ORLANDO, Fla. - Former astronaut Lisa Nowak is pursuing a temporary insanity defense on charges that she assaulted and tried to kidnap a romantic rival, according to a court document released Tuesday. I think she's hoping Lindsay and Paris and Britt get trashed some night soon and crash into a carload of nuns...
Nowak suffered from major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, insomnia and "brief psychotic disorder with marked stressors," defense attorney Donald Lykkebak wrote. ...I was off my meds, I lost my keys, the dog ate my homework, I found Jesus in rehab, there was a terrible storm!
He said the already-petite woman had also recently lost 15 percent of her body weight and struggled with "marital separation." Sounds like she could use the Club Gitmo Diet...
"This notice does not challenge competence to stand trial, but only raises insanity at the time of the offense," he wrote. She was nuts, your honor. She's not anymore.
Nowak, 44, was charged with attempted kidnapping, battery and burglary with assault after allegedly driving nearly 1,000 miles from Houston to Orlando to confront Colleen Shipman, the girlfriend of a former space shuttle pilot Nowak had been involved with. Yeah, whatever happened to Commander Studmuffin?
Nowak, who was dismissed from the astronaut corps a month after her arrest, has pleaded not guilty. Her trial is set for September. Turn in your keys to the Space Shuttle and your decoder ring. You're through...
Lykkebak wrote that two Texas psychiatrists would testify that Nowak was legally insane at the time of the alleged attack. Crazy? Oh, yes. Crazy...for love!
#5
Frank, I gotta agree, but if she gets it, it should be for temporary insanity. In fact, temporary insanity is...insane. tu got it right in the in line.
Ay, carumba!
MIAMI - Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega can be extradited to France once he completes his U.S. prison sentence for a 1992 drug trafficking conviction, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. Noriega, 72, is due to be released from a Miami prison on Sept. 9. He only did 15 years?
He wants U.S. officials to send him back to his home country, but France wants him to face charges of laundering about $3.15 million in drug profits through transactions that included buying luxurious apartments in Paris. Lucky you, Manny. A free trip to France. I wonder if they'll play Van Halen really really loud outside your cell? Over and over and over again...
LOS ANGELES (AFP) - The rest of Hollywood might be training their camera lenses on the war in Iraq, but veteran director Oliver Stone is preparing to re-enlist for Vietnam, it was reported Tuesday. Stone, who won best director Oscars for his Vietnam War-related dramas "Platoon" and "Born on the Fourth of July," is planning a new film about the investigation into the 1968 My Lai massacre, Daily Variety reported.
The 60-year-old director is close to sealing a deal with United Artists to finance the film, titled "Pinkville," while actor Bruce Willis has been confirmed to play the army chief who led the investigation into the killings.
Up to 500 Vietnamese civilians, including many unarmed women, children and elderly, were killed by US troops in the My Lai massacre, one of the most notorious episodes of war crimes ever committed by American forces. Revelations surrounding the massacre are often said to have played a key role in turning American public opinion against the war in Vietnam.
Stone's next project following his 9/11 drama "World Trade Center" was expected to be a film about the CIA's attempts to capture Al-Qaeda kingpin Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.
Instead "Pinkville" will focus on the probe into My Lai with Willis playing Army General William R. Peers, who supervised the inquiry. Actor Channing Tatum will play Hugh Thompson, a military helicopter pilot who curtailed the killing by placing his craft between villagers and soldiers and warning troops he would open fire if any more civilians were killed.
#1
Stone has has a string of less-than-succesfull movies. He needs a success. If not monetary than critical and going back to brutal Americans in Vietnam will get him beloved by Hollywood again.
#3
JFM, it doesn't matter. Just as in Iraq, the fraternity pranks at Abu Ghraib are more important than all the slaughter done by Saddam. The important thing in Hollywood is to demonize the American military.
#4
When the NVA briefly held Hue during Tet, they murdered thousands of alleged "collaboraters," and tossed bodies in mass graves, with the thought that they could hold Hue forever. Does that interest Oliver Stone?
