[An Nahar] A lightning strike killed eight worshipers including a child at a church in Malawi's capital Lilongwe on Saturday, a health ministry official said.
"The worshipers were having an extended session of Saturday prayers when lightning struck their church at around 4.30pm," Charles Mwansambo, chief of health services in the ministry of health, told Agence France Presse.
He said the eight victims -- included seven adults and one child -- had "arrived already dead" at Kamuzu Central hospital from the Seventh Day Adventist Church.
Mwansambo said one person was at the intensive care unit, while 40 others were being "observed" and treated as outpatients.
"It's a disaster... it was a natural phenomenon," Mwansambo said.
Lightning has killed three other people in separate incidents since the start of the rainy season last month, according to media reports.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Very, very sad. Moves to the very top of my short list of "why questions" to one day ask.
[An Nahar] International efforts to bring peace to strife-torn South Sudan appeared at an impasse Sunday as the government accused former vice president Riek Machar of recruiting tens of thousands of fighters.
As the fighting which is believed to have killed thousands moves towards a third week, Juba claimed that Machar, the de facto leader of rebels fighting the government, has recruited up to 25,000 young men from his Nuer tribe in the eastern state of Jonglei who it says are "ready to attack any time".
According to Jonglei's acting governor Ogato Chan, the Nuer fighters were around 110 kilometers (70 miles) from the state capital of Bor, which he said was calm, for the moment at least.
"The information is that they want to come and attack Bor but I am sure they will not attempt to do it because the SPLA (Sudanese army) forces will repel them back," Chan said. "Now the army are taking position."
Rebel front man Moses Ruai Lat said Machar was "not mobilizing his tribe", the second biggest ethnic group in South Sudan, describing the men instead as regular soldiers who had rejected the government and were not specifically drafted by Machar.
The accusations have cast a shadow over peace talks spearheaded by regional leaders to end the bloody violence which the international community fears could slide into civil war.
Regional leaders at the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) have set Tuesday as a deadline for face-to-face talks between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy to end the fierce battles for control over several strategic oil-producing areas notably in the north of South Sudan.
While the government has said it was willing to observe a ceasefire, Machar has made demands including the release of his tossed in the clink Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! political allies before committing to a truce.
South Sudanese government front man Michael Makuei told AFP Sunday: "I really doubt if we, the South Sudanese government, will be in a position to sit with Riek Machar... He has not even respected the call by IGAD and the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... to agree to the cessation of hostilities."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Thousands of opposition supporters erupted into the streets of the Niger capital Niamey on Saturday to protest corruption and media censorship, in the first major rally against President Mahamadou Issoufou's rule since his 2011 election win.
Demonstrators chanted "Down with the regime!" and "No to dictatorship" as they gathered outside parliament, with some carrying portraits of ex-president Mamadou Tandja, who was ousted in a military coup in 2010 but remains a popular figure in the west African country.
The protest, organized by an alliance of opposition parties, marks the first large street demonstration against Issoufou since he came to power. He is expected to run for a second term in 2016 according to sources close to him.
Opposition leader and former premier Seini Oumarou condemned "the bad governance and corruption" in a country with worsening food security, education and health systems.
He also lashed out at the government's opaque oil deals with foreign firms and the ruling Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism's control of the media.
"We are witnessing the organised looting of our national resources," he said at an opposition meeting after the rally.
He accused Issoufou of trying to build up "a war chest" to secure victory in the 2016 presidential polls.
The opposition gathering was also attended by former president Mahamane Ousmane, who ruled from 1993 until his ouster in a coup in 1996.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
I have to seriously refrain for not making half a dozen bad jokes involving Niger with one g and with two gs
It was a slow hanging curve ball, looked as big as a grapefruit.... Maybe JFM and I should just go sit in the Sink Trap before temptation becomes too much.
#4
Gentlemen: If you have to say something, make it something constructive. Be aware that there are real people here, with real struggles. Niger's economy isn't much, education is almost non-existent, they have around 40,000 refugees from Boko Haram draining scant resources. The country is just beyond reach of warm currents that bring rain to its neighbors to the south. JFM might be able to tell us what infrastructure, if any, the French left behind 30-odd years ago. Isn't Niger part of the French Outre-mer?
