At least three people have been shot at a high school in Gardena, California, Lt. Steve Prendergast of the Gardena Police Department said Tuesday. The conditions of the victims, who all appear to be students, are unknown.
One victim was shown on CNN affiliate KTLA being wheeled on a stretcher to an ambulance at 11:15 a.m.
The 3,000-student school in the Los Angeles suburb was on lockdown, KTLA reported.
#1
LOS ANGELES A gun in a 10th-grader's backpack accidentally discharged when he dropped the bag, wounding two students at a high school Tuesday, Los Angeles police and school authorities said.
A 15-year-old girl was in critical condition with a head wound and a 15-year-old boy suffered a neck wound, said Deputy Chief Patrick Gannon. Both were hit with the same bullet.
The student who brought the gun apologized before running to a classroom, Gannon said. "He said, 'I'm sorry,' when the gun went off. It made it appear to the teacher that it was an accident," Gannon said.
A teenaged student in Marseille was hospitalized in critical condition after lighting himself on fire at school.
The lad poured a flammable liquid on himself in the restroom of his private school and then set himself alight. He has second and third degrees burns over 70% of his body. It is not yet clear why he did it.
A fellow student said he heard screams, then saw the teen on fire running downstairs towards the school yard. He said that a worker extinguished the flames.
Another student from Bordeaux has been in a coma since last November when he set himself on fire at school.
#2
Lot of people burning themselves today. Reminds me of the Buddhists in Vietnam. Has to be the most painful way to die, and if you manage to survive the attempt I suspect you'd wish you'd died.
[Emirates 24/7] Saudi Arabia's feared Islamic police wreaked havoc in the streets of the Gulf Kingdom's capital on Sunday during an exciting chase of a bare-footed woman, a newspaper reported on Monday.
Three members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice pushed their four-wheel car on the pavement and headed in the wrong direction of a busy road before they got off the vehicle and chased the woman on foot through the streets of Riyadh, Sharq Arabic language daily said.
"Hundreds of people stopped to watch the chase of the unknown woman, who was bare-footed.....the Authority members caused chaos on the roads by chasing the unknown woman," it said.
"She kept running away, prompting them later to call in a back-up...it was an exciting chase but the crowd did not know how it ended."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2011 00:00 ||
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The video -- which asks the question "Is it worth the expense?" -- was shown to an immigrant advocate who acknowledged that the portion of fence in question is poorly designed. The barrier costs taxpayers on average about $4 million per mile of border fence, according to the station. What kind of idiot dreamed up this POS? Is there a clawback option on the design costs of this POS? More importantly, who the heck looked at this POS and said "Oh yeah! That's the ticket!"? Maybe it's there to make sure only the young and fit make it across the border, I don't know. I guess those with arthritis will have to drive or fly into the US.
#2
I don't want the US ever to be in a position to be compared to East Germany, thanks.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/18/2011 15:59 Comments ||
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#3
I would bet those gals drove out there, not defending this design because a nice little 5 degree slant or a loop at the top makes that trick so much tougher especially if also humping baggage. Guess it stops cars & bikes but lets the coyotes migrate.
#5
The East was keeping people in, not people out.
Those afraid of being criticized for protecting their own territory have already surrendered it to the critics. How many more Americans must die? What's the count up to in the WOT and what's the count on our own streets?
#6
it is nearly impossible to stop a willful single illegal without armed sentries. The point is to stop larger numbers, vehicles (with drugs and groups of illegals). Once they jump that fence they have a long hot dry walk during which many if not most get apprehended. The BP sweep trails to look for tracks and use IR
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2011 18:38 Comments ||
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This is a video interview. It follows a short advertisement.
Looks like she's gunning to get another press pass, that's why she took that job at that small paper. Without checking it out, I'm going to guess it's a liberal paper, because in order to get that press pass, the paper's editor has to write her a letter detailing why she is so deserving of a press pass. Every reporter has to do this every year it seems, but this paper has almost no pull. Personally, I think she's better cut out for hiding under bridges and scaring the crap out if billy goats, and I'll bet even the WH sees it that way, too.
Of course she doesn't think she's anti-semitic. Of course she thinks Jews have a right to exist in Israel. I'm not sure how she squares that with what she said about how they are occupiers and ought to go "home" to Poland, Germany and the US.
But hey, she's at the cutting edge of liberal, so she doesn't have to even explain herself, let alone apologize.
The National Weather Service in North Little Rock examined a speck on the radar that showed up around the same time hundreds of birds fell out of the sky from alleged trauma on New Year's Eve.
Today's THV reporter Lauren Clark talked to Science and Operations Officer Chris Buonanno at the NWS who says that the speck on the picture is definitely not precipitation.
The spot on the radar is estimated to be between 1,300 and 1,400 feet in the air and Buonanno points out it doesn't move like a cloud or rainstorm would.