As for My Lai, I believe it revealed the folly of any "hearts and mind" policy. During WW2, Bomber Command directed indiscriminate air bombardment of "built up areas" in enemy territory. On the ground, advancement followed massive artillery bombardment. "Hearts and mind" led Vietnamese to remain in VC/NVA villages. When these were captured, US troops were subject to sniper fire and controlled explosions. Inevitably, troops blamed innocent and other civilians for avoidable deaths, and we had My Lai. So why the hell are we playing the same losing game in Iraq? Al-Jazeera still films Iraqis celebrating around destroyed US vehicles. That drives steel into the enemy's backs.
#9
Off in search of Meat-Lie, the Shame of Nation, I may have to loot the Terry Hendra vault.
Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
08/28/2007 18:24 Comments ||
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#10
I still remember an old Nat'l Lampoon "meat issue"
....same one?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/28/2007 18:53 Comments ||
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#11
There are still former Army soldiers whom continue to argue that Calley's unit did receive heavy enemy fire from the village and surrounding areas,and that a yet/still unknown number of dead civilians at My Lai were in fact Cong fighters.
#12
There are hundreds of great stories to be told about Irag and Afghanistan. Bit they won't be told by Hollywood.
Sorry Bruce Willis but your stock just dropped in my book. Oliver Stone is a known moonbat. You made a mistake signing on with him.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
08/28/2007 20:23 Comments ||
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#13
Lt Calley's troops took fire and had the right to counter same. Frustration caused them to kill indiscriminately, at close quarters. At worst, Calley ordered an "active entry" (hair trigger) into My Lai, and it got out of control. What happened was not forseeable, above the grunt level. And even the foot soldiers acted out of terror and frustration.
Oliver Stone will both defend "hearts and minds" idiocy, while smearing US troops who were fighting under JFK' whimp war rules. Any Stone' film about My Lai, should be labelled: Democratic Party fiction.
As for the "National Lampoon," I recall that they wrote a parody of the "Save the Children" foundation, and concocted "Lt Calley's Kill the Children Foundation." I still have NL issue 1 ("sexy cover issue"); wonder what its worth?
Do they have tractor pulls and contests for the biggest pumpkins and 4H displays?
No?
Zimbabwe's annual agricultural showcase has begun in the capital, Harare.
"What the hell is that?"
"It's the national corn harvest."
"One can?"
One ear. And a pair of emaciated Lesser Spotted Corn Grubs.
How many calories in a Lesser Spotted Corn Grub?
More than 200 farmers from across Zimbabwe are exhibiting maize, wheat, cotton, vegetables, honey and livestock, the show's organisers say.
Since the government introduced price controls in June, those goods and many more have vanished from stores.
Just saving them for the agricultural show?
Meanwhile, the black market prices have continued to soar at an estimated 20,000% - well beyond the reach of the 80% of workers now without a job.
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has blamed economic sanctions by the West for the crisis. But critics say it is President Mugabe's own land reform policy that has turned one of Africa's most productive farming states into one of its hungriest.
The Harare show's theme this year is "To feed the nation, time for innovation".
There was no need for innovation when they were the Breadbasket of Africa.
Nkors filing suit for copyright violations.
Won't fly; Bob never mentioned 'juche'.
It is to be officially opened by Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the President of Equatorial Guinea. The two countries were linked together in 2004, when mercenaries - allegedly on their way to stage a coup in Equatorial Guinea - were arrested in Zimbabwe. Since then, ties between the two countries have grown.
Human-rights organisations have accused President Obiang of running a dictatorship responsible for gross human rights violations.
1. Confiscate the farms of the white devils.
2. Kill the white devils. Hell, even kill their children.
3. Number 3.....number 3.....hmmmmmm, now what do we do???
Wherever the authorities imported it from, they were the ones who distributed it -- and maybe their spraying caused the contamination at the storage sites.
#1
Or these poor beasts can't stand the abuse any more and are committing a mass suicide. The reasons that they do not become splodeys are both logistical (even if they knew how to work pesticide into explosive they wouldn't do it being nobler than these deranged sand monkeys) and ethical (they don't give shit about that feverish mind construct - Allan).
A Bangladesh court sentenced on Monday former minister, Nazmul Huda, to seven years in jail for taking a bribe of 24 million taka ($350,000) from a construction firm, court officials said.