#5
t was a slow hanging curve ball, looked as big as a grapefruit... Then it dropped like a rock and went very left and almost stopped. I realized then why Phil Niekro should be in the Hall of Fame.
[An Nahar] Saudi police on Saturday pulled over a woman minutes after she got behind the wheel in the Red Sea city of Jeddah after activists called for a new challenge to a driving ban.
"Only 10 minutes after Tamador al-Yami got behind the wheel police stopped her," activist Eman al-Nafjan told Agence La Belle France Presse, adding that Yami carries an international driving licence and was with another woman who was filming her in the car.
Tamador's husband was called to the scene and she was forced to sign a pledge not to drive again without a Saudi licence, said Nafjan on her Twitter account.
Women are not allowed into driving schools in the ultra-conservative kingdom are not granted licences.
Elsewhere in Khobar, in Eastern Province, another woman drove for two hours, accompanied by her husband, without being stopped, Nafjan said.
Activists say Saturday was chosen as a "symbolic" date as part of efforts first launched more than a decade ago to press for the right for Saudi women to drive.
The call for action is a "reminder of the right so it is not forgotten," activist Nasima al-Sada had told AFP.
The absolute monarchy is the only country in the world where women are barred from driving, a rule that has drawn international condemnation.
Saturday's action is a continuation of a campaign launched on October 26, when 16 activists were stopped by police for defying the ban.
In addition to not being allowed to drive, Saudi women must cover themselves from head to toe and need permission from a male guardian to travel, work and marry.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2013 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... 's inquisitors religious police has warned against celebrating the New Year's Eve in the ultra-conservative Gulf kingdom, the local Okaz daily said on Sunday.
The Commission of the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, known unofficially as Mutawaa, based its warning on a religious edict from the top committee of Saudi holy mans banning such celebrations, the newspaper said.
Saudi Arabia follows the Moslem lunar calendar, unlike all other Gulf states that use the Gregorian calendar.
Members of the commission enforce the kingdom's rule of strict segregation between sexes, and have traditionally forced women to cover from head to toe when in public.
They also go around shops to make sure they are shuttered during prayer times.
The inquisitors religious police have been accused of abusing their powers.
But since January last year, the inquisitors religious police have become more discreet with the appointment of their new chief, holy man Abdulatif bin Abdulaziz al-Sheikh, who banned the use of unmarked cars.
Mutawaa also traditionally banned the sale of red roses and gifts for Valentine's Day on 14 February.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Ah, yes - I can remember standing on the bow in Al Jubail with my morning Cuban cigar, smiling and raising my coffee cup to the scowling mutaween at the base of the pier.
[An Nahar] A Europe badly shaken by a faltering economy and rising populism is set to commemorate the centenary of World War I, the conflict still known as the "Great War" that scarred the continent and shaped the 20th century.
Commemorations for the 1914-18 Great War are planned through the summer on either side of the Western Front, but with no single event bringing all of the former foes together.
Plans for a major gathering in Sarajevo -- where the liquidation of the Austro-Hungarian heir Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian nationalist is seen as sparking the conflict in June 28, 1914 -- had to be dropped due to a lack of international consensus.
Europe was left ruined by four years of all-consuming warfare, but while European nations shared in the trauma of what some historians called a collective "suicide", how they remember the Great War varies greatly.
Europeans "continue to approach this transnational event through the narrow framework of national memory", explained the Australian historian John Horne, of Dublin University.
For the British and French, World War I is vividly etched in the collective imagination as a just and necessary victory, secured at a terrible human cost.
Remembering the war is a big deal in La Belle France and Britannia, as well as in Australia and New Zealand whose very sense of identity is tied to the conflict, with hundreds of official projects and wall-to-wall media coverage.
In Germany and Russia, by contrast, the Great War's memory was all but supplanted by the cataclysm of World War II, two decades later.
The centenary also comes as the very idea of a shared European future is under attack, with eurosceptics, nationalists and the far-right gaining ground across the continent as the eurozone heads into a fourth year of economic crisis.
