Sgt. John Rodriguez cut an imposing figure when he was introduced at the Republican committee meeting in the winter of 2008. The decorated Marine and aspiring precinct committeeman came to the event in his green service uniform with some of the military branch's highest honors clearly visible, including the Navy Cross.
They're almost always SEALS, or Marines, and they always have a Navy Cross ...
That was the first thing that caught Dan Ryan's eye.
"My first reaction was, this guy's a stud," Ryan said. "Then I looked a little more and thought, something's going on here. I'm very, very sensitive about the Navy Cross. I happen to have written one of the citations for the Marine who was killed right next to me in 1967 in Vietnam in a firefight."
Ryan's hunch led the former FBI agent to do some digging of his own and ultimately put him in touch with investigators at the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
Within a year, the truth was out: Rodriguez, 31, was never in the Marines but had spent years passing himself off as a war hero, gaining access to military bases, getting discounted airline tickets, going to the Marine Corps Ball and briefly getting a job with a local health-care provider that gave him access to sensitive information on veterans.
Rodriguez, a former Scottsdale resident, was convicted this month of 12 felony counts of fraud and forgery, most of which carry a presumptive sentence of two to five years in prison. Rodriguez's attorney did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Rodriguez posted $5,400 bail after he was arrested, then failed to appear for his court hearings, leaving him convicted in absentia. This month, detectives in California found Rodriguez near Lake Tahoe, bringing an end to the carefully crafted lie he'd lived.
The FBI receives 40 to 50 tips per month about people around the country like Rodriguez, triple the amount the agency received before 9/11.
Claiming military service "provides them some sort of feeling of respect," said Lindsay Godwin of the FBI's field office in Washington, D.C., who noted that impostors frequently come out around Memorial Day, Veterans Day and Independence Day.
"A lot of the individuals that we've observed that have done this, they usually suffer from some sort of low self-esteem," Godwin said. "This is some immediate gratification for them."
While federal agents have seen an uptick in military-hero impersonators in the past decade, investigators say Rodriguez's case was unique. He used his fake military ID to gain access to a base and conned his way into the Marine Corps Ball in Las Vegas.
Wonder if he wore the Navy Cross to the Ball? He would have been made in three minutes and wouldn't have lived for another three after that ...
But Rodriguez committed the crimes that would ultimately get him convicted when he signed documents - including job applications and speeding citations - indicating he was a member of the military.
Rodriguez's temporary work at TriWest Healthcare Alliance, where he could have accessed confidential information on thousands of veterans, was a cause for concern for investigators.
"This guy is such a good con man that he has trained with the local Marine Corps unit here . . . he got in Camp Pendleton in San Diego with his ID," said DPS Detective Roger Wilson. "We started kind of considering this as domestic terrorism. NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service) was very concerned. From that point on, the level of awareness was heightened."
In that regard, Rodriguez differs from run-of-the-mill military impersonators who stop at dressing up like soldiers and wearing medals they didn't earn. Simply putting up that facade could violate the Stolen Valor Act, a 2005 federal law that targets fake military heroes. But that law is in dispute after a federal judge in Denver ruled last month that it is an unconstitutional infringement on free-speech rights.
[Iran Press TV Latest] BP's plan to permanently stop the oil leakage of the Gulf of Mexico has been postponed to next week, US oil spill chief Thad Allen has said.
"So generally the next week will be preps, making sure everything is ready to go... and then the week of the first of August is when we will attempt to do the static kill and then move back and finish the bottom kill," Allen said.
He added that it was just an updated timeline provided by BP that had caused the delay, not any major force.
The oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico started in April after an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon offshore rig caused the sinking of the facility. Eleven people died in the blast.
The well has poured millions of barrels of crude into the sea, creating the worst environmental disaster in the US history.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2010 00:00 ||
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Why do they need to kill this well? Why not just take the oil out of it?
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/26/2010 5:53 Comments ||
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I believe that's the purpose of the relief well they are currently drilling. It will be an alternate route for the oil to get out and then the current, leaky, hole can be stopped up. But we'll have to wait for one of our late sleeping ChemEs to awaken before we will know definitively.
#5
The current well cannot be produced. It is leaky and unsafe AT BEST, and facilities that have been used to capture some of the oil cost more to operate than the oil is worth.