Huda served as communications minister in the government of most recent prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia. The court also ordered Hudas wife, Sigma Huda, to serve three years in jail for abetting her husband in accepting the bribe, lawyers said. More than 170 senior politicians, including over a dozen former ministers and a son of Khaleda Zia, have been detained for alleged corruption since an army-backed interim government took charge in Bangladesh in January.
Several of them, who served under both Khaleda and her rival Sheikh Hasina, also a former prime minister, have already been convicted and sentenced to various prison terms.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2007 00:00 ||
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Bangladeshs Supreme Court on Monday denied bail to former prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed, who was arrested as part of the emergency governments crackdown on corruption, one of her lawyers said. The court overturned a ruling by a lower court issued last month, which said that Sheikh Hasina, who is facing several different charges, should be freed from detention. A full bench of the Supreme Court headed by the chief justice stayed the High Court orders that granted bail to detained former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in two extortion cases, said Sahara Khatun, one of her lawyers. There is now no chance that she will be freed anytime soon. Mondays decision was the courts final ruling. Lawyers had earlier argued that the government was not entitled to prosecute Sheikh Hasina, the leader of the Awami League party, under emergency rules currently in force in the country. In a separate ruling, the court also ordered the former prime minister, detained since July 16, to submit details of her financial affairs to the anti-corruption commission within seven working days, Khatun said. Sheikh Hasina is among 150 high-profile figures that have been arrested as part of an anti-graft campaign. She has denied all charges against her.
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Gordon Brown is facing a deepening party split over Europe after it became clear that more than 120 Labour MPs, including several senior ministers, want a referendum on the new EU reform treaty. The figure - more than a third of the Parliamentary Party - was disclosed by Ian Davidson, a Scottish Labour MP who, despite being close to Mr Brown, is co-ordinating the strong internal campaign for the British people to be given a say.
Mr Davidson, who has written to Mr Brown on behalf of the Labour rebels demanding major changes to the proposed EU Treaty - or alternatively a referendum - told The Daily Telegraph that support among his fellow MPs was running at levels similar to 2004 when Tony Blair had to give way and promise a plebiscite.
It is understood that several senior ministers are privately supporting the campaign. Some Labour MPs claim that Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, is among those sympathetic to the rebels, believing that the party cannot claim to be more in tune with voters' concerns and more ready to listen than under Mr Blair, while denying them a say on relations with the EU.
It was Mr Straw who, as foreign secretary, persuaded Mr Blair to promise a referendum on the defunct constitutional treaty in Labour's 2005 general election manifesto.
"Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"-Adolph Hitler A very long article about the Armenian Genocide in Turkey. By Robert Fisk of all people. I have to say, it seems like he got this one right.
#3
"...now we are finding new material in France and new pictures taken by humanitarian workers of the time. We know there were two or three documentary films from 1915, one shot approvingly by a Kurdish leader to show how the Turks "dealt" with Armenians."
As much as it hurts, it is none the less true that the Kurds were willing executioners of the Armenians back then; and it wasn't primarily fundamentalist moslems either - the Secular moslems had the best guns and did the most killing.
#4
While visiting Armenia back in 2001, I laid flowers and lit a candle at the genocide memorial that overlooks the capital of Yerevan. Despite the recent 9-11 atrocity I had yet to fully comprehend what an eternal threat Islam was and remains to all free people. Due to that, I was slightly taken aback at the deep and abiding hatred most Armenians displayed for all Muslims of any stripe. The Armenian genocide is still a fresh wound in the mind of her countrymen. In light of Islam's current onslaught against mankind, I can better understand why the Armenians have refused to forgive or forget this tragic calamity.
To gain some insight into this ignoble precursor of the Holocaust, please read "The Forty Days of Musa Dagh" by Franz Werfel. This inspiring book chronicles how Gabriel Bagradian led some 5,000 Turkish Armenians into the mountainous redoubt of Musa Dagh. Relying upon his previous military training, Bagradian rallied his brave band to hold out against superior Turkish forces during a harrowing six week siege.
Islam seeks to repeat this horror around the entire world. We have yet to realize this simple fact and respond appropriately. Any delay only ups the butcher's bill and increases the likelihood of a Muslim holocaust.
I can call down the mighty clods with my special troll rod.
