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60 Taliban killed in Buner offensive
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Demjanjuk life hanging by a thread
[Iran Press TV Latest] The life of John Demjanjuk, an accused Nazi camp guard who is wanted in Germany for war crimes, is hanging by a thread as he loses a fight to stay in the US.
Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Caribbean-Latin America
Bolivia nationalizes Air BP subsidiary
[Iran Press TV Latest] To mark May Day, Bolivian President Evo Morales has nationalized the Bolivian subsidiary of British aviation fuel supplier Air BP. On Friday, Morales ordered the military and state oil company Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) to take over Air BP, which owns 12 jet fuel service stations at airports in La Paz, Santa Cruz, Cochabamba, Tarija, Beni and Pando.

Air BP has British and Spanish capital and sells fuel for commercial aviation. Air BP's Bolivian subsidiary is headquartered in the southern Bolivian city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

To mark May Day, the president also ordered workers' benefits, including mandatory severance pay after 90 months (before five years) of continuous work to cover social security coverage for temporary employees.

Morales has been in power since January 2006, nationalized the country's oil and gas reserves in his first year in office, benefiting from the income gained from the export of natural gas to Brazil and Argentina.
Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Didn't know that Obama had such profound influence on other countries.
Posted by: HammerHead || 05/02/2009 9:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Back at hoome......Propiedad de los Obamadominus!!!!
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/02/2009 9:50 Comments || Top||

#3  I think its the other way around - Morales and Chavez are having a profound effect on Obama.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 05/02/2009 14:26 Comments || Top||

#4  Morales and Chavez don't have the world class beltway lawyers, lobbyists, and MSM hounds to perform the kabuki with the nuance that the Donks do to accomplish the same thing.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/02/2009 15:15 Comments || Top||


Economy
'Time keeps on tickin ticken ticken into the future'
The New York Times Co. overnight gave the unions at the Boston Globe a bit more breathing room overnight to negotiate $20 million in concessions, extending the deadline until midnight tomorrow.

The extension, which was granted after this morning's midnight deadline came and went without a resolution, will enable both sides to work through the weekend in order to save the 137-year-old newspaper from being put out to sleep pasture.

The Times had given until midnight this morning for the Globe's unions to come up with $20 million in savings or the paper would be shut down. The newspaper publisher said the Globe was expected to lose $85 million this year, after having lost $50 million last year.

According to the Globe's Web site, both sides agreed to the extension after they concluded that enough progress had been made after the original deadline came and went to keep talking through the weekend. Reps for the unions said in a statement that they had agreed to deep pay and benefit keeps that they felt could save the paper.

The cash-strapped Times is scrambling to slash costs and raise capital as looks to service $1.3 billion in debt and shore up its business amid a brutal advertising slump. The company last week revealed that while it has accesss to credit lines, it actually has just $34 million in uncommitted cash on hand.

That the Times would consider shutting down the venerable Globe marks a sharp reversal of fortune for both the company and the paper. The Times in 1993 paid a whopping $1.1 billion for the Globe, but ever since then the paper's value has collapsed. Today, one Wall Street analyst pegged the value at around $20 million.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 05/02/2009 09:52 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ... amid a brutal advertising slump.

Which has nothing to do with circulation stagnation or decline now does it? Not here. No Sir. /sarc off
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/02/2009 10:45 Comments || Top||

#2  still hoping Kerry will ride to the rescue with a bailout
Posted by: Frank G || 05/02/2009 11:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Apparently the loan the Times received from Carlos Slim has an outrageous interest rate -- something like 12 to 14%. And they had to provide discount points. And I wonder if Carlos will be at the head of the line when the Times goes belly-up.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/02/2009 13:07 Comments || Top||

#4  Steve, they are paying how much interest?

Sheesh, my stupid credit card checks give me a better rate than ol' Pinchy's getting. He must have a crappy FICO score. ;)
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie || 05/02/2009 13:43 Comments || Top||

#5  Time keeps on slippin slippin slippin into the future...
Posted by: Free Radical || 05/02/2009 14:29 Comments || Top||

#6  This is a Global Warning.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 05/02/2009 15:54 Comments || Top||

#7  Anguper Hupomosing9418, for shame! Go to your room! ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/02/2009 18:47 Comments || Top||

#8  Dear Times,

Die. And stay dead.

Cordially,

Flyover Country.
Posted by: OldSpook || 05/02/2009 19:09 Comments || Top||

#9  My mother used to call this throwing good money after bad.
Posted by: Jumbo Slinerong5015 || 05/02/2009 19:47 Comments || Top||

#10  except it's not good money. It's the Sulzberger family and suckers they've had remora on for the thrill of f*cking the nation. Hope they all die penniless and in the streets
Posted by: Frank G || 05/02/2009 20:11 Comments || Top||

#11  Apparently the loan the Times received from Carlos Slim has an outrageous interest rate -- something like 12 to 14%

It's 14%.

The cash-strapped Times is scrambling to slash costs and raise capital as looks to service $1.3 billion in debt and shore up its business amid a brutal advertising slump.

No mention of the Times' failed attempt to nationally export the "Manhattan Mindset", then when it wasn't working, getting caught in a vicious feedback loop when it tried to stroke its at-home urban hip-leftist base.
Posted by: Pappy || 05/02/2009 20:29 Comments || Top||


Great White North
American charged with imam's slaying faces extradition
A man accused of killing a controversial imam in Tucson, Ariz., in 1990 made his first appearance in a Calgary court on Friday since his arrest this week. Glen Cusford Francis, 52, will remain in custody for up to 60 days as the United States government files detailed documents to justify his extradition to face a murder charge.

