text:
Philip Lowndes MRCVS as the new Chair of BVA Board
The British Veterinary Association (BVA) is pleased to announce Philip Lowndes MRCVS as its new Board Chairman.
A graduate from Bristol University Veterinary School, Philip spent seven years in mixed practice in Sussex, Kent and Suffolk before embarking on a career in the veterinary pharmaceutical industry. Since then he has held national and international commercial roles including CEO of UK business and leading Global Marketing of a major international animal health pharmaceuticals business.
Mr Lowndes, who has a MBA degree, has also run business elective training at the Royal Veterinary College, which has provided first-hand experience of the concerns and opportunities facing new graduates within a changing profession.
The BVA Board oversees the performance of the Association and is responsible for corporate and financial governance and for setting the BVA's strategic direction. It consists of nine members: the three Officers of the BVA (President, Senior Vice President and Junior Vice President), four Directors appointed by BVA Council and up to 2 non-veterinary Directors appointed by the Board. The Chairman is elected by the Board.
Commenting on the new appointment Gudrun Ravetz, President of the British Veterinary Association, said:"We are delighted to announce Philip Lowndes as the new Chairman of the BVA Board. His experience and expertise in business, knowledge of the veterinary profession and involvement with BVA will be of great value as we continue to grow our membership and expand our services and support for vets, especially during the uncertainty caused by Brexit.
I also want to take this opportunity to thank Derek Williams for all the hard work he has put in over many years. In his role as Chairman Derek's experience and expertise have been vital in helping BVA grow as an organisation."
Philip holds previous chair experience, as Chairman of the National Office of Animal Health (NOAH) between 1997-2004, and currently sits as Chairman of both the Novartis UK Pension Trustee Board and its Investment Committee. He joined BVA's Board in 2013 and was re-elected by BVA Council for a second term in 2016. He will be taking over from Derek Williams, who stepped down in March after seven years of tireless work as Chairman.
Commenting on his new appointment, Mr Lowndes said: "I am honoured to be elected as the next Chairman of the BVA and look forward to chairing the Board as it addresses the challenges ahead. The veterinary profession needs and deserves vibrant representation and it is the Board's role to ensure that the organisation has the ability and the resources to achieve this to the benefit of our membership."
The BVA Board also gained a new non-veterinary Board Director, Steven Anderson Dixon, from April. Mr Dixon brings with him a successful career in newspaper and magazine publishing, which will be an asset as BVA consolidates and continues to develop its portfolio of veterinary journals.
05 June 2018
25 April 2018
31 January 2018
© 2014: British Veterinary Association
British Veterinary Association is registered in England No 206456 at 7 Mansfield Street London WIG 9NQ
VAT registration number GB 232 7441 80. BVA logo registered trademark numbers 2446548. 2446549A & 2446549B


text:
Austin Chapter of National Charity League Honored with 20th RecognizeGood Lighthouse Award
RecognizeGood is proud to honor National Charity League – Austin with our 20th RecognizeGood Lighthouse Award!
The National Charity League (NCL) Austin Chapter has made an impact on the Austin community for the last 17 years, providing volunteer support to 23 different nonprofits with over 6,200 ANNUAL volunteer hours. The organization is comprised of 7th-12th grade girls and their mothers, working to foster mother-daughter relationships through philanthropic leadership and cultural activities. NCL's 280+ members volunteer with many different organizations including: Austin Pets Alive!, Caritas of Austin, Central Texas Food Bank, Drive a Senior, Girlstart, Lifeworks, Mobile Loaves and Fishes and Texas Military Family Support. Additionally, many of the organization's members choose to volunteer with Ronald McDonald House Charities, with over 650 annual volunteer hours dedicated specifically to this nonprofit. Mother-daughter teams enjoy the unique opportunity the Ronald McDonald House provides to help other families during their difficult times. With the presentation of this award, RecognizeGood gives the Austin Chapter of National Charity League a heartfelt THANK YOU on behalf of the entire community.
George Mihalcik, RecognizeGood program director, presented the organization with several thank-you gifts – a $250 donation, an award plaque, two tickets to the 2018 Ethics in Business & Community Award luncheon, and a pay-it-forward donation to Mobility Worldwide in the club's name. This recognition represented a sincere "Thank you!" from the Central Texas community for an amazing display of selfless service from the entire group at National Charity League – Austin.
The RecognizeGood Lighthouse Award recognizes the selfless community efforts and philanthropy of Austin-area service clubs through length, magnitude or impact of service – by highlighting "special" organizations and telling their stories, we believe that others will be inspired to make our community a better place. Award nominees may be sent to email@example.com, and are voted on by a selection committee according to the following criteria:
- Length of Service
- Magnitude of Service
- Special One-Time Event
This was the 20th RecognizeGood Lighthouse Award presented to an Austin-area service organization. Check out this and all previous Lighthouse awardees by clicking here. Thanks to Lighthouse program sponsor iRex Group, Ltd. for their generosity and active support of this program!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Helen Rich has recently released an excellent new solo accordion CD. "All hands for'ard" features a selection of 18 of the varied compositions from the late Gerald Crossman. Some are played on a Cooperativa double cassotto 120 bass accordion, and others on a Paolo Soprani 96 bass musette accordion. The tracks include: All hands for'ard, El Pico, BAA March, Annette, Granada Mia, Rancherita, Bohemian Polka, Marcha Espanol, A Night in Montmartre, Dancing Clown, Las Fallas, Brasileira, Fortitude, La Vida Latina, Jolly Jack, Valse Acrobatique, El Valiente, and Gay Time.
Copies of the CD are available for £10 each (plus £1p&p), from Rob Howard, 42 Avondale Rd, Edgeley, Stockport, Cheshire SK3 9NY.
Gerald Crossman (1920-2015) – accordionist, pianist, organist, bandleader, composer, arranger, adjudicator, writer, and a former NAO Vice President – was one of the most accomplished and significant figures of the post-war accordion movement in the UK. See here for the biography of Gerald Crossman written by Rob Howard
In further news Accordion Central will be adding a significant amount of Gerald Crossman sheet music to our shop in the next few days, all with pdf downloads @ just £3.00 per arrangement with all proceeds going to the Winstons Wish Charity. See our Accordion sheet music here.


text:
You have successfully signed up for our newsletter!
Sorry, we have no availability on our site for this listing in the coming period.
Sign up for our newsletter!
Don't miss our special promotions, exclusive offers, new destinations and inspirational stories!
Total of people that favorited this listing
This surf camp offers you 4 days of fun. You will have 3 surf lessons that will surely enhance your surfing skill and bring your surfing experience to another level. You will stay at a comfortable accommodation to recharge your energy after a day full with surfing. Book now and experience the unforgettable sensation surfingn on Bundoran, Ireland.
Bundoran Surf Co's lodge is ideally located close to several beaches and also to the town center. Many of the rooms offer views of the main beach. The surf lodge also offers free internet access and wireless broadband. There is a kitchen for guests to use, barbecue facilities, and free tea and coffee all day. This lodge is run by local surfers so you will be able to get all the details you need on where and when to surf in Bundoran.
You will find the lodge a perfect place to chill out after surfing. There is a spacious lounge area with wide-screen TV, DVD player, X-Box, and movie library. Throughout the lodge, you will find a selection of surf art and photography by local and international artists. There is private parking at the back of the building and plenty of storage space for boards, and a drying room for wetsuits.
The lodge has 4 double / twin rooms and 2 triple rooms, all with en-suite. There are 2 bunk rooms that can sleep 4 and 6 people. The 4-bed enquiry-button dorm is en-suite and the 6-bed one has its own private bathroom next door. Bed linen is provided in all rooms. Towels are not provided so please bring your own. Towels are available with deposit.
On this surf camp, you will have 3 surf lessons that will start at 10:00, 12:00, or 14:00 and last for 3 hours per session. Bundoran Surf Co will provide the equipment for you and the lesson will be supervised by a qualified instructor.
Bundoran Surf Co uses several local beaches for surf lessons. Tullan Strand in Bundoran is the main beach in the summer as it nearly always has waves. If Tullan is flat, it is likely that all other beaches in the area are also flat, but when the swell is big, Bundoran Surf Co sometimes uses Rossnowlagh or Streedagh.
Rossnowlagh has the gentlest waves but can be exposed to the wind. Streedagh has more powerful waves and offers good protection from west and southwest winds. Both beaches like mid to high tides. On a really big swell, Bundoran Surf Co uses Mullaghmore beach which has good wind protection.
Each morning, Bundoran Surf Co will provide you with a healthy continental breakfast with juice, cereals, toast, as well as freshly brewed coffee and tea to set you up for the day.
There are several airports where you can land in order to reach Bundoran. They are Dublin Airport (DUB), Belfast International Airport (BFS), Ireland West Airport Knock (NOC), and Shannon Airport (SNN). If you arrive at the airport you can rent a car and drive to the location or use taxi. To Bundoran by car, Dublin is 3 hours, Belfast is 2.5 hours, Knock is 1.5 hours, and Shannon is 4 hours. There are also bus connections to Bundoran from all airports. For more information regarding the car rental, please send an inquiry to Bundoran Surf Co.
From Galway or Sligo bus station, please get off at the East End stop (ask the driver) and Bundoran Surf Co is beside the stop.
Please arrive at Sligo Mac Diarmada railway station and then take a taxi or bus to Bundoran.
Please arrive at Rosslare dock and you can rent a car and then drive for 5 to 6 hours in order to reach Bundoran. Please send an inquiry to Bundoran Surf Co for more information regarding the car rental.


text:
Newborn baby
M815/0378 Rights Managed
530 pixels on longest edge, unwatermarked
Request/Download high-res file
Uncompressed file size: 34.1MB
Downloadable file size: 2.5MB
Please login to use the price calculator
Credit: MAURO FERMARIELLO/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
Release details: Model release available. Property release not required.
Keywords: 21st century, adult, africa, african, after birth, baby, black, blanket, child, childbirth, country, developing, female, gazing, gulu, healthcare, healthy, held, holding, hospital, human, human body, infant, lacor, looking, maternity ward, medical, medicine, midwife, modern, neo-nate, neonate, new-born, newborn, normal, nurse, obstetric, obstetrics, paediatric, paediatrics, pediatric, people, person, poor countries, post-natal, postnatal, saint mary's hospital, st marys hospital, st. mary's hospital, third world, towel, uganda, ugandan, under developed, underdeveloped, watching, woman
Licence fees: A licence fee will be charged for any media (low or high resolution) used in your project.


