CAIRO: At least 31 people were killed and 23 injured yesterday when dozens of homes in a northern Cairo shantytown were crushed by a massive rockslide, Egyptian officials said.
Disaster struck at 8:50 a.m. when several huge boulders estimated by one official at weighing "hundreds of tons" each broke off Moqattam Hill overlooking the capital's densely populated Manshiyet Nasser and struck the district of Isbat Bekhit. The section of hill that broke away was estimated at 60 meters wide and 15 meters long.
In the early afternoon, the official MENA news agency put the casualty toll at 31 dead and 23 injured. But local deputy Haidar Bardadi told Egyptian television he expected the toll to rise drastically, saying 35 homes had been crushed and between 150 and 200 people were trapped beneath the rubble. Rescuers used bare hands to shift debris in a desperate bid to search for victims.
The reason for the rock fall, which came at a time when many people were still at home resting during the first weekend of the month of Ramadan, was not immediately known. But several witnesses said work had been taking place on the hill above the quarter for several weeks, and that the authorities had warned about the dangers. "There had already been some landslides, slightly injuring some people," said 42-year-old driver Abdel Latin Hossam, whose house was spared.
Laborer Sarghali Gharib, 24, told how he had lost eight members of his family -- five sisters, a sister-in-law and her two children. "It was horrible, like an earthquake. There had already been collapses, and the government did nothing to evacuate the district," he said angrily.
Police cordoned off the area and specialist dog handlers were deployed in the debris to try and locate survivors.
Rescue teams struggled to make progress because of the sheer size of the boulders. They were forced to wait for the arrival of cranes and special heavy lifting equipment to allow them to move the rocks.
One AFP journalist at the scene said there was panic as residents of the poor neighborhood searched frantically for missing friends and relatives. "Two years ago the authorities warned us that it would fall on top of us, and today the accident happened," said Jamal Badr, 32, whose brick-built home was buried in the rock fall.
#1
"There had already been collapses, and the government did nothing to evacuate the district"
"Two years ago the authorities warned us that it would fall on top of us, and today the accident happened"
Two freakin' years of warning and the gummint "did nothing"?
Sounds like Sarghali Gharib should move to N.O. - with his mindset he'd fit right in.
The unnecessary loss of life is horrible, and I know it's difficult for the poor, but you'd think in 2 years they could have figured out some way to move elsewhere.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/07/2008 12:06 Comments ||
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#2
Maybe they could use some community organizers. I'm sure we could spare one or two.
A disgruntled Saudi man hacked into the website of the Minstry of Labor to express his displeasure with the lack of employment opportunities in the kingdom.
Although the website enables users to voice complaints through a comment form, the unemployed hacker decided to send his message in a more direct way by posting a simple message to the Ministry, "We are sick of unemployment. We hope you listen," on the homepage.
The hacker did not obstruct the website site and website administrators did not immediately remove the hacker's statement, according to the Saudi newspaper Al-Madina. The newspaper reported Wednesday that the message remained on the Ministry's homepage throughout the day.
Member of the Consultative Assembly Mohamed Al Zulfa said the problem of youth unemployment is not only a result of their inability to find jobs but of the youth is not but also that available jobs offer meager salaries that barely cover transportation or positions are not commensurate with the expectations of university graduates.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/07/2008 00:00 ||
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#2
"positions are not commensurate with the expectations of university graduates"
Awwww - ain't that just too bad. Tell 'em to get off their dead asses and work. Don't they teach "university graduates" how to say "Do you want fries falafel with that?"
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/07/2008 11:02 Comments ||
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#3
Ordinarily I'd agree with you, Barb. But it's not that simple in the Kingdom. Starting a business is difficult and requires both sponsorship and permissions that are constrained by family and other ties. Moreover the extended royal family alone has thousands of college grads who have no way to use those skills at home and no perceived way to leave the Kingdom and start anew elsewhere. It's even worse for non-royals.
