This is why I absolutetly dispise muslims. This type of abuse is not restricted just to Saudis. It is common all over the muslim world!
I don't despise Muslims, but they'd better get their act together and start condeming slavery in the same way we Westerners do.
AURORA, Colo. - A Saudi Arabian couple was in custody Friday, accused of turning a young Indonesian woman into a virtual slave, forcing her to clean, cook and care for their children while she was threatened and sexually assaulted.
A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted Homaidan Al-Turki, 36, and his wife, Sarah Khonaizan, 35, on charges of forced labor, document servitude and harboring an illegal immigrant. Al-Turki also faces state charges including kidnapping, false imprisonment and extortion, as well as 12 charges of sexual assault. His wife faces some of the same charges. The two could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted. Phone messages left Friday for their individual lawyers were not immediately returned.
U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman Jeff Dorschner said the Indonesian woman, who is in her 20s, came to the United States with the couple legally to perform domestic chores. But her U.S. visa was hidden from her by Al-Turki and Khonaizan, according to Thursday's indictment. The woman was controlled by "a climate of fear and intimidation" that included sexual abuse and the belief that she would "suffer serious harm" if she did not perform her tasks, the indictment said.
And the Saudi male is saying to himself, "Criminy, what's wrong here? I just treated her like I'd treat her back home ..."
The woman is believed to have lived with the couple from 2000 until November 2004, according to authorities. Dorschner said she is not in custody. Authorities said the couple owed the woman nearly $93,000 in unpaid wages.
A neighbor, Vicki Lisman, said she believed the couple has four children — three young girls and a teenage boy. In the summer, the mother and children would go to Saudi Arabia while the father stayed in Colorado, she said. Lisman said she had no idea another woman lived with the family. "There was certainly a sense of normalcy with the house and the family," she said.
Al-Turki worked at Al-Basheer Publications and Translation in Denver. No one answered the company's phone Friday.
By the way, if anyone from the DHS is reading, may I suggest you take a look at the company?
#1
Don't suppose there's a comment from the Aurora/Denver NAACP about this slavery thing?
Maybe because they're culturally sensitive and don't want to raise the point that the Muslims were engaged in rampant slave trading centuries before Chris Columbus showed up in the New World. And if they start that all up, maybe someone will point out the contemporary slave trade in the Sudan. Not as easy to blame whitey for some extortion money if a fuss is made of it.
#2
Maybe the State Dept can be discouraged from granting VISA's for Saudi house slaves.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/11/2005 14:14 Comments ||
Top||
#3
I'd rather the State Dept be discouraged from giving visas to Saudi slave owners. The slaves will always be welcome in the US as freed, proud people.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/11/2005 15:57 Comments ||
Top||
#4
The other day an article was posted here regarding Islamization of Chipalta, Mexico. A young Tzotzil Mayan convert from Catholicism to Islam is quoted,"in Islam, race plays no role." Nuff to make you gag. Perhaps someone should explain that to the Saudis.
MEXICO CITY — Ninety-four deported migrants arrived in Mexico's capital Friday on the first flight of a renewed U.S. repatriation program that left some pledging to try to cross again, while others said their border crossing days were over. It was beginning of twice-daily flights expected to bring thousands of Mexicans to their hometowns, and the second year of a U.S. program aimed at discouraging repeated border-crossers in desert areas, where temperatures soar during summer months.
Greeted upon landing by the government's Grupo Beta migrant-aid agency, the deportees were given box lunches and free bus tickets to their home towns.
U.S. officials have budgeted US$14.2 million (euro11.6) to deport by air as many as 33,900 migrants who choose to participate in the program, saying they'd like to be transported all the way home — instead of being simply left on the Mexican side of the border.
The head of Mexico's National Immigration Institute, Magdalena Carral said the effort was worth it, even if some migrants planned to return. "You can't try to save money when it comes to saving lives," Carral said. "One life is worth it."
But she also noted the program "is not the solution. It is only a stopgap measure," and that a "legal avenue of recourse" for migrant workers was needed.
Washington plans 226 flights to Mexico City through Sept. 30 under an agreement with the Mexican government. People will be bused from Mexico City to their home towns, primarily in the southern part of the country. U.S. Customs and Border Protection spent US$15.4 million (euro12.59 million) on the program from July 12 through Sept. 30, 2004, with some flights going to Guadalajara.
However, all flights this year will be to Mexico City, and will [use] chartered Mexican, rather than U.S. planes.
#2
"You can't try to save money when it comes to saving lives," Carral said. "One life is worth it."
Easy to say when it's not YOUR money that's being expended. I'd have settled for leaving them at the border with a warning that a subsequent attempt to cross will result in being shot.
#4
Its cheaper for the national government to simply provide the returnees a bus ticket back to the border for another try rather than clean up their own completely corruption laden economy to actually provide these obreros real jobs and a living at home.
#5
Sounds like we are are now 1/2 funding weekend home visits.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/11/2005 11:11 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Actually, flying them back makes sense.
