Report: Syrian regime expands use of cluster bombs; UN estimates death toll reaches 70,000

It seems that Assad got his hands on a lot of cluster bombs and is now using them. Assad will still kill just as many rebels and civilians, it will just be more politically acceptable.

BEIRUT (AP) — The Syrian regime is expanding its use of widely banned cluster bombs, an international human rights group said Saturday as the deadlocked conflict entered its third year.

In new violence, rebels detonated a powerful car bomb outside a high-rise building in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour, setting off clashes with regime troops, state TV and activists said.

The blast came a day after Syrians marked the second anniversary of the start of their uprising against President Bashar Assad. The rebellion began with largely peaceful protests, but when the regime cracked down on demonstrators, the unrest evolved into an insurgency and then a civil war.

In recent months, the Assad regime has escalated airstrikes and artillery attacks on rebel-held areas in the north and east of the country, rights groups have said.

On Saturday, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said Syrian forces have dropped at least 156 cluster bombs in 119 locations across the country in the past six months, causing mounting civilian casualties.

The regime denied that it is using cluster bombs, but the report said that two strikes in the past two weeks killed 11 civilians, including two women and five children. [...]

The fighting in Syria has killed some 70,000 people and displaced 4 million of the country's 22 million people, according to U.N. estimates.

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Thousands of Tunisians take to the streets, call for Islamist government to quit

Tunis (Reuters) - Thousands of Tunisians took to the streets of the capital Tunis on Saturday to call for an end to an Islamist government they blame for the assassination of a leading secular politician 40 days earlier.

It was the biggest demonstration since Chokri Belaid was gunned down outside his house on February 6, igniting the worst unrest since the Jasmine Revolution that toppled strongman Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011 and started the Arab Spring.

In a bid to quell the protests, Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali resigned and was replaced by Ali Larayedh, a fellow member of the Islamist Ennahda party, who formed a new coalition government including independents in key ministries.

But protesters on Saturday blamed the ruling party for Belaid's murder and chanted "Ennahda go," "The people want a new revolution," and "The people want to bring down the regime."

No one has claimed responsibility for the killing, which Belaid's family blames on Ennahda. The party denies involvement and police say the killer was a radical Salafist Islamist.

Belaid, a left-wing lawyer, was shot at close range outside his Tunis home by an assassin who fled on a motorcycle.

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Egypt deports 7 Palestinians to Gaza

Can you imagine the outcry if Israel did that?

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian authorities deported seven Palestinians to the Gaza Strip after they were detained for security reasons upon their arrival to Cairo airport, the state news agency said Saturday. It was the latest development suggesting growing tensions between Egypt and Gaza's Hamas rulers.

It was the latest indication of growing tension between the Palestinian militant movement Hamas in Gaza and Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi, who hails from the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood group from which Hamas is an offshoot.

The Palestinians were arrested in the same week that a state-owned Egyptian magazine published a report accusing Hamas of orchestrating the killing of 16 Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula in August 2012 — one of the bloodiest attacks against the Egyptian army in decades.

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Swiss woman gang-raped by 8 men in India

NEW DELHI (AP) – A Swiss woman who was on a cycling trip in central India with her husband has been gang-raped by eight men, police said Saturday. The attack comes three months after the fatal gang-rape of a woman aboard a New Delhi bus outraged Indians.

Authorities detained and questioned 13 men in connection with the latest attack, which occurred Friday night as the couple camped out in a forest in Madhya Pradesh state after bicycling from the temple town of Orchha, local police officer R.K. Gurjar said.

The men beat the couple and gang-raped the woman, he said. They also stole the couple's mobile phone, a laptop computer and 10,000 rupees ($185).

The woman was treated at a hospital in the nearby city of Gwalior, Gurjar said, adding that she and her husband apparently suffered no major injuries.

A photo showed the woman -- her identity concealed with a hood -- walking while being escorted by police to the hospital.

