[Emirates 24/7] A Swedish appeals court on Tuesday sentenced an Afghan couple to 10 years in prison for the grisly 2005 murder of their daughter's boyfriend.
Raoof and Leyla Ataei were found guilty of the murder even though their son Abdulmajid has already spent four years in prison after confessing to the killing.
"The court recognises that this was a so-called honour killing," the Goeta Appeals Court in the town of Joenkoeping, which lies some 300 kilometres (185 miles) southwest of Stockholm, said in a statement.
Their son, who was 17 at the time of the murder and said after being released that he had taken the blame to protect his parents, was sentenced to 16 months' juvenile detention on Tuesday. He was immediately released due to time already served.
The daughter's Afghan boyfriend, Abbas Rezai, was found dead at the family home after being beaten with a rod iron, a baseball bat, stabbed and having hot oil poured over him.
The convicted couple, who are to be deported when their sentence is served, have denied murdering Rezai and claimed that their son changed his story so that he could remain in Sweden.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/06/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11128 views]
Top|| File under:
During this five-day battle, on one day alone she made 51 trips from the Ammunition Supply Point to the firing sites, 95% of the time by herself. She carried 386 rounds of recoilless rifle ammunition (over 9,000 pounds), walked over 35 miles through open rice paddies and up steep mountains with enemy fire coming in at the rate of 500 rounds per minute.
She was wounded twice, but that didnt stop or slow her down.
Her Military Decorations included two Purple Hearts, Good Conduct Medal, Presidential Unit Citation with star, National Defense Service Medal, Korean Service Medal, United Nations Service Medal, and Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation, all of which she wore proudly on her red and gold blanket.
About 200 people drowned in the Red Sea when a boat carrying migrants to Saudi Arabia sank off the Sudanese coast, Sudanese media say. Most of those on board were from Chad, Nigeria, Somalia, and Eritrea, SMC reported, adding that efforts were continuing to find survivors.
Four Yemenis who allegedly owned the boat had been arrested in Port Sudan state, the report added.
President Obama and his national-security team have said will be no "U.S. boots on the ground" inside Libya. Yet 13 U.S. Navy commandos remain interred on Libyan soil. There's a growing push to bring them home after more than 200 years on the shores of Tripoli. It's a strange tale: the 13, led by Navy Master Commandant Richard Somers, were aboard the "floating volcano" USS Intrepid, which was to move into Tripoli harbor to be blown up amid the pirate fleet there. But the vessel detonated prematurely on Sept. 4, 1804, killing them all.
Reports the Intrepid Project, which is seeking to have the 13 bodies brought back to the U.S.:
When their bodies washed up on the shores of Tripoli, the bashaw - the king of the pirates - invited a pack of dogs to devour them as American prisoners of war looked on. These 13 naval heroes remain buried today in two mass graves in Libya. One of those graves is unmarked and underfoot on the Tripoli plaza where Gaddafy has held his anti-America rallies for decades. Unfortunately, many Washington bureaucrats want to leave these men right where they are, buried like animals, not like American heroes.
Not sure who those Washington bureaucrats are, but -- assuming Tripoli eventually becomes safe for U.S. forces -- might be time to bring Master Commander Somers and his crew home at last.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Zim-bob-we's three governing parties have agreed on an election timetable that effectively sets the date for the next polls in mid-2012 despite demands by President Bob Muggsy Mugabe Octogenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case... that they be held this year.
President Mugabe has been insisting that elections must be held before the end of the year despite protests that the political situation is still too volatile and that the necessary reforms are yet to be put in place.
Negotiators from President Mugabe's Zanu PF party and the two Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) formations led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Industry and Commerce minister Prof Welshman Ncube concluded their negotiations on Tuesday.
South African President Jacob Zuma has been facilitating the talks on the so-called election roadmap that seeks to set the timelines for a referendum on the new constitution and the next polls.
President Mugabe, Mr Tsvangirai and Prof Ncube were on Wednesday due to receive a report from their negotiators which rules out elections before mid next year.
"This means that there is no way we can hold elections this year," the privately owned NewsDay newspaper quoted one of the negotiators as saying.
