President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on Saturday left a Paris hospital where he had been admitted last month for digestive troubles, Algeria's official news agency said. The APS news agency, citing a communique from his personal physician, Dr. Messaoud Zitouni, reported that Bouteflika left Mal de Mer Val de Grace hospital yesterday. It did not specify where the president had gone. "The state of health of President Abdul Aziz Bouteflika is evolving favourably, and the follow-up from the operation that he underwent offers a very good prognosis," the statement said. "Strict rest has been prescribed to him before he returns to his national and international activities."
Rumours about Bouteflika's health swirled after the 68-year-old North African leader was admitted to the Paris military hospital on November 26 with an unspecified gastrointestinal problem.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2005 00:00 ||
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"Strict rest has been prescribed to him before he returns to his national and international activities."
Liberian President-elect Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf met her challenger George Weah Saturday for the first time since the November election Weah says was fraudulent, but the former soccer star would not say whether he would drop his protest. Asked after Saturday's meeting if he was abandoning his attempt to keep Johnson-Sirleaf from taking office on Jan. 16, Weah said "I am a peaceful person. I don't want to jeopardize the peace process in Liberia."
"Liberia is more important than anybody," he said, adding that the international community is "looking for a stable and peaceful Liberia. We must respect that, and I respect that."
The meeting came a day after Liberia's election commission said vote-tampering evidence presented by Weah "was grossly insufficient" and dismissed his challenge. Weah's lawyers said after the ruling that they would pursue their fraud claims before Liberia's Supreme Court.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2005 00:00 ||
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JEDDAH â Ten Pakistani women Umrah pilgrims have been stranded for the past nearly 40 days because their 'mehram' (obligatory companion to whom one cannot marry) vanished with their passports. They are living on charities outside a mosque on the pavement near the Pakistani consulate in the city's Anakish district.
Great charity. Couldn't you bring them indoors?
The women stressed that they were not beggars, but victims of circumstances. They have to depend on the food given to them by the people in the area and the worshippers who come to the mosque. Jeeon Mai, who hails from Muzaffargarh, said that she came here on Ramadan 7. After reaching the Kingdom her mehram disappeared.
"I am all alone in a new land. Even my ticket has expired. I don't know what to do and where to go. Even our own consulate is not helping us out. We went there but instead of helping us they insulted us," she said.
The women have no idea about the travel operator since they just followed their mehrams. "We did not know this will happen to us, otherwise we would not have come here," one of them, Husna Bibi, was reported as saying in a local daily on Friday.
"We went to the Pakistani Consulate and requested the officials to send us home through Tarhil (deportation centre). But they are not helping us. They asked us to bring tickets and inquired about our mehram," she added She said the consulate people told them to go under the Bani Malik Bridge and give themselves up to the police. "We tried that, but our efforts were in vain," she explained. "Even police is not arresting us. They are demanding SR500 per person to help us get deported," said 60-year-old Sada Mai.
The police won't deport furriners in the country illegally (by their definition)? Who do they think they are, the INS?
"From where can we bring new tickets? We don't have any money," said 50-year-old Aziz Mai, with tears in her eyes. "We paid 50,000 Pakistani rupees before coming on Umrah. Now we have nothing, no money even for food and drink," she added.
"We are not responsible for any of these women. There is no money in the consulate fund. Their tickets have expired, even Umrah companies are closed from Shawwal 15," Pakistani Welfare Consular Dr Tariq Shuaib Akber was reported as telling the daily. "The consulate is trying its level best to help them," he said. The Pakistani national carrier 'PIA, declined to issue them new tickets in lieu of their expired ones.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/18/2005 00:25 ||
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Wonderfully enlightened society. And religion.
Can't imagine why every woman on earth wouldn't want to sign up right away. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/18/2005 19:09 Comments ||
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Hundreds of protesters battled through police lines in Hong Kong on Saturday to reach a building where world trade ministers are meeting, a Reuters reporter said. "They're about 30 metres (yards) from the building with hundreds of riot police facing them," the reporter said. "It is a standoff. About 50 riot police have just rushed inside (the building). They aren't allowing anyone out."