Police detained 13 men and questioned them, Gurjar said. Six of the men were released after questioning. No other details were immediately available.

Indian television stations showed scores of police searching the forest where the attack occurred.

Swiss Foreign Ministry spokesman Tilman Renz described the case as "deeply disturbing" and said Swiss diplomats were assisting the couple.

The diplomats called on Indian authorities "to do everything to quickly find the perpetrators so that they can be held accountable," Renz said in a statement.

Last month, the Swiss government issued a travel notice for India that included a warning about "increasing numbers of rapes and other sexual offenses" in the South Asian nation.

India has seen outrage and widespread protests against attacks on women since December's fatal gang-rape of a young woman on a moving bus in New Delhi, the capital. The crime horrified Indians and set off nationwide protests about India's treatment of women and spurred the government to hurry through a new package of laws to protect them.

One of six suspects in the December attack was found dead in a New Delhi jail this past week. Authorities said he hanged himself, but his family and lawyer insisted foul play was involved. A magistrate is investigating. Four other men and a juvenile remain on trial for the attack.

Dutch lesbian couple go into hiding over adopted Turkish child

(Holland) A lesbian couple who have fostered a 9-year-old Turkish boy since he was a few months old, have had to go into hiding as the child's biological parents have opined to the media in Turkey that they consider the lesbian couple as morally unfit to take care of their child. This has lead to a huge media debate in Turkey, with the government there launching a parliamentary commission into the the fostering of Muslim children by gay or Christian couples, which they say will lead to them becoming estranged from their cultural background.

Yet, while the Turkish couple had their child taken away from them, the female couple have explored his ethnic background, visited Turkey and are learning Turkish and given him the love and affection lacking from his biological family. In contrast, the biological parents have admitted to dropping the child when he was a baby, and that was one of the reasons he was placed into care. They were going to have their other two children taken from them, but they upped sticks and returned to Turkey so as to continue being bad parents.

All this boils down to, according to the faithful that is, that when you go to an Islamic country, you have to abide by their rules, yet when they come to an non-Islamic country, we (the non-Muslims) have to abide by their Islamic rules. Yeah, right. I'm all for equality, but it cuts both ways.

Me? I am really happy I remained with my adopted (non-Islamic) family as a child. Why? Because I saw at first hand how repressive and bigoted Islam is.

How Muslims love to blame the Jews

(London) On Christmas Day in 2007, Labour Peer Nazi Ahmed, aka Baron Ahmed, was driving home up the M1 motorway when he was involved in a road traffic accident resulting in the death of a man who had broken down on the motorway. When it transpired that Mr Ahmed had sent 5 text messages in the 2 minutes before the accident, it meant he had to have his day in court on charges of dangerous driving, and in Feb 2009 Baron Ahmed received a prison sentence of 12 weeks for killing 28-year-old Martyn Gombar due to dangerous driving. Of course, as a Peer of the Relm, Mr Ahmed couldn't accept the 12-week sentence and he appealed, of which he was successful and was released from prison after serving... 16 days.

So to recap, after a charge of dangerous driving which resulted in the death of Martyn Gombar, Mr Ahmed received a sentence of 16 days. Which in anybody's book is bloody lenient. To everybody except Mr Ahmed. You see, Mr Ahmed, like the Muslim he is, can only see himself as the victim and so he opined to the Pakistani media that the only reason he went to prison (for 16 days) is because those nasty hook nosed Jews, who just happen to control the media in the UK, didn't like how he supported Palestinians in the Levant.

Which is why he has been suspended from the Labour Party of the UK. The thing is, this isn't the first time Muslim features Ahmed has been suspended by his Party. He was suspended last year after offering a 10 Million pound bounty for the heads of Obama and GW Bush. But as is the way of the Muslim, he stated he was simply misunderstood.

What is it with Muslims and their ability to lie out of their arses for Allah?

French lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, wife and defender of terrorist Carlos the Jackal, to sue Hollywood for “Iranophobia”

(Deadline) It turns out that French lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, wife and defender of Carlos the Jackal, is not only angling to sue Hollywood over Ben Affleck‘s Oscar-winning Argo, she’s attempting to mount a case against a series of U.S. films that Iran believes have portrayed it in a distorted and unrealistic manner. Coutant-Peyre, according to local media, is looking to bring suit in international court against directors and producers who local officials believe have promoted “Iranophobia,” The Guardian reports today. The attorney is quoted by the semi-official ISNA news agency as saying, “I’ll be defending Iran against films that have been made by Hollywood to distort the country’s image, such as Argo.” Other films that have gotten under the skin of Iranians are understood to include 2006′s 300, 1991′s Sally Field-starrer Not Without My Daughter, and Darren Aronofsky’s Oscar-nominated The Wrestler. An attendee at Monday night’s “Hoax Of Hollywood” conference in Tehran, Mohammad Lesani, is reported to have said the gathering was intended to “unify all cultural communities in Iran against the attacks of the West, particularly Hollywood.” The real possibility of a lawsuit is thought dubious, but if brought, it would not be in the U.S., New York defense attorney Stuart Slotnick tells Deadline. “Perhaps those in power in Iran will decide to bring a lawsuit in another country where the movie received distribution”, he said. Iran and the U.S. severed diplomatic ties after the 1979 hostage crisis which is the focal point of Argo. Warner Bros. had no comment on the matter.

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Lebanon needs Arab aid to help with Syrian refugee influx

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Prime Minister Najib Mikati urged Arab states to help Lebanon cope with a flood of Syrian refugees who are stretching its scarce resources and will need at least $370 million in support this year.

Mikati said hospitals were full of Syrians, the sick and wounded from the civil war next door, and doctors were struggling to prevent outbreaks of disease among 340,000 refugees crammed into host communities around the country.

Lebanon also faces rising crime - he said 700 Syrians were caught breaking the law in January, a high figure in a country of 4 million - and the influx of refugees into Lebanese homes had brought with it social problems including child marriage.

"We are coming to a very critical point," Mikati told Reuters in an interview in his Ottoman-style government offices overlooking central Beirut.

"We need help. Lebanon is bearing the burden of the events in Syria," he said. "We ask Arab countries to look supportively and sympathetically at Lebanon, because Lebanon needs these countries right now."

Any moment now their Arab brothers will spring into action and help will start pouring in. POURING. Any moment now. Just you wait.

International donors, including wealthy Gulf Arab states, have pledged $1.5 billion for refugees and displaced Syrians, but two Lebanese ministers - for social affairs and health - told Reuters on Tuesday they had not seen a penny of that money.

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Yep, exactly.

Racist, intolerant Jewish state picks new Miss Israel... She's black

(Tel Aviv) The left and the Islamic world love to shout out just how intolerant the Jewish state of Israel is. In fact, it's quite common to hear Israel being described as a racist, bigoted state. Which kind of explains why the latest Miss Israel Yityish “Titi” Aynaw is a somewhat stunning young lady who happens to be... black.

Meanwhile in Gaza, a young lad has just been arrested for strangling his sister in which to regain his family's honour.

A survey conducted in 2011 found that some 73.1 percent of never-married women in Gaza have been exposed to violence by a family member in their lifetime. Of these women, 92.4 percent were sexually abused and 71.2 percent were physically abused.

And the idiots continue to scream that actually it is Israel that is the intolerant state in the region.

Venezuela launches inquiry to prove that Chavez was murdered by US or Israel

(Caracas) You couldn't make it up in a month of Sundays, yet the bBC does just that.

In an exclusive interview (why am I not surprised?), Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez has stated that Venezuela will set up an inquiry to prove that President Hugo Chavez was murdered by either the US or Israel. Not only that but he told the bBC that he had no doubt that Mr Chavez's death was an act of confrontation and is similar to Yasser Arafat's. What do you mean he was a screaming homosexual who developed AIDS after catching it off the last bloke he buggered? An just like the PLO, they blame everybody bar nature and dickless.

