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Today: 49 articles and 175 comments as of 2:16.
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France recognizes rebel coalition as legitimate rulers of Syria
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 3: Non-WoT
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12 20:22 Bright Pebbles [336066] 
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1 13:05 JohnQC [336069] 
2 12:47 Procopius2k [336076] 
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 2: WoT Background
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3 14:40 Skidmark [336065]
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3 13:51 Perfesser [336125]
5 20:27 Besoeker on the road again [336088]
Page 4: Opinion
23 23:05 JosephMendiola [336093]
16 20:53 badanov [336079]
Page 6: Politix
4 23:26 JosephMendiola [336105]
11 19:25 JosephMendiola [336089]
15 21:29 tu3031 [336084]
7 14:50 Grunter [336068]
7 21:33 CrazyFool [336085]
-Lurid Crime Tales-
Guards sought for news crews in Oakland
[SF Gate] The violent robbery of a television news crew outside an Oakland school last week was the latest in a series of similar incidents in a city where the rate of strong-arm robberies and holdups is surging.

But the brazenness of the attack - which occurred during a live broadcast in the middle of the day - has brought fresh urgency to the problem.

Union officials who represent news hounds at most of the Bay Area's major television and radio stations said Tuesday they had asked the broadcasters to immediately hire security guards to accompany news crews when they are in Oakland. At least one station has already enlisted guards, and others are considering it.

Meanwhile,
...back at the wrecked scow, a single surviver held tightly to the smashed prow...
station managers met Tuesday with Oakland police officials, including Chief Howard Jordan, to discuss the string of robberies, some of which have been committed at gunpoint. One veteran Oakland Tribune photographer, Laura Oda, has been robbed of cameras twice since July.
Posted by: Fred || 11/14/2012 14:19 || Comments || Link || [336094 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Apparently someone has forgetten the value of the Fourth Estate.
Posted by: Pappy || 11/14/2012 14:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Sounds like the unions are upset about someone muscling in on their territory...
Posted by: CrazyFool || 11/14/2012 14:47 Comments || Top||

#3  One of the assailants punched Welk in the mouth before the group fled in a Mercedes-Benz.

Heck, they don't even ride Detroit/American. Heh.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/14/2012 15:46 Comments || Top||

#4  Trying to drudge up some sort of empathy.

Trying...

Trying...

Nope. Got nothin'
Posted by: DarthVader || 11/14/2012 16:04 Comments || Top||

#5  I'd recommend that like in other third world countries, hire a different band of thugs to act as mercs for you when out there among the masses.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/14/2012 16:26 Comments || Top||

#6  The union's letter did not specify whether the guards should be armed or not.

Nah, don't arm them. Then maybe they'll get robbed instead of the news drones...

Posted by: tu3031 || 11/14/2012 16:43 Comments || Top||

#7  I remember many years back in Richmond (CA), I got a call from a friend in Oakland. She was hysterical, because her boyfriend had just had his teeth knocked out and he was face down in a gutter. So I drove down with her, got out of the car, and pointed my loaded .45 revolver (S&W highway patroleman's model) in the general direction of *everybody* while she dragged him into the car.

Nobody batted an eye... and that was 15 years ago. Ah, O Town! Did you ever not suck?
Posted by: Secret Master || 11/14/2012 21:45 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Swedish boffins: Global Warming is our only protection against the coming Ice Age
Ahah! Damned if we do, damned if we don't...
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 11/14/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336095 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Paging messrs Niven, Pournelle, and Flynn.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/14/2012 14:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Coming Ice Age .. bring it on !

in the interum I predict major Mudsides

Fill a highball glass half full with ice.
Combine 1 oz each of vodka, coffee liquor, Irish cream liquor and cream over the ice in the glass and serve.




Posted by: Au Auric || 11/14/2012 15:34 Comments || Top||

#3  SO IIUC, Sweden is demanding that the Sun explode and go into Red Giant or Early Red Giant phase in order to save the World + Swedish Bikini Team from the Great Slushy???

WE OVERDOSED ON OUR AM CHOCOLATE MARSHMELLOWS AGAIN, DIDN'T WE?
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/14/2012 19:37 Comments || Top||

#4  If sequestration in peat bogs mattered now, CO2 would be decreasing. It's not. If CO2 mattered, it would be getting a lot warmer, per the IPCC. It's not.

