OSLO, Norway (AP) - Three unarmed Polish researchers stranded on a remote Arctic island were rescued by helicopters as polar bears were closing in on them, officials said Wednesday. The hairsbreadth escape took place on an island in Norway's Svalbard archipelago, about 650 miles from the North Pole. "It was the worst imaginable situation. They were cold and wet, had no equipment or weapons, and were surrounded by hungry polar bears," said Peter Braaten of the Svalbard governor's office. Yeah, that's pretty high on my list of bad things
"Snakes ... why is it always snakes?" -- I. Jones, Ph.D.
The men were rescued by helicopter Tuesday after 15 hours shipwrecked at the edge of a tiny bay between two glaciers, he said. The three were aboard the Polish research ship Horyzont when they set out in a small inflatable boat to pick up equipment on one of the islands. "Their boat capsized, and they lost all their equipment and weapons," Braaten told The Associated Press. He said they swam and clambered over chunks of floating ice to get to the island of Egdeoya. Braaten said the ship repeatedly tried to send in another small boat to pick them up, but conditions were too rough. The ship finally used a harpoon canon to fire a rope to land, so it could send the researchers food and water. Then it called for help.
"They managed to start a fire, to keep warm and keep the polar bears away," he said, explaining that the men used the spark plugs from their capsized craft's outboard motor to get the fire going. The island has some dried grass and scrubby plants. "It was a bit like MacGyver," Braaten said, referring to the adventure television series featuring a character who relies on science and his wits to solve problems.
Braaten said a least three polar bears looking for a meal where within roughly 20 yards of the three men when the helicopter picked them up. "That is dangerously close," he said. "Whirly bird, don't fail us now!"
Polar bears have no natural enemies in their frozen domain and regard all other living things, including humans, as potential meals. The three men, who suffered only minor scrapes and bruises, were flown directly to a Polish research base on the islands and dropped off for treatment.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2005 12:54 ||
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""It was a bit like MacGyver," Braaten said"
No it wasn't. MacGyver would've used the outboard motor propeller to kill the bears. In fact, MacGyver wouldn't went to study man-eating bears without a .50 cal rifle.
I was hoping the title would be "PETA Members Kill Endangered Bears In An Unprovoked Attack" or better yet, the other way around.
#2
Are you a communist or something?? MacGyver would not have killed the polar bears - He never killed anything! Oh sure, he might have "blown them away", but only in the literal sense.
#3
Nah! MacGyver would've been found huddled around the fire with his buddies wearing polar bear jackets, boots & hats and playing dominoes with polar bear bones and yelling at the helicopter crew on what took them so long.
#4
Nah! MacGyver would've been found huddled around the fire with his buddies wearing polar bear jackets, boots & hats and playing dominoes with polar bear bones and yelling at the helicopter crew on what took them so long.
#6
Center of the Milky Way is probably more likely to be a very ugly collection of black holes [insert snarky comment about the DNC here]. Given the amount of mass that has to be there and the length of time for things to evolve, the mechanics for black holes as currently understood, it shouldn't be too hard to figure it out.
A Saudi man celebrated the divorce from his wife in a unique way, Okaz newspaper reported. The man slaughtered many goats and invited large number of guests to celebrate his freedom from a very violent wife who had made his life a misery for three years. The husband was honoring a vow to hold a large party if he ever managed to separate from his wife. A large number of his neighbors came to join in the celebration.
Hmmm... I think I used to be married to her, too. I did the same thing...
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2005 00:42 ||
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Just the male goats. He's saving the females for courting.
Posted by: Zim Bob ||
08/17/2005 5:49 Comments ||
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The husband was honoring a vow to hold a large party if he ever managed to separate from his wife.
He makes it sound hard. I thought all he had to do was say "Beetlejuice" three times.
#3
BH : He makes it sound hard. I thought all he had to do was say "Beetlejuice" three times.
"It is an option that man SHOULD have considered, though the ex-wife didn't "dispatch" him, so I might not have been much help... But I am always in for a good goat BBQ!"
A mysterious, alligator-like creature that surfaced in a Los Angeles suburb has eluded capture for nearly a week, shrewdly passing up raw chicken bait and dodging reptile wranglers in pontoon boats. The 5-foot-long (1.5 meter) reptile was first spotted last Wednesday swimming in a lake at an urban park in the gritty Los Angeles suburb of Harbor City.
Park officials concluded that it was probably a Caiman, a relative of the alligator indigenous to South America, and speculate that it may have been an exotic pet that was abandoned when it grew too large. As word of the odd sighting spread, hundreds of spectators have turned up to watch crews of police, firefighters, park rangers, state fish and wildlife workers and even local herpetologists comb the 53-acre (21 hectare) lake in pontoon boats, carrying nets and dangling raw chicken over the side. Better get Steve Irwin on the line.