[Ennahar] A man set himself on fire Monday at the People's Assembly in Cairo, a parliamentary source told AFP, a gesture reminiscent of the young Tunisian who has triggered the riots in his country.
The man poured gasoline over his body before setting it on fire, then the police intervened to extinguish the flames, said the source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The man was then placed in an ambulance to be transported to a hospital. His condition is unknown, as are the reasons for his act.
December 17, a 26 years old Tunisian, Mohamed Bouazizi, had set himself on fire in protest against the seizure of his goods, sparking riots that led to the flight of President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali on Friday.
In Algeria, a man who was slain Saturday by the fire in a town near the border with Tunisia died Sunday, while three others have tried in recent days to do so.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Really made an ash of himself.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/18/2011 10:22 Comments ||
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#2
Isn't it unislamic to kill yourself without blowing up a few other people?
[Ennahar] A young man set himself on fire yesterday in Mostaganem, having lost all hope of finding a job. Before yesterday, two other youths attempted suicide by setting fire in their bodies in Tebessa.
A young man of 34 set himself on fire yesterday outside the headquarters of urban security in Mostaganem. Fortunately for him, officials have rushed to his aid before transporting him to the emergency service of the hospital. This young man from a neighboring province would have tried to commit suicide because of unemployment. He was carrying with him several letters addressed to public authorities, such as the Wali (Prefect), the head of daïra (Sub-prefect, President of the APC (Mayor) and the Director of Public Service.
A young man of 37 years was hospitalized at death's door after being slain by fire Saturday before the town hall in the region of Tebessa, near the border with Tunisia, where he had come to claim employment and housing, said on Sunday local hospital sources.
"He is currently in the intensive care unit. He is at death's door," said a doctor at the hospital in Annaba, where he was admitted to the burn service.
Mohcine Bouterfa doused himself with petrol and was transformed into a human torch in front of the town hall of the mining city of Boukhadra, east of Tebessa, the source said.
Mr. Boutertif was part of a group of twenty young people gathered outside the Town Hall to protest against the mayor's refusal to receive them, according to locals. They demanded jobs and housing.
The victim, a father of a girl in search of employment and housing, intended by this desperate act, to denounce the attitude of contempt displayed towards him by the elected officials of this county, added the same source.
The president of the APC (Communal People's Assembly, Town Hall) was relieved of his duties by the Wali (prefect) of Tebessa who visited on Saturday the scene.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2011 00:00 ||
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[Arab News] Tunisian authorities struggled to restore order Sunday, arresting the top presidential security chief and trying to stop shootouts that erupted across the capital. One clash broke out near Tunisia's main opposition party building, another by the dreaded Interior Ministry and a third in a Tunis suburb.
Observers worldwide were looking to see which way the North African nation would turn as its new leadership sought to stamp down the looting, arson and random violence that has taken place since the departure of President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali on Friday.
Tensions appeared to be mounting between Tunisians buoyant over Ben Ali's departure and loyalists in danger of losing major perks. The security chief Ali Seriati and his deputy were charged with a plot against state security, aggressive acts and for "provoking disorder, murder and pillaging," the TAP state news agency reported.
Police and vigilantes stopped vehicles as the city remained under a state of emergency. More than 50 people were jugged by police on suspicion of using ambulances, rental cars and government vehicles for random shootings. Among them were four German nationals who were found carrying weapons in taxis. The drivers of the three taxis transporting the people jugged told police their clients were going hunting. Unconfirmed reports earlier said two Swedish nationals were jugged with "hunting rifles."
A shootout broke out in the afternoon between security forces and unidentified attackers in front of the main opposition party PDP's headquarters, said party member Issam Chebbi. Soon after that clash, repeated volleys of gunfire were heard close by near the Interior Ministry. Military and police sources said security forces had killed two gunnies stationed on a rooftop near the central bank, a block from the Interior Ministry. A military official told the station that the two men had been killed by fire directed from a helicopter.
Another gunbattle broke out around the presidential palace. Presidential guards loyal to Ben Ali were involved in the shootout in Carthage on the Mediterranean shore, about 15 km north of Tunis. Carthage residents have barricaded themselves inside their homes amid the shooting.
Tunisian media reported that one brother-in-law of Ben Ali, Imed Trabelsi, died after an attack by an angry mob at Tunis airport. Businesses owned by Ben Ali's family were targeted by looters, including the Zeitouna bank in Tunis founded by Ben Ali's son-in-law and vehicles made by Kia, Fiat and Porsche -- brands distributed by members of the ruling family.
Several hundred people filed through the empty, ransacked home of the former president's nephew, Kaif Ben Ali, taking photographs, picking up plants as souvenirs and stripping out plumbing fixtures. The villa is in the chic Mediterranean resort of Hammamet, about 60 km from the capital.