The unemployment issue is the single greatest threat to political stability there. And if that stability falls apart, there will be significant impacts on the world economy - we're not ready yet to absorb the crash of the bedouin bandits quite yet.
#4
I do realize that, lotp, and thought about adding a comment about the "royals" and their entire house of cards built on sand oil, backward regulations, and a 7th Century religious mindset (but I repeat myself).
But it would have interfered with the snark. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/07/2008 11:53 Comments ||
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#5
Also reminds me of .com's old comment, about how he and his fellow ex-pat coworkers in the Magic Kingdom had put money into a pot, the pot going to the first person who witnessed a Saudi male lifting anything heavier than his purse.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/07/2008 12:06 Comments ||
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#6
True, Steve. (Lordy, I miss .com!)
I don't think "work" means the same thing to them that it means to us.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/07/2008 12:10 Comments ||
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#7
But it would have interfered with the snark
It will be a sad day when we let facts and logic get in the way of a good rant!
Personally, I was impressed that the Saudi kid did the hacking himself rather than relying on his Filipino servants.
#9
Saudis have worse problems that the US does. Their government has permitted so many foreigners in to work the low paying jobs that it has driven down wages for better jobs into the basement. Unemployment for Saudis is sky high.
Add to that only the rich being able to pay a really expensive dowry to buy a wife they can't even look at until they're married.
The typical Saudi youth are going bonkers. They want jobs and they want to get married, but they aren't permitted to date, can't get work, have no future. No wonder they become terrorists--at least they can get the hell out of Arabia.
Even middle class parents send their kids out of the country to anywhere else.
AUSTRALIA has been singled out as a target for "forest jihad" by a group of Islamic extremists urging Muslims to deliberately light bushfires as a weapon of terror.
US intelligence channels earlier this year identified a website calling on Muslims in Australia, the US, Europe and Russia to "start forest fires", claiming "scholars have justified chopping down and burning the infidels' forests when they do the same to our lands".
The website, posted by a group called the Al-Ikhlas Islamic Network, argues in Arabic that lighting fires is an effective form of terrorism justified in Islamic law under the "eye for an eye" doctrine.
The posting which instructs jihadis to remember "forest jihad" in summer months says fires cause economic damage and pollution, tie up security agencies and can take months to extinguish so that "this terror will haunt them for an extended period of time".
"Imagine if, after all the losses caused by such an event, a jihadist organisation were to claim responsibility for the forest fires," the website says. "You can hardly begin to imagine the level of fear that would take hold of people in the United States, in Europe, in Russia and in Australia."
With the nation heading into another hot, dry summer, Australian intelligence agencies are treating the possibility that bushfires could be used as a weapon of terrorism as a serious concern.
Attorney-General Robert McClelland said the Federal Government remained "vigilant against such threats", warning that anyone caught lighting a fire as a weapon of terror would feel the wrath of anti-terror laws.
"Any information that suggests a threat to Australia's interests is investigated by relevant agencies as appropriate," Mr McClelland said.
Adam Dolnik, director of research at the University of Wollongong's Centre for Transnational Crime Prevention, said that bushfires (unlike suicide bombing) were generally not considered a glorious type of attack by jihadis, in keeping with a recent decline in the sophistication of terrorist operations.
"With attacks like bushfires, yes, it would be easy. It would be very damaging and we do see a decreasing sophistication as a part of terrorist attacks," Dr Dolnik said.
"In recent years, there have been quite a few attacks averted and it has become more and more difficult for groups to do something effective."
Dr Dolnik said he had observed an increase in traffic on jihadi websites calling for a simplification of terrorist attacks because the more complex operations had been failing. But starting bushfires was still often regarded as less effective than other operations because governments could easily deny terrorism as the cause.
The internet posting by the little-known group claimed the idea of forest fires had been attributed to imprisoned Al Qaeda leader Abu Musab Al-Suri. It said Al-Suri had urged terrorists to use sulphuric acid and petrol to start forest fires.