Cable Television reported at least 30 people had been injured in pitched battles in the area while the government reported five had been injured, including one policeman. Both sides were seen bringing up reinforcements as the night wore on. Police fired at least one round of tear gas near the building, a Reuters correspondent and local radio reported. By early evening, protesters had nearly surrounded the convention centre meeting site, which faces the city's famous harbour front in the crowded Wanchai entertainment and office district. Delegates trying to leave the building were told by police to go back in.
Police barricaded streets and closed a nearby subway station as they poured in reinforcements to stop protesters from moving around the neighbourhood or to other parts of the city. At one point, several hundred officers encircled a group of demonstrators who chanted "Down, down WTO". Some female demonstrators banged drums and chanted and then threw their drumsticks at police. Many of the demonstrators are South Korean farmers bitterly opposed to the opening of their country's rice market to imports.
Protesters repeatedly stormed heavily fortified police lines in late afternoon, eventually breaking through the ranks as riot police used pepper spray, batons and fire hoses to try to beat them back. Some demonstrators put plastic wrap around their eyes to protect them from pepper spray, while others donned goggles and surgical masks and lifted up nearby metal street barricades, apparently preparing for another assault on police lines. Smoke could briefly be seen rising from an area nearby and a police helicopter hovered overhead, a Reuters reporter said. Police with what appeared to be shotguns were seen on one street.
T housands of protesters from numerous anti-globalisation groups had taken peacefully to the streets in the early afternoon to protest against the world trade talks, pumping their fists in the air and shouting anti-WTO slogans. As the first of the marchers reached police lines, they handed the officers pink and yellow roses and released yellow balloons printed with the words "No, no WTO". But as their numbers swelled, they began to push against police lines and probe their defences.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2005 00:00 ||
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Luddite Lemmings on the Loose! This can be stopped the next time by two companies of Marines and the command "Fix Bayonets".
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/18/2005 17:19 Comments ||
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A group of 40 people dressed in Santa Claus costumes, many of them drunk, rampaged through New Zealand's largest city, robbing stores and assaulting security guards, police said Sunday.
The rampage, dubbed "Santarchy" by local newspapers, began early Saturday afternoon when the men, wearing ill-fitting Santa costumes, threw beer bottles and urinated on cars from an Auckland overpass, said Auckland Central Police spokeswoman Noreen Hegarty. She said the men then rushed through a central city park, overturning garbage containers, throwing bottles at passing cars and spraying graffiti on buildings.
One man climbed the mooring line of a cruise ship before being ordered down by the captain. Other Santas, objecting when the man was arrested, attacked security staff, Hegarty said.
The remaining Santas entered a downtown convenience store and carried off beer and soft drinks. "They came in, said 'Merry Christmas' and then helped themselves," store owner Changa Manakynda said.
Alex Dyer, a spokesman for the group, said Santarchy was a worldwide movement designed to protest the commercialization of Christmas.
Three people were arrested and charged with drunkenness and disorderly behavior.
The public mood in France has darkened and veered sharply to the Right in the two months since the Paris riots. Despite endless political hand-wringing over the failure of the French model of ethnic integration, the country is no closer to a national consensus about how to re-establish the core republican values of fraternity and equality.
Life, liberty and pursuit of happiness need not apply.
Indeed, the political centre of gravity has shifted in favour of Jean-Marie Le Pen, as Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin who is a man scramble to head off the lethal challenge from the far Right. Support for Le Pen's National Front - or at least its anti-immigrant ideology - has risen since the riots, sparking fears there will be a repeat of the 2002 presidential election, when the wily demagogue trounced the Left that's the good part and almost snatched the presidency. I don't know that much about the guy, and whether his is really as scary as portrayed by the establishment, or is more like Pat Buchanon: someone with some good ideas, but many more bad ones.
He's clever, smart and dangerous.
According to a survey published in Le Monde newspaper this week, for 30per cent of French voters the National Front does not represent "a danger to democracy". This is despite Le Pen's crazed calls to "send home" restive French citizens from the suburbs, even if they are second- or third-generation migrants from former colonies such as Algeria or Morocco. One in four French are in favour of Le Pen's ideas, especially regarding defence of traditional values and immigration. And 63 per cent say there are "too many immigrants in France", a 4 per cent rise since 2003.
