalism trumps socialism once again.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/29/2013 10:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Doncha just lurv market economics!
Posted by: SteveS || 01/29/2013 15:21 Comments || Top||


Europe
France is 'totally bankrupt', jobs minister admits
Minister Michel Sapin said: 'There is a state but it's a totally bankrupt state'
Unemployment and living costs have spiralled since party came to power
President trying to revive economy through cutting spending by £51billion
Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said Mr Sapin's comments were 'inappropriate' and tried to blame Nicolas Sarkozy's government
An online poll in Le Figaro newspaper showed that 80.5 per cent of readers agreed that France is bankrupt

Posted by: tipper || 01/29/2013 09:54 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Another victim of nanny state economics bites the dust.

So now that France is joining the ranks with Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Ireland is dissolution of the EU monetary policy common currency far behind?

Or who is going to bail out France? Iceland or Norway? I don't think the DeutscheBank is answering Hollande's calls and last I heard Merkel put Hollande's Finance Minister on the do not call list.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 01/29/2013 14:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Hope France Iran and Russia get the fields in Mali going hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Posted by: Maggie Flomong2662 || 01/29/2013 16:57 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Public interest group sues EPA for FOIA delays, agency ordered officials to ignore requests
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/29/2013 09:50 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Bulgarian crime boss 'The Beret' shot as he enters court
Zlatomir Ivanov, 44, was shot four times in his legs, arm and stomach
The mafia head was due to have surgery on the wounds after the broad daylight attack
Ivanov was at court to appeal against an eight-year jail sentence
Ivanov is known as Zlatko Baretata because he was once a member of counter-terrorist police force The Berets
He has been arrested on numerous charges over the years but has always been released

Posted by: tipper || 01/29/2013 09:44 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  From the foto, Zlatomir appears to be pointing to a rooftop or window, possibly at another potential shooter. Gotta hand it to the 'take charge' bastid.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/29/2013 10:45 Comments || Top||

#2  D *** NG IT, I thought HUGO was "The Beret", since back in Milwaukee???

I'm so upset.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/29/2013 18:59 Comments || Top||

#3  Zay hev shot...zee Baray!!
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/29/2013 20:16 Comments || Top||


European 'No-Go' Zones for Non-Muslims Proliferating
Islamic extremists are stepping up the creation of "no-go" areas in European cities that are off-limits to non-Muslims.

Many of the "no-go" zones function as microstates governed by Islamic Sharia law. Host-country authorities effectively have lost control in these areas and in many instances are unable to provide even basic public aid such as police, fire fighting and ambulance services.

The "no-go" areas are the by-product of decades of multicultural policies that have encouraged Muslim immigrants to create parallel societies and remain segregated rather than become integrated into their European host nations.

In Britain, for example, a Muslim group called Muslims Against the Crusades has launched a campaign to turn twelve British cities – including what it calls "Londonistan" – into independent Islamic states. The so-called Islamic Emirates would function as autonomous enclaves ruled by Islamic Sharia law and operate entirely outside British jurisprudence.

The Islamic Emirates Project names the British cities of Birmingham, Bradford, Derby, Dewsbury, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Luton, Manchester, Sheffield, as well as Waltham Forest in northeast London and Tower Hamlets in East London as territories to be targeted for blanket Sharia rule.

In the Tower Hamlets area of East London (also known as the Islamic Republic of Tower Hamlets), for example, extremist Muslim preachers, called the Tower Hamlets Taliban, regularly issue death threats to women who refuse to wear Islamic veils. Neighborhood streets have been plastered with posters declaring "You are entering a Sharia controlled zone: Islamic rules enforced." And street advertising deemed offensive to Muslims is regularly vandalized or blacked out with spray paint.

In the Bury Park area of Luton, Muslims have been accused of "ethnic cleansing" by harassing non-Muslims to the point that many of them move out of Muslim neighborhoods. In the West Midlands, two Christian preachers have been accused of "hate crimes" for handing out gospel leaflets in a predominantly Muslim area of Birmingham. In Leytonstone in east London, the Muslim extremist Abu Izzadeen heckled the former Home Secretary John Reid by saying: "How dare you come to a Muslim area."

In France, large swaths of Muslim neighborhoods are now considered "no-go" zones by French police. At last count, there are 751 Sensitive Urban Zones (Zones Urbaines Sensibles, ZUS), as they are euphemistically called. A complete list of the ZUS can be found on a French government website, complete with satellite maps and precise street demarcations. An estimated 5 million Muslims live in the ZUS, parts of France over which the French state has lost control.

Muslim immigrants are taking control of other parts of France too. In Paris and other French cities with high Muslim populations, such as Lyons, Marseilles and Toulouse, thousands of Muslims are closing off streets and sidewalks (and by extension, are closing down local businesses and trapping non-Muslim residents in their homes and offices) to accommodate overflowing crowds for Friday prayers. Some mosques have also begun broadcasting sermons and chants of "Allahu Akbar" via loudspeakers into the streets.
Posted by: tipper || 01/29/2013 09:38 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Tun off the water.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/29/2013 9:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Turn off the water, and the power, and the streetlights, and plug the sewers. When the residents start to leave herd them onto buses, take them to Heathrow, and put them on planes.

If you are going to live in a country then you abide by that country's rules. If your plan is to take that country over, don't be surprised if that country decides to throw you out.

We'll see if Britain is to remain Britain by the way they respond to this. This is a blatant attempt to overthrow legal authority.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/29/2013 10:15 Comments || Top||

#3  "Loki Boy" has plenty of water.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/29/2013 10:17 Comments || Top||

#4  So these Euros have ceded soverneignty to the Islamists in their own countries? Isolate the Islamists that are creating these no-go zones and ship them out. Turn off the spigot that allows more to come in. Otherwise, you will cease to have a country.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/29/2013 10:35 Comments || Top||

#5  God: I'm going to make it rain for a thousand days and drown them right out.
Noah: Right ... Listen, do this and you'll save water. Let it rain for forty days and forty nights and wait for the sewers to back up.
God: Right...
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/29/2013 10:39 Comments || Top||

#6  Ahhh Glenmore, you bring back memories of the only comedy album I ever bought.

"And then all the Indians in the world ride right down on you."

Bill Cosby -- ya gotta love him.
Posted by: AlanC || 01/29/2013 10:58 Comments || Top||

#7  Islamic extremists are stepping up the creation of "no-go" areas in European cities that are off-limits to non-Muslims.

Self created ghettos. Next walls and check points. How'd that work out for your fellow monotheists other than making it easier to round up everyone later?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/29/2013 11:12 Comments || Top||

#8  Benefits = Jizya.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 01/29/2013 11:29 Comments || Top||

#9  Benefits = Jizya.
Yes BP, as long as the cheese is on the table the rats will keep coming.
Posted by: tipper || 01/29/2013 11:35 Comments || Top||

#10  Apartheid! Apartheid!
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/29/2013 11:38 Comments || Top||

#11  Apartheid! Apartheid!

Dude, it's not apartheid when noble, brown-skinned people do it. And you bees raciss for saying that... even if it's true.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/29/2013 11:53 Comments || Top||

#12  choudhary and his cronies might have luck in Bury Park in Luton and Tower Hamlets in East London but they wont have much luck in Liverpool,Manchester and Leeds.

What do the so called Muslim moderates? say about this.
Posted by: Uluger tse Tung3224 || 01/29/2013 14:18 Comments || Top||

#13  Ohhh, I've got a brand new leather jacket
and a brand new Voda phone.
Posted by: Besoeker ak Bar || 01/29/2013 14:40 Comments || Top||

#14  Here is a handy dandy Infidel no-go guide when traveling in France.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 01/29/2013 15:58 Comments || Top||

#15  "They get all the benefits and you get all the bills"

Besoeker, there are many versions of this that go cross-cultural but in the end they are all the same.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/29/2013 17:53 Comments || Top||

#16  Hitler had it so wrong when thinking Jews were a threat.
Posted by: Chavins Glusoter6092 || 01/29/2013 17:53 Comments || Top||

#17  What the Left has done for others throughout the US-West vee PCOrrect-Deniable, neutralist
"universalism" = nepotist "stratification" it can do for legal Sharia.

> Are not the Muslims being good Citizens-Residents by taking care + being responsible for their own communities???
> Are they not opening up business which cater to their particular demographic while not discriminating agz non-Muslims???
> Are they not relying on themselves instead of the Waffling Big Govt that never seems to adequately fund Basic Law Enforcement + Emergency-Human Services???
> Are they not ..... .... .... ....... ...@etc???

D *** NG IT, DON'T FORCE ME TO CALL THE ACLU + OTHER ON YOUR JUVENILE RACIST A****!

MUSLIM LAWYERS = WHATS THE PROBLEM - MY MUSLIM CLIENTS ARE DOING NOTHING THAT THE MAJORITY NON-MUSLIM SOCIETY + POLITICIANS, ETAL. DON'T ASK OF OTHERS EVERYDAY, TO INCLUDE MUSLIMS OR MUSLIM COMMUNITIES.

D *** NG IT, WHATS THE PROBLEM!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/29/2013 19:16 Comments || Top||

#18  'I feel like a stranger where I live’
As new figures show 'white flight' from cities is rising, one Londoner writes a provocative personal piece about how immigration has drastically changed the borough where she has lived for 17 years
Posted by: tipper || 01/29/2013 20:43 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Stores looted in Timbuktu - report
Hundreds of Malians looted stores in Timbuktu on Tuesday, saying the shops belonged to “Arabs” and “terrorists” linked to the radical Islamists who occupied the desert town for 10 months.

The angry crowd plundered stores they told AFP belonged to Arabs, Mauritanians and Algerians who they say supported the al-Qaeda-linked Islamists who retreated from the fabled town ahead of its recapture by French-led troops on Monday.

An AFP journalist witnessed the looters finding arms and military communications equipment in some of the shops.

However most of the residents of the impoverished town on the edge of the Sahara desert, hit by food and water shortages, seized whatever they could get their hands on: televisions, satellites, food and furniture.

Some fought amongst each other for items while others smashed in shop doors, emptying them within minutes.

In the suburb of Abaradjou, a man living in a former bank converted by the Islamists into a “committee of promotion of virtue and prevention of vice”, was dragged out by a hysterical crowd who then pillaged the building, taking even office chairs.

The bearded middle-aged man was arrested by Malian troops who were in the town after French soldiers who lead the offensive withdrew into the suburbs.

“He is an Islamist”, one solder said, as troops turned their weapons toward the crowd to prevent them from lynching the man. The mob yelled: “He is not from here, he is a terrorist!”
Posted by: tipper || 01/29/2013 09:32 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Defected translator sheds new light on Iran's global reach
Iran has attempted to increase its military presence in the Horn of Africa and tried to initiate an "Islamic arms industry" as part of its bid to challenge Western hegemony, a defecting government translator told The Times of Israel in an interview.

Ahmad Hashemi, who worked as an English and Turkish translator at Iran's foreign ministry until his defection in June 2012, wrote in a Times of Israel blog post that Iran continues to insist on developing nuclear weapons capabilities, using deceptive tactics to mislead the world regarding the true nature of its nuclear program.

But over the past five years Hashemi also attended numerous meetings pertaining to Iran's international military involvement, the details of which he shared with The Times of Israel on Monday in a phone interview from Turkey, where he fled as a political asylum seeker. The details he divulged could not be independently corroborated, but they did correspond with recent reports regarding Iran's oversees activities.
Posted by: tipper || 01/29/2013 09:18 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  IMO iff Iran is intent on creating Shia-led, pan-Islamic OWG Caliphate par, superior or dominant to the anything in the Secular US-West, then it will indeed need Nukes no matter its rhetoric to the contrary.

"Mahanist" Iran = "Mahanist" China = will also need overseas MilBases.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/29/2013 22:32 Comments || Top||


At least 65 bodies found 'executed' in Syria river
The bodies of at least 65 young men and boys, all executed with a single gunshot to the head or neck, were found on Tuesday in a river in the Syrian city of Aleppo, a watchdog and rebels said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 65 bodies were found in the Quweiq River, which separates the Bustan al-Qasr district from Ansari in the southwest of the city, but that the toll could rise significantly.

A Free Syrian Army officer at the scene said at least 68 bodies had been recovered and that many more were still being dragged from the water, in a rebel-held area.

"Until now we have recovered 68 bodies, some of them just teens," said Captain Abu Sada, adding that all of them had been "executed by the regime."

"But there must be more than 100. There are still many in the water, and we are trying to recover them."

A senior government security source said many of the victims were from Bustan al-Qasr and had been reported kidnapped earlier.

He accused "terrorists," the standard regime term for people fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad, of carrying out the executions and spreading propaganda to deflect responsibility.

"They were kidnapped by terrorist groups, who some are accusing of being pro-regime, and executed last night in a park in Bustan al-Qasr under their control," the source told AFP by telephone.
Posted by: tipper || 01/29/2013 09:08 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What are the implications if the rebels prevail and Russia loses a warm-water port?
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/29/2013 10:49 Comments || Top||

#2  You've heard of GITMO, right John?
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/29/2013 10:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Notice they stopped calling each other Zionists. Must be getting serious.
Posted by: Penguin || 01/29/2013 13:56 Comments || Top||

#4  Like the article from fantasy island new home of the monkey was it not one hell of a vacation in India for the royals of America.
Posted by: Maggie Flomong2662 || 01/29/2013 17:02 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egypt's army chief warns of 'state collapse' amid crisis
Egypt's armed forces chief has warned the current political crisis "could lead to a collapse of the state".

General Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, in comments posted on the military's Facebook page, said such a collapse could "threaten future generations".

He made his statement following a large military deployment in three cities along the Suez Canal where a state of emergency has been declared.

More than 50 people have died in days of protests and violence.

Overnight, thousands of people in Port Said, Ismailia and Suez - where some of the worst unrest has been - ignored a night-time curfew to take to the streets.

Gen Sisi's lengthy statement appears to be a veiled threat to protesters and opposition forces as well as an appeal for calm and an attempt to reassure Egyptians about the role of the military, the BBC's Yolande Knell in Cairo says.

Lemme see, here, General al-Sissy. You had a dictator who'd been in power since approximately the Upper Paleolithic. You had a state of emergency that ran for about 40 years, which meant to any logical person that "emergency" was the norm. Egypt subsisted largely on handouts, those from the U.S. going to bribe the country into respecting the peace treaty that had cost two heads of state their lives.

Then came the Arab Spring. The leaves of democracy greened right up. People took to the streets in the face of the truncheons of the coppers, live ammunition from the army, and the occasional camel charge. Mubarak stepped down from power and rather than decamping with the national treasury he and his sons were jugged.

Next step was to elect a legislature, which happened, but the courts threw the results out.

Then they held a presidential election. Everybody'd just been waiting to vote for the Moslem Brüderbund, since Islam is the answer, no matter what the question might be. Morsi won comfortably, leaving Mr. Potato Head and Jerry Lewis sidelined, the Salafists muttering into their beards, and the secularists with that cold, sinking feeling in the pit of their collective tummy.

Things looked pretty bleak for those Egyptians who didn't adhere to the theory that the answer to "What time is it?" or "What's the capital of Minnesota?" is "Islam."

Then Morsi, in a display of Islamic genius, decided that being elected president was the same thing as being in charge. He issued an executive order granting himself all sorts of power. The Moslem Brüderbund ran everybody but them out of the constitutional convention and passed an Islamic constitution, which was duly approved by the demos.

Perhaps the Moslem Brüderbund is in the majority in Egypt. Who can tell, since they're the ones counting the votes? But the non-Brothers are sufficiently sidelined that they don't like it, and they don't like it enough to bitch and moan in large numbers in public places.
Posted by: tipper || 01/29/2013 09:03 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yuuuppp ...

* ION EGYTIUM/EGYPTIA, TOPIX > "BRIGADE OF MUSLIMS" ARMED GROUP THREATENS EGYPT'S COPTIC CHRISTIANS, TELLING THEM TO PAY "TRIBUTE".