It's Greek. All of Cyprus will in time be Greek. Live it, learn it, deal with it.
Okay..... I figure we gots 30 minutes..... maybe less, this post my not make it. :)
Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
08/28/2007 18:36 Comments ||
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In 1920, British occupiers of much of Turkey, sent a telegram to the leaders at large demanding cessation of hostilities against Armenians. The military leader, Kemal Ataturk, responded by ceasing hostilities in the West while stepping up genocide in the east and south. Constantinople (Istanbul) armories were handed over to the Allies, and they chose to ignore atrocities in the West. After the genocide was complete, Ataturk conducted his "March to the Mediterranean" and split apart surprised occupation troops. Once foreign soldiers abandoned Turkey, Ataturk decided to abandon both the Sultanate and Caliphate, and to bring Turkey up to "European levels of civilization." His "modernization" and integration campaigns were little more than tactical efforts against backwardness and for subversion of Europe. Genocide-denial has worked well for Turkey in the past; it could work again.
MOSCOW - Russia said Monday that strategic bomber planes which were ordered this month to resume the Soviet-era practice of long-range patrols are not carrying nuclear weapons, ITAR-TASS news agency reported. We are not flying with nuclear weapons during our patrols. They are not aboard. There are only training weapons, the head of strategic aviation, General Pavel Androsov, was quoted as saying.
He said the main aim of the flights was to improve training for pilots, which in recent years was virtually stopped. The airplanes involved in the patrols are the Tu-160, Tu-95MS, Il-78, and MiG-35, Androsov said.
President Vladimir Putin announced the resumption of long-range flights in international air space while he attended military exercises on August 17. Such flights were standard during the Cold War standoff with the United States and its western European allies, but were abandoned in 1992 amid financial difficulties that followed the Soviet collapse.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/28/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Oh yeah, just they didn't during the Cold war.
OTOH, KOMMERSANT > RUSSIA OPENS THE BELARUS FRONT. Russ wants to reactivate Cold War missle and other bases becuz of US GMD-TMD in Eastern Europe.
#3
Joe,
Actually, they didn't. They frequently flew with dummy or captive rounds (which had working electronics but no motor or warhead), but they NEVER flew with live nuclear weapons. The Kremlin had no intention of letting some Bear driver with a live weapon decide he wanted to liberate his countrymen - or even worse, head for the nearest USAF base with it.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/28/2007 8:48 Comments ||
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While these flights are meant to be provocative I am just as happy the Russians are getting any training whatsoever. They will most probably need it. Not that I have any confidence one of these woulds make it through to Beijing.
Russian police arrested state security officers and Interior Ministry staff in connection with last year's murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, which was intended to destabilize the country, the nation's top prosecutor said. ``Unfortunately, current and former members of the Interior Ministry and the Federal Security Service'' were among 10 people detained after an investigation lasting almost a year, Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika told a news conference in Moscow today, broadcast live on state television. The Federal Security Service, or FSB, is the main successor to the KGB.
Politkovskaya, an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin over his conduct of the second Chechen war, was shot dead in her central Moscow apartment building Oct. 7. The U.S. State Department called the 48-year-old Novaya Gazeta reporter's murder ``an affront to free and independent media and to democratic values.''
The killers sought the ``destabilization of the Russian Federation,'' to undermine the country's leadership and constitutional order, Chaika said. The person who ordered the killing lives outside Russia and was known to Politkovskaya, he said, refusing to elaborate.
The head of an organized crime gang from the southern region of Chechnya was also detained in the connection with the journalist's death, Chaika told reporters. Two separate groups, those who planned the killing and those who carried it out, were arrested, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2007 00:00 ||
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#2
The person who ordered the killing lives outside Russia and was known to Politkovskaya, he said, refusing to elaborate.
Since the hitters were state security police, pardon me if this tidbit doesn't exactly comfort me. You monkeys have exiled ex-KGB bigs outside the country running a private police force inside the FSB.
People who want to become Australians will have to commit to broad values of "mateship" and may need to brush up on horse racing and political history under new citizenship tests outlined by the government on Sunday. The tests, similar to those in Canada, the United States and Britain, will require immigrants to correctly answer a series of questions about the nation's history and culture, including possible questions about the Melbourne Cup horse race and when Australia became a nation.
