[Dawn] Gunnies invaded a luxury hotel popular with foreign tourists and took 30 people hostage Saturday but within hours freed the captives and surrendered to police. "We quit!"
The 10 who invaded the Intercontinental Hotel were part of a large group of heavily armed, suspected narcos who had become embroiled in a shootout with police outside a large slum near the upscale São Conrado neighborhood, a police spokeswoman said. The other suspects beat feet.
"The gunnies were holding the hostages in the kitchen of the hotel, but we negotiated with them," said the spokeswoman. "All of the hostages are freed and 10 suspects are in custody."
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Bill Millin, a Scottish bagpiper who played highland tunes as his fellow commandos landed on a Normandy beach on D-Day and lived to see his bravado immortalized in the 1962 film The Longest Day, died on Wednesday in a hospital in the western England county of Devon. He was 88.
Mr. Millin was a 21-year-old private in Britains First Special Service Brigade when his unit landed on the strip of coast the Allies code-named Sword Beach, near the French city of Caen at the eastern end of the invasion front chosen by the Allies for the landings on June 6, 1944.
The young piper was approached shortly before the landings by the brigades commanding officer, Brig. Simon Fraser, who as the 15th Lord Lovat was the hereditary chief of the Clan Fraser and one of Scotlands most celebrated aristocrats. Against orders from World War I that forbade playing bagpipes on the battlefield because of the high risk of attracting enemy fire, Lord Lovat, then 32, asked Private Millin to play on the beachhead to raise morale.
When Private Millin demurred, citing the regulations, he recalled later, Lord Lovat replied: Ah, but thats the English War Office. You and I are both Scottish, and that doesnt apply.
#1
The movie "TLD" strongly infers LORD LOVAT as being IRISH, i.e. SEAN CONNERY Scene = "Aye, it takes an Irishman to play the Pipes"; as do a good number of Military Perts-Historians.
#4
The sound of WELL-played pipes is a fearsome thing and will send the opposition fleeing. POORLY-played pipes (many would say that's a redundancy) will send even the allies fleeing.
#5
I always thought Sean Connery was portraying an Irshman in the movie and was criticising the Scott's playing.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/21/2010 10:19 Comments ||
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#6
Brig. Simon Fraser, who as the 15th Lord Lovat was the hereditary chief of the Clan Fraser and one of Scotland's most celebrated aristocrats.
Ah, the ancient times when noblesse oblige meant privilege entailed responsibility, to include leading at the front. Not to be confused with any contemporary ineffective, ineffectual, preening ruling class ensconced behind their beltway moat.
#7
Well a lot of people are of Irish ancestry. We Irish get around (and the English were in the habit of shipping the Irish all over the place in an effort to get rid of us)
#8
OS, the English were not above letting a million Irish die during the Great Potato Famine.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
08/21/2010 13:17 Comments ||
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#9
BTW, the 15th Lord Lovat was a well known and respected Scots brawler, and under his leadership soon relieved the glider forces who were somewhat boxed in.
#10
Well aware of the starvation. Its why some of my ancestors came here (1848, then survivors came in 1861). It all started with the evil Brits' Irish Catholics had been prohibited by the penal laws from owning land, from leasing land; from voting, from holding political office; from living in a corporate town or within five miles of a corporate town, from obtaining education, from entering a profession, etc. They then gave all the Irish land to absentee English lords -- "land lords" who regarded the land as a source of income from which to extract as much money as possible, regardless of the price the former owners, now tenants, paid.
The rest is history - and still passed down in some families to this day (including my own) as a "don't ever give up your freedom" lesson.
#11
The sad thing is that food (cattle, grain, dairy) was exported by the landlords to England where it was sold, instead of given to the starving Irish who had helped produce the food - and were barred from it by armed guards ans it was shipped from their areas, in many cases. Basically the English got fat and rich off Irish food, and refused to ship aid in, while the Irish starved.
If anyone wants to know why there is hatred even to this day, that's a good chunk of it.
#12
But the crafty Irish achieved their just revenge with the exportation of the dreaded Bushmills intoxicants and the lineage of the clan of Kennedy. Feckless Poms, they've buggered it up again they have. Woe be we and thee.
#13
Not too long before the famine, there was an English government commission set up to come up with a solution to "the Irish problem".
That is, the potato blight had already hit the continent, causing significant starvation. They knew it would soon hit Ireland. And their biggest concern was that millions of starving Irish would devastate England after crossing the Irish Sea.
The solution they hit on was to subsidize inexpensive passage to the US. In retrospect, it was about the only thing they could have done.
