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Today: 55 articles and 118 comments as of 12:42.
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Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Opinion        Politix   
Missile Kills 26, including 8 Youths, in Syria Village
Today's Headlines
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Singapore Jails Professor in Secks-for-Grades Case
[An Nahar] A law professor was sentenced to five months in jail in Singapore on Monday for obtaining sexual favors and gifts from a female student in exchange for better grades.

Former National University of Singapore (NUS) professor Tey Tsun Hang, 42, will also pay a penalty for the gifts he had received, Judge Tan Siong Thye ruled.

Tey, who is married with a daughter, was found guilty last Tuesday of six charges of corruption over his relationship with his then-student Darinne Ko in 2010.

Local media reported that she is now 23 and working in a law firm.

After the verdict, the NUS announced that it had terminated Tey's employment.

Dressed in a white shirt and black tie, Tey folded his arms and mumbled to himself as the judge read out the grounds for sentencing.

He was handcuffed and led away by coppers after the court session ended.

Judge Tan said Tey "chose to be corrupt" and "exploited" his student, obtaining sexual favors and receiving gifts that included tailored shirts and a limited-edition pen.

Ko got pregnant during their affair and paid for her own abortion, the judge said.

"The corrupt actions of the accused were premeditated and carried out on several occasions. He clearly and systematically took advantage of his student," the judge said.

"As an educator, he was in a position of trust and responsibility. He belonged to a public body that provided tertiary education to the people of Singapore," he added.

Defense lawyer Peter Low filed an appeal immediately and Tey was granted bail at Sg$150,000 (US$120,000).
Posted by: Fred || 06/04/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Was that wrong? Should I not have done that? I tell you, I gotta plead ignorence on this thing, because if anyone had said anything to me at all when I first started here that that sort of thing is frowned upon...
Posted by: Spot || 06/04/2013 8:06 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Ancient French Winemaking Had Roots in Italy
[An Nahar] The earliest evidence of wine in La Belle France suggests that it came from Italia, and that it was mixed with basil, thyme and other herbs, according to research published on Monday.

This early wine may have been used as medicine, and likely was imbibed by the wealthy and powerful before eventually becoming a popular beverage enjoyed by the masses, researchers said.

The artifacts found at the French port site of Lattara, near the southern city of Montpellier, suggest that winemaking took root in La Belle France as early as 500 BC, as a result of libations and traditions introduced by the ancient Etruscans in what is now Italia.

The analysis in the U.S. journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is based on ancient wine containers and a limestone press brought by seafaring Etruscan travelers.

"La Belle France's rise to world prominence in the wine culture has been well documented," said lead author Patrick McGovern, director of the biomolecular archaeology laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
Posted by: Fred || 06/04/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Actually Marseilles was founded by Greeks on 600 BC.
It is diificult to think they wouldn't tell about wine making. Also commerical contacts with Greeks and Phoencians predate %erseille's foundations by several decades or centuries.

Anyway it was Gauls who invented the barrel. Ancient Greece and Rome only knew the amphor in which wine worsened instead of improving.
Posted by: JFM || 06/04/2013 7:10 Comments || Top||

#2  That's a very interesting fact about the Gauls/barrels! Thanks for sharing that JFM
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 06/04/2013 9:48 Comments || Top||


China Communist Mouthpiece Condemns Plague of Ducks
[An Nahar] The official mouthpiece of China's ruling Communist Party condemned an outbreak of giant yellow ducks across the country Monday, after imitations of an artwork in Hong Kong landed in several cities.

Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman's 16.5 metre (54 foot) tall yellow inflatable has been a sensation in both Hong Kong and mainland China since it was installed in Victoria Harbour a month ago.

Property developers in several cities, among them Hangzhou, Wuhan and Tianjin, have rushed to install similar, albeit smaller, yellow ducks to attract potential customers to their projects.

In an editorial the People's Daily, China's most-circulated newspaper, condemned the imitators for betraying what it said was Hofman's own message.

The duck, it said, was a symbol of "humanity's shared culture and childhood memories, pure art and anti-commercialisation".

Copycat ducks were merely "kitsch" and such unoriginal behaviour "will ruin our creativity and our future and lead to the loss of imagination eventually" it said.

"The more yellow ducks are there, the further we are from Hofman's anti-commercialisation spirit, and the more obvious is our weak creativity."

"It's good that the rubber duck is popular, but it's sad to see the innovation of our country to go down. We often talk about awareness and confidence in our own culture, but where do they come from? Definitely not from following new trends."

