Three internet fraudsters who made nearly £300,000 conning thousands of people into buying non-existent items on eBay were jailed yesterday for their part in a "well planned and sophisticated fraud".
In the biggest fraud of its kind uncovered so far, a Romanian couple and their accomplice tricked customers from across the globe into paying for fictitious goods that never arrived.
The couple, who advertised a range of items from parachute trousers and concert tickets to expensive cars on the internet auction site, used 12 aliases to con more than 3,000 unsuspecting shoppers across the world.
Nicolae Cretanu, 30, and his wife, Adriana, 23 of Leytonstone, east London, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obtain property by deception between July 1 2003 and May 31 this year and money laundering.
They were jailed for three and a half years and two and a half years respectively.
Their accomplice, George Titar, of Stratford, east London, who collected the payments from money transfer shops, admitted the same charges and was also sentenced to two and a half years.
The scam was successful because buyers on eBay have to pay before they are sent their goods. Shoppers were told by e-mail that they had been unsuccessful in their first bid but were offered a "second chance" to buy a similar item.
Customers were then encouraged to wire money via Western Union as quickly as possible if they wished their bid to be successful.
The majority of the cash was sent back to the gang's accomplices in Romania.
The racket was finally exposed after suspicious staff at Western Union alerted police and the three were arrested after an investigation by Scotland Yard's economic crime unit.
Chief Supt Nigel Mawer, who led the operation, said: "We believe there were 3,000 victims of this fraud and this type of fraud is still continuing."
The cell's accomplices in Romania had been arrested and were awaiting trial.
He stressed that internet auctions were essentially safe as long as customers followed the safety rules. "The message we are trying to get over to the public is do not send money by transfer to a person whose identity you do not know."
The £300,000 involved in this case was "a drop in the ocean" compared with the estimated £1 billion a year conned from people who wired funds in this way. "eBay scams form a substantial part of that," he added.
Passing sentence at London's Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court, Judge Duncan Matheson QC described the crime as "a major, sophisticated and well-designed fraud".
He said that for nearly two years the trio and their Eastern European masters "exploited perceived weaknesses in the eBay system, targeting a large number of people who parted with monies under entirely fraudulent circumstances".
The judge said he would also be recommending to the Home Secretary that all three be deported upon their release.
Anthony Riem, a partner at Philippsohn Crawfords Berwald, a law firm specialising in fraud, gave a warning that internet shoppers should be vigilant.
He said: "Policing the perimeters of the web remains a constant challenge and begs the question as to whether responsibility lies with the consumer, who enjoys the perks of cheap trading at a cost, eBay, or the police. It is vital that consumers remain vigilant
Now my rule is either cod or I will never pay for any item on ebay except using paypal and if I don't get the goods with in 1 and a half months, cancel the payment.
Datiya (Madhya Pradesh), Natives of a small village in a heavily-forested Datia hamlet in Madhya Pradesh are fleeing to safer areas these days. As at least three jackals, which possibly strayed into the village from the nearby jungles, have been on a biting spree. I think you need to find out why they hate you.
Terrorised by the jackals, over half of the population has fled Bairuka village while over two dozen villagers have been admitted to the hospital after being attacked by the brave errant animals. Let's find out the root causes.
"A number of people have fled the village," says Nathuram. End your occupation and there will be no need for militant attacks.
Forest officials say that efforts are being made to trap the animals. Quick! Where's Ramsey Clark? We need someone to protest the inhumane imprisonment.
#1
Jackals attack the village during night leaving bloody scars on the bodies of their victims. A few of the victims' eyes have been brutally clawed out by the animals. "The jackal came and attacked me while I was sleeping. It hit my eyes with the powerful claws," says Kunti Bai, whose left eye has been badly damaged in the attack.
Kunti Bai musta been drinkin Kickapoo juice when he told that fib. Everyone knows jackals don't scratch, just ask my cat, skittles.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
10/29/2005 4:55 Comments ||
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#2
These people must have some sort of religious or European prohibition against self defense. What would the life expectancy be for these jackals in a small TEXAS village? Substitute 'terrorist' for 'jackal' & you would get the same result.
A 14-year-old boy is facing execution in Saudi Arabia after being found guilty in a flawed trial of murdering a three-year-old girl, Human Rights Watch said yesterday. The girl, Wala abd al-Badi, was found dead with multiple stab wounds in a park in the eastern city of Dammam last year.
Saudi press reports said the boy, identified only as Ahmad al-D, told police during interrogation that he killed the girl because her father had hit him and he thought she had stolen his toys.
And how else would a man from the Master Race⢠respond to a mere womyn?
But Human Rights Watch said: "At every stage of the investigation, detention, trial and sentencing, the Saudi authorities violated Ahmad's due process rights as well as international legal protections for children. He had no legal assistance or representation during interrogation, detention and trial. Press and police accounts also throw into question his psychological stability and his ability to participate in his own defence."
The boy told an online newspaper he confessed to the murder only after police questioned him for a third time because "my strength dwindled and I lacked the capacity to refuse". He said he had been in solitary confinement for three months, awaiting trial. Although he was 13 at the time of the murder, the court treated him as an adult, based on its assessment of the coarseness of his voice and his pubic hair.
There's an exacting legal standard.
Saudi Arabia has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which prohibits capital punishment for offences committed by young people under 18.
I imagine Sha'ria contains exceptions, all good for the observance of the faith ...
