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Truck bomb and gunnies attack 5-star Peshawar hotel
Today's Headlines
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Page 6: Politix
25 00:00 Fester Flomose1536 [3]
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Mother of The Year
Posted by: Beavis || 06/09/2009 09:16 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Very, very sad.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/09/2009 15:32 Comments || Top||


Spain Ex-PM sues Moroccan website for libel

Aznar: "Not my bun in her oven!"
[Al Arabiya Latest] Spain's former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar has filed a lawsuit against a Moroccan Internet news website that claimed he was the father of French politician Rachida Dati's baby, a spokesman said Monday.
It's not libel if it's true. Has the gentleman run an DNA test? Or at least a blood test -- which has the advantages of being both quicker and faster, and is just as good at proving the negative.
Moroccan newspaper Le Soir reported that Aznar had filed the defamation suit at a Madrid court against the L'Observateur website, which reported in September that he was the father of Dati's baby girl Zohra, born in January.
He filed suit in a Spanish court against a Moroccan news site reporting on the parentage of a French baby? This friendly court thingy is getting silly.
A spokesman for Aznar's Foundation for Social Studies and Analysis (FAES) confirmed a lawsuit had been filed recently but gave no further details. In a statement issued in September he dismissed the report as a "total and complete falsehood" and said he had instructed his lawyers to take immediate legal action against anyone spreading false information about him.

Former French Justice Minister Dati, born to a Moroccan father and an Algerian mother, admitted she has a "complicated" private life. Dati is a single mother and her refusal to name the child's father has triggered a whirl of media speculation about his identity.

In December a Spanish court ordered private Spanish television station Telecinco to pay €240,000 ($335,000) in damages to Aznar and his wife for falsely announcing the couple's separation.
Posted by: Fred || 06/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "It's not libel if it's true."

I need to disagree. It's libel if THEY cannot prove it's true.
Posted by: European Conservative || 06/09/2009 13:32 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Fla. fisherman hooks live missile in Gulf waters
Florida authorities say a commercial fisherman reeled in a live missile in the Gulf of Mexico and kept it on his boat for 10 days.

The sheriff's office in Pinellas County say the boat's captain, Rodney Soloman, hooked the air-to-air guided missile 50 miles off the Panhandle town of Panama City. The Air Force and Navy use Gulf waters off the Panhandle for weapons training.

Soloman had the missile aboard his boat for 10 days before returning Monday to port in Madeira Beach, near St. Petersburg.

A bomb squad was called in from MacDill Air Force Base and dismantled the missile in an empty parking lot.

The bomb squad said the missile was very corroded from floating in saltwater for a long time. They said it was live and in a very unstable state.
Posted by: Everday a Wildcat(KSU) || 06/09/2009 10:31 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The aquatic version of the old right to bear arms when the bears are armed joke?
Posted by: Phineth the Anonymous8743 || 06/09/2009 11:13 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm thinkin' that if he'd radioed the Coast Guard and told them what he had, he wouldn't of had to haul it around for 10 days. Of course, maybe he didn't want any attention from the CG for other reasons, like not being ship-shape, mebbe?
Posted by: M. Murcek || 06/09/2009 13:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Maybe he was thinking about using it for some sort of dynamite fishing or something....
Posted by: CrazyFool || 06/09/2009 13:23 Comments || Top||

#4  I wonder why they called McDill when Eglin is closer as is Pensecola.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 06/09/2009 13:24 Comments || Top||

#5  The aquatic version of the old right to bear arms when the bears are armed joke?

I don't know that joke. Tell us, please, Phineth the Anonymous8743.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/09/2009 13:56 Comments || Top||

#6  In Saudi they don't have the right to Bare Arms.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 06/09/2009 14:33 Comments || Top||

#7  Makes you wonder how many fishing boats that disappeared at sea actually caught an exploding "fish."
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 06/09/2009 14:38 Comments || Top||

#8  I don't know that joke. Tell us, please, Phineth the Anonymous8743

it's simply a picture of a black bear carrying a M16.
Caption, "The right to arm bears".
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 06/09/2009 14:46 Comments || Top||

#9  That's it Redneck Jim.
Posted by: Phineth the Anonymous8743 || 06/09/2009 15:26 Comments || Top||

#10  Ah. Clever -- thanks!
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/09/2009 15:59 Comments || Top||

#11  Offtopic but kinda fitting in a wierd way:

"17:23 Report: Gaza militants accidentally fire two rockets into Egypt (Israel Radio)"

Haaretz Flash.