"It emphasises that those becoming a citizen in Australia have an overriding commitment to Australia, to our laws, to our values and to our community," Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews told a news conference on Sunday.
The new tests, and laws to ensure immigrants must spend four years in Australia instead of three to become citizens, are part of a government push to promote "Australian values" after riots between Muslim and non-Muslim youths at a Sydney beach in 2005.
Australia is a nation of immigrants, with one in four of Australia's 21 million people born overseas. Andrews said the new rules and tests would help new citizens integrate into Australian society. Under the new rules, immigrants and people coming to Australia to work will also need to sign up to a statement of Australian values, which mentions "mateship", equality, freedom of religion and support for democracy and the rule of law.
The government will have a pool of 200 citizenship questions, with 20 questions chosen at random for each person wanting to become a citizen.
Andrews said questions could include asking candidates the first line of Australia's national anthem (Australians all let us rejoice, for we are young and free), or the location of Australia's national Parliament (Canberra). They could also be asked about the year Australia became an independent federation (1901), or about the nation's most important horse race, the Melbourne Cup, known as the race that stops the nation and held on the first Tuesday in November.
Australia's conservative Prime Minister attempted to change Australia's constitution to include a preamble that included the word "mateship" in 1999, but the move was rejected by Australian voters.
It's a Reuters story but I linked to the copy in the Turkish Daily News because the issue of immigrant assimilation is a hot one for Turks re: Germany.
Abdullah Gül is expected to be elected Turkey's next president on Tuesday. But calls by Prime Minister Erdogan for Gül's critics to give up their citizenship have the media wondering what direction Turkey will take.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has come under sharp criticism for calling on Turks who refuse to accept former Islamist Abdullah Gül's presidency to leave the country. Gül, who is currently Turkey's foreign minister, failed in an attempt to win the presidency earlier this year. He is almost certain to be elected as head of state on Tuesday.
"Those (Turks) who do not recognize Abdullah Gül as their president should give up their Turkish citizenship," Erdogan said in an interview with television station Kanal D.
Erdogan was commenting on an article by the prominent columnist Bekir Coskun from Turkey's largest daily Hürriyet. Coskun had written that Gül's presidency would mean the end of the secular state in Turkey -- a fear shared by the country's secular elite.
"Gül will not be my president," Coskun wrote last week. Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) nominated Gül for the presidency.
Government terror?
After the AKP victory in general elections on July 22, Erdogan had promised to be "everyone's prime minister." Many observers had hoped he would embrace the highly polarized society as a whole. Yet according to Yüksel Isik from the Progressive Journalists Association, the prime minister's statement showed that press freedom was still a major challenge in Turkey. "The prime minister is taking an exclusionary stance against a prominent journalist, Bekir Coskun, as if he is 'the other'," Isik said. "If local governors follow the prime minister's behavior and try to pressure journalists in local regions, this would mean the total terrorization of Turkey by this government."
In a separate move, the mass circulation Hürriyet fired columnist Emin Cölasan last week, who is known for his highly critical articles on the AKP-led government. According to Isik, these events showed that the problem of press freedom was more serious than it appeared. "Many of our journalist colleagues have been fired without any just cause, only for their criticism of governmental policies," Isik said.
With the election of Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul to the Turkish presidency all but certain on Tuesday, many secularist opponents are calling for a more moderate stance against the former Islamist and his governing Justice and Development Party (AKP).
For months, hardline secularists followed the cue of the opposition Republican Peoples Partys (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal to condemn Guls candidacy as part of a secret plan by the Islamist-rooted AKP to undermine Turkeys secular regime. Despite repeated denials by Gul and the AKP and vows of loyalty to republican values, the country was plunged into crisis as millions took to the streets to protest against a former Islamist as president. Matters worsened when the army, which has toppled four governments in as many decades, stepped in with a threat to intervene to protect the secular system, which it said it considered under threat.
In a climate of mounting tensions and nationalism, the CHP led a boycott of the presidential vote during Guls first candidacy in April, robbing the house of the quorum it needed and forcing early general elections on July 22.
