Today is Earth Day, a holiday created to honor the planet and to raise the consciousness of man's effect on the environment. Philadelphia has a very strong tie to this day. One of its native sons, Ira Einhorn, was a co-founder of the environmentalist jubilee.
But Mr. Einhorn has another line on his resume. In addition to being a environmental guru, he is the Unicorn Killer.
While a student at the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Einhorn dated a Bryn Mawr College graduate by the name of Holly Maddux. When the affair ended in 1977, Mr. Einhorn went into a jealous rage and murdered her.
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[Mail and Globe] Vigilantes in a central Kenyan town took up arms against a violent gang, sparking fierce battles in which at least 29 people were stoned and hacked to death, police and medics said on Tuesday.
The clashes started late on Monday when residents organised in small groups armed with crude weapons decided to fight back against the Mungiki, a violent mafia-like extortionist group infamous for beheading and skinning its victims.
"We have so far received 29 bodies. Most of them their have their arms chopped off," said Dr David Ndegwa, at the hospital in Karatina, the epicentre of the clashes north of Nairobi.
"We are not able to tell who is Mungiki and who is not," national police spokesperson Eric Kiraithe told AFP. "It's a very bad scene."
Karatina woke up to scenes of carnage and destruction, with bodies strewn across the streets in pools of blood and corrugated iron shacks demolished or torched by the fighting. Police arrived in the town on Tuesday and combed through outlying tea plantations for suspects and discarded weapons.
"At night, the groups of locals started attacking some of the youths they suspected to be Mungiki members and slashed some of them to death," Kiraithe said.
Police sources said at least three people were wounded and 48 arrested.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#6
Usually everyone knows who the gang bangers are in the bad neighborhoods. Perhaps the national police's inability to distinguish violent mobster from ordinary civilian is what caused the outbreak of vigilantism in the first place?
An unusual pattern of avian flu cases in Egypt almost all are in toddlers, all of whom have survived has led some flu-tracking Web sites to speculate that dozens of silent cases are circulating there.
That would be an alarming development, but other experts, including those at the World Health Organization, say such fears are exaggerated. Although thousands of Egyptians have rushed their children to hospitals this flu season, there is no evidence yet of asymptomatic avian flu cases or any significant mutation in the H5N1 virus.
Right now, its all hot air, said Dr. Robert G. Webster, a flu expert at St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital in Memphis. I hope to hell its not happening, because it would mean the virus is adapting to humans. But theres not a shred of data.
Bird flu has faded from world headlines because it has not caused a pandemic. But the disease is still circulating in poultry in Egypt, Indonesia, China, Vietnam and along the India-Bangladesh border. It has mutated into at least 10 strains and occasionally infects humans.
An April 8 Reuters article from Cairo quoted a visiting W.H.O. expert saying his agency feared something strange happening in Egypt and would help the government test the blood of healthy people for antibodies this summer. Antibodies to the flu would indicate they had recovered from silent infections.
But a W.H.O. spokesman said privately that the agency was just helping the Egyptians with a long-planned study and the article had jumped the gun.
Translations of Egyptian media reports posted on flu-tracking sites say dozens of suspected cases have been hospitalized, but some seem to confuse avian flu with seasonal flu and even confirmed poultry cases. The Egyptian health ministry, which works closely with a United States Navy laboratory based in Cairo, has confirmed 15 human cases this year, with no deaths; almost all were in young children.
Dr. Nikki Shindo, a W.H.O. medical officer who works in Egypt, said the surge in toddler cases and survivals had a possible explanation. The government has loudly warned its citizens to avoid sick poultry and has trained doctors in remote clinics to give Tamiflu quickly and move cases to state hospitals, where treatment is free. In a country where chickens are both kept as pets and eaten, toddlers still touch dying birds but poultry workers would not.
Egypts outbreak response contrasts sharply to Indonesias, where the sick often take herbal medicine first and where rural clinics lack Tamiflu, she said.
Dr. Arnold S. Monto, a flu expert at the University of Michigan School of Public Health who also teaches in Egypt, said even geography helps. All cases are along the Nile and easily moved to Cairo, while travel among Indonesias thousands of islands is slower. Also, he said, the government has been more aggressive since it was criticized by opposition parties for not wiping out the poultry epidemic that began in 2006.
