#1
Baikonur is full of old, obsolete gear, and with the development of the next generation of boosters, about to be more so. When Russia built it, it was in their country. If they're going to build a new launch complex, it's hard to see why they they'd build it outside their own borders. It's also difficult to see why China would want it; they already have a complex that they use regularly. Unless they're planning to start an operation based on equipment that the Russians have decided is obsolete.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
07/07/2014 19:44 Comments ||
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[Gulf News] Manama: A man divorced his bride on their wedding night after he was given intimate pictures of her by her former lover.
The couple were at the hotel where the wedding celebration was hosted when the groom was given a bouquet of flowers and an envelope that contained a flash memory stick. A note urged the groom to look at the pictures of his bride.
Shocked by the pictures, he decided to divorce the bride on the spot, Saudi news site Sabq reported, citing a religious preacher, Sheikh Ghazi Bin Abdul Aziz Al Shammari, who reported the dramatic event on a Kuwaiti television channel.
According to the report, the bride was contacted four days before her wedding by her former lover who asked her to go out with him. He warned her that he would inform her future husband of their relationship if she refused his invitation.
However, facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... she told him that she was getting married and that he ought to forget their past relation. She added that she wanted to start a new life with her husband and that she was longing to become a mother and raise a family.
Her pleas failed to convince the former lover who after learning about the wedding venue bought the bouquet and included the memory stick with the bride's pictures, resulting in her divorce and the scandal.
Al Shammari, a Saudi citizen, did not identify the nationalities of the couple or the blackmailer and did not specify where the dramatic events unfolded.
However, the hip bone's connected to the leg bone... he said that it was one of the most bizarre cases he had ever come across.
"The groom came to see me the next day and he was under strong emotional trauma," he said. "It was truly the shock of his life and he could not bear the scandal."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
In iran the prostitutes get married and divorced a few times each night as a way to dodge the non sex while not married laws. I suspect something similar is going on here but they are trying to keep his name cleaner than usual.
#3
And here I thought the 'outhouse' was a symbol of 'redneck' association. If it wasn't before, the usual suspects will make it 'racist' to fit their narrative.
#4
The state Democratic Party called the float one of the "worst shows of racism and disrespect for the presidency that Nebraska has ever seen." Yet the float nonetheless received some of the day's heartiest cheers,
It would, Obama's fucked, and dosn't kmow it yet.
Has NO sens of humor, and wants the restof th world to bow down and pray To Obama.
He denys as hard as he can.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/07/2014 12:54 Comments ||
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#5
I remember a similar Clinton Presidential Library theme. Was that one racist too?
#8
Yeah, I remember the same 'outhouse' meme regarding Clinton's presidential library. The cartoonist Oliphant (before he went bat-sh*t crazy lib) did an extended panel on the Clinton library as a ramshackle hut and the contents of it which was so funny that I had cut it out and had it on the refrigerator for ages.
This is just the Legion of the Perpetually Butt-hurt in full-throated moan once again.
#11
Showing disrespect to Clinton's library is also disrepectful because he was the first, first black President. Obama is only the second, first black President by my count.
#14
I believe this has been a running gag since politicians discovered foundations are a way to hide income. Also, I remember a W. memorial sewer system.
Making fun of the president is not only a fine tradition, it should be encouraged. Not being able to criticize government officials is one of the reasons why they fought...the freedom of speech is also a pressure safety valve. By tying in racism, they are calling on the power of the State to suppress free expression - something Voltaire would give you the finger for.
#17
News this morning had a piece on ValJar's numerous meets with Fauxcichontus. The Beest must be sending the wrong signals in reference post-Champ administration criminal amnesty.
#19
Well, shucky darn ... the trolls were slain before we got here?
Although this story has been live since early this morning. Guess the payments for paid trolling of conservative websites didn't go through until noonish, or so. Three-day weekend, ya know. Slows down all sorts of stuff.
Actually it was a measure proposing to rename an existing treatment plant in San Francisco (surprise.) It was defeated with 69% of those voting opposed..
[Al Ahram] Local and imported cigarettes and alcohol will cost more as of Monday, after Egypt's president Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi decided to raise sales taxes on both, according to the state's official gazette.
Under the new taxes, a pack of local cigarettes priced at LE9 will go up by LE1.75, those selling between LE9 and LE15 will increase by LE2.25, while those costing more than LE15 will be levied by LE2.75.