But a massive electoral victory by the AKP means that Guls election on Tuesday will be a mere formality, and many secularists are now angrier with the CHP leadership under Baykal than they are at the prospect of an ex-Islamist as the republics next president. Baykal and his friends chose to transform the CHP into a nationalist party devoid of its traditional centre-left ideology, complained Zulfu Livaneli, a prominent musician and author and a former deputy who served out his term as an independent after resigning from the CHP. People were forced to choose between the AKP and a coalition comprising the CHP and the nationalists, he said. They felt that such a coalition would have spelled the end for Turkey.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2007 00:00 ||
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Turkeys military issued a stern warning on Monday about the threat to secularism on the eve of an expected triumph of the Islamic-oriented government in the presidential election of Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul. There were no signs that the military planned to disrupt Parliaments vote on Gul, but the statement was a reminder of its past interventions to enforce the separation of mosque and state.
This time, the military is dealing with a government that renewed its mandate in a resounding election victory in July and an emboldened prime minister who has urged the generals to stay out of politics. Gen Yasar Buyukanit, chief of the military, said in a note on the militarys website: Our nation has been watching the behaviour of those separatists who cant embrace Turkeys unitary nature and centres of evil that systematically try to corrode the secular nature of the Turkish Republic.
Gul, whose earlier bid to win election as president was blocked by the secular establishment because of concerns about his background in political Islam, was expected to win the post on Tuesday. He earlier withdrew his bid in the face of mounting criticism from the secular opposition, which was backed by the military and the top court.
Erdogan, who had picked Gul as his candidate, called early general elections to defuse tensions. Erdogans ruling party emerged with a strong majority, which most analysts here interpreted as the peoples support for Guls candidacy. Gul renewed his presidential bid after the elections. He will need only a simple majority in the third round on Tuesday. His party holds 341 of the 550 seats in Parliament.
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Posted by: john frum ||
08/28/2007 9:07 Comments ||
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#2
John, Thanks as always. That is fascinating. So EUrabia hates us and the rest of the world not so much. I'm having a real hard time seeing why we spent so much of the last century saving and protecting Europe and why we'd spend any of the current at the same fruitless task.
#4
Intesting is that some African countries are more pro6US than US herself (and MUCH more than liberal areas). How about sending Kerry, Fonda and their ilk to Ivory Coast and replace them with equal number of Ivorians?
#13
Nemble. The answer to your question is found in a French play whose name and author escape me. The centerpiece of the farce (literally, not my commentary,) was that if you want someone to like you, let them save your ass. If you save theirs, they'll hate you. There you have the European mindset, all laid out in a two-liner
Two right-wing extremists have confessed to beating up two Africans in the west of Germany, police said Monday as a new attack on an African was reported and investigations continued into three other racist assault. The pair was arrested on Friday after a Sudanese and an Egyptian were attacked after a wine festival in the village of Guntersblum, near the town of Mainz.
A police spokesman said the assailants admitted their involvement in the attack, which put the Sudanese in hospital for several days, but denied hitting him on the head with a bottle.
The incident occurred on the same evening as eight Indians were attacked and chased through the streets of Muegeln after a local festival in the town in Germany's former communist east.
In a series of attacks late Friday evening, a man from Ghana and an Iraqi were assaulted and racially abused in two separate incidents while a mob went on the rampage in another town. The 36-year-old Iraqi was beaten with a baseball bat by a man who set his dog on him at a tram stop in the eastern city of Magdeburg. Police said Monday they were looking for a suspected right-wing extremist in connection with the assault.
Two men were being questioned in Braunschweig on Monday after a 49-year-old Ghanaian was beaten up in what police said might have been a racially motivated attack or a drug-related incident. Police said one of those involved had links to the right-wing scene.
In another incident on Friday evening, a mob of about 40 young men went on the rampage at a fair in the eastern town of Buetzow, smashing stalls and pelting police with bottles. Police said members of local right-wing groups were involved in the rampage, which also targeted a snack bar operated by a Pakistani who has lived in the town since 2002.
"I was afraid for my life," Mahmood Saqib told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on Monday. The mob also shouted anti-Turkish slogans, said Saqib, who was in his flat above the premises at the time. "We'll come up and finish you off," they yelled at him, he said.
