[An Nahar] An inmate who slipped out of a Swedish prison to treat an aching tooth before turning himself in to police had his sentence prolonged, but just by a day.
The inmate escaped Oestragaard prison in southwest Sweden earlier this month, just two days before he was due to be released from prison, "because he had a toothache and wanted to go to the dentist," prison officials said.
"After going to the dentist he went to the police."
The 51-year-old man had complained about his toothache to prison officials four days before he broke out of the low-security prison. Although his electronic tag went off after he bolted from the facility, prison staff were unable to locate him.
"My entire face was completely swollen," the man told Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter.
"In the end, I just couldn't stand it."
His original one-month sentence was increased by 24 hours, after prison officials decided to discount the day of the incident from his time served.
The man, who has since been released, told the Swedish paper that he was nonetheless happy he got rid of his toothache.
"Now I only have to pay the dentist bill," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/01/2013 00:00 ||
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[The SA.com] Excuse me Thabo, but why would the UK ask a well known Zim collaborator and ardent Mugabe supporter such as the ANC led gov't of South Africa to assist in such an endeavor? Please file under very, very tall tales and Wildebeest kak.
This Saturday, Nov. 30, 2013 photo, shows remains of parts of a Mozambique Airlines plane which crashed in the Bwabwata National Park, Namibia. The Mozambique Airlines plane carrying 33 people crashed, killing all on board, officials said Saturday. The plane crashed in the Namibian national park near the border with Angola and there were no survivors, Namibian police and Mozambican authorities said. An investigation of the cause was underway, and teams of experts headed to the scene. (AP Photo/NAMPA, Olavi Haikera)
HT to Fausta
Argentina triggered a fresh diplomatic row with Britain on Thursday over the disputed Falkland Islands after the country's Congress passed a law that establishes criminal sanctions for the "illegal exploration" of hydrocarbons in the Argentine continental shelf. trying to distract and stir up Peronist nationalism to hide her incompetent socialism Next step is to nationalize the discount electronic stores...
A statement from the Argentine embassy in London said "the law provides for prison sentences for the duration of up to 15 years; fines equivalent to the value of 1.5 million barrels of oil; the banning of individuals and companies from operating in Argentina; and the confiscation of equipment and any hydrocarbons that would have been illegally extracted".
In its response, the British Foreign Office said that "the UK government unequivocally supports the right of the Falkland Islanders to develop their natural resources for their own economic benefit.
"Argentine domestic law does not apply to the Falkland Islands or South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, which are UK overseas territories." "Bugger off"
The Foreign Office added that hydrocarbons activities by companies operating on the continental shelf of the Falkland Islands are regulated by legislation of the Falkland Islands government, and in accordance with the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea.
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12/01/2013 13:56 ||
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The question now is whether the Argies will enforce their law or not.
[Pak Daily Times] Leftist candidate Xiomara Castro said she did not recognise the results of Honduras's presidential election, demanding a recount and charging fraud.
"Our position is irreversible: so long as we are not allowed to enter the Supreme Electoral Tribunal's (computer) system, we are not going to accept the result announced by the TSE," said Castro, wife of toppled ex-president Manuel Zelaya.
Her words came just moments after her party called a peaceful mass protest for Sunday against "electoral fraud" it says cheated her out of the presidency.
"All members of the (Libre party) are summoned to rally outside Francisco Morazan teachers' University on Sunday, December 1 at 0800... against the electoral fraud perpetrated in Honduras by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal," the party said in a statement online.
Castro vowed earlier to deliver proof of the fraud she claims is aimed at keeping her from becoming Honduras's first woman president. The electoral authorities called Sunday's election in favor of her conservative rival Juan Orlando Hernandez.
"We all know that in this process, there were major irregularities, that fraud was committed," said Castro. Her husband Zelaya was ousted in a military-backed coup just four years ago after his politics veered to the left.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/01/2013 00:00 ||
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Whenever a leftist loses it's because of fraud (or is it whenever a leftist wins...)
#2
I'm sure Kerry and Obama's DOS will back her claim - unfinished business after Zelaya's ouster
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/01/2013 10:47 Comments ||
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Her husband admitted winning by fraud in 2005 in an interview with Jorge Ramos, Univision. He had his counts ready for his unconstitutional illegal referendum/survey fraud, which was meant to cover for his auto-coup against the Honduran government. Hondurans said we did not vote to be another Cuba, his own government's attorney-general and chief prosecutor sued to get the orders that he ignored and the one that finally ordered the arrest for many high crimes and felonies. International community defends democracy by getting amnesty for the criminal dictator and punishing Honduras.