Accordingly, a pack of Cleopatras, the cheapest and best-selling Egyptian cigarette, will cost between LE8.00 and LE8.75, compared to LE6.25 and LE7.00.
Medium-priced brands like L&M will be offered by retailers at LE14.25, up from LE12 per pack.
High-price brands like Marlboro will be sold at LE19.75 per pack, compared to LE17.
Imported brands will see the same increases as well as a rise of 50 percent of its retail price. For example, a pack of Dunhills will be sold at LE27.25 instead of LE17.
It's not the first time cigarette prices have been raised this year. The finance ministry upped the cost in February by LE0.5 to LE0.75 for local brands and LE1 to LE1.5 for imports.
As for alcohol, taxes on local and imported beer will see a 200 percent increase, with a minimum of LE400 per 100 litres — or LE0.83 per 330ml bottle of Stella beer.
Taxes imposed on wine and spirits will register a 150 percent increase (minimum of LE15 per litre).
El-Sisi's decision has not clarified the projected revenues from both commodities.
Revenues from sales taxes are expected to reach LE118.4 billion in fiscal year 2014/15, up from the proposed amount of LE92 billion in the past fiscal year 2013/14, according to government figures.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2014 00:00 ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] Muggers shot a young man thinking he was carrying money in his empty bag in Adabor area of the capital yesterday afternoon.
The victim Anisur Rahman, 25, suffered bullet injuries to his abdomen, and was admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital in a critical condition.
Anisur told journalists that he along with his friend Nesar Uddin went to check his balance at two private banks at Shekhertek of the area around 3pm. As they stepped out from the second bank, three armed youths came forward and asked for the bag he was carrying.
When they tried to resist the snatchers, they opened fire on Anisur and fled with the bag on a cycle of violence, leaving him badly injured. Afterwards, pedestrians chased the muggers but failed to catch them.
Anisur said there was no money in the bag except a cheque book, some books and clothes. "Muggers thought we had withdrawn money from the banks," he continued.
However, there is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened... police suspected that the snatchers were not professional and the incident took place as sequel to previous enmity.
Adabor cop shoppe SI Maidul Islam, who visited the hospital to quiz Anisur, said: "The place where he was shot was not a commercial place where the muggers can trace the movement of wealth people. Besides, this youth looks like a college student. They were not supposed to draw attention of the muggers."
Anisur left a company job five months back and had feud with the company owner over money, said the SI, adding that the attackers might be hired by someone.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2014 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Russia has barred a leading member of Crimea's pro-Kiev Tatar community from entering his home region for five years after annexing the region from Ukraine in March.
Refat Chubarov, the chairman of the Tatar assembly, or Mejlis, told Agence La Belle France Presse on Sunday he had been blocked from crossing into the Black Sea peninsula and handed an official document banning him from Russian territory until 2019.
The decision to bar Chubarov follows an earlier ban to stop Ukrainian politician Mustafa Dzhemilev, the respected head of the Tatar minority, from entering the region.
"It feels like an entire state has declared war on me," Chubarov told AFP, after being stopped from crossing the border on Saturday.
"This is a small piece of the huge injustice that is now taking place in Crimea."
Moscow in March annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula following a disputed referendum in which pro-Kremlin authorities said nearly 97 percent of voters chose to split from Ukraine and join Russia.
Crimea's 300,000 Mohammedan Tatars, who make up around 12 percent of the peninsula's population, largely boycotted the vote and have faced increasing difficulties since the switch to Russian rule.
The U.N. says it has documented "serious problems" of harassment and intimidation facing the Tatar community in Crimea amid growing fears of religious persecution among practicing Mohammedans in Crimea.
More than 7,200 people from Crimea -- mostly Tatars -- have become internally displaced in Ukraine, the U.N. said in the May report.
The Tatar community has previously said it would push for greater autonomy, while the new Russian authorities have threatened to prosecute community leaders for "extremism."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
"Would push for greater autonomy" > at last check, ditto as per local ethnic Hungarians.
The Tatars are still claiming persecution + alleged "ethnic cleansing" by local Russians, + are demanding international or UNO intervention.
[Al Ahram] Anna Gribnikova looks on as aid workers hand out loaves of bread nearby from the back of a truck to Slavyansk residents who she says had been held "hostage" by pro-Russian separatists for three months.
The retired teacher is relieved to see the back of the rebels who fled the small eastern industrial town that had become the centre of their separatist uprising after an onslaught by the Ukrainian army.
"Those so-called defenders, those terrorists, they are still dreaming of the Soviet Union," Gribnikova lamented. "They do not seem to understand that this is the 21st century."
