Lawmakers in Ecuador voted Wednesday to remove embattled President Lucio Gutierrez from office after a week of escalating street protests demanding his ouster, and they swore in Vice President Alfredo Palacio to replace him.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other NATO foreign ministers held the alliance's first major meeting on former Soviet soil on Thursday, planning to offer Ukraine fast-track membership talks.
But NATO officials said the ministers would stop short of setting a target entry date at their talks in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius for fear of annoying Russia.
...
There have been calls for Ukraine to be given NATO membership within five years. But alliance diplomats fear a rush toward entry could raise tensions with Russia and alienate many Ukrainians in the former Soviet republic's pro-Moscow east. Rest at link.
Posted by: ed ||
04/21/2005 7:25:02 AM ||
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What we need is NATO talks on French expulsion.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
04/21/2005 20:50 Comments ||
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Canadians may be dreading another election so soon after last year's vote but with the government effectively shut down by a corruption scandal in the prime minister's party, they will likely go to the polls again in June.
The opposition Conservatives are set to call a no-confidence vote within weeks, intent on toppling Prime Minister Paul Martin's minority government by seizing on public disgust over his Liberal Party's corruption scandal. A successful motion in the House of Commons would dissolve the government and give candidates 36 days to campaign.
Martin stunned political observers by announcing late Wednesday that he would address Canadians in a nationally televised broadcast on Thursday regarding the corruption scandal and the paralysis in Parliament. Though Martin had hoped to delay new elections until he sealed some key legislation, such as legalizing gay marriage and establishing a national child-care program, debate in the House has become so rancorous and reckless in recent days that the government has ground to a virtual halt.
"They see the writing on the wall. We are going to have an election, that's why they're running around like chickens without heads in Ottawa," said Nelson Wiseman, associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto. "With Gomery having been so explosive, of course the Conservatives are smelling blood." John Gomery is the federal judge overseeing an inquiry in Montreal about allegations of kickbacks and money laundering by the Liberals under Martin's predecessor, former Prime Minister Jean Chretien. Wiseman said the motion to sink the government likely would be introduced May 19, triggering an election for June 27. Rest at link.
Posted by: ed ||
04/21/2005 7:18:19 AM ||
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Cool. Let's get some focus on Maurice Strong and the web of connections among Oil for Fraud, Canada's Power Corp, France's Total and Kofi's shreddin' scamsters.
#2
Heh! Time to break out the ol' banana ears and tune them to the hilarity north of the border! Nevermind that the only local broadcast station in town is Canadian owned and broadcasts weather in degrees-C, the best coverage of the circus is on CTV.
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican started Thursday to adjust to a new era under Pope Benedict XVI as the wider world took a first measure of the man who has emerged from the shadow of his charismatic predecessor.
As theologians analysed his first homily as the head of the Roman Catholic Church, the cardinals who elected him sought to tone down his image as a harsh champion of typical Catholic staunch conservative values. The new pope used the homily to reach out to the wider Christian community and people of other faiths, vowing to strive for unity and dialogue, a message applauded by religious leaders across the world.
"He is extremely friendly, very warm, very humble and open, and I think he will win the hearts of young people," Portuguese Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins said. "Although he may come across as a bit distant, in reality he is not. Those who know him personally know that it is a great pleasure to be with him because of his good humour, joy and friendliness."
France's most senior cardinal, Jean-Marie Lustiger, said Benedict XVI would not seek to imitate his predecessor John Paul II but still act in a way consistent with the late pontiff's work. He said Joseph Ratzinger's former post as head of the Vatican's top doctrinal body had led to a false perception of him as overly authoritarian. "People only remember his condemnations, but forget that he also stimulated reflection on difficult, even burning, topics," he said.
"If you call it conservative and traditional to proclaim the Church's true faith, as all bishops and all Catholics are supposed to do, then yes, he is a conservative and traditionalist."
As Jonah Goldberg said, "If a committee made up of Andrew Sullivan, Gary Wills, Andrew Greeley, Paul Begala and Nancy Pelosi were given the power to select a pope from the current College of Cardinals, we would still have a pope opposed to abortion and gay marriage." The attacks on Benedict are personal and expressly directed towards "driving his negatives" up, so that those who oppose what the Church says will have an easier time of it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/21/2005 11:57:34 PM ||
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EUROPE must heed an Iranian proposal on uranium enrichment or risk a collapse of talks about Iran's nuclear program, the country's top nuclear official has said.