Next up: Antichrist. ("He shall come to his end and none shall help him.")
[Pak Daily Times] Tajikistan's President Imomali Rakhmon, who won a new seven-year term this month, promised to tackle poverty and achieve rapid economic growth as he faces the hard task of ensuring stability in the volatile country that borders Afghanistan.
The Moscow-backed strongman leader, who has run the poorest former Soviet republic since 1992, keeps Tajikistan's small and disparate opposition in check and civil society is weak.
"As a result of achieving the country's strategic goals economic growth may reach over 80 percent in 2020 (comparing to 2013)," Rakhmon told his new cabinet on Saturday.
In October the International Monetary Fund lowered its GDP growth forecast for Tajikistan this year to 6.7 percent from an April projection of 7.0 percent. Some 47 percent of Tajiks live below the poverty line, according to World Bank data. On Saturday, Rakhmon promised to cut poverty to 30 percent by 2015 and a further 20 percent by 2020. He did not explain how. The Musselmen nation of 8 million people keeps its rickety economy afloat mainly thanks to exports of aluminium and cotton, and remittances of some 1 million migrants working abroad, mostly in Russia.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/01/2013 00:00 ||
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Effective Jan. 1, 2014, with the passage of HB 3572, the mixed-beverage gross receipts tax will change from a 14 percent tax paid exclusively by mixed-drink permit holders to a 6.7 percent gross receipts tax paid by the mixed-drink permit holder coupled with a 8.25 percent mixed-beverage sales tax paid by the consumer. This creates a savings for hotels, restaurants and bars, assuming drink prices remain the same, because 8.25 percent of the price can be added to the listed drink price and passed along to the consumer, with a lower percentage of 6.7 percent gross receipts tax paid by the mixed-drink permit holder.
Thus, earnings of 8.25 percent are able to be immediately retained and added to the mixed-beverage permittee's bottom line, assuming the sales tax component is passed along. Another advantage is that 8.25 percent of the current mixed-beverage sales tax will no longer be counted as income, potentially saving money on fees, premiums, rents and taxes that may be calculated based on the gross revenues of the retailer.
[Al Ahram] Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych on Saturday condemned the use of force against an opposition rally at which several dozen demonstrators were wounded. "I am deeply outraged by events that took place on Independence Square overnight," Yanukovych said in a statement. "I condemn the actions which led to a confrontation and people suffering," he said, vowing that those responsible for the use of force would be punished.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/01/2013 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Ukraine police swinging truncheons early Saturday brutally dispersed protesters calling for President Viktor Yanukovych to resign after he refused to salvage an EU deal.
A rally of some 10,000 protesters led by top opposition leaders like world boxing champion Vitali Klitschko had late Friday called for the president to step down after he left an EU summit in Vilnius without signing a key political and free trade deal.
The agreement would have brought ex-Soviet Ukraine closer to the bloc and away from historical master Moscow, which put pressure on the ex-Soviet republic still reliant on Russia for energy and as an export market, to turn its back on the accord.
The scrapping of the EU deal years in the making has sparked the biggest protests in Ukraine since the 2004 pro-West Orange Revolution.
Following Friday's rally at Kiev's Independence Square, the epicentre of the peaceful "orange" revolt, around 1,000 protesters remained overnight and riot police moved in around 4:00 local time, swinging batons and pushing protesters, according to witnesses.
"The Maidan has been brutally mopped up," opposition politician Andriy Shevchenko said on Twitter, using the square's informal name.
"Dozens maimed, dozens tossed in the clink Book 'im, Mahmoud! . Ukraine has not seen anything like this before."
On Saturday morning police and metal barriers surrounded the square strewn with discarded warm clothes, plastic bottles and plates.
The stage from which opposition leaders addressed their supporters had been taken down and two tractors could be seen hauling away pro-EU placards, blankets and metal barrels which protesters used for makeshift fires to keep themselves warm.
