[Emirates 24/7] Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistain, was at death's door Saturday in hospital where he has been joined by family members, the State Department said.
"This morning, doctors completed surgery to repair a tear in his aorta. He is at death's door and has been joined by his family" at George Washington University Hospital in the US capital, State Department front man Philip Crowley said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
...Wasn't Holbrooke the guy who actually outed Valerie Plame as a 'CIA agent'?
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/12/2010 9:48 Comments ||
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#12
I'm glad I'm not the Architect or Structural Engineer who designed it.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/12/2010 18:53 Comments ||
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#13
SteveS: Detroit isn't playing, they already beat the Packers today. It will be the Vikings and the Giants.
Posted by: Charles ||
12/12/2010 19:39 Comments ||
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#14
Caught most of the first Half of the DENVER-ARIZONA GAME today[AM Guam time], wid AZ up 13-3.
Lots of ERRORS + CHALLENGED CALLS for both Teams, BUT IT LOOKS LIKE DENVER'S QB COULDN"T HIT THE SIDE OF A BARN OR THE STADIUM WHILE STANDING ONE FOOT AWAY.
Denver's prob embarrassed this AM - ITS LIKE ASKING R. LEE ERMEY = DRILL SGTS TO BE NICE + SOFT TO RECRUITS!
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Laurent Gbagbo's rivals for power in Cote d'Ivoire vowed to win control of the country within days as the squeeze on him to end his 10-year reign after disputed polls tightened on Saturday.
With world powers freezing him out as he clings on, Gbagbo had reportedly given the first sign he was ready to "sit down and talk" with his rival Alassane Ouattara. But the rival camp showed no sign of compromise.
"By next week I will be moved into my offices as the country's prime minister," said Guillaume Soro, the former rebel whom Ouattara has named to head his government, at a news conference on Friday.
"The process under way to settle this is irreversible," he said, making no comment on the reports quoting Gbagbo.
On Saturday Ivorian newspapers, many of them fiercely partisan, were crammed with rival theories of how the power struggle was playing out behind the scenes. The moderate daily L'Inter called it a "chess game".
On one side of the board stands Gbagbo, running his loyalist government from the presidential palace in Abidjan, with nominal control of the army and the mainly Christian south with its key ports, cocoa fields and oil facilities.
On the other is Alassane Ouattara, the ex-prime minister and International Monetary Fund executive from the largely Mohammedan rebel-held north, who declares himself president based on a UN-endorsed vote-count from last month's polls.
"With every day that passes, Gbagbo and Ouattara push their pawns further, each hoping to beat his opponent," L'Inter said.
Despite his entrenched position, Gbagbo faces huge pressure to quit from powers including the UN Security Council and African Union, and reports said he had shown signs of moving to ease the potentially violent standoff.
"Let's sit down and talk," he was quoted as saying by papers including state daily Fraternite Matin on Friday.
But Soro, 38, who was formerly Gbagbo's prime minister under a peace deal, played for advantage. He called on soldiers and civil servants to stop working for Gbagbo, whom he accused of an "institutional coup d'etat".
Soro has several thousand northern New Forces (FN) troops behind him and has warned they could mobilise if Gbagbo does not budge, but stressed he was seeking a peaceful solution.
The United States has threatened Gbagbo with sanctions and is working with other countries "to put additional pressure on the existing government", State Department front man Philip Crowley said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2010 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] A rare and unusually fatal outbreak of polio in Republic of Congo has caused more than 200 deaths in the Central African nation, a UNICEF front man said.
The disease usually strikes children under 5, but most of those affected have been young men between the ages of 15 and 24, said Martin Dawes, the agency's West Africa front man. "Polio is an absolutely a red hot traveling virus, which will affect a lot of people if immunisation rates are not good," Dawes said. "The fact we've have this virus means there was a hole in the immunisation rates in the past."
Republic of Congo, a tiny nation often overshadowed by its much larger neighbor, Congo, was wracked by successive civil wars in the 1990s. Up to 10 percent of people paralysed by polio can die when their breathing muscles stop working. But Dawes said that 42 percent of the cases in Republic of Congo had been fatal. The vast majority of them have occurred in the oil-rich coastal port city of Pointe Noire.
The World Health Organisation, UNICEF and Rotary International said they began vaccinating some 3 million people in the Republic of Congo, Congo and nearby Angola last month. International aids groups have begun emergency immunizations in Pointe Noire and will continue them through the end of the year.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2010 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Madagascar's strongman on Saturday promulgated the constitution adopted in a referendum held last month and boycotted by the troubled Indian Ocean island's main opposition movements. Andry Rajoelina, who seized power with the army's backing in March 2009, signed the promulgation decree during a ceremony held at the Iavoloha presidential palace and broadcast live on national television and radio. The new constitution, which was submitted to a referendum on November 17, was approved by 74.19 of voters.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Jizz] Two of the top three candidates from Haiti's presidential election have rejected a planned vote recount amid allegations of irregularities and fraud.
Mirlande Manigat, a former first lady, and Michel Martelly, a popular musician, said on Saturday that they would not take part in the planned recount, to be under taken by a new electoral commission.
"I don't want to be a part of this," Martelly was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying. "They organised the fraud and I am positive they are prepared to do everything to remain in power. It's a trap."
Six Haitian monitoring groups, including the European Union-funded National Observation Council, also rejected the plan. They called instead for a proper dialogue, saying plans to recount the tally sheets "are not sufficient to lead to an eventual end to the crisis".
'Right to choose'
Tensions have intensified in Haiti since the November 28 election.
Violent protests broke out in Haiti's major cities last week after the Provisional Electoral Council announced that Manigat and Jude Celestin, the outgoing president's protege, had won enough votes to go through to a run-off election.
