Taliban confirm Hakeemullah's death

Hell yeah ! what good news .
Hakeemullah has been dispatched to receive his 72 male goat virgins !




Dawn.com
KARACHI: The Taliban based in Orakzai Agency confirmed on Tuesday that Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan chief Hakeemullah Mehsud is dead.

However, Alam Tariq the offiicial Taliban spokesman has not yet made a statement.

Sources said that Maulvi Noor Jamal has been nominated as Mehsud's succesor.

Government officials too have confirmed his death and have said that he was killed in a Shaktoi drone strike last month.

American and Pakistani officials had been saying Mehsud was dead since the past few weeks.

North Korea's Kim pledges to remove nuclear weapons

And this should be believed this time Because ...?



SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea's leader pledged again to remove nuclear weapons from the peninsula, a news report said Tuesday, and also sent his top nuclear envoy to Beijing in a move that could bode well for stalled disarmament talks.

While Kim Jong-il has made, and broken, similar pledges before, analysts said pressure has been mounting through U.N. sanctions imposed after its nuclear test last year, as well as a botched currency reform that the South said sparked inflation and rare civil unrest.

China's Xinhua news agency said Kim reiterated his country's "persistent stance to realize the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula" during a meeting Monday with senior Chinese official Wang Jiarui.

North Korea's top nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye-gwan, arrived in Beijing Tuesday, suggesting a possible resumption of stalled discussions hosted by China and including Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States.

"Dispatching Kim Kye-gwan indicates that some sort of understanding is being worked out between China and North Korea on restarting the nuclear talks," said Cheong Seong-Chang, a senior fellow at the Sejong Institute think tank near Seoul.

Yemen al Qaeda urges jihad, wants Red Sea blocked

"The Christians, the Jews, and the treacherous apostate rulers have pounced on you ... you have no other way out from this plight other than to wage jihad,"


Oh this is going to get good !
Yemeni Al Qaida , Is threatening "Jihad" Against U.S. Shipments of goods if they come into the Red Sea .
I think the U.S. Navy may have a little something to say to that !


SANAA/DUBAI (Reuters) - The Yemen-based wing of al Qaeda called for a regional Muslim holy war and a blockade of the Red Sea to cut off U.S. shipments to Israel, a further sign of the group's ambitions to mount new strikes outside its base.

Yemen is in the throes of a major crackdown on the global militant network's regional off-shoot, which grabbed the world's attention when it claimed a failed bomb attack on U.S.-bound plane in December.

Western powers and neighboring Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, fear that Yemen's growing instability as it struggles with northern Shi'ite rebels and southern secessionists, may allow al Qaeda to strengthen its operations.

"The Christians, the Jews, and the treacherous apostate rulers have pounced on you ... you have no other way out from this plight other than to wage jihad," the wing's deputy leader, Saeed al-Shehri, said in an audio tape posted on a website often used by Islamist groups.

Shehri, a former inmate of the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay from Saudi Arabia, was one of 30 al Qaeda members that Yemen claimed to have killed in an air strike in December but this was later denied by the global militant network.

Shehri also said the Yemen-based wing's failed bomb attack on the plane to Detroit on December 25 had been carried out in coordination with network leader Osama bin Laden.

China seizes more melamine-tainted milk powder

Here they go Again !
Not only did it happen once , which would be bad enough , but now a second time with the Melamine laced milk !
Some coming from the batches of Milk products they removed the last time , it was re-labled and re-distributed right back to the people !



BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese inspectors tracing new cases of contaminated milk have shut dairy firms in the northwest and seized 72 metric tons of milk powder tainted with melamine, an industrial compound that killed at least six children in 2008.

Nearly 100 metric tons of tainted milk powder may still be on shop shelves, the China Daily reported Monday in detailing the closure of a Ningxia firm that sold the product.

A number of cases of melamine in milk have surfaced in the past few months, some of which appear to have come from old batches of contaminated powder that was never destroyed despite a scandal that damaged the reputation of the Chinese dairy industry.

Tiantian Dairy Co Ltd in Ningxia was closed after it was found to have repackaged and sold 170 metric tons of melamine-tainted milk powder that it received as a debt payment, the China Daily said, citing the local government.