Famines are very harsh to a people. Recovery from plague, war, and disaster are quick, but Ireland as a country did not recover its momentum after the famine for 140 years. Starving people destroy everything, and are physically and psychologically handicapped for generations.
#15
Ah, but there's the difference. Famine? Not so. In a famine there is not enough food being produced to feed the people living on the land. This was systematic starvation, combine with eviction and property grabs. There was plenty of food in Ireland, the problem was the English were exporting it, primarily to markets in England.
This was (deliberately nor not) a genocidal act by a government, not a famine.
Sir Charles Trevelyan, who was in charge of the administration of Government relief to the victims of the Irish Famine, limited the Government's actual relief because he thought "the judgement of God sent the calamity to teach the Irish a lesson". As was said, God sent the plague, but the English Government created the starvation.
And the Irish did learn: never surrender your liberty, and kill the English however you can.
As for the IRA, its not justification, but you can see the reasoning they were brought up with: the English callously inflicted death upon many women and children (and other incidents like Bloody Sunday 1920 in Dublin with the indiscriminate shooting by pistol rifle and machine gun of civilians at a football match by the British Black and Tans), so English civilians are fair game. Not justification, but you can see how the IRA has a pretty easy sell of the idea of killing English civilians.
Consider how bitter the US Civil war was. Now consider if 1/4 the US population had been forced to leave the continent, or else died. How long those wounds would have taken to heal?
#16
"Sir Charles Trevelyan, who was in charge of the administration of Government relief to the victims of the Irish Famine, limited the Government's actual relief because he thought "the judgement of God sent the calamity to teach the Irish a lesson"."
So, "Sir" Charles was Islamic?
Who knew?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/21/2010 19:29 Comments ||
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#17
Actually, Barbara, a number of Christians also believe(d) that God acted directly to punish evil doers in this life.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
08/21/2010 21:50 Comments ||
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#18
I know that, Rambler - I've run into more than one of those in my life.
I guess I needed a snark tag....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/21/2010 23:57 Comments ||
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[Arab News] A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit by a concert promoter against the late Michael Jackson over a failed reunion concert. He ain't gonna show. He's dead.
US District Judge Harold Baer Jr. granted a motion by lawyers for Jackson's estate to dismiss the case, citing a lack of evidence that the late King of Pop or his family were under a binding agreement to perform at a reunion concert.
AllGood Entertainment Inc., a company started in Morristown, New Jersey, sued Jackson for $40 million on June 10, 2009, roughly two weeks before the singer's death in Los Angeles at age 50. It claimed Jackson and his then-manager broke a contract for a Jackson reunion show.
AllGood later filed a creditor's claim with Jackson's estate, claiming the potential value of the lawsuit was at least $300 million.
Baer determined that there was a letter of intent between Jackson's then-manager, Frank DiLeo, and AllGood, but never an enforceable contract. He noted that neither Jackson nor any other members of the family who were to be involved in the show ever signed a contract.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2010 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Pakistan's devastating floods have killed or are threatening millions of heads of livestock, the UN food agency warned Friday, launching an urgent appeal for animal feed.
The livestock are "badly in need of food and medicine," the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation said, adding that the floods have affected intensive livestock farming areas.
Some 200,000 cows, sheep, buffalo, goats and donkeys have already been lost, but the toll will possibly be in the millions including poultry, the FAO said in a statement.
Many animals have died because people have had to abandon them when they were rescued from the floods, it said.
"You can put chickens, goats and sheep in the boat and take them with you, but you can't take a buffalo or a cow," said FAO livestock expert Simon Mack.
Livestock makes up about half of agricultural output in Pakistan, where three weeks of flooding has claimed nearly 1,500 lives and submerged about a fifth of the country -- roughly the size of England.
"The main priority -- and challenge -- is to get feed to those animals," said David Doolan, who heads FAO programmes in Pakistan.
The United Nations has asked for an initial 5.7 million dollars in emergency assistance for livestock, the FAO said.
"We are still trying to get a feel of how much feed is available in country, as much of it has been destroyed. Then we have to transport the feed which is also challenging with so much of the infrastructure damaged," Mack said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
"The main priority -- and challenge -- is to get feed to those animals," said David Doolan, who heads FAO programmes in Pakistan.
Hey, here's a crazy idea: let's slaughter the unfed cattle to feed the unfed human refugees of the flood, then we can fix two problems for the price of one.
#2
"You can put chickens, goats and sheep in the boat and take them with you, but you can't take a buffalo or a cow," said FAO livestock expert Simon Mack.
and that observation is what makes Simon a livestock expert......
Corporate profits are soaring. Companies are sitting on billions of dollars of cash. But nobody's hiring.