The council said Martelly had come third. His supporters accused Rene Preval, the president, and the ruling Inite (Unity) coalition of rigging the vote.
The US embassy in Port-au-Prince expressed concern at the "inconsistent" results, and a top senator called for US aid to be frozen and travel visas to be denied to top Haitian officials to force a fair outcome.
"As if Haiti did not have enough problems, now, once again, those in power there are trying to subvert the will of the people," said Patrick Leahy, who chairs the senate committee responsible for funding foreign aid. "The United States must come down squarely in support of the Haitian people's right to choose their leaders freely and fairly."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2010 00:00 ||
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#4
I read the first page and once again the NYT proves itself to be the worst sort of radical-left rag. The supposed 'victim'- Mr. Singer- doesn't know if he got the best possible deal.
Poor transparency? Yes. Should this be attended to? Most likely. Crime of the century? Not in the least- just envy-politics masquerading as journalism.
#2
Interesting news, but not exactly on topic as Gromky notes. Question for Texas is who do the elect as Speaker - the RINO insider old-boy who got there last time with Dem votes and awarded half the chairmanships to Dems, or a conservative?
I posted this one, but I'll admit it's pretty far afield. I thought that this could possibly lead to challenges to Obama on border policy or that the comments could possibly prove educational in some unforseen way. But it's a stretch, so I'll work on keeping my posts more WoT-focused.
What happened to my posting name is a mystery to me though.
#6
Too often, Rantburg gets used as an "interesting link of the day" dumping ground. It sucks. I come here for WoT news, and no other. When I want links, I go elsewhere. Not Rantburg.
Which is why Fred sorted the important stories to the first two pages, making it easy for those like gromky with limited time and/or more focussed interest. A thoughtful man, our Mr. Pruitt.
Naushad Valiyani was detained on Friday following a complaint by a medical representative who visited the doctor in the city of Hyderabad.
"The arrest was made after the complainant told the police that Valiyani threw his business card, which had his full name, Muhammad Faizan, in a dustbin during a visit to his clinic," regional police chief Mushtaq Shah told AFP.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/12/2010 09:20 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] The Special Committee of the Public Accounts Committee on Saturday was told that no official orders or instructions had been received from the prime minister on taking the Foreign Ministry onboard in making arrangements for Hajj operations, however, a proposal for handing over Hajj operations to the private sector was under consideration.
Ministry of Religious Affairs Secretary Agha Sarvar Qazalbash apprised the committee that recommendations about privatising the Hajj operations were being considered.
The committee met with Riaz Pirzada in chair supported by members Asiya Nasir and Malik Pervaiz to review the audit objections regarding the ministries of religious affairs, postal services and railways.
Qazalbash said progress had been made in the investigations into the recent Hajj scam, as the case was with the Federal Investigation Authority (FIA), while it was also sub judice so it could not be commented on further, however, he said that cases of corruption in the ministry, especially Hajj operations, were being pursued in compliance of the directions of the PAC.
The committee chairman observed that almost five million people gathered at Karbala every year to observe the 10th of Muharram and the private sector managed the entire entourage and lodging process, but not a single complaint had ever been received about mismanagement or corruption.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2010 00:00 ||
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White Sands Missile Range - The U.S. Army is developing applications for cell phones that will provide soldiers in the field with tools that will help them identify enemies, manage injuries, pinpoint locations and get a better handle on their surroundings. Wednesday's training mission took soldiers to the Cox Ranch on White Sands Missile Range to roust three 'insurgents.'
"We are using an area where there is no Sprint (cell phone service) or whatever," McCarthy said. "We are testing our own network and the functionality of the phones."
The phones used by the soldiers will have their own network source. The cell towers are low profile, no more than 3 1/2 feet tall, and can be moved on the back of a Humvee. The Army is using commercially available products that are much cheaper than those made to order. Data will not be stored on the phones. If they get into enemy hands, they can be turned off remotely or even monitored to see who the enemy is calling or texting. They can also be erased remotely. Perhaps they can also be detonated remotely if they get into enemy hands.
#1
Load the phones with pron, put them where the enemy can pick them up. Then when the enemy is absorbed looking at them, call in an arclight on their position.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
12/12/2010 16:24 Comments ||
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On the briefing on Islamic law, Amri disclosed that the new RM2.5mil State Islamic Moral Rehabilitation Centre building in Kimanis would be ready by January.
That sounds like the location all the party people will be at.
TEHRAN -- Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf has said that improvement of the public transport is the effective solution to the chronic air pollution in Tehran.
"If the public transport system has a sufficient capacity for transportation of passengers in Tehran, then officials can call on citizens to use the public transport when the air pollution reaches high levels," Qalibaf said as he opened a metro station in central Tehran on Saturday.
Heavy air pollution has gripped Tehran over the past few weeks and has not dissipated despite all emergency measures such as closing schools, universities and government offices, imposing special traffic restrictions and spraying water on the capital by airplanes.
Officials have urged the citizens to use the public transport instead of their own cars, but many people prefer to use their cars due to the inefficiency of the public transport system. - Some cars have removed pollution control devices also, however, 90% of the problem is almost certainly due to the gasoline produced in Iran. It has lots of sulfur and heavy metal in it. Mullah officials sometimes defend the gasoline and sometimes blame the US; finally, some rain is expected the next two days which will .- a and finally finally a sports event was postponed because of pollution Dec 10.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
12/12/2010 11:33 ||
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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.
A rare and unusually fatal outbreak of polio in Republic of Congo has caused more than 200 deaths in the Central African nation, a UNICEF 