Posted by: O || 06/09/2009 16:58 Comments || Top||

#12  One would hope hilarity ensues, #11. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 06/09/2009 17:01 Comments || Top||

#13  did anyone see this fisherman. His meth head side kick dropped the "VERY UNSTABLE" missile, and i have a feeling that they where moe worried about the drugs they had on board as a reason not too call the coast guard
Posted by: funky skunk || 06/09/2009 18:35 Comments || Top||

#14  Dang, now that is going to be a tough fish story to try to top.
Posted by: Goober Gruting8495 || 06/09/2009 20:39 Comments || Top||


Happy Birthday John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
He was an American aviator serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force when he wrote "High Flight" on 18 August 1941.

Posted by: Mike || 06/09/2009 00:27 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Its been a long time since I stayed up late enough to see a station sign off. Do they still use this?
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 06/09/2009 10:11 Comments || Top||

#2  It's been replaced by the Internationale and the Pledge of Allegiance to Obama.
Posted by: ed || 06/09/2009 10:42 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Chimp Bites Off Berlin Zoo Director's Finger

It's important to always remember that wild animals are, indeed, wild.
Posted by: Elmath Ebbaling5327 || 06/09/2009 07:31 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I don't like any animal bigger or faster than I am.
Posted by: gromky || 06/09/2009 8:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Some wag said with reptile people you could tell museum people from zoo people. Museum people had all their fingers.
Posted by: Don Vito Anginegum8261 || 06/09/2009 8:19 Comments || Top||

#3  And yet, Oliver the Humanzee, the cigar smoking, martini drinking favorite of the Tonight Show, lives on in retirement.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 06/09/2009 8:59 Comments || Top||

#4  Maybe the Chimp objects to being called Pedro. Maybe his real Chimp name is Barry. 8)
Posted by: Flater White1380 || 06/09/2009 10:24 Comments || Top||

#5  Finger food! Add a mimosa and it's Sunday brunch at the Berlin Zoo.
Posted by: ed || 06/09/2009 10:34 Comments || Top||

#6  Chimps are completely harmless flower children of the forest. We have so much to learn from them about living in peace and harmony.

Please ignore this data point. Indeed, ignore all the data. Trust me, I'm a scientist.
Posted by: Jane Goodall || 06/09/2009 11:09 Comments || Top||

#7  IN REALITY, the real Jane Goodall was responsible for a lot of the initial discoveries of Chimpanzee hunting behavior.

In fact, if you go to her web site, it says:

Successful hunters typically share some portion of their kill with other group members in response to a variety of begging behaviours. Most of the captured animal is eaten, including the brain. Meat is a favoured food item among chimpanzees, but makes up less than two percent of their overall diet.

So I guess he should be thankful that the Chimpanzee wasn't in the mood for 'brain food.'
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 06/09/2009 13:18 Comments || Top||

#8  Decades ago a college acquaintance spent some time at an African chimp research facility -- might have been one of Goodall's. One afternoon a chimp went berserk & tore through their camp. Broke someone's arm, someone else's collarbone & pretty much leveled all the tents in a few seconds. He lost his interest in chimp research then. From that story I learned respect for things far stronger & quicker than I, who also have a tendency to go ape-s**t. Those who refuse to learn from stories may have to learn from experience.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 06/09/2009 14:14 Comments || Top||

#9  Moody little critter. Ooo! Ooo!
Posted by: Bertie Uneamble8178 || 06/09/2009 14:24 Comments || Top||

#10  Hope he knew where that finger's been...
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/09/2009 14:25 Comments || Top||

#11  He's lucky his name wasn't BILL
Posted by: 3dc || 06/09/2009 19:28 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
President Bongo officially pronounced dead
[Iran Press TV Latest] After conflicting reports about the status of Africa's longest-serving leader, Gabonese President Omar Bongo Ondimba is officially pronounced dead.

Bongo has passed away in a Spanish clinic where he was being treated for intestinal cancer.

Gabonese Prime Minister Jean Eyeghe Ndong, who had earlier denied reports of Bongo's death, confirmed that the late leader has passed away at the Quiron hospital in Barcelona.

Earlier on Monday the prime minister had said that the 73-year-old Bongo was alive and undergoing a "comprehensive health check". The claim was also confirmed by Spain's Foreign Ministry.

Vice President Didjob Divungi Di Ndinge is expected to function as acting president, since he oversaw the country during the period that Bongo was receiving treatment in Spain.