Henry L. Niman, a biochemist who tracks flu mutations, has speculated that a mild strain of H5N1 is more common in Egypt than has been found because nasal swabs for flu are inaccurate. He noted that mild cases were found in Qena, Egypt, in 2007, and has called for more testing and for releasing the genetic sequences of strains found in both poultry and people.
Dr. Tim Uyeki, a flu specialist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said there had been mild cases of H5N1 among children in several countries. There have also, he said, been studies in Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia and Nigeria similar to the one proposed for Egypt in which the blood of cullers, poultry workers and relatives of sick people has been tested.
Those are the ideal people to look at, he said. And there was zero or extremely low prevalence of antibodies, meaning silent infections were very uncommon.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
The 1918 pandemic came in 3 or 4 waves. The first wave was relatively mild. It was the second and third waves that were the real killers.
While records are patchy, it seems those killed by the second and third wave were disproportionately those infected in the first wave. Dengue fever is very similar to this.
Anyway don't assume a mild strain spreading is good news, because its probably very bad news. Much better if the virus makes people very sick killing a high proportion. It's much less likely to spread that way.
#2
Tracking what Avian flu is doing around the world is impressive, it doesn't miss a beat. In China, it is expanding its endemic turf, appearing in small outbreaks hundreds of miles apart; different offensives in Vietnam, Indonesia, and Bangladesh. It is like a major war led by different generals.
And this extremely troubling one in Egypt, that seems to be opening the door for H2H with clear foreshadowing.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Egypt's Grand Mufti announced that "travelers marriages," known as nikah mesyar in Arabic, are legitimate unless banned by the state.
Nikah mesyar is a Sunni Muslim marriage contract in which the woman gives up many of the rights she would be afforded under a traditional marriage contract. Although the marriage is official, the couple does not live in the same house and the husband is not required to provide for the wife or for any children they may have.
Such marriages are considered an alternative for people who wish to get married but cannot afford a traditional marriage. It is called the "travelers marriage" since it often takes place when men are away from their wives and wish to have relations with another woman.
" On the contrary, this type of marriage proves the flexibility of Islamic laws in catering to a wide scope of needs and circumstances by offering religiously valid solutions that protect Muslims from committing sins "
Dr. Ali Gomaa
A study by the Dar al-Iftaa, the institution in charge of issuing fatwas or religious decrees in Egypt, concluded that such marriages are valid as long as they meet the necessary religious conditions, said Dr. Ali Gomaa in an official statement.
"As long as both agreed to the conditions of the marriage and the wife accepts that the husband doesn't live with her, it is a valid marriage," the statement said.
The study argued that if the woman chooses to give up several of her rights by her own free will -- such as living with the husband or financial support -- this does not invalidate the marriage.
According to Gomaa, the Mesyar marriages are neither degrading to women nor a violation of human rights since they are based on mutual consent.
"On the contrary, this type of marriage proves the flexibility of Islamic laws in catering to a wide scope of needs and circumstances by offering religiously valid solutions that protect Muslims from committing sins," he explained. "This shows Islam's capability to adapt to social changes."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/22/2009 00:00 ||
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[Mail and Globe] Millions of South Africans go to the polls on Wednesday in the most hotly contested general election since the advent of black majority rule in 1994.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/22/2009 00:00 ||
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April 21 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan opposition leader and Maracaibo Mayor Manuel Rosales, who was scheduled to appear in court yesterday on corruption charges, has left the country and is seeking political asylum in Peru.
We saw this one coming. I'm surprised he went to Peru and not either Colombia or Panama.
The mayor is being "politically persecuted," said his wife, Eveling Rosales, in comments broadcast by CNN's Spanish- language channel. Manuel Rosales, 56, lost the 2006 presidential election to President Hugo Chavez.
"The fundamental problem is that there's no credibility in the judicial system, which is a system that's been completely politicized," Leopoldo Lopez, a member of Rosales's Un Nuevo Tiempo party and former mayor of the Caracas borough of Chacao, said in a telephone interview. "This is retaliation and selective repression."
Posted by: Kelly ||
04/22/2009 10:33 Comments ||
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#3
Now that the President of the most powerfull nation in the world is giving ligitimacy to tyrants like Chavez by palling around with them, the tyrants return home feeling powerfull enough to finish the job of crushing any and all dissent. Way to go Obama. Shame on America.