The group has also threatened Egyptian Media professionals, Muslim or not, whom have allegedly criticized anti-tolerant Sharia + Islamic Law in the Country + Govt-Society. COPTS ACCUSED BY SAME OF DESIRING OR FOSTERING SEPARATISM = BREAKUP OF MUSLIM EGYPT IN FAVOR OF NON/ANTI-ISLAM.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/29/2013 23:12 Comments || Top||


The Five Dumbest Myths About Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood
Americans have bent over backwards since Egypt's revolution convincing ourselves the Muslim Brotherhood is an organization seeking to move Egypt forward. And so we have trotted out the usual platitudes.

The Muslim Brotherhood are compatibile with democracy. They're really just "Egypt's evangelicals." "They're essentially free market capitalists." They're in favor of preserving the treaty with Israel. And, the doozy of them all, they're so strong we must support them. They can't lose!

So, thank you, Foreign Policy, for neatly obliterating each of these five fairy tales. Thank you.

Oh, and while we're on the subject, the Egyptian army's chief of staff opined today about a pending “collapse of the state” if political chaos does not stop soon. This won't end well, but perhaps Mohammed "Apes and Pigs" Morsi will be shown the door in classic fashion - a coup.
Posted by: tipper || 01/29/2013 08:40 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
More On Fordo From The Ex-CIA Dòuble Agent
[Jpost] Ex-CIA man: Iran blast largest sabotage in decades

Former Revolutionary Guard tells 'Post' that such a blow to Fordow nuclear facility would harm Iran drastically.


Although it has not yet been verified, a report by Iranian dissident-turned CIA operative Reza Kahlili, which said a massive blast rocked Iran's key Fordow nuclear installation last week, continued to spread on Monday.

Iran's Atomic Energy Organization dismissed the claim as "Western propaganda," while The Sunday Times cited Israeli intelligence figures as confirming the claim.

Speaking to The Jerusalem Post on Monday, Kahlili expressed confidence that the alleged blast will receive "further coverage in the US," and that "more information" will become available to verify the incident.

Although it has not yet been verified, a report by Iranian dissident-turned CIA operative Reza Kahlili, which said a massive blast rocked Iran's key Fordow nuclear installation last week, continued to spread on Monday.

Iran's Atomic Energy Organization dismissed the claim as "Western propaganda," while The Sunday Times cited Israeli intelligence figures as confirming the claim.

Speaking to The Jerusalem Post on Monday, Kahlili expressed confidence that the alleged blast will receive "further coverage in the US," and that "more information" will become available to verify the incident.

"It's the largest case of sabotage in decades," Kahlili said. "This is the center of the Iranian nuclear program. It is essential for the regime, its activities and its nuclear program. If such a blow was given to Fordow, it definitely harms [Iran] drastically.

They were reaching for 20 percent uranium enrichment and were increasing output," he added.

Situated near the holy Shi'ite city of Qom, the existence of the Fordow enrichment plant, dug deep into a mountain, was kept secret by Iran until it was discovered by Western intelligence in 2009 -- and the question of how long it had been in operation remains unanswered.

Kahlili, a pseudonym used to protect him from the Iranian regime, published A Time To Betray in 2010, in which he described a journey which took him from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) to being a CIA agent in the 1980s.

He now resides in Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,, and says he is in touch with a number of insiders in the Iranian intelligence and security communities, as well as the office of Iran's supreme leader.

Asked why satellite imagery was not being released of rescue efforts at Fordow, Kahlili said only state intelligence agencies have access to live satellite feeds.

"Why don't they put it out? My only assumption is that no one wants to take credit because of what the consequences could be by the regime," he told the Post. "This is a very sensitive time. I'm sure that soon, very soon, more information will leak out. Chatter will get loud enough to provide further information."

Kahlili went on to say that within the Islamic Theocratic Republic the "first suspicion is Israel."

"I have verified information that there was a meeting [called by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei. A decision was made to act in Leb. A request was made to [Hezbollah chief Hassan] Nasrallah to vacate southern Lebanese villages.

Islamic Theocratic Republic guards are on their way there. A decision has been made to prepare for missile launch from a certain area in Leb against Israel," he said.

Kahlili said one of the sources who initially leaked information of the blast came from within the security forces guarding Fordow, adding that precise information of the attack was not being released in order to protect the source.

"The source has been collaborating for a long time," he said.

A second source came from the Iranian Intelligence Ministry, he said, adding that it was very difficult to safely get information out of Iran.

Iranian authorities have not yet made any progress in their attempt to enter Fordow, Kahlili asserted, adding, "I fear there is radiation involved."

Iran's Defense Ministry dispatched drilling vehicles, "the same they used to carve tunnels and create underground facilities, to see if they can make any headway in opening emergency exits, because they collapsed.

Among those stuck in the facility are dozens of foreign nationals. These are contracted scientists," he said.

Kahlili said a second mysterious blast occurred in Tehran last week, at an IRGC base called "21 Hamza."

"There are injuries, and there have been arrests of IRGC members who are being questioned. The Intelligence Ministry suspects sabotage," he added.

Meanwhile,
...back at the buffalo wallow, Tex and his new-found Indian friend were preparing a little surprise for the bandidos...
the White House on Monday threw cold water on reports of an kaboom at Fordow.

"We don't believe those are credible reports," White House front man Jay Carney said in response to questions on the subject from news hounds. "We have no information that would confirm them."

Carney also expressed frustration that Iran has not agreed to a new round of talks with the P5+1 world powers in Istanbul at the end of January, despite the world power's having "shown flexibility" in the time and place of its offer.

"Iran, not for the first time, has been continuing putting forward new conditions as a delaying tactic, and negotiations about negotiations is a familiar tactic that only results in further isolation and more pressure on Iran, so it will not achieve anything," Carney declared.

He added, however, that contact on talks is continuing and new dates in February have been offered to the
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/29/2013 08:16 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Iranian authorities have not yet made any progress in their attempt to enter Fordow, Kahlili asserted, adding, "I fear there is radiation involved."

If any of the trapped people get out alive, I expect they will have second thoughts about continuing to work there.

Among those stuck in the facility are dozens of foreign nationals. These are contracted scientists," he said.

Just one of the reasons you should think twice before working for nasty 3rd world dictatorships.
Posted by: Frozen Al || 01/29/2013 12:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Very confusing story - not just this particular report. But the whole sequence of news about this event over the past week.

This reminds me a lot of the confusion surrounding the bombing of the reactor in Syria a few years back. In that case - at first the news reported an accident. Only later did they confirm the destruction was actually caused by a secret air mission.

Given the degree of silence by Israel on this latest story about Fordow - you have to wonder if Fordow was really hit by a stealth missile or a secret bombing raid. It doesn't require a lot of missiles or airplanes to do the job. It would be nice if someone posted an updated satellite image of the place.
Posted by: Raider || 01/29/2013 13:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Hmm... Veddy interesting.
Posted by: Northrop Grumman Stealth Subsurface Attack Drone Division || 01/29/2013 14:07 Comments || Top||

#4  two words: Centrifuge Djinns
Posted by: Frank G || 01/29/2013 14:11 Comments || Top||

#5  I'm not buying it.
Posted by: newc || 01/29/2013 14:16 Comments || Top||

#6  Probably not, at a guess Raider. The site is near Qom and Iran's tunnels allegedly burrow downwards rapidly. Surface bombing would cause major damage to civilians. An attempt to insert a missile through the entrance would meet blast doors and, more seriously, turns in the tunnel direction designed to prevent just this.

Those mechanical squirrels might have been chewing on wires, though. Or telling tales to brave men. If in fact anything did really happen there.
Posted by: lotp || 01/29/2013 14:24 Comments || Top||

#7  Among those stuck in the facility are dozens of foreign nationals

Maybe why the UnKimmie vowed revenge?
Posted by: Kojo Wholuse5660 || 01/29/2013 15:02 Comments || Top||

#8  Mossad sez: "No comment" is a comment.
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 01/29/2013 15:50 Comments || Top||

#9  We won't know the full story for months I'm sure. I don't really see any way in to cause that much damage unless someone took a "One-way trip". And that's entirely possible as well. Isreal has some brave soldiers and spies. Munich and the bombing of Iraq's Reactor comes to mind.
Posted by: Charles || 01/29/2013 18:12 Comments || Top||

#10  UN is repor now also dismissing the claim of a boom at Fordow/Fordo.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/29/2013 22:20 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
State Permits $10B Oil Refinery
Ay-Pee
The South Dakota Supreme Court last Thursday upheld the approval of an air quality permit for constructing a proposed $10 billion oil refinery.

Hyperion's proposed refinery would process 400,000 barrels of Canadian tar sands crude oil each day into low-sulfur gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and liquid petroleum gas. If constructed, the 3,300-acre tract of farmland north of Elk Point (near the South Dakota-Iowa and the South Dakota-Nebraska borders) would become the first new U.S. site for an oil refinery since 1976.

The board originally issued an air quality permit in August 2009, and it was challenged by the Sierra Club and local groups.
There was no EIS prepared, which was one of the bases for the suits, but I imagine The Wizard of O can find a way to scub it.
Posted by: Bobby || 01/29/2013 07:18 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Maybe he wants this one? After all, it takes business away from those Evil Gulf Coasters and puts it up in a depopulated hinterland they can dominate from Chicago once the civil war starts.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 01/29/2013 9:27 Comments || Top||

#2  The Dakotas are way, way too cold for me.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/29/2013 9:53 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Iraq Vet Receives Double Arm Transplant
He was the first soldier to survive the loss of all four limbs in Iraq, and now he’s the recipient of a cutting-edge double-arm transplant.

Brendan will speak Tuesday in Baltimore about the mind-boggling procedure alongside the doctors who pulled it off. But the tough-as-nails soldier has already chronicled his recovery on Twitter.

“Ohh yeah today has been one month since my surgery and they already move a little,” he wrote of his new limbs on Jan. 18.

“It’s been frustrating because I have no function out of my hands yet (so) its been tough but I’ve been thru worse,” he wrote five days later.
Posted by: Bobby || 01/29/2013 05:39 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Make it happen right now God.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/29/2013 16:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Amen Shipman.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/29/2013 16:43 Comments || Top||

#3  To quote Glenn Reynolds: Faster Please.
Posted by: Charles || 01/29/2013 18:23 Comments || Top||

#4  Wow. Speechless...
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/29/2013 20:17 Comments || Top||

#5  How do they do the nerves?
Posted by: Water Modem || 01/29/2013 21:48 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Yemen seizes boat with explosives, weapons, money
The authorities in Yemen have seized a boat in their territorial waters filled with a large quantity of explosives, weapons and money, according to American officials briefed on the interdiction. The officials said Monday, Jan 28, that there were indications that Iran was smuggling the military contraband to insurgents inside Yemen, although they declined to provide details, The Washington Post reported.

Yemeni security forces halted and searched the sailboat, a 130-foot dhow, last Tuesday and found the weapons in three large cargo rooms in the hold, according to reports on the mission reaching Washington. There was American support for the interdiction, officials said.

The government of Yemen confirmed the seizure Monday in an official statement. The captured weapons included surface-to-air missiles used to shoot down civilian and military aircraft, C4 military-grade explosives, 122-millimeter shells, rocket-propelled grenades and bomb-making equipment, including electronic circuits, remote triggers and other hand-held explosives, the statement said.

If the weapons turn out to include the Iranian-made Misagh-2 surface-to-air missile, as cited in the reports from Yemen, it would reflect a significant increase in lethality for the insurgents. Yemen is already awash with small arms and explosives acquired over years of war and insurgency, much of it brought in from a number of foreign sources through its poorly controlled ports. There has been little effort to regulate the supply — one governor of a northern province is also a major arms dealer — and insurgents have often raided the stores of Yemen’s corrupt and divided military. Many of Yemen’s unruly tribes command powerful arsenals, according to the report.

The United States has a publicly acknowledged security assistance effort under way with Yemen. At the same time, the American military and the C.I.A. are engaged in a clandestine program of using drones to strike militants associated with a terrorist organization, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Yemen.

With the United States and Saudi Arabia providing both public and secret security assistance there, and with Iran also said to be arming militant forces, Yemen has become the battlefield for a major proxy war by outside powers.

American officials said the weapons on board were made in Iran, and that the pattern of the shipment matched past instances of suspected Iranian smuggling into Yemen. Officials described the smuggling as part of a plan by Iran to increase its political outreach to rebels and other political figures in Yemen. To identify with greater certainty the source of the weapons, the boat’s navigation instruments will most likely be examined to determine its origin and route, and the crew will be questioned.
Posted by: tipper || 01/29/2013 02:25 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  the MEK could use some of that. Just saying
Posted by: Frank G || 01/29/2013 7:58 Comments || Top||

#2  "Yemen seizes boat with explosives, weapons, money "

They've got the explosives, weapons and dough - but no chicks. You can't have a PARTY without women boyz. Hahahaha!
Posted by: Raider || 01/29/2013 18:37 Comments || Top||

#3  You can't have a PARTY without women boyz


You can if you're Pashtun.

HA HA HA
Posted by: Pappy || 01/29/2013 22:07 Comments || Top||

#4  I don't know whether to laugh at that or cringe, Pappy.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/29/2013 22:48 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Rand Paul: Any attack on Israel is an attack on the US
He is not a junior version of his father.
Which is a good thing.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The tree must have been planted on a steep slope -- cuz the apple done rolled a piece.
Posted by: Dopey Sinatra9196 || 01/29/2013 14:52 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Jirga settles blood feud between two tribes
[Dawn] A jirga comprising elders from Bajaur and Mohmand agencies settled a 38-year-old enmity between two tribes, at a ceremony held at Nawagi here on Sunday.Tribal elders and bigwigs from both the agencies and members of peace committees were present on the occasion.

The enmity between the Mohmand and the Miagan tribes of Momand and Bajaur agencies continued for about four decades claiming 22 lives.

To settle the dispute, the administrations of both the agencies had formed a jirga of elders of various sub tribes of Mohmand and Bajaur. The jirga held several meetings with the rival groups and succeeded in making the warring tribes to reconcile.

"The settlement of the dispute between the rival tribes was a great success for us because we had been working on it for the last three years," a jirga member told Dawn.
The elders of both the tribes forgave each other and declared that they would live like brothers in future. Speaking at the ceremony, elders of both the agencies said local disputes and enmities had affected peace in the region. "It's the time that rustics ended their personnel enmities because the disputes disturbed peace," they said.

Members of the jirga, including Haji Gul Wali Mohmand, Mufti Said Noor Shah, Qazi Abdul Manan, Sheikh Jan Zada and Malik Subidar addressed the jirga and warned that those disturbing peace would be punished.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Leader of Roumieh Islamists Charged with Capital Murder
[An Nahar] State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr charged on Monday the head of an Islamist group with capital murder in the slaying of a Paleostinian inmate at Roumieh prison, the National News Agency reported.

NNA said that "Saqr charged the emir of the Islamic group in Roumieh, Mohammed Youssef known as Abu Walid, in the killing of Ghassan al-Qandaqli."

Al-Qandaqli was found hanging in his cell at the prison's Bloc B on January 18.

Youssef could face the death penalty if convicted.

The case was referred to Military Examining Magistrate Fadi Sawan, NNA said.

On Friday, Saqr charged nine Islamist inmates and two Internal Security Forces members in the same case.

Media reports said it took two days of negotiations with the prisoners to allow police to question them over the alleged murder.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Fatah al-Islam


Caribbean-Latin America
Mexican government reduces violence by not reporting it
For a map, click here

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

Unreported until last Saturday is the unwritten agreement between the newly elected Mexican federal government and the state that part of President Enrique Pena Nieto's new security strategy will be to reduce the number of reports on violent incidents, according to Mexican press accounts.

According to a news account posted on the website of Diario de Colima news daily last Saturday, agreements have been made between the federal government and some state attorneys general that violent incidents will only be reported when "necessary".

Colima governor Mario Anguiano Moreno told the press that studies conducted by the federal government showed that reporting on violence in Mexico's drug war had a "prejudicial effect" on the impact of such events.

According to the translation, Governor Anguiano Moreno said: "I was shown studies showing that at the federal level, to the extent that we as a government are putting the issue of security, we report every time you stop a criminal, rather than contributing to the achievement tranquility we're on the contrary encouraging unrest."