Flying them back to the _southern_ border of Mexico probably even makes more sense than the Capitol, but as long as they're "starting over" from pretty far down south it's OK with me.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
06/11/2005 11:24 Comments ||
Top||
#7
In that case, it'd make even more sense to fly them to Sao Paolo or Buenos Aires...
Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2005 11:29 Comments ||
Top||
#8
They'll probably exchange their free bus tickets for a ride back to Tijuana... and that lunch box should last until there.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/11/2005 11:58 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Alright, here's a solution: Drop the word border from the lexicon. Replace it with a term that conveys happiness and openness. Like, the US is Mexico's patio.
Posted by: Captain America ||
06/11/2005 12:15 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Sorry Muck - I bet the box lunch includes a lunch-meat sandwich. You don't want to support baloney producers do you?;)
SUCRE: Bolivia's supreme court chief, Eduardo Rodriguez, took office as president Thursday and vowed to hold early elections, fighting to quell a three-week uprising by masses of poor people demanding a share of the country's natural gas riches. Rodriguez, 49, was sworn in as the 84th president late Thursday at an emergency session of Congress, convened in the colonial capital of Sucre as violent protests gripped Bolivia, unleashing a warning of a military crackdown.
Is this like the 134th government in 89 years or the 113th government in 76 years?
For three weeks, tens of thousands of farmers, workers and indigenous people have clamoured on the streets of La Paz and other cities for the nationalisation of the gas and oil industry and a more equitable distribution of the country's meagre wealth. Bolivia's social meltdown pits poorer Andean regions in and around La Paz against interests in the more modern, relatively prosperous eastern and southern plains, where most of the natural gas wealth is located.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11125 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Name your country to honor a revolutionary and here's what you get.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/11/2005 11:51 Comments ||
Top||
Following the example of Georgia, another former Soviet republic, Moldova, has demanded that Russia pull out its troops from the country's territory, Interfax news agency reports. The Moldovan parliament passed on Friday a draft law ordering Moscow to withdraw its troops from the break-away Transdniestr region by the end of the year. The pullout is needed for the fulfillment of the demilitarization plan as part of the Trandsniestr peace settlement. The so-called "Yushchenko plan" was offered by the Ukrainian president and approved by the Moldovan parliament earlier on Friday. Already supported by the U.S. and the European Union, it includes holding elections at the Supreme Soviet of Transdniestr as a constituent region of Moldova, involving U.S. and EU negotiators in peace talks, and the development of military and civilian observers' work.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11127 views]
Top|| File under:
Microsoft's new Chinese internet portal has banned the words "democracy" and "freedom" from parts of its website in an apparent effort to avoid offending Beijing's political censors.
Users of the joint-venture portal, formally launched last month, have been blocked from using a range of potentially sensitive words to label personal websites they create using its free online blog service, MSN Spaces.
Attempts to input words in Chinese such as "democracy" prompted an error message from the site: "This item contains forbidden speech. Please delete the forbidden speech from this item." Other phrases banned included the Chinese for "demonstration", "democratic movement" and "Taiwan independence".
{The Wall Street Journal, 30-Sep,1996} Microsoft said it issued instructions to Windows 95 users in China on how to remove a pair of anti-Communist slogans from the software that Chinese government officials said were offensive. A Microsoft spokeswoman said a service update for the removal of the Chinese-language phrases had been issued in China Saturday. The phrases included one referring to China's leadership as "Communist bandits" and another that called on Taiwan's government to "take back the mainland."
Microsoft said it is still investigating how the slogans made it into the Windows 95 kits. A Microsoft spokeswoman said the software was written by contractors and not by the company's own software writers.
#5
Tee hee hee! Just wait until the Chicom censors discover "Jesus Loves Chicom Leaders", "Red is Better with White & Blue", "Bring the Cultural Revolution Back!", Mao killed yo pimp daddy so what!", "Got Little Red Book?", Hey look! No freedom ma!", "Tibet yesterday, Nepal soon, Taiwan tomorrow!", and "Yes we have no Korean War American War Prisoners" in their MS 95 software packages.... little teenie weenie red commie packages I might add.
#9
freedom, democracy, freedom, democracy, Yahoo ain't America great!!!! I bet the word capitolism is allowed. I'm sure all those chinese kids are smart enough to get past it.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
06/11/2005 21:45 Comments ||
Top||
In what media watchers are calling a first for North Korea, state radio in Pyongyang has turned to the medium of the comic sketch to mock two of the leading figures in the US administration.
"You big running dog imperialist lug!"
"To the moon, Kimmy, to the moon!!"
In a special weekend feature, actors gave their own dramatised interpretation of apparent political infighting between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The two are presented hurling comic insults at each other as they attempt to win President Bush's favour.
"Trollop!"
"Bootlicker!"
"How funny you are, Condi! Let us laugh uproariously!!"
Pyongyang Broadcasting Station announced the sketch by saying it was based on an anecdote it had spotted in a US magazine. The programme - called "The hen clucks at the White House" - marks the first time the North Korean media have been seen to use a form known as "manp'il", or "comic notes". Ms Rice, who in January included North Korea in a list of six "outposts of tyranny", is introduced as "a hen strutting around in the White House, crowing arrogantly". Later she is characterised as "a bitch running riot on the beach".