Ordinary Tunisians concentrated on two key needs Sunday -- food and security.
Many scoured the capital for food. Most shops remained closed, others were looted and bread and milk were running short.
"We're starting to feel it now," said Imed Jaound at the Tunis port, which has been closed since Friday. Fish mongers were selling 2- to 3-day-old fish, said Ezzedine Gaesmi, a salesman at the indoor market in Tunis, where numerous stands were empty. "There's no fresh fish. If it continues for two or three more days, we'll close," he said.
Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi was holding talks on Sunday to try to form a unity government. The interim president, former Parliament Speaker Fouad Mebazaa, has told the prime minister to create a national unity government and urged him to consult with the opposition. Presidential elections must be held in 60 days.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2011 00:00 ||
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#3
It's amusing to me (in an ironic way) how the "perks" of the incumbents and the looting of those who want the incumbents gone points to a less than wealthy future.
Incumbent Looter Versus New Looter.
Whoever wins, we lose.
#4
"Listen, years ago I rode with Ju¨¢rez against Emperor Maximilian. I lost many chickens but I thought it was worth it to be free. When Porfirio became President, I supported him ¨C but he stole my chickens. Then came Huerta and he stole my chickens. Then it was Carranza¡¯s term, and he stole my chickens too. Now comes Pancho Villa to liberate me and the first thing he does is steal my chickens.(¡) What makes one different from the others? My chickens don¡¯t know. All over the world revolutions come and go. Presidents rise and fall. They all stole your chickens. The only thing to change is the name of the man who takes them."
¨DOld man in pueblo, Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
#5
I've heard different forms of that joke over the years. Almost made me wanted to start a "Patriotic Chickens" blog, but real life intervened and noone would get the joke anyway.
[Ennahar] Units of the Tunisian army arrested yesterday morning Tunisian Minister of Interior Rafik Belhadj, while he was en route to the Tunisian-Algerian border in an attempt to enter the Algerian territory.
According to corroborating sources, the former Tunisian Minister Belhadj was accompanied by his personal bodyguards aboard three vehicles. They came from the Tunisian town of Beja, birthplace of the Minister and headed the Algerian-Tunisian border.
According to the same sources, the army forces stopped two vehicles while the third, on which the minister Belhadj was, managed to flee. A chase ensued and ended with the arrest of its occupant.
The interior minister, who was sacked two days ago, by the deposed President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, was returned to Tunis.
A series of arrests has been held during day of yesterday, led by army forces and the Tunisian National Guard against the officers in the corps of security, the presidential guards and police, in addition, Senior security officials, suspected of being behind the violence and looting that occurred after the flight of President Ben Ali were chased.
Moreover, land borders between Tunisia, Libya and Algeria have experienced an intense strengthening in order to prevent any attempt to escape of police and supporters of the Ben Ali regime. Dozens were arrested yesterday in southern Tunisia as they fled to Libya.
The former security chief of ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was arrested at the request of the Tunisian justice who accused him of the recent atrocities committed against the people, said Sunday an official source.
On the other hand, we learn that General Ali Seriate was placed in custody after the presentation of the charges against him. The key man to security of the ousted president had been arrested at Ben Guerdane in southern Tunisia as he tried to flee to Libya.
According to this source, General Seriate was arrested by elements of the police and army and was sent back to Tunis.
Previously, an official source quoted by state television and official news agency TAP said General Ali Seriate had been formally accused of being responsible for atrocities against the population.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2011 00:00 ||
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[Ennahar] Mohammed Ghannouchi, last Prime Minister of deposed Tunisian President Ben Ali, announced Monday the composition of a national union government, including three heads of opposition parties, responsible for managing the transition to the conducting of Presidential and legislative elections.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[The Nation (Nairobi)] Prime Minister Raila Odinga, the African Union mediator for Côte d'Ivoire, has a "new peace offer" for strongman Laurent Gbagbo.
Mr Odinga, however, declined to provide details on the offer to be presented on his second mediation bid since the country's crisis began following the November presidential elections.
"In Abidjan, I will deliver (the) AU message to Gbagbo," he said about an hour before his departure from Abuja, where he met Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, the chairman of the West African bloc, Ecowas.
"The mission is another trial to see if we can make a peaceful resolution to the crisis. We will see his reaction to the new peace offer we will make to him. We are hopeful to resolve the crisis."
The 15-member Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) has threatened the use of force if Gbagbo does not step down in favour of his internationally recognised rival Alassane Ouattara.
It was unclear how long Mr Odinga would remain in Côte d'Ivoire, with his front man saying that would depend on what happened during the talks.
Mr Odinga said that after his visit to Côte d'Ivoire, he was likely to travel to other countries including Ghana, Angola, Burkina Faso and Kenya, for consultations on the crisis.