#4
It's a bit curious he went to Peru, but understandable. Peru is one of the big four countries on the continent, and it's best he avoid Colombia to not give Hugo another excuse to meddle there. Brazil and Argentina are likely to extradite him, but Peru should be more amenable - an opportunity for them to act more politically mature, particularly after the latest Fujimora actions.
Hugo also won''t want to inflame Peruvians - that would only make trouble for his erstwhile allies in Bolivia and Ecuador, both of which are in Peru's shadow.
This may play well for Peru, showing Venezuela to be what it is in South America, a second or third tier power, not that any of the MSM here would ever report that.
[RIA/Novosti] The official number of the unemployed people in Russia currently stands at 2.26 million, the countryŽs Health and Social Development Ministry said on Tuesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/22/2009 00:00 ||
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What's that as a percentage of the population?
(Yes, I know I could look it up and do the calculation myself. But I don't care that much....)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/22/2009 19:29 Comments ||
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Kyodo News -- Japan should consider possessing nuclear weapons as a deterrent to a neighboring threat, former Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa suggested Sunday. In a speech in Obihiro, Hokkaido, in reference to North Korea's rocket launch earlier this month that many believe was a ballistic missile test, the hawkish lawmaker said: "It is common sense worldwide that in pure military terms, nuclear counters nuclear."
In Sunday's speech, Nakagawa said he believes North Korea has many Rodong medium-range missiles that could reach almost any part of Japan and also has small nuclear warheads. "North Korea has taken a step toward a system whereby it can shoot without prior notice," he said. "We have to discuss countermeasures."
He added that public discussions must be promoted on what has long been considered a national taboo: whether Japan should possess nuclear weapons.
Nakagawa stepped down as finance minister in February over what appeared to be drunken behavior at an international news conference in Rome.
He has called for debate in the past on whether Japan should go nuclear, telling a TV program as chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party's Policy Research Council in October 2006 that the Constitution does not rule out Japan possessing nuclear arms.
A nuclear-armed Japan would be interesting, though the Peace Museum in Hiroshima would have to close. It would finally demonstrate to China that there are costs for not curbing their North Korean dog. And it might allow us to focus our attentions elsewhere.
And we could always follow up with a nuclear-armed South Korea if the Chinese don't get the hint ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Japan seems to be getting the hint that they can't rely on the 'nuclear umbrella' of the United States anymore. Particlary with Bambi at the helm. He wouldn't even monitor the North Korea missile launch.
I can well imagine Obambi begging North Korea to pretty-please talk and sing campfire songs while Japan burns.
#2
Correct, CrazyFool. Nork bellicosity and recklessness, along with Chinese muscle-flexing, have hitherto been the chief external factors accelerating Japan back towards a posture logical and appropriate for its circumstances (i.e., armed and non-submissive).
The new external factor is US irresolution/weakness/cluelessness.
Internally, generational change has been key.
Sadly, it is too much to hope that more than a few other US allies or partners might react to the collapse of US leadership in a similar fashion - by rediscovering their sense and pride and national gonads and DOING something.
Israel may be likely to move faster/sooner/harder WRT Iran, Vietnam is very nervous, as are Ukraine, Poland, and the Czechs.
Re the Hiroshima "peace" museum (a true anecdote I might have shared before, can't recall): a friend, in Japan speaking to various trade groups on a trip sponsored by the GOJ, was taken through the museum by a foreign ministry guide. Outside in the park, the guide asked him what he thought of the museum. He said "I guess Japan will never attack the US again".
One of those Churchill-Like Responses I Wish'd I'd Said In Real Life.
While touring the museum myself a few years back, I judged it "not as bad as I expected". Actually it was interesting how detailed and dry some of the exhibits on fission and bomb design were. I noted with great amusement - silently - that in the very first gallery, one reads a solemn and apocalyptic bit of prose on the wall, then can turn around and look out the huge glass wall at the lush park and bustling beautiful city beyond. Uh - apocalypse, sorry, not so much - testament to human and Japanese resilience and creativity and vitality - uh huh.
In fact, the old city exhibition hall - the domed building famously left standing (concrete) - serves more to reinforce the prosperity and vitality of the city around it than to evoke awe and dread of nukyuler weaponry. The skeletal building, to me, is a lonely and forsaken relic - just as the always-silly and indulgent and illogical nuke-paranoia and blind pacifism that clings to its supposed symbolism SHOULD be.
