#2
hot needles made by a competitor to ruin the street name of a brand. Sometimes bought, contaminated, and resold. Sometimes brewed and a payoff ensures it hits the streets as the competitors product.
#9
well along with free syringe disto, the UK progressives should establish a anthrax free heroine zone see we need to make self-destruction flawless and trouble free plus, why eliminate a consumer and hurt the Afghan economy?
A man considered to be the country's most decorated soldier has died. Oak Crest Funeral Home in Waco, Texas, says retired Col. Robert Lewis Howard died Wednesday. He was 70. The funeral home obituary said that at the time of his death he was the most decorated American soldier.
Howard served in the Army from 1956 to 1992. He was nominated three times for the Medal of Honor, the nation's most prestigious award for combat veterans. He was awarded it once, for his bravery in Vietnam during a mission to rescue a missing soldier in enemy territory. He was wounded 14 times in Vietnam and was awarded eight Purple Hearts.
Howard will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. No date has been set.
#2
Maybe OS can correct me if I'm wrong but is this the guy that road marched each new class at SFQ out to McCall and then marched the returning class back?
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
12/24/2009 18:10 Comments ||
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24 December 2009 JERUSALEM Yitzhak Ike Ahronovitch, the captain of the Exodus ship whose attempt to take Holocaust survivors to Palestine built support for Israels founding, has died. He was 86. He died Wednesday in northern Israel after a long illness, his daughter Ella said.
The Exodus 1947 ship left France in July 1947 carrying more than 4,500 people most of them Holocaust survivors and other displaced Jews in a secret effort to reach Palestine. At the time, Britain controlled Palestine and was limiting the immigration of Jews. The British navy seized the vessel off Palestines shores, and after a battle on board that left three people dead, turned the ship and its passengers back to Europe, where the refugees were forced to disembark in Germany.
The ships ordeal was widely reported worldwide, garnering sympathy for the refugees, especially because they were taken to Germany, where the Nazi murder of 6 million Jews during World War II originated. It inspired a fictionalized account by American writer Leon Uris and a classic 1960 film directed by Otto Preminger and starring Paul Newman.
Newmans character was patterned after Yossi Harel, who commanded the Exodus mission as a leader of the Haganah pre-state Jewish armed force. Harel died last year.
Ahronovitch, who was nicknamed Ike, captained the ship. His daughter said the experience remained a pivotal part of his life for years afterward.
It was one of the most important things of his life. He wasnt a big storyteller, but hed happily tell schoolchildren about it, she said. The Exodus influenced him and his friends deeply. Those were the days that defined them and as far as they were concerned defined the character of this country.
Ahronovitch was born in Poland in 1923 and moved to pre-state Israel 10 years later. He later worked with ships and always loved the sea, his daughter said.
In a statement Wednesday, Israeli President Shimon Peres called Ahronovitch one of a kind ... a combination of pioneering, courage and love of his people.
Ahronovitch is survived by two daughters, seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren. His funeral is scheduled for Friday in northern Israel.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/24/2009 00:00 ||
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Your tax dollars at work! Apparently the 1860's Plasma Cannon needs more, uh, refinement.
"...researchers accidentally blew a building apart... while testing a gun which acts like a Civil War cannon..."
Looks like the 'citizens watchdog group' that released this claim overstated their case.
NNSA is forbidden from conducting live tests with nuclear explosions and therefore must design proxy experiments using other explosives to estimate the effects of detonations on new materials. One such experiment resulted in higher than expected damage. There are alternatives to such experiments: to withdraw from the nuclear test ban treaty - in which case unpleasant surprises are likely to be rather larger - or to continue with these materials effects proxy experiments, which being experiments sometimes generate unforseen results.
The United Nations (UN) has licensed the minting of gold bullion coins bearing its logo to provide a "public option" world savings currency. According to the Vancouver Examiner, Oro gold coins are hoped to contribute to making the UN better funded by 2015, with revenue rising by ten to 15 per cent. The coins are set to be produced in Europe and then distributed globally, with any licensee able to produce such bullion under contract.
Armand Dufour of the European Bank says that he welcomes the introduction of the gold coins. However, he goes on to add that there is a danger that if the US dollar weakens, there will be a strong move towards the Oro. In turn this could potentially drive the value of the coin up to a level where international governments will not allow it to be circulated.
UN coins were previously made purely for commemoration in the 1970s, but they hold no monetary value.
Can one or more of our R-burgers verify / debunk this one? I strongly encourage a critical view regarding this one.... Only found one source for this story, from the "World Gold Council", on their own website. Founded in 1987, the World Gold Council is an organisation formed and funded by the world's leading gold mining companies with the aim of stimulating and maximising the demand for, and holding of Gold. In other words, "Big Gold".