Senior executives blame the caution on their view that U.S. consumers will be disappointed for many years [since] the economy is unlikely to see the kind of almost unbroken prosperity of the quarter-century that preceded the financial crisis. Because we got us change!
They see Americans for years ahead paying down debts incurred during the now-ended credit boom and adjusting spending to match their often-reduced incomes. Not to mention greatly increased taxes.
"Congress has been very tough on businesses," said Jason Speer, chief executive of Quality Float Works of Schaumburg, Ill. Looking for more efficiency, not more employees, more cautious about investment, more risk-averse, since rewards will be less.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/21/2010 12:37 ||
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#1
And nobody really knows how the Health Care and Banking (and other 'helpful') bills will ultimately affect businesses.
We're holding on to our cash for now. Looking for 'Serta' options (hollow mattresses, etc.), too.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
08/21/2010 13:04 Comments ||
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#2
Companies are sitting on billions of dollars of cash.
Which should be 'profit', which should therefore be distributed among its stockholders accordingly if it is not going to be effectively utilized. Operating officers are treating such like the Donk pols think your income belongs to them. Building up large amounts will only attract the lust of politicians, corporate raiders, or corporate officers.
#4
Which should be 'profit', which should therefore be distributed among its stockholders accordingly if it is not going to be effectively utilized.
The majority of stockholders being pension funds and institutional investors, who'll re-invest the funds elsewhere. The money'll never see the 'street'.
#5
..yes. But better them than the personal bank accounts of corporate board members enriching themselves at the expense of the paper holder or the Treasury of Bottomless Spending of insatiable pols.
#7
Both public and private compensation have amply demonstrated that when the upper echelons set their own pay, perks, and compensation, they seldom if ever drop, until the treasury runs dry or the company tanks.
After devastating 500 villages of Sajawal, Junejo and Shahdadkot areas of upper Sindh, the flood wave is now heading to Kotri Barrage.
The cities including Shahdadkot, Qabu Saeed Khan, Mero Khan and Sajawal have been evacuated, as the surging floodwater has been diverted to Qabu Saeed Khan by making breaches on at least ten places in embankments.
The water level in Kotri Barrage has increased to 0.7 million cusecs. An emergency was declared and the army and Rangers personnel were deployed at the barrage.
The wave not only threatens nearby Hyderabad, it can also inundate low-lying areas of Sajawal, Shahdadkot and Thatta. According to the Flood Control Room, another flood wave is likely to pass through the Kotri Barrage on August 25.
However, water level in Sukkur and Guddu barrages has started to drop and water level on Friday was recorded at 945,000 and 955,000 cusecs respectively.
Twenty villages of Hyderabad district in katcha area have already been flooded. Several villages located in the outskirts of Jamshoro have been submerged in water, while katcha areas of Latifabad, Sehrishnagar, Qasimabad and Husainabad are also facing floods.
While in Thatta, three more villages were inundated by floodwater.
Water continues to seep through fissures in protective embankments near Nawabshah.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Previously, they complained that Indian dams siphoned off too much water. Now, no doubt, they are complaining that Indian dams are not.
A two-member Supreme Court bench on Friday assigned a former judge of the Lahore High Court (LHC), presently posted as the director general of the Anti-Corruption Punjab, Kazim Malik, to hold a detailed inquiry into the brutal killing of two teenage brothers in the presence of police in Sialkot and submit a report within seven days.
The bench consisting Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday was hearing a suo motu case pertaining to the alleged murder of two brothers -- 15-year-old Hafiz Mughees and 19-year-old Hafiz Muneeb -- by a mob in the presence of local police in Sialkot. The court directed the authorities to arrest the accused persons involved in the case as early as possible and submit a report along with the progress of both cases on a daily basis to the SC registrar for the court's perusal in chambers. During the hearing, the court said, "The footage shown by TV channels in the courtroom on multimedia screen indicates that a few people had ganged up on the boys and were beating them mercilessly in the presence of police officers."
"The brutality extended to the extent that after their death, their dead bodies were dragged and hanged on the pillars of an overhead water tank situated next to the office of Rescue 1122," the court noted. The DPO concerned told the court that after receipt of notice from the SC through the PPO, Rana Muhammad Ilyas, the SHO Sadar Sialkot was arrested, whereas 12 other police officers named in the FIR had still not been arrested.
The court noted that prima facie the footage shown by TV channels indicates height of brutality in a civilised society wherein two young persons had been mercilessly beaten to death in the presence of the police and so many other people were standing there and watching, and nobody, including the police officials whose duty was to protect lives, had the moral courage to intervene to save the two youngsters.