Park officials are planning to take the reptile to the LA zoo when they capture it but all efforts so far to nab the creature have failed, despite claims by a local fisherman that he briefly ensnared it in a net by using flour tortillas as bait. "I had him all hooked up and at the last second he escaped! He was THIS long! I swear it really happened!" said local fisherman.
"They're very fast, you can't believe how fast these animals are," Jarron Lucas of the Southwestern Herpetologist Society told local KABC-TV. "Everybody's got their roll of electrical tape," he said. "If I'm on top of him the next person who runs up on top of me can quickly secure his mouth. If that happens here, you'll see everybody dog pile right on top of him." East Side Caiman in the Hizzouse!
Posted by: Chris W. ||
08/17/2005 00:00 ||
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Charles Johnson was unavailable for comment...
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
08/17/2005 0:27 Comments ||
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Hey, he is history some illegals barbqued him because they ran out of ducks to steal from the park for dinner.
#4
Hey, he is history some illegals barbqued him because they ran out of ducks to steal from the park for dinner.
..but all efforts so far to nab the creature have failed, despite claims by a local fisherman that he briefly ensnared it in a net by using flour tortillas as bait.
If you want proof that God has a sense of humor, look at the silly, grumpy expression on a turtle's face. Reptiles are fascinating snd enjoyable creatures. If you choose a reptile carefully, with all due attention paid to its needs and a realistic understanding of its growth and your ability to care for these long lived creatures, you will enjoy having a reptile for a pet.
Too many idiots don't think ahead when buying any pets; and the results for both reptiles and the environment are disastrous.
Our family has rescued several reptiles over the years. Slithers the garter snake was washed out of her winter den during a January thaw, and we found her freezing to death on a snowbank. Fluffy the corn snake came to us via a ten year old who didn't know enough about snakes to put a hot rock or light source in the tank. It's a miracle the snake didn't die of indigestion; snakes have to have heat to digest their food. The owner also didn't know how to get a snake accustomed to being handled, so Fluffy is a challenge to care for.
Leon the turtle is a red eared slider, which a friend bought at bottlecap size, not knowing that it's illegal to sell a turtle smaller than four inches; also not knowing that red eared sliders grow to be the size of a dinner plate and live thirty years. Leon has some odd distortions on his shell wich suggest that he was confined for extended periods with a rubber band. He now lives in a horse trough with plenty of room to swim.
Too many people buy cute little reptiles and forget how big they get and how much they eat. Burmese pythons grow to 30 feet long. A number of morons have dumped unwanted pythons in the Everglades, where they are breeding and attacking many of the endangered species that we've been trying to bring back for decades. People have dumped pythons near farms, where the snakes prey on livestock.
The pet trade is the single biggest threat to reptiles in the wild. The second largest threat is introduction of reptiles where they don't belong. Sombody imported red eared sliders to Southeast Asia as a food source, and now sliders are pushing other native reptiles out.
So if you know anybody who is interested in getting a reptile, do whatever you can as a good concerned friend to make sure they do their homework before going to the pet store. Get a captive bred animal (an albino corn snake is guaranteed captive bred; they don't survive in the wild). Be prepared to spend the time and money to do it right.
Sung to the theme for the "Wally Gator" cartoon show
Mystery Gator is a donut eatin' faker in the swamp.
He's the greatest escape maker when park officials start to romp.
There has never such a hungry mischief maker in the swamp.
See ya later, Mystery Gator.
Sung to the theme for the "Wally Gator" cartoon show
Mystery Gator is such a donut eatin' faker in the swamp.
He's the greatest escape maker when the park officials start to romp.
There has never been such a hungry mischief maker in the swamp.
See ya later, Mystery Gator.
The pet trade and wrongfully introduced species are the largest threats to reptiles in certain areas.
Generally, the greatest threat is habitat degradation. In particular, a lot of reptiles die on roads because they're too slow to get across. Roads cut across reptiles' traditional migrating paths, and people go out of their way to hit snakes on the road.
A local herpetologist has receive permission from the county to close a certain country road during snake migrating days (just an evening or two a year). SOmething like this might help reptiles in your area.
If you have the opportunity to help a reptile get across a road without causing an accident, do it.
If the reptile is a large turtle or snake, call animal control. A massive snapper on the highway is as dangerous to a car as ruptured pavement on the interstate.
The Kingdom has shown interest in seeking Venezuela's cooperation in formulating a strategy for poverty alleviation using the Latin American nation's experience in social welfare programs. Venezuela's Ambassador Ramon Herrera Navarro said his country was negotiating the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the two the countries. It would lead to a wide-ranging cooperation agreement with the Kingdom in technical, financial, economic and cultural fields as well as in tourism promotion. "We are also trying to implement a cultural agreement that we have signed," the ambassador said, adding that the framework for cooperation in these areas was discussed by a high-level delegation to Venezuela earlier this year.