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two tractors could be seen hauling away pro-EU placards
[Guardian] A Canadian Chinaman man has been arrested for allegedly trying to sell classified information to the Chinese government about Canada's warship-building procurement strategy.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said Qing Quentin Huang Low, 53, of Burlington, Ontario, was arrested on Saturday and appeared in court on Sunday. Another Français Canadien gone bad ?
RCMP chief superintendent Jennifer Strachan said the suspect is charged with communicating with a foreign entity under Canada's Security of Information Act.
Police said the suspect works for Lloyd's Register, a subcontractor to Irving Shipbuilding. The information relates to Canada's strategy on building patrol ships, frigates, naval auxiliary vessels, science research vessels and ice breakers. Gummit contractors, why do they hate us ?
[An Nahar] Apple wants to rein in the pay and power of a monitor hired to watch over the company as punishment for conviction in an e-book price-fixing case.
In court paperwork available online Friday, Apple objected to being billed more than $1,000 an hour for the services of former U.S. prosecutor Michael Bromwich.
The Northern California-based maker of iPads, iPods, iPhones and Macintosh computers also protested Bromwich's intent to question chief executive Tim Cook, lead designer Jony Ive, board member Al Gore and other top executives who aren't involved in day-to-day operations.
"Michael Bromwich is already operating in an unfettered and inappropriate manner," Apple argued in an objection filed with the federal judge in Manhattan who presided over the e-book trial.
"The $1,100 hourly rate he proposes for himself and the $1,025 rate for his legal support team are higher than Apple has ever encountered for any task," the filing maintained.
In a letter to an Apple attorney, Bromwich countered that it is up to the judge to decide whether his pay is reasonable and contended that he has encountered resistance from the Cupertino, California-based firm.
"We have seen little reciprocity and instead a consistent pattern of delay, unresponsiveness and lack of cooperation," Bromwich said in a letter on file with the court.
"We very much hope that changes with our trip to Cupertino the week of December 2."
In September, the judge who found Apple guilty of illegal price-fixing for e-books ordered the tech giant to steer clear of new contracts with publishers which could violate antitrust law.
U.S. District Judge Denise Cote ordered Apple to refrain from any agreement with publishers "where such agreement will likely fix, or set the price at which other e-book retailers can acquire or sell e-books."
The order followed the judge's July ruling that Apple illegally conspired with publishers to boost the price of electronic books.
A separate trial will be held next year to determine damages, but the injunction blocks Apple from making any similar moves to reshape the price structure in the e-books market.
Apple can still sell e-books through its online channels, but cannot make any special arrangements or collude with publishers to fix prices.
The company also must pay for an antitrust compliance officer who answers to the court.
The trial focused on a six-week period in late 2009 and early 2010 during which Apple negotiated contracts with publishers ahead of its iPad launch and proposed a new and more profitable business model.
Apple's deals with five major publishers aimed to undo the "wholesale" pricing model set by Amazon by shifting to an "agency" model where publishers set the price and paid a 30 percent commission to Apple.
Cote sided with the government on charges that Apple helped orchestrate the industry's shift. Apple is appealing the decision.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/01/2013 00:00 ||
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That's a payment rate of 4.4 million dollars a year.
#2
1 - A lawyer not qualified on antitrust matters appointed to oversee antitrust matters?
2 - A matter related to price fixing is subjected to monopolistic pricing terms imposed by a bureaucrat abusing his power?
... is this the Soviet Union or the United States?
Posted by: pie ||
12/01/2013 5:39 Comments ||
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Thump him, hard.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
12/01/2013 6:36 Comments ||
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[NY Times] The night watchman of the future is 5 feet tall, weighs 300 pounds and looks a lot like R2-D2 -- without the whimsy. And will work for $6.25 an hour.
A company in Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, has developed a mobile robot, known as the K5 Autonomous Data Machine, as a safety and security tool for corporations, as well as for schools and neighborhoods.
"We founded Knightscope after what happened at Sandy Hook," said William Santana Li, a co-founder of that technology company, now based in Sunnyvale, Calif. "You are never going to have an armed officer in every school."
But what is for some a technology-laden route to safer communities and schools is to others an entry point to a post-Orwellian, post-privacy world.
"This is like R2-D2's evil twin," said Marc Rotenberg, the director of the Electronic Privacy and Information Center, a privacy rights group based in Washington.
And the addition of such a machine to the labor market could force David Autor, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist, to rethink his theory about how technology wrecks the middle class.