...Actually, THAT was Madeline Albright. But please - continue.
Mr Rumsfeld is portrayed as having ruled the roost during President Bush's first term, but is now little more than an ageing cockerel "keeping a low profile". And the actor playing Ms Rice brands him "an old crock". Such is the animosity between the pair that the actor playing President Bush is forced to intervene to prevent feathers flying.
"Just stop it!" he cries out. "A rooster fighting a hen, instead of a rooster fighting another rooster? I've never seen anything like it." Nevertheless, the script writers appear adamant that the rivalry spells trouble for the Bush administration.
"As the saying goes," concludes the narrator, "when the hen crows and the rooster remains quiet, the house is doomed to ruin."
"And when the Eagle flies with the Dove and you can't be with the one you love...oh, screw it."
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/11/2005 17:31 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11129 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Sounds brilliant, like everything else that comes from nkor.
A FORMER Chinese official in hiding in Australia sent a message today to his supporters as they rallied to pressure the Federal Government to grant him political asylum.
Hao Feng Jun, a former security officer in China, is in a secret location after backing claims by Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin that Beijing is running a network of spies and informants in Australia.
Mr Hao also supported Mr Chen's claims that members of the Falun Gong movement had been persecuted by the Chinese government.
Mr Hao and Mr Chen, who abandoned his post at the Chinese consulate-general in Sydney on May 26, have sought political asylum, fearful of persecution if they return to China.
The Government will not publicly discuss their bid for asylum, nor comment on reports Mr Chen sent a letter to the immigration department that had not been passed on to Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.
About 40 supporters of the pair rallied in Melbourne's CBD in a show of support.
"Through the incidents recently I strongly feel the vast democracy and freedom in this beautiful land of Australia, I love it here - I love everything here," Mr Hao said in a letter read to the Melbourne rally by one of his supporters.
In Sydney, about 50 Falun Gong practitioners staged a demonstration in the city's Belmore Park to highlight a legal action they have initiated against Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.
The group, banned in China but legal in Australia, says the rules set out by the foreign affairs department to restrict their protests outside the Chinese Embassy in Canberra are illegal.
Since March 2002, Mr Downer has banned the use of large banners and musical instruments by protesters against Chinese government torture and abuse of Falun Gong practitioners.
Australian practitioners this week filed a suit against Mr Downer in the ACT Supreme Court, alleging his department unfairly limited their freedom of expression.
#1
Australia is too busy brown-nosing china right now to get on board with this spy thing. Is there anyone out there that doesnt know that china has probably the most active spying community in the world?
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
06/11/2005 14:52 Comments ||
Top||
#3
I am sure the Howard government wants to accept him. The problem is the bureacrats rejected his application. The governments position is there are no exceptions to the rules for asylum seekers. To make an exception for Chen, just creates a rod for their own back as everyone will claim they justify an exception (they do already). You will then get a system where whether you get asylum is determined by how much publicity you can generate and we already have far too much agitprop on this subject driven by cheesy current affairs programs that while professing compassion and concern are only concerned with ratings. Chen will stay (assuming he wants to) its just that the process has to occur.
SERIOUS doubts have been cast on one of the key claims renegade Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin used to justify his attempted defection to Australia.
Mr Chen accused Beijing of mounting a kidnapping operation on Australian soil to take hostage the student son of a fugitive Chinese politician to coerce his return home to face justice.
But yesterday he backed away from the claims when confronted by new evidence. "I said that in fear, and I don't want to talk about it again," he told The Weekend Australian.
The runaway diplomat had earlier told The Australian through a minder, Jin Chin, that the student, Lan Meng, was kidnapped by Chinese agents in Sydney, "taken by fishing boat to a Chinese cargo ship on the high seas", then held hostage in China to force his father to give himself up.
The father, Lan Fu, returned to China from Australia in February 2000. In November that year he was sentenced to death for taking bribes in China's biggest ever corruption scandal, a $US6billion smuggling racket centred on the southern port of Xiamen where Mr Lan was a deputy mayor.
But Lan Fu's lawyer, Zhu Yongping, emphatically denied the kidnap story this week, insisting his client had given himself up voluntarily.
Mr Zhu told The Weekend Australian that Lan Meng was not in China at the time of his father's trial.
The Weekend Australian has also established that a young man named Lan Meng, now 23, was living in the Melbourne bayside suburb of Sandringham from November 1999 until November 2000.
This suggests that he was in Melbourne for at least three months before Mr Lan returned to China, casting further doubt on the story that he was kidnapped and taken to China in the lead-up to Mr Lan's return.
It was reported in February 2000 that Lan Fu had turned himself over to the Chinese Embassy in Australia. An Australian Foreign Affairs spokesman was quoted on February 23 in The South China Morning Post saying that Mr Lan had arrived in Australia a month before and left about two weeks later, and "as far as we know, he left of his own free will".
Back in China he was held at a detention centre in Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, before his trial in September 2000. His lawyer Zhu Yongping of the Datong Law Office of Guangdong said his client, sentenced to death with a two year reprieve, was now in Zhangzhou City Prison where his death sentence is yet to be formally commuted.