Ambassador Navarro said that an agreement on a reciprocal promotion and protection of investments, another to avoid double taxation on the income tax and a third on cooperation between municipal organizations of the capital cities of both countries were under discussion. He also said a pilot project for setting up an institute for teaching Spanish language was under review.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2005 00:44 ||
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Islamic cooperation with Hugo. What an inspiration -- look for the Iranians to sell nuclear weapons and missiles to Hugo. One more reason the mullahs must die.
Investigators are closing their probe into the election eve shooting of Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian and Vice-President Annette Lu last year. The two politicians were slightly injured in the shooting, which sparked months of bitter protests. Prosecutor general Wu Ying-chao told reporters that his department had confirmed findings by investigators that the shooting was not orchestrated.
"That's our story and we're sticking to it."
An unemployed man who was later found dead is the suspected gunman. Chen Yi-hsiung was discovered 10 days after the shooting, apparently having committed suicide.
That was....handy
The prosecutor general said there was no evidence or living witnesses there were any accomplices and said he hoped harmony could now be restored to Taiwanese society. Taiwan's opposition parties had claimed that the shooting was staged and helped President Chen Shui-bian to his narrow election win last March. They had staged months of protest and launched and lost two lawsuits challenging the election results. They say they still believe there has been a political cover-up and will continue to push for the truth.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2005 09:04 ||
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A joint Chinese and Russian military exercise set to begin tomorrow is meant as a political signal to the United States, in addition to helping Moscow showcase its weapons for sale to China, U.S. defense and intelligence officials said yesterday.
"For the Chinese and the Russians, this is a message to the United States," one U.S. official said. "They want to see our bases in Central Asia and presence in Asia cut back."
The fact that the United States was not invited to observe the war games is a sign of the anti-U.S. nature of the exercises, said several officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Defense officials from India, Iran, Pakistan and Mongolia will be present in China to observe the exercises.
"We expect that China will feature some of its latest assets alongside visiting Russian forces, showcasing their military power and credible force," said a defense official. This official said any time that nuclear powers such as China and Russia conduct exercises together "it is of international interest."
The eight days of exercises have been dubbed Peace Mission 2005 and will involve about 10,000 Russian and Chinese troops who will fight "terrorists" in a simulated regional conflict.
Because China defines terrorism as including "separatists," U.S. intelligence officials think the exercises are directed at Taiwan, which Beijing views as a breakaway province, and the United States, which has vowed to protect Taiwan from mainland attack.
Defense officials said the forces participating in the war games are designed to practice amphibious landings and anti-submarine warfare -- not traditional counterterrorism operations.
Both China and Russia notified the United States about the exercises, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, and "we would hope that anything that they do is not something that would be disruptive to the current atmosphere in the region."
Meanwhile, U.S. military and civilian intelligence agencies are stepping up monitoring activities in the western Pacific, defense officials said.
Numerous intelligence-gathering aircraft, ships and satellites are focusing on China's Shandong Peninsula and the Yellow Sea, where the war games will be held.
"We are observing the activities," said Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita. The U.S. Pacific Command will use EP-3 surveillance aircraft along China's coasts and two Navy surveillance ships that were dispatched to waters near the exercises.
A particular concern over the maneuvers is Russia's planned use of four strategic bombers, some Pentagon officials said.
Russia's Interfax military news service reported last week that more than 20 Russian strategic bombers and transport jets will participate, including two Tu-95 bombers and four Tu-22 bombers that will fire cruise missiles as part of the games.
The games will begin with Russian and Chinese military forces conducting anti-submarine and anti-ship warfare simulation with two Russian warships, six Chinese warships, and two Chinese diesel submarines.
A second part will involve joint Russian and Chinese amphibious assault on the Shandong Peninsula. Several hundred paratroopers also will be dropped from aircraft.
Russian military chief of staff Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky said in Moscow last week that the idea of the war games "is that Russia and China are helping a third country tackling issues connected with proliferation of illegal militarized formations that are beginning anti-state activities."
"Naval forces can and must be used to blockade -- in particular from the sea -- part of the territory of this state, just as aircraft can also be used to blockade from the air," he told the Izvestiya newspaper.
Chinese troops have been spotted preparing for the exercises at Weifang, about 50 miles from the Yellow Sea port of Qingdao, according to Chinese press reports.
The war games will be held over eight days in the area of the Shandong Peninsula, which is located close to the Korean Peninsula and Japan.
Yesterday in Moscow, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said the joint exercises with China are one of four major military manuevers set for August.
An Atlantic military exercise set to begin today will include long-range missile flight tests and an aircraft carrier deployment across the Atlantic, he said. Other exercises will be held near the Caspian Sea and in Uzbekistan with that country's military forces.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/17/2005 01:19 ||
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We may bnot be invited but we will be watching. No doubt more closely than the Chinese could know. I have not doubt we have Russian assests who are actually involved.