Zim-bob-we is battling to complete the writing of a new constitution, which is a pre-condition for fresh elections.
Indications are now that the process will not be complete before the end of this year.
President Mugabe, who early this year said he was no longer happy in the inclusive government, has been demanding that the constitution-making process be fast-tracked to facilitate an early poll.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/06/2011 19:19 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11124 views]
Top|| File under:
Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Chechnya said that an extended stay there cured a Siberian girl of a rare sleeping disorder. Kadyrov was moved by the plight of Sasha Pisarenko, a nine-year-old who doctors said suffered from the only case of narcolepsy in Russia. At his insistence, Pisarenko was brought to the Chechen capital Grozny where she lived for six months with her mother and sister in a luxury apartment.
"Grozny was charming, not menacing at all," according to a statement on a government website, adding that the strongman had phoned the girl directly after his own mother learned about Pisarenko from a TV show.
Helping Pisarenko is the latest display from the Kadyrov to prove that normalcy has returned to Chechnya.
"One of the important reasons behind her recovery has been the surrounding atmosphere -- sun, smiles, music and hospitality," read the statement, saying she was also sent to Switzerland for medical checks.
Kadyrov will soon visit Pisarenko in her hometown of Chita, some 3,000 miles east of Chechnya, the site said on Monday, showing a photo of the barrel-chested leader hugging Pisarenko in a headscarf.
"During her stay, Sasha suffered only one sleeping attack and her migraines stopped," it added, referring her treatment in Chechnya.
Chinas remarkable economic rebound after the global economic crisis in 2008-2009 has been a source of envy and puzzlement for the rest of the world. Instead of recession, the Chinese economy has recorded double-digit growth, and is actually showing signs of overheating a sharp contrast with the stagnation in most Western countries. How did the Chinese do it? Perhaps advocates of Chinese exceptionalism are right after all: Beijing has found a secret formula of economic success that has eluded the West.
Part of the answer to this mystery was given in late June by the Chinese government. It turns out that Beijing has managed to keep its economy growing during the global slump by resorting to massive bank lending to local governments, which then went on an infrastructure spending binge thats certain to haunt the country for years to come. If we remember the causes of the economic crisis that has ravaged the United States and Western Europe, the most important one is something euphemistically termed credit boom excessive lending and borrowing that fuelled housing bubbles and unsustainable consumption. China seems to have been afflicted with the same disease, with only one major variation: much of the debt incurred in China has gone into the infrastructure sector, not consumption. So much for Chinese exceptionalism.
Based on the figure released by the National Audit Office (NAO) at the end of June, local governments have accumulated debts totalling 10.7 trillion renminbi (RMB) or $1.65 trillion about 27 percent of Chinas GDP in 2010. Because the NAOs figure was based on a sampling of 6,500 local government-backed financial vehicles (out of more than 10,000 such vehicles nationwide), the actual magnitude of local government indebtedness is much greater. The Peoples Bank of China, the central bank, recently estimated that local government debt totalled 14 trillion RMB (most of which was owed to banks), almost 30 percent higher than the NAO figure.
Rest of the interesting numbers at link. I know I have been and several other people here as well that have been warning that China is having its own bubble and it will pop. Their banks are highly insolvent and the only thing that has kept them from going into a recession is the fact they have so much of our money. They will come crashing down and the only question is how hard and how bad will it be to the rest of the world? The world is broke. I think it is far past time the citizens of the world have an adult conversation about debt and social benefits as we are all getting fucked.
#1
Printing money has it's unintended consequences.
Brazil is one I have been watching. Some say it's like our 50's there. Others "We have our own oil, we've got natural resources - I believe we're living a cycle of growth like the US lived in the 1960s". Why these countries including our own print money to spent. The results are being seen here now. Everything will just cost more. As long as government spends all the money we will get the short end of it.
Fears that the eurozone crisis was entering a new stage intensified on Wednesday after Portugal's credit rating was slashed to junk, with European bank shares falling sharply and some government bonds coming under renewed pressure.