#2
The only Armand Dufour I could find, outside of versions of this story, is a fictional character in the 1999 novel, The Phantom of Manhattan, which is a sequel to the Andrew LLoyd Webber musical The Phantom of the Opera, not the book.
#3
Gold coins aren't really currency. They are gold bullion. For some reason people will pay a small premium for gold in coin form rather than in bar form. Although in Asia I recall bars are preferred.
Granpaw and others, when you submit a site, please paste the link in the Source box. That ties it to the headline. Congratulations on your first (I think) Rantburg post -- a good choice! :-)
[Iran Press TV Latest] Guinea's interim leader General Sekouba Konate has announced that the country will hold democratic elections as soon as possible.
The announcement came on Wednesday after the United States and France criticized the regime of Captain Moussa Dadis Camara following a government massacre at an opposition rally on September 28.
On Monday, a UN investigative committee found Camara and two of his former aids directly responsible for the murder of 156 people as well as the systematic rape and sexual mutilation of over a hundred girls and women.
"My dear brothers in arms, today our concern, for everybody, remains to lead (the nation) at the earliest possible date... to elections, the first free and democratic elections in our history," declared Konate addressing soldiers one year after Guinea's junta seized power following the death of long-standing leader Lansana Conte.
"That is the concern of the Guinean people, that is our mission. Nothing and nobody... can distract or distance us from this ideal. This is the place and the time to reaffirm with force our desire, mine and that of my companions, to help the Guinean people choose their leaders through free and democratic elections," added Konate.
Camara is recuperating from gunshot wounds he sustained during an assassination attempt on December 3, and has not been seen since. Sources say that he is expected to fully recover from the injuries and plans on returning to Guinea.
On Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner warned that Camara's return to Guinea could lead to a 'civil war' in the west African nation.
December 23 marks the anniversary of the junta's one year in power which is now haunted by charges of crimes against humanity.
The European Union imposed harsh sanction against the junta government on Tuesday by freezing assets of its members and banning shipment of equipment that could be used for state repression.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009 00:00 ||
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VENEZUELA President Hugo Chavez threatened today to expropriate Toyota's local assembly plant if it did not produce an adequate number of vehicles designed for rural areas.
Socia1ists always need an enemy. If they don't have one they invent one ...
Mr Chavez said his socialist government was going to apply strict quotas regarding the number and types of vehicles firms could produce. He ordered an immediate inspection of Toyota's facilities to see how many "rustic vehicles" they were currently producing.
"They'll have to fulfil (the quotas), and if not, they can get out," said Mr Chavez during a televised address. "We'll bring in another company."
He said if the inspection showed Toyota was not producing what he thought it should, the government might consider taking over the facilities and have Chinese companies operate it.
"We'll take, we'll expropriate it, we'll pay them what it's worth and immediately call on the Chinese," Mr Chavez said. Chinese firms, he said, were willing to make vehicles made for the countryside.
Mr Chavez in recent years has nationalised dozens of foreign-owned companies and sometimes entire sectors of the economy, including cement firms, coffee companies and oil services firms. It's all part of his effort to move Venezuela toward "21st Century Socialism".
Toyota's assembly plant in Venezuela has more than 2000 workers, and has been in this South American nation for more than 50 years.
Attempts to reach Toyota's local office were not successful.
Venezuela's auto sector is in tatters amid constantly recurring labour problems which has led to a lack of productivity from workers. Analysts say many auto workers hope their company is nationalised so they can become de facto government workers and enjoy the extra job security that comes with it.
Are you listening, America?
As a result of low productivity, demand for automobiles far outstrips supply in Venezuela. Demand is also enhanced by subsidised petrol in this oil-rich nation that makes a nearly four litres of petrol cost about US7 cents.
Eduardo Blanco, who manages a Toyota dealership in the Los Palos Grandes neighbourhood of Caracas, said last week that he has a waiting list for vehicles that's 600 people deep, and that only a half a dozen cars arrive at his lot each month.
#1
Analysts say many auto workers hope their company is nationalised so they can become de facto government workers and enjoy the extra job security that comes with it.
they should talk to the former pdvsa workers about how well it's worked turning over big sectors of their industry to the chinese and iranians.
Venezuela imposed electricity rationing Tuesday, trying to avert widespread blackouts in the coming months by limiting the hours of shopping malls and requiring businesses and large housing complexes to cut back or be penalized.
The unprecedented measures are aimed at keeping the Guri hydroelectric dam -- the country's largest -- from failing because of a prolonged drought as Venezuela enters the dry season, said Angel Rodriguez, the government's electricity minister.
He said officials are concerned that without reductions the dam could stop feeding the power grid in the first half of January. Venezuela relies on dams for most of its electricity, exposing the nation to worsening power shortages from a drought that Rodriguez called the longest in 59 years.
