Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards is being treated for head injuries in New Zealand after being hurt while on holiday in Fiji. The 62-year-old was airlifted to a private Auckland hospital after falling from a coconut tree. Richards was holidaying with his wife and other members of the Rolling Stones on an island resort in Fiji after the Australasian leg of their latest world tour when the accident occurred on Thursday.
Richards was flown initially to Suva for treatment but later transferred to a private hospital in Auckland for further tests. A spokesman for the band, Bernard Docherty, has confirmed the guitarist suffered concussion and will remain in hospital for a few days. The Rolling Stones are scheduled to kick off the European leg of their Bigger Bang tour at the end of next month.
I was going to ask if he suffered any brain damage, but how could they tell??
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Keith Richards may be the Holy Grail in bio-weapon defense.
Since he's consumed more alcohol, heroin, barbiturates, cocaine, meth, quaaludes, hash, pot, etc than any 100 "normal" dopers combined.. and flourished to boot, the NIH/CDC should rendition him to Dugway.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/30/2006 13:23 Comments ||
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Well, at least he did not get hit by a coconut. That would have ruined the tour. When my dad was in New Gunea, getting ready for the Cape Gloucester operation in Dec 1943, 2 guys in his outfit were killed by falling coconuts.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/30/2006 15:30 Comments ||
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The vice-president of Malawi, who has been at loggerheads with the president for more than a year, has been arrested on treason charges.
"You're under arrest, Your Corpulence!"
Willie Mwaluka, a police spokesman, said Cassim Chilumpha was arrested at his home in Blantyre late on Friday and transferred to custody in the capital, Lilongwe. Mwaluka said: "We arrested him on allegations of planning to overthrow [the] government. More details will be given in due course."
"Soon's we beat some out of him."
Bingu wa Mutharika, the president, tried to sack Chilumpha in February for arrogance and abusing his oath of office, but was blocked by Malawi's high court, which ruled that he lacked the power to unseat his deputy. Chilumpha, widely seen as a potential presidential candidate in 2009, is vice-chairman of the United Democratic Front (UDF), the party that sponsored wa Mutharika's presidential campaign in 2004. However, wa Mutharika left the UDF in February last year, saying that his anti-corruption policies were being resisted within the party.
"Drop the boodle, Willie!"
"There's enough for everybody, Bingo!"
"In Malawi? Who the hell told you that?"
Wa Mutharika's subsequent decision to form another party enraged the UDF, which then made corruption claims against him and tried to have him impeached. Foreign donors, however, said that impeachment could put aid at risk. Mwaluka said police also arrested Yusuf Matumula, a business associate of Bakili Muluzi, the former president whose allies have been among the primary targets of wa Mutharika's anti-graft drive.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2006 00:00 ||
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In the United States, immigration and border security are hot topics when it comes to Mexico. One might also include worries about narco-trafficantes and border town violence. In Mexico the biggest looming issue is the presidential race.
Mexico matters to US security so it's worth taking a quick and dirty look at the Mexican presidential race. There are the three major candidates in the Mexican race for president.
Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador is the candidate of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). He is a "leftist" populist but also an "anti-corruption" candidate. He is a former mayor of Mexico City and wants to revise the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Association) agreement. His opponents accuse him of being a friend of Venezuela's rogue president Hugo Chavez. There is no indication that Lopez Obrador is as erratic as Chavez, or as anti-American. Until this week Lopez Obrador was considered the frontrunner in the race. New polls suggest that may be changing.
Felipe Calderon may now be the frontrunner. Calderon is the candidate of the National Action Party (PAN). The PAN is a "right wing" party -- the equivalent of pro-business moderate Republicans in the US. (The current president Fox, is a member of the PAN party.) Calderon is a free marketer who supports lower taxes and encourages private investment in Mexico.
Roberto Madrazo is the third candidate. He belongs to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). The PRI held the Mexican presidency from 1929 to 2000. The PRI control of Mexico was called (by some) the "most successful dictatorship in the world." When it comes to corruption -- as in promoting corruption-- the PRI has few peers.
In a recent debate Calerdon is quoted as telling Mr Madrazo that "The problem of drug trafficking is the fruit of the corruption that your party (the PRI) established in Mexico as an institution during 70 years." PRI also established economic policies that led to a lower growth rate in Mexico, compared to the U.S., and created the labor shortage up north that drew the unemployed Mexicans to illegally cross the border by the millions.
The presidents of Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia have signed the People's Trade Treaty to counter a US-led drive to forge a Pan-American free trade area. Presidents Evo Morales of Bolivia, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, and Fidel Castro of Cuba signed the pact in Havana on Saturday to streamline commercial ties among the three governments.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Thousands of protesters have rallied in Kyrgyzstan's capital demanding that the president stand by his pledges to fight crime and corruption - or quit. Making a surprise appearance at the opposition rally in Bishkek, Kurmanbek Bakiyev was booed and whistled at by about 10,000 people. "I am not Akayev, I will not run away from my people, I am not afraid," President Bakiyev said before walking away, heckled by the crowd.
