[ARABNEWS] Landslides buried at least 15 people in Indian Kashmire on Monday as hundreds fled their homes after heavy rain triggered flooding around the mountainous region.
Police and witnesses said landslides had buried at least four houses in Chadoora, the worst hit area of the Himalayan region where hundreds were killed in devastating floods last September.
"The ground above the houses just collapsed early this morning and buried them," villager Mohammad Sultan told AFP by telephone from Chadoora, around 15 km west of the main city of Srinagar.
Hundreds of Kashmiris in both India and Pakistain moved to higher ground Monday as rain-swollen rivers swamped parts of the disputed Himalayan region placed under an emergency flood alert just six months after some 600 people died in flooding that left the region in shambles.
Officials ordered residents along the banks of the Jhelum River to move to relief camps as the water crossed the danger threshold in Srinagar, the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmire. More than a dozen people were trapped inside two houses that partially sank into the ground after a landslide hit Budgam district, police said. Rescuers were digging through huge piles of mud in an effort to reach them.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/31/2015 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] With three quarters of states counted in Nigeria's election, opposition challenger Muhammadu Buhari had 11.5 million votes against President Goodluck Jonathan ... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau... 's 9.5 million, official results collated by Rooters showed.
[Dhaka Tribune] At least 14 Hindu families, allegedly evicted from their homesteads by a local Jubo League ... the youth wing of the Bangla Awami League... leader, have been living like refugees for years.
There are allegations that Zakir Hossain, a leader of ruling Awami League's youth wing Jubo League in Taltali upazila of Barguna district, has been looking to gobble up the lands owned by these Hindu families for a long time.
In the face of torture by goons hired by Zakir and his elder brother Salam, the first three of these 14 families left their homestead and took refuge in the Borguna district town in 2013. Two more families followed them next year.
On March 13, the last nine families left their homesteads together and came to Barguna town.
During a recent visit to the Chandantala village -- home of these 14 families -- this correspondent saw deserted homesteads and ponds.
Locals, who did not want to be named for understandable security concerns, said grabbers have for long been trying to persuade these Hindu families to sell their lands at low prices.
As they refused, politically influential grabbers inflicted inhuman torture on these Hindu families, eventually forcing them out of their homes.
Jadav Sarker, a victim, said: "Abur Rashid, a local influential, have been pressuring me for a long time for extortion. His men teased my daughter on her way to and from school. I filed a case under the women and kiddies repression prevention act and he served jail terms in that case. Later I withdrew the case after local Awami League leaders told me to. But after getting released from jail, Rashid started torturing us again. That was why we had no option but to leave."
Locals said Rashid is known a close associate of Jubo League leader Zakir and his brother.
This correspondent tried to contact Zakir and Salam but found nobody at home. They were not available on their mobile phones either.
Local union parishad Chairman Nazrul Islam Kalu Patwari said: "Locals formed a human chain against Rashid. There have also been several arbitrations. But nothing worked. The way the Hindu families left their home, this is unacceptable."
When contacted, Barguna police chief (SP) Md Saiful Islam and Deputy Commissioner Meer Zahurul Islam both assured doing whatever needed to bring these Hindu families back to their homes and ensure their security.
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03/31/2015 00:00 ||
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[Express] Operation Rising Panther, the first of six proposed air defence operations due to take place every year, will "show Vladimir Putin in no uncertain terms" that Britain is ready, willing and able counter increasing Russian aggression should the need arise, say military sources.
#5
Four coal-burning turbines are sulkin'
As out of the fog she leaps, hulkin' --
With rusty new Vickers
And analog tickers
They've launched XH558 Vulcan!
Argentina's public transport networks ground to a halt on Tuesday, while port workers at the grains export hub of Rosario downed tools and banks shut their doors as a one-day strike to back demands for changes to income-tax rates gripped the country. Evita's leaving the place in a shambles
The strike caused major disruptions to domestic air travel, while garbage was left piling up on sidewalks and many businesses stayed closed as employees struggled to reach work, frustrating owners already grappling with a weak economy. broke, so you go on strike? Genius
In the face of high inflation, the transport unions spearheading the strike are demanding Argentina's leftist government raise the minimum threshold on paying income tax.