The paper did not say where the milk had come from. Last week, three people at a dairy firm in neighboring Shaanxi province were arrested for manufacturing or dealing in products laced with melamine, a compound commonly used in plastics or fertilizer but which can also be added to foods to show high protein levels in tests.

Another dairy firm, Ningxia Panda, was shut because of its ties to Shanghai Panda Dairy Co, which was closed late last year for selling products tainted with melamine.

There have been no reported deaths or illnesses from the latest batches of tainted milk. About 300,000 children sought medical treatment, many with kidney stones, in the 2008 scandal.

China executed two people in November for their role in the 2008 scandal that further sullied the made-in-China brand after a string of health and product-safety scares.

Iran's police vow no tolerance towards protesters

"Police will act firmly to defend the society's security and those who break the law will be dealt with severely,"

Sounds like the Pro reform movement in Iran is being told to mind their P's and Q's for next Thursday !

If 8 Deaths was just a little pushing and shoving , How many will it be for "Dealt with severely ?


TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian police will show no more tolerance toward anti-government protesters, the force's chief was quoted as saying on Saturday, in a warning to the opposition before possible new demonstrations next week.

Iran has been rocked by street unrest since its disputed presidential election last June. Internet messages have circulated about new protests on February 11, when Iran marks the 31st anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Supporters of the pro-reform opposition have used such official occasions to stage new rallies in recent months, despite many arrests in a continuing crackdown by authorities.

Opposition leaders Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi have called on supporters to attend next week's rally. An opposition website, Jaras, on Saturday said a youth group backing Mousavi also urged people to take part.

Government officials have rejected opposition charges that the June vote was rigged to secure the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. They portrayed the election protests as a Western-backed bid to undermine the Islamic establishment.

"Now that the different dimensions of the sedition are clear, we won't show any more tolerance," police chief Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam said, the ILNA news agency reported.

"Police will act firmly to defend the society's security and those who break the law will be dealt with severely," he said.

He said hundreds of people were arrested in connection with protests that erupted on Ashura -- a ritual Shi'ite day of mourning that fell on December 27 -- with the help of tip-offs from the public after police published photographs of them. He said more such photographs of demonstrators would be issued soon.

Eight people were killed in clashes between security forces and opposition supporters on that day, in the most serious violence since the aftermath of the June 12 disputed election.

Moghaddam also reiterated a warning against the use of emails and phone text messages to spread the word of new protests, making clear police were monitoring such means of communication.

"The new technologies allow us to identify conspirators and those who are violating the law, without having to control all people individually," he said.

China hits out at US at 'Security Davos'

Give me a Break , China is now going to speak out against the U.S. for an arms deal with Taiwan , One of our Allies ?
Like China has never Had any arms deals with countries we have Questions about , How about all of the Arms going to IranSince the 80's ?
And what about that Hamas Deal ?
And then their is Darfur !


AFP
MUNICH, Germany — China's foreign minister used his maiden visit to a security conference in Europe Friday to issue a broadside against US arms sales to Taiwan and to resist US pressure to get tough on Iran.

The 6.4-billion-dollar deal unveiled last month to sell arms to Taiwan, which China views as part of its territory, is "obviously a violation of the code of conduct between nations," Yang Jiechi said.

"We approached the US side and made a representation very seriously, on many occasions, yet the US still went ahead with the sale."

"Of course the Chinese government and the people have to react. It is within its sovereign right to do what is necessary... I think the Chinese people and the government of every region should feel indignant about this thing."

The spat is one of several issues to have contributed to a worsening of relations in recent weeks, together with the upcoming White House visit by the Dalai Lama and cyber attacks on US firms such as Google.

Yang's comments came on the first day of the Munich Security Conference in Germany, a 46-year-old gathering dubbed the "Davos of security policy" after the World Economic Forum held last month at the Swiss ski resort.

The forum brings together some 300 top military, diplomatic and political figures, traditionally from members of the NATO military alliance but increasingly from further afield.

Obama Tells Dems: Turn off CNN, Turn off Fox

Obama makes a bit of a point here ,

"Just turn off the TV -- MSNBC, blogs -- and just go talk to folks out there, instead of being in this echo chamber where the topic is constantly politics.