Kyrgyzstan has been volatile since Bakiyev came to power last year after a coup that ousted Askar Akayev. Last July, Bakiyev won the presidential election by a landslide, pledging to bring order and democracy. The opposition, led by Omurbek Tekebayev, a former speaker of parliament, demand that Bakiyev limit presidential powers as promised during the election, give more authority to parliament and the prime minister, and eradicate corruption and crime.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2006 00:00 ||
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"I am not Akayev, I will not run away from my people, I am not afraid," President Bakiyev said before walking away, heckled by the crowd.
One of the defining myths of modern China - that it has a bottomless well of unskilled, low-wage laborers - is coming apart at the seams. And hardest hit are the southern coastal cities that produce much of America's consumer bounty.
What began two years ago as a temporary blip in the steady supply of migrants to China's export hub, where low wages and long hours are the norm, has become a constant problem for factory bosses.
Some are responding with perks to attract job applicants as "Help Wanted" ads go unanswered. Others are subcontracting work to inland cities, chasing the young, single workers that once came knocking on their factory gates but are now in shorter supply.
"There's a fixation that China has an abundant, unlimited supply of labor ... so people initially said this was a temporary phenomenon. But now [they] realize it's a general trend," says Hong Liang, an economist at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong, who studies China's labor market. "In the central provinces, we're seeing more manufacturers moving there to absorb the local labor."
Those workers that remain in coastal cities like Dongguan, whose sprawl of tile-roof factories belch into a jaundiced sky, are demanding higher wages - and getting their voices heard. Minimum wages are on the rise, as authorities respond to the labor shortage, setting a new floor for private employers. This pressure on factory payrolls, coupled with rising cost of materials and energy, is starting to bite. Retail buyers warn that textile factories in Bangladesh and India are undercutting China and blame double-digit wage hikes here for inflating costs.
None of this means that China's export engine is running out of gas. Even as some factories struggle to stay competitive, other industries are ramping up production. If anything, the economy could be in danger of overheating at its current clip, which officials say is more than 10 percent - a risk that prompted China's central bank to raise interest rates last week for the first time in 18 months.
But while China's labor shortage may not have dampened the economy, it has factories here in the Pearl River Delta - its export powerhouse - scrambling to adjust.
Around 1.7 million migrant workers in the region who took annual leave in January during the Chinese New Year holiday didn't return afterward, preferring to look for jobs closer to home or in other coastal cities says Liu Kaiming, who runs a labor-rights group in Shenzhen.
In an effort to retain workers at her small shoe factory, Maria Ma raised salaries last year by 10 percent and added more vacation time, but she still worries about losing out to rivals elsewhere in China offering better wages.
She's not alone. A survey of members by the Asia Footwear Association in Hong Kong found earlier this year that many Chinese shoemakers were understaffed, some by as much as 60 percent. Newly built plants in Dongguan are idle for lack of workers, says Percy Lan, an entrepreneur who publishes a footwear industry magazine. He says the industry employs around 1 million laborers in Dongguan, but needs 100,000 more.
While workers once flocked to cities like Dongguan, rising rural incomes and rapid growth in inland cities have diminished the appeal of migration to coastal boomtowns - particularly among young, single women, whom factory bosses prefer to men as easier to manage. Staying close to home means access to healthcare and other benefits that migrants don't always receive. So job seekers are playing harder to get.
"Girls are asking, 'Do we get overtime? What are the benefits?'" says Kathy Deng, who owns a recruitment company in Guangzhou. "Guangdong needs workers. Zhejiang and Shanghai need workers. They have more choices. So it's difficult to find workers."
Growing affluence in Pearl River cities also means new job alternatives. Away from Dongguan's grimy factory belt, SUVs stream along highways to upscale neighborhoods that are hungry for manpower. "No matter how much you pay [in factories where wages average $100 per month], the service industry pays more. People want to work in stores, or be waiters in five-star hotels," says Mr.Lan, the shoe industry publisher. Some footwear plants are responding by upgrading worker dormitories, cafeterias, and bathrooms.
But the improvements aren't enough to keep migrant worker Xiong Kejing around. He's spent the last nine years working factory and construction jobs, trying to save money, and is ready to head home with his wife and baby daughter to Chongqing, a 36-hour journey by bus.
He's heard stories of higher wages in Shanghai, but is skeptical about another stint as a migrant, either in Dongguan or another coastal city. "You can't stay out here forever. There's probably more opportunities back home now; we can open our own business," he says.
It's not only factories that are feeling pinched by the departure of migrants like Xiong.Affluent cities in the Pearl River Delta have come to rely on migrant workers to wash dishes, cut hair, and take care of the young and elderly.
Wages for nannies triple
Down a narrow side street in Guangzhou, the provincial capital, dozens of women sit inside a yellow-walled job agency for domestic servants swapping stories and waiting for offers. Liu Bin, who runs the place, says the tight labor market is forcing employers to pay more and be less picky about whom they hire.