Governor Anguiano Moreno goes on: "There was an agreement (between the Federation and the states) that there will only be reporting of detainees when strictly necessary," he added.

It is unclear how the agreements are affected by federal transparency laws.

To abide by the new federal guidelines Colima Governor Anguiano Moreno will suspend weekly meetings of the Gabinete de Seguridad del Estado, and will report on detentions "only when necessary".

The governor added that while security is important and reports of detentions and deaths will still be reported, the information may not be as readily available.

Five days ago in a Washington Post opinion piece, director of Human Rights Watch's Americas division, José Miguel Vivanco, amidst the hysterical language of the human right industry revealed that part of President Pena's security strategy included changing the subject to the economy and away from security matters.

President Pena's government functions under transparency rules passed in the previous 12 years under Partido Accion National (PAN) governments, and new rules imposed since the start of his administration.

When the proposed reorganization of the cabinet level Secretaria de Seguridad Publica, moving the agency under the Secretaria de Gobierno (SEGOB), or interior ministry as a sub agency was put into effect, national legislators put SEGOB on a short leash requiring monthly reports on its activities.

Its first report, however, was a summary detailing detentions and drugs and contraband seized during the previous month, including summaries by the Mexican Army and Navy. Its second report is likely to look like the first and so on.

And while the federal government is under those transparency rules, it does rely on states for data, so President Pena's security strategy may be aimed at getting around those rules by ordering state attorneys general to slow walk or obscure information on crimes, or in the case of states which do not have as constrictive transparency laws, not releasing any information at all.

What the new focus on information could do is to create a situation where states that do have transparency laws will be reporting crime and appear to have a crime problem, while those that do not will appear to have less crime.

It is worth noting that this writer has noticed that reported detentions and shootings have declined since the start of President Pena's administration.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War news and national political news for Rantburg.com
Posted by: badanov || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Works for the MSM and the mayor's office in Chicago, bound to work there as well.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/29/2013 7:17 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Malawi Puts Presidential Jet up for Sale
[An Nahar] For sale, presidential jet, 15 years old. Perfect flying condition. $13.3 million. Contact Malawi for details.

Cash-strapped Malawi on Monday announced that it will be inviting bids for President Joyce Banda's jet, as it tries to raise much-needed revenue.

"The Malawi government has decided that the jet should be disposed of 'on as-is basis' to an interested individual or firm," the president's office said in a tender notice.

The Dassault Falcon 900EX, built in 1998 and which seats 14 passengers, was in "perfect flying condition", according to the notice.

Bids open on February 20.

Late president Bingu wa Mutharika controversially acquired the jet five years ago, despite poverty in the southern African nation.

At the time Mutharika said it was "cheap to run", despite his country depending on aid inflows for almost half its budget.

Former colonial power Britannia, Malawi's main bilateral donor, reduced its aid to Malawi by £3 million ($4.4 million) after the purchase.

Banda vowed to sell the plane as a cost-saving measure when she succeeded Mutharika after his death last April.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Chinese could always buy it, inclusive 51% of the kapenta and sweet potato harvest markets as a favour.
Posted by: Injun Stalin7884 || 01/29/2013 7:18 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Hollande: 'We Are Winning' War in Mali
[An Nahar] President Francois Hollande
...the Socialist president of La Belle France, and a fine job he's doing of it...
said Monday that Malian troops backed by nearly 3,000 French soldiers were winning the battle to recapture the north of the country from Islamists.

"We are winning this battle," he told news hounds as officials said French and Malian troops had seized control of parts of Timbuktu, a bastion of radical Islamists occupying northern Mali since last April.

Hollande added that it was the duty of La Belle France, the former colonial power in the impoverished west African state, to create the conditions for "African forces to give Mali lasting stability".

Mali's army, boosted by the recent French military intervention, is battling Islamist hard boyz who seized swathes of the desert north following a coup last year.

Defense chiefs from west African regional grouping ECOWAS agreed Saturday to boost their troop pledges for Mali to 5,700. Chad, which is not a member of the bloc, has promised an extra 2,000 soldiers.

La Belle France said Sunday it had now deployed 2,900 troops and that 2,700 African soldiers were on the ground in Mali and neighboring Niger.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa

#1  Misleading in the Headline; he said they were winning the battle, not the war. A big difference.
Posted by: Injun Stalin7884 || 01/29/2013 8:01 Comments || Top||

#2  they are taking major roads and towns - which is good. But the Islamists are not defeated ... just holed up in secret underground compounds. Hollande will not know for 10 years whether he has won the war in this region. Can France really stay there for 10 years - their country is bankrupt.
Posted by: Raider || 01/29/2013 12:03 Comments || Top||

#3  he said they were winning the battle

Yeah, and they are doing it by kicking ass. No talk of time tables, exit strategies or Peace With Honor. As much as we love taunting the French, they seem to be doing what needs to be done here.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/29/2013 13:03 Comments || Top||

#4  They often do, while criticizing anyone else (ahem ... the US) for even vaguely hinting they might do the same.

Hell, they criticize us when it's clear we aren't about to be that effective.
Posted by: lotp || 01/29/2013 14:06 Comments || Top||

#5  Must be - the Brits are coming, the Brits are coming, circa 350 of 'em to Mali + West Africa.

No. 10 Downing Street = UK PM Office has confirmed.

As per FREEREPUBLIC + TOPIX, about 20 Brits will be serving as Advisor-Trainers to the Mali Army.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/29/2013 22:24 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Violence after killing of another ASWJ activist
[Dawn] An activist of the Ahle Sunaat Wal Jamaat was bumped off in a Gulshan-e-Iqbal locality in the small hours of Sunday, police said.

They said that armed motorcyclists targeted Qari Ashfaq near Asma Gardens on Abul Hasan Ispahani Road in Gulshan-e-Iqbal late on Saturday night and rode away.

The victim was rushed to the nearby Patel Hospital, where he died.

He was the muazzin at Masjid-o-Madressah Siddiqia and taught children the Koran.

He originally hailed from Gujrat.

The killing sparked violence in the locality as enraged people erupted into the streets, blocked main road for vehicular traffic and staged a sit-in in front of the Mobina Town cop shoppe for immediate arrest of killers.

Unknown persons also had gun sex, wounding a passer-by and a Rangers man.

The maimed were also shifted to the Patel Hospital for treatment, the police added.

The protest sit-in continued for several hours and the protesters dispersed after senior coppers reached the scene and assured them of the arrest of the killers.

Man killed in Sohrab Goth
An unidentified young man was rubbed out in Sohrab Goth on Sunday.

Police said the incident took place near Indus Plaza, close to Al-Asif Square, where unknown men riding a cycle of violence targeted a young man who was sitting near a paan cabin.

The victim was struck down in his prime. The body was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities.

The police said that no clues were found to esta-blish the identity of the dear departed.

Two buses catch fire
Two passenger coaches caught fire in Liaqua-tabad due to a short circuit, police and fire brigade officials said.

They said that the incident took place under the Liaquatabad flyover, where a parked coach suddenly caught fire.

The vehicle was completely gutted in the fire. Another coach parked next to the burning vehicle also caught fire. However,
there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly...
it was partially burnt in the fire.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan


Africa North
Algeria Gas Pipeline Attack Kills 2 Guards
[An Nahar] Two security guards protecting a gas pipeline have been killed and seven others wounded in an attack by Islamists southeast of the Algerian capital, local residents said on Monday.

The guards, who were attacked late on Sunday in at their quarters in Djebahia, 125 kilometers (80 miles) southeast of Algiers, were part of an armed civilian unit protecting a gas pipeline in the Bouira region.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Report: Assad Says Syria Army Has Upper Hand
[An Nahar] Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
The Scourge of Hama...
said his troops have gained the upper hand against rebels in the 22-month conflict and could win in "two weeks" should Turkey stop its support for bad turbans, a Lebanese newspaper reported Monday.

"The army has a very large lead on the ground and has achieved significant gains," Assad told "visitors" at his palace in Damascus
...The place where Pencilneck hangs his brass hat...
, al-Akhbar, a pro-regime Lebanese daily reported without identifying who the visitors were.

Assad emphasized that the military had prevented the opposition from taking full control of any of the country's 14 provinces.

The rebels' "playground is limited to some border areas with Turkey, Jordan and Leb, and some pockets in the countryside of the capital, which are being dealt with," he said.

"The situation in the capital has improved and strategic areas, especially the airport road, are secure despite bad turban attempts.

"If the Turkish border was closed to tackle the smuggling of arms and bad turbans, this matter would be resolved in only two weeks," Assad said.

Since the Syrian uprising erupted in March 2011 and later turned into a civil war, the regime has accused Ankara of funding and providing a safe haven to rebel fighters.

Assad said that "gangs financed from abroad have been dealt severe blows of late."

"The United States has included the Al-Nusra Front on its list of terrorist organizations, and this move will be followed by the full liquidation of this Al-Qaeda branch."

Assad said Russia -- which still holds military contracts with Syria and opposes foreign intervention in the conflict that the U.N. says has killed more than 60,000 people -- will not withdraw support.

Moscow "defends itself, not the Syrian regime," he said of his key ally, the newspaper reported.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev acknowledged on Sunday that Assad's chances of political survival were shrinking by the day and said the Syrian leader had made a "grave, perhaps fatal error" in refusing to negotiate with opposition early on.

Assad told the visitors that during talks with U.N. peace envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi in December, the diplomat had asked him about the possibility of stepping down before the end of his term in 2014 as part of a transitional agreement.

"The president cut off the discussion and made it clear that the only way to end the conflict was by resolving the situation on the ground, which is improving by the day in favor of the regime," the visitors said, according to al-Akhbar.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Yep the Syrian Army has the upper hand but does pencilneck know whose side they are on? Today? Last week? Next Saturday?

Seems to me the Syrian Army is following their own agenda.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 01/29/2013 10:51 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Democrats, tea party unite vs. Mitch McConnell
[DYN.POLITICO] Tea party activists looking to oust Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in a GOP primary may get some help from an unlikely source: Democrats.

Big Democratic donors, local liberal activists and a left-leaning super PAC in Kentucky are telling tea partiers that they are poised to throw financial and organizational support behind a right-wing candidate should one try to defeat the powerful GOP leader in a 2014 primary fight.

The idea: Soften up McConnell and make him vulnerable in a general election in Kentucky, where Democrats still maintain a voter registration advantage. Or better yet, in their eyes: Watch Kentucky GOP primary voters nominate the 2014 version of Todd Akin or Richard Mourdock, weak candidates who may actually lose.

"We are doing a lot of reaching out to some of the tea party folks across the state," said Keith Rouda, a field organizer with the liberal group MoveOn and the Democratic super PAC, Progress Kentucky. "What we're finding -- at least in this stage of the race -- we're finding that our interests align. It's unusual."

Progress Kentucky has begun circulating petitions urging Republicans to jump into the race, and Democratic donors active in Bluegrass State and national politics are privately making it clear they're willing to help bankroll a tea party candidate. Neither the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee nor the Kentucky Democratic Party is involved in the unorthodox efforts at this point, officials said.

Sarah Durand, president of the Louisville Tea Party, said Democratic donors and activists have told her that they'd be willing to spend seven figures in a GOP primary to help a candidate willing to challenge McConnell. Durand said the challenge for tea party groups is to recruit a candidate who wouldn't hand the seat to the Democrats, even though, she said, tea party leaders across the state are not satisfied with McConnell's three-decade tenure in Washington.

"I guess the fear would be ending up in the Dick Lugar situation where you oust the incumbent and end up with a Democrat," Durand said. "But I really think if Sen. McConnell can't garner some enthusiasm within the tea party, which is going to be very difficult at this point, then he's going to have a really tough road ahead in this election cycle."

Behind the scenes, the wily McConnell and his veteran campaign staff are moving swiftly to snuff out any primary challenge.

McConnell's staff has attended more than 100 tea party meetings in the state over the past two years, and the leader himself has stumped at three tea party rallies, including one with Sen. Rand Paul -- the junior senator from Kentucky who was elected in 2010 on a tea party wave -- in the state capital of Frankfort last August.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Big Democratic donors, local liberal activists and a left-leaning super PAC in Kentucky are telling tea partiers that they are poised to throw financial and organizational support behind a right-wing candidate should one try to defeat the powerful GOP leader in a 2014 primary fight.

And you can trust them, cuz they're not like the others...
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/29/2013 0:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Politico's wishcasting again?

Notice that the only DIRECT quote is from a fascist, er, "Democrat". The Tea Partier is never quoted, just paraphrased.

Also "wily" McConnell? "Snuff out" primary challenge?
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 01/29/2013 9:18 Comments || Top||

#3  Unholy alliances have a way going awry. How many times have the Pubs been able to trust the Donks on anything? Thee Pubs seem to get rolled every time.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/29/2013 9:59 Comments || Top||

#4  Just remember that these Donks have the same mindset as those who thought providing guns and materials to AQ for Syria wouldn't result in the blowback in Libya and Mali.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/29/2013 12:15 Comments || Top||

#5  Dems have been doing this already. No alliance necessary.
Posted by: Titus Ulans4144 || 01/29/2013 13:24 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Venezuela Making 'bald-Faced Lies' Over Chavez: Opposition
[BREITBART] Venezuela's government is flat-out lying to its people about cancer-stricken His Excellency President-for-Life, Caudillo of the Bolivarians Hugo Chavez's health, the country's leading opposition figure charged Sunday.

"The people are being told bald-faced lies about the situation the president is in," Henrique Capriles, who lost last October's presidential race to Chavez, said at a ceremony in Miranda state of which he is governor.

Longtime leader Chavez, 58, is convalescing from cancer surgery in Cuba and has not been heard from since his latest operation December 11.

Venezuela's government has said the absent leader suffered a lung infection following his treatment that he subsequently conquered. Officials have also said that Chavez is signing documents, and even cracking jokes with aides.

For many Venezuelans, however, the idea of Chavez -- a garrulous and bombastic leader who typically is seen for several hours at a time every day, without fail, on state radio and television, in addition to being a big Twitter user -- choosing to be silent is simply unthinkable.

"The government is lying right in your face, telling bald-faced lies, because why would a person who can sign letters, who can tell jokes, not speak to the nation?" Capriles asked in damning tone.

Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said on Thursday that Chavez was making progress in his recovery from cancer surgery, but faced a tough battle ahead.

And on Saturday, Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro said Chavez had entered a phase of "complementary treatment to combat his illness."

Maduro, Chavez's handpicked political heir, did not say if that meant more radiation therapy, chemotherapy or some alternative cancer care and no date was given for when the president will return to Caracas.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ya think?
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 01/29/2013 10:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Sic semper tyrannis
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 01/29/2013 10:46 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
2 sentenced to death for blasts in Shariatpur
[Bangla Daily Star] A Shariatpur court yesterday sentenced two activists of the banned Islamist outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh
The JMB is said to be the youth front of Al Mujahideen, the parent organization that began working toward establishing Bangladesh as an Islamic state in the mid 1990s which remains obscure even today. Other organizations, such as Jama'atul Jihad, JMB, Jagrata Mohammedan Janata Bangladesh (JMJB), Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI), Hizbut Tawhid, Tawhidi Janata, Islami Jubo Shangha, Islami Shangha, Al Falah A'am Unnayan Shanstha and Shahadat-e al Hiqma are believed to be part of the Al Mujahideen network. The JMB at its peak was reported to contain at least 100,000 members, and an alleged 2,000-man suicide brigade, few of whom actually went kaboom!. JMB allegedly received financial assistance from individual donors in Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Libya. Reports have claimed that funding of JMB by international NGOs like Kuwait based Society of the Revival of Islamic Heritage (RIHS) and Doulatul Kuwait, Saudi Arabia based Al Haramaine Islamic Institute and Rabita Al Alam Al Islami, Qatar Charitable Society and UAE-based Al Fuzaira and Khairul Ansar Al Khairia. The top leadership of JMB was captured in 2005 and hung in 2007, which pretty much shot their bolt.
to death for their involvement in the 2005 series kabooms in the district.

