[An Nahar] The U.S. socialite will be the only Paris Hilton left after the hotel chain lost the right to manage its sole establishment in the center of the French capital under a court ruling seen by Agence France Presse Monday.
Real estate and hotel firm SIHPM, owners of the Hilton Arc de Triomphe, took the U.S. group to court for "serious violations of its obligations" under a management contract awarded in 2003.
SIHPM accused Hilton of having under-exploited the potential of the hotel, which it believed should be a five-star establishment instead of four, the company's lawyer Maurice Lantourne said.
It therefore sought to end the management mandate for the 500-room hotel, according to the ruling dated July 5.
The commercial court ruled in favor of SIHPM after finding "breaches" by Hilton, and gave SIHPM three months to "proceed to remove all references to the Hilton brand" on the hotel.
An independent expert has also been named to evaluate the damages and interests. The SIHPM is claiming up to 60 million euros.
Hilton France said it was contesting the ruling.
The U.S. group runs four other hotels outside Paris, including at the city's two main airports and in Versailles, but the Hilton Arc de Triomphe was the only one located in the city center.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/15/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Hey, she forgot her tighty whiteys. Oblivious of the draftiness?
[AFP] The US population reached a number dear to mathematicians on Tuesday: 314,159,265 or pi times 100 million.
"So go out and celebrate this American pi," quipped the US Census Bureau's chief demographer, Howard Hogan, in a statement marking the milestone.
"This is a once in many generations event," Hogan added in the release that reminded readers that "pi is a mathematical constant that is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter."
#8
"The landmark was reached shortly after 1829 GMT."
Revised to 1827 GMT after discovering another crossing of the Rio Grande.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
08/15/2012 11:43 Comments ||
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#9
Stiffler!
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
08/15/2012 12:30 Comments ||
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#10
Thought pi day was on 3-14? Akira Haraguchi, 60, needed more than 16 hours to recite the number to 100,000 decimal places, breaking his personal best of 83,431 digits set in 1995.
As a rising star in Hungary's far-right Jobbik Party, Csanad Szegedi was notorious for his incendiary comments on Jews: He accused them of "buying up" the country, railed about the "Jewishness" of the political elite and claimed Jews were desecrating national symbols.
Then came a revelation that knocked him off his perch as ultra-nationalist standard-bearer: Szegedi himself is a Jew.
Following weeks of Internet rumors, Szegedi acknowledged in June that his grandparents on his mother's side were Jews -- making him one too under Jewish law, even though he doesn't practice the faith.
Possibly. If neither his grandmother or his mother converted before the next generation was born, and if he never converted to another religion.
His grandmother was an Auschwitz survivor and his grandfather a veteran of forced labor camps.
Since then, the 30-year-old has become a pariah in Jobbik and his political career is on the brink of collapse. He declined to be interviewed for this story.
[Dawn] Youths jeered and jostled La Belle France's interior minister on Tuesday in the northern city of Amiens when he promised to restore law and order at the scene of overnight riots in which police were fired at with buckshot and pelted with missiles.
President Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France... said the state would "mobilise all its resources to combat this violence", which has shaken depressed quarters of major French cities at regular intervals over the past decade.
Police and emergency officials in Amiens were on high alert on Tuesday evening and some, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... , said they feared a further flareup of violence.
Unrest is often blamed on a combination of poor job prospects, racial discrimination, a widespread sense of alienation from mainstream society and perceived hostile policing.
But really it's due to sheer hatefulness. Plenty of other people suffer without creating unrest.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/15/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] The police claimed on Tuesday to have rubbed out two robbers in shootouts in different areas.
The Mughalpura police potted a 'robber' who allegedly raped a woman during a house strike at Mujahidabad three and a half months ago while the Gulshan Iqbal police shot down a robber who had injured a retired colonel on resistance on Monday.
Earlier, an alleged robber was killed by the Model Town CIA police at Old Kahna in the early hours of Monday.
Civil Lines SP (Operations) Abdul Qadir Qamar told Dawn that officials at a picket set up by the Mughalpura investigation in-charge signalled two motorcyclists to stop in the early hours. He said the suspects instead opened fire and the police chased and retaliated.
The SP said the suspects apparently escaped but an emergency call alerted the police that a man was lying injured on ground at Mujahidabad. He said the police rushed to the spot, picked up the man with multiple bullet wounds and took him to hospital but he died on the way.
SP Qamar said the victim was identified as Shahzad, 27, who hailed from Faisalabad. ...formerly known as Lyallpur, the third largest metropolis in Pakistain, the second largest in Punjab after Lahore. It is named after some Arab because Pakistain didn't have anybody notable to name it after... He said Shahzad was the one who opened fire on the police and his accomplice managed to escape.
He said the suspects had come to threaten Muhammad Naseer at his house to withdraw the robbery-cum-rape case against them. He said Shahzad and Azam, who along with their three accomplices, had entered the house of Naseer on April 3 last, raped the complainant's daughter and daughter-in-law and fled with cash and valuables.
He said the police record also found that Shahzad was nominated in several cases of murder, dacoity and robbery in Faisalabad and his accomplice Azam was killed in a police encounter a couple of months ago.
Meanwhile, ...back at the fist fight, Jake ducked another roundhouse, then parried with his left, then with his right, finally with his chin... the police shifted the body for an appointment with Dr. Quincy and started the paperwork but haven't done much else under 324, 353, 186 of PPC and 13/20/65 Arms Ordinance on the complaint of Inspector Muhammad Azam Manhais.