As the electorate turns increasingly inwards, heavy-handed solutions to the crisis of the French suburbs proliferate. The political elite is sending a strong message that France effectively blames its immigrants for the troubles, with renewed crackdowns on non-French residents, asylum-seekers or the "sans papiers" - illegal immigrants. The aristocratic Villepin who is a man wants to further entrench disadvantage by lowering the legal age at which troubled students in the suburbs can leave school, to 14.
Meanwhile, the nation is embroiled in a bruising culture war over its dubious colonial past. Commentators, historians and even rappers rightly point to the French state's refusal to face up to its history as one source of abiding anger in the disadvantaged suburbs, which surround the country's big towns from Paris to Toulouse.
Yet parliamentarians from the ruling Centre-Right party persist with plans to force schools to teach the "positive aspects of colonisation". At least "Monsieur 1 per cent" - the unpopular Chirac - says history should be left to the historians. And he claims he is in favour of the idea of a day of remembrance for the descendants of slaves.
The immigrants from France's former sub-Saharan colonies, like Senegal and Ivory Coast, are the major problem. They would have a chance of integrating into France if given the opportunity. The Berbers, Algerians and Morroccans are the real issue; they're making it clear that they don't want to integrate.
Against this backdrop, structural reform of the economy - possibly the best long-term source of hope for the unemployed youth of the suburbs - remains stalled. This week, France woke up to a report into its astronomical public debt, which is now higher than E2000 billion ($3210billion), or 200 per cent of GDP. "Our society state is bankrupt," wrote Pascal Gobry, of the French Institute of Actuaries, in Le Monde. "Even if it would sell to the Japanese the Palace of Versailles at a high price, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum, all of our patrimony, the French state could not honour her commitments for retirees or salaries. The king is completely nude."
This realization hasn't yet permeated to the point that the French will make the changes to their economy that are needed to get some growth going. The unions will still strike for silly reasons, the Communist and Socialist parties will prevent reforms to the pensions and retirement systems, and the old-boys club will keep foreign competition out. I think they're screwed.
#1
"Le Pen is known for advocating tough law enforcement policies, possibly including the reinstatement of the death penalty; strong restrictions on immigration to France from countries outside Europe; and withdrawal or at least far greater independence from the European Union."
So far so good. However, he also has connections to Nazis and Vichy France officials, hates America, and as soon as the muzzies were dealt with, he'd finish off the Jooos too.
Europeans know no such thing as "moderation."
Posted by: ST ||
12/18/2005 6:34 Comments ||
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#2
What I read about Le Pen, I assume it is as unbiased reporting as a story read in Europe about President Bush, first filtered by the NYT, and *then* re-filtered by the Independent (UK), and *then* re-re-filtered by La Monde.
In other words, distorted beyond recognition.
I wonder how many Europeans actually think that Bush is as extreme as Americans think Le Pen is?
Is what we know of the man solely from the French equivalent of Moveon.org? Remember the utter hysterics the US left has been shrieking, calling Bush a "fascist".
Unless I read an in-depth piece in the American Spectator or National Review about Le Pen, I don't think I can say one way or another.
#3
Here's a 2002 analysis of Le Pen and the refusal of other French politicians to address immigration issues. Written by National Review's Dalrymple and published in the Manhattan Institute's City Journal.
#4
There is very little un-opinionated information out there about Le Pen or his party. I am starting to suspect that much of what has been said about him and them is propaganda. If I am wrong on this, please let me know.
Here is one of the less obviously biased bits of information I have found about his party:
This is from the (disputed) Wiki about Le Pen's Front National:
The party describes itself as a mainstream conservative party. The Washington Post has called it an anti-immigrant party and the New York Times has described it as far-right. The Weekly Standard has called it fascistic.
The political platform of the Front National is mainly focused on the control of immigration, the repatriation of illegal immigrants and the priority of French citizens over foreigners for access to jobs and social services: in a standardized pamphlet delivered to all French electors in the 1995 presidential election, Jean-Marie Le Pen proposed the "sending back" of "three million non-Europeans" out of France, by "humane and dignified means". However, in the campaign for the 2002 French presidential election, the stress was more on issues of law and order â one of the recurrent themes of the National Front is tougher law enforcement and higher sentences for crimes, and the reinstatement of the death penalty.