We need fewer theories. Paleoclimatology is still in the stamp-collecting era.
Posted by: KBK || 11/14/2012 20:26 Comments || Top||

#5  I'm having a laugh about this. Climate Change is either Jesus or the Devil. They can't tell which. All they know is that It's a Deity.
Posted by: Iblis || 11/14/2012 20:35 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egypt to receive $6.3 bn in 'support' from EU
[Al Ahram] Egypt's presidency says the European Union approves $6.3 billion in support, to be mainly provided by the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
Posted by: Fred || 11/14/2012 11:15 || Comments || Link || [336072 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  Ah, yes, paying the jizya.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/14/2012 16:29 Comments || Top||


EU 'approves $6.4bn Egypt financial aid package'
The European Union has approved a 5bn-euro ($6.4bn) financial support package for Egypt, Egyptian officials say.

A statement by President Mohammed Mursi's office said the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) would each provide 2bn euros.

The remaining 1bn euros would come from EU member states, the statement added.

The announcement came after Mr Mursi held talks with the EU's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, in Cairo.

In a statement, the presidency said the packages was "a strong sign of the EU's support for Egypt's path to development".

Representatives of some 100 of Europe's largest firms as well as European Commission members and European MPs are participating in the meetings, due to conclude later on Wednesday.

Their focus is on strengthening bilateral relationships between Egypt and the European Union and deepening economic co-operation.
Posted by: tipper || 11/14/2012 11:11 || Comments || Link || [336076 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well now they don't need to worry about food for a bit they can get down to blowing up the Sphynx and Pyramids while Greece burns.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 11/14/2012 14:47 Comments || Top||


Arabia
UAE offers 2-month amnesty to illegals
Two months? That gives them time to sell the condo and pack...
ABU DHABI: Foreigners who live without proper residency documents can leave the UAE without paying fines from Dec. 4 under a general amnesty announced by the government.

Lt. Gen. Nassir Al Awadhi Al Menhali, assistant undersecretary for Naturalization, Residency and Ports Affairs at the Ministry of Interior, said the amnesty period will begin from Dec. 4 and end on Feb. 3. Overstayers can visit residency departments across the country to obtain outpasses and leave the country. They can also regularize their visas after payment of fines during the amnesty period.

“…The general pardon only applies to those who entered the country legally but overstayed,” he clarified. “Infiltrators will be treated as criminals.”

The official added that the immigration offices throughout the country would be working in two shifts to ensure all the illegal immigrants leave the country during the grace period.
Posted by: Steve White || 11/14/2012 10:58 || Comments || Link || [336069 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Foreigners who live without proper residency documents can leave the UAE without paying fines

So that's how other parts of the world do it. Hmmmmnnn?
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/14/2012 13:05 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Bangladesh PM turns down Pakistan summit invitation
DHAKA: Bangladesh Prime Minister Hasina Wajed has turned down an invitation to a summit in Islamabad next week, officials said yesterday, despite a recent olive branch from the Pakistan government.
Since the Paks have yet to say anything appropriate about the last time they were in Bangladesh...
“The prime minister is not going to attend the summit,” Syed Masud Khundoker, a director-general in Bangladesh’s foreign ministry, told AFP.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani had issued the invitation to Hasina in person last Friday on a rare visit to Bangladesh by a senior Pakistani to what was East Pakistan before it won a war for independence in December 1971.

Relations between the two sides remain extremely delicate with Moni asking Rabbani last week for Pakistan to apologies for war crimes committed by the army. Hasina’s government says up to three million people were killed in the conflict.

The Daily Star, a Dhaka-based newspaper, said that policy advisors had told Hasina that it would be unwise to visit Pakistan unless Islamabad offered a formal apology to Dhaka for what it regards as “genocide”.
Posted by: Steve White || 11/14/2012 11:12 || Comments || Link || [336075 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Anti-austerity strikes and protests across Europe turn violent
[Guardian.CO.UK]
Posted by: Fred || 11/14/2012 10:57 || Comments || Link || [336076 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Everything according to plan.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/14/2012 12:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Danegeld a little under estimates or late?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/14/2012 12:47 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
EURCOM Admiral cleared of AFR
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/14/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336074 views] Top|| File under:


AFRICOM General demoted/retired
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/14/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336072 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The purge continues.
Posted by: Grunter || 11/14/2012 11:26 Comments || Top||

#2  I guess that's what you get for traveling with your wife.
Posted by: Perfesser || 11/14/2012 11:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Lot of guys leaving, one way or another. Be interesting to see who is left (heh!) and who replaces them that ain't.
Posted by: SteveS || 11/14/2012 13:13 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
U.N. Says Access to Contraception a Human Right
[An Nahar] The United Nations
...Parkinson's Law on an international scale...
says access to contraception is a universal human right that could dramatically improve the lives of women and kiddies in poor countries.