#1
Oh, man - that will go over really, really well in fire country - like the chaparral hills of Southern California. I can't imagine a better way to call down an anti-Islamist purge down on the Muslim community, if some stupid jihadi-wanna-bees get caught starting brushfires, in fire season, and burn over a couple of counties and/or towns.
I guaran-damn-tee that if this happens, there will be serious repercussions. Involving mobs, riots and expulsion orders... even in California. There will be no sympathy for arsonists on the industrial scale.
#2
That assumes they can be id'd and caught, tho. This fits with the Wilderness theme of creating destructive chaos in Western countries through hard to predict / hard to stop sabotage.
#3
Note that WND already claimed muslim jihadism behind some of last years fire seasons in California IIRC; and in France, in addition to the carBBQ, school and gymnasiums torchings, this is a well known but taboo fact that some of the arsonists caught after having lighted fire in southern France were homeboys who drove from marseilles or similarly islamized big cities into the countryside - thought what is th eimportance of that vs local arsonists, I don't know.
And, as a final note, since a while back I mentioned the centuries long predation of north african muslim pirates against the southern, mediterranean part of Europe, which led to its decline, just let me mention that IIRC, the flora of modern southern France is nothing like it was in antiquity, for a very simple reason : the repeated forest fires that were lighted by the muslim raiders as a mean of terrorism, already, leading to a flora that is now actually acclimated to bushfires. So, nothing new under the sun.
#4
Sgt. Mom is right. This is a good way to arouse anti-terrorist sentiment in dry regions, like southern California, that are largely pro or neutral about those guys. If they burn a few Hollywood homes perhaps we will finally see anti-Islamic terrorist movies. Those I'll watch and enough others may do so also, they they will make money.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/07/2008 17:01 Comments ||
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#5
if they start that sh*t in San Diego, a lot of innocent people will be hurt.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/07/2008 17:24 Comments ||
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#6
So Islam causes global warming by turning forests into CO2? Sound the meme-collision warning!
#7
There isn't anything new to this, in fact this has been a worry for several decades. The Japanese were trying to set the American West on fire with their incendiary balloons that rode the Jet Stream, with minimal effect during the WWII.
As for the thought of arson sparking a general call to arms, it won't happen. Last year in San Bernadino a man was caught with a gas can in hand behind a warehouse, he ended up being shot for his troubles on the scene, but the story wasn't reported much outside of the inland empire area and blogs such as this one, and no matter what the outcome, who are we going to protest? Hot, dry Summers and plants that need fire to reproduce?
And, don't think that if the Muj actually do wind up doing something like this the Greenies are going to all of a sudden light up the peace pipe and say "start killing bad guys." In fact, it's going to be the opposite, with general praise being leveled against the arsonists for clearing the land of evil humans and their homes.
Want to prevent this? Run sheep in the brushy areas and log the forests.
London, Sep 7 - Princess Diana's children are unhappy with a French car rental which wants the crashed Mercedes that killed their mother back to be sold as a memorabilia.
The wreckage of the black S280, which hit an underpass wall killing Princess Diana, her boyfriend Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul, has been in a secure Metropolitan Police compound in South London since July 2005. It was shipped from France for examination prior to the inquest into Diana's death, which five months ago ruled it was accidental.
The wreckage still bears blood stains from the night of Aug 31, 1997, when Henri Paul hit a concrete pillar in the Pont d'Alma tunnel at 65mph while photographers chased the car on motorcycles.
Jean-Francois Musa, manager of Paris-based Etoile Limousines, is demanding the car back, saying: It's worth a great deal of money. We have never received anything financially following this dreadful accident. The authorities involved seem to have no conception of property rights. Nobody has the right to dispose of the car except us.
He also says he will offer it to Dodi's father, Mohamed Al Fayed, although the Harrods owner Saturday night rejected the idea as disgusting.
Senior Royal sources disclosed Saturday night that William and Harry want the Mercedes disposed of privately and discreetly to prevent it from falling into the hands of ghoulish souvenir hunters.