Delegations from the warring parties in World War I have been invited to La Belle France for a "peace demonstration" on Bastille Day, July 14. The presidents of Germany and La Belle France, Joachim Gauck and Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, an economic bad joke for la Belle France but seemingly a foreign policy realist... , will also stand side by side in La Belle France on August 3 to mark the start of the war "with gravity and reverence".
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
They mean the "First European Civil War," don't they?
If you have not seen this movie, I would suggest you do. Very riveting, action filled film.
War Horse
Young Albert enlists to serve in World War I after his beloved horse is sold to the cavalry. Albert's hopeful journey takes him out of England and to the front lines as the war rages on.
Posted by: Au Auric ||
12/30/2013 16:09 Comments ||
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[Al Ahram] Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan swore on Sunday he would survive a corruption crisis circling his cabinet, saying those seeking his overthrow would fail just like mass anti-government protests last summer.
Erdogan, who says the scandal is an international plot, accused his opponents of caring not about corruption but wanting to undermine the power of Turkey, which has been transformed economically under his 11-year leadership.
On Friday, thousands of Turks demanding his resignation clashed with riot police in central Istanbul. The trouble recalled protests in mid-2013 which began over development plans for the city's Gezi park but broadened into complaints of authoritarianism under Erdogan's Islamist-rooted AK party.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2013 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Four youths and an old man were found rubbed out on Saturday evening at the mausoleum of the legendary 'Noori', located on an islet in the middle of Keenjhar Lake.
The dead were Malik Mohammed Ali, Adnan Yousufzai, and Sohail Masood of Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , Jahangir Akhtar of Gilgit and Bilawal Khan of Rawalpindi.
The police seized a Honda car that was leased out from Bank Islami and registered on Jan 24, 2006.
Sources said Keenjhar police nabbed Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! Gul Mohammed, a motorboat operator who was reportedly hired by the dear departed for Rs1,000 to visit the mausoleum.
Eyewitnesses told Dawn that after parking their car by the lake, some people hired the boat and sped towards the mausoleum.
They said the motorboat returned within 30 minutes and the operator told them that the picnickers had asked him to pick them up later.
The boat operator said that when he did not get any call by evening, he went to the islet to bring the five men back. However, nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits... he was horrified to see all of them in a pool of blood.
He said they had been shot in their heads and were lying beside the grave. He then rushed to the cop shoppe to give information.
Imtiaz Shah of the Sindh Tourism Development Corporation, Thatta ASP Asad Malhi and other police officials told Dawn that surprisingly all the dear departed who were attired in jeans seemed to be sitting, as if praying. And all of them had been shot in the head.
The sources said that wallets, cellphones and identity cards belonging to the five were collected by police. However there was no trace of the weapon used in the murders. Some pellets were found, though.
When contacted, Thatta SSP said he didn't believe that only five people had visited the mausoleum or that the picnickers had did away with himself. He said another boat could have followed the one hired by the dear departed to get to the islet.
The police official noted that there were no signs of any resistance that might have been put up by the five ill-fated men. "The men could have jumped in the lake to save them but that did not happen, either," he remarked.
"It's quite strange that the men chose to visit the mausoleum in the evening in this cold weather. It's desolate at this time of the day."
The bodies of the dear departed were later shifted to a bank branch near the lake. No FIR had been registered till the filing of this report.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2013 00:00 ||
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The leader of a scientific expedition whose ship remains stranded in Antarctic ice says the team, which set out to prove climate change, is "stuck in our own experiment." At the height of Summer in the Southern Hemisphere.
But Chris Turney, a professor of climate change at Australia's University of New South Wales, said it was "silly" to suggest he and 73 others aboard the MV Akademic Shokalskiy were trapped in ice they'd sought to prove had melted. He remained adamant that sea ice is melting, even as the boat remained trapped in frozen seas.
"Sea ice is disappearing due to climate change, but here ice is building up," the Australasian Antarctic Expedition said in a statement. In spite of the fact that Arctic Ice is also building, Miami's Biscayne Bay remains ice free.
But the situation has global warming skeptics poking fun at the scientists.
"Cute how these Warmists who hate fossil fuels take a trip to the Antarctic to show just how horrible fossil-fueled climate change is, then need rescue from their fossil-fueled trip by other fossil-fueled ships and helicopters, which still can't rescue them," wrote one blogger.