"Prima facie, we are not satisfied with the conduct of the DPO and SP (Investigation). It indicates their total failure to maintain law and order otherwise no one would have dared to take the law into their own hands. In such a situation it was the duty of the police officers/official concerned to intervene and should have made efforts to save their lives. The presence of police officers prima facie suggests their involvement in the incident as well, otherwise being in the police force it was their duty to maintain law and order instead of becoming silent spectators to such a horrific incident," the court noted.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2010 00:00 ||
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SAN DIEGO -- A rare World War II dive bomber was lifted 90 feet from the bottom of a San Diego reservoir Friday and hoisted to dry land for the first time in 65 years.
The SB2C Helldiver aircraft was brought to the surface after days of work to free it from several feet of mud and debris on the dark floor of Lower Otay Reservoir, where it was spotted last year by two men using a fish finder.
The Helldiver crashed when the engine failed during a training flight on May 28, 1945. Sgt. Joseph Metz and his pilot swam to shore and survived but have since died.
The aircraft had a tendency to crash. The first prototype crashed in February 1941. The second went down as it was pulling out of a dive.
Inside Edition caught up with Fakih backstage as she rehearsed for the Miss Universe Pageant in Las Vegas on Monday.
Fakih says she backs President Obama regarding freedom of religion, but says that there should be sensitivity as to where the NYC mosque is built, and that she does not think it is appropriate to be built near Ground Zero.
Rima Fakih: "I totally agree with President Obama with the statement on Constitutional rights of freedom of religion. I also agree that it shouldn't be so close to the World Trade Center. We should be more concerned with the tragedy than religion."
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/21/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Spoken by an intelligent arab-american -- not a muslim-american. IIRC, she's a Chaldean Catholic of Lebanese heritage...
#3
As Miss Universe, I want to help feed the hungry children all over the world and help promote peace. And.. I want Christians, Muslims and Jews to share an apple pie. We can all share apple pie. I want all of the children to be happy and eat apple pie!
Posted by: Martini ||
08/21/2010 1:53 Comments ||
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#4
Conservative women seem to have a lock on the beauties, while the left seems to have a lock on being real dogs.
#6
Beautiful woman , but as Glenmore says , she needs to eat more
Jaw droppingly beautiful
"We should be more concerned with tragedythe cold blooded murder of innocents by THE Cult of the Damned than constitutional rights of a scheming Saudi based building project designed to rub salt in the wounds of a nation
Posted by: Black Charlie ||
08/21/2010 10:03 Comments ||
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#7
Theres an article?
Posted by: Spains Dark Lord of the Pixies5650 ||
08/21/2010 11:01 Comments ||
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#9
beautiful and intelligent but if she added 20 lbs she wouldn't have ever been Miss USA and we would have never heard of her. Not dia=sageeing with yall but but that's the truth and I was also wondering how long before she is decrowned after saying this.
Posted by: chris ||
08/21/2010 23:44 Comments ||
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In the late 1940s and early 1950s, as Joseph Stalin entered the final years of his reign of terror in the Soviet Union, twentysomething Howard Zinn served as a foot soldier in the Communist Party of the United States of Americathis according to recently declassified FBI files.
Zinn, the Marxist historian and progressive hero who died in January, may also have lied to the FBI about his Communist Party membership. Is it at all surprising that someone who got history so wrong stood on the wrong side of history?
#2
Late last year, the History Channel aired The People Speak, a film partly based on Zinns book that featured appearances by Eddie Vedder, Sean Penn, P!nk, and other entertainers The octogenarian activist was the celebritys celebrity..
#4
Over the years History Channel has developed a disturbing interest in Da Vinci Codes, Bible Codes, Masonic rituals and generally left-leaning history re-writes.
#5
...don't forget MMGW. Even after 50 minutes of detailing the Little Ice Age and Big Chill and the natural processes behind them, they had to insert a homage to the "in" message.
#7
Sgt, that's because they have 168 hours of programming space to fill each week, and they lean on Ho'wood, the BBC and indie film makers to fill that space ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/21/2010 11:03 Comments ||
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#9
The article comments at the City Journal link are quite defensive of Zinn. The (hate/blame America first) Zinn Defense League appears to be in full effect.
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.
[Arab News] A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit by a concert promoter against the late Michael Jackson over a failed reunion concert.
After devastating 500 villages of Sajawal, Junejo and Shahdadkot areas of upper Sindh, the flood wave is now heading to Kotri Barrage.
Inside Edition caught up with Fakih backstage as she rehearsed for the Miss Universe Pageant in Las Vegas on Monday.
