(Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was reelected chairman of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) Saturday at a special session in advance of the inaugural meeting of the party's Ninth General Conference. Mubarak, who ran as the only candidate for the party chief post, was reelected the NDP chairman for a new term during the meeting of the party held at Cairo Stadium Saturday morning. According to unofficial counting, Mubarak won 5,248 votes out of 5,310 party representatives who cast ballots in the election, the first direct vote via secret ballots for the party leadership. The 79-year-old veteran statesman of the Arab country has been in the top post of the NDP since he came to power as president of the country following the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/04/2007 00:00 ||
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Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee and different political parties yesterday urged the government to file cases against the war criminals to bring them to trial.
At a meeting they also called for a list of the war criminals and collaborators. "We have decided not to file any case at individual level. Rather, we think, the government should take the initiative in trying the war criminals," Prof Kabir Chowdhury, president of the Nirmul Committee( Forum for Secular Bangladesh) advisory body, told The Daily Star last night. "The war criminals must apologise to the nation," he said talking about decisions of the meeting organised as part of the Nirmul Committee's ongoing dialogue with different socio-political and cultural organisations.
Abdur Razzaq and Matia Chowdhury of Awami League, Hasanul Haq Inu of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, Rashed Khan Menon of Workers Party, Dilip Barua of Samyabadi Dal, Manjurul Ahsan Bulbul of Communist Party of Bangladesh, and Shahriar Kabir of Nirmul Committee, among others, attended the meeting held at the residence of Kabir Chowdhury. "We have discussed how the war criminals could be brought to book," said Prof Chowdhury. "We urge the Election Commission (EC) not to allow the religion-based political parties to register with it," added the national professor.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/04/2007 00:00 ||
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Major (retd) Hafiz Uddin Ahmed, acting secretary general of Saifur Rahman-led BNP, yesterday said he would be the first one to oppose any proposal that seeks to depose Khaleda Zia from party leadership.
He, however, said a council of the party can decide if anyone needs to be expelled from the party and if Khaleda's expulsion is proposed at the council, he would oppose the attempt. "There is no reason to oust Khaleda Zia from the party as she made lots of sacrifices for the party," Hafiz said at a press briefing at his Banani residence adding that he hoped that the chairperson would be freed through legal process.
Hinting at pro-Khaleda leaders, Hafiz said a few leaders are trying to cling on to politics by using the name of Khaleda Zia. "Some lower level leaders are issuing misleading statements to destroy the unity and image of the party."
Brushing off the reports of Khaleda conveying through her daughter-in-law that she did not recognise Saifur Rahman as acting chairperson and himself as acting secretary general, Hafiz said, "She is in jail. So she is not in the capacity to comment on political affairs in the presence of jail authorities."
Nevertheless, Khaleda Zia can rest assured that leaders and workers of the party are united under her leadership, he said adding that the standing committee of the party has appointed him as acting secretary general to organise and lead the party to power.
Osman Farruk, Ashraf Hossain, ZA Khan, Mofazzal Karim, Zahiruddin Swapan were present among others.
Posted by: Fred ||
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It sounds like something straight out of a Terminator film script. Future air battles may be fought by robots with minimum human input.
The Ministry of Defence is spending £124m developing a prototype of Britain's first unmanned fighter-bomber. Named Taranis after the Celtic god of thunder, the sinister bat-wing shape will be the size of one of the Red Arrows' Hawk display jets. Its range will be intercontinental. It can carry bombs, missiles and canon. And, for the first time, it will be capable of shooting down other aircraft.
"This is a machine able to think for itself," said Chris Allam, project director at BAE Systems' top secret works at Salmesbury, near Preston in Lancashire. "It's a new generation of UAV (unmanned air vehicles). It won't need a pilot on the ground with a joystick. It will be assigned an area to operate in and then will acquire and track targets autonomously."
The prospect raises obvious fears. What if the deadly machine turned on its creators?
Plunging headlong towards Skynet, we are ...
That's science fiction say the designers. "At no time will the machine be able to take the decision to release a weapon. That will always require human authorisation."
For now. Just you wait til it gets a target in its sites and asks for permission, and doesn't get an answer it likes.
Although that may reassure flesh and blood pilots, there is strong lobbying for unmanned aviation. A conventional fast jet costs £40,000 an hour to operate. Drones can be cheaper and - because no life is at stake - more expendable.