As part of its countrywide terror campaign, the JMB on August 17 that year simultaneously blasted several bombs at the office of Shariatpur deputy commissioner, court premises, in front of Dak Bungalow and in Palong Bazar area of the district.

That day, the Islamist outfit went kaboom! bombs in 63 districts out of 64.

The two to die for the Shariatpur blasts are Kamruzzaman alias Swapan, 27, and Malek Bepari alias Malek Zehadi, 28.

The duo was present when the judge of the District and Sessions Judge's Court Mohammad Sajedul Karim pronounced the verdict around 1:00pm, said Public Prosecutor Mirza Hazrat Ali.

Following the blasts, Shariatpur Sadar Police Station Sub-inspector Badruzzaman filed a case against some unidentified people.

Later, investigation officer of the case Kamal Hossain submitted the charge sheet accusing the two along with the then JMB chief Sheikh Abdur Rahman and its operations commander Siddikul Islam Bangla Bhai.

The court accepted the charge sheet on January 2, 2006, and framed charges against them on January 18 the same year.

Abdur Rahman and Bangla Bhai were among the six bully boyz executed in March 2007 for killing two Jhalakathi judges.

Their executions marked the end of country's first overt militancy campaign that rattled the nation through its 2005 coordinated blasts and suicide kabooms.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh


India-Pakistan
Military jets bombard militant hideouts in Orakzai
[Dawn] At least 12 suspected faceless myrmidons were killed Monday when Pak military jets bombarded krazed killer hideouts in Orakzai Agency
... crawling with holy men, home to Darra Adam Khel, the world's largest illegal arms bazaar. 14 distinct tribes of beturbanned primitives inhabit Orakzai agency's 1500 or so square kilometers...
, DawnNews reported.

According to Assistant Political Agent Mohammad Rafeeq, security forces struck hideouts in upper Orakzai's Mamozai area, destroying at least five such hideouts.

Security officials claim that up to 92 per cent of Orakzai agency has been cleared of faceless myrmidons in the ongoing military offensive in the restive tribal region.

Orakzai is one of Pakistain's seven semi-autonomous tribal regions in the northwest, where Pak Taliban and al Qaeda-linked faceless myrmidons are said to have carved out strongholds.

The area was the original base of Pak Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud before he moved to South Wazoo to take up the Taliban leadership after the death of his predecessor, Baituallah Mehsud.

Unlike the six other tribal agencies, however, Orakzai does not border Afghanistan. The rugged mountainous territory provides a crucial link for faceless myrmidons operating in other tribal regions, as it borders the regions of Khyber and Kurram on the Afghan frontier. It also borders Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
province and Pakistain's main northwestern city, as well as the garrison town of Kohat.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Birthday Gam Shot

April Scott [Just one word Benjamin, "Plastic" aka Artificial Intelligence.][Filmography](age 34)



Intelligent Design


Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 01/29/2013 0:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Was this shot taken at the Golden Globes awards?

Shoulda....
Posted by: Warthog || 01/29/2013 19:28 Comments || Top||

#3  Of course! Don't you see them? The golden globes of course!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/29/2013 22:25 Comments || Top||

#4  exactly...
Posted by: Warthog || 01/29/2013 22:50 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
The Blood Smeared Glass Ceiling - American Spectator
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  To put women among them would force them [warrior men] to break with their ancient customs, traditions, and beliefs.

Appears the author has stumbled upon the intended goal.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/29/2013 7:47 Comments || Top||

#2  I suggest a secondary goal -- to prevent the US from using its military. We don't want to see women killed and worse on the battlefield, and we can't field units without women, so...

All the lies about "fighting wars with minorities" had the same goal.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 01/29/2013 9:21 Comments || Top||

#3  the military is becoming a joke. I was reading "this kind of war" by Fehrenbach. A lot of similarities between Korea in the late 1940s (wrt discipline and comm issues & today) Except, the gov't today is making us willfully unprepared and creating social chaos w/in the ranks for political reasons. Getting rid of DADT was stupid enough. This is even more idiotic.
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 01/29/2013 9:48 Comments || Top||

#4  It is incumbent upon the U.S. to field the best, most capable battle-ready force. The military is not a social experiment. Women in combat; how has it worked out in other places? Israel comes to mind. Historically, they have had women in the military. Presently, there seems to be reluctance to put women in combat. A couple of articles: Link 1 and Link 2
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/29/2013 10:16 Comments || Top||

#5  I suggest a secondary goal..

Or tertiary goal. Don't want to draft your daughters, sisters, wives, cause it's all equal now. Then do away with selective service, ie selective mobilization of the federal militia. No need for that outdated antiquated institution of the militia created by a bunch of old dead white men in the past. No militia. No guns.
Remember, he said they'd find other means to grab them.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/29/2013 15:00 Comments || Top||

#6  No worries! All volunteer FEMA Jungvolkn brigades. We've already ordered the pistol ammunition.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/29/2013 15:10 Comments || Top||

#7  Chew toys for good ole boys.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/29/2013 18:08 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Yemen Suicide Bomb Kills 11 Soldiers
[An Nahar] A suicide boom-mobile at a checkpoint in central Yemen killed 11 soldiers on Monday, Saba state news agency said, as the army led an offensive on Al-Qaeda Orcs and similar vermin suspected of holding European hostages.

"Eleven soldiers were killed and 17 others were maimed in the attack," Saba said.

The attack targeted a checkpoint manned by members of a battalion of the elite Elite Republican Guards on the road between Rada and Manaseh, where the army military operation was taking place, according to tribal sources.

Elsewhere in the same province, an Al-Qaeda ambush killed a soldier and maimed two others, according to one tribal source.

Another three people were killed in an army operation launched late on Sunday against Al-Qaeda-linked Orcs and similar vermin suspected of holding an Austrian and two Finns hostage in Manaseh, in Bayda province, tribal sources said.

The army is hunting three Orcs and similar vermin accused of holding the European hostages and who have refused to surrender despite mediation efforts.

The three men -- brothers of Tarek al-Dahab, an Al-Qaeda leader killed in a February 2012 attack -- deny they are holding the hostages.

"The three European hostages are not in Manaseh. They might still be in Marib," Al-Qaeda's eastern stronghold, a tribal source in contact with the Orcs and similar vermin told AFP.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia


Africa North
Cabinet Approves Draft Law Allowing Morsi to Deploy Army
[An Nahar] Egypt's cabinet on Monday approved a draft law that would allow President Mohammed Morsi to deploy the armed forces on the streets "to participate with the police in preserving security and protecting vital establishments."

The law, which has to be ratified by the Islamist-dominated upper house of parliament, would apply until after the next legislative elections and be invoked whenever the president deems it necessary, state news agency MENA said.

It would also give the defense minister the power to determine the location of the deployment, the troops required as well as define their missions, MENA said.

Later on Monday, Egypt's senate ratified the law that would grant the armed forces powers of arrest, the official MENA news agency reported.

According to the text the armed forces will "support the police in maintaining order and protecting vital installations until the end of parliamentary elections and whenever the National Defense Council (headed by President Mohammed Morsi) requests it."

The army will also "be given powers of arrest according to the law", it said.

The draft comes a day after Morsi declared a month-long state of emergency in the provinces of Port Said, Suez and Ismailiya after they were hit by deadly riots.

In a televised address he also slapped the three provinces with night-time curfews, while calling the opposition -- which accuses him of betraying the revolution that brought him to power -- to a national dialogue at the presidential palace.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


French, Malian Troops Control Timbuktu
[An Nahar] French and Malian troops seized control of the fabled city of Timbuktu on Monday, a bastion of radical Islamists occupying northern Mali since last April, military and government sources said.

"The Malian army and the French army are in complete control of the town of Timbuktu. Everything is under control," a colonel in the Malian army said on condition of anonymity.

Timbuktu Mayor Halley Ousmane, who is in the capital Bamako, confirmed that his town had "fallen into the hands of the French and Malians".

The French-led troops surrounded the ancient desert city by Monday morning, sending ground troops in to seize the airport while paratroopers swooped in to block Islamists from fleeing, with back-up from combat helicopters.

However before the armies arrived, the Islamists reportedly torched a building housing priceless ancient manuscripts. The extent of the damage to the centuries-old documents was not known.

The Ahmed Baba Centre was built with funds donated from South Africa and opened in 2009 to house the documents, seen as critical to Africa's history.

Shamil Jeppie of the Timbuktu Manuscripts Project at the University of Cape Town said he had no news from the ground but believed some of the most important documents may have been smuggled out or hidden in recent months.

"I've heard from reliable sources on the ground that the private libraries took good care of hiding or taking out their stuff," Jeppie said.

"The only redeeming thing I can say for the Ahmed Baba, the official state library, is that they managed to take out their hard drives with the digitized copies on. That was within the first month of the crisis."

He said the library was "a very important cultural treasure for Africa and for humanity".

"We have so precious little written sources for African history and here we have a rich heritage," he said, adding that some sources dated back to the 14th century.

"These are serious collections, substantial and serious bodies of material."
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa

#1  I believe the library was part of the medieval University of Timbuktu which at the time was the largest in the world and the center of Quaranic studies. Sone age intellect continues to dominate the religion of peace.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 01/29/2013 11:15 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Mufti Qabbani Issues Fatwa against Civil Marriage
[An Nahar] Grand Mufti Mohammed Rashid Qabbani issued a fatwa on Monday against moves to legalize civil marriages inside the country.

The religious edict came a day after President Michel Suleiman tweeted that he would remain steadfast in supporting such unions, while Prime Minister Najib Miqati wrote on his Twitter account that a consensus was required to address the issue.

Qabbani issued the fatwa branding as an apostate any Muslim politician who approves civil marriage legislation.

"Any Muslim with legal or executive authority in Lebanon who supports the legalization of civil marriage is an apostate and outside the religion of Islam," he said on the website of Dar al-Fatwa.

"There are predators lurking among us, trying to sow the bacteria of civil marriage in Lebanon, but they should know that the religious scholars will not hesitate to do their duty" and prevent the passage of such a bill.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Two more Congressmen lose disbarment appeals
[Libya Herald] The High Court has rejected appeals by another two elected congressmen against being ruled ineligible for office by the Integrity Commission.

Official Integrity Commission spokesman Nasir Bennour said today, Monday, that the High Court in session yesterday had upheld the Commission's decision to ban two GNC members on the basis of non-compatibility of its standards of integrity: Salim Al Hadi Ali from Bani Walid and Ibrahim Mohamed Eddah Mohamed for Obari.

Altogether, nine Congress members have been disbarred so far by the Commission. Ali and Mohamed are the fifth and sixth members to lose their appeal against their bans.

Bani Walid's other Congress member, Amna Mahmoud Mohamed Takhikh, was disbarred by the Commission two weeks' ago.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


India-Pakistan
Will not accept Asma Jahangir as caretaker PM: Imran
[Dawn] 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 is the lightweight's lightweight...
on Monday said that his party will not accept the appointment of prominent social activist and former Supreme Court Bar Council chairman Asma Jahangir as caretaker prime minister.

Speaking at a presser in Lahore on Monday, Khan alleged that the Pakistain People's Party (PPP) and the Pakistain Mohammedan League -- Nawaz (PML-N) have entered into a deal among themselves.

Rejecting any chance of participating in the PML-N's protest march in Islamabad, the PTI chief said that there was no chance that the two parties could enter into a pact with one another.

Khan said that, instead of protesting with the PML-N, his party would hold a separate protest demonstration.

Moreover, the PTI chief rubbished talks of carving a new province out of south Punjab, rejecting it as mere a "election stunt".

Khan again called for President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari
... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ...
's resignation, reiterating his stance that polls could not be 'free and fair' with Zardari as president.

Khan said that the PTI would accept the chairman Senate as acting president in case of President Zardari's resignation.

Khan further reassured that the PTI would not boycott the general elections, and vowed that his party would achieve success in the upcoming polls.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Leaked Documents Show Qatar Suggested Smuggling Chemical Weapons from Libya to Syria
[SANA] Russia Today website published leaked documents which show that Qatar suggested smuggling chemical weapons from Libya to Homs in Syria and using them to frame the Syrian Army, in addition to alluding to western preparations for military invasion of Iran.

The documents that were hacked from the website of the British company Britam Defence, a company which specializes in protecting facilities in hotspots, training security forces, and providing consultations, also said that Qatar suggested employing Ukrainian mercenaries to be filmed and pretend to be Russians who were captured by the so-called Free Army to embarrass Russia.

This information was included in a message dated December 24th, 2012, which is the date when certain media outlets claimed that Syria used chemical weapons in Homs, showing correlation between the document and the plans that were set up.

The documents also alluded to the possibility of the appearance of Russian-speaking individuals who claim to be Russian military experts who will attempt to entangle Damascus
...The place where Pencilneck hangs his brass hat...
and Moscow in problems, and the possibility of publishing videos depicting alleged Russian military personnel fighting alongside the Syrian Army who were captured by the Free Army, when in fact they're mercenaries of Slavic descent.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan

#1  Syria to Libya would have made more sense
Posted by: lord garth || 01/29/2013 0:32 Comments || Top||

#2  MarSec lists our old friends at Blue Mountain and Britam Defense as both being providers of Martime Security. Probably nothing more than an odd coincidence.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/29/2013 2:24 Comments || Top||

#3  Marine Security World
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/29/2013 2:26 Comments || Top||

#4  Probably unrelated as well.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/29/2013 2:41 Comments || Top||

#5  My question: If it's pronounced "Cutter", why not just spell it "Cutter"?
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 01/29/2013 12:32 Comments || Top||

#6  Mugsy, it's one of those Arabic things like Kadaffy duck. The pronounciation varies all over the place.

I like the "Gutter" myself. 8^)
Posted by: AlanC || 01/29/2013 13:12 Comments || Top||

#7  I was alerted that it sounds like bunk. This is what they base the story on. 1 para in "hacked" e-mail.
Posted by: newc || 01/29/2013 16:53 Comments || Top||


U.N. Will Cut Syria Food Rations without More Cash
[An Nahar] The United Nations
...the Oyster Bay money pit...
will be forced to cut already reduced food rations to hundreds of thousands of Syrians unless a huge cash injection is found, a top humanitarian official warned Monday.

U.N. agencies have already cut the nutritional value of rations by a half over the past two months because of money shortages, U.N. humanitarian operations director John Ging said ahead of a donors conference in Kuwait on Wednesday.

"We are putting it squarely to the donors, more cuts are likely," Ging told news hounds.

About four million Syrian rely on international assistance to cope with fallout from the 22-month old conflict in which the U.N. estimates more than 60,000 people have died. Many of them get daily food rations.

U.N. leader the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
will seek more than $1.5 billion in new cash pledges at a donors conference in Kuwait on Wednesday. About $500 million is needed for operations in Syria and the rest for more than 650,000 refugees in countries around Syria.

Ging said that Syrians are now "desperate."

"We have already cut the calorie per kilo intake of rations by 50 percent over the past two months," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Oh, noooooooooo...
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/29/2013 0:04 Comments || Top||

#2  ahead of a donors conference in Kuwait on Wednesday.

I can't help but wonder what they had on the menu for this donors' conference. I'm betting it wasn't 'rations'!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/29/2013 0:36 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Security woes plague Benghazi
[MAGHAREBIA] In the wake of a wave of liquidations and bombings in Benghazi, officials are voicing renewed concern about the impact of persistent insecurity.

Just last Thursday (January 24th), a number of Western governments advised their citizens to leave Benghazi out of fear for a potential terror attack.

Fathi Baja, a member of the outgoing National Transitional Council, said that the continuous security unrest, series of liquidations, kidnappings and bombings as well as repeated attempts to disrupt the judiciary were just a pretext for delaying many important issues, such as the election of the 60-member committee and the drafting of constitution.

"It's not difficult to choose the 60-member committee, and the drafting of the constitution is also not difficult," Baja told Magharebia. "Frankly, all that is happening is related to who actually rules Libya. There are different forces with conflicting interests that create a tense atmosphere, and these primarily include those who carry arms, and not all those who carry arms are revolutionaries."

In addition, Baja said there were people who benefited from the former regime who now have lost their life of luxury. "There are also power-seekers. All of these groups have contributed to security instability," he said.