As she finishes speaking, a trio of middle-aged women enquire about finding a replacement nurse for their octogenarian parents. Braced for a pay raise, they're ready to pay nearly double the monthly 450 yuan ($55) a caregiver cost three years ago. "It's really hard to hire someone from Guangzhou," sighs Cai Rongqiu, one of the three women. "They don't want to be nurses; they want a job with good pay, fixed hours, and an easy life."
#1
Article: No matter how much you pay [in factories where wages average $100 per month], the service industry pays more.
I'm afraid this has to do with journalists getting a little carried away. $100 a month is lower than just about every other country in East Asia. The Philippines and Indonesia are about the same, but doing business there is really, really tough. *Dongguan* is becoming less competitive, not China as a whole, from a labor cost standpoint.
#2
Hmmm, companies may relocate to third world countries because Chinas labor costs are increasing? If that trend continues the greedy, capitalistic, global companies will run out of poor workers to exploit. Ha, the bloodsuckers will eliminate world poverty.
This story seems too good to be true. As a long-term trend I expect increasing automation to decrease the value of unskilled labor. Perhaps a large middle class will grow in China and India before that occurs.
#3
SG9311: As a long-term trend I expect increasing automation to decrease the value of unskilled labor.
It's not unskilled labor they're hiring in China - the workers generally have high school diplomas or a few years of college. (The problem in China now is that factory managers aren't able to hire the cream of the crop like they used to, so they're not happy. College grads would rather be bank tellers than do assembly work in a factory). China isn't Mexico - Chinese workers are paid less but better educated. This is why NAFTA hasn't been a panacea for Mexico - because (1) in East Asian countries where the pay is higher than Mexico, the skills are way better and (2) in East Asian countries where the pay is lower than Mexico, the skills are also superior.
It's like Sean Connery has slipped back into James Bond's tuxedo, circa the 1960s. The elegant swagger, the slicked-down hair and mobile eyebrows, the lascivious asides to women, the legs-splayed stance with the Walther PPK drawn and ready, the faded Technicolor tones and stagey scenes... everything recalls the early days of 007.
Only this superspy speaks French, bumbles along like Inspector Clouseau and incarnates all the naive arrogance of a fading world power unaware that its supposed cultural superiority is crumbling along with its empire.
Welcome OSS 117 - a French film that affectionately spoofs the world's most famous secret agent while simultaneously paying homage to a whole genre of films from another, much more innocent decade.
The movie, which opened this week to superlative reviews and long box-office lines in France, hits the sweet spot between Bond nostalgia and Austin Powers lampooning largely thanks to the talent - and the striking resemblance to Connery - of its star, Jean Dujardin.
The 33-year-old is currently the hottest French comic talent on the big screen. After making the jump from television, he became a cinematic sensation last year when he turned one of his stand-up characters into a movie. The result was Brice from Nice, a tale about a clueless French surfer dude looking for the perfect wave in the still-as-a-pond Mediterranean.
Now, playing Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, alias secret agent OSS 117, he's set for even bigger success. His latest movie is certain to gain attention from Bond fans everywhere, as well as those hungry for a cinephile parody of the sort of implausible but thrilling films from the 1950s and 1960s made by the likes of Hitchcock.
"It's true that we take a jab at Sean Connery," Dujardin told Le Parisien newspaper. "For me, it was all in the eyebrows."
But the movie is also a knowing wink at the incongruity of Western superagents - be they British, French or American - flying to far-off lands to single-handedly save the world and steal the girl.
It's no accident that "OSS 117" is largely set in Egypt. Bonisseur de la Bath quickly agrees, over a bistro meal with his chief in Paris, to go to Cairo, solve a murder, reinforce France's colonial glory and, incidentally, establish security in the region.
Once there, he inadvertently triggers an anti-Western rebellion through his bumbling ways and eventually sets off what becomes the Suez Canal crisis. But he does get the girl.
Jean-Francois Halin, one of the screenwriters, told Liberation newspaper they chose a Middle Eastern backdrop "because of the gap opening up between the Western world and the oriental world".
He also said that, while the movie is stuffed with sight gags and rapid-fire dialogue, the aim was to make keep the hero true to character, to avoid the outright parody that underscored Austin Powers.
"For us, OSS 117 shouldn't be a walking disaster. He's super-capable, and, at the same time - what a waste!" he laughed.
The French agent's pedigree is much more than a simple comic reconstruction of Bond, too. In fact the character was created by a French novelist, Jean Brochet (pen-name Jean Bruce), in a series of books that first appeared in 1949 - four years before Ian Fleming's initial Bond adventure, Casino Royale, came out.
But the OSS 117 in those books was a serious character - and an American one, albeit with French heritage, who worked for the Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor of today's CIA.
Although that OSS 117 made his way into a number of films, they earned nowhere near the success of the Bond movies, in no small part due to the lacklustre leading actors chosen who were easily eclipsed by the hugely charismatic Connery.
Now - reworked with a deft dose of irony and more than a few of Connery's mannerisms - the French-born spy is back in from the cold, and getting a very warm reception indeed.
Like every other great plan to link one continent with another, it has spent an age gathering dust. A bridge between Africa and Europe has been dreamt of since the Moorish conquest of southern Spain, but the political will and hard cash to build it have always been lacking.