"Executing one child for the killing of another would only compound the tragedy," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "King Abdullah should uphold Saudi Arabia's international legal obligations by commuting this death sentence."
The families of Ahmad and the murdered girl are Egyptian nationals living in the kingdom. Saudi law allows murder cases to be settled by payment of blood money to the victim's relatives but Wala's parents have turned down offers of compensation. In the meantime, Ahmad remains on death row at a juvenile detention centre in Dammam.
Saudi diplomats in London could not be contacted for comment yesterday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/29/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Certainly HRW can use it's military might to right this injustice. Oh my bad, they are all TRANZI fops and this poor kid has more pubes and balls than the lot of them.
#2
the tot's father was offered the death penalty--blood money--or repeated ass rape of the firmly butt cheeked killer by a gaggle of hashed out phillipino construction workers--he's consulting his iman and the oracle of delphi for the correct pubushment
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
10/29/2005 4:30 Comments ||
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#3
Hard to believe that for once I kind of agree with Saudi authorities on something. If the kid really did kill the girl (likely), execution seems appropriate to me - and I kind of like their legal standard for treating him as an adult.
So how do they carry out the execution? Remotely detonated car bomb in Iraq?
There is a fateful moment in the life of every carrot in search of a place on a supermarket shelf. It comes soon after harvest, on a 30mph conveyor belt in the din of an automated £750,000 packing plant. Pre-sorted for size, the carrot is launched into the air under the eye of a computer-controlled video camera, which films each carrot. In less than a millisecond, the computer compares it with a picture of the perfect carrot stored on its hard drive. Each carrot that fails to match up in terms of shape, bend, splits or blemishes is identified while still airborne and nudged off course by a tiny jet of air, landing in a âbulk holding areaâ, rejected by man, machine and a culture of vegetable conformity. This week the Prince of Wales went public in praise of âwibbly-wobblyâ carrots, by which he seemed to mean odd-sized, misshapen ones.
Showing off a large tray of them on his farm in Gloucestershire, he lamented the fact that all would fail to meet supermarketsâ cosmetic standards and urged the carrot-buying public to embrace carrot diversity.
His remarks have struck a chord. The Soil Association, of which he is patron, said it was âdelightedâ. Anthony Worrall Thompson, the celebrity chef and longstanding champion of vegetables with character, will welcome his new ally.
Earlier this month the National Trust announced a national hunt for Britainâs ugliest vegetable, and yesterday the British Nutrition Foundation confirmed that knobbly carrots are every bit as nutritious as ânormalâ ones.
But how to get your hands on them if you lack your own organic farm? Not easily. Behind our mania for catwalk-ready produce lies a bleak tale of discrimination and waste. The secret life of the knobbly carrot is harsh.
It starts with the growerâs choice of seed â 75 per cent of the carrots grown in Britain are of the Nairobi variety, chosen largely for length, straightness, ease of washing and âbecause it travels and stores wellâ, according to the Soil Association.
Much of the remaining 25 per cent are Imperators, which come out of the ground large but are mechanically cut and peeled to produce what look like baby carrots for snacks and lunchboxes.
Andrew Burgess, a grower in East Anglia grower, admitted that âif flavour was the number one criterion we could select different varietiesâ, but he insisted that consumers were ultimately the ones who chose by look.
Short, cartoonish Chantenays do reach supermarkets, along with delicate Yukons and Napolis (usually in bunches, still attached to their stalks). But all are hard to grow and too fragile for the £250,000 harvesters that dig up most of Britainâs carrots at up to 60 tons per hour. They are picked by hand and priced accordingly.
Six per cent of carrots never get fatter than a pencil or closer to the market than the growerâs âpreliminary grading tableâ, a belt of steel rollers. They fall through the gaps and are ploughed back into the ground.
A further five per cent â 50,000 tonnes a year â are rejected at the same stage as being too fat at over 45mm (the thickness of a decent leek). These are destined to be shredded for salads and soups, cut into batons for dipping, mulched for animal feed or left in their oversize splendour to be eaten whole by horses. Some knobbly carrots may survive the preliminary grading but their remaining time intact is short.
Supermarkets have aesthetic standards for organic as well as â conventionalâ carrots, so both types undergo the same screening at the packing plant. First, they are washed by being floated out of trucks and into revolving barrels equipped with soft internal brushes. âItâs all about being gentle,â says Mr Burgess, who operates two packing plants. âTheyâre not as sturdy as you think, carrots.â
They are then cooled in water from the average of 20C at which they emerge from the soil to the 3C at which, if lucky, they will be sold.
Then comes the ordeal of optical grading. The ideal carrot against which computers judge those flying past it is based on EU marketing standards, which divide those worthy of sale to humans into two classes. Only class one carrots reach supermarkets whole, and no knobbly carrots make that grade.
The customerâs best hope of finding a truly knobbly carrot lies in the booming organic box business. Sales of boxes of vegetables delivered weekly to homes soared by 20 per cent last year. But by far the most likely fate of a truly knobbly carrot remains the processing plant â or the skip.
Prêt à Manger welcomes knobbly carrots and buys 17 tons of them a year for its carrot cake alone.
The Knobbly Carrot Company, based in Lampeter, Wales, is even more enthusiastic. âThe knobblier the better,â a spokesman said. But does it sell them? No. It is a soup and salad company.