#3
SEIZE, HOLD, and NUCLEARIZE while engaging US -Western forces in active defense, i.e. PC "People's War", aka VOTE HILLARY iff you want female Islamists to stop engaging in suicide bombings!? The Failed/Angry Lefties aren't anything iff NOT always "technically" or surrreally "legal"!?
#4
After a couple decades of bad behavior mehopes they play nicely together. The feel good exercise is self-limiting given the way they both eye the border and harbor deep, ugly suspicions. 10,000 playing crush the regional terrorists isn't much of an event. Personally I love the language - "proliferation of illegal militarized formations that are beginning anti-state activities." It's got that tempered, detached, clinical, gentle retro- stalinist tone. Wonder if there are going to be "bandit eradication" or "liberation" portions in the exercise.
#5
MunkarRat - I miss the old style Soviet "gangsters and hooligans" press releases.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
08/17/2005 8:55 Comments ||
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Boy, I'd love to slip in some live ammo into some of these exercises and see what happens...
Posted by: Dar ||
08/17/2005 9:11 Comments ||
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I think the Chinese are figuring out how bad the Russians are these days in executing military ops. Will play well in their own planning when they move to recover their 'lost' lands in the Siberian resource region.
#9
Sock-man: We may not be invited but we will be watching, no doubt more closely than the Chinese could know. I have no doubt we have Russian assests who are actually involved.
Yes. And don't forget our satellites who can pick out a fly swarming over the latrines on those ships whop are involved...
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
08/17/2005 11:50 Comments ||
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...You know, every time they do this, they get a sunken sub or an ICBM misfire. For $40, they could get Harpoon 3 and save a LOT of agony.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/17/2005 12:33 Comments ||
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Russia still harbors illusions of being a power. They would be much better off trying to work with their fellow jihadist targets than focusing on combatting the U.S.
EFL: The cabin crew of the Helios Airlines plane that crashed in Greece on Sunday tried to bring it under control but could do nothing to save the aircraft, it was disclosed yesterday. Video footage retrieved from the nose cones of the F16 fighter planes scrambled to accompany the stricken Cypriot aircraft showed a man and a woman enter the cockpit, said Greek media reports. They were thought to be a newly-trained pilot standing in as cabin crew and his stewardess girlfriend. The stewardess was seen in the captain's seat, while the first officer remained unconscious in the right-hand seat. The couple wrestled in vain with the controls of the Boeing 737, Greek military sources said.
Didn't know how to turn off auto-pilot
. All 121 passengers and crew died when the plane plunged into a hillside north of Athens during a flight from Larnaca. Autopsies on 26 bodies, including the co-pilot, showed they were alive but not necessarily conscious when the plane went down. Earlier reports suggested that all on board may have frozen to death before the crash.
Cypriot television said many of the bodies retrieved were still wearing oxygen masks. Once the masks had been released, prompted by a drop in pressure, the cabin crew would have expected the plane to descend immediately from 34,00 ft to a breathable altitude below 15,000 ft. Aviation experts believe that when this failed to happen cabin staff entered the cockpit, aware that the flight crew's emergency oxygen supply was limited. But with the pilots incapacitated the attendants lacked the skill to fly the airliner or even to make a mayday call.
Experts said that by this stage the jet would have been beyond the range of the Cyprus control centre in Nicosia - the last frequency tuned on the radio. Even if the cabin crew had been familiar with the radio they were unlikely to have known how to tune either to Athens control or international emergency. Back in the cabin, the passengers' oxygen supply was dwindling.
Helios Airways admitted yesterday that the crashed aircraft had experienced a decompression problem in the past. A statement on the airline's website said the incident occurred on a flight from Warsaw to Larnaca last December and the plane "landed in accordance with normal procedures". Helios went on to say that the incident was cleared at the time by the Cypriot air accident investigators and Britain's Civil Aviation Authority, which did not question the aircraft's maintenance.
The authorities at Birmingham International Airport, meanwhile, said that a day before the crash in Greece another Helios Airways Boeing 737 had reported difficulties with its wing flaps. Emergency services were deployed but the plane landed safely.
Next time I fly in Europe it's Lufthansa all the way.
A Greek man was yesterday charged with disseminating false information after police said he falsely claimed to have received a text message from a passenger before Sunday's crash. Nektarios Voutas, 32, said he had received a mobile phone call and changed the wording of the supposed text in different media interviews. His arraignment was delayed after he tripped outside the public prosecutor's office and had to be treated for face injuries in hospital.
"tripped", is that Greek for "beaten"?
