What thread is that !? As far as I know they are supposed to be locked after 150 pages. I dont see how increasing that limit would help. As things stand, for any person who hasnt been a regular follower of a thread it is a daunting task to go through the present limit of 150 pages. On the other hand it is observed that the limit of 150 pages poses no obstacle to the celebrity fans on IF who go on making threads after threads to chat about their object of obsession. The links to prevoius threads are provided on the first post of the subsequent new threads. Some fans are enthusiastic enough to summarise the contents of previous threads for the benefit of new followers . I think its more a question of sustained interest and active participation by the members in any thread than the bandwidth per se. God seems to be up against stiff competition offered by the Gods of telly and bollywood !
Covered from head to foot in padded protective gear, but with his extremities still dangerously exposed, this Afghan bomb disposal expert took his life in his hands to defuse this suicide bomber's explosive vest.
Security forces captured the would-be martyr before he blew himself up in Jalalabad earlier today, hog-tying the man to stop him detonating the device.
But before the suspected terrorist could be taken in for interrogation, the bomb squad had to be called in for the risky job of disarming the bomb strapped across his chest.
Dangerous work: A member of the Afghan bomb disposal unit approaches a suicide attacker to defuse his explosive vest after he was captured before detonating it in Jalalabad province earlier today
One hundred miles down the Khyber Pass, in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, 17 people were not so lucky.
A car bomb exploded there as a convoy of paramilitary troops passed through the outskirts of the city, killing at least 17 people and wounding dozens of others.
It was one of three blasts which killed at least 43 people in different parts of Pakistan today, just as David Cameron visited the country's capital pledging help to fight extremism.
The heavily armoured Afghan National Army man gingerly, in scenes reminiscent of the blockbuster Hollywood war film The Hurt Locker, approached the suicide bomber wielding naught but a pair of wire cutters.
After carefully disabling the improvised device, the suspect was loaded, his face bloodied and still bound by his hands and feet, into a flat bed truck to be taken to a detention centre for questioning.
As the U.S.-led coalition which has occupied the country since 2001 negotiates the terms of its withdrawal, it is a task Afghans will increasingly find themselves carrying out.
The would-be martyr lies on the ground after his vest was defused: Before the suspected terrorist could be taken in for interrogation, the experts had to be called in for the risky job of disarming the bomb
Take him away boys: As the U.S.-led coalition occupying the country negotiates the terms of its withdrawal, dealing with such dangerous situations is a task Afghans will increasingly find themselves carrying out
The situation over the border in Pakistan is a sign of how bad things can be.
In the deadliest of today's attacks, twin blasts near a Shiite Muslim mosque in Quetta, the capital of south-west Baluchistan province, killed at least 22 people, including two women and several children.
Senior police officer Ishtiaq Ahmed said 65 others were wounded in the attack.
Initial reports indicated a hand grenade was used in the first blast, forcing people to run in the direction of the mosque, where a suicide bomber detonated his explosives, said another police officer, Fayaz Sumbal.
Murder: People shift bodies of the victims of a suicide attack targeting Shi'ite Muslims in Quetta, Pakistan
Designed to maim or kill: A man points to shrapnel damage in the walls of a building near the blast in Quetta
Radical Sunni Muslims have stepped up attacks in the past two years against minority Shiites, whom they consider to be heretics.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack. Suspicion will likely fall on the militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which has carried out many of the attacks against Shiites in Baluchistan in recent years.
In Peshawar most of the dead and wounded were civilians, although nine paramilitary Frontier Corps troops were hurt, said police official Shafiullah Khan.
The blast struck one Frontier Corps vehicle, but the other passed by safely.
Scenes broadcast by local television news networks showed that the explosion damaged many other vehicles and shops in the area. Frontier Corps vehicles rushed to the scene, and a police officer collected evidence from the crater caused by the bomb.
Elsewhere in the north-west, a roadside bomb struck an army convoy and killed four soldiers in the North Waziristan tribal area, the main sanctuary for Taliban and al Qaida militants in the country, said intelligence officials. The blast also wounded 20 soldiers, the officials said.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks in the north-west, but suspicion will fall on the Pakistani Taliban.
--------------------------------------------wo teenage sisters have been murdered in Pakistan after they were accused of tarnishing their family's name by making a video of themselves dancing in the rain.
The girls, aged 15 and 16, are seen running around in traditional dress with two other younger children outside their bungalow in the town of Chilas, in the northern region of Gilgit.
The sisters, named as Noor Basra and Noor Sheza, appear to break into dance and one even flashes a smile at the camera.