Japanese farmers grow melons in square glass cases. Each melon takes on square fridge-friendly dimensions and sells for triple the price, up to £50. In a marketing ploy by the Morrisons supermarket chain, growers place a heart-shaped sticker on apples as they ripen, leaving a perfect heart on the skin of each fruit. At a fair in Illinois last summer, a call for unusually formed vegetables yielded a Mickey Mouse-shaped potato, a cucumber that described a figure of eight and an aubergine said to resemble Richard Nixon. This summer Tesco began selling flat peaches. In 1994 Brussels arrived at standards for bananas that included curvature and quality, leading to unfounded rumours that straight bananas were to be imposed on consumers. Scientists did produce straight bananas in the 1960s. They were not liked.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/29/2005 12:02 Comments ||
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#4
you eat carrots. So they get chewed. Sometimes they are cut up before eating into little bitty pieces... so ... why do they care what a #@$! carrot looks like as long as it won't make you sick?
#5
yeah, right. Like they are putting the ugly blighted carrots on the Prince's table. It's ok for the little people, but we should all understand why he needs the pretty ones.
#9
75 per cent of the carrots grown in Britain are of the Nairobi variety, chosen largely for length, straightness, ease of washing and âbecause it travels and stores wellâ
The West Australian Premier has accused the Federal Government of not being honest about the threat posed by illegal fishermen in Australian waters.
It is understood a Commonwealth report has revealed the Government is concerned illegal fishing has links to terrorism, weapons and people smuggling. The report paints a far more serious picture than what the Federal Government has admitted publicly.
Geoff Gallop says Prime Minister John Howard needs to be open about the issue. "I've met with Commonwealth officials on this, I've met with the Prime Minister," he said. "They always give you the impression that things are in hand and in control but clearly this report indicates that the matters that have been raised by the intelligence gathering are much more serious than the Commonwealth has even let on before."
Posted by: God Save The World AKA Oztralian ||
10/29/2005 00:10 ||
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It's easy to fix just machine gun and rocket any fishing boat not registered in OZ within the 200 mile limit until it sinks.
#2
I remember a few years back when Australian military personnel stormed a merchant vessel called the Tampa - to prevent it discharging its miserable asylum seeker passengers on Australian soil.
6 October [2001]
1813 First warning given to master of vessel.
7 October [2001]
0153 Second warning issued.
0216 Boarding party ordered by Commanding Officer to prepare to board SIEV-4 when vessel enters Christmas Island Contiguous Zone.
0258 Adelaide made close pass down SIEV-4 starboard side.
0335 Adelaide directed by CJTF to conduct a positive and assertive boarding.
0402 Warning 5.56 mm (cannon) shots fired 50 feet in front of vessel.
0405 Warning 5.56 mm shots fired 75 feet in front of SIEV-4.
0409 Warning 5.56 mm shots fired 50-100 feet in front of SIEV-4.
0414 Boarding party advised by CO that if 50 cal machine gun warning shots do not stop vessel, boarding party is to aggressively board SIEV-4.
0418-0420 Twenty-three rounds of 50 cal (20 rounds of automatic fire) fired in front of SIEV-4.
0430 Close quarters manoeuvering by Adelaide, SIEV passed close astern to Adelaide port quarter and reduced speed/took way off momentarily.
0432 Boarding party issued final warning (to SIEV) indicating that if they did not allow boarding party to board, Adelaide would not let them enter Australian waters.
0442 Boarding party effected a conducted non-compliant boarding of SIEV-4.
0445 Boarding party in control of SIEV-4.[1]
Ooooh the memories are flooding back. It's a shame so many people whined about what happened that day. When these a-holes start landing upon our shores and setting up camp sites and god knows what else they are doing on our home soil, it's time to take the necessary action. If that means firing upon foreign vessels, then so be it. Unfortunately we are a too friendly nation, especially towards those cuntries that don't like us.
Posted by: God Save The World AKA Oztralian ||
10/29/2005 23:52 Comments ||
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ONE of four brothers convicted of a spate of brutal gang rapes yesterday confessed before telling one of his victims: "It is stupid to sit there and cry for the rest of your life."
The Pakistani-born 25-year-old apologised to one of his young victims, known as T, who looked on from the gallery with contempt as he grovelled for forgiveness.
For three years, the brothers denied the attacks - branding their four victims liars and appealing against their convictions all the way to the High Court.
Yesterday's belated apology came at a sentence hearing for the rapist known as MAK and his brothers MSK, 26, and MMK, 19, who were convicted this year of sex offences against two girls, aged 14 and 13, in 2002.
MAK, MSK, MMK and a fourth brother, MRK, 20, are already serving jail terms of between 11 and 22 years for raping two other teenagers at knife-point.
MAK claimed he had only recently realised his "mistakes" through discussion with a psychologist.
"Do you now accept that even if you perceive a woman is being flirtatious to you that doesn't mean she will have sexual intercourse with you?" MAK's lawyer Stephen Handley said.
MAK agreed, denying his admission was a ploy for "benefit on sentence", as Crown Prosecutor Ken McKay said.
"I am sorry for what happened and my father told me once ... about these Australian people that anyone who make mistake, such a forgiving community and such forgiving people, that they will accept your apology," MAK said.
"I don't know if my father is wrong."
T yesterday dismissed as "pathetic" the last-ditch confession by MAK, who even declared his young victim had a "big life ahead of her".
"It is stupid to sit there and cry for the rest of your life," he said to T.
Outside court, T said: "It wasn't heartfelt. It was all an act.
"I thought it was pathetic that he was sitting there telling me he was a broken man. I'm a broken woman."