The minimum wage in the United States is $7.25, and $8 in Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,. Coming in substantially under those costs, Knightscope's robot watchman service raises questions about whether artificial intelligence and robotics technologies are beginning to assault both the top and the bottom of the work force as well.
The K5 is the work of Mr. Li, a former Ford Motor Company executive, and Stacy Dean Stephens, a former police officer in Texas. They gained some attention in June for their failed attempt Curses! Foiled again! to manufacture a high-tech police cruiser at Carbon Motors Corporation in Indiana.
Knightscope plans to trot out K5 at a news event on Thursday -- a debut that is certain to touch off a new round of debate, not just about the impact of automation, but also about how a new generation of mobile robots affects privacy.
The co-founders have chosen to position their robot not as a job killer, but as a system that will upgrade the role of security guard, even if fewer humans are employed.
"We want to give the humans the ability to do the strategic work," said Mr. Li in a recent telephone interview, describing a highly skilled analyst who might control a herd of security robots.
The robot, which can be seen in a promotional video, is still very much a work in progress. The system will have a video camera, thermal imaging sensors, a laser range finder, radar, air quality sensors and a microphone. It will also have a limited amount of autonomy, such as the ability to follow a preplanned route. It will not, at least for now, include advanced features like facial recognition, which is still being perfected.
Knightscope settled in Silicon Valley because it was hoping for a warm reception from technology companies that employ large security forces to protect their sprawling campuses.
Over all, there are about 1.3 million private security guards in the United States, and they are low paid for the most part, averaging about $23,000 a year, according to the Service Employees International Union. Most are not unionized, so they are vulnerable to low-cost automation alternatives.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/01/2013 00:00 ||
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The K5 is the work of Mr. Li,
Another one! Does this one have a slight flaw in his character too?
#2
Just wait till its fully connected to the (sky)net.
"We founded Knightscope after what happened at Sandy Hook,"..."You are never going to have an armed officer in every school."
Cause guns are icky? Here's a suggestion. We have a lot of vets, some missing a limb or two. Just make up the difference between their disability pay and what their old service pay was and I'm sure you can get trained, disciplined, gun qualified people who'd be more than happy to shepherd the tikes. Added bonus would be a daily reminder that war is not a videogame.
#3
The night watchman of the future is 5 feet tall, weighs 300 pounds and looks a lot like R2-D2 -- without the whimsy. And will work for $6.25 an hour.
A mallcop?
[An Nahar] Mass opposition protests aimed at overthrowing Thailand's embattled prime minister turned violent on Saturday with one person rubbed out and 21 maimed as the government called on the army to protect key state buildings.
The demonstrators, who want to replace Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's government with an unelected "people's council", have mounted the kingdom's biggest street rallies since political violence in Bangkok three years ago left dozens dead in a military crackdown.
The protests were triggered by an amnesty bill, since abandoned by the ruling party, that opponents feared would have allowed the return of runaway former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, Yingluck's brother, whose overthrow by royalist generals in 2006 unleashed years of political turmoil.
Thaksin is adored by many of the country's rural and urban working class for his populist policies while in power, but hated by many southerners, middle-class Thais and the Bangkok elite, who see him as corrupt and a threat to the monarchy.
As tensions soared in the capital, opposition demonstrators attacked a bus carrying "Red Shirt" government supporters heading to their own rally at a sports stadium in Bangkok, throwing stones and other objects, according to an Agence La Belle France Presse photographer at the scene.
Protesters also hurled bottles at police near the venue in the Ramkhamhaeng district, where more than 70,000 Red Shirts were gathered. The capital's main tourist areas were unaffected by the violence.
Gunshots were later fired near the stadium, claiming the first life in the recent protests, according to police, although the circumstances were unclear.
"A 21-year-man was rubbed out by two bullets to his left side," said Boonchuay Pochantong, an official at a nearby cop shoppe in the capital.
Twenty-one other people suffered a range of wounds including from gunshots and stabbings, according to an official at the city's Erawan emergency center.
But by midnight the situation appeared to be calm with Red Shirt leaders calling on their followers to stay in the rally stadium overnight to avoid fresh confrontation.
While the protesters' numbers have fallen sharply since an estimated crowd of up to 180,000 people joined an opposition rally on November 24, they have increasingly sought out high profile targets in what experts believe could be an attempt to provoke a military coup.