While the new government had proposed making Benghazi the country's economic capital, bombings and terror attacks are deterring investment. Attacks on consulates and embassies have led many to close and caused a drop off in foreign business.

After an liquidation attempt on the Italian consul, ten Italian investors in aquaculture, sea fishing and boat building cancelled all of their hotel reservations and air tickets to Benghazi, according to Mahmoud al-Maawaj, head of the promotion department at the Investment Promotion and Privatisation Authority in the eastern region.

The businessmen were supposed to visit Benghazi to examine investment projects. However,
Switzerland makes more than cheese...
they put their visit on hold out of fear for the security situation.

For his part, Colonel Hamed al-Hassi said that religious forces of Evil in the east opposed the return of the national army and security forces.

"As you can note, there are radical Islamist voices that say that the army shouldn't return, given that the allegiance of the army and police, even if they were far from the regime, was for the ruler due to the repression, starvation and torture that he had practiced against them, and therefore, their loyalty was for the tyrant. That is why the building of the army was rejected or became somewhat difficult," the colonel explained.

Suleiman Zoubi, a General National Congress representative from Benghazi, noted that the interior ministry has presented a proposal for establishing security that is now being implemented.

The strategy requires concerted and intensified efforts from all entities, and from the Libyan people themselves, as this will produce a positive effect soon, according to the congressman.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  What difference does it make?
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/29/2013 0:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Like the Pakistani underground nuclear testing;....'we never seen it coming'.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/29/2013 7:26 Comments || Top||

#3  #1 What difference does it make? You have a point there tu3031. All that's happened so far in response to questions about what happened in Benghazi are lies and damned lies. Will we ever find out what happened there?
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/29/2013 10:42 Comments || Top||

#4  Stevens? Smoke got him, or gunfire, or bunga-bunga. What difference does it make?

No, no, no autopsy, closed caskets for all. A fast-track internment please.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/29/2013 10:51 Comments || Top||

#5  Within 24 hours, it has to be. I read Dune.
Posted by: lotp || 01/29/2013 14:04 Comments || Top||

#6  Where have they got the survivors squirreled away. They are not talking.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/29/2013 17:47 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Suicidal Sensors: Darpa Wants Next-Gen Spy Hardware to Literally Dissolve
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Good morning, Mr. Phelps, .... ... The Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your Team or its Actions. This Tape will self-destruct in 30 seconds".
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/29/2013 0:36 Comments || Top||

#2  See also DAILY MAIL.UK > THE INCREDIBLE US MILITARY SPY DRONE THATS SO POWERFUL IT CAN SEE WHAT TYPE OF PHONE YOU'RE CARRYING FROM 17,500 FEET [+ scan/monitor 15 square miles].

and

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > NEW US DRONE FOR PAKISTAN WID 1.8 GIGAPIX ELCAMERA THAT CAN SEE UP TO 25 SQUARE MILES | [LiveLeak = Video] 1.8 GIGAPIXEL ARGUS-IS, WORLD'S HIGHEST RESOLUTION VIDEO SURVEILLANCE PLATFORM BY DARPA.

[AGENT 86 MAXWELL "MISSED IT BY THAT MUCH" SMART here].
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/29/2013 1:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Sometimes the hardware will be pre-programmed to self-destruct. Other times a human should be able to step in and signal to the device that the cold grasp of oblivion beckons.

These actions will not be taken arbitrarily, A Gov't IT Death Panel Independent Software Advisory Board will provide guidance and recommendations.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/29/2013 7:12 Comments || Top||

#4  Just disguise all coms as Tarzan Bars and we'll eat them when we're done talking. Sounds good to me.
Posted by: Injun Stalin7884 || 01/29/2013 8:06 Comments || Top||

#5  Speak to the Donut.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/29/2013 16:30 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Foreign Ministry: Syrian State in a Flurry of Work to Implement Political Program
[SANA] Foreign and Expatriates Ministry said that the Syrian state is in a flurry of work to implement the political program for solving the crisis in Syria announced by Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
, adding that it expects the international community and the UN to help in understanding this program and the efforts exerted by the government to implement it without prejudgments.

The ministry's remarks came in two identical letters addressed to the head of the UN Security Council and the UN Secretary General on the steps undertaken by the Syrian government to implement the political program announced by President Bashir al-Assad in a speech on January 6th which is based on the UN Charter, the international law, the relevant UN resolutions and Geneva statement, provides a basis for solution and reflects the basic elements that any solution to the crisis must be built on.

The Ministry went on to say that President al-Assad has tasked the Syrian government with laying down the executive mechanisms of the political program, as a ministerial work team headed by Premier comprising 8 ministers was set up , adding that the Premier has delegated specialized governmental bodies to hold intensive meetings to speed up the implementation of plans to tackle the aftermath of events, mainly those caused by terrorist vandalism acts, rehabilitating terrorism-hit infrastructure and compensating the affected by events.

''As the political program underlined the importance of ending violence as a priority to hold national dialogue, achieve reconciliation and rebuilding,'' the letters said, '' it stressed the significance that regional and international countries stop arming and funding armed gun-hung tough guys groups and that the gangs commit to an immediate halt of violence, as the army and armed forces commit to ending military operations.''
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


India-Pakistan
Malik hints seeking spy agencies' help over Karachi unrest
[Dawn] Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik
Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship.
on Monday said that intelligence agencies might be contacted to help ease law and order situation in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
, DawnNews reported.

Speaking to media representatives, he said that he would write a letter to spy agencies seeking their help to restore peace in the violence-ridden metropolis.

The minister said that all state institutions were working to curb lawlessness in the country, adding that improving law and order situation requires collective efforts.

Malik said the agencies would take actions along with providing sensitive intelligence.

Meanwhile,
...back at the desert island, Bert was realizing to his horror that he'd had only one bottle for one message, and he'd forgotten to include a return address...
in ongoing wave of violence, at least 13 more people bit the dust in different incidents of hostility in the financial hub of the country on Monday.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Africa Subsaharan
Attackers Kill Eight in Restive Northeast Nigeria
[An Nahar] Attackers killed eight people in a village in northern Nigeria's embattled Borno state, with at least some of the victims' throats slit, officials and residents said Monday.

The military front man in the area, Lt. Col. Sagir Musa, confirmed that an attack had occurred Sunday in the village of Gajiganna, but declined to comment on the manner in which people were killed, saying only that "lives were lost."

Gajiganna is roughly 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the state capital of Maiduguri, the base of Islamist krazed killer group Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
, but it was not clear who was responsible for the latest violence.

"They were silent attacks and nobody knew what was happening until the morning when news began to filter from different neighborhoods," said resident Brah Chindo.

There were conflicting reports from the area, with some saying certain victims were shot and others had their throats slit, while others spoke of all eight with their throats slit.

"It is still not clear who carried out the attack because the attackers moved silently into these homes," said a local official, who asked that his name be withheld.

A local government employee in the area said he was told that "some of the victims were rubbed out in their houses while others were dragged out of their houses by the gunnies, after which they slit their throats."

He added that "eight people were killed altogether."

In a text message, military front man Musa said the corpse count "is yet to be ascertained".
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Austria Refuses to Return Salieri's Remains to Italy
[An Nahar] Authorities in Vienna are refusing to return to Italy the remains of composer Antonio Salieri, Mozart's putative rival, after his native town Legnano launched a new bid to have them repatriated, press reports said Sunday.
They have Verdi's. They have Puccini's. Why would they need Salieri's?
To complete the hand? Three face cards gets you something in poker, right?
"Salieri is part of Vienna's musical history," a spokeswoman for the Austrian capital's culture authority told the Oesterreich daily.

Returning the remains of Salieri, who is buried in Vienna's central cemetery, "is pretty unlikely," she added.

She said Legnano, near Italy's northern business capital Milan, had not made a formal request, but Italian newspaper L'Arena reported last week that a newly formed committee intends to do so.

"We know that the path to bring Salieri back home will be long, and we have not forgotten the previous unsuccessful attempts," the committee head and former regional councillor Franco Bozzolin told the paper.

"But we are convinced that our initiative will be successful."

Salieri spent most of his adult life in imperial Vienna at the height of music's classical period, enjoying a successful and long career, although his music fell out of favor after his death in 1825.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  MeatLoaf Lives amirite?
Posted by: Shipman || 01/29/2013 16:28 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Army Restores Stability to Ared al-Khaleej in Daraya, Inflicts Heavy Losses Upon Terrorists  
[SANA] A unit of the Armed Forces on Monday restored security and stability to Ared al-Khaleej residential area in Daraya city in Damascus
...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti...
Countryside.

An official source told SANA news hound that a number of faceless myrmidons , who were committing killing and sabotage acts against the citizens were killed.

A second unit inflicted losses upon faceless myrmidons who were carrying out acts of murder and robbery in the al-Jamiyat neighborhood and al-Fashoukh farms in Daraya, destroying three cars along with the weapons and ammo inside them and eliminating a number of faceless myrmidons including Ammar Qazzah, Mohammad al-Sheikh, Ahmad Alian and Anwar Jaber.

Another unit destroyed two cars equipped with machineguns near the railway in Daraya, killing and injuring the faceless myrmidons near them.

An army unit killed faceless myrmidons who were targeting worship places and private properties of the locals in al-Sayyda Zeinab area and attacking citizens around al-Sayyda Zeinab shrine in the province.

An official source told SANA news hound that all the bad boyz were potted in the area around the shrine, as security and stability were restored to it.

Army units inflicted heavy losses upon armed terrorist groups that attempted to attack civilians in Khan al-Sheeh and Drousha farms in the province.

Heavy Losses Inflicted on Terrorist Groups and Daraa Countryside

A military source told SANA that a number of bad boyz were potted and their hideouts were destroyed along with their weapons and ammunition used in their terrorist acts.

The source added that an army unit destroyed a pickup with all the faceless myrmidons inside in Allajat area in Daraa countryside.

Also, in Basr al-Harir in the countryside of the province, the army units inflicted heavy losses upon the armed terrorist groups and destroyed a number of their hideouts, killing the faceless myrmidons inside and destroying their weapons and ammunition.

The Armed Forces eliminate Terrorists in Daraa and its Countryside

Units of the Armed Forces inflicted heavy losses upon armed terrorist groups which attempted to attack citizens in Daraa and its countryside.

An official source told SANA that the Army killed members of an armed terrorist group who were perpetrating acts of killing and sabotage in Darra al-Balad. Among the killed faceless myrmidons were Ibrahim al-Masalma, Muhammad al-Fashtaki and Khaled al-Siasna.

The source added that another Army unit killed members of an armed terrorist group and confiscated weapons, ammunition and wireless devises in nawa.

Basel Abo Alsil, Feras Jamal Abo Khroub and Humam al-Khbi were identified among the killed terrorists.

In the same context, the Army killed scores of faceless myrmidons were perpetrating acts of terrorism in Busra al-Harir. Among the killed faceless myrmidons were Basel al-Alian , Mahmud al-Khobti and Sa'ad Aouit.

The source pointed out that another Army unit, with the citizens cooperation, foiled an attempt of armed terrorist group to attack the city and killed a number of them.

Mousa al-Muhymid, a member of Jabhat al-Nusra was identified among the killed.


Terrorists Killed, Others Injured in Clashes Following Dispute over Loot Sharing

A clash broke out on Monday between two armed terrorist groups in Yabroud area in Damascus Countryside following dispute over sharing the loot and stuff stolen from the locals and the public and private institutions, which resulted in the killing of a number of faceless myrmidons and the injury of others.

An official source told SANA news hound that the clash resulted in the killing of a number of terrorists, among them the leader of one of the armed terrorist groups, Saleh Mohammad Salem, nicknamed "al-Khadrah" and terrorist Nawras al-Refae, and the injury of others.

Terrorists Targeted in Homs

A unit of the armed forces targeted a terrorists' gathering in Jobar area in Homs, killing and injuring a number of terrorists.

An official source told SANA that the faceless myrmidons Mohammad Bakkar, Ghiyath al-Rifa'I, Maher Reslan, Qusia Edewi and Hani al-Hussein were identified among the dead.

Armed Forces Confront Terrorist Attack in al-Hola in Homs Countryside

Units of the Armed Forces confronted a terrorist attack on a law-enforcement checkpoint in al-Hola area in Homs countryside.

An official source told SANA news hound that the Armed Forces inflicted heavy losses upon the faceless myrmidons and destroyed their criminal tools.

Heavy Losses Inflicted upon Terrorist Groups in Deir-Ezzor

A military source said that an army unit confronted on Monday armed terrorist groups that attempted to attack a military point in Deir-Ezzor Province, inflicting heavy losses upon them.

The source added in a statement to SANA that all the members of the gangs were killed or injured, as their vehicles, weapons and ammunition were destroyed.

Terrorists Killed, Their Vehicles Destroyed in Idleb Countryside

Armed Forces untis carried out a series of operations on Sunday night targeting terrorist gatherings and hideouts in Bannesh, Maartamsrin, Harbanosh, and Kafr Shalaya in Idleb countryside.

The operations resulted in the elimination of a number of terrorist, the injuring of others, and the destruction of the vehicles they had been using.

Terrorists Eliminated in Hama

Meanwhile,
...back at the bunker, his Excellency called a hurried meeting of his closest advisors. It was to be his last. They discussed the officers's efficiency rating system...
the Armed Forces inflicted heavy losses upon faceless myrmidons in Karnaz town in northern Hama countryside.

A military source told SANA that the army targeted a terrorists' gathering in the area, adding that the gathering was destroyed along with the terrorists, weapons and ammunition in it.

The source said that scores of bad boyz were potted, among them was Tayseer Mustafa al-Shaaban, the leader of the so-called "al-Farouq Battalion".

Terrorists Assassinate Engineer in Hama

An armed terrorist group assassinated engineer Mohsen Abdul-Rahman al-Omari in al-Hader neighborhood in Hama.

An official source told SANA news hound that the faceless myrmidons stormed into a computer training institute in al-Hader neighborhood and opened fire on al-Omari, causing his martyrdom.

Army Units Eliminate Terrorists in Damascus Countryside

Units of the Syrian Arab Army inflicted heavy losses upon the faceless myrmidons during a series of qualitative operations in Daraya, Douma, Harasta, Hajira and al-Dhiabieh areas in Damascus Countryside.

An official source told SANA news hound that an army unit eliminated an armed terrorist group outside the National Hospital in Daraya city and seized weapons and ammunitions, including Israeli-made weapons and GPS devices.

The source added that amounts of medical drugs and equipment which were looted by the armed terrorist groups from the healthcare centers in the city were found an abandoned house near the hospital.

Meanwhile,
...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth ordered the space pirate fleet to attack Zemblonia...
army units destroyed dens of faceless myrmidons in two qualitative operations in Douma and Harasta farms and eliminated a number of terrorists, including faceless myrmidons Mowaffaq al-Rifai, Salem Kanaan, Mohammad Darwish and Mohammad Mayaseh.

In the same context, army units continued their qualitative operations in al-Dhiebieh and Hajira towns against the armed terrorist groups and eliminated several terrorists.

Armed Forces Eliminate Terrorists in al-Nabek in Damascus Countryside

A unit of the Armed Forces eliminated a number of faceless myrmidons who tried to attack the military housing compounds in al-Nabek area in Damascus Countryside.

An official source told SANA news hound that among the faceless myrmidons who were killed was Ragheb al-Mahdi, pointing out that a car used by theorists was seized.

Armed Forces Eliminate Terrorists in Homs Countryside

Units of the Armed Forces eliminated several teorrists and destroyed their dens in Homs countryside.

An official source told SANA news hound that a unit of the Armed Forces eliminated members of an armed teorrist group in al-Dabaa village in al-Qseir countryside and destroyed their headquarters and a car equipped with a heavy machinegun.

The source added that another unit inflicted heavy losses upon the faceless myrmidons in al-Shomarieh and al-Bweida villages in al-Qseir countryside.

Meanwhile,
...back at the buffalo wallow, Standing Buffalo drew a bead on his old enemy and squeezed the trigger...
military engineering units dismantled three bombs on the way between al-Nizarieh and al-Salihieh.