Bongo came to power in 1967, imposing a one party rule until 1991.
Posted by: || 06/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Dedtime For Bongo. Lower on the scale of brutality for an African dictator, high on corruption.
Posted by: ed || 06/09/2009 9:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Bongo: Out
Didjob: In
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/09/2009 9:32 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Saudi police want cameras to catch immorality
Saudi Arabia's religious police caused a stir this week after they told a parliament session they planned to install cameras in shopping malls to monitor and catch people committing what they labeled as "indecent behavior."

Members of Saudi's Shura Council, or Consultative Assembly, urged the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, or religious police, to reconsider its decision, which they slammed as an invasion of privacy.

"Installing these cameras is an invasion of privacy and is most likely to cause many problems," said Member of Parliament Abdul-Rahman al-Anad.

"What if I meet my sister in the mall and I want to greet her? Isn't this an invasion of privacy?" MP Zain al-Abdeen Barry said.

Barry said he was concerned watching activities on cameras left things up to anyones interpretation and said officers would most likely come up with conclusions based on their own personal perspective.
Posted by: Fred || 06/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  if every country was an Islamic one, how many years would the civil war last between moderate and radical elements and how many would die?
Posted by: hammerhead || 06/09/2009 9:13 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
MPs of BNP, Jamaat got 104 plots out of 115
[Bangla Daily Star] As many as 115 lawmakers during the BNP-led four-party rule were allotted plots in the city's Banani, Uttara and Purbachal areas, according to a list placed in parliament yesterday.

Of the recipients, 95 belonged to BNP, nine to its alliance partner Jamaat-e-Islami, five to Jatiya Party and six to the then main opposition Awami League (AL).

State Minister for Housing and Public Works Abdul Mannan Khan disclosed the list in response to a query from AL lawmaker Muhibur Rahman Manik.

The list includes a number of former ministers from BNP.

Khulna City Corporation's former mayor Sheikh Tayebur Rahman, ex-state ministers Mir Mohammad Nasir Uddin and Barkatullah Bulu, and the then prime minister's adviser Prof Jahanara Begum got plots in the MP category, though they were not members of the eighth parliament.

With theirs, the total count of plots in this category stands at 119.

Ruling AL lawmakers yesterday alleged that a good number of the allottees had concealed that they already had land in Dhaka city.

On their request that the MPs owning no land in the capital be allotted plots, the state minister said those who have applied for plots in Purbachal and Uttara would be given land.

Replying to a query from Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal lawmaker Mainuddin Khan Badal, Mannan Khan said actions will be taken against illegal allotment, and an investigation is already underway.

Of the five-katha and 10-katha plots given to the then lawmakers, 43 are in Banani, 19 in Purbachal and 57 are in Uttara.
Posted by: Fred || 06/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I was hoping they meant Cemetary plots.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 06/09/2009 14:43 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
'Ocean of Debris' Found at Air France 447 Crash Site
An "ocean of debris" now surrounds divers recovering wreckage and bodies from Air France flight 447 in the Atlantic Ocean, and searchers today recovered the stabilizer from the plane's tail, according to the Brazilian Navy. It's still unclear if the jet broke up in the air, or on impact. Former crash investigator Gregory Feith says they may be able to tell from the tail.

"If it's on the backside or the furthest up the debris chain, then there's a high probability that could have been one of the first components that came off the airplane," said Feith.

Investigators are looking into whether faulty speed sensors played a role. Airbus had recommended changing the sensors because of reliability issues, and Air France had noticed sensors icing up on some flights. Faulty speed readings can cause the jet to fly dangerously slow or fast. Much of the focus remains on those speed sensors because Air France said it was in the process of replacing them after seeing them freeze up and malfunction on other flights. The sensors had not yet been changed on flight 447.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White || 06/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Prediction: Iced over sensors caused erroneous speed information to be sent to the flight computer causing the plane to think it was going slower than it was. Combined with severe turbulence, the pilot(s) were permitted by the flight control computer to input excessive rudder response shearing off the rudder and causing a loss of control that brought the aircraft down.

Just my best guess based on the known facts to date.
Posted by: Flater White1380 || 06/09/2009 10:42 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
China becomes worldŽs second military spender
[Iran Press TV Latest] China has emerged as the worldŽs second military spender after the US with an estimated spending of 84.9 billion dollars in 2008.
Posted by: Fred || 06/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yeah but those dollars aren't worth the ink used to print them.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 06/09/2009 10:14 Comments || Top||

#2  Jack, ours or theirs?
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 06/09/2009 15:00 Comments || Top||

#3  Either, Redneck Jim. Until the Chinese stop pegging the yuan to the dollar, it's the Kennywood Racer for currencies!
Posted by: Mitch H. || 06/09/2009 18:21 Comments || Top||