The National Front regularly campaigns against the "establishment", which encompasses the other political parties as well as most journalists. Le Pen lumped all major parties (PC, PS, UDF, RPR) into the "Gang of Four" (an allusion to Communist China's "Cultural Revolution"). According to Front rhetoric, the French right-wing parties are not true right-wing parties, and are almost indistinguishable from the "Socialo-Communist" left; the corrupt "establishment" is betraying France, and it opposes by all means the coming of the Front.
Other main positions include:
* greater independence from the European Union and other international organizations; in 2002, withdrawal from the Euro was suggested, but the suggestion was then largely withdrawn;
* the establishment of tariffs or other protectionist measures against cheap imports threatening the local agriculture or industry;
* a return to more traditional values
-in the family area: making access to abortion more difficult or even illegal; paying parents (mainly mothers) who raise children; refusing gay culture;
-in the cultural area: refusing "aberrant" modern art and promoting local traditional culture.
Again, I am wondering about the "extreme right-wing" and "fascist" labels being applied here.
#7
#4 'moose - From what you've described, I can certainly see why the Euros think he's an extremist.
Promote traditional values (or any values at all)? Limit abortion? Refuse "gay culture"?
The Euros are more interested in feeling superior than in their own survival. If the other parties don't like what Le Pen is selling, they'd better get a platform that addresses the average Frenchman's fears, or the people will vote for the person who does. And right now that's Le Pen.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/18/2005 19:18 Comments ||
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#8
I have to side with Anonymoose here: his point is that the MSM in France is worse than ours here in the USA, and so there really is no telling what the truth is AS THE FRENCH MSM REPORT IT.
I second Anonymoose's doubts, and suggest we wait until we hear JFM's opinion on this. Listening to the man on the French street, rather than the elite, is part of the process of clearing away the BS and getting to the truth of how that man on the street will likely vote.
I ask silent French vistors to Rantburg to speak up and register your opinion: unlike the liberal english elites, we're able to get past the inevitable stumbles of grammar and make an honest effort to communicate. Heck, you can't get worse than Mucky, and we not only understand him, but chew the ass of anybody who mocks him on our site.
#9
I do what lotp suggests because I've seen her with a whip in her hand I respect her opinion. First hit on google was from the Washington Times, not your standard MSM outlet:
The second mockery of Europe's tragic past that occurred this week was French neo-fascist Jean-Marie Le Pen's dismissal of the German occupation of France as "not especially inhumane." In an interview with the far-right journal Rivarol, the National Front leader said: "If the Germans had carried out mass executions across the country as the received wisdom would have it, then there wouldn't have been any need for concentration camps for political deportees." Le Pen, who has previously described the Holocaust as a "detail of history," added that the limited Nazi excesses that did take place during the war were "inevitable in a country of 550,000 sq km (220,000 sq miles.)"
Over 70,000 Jews were transported from France to the killing factories of occupied Poland, and in Le Pen's homeland thousands of resistance fighters were murdered for opposing the Nazis. In total, six million Jews were killed by Hitler's henchmen during World War II, including over a million in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp in Poland. These are hardly "inevitable" excesses or details of history; nor are they things to make light of by dressing oneself up in the garb of murderers.
The problem with the right in Europe is that it doesn't share the bed with libertarians, but with fascists, literally.
#11
Jock Elmavising2283: Okay, place what you said in perspective from the point of view of France. The Germans carried off 70k Jews, that the French didn't care for much anyway. A sidenote is that Jews had been hated throughout Europe since the Middle Ages, so what had changed?
What Le Pen pointed out was that the Germans did NOT slaughter the French en masse. They could have, but in the many wars the French and the Germans had fought, neither side ever did slaughter the other like that. Though both the French *and* the Germans slaughtered Jews like that, going way back.
It sounds weird, but from the French point of view, they, the French, didn't do too badly. To this day, the French do not see the Jews who lived in France for centuries as "French", any more than the Moslems who have recently arrived. They were ghetto-ized outsiders throughout Europe.