In al-Rastan city, units of the Armed Forces eliminated an armed terrorist group, including its leader terrorist Maher Mohammad Yahya al-Darwish.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Meshaal: World 'Must Respect' Palestinian Reconciliation
[An Nahar] Exiled Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, chief Khaled Meshaal said on Monday the world "must respect" Paleostinian reconciliation talks, after meeting King Abdullah II in Jordan, a palace statement said.
Not too sure why "the world must respect" a Paleoreconciliation. Did they ask for "the world's" respect when they divorced?
I think he meant, "the world must respect Paleostinians", which also isn't going to happen...
"I am optimistic about the Paleostinian reconciliation. The international community must respect Paleostinian need to end division," Meshaal was quoted as saying after meeting the king in Amman.

"We have made excellent steps in the reconciliation talks in Egypt," he said of long-running talks between Hamas and the rival Fatah faction of Paleostinian president the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas.
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...

Earlier this month, Meshaal and Abbas agreed in Cairo to expedite a stalled reconciliation deal between their groups.

Meshaal and Abbas focused on implementing the Egypt-brokered April 2011 unity agreement aimed at ending years of infighting that was signed in May that year, but whose main provisions have yet to be put into practice.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Or what? You'll drag more dead guys behind motorcycles? Maybe give them the skyscraper treatment?
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/29/2013 0:16 Comments || Top||

#2  notice Meshaal spends most all of his time everywhere but in his beloved Paleo shithole
Posted by: Frank G || 01/29/2013 8:43 Comments || Top||

#3  But Frank, that's what all elites do. Why do you think our pols are always away?
Posted by: AlanC || 01/29/2013 10:08 Comments || Top||

#4  Piss off, you murderous thug. I don't have to do any such goddamn thing.
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 01/29/2013 10:23 Comments || Top||

#5  No we mustn't, you camel humper.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/29/2013 13:36 Comments || Top||

#6  People in hell want ice water. They ain't gettin' that either.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 01/29/2013 20:11 Comments || Top||

#7  To be respected by others you need to respect them first!
Posted by: Water Modem || 01/29/2013 21:28 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Putin Replaces Leader of Volatile Caucasus Region
[An Nahar] Russia on Monday replaced the leader of Dagestan, a volatile region in the Northern Caucasus where federal forces are struggling to contain a growing Islamist insurgency fueled by corruption and poverty.

President Vladimir Putin relieved Dagestani leader Magomedsalam Magomedov of his post and appointed ruling party lawmaker Ramazan Abdulatipov acting head of the region on the shores of the Caspian Sea, the Kremlin said in a statement.

The Kremlin said Magomedov, 48, had left the post of "his own volition", but experts say he was forced out of the job he had held since 2010.

Observers say Magomedov, the son of former Dagestani chief Magomedali Magomedov, had been seen as a weak leader who was unable to bring about order in the region.

Grigory Shvedov, editor of the Kavkaz Uzel (Caucasian Knot) online news site, said violence and corruption went unchecked during Magomedov's reign.

"The amount of bribes has dramatically increased over the past years," Shvedov told AFP.

That sentiment was echoed by Gadzhimurad Omarov, head of the regional branch for leftist political party A Just Russia, who said resentment against Magomedov ran deep in the region of nearly three million.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
KSM & Gitmo hard boyz unhappy with court proceedings. Really.
It's PJ Media, and even they get into hand-wringing about 'due process', government restrictions, etc.

KSM is a confessed murderer and terrorist. This should not take years to adjudicate.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  IIUC, their Lawyers are demanding that Gitmo + other CIA Prisons used per the GWOT N-O-T be closed down just yet, + instead be preserved as direct or formal evidence of anti-Islam/Muslim, pro-Zionist Crusader imperialist abuse + malices aforethought by the US Govt-CIA + aligned.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/29/2013 22:38 Comments || Top||

#2  The poor dears! It must be so terribly inconvenient to be in the pokey for terrorism and mass murder. How ever will they pass the time?
Posted by: SteveS || 01/29/2013 22:50 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Malian soldier beats man in backlash attack
[FRANCE24] His white beard turned red as the soldier's belt repeatedly lashed his head. Dressed in a long khaki-coloured tunic, traditional among the shepherds of northern Mali, the barefoot and terrified man tried to run away from his persecutor, but to no avail. Finally, other soldiers stepped in and convinced him to stop beating the elderly man.

Foreign reporters covering the Mali operation watched the violent scene play out in shock and horror. "No photos! Get away!" an army captain shouted, forcing the journalists to back away.

The scene unfolded last week in Diabaly, a city in central Mali that was reclaimed by French and Malian troops on January 21. The war against Islamist rebels has since moved north. A few days after the incident, FRANCE 24 returned to Diabaly to find the elderly victim.

His story belongs to an apparently growing list of ethnic reprisals on those suspected of having collaborated with the Salafist fighters that overran northern Mali last year, a situation that has cast a shadow over the much-hailed joint French-African effort to rout al Qaeda in the troubled country.

Guilty of having a beard

Sitting on his porch, Aldjoumati Traoré appeared to take quiet pride in surviving the soldier's attack. A dozen pink bandages concealed the wounds around his head, but Traoré displayed them as if they were badges of honour. "It is God who saved me," he said recalling the incident.

"I had just left a friend's house and was walking on the main road when a soldier asked me for identification. But when I showed my papers he lunged at me. He said that I was a terrorist and he was going to kill me," he added.

After snatching the 70-year-old cattle herder's walking stick, the soldier began the brutal assault.

"He thought I was a rebel Islamist because my skin is a little lighter than average and because of my beard," Traoré explained while running his fingers through his goatee -- the modest facial hair he decided to keep after the assault. "The soldier was clearly not from around here. I have been living in Diabaly for 40 years, everyone knows me."

Saved
While Traoré thanked heaven for surviving the beating, his family said he owed his life to his courageous son-in-law, Salifou Bouare. In Diabaly, Bouare is known as the local wedding photographer. He happened to be nearby that day, camera in hand, when he heard his father-in-law's cries for help.

"When I got there the situation was very tense. The soldier was yelling and threatening a white journalist that had told him to stop. I approached the soldier and said, 'boss, please, he's my father-in-law'," Bouare remembered.

The soldier noticed his camera and moved quickly to confiscate it. "That's when my father-in-law made a run for the barracks, where other soldiers calmed him down," Bouare said. "I am sure that if he had a gun he would have used it on my stepfather. [The soldier] reeked of alcohol."

A worrying reality

An angry crowd quickly surrounded the military barracks. Realising the potential danger of the situation, the soldiers released the wounded man.

Traoré was rushed to a nearby mud-hut clinic, where male nurse Mady Dembele, attended to his cuts and bruises. "Despite his condition, he quickly regained his senses. It was the old man himself who begged the crowd to remain calm when some people began calling for vengeance," Dembele recalled.

Anger was finally abated when a ranking military official and the mayor of Diabaly visited Traoré at the clinic to apologise. The elderly herdsman accepted their apologies, conceding that the attacker was not from the region and acted independently.

As the French-led military campaign blazes north across the vast territory and toward areas where the Malian army suffered humiliating defeats last year, the threat of ethnic reprisals, like the one in Diabaly and elsewhere, worries many observers.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Euphoria as French, Malian troops take historic Timbuktu
[FRANCE24] French and Malian troops met no resistance as they seized the fabled northern Malian city of Timbuktu Monday just hours after taking the city's airport, FRANCE 24 has learned.

Reporting from Timbuktu, FRANCE 24 correspondent Matthieu Mabin said Malian soldiers, followed by French troops, entered the old centre of the city on Monday afternoon.

"We can now say that the city of Timbuktu is free from the Islamist groups who were controlling the city for the past 10 months," said Mabin, who has been embedded with the French military.

There were scenes of jubilation as the troops rolled into the city centre, according to Mabin. "Everybody is outside -- men, women and kiddies -- they're on the streets proclaiming their joy, shouting, 'God save Mali, God save La Belle France, God save [French President] François Hollande'. We can hear this even from the roof where I'm standing now," said Mabin.

The fall of Timbuktu came more than two weeks after Hollande responded to a call for urgent military assistance by the Malian government after bully boyz seized a strategic central Malian town earlier this month.

Speaking at a presser on Monday afternoon, Hollande said, "We are winning this battle" in Mali. But he warned that there was still a threat of terrorist attacks by Islamist bully boyz who have fled the major cities, and that the task of maintaining order rested with African troops. "It's up to the Africans to permit Mali to restore its territorial integrity," said Hollande.

Malian and French troops entered central Timbuktu Monday after taking the airport, situated on the northern outskirts of the city, where they encountered no resistance. "Not one shot had been fired," said Mabin. During the operation, five planes had also dropped 250 French parachutists into Timbuktu to secure the north of the city in La Belle France's first operational paratroop drop in 35 years.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


Bangladesh
PM spurs law enforcers on Jamaat-Shibir violence
[Bangla Daily Star] Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since 1981. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide...
yesterday directed the law enforcement agencies to take stern action against the Jamaat-Shibir men for creating violence across the country.

She asked all the agencies including the intelligence to remain alert as the anti-liberation forces would become more violent in the coming months when the verdicts in war crimes cases against top Jamaat leaders will be pronounced.

The prime minister was talking to top police officials after the weekly cabinet meeting.

One of the senior ministers told The Daily Star that 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...
and its student front Islami Chhatra Shibir
... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh...
have decided to resort to "combat operation" and would carry out "armed attack" soon to destabilise law and order.

Yesterday, hundreds of Jamaat-Shibir activists went on the rampage in four districts including the capital demanding release of Jamaat leaders now facing charges of crimes against humanity at the international crimes tribunals.

Meanwhile,
...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth had turned a paler shade of blue. Star-A-Star had struck again...
the government high command expressed surprise and resentment over the poor security measures in and around Bangladesh Secretariat as the Shibir men went berserk in the area when the prime minister was in the cabinet meeting.

Expressing disappointment over the role of law enforcement agencies, another senior minister said proper security measures were not in place around the secretariat. He thought the security should have been better.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


Africa North
Sahel jihadist groups splinter
[MAGHAREBIA] Malian troops backed by their African and French allies continued their push against jihadists in the country's north on Monday (January 28th), as new divisions emerged in radical Islamist groups.

The recent liberation of northern cities accelerated the discord, especially within Ansar al-Din, which is spearheading the armed resistance.

The first signs of these cracks appeared on Thursday (January 24th), when Ansar al-Din lead mediator Alghabasse Ag Intalla defected to form the Islamic Movement of Azawad (MIA).

Ag Intalla also expressed his readiness to accept a peaceful solution through dialogue and a ceasefire with the French and Malian armies.

"Radicals in Ansar al-Din are considering the dismissal of Iyad Ag Ghaly from the leadership of movement because of the serious errors he made when he attacked southern Mali to pressure the Malian government about negotiating," Touareg journalist and blogger Amakanass Ag Akal told Magharebia.

Ag Akal explained that one reason for his dismissal is "the position of his Ifoghas tribe which has shifted towards moderation."

In addition to political splits among the jihadist groups, several military commanders also defected, joining the secular National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA).

The latest one was Gamou Ag Mineli, a former Malian army colonel, who defected with a military convoy and a number of fighters to join the MNLA.

According to Sahara Media, "Colonel Ag Mineli is currently stationed near the town of Leyra together with 20 vehicles equipped with heavy weapons and a large number of fighters."

Analyst Sidi Mohamed Ould Abdelkader told Magharebia that military strikes also had an impact on the position of the Movement for Tawhid and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO).

MUJAO leaders have expressed a desire to negotiate the release of French hostage Gilberto Rodriguez.

"I think that this terrorist group wants to buy some time through this announcement," said Ould Abdelkader.

In the meantime, the international community continued to try to garner more military and moral support for the war on terror in northern Mali.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa

#1  The splintering was one reason the French were able to take Gao and Timbukto quickly.

IIUC, there were, as of a few days ago, six different jihadist groups. They each had different component of Arab vs non Arabs and had different ideas on autonomy vs national takeover vs caliphate. In addition there were some crucial difference on who would get what loot and women and whether to take over small business or merely extort.
Posted by: lord garth || 01/29/2013 15:28 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Pakistani Fertilizer Firm To Expand In US, Balks On Controlling Bomb Materials
[Washington Times] The Pak corporation that has refused the Pentagon's urgent appeals to control the flow of kabooms to bomb-makers who kill U.S. troops is expanding its fertilizer manufacturing into the United States.

And it is being done with the help of U.S. taxpayers through the municipal bond market.

The Indiana Finance Authority has approved $1.27 billion in tax-exempt bonds for Midwest Fertilizer Corp. to build a nitrogenous fertilizer manufacturing plant in Posey County. Midwest is a new startup company of the Fatima Group, a conglomerate headquartered in Lahore, Pakistain.

Fatima's fertilizer components are used by bully boyz in Pakistain and Afghanistan to build homemade bombs -- the No. 1 killer of American service members in Afghanistan.

Fatima's corporate leaders know this is happening, based on communications with B.O. regime officials and military leaders, but they have refused pleas to control the flow, according to an Army general.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Great, aren't they giving us enough fertilizer without setting up a distribution center?
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/29/2013 0:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Follow the money:

BOA- Merrill Lynch as the “Market Maker” for Fatima Fertilizer

New York, March 2012: Bank of America-Merrill Lynch has been approved by the US regulator FINRA to act as “Market Maker” for Fatima Fertilizer Company Ltd (Fatima) for its Sponsored Level 1 American Depository Receipt (ADR) program. BOA-Merrill Lynch, one of the world’s premier providers of wealth management, securities trading and sales, corporate finance and investment banking services, will facilitate the trading of Fatima’s ADR on the OTC market in USA.

It must be noted that a year ago, in March 2011, Fatima appointed BNY Mellon, the global leader in asset management and securities servicing, as the Depositary Bank for its ADR program. Fatima’s ADRs are tradable on the over-the-counter (OTC) market in USA under the symbol "FTMFY." Fatima became the first Pakistan based company to facilitate trading on the US OTC markets enabling both retail and institutional investors in the US and internationally to trade readily in more convenient daylight hours. This partnership of Bank of America-Merrill Lynch and Fatima will offer greater opportunities to the Global investor community to invest in Pakistan based securities, while enabling the company and the country to benefit from the higher visibility provided by the ADR Program.

Posted by: Besoeker || 01/29/2013 7:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Not much to be made in fertilizers, the margins are very, very low.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/29/2013 7:31 Comments || Top||

#4  Not much to be made in fertilizers, the margins are very, very low.

Ah, but look for the kabooms coming soon to a place near you.
Posted by: Snager Theque2683 || 01/29/2013 7:55 Comments || Top||

#5  Even the WAPO gets it!
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/29/2013 8:47 Comments || Top||

#6  $1.3 billion Posey County Bond issuance.

WARNING: If you suffer from high blood pressure or are taking Pradaxa, do not open this link.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/29/2013 8:53 Comments || Top||

#7  75% gross margin, 73% operating margin is very, very low?
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 01/29/2013 9:19 Comments || Top||

#8  They expect to do major business in Dearborn, MI.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 01/29/2013 9:19 Comments || Top||

#9  #7 75% gross margin, 73% operating margin is very, very low?
Posted by Nimble Spemble


Sarcasm NS, sarcasm.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/29/2013 9:32 Comments || Top||

#10  I would like to know which politician is greasing the skids for this nasty operation?
Posted by: warthogswife || 01/29/2013 16:11 Comments || Top||

#11  #8: That was exactly what I thought when first reading it too!
Posted by: Charles || 01/29/2013 18:21 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
KP govt tackles pneumonia, measles outbreak in Upper Dir
[Dawn] A health crisis in Khyber Pakthunkwa's (KP's) Upper district continues unabated, with the corpse count due to an outbreak of measles and pneumonia resulting in 47 deaths over the last two weeks.

In order to control the epidemics, a special unit has been set up in the Dir District Headquarters Hospital (DHQ) along with mobile health teams, which have been dispatched to the region.

Upper Dir District Health Officer Dr Abdul Wakeel confirmed on Monday that the corpse count due to pneumonia and measles has now risen to 47 at the very least. He added, however, that the number of deaths may be higher as many areas still remain accessible due to harsh weather conditions.