It is believed the car - which cost 70,000 pounds new - could fetch as much as 1 million pounds.
The Mail on Sunday has learned that informal offers to buy the wreck have come from all over the world, mainly the US, where it has been compared with the cars in which actor James Dean died and former president John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
Former Metropolitan Police commissioner Lord Stevens, who headed the Operation Paget investigation into Diana's death, revealed Saturday that he is negotiating with the French judiciary and police to return the Mercedes to Paris.
Latest results of Republican Congressional Seat primary race up here in Alaska. It's a cliff hanger, folks. About a 0.2% spread between them, with incumbent Don Young in the lead.
Rep. Don Young's lead over Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell in the Republican primary for Alaska's seat in the U.S. House swelled to 239 votes early this morning with the count of absentee and questioned ballots from the last three House districts, all in Anchorage.
Altogether, elections workers reviewed and counted about 25,000 questioned and absentee ballots on Friday. The first batch of returns posted on the division of elections Web site about 5:15 p.m. showed Young's 151-vote lead shrinking to about 129 votes. But as the night wore on, his margin expanded to 172 votes, and the last returns posted about 12:30 a.m. had Young with 48,006 votes to Parnell's 47,767 --the 239 vote margin.
A third Republican in the race, state Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux, had 9,856.
Still to be counted are an unknown number of absentee votes cast and mailed by voters from overseas. Those will be accepted until Wednesday. Division of elections director Gail Fenumiai said an estimate of the number of such ballots already received may not be available until Monday.
About 250 sample ballots from Petersburg and Wrangell -- cast when precinct workers there ran out of the regular Republican candidate ballots -- were included in Friday's tally, Fenumiai said.
Neither Young nor Parnell could immediately be reached in the early morning hours today. Young attended a fundraiser in Roslyn, Wash., Friday night, according to campaign spokesman Mike Anderson.
In a statement e-mailed about 7 p.m. Alaska time, Young said his continuing hair-thin lead was encouraging but not the last word. He said, however, that he is campaigning as if he will be the party's candidate in the Nov. 4 general election, where Democrat Ethan Berkowitz awaits. "While I am pleased to hold the lead at this stage of the process, it appears as if we won't know the final results for another two weeks," Young said in the statement.
Parnell's campaign also e-mailed a statement Friday afternoon, before the vote updates began. "Given that the current difference in votes is so small, anything can happen and we remain cautiously optimistic about the results," Parnell's statement said.
Earlier in the day, Anderson said the Young campaign was hoping to see the 18-term incumbent's lead open up significantly with the absentee count. "The worst thing that could happen is if the number stays close," Anderson said.
A recount is possible if the race remains close after the overseas ballots are counted next week. Under state law, the expense of the recount would be paid by the state if the difference between Young and Parnell is within 0.5 percent of the overall vote for the two. In this case, that would be around 500 votes.
The losing candidate, or 10 qualified voters, could still request a recount if the difference is more than that, but would have to put down a $10,000 deposit on the cost, according to the law. The deposit can be refunded if the recount changes the outcome, or under certain other conditions.
Anderson said Young plans to return to Washington, D.C., Monday as the congressional session resumes. A number of congressional votes are scheduled before the Nov. 4 election, and Young will have to balance campaigning with those responsibilities, the spokesman said.
The U.S. House primary race was the only contest on the ballot where the outcome was in doubt pending the absentee ballot counting. If Gov. Sarah Palin wins the VP slot, and Lt. Gov. Parnell wins the primary and general election for US House, leadership at the top for Alaska would get interesting, to say the least.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/07/2008 03:55 ||
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#1
This should not be under "Great White North" which everyone knows is Canada.
Alaska is one of the 57 states of the USA. (snork)
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.
A disgruntled Saudi man hacked into the website of the Minstry of Labor to express his displeasure with the lack of employment opportunities in the kingdom.