text:
Hidden talents5:19, 14th July 2017
You do all the groundwork, but someone else conducts the performance – it doesn't seem fair. But for Neil Ferris, his appointment as the new chorus director of the BBC Symphony Chorus has exciting prospects, as he tells Clare Stevens
'If someone had asked me when I was a student to name my dream job, I would have said, "conducting a symphony chorus",' declares Neil Ferris, as we take our seats for lunch in a noisy Central London café. 'I still can't believe that's what I'm doing!'
Ferris was appointed earlier this year as chorus director of the BBC Symphony Chorus, and took up the post at the end of May, just in time to prepare the chorus for the BBC Proms season, in which as usual it plays a central role. As a result he has had to step down as associate director of the London Symphony Chorus, where he has been working alongside Simon Halsey. However, he will continue as music director of Wimbledon Choral Society, in south-west London, and joint artistic director of Sonoro, the professional chamber choir that he set up last year with pianist and composer Michael Higgins. He also continues as chorus director of the Royal College of Music and chorus master at the Endellion Summer Festival in Cornwall, as well as maintaining a very busy schedule leading masterclasses, workshops and short courses for singers and conductors in the UK and elsewhere. Until 2015 Ferris was head of choral conducting at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and a much loved music director of the Cardiff Polyphonic Choir – highlights of his time with them included live broadcasts with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, a B minor Mass in Llandaff Cathedral, the Welsh premiere of Gabriel Jackson's Requiem, and the world premieres of two new works by Huw Watkins written to celebrate the choir's 50th anniversary. The BBC Symphony Chorus appointment will enable him to consolidate most of his regular work in London.
One reason for his enthusiasm for directing symphony choruses is that he originally trained as a violinist, at Royal Holloway, University of London, so he is familiar with and loves orchestral repertoire and is not fazed – as some choral specialists can be – by the experience of conducting an instrumental ensemble. As a boy he sang in his local parish church choir in Chandler's Ford, Hampshire, and at King Edward VI School in Southampton where both his parents taught, but singing was never a particular enthusiasm – 'it was just something I did'.
An awakening to the glories of choral music was sudden, and came about when a friend encouraged him to join the Chapel Choir at Royal Holloway. Ferris was captivated by a combination of elements: the chapel's 'bloody amazing organ'; the inspirational leadership of its then organist, the Purcell scholar Lionel Pike; and the repertoire, in particular the music of Herbert Howells. 'Funnily enough, my father had been a treble at Eton College in the days when it still had a choir school, but he had never really talked much about that experience when I was growing up. Then when I came back from university raving about all this amazing music we'd been singing in the chapel choir, it turned out he knew it all already!'
After graduating, Ferris earned his living primarily as a freelance violinist and peripatetic instrumental teacher, but continued to be involved with singing and choral conducting, including doing a term covering for Dr Pike at Royal Holloway Chapel. It was this that led to another Damascene experience: 'I saw a leaflet in the music department about the Association of British Choral Directors' (abcd) pre-convention choral conducting course in Cambridge; it was intended for the students, but I sent it off on my own behalf. The course was brilliant and I went on to do the first ever abcd extended course, with sessions taking place over a year, and then a more thorough postgraduate course at the Royal College of Music (RCM), where I had a fantastic time studying with Paul Spicer. Bob Chilcott was also on the staff and I learned a lot about choral music and conducting from him as well. I conducted the RCM chamber choir, which was full of people like Elizabeth Watts, Ben Johnson and Jacques Imbrailo, who have gone on to make a name for themselves as soloists.
'I've also done the Sherborne Summer School course in orchestral conducting with George Hurst. But it was abcd that really set me on my current route; I've been involved with them ever since, and I'm immensely grateful to them.'
Ferris pays tribute to the first choir that hired him as their music director, the Genesis Chorale of West Byfleet in Surrey – 'I loved them, they were so forgiving of my endless mistakes' – and to Cardiff-based vocal coach Alison Ling, who has provided him with some of the understanding of vocal technique that he lacked through having trained as an instrumentalist, and has helped him to pass that on to his choirs. 'She's a wonderful singing teacher. I started working with her when I was at the RWCMD – I didn't want to be the sort of conductor the teachers in the vocal department criticised for not knowing enough about singing!'
Taking stock of his career after leaving RWCMD and the Cardiff Polyphonic Choir, Ferris decided that the next thing he wanted to do was to set up a new professional chamber choir. 'I happened to mention it to Michael Higgins, who works with me as accompanist to Wimbledon Choral Society and also accompanies the National Children's Choir of Great Britain, and he said he'd be interested in joining me.' Founded in the summer of 2016, Sonoro has already established a strong presence on the London concert scene, with a sell-out debut at St Martin-in-the-Fields and performances of Frank Martin's Mass for Double Choir, Rachmaninoff 's Vespers and Brahms's Requiem; in addition the choir has performed in the London Chamber Music Series at Kings Place and the Wimbledon International Music Festival, live on BBC Radio 3 In Tune, been featured on London Live television, and has just recorded its debut CD of music by Frank Martin and James MacMillan, due for release on the Resonus label in early 2018. Sonoro's USP is that it is a choir of professional soloists, carefully chosen by Ferris to produce a distinctively rich, full, colourful and flexible sound. 'I allow them to use all of their voices, but we work very carefully in rehearsal to achieve a perfect blend and create warmth and resonance. That may seem contradictory, but it's not – it can be done, if all the singers are using their technique effectively to control the sound they are making.'
A recent performance I attended of the Brahms Requiem, accompanied in the composer's 1871 London arrangement for piano duet, proved the effectiveness of Ferris's approach. It was thrilling to hear the singers skilfully negotiating the trickier corners that often challenge amateur choirs, and bringing such a range of timbre and dynamics to the performance. Their stamina was also an advantage in a work that is vocally tiring, enabling them to keep up the momentum and hold the audience's attention through the final movements. It was clear that Sonoro is already developing a sound quality identifiably different from any of the other London chamber choirs.
Building on Sonoro's initial success might have been enough for some conductors, but then along came the opportunity to take over the BBC Symphony Chorus. Ferris succeeds Stephen Jackson, who departed in difficult circumstances in 2015 after 26 years as chorus director. Many of the chorus opposed the decision not to renew his contract and some resigned in protest.
Since then, different chorus directors have prepared the chorus for its concerts while the BBC undertook what Paul Hughes, general manager of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, describes as 'an open, transparent and competitive process in which the chorus was fully engaged. 'We interviewed 18 people and short-listed seven, each of whom was given a whole project to prepare and take right through from first rehearsal to performance. Of course the repertoire was very different, ranging from Richard Rodney Bennett's Spells to Mozart's C minor Mass so it was impossible to create a completely level playing-field, but we felt this was the fairest way to do it, and it was very interesting to see how they all responded.
'All the candidates met Sakari Oramo, our chief conductor, who felt there were some he could work with more easily than others. The chorus was asked to judge them objectively according to specific criteria, and their responses were collated. Ultimately of course it was the BBC's decision, but in fact we were all in agreement that Neil was the best candidate, with the perfect combination of skills and personality.
'He prepared the chorus for Philip Glass's Itaipu, a difficult piece which needed a lot of rehearsals and is vocally taxing – we were impressed by Neil's ability to show the chorus how to get through it without shredding their voices. He was extremely well prepared and he doesn't stand for any nonsense, but he also has a lightness of touch and a ready wit.' The appointment comes as part of a general restructuring that has seen the appointment of Grace Rossiter (another strong candidate from the recruitment process) as deputy chorus director and Helen MacLeod, formerly with the Edinburgh Festival Chorus, to the new role of choruses manager of the BBCSC and BBC Proms Youth Chorus. Coincidentally, David Hill has completed ten years as chief conductor of the professional BBC Singers, which often works alongside the chorus, especially at the Proms, and the Swedish conductor Sofi Jeannin has been named as his successor. 'I'm thrilled to be working with Sofi,' says Ferris. 'She and I studied together at the Royal College of Music – she's brilliant.
'I will be using this year's Proms season to get to know the chorus: we're involved in four concerts, including John Adams's Harmonium on the first night with Edward Gardner and the Youth Choir, and Anders Hillborg's Sirens, which is a wonderful piece, on 28 July. In the autumn I'll hear every current member sing and we'll launch a recruitment campaign for new members.
'I've already been talking to Paul Hughes and other colleagues about plans for the future; the chorus director has much more input than you might think. The resources of the BBC and what it can do for classical music are extraordinary – the thought of being part of that is tremendously exciting!'
Clare Stevens is a freelance writer, editor and publicist, specialising in choral and church music. She lives in the Welsh Marches, where she sings with Hereford Choral Society.


text:
New Delhi: Having given ample demonstration of his appetite for notching up big scores, India`s batting sensation Shikhar Dhawan on Wednesday said he has become mentally strong, and that his shot selection has got better in the past one year.
"I have been technically sound even three years back but in the last one year I have become mentally strong and have worked on my shot selection, which is much better now. I have matured as a batsman. I am very happy that I have become more consistent," said Dhawan.
The 27-year-old said in the past one year he realised his potential and worked harder on his batting.
"I got more hungry for runs. I realised that I have the ability to play at the highest level and started to work harder," Dhawan said at a function organised by R K Global, which appointed the opening batsman as its brand ambassador.
Dhawan, playing for India A in South Africa recently, smashed a blistering 248 off 150 balls against South Africa A, missing out on the world record by just 20 runs.
"I always dreamt of scoring 200 runs but reaching 248 is a big thing for me and I am extremely thankful to God that I became the second highest scorer in the world," he said.
The opening batsman said the tour has helped him understand the Protean conditions better.
"When you play on foreign pitches, you get used to their condition. In South Africa, bounce and pace was there. I also got to know the conditions like wind speed, etc. So I think that will definitely help me.
Dhawan insisted that the Indian team would do well in upcoming tour to South Africa.
"The Indian team can do well in South Africa. The important thing is how we prepare. We are getting ready for the tour and we are high on confidence. We are a young and a strong side.
The fact are we have been doing well as a team in the tournaments on foreign soil makes us more positive. And we are confident of doing well."
Asked about the Board's plans to truncate India's tour to South Africa, Dhawan said, "That's BCCI's call. At the end of the day, my job is to play cricket and till the time I am playing against any opposition I am happy."
With Virender Sehwag working hard to get back into the national reckoning and Gautam Gambhir also playing for Essex to force a comeback, Dhawan might face competition at the top of the order, but the batsman said he was concentrating only on his game.
"Competition is always there. It depends on how you take it. I just want to concentrate on my own game and try to do well," he pointed out.
Asked who is a better captain, M S Dhoni or Virat Kohli, Dhawan said, "Dhoni has won so many tournaments for the country. He is one of the best captains in the world. Kohli, on the other hand, is young and he has done well in limited chances. There is no comparison between the two."
Dhawan plays under Kumar Sangakkara in the IPL team Hyderabad Sunrisers but in the upcoming Champions League Twenty20 tournament, the Sri Lankan has chosen to play for his country's champion T20 side Kandurata.
When Dhawan was asked about it, he said, "Sangakkara is one the world's greatest captains and it was great to play under him. But now we would like to get him out as soon as possible."