The courageous 18-year-old read her victim impact statement aloud, facing her attackers as they sat together, taking notes in the dock. She spoke of depression, bulimia and self-harm, all arising from her ordeal.
Her strength through months of harrowing trials was drawn from a desire to reach out to other victims.
"People's perceptions of rape victims is that they should be a complete mess ... When I was around other people, I didn't want them to know that I was hurting and I didn't want them to think that I was a weak person."
In 2003, MAK was found guilty of a further nine counts of aggravated sexual assault against two best friends aged 16 and 17, but until yesterday denied those rapes.
The victims were befriended by the youngest brother, then driven to an Ashfield home and plied with alcohol before being subjected to assaults.
The brothers will be sentenced on a date to be fixed.
Posted by: God Save The World AKA Oztralian ||
10/29/2005 00:05 ||
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#1
This is another spate of australian gangrapes, the first one being done by a marauding gang of lebaneses now convicted (one of them made terrorism threats while jailed, kinda like "free the muslim prisoners or we'll bomb you", loser). Theses ones were comitted by a pakistanese extended family, with the lawyers whining about the "rape cultural background" of the perps, as can be seen in previous articles... IIRC one of the scumbags even brought his 4 years brother to witness one of the rapes, I'm not kidding. I suppose it's a traditional "asian" babysitting method...
#4
surely Oz has prison inmate factions willing to make these 4 their bitches for the rest of their lives? 11 yrs of asspounding - they won't make it. Inshal'lah
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/29/2005 14:14 Comments ||
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Lotsa best-sellers in Turkey, "Mein kampf", "Metal Storm" (that book about a war with the USA),... obviously a nation of readers!
Istanbul, 28 Oct. (AKI) - A young Turkish author is topping the best-seller charts for the second time in a year; this time with a futuristic novel in which Turkey, spurned by the EU, joins forces with Russia against neo-Nazi forces in Europe and together the two powers take over the continent. The author of The Third World War, 30-year-old Burak Turna, told Adnkronos International (AKI) that his latest novel seeks to alert Turks to the realities of EU and world politics. A blockbuster success among ordinary Turks, the book has been ignored or scorned by Turkey's intellectuals.
Turna is no stranger to success; his first fiction work, The Metal Storm, written with another young author Orkum Uckar, became a best-seller when it was published last December during a period of tension between Turkey and the US over the war in Iraq. In that book, American traitors invade Turkey which retaliates by having an agent plant an atomic bomb in Washington.
Some people consider that Turna's latest novel is a strong response to the stand-off with the European Union, where while entry talks officially started earlier this month, there is a growing campaign against Turkeyâs membership, especially in Austria, in Germany and in France.
While The Metal Storm sold nearly 450,000 copies, the first edition alone of the The Third World War has topped the 100,000 mark. This is an all-time record in a country where less than 10 percent of people regularly read books, and a book that sells more than 10 thousand copies is an exception.
In the new novel, the European Union rejects Turkey's membership drive when anti-Turk governments come to power in Germany, France and Austria in 2010. Neo-Nazis forces of these countries then begin fighting Turkey and Russia for control of Europe.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, current governor of California, has become president of the US and supports the European offenses against Turkey. As if that were not enough, there's a touch of Dan Brown-like intrigue, a secret pagan society, called the Brotherhood of Death and representing U.S. neo-conservatives, is seeking global domination at all costs.
Desiring revenge, Turkey joins forces with Russia and declares war against the EU. The Russian army invades the European Union, with Turkey's support, obliterate the EU and Orthodox Russians and Muslim Turks take control of the whole European continent.
âPeople like the book because I wrote in simple language and explain some boring political issues in an easy and exciting way" Turna told AKI. "My readers say they were amused and understand world politics better after reading it."
He accepts that the fame of âThe Metal Stormâ contributed to the sales of the second book. âPeople got to know me through The Metal Storm but the two novels have different targets, Metal Storm was for Turks but Third World War targets readers around the world."
"The reason for the great interest is that the Turkish public has been misled for a long time about Turkeyâs bid for membership of the EU. People want to know why the EU is as important to us as some groups claim."
Turna is a vocal opponent of Turkey becoming a member of the 25-nation bloc, and argues that Europe has a racist core and will never accept Turkey.
"In my opinion the European Union is a temporary, illusory, short-run project. I show in my book that there are serious risks for Turkey in membershipâ, he argued.
Instead the young author proposes an âEastern Unionâ model as an alternative for EU.
While Turkish intellectuals, literature scholars and the Turkish media are doing their best to ignore his latest book, Turna says he has had interest from around the world.
In internet forums, some Turkish web-surfers say they learned a lot about the world politics from the book, others believe that the book misrepresents world politics, a charge many critics make.
Haluk Hepkon, a reader, says that Turna has captured the right moment to write such books. âHe set up his stories based on Huntingtonâs âClash of Civilizationsâ thesis. According to Turna this battle will occur sooner or later following a tension between two blocks, westerners lead by the US and EU, and easterners lead by China. Of course it's a polarisation process underway, but not as Turna depicts,â Hepkon said.
#1
Both Turkey and Russia love sensationalist and nonsensical fiction just as much as the US does. To put all of this in perspective, I remind myself that both nations produced TV show rip-offs of Star Trek, the original series, within a few years of the original. If they could do that then, then what can they do now?
An historical note: Leonid Brezhnev was a big fan of Soviet-Star Trek.