"They're valuable for operations that are dull - such as protracted surveillance - dirty, operating in a contaminated environment or dangerous, where there's heavy anti-aircraft fire," explained aviation writer Jon Lake. "But their sensors are far inferior to a human being's whose eye can take in detail in an instant."
I was the first TV journalist to be allowed inside the factory to see the first metal being cut on the prototype. The builders are justly proud of a project which restores Britain to the premiership of aerospace innovation. It should fly within two years and could be operational in ten.
The French are developing a similar weapon, whilst America is building a solar-powered plane to stay aloft for a year.
Posted by: Agar, Conquistador of the Voles007 ||
11/04/2007 2:27 Comments ||
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#3
Now we know why the Brits have been delaying paying for IFF technology. They probably figure the rest of the civilized world will probably be glad to give it to them as a "gift" once they start using it! :-)
#9
"...to kids on their XBoxes and PS3 who can sit at home and do it remotely."
The US Airforce should ask the gaming conventions to be scheduled during Ramadan, part of the contests would be kills in Iraq and Afghanistan, level 1 winners can hunt down screetch and Osama Bin Hiding in Paky Land using stealth stuff.
#10
Air war is getting a lot more interesting. Future manned ops will be stealth penetration and 2nd echelon high performance, and long range rear area logistics transport.
The drones will be recce of all varieties, high tech fighter aircraft, and armadas of low tech, inexpensive aircraft to vie with each other and the high tech fighters.
An attack would commence with stealth bombers hitting critical enemy C&C points, then a low tech air armada would be launched, along with cruise missiles, against major targets. This would be defended against with low tech drone fighters, while the high tech drones tried to get and keep air supremacy in the higher altitudes and take out manned enemy fighters.
While faster and more maneuverable, the high tech drones couldn't descend into the low tech space without becoming prime targets; but low tech drones couldn't venture up that high against the superior aircraft.
In case of a breakthrough in either direction, the manned aircraft in the 2nd echelon would police up any drones that penetrated.
All told, one hell of a dogfight, while trying to take out major ground targets at the same time.
#15
Anonymoose, you assume that other countries are going to choose to afford these things. Look at Iran, our next opponent: their pilots get hardly any plain vanilla flight time, and that only when the technicians cannibalize one airplane to get replacement parts for the next one. Or Russia, which finally has enough oil profits to feed, clothe and maybe even pay the human forces. In Britain the only way they get to do the development work is by positioning the things as environmentally better than actual airplanes, according to lotp. The EU isn't going to spend money for such things, so who are you thinking of? Chavez's Venezuela?
Separately, let the Wii kiddies play with the things and it will all be over in hours.
#16
China, tw. At least they will give it a serious try, and so long as they have enough government control and unmarriable young men to push resources into military R&D, after their grad students come home from our computer science and engineering and physics schools.
ORONO, Maine - A University of Maine student alleges her former professor offered extra credit to class members if they burned the American flag or the U.S. Constitution or were arrested defending free speech.
On the first day of class, associate professor Paul Grosswiler offered the credit to members of his History of Mass Communications class, according to sophomore Rebekah McDade. Disturbed by the comment, McDade dropped the class and intends to take the course again next semester with a different professor. "I was offended," McDade said Friday. "I come from a family of military men and women, and the flag and Constitution are really important symbols to me because of my family background."
In an e-mail responding to a request for comment from the Bangor Daily News on Friday, Grosswiler said he thought McDade misunderstood the class discussion, which was intended to elicit thought about the First Amendment. He said he has held this same discussion for years without incident. Burn Burn Burn, someone finally listened?
"I dont intend for students to burn either the Constitution or the flag, and over the years hundreds of students have understood that," Grosswiler wrote. No "I didn't say that" comment
Hey, he's trying to weasel out best he can. Next is the non-apology apology ...
The incident was made public recently when The Leadership Institute, a Virginia-based nonprofit organization, distributed a press release detailing the classroom discussion. The Leadership Institute was founded in 1979 by Morton Blackwell and has a mission to identify, recruit, train and place conservatives in politics, government and the media, according to the organizations Web site.