Demonstrators used piles of sandbags Saturday to try to climb over barriers protecting Yingluck's offices at the Government House, but were prevented by police from entering. Yingluck was not believed to be present at the time.
Government calls on army
With the situation deteriorating, authorities announced more than 2,700 troops would be mobilized to reinforce security in Bangkok, the first time a significant number of soldiers have been deployed to cope with the unrest.
Protesters have stormed a number of government buildings in the capital over the past week, meeting little or no resistance from police.
"We have information that there will be efforts to escalate violence in several areas," said National Police front man Piya Utayo.
Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban said demonstrators would try again on Sunday to take control of Yingluck's offices.
"Tomorrow our group will enter the area of Government House," he said in a speech to supporters.
Organizers of the anti-government demo have urged people to turn out in strength this weekend in a final push before celebrations for revered c's birthday on December 5, which is traditionally marked in an atmosphere of calm and respect.
Yingluck said security officials were "ready to defend" Government House, but added that they would do so with "leniency".
"I want to ask protesters not to confront each other in a way that may lead to violence," she said.
Hundreds of opposition protesters also massed at two major state-owned telecoms firms, cutting the power supplies in a move that caused widespread disruption to Internet services in the country.
"I feel tomorrow we will win," protester Sanit Ounjai, a 45-year-old rubber farmer from southern Thailand, told AFP.
The protesters' arch enemy Thaksin lives in self-imposed exile to avoid a jail term for a corruption conviction that he contends is politically motivated, but is widely believed to be the real power behind the ruling party.
Pro-Thaksin parties have won every election for more than a decade but Yingluck has given no indication that she is thinking of calling fresh polls as a way out of the crisis.
Yingluck's Puea Thai party came to power in 2011 elections on a wave of Thaksin support, after a bloody 2010 military crackdown on Red Shirt protests under the previous government left some 90 people dead.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/01/2013 00:00 ||
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WASHINGTON -- For Ruth Anne Freeborn, it boiled down to a choice between country and family. No Ruth, you made that "choice" sometime ago.
Born in Oklahoma, Freeborn has lived in Kingston, Ontario, for more than 30 years as an American expatriate, with a Canadian husband and 22-year-old son.
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For years the U.S. military operated pirated copies of logistics software that was used to protect soldiers and shipments in critical missions. Apptricity, the makers of the software, accused the military of willful copyright infringement and sued the Government for nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in unpaid licenses. In a settlement just announced, the Obama administration has agreed to pay $50 million to settle the dispute.
In 2004 Apptricity signed a contract with the U.S. Army to license enterprise software that manages troop and supply movements. The deal allowed the Government to use the software on five servers and 150 standalone devices, and since then it has been used in critical missions all over the world.
"The Army has used Apptricity's integrated transportation logistics and asset management software across the Middle East and other theaters of operation. The Army has also used the software to coordinate emergency management initiatives, including efforts following the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti," the company explains.
While Apptricity was happy to have the Government as a client, the company was shocked to find out that the army had secretly installed thousands of unlicensed copies of the software. This unauthorized use was discovered by accident during Strategic Capabilities Planning 2009, when the U.S. Army Program Director stated that thousands of devices used Apptricity software.
As it turned out, the army had installed pirated copies of the software on 93 servers and more than 9,000 standalone devices. With license fees of $1.35 million per server and $5,000 per device, Apptricity calculated that the Government owed the company $224 million in unpaid fees.
To recoup the missing revenue the software company filed a lawsuit at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. It accused the Government of willful copyright infringement, while actively concealing these infringements from Apptricity.
The Obama administration has yet to comment on the settlement but if a statement is forthcoming it will be almost certainly be less vocal on the piracy front, especially since the Government now finds itself on the other side of the fence.
So which three star general takes the hit for this one?
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.
[An Nahar] An inmate who slipped out of a Swedish prison to treat an aching tooth before turning himself in to police had his sentence prolonged, but just by a day.
[An Nahar] Apple wants to rein in the pay and power of a monitor hired to watch over the company as punishment for conviction in an e-book price-fixing case.
[NY Times] The night watchman of the future is 5 feet tall, weighs 300 pounds and looks a lot like R2-D2 -- without the whimsy. And will work for $6.25 an hour.