The static kill is a variant of the initial 'Top Kill' attempt that failed; current belief is that the new cap they installed a couple of weeks ago will give this version a better chance to work. They seem to have changed their minds about damage to the shallow casing and leakage into shallow rock layers - sure hope they're right, but time will tell.
Relief wells are NOT intended to produce the oil. The first one is meant to drill into the blowout well a little above the oil-productive rock layer and allow heavy drill mud to be injected into the flow such that back pressure develops to stop the oil flow, and then follow it with cement. It should work with or without the static kill, but it should work with less risk if the static kill works. The second relief well is just a backup in case something goes wrong with the first one (that one might be redirected in the future to produce some of the reserves that didn't get blown out.)
#6
It would probably be extremely naive to hope that they would get to the point to where they could reenter and log the casing before they cement it. But oh boy! Wouldn't it be nice to know what actually did go wrong.
[The Nation (Nairobi)] The chief executive of troubled British oil giant BP, Tony Hayward, was negotiating his terms of departure today and is likely to quit within 24 hours, the BBC reported.
The British broadcaster said it had been told by a senior BP source that an announcement was due shortly on Mr Hayward, whose future has been in doubt for several weeks over his handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
The BBC added that there was a "strong likelihood" that he would be replaced by Mr Bob Dudley, who took over management of BP's response to the spill from Hayward last month.
Earlier, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported that Mr Hayward was poised to resign before BP announces its half-year results on Tuesday.
Reports have suggested for days that Hayward would resign at some point in the coming weeks as BP battles to recover its reputation in the wake of the massive oil spill. The Sunday Telegraph said that there could be wrangling over Hayward's severance package, under which he is likely to be paid a minimum figure of just over one million pounds (Sh120 million).
BP has said that Mr Hayward "has the support of the board and management" but has declined to make further comment on media reports.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2010 00:00 ||
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The Sunday Telegraph said that there could be wrangling over Hayward's severance package, under which he is likely to be paid a minimum figure of just over one million pounds (Sh120 million).
Looks like he wrangled it up to $20 million.
#4
Tony Hayward probably wouldn't know a blowout preventer from a drill bit if he saw one. His job is to run the corporation business. Not drill oil wells. His responsibility is to the investers. Not the spill victims. People who worry about the little people don't last long in the corporate boardrooms. His job is to make money, not friends. And if the stocks take a tumble on your watch well ...... it's been nice workin with ya Tony, nothing personal ya know, it's just business.
#5
Well said, junkiron. And don't let's forget, most of Mr. Hayward's pay and bonuses are in stock options, not cash... and set at an ambitious future target price that reflects solid company growth and profits, not the current cock-up. Which means they are worth absolutely nothing at the time of his separation.
#1
Update:
The online whistle-blower organization Wikileaks was planning to post the documents on its website today, but The New York Times, London's Guardian newspaper and the German weekly Der Spiegel were given early access to the records.
The New York Times said the documents - including classified cables and assessments between military officers and diplomats - describe US fears that ally Pakistan's intelligence service was actually aiding the Afghan insurgency.
According to the Times, the documents suggest Pakistan allows representatives of its spy service to meet directly with the Taliban in secret strategy sessions to organize networks of militant groups that fight against American soldiers in Afghanistan, and even hatch plots to assassinate Afghan leaders.
The Guardian, however, interpreted the documents differently, saying they fail to provide a convincing smoking gun for complicity between the Pakistan intelligence services and the Taliban.
The Guardian report focuses instead on documents that it said reveal how a secret 'black' unit of special forces hunts down Taliban leaders for kill or capture without trial and how the US covered up evidence that the Taliban has acquired deadly surface-to-air missiles.
Der Spiegel, meanwhile, reported that the records show Afghan security officers as helpless victims of Taliban attacks.
The magazine said the documents show a growing threat in the north, where German troops are stationed.
It says the reports are clearer than what the German government tells parliament, describing the security situation in the north as continuously getting worse and including concrete warnings about imminent attacks.
One US official said earlier the Obama administration was aware of the impending document release and had already told Pakistani and Afghan officials what to expect, in order to head off some of the more embarrassing revelations.
The White House later denounced the leak as irresponsible.
#5
I am assuming these all have some of level of secrecy classification. If so where in the hell are the investigations into who leaked them? I was almost courtmartialed in the late 60's for leaving our company morning report on the top of my desk. What has happened to opsec?