Tourism authorities in Hunan, it pointed out, have renamed a mountain long known as the "Southern Sky Column" as "Avatar Hallelujah Mountain" after it inspired landscapes in the Hollywood special-effects blockbuster.

"This is not innovation, it's selling our inheritance," the newspaper said in the editorial, which appeared both in print and online editions.

For those who want a giant rubber duck of their own, China's vast army of manufacturing firms has moved to meet demand.

One company, KK Inflatable, is selling ducks in multiple sizes, one of them even larger than Hofman's creation, on Taobao, China's biggest shopping website.

A two-meter one costs 2,800 yuan ($460), one of the size of Hofman's is 118,000, and the biggest bird of all, a 20-meter monster duck, costs 149,800 yuan.
Posted by: Fred || 06/04/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  When NORTH KOREA attacks ...

Any country that can invade CONUS + get domestic NE US Turkeys + Rocky Mountain Goosies to ally wid their invasion force in Jihad should have no trouble wid Cute Duckies.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 06/04/2013 0:30 Comments || Top||

#2  "Yellow duckie, you're the one..."
Posted by: Raj || 06/04/2013 1:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Giant Rubber Duck Races.
I would pay to see that.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/04/2013 4:12 Comments || Top||

#4 
It's good that the rubber duck is popular, but it's sad to see the innovation of our country to go down.


Does China innovate in any ways outside of theft of intellectual property and corner-cutting on safety?
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 06/04/2013 9:44 Comments || Top||

#5  D*mn them, they hacked into my bathtub for the design.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 06/04/2013 10:37 Comments || Top||

#6  If the duck creators are going to write
"humanity's shared culture and childhood memories, pure art and anti-commercialisation".
then I say copy AWAY!
The more art-bollocks is mocked, the better IMHO.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 06/04/2013 12:28 Comments || Top||

#7  What about Froggie? WHERE'S MY FROGGIE!?
Posted by: Hedley Lamarr || 06/04/2013 16:54 Comments || Top||

#8  Should I sell my pitchfork and torch business and start selling yellow ducks?
Posted by: crosspatch || 06/04/2013 19:09 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
U.N. 'Intervention Brigade' Starts Patrols in DR Congo
[An Nahar] A special U.N. intervention brigade to counter militia groups in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material...
has started patrols in the conflict zone, the U.N. said Monday.

About 870 of the expected force of up to 3,500 troops are already in the major eastern city of Goma, U.N. front man Martin Nesirky told a briefing.

"The brigade has started operational activities in Goma, including day and night patrols" with other U.N. peacekeepers, Nesirky said.

The brigade is the first to be authorized by the U.N. Security Council with an offensive mandate. It was set up after a rebellion in eastern DR Congo last year by the M23 militia, whose forces remain on the outskirts of Goma.

The United Nations
...boodling on the grand scale...
also expects to start using drones in eastern DR Congo to monitor rebel forces and any aid they get across the border.
Posted by: Fred || 06/04/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Patrolling in the Congo. The trails should be well worn after 50-60 years.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/04/2013 11:34 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
'Detained man a Rab member'
[Bangla Daily Star] A Bangladeshi citizen picked up by Indian Border Security Force (BSF) on Saturday from Comilla's Brahmanpara upazila border is a member of elite force Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), an Indian newspaper reported.

Mohammad Milan Hussain, a soldier of the Rab, is now on judicial custody for two weeks, according to The Hindu report.

Contacted by The Daily Star for verification, Lt Col Ziaul Ahsan, director of Rab's intelligence wing, said they had no knowledge of any Rab man's arrest by the Indian law enforcers.

According to the Hindu report, Milan infiltrated Rahimpur village in Indian side near the international border while on a mission to search for a consignment of Phensedyl, a banned cough syrup which is smuggled into Bangladesh in large quantities.

As villagers protested the raids, a woman and a few others were injured, said the report.

"The villagers caught one Rab man while the rest fled across the border," Timir Das, Seepahijala, additional superintendent of police (ASP), told The Hindu.

The Rab men were in civilian clothes but armed, the ASP added.

Hussain informed the BSF and the police that his team was headed by a senior officer, Mohammad Kamruzzaman.
Posted by: Fred || 06/04/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Opposition MPs stage JS walkout
[Bangla Daily Star] Hours into returning to parliament after around 83 sittings, the opposition politicians led by BNP staged a walkout demanding withdrawal of a ban on rallies and processions.

Earlier on May 19, Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir repeatedly announced that no demonstrations including rallies and procession would be allowed for the next one month.

Just before walking out of the parliament around 8:10pm, BNP politician Moudud Ahmed protested the ban and demanded the home minister to offer an apology for the announcement.