Plus the fear of fifty bagillion Africans flooding northward over the bridge.
Now, in an effort to overcome that inertia, regional officials in southern Spain have turned to an eccentric American architect. Eugene Tsui, whose oddball designs have attracted controversy, has been commissioned by officials in Cadiz, who have grown impatient after almost 20 years of dithering by the Spanish and Moroccan governments.
The move has, however, horrified many in southern Spain - including British expatriates - who fear that a bridge would lead to fifty bagillion illegals a huge surge in illegal immigration from Africa. So far, however, they have been able to take comfort in the hope that Mr Tsui's project - like so many others - will get no further than the drawing board. For it is fair to say that, even compared with other international civil engineering projects, his brainchild is on the crazy ambitious side.
Dubbed the "Afro-tunnel", it envisages nine miles of bridges and tunnels, up to 24 lanes wide, connected to a floating island three miles across, with a vast windfarm, a shopping and leisure complex, waterfalls, artificial hills and a marina. There would be lanes for those who wish to walk, bicycle or "ride camels and horses".
See the illustration. Twenty-four lanes and pedestrian walkways, no waiting for the fifty bagillion immigrants from Morocco.
There is also the small question of the £5.4 billion price tag - which, so far, no one has offered to pay. The European Union, normally suckers for this sort of boondoggle a dependable bankroller of such schemes, already has a long-stalled Spanish-Moroccan application on its desk, for which it has refused to cough up.
"It is a lot more than just a bridge but a whole cultural scheme," said Mariano Alcalde, an engineer in Tarifa, the town at the Spanish end of the link. "The mayor has supported it the whole way and has already been speaking to both the Andalucian and Spanish authorities. Eugene is due back in July to try and take this on further."
"The mayor will support anything that brings an EU subsidy to town."
Leaving each coast on a floating bridge, traffic would descend into a tunnel suspended to a maximum depth of 650ft underwater, which would allow shipping through the strait, then rise to the central island. Electricity generated by the 150 windmills and 80 tidal turbines on the island would pay for the bridge many times over, Mr Tsui said. His design leaves currents undisturbed, minimising the impact on marine ecology. Even the scheme does not come to fruition, Cadiz officials say it shows a way around the environmental problems that have dogged previous designs.
There has not yet been any official comment from the Moroccan or Spanish governments on Mr Tsui's plan.
"Please. Leave us alone. Go away."
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Gotta have windmills in there. Means it's eco-friendly.
#2
Aside visions of jousting with windmills, those tunnels could succumb to demolition faster than Jack the Bear.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/30/2006 1:11 Comments ||
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Let the tunnel be built, provided it's designed by African engineers, constructed with African labor, and overseen by African construction firms, and most importantly of all, with African money.
#4
...5.4 billion Euros? Cripes, the paper shredders alone on the Big Dig cost that much...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/30/2006 8:27 Comments ||
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Mike, the numbers are made up - just like the engineering. I'd said 1.9 Billion Euro and after 10 years the wind farm will buy every man jack in Europe a silky pony.
The U.S. State Department has condemned the detention of Belarus main opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich. State Department Deputy Spokesman Adam Ereli called the detention of Milinkevich and other opposition leaders outrageous and reprehensible. He said unfortunately, these are only the latest in an ongoing series of acts which - against the citizens (of Belarus) who are only attempting to exercise their basic human rights and fundamental freedoms. We condemn these actions and we call on the authorities to immediately release those detained and drop the charges against them, Ereli said.
Milinkevich, opposition candidate at the presidential election in Belarus, was sentenced to 15 days in jail a day after he led a protest rally in the capital of Minsk that attracted around 10,000 people, one of the largest turnouts in six weeks of demonstrations against the President Alexander Lukashenko. Other opposition leaders, Vintsuk Vyachorka, Alexander Bukhvostov, and Sergei Kalyakin, were also detained.
I would note that both we and the European Union have already announced measures to hold accountable officials responsible for these abuses. And we will continue working with our European partners to, I think, maintain a united front in the face of this gross assault on values that we all share, Ereli said.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer also condemned Milinkevichs detention and called for his release. Speaking during a meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers in Sofia, Scheffer quoted by Sofia News agency said this is another demonstration of anti-democratic behavior on behalf of the regime of Minks. I call on the regime in Minsk to release Milinkevich immediately and to refrain from this kind of actions in the future. The Euro-Atlantic community cannot accept this to happen in the heart of Europe, he said.
Rice said that the United States sincerely hopes that the Belarusian government will accept the will of the international community that it acts in accordance with accepted international principles when it comes to the treatment of opposition.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi says he will resign, ending three weeks of wrangling over a narrow election defeat and clearing the political decks for Romano Prodi to take power. Mr Berlusconi, who had previously alleged election fraud and refused to formally concede defeat after April 9-10 polls, will hand his resignation to President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi on Tuesday after a scheduled Cabinet meeting.
Addio, Silvio. We're gonna miss you. In a year or two your people will, too...