I give up.

Oh, here is is the bBC interview (in Spanish) where they come out with their latest crackpot conspiracy theory. The top link gives you an abridged English version.

Hindus get a rough deal in Islamic lands

(Bangladesh) When India was partitioned into 3 in 1947 (India, West Pakistan, East Pakistan), millions of Hindus remained in the latter two newly formed Islamic countries. However, while the Islamic population has grown inside India (the second largest concentration of Muslims in the world) the same cannot be said for followers of the Hindu faith on either side of India.

While Muslims love to promote this view that Islam is a religion of peace and that it respects all faiths (usually while playing the victim card), in reality it is the most intolerant faith going, which requires the weakest excuse in which to draw blood.

Take for example the recent death sentence imposed on Delwar Hossain Sayedee in Bangladesh. He was convicted in an Islamic country by Muslims of committing genocide. And guess who his accusers feel have to pay the price for that verdict? Why, Hindus of course. Which is why in the week since that verdict, 47 temples and 700 Hindu homes have been torched.

(Pakistan) Meanwhile in Pakistan, Hindu pilgrims visiting from India had their passports confiscated by the authorities in which to ensue they didn't do a runner. Can you imagine the outcry if any other non-Islamic government confiscated the passports of Pakistani citizens when they entered the country? CAIR would have a bloody field day. But when it's Allah's favourite bigots doing the oppressing then that's alright.

Holland raises terror threat level to "substantial"

(Den Haag) Holland has raised its terror threat level, saying that Islamic Dutch citizens who have fought in Syria are returning radicalised and imbued with Islamist fervor. The authorities there have put the level up from "limited" to "substantial" - the second highest category. National Co-ordinator for Security and Counter-terrorism Dick Shoof gave a statement where he said:

"These jihadist travellers can return to the Netherlands highly radicalised, traumatised and with a strong desire to commit violence, thus posing a significant threat to this country."

It transpires that nearly 100 people had travelled from the Netherlands to Africa and the Middle East to fight in conflicts more than any other country from Europe as a whole. It is the first time since 2009 that the terror threat in the Netherlands has been raised to "substantial", the second-highest on the four-step scale, just below "critical."

Germany bans Islamic groups

(Berlin) Authorities in Germany have banned three Islamist groups (DawaFFM, Islamische Audios and An-Nussrah), accusing them of being "anti-democratic" and seeking to impose sharia law.

Police mounted raids against the groups on Wednesday, but no arrests were made. German officials have said videos produced by DawaFFM partly inspired the man who shot dead two US airmen at Frankfurt airport in 2011.

An-Nussrah was judged to be part of the Millatu Ibrahim organisation, which had been banned in June last year. Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said in a statement.

"Salafism, as represented by the groups banned today, is incompatible with our peaceful, democratic system, DawaFFM, Islamische Audios and An-Nussrah aim to change our society in an aggressive way so that democracy is replaced by a Salafist system and the state of law replaced by sharia,"

Also in Germany, police foiled an attempt today by Muslims to murder a politician because he had spoken out against radical Islamist groups.

Illegal immigrants sue in which to make the UK pay for treating their sick child

(Portsmouth) Muhammad Ahmed came to the UK on a 1-year visa in 2008 in which to work behind the counter in a grocery shop. When his visa ran out, instead of returning to Bangladesh he remained in the UK illegally, and last July he and his wife had a child (on top of the 2 others they had while remaining illegally in the UK). Well, it transpires that the child, Sanika Ahmed, has has Erb's palsy and needs surgery on her right arm, or else she will lose the use of her arm. However, when Mohammed took his daughter to the local hospital last November, they were told to supply proof of their entitlement to use the National Health Service - something they haven't done. Instead the hospital received a writ in January of this year from the Ahmeds taking them to court. The hospital has stated that they are willing to treat the child as a private patient, but the Ahmeds say they cannot afford this and that is the reason why they have gone to court.