#1
the headwaters of DeNial run even further south than I was aware of
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/30/2013 15:37 Comments ||
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#2
probably very few of the people claiming to be scientists are actually scientist
what's the hypothesis that they are testing?
seems the hypothesis is that quasi ramdom measurements can be used to promote whatever theory they want to promote
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/30/2013 15:39 Comments ||
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#3
"Sea ice is disappearing due to climate change, but here ice is building up," the Australasian Antarctic Expedition said in a statement.
We've seen this kinda thought process in other regions. You gotta be able to hold 3 completely stupid and conflicting thoughts in your head at the same time.
#5
Leave them until they , Decide Dammit.make up their minds, "The Ice is melting,"" The ice is not melting", Decide Dammit.
They've said the ice is melting, OK leave them there and they can sail out.
Posted by: Redneck JIm ||
12/30/2013 17:48 Comments ||
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#6
His data is old. For the past year, world sea ice has been holding at the 35 year average, and in the last couple of months has trended above the average.
As for the Antarctic, almost all of the ice melts there every summer, providing spectacular pictures to fuel the warmist cause. But the average amount of Antarctic ice has been increasing for decades, offsetting the loss of Arctic ice.
These guys managed to get caught in thick multi-year ice, despite plenty of information regarding its whereabouts. It remains to be seen if the ship is recoverable. Ice down there will be increasing again by mid-February.
#10
Sometimes it really does seem like God is sending these people a message and they continue to refuse to listen. Eventually he may change tactics. We'll know this happens when Al Gore is struck by lightning every time he walks outside.
#13
He remained adamant that sea ice is melting, even as the boat remained trapped in frozen seas
The same people on the boat not only refuse to see what is in front of their face, they have the arrogance to look down on fundamentalist Christians who believe in creationism in the face of their (faith based) 'science'. Look in the mirror boys.
Some people have been known to survive multiple lightning strikes. And think of how amusing it would be for it to happen again and again and again. Sort of like counting hanging chads;P
Cape Wind Associates said Monday that it has finalized a major deal with the German conglomerate Siemens AG to buy giant turbines, the offshore transformer, and maintenance services for its planned multibillion-dollar wind farm in Nantucket Sound. Now that Ted has departed, and Jf'nK is occupied with matters of state...
The agreement is one of the last major steps toward getting the 130-turbine wind farm built and running after 12 years of acrimonious debate over building such a project off the coast of Cape Cod. It could also prove key to securing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal investment tax credits, which are critical to Cape Wind financing the $2.5 billion project. Tax credits? That's like a subsidy, right?
The federal government's energy investment tax credit is set to expire at the end of this year, and unless Congress renews it once lawmakers return to Washington after the holidays, only projects that have begun construction or incurred 5 percent of a project's total capital costs by the end of 2013 qualify. However -
Audra Parker, president of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, one of the most vehement opponents of the Cape Wind project, said Gordon is "clearly having trouble" nailing down finances for Cape Wind. On the other hand -
"This is a significant milestone for this project and we're excited about it," said Governor Deval Patrick, whose administration has pushed hard to get Cape Wind built. "Massachusetts will be a pioneer in the emerging offshore wind industry, which brings with it both clean energy and good jobs."
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/30/2013 14:42 ||
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[Egypt Independent] Tens of thousands of Cambodian opposition supporters, backed by striking garment-factory workers, rallied on Sunday to demand long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen step down and call an election.
The garment workers have in recent days joined the opposition protests to press their demand that the government raise the minimum wage to $160 a month from $95, as recommended on December 24.
"Hun Sen and his illegal government can hear us, they can't ignore us, the people show their will for change," Sam Rainsy, leader of the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, told the rally in a Phnom Penh park.
"We demand that Hun Sen to steps down and a new election," Sam Rainsy, a formerfinance minister, told the crowd, some of whom have been camping out in the park since December 15.
Hun Sen's long-dominant Cambodian People's Party won a July election but with a reduced majority. It has rejected opposition complaints of vote-rigging.
Hun Sen, who has been in power for 28 years, has ignored opposition demands for an investigation into the election and says that he will not resign or call a new election.