EU member states should "rapidly" lift the temporary work blockades imposed on citizens from central and eastern European countries, argues a report the UK presidency will present to the blocâs leaders at Thursdayâs (27 October) summit.
This would "contribute to the reduction of the number of illegal workers coming from outside the EU", the paper says.
The discussion paper, referred to by UK leader Tony Blair in his pre-summit speech to MEPs on Wednesday, was written by Patrick Weil, an expert from the Paris-based National Center for Scientific Research.
The document outlines the current legal and illegal immigration picture in the EU, mainly focusing on the potential economic benefits of the controlled inflows of immigrants to the bloc.
It recommends that the "old" member states get rid of obstacles to their labour markets for citizens from eight countries that joined the union in May 2004.
So far so good in open states
The report points out that data collected in three countries - Britain, Ireland and Sweden - that have fully opened up to workers from the east have registered labour flows which proved "both manageable and beneficial".
In Sweden, the new workers increased the active population by only 0.07 percent between May and December 2004.
Most of the old EU countries, in contrast, sealed off their labour markets ahead of enlargement due to worries over high unemployment.
"The countries who continue to close their labour markets find themselves in a counterproductive situation, with new European citizens immigrating anyway and working illegally", argues the study.
It suggests the restrictions "should be removed immediately under certain criteria", such as checks on the impact salary levels.
Graduate migrants deserve special treatment
"At the very least, all restrictions on new European citizens with a university degree should be removed", says the discussion paper.
Old Europe's leaders â to whom the paper is addressed - are supposed to decide by next April if they will prolong the transition periods until 2009, with Austria and Germany almost certain to take such a step.
Apart from boosting mobility within the union, the document recommends the EU should also take steps to attract qualified workers from beyond its borders.
The paper suggests "Foreign graduate students from European universities could receive the benefit of a permanent visa".
The German city of Dresden was preparing Friday to host 100,000 people at the re-opening Sunday of its Frauenkirche, the magnificent church flattened in 1945 by Allied bombing and rebuilt as a symbol of reconciliation.
The Frauenkirche Foundation said it had accredited hundreds of media people for the grand re-opening of the Lutheran church, which will be televised nationwide on two public channels in Germany.
Since there is only seating in the huge church for 1,700 people, most residents and tourists are expected to watch the main ceremony Sunday on giant screens on the streets outside.
A programme of church services and concerts on the new organ will continue right through to Tuesday.
Some 850 of the donors who contributed a total of 100 million euros (120 million dollars) for the rebuilding have been allotted seats in the church near dignitaries including Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, his successor Angela Merkel and ambassadors of the World War Two Allies.
Britons and Americans contributed generously to the project in a sign of the friendship that followed the hatred of the war.
The re-dedication is to begin in the open air outside the church, with a procession of young people carrying inside its bible, altar cross, chalices and baptismal font before Lutheran bishop Jochen Bohl declares the former ruin hallowed ground.
The service includes separate dedications of the pulpit, the baptismal, the altar and the organ.
Catholics and other faiths will attend an ecumenical service at the church on Sunday evening, with the Anglican Bishop of Coventry, Colin Bennett, to preach. Coventry Cathedral in England was rebuilt in 1962 in a similar act of reconciliation.
Unlike the new Coventry Cathedral, a modern church next to the ruin of the old, the Frauenkirche is a replica of the old, with old and new stone mingled to recall the years when it lay in rubble.
#1
It's too bad that once all the opening ceremonies are complete it will be mostly empty (except for tourists). I guess it will be more functional after it is converted like St. Sophia's in Constantinople.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/29/2005 12:00 Comments ||
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#3
I'm sure the Frauenkirche will get plenty of use for christenings and weddings (I'm not sure how funerals are handled). It is for this, after all, that most Germans are willing to register with the government as either Catholic or Lutheran, and pay the Church Tax (levied as an added percentage of their income tax each year), when they could get out of it by filling out a form.
It is interesting, how carefully the Germans have been rebuilding the architectural heritage destroyed in the Second World War. I had a cousin in the town of Hildesheim, near Hannover, who was involved in rebuildng the Rathaus there. Not only was the rebuilding paid in large part with donations from the local citizenry, but old photos and building plans were searched out so that the new building was close to indistinguishable from the original (only with central heating and dryer basements, I'm sure). Even though Cousin Reinhilde had been actively quarreling with the town council since 1946 (the members coveted her house situated on main square, and deeply resented that she stayed and rebuilt that which had been bombed to pieces, instead of giving up and disappearing quietly like a half-Jewish woman ought to have done after the war), she gave unstintingly from her time and her meagre purse to support that and similar projects around town.
#4
Hi trailing wife - great story about your tough- minded Cousin Reinhilde. A few years back I went through Europe (Rick Steves Tour) and while going through the German part we stopped at a Jewish Cemetary that was over a thousand years old, The tombstones had engraved Hebrew lettering which was over 900 years old. I was amazed, partly because the beasts somehow missed this and maybe some humans helped in this ironic outcome. Germany was once the greatest European nation (pre-1914) along with Austria (my partial background). The beasts come in all ages and disguises but one thing for sure, they still keep coming and they do not discriminate.
Amid the chaos that ensued as Hurricane Katrina struck the city, dozens of police officers and civilian employees left their posts unexpectedly and were not heard from again. On Friday, the New Orleans Police Department fired 51 of them _ 45 officers and six civilian workers _ for abandonment.
"They either left before the hurricane or 10 to 12 days after the storm and we have never heard from them," acting police superintendent Warren Riley said.