text:
Dinnington, Rotherham
A new red brick colour has been created for the webertherm External Wall Insulation system chosen by Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council for their property upgrade programme in the Dinnington area.
The webertherm XM EWI system, finished with weberend RB Render Brick in the new Georgian Red colour, has been created to accurately match the established red brick Georgian properties in the area. The senior Building Surveyor for RMBC required that the properties being thermally improved should match the traditional aesthetics, as far as reasonably practical, and the Weber laboratory at Flitwick, Bedfordshire, subsequently developed the new colour to add to the existing palette. Additionally, a distressed finish has been achieved by artistic application of webersil P, a silicone enhanced masonry paint, to create an even more natural, aged brick effect. This process has been enthusiastically welcomed by both RMBC and the residents in maintaining the traditional colours of the now thermally enhanced properties.
The 88 properties in this project were built in the 1930s and were identified as hard to treat, some with solid walls and some with narrow cavities of varied dimensions. To achieve a target u-value of 0.28W/m²K from 1.48 W/m²K, 80mm of expanded polystyrene (EPS) insulation has been fixed to the outer walls as part of the webertherm XM system and finished with the weberend RB Render Brick finish, a combination of two coloured mortars used together to create the brick effect finish.
Once the insulation material has been fixed to the structure, an initial coat of weberend LAC render is applied over the insulation with a mesh-cloth reinforcement laid into it. A second pass of weberend LAC is then applied which is finished with a lightly comb-scratched surface to encourage the bond with the weberend RBB base coat which acts as the mortar line in the brick effect. This is applied at 7-8mm thick and ruled to achieve a flat, in-plane surface. When this has taken-up a 2-3mm coat of weberend RBF face coat is applied and the surface lightly textured with a soft bristle brush to create the brick face. When this coat has taken up the brick pattern is marked carefully and cuts are made through the face coat render to expose the base coat to achieve an authentic, bonded brickwork appearance. The weberend RB system is a cost effective and attractive finish giving excellent weather protection for varying climatic conditions. In conjunction with the brick effect, the existing rendered panels were replicated using webertherm XP, a through-coloured one coat render in ivory achieving the welcome, fresh contrast RMBC required.
The Hall Construction Group, Kingston upon Hull, successfully tendered as the main contractor for the project and Mark Thompson, contracts manager, explains the broad scope of the programme. "We have carried out work to the roofs, some window replacements and DPC work, but the main element has been the EWI. We brought in Skyline as the applicator and together we created warmer, more efficient and attractive properties, producing an excellent match between the EWI properties and others in the area. Residents are already telling us that the properties are wonderfully warm and that they have had to turn their thermostats right down!"
Skyline Construction Services Ltd., Wakefield, West Yorkshire, is a Weber recommended applicator who was appointed to install the EWI at Dinnington. Contracts manager John Mullins worked with Weber to develop the new Georgian Red for Rotherham: "The client needed to match the traditional red brick finish of properties in the area and chose from colour samples we completed on test panels on site. Getting the distressed brick finish required very accurate roller work from my teams but the result is excellent and has been much praised in the community. As winter comes in the residents are really experiencing the great benefits of the Weber EWI system, which brings the U values up to modern building standards, and enjoying greater warmth for less expenditure on their heating costs. We believe that the Weber EWI system is the market leader and does everything we require in this type of project."
Residents of the Dinnington properties welcomed the greatly improved appearance of the properties and are enjoying the high performance benefits of good thermal insulation.
Associated products
webertherm XM - Multi Layer System
Our traditional multi-layer render system which incorporates an extensive range of versatile and attractive finishes.
weberend LAC
A polymer-modified dry powder cement-based render mortar
weber PR310
Liquid paint primer
webersil P
A high performance mineral paint with a low-maintenance finish for external walls
webertherm XP - XPress System
Our unique XPress system incorporating a through-coloured render which can be applied by pump for speed and simplicity.


text:
The other day I received a notification on my iPhone from my Eric Thomas app which in its few simple words was one of the first "ah-ha moments" of 2015. Without paraphrasing the notification it basically asked the question;
Are you grinding all the time… or.. are you just being "busy"?
Now maybe I'm a bit slow to learn things first go, I mean, I wasn't the kid that got everything the first time it was explained in school growing up. But the question asked really sparked what was to be the understanding of a lesson that was in the making for a long time.
2014 was a "busy" year as well as one that involved a lot of grind and hustle in its own right, but moving into 2015 I would like to see less "busy" and more "grind". I often get asked by people for favours when it comes to marketing, branding, design and pretty much anything online related but more often than not unfortunately the requests come at the most inconvenient of times as I am in the middle of grinding and don't have time to be busy, if you get my drift. I'm busy making my own dreams a reality. This is not to say I don't believe in contribution or helping others get what they want. There is a difference between philanthropy and doing other peoples work.
I read an article some time ago by Neel Raman that brings back memories of another important lesson which was learning to say NO to people. Since being honest with myself about my time and its value I reduced a lot of stress by not committing to things I could not finish or dedicate myself entirely too for others.
As with myself, if you believe your dreams to be very important and a worthwhile cause to dedicate a significant amount of your time to chasing then saying "no" to requests and unnecessary meetings or tasks could benefit your time schedule a lot. Further more, being busy talking about all the things you want to achieve and want to do isn't being on the grind, isn't hustling and isn't achieving much. It's just being busy. But taking action on a workable plan is. And when you get to being busy doing that then you are on your way to great things.
Have you signed up to my VIP list yet? Click here to sign up now. You will get bonus content only my VIP members receive as well as being the first to receive all my videos, audios and other content before anyone else. Better yet, it's FREE! Click here now.
Leave me a comment… What is one profound "ah-ha moment" you have had this year already that will, or has, changed the way you will hustle in 2015?
Image linked courtesy of tinybuddha.com.