As far as describing the Holocaust as a "detail of history", that too is a French concept, not uniquely a fascist one. It was just another genocidal slaughter in a long history of European genocidal slaughter. From the French point of view, no more impacting them than the recent ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia.
From the French point of view, Hitler was not "special" in any way. He was just another German leader. Eventually, they will just rate him as much the same as Kaiser Willhelm II. Just another German who invaded France. I suppose they might put them both in the same catagory as Henry V of England.
In fact, Le Pen was probably thinking very much of Hitler when he made his statement about kicking out the Moslems. He was very particular in stating that it would be done as "humanely" as possible, clearly a reference to the brutality of the Nazis in their initial efforts at ethnic cleansing--kicking out the Jews.
He was actually trying to reassure *someone* that while he had the same goals, he would not use the same methods. So, "fascist ends" without "fascist means", perhaps.
But some could claim that the US is in the same boat, wanting to expel huge numbers of illegal Mexican immigrants. Would we, in our wildest imaginations, think that such an expulsion would be "fascist?"
#12
unlike the liberal english elites, we're able to get past the inevitable stumbles of grammar and make an honest effort to communicate.
Well said, Ptah.
History is ideology decorated with facts.
Years ago when I was at university, I recall a friend of mine explaining to me how, the history of WW2 was being rewritten. It was understood at the time as a war between nation states seeking dominance in Europe. Twenty to thirty years later it was rewritten as a crusade against an evil ideology, with the Holcaust as the primary evidence.
The Holocaust was real, but had nothing to do with the war and its conduct. Since hardly anyone knew it was occuring. In fact, at the time we knew far more about Stalin's mass deportations and killings of Cossacks, Chechens, Balts, etc. And were such atrocities the reason for the war it should have been fought against the Soviet Union.
#13
But some could claim that the US is in the same boat, wanting to expel huge numbers of illegal Mexican immigrants. Would we, in our wildest imaginations, think that such an expulsion would be "fascist?"
What???! Talk about not getting it. Americans LIKE Mexicans, we even like and admire the illegals who come here to put in a hard days work. Most of us, were we in their shoes, would be doing exactly the same thing that they are doing - crossing the border and coming to America. What we don't like are the problems that their being illegal creates. We have no desire to deport them because they are Mexican - we have a desire to get the illegal immigration and border situation back under control.
There is absolutely no comparison to our desire to deal with problems of ILLEGAL immigration with the French desire to rid themselves of Jews who are and have, for generations been French citizens. We LIKE the Mexican culture. We like their happy Mexican music. We LIKE the hard working Mexican people. They are our welcome friends and neighbors. We just need to get the immigration issue under control.
#14
interesting point, phil. It strikes me that you could say the same about the civil war. Disagreement about slavery was the flashpoint of disagreement - however ultimately it was a war of states rights.
#15
Note to self: do not skim and then post rants.
Moose - I thought you were saying that LePen was talking about expelling Jews. You can see why I might have been outraged :-) As for the Muslims - it is a far more difficult problem for reasons I don't have time to discuss but are fairly obvious when considering Saudi foreign influence and jihad.
Soooo for now...um...sorry...never mind...just fergetit.
#16
ok..and one more clarification so that nobody misreads my mess in the wrong light.
The reason I jumped to the wrong conclusion was because I have been hearing that Le Pen is avidly anti-semetic and I also just read another very interesting piece about how many Jews in France are becoming very concerned about the increase in anti-semitism not just from Muslims, but from the French population in general. So it was shocking but in my head that Le Penn could have said that.
Which kind of makes the point that about jumping to conclusions about Le Pen based on newsreports that could be as biased as those about GW.
Hey, if Le Penn had said that, my post would have made sense. But he didn't so ....Doh!
LAHORE â A 12-year-old student in Multan, Mohammad Asif, was burnt with hot iron for refusing to have alleged physical relations with his teacher, Abdul Rashid. The teacher, in a fit of anger, had injured Asifâs body parts. âWe have registered a case against Abdul Rashid on the complaint of Asifâs grand father for allegedly scarring the boyâs body with a hot iron,â said Multan DPO Munir Ahmad Chishti.
