Hildegard Knef died Friday in Berlin. She did the first nude scene in a post-war German movie, causing demonstrations by the Virtuous outside theaters and a boycott by the Church. On Broadway, she appeared in Cole Porter's musical Silk Stockings. For two and a half years, she played the lead role of Ninotchka alongside Don Ameche. Each of the 675 performances of Silk Stockings was sold out. Ella Fitzgerald allegedly called her "the greatest singer in the world without a voice".
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/01/2002 ||
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A Canadian roadside zoo operator wants to donate a pair of young lions to Afghanistan to replace Marjan, who died this month. The Northwood Buffalo and Exotic Animal Ranch northeast of Toronto has two 18-month-old, and as yet unnamed, lions that are ready to be shipped to Kabul to fill the vacuum left by the death of Marjan, who survived battles, coups and even a grenade attack before finally succumbing in January to old age. Zoo owner Norm Phillips said that with all the warfare and hardship the people of Afghanistan have endured they deserve to have attractions such as lions in their zoo.
But not everyone thinks it's a good plan, including the World Society for the Protection of Animals, which played a big role in helping to treat the one-eyed Marjan in his last days. "I think it's a crazy idea," said Pat Tohill, a spokesman for the Toronto office of the society. "I think that while the animals would be better off at a modern zoo than a roadside establishment like Northwood, but shipping them half way around the world is nuts." There's always someone to disapprove of an idea, no matter how good it is. One of the lions should be named Masood.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/01/2002 ||
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Anticipated clashes between anti-forum protestors and police have so far not materialized. Only 1,000 protestors showed up and many demonstrated peacefully. Police arrested seven members of the group AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power for hanging a banner on a footbridge of nearby FDR drive. A man was also arrested after damaging the front door of a Starbucks, a favorite target of protestors in past mass demonstrations in Seattle and Washington DC.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/01/2002 ||
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Iranian clerics and politicians blasted President Bush for his "axis of evil" comments against their country and urged rival reformists and conservatives to close ranks against the United States. In a rare show of unity, Iranian politicians from both camps took a break from long-running, bitter disputes to heap scorn on Bush over his "arrogant" remarks.
During a Friday prayers sermon in Tabriz, Ayatollah Mohsen Mojtahed-Shabastari appealed to political factions loyal to the Islamic republic to stop fighting each other. "The enemy will exploit these differences of opinion and try to strike a blow to the Islamic system," Iran's IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.
Another influential cleric, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, called Bush a "bloodthirsty maniac" in his own sermon at the Tehran prayers. "America thinks it can threaten and attack other countries by making terrorism charges. He thinks he can do what he did in Afghanistan to other countries," the hard-line ayatollah said. Actually, that's exactly what we think, mainly because we've proven it. Americans, at least some of us, can still remember what happened to our embassy in Tehran. We regard people who call us "The Great Satan" as - how can we put this delicately? - asking for a poke in the tenders.
But I'd bet that right now Iran isn't at the top of the list. Bush's words were a diversion. The Philippines are providing a bit of a sideshow, and Somalia may in the next couple weeks, but the real action is probably in Washington, where people are going over all those hard drives in detail. There'll be a bit of action at Club Fed as the gunnies there are interrogated. Most of the dismantling of al-Qaeda will take place behind the scenes, in banks.