Greek aviation officials yesterday expressed doubts over whether the crash aircraft's black box voice recorder would be recovered. Capt Akrivos Tsolakis, the head of the Air Accident Investigation and Aviation Safety Board, said that only the cover of the recorder had been retrieved. This was badly damaged, so it was unlikely that the contents, if found, could reveal much about the flight's last moments. In Cyprus, demands for explanations for the accident from grieving relatives were becoming louder.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2005 12:10 ||
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"tripped", is that Greek for "beaten"?
From yesterday (scroll down for picture): one nasty cut over the eye, otherwise undamaged. Might've tripped while his hands were cuffed behind him.
#2
We are to believe that the plane is set up so that the cock-pit will run out of oxygen before the cabin?
Soooo...the newly-trained pilot standing in as cabin crew (AND his stewardess girlfriend) can move freely about even after the pilots have conked out AND they don't know how to make a mayday call or turn off the auto pilot. yeah right.
So exactly where did this "newly trained pilot" get his flight training?
#3
Dang, hit "submit" too soon. I wonder how long all this went on? Some folks here were saying cabin oxygen is only meant to last for a few minutes, but this plane was acting suspiciously for two hours.
This just in: Hoax Boy gets six months, suspended. Also, co-pilot's son says his father always kept diaries of his flights, and : "He told me that if his diary was published then the company would close."
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/17/2005 14:44 Comments ||
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There are two problems with this scenario (apart from the lack of radio communication). One is, if the plane decompressed, then after 2 hours everyone without access to oxygen should be dead, yet every person autopsied so far was alive. The other is, the timeline for the attendants trying to gain control of the plane is wrong. They were observed at least an hour after whatever event occured. What were they doing for that time and why weren't they incapacitated? Occam's Razor still says an attempted terrorist hijacking.
#6
OK, so the autopilot's flying the plane to Athens, cruising along at 35000 feet. The plane gets to Athens, but no one turns off the autopilot. What happens?
1) It just keeps going on the same heading.
2) It circles at 35000 until it gets new instructions.
3) It descends to mountain height and circles until it gets new instructions.
See, 'cause I can't figure out how a plane under autopilot at 35000 feet is going to crash into a mountain, given that there are no 35000 ft mountains. Someone suggested that it circled until it ran out of fuel, but the plane crashed minutes before it was due to land in Athens. It must have had enough fuel to reach Athens; that was the first stop.
So the only way it could crash, assuming it was still obeying the autopilot, was if the autopilot was programmed to descend to 7000, or wherever the mountains are. That seems kinda dodgy to me, but I don't know how autopilots work. Maybe I'm missing something.
#7
Force transducers in either contol yoke would have kicked off the autopilot had someone moved them. The flight management system system feeds the autopilot lateral and vertical nav info that was programed by the crew during preflight. So the aircraft would have continued on its own until it reached the last programed waypoint.
#8
Are you saying that moving the control column will disengage the autopilot? If so (and I have sat next to the pilot on a number of occasions and I recall it is that simple), then why did it apparently stay on autopilot for so long, with people in the cockpit trying to 'control' the aircraft? And I wonder what those toxicology reports say?
#9
From my analysis, the pilot(s) were killed by the "newly-trained" pilot and stewardess, the passengers rendered unconscious by the oxygen gas and the Greek Air Force saw the threat of a suicide pilot had no choice but to shoot it down.
#10
The crew O2 system is independent of the passenger system. 2 high pressure cylinders supply the pilots while the passengers rely on oxygen candles in the event of a decompression at altitude. A cabin pressure switch deploys the masks when cabin altitude exceeds limits. Extending the mask to its full extent pulls a lanyard, firing a precussion cap and igniting the O2 generator. This makes it virtualy impossible to poison the passengers with supplemental O2.
The F-16 pilots reported seeing someone in the cockpit -- probably a man -- take control of the plane as [it] flew in a gradually descending holding pattern, apparently on autopilot, at about 37,000 feet near Athens airport.
That person then banked the plane away from Athens, lowering it first to 2,000 feet and then climbing back up to 7,000 feet before the plane apparently ran out of fuel and crashed, state-run NET television reported, quoting unnamed Defense Ministry sources.
#12
Damn, this thing just gets weirder and weirder.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
08/17/2005 17:48 Comments ||
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tz,
I agree with your statement about O2 distribution. But, I'm thinking something more sinister. What if the O2 canister for the passengers was replaced on the ground with a diffrent mixture? Afterall, were are talking about Cyprus here. Anything can be bought for money.
Angie,
I don't buy the "fuel running out" story. This is Defense Ministry spin. It's a relatively short distance from Cyprus to Greece. I believe it was shot down, until I hear convincing proof otherwise.
#16
For those who just can't get enough of this story, here's the PPruNe (Professional Pilots' Rumor Network) page. Latest information is at the bottom, so you'll want to go to the last page (currently 34!). They point to this article from Der Spiegel, which I can't read (Babelfish is just terrible for German), but apparently there's mention of someone trying to gain control of the aircraft, and a piccy of the flight attendant couple.