Police were unable to account for 240 officers on the 1,450-member force following Katrina. The force has been investigating them to see if they left their posts during the storm.
The mass firing was the first action taken against any of the missing officers. Another 15 officers resigned when placed under investigation for abandonment.
"This isn't representative of our department," Riley said. "We had a lot of heroes that stepped up after the storm."
Another 45 officers have resigned from the force since the Aug. 29 storm. The resignations were for personal reasons ranging from relocation to new employment, Riley said.
The officers fired Friday won't have the right to appeal, Riley said. "The regulation says that if you leave the job for a period of 14 days without communication you can be terminated," Riley said.
Lt. David Benelli, president of the New Orleans police union, said he had no sympathy for those who abandoned their post. "The worst thing you can call a police officer is a deserter," Benelli said.
He said none of the officers had contacted the union about fighting the dismissals.
Two former New Orleans police officers and a New Orleans firefighter were rejected for jobs in the Dallas Police Department because of allegations they deserted their jobs during Hurricane Katrina.
Dallas Deputy Chief Floyd Simpson said there were approximately seven to 10 recent applicants for his department from New Orleans' police or fire departments. Three were rejected because of the desertion allegations and two were moving through the process after it was determined that they left the police department under proper circumstances. He did not provide the status of the others.
"When you are ready and take an oath of office and you do not fulfill that office, that's an issue for us and it should be an issue for law enforcement in general," Simpson said.
Hearings for New Orleans officers who remain under investigation for abandonment will begin Nov. 8, Riley said.
"The hearings will take us four to six months to do," he said. "Decisions on what to do with those officers based on the hearings will be made within 48 hours."
Riley said the decisions will be made weekly as the hearings are complete.
The department is also investigating the beating of a man during his arrest and the assault on an Associated Press television producer.
"It's still ongoing, but we hope to have a conclusion within a few weeks," Riley said.
#1
I wonder if New Orleans ever got their patrol cars back from Houston and learned who took them there? Also, why hasn't Riley addressed the matter of the 240 ghost employees? Are they still being paid and who is cashing the checks? If any federal funds are envolved then it's a federal matter not to be decided by the NO police.
The EU on Friday (28 October) put forward it's "bottom line" offer to increase market access for trade partners and get World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks moving again, but US and French reaction to the proposal augurs badly.
Trade commissioner Peter Mandelson and agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel presented the tariff cut scheme to the so-called Five Interested Parties, an informal group including the US, EU, Brazil, India and Australia.
The unofficial subgroup of the WTO is trying to lay the groundwork for an agreement at the WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong in December.
A spokeswoman for the US Trade Representative (USTR) said the US was disappointed with the new offer because it did not go as far as it could have to cut tariffs and even went backwards in some areas.
"While in some ways it is a step in the right direction and we acknowledge the EC's efforts, much more needs to be done", said USTR spokeswoman Christin Baker.
France also remains sceptical about the new package, repeating claims that the European Commission is acting outside the negotiating rules agreed to by member states.
"We remain doubtful that the offer is compatible with the mandate", a French diplomat told AFP, but adding that the new proposal "is worth studying carefully".
France has played devil's advocate to Mr Mandelson in the run-up to December, but the British commissioner was unfazed by the remarks.
"Show me a [negotiating] round, or a stage in a round, in any trade negotiation that France didn't demonstrate their sensitivities", he said.
Mr Mandelson admitted the proposal came "close to the edge" of the mandate with little room left for maoeuvre at the December talks though.
The mandate is based on a 2003 deal to reform the Common Agricultural Policy and a 2004 WTO framework agreement.
Hungary, Poland, Spain and other member states are also uneasy that the commission is giving too much away on reducing export subsidies and tariffs without getting the same quality of concessions in return.
EU ambassadors held an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss Brussels' lastest proposal, with a senior diplomat from one of the new members saying that while there is widespread support for the commission, many questions remain.
"We don't see balanced progress [by trade partners] so we are against further moves by the commission", the contact indicated.
He praised the new offer because it demanded movement by the US and others to reach a balanced agreement in all areas of negotiations and not just agriculture, however.
The commission says its offer to open borders to foreign imports by cutting its highest tariff "peaks" by 60 percent must be matched by the US dropping export credit and food aid programs.
Brussels also reitereated demands for Australia, New Zealand and Canada to "discipline" their state-run export companies, and for developed countries to increase duty and quota free access for least developed countries on the model of the EU everything but arms program.
Meanwhile, Oxfam is alarmed that the EU is still wasting energy on internal warngles with only 47 days to go before the Hong Kong deadline.
"It is so late in the day for the EU to try to make progress without having to worry about damaging splits", the charity's trade campaigner Celine Charveriat said.
HANOI - Vietnam's attempts to enter the World Trade Organization (WTO) have been blocked by what the country's negotiators say are unacceptable new demands by Washington that the socialist country change the way its economy works - more than it already has.
So far, Vietnam has embraced capitalism incompletely, imperfectly and cautiously to lessen the gap between rich and poor among its 77 million people, 69% of whom still subsist on agriculture. But having formally applied to join WTO in 1995 and begun negotiations in earnest in 2002, the communist country had high expectations of making an entry when the global trade body holds its next ministerial meeting in Hong Kong in December.