#4
Mojo, I have heard from several people that, IMHO, I consider to be in the know.
They have the parts, they just aren't assembled. Japan could be nuclear in a week with several warheads and missiles if it wanted to. Pretty shrewd Sun Tzu type thinking if you ask me.
#5
Looks to me like Nakagawa got passed the Bush Cowboy Ball. He's safely out of the government & has a reputation for instability, so the Japanese establishment can make a threat obliquely, by having a loose cannon do the posturing, without actually committing anything officially, or even unofficially.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/22/2009 13:26 Comments ||
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The only one with the power to defuse North Korea is China. The way things stand now, China benefits from North Kores's saber-rattling. If it really looked like Japan was going to get serious about protecting themselves from their neighbors, that would spook China. It might be enough to get them to do the fnal solution on North Korea. Then South Korea could relax. No more threat to their economy from the Nork's sucking it dry by merging with them, like East Germany did to West Germany. I hope Japan makes her play. Good things could happen.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
04/22/2009 18:34 Comments ||
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#7
ION JAPAN, seems a lawmaker is proposing that Japan GIVE NON-JAPANESE FOREIGN CITIZENS + PERM RESIDENTS FORMAL VOTING RIGHTS.
FYI, WAFF > DITTO FOR GREECE = GREEK LAW ENFORCEMENT as per allowing more non-Greek immigrants to hold police + security jobs.
That sound you hear in the background is GODZILLA, MOTHRA, etc. = MANY NIPPONESE belching in righteous??? ANTI-FOREIGN VOTING RIGHTS -ZILLA INDIGNATION.
One day after The New York Times received five Pulitzer Prizes, The New York Times Company said in its 2009 First-Quarter conference call that total revenue had declined 18.6 percent. The company's debt at the end of the quarter totaled $1.3 billion.
According to the Times Company's press release this morning, the company suffered an "operating loss of $61.6 million compared with operating profit of $6.2 million in the first quarter of 2008."
In the release, Ms. Robinson conceded that, "The effect of the global economic downturn, coupled with the secular changes affecting newspapers, resulted in significant declines in revenues. Advertisers pulled back on print placements in all categories -- national, retail and especially classified. Digital revenues also declined, although modestly, as a result of the weakening economy."
Some cost-saving measures mentioned in the nearly hour-long call (audio here) included a consolidation of The Boston Globe's printing facilities that resulted in $9 million in savings and a staff reduction of 15% from last year.
As far as online goes, Ms. Robinson said, "Twice we have experimented with charging for Times content." She noted that nytimes.com gets got 52.3 million unique visitors in March 2009 and told investors that The Times had looked at the business models of thirty organizations to determine new opportunities for online revenue. "We continue to explore payment models." Near the end of the call, she reminded investors that, "this isn't just a print company anymore."
Nothing replaces alienating half your potential customers ...
If Business Insider's Henry Blodget's numbers crunching is to be believed, it might not even be that! "At the current rate of cash consumption, assuming no one-time expenses (highly unlikely), we estimate that the company will max out its current borrowing capacity in 4 quarters," Mr. Blodget wrote this morning. "At that point, it will owe about $1.2 billion in debt."
As far as the The Times Pulitzer wins go, Ms. Robinson said, "this speaks to the extraordinary work done by our journalists in a broad range of areas" and noted, "we continue to see high quality journalism is valued by readers and advertisers."
#5
Sounds just like the Times, blame anything but the truth.
Truth, Your paper has become a part of the demoratit party, to be specific the propaganda arm of the democratic party, and people who discover you're NOT publishing "News" leave.
LIE all economy is down, that's the ONLY reason we're doing bad.
RESULT, Bye Bye lying assholes.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/22/2009 13:08 Comments ||
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FTA; "we continue to see high quality journalism is valued by readers and advertisers."
Yup. That's why they are going broke. The advertisers and readers have made their own evaluation of the worth of the NYT.
For those that think Fox leans towards the Republicans, examine where the political contributions went. Though it does look like Fox News discourages political donations, I think in the 2004 election Fox News went 60-40% in favor of Dems.