(CNSNews.com) - Lawmakers have proposed a number of "solutions" to the problem of illegal immigration, from amnesty programs to mass deportations. But one conservative Republican says the key to discouraging illegal immigration is to hit the employers who hire them right where it counts: in the wallet. "We can no longer attack illegal immigration on the supply side without attacking the demand side," Rep. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.) said Monday while promoting legislation she will introduce to provide for detention, mandatory deportation and expedited removal of any illegal alien arrested for driving under the influence (DUI). The "Scott Gardner Act" is in response to the death of one of Myrick's constituents, who was killed by an illegal alien with five previous DUI convictions. While the DUI legislation received widespread coverage from the "mainstream" media, Myrick's plan to reduce the flow of illegal immigrants into the U.S. received almost no attention.
The former chairwoman of the House Republican Study Committee noted that, while employing an illegal alien is a violation of federal law, the current fine a business faces for doing so is only $250 per illegal immigrant hired. "I will introduce a bill that raises that civil fine from $250 per alien to $10,000 per alien," Myrick said, according to a copy of her prepared remarks, "and will give the arresting law enforcement agency a cut of the fine."
That'll make it self-funding
Myrick plans to call the legislation the "10k Run for the Border Act," a name she said is "self-explanatory." "I am no mathematician, but if North Carolina has 300,000 illegal aliens and just half of them are employed," Myrick said, "this action could raise at least $1.2 billion that could be rolled back into the fight against illegal immigration."
Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a group that supports stricter border control and enforcement of immigration laws, told Cybercast News Service that more will have to change than just the amount of the fine. "You could make the penalty a billion dollars; it wouldn't matter if you're not going to impose it against anybody," said Mehlman, who claimed that no fines were imposed on employers for hiring illegal aliens in 2004. "The first thing they have to do is actually start fining employers."
While surveys show that at least a majority of Americans want curbs on illegal immigration, Mehlman charged that the response is frequently only "hot air from Congress. "A few members of Congress are going to have to lose their jobs over this," Mehlman argued, stressing that he is not questioning Myrick's intentions. "I'm sure she is very sincere. It's not her sincerity that I doubt. It is what will happen after this bill is passed," Mehlman explained. "Why would they be any more likely to enforce the law then than they are right now?"
FAIR complains that both "ethnic interest groups" and business interests are advocating against effective enforcement of limits on immigration. "They are the ones who are pressuring Congress not to do anything," Mehlman said. "Very often, these are substantial interest groups with substantial resources to donate to political campaign, and that's one of the ways they keep the pressure on."
Mehlman agreed with Myrick that the fine levied on employers who hire illegal aliens must be "a substantial amount." "A slap on the wrist isn't going to discourage people," Mehlman added, "especially when there are obvious economic benefits to hiring somebody at a fraction of what it would cost to hire an American worker." Illegal immigrants not only cost American workers jobs, Mehlman argued, they provide "a labor subsidy for the employers." "They (employers) get to pay the low wages, and then everybody else has to pick up the costs of all sorts of social programs," Mehlman said. "Wherever you go in this country, people are angry about this, and it cuts across ideological lines, it cuts across racial and ethnic lines."
Myrick's proposal came on the same day that Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano declared a state of emergency in four counties that share the U.S. border with Mexico. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson took an identical action the previous Friday. Both Democrats said that the federal government has failed to stop property destruction, thefts and other crimes associated with illegal immigration and drug running, so their states had no choice but to act. The emergency declarations will free money to pay for law enforcement overtime, equipment and supplies needed to combat the estimated 500,000 illegal aliens who enter the U.S. every year. That annual influx, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, is in addition to as many as nine million illegal immigrants already living in the country.
President Bush has proposed a "temporary guest worker" program that would allow foreign nationals to enter the country for limited periods of time to work in jobs the president claims "Americans will not do." The White House denies that the program is an "amnesty" as charged by critics.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2005 09:42 ||
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Ten pathetic K?
If a corporation has more than 10 on the take then authorize RICO. Nothing will get the owner or board's attention like the feds showing up taking possession of his/their bank account, car, home....
It does leave the corporation intact, but does a number on the operators :)
#2
At $5000 per and with something more than a feeble effort at enforcement the problem would diminish greatly. Public notification of violators and the extent of their violations would also be useful to the rest of us in making choices about who we give our business.
#6
ed: 10% for citizens who turn in illegal alien employers/jobsites will stop illegal immigration in its tracks. Crimestoppers for Immigration.
10% for public-spirited citizens and 10% for police departments. They'd also need to beef up payments for the detention of illegals in local facilities. Why build expensive new federal jails when locals can handle the load in existing facilities, when provided with federal funding?