What I cannot understand is how the local mosque hasn't had a whip round in which to ensue that this little child gets treated. I mean, they have no problem collecting millions for terrorists, mosques and such, but not for little girls. Funny that.

Muslim Brotherhood has paddy over equality for women

(Cairo) It transpires that while the Islamic world is more than happy to defend the UN when it comes to getting their own way (attacking Israel, attacking the US, attacking the UK, demanding money, etc.), when it comes to the UN questioning the mores of Islam, then its a different ball game, and as in all things Islamic, any criticism of Islam can only be deemed as racist and thus an attack on the faith. Which is exactly how the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt have reacted to a new UN policy document titled "Eliminating and Preventing All Forms of Violence Against Women and Girls".

It appears that Allah's favourite Pharaohs have taken umbrage at how the UN promotes the view that all women are as equal to men (as they are) and believes that the document issued by the commission on the status of women of the UN "seeks destroying family values as a final step of cultural and intellectual invasion of Muslim societies".

So just what has offended these peaceful equality loving Muslims?

Well, for a start, they don't like how

"Equating sexual assault by a stranger with assault by a spouse and granting the wife the right to press charges of rape undermines the values of society."

They also didn't like how the report condemned:

"The pulling the authority of divorce from husbands and handing it to the judiciary, sharing property after divorce and cancelling the concept of taking the husband's permission prior to travel, work or use contraception."

Or even

"Substituting guardianship with partnership, distributing family roles fully between men and women, the full equity in marital law as it stipulates abolishing concepts of polygamy, dowry, and allows Muslim women to marry non-Muslim men,"

As I see it, it's nothing about preserving family bonds, but rather keeping men in control. And idiots keep on trying to tell me that Islam is a magnanimous faith.

Egypt arrests 7 Pals from Gaza on spying charges

(Cairo) It appears that for all the manna from Heaven that Hamas claimed had fallen on them when the Muslim Brotherhood swept to power in Egypt last year has turned into a very severe drought.

First, there was a deadly attack on the Egyptian army post during Ramadan where Allah's finest murdered 16 Egyptian policemen (it transpired that the assailants came from Gaza). This resulted in a clampdown by the Egyptians. This is still ongoing, and which is why the Egyptian army is flooding the smuggling tunnels from Gaza to Egypt with raw sewage. You'd think that Hamas would have learnt their lesson, but oh no, it transpires they haven't, which is why 6 of their finest operatives have been arrested at Cario airport after returning from Iran (via Syria) and found to be carrying maps and other images of Egyptian military buildings and sensitive sites. The duty rumour is that Hamas (under orders from Tehran) has sent in teams with the purpose of creating unrest in the country.

In light of these allegations from the Egyptian media, Ismail Haniyeh, the Prime Minister of Gaza, has threatened to sue Egyptian news outlets for reporting fabrications about Hamas. It seems that Hamas has that reversed Midas touch, where everything they touch turns to shite.

Pakistani soldier stoned to death for falling in love

(Pakistan) 27-year-old Anwar-ud Din, a soldier in the Pakistani army, made a huge mistake when he fell in love with 19-year-old Intizar Bibi. The army, when they found out, posted him out of the area for his own safety. However, Anwar felt he knew better and returned, and when he was caught in the company of his inamorata, the locals decided that only the village elders could deal with this case, and they decreed that Anwar had to die. So they led him to the local cemetery, tied him to the back of a car and stoned him to death.

Ah, isn't Islam great?

Video: The NRA Was Created To Protect Freed Slaves From The KKK & The Democratic Party, and Everyone Else From a Tyrannical Government

Latma video: The EU, the settlements, and the indomitable will of Europe

H/t: DP111

Sign inside BBC London kitchen

(London) The following picture is a sign put up inside the kitchens at bBC London.

Question: what faith has foot washing facilities set aside for them?