For the past 15 years, Vietnam has been changing the way it does business, though perhaps not to the extent Washington would like to see it. It has embraced market economy, attracted factory jobs from overseas, and towering new buildings have sprung up in the capital and in Ho Chi Minh City. In 2002, foreign investors poured more than US$1.2 billion into Vietnam, and the country seems all set to enter the world's official club of capitalist nations.
Yet, the administration of US President George W Bush has been pressuring Vietnam to eliminate subsidies and state-owned enterprises. Talks with negotiators from Washington have broken down over what Vietnam maintains are "new conditions" introduced in recent rounds of talks.
But new conditions are not the only issue. Last month, US ambassador to Vietnam Michael Marine criticized the country for not fully implementing a bilateral trade agreement that was negotiated in 2000 and also for resorting to "half measures". "The US clearly understands Vietnam's abilities and clearly understands that we cannot meet their new conditions," the country's lead WTO negotiator, Ngo Quang Xuan, recently told Vietnam's Youth newspaper, accusing Washington of a "lack of goodwill".
The US has a different spin on the negotiations. "American business wants a viable deal on this accession," said Adam Sitkoff, executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hanoi. "The American business community wants a deal that's good for Vietnam's future, not only for companies like Citibank and AIG [American firms] but also for Vietnamese business. If you look at what WTO ascension is about, it's about creating a climate that will make people want to invest and feel secure about putting their money here."
But some observers complain that such changes could undercut what's been one of the most successful poverty-reduction campaigns in the world. The British voluntary group Oxfam International reports that in 1993 fully 58% of Vietnam' s people were impoverished. By 2002, that number had been cut in half. State-owned companies transport chemicals and fertilizers to rural families, 45% of whom are still in poverty.
Driving a hard bargain is appropriate. The more the Vietnamese are forced to liberalize their economy, the faster their political culture will liberalize. The folks who boarded the last helicopter from our embassy in Saigon, 1975, will get the last laugh.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/29/2005 14:47 ||
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#1
Why let Commies and dictators in at all? Much of China's rise is thanks to Clinton's WTO admission.
Not good for the children or for society.
Nearly 1.5 million babies, a record, were born to unmarried women in the United States last year, the government reported Friday. And it isn't just teenagers any more. "People have the impression that teens and unmarried mothers are synonymous," said Stephanie Ventura of the National Center for Health Statistics.
But last year teens accounted for just 24 percent of unwed births, down from 50 percent in 1970, she commented. The increases in unmarried births have been among women in their 20s, she said, particularly those 25 to 29. Many of the women in that age group are living with partners but still count as unmarried mothers if they haven't formally married, Ventura noted.
Among teens, more than 80 percent of mothers were unmarried.
There were 1,470,152 babies born to single women in 2004, 35.7 percent of all births in the country, NCHS said. That was up from 1,415,995 a year earlier.
Births to older women continued to increase, Brady Hamilton of NCHS pointed out, reflecting choices these women are making in terms of careers and having families. The birth rate for women aged 35 to 39 increased 4 percent from 2003 to 2004. It was up 3 percent for women aged 40 to 44 and 9 percent for those 45 to 49.
Other findings of the report included:
There was a total of 4,115,590 births in the country in 2004, up from 4,089,950 in 2003.
Births to whites declined by nearly 18,000 while Hispanics were up 32,000, there was an increase of more than 8,000 in births to Asians and a rise of just 72 births among black women.
The total birth rate was 14.0 per 1,000 women, down from 14.1 in 2003.
The birth rate for women aged 15 to 19 was 41.2 per 1,000, down from 41.6 in 2003 and a record low. The teen birth rate was 61.8 in 1991 and has been declining since.
#3
Basically, the three major causes of poverty in America -
Substance Abuse [free will]
Single Female Head of Household [free will]
Blowing off one's education [partial free will, partial teachers union]
We can do something about the last one, but all poverty programs will fail unless it is understood that as long as we allow people free choices there will always be those who choose self destructive behaviors. Therefore there will aways be some poverty in a free society.
#4
There is one major cause of poverty in America.
Insufficient consequences.
Government social action is directed toward ameliorating the consequences of the behaviors CT1079 identified instead of making their consequences more intense and public, thus dioscouraging the next generation from indulging in them.
#5
Crereter - WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!! Poverty is caused by George Bush. Don't you bother to read the MSM? Poverty only occurs during Republican administrations, and instantly vanishes whenever Dems are in office.
#6
Well, since Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell say the same thing CT1079 does, I guess he's right.
Three of my daughter's 'friends' in high school have had children in the last year, including one that's only 16 NOW, which means she was 15 when she became pregnant. This year's graduating class from her high school had 59 people that didn't graduate because of pregnancies or childbirth, out of 335.
TT5706 is also right that lack of NEGATIVE consequences sends a message to these women that it's "ok". I don't think we should go back to stoning "adultresses", but these children need to learn that there are consequences for doing stupid things. Getting pregnant in high school, unless you're married, is STUPID.
Of my daughter's friends, only one plans to finish her high school education, which means the other two will have even greater difficulty later in life. My daughter plans to get married this summer, but insists she'll finish her college education before she has children.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/29/2005 15:26 Comments ||
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#7
Feed them yourself and pay for their jailboard twenty years later. No excuses such as the devil (substance abuse) made me do it. Or poverty; animals feed their young, etc. They do because they can take our work proceeds.