He did not say why those countries would be visited. Ghana, an Ecowas member, has ruled out sending troops to Côte d'Ivoire, while Angola has been one of the few countries to show support for Gbagbo.
Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore has previously served as mediator in Côte d'Ivoire.
Mr Odinga is scheduled to hold talks with the contenders for the country's presidency Mr Gbagbo and Mr Ouattara later on Tuesday evening.
He left Abuja for Abidjan in the afternoon where he is to meet Mr Gbagbo before heading for another meeting with Mr Ouattara.
It is believed that the key to peace lies in honouring the expressed electoral will of the Ivorian people, and in African leaders continuing to speak with one voice in supporting the principled positions Ecowas and the AU had agreed on.
Said Mr Odinga: "The resulting disillusionment with electoral process risks spreading instability on the continent."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Odinga is O'Bummer's man and relative.
And a muslim...Côte d'Ivoire has been invaded by illegal muslim aliens like the South West of the US.
Then they voted out the legal government with illegal votes just like the democrats are planning,
to flood the country with mexicans then take over.
Remember Biafra? Then CI will soon be another Biafra with Obama and France's help.
The British leader, whose Conservative Party heads the country's coalition government, said he would save money and cut red tape by giving control over management to family practitioners rather than bureaucrats, and allow private companies, charities and social enterprises to bid for contracts within the public health service.
Making health care more efficient has proved an elusive goal for successive British governments. The previous Labour administration vowed to reduce waiting times for treatment, and succeeded but at the cost, say critics, of wasteful bureaucracy.
Haitian police took ex-dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier out of his hotel Tuesday without saying whether he was being detained for crimes committed under his brutal regime. Probably depends on the size of the bribe...
A contingent of police led the former dictator known as "Baby Doc" through the hotel and to a waiting SUV. He was not wearing handcuffs.
Duvalier, 59, was calm and did not say anything. Asked by journalists if he was being arrested, his longtime companion Veronique Roy, laughed but said nothing. I wonder what she knows?
#4
The Duvaliers had plenty of money built up from their decades of running the country and having an actual functioning economy, and it was all out of the country in foreign bank accounts. Now that Haiti has regressed 4 decades economically since the Duvaliers left, Baby Doc is coming back to spread around the largess. I expect him to be a king-maker this time, not the king.
#5
An associate of Jean-Claude Duvalier says a judge has decided to open a formal investigation of the former dictator. Mona Bernadeau, a Senate candidate from Duvalier's political party, says Duvalier has been facing questions from the judge in a closed-door legal session since being taken out of his hotel by police Tuesday.
She declined to specify the allegations. Under the Haitian system, judges investigate allegations made by prosecutors. Haiti allows for pretrial detention but that is unlikely in Duvalier's case. Bernadeau expects Duvalier will be returning to his hotel.
Dozens of Duvalier supporters tried to block streets with overturned trash bins and rocks to try to prevent the former dictator from going to prison.
Several hundred Duvalier supporters gathered outside the court, burning tires, chanting slogans and calling for the arrest of President Rene Preval.
President Barack Obama Tuesday ordered a government-wide review of regulations with the goal of eliminating those that hurt job creation and make the U.S. economy less competitive.
#1
To anyone that believes this, would you also be interested in buying some ocean front property right outside of Kansas City?
Posted by: Alan Cramer ||
01/18/2011 12:32 Comments ||
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#2
I expect he'll be starting with the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Wagner Act & the third party standing rules for environmental groups. Those are pretty clearly among the worst offenders.
#6
Oh no Jim, Obama's rules are *good* for us. Buried at the bottom:
While vowing to eliminate rules that are "not worth the cost, or that are just plain dumb," the president said his administration would not shy away from writing new rules to address "obvious gaps" in government oversight.
Likely as not this will be an excuse to consolidate federal powers into an impenetrable mass of regulatory goo by eliminating all areas that are presently unregulated. I expect the net effect to be fewer lines text but a far more expansive, invasive and costly regulatory state.
Detroit Public Schools would close nearly half of its schools in the next two years, and increase high school class sizes to 62 by the following year, under a deficit-reduction plan filed with the state. Of course, they're also saying if they just got a few hundred million bucks, this would go away. For just this one city only. Forget the rest of the state. The rest of the country. Forget that this is mostly glorified juvie.
And just where would this aid come from? From my school budget, I guess. My kids' success. My country's.
Thanks, liberal politicians! Thanks, shortsighted automaker companies! Thanks, unions!
But hey, you and your buddies got theirs. Now it's our children's problem. Your parents would be so proud.
#2
There are large parts of Detroit that rival the worst 3rd world cities .... filthy, rat-infested, decaying buildings, half collapsed, utilities barely or non-existent.