The unions complain that more workers will have to pay tax if double-digit salary hikes designed to keep pace with inflation are awarded without lifting the threshold for the lowest tax bracket. you don't get that inflation thing, do you? Friend of Paul Krugman, by any chance?
The government said inflation was 24 percent in 2014, but private economists estimate it was about 35 percent.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/31/2015 15:36 ||
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#1
The government said inflation was 24 percent in 2014, but private economists estimate it was about 35 percent.
#2
It does matter the age or nationality, there will always be people who believe there's a magic money tree(tm) and politicians who promise it to them.
The Iranian bank account was said to have been opened on April 28, 2011. This occurred only three months after a secret meeting held in the Syrian city of Aleppo in which the foreign ministers of Iran and Argentina negotiated the creation of a truth commission that would serve to cover up Iranian participation in the 1994 attacks against the Jewish association Amia in Buenos Aires, according to the Argentinean prosecutor Alberto Nisman who was murdered in January of this year.
read the rest at Faustablog, an excellent Latin American news resource
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/31/2015 16:46 Comments ||
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[AnNahar] Hundreds of U.S. paratroopers will train Ukrainian soldiers from April 20 as Kiev battles to contain pro-Russian separatists in the country's east, Ukrainian interior minister Arsen Avakov said Monday.
"290 U.S. paratroopers will arrive on April 20 at the Yavoriv military zone" in the government-controlled western region of Lviv, near the Polish border, Avakov wrote on his Facebook account.
Soldiers from the U.S. 173rd Airborne brigade, based in Italia, will instruct around 900 troops from the National Guard of Ukraine (NGU) in three waves of training, each lasting eight weeks, followed by joint war games.
The NGU is made up of reservists, and was reformed in 2014 to bring volunteers and militia under government control following the Maidan protests that brought down the pro-Russian government of Victor Yanukovych, sparking conflict between those loyal to Kiev and Moscow.
U.S.-led maneuvers in a country neighboring Russia are likely to provoke anger in Moscow. President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... accuses the U.S. of fueling the Maidan protests.
The West counters that the Russian leader has supplied the separatists movement with weapons and troops during a near year-long conflict that has claimed over 6,000 lives, but Putin has always denied the claims.
Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko on Wednesday took delivery of ten U.S. armored vehicles, two days after American politicians voted to urge President Barack Obama I bowled a 129. It’s like — it was like Special Olympics, or something... to provide "lethal" aid to Kiev.
A shaky ceasefire is currently in place in Ukraine, but skirmishes continue on a daily basis.
#2
Getting posted to Vicenza ain't what it used to be. (Some paratroopers in the US Army spend their entire career trying to get to Vincenza. Probably the nicest Army base in the world. And the Venice-Milan train is right outside the main gate.)
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/31/2015 8:28 Comments ||
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[Business Insider] Igor Kolomoisky was once called Ukraine's "secret weapon" as the 52-year-old billionaire raised his own private army to fight off separatist forces attempting to capture the country's third-largest city. Now the government in Kiev faces a dangerous stand-off with one of its most important allies.
The banking magnate was sacked by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Wednesday.
In March last year Kolomoisky, who founded Ukraine's largest commercial bank Privat Bank, had been appointed governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, a predominantly Russian-speaking region in the east of the country.
#1
Not mentioned: Allegedly Kolomoisky was sacked due to a demand by the US from VP Joe Biden. This means that Joe Biden is dictating internal policy to our erstwhile allies with the blessings of Obama and State Dept. Let that sink in.
[Hurriyet Daily News] La Belle France's ruling Socialists took a drubbing in run-off local polls on March 29 that saw major gains for former president Nicolas Sarkozy ...23rd President of the French Republic. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit... and the far-right ahead of 2017 presidential elections.
Right-wing parties, spearheaded by Sarkozy's UMP, won a thumping victory, taking 66 councils out of a possible 101, according to results compiled by AFP.
Voters punished the Socialist government of President Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, an economic bad joke for la Belle France but seemingly a foreign policy realist... for failing to revive the slumping economy, with left-wing parties winning only 34 councils. There was still one council result to be declared.
The results mean 25 councils switched from left to right-wing party control with only one going in the opposite direction.
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[DAWN] GHOTKI: A 12-year-old girl was allegedly raped and burnt to death In Ghotki district's Daharki city last week. The victim's mother was also severely injured and gained consciousness on Monday.