MANSEHRA: In its operation against relief goods' hoarders in Mansehra, Pakistan Army personnel on Friday recovered relief aid in tonnes from the houses of a nazim and a a former committee chairman. Army personnel raided the nazim's house of union council 4, recovering about 35 sacks of rice, 40 sacks of flour and a good deal of cooking oil. Half of the supply was recovered from his friend's home. In another case, former chairman of the City Committee of Safaidiyan village was found in possession of a huge storage of edibles and blankets meant for quake affectees. The enraged people later blackened his face and paraded him in the entire area. Similarly, a truckload of goods has been recovered from a nazim's house. Two former AJK ministers have also committed embezzlements, as army seized 200 tents from one minister and 300 tents from another.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2005 00:29 ||
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#1
A little humilation for screwing people in the direst of need?
Not enough. You can do better.
I know - pretend your brother raped his sister beat her to within an inch of her life, but she didn't cooperate, didn't die.
There ya go. Time for some of that infamous "honor" killing you're so good at.
#2
This is nothing compared to the aid funds that the Pak army itself will divert...
Posted by: john ||
10/29/2005 9:48 Comments ||
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#3
Just another example that the Paks like the Indos, Malays, and Phils, could care less about the people who need the aid. They just see profit and greed in aid. The only aid that ever gets through is the stuff dumped from US helicpoters to the people standing there in need, or from folks like Knightsbridge and other NGO's willing to risk the crooked political leaders and generals.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
10/29/2005 16:15 Comments ||
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#5
Lol, institutionalized systemic rape and exploitation of the masses, including the desperate and those in truly direst need, does seem to occur most vigorously in the places where the "isms" live and prosper.
#6
If Musharraf does not have the stones to implement swift summary execution for these miscreants, he does not belong in power.
I never cease to wonder at how those who hate America so much nonetheless manage to prove most capable of all at screwing over their own ilk in ways that are almost fascinating by dint of their inventiveness. Howevermuch such maggots blame America for all their woes, they still do not blush at gouging and cheating their own brethern with breathtaking alacrity.
Of course, such venality and corruption have absolutely nothing to do with the poverty and degradation their countries are so often mired in. Such blame is routinely placed upon the doorstep of that most heinous monster of all, democratic free market capitalism.
#7
Uh oh, every time I wail on Pervy I get whacked, Zen, lol.
Color me naive, but I simply despise any accommodation or arrangement engineered for momentary advantage - at the cost of our integrity by putting the lie to our stated policies. They're destined to come back and bite us in the ass. Sigh. If I can conduct myself with honor, so can my government. Sure it will cost us in certain places, and the M.E. is the obvious one, but I submit the benefit is outweighed by the losses over the lifespan of the game -- and regards the M.E., I also submit that the instability level, and of course unstable is the norm there, isn't nearly to my satisfaction, lol.
PESHAWAR: The North West Frontier Province Assembly passed a resolution on Friday, demanding the immediate ban of English film The Message because it hurt Muslim sentiments. The House also demanded videocassettes of the filmâs Urdu version be banned and confiscated and legal action taken against those distributing the tape. Tabling the resolution, Deputy Speaker Ikramullah Shahid said a private TV channel had shown the Urdu version of the film. He said roles played by non-Muslims in the film were an affront to the Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) and his companions. An immediate ban should be imposed on the film, he demanded.
Opposing the resolution, Awami National Party legislator Farah Aqil Shah said there was nothing wrong with the film, which was produced after getting permission from Saudi authorities. âThe film is an inspiration to children and many people in the West and the US have converted to Islam after seeing it,â said she, adding that the film should be shown in all languages. Pakistan Muslim League legislator Nighat Yasmeen Orakzai supported Farah and said Muslim scholars were consulted before the film was made.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2005 00:16 ||
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GENEVA - Thousands of earthquake survivors in mountainous areas of northwestern Pakistan are likely to face a harsher winter than usual, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said on Friday. Isolated snowfalls have already been reported at higher altitudes and the seasonal weather outlook for the region suggests heavier snow and colder temperatures than normal, Mark Oliver, a spokesman for the WMO said. âInitial overview of the regional and global parameters indicates that another harsh winter is approaching the earthquake stricken areas,â he added.
So much for global warming.
âSnowfall is expected to considerably exceed the normal range, both in terms of frequency and quantity. Temperatures are likely to range well below normal.â Oliver said that by January, daytime temperatures would remain several degrees below zero for days on end. Temperatures will also likely to drop to overnight lows of about minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus four Fahrenheit), according to the long-term forecast.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/29/2005 00:00 ||
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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.
Pre-sorted for size, the carrot is launched into the air under the eye of a computer-controlled video camera, which films each carrot. In less than a millisecond, the computer compares it with a picture of the perfect carrot stored on its hard drive. Each carrot that fails to match up in terms of shape, bend, splits or blemishes is identified while still airborne and nudged off course by a tiny jet of air, landing in a âbulk holding areaâ, rejected by man, machine and a culture of vegetable conformity. This week the Prince of Wales went public in praise of âwibbly-wobblyâ carrots, by which he seemed to mean odd-sized, misshapen ones. 
The West Australian Premier has accused the Federal Government of not being honest about the threat posed by illegal fishermen in Australian waters.
GENEVA - Thousands of earthquake survivors in mountainous areas of northwestern Pakistan are likely to face a harsher winter than usual, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said on Friday. Isolated snowfalls have already been reported at higher altitudes and the seasonal weather outlook for the region suggests heavier snow and colder temperatures than normal, Mark Oliver, a spokesman for the WMO said. âInitial overview of the regional and global parameters indicates that another harsh winter is approaching the earthquake stricken areas,â he added. 