Portuguese bank shares tumbled in early trading, while the yield -- or interest rate -- demanded by traders to hold the country's debt jumped sharply. UK banks also lost ground, pulling the FTSE 100 down. UK government bonds, known as gilts, benefited, however, as investors looked for a safe haven.
The euro lost value against the dollar, dropping more than one cent to $1.4335.
Traders were alarmed by Moody's warning that Portugal -- like Greece -- will need a second bailout, as it became the first credit ratings agency to cut the country's debt to junk status.
Strange but the solution in Portugal and Greece is the same as in the U.S.: stop issuing debt. Okay, okay, you have to roll-over existing debt, and past profligacy requires a higher interest rate today as a penalty. You have to pay that. But stop issuing new debt and the pressure on rolling over current debt goes down.
I barely passed Econ 101 in college, but this seems like a no-brainer to me: if you're in debt up to your eyeballs and your creditors really don't want to buy anymore of your paper, stop issuing new debt. Sure it sucks as you then have to bring your government under control. Sure, you have to control expenditures and start saying 'no' to all the various interest groups.
But either you're a greedy, spineless, amoral pol or you're a statesman. Which would you rather be known as in the history books?
#2
I think Greece is too far gone merely to stop issuing new debt. Their financial status is such that they must default on the debts they already have and start over. Or should I say, Greece must default on even more of its debt than it already has defaulted on.
As far as the other PIGS, never fear - the EU mandarins have a cunning plan up their sleeves -- LYING. The EU commissioner in charge of financial regulation said the EU could explore the possibility of suspending the rating of countries that are currently receiving bailout funds from the EU and IMF, namely Greece, Ireland and Portugal. Suspending the rating means the central banks can accept worthless defaulted paper as collateral for new loans, papering over what can only be called a default. The EU authorities can also revoke the licenses of rating agencies like S&P, etc. Anything but deal with the truth.
For a vision of how the Greek debt meltdown is going to end, look no further than the International Monetary Fund's post mortem into a similar crisis that came to a head almost exactly a decade ago - Lessons From The Crisis In Argentina.
Interesting piece from The Telegraph, with a starring role by Tim Geithner. As Mark Twain once said, "History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme."
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/06/2011 08:25 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11125 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Anyone still under the impression that the best interests of taxpayers is foremost in mind of those handling our currencies should be sent to an institution...
[Dawn] The number of refusal cases in anti-polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... drive is alarmingly high and a comprehensive strategy and mechanism should be chalked out to bring these cases to zero level, said district coordination officer Nisar Ahmad here on Monday.
Chairing a meeting of district polio eradication committee in his office, the DCO expressed concern over the number of refusal cases and underlined the need for launching an awareness campaign to remove misconceptions and false rumours about the oral vaccine.
Health officials informed the meeting that two rounds of anti-polio campaign would be launched this month for which the department had finalised all sorts of arrangements. They said that the mobile, fixed and transit teams consisted of lady health workers, lady health supervisors, EPI staffers, volunteers and health employees who would immunise the target population of 126,564 kids under five years of age.
Mr Nisar directed the officials concerned to display the list of refusal cases in each health centre and ensure holding of polio eradication committee meetings on union council level. He said that the administration would not use police force for the coverage of refusal cases.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/06/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11126 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Jew vaccines---designed to sup the vitality of Pure People.
[An Nahar] The world needs $1.9 trillion in green technology investments a year, with over half of that sum necessary for developing countries," the U.N. said Tuesday. Don't look at me, I don't have it... They can print the $1 trillion just like Obama does.
"Over the next 40 years, $1.9 trillion (1.31 trillion Euros) per year will be needed for incremental investments in green technologies," the U.N. Economic and Social Affairs body said in its annual survey.
"At least one-half, or $1.1 trillion per year, of the required investments will need to be made in developing countries to meet their rapidly increasing food and energy demands through the application of green technologies," it added.
At the moment, "external financing currently available for green technology investments in developing countries is far from sufficient to meet the challenge," it assessed.
Over the last two years, climate change funds managed by World Bank disbursed about $20 billion, a fraction of the sum necessary for developing countries to build up clean energy technologies, sustainable farming techniques and technologies that help cut non-biodegradable waste production.