#7
"Democrats said that the federal government has failed to stop property destruction, thefts and other crimes associated with illegal immigration and drug running"
Everything is so politically correct now days. Why do the Dem'cts use the words "federal government" in this sentence? Let's plug in the words Sen. Boxer, Sen. Waters, Sen. Kennedy, Sen. Durbin, and Sen. Reid. There! That's sounds much better.
Of course, the truth is that the Dem'cts can't be seen in public committing cannibalism.
#8
Article: Democrats said that the federal government has failed to stop property destruction, thefts and other crimes associated with illegal immigration and drug running
This is a pretty amazing charge, when you consider that local governments won't detain and help deport illegal immigrants and many have passed laws specifically preventing local government employees from reporting them as illegal.
#9
David Brooks has an interesting column on this issue, printed today in my morning paper. I regret that the family tech mavens, James and Korora, aren't home to show me how to post a link, so you'll have to look it up.
Brooks's thesis is that "we make it nearly impossible for the immigrants to come here legally. We issue about 5000 visas for unskilled year round labor annually, but the economy requires hundreds of thousands of workers."
He goes on to say, "We're not going to get this situation under control until we understand this paradox: The more we simply crack down, the more disorder we get. The only way to re-establish order is to open up legal, controllable channels through which labor can flow in an above-ground, orderly way. We can't build a wall to stop this flood; we need sluice gates to regulate the flow."
He then describes some bills which would allow established illegals to stay provided they pay back taxes and some other penalties.
I question the choice of the verb "need." Does the economy "need" hundreds of thousands of low paid guest workers in the hospitality industries?" But I do agree with him that we need to be more realistic about the numbers of people who want to come here and really contribute to society. 5000 people is a most miserly limit.
Our friend Carlo was lucky enough to have a relative here. When his business went under in Argentina, he and his family were able to immigrate. I have never seen people work harder than Carlo and his wife, and now their 11 year old daughter is in line to recieve a community scholarship if she keeps up the good work through high school.
INS, meanwhile, has taken more than 15 years to process paperwork for Carlo's sister in law, whose husband is American. She fills out her paperwork, is told to wait 6 months for the next round. The six months comes and goes, they haven't finished her paperwork; but meanwhile her paperwork expires so she has to fill out a new form. And wait another 6 months.
Looking forward to some realistic proposals for dealing with the immigration issues. We need a major overhaul of INS bureaucracy, sensible numbers of visas, penalties for breaking the law that actually deter hiring illegals, and consistent enforcement.
Pardon the long commentary. I actually have half an hour of peace and quiet to write today.
#10
But if the arresting officer is part of a 'Sanctuary city/county/etc....' (like the Peoples Republic of Seattle) then *they* (the officers) get the split and not the sanctuary government.
This should also be extended to elected officals who enact 'sanctuary laws'.....
#11
Hey mom! I agree with you 100%. If we need more workers then change the farking law to allow more legal immigrants from all countries not just Mexico / Canada.
A friend of mine in Vancover BC has a business in Taiwan where he provides 'factory workers' to the factories there - mostly from the Philippines. He provides food, shelter, solves problems, disputes, etc... for his workers and provides decent workers for the factories. The workers get a good deal (they don't get ripped off and can save or send money home), he gets a cut (he's a decent guy and doesn't take advantage of them) and the factory get a stable supply of good workers.
These are not 'immigrants' but temporary workers.
There is no reason such a business could not work here to supply the 'migrant workers' is there? (outside of the unions who would demand their 'cut').
#12
He then describes some bills which would allow established illegals to stay provided they pay back taxes and some other penalties.
No. No illegal worker, illegal immigrant, whatever, that has been here for any amount of time should have any sort of advantage over any other immigrant or potential immigrant. Put them in line where they should be (where they should have gone in the first place), and make them sweat it out like everybody else. And furthermore, if people are only needed for "work", then they DON'T get to bring their families over here. PERIOD.
#13
Put them in line where they should be (where they should have gone in the first place), and make them sweat it out like everybody else.
I dunno. Since they've already shown a tendency to ignore the law, they should be put on a second list that will only be used if we've already accepted all the people willing to immigrate legally.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/17/2005 14:20 Comments ||
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#14
Agreed RC. Why the hell reward them when alot of people made the effort to come here through the existing system fairly and legally.
#16
An economics lesson: In a market, the price rises or falls to the point where supply and demand are in equilibrium. This applies to labor, just as much as it does to any tradeable commodity. The argument that the USA or any other country needs immigrants illegal or otherwise to perform work that legal residents won't do is complete BS. Absent, the immigrants, the price for labor to do these jobs will rise and the demand will fall until equilibrium is reached.
#18
It will take 10 times that amout to enforce and collect that ten thousand. It will cost ten times that to prosecute and lock somebody up for it too. It will end up with a happy richer lawyer, a happy ACLU, a happy illegal and poorer tax payers when then illegal walks.
#19
Level the fine aginst the Corporation... and the CEO Personally.