#4  Yeah, but Obama's the top spender in the world. Take that China! Woohoo!
Posted by: DMFD || 06/09/2009 19:05 Comments || Top||


Economy
Top Chinese banker Guo Shuqing calls for wider use of yuan
Via InstaPundit
The head of China's second-largest bank has said the United States government should start issuing bonds in yuan, rather than dollars, in the latest indication of the increasing importance of the Chinese currency.
Or we can sell the Chinese everything, including the kitchen sink and then like the Chinese did in 1949, seize all assets of the imperialist running dogs and repudiate all incurred debt.
Posted by: ed || 06/09/2009 10:18 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In the late 1970s, Jimmy Carter issued $6 billion of debt in foreign currencies such as the deutschemark and Swiss franc. The move was aimed at halting a precipitous drop in the U.S. dollar. The securities, dubbed “Carter bonds,” did little to help Carter’s legacy...“The U.S. cannot finance its deficit by itself,” Tokyo-based economist Kazuo Mizuno of Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Co. told Asia Times Online in 12/08. “The U.S. financial system cannot survive without foreign investors. We will see Obama bonds in the future.”
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 06/09/2009 15:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Source for #1 opinion
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 06/09/2009 15:56 Comments || Top||

#3  See also CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > A NEW WORLD ORDER LED BY THE BRIC NATIONS?; + POLITICO: RISE OF NEO-LIBERAL ARMY IN AMERICA TO REPLACE THE NEO-CONS AND THREATEN ASIA WITH RELIGION ["Jesus" = JudeoCHristianity]???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 06/09/2009 19:57 Comments || Top||

#4  Till there's a decoupling, there's no need to issue in any other denomination. The problem for the Chinese is that to be wider used it has to be decoupled from the dollar. The Chinese were talked to [with little response] for years to do just that. They refused because it meant the yuan was undervalued making their exports cheaper. A floating yuan would have risen and so would the price of their products reducing demand and exports. They exported to the world at undervalued rates garnering back all those dollars or equivalent. As a consequence, they've put themselves in a bind. To decouple the yuan now would make 'Made in China' a premium price without premium quality. To continue to hold assets pegged at the dollar means the value of those assets plunge. Had they actually run a 'free market' to include the value of their yuan, the system would have made the impact gradual over time rather than catastrophic in a short period.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 06/09/2009 21:23 Comments || Top||


Only 42% of GM Customers Polled Will Consider Buying GM Again
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie || 06/09/2009 07:58 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Very profitable Rose Chevrolet with sales in top 10% of all Chevy dealerships told to close by Gov't Motors. Location? John Baehner's 8th Congressional District, Ohio. Any questions?
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/09/2009 9:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Problem with this is that over 80% of all auto dealers give mostly to Republicans.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 06/09/2009 10:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Please note: that's 42% of their current customer base, which is about 20% of the US market. GM used to be close to 50% of the US market--or, to put it another way, there's a helluva lot of people who bailed on them long ago, for many very understandable reasons.
Posted by: Mike || 06/09/2009 13:53 Comments || Top||

#4  Perhaps GM's present difficulties are the result of this poll being conducted (& then acted on) over and over for several decades.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 06/09/2009 14:09 Comments || Top||

#5  I loved my 3 Chevys
Posted by: Bertie Uneamble8178 || 06/09/2009 14:29 Comments || Top||

#6  I loved my 3 Chevys There just weren't enough of you, and far too many of them.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 06/09/2009 14:36 Comments || Top||

#7  I drive a Isuzu supercab, it's the same thing as a chevy s-10 just not with the name changed, seems like chevy couldn't make a good small truck, so they simply rebaddged Isuzus.
I like my truck, but as it approaches 200 K it neds work, als it's rusting thru the body (Looks poorly primed) and I'll probably buy something else, not another isuzu/chevy.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 06/09/2009 15:15 Comments || Top||

#8  Two Buicks and a Saturn in my past. No more GM, ever. It's a shame, I like my current Enclave.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/09/2009 15:45 Comments || Top||

#9  Ironically enough, I just bought my first GM about two years ago. It was made in Korea.

Fuck, man, it was cheap. It gets me where I need to go.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 06/09/2009 18:15 Comments || Top||

#10  Bought a Pontiac Vibe in '07. Has Toyota parts - even says so on the engine and the Pontiac salesman made a point of pointing this out.