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Too bad, for awhile Italy was a contender. Now it is going to drop back into the same category as Spain and France, has-beens dreaming of past glories as they wait to die.
It was twice the fun for members of the White House Correspondents' Association and guests Saturday night when President Bush and a lookalike, soundalike sidekick poked fun at the president and fellow politicians. "Ladies and gentlemen, I feel chipper tonight. I survived the White House shake-up," the president said.
But impersonator Steve Bridges stole many of the best lines. Vice President Dick Cheney and his hunting accident were targets of his humor on a couple of occasions. "Speaking of suspects, where is the great white hunter?" Bridges said, later adding, "He shot the only trial lawyer in the country who supports me."
Bush invited Bridges to play his double. The president talked to the press in polite, friendly terms. Bridges told them what the president was really thinking. Bridges opened like this: "The media really ticks me off the way they try to embarrass me by not editing what I say. Well, let's get things going, or I'll never get to bed."
"I'm absolutely delighted to be here, as is (wife) Laura," Bush replied. "She's hot," Bridges quipped.
I watched this and thought it was hilarious. Best line for me was when Bridges (as Bush) said that people complained about him being arrogant: "Well, I'm not even going to dignify that with an answer. Screw 'em!" Second best was Bush (as Bush) talking about Iran and the IAEA-EI-EI-O.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2006 12:23 ||
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That guy is freaken hysterical. Can you imagine Clinton inviting a look-a-like to poke fun at him/her in public? Neither can I.
Class. This story features exactly what I like most about Bush - and why I think he'll do the right thing no matter the consequences. He's his own man, unafraid of the cuts and jabs of cowardly detractors, and since he actually possesses values and a moral compass he can actually tell right from wrong. A monumental step up from Clinton, Gore, and the rest of the true politicians.
I've seen the "protest" garbage posted here. Sure, go ahead and flush your vote on some dipshit 3rd party because your panties are in a bunch. If you were able to sit down and talk to him, and wave your pet peeves in his face, I bet he'd be able to change your mind about many things, making the "protest" look petty, shortsighted and foolish. If you knew what he knows, you'd drop the BS and get focused on trying to push somebody with even half his resolve and vision to run in 2008. I don't like to swear, but you'll sure as shit miss him when he's gone.
Raichur, India: Bheemanna Harijan (35) was shot dead by police after he beheaded three persons in Kadadinni village of Manvi taluk on Saturday.
According to police, mentally challenged Bheemanna, who was armed with an axe, wandered on the streets of the village and suddenly attacked Hanumanthappa Naik, a native of Chagbhavi village in the taluk, as he was entering the village.
After cutting Hanumanthappa Naik's head, he severed his legs from his body and threw them on the roadside.
Then he attacked Dyavalsab, who was returning from his field and pushed him to the ground. After tying his hands, he beheaded him.
Soon after, he rushed towards Mallappa, who was entering the village to sell utensils, and cut off his head with his axe. He threw Mallappa's body on a haystack and burnt it.
The frightened villagers tried to catch Bheemanna Harijan and threw stones at him to keep him away from the village.
They sent a message to the Manvi police station. A police team led by Sirwar police inspector rushed to the village. Bheemanna Harijan tried to escape from the village when the police team approached him.
However, the police team chased him and shot him dead. R. Hitendr, Superintendent of Police, visited the spot.
Posted by: john ||
04/30/2006 11:52 ||
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The Indian Army is believed to have short-listed the Bell-407 and the Eurocopter AS 550 for a Rs 22 billion ($500 million) contract for 197 light helicopters to replace its ageing fleet of Chetaks and Cheetahs, some of which were inducted more than three decades ago.
"The final trials have been conducted and we are definitely in the race," an official of Bell Helicopter India Inc, an American company, said.
An Indian Army officer confirmed the two helicopters were in the race but wasn't sure of the stage at which the project was. Eurocopter officials were not immediately available for comment.
The army has projected a requirement for a helicopter that can carry loads of up to 75 kg heights of 23,000 feet on the Siachen Glacier in Jammu and Kashmir. Flying at these heights poses unique challenges due to the rarified atmosphere.
According to the Bell official, the army wants to by 60 helicopters outright with the remaining 137 being licensed manufactured by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
As regards the transfer of technology element, he said Bell "adequately meets the requirements" in the five categories involved. The percentage of technology transfer ranges from 60 to 100 percent.
The Bell official said the company had offered to make India the global hub to produce the 407. Bell had also inked a deal with HAL to manufacture tail rotor blades and other critical components for the popular Bell 206 Jet Ranger and initial deliveries have already been made.
The Army Aviation Corps (AAC) currently operates a fleet of 300 French-designed Chetaks and Cheetahs, originally known as the Alouette II and Alouette III respectively.
The army officer said that apart from replacing the bulk of these machines, the AAC was also seeking to acquire attack helicopters of the Mi-25 type the Indian Air Force (IAF) currently operates.
The lack of such a weapons platform was sorely felt during the 1999 Kargil operations in Kashmir when the army went into action to evict Pakistani intruders who had occupied the heights in the area.