Parts of South America have suffered dry conditions as Pacific Ocean currents have altered weather patterns as part of the El Nino phenomenon. President Hugo Chavez has also blamed climate change, but his opponents accuse the government of failing to plan adequately or invest enough in electrical projects to meet growing demand.
The rules announced Tuesday are the first ever requiring Venezuelan businesses and large residential complexes to conserve energy and setting penalty fees for those that don't meet targets.
The measures published in the Official Gazette said affected businesses and apartment complexes should reduce energy use by 20 percent in comparison to the same period last year. It said they will have a month to come up with energy-saving plans and after that will be charged 20 percent extra if targets aren't met. Further 10 percent penalties will be added for each additional month they don't comply.
The measures affect industrial plants that use more than 5 megawatts and businesses, housing complexes and shopping centers that use more than 2 megawatts.
The government also is cracking down on lighted billboards, requiring them to use energy-efficient lights.
Shopping malls can turn on the lights only from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and casinos and bingo halls have electricity from 6 p.m. to midnight. Violators could be punished with a daylong temporary shutdown, or up to three days for repeat offenders.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Leave it to the tinpot narcissist dictator and his ultramodern government of the people to manage to have an energy shortage in a country sitting on enough petroleum to fuel all of S America for centuries.
For all the press coverage about fiscal woes in Dubai and Greece, the country most likely to default on its debt is Hugo Chavez's Venezuela.
The country leapfrogged to the top spot in Q4 2009, with a greater than 50% chance of going deadbeat on its $90 billion in sovereign bonds, according to CMA Datavision, a U.K.-based company that compiles comparative data about credit default swaps.
Dubai ranks sixth, and Greece a lowly eighth. Ukraine, which still can't get a grip on its finances, is No. 2 on CMA's likely-to-default list. Argentina, with a $100 billion sovereign default in 2001 under its belt, is No. 3. Newcomers also rounded out the dubious top-10 distinction, like Romania, which ranks nine.
But after amassing $600 billion to $800 billion in oil earnings in history's biggest oil boom, Venezuela's current woes stand out. It shows that socialism can spend money faster than even an oil boom can draw it in.
Instead of using that oil money to diversify its economy, Venezuela devoted itself to rent seeking and expanding state power, according to El Universal.
That's driven the country's industrial output down nearly 12% in 2009, with the highest inflation in Latin America. Oil cash proved to be anything but a blessing with Chavez at the helm -- and bloggers in Caracas say the problem is political.
Now, with oil prices well off their 2008 peaks and Venezuela's output continuing to plunge due to incompetence at the state-owned oil company, the country's finances are a mess. Investors know Chavez expropriates private property and claims whenever it suits him. The idea that he would choose to rein in uncontrollable spending so he can make debt payments to foreign investors is a fantasy.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Given our spendthrift president and congress, I wonder where the US ranks as a default risk?
Adam, 52, keeps his three wives in different towns to stop them from squabbling, but the white-bearded Chechen adds that he might soon take a fourth. Chechnya is Muslim, so this is our right as men. They [the wives] spend time together but do not always see eye to eye, said the soft-spoken pensioner, who only gave his first name.
Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov is vying with insurgents for authority in a land ravaged by two secessionist wars with Moscow. Each side is claiming Islam as its flag of legitimacy, each reviles the other as criminal and blasphemous. Wary of the dangers of separatism in a vast country, Moscow watches uneasily as central power yields to Islamic tenets. It must chose what it might see as the lesser of two evils. Though polygamy is illegal in Russia, Chechnya encourages the practice, arguing that it is allowed by sharia law and the Quran, Islams holiest book.
By Russian law, Adam is only married to his first wife of 28 years, Zoya, the plump, blue-eyed mother of his three children, with whom he shares a home on the outskirts of Grozny. His marriages to the other two squirreled away in villages nearby were carried out in elaborate celebrations and are recognized by Chechen authorities.
The head of Chechnyas Center for Spiritual-Moral Education, Vakha Khashkanov, set up by Kadyrov a year ago, said Islam should take priority over laws of the Russian Constitution. If it is allowed in Islam, it is not up for discussion, he said in an interview near Europes largest mosque, which glistens in central Grozny atop the grounds where the Communist Party had its headquarters before the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. As long as you can feed your wives and theres equality among them, then polygamy is allowed in Chechnya, he said.
Political analysts say that in exchange for successfully hunting out Islamist fighters, the Kremlin turns a blind eye to Kadyrovs Muslim-inspired rules. Kadyrov, like most of his regions 1 million people, is Sufi, a mystical branch of Islam that places a greater focus on prayer and recitation.
Today, Groznys cafes hold men sipping smuggled beer out of teacups as alcohol has been all but banned, single-sex schools and gyms are becoming the norm and women must cover their heads in government buildings. Clad in a tight hijab, Asya Malsagova, who advises Kadyrov on human rights issues and heads a state council dealing with the rights of Chechen prisoners, said in an interview: We believe every woman should have a choice but we prefer she covers up.