Under Hun Sen, Cambodia has been transformed from a backwater scarred by the "Killing Fields" rule of the Khmer Rouge, into one of Southeast Asia's fastest growing economies, helped by a burgeoning garment industry and growing political and investment ties withChina.
But his authoritarian rule has earned the condemnation of rights groups and that, along with widespread corruption, has alienated many voters.
Many of them have now come out onto the street in a sustained show of defiance that would have been almost unthinkable before the election.
Cambodia's garment manufacturers, meanwhile, have for years enjoyed low wages and relaxed labor conditions.
But Chea Mony, president of the country's biggest labor union, the Free Trade Union, told Rooters that more than 200 of 600 factories had closed because of the strike for higher pay.
"The new minimum wage is not acceptable to workers so there must be talks on the demand for $160," Chea Mony said.
Garment and shoe factory representative said the strike was damaging the industry.
"The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia would like to inform all stakeholders that our industry is unable to continue operations given the current situation," association Secretary General Ken Loo said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2013 00:00 ||
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South Korea and Japan are arguably two of the most successful countries of the past half-century. They came out of their respective wars deeply impoverished and politically broken, but have since become wealthy and highly entrepreneurial democracies, renowned for their cultural exports and leadership in technological development.
It would make a lot of sense for South Korea and Japan to work closely together. They have similar economies, lots of cultural overlap, defense treaties with the United States, shared concerns about North Korea and a mutual desire to resist China's growing power and influence. The two countries stand to gain significantly from working together. But they are terrible at cooperating with one another -- just terrible.
Part of that has to do with rising nationalism in both countries, which can make cooperation with any foreign country difficult. But it has to do mainly with their shared history: Japan brutally colonized Korea in the first half of the 20th century, and then spent the second half becoming decreasingly apologetic, with senior Japanese politicians now treating that dark history as a source of national pride. South Korean politicians are not blameless themselves, playing up disputes and taking the bait at every provocation.
That brings us to the latest Korean-Japanese spat, which is both unsurprisingly petty and perhaps a new low. Both countries have about 300 troops deployed as peacekeepers in South Sudan, where internal conflict looks increasingly like the makings of a possible civil war. The South Korean troops needed more ammunition, which on Monday was supplied by the nearby Japanese force.
But what should have been a rare opportunity for cooperation has quickly become the opposite. South Korea said it asked the United Nations for ammo, and the United Nations just happened to pass along Japanese-owned bullets. Japan put out the story that the Koreans had asked them directly for the ammo. South Korea took this as an insult, apparently believing that Tokyo was attempting to spin the story to make Japan look strong and South Korea look weak. It has devolved rapidly from there, with national media in both countries playing up the grievances and offense-taking.
The fact that this is all going down in the middle of South Sudan, a country with real problems, drives home how petty these spats are. Yes, South Korea and Japan have some very serious and real historical disputes that still matter today; some of the Korean "comfort women" used as sex slaves by the occupying Japanese forces in the 1940s are still alive and still occasionally insulted by Japanese politicians.
But neither country has much to gain, and both have a lot to lose, by holding on to those disputes rather than finding a way to cooperate. The fact that even a bit of conflict-zone ammo-sharing becomes a point of diplomatic dispute is a sign of just how tough it is for Korea and Japan to put their differences aside -- and a reminder of why China and the United States will continue to be East Asia's major players for a long time to come.
#1
The China-vs-Japan brouhaha may get the most Media or MSM-Net recognition, but truth be told even SOKOR has its own, ideally post-NOKOR Reunification "Manifest Destiny" ambitions.
As first thingys still must come first, both the ROK + DPRK must firstly survive the said China-vs-Japan brouhaha, hence ... ...
* WAFF > [NewsWeek = Asian Security Blog] JAPAN AS A UNIQUE BULWARK TO CHINESE HEGEMONY IN ASIA.
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > [Diplomat Crisis]HAS OBAMA CONCLUDED THAT INDIA IS DISPENSABLE?, as opposed to INDISPENSABLE to US interests + strategy???
And iff INDIA is "dispensable",i.e. "expendable",
WHY NOT ANY OF AMER'S OTHER ALLIES IN EAST ASIA + PACIFIC.