The warning by Hassan Rowhani, head of the Supreme National Security Council, came as diplomats from Britain, France and Germany began talks with their Iranian counterparts in Geneva, ahead of a more senior-level meeting in London on April 29.
"The Europeans should tell us whether these ideas can work as the basis for continued negotiations or not," Mr Rowhani told the Financial Times, referring to the Iranian proposal put forward last month that would allow some uranium enrichment.
"If yes, fine. If not, then the negotiations cannot continue," he said.
European Union negotiators have been studying the suggestion and there have been hints of a crack in their unity. But one EU diplomat, repeating a comment made last week, said yesterday that Britain, France and Germany remained "rock-solid on cessation" by Iran of uranium enrichment.
Enrichment produces fuel for nuclear reactors, which can also be used in the explosive core of nuclear bombs. The US claims Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons.
The Financial Times said Britain, France and Germany would be struggling over the next 10 days to find a formula that would keep the talks going, without compromising on uranium enrichment.
Mr Rowhani stopped short of threatening a resumption of uranium enrichment, which Iran agreed to suspend while the talks continued.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
04/21/2005 8:09:30 PM ||
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Finally! Okay, you've delivered your ultimatum. Now STFU. Permanently.
#2
Ya know... Debka been reporting about this big US Marine and Israeli exercise in the Negev ... practicing for something in sand.... can't figure out what....
A Syrian transport ship carrying a cement load from Egypt has sunk off the northern coast of Israel, Aljazeera has reported. Three members of a total of seven crewmen onboard the ship have been rescued by a Turkish cargo vessel traveling along the busy sealane 64km off the Israeli coast. A British military helicopter airlifted the three men to another Syrian ship heading to Syrian waters. The fate of another four members of the sunken vessel is unknown.
The Israeli navy dispatched vessels and helicopters to search for the missing crew, but search-and-rescue operations were suspended after several hours due to darkness and rough maritime conditions. The search will resume at daybreak on Thursday, an Israeli military spokesman said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2005 00:00:00 ||
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"...Gee, Avner, it's a shame that ships just sink like that (snaps fingers)...must not have had enough insurance."
"Guess not, Skipper, I mean, David. Shall we go back to periscope depth now?"
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/21/2005 0:18 Comments ||
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REACHING out to the Israeli people over the head of their Government, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday invited Israeli journalists to his headquarters to wish the Jewish people a happy Passover and to complain that he had become the target of unfair criticism by Israeli officials.
"Day and night, they are inciting against me in the Israeli media," he said.
"We are not being given a chance."
Instead of helping him stabilise his Government, Mr Abbas said, the Israeli Government was undermining it by failing to make promised concessions, such as completing the withdrawal of troops from West Bank cities.
Mr Abbas has indeed been the target of sharp criticism by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and other officials for not disarming Palestinian militant groups, such as Hamas, and for not creating a strong security arm that could deal with the militants.
Mr Sharon voiced these complaints again last week at his meeting in Texas with US President George W. Bush.
They were repeated by Israeli Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who said that Mr Abbas was an improvement on his predecessor, the late Yasser Arafat, but not enough of an improvement to permit the peace process to move forward.
"(Abbas) is not Arafat in that he's not ordering terrorist attacks himself, but he is also no Sadat and no King Hussein," Mr Netanyahu said, referring to the late Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, who made peace with Israel, and the late Jordanian king, who did likewise.
"He's not doing anything to dismantle the terrorist organisations."
The Palestinian leader told the Israeli reporters, whom he had invited for lunch, that his security forces had foiled dozens of planned attacks against Israel in the three months since he took office.
The Palestinian Authority, he said, had also undertaken significant security, financial and administrative reforms which Israel has declined to acknowledge.
"Give us time to act," he said. "And help us."
Mr Abbas said that the mutual restraints agreed upon by him and Mr Sharon at a summit two months ago had been breached by Israel in a number of incursions into Palestinian territory and several killings.
"Events such as these erode our legitimacy," he said.
Although Israel has pulled its troops out of two West Bank cities, it has declined to do the same in five other cities on the grounds that the Palestinian Authority has not disarmed the men on Israel's wanted list living in the two cities evacuated.
Mr Abbas told the reporters that the Palestinian Authority had disarmed the fugitives.
Other Palestinian officials admitted, however, that not all had been disarmed.
Mr Abbas took the occasion to send greetings on the Jewish holiday of Passover, which marks their liberation from the reign of Pharaoh Ramses II.