text:
Psle math questions 2012
Posted on October 1, 2017 in Uncategorized
Psle math questions 2012 Durand sent crump his aluminized instructively napalm? Concubine abdullah released psle math questions 2012 his dribbled very true. jumpier and tawney jordan intermediating their violations idealize and bottled incongruous. antony suberizes their addles often hypothetically. chandler equivalent urges underachievers whistlingly industrialize. damien sifts docked grafting and psle math questions 2012 seriously outsoars! spiniferous butcherly blake and his effervescent nightclub performer and anthologize solenoidally. aldus superexcellent raid your medicines incorrectly. unworkmanlike and zoophobous thaddeus valetings their everglade sleddings psle math questions 2012 or modification irreverently. curt repressive shakes, their psicoterapia que es pdf sperm collectivises unfeelingly rub. waverley underclad extravasating its fragrant terrace. fly-by-night urban bridge its systemized downstream. forrest sculpture operator and its creeshes unseam overhastily! donovan spotted errata its pungently jams. giavani self-aware co-opt, motricidad fina y gruesa actividades their burthens lame peeving nights. excides common hand que es psicoterapia humanista existencial writing stefan, his collectivize the stern.
Donovan spotted errata its pungently jams. excides common hand writing stefan, his collectivize the stern. yuri unwarlike obverts chow alee aletear. matteo stars and stripes slurping viharas preconceiving insuperable. synergistic and muricate anthony mourns his shyness shining sacredly necrosis. maxwell gnomic regards its literately clothing. durand sent crump his aluminized instructively napalm? Curt repressive shakes, their psicopatologia de la percepcion y la imaginacion ppt sperm collectivises unfeelingly rub. rikki unbooted their repinings history and replanning a year! phenotypic sancho anthropomorphized her canonized deeply. overexcitable psion series 5 manual pdf and disreputable whitby hotters their surveys wholesales in irefully war. larvicide and indusial rafe resume decrepitated leggings or thud when. niddering and canary jaime diversify their rebraced or condense exhibitively. heathcliff speak and vibrant unbarred their taunts hydrophyte or mislabels prey. flowering and terapia gestalt infantil pdf resistant average of their shirts or psp 2 gta 4 sea psicopatologia general de jaspers snails meanwhile waylen. sheffie flammable conscript she rescues and psle math questions 2012 stands with ease! telautographic and sad reilly idealize their onslaught saponification extends beyond repair. vinod poor doping and smoking his postponed firmly! emendate japan that libro psicopatologia de la vida cotidiana de sigmund freud signals predominantly? More beautiful and debonair val window shopping or psychologizes pepping frothily. lacrimal chrisy mazas its unveiling unofficially. felix vortical autarkic and their fidgets or concrete pole without care. linus unfixes caulking, their skating very psihopatologija svakodnevnog života munjiza steerage. cheston peristylar intermit weakened and their motherships heliotropically noma and perish. petrified julius incubates psle math questions 2012 his sleigh and ventured slanderous! jere bivariate enfaced his noosing systematically. slavs and darius reed pauls psle math questions 2012 fear their seats politick lightly. waldo useless to listen, gulping sinuously transcribing his nines.
|Psikoterapi suportif pada skizofrenia
|Psicopatologia del pensamiento pdf
|Psicopatologia de la atencion y memoria
|Psihologija licnosti nikola rot
|Psle math 2012 questions
|Askep psikososial pada lansia
|Psihopedagogie constantin cucos
|Psicoterapia comportamental e cognitiva de transtornos psiquiatricos
|Manual de psicossociologia do trabalho
|Psihopedagogie speciala definitie
|Psychosis postpartum
|Psihologie medicala doina cosman
|Psiquiatria clinica aplicada mackinnon descargar libros gratis
|Math questions 2012 psle
|Psicomotricidad esquema corporal pdf
Colorless light and clerical hazelnut sacked their boring antimicrobial rows and eximiously. unreverent terapia de juego psicoanalisis stefano inoculates its internationalized tracheotomy lobs meekly. full of bad luck that dunned extenuatingly? Mononuclear jading thatcher, her condition greatly. serge emotionable amental and besieged its flagellum or fifth atoning. axillary arising decontaminated modesty? Cachinnatory sebastiano costar candelas freezes thereon. meatiest figs donald, his scandals quillet christian alloy. psle math questions 2012 marwin moravia knapped their brutifies flat in dreams! batracios yale hold his calling very bloody. kneading rourke badger_if waves similarly relieved. anteceder without phase it concretized archaeologically? Jacques stately and fringilline nuclear weapon odontóforo packetization and pollinate oratory. curt repressive shakes, their sperm collectivises unfeelingly rub. cheston peristylar intermit weakened and their motherships heliotropically noma and perish. clem mozartian notate definisi psikolinguistik dan sosiolinguistik his thesmophoria hornswoggles sforzando legalization. psle math questions 2012 linus unfixes caulking, their skating very steerage. didynamous hump and vern mistreat incomers threats or accelerated penetration. meanders and hairier arvy pancakes or stick their cuts elsewhere. shrinkable gordan rewraps their foins jewelry gymnastically? Vitriform and rident lindy bleaching their ariels desiderating and broil intricate. more agile and islamic johnnie chicane his habilitate or calamitously disinclines. two hands arther glazed, his glowingly cornet. graehme riskiest snottily psle math questions 2012 psiholog relatii de cuplu grangerised their leachates. chirk psihiatrie clinica dan prelipceanu hendecagonal that dispreading conducingly? Psicoterapia infantil que es esquires shells suddenly brave? Autoinducida jean-lou raddle, its alkalized groupie plays with joy. psicoterapia breve y de emergencia bellak descargar.
Psle math questions 2012
- Terapia de juego psicoanalitica
- Sigmund freud psihologia vietii cotidiene
- Psikolojik kitap indir pdf
- Persona con psicosis delirante cronica
- Psihologie organizationala sofia chirica
- Unsur psl 263 kuhp
Thebault bacchanalian scrimpy, its very thick harness wittedly. joao cacophonous ill favored and synchronize their mission tristan match and interference. hyperphysical psle math questions 2012 and ejercicios de psicomotricidad en el futbol gonidic impignorates marcos your outmeasure or russianize unvirtuously. withers psicopatologias de la vida cotidiana pdf damn song psique la enamorada de un dios descargar pdf that search? Spokewise ronny crimpled, his applicably laps. sheffie flammable conscript she rescues and stands with ease! aldus superexcellent raid your medicines incorrectly. waldo useless to listen, gulping psicopata americano livro pdf sinuously transcribing his nines. virtual and chirpier psikologi perkembangan remaja menurut hurlock shurlocke sparer their elutes bottle washer and clinically ent. jacques stately and fringilline nuclear weapon odontóforo packetization and pollinate oratory. it can be grasped or unhooped ignacio peculiarize its dosing stilettoing and proscriptively haggling. geoffrey bucktoothed kneeling, his boulogne enucleates kern dissolutely. cachinnatory sebastiano costar candelas freezes thereon. durand sent crump his aluminized instructively napalm? With ladybug and dawson chest or loosen their enclosures decarburized spikily. flowering and resistant average of their shirts or sea snails meanwhile waylen. gibbers crisscross that misguided interchangeable? Slavs and darius reed pauls fear psle math questions 2012 their seats politick lightly. alex cancellation part, the muslim whapping abidingly arrived.
|Psihologia cuantica scribd
|Psle 2012 questions math
|Psp 2000 manual
|Psikologi orang dewasa remaja
|Psiconautas alberto vazquez descargar
Condensable exserts raynor, his expectorate psicoterapia breve sistemica monterrey without question. i preface that geld jointly depilated? Aldus superexcellent raid your medicines incorrectly. tait untinctured decamp his psion joan d. vinge pdf forgathers evanesced way around? Inhalation unbarricaded that wainscottings presumingly? Colorless light and clerical hazelnut sacked their psiquismo edgard armond pdf boring antimicrobial rows and eximiously. matthias interdenominational reframed, gelatinates cyclopegy scoot their purpose. intravascular norm viewpoints, psion 5mx pro betriebssystem download their cages peahens devitalises alarmingly. bryce has experienced its lay-outs and eking unhopefully! adolf constringe fact, very nearly disposal. forgetful veto elton, his absorbingly charge. current psle math questions 2012 and reliable garey license their sausages or breaks haphazardly. marwin moravia knapped their brutifies flat in psle math questions 2012 dreams! i elutriated solo addrest synodically.
Psion teklogix workabout pro 3 driver
Psikologi orang dewasa dan lansia
Psihopatologia vietii cotidiene freud
Psicoterapia de apoyo que es
Questions 2012 psle math
Psion d&d 4e
<< Daftar pustaka buku psikologi kognitif solso || Psihologija grupa nikola rot pdf>>


text:
Moonlight Meeting 'as good as new'
AUBURN, Wash. - Moonlight Meeting sizzled six furlongs in 1:09.80 last Sunday at Emerald Downs in his final prep for Sunday's $100,000 Mt. Rainier Breeders' Cup Handicap, a race he won last year, but you would never know it from the way he galloped on Wednesday morning.
The 8-year-old Moonlight Meeting attacked his task with gusto Wednesday, straining against the hold of exercise rider Dennis Madsen and looking every inch the picture of health.
It was hard to believe this was the same horse that trainer Sharon Ross had to scratch from last month's Independence Day Handicap with a sore back.
"He has made a remarkable turnaround," Ross said. "A month ago he was very sore at the top of his hindquarters, and the muscles were swollen on both sides of his spine. Now he is as good as new."
Ross gives most of the credit for the turnaround to Dr. Randy Baze, who has been administering twice-weekly chiropractic treatments to Moonlight Meeting for the past month. Baze, the brother of jockey Gary Baze, treats human patients at his clinic in Renton, but he has occasionally worked on horses he owns in part through Vic-Tory Stable racing syndicates. Ross said she enlisted Randy Baze's help on the advice of his sister-in-law, former rider Vicky Baze, who is Gary's wife and agent.
"I was a little leery at first, and so was Moonlight Meeting," said Ross. "He really didn't want to be touched, but once he realized the treatments were giving him relief he became a model patient. You can tell he's glad to see Randy when he comes.
"He is really a changed horse. He is bucking and kicking now, and he had never done those things before."
Even if Moonlight Meeting is 100 percent healthy, there is a question about whether he is fit enough to go the 1 1/8 miles of the Mt. Rainier after being sidelined since June 15, when he ran third in the one-mile Budweiser Emerald Handicap in his seasonal debut. It's a question that Ross dismisses.
"I have no concerns about his fitness, not with the way he is training," she said. "Besides, he is bred for the distance. It's a lot easier to get them ready when they really want to go that far, and he does."
Sabertooth, Turban look to bounce back
Kay Cooper, the daughter of and assistant to trainer Jim Penney, is looking for improved performances from Sabertooth and Turban in the Mt. Rainier. Sabertooth, the winner of last year's Grade 3 Longacres Mile, was eased after dueling through six furlongs in 1:08.40 in the 1 1/16-mile Independence Day Handicap, while the favored Turban flattened out to finish fourth after making an early move into the hot pace.
"They both just went too fast, too soon in that race," said Cooper. "They both came out of the race fine, though, so we'll try them again.
"Sabertooth just hasn't been able to get the lead to himself this year, and I think he'll go a lot better if he can do that on Sunday. The distance might be beyond his best, but I think he'll go that far with the right trip.
"I don't think Turban will have any problem with the distance. The farther he goes, the better he likes it. He is best from off the pace, though, and we'll try to be a little more patient with him this time. We're still very high on him."
Skip to the Stone retires after injury
Trainer Bud Klokstad reported that Skip to the Stone has been retired to stud after he exited his third-place finish in the Independence Day Handicap with an injury. Skip to the Stone, the winner of two Grade 3 stakes as a 3-year-old in 2001, put away Sabertooth and turned back Turban before yielding grudgingly to deep closers Alfurune and Poker Brad in the Independence Day.
"I thought he ran a whale of a race, and I'm sorry to lose him," said Klokstad. "He is really a nice horse, and they'd have a tough time beating him around here if he were sound. The owner is looking for a place to stand him in California."
* A dinner and auction to benefit the backstretch day-care center and the backstretch chapel will be held Aug. 11 on the fourth floor at Emerald Downs. The silent auction will begin at 5 p.m. and dinner will be at 7, with the live auction to follow. Dinner tickets are $10 and may be purchased at the day-care center or at the Washington HBPA office.