It is the first time the U.N. Population Fund's annual report explicitly describes family planning as a human right.

It effectively declares that legal, cultural and financial barriers to accessing contraception and other family planning measures are an infringement of women's rights.

The report released Wednesday isn't binding and has no legal effect on national laws.

The global body also says increasing funding for family planning by a further $4.1 billion could save $11.3 billion annually in health bills for mothers and newborns in poor countries.

The U.N. doesn't count abortion among the measures.
Posted by: Fred || 11/14/2012 11:40 || Comments || Link || [336066 views] Top|| File under:

#1  BIG difference between finding it a "right," vs. paying the bill for it. Of course, some would argue that that very principle is what we in the US just held an election on, and you see where we landed there.

Does anyone else find it creepy/Orwellian that the name of the $$ bank is the "Population Fund"?
Posted by: BA || 11/14/2012 11:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Folks, we are getting seriously trolled by 3C's. Please let him whither and die for lack of attention.
Posted by: Iblis || 11/14/2012 11:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Access to child labor and sex slaves is a UN right.
Posted by: DarthVader || 11/14/2012 12:11 Comments || Top||

#4  Ye, if only their mothers had that right.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/14/2012 12:28 Comments || Top||

#5  The fact the UN says this is such a friggin joke. Parkinson's Law on an international scale? Fred is kinder and more subtle than me. The Peter Principle might also be corollary here. In other words, $hit floats to the top of an organization.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/14/2012 12:31 Comments || Top||

#6  All women were born with that right, and have the control for it - between their ears.

Where they choose not to exercise that control, is their fault. Where their choice is forcefully overridden, it is a crime.

Why does it need to be any more complicated than that?
Posted by: Bobby || 11/14/2012 13:01 Comments || Top||

#7  Access to child labor and sex slaves is a UN right.

Hey, don't forget the shrimp cocktails!

I would suggest the the proper meme here is not Parkinson's law, but Blair's Law: the ongoing process by which the world's multiple idiocies are becoming one giant, useless force.
Posted by: SteveS || 11/14/2012 13:03 Comments || Top||

#8  Maybe also the Principle of Entropy applies here.
In addition to describing the 2nd law of thermo, it also has been stated in other arenas of thought a "doctrine of inevitable social decline and degeneration."
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/14/2012 13:27 Comments || Top||

#9  Perhaps they should get the Islamic world's opinion.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 11/14/2012 14:36 Comments || Top||

#10  So...shouldn't these people who will now be denied the right to be human also have human rights? And what about their children? And their children's children?
Better appoint a "rapporteur" and get right on that, U.N. Population Fund...

Posted by: tu3031 || 11/14/2012 14:46 Comments || Top||

#11  Don't get out much Bobby(#6)? That's a pretty narrow view. Few women get the choice.
Many more (tens of millions) must choose disease and/or pregnancy over hunger/starvation of themselves and/or results of earlier decisions, or are 'pressed into service' by other sociological pressures like family, addiction, or environment. It's an ugly world.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/14/2012 14:56 Comments || Top||

#12  "Access is a right".

If this means
"Government will not stop you, or let others prevent you" then I can agree.
If it means
"Taxpayers must subsidise you"
Then I cannot.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/14/2012 20:22 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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2Salafists
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1al-Qaeda
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1Taliban
1al-Qaeda in Iraq
1Thai Insurgency
1al-Shabaab

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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2012-11-14
  France recognizes rebel coalition as legitimate rulers of Syria
Tue 2012-11-13
  Jamaat, Shibir go berserk in Bangla
Mon 2012-11-12
  Govt. Soldiers shoot it out in Mogadishu
Sun 2012-11-11
  IDF Changes Rules of Engagement Along Syrian Border
Sat 2012-11-10
  Mexican police charged over US embassy staff shooting
Fri 2012-11-09
  David Petraeus resigns from CIA
Thu 2012-11-08
  Syria raids Hamas offices months after group's leaders leave
Wed 2012-11-07
  Bombings, Clashes Kill 131 in Syria as Gunmen Assassinate Parliament Speaker's Brother
Tue 2012-11-06
  Suicide bomber kills at least 27 by army base near Baghdad
Mon 2012-11-05
  Grenade attack on Kenya church kills 1, wounds 14
Sun 2012-11-04
  Two Suicide Bombers Attack Restaurant in Somali Capital
Sat 2012-11-03
  30 people shot dead in Nigeria, rights group says
Fri 2012-11-02
  US withdraws its support for Syrian National Council
Thu 2012-11-01
  Armed Islamists on Tunis streets after clashes
Wed 2012-10-31
  18 militants killed in Khyber, Orakzai

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