Against the backdrop of a bubbling Islamist insurgency, Islams revival has also brought violence against those who do not live by sharia law in the North Caucasus a region that the Kremlin has described as its biggest political domestic problem. Islamist militants, who label Kadyrov and other regional bosses as infidels for siding with Moscow, have been behind attacks on women that they say worked as prostitutes in Dagestan and murders of alcohol sellers in Ingushetia. In Chechnya and Ingushetia, rebel fighters who regularly carry out armed attacks on police are celebrated as martyrs by Islamist news sites with links to the insurgency.
Dirt roads lead the way to Chechnyas first camel farm, about 55 kilometers northwest of Grozny, where 46 of the two-humped creatures munch on salt and grass while they are groomed to be gifts for dowries and religious holidays. Considered holy animals in Islam, they sell for 58,000 rubles ($1,900) each, said Umar Guchigov, director of the farm, which opened just over a year ago under Kadyrovs command. Plans are in place to build three more in Chechnya. So many people, simple people, congratulated us for bringing back this ancient tradition, Guchigov said.
Animals are also being used to reintroduce Islam at Chechnyas round-the-clock Muslim television channel, where 60 young bearded men and headscarved women create childrens programs in large studios adorned with photos of Mecca. A bevy of bumble bees joyfully scream Salam Alaikum (Peace be with you) upon entering the studio of Ruslan Ismailov, who is making a full-length cartoon on high-tech Apple computers for the channel, which is called Put (The Way). The bees appeal to children, and they will teach them how to live properly by the Muslim faith, Ismailov said.
Set up two years ago by the state and broadcast to thousands across the North Caucasus, instantly becoming one of the top channels in the region, it also features programs for women on how to keep home and reading of the Quran throughout the night. Its no secret what Chechnya has been through, said the channels general director, Adam Shakhidov, sporting a ginger beard and traditional black velvet cap. Two wars, the Soviet Union and todays Muslim extremism its time to show the true beauty of Sufism and install the basis for sharia, he said.
A Chinese court sentenced five more people to death for their part in bloody ethnic rioting earlier this year in Urumqi, the capital of far western Xinjiang region, a local government spokeswoman said on Thursday. The new trial, which was not reported in national Chinese media, brings the number of death sentences for the rioting to at least 22, of which at least nine have already been carried out.
"Altogether 22 defendants in five cases went on trial on December 22 and December 23," Hou Hanmin, director of the Xinjiang Government Information Office, told Reuters by phone. Hou would not specify the charges, which she said were published in Xinjiang newspapers. The Internet has been blocked in Xinjiang since July, and local newspaper websites cannot be accessed from outside the region.
The intermediate court in Urumqi sentenced another five people to death with a two-year suspension, which is usually commuted to a life sentence, and jailed another eight for life, according to a statement faxed by the spokeswoman. Judging from the names, the ten sentenced to death or the suspended death sentence are all be Uighurs, a Muslim, Turkic-speaking people native to Xinjiang. The statement said the court was shown ample evidence in the open trials, and that more similar trials would follow.
[Iran Press TV Latest] US military firm "Raytheon" has signed a 1.1 billion-dollar contract with Taiwan to upgrade the Island's Patriot missile systems amid China's outcry. Taiwan's defense ministry has said the contract includes short-range ballistic and cruise missiles.
Negotiations on the contract began in 2007, when the Pentagon announced that it would allow Taiwan to upgrade its missile systems. Raytheon has provided Taiwan with advanced military technology and support for more than 40 years.
China has criticized the deal, saying it is in violation of US's commitment to reduce weapons delivery to Taiwan.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Non-gov't private sector jobs in the making here by a US contractor? Barry will see that this is quashed after the New Year.
[Straits Times] Mauritanian gendarmes on Monday arrested a Mali national for alleged involvement in the abduction of an Italian couple last week near the Malian border, local and international press reported on Tuesday (December 22nd). According to Nouakchott daily ANI, suspect Abderrahmane Ben Meddou confessed that in return for the promise of a large pay-off, he provided information to al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb about the movement of the Italians. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the kidnappings.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
We have crossed wires here- the "M(alay)sia Govt. Under Fire" story is about the stolen F5 engines.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A man considered to be the country's most decorated soldier has died. Oak Crest Funeral Home in Waco, Texas, says retired Col. Robert Lewis Howard died Wednesday. He was 70. The funeral home obituary said that at the time of his death he was the most decorated American soldier.
Adam, 52, keeps his three wives in different towns to stop them from squabbling, but the white-bearded Chechen adds that he might soon take a fourth. Chechnya is Muslim, so this is our right as men. They [the wives] spend time together but do not always see eye to eye, said the soft-spoken pensioner, who only gave his first name.