A field representative for the institute met McDade on Oct. 1 at UM, when she shared her experience and expressed an interest in spearheading a group "Students for Academic Freedom," Blackwell said Friday. The groups initial goal would be to convince UM to enact a "Student Bill of Rights," as other colleges have, which would protect students from professors who treat and grade students differently based on religious or political beliefs, McDade said. The institute has assisted McDade in the startup process, she said. Bout time
When Grosswiler listed the extra-credit opportunities, McDade said the class of approximately 50 students grew very quiet, and some questioned whether he was serious. Tar and feathers?
"I applaud the students exercise of free expression. If she had stayed in the class, I would have given her extra credit for publicizing her opinions." Right
NEW DELHI: In what will be the biggest defence deal with US till now, India is now firmly moving ahead to seal the contract for acquiring six C-130J 'Super Hercules' military transport planes for "special operations" at a cost of around $1 billion.
Defence ministry sources said the FMS (foreign military sale) contract a government-to-government arrangement for the C-130Js will be concluded "soon" since it had been catered for in the ongoing defence budget. "We are closely studying the offer after the US Defence Security Cooperation Agency notified the American Congress in May. The contract will be signed within this fiscal," said a source.
While the Left has managed to stymie the civilian nuclear deal, the UPA government has signalled that the Indo-US defence cooperation will continue unhindered despite opposition from CPM and CPI.
As earlier reported by TOI, the Indian and American armed forces have held as many as 50 joint military exercises in the last six-seven years to build "interoperability". In sharp contrast, India has held just a handful of exercises with Russia, the largest defence supplier to Indian armed forces by far.
And now, the US is aggressively trying to grab a huge chunk of the lucrative defence market in India. Talking about the impending C-130J sale to India, US said it will strengthen the bilateral "strategic relationship", which continues to be "an important force for political stability, peace, and economic progress" in South Asia.
On their part, IAF officers say the C-130Js, the latest version of Hercules with four powerful engines and greater payload-carrying capacity, will enhance India's rapid reaction capabilities.
The aircraft, which can even land on makeshift airstrips due to its rugged nature, will be used primarily for covert airlift missions for special forces. India has requested four Rolls Royce AE-2100D3 spare engines, eight AAR-47 missile warning systems, eight AN/ALR-56M advanced radar warning receivers among other equipment.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/04/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
What's good for Marietta, GA is good for America.
TEHERAN - Iranian police said on Saturday they had arrested 32 university students at a party in Karaj outside Teheran for drinking alcohol and being half-naked, the ISNA news agency reported. Police forces arrested 11 girls and 21 boys on Thursday night for drinking alcoholic drinks and being half-naked, the commander of Teheran provinces security police Nader Sarkari was quoted as saying.
He said the raid came after a tip-off and that the students were celebrating after one of them had won a medal in an international competition.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/04/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I thought it said Panty Raid
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/04/2007 7:27 Comments ||
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#2
Dang! Commodore Frank beat me to the punch again! That's what I get for not being an early riser....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/04/2007 13:11 Comments ||
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#3
:-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/04/2007 13:21 Comments ||
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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.
(Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was reelected chairman of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) Saturday at a special session in advance of the inaugural meeting of the party's Ninth General Conference. Mubarak, who ran as the only candidate for the party chief post, was reelected the NDP chairman for a new term during the meeting of the party held at Cairo Stadium Saturday morning. According to unofficial counting, Mubarak won 5,248 votes out of 5,310 party representatives who cast ballots in the election, the first direct vote via secret ballots for the party leadership. The 79-year-old veteran statesman of the Arab country has been in the top post of the NDP since he came to power as president of the country following the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981.
Major (retd) Hafiz Uddin Ahmed, acting secretary general of Saifur Rahman-led BNP, yesterday said he would be the first one to oppose any proposal that seeks to depose Khaleda Zia from party leadership.
NEW DELHI: In what will be the biggest defence deal with US till now, India is now firmly moving ahead to seal the contract for acquiring six C-130J 'Super Hercules' military transport planes for "special operations" at a cost of around $1 billion.
TEHERAN - Iranian police said on Saturday they had arrested 32 university students at a party in Karaj outside Teheran for drinking alcohol and being half-naked, the ISNA news agency reported. Police forces arrested 11 girls and 21 boys on Thursday night for drinking alcoholic drinks and being half-naked, the commander of Teheran provinces security police Nader Sarkari was quoted as saying.