Poor Iran. They'll just be allowed to stew. They can either decide on their own to straighten up, or they can wait their turn. With a pro-American Afghanistan on one side, and a pro-American Iraq on the other, they might think about what their attitude should be toward us Great Satans.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/01/2002 ||
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Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met three top Palestinian officials this week, his first face-to-face talks with the Palestinian leadership since his election a year ago. Israeli commentators speculated the meeting with two architects of the landmark 1993 Oslo peace deal and an economic adviser to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was aimed at opening a dialogue on ending 16 months of bloodshed including a recent wave of Palestinian suicide attacks. A spokesman for Sharon declined to comment on talks with parliamentary speaker Ahmed Korei, Arafat's unofficial deputy Mahmoud Abbas and economic adviser Mohammed Rashid. Israel Radio said Sharon asked them to convey a message to Arafat to end terrorism and made clear Israeli pressure on him would continue until he reined in militants behind attacks on Israelis. That would be the first reading of the Riot Act. Now Yasser has to calculate how much he can get away with before he's allowed to become a martyr for his cause. Capri is probably looking better and better all the time.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/01/2002 ||
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Israeli helicopters fired missiles at the headquarters of the Palestinian naval police. The attack took place in Dir al-Balach in the central Gaza Strip. There have so far been no reports of casualities. The Israeli army meanwhile said Palestinians had fired at several Israeli military posts in the Gaza Strip and fired mortars at a position near the Erez crossing between Gaza and Israel. One Israeli soldier was slightly wounded.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/01/2002 ||
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Police have arrested a man who tried to set himself on fire and began shouting pro-Osama bin Laden slogans aboard an Indian Airlines flight from the Middle East to India. The 30-year-old man was overpowered and subdued by the crew and fellow passengers. Moinuddin Khan took out a cigarette lighter and started burning his skin soon after flight IC-542 flight took off from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on its way to Hyderabad. He also shouted "Osama zindabad, Advani down, down." (Long live Osama and down with L.K. Advani, Indian home minister). Alarmed passengers and crew immediately overpowered Khan. He was handed over to the police when the plane landed at Hyderabad.
Police Inspector William Carrey told the Deccan Chronicle newspaper that Khan was a nut. Man, they gotta get smoking sections back on those planes!
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/01/2002 ||
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The Wall Street Journal said it had seen reports indicating its kidnapped reporter, Daniel Pearl, had been killed, but said it remained hopeful the reports were untrue. Meanwhile, in a conflicting report, a police officer in Karachi said Pearl's kidnappers had demanded two million dollars within 36 hours for his safe release in an anonymous telephone call. The call to the US consulate in Karachi also demanded the release of the former Afghan ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef. Our guess would be that the e-mail's accurate and the hard boys have "made their bones" on him. The call to the consulate would be ghouls trying to horn in the the kidnaping. Leaving the head cheeses of the Bad Guys alive results in what's going to be a period of innocents being threatened to get them out of stir. Too bad we're so damned civilized, though that may become less pronounced as the atrocities mount up.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/01/2002 ||
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At least five Muslim gunnies were killed in a battle with Philippine troops on Basilan island, where two Americans and a Filipino nurse are being held hostage. The firefight came a day after the Philippines and the United States opened a training exercise aimed at wiping out the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas, who have been linked to the al-Qaida terror network. Philippine soldiers engaged about 20 guerrillas in a 15-minute gunfight around Maluso town on Basilan island. The remaining guerrillas were being pursued by the marines, who suffered no injuries. The gunfight means next to nothing, except to those involved. The ultimate objective has to be to break apart any structure the group has - and Abu Sayyaf is more of a gang than a terror network.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/01/2002 ||
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Hizbullah fired anti-aircraft shells over Upper Galilee for the third time in as many weeks. Some of the shrapnel fell in Kiryat Shmona, without causing casualties or damage. The firing occurred shortly after Hizbullah leaders declared they would not be deterred from continuing attacks by comments made by US President George W. Bush. Military sources said the firing occurred when there were no aircraft in the area, therefore there was no pretext for it. Just showing their manhood in the face of Bush's comments. The real attacks are a little down the road - when they think they're strong enough and Israel's weak enough that they won't get stomped.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/01/2002 ||
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Russian troops have killed at least 48 Chechen rebels and detained hundreds of suspects in a week-long series of operations. A further 15 voluntarily quit guerrilla groups and gave up their weapons. Russian troops were hunting down militants, arms and ammunition around the Argun gorge, an area of high rebel activity. A similar campaign was being carried out in Chechnya's second-largest town of Gudermes.
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02/01/2002 ||
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British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw accused President Bush of playing party politics with the war on terrorism. Straw was responding during a British embassy press conference to questions about Mr Bush's depiction of Iran, Iraq and North Korea as an "axis of evil" that America had to tackle. He said: "I thought the State of the Union speech was best understood by the fact that there are mid-term congressional elections coming up in November. You don't need me to tell you that." He implied that much of Tuesday's speech was rhetoric and that Mr Bush's actions would be much more moderate than his words.
A senior Bush administration source said the remarks seemed to be "inappropriate". This is not the first time Straw has indulged in public stupidity. He seems to trying harder than usual in this instance, though.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/01/2002 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