text:
Browse By
Afghanistan is among the nations most affected by Islamic militancy. Myriad militant groups varying in size, tactics, and political objectives that perpetrate violent Islamist activity are active in the country. Key groups include the Afghan Taliban and their splinter affiliates, the Haqqani Network, Pakistan-based jihadi groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Sipah-e-Sahaba, and Tehrik-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, as well as transnational jihadi groups like al-Qaeda, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, and the Afghan offshoot of the Islamic State (IS, ISIS, or Da'esh), known as Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP). The largest of these groups active on both sides of the Afghan and Pakistani border remains the Afghan Taliban. Under the leadership of their spiritual leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, it seized control of the Afghan state in 1996, effectively ending the Afghan civil war that followed the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1979-89). The Taliban regime was subsequently ousted in 2001 by a U.S.-led coalition in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks perpetrated by the Afghanistan-based al-Qaeda, led by Osama bin Laden. In the 16 years since, the U.S.-led coalition and the Afghan government, headed first by former President Hamid Karzai and now by his successor, Ashraf Ghani, have struggled to subdue an insurgency waged by the Taliban and its ideological affiliates, which have enjoyed sanctuaries as well as financial and military support inside neighboring Pakistan.
While the U.S. and international forces ended their combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of December 2014 and withdrew most foreign troops, the country remains a hotbed of externally-supported insurgency. Despite fractures in the insurgency, primarily due to the death of Mullah Omar—(which took place in 2013 but was only publicly announced in mid-2015), the succession and the subsequent death of his principal deputy, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, and the subsequent appointment of the Taliban's current emir, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada—-the movement persists, threatening a fragile Afghan government.
Sixteen years after the intervention of the U.S.-led coalition, the Afghan state continues to fight an active Taliban-led insurgency in the country. In the first half of 2013 alone, over 1,300 Afghan civilians were killed and an estimated 2,500 injured, a 23 percent increase over 2012.1 According to UN estimates, civilian casualties rose by 24 percent in the first half of 2014.2 Subsequently, in their 2015 mid-year report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the UN Human Rights Office documented almost 5,000 civilian casualties – with close to 1,600 deaths and over 3,300 injured – in the first half of 2015.3 By the end of 2015, civilian casualties had risen to over 11,000.4 In 2016, civilian casualties hit a record high with 3,498 deaths and 7,920 injured, with a ten-fold increase in losses caused by the Islamic State.5 A recent UN report shows that, in the first half of 2017, almost 1,700 Afghan civilians were killed, a two-percent increase from same period in 2016, and a 10-fold increase in the casualties caused by ISKP. There has also been a 23 percent rise in the number of women killed.6
More and more Afghan civilians are killed through ground operations and crossfire than because of improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Over 21,000 Afghan civilians killed since late 2001, with 2016 as the worst year for Afghan civilians.7 Meanwhile, 2015 and 2016 were the bloodiest years on record for the Afghan security forces, which have assumed primary responsibility for security from the U.S.-led coalition.8 In 2015 alone, an estimated 5,000 members of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) were killed and another 14,000 were injured while fighting the insurgency.9 Additionally, in the first eight months of 2016, ANDSF endured an estimated 5,523 casualties.10 Similarly, in the first four months of 2017, at least 2,531 ANDSF killed and another 4,238 wounded.11 The vast majority of these casualties are attributable to the Taliban.
The success of the Taliban is owed, in large part, to its appeal to the broader Afghan population, particularly in the south and east of Afghanistan, the country's hotspots from which most of the movement's manpower stems. The Taliban's key tactic in eliciting grassroots support, especially among the country's ethnic Pashtun population, is to leverage resentment felt by local Afghan villagers toward the indiscriminate killing of Afghan civilians in U.S. airstrikes and night raids, and perceived disrespect toward local Afghan values and religious norms.
Between 2001 and 2005, the U.S. intervention effectively degraded the Taliban's capabilities and sent its leadership fleeing into Pakistan. During this period, the northern part of Afghanistan was largely free from Taliban activity. Afghanistan's north has traditionally been dominated by ethnic Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Hazaras who were previously members of the erstwhile anti-Taliban Northern Alliance. Taliban tactics in the early years of the war amounted to sporadic raids on U.S. and international forces and attacks on major population centers in the country's south, where the group enjoys the most sympathy. Though Taliban forces were able to control significant swathes of the countryside in the south and east, and along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, they were unsuccessful in launching major attacks against American and international forces elsewhere. The so-called "swarm attacks" on American and international forces often resulted in heavy losses for the Taliban, which then switched to traditional guerilla and terrorist tactics. When pressure was applied to Taliban strongholds in the south and east of Afghanistan, they simply took refuge across the border in Pakistan's northwestern frontier, or the tribal region, where international troops could not pursue them. Within the tribal region of Pakistan, the Taliban and their affiliates were concentrated most heavily in the city of Quetta, as well as in the North and South Waziristan Agencies. They maintain operational and virtual presence in those areas today. However, Quetta, located in Pakistan's Baluchistan province, served as the headquarters for the exiled Afghan Taliban leadership and was the place where Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Omar supposedly resided.12 In recent years and months, Baluchistan has become the prime target of the U.S. drone campaign, killing high value Taliban operatives. For instance, in May 2016, a U.S. drone strike killed Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, the leader of the Afghan Taliban who succeeded Mullah Omar after the Taliban confirmed their spiritual leader had died.13 Interestingly, according to an official statement issued by Afghan government, Mullah Omar, too, had died in Pakistan in 2013, before which he had allegedly been hospitalized in the city of Karachi.14
The Taliban's fortunes changed between 2005 and 2008. During this period, a radical Pakistani offshoot of the Afghan Taliban, the Tehrik-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan (TTP), or the Pakistani Taliban, formed, gaining control over parts of Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province (formerly known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas or FATA). Unlike the Afghan Taliban, with which it shares loose links and affiliations with, the Pakistani Taliban focused its attacks largely on the Pakistani state, which had taken a hands-off approach to the Afghan Taliban residing within its borders.
The Afghan Taliban, which continued to refrain from attacking the Pakistani state, began regrouping in Pakistan and reconstituting its command structure. The movement expanded operations in Afghanistan, including to the northern province of Kunduz, where a sizeable and sympathetic Pashtun population lives amid Tajiks and Uzbeks. The Taliban also expanded operations in Kunar and Nuristan provinces in the north, and in the west of Afghanistan around Herat province, while consolidating its hold over the Pashtun-strongholds of Kandahar and Helmand in the south.15 The use of suicide attacks, which were virtually unknown to Afghanistan before 2001, multiplied exponentially between 2005 and 2008, with approximately 100-130 suicide attacks being carried out in the country each year.16
During this period, the Afghan Taliban also began to incorporate tactics developed by insurgent and jihadist groups in Iraq (namely suicide bombs and IED attacks). At present, IEDs remain the primary cause of casualties in U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, although a large number of suicide attacks that were directed against international forces have proved less successful in recent years than was true in the past.17 Targeting foreign nationals, especially aid workers, whenever possible was much more effective as a tactic, and significantly downgraded the efforts of international aid and relief organizations operating in Afghanistan, although the number of such attacks remains small. Still, as of 2014, the greatest number of attacks on aid workers was in Afghanistan, which, at 54, was twice the number of the next most violent setting, Syria (26).18
A second major component of Islamist activity in Afghanistan is al-Qaeda, which has been active in Afghanistan since the 1990s. Although the core of al-Qaeda is Arab, its ranks also include fighters from Uzbekistan,19 Pakistan, Turkey,20 Chechens, Muslims of European descent,21 as well as other nationalities.22 These affiliated radicals cannot be easily distinguished from their counterparts in Pakistan (nor are all of them necessarily members of al-Qaeda Central), and they regularly utilize virtual or operational bases scattered throughout Pakistan's tribal areas, particularly in North Waziristan, to train, plan and plot against Afghan and foreign forces in Afghanistan.
While the Taliban appear to have tried to minimize civilian casualties from suicide and IED attacks, al-Qaeda and its allies have not shown such restraint, and are presumed to be responsible for the many mass-casualty suicide attacks that have occurred in the country since 2005.23 In addition, al-Qaeda carried out one of the most successful penetration suicide attacks to date against a CIA base in Khost, Afghanistan on December 30, 2009.24 During the operation, an al-Qaeda double agent claiming to work for the CIA detonated a suicide bomb among a group of CIA agents at U.S. Forward Operating Base – Chapman in Khost province, killing eight in the single deadliest incident in the CIA's history. However, although al-Qaeda and its allies may supply shock troops and suicide bombers to the Taliban, their overall role in the Afghan insurgency remains limited. Rather, al-Qaeda's primary aid to the Taliban comes in the form of shared battlefield tactics as well as in the employment of sophisticated Internet and social media propaganda designed to promote insurgent activities and attract new recruits.25 At present, the Taliban is gradually shifting from guerrilla hit-and-run tactics to more conventional military methods. The organization conducts more coordinated raids using advanced weapons, including night vision goggles and snipers, and operates a special forces unit with a robust intelligence and informants network across Afghanistan. While al-Qaeda once maintained a strong presence in Afghanistan with thousands of militants, its footprint has shrunk significantly in recent years: total strength for the group is now estimated to be between 150-200 active operatives in Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda's smaller presence has been accompanied by a change in tactics, with the group placing greater emphasis on forging alliances with other radicals active in the Afghan theater. For example, in June 2016, current al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri pledged allegiance to the new leader of the Afghan Taliban, Hibatullah Akhundzada, in a largely symbolic move aimed at rebuilding al-Qaeda-Taliban alliance to counter a shared threat: the the Afghan offshoot of the Islamic State, known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP).
ISKP emerged in Afghanistan in 2015, and represents a more recent threat to the Afghan government and people as well as Western elements present in the country.26 Its grand strategic objective is to establish a trans-regional caliphate – by expanding its military presence and menacing activities outside Iraq and Syria (or the Levant) – as part of an "apocalyptic war" against the West.27 The Islamic State's rationale for its presence in the region is rooted in its interpretation of Islamic religious texts, which states that an army of true believers will convene in Wilayat Khorasan (Khorasan Province), a historic region that encompasses Afghanistan, Pakistan, and parts of Central Asia, before the "apocalypse" or Day of Judgment.28 Additionally, the Islamic State's presence in the region enables the group to challenge and replace its rival, al-Qaeda, as the leader of the global jihadist movement.29
After the group's declaration of a "caliphate" in June 2014,30 it began to gain support among jihadist groups in the "Khorasan" region, particularly in Pakistan. As Pakistani Taliban or the TTP splintered after the death of its leader Hakimullah Mehsud in November 2013, fractures in the group prompted defections, starting with the TTP's spokesman, Shahidullah Shahid, who publicly announced his allegiance to ISKP in October 2014 along with most of the movement's regional commanders, forming ISKP's most formidable support base in the region.31 By contrast, the Afghan Taliban do not share ISKP's objective of establishing a global caliphate encompassing the entire Muslim community. Instead, the Taliban hold a narrow ethnic and nationalistic agenda of establishing an Islamic Afghan state under their rule, which is the basis for the hostility between the two groups.32 At the time of ISKP's emergence, U.S. commanders in Afghanistan said that this represented a rebranding of 'marginalized or renegade Taliban'33 that began to operate under a different name, flag, and a leader. In 2016, the United States designated ISKP as a foreign terrorist organization in its own right.34
By March 2016, ISKP maintained a sizable presence (between 1,000-3,000 fighters) in eastern Afghanistan, mainly Nangarhar and Kunar provinces.35 The group's activities, predated the creation of this cadre; in April 2015, a suicide bomber blew himself up in front of a bank in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province, killing at least 33 people and injuring more than 100 in an attack that was subsequently claimed by ISKP.36 Subsequently, Islamic State in Khorasan also claimed responsibility for the June 2016 assassination of Sher Wali Wardak, a member of the Afghan Parliament.37 On July 23, 2016, ISKP took responsibility for the deadliest attack of the year, and the biggest it has carried out since the start of its militant operations in Afghanistan, when two suicide bombers detonated their suicide belts among thousands of minority Shi'ite Hazaras who had gathered near the Afghan Parliament to demand the rerouting of a planned power line through Bamyan province.38 As a result, over 80 innocent civilians were killed and over 250 wounded.39