Speaking in a point of order, the former law minister also called upon MK Alamgir to withdraw the ban, saying "You (Awami League) will not stay in power forever and we will not stay in opposition for good."
Posted by: Fred || 06/04/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Science & Technology
Apple Battles Ebook Conspiracy in U.S. Court
[An Nahar] Apple squares off with the U.S. government in court Monday in a trial accusing the iconic tech firm of leading a conspiracy to boost the price of ebooks.

The Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, technology giant is on its own in its fight against the U.S. Justice Department, after five large publishers named in the 2012 lawsuit settled the charges.

U.S. antitrust watchdogs argue Apple orchestrated a collusive shakeup of the electronic book business in early 2010 that resulted in higher prices.

The New York trial is expected to last three weeks, and comes with Apple under pressure for its slumping share price, eroding market share for its iPhones and iPads and accusations in Congress it avoided billions in taxes.

Five publishers named as defendants reached settlements in which they agreed to terminate their ebook agreements with Apple.

The largest settlement was with Penguin for $75 million, while a settlement with Hachette, Harper Collins and Simon & Schuster created a $69 million fund for refunds to consumers. Macmillan settled for $26 million.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook has rejected the idea of a settlement because it would call for the company to sign an admission of wrongdoing.

"We didn't do anything wrong there," Cook told a recent Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, conference. "We're going to fight."

The government's case centers on a period when Amazon dominated the ebook business, selling most bestseller titles for $9.99. Leaders of the major publishing houses held "CEOs dinners" in "private rooms at upscale restaurants" at which they discussed the threat from Amazon.

Into this environment stepped Apple, which was readying the launch of its iPad. Rather than following the Amazon "wholesale" pricing model in which the retailer sets the price, Apple favored the so-called "agency model" where the publishers set the price and the seller -- in this case Apple -- received a 30 percent commission.

The result was an increase in price to $12.99 or $14.99 for most books.

Apple throughout the negotiations informed the publishers of the status of its dealings with other publishers. Apple was the "ringmaster" of the "conspiracy," the complaint alleges.
Posted by: Fred || 06/04/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Deceptive headline. They're not fighting the conspiracy, they are being charged with conspiracy.

I'd ask "what do they teach in journalism school these days" but I'm scared someone would answer.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 06/04/2013 10:27 Comments || Top||

#2  If they ever do start Battling Conspiracies, it's time to short their stocks. I'm pretty sure Fu Manchu could take 'em.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 06/04/2013 10:28 Comments || Top||

#3  (Although maybe he's busy destroying Microsoft by joining their interface design time and coming up with Windows 8).
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 06/04/2013 10:28 Comments || Top||


Government
Obamacare nullification bill on SC Senate agenda
Posted by: DarthVader || 06/04/2013 11:58 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, Federal laws concerning border security and control have been on the White House's nullification agenda for a while.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 06/04/2013 17:04 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
30[untagged]
7Govt of Syria
4Arab Spring
3Hezbollah
2Jamaat-e-Islami
1al-Shabaab
1Commies
1Salafists
1Taliban
1TTP
1al-Qaeda in Arabia
1al-Qaeda in Iraq
1al-Qaeda in North Africa
1al-Qaeda in Pakistan

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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2013-06-04
  Missile Kills 26, including 8 Youths, in Syria Village
Mon 2013-06-03
  Damascus car bombing kills 9 security forces members
Sun 2013-06-02
  Second Muslim Convert Charged with London Soldier Murder
Sat 2013-06-01
  Turkey Finds Sarin Gas In Homes Of Suspected Syrian Islamists
Fri 2013-05-31
  Michigan Woman Dies In Syria, Fighting For Rebels
Thu 2013-05-30
  Pakistan: Wali ur-Rehman killed by US drone strike
Wed 2013-05-29
  French Police Arrest Suspect in Stabbing Attack on Soldier
Tue 2013-05-28
  NGO: At least 79 Hizbullah Fighters Killed in Qusayr
Mon 2013-05-27
  Rockets hit Hezbollah Beirut heartland
Sun 2013-05-26
  Female Suicide Bomber Injures 12 in Russia's Dagestan
Sat 2013-05-25
  French soldier stabbed with Stanley knife in Paris
Fri 2013-05-24
  Two Stockholm schools attacked as Sweden riots continue
Thu 2013-05-23
  Niger suicide bombers target Areva mine and barracks
Wed 2013-05-22
  'Soldier beheaded' in 'Islamist terror attack' oustide barracks in Woolwich
Tue 2013-05-21
  Nigeria Says It Has Retaken Five Islamist Strongholds

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