Whether or not the alleged kidnapping occurred, it is believed Mr Lan's wife Lai Chongxin and Lan Meng are still in Australia. Ms Lai was also reported to have been on China's wanted list in connection with the Xiamen scandal.
Asked where the wife Ms Lai and her son Lan Meng are now, the diplomat would-be defector Mr Chen said "no-body knows that more clearly than the Australian government". The Quanzhou Evening News reported that in July 2001, police intercepted a package sent to Mr Lan who was still at Quanzhou detention centre containing a note inserted in a toothpaste tube which read, in part: "Wife and son still in Australia, not arrested. Say nothing."
A GROUP of 50 anti-war activists defied warnings that they risk arrest to protest against military training in central Queensland.
However, US Navy spokesman Commander Robert Mulac said the protests had been quiet, and had not yet disrupted Operation Talisman Sabre, a joint training exercise involving 6,000 Australian and 11,000 US personnel. He said it was unlikely the protests would convert defence personnel to peace advocacy.
Our defence personnel do engage in peace advocacy, and they have a variety of weapons choices to make that happen.
Robin Taubenfeld, a spokesman for Everyone for a Nuclear Free Future, said the protesters were undeterred by the Australian Defence Force warnings, but had not yet provoked police by entering the Shoalwater Bay training area. "We fully understand the possibility of people being arrested for entering the military training area.
"The decision to do an arrestful action is up to each individual, as to how far they want to push their action for peace.
"Of course, we would love to see the police and military police not arrest us and join us in crossing the line for peace."
Posted by: Matt ||
06/11/2005 12:19 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11137 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
An economy that requires at least half the hourly wage to be paid over to the government in the form of taxes and entitlements, and on top of that significant consumer and corporate taxes, is no longer competitive.
Bingo.
Posted by: Rafael ||
06/11/2005 15:16 Comments ||
Top||
#3
She must.
And she may have a better chance to succeed than anybody else before.
The SPD is not fading, it's crumbling, it may even face radical Left competition now and already the SPD boss called for "higher wages" for everybody. That'll work, yeah.
The thing is, people know that radical reforms are needed. They don't want them of course, but they know they need them. It's the dentist situation.
Merkel can afford to be frank about her plans BEFORE the elections, and this is good. She'll have a real mandate, backed up by a 2/3 majority in the Upper House as well. She'll have real power.
But she will need to face leftist opposition within the unions and in the streets. She'll need balls to confront them like Maggie Thatcher. When she's asked about the Iron Lady she avoids the subject. But I think she may go there.
She'll probably have a coalition with the Liberals (Libertarians rather by US standards).
She'll have two years before regional election will change anything substantial. Let's hope she'll use those wisely.
My suggestions:
1) A radical tax reform. Less taxes, more income to tax. It will cause problems with debts and deficits, but they will go away, like in the UK. If the EU complains, tell them to shove it. If they continue, bring back the DM.
2) Breaking the unions (so every company can decide on its own how much a wage rise they can afford)
3) No more pay for sick leave the first 3 days (better one week)
4) Fire easily, hire easily
5) State employees to pay for their pensions themselves.
6 De-bureaucratize administration by a simple tool. If a company applies for anything, it can consider the application granted if no objections are raised within a month (that'll speed things up)
7) Reform health care: Basic health care for everyone, everything extra you pay for it by yourself.
8) Phase out Social Security for the young (that will be a very gradual shift into investing into your own pensions). This is actually a more pressing issue in Germany than in the USA due to the age pyramid.
#4
5) State employees to pay for their pensions themselves.
For regular, (non-government) employees, who pays for the employees' pensions? Is it deducted from the employees' earnings, or does the company (corporation) itself cover the costs of the pension, on top of the worker's salary or wage? (This is how it's done in Poland, and it is a major barrier for start-up companies)
A nice first step would be for the employees to manage their own pensions.
Posted by: Rafael ||
06/11/2005 16:49 Comments ||
Top||
#5
I agree with TGA, although healthcare is a tough nut to crack. I spent a lot of time working in Germany 3/4 years ago and I got the clear impression, that while the Germans liked their welfare state and 6 to 8 weeks vacation a year they realized the good times wouldn't go on for ever and were prepared to work more for less if convinced of the need. A very pragmatic people the Germans.
#9
Although it goes against the grain in Germany, she will have to create some kind of "movement" oriented for change, along the lines of the Reagan Revolution. To do so, she should emphasize optimism, a hard thing to do in pessimistic Europe; Christianity, not as opposed to secularism or other religions, but as a moral foundation; and especially, free enterprise. Since the majority of new jobs are created by small business, clear the bureaucratic path for startups. I also agree with tax-slashing, though the reality can be far less than the *concept*--to get people to accept the notion that "tax cuts are good". Unions also have to be brought in line, but then public works projects also put downward pressure on unemployment. Then a hard push to welfare reform, to some extent demonizing those who don't try hard enough to earn their own keep.
#10
Optimism is the key thing... if people believe in the future they start spending and if they start spending...
This country has trillions stashed away... lets use them
Continuing in the vein of the striped French Juicyfruits story from a few days ago.
