More saber rattling from Erdogan . (Haaretz) — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday Israel could not do whatever it wanted in the eastern Mediterranean and that Turkish warships could be there at any moment. Erdogan’s comments, made during a visit to Tunisia as part of a tour of Arab countries, were the latest in a war of words between the two regional powers, whose relations have deteriorated since Israel killed nine Turks aboard an aid ship headed for Gaza last year. “Israel cannot do whatever it wants in the eastern Mediterranean. They will see what our decisions will be on this subject. Our navy attack ships can be there at any moment,” Erdogan told a news conference shortly after arriving in Tunis. Turkey downgraded diplomatic ties with Israel and halted defense-related trade after the Jewish state confirmed last week it would not apologise for the raid on the Mavi Marmara ship which had attempted to break Israel’s blockade on Gaza. Turkey and Israel had tried to mend fences before the publication two weeks ago of a UN report that deemed the blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip a legal means to stem the flow of arms to Palestinians but also said Israel had used unreasonable force.
Nah, we don’t need a secure border. (Houston Chronicle) — The elderly are killed. Young women are raped. And able-bodied men are given hammers, machetes and sticks and forced to fight to the death. In one of the most chilling revelations yet about the violence in Mexico, a drug cartel-connected trafficker claims fellow gangsters have kidnapped highway bus passengers and forced them into gladiatorlike fights to groom fresh assassins. In an in-person interview arranged by intermediaries on the condition that neither his name nor the location of his Texas visit be published, the trafficker also admitted to helping push cocaine worth $5 million to $10 million a month into the United States. Law enforcement sources confirm he is a cartel operative but not a fugitive from pending charges. His words are not those of a federal agent or drawn from a news conference or court papers. Instead, he offers a voice from inside Mexico’s mayhem — a mafioso who mingles among crime bosses and foot soldiers in a protracted war between drug cartels as well as against the government. If what he says is true, gangsters who make commonplace beheadings, hangings and quartering bodies have managed an even crueler twist to their barbarity. Members of the Zetas cartel, he says, have pushed passengers into an ancient Rome-like blood sport with a modern Mexico twist that they call, “Who is going to be the next hit man?” “They cut guys to pieces,” he said. The victims are likely among the hundreds of people found in mass graves in recent months, he said. Keep reading…
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The War Next Door: Mexican Drug Cartels Kidnapping Bus Passengers For Gladiator-Like Fights To The Death…
Filthy animals. NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — It’s a gruesome display seen many times over the years in Mogadishu. The bodies of dead soldiers dragged through the streets. Somalis angry over 20 years of violence say they do it in hopes of driving out African Union forces. The latest incident happened Thursday, when the body of a fighter who appeared to be a member of the AU’s peacekeeping mission was pulled through the streets by a rope. The spokesman for the country’s most dangerous militant group, al-Shabab, also displayed a body alongside documents that identified the man as a Ugandan soldier. “Today we are celebrating the death and blood of your sons,” Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage said at a news conference Thursday. The most infamous occurrence happened in 1993, when fighters dragged a U.S. soldier through the streets after a disastrous U.S. military assault into the Somali capital described in the book and movie “Black Hawk Down.” The deaths and grisly scene were widely used by media outlets who had to weigh the images’ news value against their violent nature. The incident hastened the U.S. withdrawal from the East African nation. In 2007, Somalis dragged the bodies of Ethiopian soldiers through the streets. Ethiopia withdrew after two years of war.
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Somalia: Al-Shabaab Drags Dead Ugandan Soldiers Through the Streets of Mogadishu…
Boehner +1 Washington (CNN) — House Speaker John Boehner said Tuesday if some federal workers lose jobs because of Republican-proposed spending cuts, “so be it.” But House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was quick to say “not so be it.” “Over the last two years since President Obama has taken office, the federal government has added 200,000 new federal jobs and if some of those jobs are lost in this, so be it,” Boehner said during a news conference with reporters at the Republican National Committee. “We’re broke! It’s time for us to get serious about how we’re spending the nation’s money.” Boehner, who was joined by other House Republican leaders, criticized the President’s budget proposal for not cutting enough and said Republicans would address entitlement reform when they release their budget blueprint this spring. “Republicans will not punt,” said Boehner. “Everything’s on the table. We will put forward a budget that deals with the big challenges that face our country . . . I have no doubts that all of these issues [Social Security and Medicare] will be on the table.”
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Boehner on GOP Spending Cuts: “If Some of the 200,000 New Federal Jobs Created by Obama Are Lost Then so Be it”…
And if a homosexual is executed per Qatar’s sharia-based penal code FIFA will have blood on their hands.. (Sky News) – Fifa boss Sepp Blatter has joked that gay people “should refrain from sexual activities” at the 2022 Qatar World Cup. The president of football’s international governing body was speaking at a news conference in South Africa, arranged to discuss the legacy of this year’s tournament. He was asked what he would say to gay football fans who want to go to Qatar for the 2022 competition, given that homosexuality is banned in the Middle East country. Grinning, he said: “I would say they should refrain from any sexual activities.” Mr Blatter went on to insist that he believed discrimination would not be an issue in Qatar by 2022, saying “we are living in a world of freedom”.
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FIFA Boss: Gays Might Want to “Refrain From Sexual Activities” During World Cup in Qatar…