"Our logic is that since it is we who have the requirement, it is we who should operate the attack choppers. This is not to say the air force should also operate them," the army officer.
However, the IAF might not give up its turf so easily, even though a squadron of Mi-25's is currently under the control of the Indian Army's Western Command.
Posted by: john ||
04/30/2006 10:04 ||
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#1
carry loads of up to 75 kg heights of 23,000 feet on the Siachen Glacier
I understand the difficulties of beating the air into submission flying a helicopter at that altitude, but is 75 kg a typo?
#2
No.
75-100 kg is the typical load at these heights.
India spends $ 0.5 million a day to hold the Siachen glacier, which overlooks the Karakoram pass into China.
Posted by: john ||
04/30/2006 12:44 Comments ||
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#3
It also has 3 entire divisions of mountain warfare troops stationed at heights, accclimatized and ready for action against either Pakistan or China.
Posted by: john ||
04/30/2006 12:53 Comments ||
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#4
220 lbs = 1 or at most 2 guys' weight...that seems light, John
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/30/2006 14:14 Comments ||
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Choppers don't work too good at 21 000 ft.
Hindustan Aeronautics re-engining the Chetan helicopter a few months ago boasted of "a service ceiling of 21,300 feet with a 100 kg
load."
Posted by: john ||
04/30/2006 15:09 Comments ||
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The air up there is rare. I had a pilot friend rescue a guy off Mt. McKinley 20,000 feet in a Hiller 12E with a Saloy Allison C-250 turbine conversion. He stripped the thing down to nothing and had just enough to land on the summit with his baba of oxygen and get the guy off. It took that pair of long blades to swat enough air to do the mission. A smaller rotor disk, like that on a MD 500 series won't cut it. And woe to him that gets into gusts.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/30/2006 15:36 Comments ||
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HYDERABAD: District and Sessions Judge Hyderabad Zaheeruddin Leghari set free the love marriage couple, Sodi and Abdul Hakeem, on Saturday. The couple had been languishing in jail in a Hudood Ordinance case for the past five years. "We are very happy today because we are free now to live our lives together after long years of imprisonment," said Sodi after the court order. She particularly thanked the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, on taking notice of her complaint and getting the case decided. Sodi also thanked Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid who arranged their legal defence.
Abdul Hakeem also expressed similar emotions. The couple said they would not go back to their village in Bulri Shah Karim, an old town in newly-formed district Tando Mohammed Khan, for they feared attack by Sodi's relations. They demanded protection against attack by her relations.
Earlier, the district judge resumed hearing of the case that was put off on Friday and recorded statements of rest of the persons concerned. They were Sodi, Abdul Hakeem, his father, Hakim, and Nikahkhwan Mohammed Soomar Parhiar. Sodi told the judge she was not kidnapped by anyone, but she married Abdul Hakeem of her free own will.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
What I like about this headline is that you can re-arrange it many ways:
Court Loves Marriage-Free Couple
Couples Court Love-Free Marriage
Marriage Couples "Free Love" Court
Well, you have to stretch a bit to parse that last one, but you see what I mean.
PESHAWAR: Political parties and non-government organisations on Saturday passed a joint resolution demanding the federal, provincial and district governments take strict action against members of an Upper Dir jirga that had earlier ruled that anyone who reported an honour killing case to police would be punishable by death.
The resolution also asked the Supreme Court (SC) and the Peshawar High Court to take suo motto action against the jirga's decision and demanded that the provincial government and local administrations issue disqualification notifications to union council nazims and councillors who had attended the jirga.
The resolution, which was signed by political leaders and women members of the NWFP Assembly (MPAs) from the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and the Awami National Party (ANP), also asked parties to demand explanations from their party members who had attended the jirga. The resolution also asked provincial governments and districts councils of the province to pass condemnation resolutions against the jirga's decision.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Against strong opposition from rich nations, developing countries adopted a divisive resolution that could delay crucial UN management reforms and spawn a crippling budget crisis. The resolution, which called for several new reports on the reforms and insisted on prior review by the General Assembly of any changes to budget practices, was passed in a key budget committee with 108 in favour, 50 against and three abstentions. The resolution was presented by South Africa on behalf of 132 developing nations - the so-called Group of 77 - and China, and was strongly opposed by the main contributors to the UN budget, including the United States, Japan, European countries, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Israel.
I can remember when South Africa was a developed nation...
The outcome broke a 20-year tradition in the General Assembly's 5th committee of reaching decisions by consensus rather than by a vote. At issue is what developing nations perceive as a bid by the US-led main contributors to transfer some of the oversight and budgetary powers from the 191-member General Assembly to the 15-member Security Council and the UN Secretariat.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
I got an idea. Let's move the UN to the developing nations and cut off our funding and see how they fair!
#5
This is the beginning of the end for the UN. The developed nations are demanding reform and accountability. The developing nations are demanding the status quo. The final act will depend upon the developed nations, because they are fiscally accountable to their countries. Just have them gradually back off on the money contributions to the UN and the whole corrupt organization will collapse on itself. Go out with a whimper. NYC cops will sigh with relief.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/30/2006 1:17 Comments ||
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#8
Huh? Israel is one of the "main contibutor to the UN"? Masochism? Or do they fear that if they do not contibute, this org will be even more slanted against them?