#2
For the time being, IMO SOKOR = NOKOR = priority is deterring Rising China + preventing de facto Chinese takeover of NOKOR for any reason.
BIGNEWSNETWORK Artics = indic that despite their differences, the latter has not seemingly NOT stopped either Govt-Nation from direct, Bilateral collusion-n-cooperation vee China's ambitions in NE Asia.
#3
One of the WWII images I most vividly remember is one of an american interpreter talking with a Korean woman from Japases Army's "Consolation battalions" after being liberrated by American forces.
And given Japan is unrepentant about all it did there is no reason the Koreans forgive.
BTW: When you are being talked by a leftist or an European about the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings never fail to mention the Japanese were killing or starving to death about 200,000 people a month in China alone. More than a Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. So shortening the war by a mere month saved more Chinese lives than Japanese lives were lost (Not to mention American and Japanese casualties after a landing). %y guess is that if you ask to a Chinese if anything he will fault America on not being agressive enough on developping nuclear bombs and using them sooner.
#4
At the end of WW11 Japan had only 49 Chinese prisoners of war. You can imagine what had happened and it did. Not so much with the Japanese I have met but with South Koreans they display a "rising nationalism" here even in this country. Some more so than others. The Chinese seem more agreeable. I only deal with small numbers myself. My two cents.
#5
JFM: Except, well, the Japanese have repented. The statements that they have not done so seems to be a main selling point of "nationalistic" Chinese propaganda that often suggests doing worse things to Japan.
I don't believe there's a point in continuing to apologize to people who talk about wanting to kill you and enslave your women for what your grandparents did.
#6
%y guess is that if you ask to a Chinese if anything he will fault America on not being agressive enough on developping nuclear bombs and using them sooner.
Ask a Chinese who killed more Chinese: the Japanese or the Chinese themselves under Mao Tse Tung? (And, oh by the way, how many Tibetans have the Chinese killed?)
Ask a Brit if any atrocities were ever committed in India, or China (see Opium Wars).
Ask a Frenchman if any atrocities were ever committed in Indochina.
I think there are atrocities enough to go around and there is no point stirring up trouble over things that happened so many years ago. The way it looks to me is the Chinese today are perpetuating the memory of things that supposedly happened to them at the hands of the Japanese as an excuse for their own aggressive designs.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/30/2013 10:30 Comments ||
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#7
Ask a Chinese who killed more Chinese: the Japanese or the Chinese themselves under Mao Tse Tung? (And, oh by the way, how many Tibetans have the Chinese killed?)
#9
Thing from Snowy Mountain. Not so much. Hiroshima and Nagasaki (and a afr weaker effort than in Germany about Japan's war crimes) have led to Jap,ese considering their ancestors as pure innocent victims instead of the fascists they were.
When mentionning the reactions of your average Chinese I wasn't trying to caompare Mao's and Japan's number of Chinese victims but trying to shhot one of the main themes of antiamerican propaganda. And BTW if Trumann had not used the Bomb now those same people would be using the two or three milion Chinese and other Asians additional deaths as a propganda weapon against America. That if due to stravation Japan had peacefully surrendered in 1946. If there had been an actual invasion and given precedents of massive suicides between civilians (spontaneous olr forced by the military like in Saipan or Guam) the number of Japanese deaths would have been by the tenths of millions.
#12
Well, what they try to sell to the pacifist western left is different than what they try to sell to the nationalistic Asian left. "Those Americans are protecting the Japanese from what They Have Coming To Them For The War Crime Of Whose Grandchildren They Are."
#13
I just don't see how dredging up shit from WWII and rubbing Japanese noses in it is going to bring peace. More likely it will cause a Japanese backlash which will increase tensions in a part of the world where I for one would like to see less tension.
As for the SKORs, one would think it would be in their interests to befriend Japan not only for mutual defense against increasingly hostile Chinese and North Koreans but for trade and prosperity. The Chinese, Japanese and South Koreans have all done pretty well in the past few decades. Why do they want to start another war?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/30/2013 13:57 Comments ||
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#14
The Chinese, Japanese and South Koreans have all done pretty well in the past few decades. Why do they want to start another war?