The victim and her mother stitched and sold sheets for a living and were pursued by three men under the pretense of wanting to purchase their products. The girl was drugged after being offered tea and was allegedly set on fire by the three men after being raped, the victim's 40-year-old mother told DawnNews.
The victim's brother filed a petition at the Ghotki sessions court upon the police's refusal to register the case. The court took notice of the incident and ordered the victim's mother to record her statement on Monday.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Girls and women get short shrift in this part of the world. Not much is heard from the womyn of the Western world about this very real war on women.
[Hurriyet Daily News] A Jerusalem court found former Israeli premier Ehud Olmert guilty of corruption March 30 in a retrial of allegations he received envelopes of cash from a US businessman, the verdict read.
He'd make such a good Democrat...
It was the latest legal blow in a humiliating fall from grace for the debonair man who took over as prime minister in 2006 after his mentor and predecessor Ariel Sharon lapsed into a coma from which he never recovered.
"We find the defendant guilty of fraud and a breach of trust," the Jerusalem district court verdict read, "and of the felony of fraud under aggravated circumstances."
Sentencing for the 69-year-old, who already faces a six-year prison sentence in a separate bribery case that he has appealed to the supreme court, is scheduled to begin on May 5, the verdict stated.
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#1
there are no foreign correspondents in West Papua so it's difficult to ever find mainstream news sources let alone with eyewitness accounts
so a lot of news gets funneled through the activists, with obvious risk of bias.
Vanuatu has been a big supporter of West Papuan people and supports West Papua's bid to be included in the Melanesian Spearhead Group, so it was only natural the Papuans would try to raise money for them when they got smashed by Cyclone Pam.
Indonesia has been trying to muscle in on the MSG and bribed Fiji to sponsor them for "observer status" even though they are an Asian nation not a Melanesian one. They claimed it - ironically - due to their occupation of West Papua.
Indonesia would hate the West Papuans strengthening their ties with Vanuatu by donating money so you can see the motive for attacking the fundraisers...
#2
So is West Papua a loyal part of Indonesia or do they want to go their own way like East Timor did?
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/31/2015 14:28 Comments ||
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Hello Steve White, West Papua never wanted to be part of Indonesia in the first place and has been fighting ever since.
Basically the island of New Guinea is filled with melanesians who lived in primitive agrarian cultures there for 60,000 years. They are related to Australian Aborigines.
During the colonial era, the western half of New Guinea was property of the Dutch. The methodist missionaries came in and converted a lot of people to Christianity.
The eastern half eventually became the property of Britain, transferred to Australia.
But it was always one island and the people across it while ranging through colourful different tribes (most untouched by modernity) were really one people with more in common with each other than any outsider.
So by 1960 Australia and the Dutch were working towards a de-colonisation that would leave the island of New Guinea as one country.
The West Papuans told the Dutch they didn't want to be ruled by Muslim Asians from overcrowdeed, hungry Java with whom they had nothing in common. The Indonesians then as now viewed them as primitive savages and just wanted their land and resources.
They don't mix. West Papuans eat pigs, which are the most important animals in the village. Indonesians are Muslims who consider pigs unclean. And on it goes.
In World War II for example the West Papuans fought loyally for the the US and Australian allies against the Japanese. They were the "fuzzy wuzzy angels" along with those from PNG. By contrast Indonesia helped Japan.
They have nothing in common.
So the Dutch prepared the West Papuans for self rule, organising representative councils of the people. In 1963 they raised their Morningstar flag and sang the national anthem for the first time.
Within three weeks Indonesia declared the Trikora: the triple command, to troops and settlers to go into West Papua any way possible and "liberate" it from the Dutch to Indonesian rule.
They sent in paratroopers and amphibious vehicles and sent in settlers.
Indonesia pressured the US and the UN and it was the Cold War era so they took a loan of a billion dollars from Russia - the US panicked and thought Indonesia was a danger of turning communist.
Back then communism was the big threat. Now it's islamism.
So they changed their minds - they decided to turn a blind eye to the Indonesian takeover.
It helped unfortunately that Henry Kissinger was involved. Christopher Hitchens has written a lot about the damage that war criminal did.
they found gold - the richest gold deposit in the world - in West Papua and the Indonesians did a deal with Kissinger and Freeport McMoran ,to split the gold.