Maybe it's that mix of hot Latin blood and cool Cartesian intellect, or perhaps is just a collective guilty conscience. Maybe it's because they are breastfed for their first 15 years and now their estrogen levels are off the scale.
Whatever the cause, nearly 40 percent of French men told a recent survey that they would, science permitting, like to become pregnant. But actually getting their women pregnant: Quelle Horreur!
The poll, conducted by Ipsos and published in the current issue of Children Magazine (Enfants Magazine), showed that 38 percent of the more than 500 fathers of children up to seven interviewed by phone said they would like, or would have liked, to be the one to carry their offspring to term. Now I'm feeling sick. Better not be the morning variety.
A slightly higher percentage of women respondents liked the idea of their spouses taking on the nine-month job. The magazine did not compare the overlap -- whether women whose mates expressed deep maternal yearnings would welcome the prospect.
The survey carried other signs that parenting is not what it used to be in the country that spawned one of the alltime feminist classics, Simone de Beauvoir's "The Second Sex". Thanks Simone. Ever since, no one has been able to separate French men and women. French men, however, are separated with a crow bar or a bucket of cold water.
Eighty-six percent of the fathers queried said they were ready "to take a paternity leave of several months to live their fatherhood more intensely," provided it caused "minimal financial impact." Ideally, they'd take the next 21 years off on the government tit.
And 71 percent said they were prepared to "take a year-long sabbatical" or "request to work part time." A 35 hour work week isn't considered part time?
Posted by: ed ||
06/11/2005 12:29 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11128 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Well.... what can you say, they're french. This doesn't suprise me a bit.
#4
All these years of being told to f*#! themselves by the rest of us has finally affected 40% of them.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/11/2005 14:10 Comments ||
Top||
#5
We always knew they were sissies but now they want to carry? Guess it's only natural for the Frenchmen to fulfill their manifest destiny of total transgender transformation!
Posted by: 49 pan ||
06/11/2005 14:36 Comments ||
Top||
EUROPE'S oldest civilisation has been discovered by archaeologists across the continent, it was reported today.
More than 150 large temples, constructed between 4800 BC and 4600 BC, have been unearthed in fields and cities in Germany, Austria and Slovakia, predating the pyramids in Egypt by some 2000 years, The Independent newspaper revealed.
The network of temples, made of earth and wood, were constructed by a religious people whose economy appears to have been based on livestock farming, The Independent reported.
Excavations have taken place over the past three years but the discovery is so new that the civilisation has not yet been named.
The most complex centre discovered so far, beneath the city of Dresden in Saxony, eastern Germany, comprises a temple surrounded by four ditches, three earthen banks and two palisades.
"Our excavations have revealed the degree of monumental vision and sophistication used by these early farming communities to create Europe's first truly large scale earthwork complexes," said Harald Staeuble, from the Saxony state government's heritage department.
The temples, up to 150 metres in diameter, were made by a people who lived in long houses and villages, the newspaper said.
Stone, bone and wooden tools have been unearthed, along with ceramic figures of people and animals.
A village at Aythra, near Leipzig in eastern Germany, was home to some 300 people living in up to 20 large buildings around the temple.
SERBIA'S government knows where top war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic is hiding and is considering how to arrest him without causing casualties, the respected Belgrade newspaper Danas reported yesterday. Quoting what it called an "impeccable source", the paper said Mladic's whereabouts were determined during the visit to Belgrade of the Hague tribunal's chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte on 2 June.
Was the determination made because of Carla's visit? In honor of her visit? Coincidentally with her visit? Or did they discover that Carla is secretly Ratko Mladic in drag?
He is said to have met "very co-operative associates" inside the Serbian leadership. Belgrade later denied the report which was described as "completely unfounded", but the newspaper's editor-in-chief Grujica Spasovic stood by the story.
They would prob'ly deny it because they wouldn't want to tip him off. If he knows they know he's one place, it's relatively easy for him to be another place. See below.
But that was a long time ago, and we were much younger then, and, really, it was only 20,000 people, many of them civilians, so what's the rush? After all, Ramsey Clark needs a little time to put together his defense...
He is said to have heavily armed protection from hard-liners in the army or secret service. "We know which town he's in and how long he has been under the control of certain security bodies," Spasovic said. Disclosing the town's name would be irresponsible, he said.
Disclosing that you know the town's name is irresponsible. Even though we don't know which town he's in, since you don't tell us, unless he's been hit hard on the noggin, I guarantee he knows what town he's in...
There is a reward of $5 million for the capture of Mladic. Danas reported rumours that Mladic was ready to surrender were wrong, and added that the government had made up its mind to arrest him as soon as it could do so without causing casualties.
Actually, I'd say any number of casualties less than 20,000 would be pretty well justified...
"Our paper was told the name of the town where Mladic has been located but we assessed it was not opportune to unveil it now because of tensions it may create. We can only say that it is a town inside Serbia," said the report.
Somehow I couldn't imagine him hiding out in Croatia or Bosnia...