"We were like hostages" of the separatists who wanted to break away from Kiev and its pro-Western leaders and join neighbouring Russia, she tells AFP.
Hundreds wait patiently under grey skies for their allotted two loaves of bread or other basic foodstuffs being doled out at the city hall where the blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag again flies proudly.
On the square in front of the building, government soldiers take a "selfie" in front of an immense statue of Lenin.
Many residents in the Russian-speaking town -- horrified by the pro-European path taken by Kiev which they saw as a direct threat to their culture and vital ties to Russia -- had cheered when armed pro-Moscow militia seized the town.
"At first, in April, it was kind of romantic, no one could imagine that it would finish like this, that they (the army) would fire rockets at us," said retiree Vladimir, who was in the food handout queue.
Like many, Vladimir firmly blames Kiev for the violence unleashed in the town which was brought to its knees by the weeks of fierce fighting.
"You see how great our government is? First they bomb us, then they feed us," retorts a woman who went to fetch provisions with two of her friends as they pass the fire-ravaged security services building seized by Kalashnikov-wielding gunnies on April 12.
The asphalt is slippery with oil and damaged by the to-and-fro of armoured vehicles in front of the rebels' first stronghold, still protected by walls of sandbags ripped open by gunfire.
Scores of hostages, including local and foreign journalists, were held by the rebels in the dungeon-like basement of the security services building, some for weeks on end.
Residents are still reeling from the sequence of events that began with heady aspirations to return to the fold of former Soviet master Russia -- or at the very least gain some sort of autonomy from Kiev -- and ended with the town being plunged into war.
Buildings in the town of 100,000 people -- half of whom fled during fighting -- are scarred from the barrage of shelling, windows are shattered and on one street a bicycle store has been razed to the ground.
"No one imagined it would end like this, no water, no electricity, no gas. Even during the war (WWII) it was better," said Leva Staravoytova as she filled her bag with sugar, pasta and tinned goods.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2014 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] Pro-Russian militias have lost four cities in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region to Ukrainian forces in the space of 24 hours.
Ukraine's Defense Minister Valeriy Heletey said on Sunday that the cities of Artemovsk and Druzhkovka in the Donetsk region, as well as Kramatorsk and Konstantinovka, are now controlled by the Ukrainian forces.
The Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council front man has said the country's army was "concentrating on destroying and dismantling training bases and checkpoints of murderous Moslems."
According to reports, pro-Russian forces of Evil are now regrouping in the lovely provincial capital Donetsk. The gangs say they will make a firm stand against government troops.
Kiev authorities claimed victory over pro-Russia forces in Slavyansk on Saturday, after anti-Kiev fighters left the city for the town of Kramatorsk following Ukrainian security forces' overnight attacks.
The move prompted President Petro Poroshenko to order the Ukrainian flag be raised over the city.
Opposition leader, Andrei Purgin, however, said fighters only left the city in order to protect the civilian population.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2014 00:00 ||
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[Washington Post] Discouraged but defiant, pro-Russia separatists vowed to keep fighting the government in Kiev from the largest city in eastern Ukraine, where they regrouped Sunday after being driven out of a key stronghold.
At a rally in a central Donetsk square, the rebels were cheered on by thousands of supporters waving flags from Russia and the self-proclaimed independent Donetsk People's Republic. Many urged Russian President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... to quickly come to their aid — but there was no comment Sunday from Russia.
While the rebel withdrawal Saturday from Slovyansk, a city of 100,000 they had held for months, was not a total victory, President Petro Poroshenko said purging the city of the Lions of Islam had "incredible symbolic importance." It was unclear whether the government — after abandoning a cease-fire last week and going back on the offensive — was now winning the fight that had sputtered for months.
Rebel fighters from Slovyansk could be seen walking through Donetsk on Sunday in groups of 10 to 15. Most were still wearing camouflage, but some sported identical new bright-colored shorts and shirts. It was an unsuccessful effort to blend in with the civilian population, since they still carried automatic weapons.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2014 00:00 ||
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#2
When taxes on interest bearing accounts is diminished due to miniscule interest rates, there is only one thing left to grab. Eating the seed corn is generally the point of no return.
#5
interest on svg deposits are about 0.3%, so a tax of 0.003% wouldn't be a big deal if it allowed for a decrease in income taxes
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/07/2014 12:05 Comments ||
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#6
Negative interest rates. Attempting to get savers to become spenders and, therefore, stimulate the economy. Unless the gummint adjusts required capital footings, this will reduce available bank-lending capital.