#9
Failed Nations, methinks. The new name for the "UN". Failed nations on welfare with rich, rich despots. Time to walk away and create a democratic country-based union. Secular democracy.
#10
'Developing countries', are like the Gang of 77 who adopted the Peter Principle for their Constitution...and they are maxed out on stupid.
Professional panhandlers all.
The United States has strongly condemned the Myanmar military's offensive against ethnic minority groups, believed to be the biggest crackdown in a decade. Up to 11,000 people have been driven from their homes in eastern Myanmar, where some 2,700 villages have been destroyed by the ruling junta, according to non-governmental groups which also reported cases of "torture and killings."
"We condemn in the strongest possible terms the Burmese regime's actions against civilians and ethnic minorities within Burma," US State Department spokeswoman Julie Reside said on Friday, using tough diplomatic language. "The military campaign is another indication of the repressive nature of the regime," she said. Burma is the former name of Myanmar.
Reside said the attacks were resulting in "ever increasing number" of displaced Myanmarese -- within the country and across the border -- "highlighting again the threat of the regime's actions posed to the region."
Myanmar's military rulers have long been accused of gross human rights abuses, including for locking up the country's oppositon leaders, particularly democracy icon and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Their latest crackdown on ethnic minorities is largely targeted against the Karens. Rights groups say it is the most serious offensive since 1997. The Karen National Union (KNU) has been battling Yangon in one of the world's longest-running insurgencies, and claims to have 10,000 resistance fighters.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2006 00:00 ||
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SIDON: A woman was beaten to death by her brother and husband in the area of Zahrani in South Lebanon on Monday. According to the results of a preliminary investigation, both men believed that the woman, a mother of two children, was possessed by evil spirits. Sources said that the two men decided to kill her after consulting a sheikh, who advised them to "beat her hard on the head until the evil spirit leaves her soul."
The sources said that the woman, who was in her 30s, had frequently had disagreements with her husband and that this had caused a lot of trouble for her family, in particular her brother. They also said that after the men "tried all means" to calm her rages, they consulted the sheikh, who told them that the woman was possessed because someone had cursed her.
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A proliferation of phony heroes is prompting such groups as The Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation to lobby for tougher laws to punish the impostors.
The organization reports that there are 113 living recipients of the nation's highest military award, but an FBI agent who tracks the fakes said impostors outnumber the true heroes.
"There are more and more of these impostors, and they are literally stealing the valor and acts of valor of the real guys," said Agent Tom Cottone, who also works on an FBI violent crime squad in West Paterson, N.J.
Some fakers merely brag about receiving the award - and that's not illegal - but some impostors wear military uniforms and bogus medals. The FBI has about 25 pending investigations of such phony heroes, said Cottone.
Anyone convicted of fraudulently wearing the Medal of Honor faces up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine. But there's no such penalty for other medals.
The Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation and other veterans groups are looking to change that. They've enlisted the help of U.S. Rep. John T. Salazar, D-Colo., who is sponsoring the Stolen Valor Act to penalize distributors of phony medals and those who pretend to be decorated veterans.
Salazar's legislation would make it illegal to make a false public claim to be a recipient of any military valor award, such as the Medal of Honor, a Silver Star or Purple Heart.
"It is about more than punishing people," said Salazar. "It's about preserving the history and honor of those medals."
World War II Medal of Honor recipient Charles Coolidge of Signal Mountain, Tenn., got flimflammed out of his medal - at a military reunion of all places - when someone offered to help recondition it and gave him back a fake version of the award.
Cottone tracked down Coolidge's real Medal of Honor from a man who was selling and trading medals in Ohio.
"It was a big surprise to me to get it back," said Coolidge, 84.
Coolidge received the Medal of Honor for leading an outnumbered section of heavy machine guns during four days of fighting against German infantry and tanks in France in 1944.
Cottone said he recovered two fake Medals of Honor at a New Jersey gun show. Both were made by HLI Lordship Industries Inc., a former government contractor for the Medal of Honor.
The company, based in Hauppauge, N.Y., was fined $80,000 in 1996 and placed on probation after admitting 300 fakes were sold in the early 1990s for $75 each.
"If we don't maintain the integrity of these military awards, the real ones won't mean anything," Cottone said. There are so many guilt-obsessed, draft-evading or anti-war liberals in the country, who lust for the honor they never had.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in a rare public break with her boss, saw no problem with a Spanish-language version of the national anthem criticised by US President George W. Bush.
Mr Bush last week added a new dimension to a debate over immigration by rejecting a Latino recording of Nuestro Himno (Our Anthem) and declaring the Star-Spangled Banner should be sung in English.
But Dr Rice, one of the president's closest aides who has backed him down the line on every issue from Iraq to national security wiretaps, took a different tack on the anthem.