The incidents rekindled calls for a ban on the extreme right-wing National Democratic Party (NPD), which is represented in the regional parliaments of two of the eastern states where the attacks occurred. Leading German politicians have expressed doubts whether a ban could be imposed after a similar attempt was quashed by the country's top court in 2003.
The deputy president of the European Commission, Franco Frattini, called for the banning of the NPD after the attack in Muegeln. He said in an interview with the Bild am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday that neo-Nazis represented "a threat" and "an ulcerous cancer for democratic countries like Germany."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the attack in Muegeln as "extremely grim and shameful" and a government spokesman said it was harmful to Germany's image abroad.
#1
It's a sad day when about the only western Europeans who will stand up for themselves and their countries are neoNazi nutcases (plus a Somali immigrant, a guy of Hungarian origins, and a stray artist.)
French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday called for a strong Europe and for friendship with the United States, in his first major address on foreign policy since taking office.
"The emergence of a strong Europe as a major player on the international scene can contribute in a decisive way to rebuilding a more efficient, fair and harmonious world order," he told a gathering of French ambassadors in Paris. "I count myself among those who believe that friendship between the United States and France is as important today as it was during the past two centuries."
He added: "To be allied does not mean to be aligned and I feel perfectly free to express our areas of agreements and disagreements, without complacency or taboos."
#1
well, I suppose it is good news that we can, at the very least, all sit together at the dinner table again - even if we still must limit our discussions to the mundane.
#9
Walmart and Tyson Foods have plants in China as well as using cheap laborers here. I'd say the Clinton's are beholden to many with an agenda. The Chung article was perfect 20/20 hindsight but few even remember these past Clinton scandals. It just seems so long ago but what goes around, comes around. Did anyone notice the reference to the accidental bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, evoking lots of negative thoughts regarding the the Bosnian War? I do believe RBU once mentioned Plame's CIA office as responsible for the wrong coordinates, too. Very, very interesting.
#10
What Norman Hsu is doing is against the law. I trust that that fucking whore Hillary will do the right thing and return said funds and cooperate with the expected investigation in this matter.
Although a maritime nation on the map, India had lacked a naval tradition for ages. Indian states confined themselves to mostly land skirmishes throughout history till the Europeans arrived by sea. It was the British who built a united army, as well as a modern navy, for the country. However, credit must be given to Indira Gandhi for a navy that is respected for its operational preparedness and professionalism today. Against this backdrop, the Indian governments decision to hold joint naval exercises with friendly navies deserves praise.
The naval forces of the United States of America, Japan, Australia, Singapore and India are all set for joint exercises off the eastern coast of India. Australia, Japan, Singapore and the US are wary of the Chinese navy and of the threat posed by maritime piracy and terrorism to sea routes. Interestingly, all four nations have recently undertaken massive naval modernization projects.
The transformation of the Australian Navy into an expeditionary force sped up in 2006 with the commissioning of the three Air Warfare Destroyers programme. Besides, all its six Collins class submarines are new and have a long range of 9,000 nautical miles. Its eight Meko class frigates were built between 1996 and 2006 and have a range of 6,000 nautical miles at 18 knot.
A traditional naval power with the rare glory of sinking both Russian and American ships, Japans maritime legacy still haunts the world. In 2005, Japan signalled a shift from a purely defensive military stance to one capable of handling the threats of ballistic missiles, terrorism and guerrilla warfare. And understandably, Japan looks with concern at the rise of the Chinese navy. Hence, Japan is likely to base its navy on aircraft carriers. With five submarines and four destroyers in the production pipeline, the Japanese fleet consists of a variety of powerful submarines, destroyers and frigates.
One of the tiniest naval states, Singapore, nevertheless, has a coastline of 104 nautical miles. The Singapore Strait is the most important shipping channel linking the Indian Ocean with the South China Sea through which pass Australian and Japanese ships. Not surprisingly, the one-city, one-airport and one-port state has a navy of six modern submarines of Swedish origin and six German-designed corvettes and has now gone for six French-made frigates with a range of 4,000 nautical miles.
Little, of course, needs to be said about the US navy. The Indian navy will soon be using the US-built Austin class amphibious transport dock ship Trenton. In fact, India may also go for a second ship named Nashville of the same class.