Innocent: The teenage sisters were filmed playing and dancing outside their home
However, when the footage was circulated via mobile phones, it caused outrage in the conservative Pakistani town.
Last Sunday the girls were shot alongside their mother in their home by five gunmen.
Police are investigating whether the attack was arranged by the girls' step-brother, named as Khutore, who allegedly wanted to 'restore the family's honour' according to The Sunday Times.
The sisters' other brother has filed a case against Khutore and the four other alleged accomplices who are now believed to be on the run.
Last year four women are believed to have been killed by tribal elders for dancing and singing with men at a wedding party in the remote north-western village of Kohistan in Pakistan.
A tribal council of clerics – known as a Jirga – reportedly condemned the women to death for 'fornication' and staining their families' names.
Their actions were said to have brought shame on the community, which frowns on men and women dancing together or fraternising at all.
Four women were believed to have been killed last year after tribal elders condemned them to death for dancing and singing
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said at least 943 women and girls were murdered in 2011 for allegedly defaming their family's honour.
According to women's rights group, the Aurat Foundation, about 1,000 'honour' killings take place in Pakistan every year.
The statistics highlight the scale of violence suffered by many women in conservative Muslim Pakistan, where they are frequently treated as second-class citizens.
Anyone game for it? 😆
A teenager has been killed in Egypt after an Islamist mob threw him off a ledge on top of a roof and beat him as he lay dying, local media reports.
The young man, identified as Hamada Badr, 19, and his three friends were caught on camera hiding from a large group who had chased them onto a terrace in Alexandria.
The video, apparently filmed with a mobile phone camera from across the road, show the four teenagers escaping onto a 20ft ledge during violent protests on Friday.
Scroll down for video
Terror: The video, apparently filmed with a mobile phone camera from a rooftop across the road, show the four teenage boys escaping onto a 20ft ledge atop a roof in Alexandria as the mob gathers around them
Trapped: The mob gather around the young men as the fourth teen manages to climb onto to ledge, and they begin throwing rocks at them to get them down
The violent mob on the street appear to have chased them to the roof and the boys climb onto the structure as a group of agitated men gather around them.
The boys had been out celebrating the ousting of Islamist president Muhammad Morsi, when they ran into the former leader's supporters, one of the boys' father told Al Arabiya.
Victim: The first teenager falls off the ledge and lies motionless as the mob gathers around his body
Attack: The boy does not move as the men close up on him and begin beating him
Fatal: The second boy, in red, is brought off the ledge and shortly before the camera moves away, the aggressive Islamist mob can be seen beating the teenagers, one of which reportedly died
Shortly afterwards two of the boys are thrown off the ledge and are savagely beaten as they lay injured on the roof.
Hamada Badr, aged 19, was killed in the lynch mob attack, Al Arabiya said.
'Do you know the teen that they killed and disfigured his body and threw from the fifth floor is only 19 and four days,' Mohammed Badr, father of the killed teen, told el-Watan News.
'All he was guilty of was that he was on the roof of the building, celebrating the ousting of Morsi. But the Brotherhood waged a war against whoever was celebrating Morsi's departure.
'After throwing him, they wanted to do the same with the others, but people in the neighbourhood stopped them,' Badr's father said.
After the video began circulating online, a Facebook group run by an opposition ground calling themselves 'Six April Students', posted a picture of a handsome, young man they claim is Hamada Badr, blaming 'Muslim Brotherhood and other terrorist groups' for his death.
Alexandria, on the Mediterranean coast, has been at the centre of some of the most violent protests during the recent political unrest in the country.
On the day the video was filmed, twelve people were killed in clashes in the Egyptian, Mr Amr Nasr, head of emergency services in the city, said.
He also told the state news agency MENA that around 200 were injured. Most of the fatalities were from gunshot wounds.
On Saturday, at least 60 people were injured in clashes in Alexandria after Muslim Brotherhood supporters marched against a rally of Morsi-opponents in Sidi Jaber, the very same area where the video was recorded the day before, local news reported.
Radiation hazard!
If what this article says is true, if you live on the west coast of Canada or the United States, you're pretty much already screwed at this point thanks to the Japanese earthquake and tsunami of 2011. Radiation levels are already increasing in the food and water, babies born with thyroid issues linked to radiation are rising quickly and governments in Canada and the United States are raising the "acceptable levels" of certain toxic substances in the food being shipped in from Japan.
The fancy little picture at the top of the article isn't showing you the flow of happy fun time thoughts from Japan back in March of 2012, it's showing you the flow of radiation from the Fukushima nuclear plant after the devastating earthquake and tsunami of 2011. The image shows the radiation reaching almost past Hawaii more than a year ago.