"From my point of view, people expressing themselves as wanting to be Americans is a good thing," she said in an interview on CBS television's Face the Nation program.
"I've heard the national anthem done in rap versions, country versions, classical versions. The individualisation of the American national anthem is quite under way," she said.
The chief US diplomat suggested the language of the national anthem was less an issue than the growing polemic over immigration reform in the United States.
"I think what we need to focus on is an immigration policy that is comprehensive and that recognises our laws and recognises our humanity," Dr Rice said.
#6
People who want Rice to run on the GOP presidential ticket in 08 are a little too starry-eyed for me. I have no idea what her political positions or skills are. I know that she will toe the presidential line in her role as Secretary of State. That qualifies her to be - Secretary of State. She could help the GOP win the presidency again in 08, just on the strength of her drawing 30% to 40% of the black vote. But what if she turns out to be a liberal on social and economic issues? We could end up with a Hillary Clinton clone on the domestic front. It's exactly like the weird adulation that GOP'ers had for Powell until we discovered what his true policy inclinations were. It's time to stop obsessing over finding a Great Black Hope for the presidential campaign.
We have a lot of quality people with decent track records about to throw their hats into the ring. Rice just isn't one of them. As far as I'm concerned, until I know more about her positions on a lot of issues, preferably after she has served a few terms in an elected office, putting her in the Oval Office is like GWB putting Colin Powell in at State, but far, far more dangerous to conservative causes.
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.
Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards is being treated for head injuries in New Zealand after being hurt while on holiday in Fiji. The 62-year-old was airlifted to a private Auckland hospital after falling from a coconut tree. Richards was holidaying with his wife and other members of the Rolling Stones on an island resort in Fiji after the Australasian leg of their latest world tour when the accident occurred on Thursday. 
The vice-president of Malawi, who has been at loggerheads with the president for more than a year, has been arrested on treason charges. 
In the United States, immigration and border security are hot topics when it comes to Mexico. One might also include worries about narco-trafficantes and border town violence. In Mexico the biggest looming issue is the presidential race. 
The presidents of Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia have signed the People's Trade Treaty to counter a US-led drive to forge a Pan-American free trade area. Presidents Evo Morales of Bolivia, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, and Fidel Castro of Cuba signed the pact in Havana on Saturday to streamline commercial ties among the three governments.
Thousands of protesters have rallied in Kyrgyzstan's capital demanding that the president stand by his pledges to fight crime and corruption - or quit. Making a surprise appearance at the opposition rally in Bishkek, Kurmanbek Bakiyev was booed and whistled at by about 10,000 people. "I am not Akayev, I will not run away from my people, I am not afraid," President Bakiyev said before walking away, heckled by the crowd.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi says he will resign, ending three weeks of wrangling over a narrow election defeat and clearing the political decks for Romano Prodi to take power. Mr Berlusconi, who had previously alleged election fraud and refused to formally concede defeat after April 9-10 polls, will hand his resignation to President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi on Tuesday after a scheduled Cabinet meeting. 
It was twice the fun for members of the White House Correspondents' Association and guests Saturday night when President Bush and a lookalike, soundalike sidekick poked fun at the president and fellow politicians. "Ladies and gentlemen, I feel chipper tonight. I survived the White House shake-up," the president said.
HYDERABAD: District and Sessions Judge Hyderabad Zaheeruddin Leghari set free the love marriage couple, Sodi and Abdul Hakeem, on Saturday. The couple had been languishing in jail in a Hudood Ordinance case for the past five years. "We are very happy today because we are free now to live our lives together after long years of imprisonment," said Sodi after the court order. She particularly thanked the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, on taking notice of her complaint and getting the case decided. Sodi also thanked Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid who arranged their legal defence. 
PESHAWAR: Political parties and non-government organisations on Saturday passed a joint resolution demanding the federal, provincial and district governments take strict action against members of an Upper Dir jirga that had earlier ruled that anyone who reported an honour killing case to police would be punishable by death.
Against strong opposition from rich nations, developing countries adopted a divisive resolution that could delay crucial UN management reforms and spawn a crippling budget crisis. The resolution, which called for several new reports on the reforms and insisted on prior review by the General Assembly of any changes to budget practices, was passed in a key budget committee with 108 in favour, 50 against and three abstentions. The resolution was presented by South Africa on behalf of 132 developing nations - the so-called Group of 77 - and China, and was strongly opposed by the main contributors to the UN budget, including the United States, Japan, European countries, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Israel.
The United States has strongly condemned the Myanmar military's offensive against ethnic minority groups, believed to be the biggest crackdown in a decade. Up to 11,000 people have been driven from their homes in eastern Myanmar, where some 2,700 villages have been destroyed by the ruling junta, according to non-governmental groups which also reported cases of "torture and killings."
SIDON: A woman was beaten to death by her brother and husband in the area of Zahrani in South Lebanon on Monday. According to the results of a preliminary investigation, both men believed that the woman, a mother of two children, was possessed by evil spirits. Sources said that the two men decided to kill her after consulting a sheikh, who advised them to "beat her hard on the head until the evil spirit leaves her soul."