Some sort of joint venture between Pontiac and Toyota. (Wife wanted the Pontiac Vibe over the Toyota Matrix and it was her car).
Posted by: CrazyFool || 06/09/2009 18:21 Comments || Top||

#11  Vibe/Matrix...I was told it was the same car with a different badge...
Posted by: Seafarious || 06/09/2009 18:23 Comments || Top||

#12  Love my Pontiac Vibe. However, it's the last car I'll ever buy from Government Motors.
Posted by: DMFD || 06/09/2009 19:07 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
More details about Israel's robot snake
A robot snake, capable of recording video and sound on the battlefield, is the latest addition to the IDF's technological achievements.

According to a Channel 2 report - click here to watch video - the spying robot, about two meters long and covered in army camouflage, mimics the movements and appearance of a real snake, slithering around through caves, tunnels, cracks and buildings, sending images and sound back to a soldier controlling the device through a laptop. The snake has a single camera on front end.

Able to bend its joints so well that it can slither through very tight spaces, the new robotic device will be utilized to find people buried under rubble of collapsed buildings. Furthermore, the snake is able to arch its body straight, allowing it to see over obstacles.

Researchers studied the movements of live snakes in order to create the most natural and realistic prototype.

A price has yet to be set for the robotic snake, which is still in being developed; however, according to reports, the IDF plans on providing their combat units with the recording devices.

Aside from recording multimedia, the robot snake can be used to carry bombs intended to wreak havoc on enemy soldiers or buildings.

The Ministry of Defense, with experts from Technion, most likely based their intelligence-gathering robot on a previous project of Ben Gurion University, which in the recent past has created a whole slew of robotic animals with special abilities.

The report also mentioned other robot animals, including, a cat that can climb walls by using its claws, and a 'dog-droid' that responds to human movement.

The idea of serpent like robots is nothing new in the world of technology. Shigeo Hirose, a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, has been working on 'serpent robots' since the 1970s.

Hirose's ACM-R5 robot, which had the ability to glide through water, unlike the IDF model, debuted at the 2005 World Exposition in Aichi, Japan.
Posted by: Delphi || 06/09/2009 15:03 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So that's what they did with all the money I gave them, when all I _wanted_ was some laser beams attached to a preexisting shark.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 06/09/2009 16:11 Comments || Top||

#2  ION WORLD NEWS > GATES: RUSSIA WARY OF GROWING IRAN MISSLE THREAT [nuclear]/CHANCES BETTER FOR US-RUSSIAN MISSLE DEAL.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 06/09/2009 23:42 Comments || Top||


Olde Tyme Religion
Indonesian clerics ask Saudi to drop hajj vaccine
[Al Arabiya Latest] Indonesia's top Muslim body called on Saudi Arabia Monday to drop a mandatory meningitis vaccination for Hajj pilgrims on the basis that the injection contains an enzyme from pigs, an animal considered impure in Islam.

"We sent a letter to the Saudi government over the required meningitis vaccination for the pilgrims following our findings that it contains a pig substance," said the head of the Indonesian Council of Ulema Ma'ruf Amin.

Amin said the vaccine manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline had confirmed that a pig enzyme was used in the early stages of production of the vaccine, but was not in the final product. "The manufacturing company said that using a porcine enzyme in the initial process of its production is unavoidable," he said.

"As the hajj pilgrimage is a religious obligation, we have asked the Saudi authorities not to insist on the meningitis vaccination requirement," Amin said, adding that if necessary, an alternative should be found.
Posted by: Fred || 06/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  an alternative: they could just DIE from meningitis....
It is the old way...
Posted by: 3dc || 06/09/2009 1:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Way to go, Ma'ruf!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/09/2009 3:47 Comments || Top||

#3  I think many of the preliminary h1n1 flu vaccines use pig enzymes also. Not just Glaxo but Roche and Biocryst.
Posted by: Lord garth || 06/09/2009 8:52 Comments || Top||

#4  Nobody tell them about the drop of Special Jew Cooties in each vial.
Posted by: ed || 06/09/2009 10:02 Comments || Top||

#5  Okay. Enjoy the meningitis...
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/09/2009 13:19 Comments || Top||

#6  "Amin said, adding that if necessary, an alternative should be found"

Then why don't you or one of your co-religionists find it, idiot?

Or are you all too busy inventing the latest version of the homicide bomb belt?