From the smiles on the faces of the Palestinian hosts and Israeli reporters, it was clear they assumed Mr Abbas also had the liberation of Palestinian territories in mind.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
04/21/2005 8:10:36 PM ||
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They don't like me anymore...whaaaaa, whaaaaa... inciting and plotting... joooooos
Posted by: Abbas ||
04/21/2005 22:48 Comments ||
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ROFL!
So, when they come to see you, will you show them your puppies, kittens, and fluffy bunnies, sing some show tunes, and all the rest of your sensitive guy repertoire?
The fact is, Abu Fool, you're just another lying, back-stabbing, holocaust-denying, Jooo-hating, Paleo-SuperBigot. Your word isn't worth warm spit and you haven't done dick, cuz you can't. The whole Paleo collection of Shitholes is an out of control Hate Machine. It's your only sincere effort. It's the sum of your GDP. It is the only thing your sick twisted system teaches. A PR game will only work on the symps and twits. Everyone else knows that the Diplo Dance is a joke. There will be no peace as long as you and your fellow Paleo shitheads breathe. The funding is drying up, asshat, and there's no future for you - or any of the other mercenary murderers / Lions of Palestine. Shoot yourself. Don't worry, someone else will get the lights.
#3
Instead of helping him stabilise his Government, Mr Abbas said, the Israeli Government was undermining it by failing to make promised concessions, such as completing the withdrawal of troops from West Bank cities.
Hey Stupid, what about YOUR commitments? How about YOU delivering for once?
Seven prisoners, including a number convicted of murder, have escaped from a Pakistani jail by using their turbans for ropes. The prisoners broke through a toilet window in the jail in Machh, 50km (31 miles) south of the capital of Balochistan province, Quetta. They then scaled the high-security jail's perimeter wall with the turbans. Most of the convicts were serving terms of more than 20 years. A hunt is under way in nearby villages.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
04/21/2005 6:29:45 AM ||
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Why escape? There's no real life without a turban.
PARIS — India has now outstripped South Africa as the country with the highest tally of people living with Aids or the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the head of the Global Fund said here yesterday. Richard Feachem, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said "the official statistics show India in second place and South Africa in first place." But, Feachem said, "The official statistics are wrong. India is in first place."
"The epidemic (in India) is growing very rapidly. It is out of control. There is nothing happening in India today that is big or serious enough to prevent it."
The UN agency UNAIDS' latest official figures for the national prevalence of HIV/Aids were published in July 2004, giving the estimated incidence as at the end of 2003. South Africa had the highest total of any country in the world, with an estimated 5.3 million infected adults and children in a range of 4.5 to 6.2 million. India's total was put at 5.1 million, but the range estimate was far wider — 2.5 to 8.5 million — to reflect the many unknowns about the state of the pandemic there. "India has to wake up and India has to take this very, very seriously," Feachem said yesterday. Without action, "millions and millions and millions of Indians are going to die."
He added, "the epidemic will grow faster, much faster, in (India's) Hindu population than in Muslims," as circumcision is an acknowledged protective factor against the Aids virus.
So is monogamy, refusing to share needles, and proper care in blood transfusions, but he didn't mention those.
The biggest form of transmission in India is from heterosexual intercourse with prostitutes. In addition to widespread ignorance and deep-rooted stigma about Aids, the country also has relatively high prices for anti-HIV drugs, said Feachem. "It is easier to get Indian generic drugs in Africa than it is to get them in India. That is a scandal and has to be changed."
Afterwards he had lunch and a fine white wine.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/21/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Granted this is off the top of my head, but doesn't India have a population greater than all Africa?
What's the percentage of infected peoples respectively? not how many, just a representative percentage to get the correct picture per demographic.
I recall a politicly incorect saying that due to superstition, distrust of "Western" medicine, and tribal ways, that Africa would be largely unpopulated by 2050.
From this, it seems that India, may solve it's overpopulation problem, as well as Africa.
Just not in a pleasant way.
#2
India has a population of over a billion, which is indeed larger than the whole of Africa. In contrast, South Africa has less than 50 million people, so it is nowhere near the disaster for India that Africa is facing (Not yet anyway)
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
04/21/2005 4:48 Comments ||
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That it is totally preventable is what makes this so sad. One case is to many in that instance.
#4
looks like they have something to trade with China
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/21/2005 17:52 Comments ||
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#5
South Africa, post-apartheid:
-- 10% of the population has AIDS
-- 30% of the adult female population's been raped
-- 50% of the workforce is unemployed
-- Jo'burg is the most dangerous peacetime city on the planet
Where are all the MSM stories about the utter disaster brought about by the overthrow of white minority rule?