Serbia's failure to arrest Mladic has been the main obstacle for Belgrade's progress toward the European Union and NATO. "The sooner he's in the Hague the better," said NATO's secretary-general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, yesterday. Vojislav Kostunica, the Serbian prime minister, initially a critic of the UN court, has so far this year persuaded 12 fugitives to surrender and says Serbia will fulfil all its obligations to the tribunal soon. The United States has lifted a freeze on a $5.5 million aid package to Serbia following its recent co-operation with the Hague tribunal. Mladic has been rumoured to have the protection of men from the army or the secret service, and is often described as travelling with heavily armed security.
Two reported new outbreaks of avian flu among birds in western China have raised fears that the virus is being spread widely by migrating birds and mutating rapidly. The regional director for the World Health Organization, Dr. Shigeru Omi, told reporters in Beijing yesterday that the two recent outbreaks in remote areas in which hundreds of birds died were worrisome because they involved migratory waterfowl and domestic geese, birds that until now had been fairly resistant to the disease.
More than 13,000 geese were destroyed in Tacheng, in the Xinjiang autonomous region, after about 500 died of H5N1 avian flu, China's Agriculture Ministry reported. Poultry markets were closed and roadblocks set up in the area, the official Xinhua news agency said.
In late May, the government reported that hundreds of bar-headed geese, gulls, ducks and cormorants had been found dead on an island in a salt lake in the Qinghai region that lies on an important migratory route.
Previously, the H5N1 flu had been lethal to domestic chicken flocks, but veterinary officials had believed that geese and wild birds carried the disease without dying of it.
"The best thing I can say is to keep our vigilance high," Reuters quoted Dr. Omi as saying.
Great. Thanks Doc. We'll do that. In the meantime ...
For the last two weeks, rumors circulated on some Web sites tracking infectious diseases that more than 120 people, including six tourists, had died of avian flu in Qinghai, and that hundreds had been quarantined. However, they all proved traceable to a site run by antigovernment dissidents, which said it could not verify information members had posted anonymously. Pictures on the site purporting to show hundreds of dead birds were grainy, and allegations that the site's "reporters" had been arrested were unconfirmed.
"We're now more skeptical of the sourcing than we were," said Bruce Klinger, an analyst for the Eurasia Group, a consulting firm that drew attention to the reports and then contacted American diplomats in China in an effort to confirm them.
"And when we saw the Newsweek byline on it, we knew we could disregard the information completely," he added.
A government spokesman said there had been no human deaths there, and The Associated Press reported that the health minister had given the W.H.O. officials permission to visit the sites of the reported bird deaths. As of Wednesday, according to the W.H.O., there were 54 known deaths from avian flu in the world, all in Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand.
EFL
An era of recent Australian military operations ends next week when the flag is lowered at the Moleana forward operating base in East Timor and the base is handed over to the East Timorese military. This marks the end of Australia's peacekeeping involvement in what's now the independent nation of Timor Leste.
The Moleana handover will be conducted on Monday with the ceremony to be attended by Timor Leste Prime Minister Dr Mari Alkatiri, UN special representative Dr Sukehiro Hasegawa and Australian army land commander Major General Ken Gillespie.
Presiding over the occasion will be Lieutenant Colonel Brian Cox who said Australia could look back with pride at what had been achieved over the last six years. "It has been a privilege and an honour to be here as the last Australian national commander in Timor. This symbolises the end of the peacekeeping mission here. We have come a long way," he said from Moleana today.
"That's it. It will be the end of an era. It's great in some ways. We came here in very difficult circumstances. Australia has significantly contributed to the security of this nation. We are leaving them in a position where they can actually grow and prosper."
"The Australian Defence Force members I have had the privilege to lead are all proud of their efforts here and the efforts of the ADF members who have come before them."
Colonel Cox said his troops had made a significant contribution to rebuilding of roads, communications, medical services and other infrastructure. What was once regarded as a major threat to East Timor, militia remnants in camps across the border, has simply faded away.
A gay artistâs entry that depicts President Bush in a compromising position has prompted a complaint to a county official and sparked a debate over art censorship.
What makes the flap even more interesting is that the individual who made the complaint is another artist who has his own controversial piece in the show. That piece depicts the pope as having ties to Nazi Germany.
#2
It's the art world, folks. Remember the red head boob in the clown suit the other day? That's the mentality. "Aren't we outlandish and wonderful! Kiss-kiss!" I mean, who the hell else would make the effort to see this piece of shit?
#6
I was disappointed that Broward County was the municipality invovled. The title made me think that PBS had finally found a talent to replace Bill Moyers.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/11/2005 20:22 Comments ||
Top||
A team of Caltech engineers has succeeded in creating a fuel cell so small it could power an MP3 player but last many times longer. Led by Sossina Haile, the team made several technological breakthroughs, according to a Caltech press statement.
Currently, the team is collaborating with design experts to increase fuel efficiency. Applications of a finished design would be practically limitless, according to the team: laptop computers, television cameras, or even tiny military robots.
Haile, who was out of the country and could not be reached for comment, said in the release that the key breakthrough was a new way for the cell to keep its propane fuel hot enough to generate power. "Small fuel cells are challenging because it's hard to keep them at the high temperatures required to get the hydrocarbon fuels to react,' the press release reported her as saying. "(Normally) you have to use a lot of insulation to keep the cell hot. Adding insulation takes away the size advantage.'