``We have the basis for the provisional arrest warrant,'' defence lawyer Karen Molle said after her client appeared before Court of Queen's Bench Justice Suzanne Bensler. ``They have 60 days to get their evidence together.'' Once all of the documents have been filed, an extradition hearing will be scheduled for Francis to determine if he should go back to the U.S. to face charges.

The fugitive was picked up in northwest Calgary on Tuesday by city police after a 19-year international manhunt. He had been using a fake identity to evade the law, and was most recently working in Calgary as a labourer.

Francis moved from place to place around the United States for several years after the January 1990 stabbing death of Dr. Rashad Khalifa. Francis, then going by the name Benjamin Phillips, was identified as a suspect soon after the slaying. While Francis was on the lam, five Muslim extremists were convicted of plotting to kill Khalifa, but none were convicted of actually killing him.

Khalifa had received numerous death threats for his religious views. He said he believed the Koran contained codes that prove the book was written by God. As such, he preached that only God should be praised, not prophets. According to the Tucson Citizen, Khalifa believed some verses of the Koran were written by Satan.

Francis will be back in court on May 15.
Posted by: ryuge || 05/02/2009 06:50 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Christians accused of 'blasphemy' in Sahiwal
Several Christian families in a village of Sahiwal are on the run and being given life threats by other Christians and Muslims -- who are alleging that the families have committed 'blasphemy' by throwing ink on the Holy Quran, Daily Times has learnt.

Some neutral locals of the area -- Muslims and Christians -- said on Friday that 12 Christian families had left their houses in Chak 190/9-AL -- a village of Christians with at least 6,500 voters -- and taken shelter at an unidentified place over the last seven days, in a bid to save their lives.

A week ago, unidentified people broke into Harrappa Government Community Model Girls Primary School in the village. In the morning, students found on the ground a page of the Holy Quran smeared with black ink and gum. The blackboard had the following words written on it: "I am don". Locals of the area, Pakistan People's Party MNA Zahid Iqbal and police told Daily Times that the words on the blackboard led to the assumption that a Christian named Shani was responsible for what had happened, as he was also called 'don'. "It could have been a conspiracy against Shani," they said.

Sources told Daily Times that following the incident, a group of Christian families already opposed to Shani started accusing him of committing blasphemy and instigated Muslims and other Christians of the area against him. As a result, mosques in the area made announcements saying "it is matter of respect of Islam and all of them should rise and crush the vice", said the sources. They said that on Thursday, a large number of Christians and Muslims protested at the arrival of Shahbaz Sharif in Sahiwal, demanding the arrest of Shani. Later the charged mob started shouting slogans against Shani and tried to torch his house and those of his friends and relatives who had already fled the area. However, police intervened and stopped the mob.

On Friday, a mob from a neighbouring village tried to burn the houses of the accused, but some influential people of the area stopped them. On the same day, a meeting was also held to resolve the matter. MNA Zahid, two DSPs, an SHO and others resolved that nobody would be allowed to create unrest in the area. They also decided that police would book those responsible for the crime after a thorough investigation.

Harrapa SHO Allah Ditta told Daily Times that with help from influential people of the area, he had convinced people that it was not a case of blasphemy. He said he had told them that if somebody had dropped some pages of the holy Quran during a robbery in the dark, it did not imply that blasphemy had been committed. He said that above all, it was not clear who had broken into the school. He said that a case had not been registered yet. The sources said that Ashfaq Gill, Nasir, Imran Qasai and Raju -- all friends and relatives of Shani -- are in police custody, but police denied that.

Sources in the area told Daily Times that Shani was a supporter of PPP MNA Zahid Iqbal while notable Christian families of the village supported Rai Azizullah. They said Zaki Minhas and Sardar Nambardar, both Christians and representatives of their community in the local bodies elections, were against Shani because of his good terms with the MNA. They said he was also a social worker. They said Minhas and Nambardar had "tried to implicate him in fake case".
Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Islamic blasphemy racket strikes again.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 05/02/2009 1:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Kinda like the Christian Miss California being accused of liberal blasphemy in the Miss America pagent.
Posted by: Jumbo Slinerong5015 || 05/02/2009 19:02 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Video: Saturday at the Movies: 33 Minutes C/O SteelJawScribe
33 mins...

Continuing the missile defense theme from the stand-up of the NAMDC, offered here is a new trailer for the Heritage Foundation film on the need for missile defense:
Posted by: 3dc || 05/02/2009 15:43 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:



Who's in the News
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13Govt of Pakistan
3TTP
2Hamas
2Taliban
2TNSM
2Govt of Iran
1Pirates
1Jamaat-e-Islami
1Govt of Syria
1Iraqi Baath Party
1Govt of Sudan

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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.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2009-05-02
  60 Taliban killed in Buner offensive
Fri 2009-05-01
  Taliban hold Buner town people hostage
Thu 2009-04-30
  U.S. missile strikes kill 10 in South Waziristan
Wed 2009-04-29
  70 militants killed in Pak operation
Tue 2009-04-28
  TNSM suspends talks with govt
Mon 2009-04-27
  Suspect in Bat Ayin attack in custody
Sun 2009-04-26
  North Korea reactivates its nuclear program
Sat 2009-04-25
  US may use daisy-cutters 'if Pakistan shows reluctance'
Fri 2009-04-24
  73 killed in twin suicide blasts in Baghdad
Thu 2009-04-23
  Abu Omar al-Baghdadi nabbed
Wed 2009-04-22
  Turkish police detain 37 in anti-Qaeda raids
Tue 2009-04-21
  Lanka gives Tigers 24 hours to hang it up
Mon 2009-04-20
  Iraq arrests children recruited by Al-Qaeda
Sun 2009-04-19
  Parliament approves Islamic law in Somalia
Sat 2009-04-18
  Pakaboom kills 27


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