#6
Some of that went out the window when they started classifying toilet paper. Control on classification has been a losing battle for 40 years. Lots of stuff is classified that should never be. Then that was compounded by modern technology. When you only generate enough paper/data created by trained cleared typists and antiquated printing machines, the volume could be 'managed'. They gave up on real management around the 80s.
#7
I am saddened to say that the release of some of this documents may actually be a good thing.
If half of this crap is authentic, then Afghanistan is worse than Viet Nam. We have more widespread corruption, the same vacillating loyalties, police and soldiers fighting on the other side while hope visiting the family, grass roots psyops that works much better than ours and finally a complete cluster $%#@ of an intell program.
Seems to me everytime the CIA gets their hands on a war they screw it up to the max. They seem more interested in playing spy games and acting like bitchy little girls than winning a conflict. That's the biggest similarity to VN.
At this time we should carpet bomb the entire mess. Mass evacuate everyone at least semi friendly to us and then carpet bomb the rest of it into a large rock pile. Then we say, "be our friend and prosper, be our enemy and we wrap your dead butt in pig hide."
#10
If the people running wikileaks obtained and released Chinese or Russian secrets, then they would all die. That might be a way to disable Wikileaks, have the US plant Chinese & Russian secrets on their website.
#11
WaPo comment: White House officials and their allies in Afghanistan and Pakistan sought Monday to play down the political and military impact of the unauthorized release of thousands of classified Afghan war documents, saying they portray a reality on the ground that is already largely known.
#13
They only released 80% of the material they have, which itself is obviously only a portion of some larger quantity? How can we reach conclusions in this context?
What would Shirley Sherrod say? Sec. Vilsack? Professor Gates? The POTUS?
The target missile, a modified surface-to-surface 'Prithvi' was first lifted off from a mobile launcher at 10:05 am from the launch complex-3 of ITR at Chandipur-on-sea, 15 km from here.
The interceptor "AAD" missile, positioned at Wheeler Island, about 70 km across sea from Chandipur getting signals from radars tracked it a few minutes later and than intercepted at a definite altitude in the mid-air over the sea, the sources said.
Posted by: john frum ||
07/26/2010 15:54 ||
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Target missile
Posted by: john frum ||
07/26/2010 16:03 Comments ||
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Interceptor missile
Posted by: john frum ||
07/26/2010 16:04 Comments ||
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Posted by: john frum ||
07/26/2010 16:06 Comments ||
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Live screen shots of the radar images at the point of interception as seen on the command and control display station at Wheeler island, Orissa, on Monday. The target missile is broken into multiple pieces.
Posted by: john frum ||
07/26/2010 16:12 Comments ||
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TOPIX > GOVT. ARREST WARRANTS ISSUED FOR BANGLADESH ISLAMISTS [rest of JMB Group + Bangla network still intact].
and
* NEWS KERALA > [Burma]MYANMAR WORKING ON N-PROGRAMME: EXPERTS; + LEAKED PHOTOGRAPHS REVEAL BANGLADESH CONTINUING NUCLEAR WEAPONS BUILDING PLANS.
Dat OLD 1960's SONG + OLD NOT-A-STEVE-REEVES-MOVIE [Rocky Horror] > "Where COMMIES [Angels] go, ISLAMISTS [Trouble] follows"!
VARIOUS POSTERS > INDJUH is being SURROUNDED [by Islamist MilTerrs Gruppes]???
A-N-D
* PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUMS > VIOLENT SECULARIZATION: "MINORITY ISLAM" IN MUSLIM-MAJORITY BANGLADESH? | [Aka BANGLA Govt] AWAMI LEAGUE [stealthily = covertly] IMPOSING HINDU DOMINANCE ON MUSLIM-MAJORITY BANGLADESH.
SAME > AWAMI LEAGUE HANDING OVER BANGLADESH TERRITORIES TO INDIA [Armed HINDU = INDIAN Tenant-Leasor Sharecroppers]???
I quess the US EQUIVALENT would be the CASH-STRAPPED US GOVT OR US STATES [CA, AZ, NM, etc] ALLOWING MEXI OR HISPANIC ILLEGALS, VIOLENT DRUG CARTELS, ETC. TO LEGALLY TILL, COLLECT MAJOR US FOOD CROPS + OTHER PRODUCTION which in turn are forcibly LEGALLY protected agz US Local-State Govts, Courts, Law Enforcement + US LANDLORD PROPERTY OWNERS, COMPANIES by heavily armed Cartel, Private Armies???