Posted by: ed ||
04/22/2009 14:26 Comments ||
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"As far as the The Times Pulitzer wins go, Ms. Robinson said, 'this speaks to the extraordinary work done by our journalists in a broad range of areas'"
Such as LYING - like Walter Duranty?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/22/2009 15:52 Comments ||
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#11
Pinning a dollar to it is setting up for the bailout. Just think, now we will be paying to get slimed!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
04/22/2009 16:02 Comments ||
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#12
One Pulitzer was handed to their photographer.
The acting chief financial officer of Freddie Mac, David Kellermann, has apparently committed suicide, according to WTOP radio.
Fairfax County Police Department spokeswoman Mary Anne Jennings told the radio station that Mr. Kellermann, 41, was found at his Reston, Va., home Wednesday morning.
Mrs. Jennings says police responded to the home after family members called police. "We were called from inside the house to come investigate an apparent suicide," she said.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/22/2009 08:42 ||
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One must wonder what other Freddie Mac news may be lurking in the corner.
Barry and his cadre must be scurrying about now, to pull together more waterboarding stories to smother faultering economic news. Are the "3 to 4 million new jobs" still set to arrive during this administration? No one has mentioned them lately.
#10
He was only 41, promoted last fall to CFO. He was a comptroller, working for Freddie Mac for 16 years. He's been there through it all but sometimes deadmen do tell tales. We can always hope everything wasn't shredded and he left a note.
#11
Washington! Was he, or his killer, polite enough to use a silencer? Because the article said the family reported it. So I almost figure if a silencer hadnt been used, a neighbor or passer by walking a dog would have heard something and reported it, simultaneously. The fact the family reported it makes it seem like the muzzle flash musta been mighty quiet. IDK
Something about this definitely seems suspicious. However, I dont know how close the houses are on his block.
#15
While this story certainly has political interest, I can't help but imagine Mrs. Kellermann struggling mantically to get her husband down and render aid knowning he is gone but crying out for a miracle.
#16
If the DC Examiner article posted by Seafarious is correct, Obama and the administration should resign. Drudge or someone had better try to keep the heat on this.
#20
My heart, and I hope everyone here, is with the family right now. It is one of the most terrible things to find that a person you love has committed suicide.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/22/2009 16:17 Comments ||
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#21
I swear to never pat taxes again.
And yes, my heart goes out to the family.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
04/22/2009 16:43 Comments ||
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#22
Meanwhile, former PENN STATER + certain young Lady's AIR FORCE seems to be losing a lot of command officers to sudden death.
[Jakarta Post] Oil prices languished near $46 a barrel Tuesday after renewed doubts about the health of U.S. banks sent crude and stock markets tumbling.
Benchmark crude for May delivery was up 5 cents to $45.93 a barrel by midday in Europe in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. After trading near $50 a barrel so far this month, oil prices plunged $4.45 on Monday to settle at $45.88, following a broad sell-off of stocks.
"Oil fundamentals are not tight enough to carry crude above $55 a barrel and as soon as the combined support of strong equities and weak dollar goes missing, then crude oil starts to move back to the lower band of the trading range," said Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix in Switzerland.
On Tuesday, stock markets in Asia closed mostly lower while in Europe most major indices were up only by a few points early in the session. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 3.6 percent on Monday, the Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 4.3 percent.
With Nymex's May contract expiring Tuesday, traders were focusing more on the June contract, which was trading at $48.68 a barrel by midday in Europe.
"Oil is being driven by perceptions about the economy, and there are plenty of obstacles to an international recovery," said David Moore, commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney. "It's going to be difficult for the next year."
Traders also are focused on weekly petroleum inventory data that the Energy Information Agency will release Wednesday. Analysts expect a build of 3 million barrels in crude stocks, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos. Crude stocks already are near 19-year highs.
Moore said he expects crude prices to rise to $58 a barrel by the end of the year as the organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries moves to reduce production in line with falling demand. OPEC has already announced 4.2 million of output cuts since September. "If prices are in the mid-$40s, OPEC might be inclined to leave production targets where they are," Moore said. "But at some point OEC may cut again as demand forecasts keep getting wound back."
In other Nymex trading, gasoline for May delivery was up 0.52 cent to $1.4171 a gallon and heating oil gained 1.44 cents to $1.3460 a gallon. Natural gas for May delivery advanced 1.2 cents to $3.552 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/22/2009 00:00 ||
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Once the left implements its energy legislation including cap and trade, oil will skyrocket, along with every other form of energy, as the left closes off all traditional alternatives in favor of "alternatives."