Researchers at Caltech escaped this dilemma by burning tiny amounts of the propane within to keep the remaining fuel warm. Propane has the advantage of compressing easily and turning instantly to a vapor when released, though almost any hydrocarbon could work in a fuel cell.
According to Haile, two more advances turned this self-heating cell into something viable for a laptop or an iPod. First, the Caltech researchers came up with a design that could perform the necessary chemical reactions in a single chamber. Second, engineers at Northwestern developed catalysts that greatly increased the heat released by the fuel cell. Combining all three advances with a heat exchanger to lessen heat lost through exhaust, Haile said, "makes for a very simple and compact fuel-cell system.'
#5
That's all we need, a bunch of farting laptops.
Posted by: Dave ||
06/11/2005 17:21 Comments ||
Top||
#6
that's what those vents are for?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/11/2005 18:04 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Years ago I saw a nylon or polyprop type fuel cell for cellphones...
Ran a phone for a week on 1 oz of windshield washer fluid.
The whole thing was nixed cuz panasonic would lable and manufacture their batts with no up front cost - that made a pure profit center for the mobile folks so why build a factory to make fuelcells. Factories have cost.
TWO employees of the medical charity Doctors without Borders (Medecins sans Frontieres, MSF), kidnapped in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo on June 2, were freed today, military and diplomatic sources said.
The release of the French logistical expert and his Congolese driver by one of the Ituri region's numerous armed groups was confirmed by MSF in Geneva, which said both were in good health.
The sources said the pair were in the regional capital of Bunia.
Pakistan's most famous gang rape victim Mukhtar Mai, a courageous fighter turned social-worker, has been put under house arrest, her 12 rapists were ordered to be released from prison and General Pervez Musharraf's so called enlightened moderation has been dumped out into the deep gutter. All this has happened as Mai, a 35-year old village gal, who was punished by being gang raped on order of her village council in 2002, was planning a visit to the US on the invitation of some NGOs to highlight the miserable situation of women in Pakistan. But before she could leave her home for getting a visa, Mai was not only pushed into detention, she was also placed on the dreaded Exit Control List (ECL) which means she cannot leave Pakistan, even if she obtains any number of foreign visas.
Mai was raped for more than an hour on the orders of Meerwala tribal council in June 2002, in retribution for her brother's alleged affair with a woman of a powerful rival clan. That was a concocted story but Mai, then 32, had to suffer the indignity publicly. But she recovered and vowed to fight back the system. She set up her own NGO and started raising funds for women of her area and she was successful as the world rallied to her support, not just for the undeserved punishment she received but because she had the courage to stand up and fight. For the last 10 days, however, the Government of General Pervez Musharraf has incarcerated Mai in her village home, fearing that she was about to leave for US where she may expose the brutal Pakistani tribal system and "bring a bad name to the country."
Mai was earlier stopped from leaving her home when she had received a call from the US Consulate in Lahore to come and collect her US visa. She is scheduled to appear in several events in Houston and other cities this month but authorities are preventing her from obtaining the visa. The spokesperson told South Asia Tribune Mai had no intention to run away from Pakistan as she wanted to stay in her own village and provide the women there the inspiration and courage to fight the system. "They fear that Mai will speak out against the Army and the Government but this is rubbish as she has previously visited three other countries, including Spain and Saudi Arabia, but she never spoke against Pakistan," the spokesperson said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
06/11/2005 09:44 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11135 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
...and in other news, the 'New York Times' has begun it's 25 part series on Koran abuse at Guantanamo Bay. This includes a shocking new revelation that some of the American guards actually used foul language in a room immediately adjacent to the room in which spare Korans were stored. Journalism insiders are quietly predicting yet another Pulitzer prize for the Times.
Posted by: Pat Phillips ||
06/11/2005 9:56 Comments ||
Top||
#4
frankly a pandemic hemmorhagic fever, striking only Pakistani men, might make for some good "Allah Ahkbar" entertainment
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/11/2005 10:12 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Do the town councils keep a list of potential rapists? Maybe council rapist is an elected office. I suspect that nepotism may play a role.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/11/2005 10:54 Comments ||
Top||
#6
You guys who commented before me seem suprised? I have been seeing the liberals align themselves slowly and silently to those mongrel bastards for some time. Playing down all their subhuman acts and decrying any, even the smallest slight against the "religion of peace and love". They are not so far apart in their ideologies, you are entitled to your opinion as long as it is the same as theirs, or god help your poor dumb ass.
#11
Katie Al-couric will skip this for the all-important 1 yr 2 mos anniversary of Abu Grahib
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/11/2005 12:10 Comments ||
Top||
#12
You know, it's not NOW, Katie Couric, or the NYT's anti-koranic-abuse division that thinks we can sell these guys more F-16's...
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
06/11/2005 12:48 Comments ||
Top||
#13
Hard call. There's a case to be made the Bush strongarmed Musharraf into helping with the GWOT and continues to do so. Case in point: every time he publicly praises M for helping, it makes it harder for M to go along w/ the Islamacists. Rock and hard place approaching each other.