Yes , all politicians should get out amongst the people , That is where they are going to hear what is really going on in the Country (Providing they talk to the real people )
But it is funny how on one hand he says to turn off CNN , FOX and MSNBC and to also not read Blogs !
And on the other hand he tells them what news to listen to ,( Liberal Friendly , And Not listed )
It just goes to show how the Dumocrats , really don't want to hear what the reality of how things really are , and that they look at the U.S. as something they believe they are the Owners of !




Foxnews
At today's question and answer session between President Obama and his former Democratic colleagues in the Senate, members got a bit of unexpected TV-viewing advice from the Commander in Chief: stop watching politics on TV.

Perhaps he’d prefer they tune into WhiteHouse.gov?

The president’s advice came in answer to a question from Sen. Mike Bennet, D-CO, who is facing a difficult re-election fight back home and wanted to know what Democrats and Republicans can do "to fix this institution so that our democracy can actually withstand the test that we're facing right now."

"You know what I think would actually make a difference, Michael? I think if everybody here -- excuse all the members of the press who are here -- if everybody here turned off your CNN, your Fox, your blogs," Obama said, before being interrupted by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-CA, who piped up, "And MSNBC!"

Obama, appropriately reminded of the network with shows more friendly to liberals, continued, "Just turn off the TV -- MSNBC, blogs -- and just go talk to folks out there, instead of being in this echo chamber where the topic is constantly politics. ... It is much more difficult to get a conversation focused on how are we going to help people than a conversation about how is this going to help or hurt somebody politically."

Anger over US 'Lady Qaeda' verdict

"this verdict will only confirm what many already believe, that it is impossible for Muslim terrorism suspects to receive a fair trial in the US."

You had to figure that this was coming .
yes of course she is innocent she is a Muslim , she was arrested in Afghanistan with some type of Chemicals and maps and drawings of U.S. landmarks , including the Statue of Liberty .
While under arrest she muscled a rifle away from a U.S. serviceman and started shooting !
She is lucky she was just not shot dead on the spot , But innocent she is not !


Al Jazeera
Relatives of a US-educated Pakistani scientist branded "Lady Qaeda" by some in the US press and found guilty of trying to kill American servicemen in Afghanistan, have condemned the verdict.

The judgement, reached by a court in New York, also fuelled growing anger in Pakistan on Thursday where many believe that Affia Siddiqui, who disappeared for five years before her arrest in Afghanistan, was innocent.

Fauzia Siddiqui, her sister, said the verdict had "rejuvenated" the family.

"And we're proud to be related to her," she said, speaking from the Pakistani city of Karachi.

"America's justice system, the establishment, the war on terror, the fraud of the war on terror, all of those things have shown their own ugly faces."

The AFP news agency quoted Ismat Siddiqui, Afia's mother, who lives in Karachi, as saying the family had been braced for the verdict but would continue to work for her release.

"I did not expect anything better from an American court. We were ready for the shock and will continue our struggle to get her released," she was quoted as saying.

Intel Chief: U.S. at Risk of Crippling Cyber Attack

He said one critical "factor" is that more and more foreign companies are supplying software and hardware for government and private sector networks.

"This increases the potential for subversion of the information in ... those systems," Blair said.


Like Maybe China ?

Just three words " Deaf , Dumb ,Blind " !

Foxnews
The United States is at risk of a crippling cyber attack that could "wreak havoc" on the country because the "technological balance" makes it much easier to launch a cyber strike than defend against it, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said Tuesday.

Blair, speaking to the House Intelligence Committee, said U.S. tools are not yet up to the task to fully protect against such an attack.

"What we don't quite understand as seriously as we should is the extent of malicious cyberactivity that grows, that is growing now at unprecedented rates, extraordinary sophistication," Blair said. "And the dynamic of cyberspace, when you look at the technological balance, right now it favors those who want to use the Internet for malicious purposes over those who want to use it for legal and lawful purposes."

Blair said the United States must "deal with that reality," and warned of the catastrophic consequences of a major attack.

"Attacks against networks that control the critical infrastructure in this country ... could wreak havoc," Blair said. "Cyber defenders right now, it's simply the facts of the matter, have to spend more and work harder than the attackers do, and our efforts frankly are not strong enough to recognize, deal with that reality."

He said one critical "factor" is that more and more foreign companies are supplying software and hardware for government and private sector networks.

"This increases the potential for subversion of the information in ... those systems," Blair said.