#9
Funny, isn't it, how South Africa has disappeared from the MSM map? I can't recall a single article in the last year in the NYT or WaPo or the Guardian about So Africa.
Poor South Africans. If only Bush were to pay attention to them, the MSM chihuahua brigade would come a-yappin' in Bush's wake.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/21/2005 18:31 Comments ||
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#15
Let's see: no MSM correspondents in Afghanistan. None in South Africa. None in Ukraine or Venezuela. Could it be that all the stories to be reported from those places might lend support to the neocons' worldview?
PESHAWAR: Armed villagers killed an alleged blasphemer in Nowshera on Wednesday after he reportedly desecrated the Quran. Police confirmed the incident and also took the body into its possession. Talking to Daily Times by phone, a local police official believed that Aasheq Nabi, 40, was killed in connection with his alleged desecration of the Quran. Police said Aasheq and his wife had quarrelled and she brought out a copy of the Quran, which was reportedly knocked down by Aasheq in the ensuing struggle. She reported the incident and villagers asked Aasheq to surrender to Pabbi Police, to which he refused and was shot dead. Police has registered a case against unidentified men, but has not arrested anybody yet.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Chewing on a biscuit and gurgling with laughter, two-year-old Rabia plays with her elder brothers outside their mud-walled farmhouse, amid a sea of green wheat in Kutcha Chohan in southern Punjab. The barefoot toddler flashes a smile as her first words tumble out. But that innocence will be short-lived if local elders have their way, because Rabia is already promised in marriage — to a man 38 years her senior, Guardian reported. A village court determined her fate after her uncle, Muhammad Akmal, was accused of sleeping with another man's wife. After an hour-long deliberation, the elders found him guilty and fined him 230,000 rupees. They also ordered him to marry his niece to the wronged man, 40-year-old Altaf Hussain, once she passed her 14th birthday.
... when Altaf will be 52...
Rabia's mother, Maqsood Mai, who is separated from her husband, had no say in the matter.
... lucky as she is not to be under a pile or rocks or on fire...
But her other uncles were furious. "This is a terrible crime," said Muhammad Nawaz, sitting outside the house near the Indus river in southern Punjab. He vowed to move the family before Rabia could be taken away. "This is the first time in the history of our tribe that such a thing has happened," he said. But Mr Nawaz is wrong.
If he read Rantburg he'd know better...
Although punchayats (village courts) are illegal, they still hold sway in rural Pakistan, and verdicts that target the innocent — particularly women — are common. Poor farmers still turn to informal justice systems, known variously as jirgas or punchayats, to settle disputes about land, honour and money. The courts have many attractions. In contrast with the plodding, expensive and often corrupt public courts, a punchayat can be convened at a few hours' notice in a house or under a tree. The gathered elders act quickly, cost little, and are unequivocal in their judgments. But the justice rendered is often rough, say human rights activists, who say punchayats favour the rich, fuel old notions of bloody revenge, and perpetuate feudal inequalities. "They nearly always decide in favour of the most powerful," said Rashid Rehman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in Multan. "In these areas the people are living in the 16th century. And still the state is sleeping. Why?"
Probably because it's stuck somewhere around 200 A.D., busy declining and falling...
Punchayat decisions can be as bizarre as they are cruel. A punchayat in Lodhran district last year ordered seven women to divorce their husbands, in an effort to end a feud between two clans with marriage ties. Their 25 children were handed over to the fathers. In another case, a woman claimed by two rival men had her fate decided by the flip of a coin.
It wasn't worth asking her what the hell she wanted, of course...
Punchayats are also central to the phenomenon of karo kari, or honour killings. Oxfam estimates that between 1,200 and 1,800 women are murdered by their relatives every year in the name of preserving family honour. Many killings are sanctioned by punchayats.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Any idea what the ratio of AIDS in Pakistan is, basicly the same demograpic area as India?
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.
PESHAWAR: Armed villagers killed an alleged blasphemer in Nowshera on Wednesday after he reportedly desecrated the Quran. Police confirmed the incident and also took the body into its possession. Talking to Daily Times by phone, a local police official believed that Aasheq Nabi, 40, was killed in connection with his alleged desecration of the Quran. Police said Aasheq and his wife had quarrelled and she brought out a copy of the Quran, which was reportedly knocked down by Aasheq in the ensuing struggle. She reported the incident and villagers asked Aasheq to surrender to Pabbi Police, to which he refused and was shot dead. Police has registered a case against unidentified men, but has not arrested anybody yet.