If I hope that, as payback for his idiocy, he gets meningitis and polio, does that make me a bad person? Not that I care....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 06/09/2009 13:30 Comments || Top||

#7  I don't know why everyone is getting so upset. It is just noble brown people engaged in their traditional tribal customs. Celebrate the (bacterial) diversity! And pass the popcorn, please.
Posted by: SteveS || 06/09/2009 16:07 Comments || Top||

#8  It takes effort and a certain perverse determination to be more ignorant and fanatical than the Saudis. Let's hear it for Ma'ruf Amin, Real Cleric of Genius!
Posted by: Mitch H. || 06/09/2009 18:17 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
2,000 flee Myanmar fighting
[Straits Times] MORE than 2,000 Myanmar villagers have fled across the border into Thailand amid fierce clashes between ethnic Karen rebels and government soldiers, the Thai military and rights groups said on Monday. The ruling junta has been battling Karen National Union (KNU) rebels in the eastern regions for decades but the exodus into neighbouring Thailand is one of the biggest for years.

'Fighting erupted during the weekend and caused around 2,000 people to cross into the kingdom,' deputy Thai army spokesman Colonel Sirichan Ngathong told AFP. She added that another 400 Karen had entered Thailand's western province of Tak from Myanmar since the start of June.

The Thailand-based Free Burma Rangers aid group said that villagers began fleeing after Myanmar forces shelled a camp where KNU guerrillas are based on Saturday. It put the number of people who had fled Ler Per Her camp in Myanmar - formally called Burma - to escape the violence at 3,295, mostly women and children.

Hundreds of soldiers had surrounded the camp, it added in a statement. 'Those in the camp had already fled attacks from the Burma Army in eastern Karen state numerous times and had established homes there, which now have to be abandoned,' it said.

The group said that those who had fled across the border were in 'urgent need of shelter, medical assistance, food and clothing'.

The Thai army's Ms Sirichan said that the clashes themselves had not spilled over the border. 'So far the fighting had not affected Thailand. If there is fighting near the border then troops will be moved closer on alert,' she said.

Tens of thousands of refugees live along Thailand's border with Myanmar, most of who have fled army crackdowns. Rights groups including Amnesty International have accused Myanmar's military regime of committing crimes against humanity by targeting civilians during its offensive against ethnic rebels.
Posted by: Fred || 06/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Staff ŽsmashedŽ babies
[Straits Times] THE former jail chief of the Khmer Rouge regime told Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes trial Monday that his staff had murdered babies by smashing them against trees at a 'killing field'.

Kaing Guek Eav, better known by his nom de guerre Duch, is on trial for overseeing the torture and extermination of 15,000 people who passed through the hardline communist movement's notorious Tuol Sleng prison.

'The horrendous images of those (babies) smashed against trees, yes, that was done by my subordinates,' Duch said, referring to paintings depicting the atrocities committed by members of the 1975 to 1979 Khmer Rouge regime. 'I myself do not blame my subordinates, because they worked under me. I am criminally responsible,' the 66-year-old added.

The former maths teacher, wearing a grey short-sleeved shirt, was responding to prosecution questions about the regime's policies at Tuol Sleng, where prisoners were often accompanied by their children.

Duch apologised at his trial late March, saying he accepted blame for the extermination of thousands of people at the prison, which served as the centre of the 1975-1979 regime's security apparatus. But he has denied prosecutors' claims that he played a central role in the Khmer Rouge's iron-fisted rule, and maintains he only tortured two people himself and never personally executed anyone.

Duch faces life in jail if convicted by the court, which does not have the power to impose the death penalty.

Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1998 and many believe the UN-sponsored tribunal is the last chance to find justice for victims of the regime, which killed up to two million people.
Posted by: Fred || 06/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What is a "nom de guerre"? He is a murederer. Plain and simple. This nom de guerre crap makes people thing they are some kind of swash buckling man in tights. Someone should grap this moron by his feet and slam him up against a tree.
Posted by: Art || 06/09/2009 10:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Stuff like this is still happening in North Korea by all accounts.

But don't tell the U.N. - wouldn't want to upset their luncheon. (SPIT!)
Posted by: CrazyFool || 06/09/2009 10:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Pronounced "Doosh". Piss poor nom de guerre if you ask me.
Posted by: ed || 06/09/2009 10:40 Comments || Top||

#4  nom de guerre is a pen name. I'm not sure if you were seriously asking or asking snarkily but there it is.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 06/09/2009 11:40 Comments || Top||

#5  nom de guerre is a pen name.

"Nom de Guerre" means literally, War Name! Nom de Plume would be pen name.
Posted by: Flater White1380 || 06/09/2009 12:28 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Mousavi mocks Ahmadinejad's ''halo''
[Beirut Daily Star: Region] A 2005 claim by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that a "light" surrounded him during a UN address was mocked Monday by his main pro-reform opponents in the latest barrage against the Iranian president's competence and another sign of the bitter tone dominating the poll campaign in its final days.

Ahmadinejad and his main challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, have traded recriminations and engaged in mudslinging that has broken political taboos in Iran, reflecting the huge stakes in Friday's vote.