He said the incident occurred on December 11 in a religious seminary in Hazoriwala where Asif stayed in boarding. His grandfather registered a case after getting a medico-legal certificate on Dec 15.
It could have been worse, as we'll see ...
Meanwhile, a madrassa teacher and two others who are jailed awaiting trial in Karachi for an acid attack on a 14-year-old boy in 2002 after he allegedly refused to have sexual contacts with the teacher. The boy was blinded and badly injured. However, the accused deny the charges.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/18/2005 00:35 ||
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with these teachers not being punished, still being allowed to be free and continue on as though nothing has happened, only shows the kids that there is nothing that they can do. What's an iron doing in a classroom anyway? Are there other items like this on display to show the students to threaten them, to partake in these sicko acts with the teachers.
Posted by: Jan ||
12/18/2005 10:11 Comments ||
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#2
"in a religious seminary" OMG
Posted by: Jan ||
12/18/2005 10:12 Comments ||
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#4
typical male muslim inadequacy and infamiliarity with the wimmens
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/18/2005 12:13 Comments ||
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#5
sodomy 101, with hands on demonstrations
Posted by: Jan ||
12/18/2005 12:31 Comments ||
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#6
"What is it with muslims and sodomy anyway?"
It's because Islam doesn't give these ratbags any systematic way to distinguish right and wrong; all it gives them is an enormous canonical list of picayune dos and don'ts, like which direction to face when taking a shit.
So if "Do not force your dick up little boys' asses" is not on the list of don'ts, it won't even occur to the ragheads that there might be something wrong with doing that.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
12/18/2005 12:51 Comments ||
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#7
There is other wierdness.
For example Ayatollah Sistani has issued a fatwa on how one may ritually cleanse oneself before prayers if one has sex with an animal.
One would imagine that the Fatwa should concern itslef with NOT having sex with goats. But it does not. It says nothing about the act itself.
Similarly the Ayatollah Khomeni issued a fatwa has fatwa on what to do with a chicken that you have had sex with. One may not eat it, or give it to a next door neighbor. It is however permissible to give or sell it to someone two doors down.
There is a concern with the most petty of ritual matters and not with larger questions of morality and social justice.
The Sunni ulema in Deoband have a number of fatwas on farting and subsequent ritual cleansing.
Fatwas on farting but nothing looking at slavery, or the status of women, or child rape.
Coming back to child rape, Khomeni has a fatwa on this. Before the age of nine, one may not have penetrative intercourse with the feamle child but one may engage in other acts such as fondling, rubbing, kissing etc.
After all the years of study to be recognized as an Ayatollah, they cannot take a fresh look at obvious social evils. The legal age of marriage is nine because Ayesha was nine when Mohammed married her. The mullahs cannot adapt. This is a core problem with Islam.
Posted by: john ||
12/18/2005 13:54 Comments ||
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Needles hurt. Worse, they can spread disease. PowderMed's new vaccine gun, the PMED, requires no sharps. The flashlight-shaped device relies on pressurized helium to shoot microscopic DNA vaccine particles just below the skin's surface at 1,500 miles an hour. The shot is painless because it hits just above nerve endings, where immunity-producing cells gather in large numbers. As a result, the PMED requires one thousandth the dose of a needle injection; a major cost savings. And the powders don't need a fridge, so they're easier to store and transport. Vaccine powders for influenza and hepatitis are in the works.
A powerful earthquake measuring at least 5.9 on the Richter scale struck Qeshim island off Iran's southern coast, killing at least ten people and damaging four villages.
Only ten? Tell Halliburton the machine needs calibrated...
The main hospital on Qeshim was full of wounded people. "The hospital is full of wounded and those accompanying them. The hospital lacks basic facilities," an IRNA (Iran national news agency) bulletin read. IRNA said that marketplaces in the island's capital Qeshim City were shaken to the ground and that the villages of Tonban, Gavarzin and Khaledi have been badly hit.