Dr Wakeel explained that the health teams have been dispatched to the affected areas and have been accompanied by World Health Organisation (WHO) and other organizations' staff to monitor the health crisis.

"So far around 1,400 children have been vaccinated while door-to-door vaccination is still continuing," he added.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Africa North
Misrata steps up security
[MAGHAREBIA] Misrata officials imposed new security protocols on city residents, Libya Herald reported on Monday (January 28th).

Measures include a partial weapon ban and curfew. Authorities also decided to prohibit vehicles without registration plates or with tinted windows.

The move follows the Saturday assassination of local council member Mohamed Ben Othman.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


India-Pakistan
Pak Islamists kill dozens of other Pak Islamists
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — 'Two Islamic militant groups clashed Saturday over control of a prized valley in northwest Pakistan, killing at least 24 people and wounding dozens more, officials said.

Arshad Khan of the Khyber tribal region said the fighting between the two Islamic militant groups began Friday in Tirah valley, near the Afghan border, when the militant group, Tehrik-e-Taliban, captured the base of another militant group, Ansarul Islam. Ansarul Islam tried to retake the base and fighting continued into Saturday.
Posted by: lord garth || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


China-Japan-Koreas
NORKS going Donner Pass
We had the story yesterday from a different source, but that is one of the best titles I've seen, ever.
Posted by: Pholuting Sneash4773 || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ahem. Kim Jong Un appears to be well-fed and would feed many of the populace.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/29/2013 10:38 Comments || Top||

#2  The problem with cannibalism is that eventually you run out of other people...
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/29/2013 14:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Bath salts go for the head shot!
Posted by: Maggie Flomong2662 || 01/29/2013 16:59 Comments || Top||

#4  #2 The problem with cannibalism is that eventually you run out of other people... Could also be a comment on socialism/communism also.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/29/2013 17:49 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egypt Opposition Snubs Morsi Dialogue as Turmoil Escalates
[An Nahar] Egypt's main opposition bloc on Monday rejected an invitation by President Mohamed Morsi for talks on the violence and political turmoil sweeping the country and instead called for fresh mass demonstrations.

With another person killed in a fifth straight day of clashes in Cairo and the unrest showing no signs of abating, the Islamist-dominated senate ratified a law that would grant the armed forces powers of arrest.

Morsi late on Sunday announced a crackdown on the violence which has swept Egypt since Friday in which nearly 50 people have died, declaring a month-long state of emergency in the provinces of Port Said, Suez and Ismailiya, where rioters have attacked and torched police stations.

In a televised address he also slapped the three provinces with night-time curfews, while calling the opposition -- which accuses him of betraying the revolution that brought him to power -- to a national dialogue.

The National Salvation Front, which groups several mainly liberal and leftist movements, swiftly rejected the talks and called instead for countrywide protests on Friday.

"We will not participate in dialogue that is empty of content," leading dissident Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters after a meeting of the NSF.

The coalition said Morsi needed to agree to a list of demands it laid out last week, including the formation of a national salvation government and the amendment of the Islamist-drafted constitution, before it agrees to any talks.

"We will not join a dialogue with no agenda just to project an image of talks," ElBaradei said.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


India-Pakistan
Rabbani sees conspiracy to set up 'unconstitutional' caretaker govt
[Dawn] Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader Senator Raza Rabbani alleged on Monday that a conspiracy was being hatched to set up an unconstitutional caretaker government for the next two to three years.

He added that any steps taken to dissolve the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) would also be against the constitution.

Speaking to reporters in Islamabad, Rabbani said that there was no other way to remove any member of the election commission other than through the process detailed in the Constitution of Pakistan. He said that non-democratic forces wished to derail and delay the election process. He reiterated that efforts were being made to install an unconstitutional setup for two to three years.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran Denies Blast at Key Nuclear Site
[An Nahar] Iran has strongly denied
No, no! Certainly not!
reports of an kaboom at its Fordo underground atomic site as "Western propaganda" ahead of stalled nuclear talks with major powers, media reported on Monday.

"No kaboom has occurred in the Fordo facility," the deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Shamseddin Bar Boroudi, was quoted as saying.

A top politician in charge of Iran's national security commission, Aladin Borujerdi, said: "The false news of an kaboom at the Fordo site is Western propaganda ahead of nuclear negotiations to influence its process and outcome."

The denials came after Western and Israeli media reports citing an American website, www.wnd.com, said an kaboom at the Fordo facility on January 21 had caused major damage and trapped workers.

There has been no comment from the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency that monitors activities in Iran, which the West suspects of trying to develop the bomb.

Iran has on several times accused Israel and the United States of taking action to sabotage its nuclear program, through liquidations of its scientists and unleashing computer malware against its facilities.

The sensitive nuclear Fordo site is dug deep into a mountain near the holy city of Qom, some 150 kilometers (90 miles) south of Tehran, to protect it against air strikes.

But the site, Iran says, has been targeted by sabotage.

Iran's nuclear chief, Fereydoon Abbasi Davani, said in September that "explosives" were used to cut the power supply to Fordo, without naming those responsible.

The site, whose existence was revealed by major powers in 2009, began in late 2011 to enrich uranium to purities of 20 percent, a process that lies at the heart of the international community's concerns.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Europe
France 'totally bankrupt', says labour minister Michel Sapin
Ink in the ink pen, checks in the checkbook, you know the drill
France's labour minister sent the country into a state of shock on Monday after he described the nation as "totally bankrupt".

The comments came as President Hollande attempts to improve the image of the French economy.

Michel Sapin made the gaffe in a radio interview, which left French President Francois Hollande battling to undo the potential reputational damage.

"There is a state but it is a totally bankrupt state," Mr Sapin said. "That is why we had to put a deficit reduction plan in place, and nothing should make us turn away from that objective."

The comments came as President Hollande attempts to improve the image of the French economy after pledging to reduce the country's deficit by cutting spending by €60bn (£51.5bn) over the next five years and increasing taxes by €20bn.

Data from Banque de France showed earlier this month that a flight of capital has already left the country amid concerns that France's Socialist leader intends to soak the rich and businesses.

Pierre Moscovici, the finance minister, said the comments by Mr Sapin were "inappropriate". He added: "France is a really solvent country. France is a really credible country, France is a country that is starting to recover."
Posted by: lotp || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Credible, or Creditable/Creditorable???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/29/2013 0:38 Comments || Top||

#2  So are most nations these days. Especially the socialist ones.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/29/2013 0:49 Comments || Top||

#3  That seems to be all of them.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 01/29/2013 5:16 Comments || Top||

#4  gaffe == when a politician accidentally tells the truth
Posted by: gromky || 01/29/2013 7:48 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Judicial Committee Calls for Expediting Investigations into Complaints of People Affected by Current Events
[SANA] The Special Judicial Investigation Committee called upon its subcommittees and all relevant sides to expedite investigations into the complaints of citizens affected by the current events and refer them to the proper courts as fast as possible.

Chairman of the Committee, Judge Ahmad Zaher al-Bakri, told SANA on Monday that the Committee called for speeding up investigations and procedures relevant to those complaints, including taking in the statements of the citizens with complaints and taking any possible legal step to reach facts and ensure that rightful claims are addressed within the framework of laws and regulations.

In turn, Secretary of the Committee Mohammad Khalaf said that they will spare no effort to uncover all possible facts pertaining to the current events and find direct and quick executive mechanisms to meet citizens' needs, adding that the Committee is still taking complaints from citizens directly at its headquarters in Dummar in the former headquarters of the Foreign and Expatriates Ministry.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Ah, "current events". Is that what they're calling it now?
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/29/2013 0:29 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Five Dead as South Sudan Army, Rebels Clash
[An Nahar] At least five people were killed in South Sudan's troubled Jonglei state in clashes between government troops and rebel soldiers who had come for peace talks, officials said Monday.

Hundreds of civilians fled the clashes which broke out Sunday -- during which the market in the remote town of Pibor was set on fire -- as a government delegation arrived to negotiate with the breakaway commander of a local rebel movement.

"The soldiers went around and burnt all the houses, the shooting erupted everywhere," said John Tubuwa, a priest who was part of the delegation.

South Sudan army spokesman Philip Aguer said that one soldier and one rebel coming for the talks had been killed, while residents said that at least three civilians had died.

"The numbers could still go up... we are now searching for the dead and wounded," Pibor County's former human rights commissioner Peter Gazulu told AFP on Monday, adding that the town was now calm.

One elderly man was burnt alive inside his home, as soldiers and rebels formerly loyal to local insurgent David Yauyau clashed, said Gazulu.

United Nations peacekeepers, who have a base in Pibor, said that "large numbers, possibly thousands, of civilians" had sought refuge in their camp.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Bangladesh
Jamaat, Shibir on the rampage again
[Bangla Daily Star] 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...
and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir
... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh...
yesterday unleashed terror on police in the capital and elsewhere to mount pressure on the government to stop the war crimes trials.

Once again, their hit-and-run assaults caught the law enforcers off guard in Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Dinajpur, Joypurhat and Satkhira.

The Jamaat-Shibir mayhem left at least 70 people, including 50 cops, injured. A policeman and an auto-rickshaw driver in Chittagong suffered bullet wounds as Shibir activists opened fire.

They smashed around 200 vehicles across the country.

Neither Jamaat nor its student wing had called a programme for yesterday.

But around 10:00am yesterday, the Jamaat-Shibir men brought out myrmidon processions simultaneously in Dhaka, Chittagong and Rajshahi cities, welding firearms, sharp weapons, iron rods, hockey sticks and brick chips.

The activists from one such procession in the capital's Motijheel area started exploding bombs and beating up cops, sending a wave of panic among passengers, pedestrians and employees of roadside offices and business houses.

They gradually spread to Dainik Banglar Mor, stadium market, Paltan, Bangladesh Secretariat, Jagannath University, Dhaka University and Dhanmondi areas and rampaged for over an hour.

Traffic in Motijheel, Paltan and Gulistan and Jatiya Press Club areas remained suspended for over an hour.

Four vehicles were torched and many others vandalised.

Some cops were seen running for safety while some tried to fight back. Those who took shelter in nearby offices were hunted down by armed cadres and beaten up.

Surprisingly, law enforcers did not use newly introduced pepper sprays on the attackers.

Anwar Hossain, deputy commissioner (Motijheel) of police, said they fired more than 250 rubber bullets and 100 teargas canisters. Police also tossed in the clink
I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece!
48 activists with bottles of petrol.

Police also fired over a hundred rounds from Chinese rifles and shotguns.

Following the attacks, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said the violence had proved intelligence failure.

He added, "I thought the militancy has been wiped out, but today's incident shows that I was wrong."

He made the comments after visiting Rajarbagh Police Lines Hospital where Constable Delwar Hossain, a member of the unit that escorts the minister, was admitted. The policeman was severely injured in an attack near Bangladesh Secretariat.

Talking to journalists at the secretariat, Home Minister MK Alamgir did not with Muhith. "I do not find any failure of police or intelligence."

Surprisingly, Inspector General of Police Hassan Mahmood Khandker claimed they already had information on the Jamaat-Shibir plan for yesterday. "As police played due roles, Jamaat and Shibir could not carry out criminals activities completely as per their plan."
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


India-Pakistan
Consensus on terrorism
[Dawn] THE tone for a much-needed multi-party conference has finally been set. The leadership of the Awami National Party (ANP) has started contacting the leadership of other political parties.

The plan is to have the crucial discussion somewhere in the middle of next month with the focus on a consensus response to terrorism, militancy and insurgency.

If such a conference becomes a reality, it would reflect the response of the majority of Pakistain's citizenry belonging to ideologically, ethnically, geographically, religiously, politically and culturally divergent backgrounds.

The conference earns immense importance for three overwhelming reasons.

First, Pakistain is facing an existential threat due to active militancy and insurgency. The scope of this threat extends to the constitutional polity, economy and cultural diversity of the state of Pakistain. Militancy through terrorism and insurgency through guerrilla warfare have started pushing Pakistain towards civil war, economic bankruptcy and a cultural black hole. The collective defence mechanism of state and society thus needs to come into action before it is too late.

Second, both the state and society of Pakistain are being pushed into isolation due to terrorism and militancy; they are being isolated from both regional states and societies and those further away, with respect to divergences in worldview and in terms of Pakistain as a viable polity. The viability of a state in the modern international state system is heavily contingent on its capability to develop multilateral alliances with regional and international states.

The governments of almost all states have developed serious reservations with respect to the policies, responses and strategies of the Pak state in terms of world peace and security. This is an alarming situation to which all segments across Pakistain's political divide must give serious consideration.

Of late, policy and research papers by various think tanks dubbing Pakistain a failed state have been doing the rounds in political and academic circles both domestically and internationally. The frustration of the people due to mass murders and indiscriminate killings in kabooms or suicide kabooms has reached a stage where they find no other explanation other than that which is given for a failed state.

Third, almost all stakeholders in Pakistain's state and society have suffered badly due to religious militancy. Irrespective of differences in ethnicity, culture, language and ideology, members of virtually all segments of society have been attacked: killed or maimed in kabooms, incidents of assassination and shootouts.

Though the ANP has borne the brunt of religious militancy in Pakistain, no adherent of liberal democracy or Islamic democracy is safe from attacks by the jihad boys' network.

The current provincial president of the Pakistain Moslem League-Nawaz, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
, has been attacked five times. 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 ...
, chief of the Jamaat-e-Ulema Islam, has been attacked twice. The president of the Qaumi Watan Party has similarly been targeted several times. Former head of 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...
, the late Qazi Hussain Ahmed
...the absolutely humorless, xenophobic former head of the Pak Jamaat-e-Islami. He was also head of the MMA, a coalition of religious parties formed after 2001 that eventually collapsed under the weight of the holy egos involved. Qazi was the patron of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar during the Afghan mujaheddin's war against the Soviets. His sermons are described as fiery, which means they rely heavily on gospel and not at all on logic. Qazi once recommended drinking camel pee for good health, but that was before his kidneys went...
, was also targeted in 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...
. Earlier, the chairperson of the Pakistain People's Party was assassinated after an address at a public meeting in Rawalpindi.

Various institutions of the security forces, including the police, Frontier Corps and the military, have been targeted continuously, with attacks, kidnappings and beheadings of their personnel having become almost a norm in the tactical paradigm of the jihad boys' network.

According to the figures collected by the Islamabad-based Pakistain Institute of Peace Studies, 1,577 terrorist attacks were carried out in the country last year alone, killing some 2,050 people and injuring 3,822. It is likely that this pattern will remain in evidence this year too.

It seems that the proposed multi-party conference will draw a clear line between those who stand for a constitutional democratic polity, social justice, an assertive civil society, a sovereign parliament and an economy of peace in Pakistain and those who want otherwise. This might bring to the fore the forces that stand for a prosperous, progressive and peaceful Pakistain and help identify the forces that consciously or unconsciously resist the preservation of human dignity, pluralism and indigenous wisdom.

Most of the time, debate on terrorism in Pakistain ends in a deadlock due to the lack of understanding of the causes and triggers. Moreover, militancy, terrorism and insurgency are confused with one another because of the lack of understanding of the complexity of diverse factors. This results in more complications and frustrations for the political parties, the security establishment, elected governments and the people. This seems to be the major reason for the absence of a multi-pronged, comprehensive counterinsurgency, counterterrorism and counter-militancy strategy in Pakistain.

This confusion and the consequent deadlock might be avoided if the conference's agenda is clearly and carefully delineated. Its agenda can be set to deliberate on the socio-cultural, socio-economic and socio-political aspects of religious militancy on the one hand and to take into consideration the construction of the jihad boy discourse, its permeation and tactics of social control in Pakistain on the other.

The conference might also explore the local, provincial, national, regional and international factors that contribute to terrorism in Pakistain. Deliberations on the various layers of religious militancy and terrorism might result in a comprehensive policy that incorporates military, political, economic, strategic and tactical responses to terrorism in Pakistain.