Even though states agreed during a 2009 Copenhagen summit to spend $30 billion over 2010 to 2012 and $100 billion a year by 2020 in transfers to developing countries, these sums have not been realized.
They would also fall short of the actual investment required.
"The survey estimates that developing countries will require a little over $1 trillion a year in incremental green investment," said the report.
"While a large proportion of the incremental investment would ultimately be financed from developing countries' public and private resources, international financing will be indispensable, particularly in the early years, in jump-starting green investment and financing the adoption of external technologies," it added.
Author of the report Rob Vos said that "business as usual is not an option."
"Without drastic improvements in and diffusion of green technologies, we will not reverse the ongoing ecological destruction and secure a decent livelihood for all of humankind, now and in the future," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/06/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11134 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
See also TOPIX > [UNDESA]UN REPORT: NEW [Worldwide] INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION NEEDED TO AVERT "PLANETARY CATASTROPHE". Humanity at NT real risk of breaching planetary sustainabilities.
* SAME > GLOBAL WARMING SLOWED [temporarily] BY CHINA'S SULFUR PRODUCTION.
Truly I don't know whether to laugh or laugh, vee D *** NG IT, THE WAY TO FIGHT GWCC-CAUSED POLLUTION IS WID MORE POLLUTION; versus D ***NG IT, THE WAY TO DEFEAT THE SUN IS TO ENVIRONMENTALLY DESTROY THE EARTH???
And once again, Virginia, we learn why God + Guam Taotamonas invented the Greek Debt Crisis.
#2
So in which exotic location are they going to have the luncheon to discuss having a conference? And don't forget - the local airport has to have enough room for all the private jets!
#3
Also from TOPIX > EXHAUSTED GLOBAL OIL SUPPLIES MAKE ARCTIC [North Pole regions] THE NEW HYDROCARBON FRONTIER.
* SAME > EU PLANS TO ROLLOVER GREEK DEBT [EU#30.0Bilyuhn = US$43.6Bilyuhn] AMOUNTS TO DEFAULT: S & P.
* DEFENCE FORUM INDIA > CHINA'S FRUSTRATED MIGRANT WORKERS [domestic] RISE UP, as per demands for improved Personal + Working Conditions, etc. due to all-around rise in consumer, societal affluence in China.
They want their $$$ + decadent dastardly capitalist materialist goodies, + aren't taking "No" for an answer, espec from Beijing.
Thusly ...
To wit,
* TOPIX > AS CHINA'S COMMUNIST PARTY CELEBRATES ITS 90TH ANNIVERSARY, A [internal]DEBATE ERUPTS, over how the CPC can best balance the ideological wid the spiritual wid the material, etc. as per the Chinese mainstream in the contemporary + future world.
* WAFF > THE RISING RUSSO-GERMAN ALLIANCE, e.g. as per Sole, Bilateral manipulation of the EuroDollar Markets vee EU.
'Tis why I'd argued that Germany's alleged abandonment of nuclear energy is more about RUSSIA + RUSSO-GERMAN COOP, "MANIFEST DESTINY" AS PER "GLOBALISM" + OWG-NWO, than the perils of NOT-THE-PERILS-OF-PAULINE NUCTECH/NUCENERGY.
#7
At the moment, "external financing currently available for green technology investments in developing countries is far from sufficient to meet the challenge," it assessed.
Translation:
No one in the private sector is foolish enough to throw any more money down the "Green Tech" rat-hole therefore we need goverment extortion to fill in the gaps.
* IIRC DECCAN HERALD > SCIENTISTS: EXTRA HEAT SURGE [Global] TO STAY FOR 20-60 YEARS, espec in Tropics.
Among other, the rise in global heat does support my description or labeling of the Pert-forecasted "MINI/NEW ICE AGE" as "THE GREAT SLUSHY", as the heat will keep any ice from hardening.
Don't like the term "Slushy" - howzabout then the absolutely positively categorically undeniably ...@etc. "GREAT/MIGHTY ASIA-PACIFIC JELLO"???
At least for several decades.
FYI POST-WW2 GUAM TEXTBOOKS = do denote that it can snow on tropical Guam.
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.