It's a national disgrace. Worse - it's home to an increasingly active Islamicist community.
#5
Yeah, somebody's trying the old "Washington Monument" gag. If you look at the article, they're ramping it up as you get into the older class cohorts. The idea is that nobody can control 62 rampaging high school juniors, and thus the resulting chaos will loosen the purse strings.
Well, that, and when you pay teachers twice as much as what they're worth, you can only afford half as many teachers.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
01/18/2011 10:20 Comments ||
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#7
Those plans include splitting the district in two to put its debt obligation with an "old district"...State revenue would pay off the debt, allowing the "new district" to move forward debt-free with undetermined start-up funds.
District officials said they are pursuing "renaissance" legislation to free up $400 million in future tobacco settlement funds that could help mend DPS' deficit and those of 40 other districts statewide.
So lets take a looksie at some of the creative solutions the "officials" are proposing.
First, they want to cook the books to create a phantom district in order to have the state pay for their debt obligations. Next they want to raid money from tax incentives that was intended to encourage private economic growth and job creation. And for good measures they want to shift settlment revenue legislated specically for scholarship programs twoards the funds that pay for day to day operations. Hmmm, and you were wondering how they got into this position in the first place wern't you?
#8
Detroit High School Graduation Rate
A new study from Education Week shows that at least a third of teenagers in the nation are dropping out of school without earning their diplomas. Detroit has the worst rate: Fewer than 25 percent of freshmen go on to graduate.
Posted by: George Hupaviger4591 ||
01/18/2011 12:06 Comments ||
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#9
I'm sure when the all of the families (and their tax dollars) that can leave Detroit do leave Detroit things will be much better. If this isn't a bluff it is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
#12
Fewer than 25 percent of freshmen go on to graduate.
So, institute a gate examine at the end of 6th and 9th grades. Those who pass move up to fill the available seats. Those who fail won't waste everyone's time and resources. Your resources will match the demand.
I suspect as it is around here, if a surprise audit was conducted on classroom attendance 4 and 7 months into the school year, there will be a drastic difference between what the school reports as on hand and what actually is on hand.
#13
Someone needs to set up trade schools under a voucher/charter school system so that the folks that are going into the workforce instead of college can at least learn the basics to do their job and survive in the world rather than simply dropping out or clogging up the system.
#14
Welcome to the Progressivism. Welcome to the third world.
Posted by: Slens Dark Lord of the Apes8066 ||
01/18/2011 21:10 Comments ||
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#15
A couple of weeks ago there was a short lived story about Detroit school kids being given laptops. Don't remember all the details but $20 says better than 50% of them end up in pawn shops.
#3
Twitter lit up with the news that people felt the earth move from Dubai to the outskirts of Delhi.
Reuters reports the quake struck 34 miles west of Dalbandin at 1:23 a.m. local time on Wednesday. The Pacific Tsunami Center said the onshore quake had not triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean.
#7
I feel the earth move under my feet
I feel the sky tumbling down
I feel my heart start to trembling
Whenever my mud brick hovel starts shakin' down
/apologies to Carol King
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/18/2011 17:35 Comments ||
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#8
Karma, beturbanned biatches!
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2011 18:41 Comments ||
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#13
50 year floods and now this big-ass earthquake? When are the pestilences? He Pakland, I see the 4 horsemen coming your way.
Posted by: Mr. Bill ||
01/18/2011 22:52 Comments ||
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#14
hmmmm Ima thinkrn Urdu "Plague of Food" Locust-recipe and "How to turn a plague of frogs to your Cajun riches"-recipe books might be an exciting entrepreneurship. Investors?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2011 23:31 Comments ||
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[Pak Daily Times] The bodies of two newborn babies were given their final bath before they were buried in Bloody Karachi, after they were discovered in the city's garbage dumps.
"They can only have been one or two days old," said volunteer worker Muhammad Saleem, pointing at the two small corpses being gently washed by his colleagues at a charity's morgue.
Infanticide, a crime in Pakistain is on the rise. More than 1,000 infants -- most of them girls -- were killed or abandoned to die in the country last year, according to conservative estimates by the Edhi Foundation, a charity working to reverse the grim trend.
The infanticide figures are collected only from Pakistain's main cities, leaving out huge swathes of the rural areas, and the charity says that in December alone, it found 40 dead babies left in garbage dumps and sewers.
The number of dead infants found last year -- 1,210 -- was up from 890 in 2008 and 999 in 2009, said Edhi Foundation Manager in Bloody Karachi, Anwar Kazmi.
Kazmi recounts the discovery of the burnt body of a six-day-old infant who had been strangled. Another child was found on the steps of a mosque having been stoned to death on the orders of a holy man who has since disappeared, he said.
"Do not murder, lay them here," reads a sign hanging outside the charity's Bloody Karachi base where it has left cradles in the hope that parents will abandon their unwanted children there, instead of leaving them to die.