[Dhaka Tribune] A 23-year-old teacher was allegedly raped at the Balwakheri village of Muzaffarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday evening.
The incident happened when the 23-year-old was coming home after giving tuition, NDTV reported.
Two friends of the accused, who were present at the spot, reportedly made a video of the act to blackmail the teacher.
"Mohit (the accused) came from behind, covered my mouth so I could not shout and dragged me to an empty house. Then he phoned his two other friends who came and filmed him raping me with their phone," the rape survivor said.
The three accused, who are college students, were jugged Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! late Saturday night under charges of rape and on charges under the IT act.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
What is going on in India with all the rapes? Is it religious based? Is it Class based? Is law and order breaking down?
This incident came within a fortnight of a similar one in Muzaffarnagar when a 20-year-old woman was gang-raped by eight men, and the video circulated on WhatsApp. The woman alleged that the men had threatened her that if she complained to the police, they would post the video online.
[DAWN] LAKKI MARWAT: Police on Saturday claimed to have locked away Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! two kidnappers and freed a young girl from their captivity an hour after she was kidnapped from Tajori town.
A police official identified the accused as Gul Jamal, Mohammad Farooq and Imdadullah, who picked the girl, Mumtaza Bibi, from Tajori bazaar and took her away in their car. He said that the victim with her mother, Paveen Bibi of DI Khan had come to Paakhel Bhittani ...a Pashtun tribe centered on Jandola, in Tank district. They are the hereditary enemies of the Mehsuds, unless there are furriners or infidels around, in which case they share ammunition and targeting data... region to condole death of her uncle.
The police official quoted Paveen Bibi as saying that the accused started beating her and her daughter with gun butts while they were buying medicines in Tajori bazaar. She said then the three men dragged her daughter into their car and drove away.
The official said on information about the girl's abduction DPO Ismail Kharak directed coppers to secure safe release of the girl and arrest her abductors. He said that coppers noticed a suspected car near Behramkhel village and signalled it to stop. "But two men onboard the vehicle got out and started firing on cops," he added.
The official said after exchange of fire for fifteen minutes the law enforcers overpowered the kidnappers identified as Gul Jamal and Mohammad Farooq and seized two AK-47 assault rifles, a pistol and bullets from them.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2014 00:00 ||
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[ARABNEWS] The Dalai Lama Sunday reiterated his plea to Buddhists in Myanmar and Sri Lanka to halt violence against Mohammedans, in a speech to tens of thousands of devotees to mark his 79th birthday.
In front of the massive crowd that included Hollywood film star Richard Gere in northern India, the Dalai Lama said the violence in both Buddhist-majority countries targeting religious minority Mohammedans was unacceptable.
"I urge the Buddhists in these countries to imagine an image of Buddha before they commit such a crime," Tibet's exiled spiritual leader said on the outskirts of Leh, high in the Himalayas.
"Buddha preaches love and compassion. If the Buddha is there, he will protect the Mohammedans whom the Buddhists are attacking," the leader, who fled Tibet for India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, said.
The Dalai Lama also expressed shock at a wave of deadly violence by Sunni murderous Moslems against fellow Mohammedans, although he did not refer specifically to Iraq, where such murderous Moslems have overrun swathes of five provinces north and west of Baghdad.
Gere greeted the Dalai Lama on stage, shaking his hand and praising the leader on behalf of several thousand foreign devotees who had gathered for the speech.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
It's the same 'buddhisdm' in Burma that allied itself with the China that erased Tibet... but it's ok, they'll listen to you this time nd stop being Nazis for the sake of Moslms, that they wouldn't for the tibetans or the Shan. Yeah, right.
#2
Buddhists should offer to trade a plane ticket to Mecca for the passports of fanatic moslems. The moslems would be happier there where they can join the big Caliphate (before everyone started doing it) and the Buddhists would be rid of a problem.
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.
[Gulf News] Manama: A man divorced his bride on their wedding night after he was given intimate pictures of her by her former lover.
[Al Ahram] Local and imported cigarettes and alcohol will cost more as of Monday, after Egypt's president Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi decided to raise sales taxes on both, according to the state's official gazette. 
[An Nahar] Russia has barred a leading member of Crimea's pro-Kiev Tatar community from entering his home region for five years after annexing the region from Ukraine in March.
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
[DAWN] LAKKI MARWAT: Police on Saturday claimed to have 