Kissinger still sits on the board I believe. That deal was done before the Indonesians even had possession.
The Dutch gave over the Western half to the UN to administer and the UN said the Indonesians could temporarily rule it as long as they gave the people a referendum on their own future.
So between 1963 and 1969 Indonesia shipped in as many troops and settlers as it could.
Before 1963 there wasn't even one Indonesian there. By 1969 there were thousands.
They then held the "Act of Free Choice" where they rounded up 1061 hand-picked tribal leaders and held them at gunpoint and told them to vote in a show of hands as to whether to be part of Indonesia.
It was 100% vote. 100% success, what a surprise.
So in 1969 the UN recognised this and West Papua became part of Indonesia.
The Papuans immediately fled to the jungles and formed the OPM resistance movement.
They fought with bows and arrows, world war II guns they found in the jungle.
The Indonesians napalmed them, strafed them from the air, bombed their villages. They built roads into the jungle so they could kill them in their remote hideouts
they moved whole villages from the highlands down to the malarous coast away from their gardens and farms where they died in droves from mosquito born infections and starvation.
In 1960 you couldn't have found even 10 indonesians in West Papua - now there are more than a million
Indonesia used the transmigrassi policy to ship in more than a million migrants until they outnumber the native population.
They shipped in pigs infected with cysticercosis and gave them as presents to tribal chiefs. Cysticercosis is a worm that soon spread to all the pigs on the island. People that eat the meat if it is a bit undercooked die horribly from brain lesions.
The indonesians shipped in HIV-infected prostitutes in the 1990s and again gave their favours to tribal chiefs as gifts in return for valuable perfumed timber.
As a result now the West Papuans have a massive HIV problem they never would have otherwise had.
10,000 West Papuans have fled from the guns of the Indonesians across the border into PNG where they sit. They were as of 2013 unable to work because they don't have citizenship there, so they do odd jobs for black money like gardening.
Back in the West the Indonesian military routinely burn down their churches, steal their land for timber and plantations (now they want cattle farms too) and of course gold and gas.
It's one of the world's worst genocides
the reason you never hear of it is that the Australian Government guarantees PNG's border with Indonesia. Our cabinet was told that our defence forces would last 5 days before being completely wiped out in just the section between Vanimo and Green River
So we walk on eggshells around Indonesia.
The USA is our only security guarantee against an Indonesia that since the 1960s has been aggressive, expansionist and increasingly Islamified (thanks to Saudi money)
Indonesia is strategically a big worry to the US and if it isn't, it should be. Under their last president SBY religiosity increased massively. He encouraged the Islamification process so places that once were tolerant now have sharia.
The short answer to your question is: No - West Papua hates Indonesia and wants independence.
If any of them raise their morningstar flag they get 15 years in an Indonesian prison or killed.
Filep Karma raised the flag, and he is right now sitting in jail in West Papua for it. He was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
[NDTV] Washington: Barack Obama will make a long-awaited return to Kenya this July, visiting his father's homeland for the first time since becoming US president, the White House announced Monday.
During the much-delayed visit, Obama will attend a summit to encourage entrepreneurship and meet the country's controversial leader Uhuru Kenyatta.
Obama's late father was from a small village near the shores of Lake Victoria. He met Obama's white American mother in Hawaii, where they had a son before divorcing.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/31/2015 15:17 Comments ||
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#6
I didn't see it at the link either but I couldn't get full access to the article. Glen had it in his article that included the link. I assumed Glen had access to the full article.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/31/2015 15:56 Comments ||
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#7
I looked at the Instapundit post and read the comments, Deacon Blues. I think it was meant to be his little joke, rather than a statement of fact.
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.
Goodluck Jonathan
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
[Business Insider] Igor Kolomoisky was once called Ukraine's "secret weapon" as the 52-year-old billionaire raised his own private army to fight off separatist forces attempting to capture the country's third-largest city. Now the government in Kiev faces a dangerous stand-off with one of its most important allies.
[DAWN] GHOTKI: A 12-year-old girl was allegedly raped and burnt to death In Ghotki district's Daharki city last week. The victim's mother was also severely injured and gained consciousness on Monday.