"People leave these children mostly because they think they are illegitimate, but they are as innocent and loveable as all human beings," says the charity's founder, well-known humanitarian Abdul Sattar Edhi.
Most children found are less than a week old.
Khair Mohammad, 65, works as a watchman in the charity's vast graveyard in the city outskirts. It is dotted with tiny unnamed graves.
"We acquired this land to bury children after another plot was filled with hundreds of bodies," he said.
The corpse count is far worse among girls, says manager Kazmi, with nine out of ten dead babies the charity finds being female.
"The number of infanticides of girls has substantially increased," Kazmi said, a rise attributed to increased poverty across the country.
Girls are seen by many Paks as a greater economic burden as most women are not permitted to work and are considered to be the financial responsibility of their fathers, and later their husbands.
A Pak family can be forced to raise more than one million rupees to marry their daughter off.
What -- the poor ones?
Edhi said that up to 200 babies are left in its 400 cradles nationwide each year and that it handles thousands of requests for adoption by childless couples.Abortion is prohibited in Islam, except when the mother's life is at risk from her pregnancy, but advocates say that legalisation would reduce infanticide and save mothers from potentially fatal back-street terminations.
According to the country's law, anyone found to have abandoned an infant could be jugged for seven years, while anyone guilty of secretly burying a child can be imprisoned for two years. Murder is punishable with life imprisonment.
But crimes of infanticide are rarely prosecuted.
"The majority of cop shoppes do not register cases of infanticide, let alone launch investigations into them," said lawyer Abdul Rasheed.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Killing of newborn babies on rise
naah-- they are just engaging in post partum abortions!
Pakistani Daily Reports 'Child Marriages: 10 Year-Old Girls Traded for Rs. 100,000 [Approximately $1,150]' . Which presumes that those who exposed their newborn baby girls had other reasons than cost to do so. I wonder how high the unreported rape rate is over there, and the incest... Agreed, nGuard, there really is no difference between pre-partum and post-partum abortion as far as the purpose is concerned, although post-partum is a crueller death.
#5
it is probably that a lot of these, maybe most, are children of women who think they will be charged with indecency/fornication if they are seen having a baby
that is, unmarried women, women whose husbands are away, etc.
being charged with indecency/fornication in Pakland can get you killed, if not by the legal system, then by the community
Posted by: lord garth ||
01/18/2011 11:41 Comments ||
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#6
I'll bet you the left's abortion mills have that beat hands down.
#7
We generally murder about 4 children a day on average in the US in the third trimester.
Its the American holocaust - over 45 million abortions since Roe v Wade judicially usurped the legislative role. Less than 1% due to rape/incest. Approximately 4.5 million or more because the child was "inconvenient" (would interfere with job or education plans), and over 27 million because they didn't want to have a kid *yet* or said they cannot afford one or the partner objected. Put a dollar value on a human life... Its the biggest shame in America of the latter part of the 20th... And in the 21st, we continue to destroy over 800,000 a year.
BAGHDAD A local governor in Iraqs oil-rich north cut the electricity going to Baghdad from a power station in his province Monday because his own constituents have been left with little power this winter.
Tamim Gov. Abdul-Rahman Mustafa said residents in his provinces capital city of Kirkuk only have three hours of power each day. The failure of negotiations with Iraqs Electricity Ministry to share the power generated at a plant in Taza, just south of Kirkuk, gave him little choice but to cut the electricity headed to Baghdad, he said.
We have started to cut the megawatts generated by Taza station, and we will provide the Kirkuk people with it, Mustafa told reporters.
He estimated it would take 25 hours to shut down the power supply to Baghdad. Neighborhoods in the capital, according to the ministry, get 12 hours of electricity a day.
The director of the Taza plant, Jalal Ahmed, confirmed the ebb in power to Baghdad after its levels were dialed down from an electricity distribution station in Kirkuk.
Power shortages have been a sore spot for residents across Iraq, especially during the extreme cold and heat. Demonstrations over power shortages last summer in Iraqs south turned deadly in at least one case when police shot into crowds of protesters, sparking unrest that led to the dismissal of the governments electricity minister.
A Kirkuk councilman, Ahmed Askari, said local residents were threatening to launch their own protests if the Kirkuk local government did not provide enough electricity to the people.
Shortly before the power was cut, demonstrators shut off a main northbound highway from Kirkuk, located 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of Baghdad, and threw rocks at approaching cars in an attempt to draw attention to the regions electricity woes.
The area around Kirkuk receives about 4 percent of the power provided by the national grid. Officials say Iraq has more power available now than ever, but it has been stretched thin by Iraqis buying more televisions, air conditioners and other appliances that werent available when former president Saddam Hussein was in power.