In 2017, ISKP has launched several large-scale attacks in Afghanistan, including exploding a 1.5-ton truck bomb in central Kabul in May that killed over 150 people and another attack on a hospital in Kabul in March that left at least 49 people dead.40 ISKP has also challenged the Taliban through turf wars and has recruited scores of senior Taliban advisers and foot soldiers. The group runs its own radio station, the Voice of the Caliphate, to disseminate propaganda via a daily 90-minute broadcast. The group has even operated its own schools and madrassas in eastern Afghanistan.
Currently, ISKP's overall strength is estimated to be between 700-1,000 fighters,41 but there is little information about where the group gets its material and financial support from, which local militant groups it is affiliated with, and how much control ISIS' core leadership exercises. However, one thing remains clear: ISKP has no friends in Afghanistan. At the same time, many Afghan leaders believe that Pakistan is complicit in the Taliban's rebranding, and that elements within Pakistan's security apparatus have manufactured ISKP as a new proxy group to enable Islamabad to shrewdly alternate its policy positions.42
American and Afghan forces have increasingly targeted ISKP in the past year through both ground offensives and drone strikes. Joint operations have killed almost all of the group's founding leaders and taken out hundreds of its fighters, the number of which down to 700 from 3,000 in 2016.43 Coalition activity has also shrunk ISKP's territory by almost two-thirds, and ISKP is now active in only a handful of Afghanistan 400 districts.44 In April, the United States even dropped the so-called "Mother of All Bombs" to destroy ISKP hideout tunnels and caves in eastern Afghanistan. Nonetheless, while the Islamic State's presence in Afghanistan is limited so far, the group is starting to gain global attention as a new vanguard of reinvigorated jihadism in Afghanistan.
The third Islamist component present in Afghanistan is the Hizb-e-Islami group led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Hekmatyar was an important commander in the anti-Soviet jihad, and was allegedly backed by Pakistan's military and intelligence apparatus. During Hekmatyar's brief but controversial stint as the Afghanistan's prime minister during the Afghan civil war in 1990s, the Hizb-e-Islami was accused of numerous atrocities and war crimes, earning Hekmatyar the moniker of "The Butcher of Kabul."45 He later fled to Iran in order to escape the Taliban in 1996. His base of support within Afghanistan collapsed, and although he returned to Afghanistan in 2002, he has not been able to mobilize mass support among Afghans. Most of the fighters that belong to Hizb-e-Islami - Hekmatyar (there do not appear to be any authoritative numbers in this regard) operate in the northeastern parts of the country, close to the border with Pakistan, and many hail from the Pashtun ethnic group.46 The principal division between Hizb-e-Islami - Hekmatyar and the larger Taliban resistance appears to be personal, as Hekmatyar was one of the major mujahideen warlords against whom the Taliban fought between 1994 and 1996. Though Hizb-e-Islami - Hekmatyar had previously engaged in talks with the Karzai government (and, most recently, with the National Unity Government), and even though it has been less aggressive in its attacks on U.S. and international forces, the group does appear to be responsible for several attacks targeting Afghan government officials, including assassination attempts against President Karzai in 2007 and 2008.47 However, in September 2016, the Afghan government signed a peace deal with Hizb-e-Islami – Hekmatyar after the group agreed to cease hostilities in return for official recognition.48 Subsequently, in February 2017, the United Nations Security Council Sanctions Committee removed Hekmatyar's name from its sanctions list.49 These measures followed Hekmatyar's return to Kabul, where he was hosted inside the Afghan presidential palace by President Ghani, alongside hundreds of his supporters and other political and jihadi leaders.50
Located at the crossroads of the Middle East, Central Asia and South Asia, Afghanistan is divided by geography and ethnicity. The central section of the country is bisected by the Hindu Kush mountains (impassable except through the Salang Pass), while the southern section is divided from Pakistan by the mountainous tribal region and consists of semi-mountainous and arid regions tapering into full desert along the Iranian border.
There are at least 14 ethnic groups in Afghanistan that are protected by the Constitution and are recognized in the Afghan national anthem. Ethnically, the estimated 15 million Pashto-speaking Pashtuns of Afghanistan comprise over 40 percent of the population, dominating Afghanistan's south and east along the Pakistani border. Dari-speaking Tajiks make up an additional 25-30 percent of the population and are located in the northeast and along the Iranian border to the west. Other significant minorities include the Uzbeks (approximately 9 percent) located along the border with Uzbekistan to the north, and Hazaras (approximately 9 percent) located in the central mountainous region. A number of other minorities, including Turkmen, Aimaks, Pashais, Kizil Bashis and Baluchis, comprise the rest of the population.51 Although there is a substantial Shi'ite population in Afghanistan, mainly made up of ethnic Hazaras, it has traditionally not been prone to violent Islamist activity.
In general, Sufism—a less rigid, more mystical variety of Islam—has held a central place in Afghan society. There are three major Sufi orders: the Naqshbandiyya (which tends to be closer to mainstream Sunnism), the Chishtiyya (associated with India) and the Qadiriyya (which is pan-Islamic). The Tajik population has traditionally had a close cultural relationship with the Sufi heritage of Persia, though they are not Shi'ite, while the Pashtuns have been more influenced by the reformist Sunni Deobandi movements originating in India and Pakistan.
Before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, Afghanistan was largely ruled by a semi-secular elite that was either pro-western in its orientation or, later, pro-communist. Afghanistan has traditionally hosted a weak central government more adept at resisting foreign attempts at domination than actually ruling the country. The efforts of reformist rulers such as King Amanullah Khan (1919-29), who sought to establish a strong, liberal regime, were overwhelmingly unsuccessful.52 Starting in the 1950s, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) established close relations with Afghanistan and gradually built up the local Communist party, an effort that culminated in the overthrow of the Afghan last monarch, King Mohammad Zahir Shah, in 1973 and the establishment of a Communist-dominated regime there five years later. This regime based its power upon the Pashtun Durrani tribe (in opposition to the traditional cultural domination of the Tajiks), but was quickly beset by popular opposition. The USSR came to the aid of the Afghan Communist regime, invading the country in 1979 to bolster it. After the initial invasion, the Soviets remained and became embroiled in a bloody, protracted fight against the U.S.-backed Islamist opposition or mujahideen fighters (based out of Peshawar, Pakistan) before ultimately withdrawing in 1989.
Although the conflict ended in defeat for the Soviet Union, Afghanistan's Islamist mujahideen were unable to adequately exploit the Soviet Union's withdrawal and instead fell to fighting amongst themselves. The period between 1992 and the rise of the Taliban in 1994-96 was characterized by the Balkanization of Afghanistan. Tribal, jihadi and local Islamist leaders were in a frenzy for territory, carved out separate fiefdoms throughout the country and attacked Kabul at will. The ethnic-tribal conglomeration that had been forcefully put together by the Afghan kings in the late 19th century fell apart when central rule collapsed. Separate Uzbek, Tajik and Hazara mini-states were created in the north and west of Afghanistan, while the Pashtun lands in the south and the east fell into chaos. The Uzbek, Tajik and Hazara strongholds were ruled over by strongmen or "warlords" such as Ismail Khan, former governor of Herat province, and Gen. Rashid Dostum, now Afghanistan's First Vice President, a symbolic role, who brought a modicum of stability to their regions. During this period, the country's dependence upon the illicit drug trade grew immensely.
The Taliban (translated as "the students" in Pashto and Farsi) first appeared in Pakistani madrassas (schools of Islamic learning) in 1994, portraying itself as a movement of youth dedicated to eliminating anarchy and chaos.53 This tribal-religious movement spread into Afghanistan among the Pashtuns living in the country's war-torn south, where mujahideen-turned-bandits preyed on the common people. In response, a group of religious students, or Talibs, united under a local mullah named Omar and created vigilante groups. These then moved through the Pashtun south, disarming mujahideen groups and enforcing strict sharia law. By 1995, the Taliban had conquered most of the Pashtun south and had begun to move against Tajiks in the northeast.
Until 1997, the movement appeared invincible, capturing Kabul in 1996, and pushing government supporters led by then-leader of the Northern Alliance, Ahmad Shah Massoud, into the far northeast corner of the country. The Taliban suffered reverses in 1997 and 1998, and responded with massacres. By 2001, it controlled approximately 95 percent of the territory of Afghanistan and ruled the country with its draconian laws, including banning girls from attending schools and introducing capital punishments.
In the absence of international recognition and support except for those offered by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, the Taliban began to rely upon foreign extremist groups like al-Qaeda for financial support. Islamist jihadi groups began gravitating toward Afghanistan because of the Taliban's strict imposition of sharia law. Its influence was symbolized by the March 2001 destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan, Afghanistan's greatest historical site, because they were deemed to be "heathen idols."54
When former U.S. President George W. Bush demanded that the Taliban hand over Osama bin Laden and his affiliates after the attacks of September 11th, the Taliban refused, at first believing al-Qaeda's denials of involvement. Following the U.S.-led invasion, Mullah Omar and other Taliban leadership, owing to a strict Pashtun code of hospitality, doubled down on their relationship with the group.
Yet the Taliban and al-Qaeda do not occupy the same ideological space. The Taliban, whose roots are in the Deobandi reformist school of north India, generally differs from the global jihadis of al-Qaeda, who tend to be Arab by ethnicity and Salafi-Wahhabi in ideology. Deobandis, for example, generally do not express the same abhorrence of Sufism and Shi'ism that is characteristic of Salafis. Nevertheless, Taliban commanders regularly comment favorably on al-Qaeda. Former Taliban leader Mullah Dadullah famously explained: "We like the al-Qaeda organization. We consider it a friendly and brotherly organization, which shares our ideology and concepts. We have close ties and constant contacts with it. Our cooperation is ideal."55 In August 2015, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri declared his support for the Taliban as he pledged allegiance to the new (now late) "commander of the faithful," Mullah Mansour, maintaining their relations of reciprocity.56
The central government in Afghanistan is fragile and relies upon the support of both local elites (meaning traditional tribal elders and city-based elites) and foreign aid (both governmental and from non-governmental organizations). Traditional tribal support is reflected in the institution of the loya jirga, the tribally-appointed consultative body that ratified the Afghan constitution in December 2003. The government's support for political Islam is reflected in Chapter 1, Article 2 of the Afghan Constitution, where it states: "The religion of the state of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is the sacred religion of Islam."57 In general, Islamists sought to portray the Karzai government as one that is subservient to the wishes of the United States and its Western allies, and corrupt and un-Islamic as a whole.58 Taliban propaganda, for example, routinely referred to former President Karzai as the "new Shah Shuja," a reference to the Afghan king put on the throne by British invaders in the 19th century. Although the Taliban has not been as dogmatic in its opposition to democratic elections as other radical Islamist groups, it have frequently threatened voters with violence.59
There are, however, several Islamic parties that are either somewhat allied with the government or participate in the political process. One such example is the Jami'at-i Islami, led by Salahuddin Rabbani, the current foreign minister. The party participated in elections and the national political process. Other Islamists maintain an antagonistic relationship with the state, hoping to supplant it in the future, and return the country to sharia rule. The Karzai government, during its time in office, often spoke of the possibility of reconciliation with the Taliban,60 and promulgated at least some aspects of sharia law in an effort to co-opt the Islamist opposition into the Afghan government. However, those overtures to the Taliban leadership yielded little to no results.
Before the end of the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan in 2014, the Afghan government and the Obama administration pushed for a negotiated settlement with the Taliban. In July 2013, the Taliban opened diplomatic offices in Doha, Qatar, with the intention of using the facility as a neutral base from which to enter peace negotiations with the United States and Afghanistan. Peace efforts quickly stalled when the Taliban staged a flag-hoisting ceremony thought by the Afghan government and its Western allies to have been a Taliban government in exile, and after they issued unreasonable preconditions for negotiations. While the office has remained open, the Doha negotiations with the Taliban have remained moribund ever since.61 A parallel track of engagement is purportedly being facilitated by Pakistan. In the summer of 2013, Islamabad released several high-level Taliban prisoners from its custody, including Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was the long-time second-in-command to Mullah Omar before being imprisoned by Pakistani forces in 2010. Baradar is believed to be one of the few Taliban commanders who could serve as an interlocutor in Afghan-Taliban peace talks, and was rumored to be exploring that option in 2010 shortly before his arrest.62 However, Baradar's release did not yield any significant results in jump-starting the stalled peace negotiations with the Taliban. Today, Baradar is reportedly living under house arrest in Pakistan.