Reformists - sensing that Ahmadinejad's once-formidable lead has evaporated - have increased their attacks seeking to portray him as erratic and eccentric. Ahmadinejad has struck back with accusations that Mousavi, who served as prime minister in the 1980s, is part of a clique of corrupt leaders who put their own interests ahead of the country.

The current reformist salvo is a video clip sent by e-mail and on CDs of Ahmadinejad telling a top cleric, Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli, that a "light" enveloped him during his address to the UN General Assembly in 2005 and that the crowd stared without blinking during the entire speech.

"A member of the [Iranian] delegation told me, 'I saw a light that surrounded you,"' Ahmadinejad said. "I sensed it myself too ... I felt the atmosphere changed. All leaders in audience didn't blink for 27, 28 minutes. I'm not exaggerating when I'm saying they didn't blink. Everybody had been astonished ... they had opened their eyes and ears to see what is the message from the Islamic Republic."

The clip was released after Ahmadinejad on Saturday denied making the comment.

Mousavi's daily newspaper, Kalemeh Sabz, or Green Word, said in a front-page report that Amoli's office confirmed the video is authentic. The headline called it Ahmadinejad's "halo." Amoli could not be reached to verify the account in the Mousavi paper.

Mousavi accused Ahmadinejad of being "superstitious" and "brazenly staring at the camera and telling lies to the nation." On Saturday, Ahmadinejad said inflation stood at 15 percent, but Mousavi showed a report released by the Central Bank of Iran indicating it stood at 25 percent. "Why do we lie to people? Why do we give people wrong information? Is this to the country's benefit? Is gaining the presidential chair worth lying to people this blatantly?" Mousavi said on Sunday.

Reformists, who promise to ease social and political restrictions at home and seek better ties with the West, appear to be gaining ground on Ahmadinejad, who has become increasingly unpopular because of Iran's economic woes. Critics also say that he has needlessly enflamed world anger at Iran with his statements calling UN resolutions "worthless papers" and casting doubt on the Holocaust.

There are two other candidates in the race. Former Parliament Speaker Mahdi Karroubi, who is considered a moderate, could siphon some votes from Mousavi. Mohsen Rezaei, a former commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guard, threatens to undercut Ahmadinejad's conservative base.

Ahmadinejad's comments also have become the source of political satire that takes aim at his pious reputation among his supporters. "Have you seen a halo in your addresses?" former vice president, Mohammad Ali Abtahi, asked Karroubi during a documentary shown on state TV last week.

"Only certain people can see that. I don't have this spiritual status," Karroubi replied.

The head of the country's electoral committee said on Monday that Iran expects a record number of voters to cast their ballots in this week's presidential polls. "Definitely, the election ... will witness a record-breaking turnout," Kamran Daneshjoo told reporters.

Daneshjoo said the Interior Ministry, which is in charge of organizing the election, is putting in place a strategy to ensure "maximum participation" from the 46.2 million eligible voters. "Iranian people have shown their support of the revolution in different rallies, but on election day we will see the actual number of people who back their revolution," he said.

He predicted turnout would be high "despite the propaganda of the arrogant nations who are undermining the election."

Polls will open Friday at 8:00 a.m. and close 10 hours later, unless turnout is exceptionally high and provincial governors secure ministry approval for an extension of voting hours.

If a clear winner does not emerge on June 12, the election will go to a second-round runoff on June 19. To win outright in the first round, a candidate must secure 50 percent of the votes cast plus one vote.
Posted by: || 06/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Is that a Star of David inside the halo?
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 06/09/2009 10:16 Comments || Top||

#2  I believe that is a EOTech sight reticule.
Posted by: ed || 06/09/2009 10:29 Comments || Top||

#3  Reticle. Damn spellchecker.
Posted by: ed || 06/09/2009 10:32 Comments || Top||

#4  "a candidate must secure 50 percent of the votes cast plus one vote"

That of Ali Khamenei
Posted by: European Conservative || 06/09/2009 18:38 Comments || Top||

#5  Looks like a tie-dyed background
Posted by: mom || 06/09/2009 19:17 Comments || Top||

#6  Lest we fergit, PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > IRAN > BAHRAIN IS IRANIAN TERRITORY/IRAN'S 14th PROVINCE; + US COL. JOHN NAGL = US WAR AGZ AL-QAEDA + TALIBAN N AFGHANISTAN, PAKISTAN MAY BE LOST BY END OF SUMMER 2009 UNLESS US MAKES DIRECT OR IMMEDIATE CHANGES IN ITS COUNTER-INSURGENCY STRATEGIES.

* PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > US, NATO COULD PAY A HEAVY PRICE IN AFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN [POTUS Bammer's = US foreign policies in AFPAK may NOT be enuff at this time to ensure VICTORY OR EVEN CONTAINMENT VEE ISLAMIST MILTERR THREAT].

IOW, POTUS BAMMER = USA MUST "SPEND, SPEND, SPEND" + "BUILD, BUILD, BUILD"......ETC. "HERE, FAR, WHEREVER THEY ARE ["Titanic" Theme lyric]???

* ALso, IIRC STARS-N-STRIPES > sems USMC MilPresence in AFGANISTAN COULD "SURGE" TO AS HIGH AS 68,000???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 06/09/2009 20:35 Comments || Top||

#7  OOOOOPSIES, forgot SAME > ARTIC > indics that MANY MIDDLE EAST "MODERATE" MUSLIM NATIONS-GOVTS are seriously concerned that IRAN'S INFLUENCE = "OUTREACH" [pro-SHIITE Iranian influens] GOES FAR BEYOND LEBANON + THE PALESTINIAN ISSUE in GAZA-WB, and EXCLUSIVE OF IRAN-DESIRED NUCLEARIZATION ["means to a greater/bigger end"]???

WEHELL, NOT EXACTLY PRO-CUPID, "LOVE POTION NO.9" INTERNET SINGLES DATING SPONSORSHIP, NOW IS IT???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 06/09/2009 20:41 Comments || Top||


Judiciary chief warns against leveling ŽaccusationŽ
[Iran Press TV Latest] Iran's Judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi says presidential candidates should refrain from leveling accusations against their rivals on national television.

"Leveling accusations against natural persons on national television is a crime, which can provoke legal action," said Ayatollah Shahroudi Monday.

His remarks came after certain candidates resorted to leveling accusations against one another ahead of the June 12 polls.

Iran's tenth presidential election sees a fierce competition between the incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a team of heavyweight politicians.

Former prime minister Mir-Hossein Moussavi, two-time former Majlis Speaker Mehdi Karroubi and Secretary of Iran's Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei are challenging the president.
Posted by: Fred || 06/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


ŽAnyone but AhmadinejadŽ sentiment gathers steam among Iranian youth
[Beirut Daily Star: Region] The young Iranians cruising noisily around upscale northern Tehran in cars plastered with election posters have only one thing on their minds: denying President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second term. Millions of reform-minded Iranians stayed away from the polls in 2005, disillusioned by how hardliners had stymied former President Mohammad Khatami's liberal initiatives.

Ahmadinejad's political fate may well hang on how many of those jaded voters turn out on June 12 - if only to thwart him.

"I will vote, but only because I want to see anyone but Ahmadinejad win. He has ruined the country," said Mina Sedaqati, a 25-year-old sociology student at Tehran University, over coffee and doughnuts with friends in northern Tehran.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 06/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  upscale northern Tehran

Meh. Get out into the rural areas; that's where the 'deciding' factor is.
Posted by: Pappy || 06/09/2009 9:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Maybe Obama could get Gordon "Jonah" Brown to wish ImOnAJihad good luck...
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 06/09/2009 14:31 Comments || Top||

#3  But, as always, Anyone never runs - you have to vote for Somebody, and there's more Somebodies running around than Kims in Korea.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 06/09/2009 18:22 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2009-06-09
  Truck bomb and gunnies attack 5-star Peshawar hotel
Mon 2009-06-08
  March 14 Maintains Parliamentary Majority in Record Turnout
Sun 2009-06-07
  30 MILF banged, camp seized
Sat 2009-06-06
  32 dead in mosque Pakaboom
Fri 2009-06-05
  Sufi Muhammad arrested
Thu 2009-06-04
  Three killed in renewed Hamas-PA clashes in Qalqiliya
Wed 2009-06-03
  Hafiz Saeed sprung
Tue 2009-06-02
  NKor names Kimmie's successor
Mon 2009-06-01
  Mass kiddy abduction by Talibs in Pakistan
Sun 2009-05-31
  Former director of National Security Intel was owned by ISI
Sat 2009-05-30
  Mighty Pak Army clears Piochar valley
Fri 2009-05-29
  Pakistan: Suspects arrested for ´plotting attack against spy agency´
Thu 2009-05-28
  7 killed in attack on Somali presidential palace
Wed 2009-05-27
  Taliban strike ISI headquarters in Lahore, 35 killed, 250 wounded
Tue 2009-05-26
  SKor military bolsters defense readiness


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