Boredom? To take the rubes' minds off bad economies?
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/30/2013 14:14 Comments ||
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#15
We may have to make a choice in the near future. I know mine.
#16
"The Chinese, Japanese and South Koreans have all done pretty well in the past few decades. Why do they want to start another war?"
Because they can?
Posted by: Barbara ||
12/30/2013 20:04 Comments ||
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#17
Various Perts argue that China's real beef wid Abe's Yasukuni Shrine visit is Japan's historical independence from Chinese control or vassalage, + CHINA'S FAILURE TO CHANGE SAME???
D *** NGED -ZILLA LIZARD ANDOR GIANT BUTTERFLY [Mothra] SANK THE MONGOL FLEET(S).
Anyhoo ...
* TOPIX > JAPAN OFFICIALLY ENTERS COLD WAR WID CHINA + [South?] KOREA.
Unfortunately, US-SOVIET style Decades-long "Cold War" is NOT what "post-US", "Mahanist" China wants to see occur right now again, IMO China does NOT want to wait until after US Allies in East Asia go Nukulaar andor US-led GMD-TMD, Orbit-SpaceStrike is firmly or permanently established.
* SAME > [Bloomberg] HOW TO PREVENT A WAR BETWEEN CHINA + JAPAN?, by taking the matter to the UNO = UNICJ.
Because POTUS Bammer's call for UN-led mediation worked out so well for Uncle Muammar [Libya], Mubarak [Egypt], and the anti-Assadian FSA in Syria???
* WAFF > [Want China Times] XI JINPING PREPARING THE PLA FOR WAR: XINHUA COMMENTARY.
* BIGNEWSNETWORK > [Global Times = PDOL] CHINESE LEADERS WILL NOT MEET JAPANESE LEADERS WHO BRAZENLY TRY TO AMEND/CHANGE THE VERDICT OF THE ANTI-FASCIST WAR [WW2].
PRC FM SPox Qin Gang.
* INDIAN DEFENCE FORUM > [Want China Times] CHINA COULD DEFEAT THE US IN EASTERN PACIFIC [EastPac} CONFLICT BY 2020: RUSSIAN ANALYST .
Vassily Kashin, CAST Senior Fellow.
RELATED SAME = [Current] US AIRSEA BATTLE DOCTRINE MAY BE USELESS AGAINST PLA: RUSSIAN ANALYST.
ARTIC > KASHIN = By 2020, CHINA will be able to ...
> project its military forces into WESTPAC.
> defeat US Allies in one or more LOCAL MIL CONFLICTS.
> China's domination = reduced US ability to change the situation via military force.
> China can win a mil conflict agz the US-Allies "politically" before or long before US forces arrive in-theater.
* WORLD MILITARY FORUM > TAIWAN LADY LAWMAKER WARNS THAT TAIWAN MAY BE FIRST TO DETRIMENTALLY SUFFER FROM THE CONSEQUENCES OR AFFECTS OF CHINA-JAPAN [China-vs-US?] MIL CONFLICT IN EAST CHINA SEA OVER DISPUTED DIAOYUTAI [Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands], CALLS FOR DIAOYUTAI TO BE DECLARED AM INTERNATIONAL NEUTRAL ZONE NON-SOVEREIGN TO ANY NATION OR WORLD POWER.
* SAME > CHINA'S PLANS TO DEVELOP A MULTIPLE, "BLUE-WATER" CAPABLE AIRCRAFT CARRIER NAVAL FORCE DRIVEN BY ITS LACK OF OVERSEAS MILITARY BASES FOR THE STRATEGIC PROJECTION OF PLA MILITARY POWER.
versus
* BIGNEWSNETWORK > [Asian News Network] JAPANESE GOVT. WANTS SEA LANES AS PART OF ITS SELF-DEFENSE.
[An Nahar] Marijuana users in Colorado and Washington are counting down the hours before the western U.S. states become the first to legalize recreational pot shops on January 1.
Blazing a trail they hope will be followed in other parts of the United States, cannabis growers and others are also rubbing their hands, while tax collectors are eyeing the revenue the newly-legalized trade will generate.