[Iran Press TV Latest] Worldwide losses from the credit crunch could reach $4 trillion by the end of 2010, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/22/2009 00:00 ||
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The bulk of predictions of the damage being done in the economic collapse have been vast underestimates. I suspect this also will turn out to be below the mark.
[Straits Times] MORE pictures of Bukit Lanjan assemblyman and state executive council (exco) member Elizabeth Wong have surfaced just days after she had resumed both posts after a sabbatical. Ms Wong had gone on two-months' leave in February after embarassing pictures of her were sent to selected media outlets by unknown parties earlier that month.
The latest pictures, made available on the Internet by people calling themselves 'Hard-T,' 'Lee Kok Liang Sr' and 'Lee Kok Liang Jr,' merely show Ms Wong sound asleep.
When asked to comment on the latest development, Ms Wong - who appeared calm and composed - said she had done what was necessary by lodging a police report two months ago when the first pictures surfaced. She declined to comment further when met at an investiture ceremony held at the state secretariat here on Monday.
Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim said earlier in the morning said he would ask the police to do the necessary over what had happened. 'For those who have the pictures, it is their social responsibility to give it to the police because it is considered an offence.
'At the moment, what I have heard is just speculation. I will ask the police to analyse the pictures and provide their opinion,' he said after presenting a total of RM2 million (S$ to Chinese schools in Selangor.
Mr Khalid reiterated that it was an intrusion of Ms Wong's privacy when such pictures were circulated in public. 'They (the people who have the pictures) should give it to the police; or they can give them to me and I'll pass them to the police,' he said. Meanwhile, Ms Wong's exco colleague Iskandar Abdul Samad said the culprits should stop their 'dastardly act' as it will not scare Ms Wong off.
Wong had tendered in her resignation as exco member and assemblyman after the pictures had first surfaced and said that it was in the best interest of her party PKR. However, the state turned down her resignations and directed her to report to work last week.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/22/2009 00:00 ||
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[Straits Times] FORMER Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad accused the international media on Tuesday of trying to demonise Malaysia's new leader, who is battling opposition accusations of links to corruption and murder. Mr Mahathir's defense of Prime Minister Najib Razak reflects concerns within the ruling party that the leader's reputation has been tarnished because of unproven allegations by political adversaries.
Mr Mahathir said many articles published in the Western media when Mr Najib took power earlier this month were 'anti-Najib stories' that highlighted the accusations against him. 'From France to Britain to Australia, the articles are identical and carried the same message,' Mr Mahathir wrote on his blog. 'I cannot believe that this demonisation by so many at the same time is a coincidence.'
Mr Mahathir - a strident critic of the Western media during his 22 years as prime minister before stepping down in 2003 - said Najib should brace himself for more foreign criticism, but added that it was ultimately with Malaysians 'that Mr Najib has to clear his name.'
Mr Mahathir holds no government post, but still commands wide respect and his views often receive attention from leaders and members of the ruling party.
The prime minister recently said he has been a victim of personal attacks in the media, referring to allegations by opposition leaders and bloggers that he was involved in a shady government contract to buy submarines from France. He has also been accused of links to the murder of a Mongolian woman, who was the estranged lover of Mr Najib's friend. He has denied the allegations.
Mr Najib succeeded former Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who was pressured to retire after the ruling coalition retained power with its weakest parliamentary majority ever in March 2008 general elections.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/22/2009 00:00 ||
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[Straits Times] A FORMER Khmer Rouge jailer told Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court on Tuesday a jungle camp where starving prisoners were tortured was 'a place where humanity was smashed'. The jailer, known as Duch and whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, told the court part of his job was to train cadres to torture and execute prisoners while teaching the guards to be good communists. 'I wanted to educate them to find a way which was called the revolutionary way,' he said.
The court has been hearing evidence about M-13, a secret jungle camp which Duch ran during the 1971 to 1975 Khmer Rouge insurgency against the then US-backed government, to better understand Tuol Sleng's organising structure.
Asked why prisoners were killed instead of re-educated, Duch answered: 'We were not allowed to teach logic or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to prisoners. If we did not follow such orders we would be beheaded.'
Under questioning, Duch also told how local villagers were obliged to send their teenage children to work for him. 'Normally no one would reject such a request... because they were afraid to be killed,' he said.