Blair also told Congress Tuesday that the Internet is providing the fuel for the growing problem of "homegrown radicalization."

"That ... has been one of the most dangerous uses of the Internet," Blair said, explaining that foreign groups are using the Internet to organize attacks, give instructions and arrange financing.

Intelligence Officials Warn Attempted Al Qaeda Attack Months Away

And I'm Sure "Profiling" is still out of the Question .

Foxnews
WASHINGTON -- Al Qaeda can be expected to attempt an attack on the United States in the next three to six months, senior U.S. intelligence officials told Congress Tuesday.

The terrorist organization is deploying operatives to the United States to carry out new attacks from inside the country, including "clean" recruits with a negligible trail of terrorist contacts, CIA Director Leon Panetta said. Al Qaeda is also inspiring homegrown extremists to trigger violence on their own, Panetta added.

The annual assessment of the nation's terror threats provided no startling new terror trends, but amplified growing concerns since the Christmas Day airline attack in Detroit that militants are growing harder to detect and moving more quickly in their plots.

"The biggest threat is not so much that we face an attack like 9/11. It is that Al Qaeda is adapting its methods in ways that oftentimes make it difficult to detect," Panetta told the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Al Qaeda is increasingly relying on new recruits with minimal training and simple devices to carry out attacks, the CIA chief said as part of the annual assessment of national threats provided to Congress by the top five U.S. intelligence officials.

Panetta also warned of the danger of extremists acting alone: "It's the lone-wolf strategy that I think we have to pay attention to as the main threat to this country," he said.

North Koreans starving after currency move

The currency revaluation was aimed at wiping out the cash holdings of a burgeoning merchant class, who risked exposure for illegal activities outside the centrally planned economy if they exchanged their old cash or deposited their wealth in banks.

Ahhh Communism !
This is what it ultimately leads to .
So we should expect a Missile launch and or Nuclear test any day now !


SEOUL (Reuters) - North Koreans are starving to death and unrest is growing due to a currency revaluation last year that crippled markets and led to the sacking of a senior cadre, reports said on Wednesday.

The news comes as the destitute North is under growing pressure to end its boycott of international nuclear disarmament talks, where it can win aid for reducing the security threat it poses in economically vital North Asia.

Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said after meeting officials in Seoul that North Korea must return to the six-country talks and live up to pledges it made to take apart its nuclear weapons programme.

"Sanctions will not come off before that," he told reporters.

North Korea last year announced a revaluation of its currency where old notes of its won currency would be changed for new ones at a rate of 100 to one.

The move was a further blow to the North's wobbly economy, already hit by U.N. sanctions imposed after its nuclear test last year to halt its lucrative arms sales.

North Korean Workers' Party finance director Pak Nam-gi, who led the currency revaluation aimed at breaking up markets in the socialist state, has been removed from his post, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper said quoting diplomatic sources in Beijing.

"Markets have come to a grinding halt following the currency revaluation and prices have soared," the source said.

After the currency moves, fewer goods were available for an already impoverished public and prices rose sharply.

U.S. Drones Kill at Least 10 With Missiles in Northwest Pakistan

The Largest Barrage of missiles ever fired in a drone Attack , 16 to 18 .

Let's hope that with that many Hellfire missiles being fired that some body in the top levels of either Al qaida or the Taliban , are taking a long Dirt Nap !



The Wall Street Journal
A barrage of missiles from U.S. drone aircraft ripped into an area of northwest Pakistan where the Taliban and al Qaeda dominate, killing at least 10 people hours after the Pakistani Taliban again denied rumors of its leader's demise.

The sheer number of missiles fired in Tuesday's strike—a Pakistani intelligence official and witnesses estimated 16 to 18 were launched—appeared to be the most employed in a single attack since the U.S. first began using drone aircraft to target militants in Pakistan six years ago.

The attack was the latest salvo in what has become a torrent of U.S. missile strikes in and around the North Waziristan tribal area of Pakistan in the weeks since an al Qaeda double agent killed seven agents and contractors of the Central Intelligence Agency in a suicide bombing at a U.S. base in a neighboring region of Afghanistan.

U.S. and Pakistani officials say they believe the Dec. 30 suicide attack was plotted from North Waziristan, a hub for the Afghan Taliban and its Pakistani offshoot. Al Qaeda is also active in the region, these officials say. The Afghan-Pakistan border is porous, and militants often move freely between the countries.