Enterprising companies are even offering marijuana tours to cash in on tourists expected to be attracted to a Netherlands-style pot culture -- including in Colorado's famous ski resorts.
"Just the novelty alone is bringing people from everywhere," said Adam Raleigh of cannabis supplier Telluride Bud Co.
"I have people driving in from Texas, Arizona, Utah... to be a part of history.
"Over the last month I have received somewhere between four to six emails a day and five to 10 phone calls a day asking all about the law and when should people plan their ski trip to go along with cannabis," he added.
Medical marijuana is already legal and regulated in 19 U.S. states, and has been allowed in some cases for the past 20 years. And in most of them, private consumption of cannabis is not classified as a crime.
But Colorado and Washington are creating a recreational market in which local authorities will oversee growing, distribution and marketing -- all of it legal -- for people to get high just for the fun of it.
The market is huge: from $1.4 billion in medical marijuana in 2013 it will grow by 64 percent to $2.34 billion in 2014 with recreational pot added in Colorado and Washington, according to Arcview Market Research, which tracks and publishes data on the cannabis industry.
Both states legalized recreational consumption of marijuana in referendums in November last year, but new rules coming into force on January 1 allow cannabis shops.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Attention Colorado folks, you may want to stay off the main roads for a while.
Lowered response times and all that whilst out-of-state drivers participate in 'history'.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/30/2013 15:41 Comments ||
Top||
#2
How, in an age where so many kids lack parents who have their heads on straight, can we make it that much easier for adults to screw their heads up even worse?
#3
My only real worry is that the new dope can be 20% THC, that's getting pretty, well, extreme. Most of us on R'burgers may have had a few minor experiences in the 70's, 80's 2013, most of that shit was running about 2%.
#4
Kids already have access to this stuff. I bet you can get it in nearly every High School - even Junior High School across the land and it's been that way since I was in 8th grade back in the early '80's.
I'm not too concerned about the increased potency. You can't really compare it to alcohol in that sense. Ingesting the more potent modern strains is not the same as drinking grain alcohol. For one thing, it will not make you physically ill or kill you. It practically impossible to overdose.
Stalinist describes it pretty precisely, I think. Do go to the link to read the whole thing. A taste:
[AmericanThinker] Being blacklisted by GLAAD was the end of my world. (It just so happens I entered a new, happier one, but that doesn't take away from the terror caused by their omerta.) Even though I wrote The Colorful Conservative, I am too colorful for right-wing think-tanks, too vulgar for Beltway Republicans, too much a fan of Sarah Palin for the Big Boys down in D.C. I'm too queer for the legit crowd, and GLAAD basically put the word out to the queers not to talk to me anymore. Old friends and even some family members took GLAAD's marching orders and have summarily cut me out of their lives. And when I mean cut me out, I mean we will never be in the same room again. One person very close to me, who works in the entertainment industry, was accosted at a dinner and told in no uncertain terms that if he didn't join in denouncing me, he'd have difficulty finding work. I was less important than his shot at getting better contracts -- so gosh, I miss him.
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 Nahar] A Europe badly shaken by a faltering economy and rising populism is set to commemorate the centenary of World War I, the conflict still known as the "Great War" that scarred the continent and shaped the 20th century.
Europe was left ruined by four years of all-consuming warfare, but while European nations shared in the trauma of what some historians called a collective "suicide", how they remember the Great War varies greatly.
In Germany and Russia, by contrast, the Great War's memory was all but supplanted by the cataclysm of World War II, two decades later.
The leader of a scientific expedition whose ship remains stranded in Antarctic ice says the team, which set out to prove climate change, is "stuck in our own experiment." 
Cape Wind Associates said Monday that it has finalized a major deal with the German conglomerate Siemens AG to buy giant turbines, the offshore transformer, and maintenance services for its planned multibillion-dollar wind farm in Nantucket Sound. 
[Egypt Independent] Tens of thousands of Cambodian opposition supporters, backed by striking garment-factory workers, rallied on Sunday to demand long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen step down and call an election.
South Korea and Japan are arguably two of the most successful countries of the past half-century. They came out of their respective wars deeply impoverished and politically broken, but have since become wealthy and highly entrepreneurial democracies, renowned for their cultural exports and leadership in technological development.