Autoedited by Rantburg [Ma'an] A Bedouin man died Saturday of wounds sustained at his own bachelor party, when guests started up the gun sex to mark the occasion. The 22-year-old groom was shot full of holes at the bachelor party in the southern Negev town of Al-Kseifa and was evacuated to the Soroko Hospital in Beersheba for treatment. He was pronounced dead after several medical procedures. "He's dead, Jim!"
In the Middle East, it is customary for men to fire gunshots into the air have gun sex to celebrate wedding parties and other significant events. But the custom has turned several weddings into tragedies across the region. What goes up usually comes down. Sometimes it comes right back down.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2010 00:00 ||
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"The 22-year-old groom was shot full of holes"
Pretty good group for shooting in the air. I think the story has a few holes also...
A proposed rule on mercury could help the administration of President Barack Obama get near its short-term climate goal, even if the U.S. Congress fails this year or next to pass a bill tackling greenhouse gases directly. And even if there is no factual basis for doing so.
But the Environmental Protection Agency, under its administrator, Lisa P. Jackson, has been quietly preparing to crack down on coal, the most carbon-intensive fuel, as never before. Pretty much what Bambi pledged to do ...
Under Ms. Jackson -- a former chemical engineer for an oil company who has said the idea that progress on the environment has to hurt the economy is a "false choice" -- the agency has begun to take steps to regulate greenhouse gases from automobiles, power plants and factories.
While the agency is considering new rules for coal, its proposal for emissions of mercury, which go up smokestacks at coal-fired power plants and enter the environment, could pack a bigger punch. The rule, which the agency was required by U.S. courts to issue by November 2011, is likely to help push many of the oldest and dirtiest emitters of carbon into retirement.
Environmental groups and a nurses' group sued to compel the agency to issue the rules, which it has to start enforcing three years after issuing them.
When combined with the agency's other current and coming rules on "criteria" pollutants, like ones that cause acid rain and smog, the mercury measure would require utilities to invest tens of millions of dollars on technologies to remove the substances. All paid for by the nasty old utilities.
Many of those plants are about 50 years old and are already inefficient. Where's the plan to replace them? Will we be importing electricity from the British wind farms?
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/26/2010 14:41 ||
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Where's the plan to replace them? Will we be importing electricity from the British wind farms?
The British wind farms are being shut down - they kill too many birds.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/26/2010 16:00 Comments ||
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Let's review the bidding on coal for a sec:
1- The US has an essentially infinite supply of it.
2- The technology for converting it into electricity in vast quantities is entirely tried and true.
3- In general a coal-fired plant will keep electrifying the grid come hell or high water.
4- All with the result that if coal is in your fuel mix you will be able to turn the lights on with certainty and at a small cost.
So clearly, the EPA has to put an end to this. It just works too well. The plan, as far as I can tell, is to take coal out of the fuel mix and replace it with magic pixie dust from the Alpha Centauri system. Hey, it might work.
Posted by: Matt ||
07/26/2010 16:06 Comments ||
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I believe that there is a rent-seeker class that's planning on raising the price of energy through mal-regulation to capture the excess for themselves.
#5
And if Ms. Jackson wants to know what she's getting herself into, she should chat with a few state public utilities commissioners and ask them how their constituents respond to a power outage. The general response would be, "I wouldn't rightly know, because anytime there's a power outage I flee the jurisdiction under an assumed name."
So if she does anything that compromises the reliability of electric service, Ms. Jackson ought to be prepared to have her home telephone number on a few million speed dials. You can tax the peasants and flog them at whim, but if you screw with their electricity they're going to storm the Bastille every time.
Posted by: Matt ||
07/26/2010 20:25 Comments ||
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And if Ms. Jackson wants to know what she's getting herself into, she should chat with a few state public utilities commissioners and ask them how their constituents respond to a power outage. The general response would be, "I wouldn't rightly know, because anytime there's a power outage I flee the jurisdiction under an assumed name."
So if she does anything that compromises the reliability of electric service, Ms. Jackson ought to be prepared to have her home telephone number on a few million speed dials. You can tax the peasants and flog them at whim, but if you screw with their electricity they're going to storm the Bastille every time.