Tuesday's attack targeted a number of compounds and bunkers used by Taliban fighters in a North Waziristan village near the Afghan border. Two people who live in the village said vehicles were also destroyed, although they differed on whether the cars belonged to the militants or area residents.

The Pakistani intelligence official said at least 10 people died; the residents put the death toll as high as 20 and said the missile strike had set fires that were still smoldering in the village.

Suicide bomber kills 41 Shi'ite pilgrims in Iraq

What are you supposed to do with a country full of People that just want to kill everyone ?

I thought a Pilgrimage was supposed to be a religious Experience , Not an occasion to blow the hell out of your neighbors .

Islam , WTF ?



BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber blew herself up on Monday among Shi'ite pilgrims on the outskirts of Iraq's capital, killing at least 41 people in the latest attack in a violent run-up to next month's election.

Iraq is trying to leave behind years of warfare set off by the 2003 U.S. invasion as it moves to cement security gains made in the last two years, prepare for a U.S. withdrawal and revamp an oil sector that gives Iraq nearly all of its revenues.

But Shi'ite gatherings remain a frequent target for Sunni Islamists such as al Qaeda, seeking to reignite the sectarian slaughter that peaked in 2006-07, while recent months have also seen major coordinated assaults by suicide bombers on Baghdad.

An interior ministry source and a police official said 41 people had been killed and 106 wounded in Monday's attack in a tent where pilgrims on an arduous religious trek are provided with food and drink.

"People were serving food to the pilgrims. A woman wrapped in an explosives belt went inside the tent and killed and wounded (many people) and children," said pilgrim Sahib, who was near the tent.

The office of Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim al-Moussawi said that the bombing occurred in a crowd and that 19 people were killed, with 80 wounded.

Several hours later a roadside bomb in southern Baghdad wounded 12 pilgrims, an interior ministry source said.

The attacks took place as the nation gears up for a March election when Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is expected to run on improved security and on oil deals that may vault Iraq into the world's top three crude exporters, from 11th currently.

Thousands of Shi'ites have flooded the streets for the start of a long walk to the southern city of Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad, for the religious rite of Arbain.

Report due in imam's death; protest planned

the Michigan Emergency Coalition against War and Injustice ?

"We want to let people know we won't tolerate this type of vicious assault on citizens," Ron Scott, with the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, said Sunday. "An assault on Muslims is an assault on everyone."

An assault on Muslims is an assault on everyone ?
How about the thought of Islam Anywhere within the United States is an Assault on Everyone .

DEARBORN
Freep.com
A protest is planned for this morning outside the Dearborn Police Department during a news conference to release the autopsy report of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, the Muslim leader who died in a shootout with FBI agents.

"We want to let people know we won't tolerate this type of vicious assault on citizens," Ron Scott, with the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, said Sunday. "An assault on Muslims is an assault on everyone."

Scott's coalition is holding the rally along with the Michigan Emergency Coalition against War and Injustice, a Detroit-based group.

The FBI has said that Abdullah was an Islamic extremist who was dealing in stolen goods. Federal officials said that Abdullah opened fire during an Oct. 28 raid in a Dearborn warehouse by FBI agents seeking to arrest him and 10 others on suspicion of buying and selling stolen items provided by an undercover informant.

Andrew Arena, special agent in charge of the Detroit FBI office, said last week that although the case ended tragically, his agents acted appropriately in the two-year investigation of Abdullah and during the raids.

The FBI has portrayed Abdullah as a Sunni Islamic extremist who spoke against law enforcement and followed Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, the Muslim leader formerly known as H. Rap Brown, in prison for killing a police officer.

The rally is set for about 10:15 a.m. across the street from the Police Department, 16099 Michigan Ave.

Female suicide bomber kills 13 pilgrims in Iraq

Yes even the ladies want to get into the Action .
Or she was forced to restore the Honor to her Family .


BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A female suicide bomber blew herself up, killing 13 Shi'ite pilgrims in northeastern Baghdad on Monday and wounding 38 others, the office of Baghdad security spokesman said.

The attack took place as thousands of Shi'ite Muslims flooded the streets at the start of an arduous trek to the southern city of Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad, for the religious rite of Arbain.