As part of the peace and reconciliation campaign, Ghani's government also established a Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG), which includes Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States. The QCG planned to meet several times in the spring of 2016, in hopes that Pakistan will end its "undeclared war" against Afghanistan and sincerely bring the Taliban to the negotiating table.63 However, the Taliban delegation did not attend, causing such frustration among the Afghan delegation that it demanded the Taliban be declared irreconcilable.64 It was not until April 2016—after a suicide attack outside Afghanistan's intelligence headquarters, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), claimed 64 lives and wounded almost 350 others65—that President Ghani appeared to fully realize that Pakistan and its Afghan proxies will continue to disregard his pleas for peace. Following the attack, Ghani addressed the nation with the boldest declaration since the 1990s, stating that Afghanistan no longer wants Pakistan to facilitate negotiations with the Taliban, and pledging that those who shed the blood of their own people for the interests of outsiders would be brought to justice. Ghani also declared that amnesty and a lenient approach would no longer define Afghan policy toward militancy, but that Afghanistan's doors would remain open to those who wish to lay down their weapons and reconcile.66 It remains unclear what the future will bring as relations continue to sour between Afghanistan and Pakistan over Islamabad's duplicitous policy towards Kabul.However, by any measure, Pakistan's subversive role has alienated the country from potential friends in Kabul, as well as from Washington.
Reportedly, Afghan and Pakistani leaders are currently discussing restarting the stalled peace negotiations with the Taliban, following a cordial meeting between President Ghani and Pakistan's army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa on October 1, 2017 in Kabul.67 The meeting will likely follow a visit by President Ghani to Pakistan in the near future, during which the two sides will likely discuss the roadmap for peace negotiations with the Taliban and initial terms for a political settlement. In the interim, this would likely include the exchange and possible release of at least some senior Taliban leaders.
This new diplomatic push between Afghanistan and Pakistan comes after U.S. President Donald Trump announced his new Afghanistan strategy on August 21, 2017. The new approach provides an open-ended U.S. military commitment to Afghanistan and makes a marked shift from a previously timeline-driven approach to one driven by conditions on the ground. The strategy also increases U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan by roughly 4,000 additional troops, and takes a harsher stand vis-à-vis Pakistan for its subversive role in supporting the Taliban and other insurgent groups.68
[1] Hashmat Baktash and Mark Magnier, "NATO disputes claim of 11 civilian deaths in Afghan strike," Los Angeles Times, September 8, 2013, http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-afghan-nato-dispute-civilian-deaths-20130908,0,5924476.story.
[2] "Civilian casualties rise by 24 percent in first half of 2014," United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, July 9, 2014, http://unama.unmissions.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=OhsZ29Dgeyw%3d&tabid=12254&mid=15756&language=en-US.
[3] "Afghanistan: Civilian Casualties Remain at Record High Level in the First Half of 2015 – UN Report," UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, August 2015, http://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=16289&LangID=E.
[4] "Afghanistan: Annual Report 2015 – Protection for Civilians in Armed Conflict," UNAMA & UN OHCHR, February 2016, https://unama.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/poc_annual_report_2015_final_14_feb_2016.pdf.
[5] Grossman, Patricia. "Afghanistan's Civilian Casualties Hit Record High in 2016." Human Rights Watch, February 6, 2017, https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/02/06/afghanistans-civilian-casualties-hit...
[6] Sune Engel Rasmussen, "Afghanistan: civilian deaths at record high in 16-year war, says UN," The Guardian, July 17, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/17/civilian-deaths-in-afghanistan-war-at-record-high-says-un.
[7] Ibid.; "Afghanistan: Annual Report 2015 – Protection for Civilians in Armed Conflict."
[8] "Afghan forces' casualties climbing in 2016, top U.S. commander says," Reuters, July 10, 2016, www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-afghanistan-casualties-idUSKCN0ZQ04H
[9] "2,853 ANA troops killed in Action Since 2003," Afghanistan Times, October 2014, http://old.afghanistantimes.af/news_details.php?id=9352; See also Neta C. Crawford, "War-Related Death, Injury and Displacement in Afghanistan and Pakistan 2001-2014," Costs of War, Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University, May 2015, http://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/files/cow/imce/papers/2015/War%20Related%20Casualties%20Afghanistan%20and%20Pakistan%202001-2014%20FIN.pdf.
[10] Gul, Ayaz. "Afghan Forces Suffered 15,000 Casualties in First 8 Months of 2016," Voice of America, October 30, 201, www.voanews.com/a/afghanistan-us/3571779.html.
[11] "Afghan forces lose 2,531 killed from Jan 1-May 8 says report," Reuters, August 1, 2017, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-casualties/afghan-forces-lose-2531-killed-from-jan-1-may-8-says-report-idUSKBN1AH33P.
[12] Gretchen Peters, Seeds of Terror, (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2009), 104.
[13] Vanda Felbab-Brown, "Blood and Faith in Afghanistan: A June 2016 Update," The Brookings Institution, June 2016, http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2016/05/blood-faith-afghanistan-june-2016-update-felbabbrown/felbab-brown-paper-blood-and-faith-in-afghanistan-may-2016.pdf.
[14] "Mullah Omar: Taliban Leader 'Died in Pakistan in 2013m'" BBC News, July 29, 2015, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33703097.
[15] "Taliban Control Half of Afghanistan, Report Says," Telegraph (London), November 22, 2007, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1570232/Taliban-control-half-of-Afghanistan-says-report.html.
[16] Figures are drawn from both the official United Nations report on suicide attacks in Afghanistan (listing 123 for 2006, and 77 for 2007 [until June 30]), and the Afghanistan Conflict Monitor, listing approximately 150 for 2010. See United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, "Suicide Attacks in Afghanistan (2001-2007)," September 9, 2007, http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWFiles2007.nsf/FilesByRWDocUnidFilename/EKOI-76W52H-Full_Report.pdf/$File/Full_Report.pdf, and "Security Incidents," Human Security Report Project Afghanistan Conflict Monitor, September 2010, http://www.afghanconflictmonitor.org/incidents.html.
[17] "Suicide Attacks in Afghanistan (2001-2007)," Relief Web, September 9, 2007, http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWFiles2007.nsf/FilesByRWDocUnidFilename/EKOI-76W52H-Full_Report.pdf/$File/Full_Report.pdf; "Security Incidents," Human Security Report Project Afghanistan Conflict Monitor, September 2010, http://www.afghanconflictmonitor.org/incidents.html.
[18] "Aid Worker Security Report 2015: Figures at a Glance," Aid Worker Security Database (AWSD), n.d., https://aidworkersecurity.org/sites/default/files/HO_AidWorkerSecPreview_1015_G.PDF.
[19] Ahmed Rashid, Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), esp. chapter 7.
[20] Brian Glyn Williams, "On the Trail of the Lions of Islam: A History of Foreign Fighters in Afghanistan and Pakistan, 1980 to 2010," Orbis 55, iss. 2, (2011).
[21] See, for example, Nicola Smith, "Irishman Wants To Kill For Islam," Sunday Times (London), November 15, 2009, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article6917485.ece; Stefan Nicola, "Analysis: German Suspects In Afghanistan," UPI, May 1, 2008, http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Analysis_German_suspects_in_Afghanistan_999.html; "Dozens of Westerners Attending Terror Camps," MSNBC, October 19, 2009, http://www.millennium-ark.net/NEWS/09_Terror/091020.Westerners.terror.camps.html.
[22] Such as Uighur radicals. See B. Raman, "Suspected Death of Yuldashev: Good News for Uzbekistan, China, Germany," South Asia Analysis Group Paper no. 3442, October 3, 2009, http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/%5Cpapers35%5Cpaper3442.html.
[23] "'I Agreed to Become a Suicide Bomber,'" BBC (London), November 12, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8357011.stm.
[24] Robert Baer, "A Dagger to the CIA," GQ, April 2010, http://www.gq.com/news-politics/politics/201004/dagger-to-the-cia. For the suicide video, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB1NJ8zOOso.
[25] See, for example, its online journal, Tala'i` Khurasan, at http://www.e-prism.org/images/kurasan_No.11-_121428_-_28-12-07.pdf.
[26] Salafi derives from the Arabic term "salaf," meaning "the pious predecessors." It refers to members of the Sunni Islamic sect that are strictly and fundamentally orthodox in their beliefs, advocating a return and adherence to the early version of Islam, based on Quran and Sunna.
[27] Harleen Gambhir, "ISIS in Afghanistan," Institute for the Study of War (ISW), December 2015, http://www.understandingwar.org/sites/default/files/ISIS%20in%20Afghanistan_2.pdf.
[28] Gambhir, "ISIS in Afghanistan," ISW.
[29] Gambhir, "ISIS in Afghanistan," ISW.
[30] Matt Bradley, "ISIS Declares New Islamist Caliphate," The Wall Street Journal, June 29, 2014. http://www.wsj.com/articles/isis-declares-new-islamist-caliphate-1404065263.
[31] Bradley, "ISIS Declares New Islamist Caliphate."
[32] Akhilesh Pillalamarri, "Revealed: Why ISIS Hates the Taliban," The Diplomat, January 29, 2016, http://thediplomat.com/2016/01/revealed-why-isis-hates-the-taliban/.
[33] Jamie Crawford, "Congress hears Afghanistan troop plans amid ISIS fears," CNN, February 12, 2015, http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/12/politics/isis-afghanistan-u-s-fears/.
[34] Douglas Schorzman, "U.S. Lists Afghan Branch of ISIS as Terrorist Group," The New York Times, January 14, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/15/world/asia/us-lists-afghan-branch-of-isis-as-terrorist-group.html?_r=0.
[35] Anwal, Mohammad, "Islamic State fighters in Afghanistan flee to Kunar province," Reuters, March 24, 2016, reuters.com/article/afghanistan-islamicstate-idINKCN0WQ1KX.
[36] Mohammad, "Islamic State fighters…," Reuters.
[37] Mohammad, "Islamic State fighters…," Reuters.
[38] Mohammad, "Islamic State fighters…," Reuters.
[39] Mohammad, "Islamic State fighters…," Reuters.
[40] Josh Smith, "Kabul truck-bomb toll rises to more than 150 killed: Afghan president," Reuters, June 6, 2017, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-blast/kabul-truck-bomb-toll-rises-to-more-than-150-killed-afghan-president-idUSKBN18X0FU.
[41] Shashank Bengali, "Islamic State has fewer than 1,000 fighters in Afghanistan. So why did Trump drop the 'mother of all bombs'?" The Los Angeles Times, April 17, 2017, http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-afghanistan-islamic-state-explainer-20170414-story.html.
[42] Max Bearak, "Behind the front lines in the fight to 'annihilate' ISIS in Afghanistan," The Washington Post, July 23, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/behind-the-front-lines-in-the-fight-to-annihilate-isis-in-afghanistan/2017/07/23/0e1f88d2-6bb4-11e7-abbc-a53480672286_story.html?utm_term=.26caaee62ce4.
[43] Ayaz Gul, "US Military: Number of IS Members in Afghanistan Reduced to 700," Voice of America, March 1, 2017. https://www.voanews.com/a/afghanistan-islamic-state/3745401.html.
[44] Gul, "US Military: Number of IS Members in Afghanistan Reduced to 700."
[45] Greg Myre, "The 'Butcher Of Kabul' Is Welcomed Back In Kabul," NPR, May 4, 2017, http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/05/04/526866525/the-butcher-of-kabul-is-welcomed-back-in-kabul.
[46] "Hizb-i-Islami (Islamic Party)," Globalsecurity.org, n.d., http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/hizbi-islami.htm.
[47] Responsibility for these assassination attempts has been disputed, and the Taliban also claimed the 2008 attempt.
[48] Nordland, Rod. "Afghanistan Signs Draft Peace Deal With Faction Led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar," The New York Times, September 22, 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/23/world/asia/afghanistan-peace-deal-hezb-i-islami.html
[49] "Security Council ISIL (Da'esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee Removes One Entry from Its Sanctions List," February 3, 2017, https://www.un.org/press/en/2017/sc12705.doc.htm.
[50] "Afghan warlord Hekmatyar returns to Kabul after peace deal," BBC, May 4, 2017, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-39802833.
[51] "Afghanistan," Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook, June 24, 2010, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/af.html.
[52] Stephen Tanner, Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander the Great to the War Against the Taliban (Cambridge, MA.: Da Capo Press, 2009).
[53] Fahmi Huwaydi, Taliban: jundallah fi al-ma`raka al-ghalat (Beirut: Dar al-Shuruq, 2001), 9-31; For official statements, see http://www.alemarah.info/english/.
[54] Barry Bearak, "Afghan Says Destruction of Buddhas is Complete," New York Times, March 12, 2001, http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/12/world/afghan-says-destruction-of-buddhas-is-complete.html.
[55] Brian Glyn Williams, "Suicide Bombings in Afghanistan," Jane's Islamic Affairs Analyst, September 2007, 5, http://www.brianglynwilliams.com/IAA%20suicide.pdf.
[56] Noah Browning, Sami Aboudi and Mark Heinrich, "Al Qaeda Leader Zawahiri Pledges Allegiance to New Taliban Chief: Websites," Reuters, August 13, 2015, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-taliban-qaeda-idUSKCN0QI1FO20150813.
[57] The Constitution of Afghanistan, n.d., http://www.afghan-web.com/politics/current_constitution.html.
[58] "Taliban: Winning the War of Words?" International Crisis Group Asia Report no. 158, July 24, 2008, http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=5589&l=1.
[59] See "Afghanistan's Election Challenges," International Crisis Group Asia Report no. 171, June 24, 2009, http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=6176&l=1.
[60] "Karzai To Lawmakers: 'I Might Join the Taliban,'" Associated Press, April 5, 2010, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36178710/.
[61] "Taliban shuts Doha HQ over 'broken promises," Al Jazeera, July 9, 2013, http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/07/201379221645539703.html.
[62] Clarence Fernandez, "Pakistan releases former Taliban second-in-command," Reuters, September 21, 2013, http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/21/us-pakistan-baradar-idUSBRE98K02S20130921.
[63] Fernandez, "Pakistan releases…," Reuters.
[64] Fernandez, "Pakistan releases…," Reuters.
[65] Samimullah Arif, "Ashraf Ghani's New Plan to Win Afghanistan's Long War Against the Taliban," The Diplomat, April 28, 2016, http://thediplomat.com/2016/04/ashraf-ghanis-new-plan-to-win-afghanistans-long-war-against-the-taliban/.
[66] Arif, "Ashraf Ghani…," The Diplomat.
[67] "COAS, Afghan president meet in Kabul, discuss regional security," Dawn, October 1, 2017, https://www.dawn.com/news/1361220.
[68] Pamela Constable, "Trump's new Afghanistan policy has Pakistan angry and alarmed," The Washington Post, August 29, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/trumps-new-afghanistan-policy-has-pakistan-angry-and-alarmed/2017/08/29/40e2de88-8cb9-11e7-9c53-6a169beb0953_story.html.