Posted by: Matt ||
07/26/2010 20:25 Comments ||
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#7
I guess I should hit the submit button only once, huh?
Posted by: Matt ||
07/26/2010 20:26 Comments ||
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#8
Naaaahhhhh, Matt - it's worth saying twice. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/26/2010 20:53 Comments ||
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#9
Thanks for pulling my chestnuts out of the fire on that one, Barb.
Posted by: Matt ||
07/26/2010 21:10 Comments ||
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I think we should shut them down and wait for the public response.
I have a good friend that grew up in Yugoslavia, that's where it will all end with this kind of culture war bullshit.
British, American and Norwegian engineers are in a race to design and build the holy grail of wind turbines -- giant, 10MW offshore machines twice the size and power of anything seen before -- that could transform the global energy market because of their economies of scale.
Today, a revolutionary British design that mimics a spinning sycamore leaf and which was inspired by floating oil platform technology, entered the race. Leading engineering firm Arup is to work with an academic consortium backed by blue-chip companies including Rolls Royce, Shell and BP to create detailed designs for the "Aerogenerator", a machine that rotates on its axis and would stretch nearly 275m from blade tip to tip. It is thought that the first machines will be built in 2013-14 following two years of testing.
Earlier this year US wind company Clipper, which has close ties with the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, announced plans to build 10MW "Britannia" turbines in north-east England. Based on a scaled-up version of the conventional wind turbines now common in the British landscape, these giants would be fixed to the sea bed but would stand nearly 600ft high above the waves. If they prove technically and financially feasible, each turbine should be able to generate enough electricity to provide 5,000-10,000 homes and, says Clipper, should create energy equivalent to 2m barrels of oil in their 25-year lifetime.
Meanwhile, Norwegian firm Sway is planning to build massive floating turbines that would stick straight out of the sea from 100m-deep floating "masts" anchored to the sea bed. Full-scale prototyes of all three leading designs are expected to be complete within three years.
"The UK has come late to the race, but with 40 years of oil and gas experience we have the chance to lead the world. The new [Aero-generator] turbine is based on semi-submersible oil platform technology and does not have the same weight constraints as a normal wind turbine. The radical new design is half the height of an equivalent [conventional] turbine," he said. He added that the design could be expanded to produce turbines that generated 20MW or more.
The largest wind turbines currently installed are mostly rated at around 3MW. By comparison, coal power stations typically have a capacity in gigawatts, or thousands of megawatts -- it would take 180 of the new giant turbines to generate the equivalent capacity of a coal power station proposed this year for North Ayshire, Scotland.
Engineers say that scale is the key to wind power. Doubling the diameter of a conventional wind turbine theoretically produces four times as much power, but weighs eight times as much and can increase costs by a factor of eight. Offshore power is widely regarded as the future of renewable energy because the wind is much more reliable at sea, larger machines are possible to transport and install and there is far less public opposition. Except where Teddy used to and Jawn still sails.
On land, massive cranes and blades have to be driven to remote hilltops, and planning permission can take many years. However, the present generation of offshore turbines are 30-50% more expensive than their terrestrial counterparts, are harder to maintain and are more prone to corrosion.
Britain, which has little upland space available for large wind farms, overtook Denmark in offshore wind generation in 2008 and now leads the world with 330 offshore turbines installed. It also has the world's most ambitious plans to develop the wind resource, being committed to installing 12GW of offshore power by 2012. This is the equivalent of 2,500 of the largest 5MW machines presently developed. Or at least four or five of the big coal plants.
John Sauven, director of Greenpeace UK, said: "It is critical that the UK government does not hinder the development of offshore wind power by cutting budgets for short-term gain. All our energy needs depend on this." That's right baby - everything's riding on this!
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/26/2010 14:32 ||
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A couple of years ago, I read that the wind turbines in the west were causing massive raptor (eagle/hawk) kills. What would such turbines do to the sea birds (frigites, etc.) that follow the wind patterns?
typically the latest generation of land based turbines is 150 to 300 feet high (as opposed to these 600' giants)
one of the limiting factors on land is the problem of transporting the towers and blades to the site -- this is expensive and disruptive.
another issue is that the wind is less variable over water and at higher elevations (friction and turbulence).
of course everyone is hoping we can achieve inexpensive and robust energy storage devices that reduce the need for back up generation because without such devices the wind power is basically an unreliable source
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/26/2010 15:50 Comments ||
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"John Sauven, director of Greenpeace UK, said: 'It is critical that the UK government does not hinder the development of offshore wind power by cutting budgets for short-term gain.'"