Saddam also routinely diverted power to Baghdad at the expense of the rest of the county in the last years of his regime.
Electricity Ministry spokesman Mussab al-Mudaris said Kirkuk officials would have to formally apply to keep a larger share of power.
We are waiting for the Kirkuk delegation to let us know their decision, al-Mudaris said. He had no further comment on the governors move and an Iraqi government spokesman could not be reached despite repeated attempts Monday night.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/18/2011 00:00 ||
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[Arab News] Hundreds of Jordanians demonstrated Sunday in front of the Parliament demanding improvement of living conditions and real political reforms.
The protesters, who mainly belonged to the Islamic-led opposition parties and trade unions, raised placard and rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud calling on the government of Prime Minister Samir Rifai to resign.
They also rebuked the House of Representatives, which was holding an ordinary session, for granting Rifa's government confidence with an unprecedented large majority a month ago.
Several politicians left their seats under the dome to join the demonstrators, eyewitnesses said.
The participants urged speedy political reforms, including the amendment of the election law, which they said produced a lower house that did not properly represent the people in the Nov. 9 parliamentary elections.
The Islamic Action Front (IAF) and its mother group, the Mohammedan Brotherhood movement, boycotted the polls, citing the government's failure to adopt a proportional representation system.
The participants in Sunday's demonstration also praised the Tunisian uprising that forced Ben Ali to flee outside the country.
In a parallel move, at least 11 deputies signed a petition urging the government to resign after it failed to address the worsening economic conditions, including rising prices of staple goods and fuel, parliamentary sources said.
"It has become clear that, after about one year of taking up duties, this government is unable to carry on properly and that it should leave before conditions deteriorate further," said the deputies, mostly pro-regime politicians.
Thousand of Jordanians, who mainly belong to trade and underprivileged groups, took part in demonstrations across Jordan on Friday to protest worsening living conditions and call on Rifai to step down.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2011 00:00 ||
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The threat of a cataclysmic California storm has been dormant for the past 150 years. Geological Survey director Marcia K. McNutt told the New York Times that a 300-mile stretch of the Central Valley was inundated from 1861-62. The floods were so bad that the state capital had to be moved to San Francisco, and Governor Leland Stanford had to take a rowboat to his own inauguration, the report notes. Even larger storms happened in past centuries, over the dates 212, 440, 603, 1029, 1418, and 1605, according to geological evidence.
The risk is gathering momentum now, scientists say, due to rising temperatures in the atmosphere, which has generally made weather patterns more volatile. That's funny, of the years listed above only one was in the medieval warming period, two were in the mini ice-age.
[Emirates 24/7] Japanese researchers will launch a project this year to resurrect the long-extinct mammoth by using cloning technology to bring the ancient pachyderm back to life in around five years time.
The researchers will try to revive the species by obtaining tissue this summer from the carcass of a mammoth preserved in a Russian research laboratory, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported.
"Preparations to realise this goal have been made," Akira Iritani, leader of the team and a professor emeritus of Kyoto University, told the mass-circulation daily.
Under the plan, the nuclei of mammoth cells will be inserted into an elephant's egg cell from which the nuclei have been removed, to create an embryo containing mammoth genes, the report said.
The embryo will then be inserted into an elephant's uterus in the hope that the animal will eventually give birth to a baby mammoth.
The elephant is the closest modern relative of the mammoth, a huge woolly mammal believed to have died out with the last Ice Age.
Some mammoth remains still retain useable tissue samples, making it possible to recover cells for cloning, unlike dinosaurs, which disappeared around 65 million years ago and whose remains exist only as fossils
Researchers hope to achieve their aim within five to six years, the Yomiuri said.
The team, which has invited a Russian mammoth researcher and two US elephant experts to join the project, has established a technique to extract DNA from frozen cells, previously an obstacle to cloning attempts because of the damage cells sustained in the freezing process.
Another Japanese researcher, Teruhiko Wakayama of the Riken Centre for Developmental Biology, succeeded in 2008 in cloning a mouse from the cells of another that had been kept in temperatures similar to frozen ground for 16 years.
The scientists extracted a cell nucleus from an organ of a dead mouse and planted it into the egg of another mouse which was alive, leading to the birth of the cloned mouse.
Based on Wakayama's techniques, Iritani's team devised a method to extract the nuclei of mammoth eggs without damaging them.
But a successful cloning will also pose challenges for the team, Iritani warned.
"If a cloned embryo can be created, we need to discuss, before transplanting it into the womb, how to breed (the mammoth) and whether to display it to the public," Iritani said.
"After the mammoth is born, we will examine its ecology and genes to study why the species became extinct and other factors."
More than 80 percent of all mammoth finds have been dug up in the permafrost of the vast Sakha Republic in eastern Siberia.