A former jungle prison camp guard told the court Tuesday he was so afraid of Duch he 'could not look him in the face' when he worked under him at the communist movement's M-13 prison in the early 1970s. Chan Khorn, 53, recalled how he was forced to attend 'self-criticism' sessions to improve his work for the jailer.
Duch regularly told comrades that they would be punished if they failed to perform their duties, and held several 'self-criticism' meetings over the course of a year, the witness said.
'These self-criticism meetings were designed to criticise one another. I myself, for example, revealed my mistakes and then received criticisms from other guards,' Chan Khorn told the court. 'No one would dare criticise (Duch). None. Because he was the most important chairperson of the place, who would risk criticising him?' said the witness, who had to guard his own grandfathers at the brutal M-13 prison.
On Tuesday Duch added that encountering his former guard Chan Khorn in court made him emotional.
'We have been far away from each other for almost 36 years. When I see my former guard, I am moved,' Duch said, saying he felt 'affection' toward the guards.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Note 1, Obama.
Any god"" that insecure need not be the defining charistic of religion. With not sought truth, there is no truth, and with no sought God, there is none either. And without permittance to seek, violates the virtue of God. Which may be Truth.
#2
If we did not follow such orders we would be beheaded.'
Under questioning, Duch also told how local villagers were obliged to send their teenage children to work for him. 'Normally no one would reject such a request... because they were afraid to be killed,' he said.
And the hand wringers say the 'death penalty' doesn't alter or deter behavior. /sarcasm off
#3
Duch regularly told comrades that they would be punished if they failed to perform their duties, and held several 'self-criticism' meetings over the course of a year, the witness said.
We call them 'sensitivity training sessions' now.
Under questioning, Duch also told how local villagers were obliged to send their teenage children to work for him. 'Normally no one would reject such a request...
Today we call that the 'GIVE' act. Or Obama's mandatory volunteerism. But death isn't quite the price for disobedience (yet).
[Al Arabiya Latest] Dozens of arrested Iranian operators of pörnographic and anti-Islamic websites deserve to face the death penalty, a special prosecutor said in a newspaper report on Tuesday.
Tehran's deputy prosecutor Reza Jafari said 50 Iranians had been arrested by a special unit within the Revolutionary Guards and were under investigation for running such websites and promoting pröstitution, Vatan Emrouz reported.
He said the term "corrupt on earth" suited "a person who manages many immoral, anti-religious and anti-revolutionary sites, and corruption on earth is legally punishable by death" under Iranian law. "The accused in these cases face several charges, and so we will call for the maximum punishment prescribed by the law," he said, without specifying how many could face the death penalty or when they would go on trial.
Jafari, the prosecutor of a special tribunal against cyber crimes, said 90 websites had been shut down since March and that half of the 50 people arrested had paid a hefty bail to be released.
Alleged confessions
Since then the special Guards unit has on a regular basis kept the public updated with the details of the operation by publishing or broadcasting what it says are the confessions of the site managers.
The websites contained pörnographic material including "incèst, sèx with children and animals, hömosexuality and erötic stories" as well as "insults to religious sanctities," Jafari said.
The suspects were all rounded up in Iran, which is marking the 30th anniversary of becoming an Islamic state, although some of them were based outside in other countries.
In March, Iran's Revolutionary Guards militia said it had launched a crackdown on several groups who had set up anti-Islamic and pörnographic sites on the Internet. The groups involved were based in foreign countries, particularly in the United States, and had published "articles against the Islamic revolution and religious values, and also released pörnographic material," it said.
The websites were not named but the Revolutionary Guards accused the Internet search engine Google and rival firms of "offering financial support" to the unidentified groups.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/22/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11122 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
What's with all the umlauts and accents? Are we talking about Swedish "pörnography" and French "incèst, sèx"?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/22/2009 13:38 Comments ||
Top||
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 unusual pattern of avian flu cases in Egypt almost all are in toddlers, all of whom have survived has led some flu-tracking Web sites to speculate that dozens of silent cases are circulating there.
One day after The New York Times received five Pulitzer Prizes, The New York Times Company said in its 2009 First-Quarter conference call that total revenue had declined 18.6 percent. The company's debt at the end of the quarter totaled $1.3 billion.
[Jakarta Post] Oil prices languished near $46 a barrel Tuesday after renewed doubts about the health of U.S. banks sent crude and stock markets tumbling.