If it's so important, pony us your own money, Johnny-boy. Green-Peas has a snootful of it, no? If you're a little short, suspend the whale pirate operation for a couple of days.
Or you could just go ahead and admit it's about the power, not the planet. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/26/2010 15:54 Comments ||
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Hold it! Boeing did some 10MW giants as an experiment under Carter.
They were one blade units with a counterweight.
Pakistan is seeking to highlight its Buddhist heritage as part of a broader effort to attract more visitors from Thailand and the Asean countries. A key objective is to narrow the huge imbalance in visitor arrivals; in 2008, a total of 63,258 Pakistanis visited Thailand but only 2,618 Thais returned the favour.
I can't imagine why there would be such a great imbalance.
Diplomatic, economic and tourism officials on both sides say stronger bilateral efforts to fix the imbalance are long overdue.
In Bangkok, Pakistani ambassador Sohail Mahmood has organised visits by Thai Buddhist leaders to Pakistan's Buddhist heritage sites, such as Taxila, Takht-i-Bahi and the neighbouring city remains at Sahr-i-Bahlol. Both are among the six UNESCO heritage sites in Pakistan.
Pakistani tourism authorities also say they are keen to learn from the Thai experience in dealing with the red-shirt crisis. They say they can identify with Thailand's complaints about being vilified in the international media and the misuse of the word "terrorism"
Hmmmmm.
- a problem Pakistan has been facing for many years. At the same time, they are awestruck by how quickly Thailand was able to counter the negative coverage and revive visitor arrivals.
"Jumpin' jihadi on a pogo stick, these Thais are public relations wizards! How do they do it?"
Said Pakistani Tourism Minister Secretary Hifz-ur-Rahman, "We need to supress rectify the negative propaganda against Pakistan. Negative travel advisories are damaging the image of the country as reported in the western media." Indeed, the two countries have much in common. Both are strategically located with long and porous overland borders that are almost impossible to control. Both have political systems in which the military plays a major role.
So why the tourism imbalance? Why? Why? WHY?
In terms of tourism, Pakistan's natural and cultural assets are equal to those of Thailand. The difference is that Thailand has been able to build on these with policy measures to facilitate access, enhance transport links, develop a strong brand image and ensure strong delivery of products and services.
Perhaps there could even be factors we've overlooked. Who can say?
A bomb blast in the Thai capital Bangkok has killed one and wounded at least 10 others amid rising political tensions in the Southeast Asian country.
The blast occurred in the center of Bangkok's commercial district shortly after polls closed in a parliamentary election.
The victim was a 51-year-old man who died in hospital from his wounds, AFP quoted an official at the Erawan emergency center as saying.
Police officials at the site of the explosion declined to speculate whether the bombing was related to Thailand's continued political turbulence.
Parliamentary by-election in the capital's northern suburbs pitted a leader of the Red Shirt movement, who is detained on terrorism charges, against a member of the ruling party.
The developments come two months after Thailand's worst political violence in decades.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2010 00:00 ||
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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.
[Ma'an] A Bedouin man died Saturday of wounds sustained at his own bachelor party, when guests started up the gun sex to mark the occasion. The 22-year-old groom was shot full of holes at the bachelor party in the southern Negev town of Al-Kseifa and was evacuated to the Soroko Hospital in Beersheba for treatment. He was pronounced dead after several medical procedures. 
A proposed rule on mercury could help the administration of President Barack Obama get near its short-term climate goal, even if the U.S. Congress fails this year or next to pass a bill tackling greenhouse gases directly.
British, American and Norwegian engineers are in a race to design and build the holy grail of wind turbines -- giant, 10MW offshore machines twice the size and power of anything seen before -- that could transform the global energy market because of their economies of scale.
Pakistan is seeking to highlight its Buddhist heritage as part of a broader effort to attract more visitors from Thailand and the Asean countries. A key objective is to narrow the huge imbalance in visitor arrivals; in 2008, a total of 63,258 Pakistanis visited Thailand but only 2,618 Thais returned the favour. 