Exactly why a majority of the huge creatures that once strode in large herds across Eurasia and North America died out towards the end of the last Ice Age has generated fiery debate.
Some experts hold that mammoths were hunted to extinction by the species that was to become the planet's dominant predator -- humans.
Others argue that climate change was more to blame, leaving a species adapted for frozen climes ill-equipped to cope with a warming world.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Hope these guys know what they are getting into here.
#4
"After the mammoth is born, we will examine its ecology "
Huh?
The world it inhabited is gone, how can you even attempt this?
This is only the worst of several lines in this article which are nonsensical and terrible science.
Concept is interesting, but this article was written by someone who hasn't even taken Bio 101.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
01/18/2011 6:33 Comments ||
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#5
Bad idea.
As soon as it's 'born' the environmentalist and GreenPeace will declare it an endangered species and want to kick all the Japaneses out from from Japan to make room for its 'natural habitat'.
Once it's demonstrated that a species can be resurrected, then species can't be pressured into extinction, but rather 'put on hold'. That places the whole 'endangered' legal game out of business. You want two dozen, coming right up.
#9
Some interesting background. First of all, bringing back the mammoth is sort of a holy grail activity in science, and both the Japanese and Russians are willing to spend the bills to make it happen.
And before this breakthrough, they were still willing to go ahead with a much more difficult and expensive process that could have taken several generations to produce a pure bred mammoth from an elephant-mammoth cross breed.
And, on spec, the Russians have already created a "mammoth preserve" in Siberia, that is their best guess of what mammoths would like.
As far as dinosaurs go, the discovery of fossilized soft tissues inside bone a while back has resulted in the possibility that while that DNA cannot be used, it can at least possibly be mapped, then reconstructed from living reptile and even bird DNA, a bit at a time.
Of course, some wit suggested that if we could build a herd of a few thousand velociraptors, then we could designate Zimbabwe as their preserve, and parachute them in.
#10
Of course, some wit suggested that if we could build a herd of a few thousand velociraptors, then we could designate ZimbabweIran, Afghanistan and Pakistan as their preserve, and parachute them in.
There, Ask not what your velociraptors can do for you, but what you can do for your velociraptors.
#14
"If a cloned embryo can be created, we need to discuss, before transplanting it into the womb, how to breed (the mammoth) and whether to display it to the public," Iritani said.
"After the mammoth is born, we will examine its ecology and genes to study why the species became extinct and other factors."
Any number of PhD dissertations here. Your tax dollar at work.
#19
#12: Researchers aim to resurrect mammoth in five years
Thereby finally giving Rosie O'Donnell a suitable partner.
Posted by: gorb||
"later research showed the mating was unsuccessful as the Mammoth's olfactory senses were overcome by the unbelievable stench"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2011 18:44 Comments ||
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#20
Japanese salivating over a new red meat?
Posted by: Water Modem ||
01/18/2011 19:59 Comments ||
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#21
WM: A lot of people have speculated that the woolly mammoth died out precisely because it was tasty, slow and not overly hard to kill, and would provide a LOT of food for a human tribe. And thus it became a simple equation of humans wanting to eat more, faster, than mammoths could reproduce.
The reason this fate didn't befall the elephant was, as the theory goes, because it was faster, more energetic, and if people got too near it would attack them. African elephants, especially, shouldn't be messed with unless you have big guns, because they have little patience for trifling humans.
#22
Mitochondria are likely very similar across the genus, assuming they have a common one - likely all from a common ancestor. I think that's the case for hominids.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A teenaged student in Marseille was hospitalized in critical condition after lighting himself on fire at school. 
The video -- which asks the question "Is it worth the expense?" -- was shown to an immigrant advocate who acknowledged that the portion of fence in question is poorly designed. The barrier costs taxpayers on average about $4 million per mile of border fence, according to the station.
A massive 7.4 earthquake rocks remote southwestern Pakistan, near the Afghan border, according to the United States Geological Survey.
[Ennahar] Units of the Tunisian army arrested yesterday morning Tunisian Minister of Interior Rafik Belhadj, while he was en route to the Tunisian-Algerian border in an attempt to enter the Algerian territory.
[The Nation (Nairobi)] Prime Minister Raila Odinga, the African Union mediator for Côte d'Ivoire, has a "new peace offer" for strongman Laurent Gbagbo.
The British leader, whose Conservative Party heads the country's coalition government, said he would save money and cut red tape by giving control over management to family practitioners rather than bureaucrats, and allow private companies, charities and social enterprises to bid for contracts within the public health service.
President Barack Obama Tuesday ordered a government-wide review of regulations with the goal of eliminating those that hurt job creation and make the U.S. economy less competitive.
Detroit Public Schools would close nearly half of its schools in the next two years, and increase high school class sizes to 62 by the following year, under a deficit-reduction plan filed with the state.