The conference could clearly define the role and responsibilities of elected federal and provincial governments, the political parties, the military establishment, media and civil society organizations and the intelligentsia in implementing the comprehensive policy devised. It is hoped that this will result in a clear strategy with targets achievable within a certain time frame.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Most of the time, debate on terrorism in Pakistain ends in a deadlock due to the lack of understanding of the causes and triggers. Seems to be a cross-cultural trait in many countries. Need to know your enemy but to not engage in too much navel inspection about what to do about it. Often those at the highest level of government seem to be handicapped to make a decision or act in the best interests of the country.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/29/2013 10:26 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Tunis opposition rally draws thousands
[MAGHAREBIA] Tunisian opposition party Nidaa Tounes marked its first anniversary on Sunday (January 27th) with a large rally, Tunisia Live reported.

"We are worried about the future," party founder and former interim Prime Minister Beji Caid Essebsi told a crowd of thousands gathered in Tunis.

"The elections took us halfway through the democratic transition. But democracy is not just the elections," he said. "It's about peaceful transfer of power and it's about keeping the political scene balanced."

Rally participants condemned the political violence in the country, the religious tensions and the recent destruction of Sufi mausoleums.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


-Short Attention Span Theater-
The real problem will come when he learns how to drive
A "smart" seal pup that sat out a storm on the dashboard of a car is being prepared for a return to the sea.

The six-week old seal was spotted in a busy lorry park at the Cairnryan ferry terminal in Stranraer.

It had climbed a steep banking to escape strong winds and choppy seas, and workers became concerned for its safety when it resisted attempts to encourage it to return to the water.

One worker picked up the seal and put it in the boot of his car to keep it warm before contacting animal welfare officers at the Scottish SPCA.

By the time Alistair Hill, a rescue officer, arrived at the scene the pup had forced down a rear seat in the car and was found lying on the dashboard.

It was named Smartie after being taken to the charity's wildlife rescue centre near Alloa and is close to making a full recovery after losing weight.

Posted by: lotp || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Smartie, the SAS has a career for you.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 01/29/2013 10:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Air drops might be a problem for him, but then SAS tends to pack it in on foot more often than US Rangers anyway, their name notwithstanding. Plus he can buddy up with a human for drops, like our dogs do. And he has real promise for underwater missions.
Posted by: lotp || 01/29/2013 13:57 Comments || Top||


Britain
Murdoch apologises for 'grotesque' Israel cartoon
[FRANCE24] Rupert Murdoch apologised on Monday for a "grotesque" cartoon carried in one of his British newspapers showing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu building a wall with Palestinian bodies.
Again, here is the cartoon.
The acting editor of the Sunday Times newspaper, Martin Ivens, is due to meet with members of the Jewish community in Britain on Tuesday to apologise in person after they made a formal complaint about the image to media regulators.

"Gerald Scarfe has never reflected the opinions of the Sunday Times. Nevertheless, we owe major apology for grotesque, offensive cartoon," Murdoch, who owns the Sunday Times and its daily sister paper the Times, said on Twitter.

His comments came after the image in Sunday's newspaper sparked condemnation in Britain and Israel, particularly because of its timing, appearing on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The cartoon shows a scowling Netanyahu waving a blood-covered trowel, laying bricks in a wall in which Palestinian men, women and children are trapped. Underneath are the words, "Israeli elections - will cementing peace continue?"

"For the people of Israel, this is a cartoon which recalls the dark journalism from one of humankind's darkest periods," Israel's parliamentary speaker, Reuven Rivlin, wrote in a letter to his British counterpart John Bercow.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews, a representative body, lodged a complaint with the Press Complaints Commission over what it said was an "appalling" and "disgusting" cartoon.

It said it was "shockingly reminiscent of the blood libel imagery more usually found in parts of the virulently antisemitic Arab press".

In a statement, Sunday Times acting editor Ivens said: "The last thing I or anyone connected with the Sunday Times would countenance would be insulting the memory of the Shoah or invoking the blood libel.

"The paper has long written strongly in defence of Israel and its security concerns, as have I as a columnist.

"We are however reminded of the sensitivities in this area by the reaction to the cartoon and I will of course bear them very carefully in mind in future."
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ah, that's okay, Rupe. Throw one of Mohammad in next Sunday's and we'll call it even.
Oh, wait...
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/29/2013 0:11 Comments || Top||

#2  As far as I can ascertain, Tu, there are no gods, alleged or otherwise in that "cartoon". However, if the subject matter of the next issue's cartoon was "alleged gods", I may just chance sixpence in the hope they got their reality back.

I don't think the drawing was meant to be humorous. The whole point of a cartoon is that the reader is left to draw their own conclusion, and, perhaps, have a chuckle. This, however, was meant to be polarising dogmatic shite, very ZANU-PF.

Heads should roll.
Posted by: Injun Stalin7884 || 01/29/2013 7:56 Comments || Top||

#3  We should remember stuff like this every time Murdoch tries to sell himself as an alternative to the establishment press.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 01/29/2013 13:33 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Loyalists Sweep to Power in Jordan Poll Results
[An Nahar] The final results on Monday for Jordan's general election held last week saw tribal leaders, pro-regime loyalists and independent businessmen sweep to power after a boycott by the Moslem Brüderbund.

"The Independent Election Commission board has approved the parliamentary election's preliminary results, officially endorsing them as the final results," the IEC said.

"Twenty sub-committees have examined and double-checked the results, completing their work on Sunday night."

In the face of opposition charges of vote-buying, IEC head Abdul Ilah Khatib acknowledged the election held last Wednesday was "not completely free of some violations and problems."

"Elections cannot be perfect and we hope to learn from this experience and improve on it," Khatib told a news conference. "But generally Jordanians have accepted the voting measures and exercised their right."

King Abdullah has vowed to pursue democratic reforms after the vote and to reach out to groups like the Brotherhood.

"I think the easiest part... is behind us. Today the challenge in creating this parliament is trying to create parties with political party platforms," he said on Friday at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Scoffing at the official turnout figure and alleging vote buying, Islamists have said the king's plans for a parliamentary government fall far short of true democratic change and insist he should have no say in naming a premier.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Africa North
One Dead in Cairo Clashes as Political Turmoil Escalates
[An Nahar] One person was killed in Cairo Monday as festivities between police and protesters raged into a fifth day, and President Mohammed Morsi scrambled to contain deepening divisions with calls for national dialogue.

The unidentified man was killed by birdshot to the head, a police official told AFP, as demonstrators and police lobbed rocks at each other on a bridge and in an underpass leading to Tahrir Square and tear gas hung heavily in the air.

Morsi late on Sunday sought to crack down on violence which has swept Egypt since Friday in which more than 45 people have died, declaring a month-long state of emergency in the provinces of Port Said, Suez and Ismailiya.

In a televised address he also slapped the three provinces with night-time curfews, while calling the opposition -- which accuses him of betraying the revolution that brought him to power -- to a national dialogue at the presidential palace at 6:00 pm (1600 GMT) Monday.

Specifically included in the invitation for talks are the three leaders of National Salvation Front (NSF) opposition coalition, leading dissident and founder of Al-Dustur party Mohamed ElBaradei
Egyptian law scholar and Iranian catspaw. He was head of the IAEA from December 1997 to November 2009. At some point during his tenure he was purchased by the Iranians. ElBaradei and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for something in 2005. After stepping down from his IAEA position ElBaradei attempted to horn in on the 2011 Egyptian protests which culminated in the collapse of the Mubarak regime. ElBaradei served on the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group, a lefty NGO that is bankrolled by the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as George Soros' Open Society Institute. Soros himself serves as a member of the organization's Executive Committee.
, former Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
chief Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa
... who was head of the Arab League for approximately two normal lifespans, accomplishing nothing that was obvious to the casual observer ...
and presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi.

The NSF was to meet in the early afternoon to consider a response to Morsi's call, Hussein Gohar of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party told AFP.

In a statement late Sunday, Sabbahi's movement expressed its "refusal to participate amid the continuing bloodshed and continuing crimes by the regime against demonstrators".

It said it believes that "any serious call for dialogue needs real guarantees for success, the most important being that the president offers political solutions and security."

ElBaradei said on Twitter that "if the president does not assume responsibility for the bloody events, does not commit to the formation of a salvation government and a committee to amend the constitution, all dialogue is a waste of time."
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Ansar al-Din chief to bail
[MAGHAREBIA] Ansar al-Din leader Iyad Ag Ghaly dispatched emissaries of his tribe to Mauritania to request political asylum, Le Veridique reported on Saturday (January 26th). According to the Mauritanian newspaper, twelve envoys travelled across the border in 4WD vehicles to pursue the asylum request.
Might as well, since he doesn't have a house anymore.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Ansar Dine

#1  nice convoy to bomb
Posted by: Frank G || 01/29/2013 8:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Amen
Posted by: Odysseus || 01/29/2013 12:18 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Assad: With no foreign meddling, war over in 2 weeks
The civil conflict in Syria can be over in two weeks if foreign fighters and weapons stop trickling in through the border with Turkey, the Al-Akhbar daily in Beirut quoted the Syrian president as saying on Monday.
"I would have gotten away with it too if it hadn't been for those meddling kids!"
According to the paper, Bashar al-Assad made the statement at a meeting with "a group of visitors from the Arab states" in Damascus on Monday. The president informed the visitors about the present situation in Syria during the meeting, which lasted for three hours. The daily gave no information about the visitors' identities or nationalities.

The paper quoted al-Assad as saying that the Syrian army has recently dealt a number of serious blows to the armed groups financed from abroad and that "the most difficult stage of the crisis has been left behind."

"Militant groups mostly operate in regions bordering Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and some suburbs of Damascus. The Syrian capital itself, including the road to the international airport, is safe," the paper said, quoting the Syrian leader.

Assad also thanked Russia for its support, saying that "by supporting Syria, Russia defends itself, not the [Syrian] regime."
Posted by: Steve White || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Tourism Ministry to Establish Company to Manage its Hotels and Tourist Facilities
[SANA] Tourism Minister Hala al-Nasser said that her Ministry intends to establish a national company for managing its hotels and tourist facilities which had been managed by foreign companies before, and that it needs an investor capable of covering the financial expense.
Syrian tourist facilities? Oh, Mom! Take me there!
You mean I really could have the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to invest in your tourism industry, with you managing it all? Wow!! I gotta call my broker right now.
During a meeting with representatives of vocational and trade unions, al-Nasser said that it received several offers from investors but it hopes that its partner in the aforementioned endeavor could be one of the unions.

She stressed the need for cooperation between the Ministry and unions and employing national expertise and skills to alleviate the effects of the crisis on the tourism sector in Syria and use local investment to provide services that suit the current circumstances.

Al-Nasser also called for establishing new tourist projects on strong bases and revising existing contracts with foreign companies.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Syria: Come for the snipings, stay for the air strikes...
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/29/2013 0:28 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Undeclared martial law in KP, says Fazl
[Dawn] 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...
chief 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 ...
came down hard on Awami National Party here on Sunday for what he called its flawed policies and said that the ruling coalition failed to deliver during the last five years in the province.

"There is an undeclared martial law in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
and the so-called champions of Pakhtun rights have surrendered everything to America," he said while addressing his party workers.

A large number of workers of other political parties on this occasion joined JUI-F. According to the organisers, around 10,000 people joined JUI-F.

Mr Rehman said that incumbent leadership did not have the ability to take pressure and steer the nation out of the crises although the country had immense talent and potential. He said that Pakistain could play pivotal role to restore permanent peace in Afghanistan. "Pakistain has the ability to play due role in restoration of peace in Afghanistan, but our leadership does not have the capability and skill to take bold decisions," he said.

The JUI-F chief said that the nation had been divided along linguistic, provincial and sectarian lines and state institutions including bureaucracy and establishment failed to achieve main objectives of the creation of Pakistain. "The nation has been divided along Shia, Sunni, Sindhi, Baloch and Punjabi and the state's writ has eroded," he added.

Mr Rehman said that Pakistain was under pressure because of borrowing foreign loans therefore the ruling class could not absorb pressure. He said that Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal government had maintained the writ of the state and no area was declared as conflict or war zone.

He held ANP responsible for the prevailing situation and said that the provincial government had surrendered all its powers to the military. He said ANP announced to convene All Parties Conference to hold peace talks with Taliban when general elections were round the corner.

"JUI has refused to attend the APC because we do not want to take blame for the wrong doings of others," Mr Rehman said, adding that his party had already begun homework for starting grinding of the peace processor in Fata. For this purpose, he said, his party had formed grand jirga in which all tribes including minorities had been given representation.

"The jirga has been given complete authority to negotiate with all stakeholders for establishing lasting peace in the tribal areas," he said, adding that JUI-F did not want to impose any decision.

The JUI-F chief said that there was no reason to delay general polls in the country. He hoped that his party would sweep the next elections. He said that people were fed up with the status quo and wanted change that's why they were looking towards JUI-F.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami


Pakistan seeks sustainable peace, security in Afghanistan: General Kayani
[Dawn] During a meeting with Afghan Defence Minister General Bismillah Khan Mohammadi on Monday, army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani
... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI...
said Pakistain sought sustainable peace and security in Afghanistan, DawnNews reported.

On the occasion, the Afghan defence minister said it was important to increase defence cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistain.

The meeting that took place at the GHQ in Rawalpindi discussed the situation at the Pak-Afghan border along with other defence cooperation between the two countries.

The Afghan defence minister said Afghanistan would continue to seek guidance from Pakistain in its defence-related matters.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Gunmen kill three including PAF guards in Pasni: officials
[Dawn] Gunmen rubbed out two Pakistain Air Force (PAF) security guards and a shopkeeper in Pasni area of Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
province on Monday, officials said.

The three were killed in the Pasni area of Gawadar district, 720 kilometres (447 miles) southwest of the thriving provincial capital Quetta.

"The dear departed soldiers were identified as Muhammad Ibrahim and Khurram Shahzad while the local shopkeeper was named as Elahi Bukhsh resident of Awaran district," local official Abdul Fatah Bhanger told AFP.

Another official said the security personnel came under attack while buying food at a market.

"The security personnel came to Pasni bazaar for purchase of edible items when unknown gunnies opened indiscriminate fire on them," Akbar Hussain Durrani, the home secretary of Balochistan, told AFP.

"After the attack, the gunnies escaped on a cycle of violence," he said.

Later, Baloch Liberation Front (BLF), a rebel group, grabbed credit for the attack.

"Security personnel are our targets, but we did not intend to kill the shopkeeper," Gwaram Baloch, a BLF front man said.

"We have time and again warned the local people to stay away from the security forces because they are on our target," he added.

Elsewhere, in Lasbela district, some 400 kilometers (248 miles) south of Quetta, two cement factory employees were maimed in a hand grenade attack as they travelled home from work on a bus.

Hundreds of people have died in the province since Baloch rebels rose up in 2004 demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region's wealth of natural oil, gas and mineral resources.

The area is also plagued by Islamist militancy and sectarian violence.
Posted by: Fred || 01/29/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: TTP



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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2013-01-29
  Sahel jihadist groups splinter
Mon 2013-01-28
  Timbuktu mayor: Mali rebels torched library of historic manuscripts
Sun 2013-01-27
  French and Malian troops begin restoring control in Timbuktu
Sat 2013-01-26
  Green-on-green clash in Khyber tribal region kills 32
Fri 2013-01-25
  AQAP #2 killed for the THIRD time in Yemen
Thu 2013-01-24
  US drone strike near Sanaa kills 7 hard boyz
Wed 2013-01-23
  Nuristan Airstrike Kills 14 Insurgents
Tue 2013-01-22
  French seize control of Diabaly, Douentza
Mon 2013-01-21
  Nigeria: Gunmen attack Kano emir's convoy
Sun 2013-01-20
  Algeria crisis: Hostage-takers 'taken alive' at gas plant
Sat 2013-01-19
  Boko Haram leader Shekau shot, escapes to Mali
Fri 2013-01-18
  1,400 French soldiers in Mali for ground assaults: minister
Thu 2013-01-17
  41 snatched by AQIM in Algeria gas plant attack
Wed 2013-01-16
  France deploys armoured vehicles towards northern Mali
Tue 2013-01-15
  Pakistan paralysed after court demands PM arrest

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