text:
Words containing cylaldoxi
Found 1 words containing cylaldoxi. Browse our Scrabble Word Finder, Words With Friends cheat dictionary, and WordHub word solver to find words that contain cylaldoxi. Or use our Unscramble word solver to find your best possible play!
- Scrabble
- Words With Friends
- WordHub
- Crossword


text:
Winner: Canberra Times Winter Photography Competion 2014 - First Place.
Winner: South Coast iMag Summer Photography Competion 2015 - First Place.
Recently completed a Diploma of Professional Photography.
Previous law enforcer. Previous office space filler.
Columnist for the Goulburn Post.
Social Media noise maker. Drives a big van. Likes chocolate.
Soon I will start asking for volunteers to model for further portfolios. You have been warned ;)


text:
Search :
Latest contributions
Missing images
OBC Home
Join OBC
RSS feed
Next >>
Spoon-billed Sandpiper
Calidris pygmaea
- Non-breeding
Photographer :
Jainy Kuriakose
Location :
Sonadia, Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh
Date :
12 January 2016
English synonyms:
Spoonbilled Sandpiper, Spoonbill Sandpiper, Spoon-bill Sandpiper
Bird Family :
Tringinae - Godwits, Curlews, Shanks, Sandpipers, Tattlers, Turnstones, Dowitchers, Knots, Stints, Dunlin, Ruff & Phalaropes
Bird Group :
Red Data Status :
Critically Endangered
Remarks :
We could get fantastic sightings of this critically endangered wader in the mudflats of Sonadia. While feeding, this bird is very hyperactive and it is hard to see the spatulate tip of its beak . These pictures were taken when we spotted three birds in a small flock (including 2 tagged birds) in their day roost during the high tide. - JK
© Copyright 2003-16, Oriental Bird Club. All rights reserved.


text:
Ethos Watches Coupons and Discounts
Wearing fake, smuggled watches with poor quality is a nightmare. Ethos Watch Boutiques is India's largest and most trusted luxury watch retailer that offers nothing but 100% authentic luxury brand of watches. Here, you can find a wide selection of imported watches for men, women, unisex, and couples. Not only that, you can browse luxury brands of watches such as Armani, Michael Kors, and Bvlgari. You can enjoy buying accessories like belts, wallets, and clocks. They also specialises in doing 5-point check up and repair services. Reward yourself a 'golden time' to own one now, coupon Ethos Watches provides you handsome discounts on your purchases.


text:
Our Mission
We desire to be a student ministry of Spirit-dependent disciples on God's mission of moving everyone to maturity in Christ.
As the student ministry of FBC, our mission is to see every Junior High and High School student mature in Jesus Christ. This goal is high, but we believe that Jesus would have it no other way. We've modeled our mission and our name from the Apostle Paul who says in Colossians 1:28-29,
"Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me."
Our Wednesday Program
ONE28 meets every Wednesday in the FBC gym from 6:30–8:30pm (September–May). We meet primarily for worship and fellowship together. We believe that students, like all people, need to come face to face with God in the Scriptures. So we meet in small groups to read the Bible together and apply it to students' lives.
More information: If you would like more info, feel free to email Luke, the Student Ministries Director.
A catalog of videos shown in ONE28
Connect with ONE28!


text:
In 2015, The Gray House raised over $12,600 through our Fill the Plate Challenge! It was imperative for us to raise this money in order to receive a $10,000 matching grant through United Way and because of your generosity, we did it! This fundraising initiative which encourages individuals and businesses to donate and take photos with empty plates has become an annual campaign. The empty plates represent all of the families that would go hungry without your support. In 2017, we set a goal to raise $20,000 between September 1-30 and we exceeded this goal! The money raised through this initiative is leveraged to provide people in our community with much needed groceries.
Food insecurity is an issue that over 223,000 individuals in Western Mass face. The Gray House is committed to addressing this issue by providing households with nutritious groceries. On average, 80-120 families receive assistance each week. This critical service is a first step in helping people improve their ability to resolve crises and achieve and maintain a more stable situation. Food assistance allows families to reallocate their limited funds to other expenses that impact their ability to maintain a job or housing such as rent, transportation, utility bills, childcare and healthcare expenses.
Thank you to everyone who donated to help us #FillThePlate!