The Gulshan Iqbal police said a young robber was killed in crossfire with a team shortly after he and his accomplice attempted to loot cash and valuables from a retired army officer and his family and maimed him on resistance in Iqbal Town's Kamran Block.
Iqbal Town SP (Operations) Imtiaz Sarwar said Col Farooq (retired) went to his relative's house along with his family for Iftaar when two robbers stopped them and started looting jewellery from women.
As Farooq challenged them, one of the suspects fired at him. The firing also alerted neighbours who gathered on the spot.
Quoting witnesses, the SP said one of the suspects fled on the bike while the other having two weapons started running. The SP said a street guard opened fire on the runaway suspect who returned fire. On being informed, some coppers on patrol duty reached the spot and killed the gangster in crossfire.
Sarwar said the suspect had not yet been identified while the injured victim was admitted to the Jinnah Hospital.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth had turned a paler shade of blue. Star-A-Star had struck again... an alleged robber who was killed in a police shootout in Khana police precinct on Monday has not been identified. A Jinnah Hospital morgue official said the body was still lying for postmortem examination.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/15/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Two dozen suspected smugglers on Tuesday managed to get free a passenger bus loaded with chemicals, cloth and other contraband being smuggled from Khyber Pakhtunkhawa to Punjab.
The suspected smugglers attacked the Customs staff, damaged their vehicles and forced them to retreat before fleeing with the contraband.
Surprisingly, the customs staff did not call in reinforcements despite facing resistance from the smugglers.
It all happened when the Motorway Police signaled a passenger bus coming from Beautiful Downtown Peshawar to stop at Islamabad intersection of the Motorway.
After finding a large quantity of cloth, chemical and other goods being smuggled, the Motorway police informed the customs' anti-smuggling staff.
When they stopped, the suspected smugglers crashed their vehicle into the official double cabin van of the customs officials, damaging it.
The group then thrashed its staff and managed to snatch the impounded chemical and other contraband from the customs staff.
Pervez Iqbal, the customs inspector who was leading the squad, said in his complaint that on receiving information from Motorway police he along with his staff reached the scene and found the bus loaded with smuggled goods.
He said while the customs staff was taking the bus towards Kallar Kahar, (away from the Motorway) he found some five to 10 private vehicles blocking their way.
He said when they stopped, the suspected smugglers crashed their vehicle into the official double cabin van of the customs officials, damaging it.
The group then thrashed its staff and managed to snatch the impounded chemical and other contraband from the customs staff.
However, today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday... a complaint was lodged with the Westridge police by customs inspector Pervez Iqbal which led to the registration of a case against the gang of smugglers.
No arrests have so far been made by the police.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/15/2012 00:00 ||
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LOS ANGELES An unmanned experimental aircraft failed during an attempt to fly at six times the speed of sound in the latest setback for hypersonic flight. The X-51A Waverider was designed to reach Mach 6, or 3,600 mph, after being dropped by a B-52 bomber off the Southern California coast on Tuesday. Engineers hoped it would sustain its top speed for five minutes, twice as long as an X-51A has gone before.
But the Air Force said Wednesday that a faulty control fin prevented it from starting its exotic scramjet engine and it was lost. The Waverider successfully detached from the B-52 and fired the rocket booster as planned. Then its scramjet engine was supposed to take over as it attempted to climb to Mach 6, but that never happened. Fifteen seconds after separating from the rocket booster, the Waverider lost control, preventing a test of the scramjet engine.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/15/2012 15:35 ||
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#1
Second try failed. So next time study a bit more first and don't do the PR until after a success.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
08/15/2012 16:13 Comments ||
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#2
The start of Apollo didn't look promising either.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
08/15/2012 16:23 Comments ||
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#3
Hypersonic flight? Total failure! Move along citizen, nothing to see here.
Posted by: Area 51 Control ||
08/15/2012 18:03 Comments ||
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#4
This will work eventually. Until then, there are nukes for these problems.
#2
Ah yes, come get me lads. I'll be easy to find. I'm the old man wearing a Rogue, off on that hilltop nearly burried in empty shell casings. Good luck to ya, ya murdering kannibaals!
#10
actually, that's what they want - NBC et al showing racist tea party republicans beating poor protesting blacks... geez, if they weren't so transparent....
#11
The Battle of Athens (sometimes called the McMinn County War) was a rebellion led by citizens in Athens and Etowah, Tennessee, United States, against the local government in August 1946. The citizens, including some World War II veterans, accused the local officials of political corruption and voter intimidation. The event is sometimes cited by firearms ownership advocates as an example of the value of the Second Amendment in combating tyranny.
Voter intimidation is voter intimidation regardless of whoever is doing it. Do it at your own risk.
#13
There is never a reason to dis-enfranchise someone of their vote. It's not the 1960's anymore. Your vengeance is in err and not yours to have - besides, you back the racist party you dumb ass.
Always democrats trying to do voter intimidation in all of history.
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.
The U.S. socialite will be the only Paris Hilton left after the hotel chain lost the right to manage its sole establishment in the center of the French capital under a court ruling seen by Agence France Presse Monday.
As a rising star in Hungary's far-right Jobbik Party, Csanad Szegedi was notorious for his incendiary comments on Jews: He accused them of "buying up" the country, railed about the "Jewishness" of the political elite and claimed Jews were desecrating national symbols.
Youths jeered and jostled 
The police claimed on Tuesday to have 
Two dozen suspected smugglers on Tuesday managed to get free a passenger bus loaded with chemicals, cloth and other contraband being smuggled from Khyber Pakhtunkhawa to Punjab.
The New York Times Company has announced that BBC director general Mark Thompson will take over as its chief executive in November.