I have mixed feelings about F-16s in Pakistan. OTOH, we have a good track record of building relations with the military in countries where the pols are assholes or worse. Case in point: France, where the military are a lot more pro-US than the general public. We help to keep it that way ....
Posted by: too true ||
06/11/2005 14:30 Comments ||
Top||
#14
in retribution for her brotherâs alleged affair with a woman of a powerful rival clan. That was a concocted story
Damn sure it was concocted.
He and his sister were low "caste" muslim, they were high "caste".
They raped the 12 year old boy and made up the charges to cover their tracks when they were about to be exposed.
The sister was then "judicially" gang raped.
Posted by: john ||
06/11/2005 15:09 Comments ||
Top||
#15
Anybody told Jane Fonda about this? Surely, SHE would take action!
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/11/2005 16:41 Comments ||
Top||
#16
Utterly Sickning! I can't express my anger, Thank God for the United States, atleast some of us can live fairly but I say f*ck the liberal left, we should be spreading democracy at almost any cost.
#17
It's things like this that force me to believe the only "instrument of change" that will actually succeed is brute force applied liberally. It's almost impossible to change a mind that ossified a thousand years ago.
In the end, the only solution may be the total disillusion of Islam and the destruction or containment of any followers until they die of old age.
Of course, first we'll have to have a "meeting of the minds" with the loonitic liberal left. A nice hickory axehandle across the bridge of the nose in an upsweep works miracles.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/11/2005 20:17 Comments ||
Top||
A three-member review board of the Lahore High Court (LHC), consisting of Justice Mian Muhammad Najamuz Zaman, Justice Sheikh Abdul Rashid and Justice Mohammad Bilal Khan, on Friday ordered the release of a dozen men detained in connection with the Mukhtar Mai rape case, in the latest legal twist in one of the nation's highest profile cases involving violence against women. The men had been jailed since March on an order that will expire next week. The review board also denied the Punjab government's request for a three-month extension, said Mohammed Shahid, a court official. It was not clear when they might be freed, though presumably the government can hold them at least until the original order expires.
A total of 13 men were captured in 2002 after Mukhtar Mai, then 33, came forward to tell of her ordeal. She said that she was raped on orders from a village council, which said it was a punishment for her brother's alleged illicit affair with a woman from another family. In August 2002, six suspects were sentenced to death and the other eight acquitted. But in March of this year, another court overturned the convictions of the five men, and reduced the death sentence of the sixth to life in prison, sparking an outcry by human rights groups both in Pakistan and abroad.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11131 views]
Top|| File under:
Plan will free 18 countries from repaying $16.7 billion debt
Can anyone here point me to a website teaching me how to incorporate as a African nation? I promise to hold free and fair elections, weather permitting...
We can't do that, but perhaps we could persuade the leaders of 'Chad' to change their country's name to 'Emily'. Then it just depends on whether you can sign checks with the proper flourish ...
Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11128 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
That's the appropriate graphic for African aid. Of course, for the debt they're talking about it was down the crapper as soon as it was lent. Writing if off is just recognition of the reality that it would never be repaid. The real issue is whether more will be lent/spent.
MULTAN: A farmer fatally shot two of his teenage daughters in Sahiwal district after one did not immediately serve him a glass of water when he returned from working in the fields, police said on Friday. Ismael, 47, shot Abida, 18, for failing to give him water, and then killed Salima, 16, when she tried to save her older sister, police said. However, Online news agency reported that the man killed his two daughters because he suspected them of having illicit relations.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11125 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Online news agency reported that the man killed his two daughters because he suspected them of having illicit relations.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
SUCRE: Bolivia's supreme court chief, 
Following the example of Georgia, another former Soviet republic, Moldova, has demanded that Russia pull out its troops from the country's territory, Interfax news agency reports. The Moldovan parliament passed on Friday a draft law ordering Moscow to withdraw its troops from the break-away Transdniestr region by the end of the year. The pullout is needed for the fulfillment of the demilitarization plan as part of the Trandsniestr peace settlement. The so-called "Yushchenko plan" was offered by the Ukrainian president and approved by the Moldovan parliament earlier on Friday. Already supported by the U.S. and the European Union, it includes holding elections at the Supreme Soviet of Transdniestr as a constituent region of Moldova, involving U.S. and EU negotiators in peace talks, and the development of military and civilian observers' work.
SERBIA'S government knows where top war crimes fugitive 
A three-member review board of the Lahore High Court (LHC), consisting of Justice Mian Muhammad Najamuz Zaman, Justice Sheikh Abdul Rashid and Justice Mohammad Bilal Khan, on Friday ordered the release of a dozen men detained in connection with the 
Plan will free 18 countries from repaying $16.7 billion debt 
MULTAN: A farmer fatally shot two of his teenage daughters in Sahiwal district after one did not immediately serve him a glass of water when he returned from working in the fields, police said on Friday. Ismael, 47, shot Abida, 18, for failing to give him water, and then killed Salima, 16, when she tried to save her older sister, police said. However, Online news agency reported that the man killed his two daughters because he suspected them of having illicit relations.