State television said the tremor struck at 1:30pm (1000 GMT) and was centred close to the Qeshim Island near Bandar Abbas city. Heidar Alishvandi, the governor of Qeshm Island, was quoted by state-run television as saying that rescue teams were deployed to the affected areas. The US Geological Survey said it was of 6.1 magnitude, some 58 km (36 miles) southwest of Bandar Abbas and struck at 1.52pm (1022 GMT). The official news agency IRNA said the epicentre of the quake was near the Gulf island of Qeshm, around 35 kilometres from the port city of Bandar Abbas. The island is home to some 120,000 people. Tremors were also felt also in the neighbouring states of the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2005 00:00 ||
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Customs agents have intercepted more than 50 shipments of counterfeit Tamiflu, the antiviral drug being stockpiled in anticipation of a bird flu pandemic, marking the first such seizures in the U.S., authorities said Sunday.
The first package was intercepted Nov. 26 at a mail intake facility near San Francisco International Airport, said Roxanne Hercules, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Since then, agents have seized 51 separate packages, each containing up to 50 fake capsules, Hercules said.
The shipments, labelled generic Tamiflu, were sent by Asian suppliers to individuals who placed orders via the Internet. So far, no shipments were bound for doctors or hospitals, she said.
Tamiflu is produced by Swiss pharmaceutical manufacturer Roche, and there is no generic brand available.
Hercules said the shipments contained the first counterfeit Tamiflu capsules seized in the United States.
"They continue to come in, so we're stopping them before they cross into the economy," Hercules said. "We're currently stockpiling Tamiflu all over the world in case of a pandemic, and you certainly don't want to stockpile something that's not going to be working."
The H5N1 strain of the virus has ravaged poultry stocks across Asia and killed at least 71 people since 2003.
Tamiflu is one of four drugs that can treat regular flu if taken soon after symptoms begin. It is in short supply because it is being stockpiled as one of just two drugs effective against bird flu.
The Food and Drug Administration is working to track down the source of the counterfeit shipments.
"The product had none of the active ingredients of Tamiflu, but we're still running tests to determine what actually is in it," said David Elder, director of the FDA's Office of Enforcement. "We're not sure yet whether there's anything harmful in it."
Initial tests indicated the product likely contains some Vitamin C, Elder said.
He said information on the packages was written in Chinese, but it's still unclear where they originated.
"What we're trying to do is alert the American public that they shouldn't be buying this product because we may never be able to track down the manufacturers," Elder said. "We've anticipated the likelihood of counterfeits from the very beginning. People are trying to profit on the heightened concerns of the American public."
Elder said the FDA would pursue criminal charges if U.S. links were discovered, but its jurisdiction does not extend internationally.
Officials with Roche refused to comment Sunday, referring instead to the company's website.
"Roche does not advocate the purchase of Tamiflu via the Internet. Patients should always gain a diagnosis from a health care professional before buying Tamiflu and ensure they obtain it from a reliable source," the company said in a statement.
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.
President 
JEDDAH â Ten Pakistani women Umrah pilgrims have been stranded for the past nearly 40 days because their 'mehram' (obligatory companion to whom one cannot marry) vanished with their passports. They are living on charities outside a mosque on the pavement near the Pakistani consulate in the city's Anakish district.
Hundreds of protesters battled through police lines in Hong Kong on Saturday to reach a building where world trade ministers are meeting, a Reuters reporter said. "They're about 30 metres (yards) from the building with hundreds of riot police facing them," the reporter said. "It is a standoff. About 50 riot police have just rushed inside (the building). They aren't allowing anyone out."
The public mood in France has darkened and veered sharply to the Right in the two months since the Paris riots. Despite endless political hand-wringing over the failure of the French model of ethnic integration, the country is no closer to a national consensus about how to re-establish the core republican values of fraternity and equality.
LAHORE â A 12-year-old student in Multan, Mohammad Asif, was burnt with hot iron for refusing to have alleged physical relations with his teacher, Abdul Rashid. The teacher, in a fit of anger, had injured Asifâs body parts. âWe have registered a case against Abdul Rashid on the complaint of Asifâs grand father for allegedly scarring the boyâs body with a hot iron,â said Multan DPO Munir Ahmad Chishti.
A powerful earthquake measuring at least 5.9 on the Richter scale struck Qeshim island off Iran's southern coast, killing at least ten people and damaging four villages.