Thus, the Indian move to go for joint exercises in the Bay of Bengal with modern and powerful navies does not appear to be either unwise or myopic. The threat to sea lanes and lines of communication, commerce and crude oil is more real than ever before. What the Royal Navy alone could have done in the 20th century can no longer be resorted to by even the American navy.
Todays navies need to pool their expertise and resources to deal with the common threat from terrorists and fundamentalists. The Indian navy is on the right track, politically motivated protests notwithstanding. A land-fixated elephant can never understand the depth and the dangers of the sheet of water that constitutes two-thirds of the earths surface.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawyers on Monday slaughtered two goats for consecration and distributed sweets among other lawyers at the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) premises to welcome the Supreme Court decision allowing the Sharif brothers to return to Pakistan.
"Huzzah! Huzzah! Here, have a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and a side of entrails, praise Allan!"
PML-N lawyers president Wali Muhammad offered tea to the lawyers at the LHCBA compound. The lawyers praised the SC for its verdict in the case, and said that it was a concrete step towards democracy.
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Pakistan has said that it will not sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), as its atomic capability is essential to maintain strategic balance of power in the region. Nuclear deterrence capability is an integral part of Pakistans security and, therefore, it cant be compromised upon, Foreign Office Spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told a weekly briefing here on Monday. She said the statement of Japanese Defence Minister Koike in which she had urged Pakistan to sing the NPT was a desire for the non-proliferation regime, but Pakistan was not bound to accept the demand.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Bangladeshs Supreme Court on Monday denied bail to former prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed, who was arrested as part of the emergency governments crackdown on corruption, one of her lawyers said. The court overturned a ruling by a lower court issued last month, which said that Sheikh Hasina, who is facing several different charges, should be freed from detention. A full bench of the Supreme Court headed by the chief justice stayed the High Court orders that granted bail to detained former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in two extortion cases, said Sahara Khatun, one of her lawyers. There is now no chance that she will be freed anytime soon. Mondays decision was the courts final ruling. Lawyers had earlier argued that the government was not entitled to prosecute Sheikh Hasina, the leader of the Awami League party, under emergency rules currently in force in the country. In a separate ruling, the court also ordered the former prime minister, detained since July 16, to submit details of her financial affairs to the anti-corruption commission within seven working days, Khatun said. Sheikh Hasina is among 150 high-profile figures that have been arrested as part of an anti-graft campaign. She has denied all charges against her.
Gordon Brown is facing a deepening party split over Europe after it became clear that more than 120 Labour MPs, including several senior ministers, want a referendum on the new EU reform treaty. The figure - more than a third of the Parliamentary Party - was disclosed by Ian Davidson, a Scottish Labour MP who, despite being close to Mr Brown, is co-ordinating the strong internal campaign for the British people to be given a say.
MOSCOW - Russia said Monday that strategic bomber planes which were ordered this month to resume the Soviet-era practice of long-range patrols are not carrying nuclear weapons, ITAR-TASS news agency reported. We are not flying with nuclear weapons during our patrols. They are not aboard. There are only training weapons, the head of strategic aviation, General Pavel Androsov, was quoted as saying.
People who want to become Australians will have to commit to broad values of "mateship" and may need to brush up on horse racing and political history under new citizenship tests outlined by the government on Sunday. The tests, similar to those in Canada, the United States and Britain, will require immigrants to correctly answer a series of questions about the nation's history and culture, including possible questions about the Melbourne Cup horse race and when Australia became a nation.
With the election of Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul to the Turkish presidency all but certain on Tuesday, many secularist opponents are calling for a more moderate stance against the former Islamist and his governing Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Turkeys military issued a stern warning on Monday about the threat to secularism on the eve of an expected triumph of the Islamic-oriented government in the presidential election of Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul. There were no signs that the military planned to disrupt Parliaments vote on Gul, but the statement was a reminder of its past interventions to enforce the separation of mosque and state.
Two right-wing extremists have confessed to beating up two Africans in the west of Germany, police said Monday as a new attack on an African was reported and investigations continued into three other racist assault. The pair was arrested on Friday after a Sudanese and an Egyptian were attacked after a wine festival in the village of Guntersblum, near the town of Mainz. 
French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday called for a strong Europe and for friendship with the United States, in his first major address on foreign policy since taking office.