How many illegals does Walmart employ? 2,000? (for example) that would end up costing the CEO something like... 20Million.... I think he would sit up and take notice.
#20
Crumble Jush - typical - It won't work, don't try it. Idiot
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/17/2005 18:06 Comments ||
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#21
I see a problem. I will get this fine for not knowing my 100 dollar a month Gardener is actually an illegal that acts and speaks like he has been here since birth. The Corporations will never be busted. That is how this stuff works. So screw this BS.
The INS could raid and go after illegals right now. The political will isn't there, the institutional mindset of the INS is to do everything is can to avoid dealing with the issue or even do it's job. It's not a lack of money or of manpower. It is a lack of the will of the management to do the job properly and the unionized workers to perform their jobs even if their bosses and union leadership don't like it.
The answer to every problem isn't new laws or throwing money at it. We already have the laws. The money has already been spent. Someone just needs a good kick in the butt so they do their job.
#22
CJ: It will take 10 times that amout to enforce and collect that ten thousand. It will cost ten times that to prosecute and lock somebody up for it too. It will end up with a happy richer lawyer, a happy ACLU, a happy illegal and poorer tax payers when then illegal walks.
It all depends. How much does it cost to enforce speed limits? Can the administrative processes be streamlined? I think $10K a pop is plenty. The issue is beating the ACLU in precedent-setting case, after which every other ACLU challenge for this kind of thing will automatically be summarily dismissed.
#23
I don't think the fine will make much of a difference. I live Southern California and have employed dozens of Mexican immigrants. We have always required all of them to provide proper ID. We ask for their green cards, drivers licenses and social security cards. The problem is much of what we get is fake. We have no idea until years later. Usually the IRS sends us a letter that the employee's social security number does not mach IRS records. By that time the worker moves on to another job. No one I know (and we have an agricultural business) knowingly employs illegals. I doubt Wal Mart does either. Let's just secure the damn border once and for all!
Anti-war mom Cindy Sheehan isn't running for Congress yet, but she's getting the kind of publicity that most politicians can only dream about. She has urged her supporters to organize vigils across the country -- "before one more mother's child is lost" -- and now a liberal advocacy group is making it happen.
MoveOn.org announced that it has teamed up with TrueMajority and Democracy for America in organizing "Vigils for Cindy Sheehan" -- "to remind people of the terrible price of war."
I had no idea Karl Rove was this good.
The vigils are supposed to take place at 7:30 Wednesday night.
In an email message to supporters, MoveOn.org noted that President Bush went for a bike ride on Saturday, then napped, went fishing and read. "But President Bush refused to meet with Cindy Sheehan, the grieving mother who lost her son in Iraq. Cindy is fast becoming an international spokeswoman against the war. But now, it's up to all of us to show that she's not alone in demanding answers from the president," the message said.
(Sheehan met with President Bush in June 2004, two months after her son died, at a military base near Seattle, Wash. She was among a group of families who lost loved ones in the war who were invited to spend a few minutes with the president.)
MoveOn.org said it has found people to host 300 vigils, but it wants to do better than that. "We've prepared a kit that walks you through exactly what you need to do. Can you host a vigil in your community?" The message says it would be "especially meaningful" for Iraq war veterans or soldiers' relatives to come to the vigils. "Bring a photo of your loved one to remind all of us what is at stake," MoveOn.org said. "These vigils aren't rallies or places to give long-winded speeches," MoveOn.org said. But you can expect plenty of both at each and every vigil.
"They are moments to solemnly come together and mark the sacrifice of Cindy and other families." Pass me a tissue.
The vigils will last about half an hour, organizers said. "If we all join together and do our part we can show the sort of public support for Cindy the president can't ignore."
Posted by: Chris W. ||
08/17/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
I plan on going Roller Skating and ignoring your stupid TRANZI bullcrap. MoveOn that crap.
#2
The life of every soldier fighting on our behalf is precious, and I honor every one of them, especially those who make the ultimate sacrifice, but no nation ever won a war by agonizing over every soldier's death. But I guess that's the point for Ms. Sheehan and her cheerleaders: victory is not an option.
Just one question for her: "Do you think your son would be proud of your behavior?"
#3
Let me know when the vigil is, for at that hour I will raise a nice glass of wine in tribute to the Americans who are fighting this war, and then a special toast to a fallen hero, Casey Sheehan.
Excellent graphic. But, I like the description in the Bible better.
Matthew 8:32 "He said to them, "Go!" So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water."
You got give it to the liberals. They're trying all kinds of fishing lure, but nothing bites.
#17
Just saw a pack of hippies / soccer moms holding their candlelight "vigil" on a street corner. They were standing adjacent to a Wal-Mart holding little flashlight "candles" and computer generated protest signs; "Stop the War", etc etc. No more than 15 people, probably less.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
08/17/2005 20:46 Comments ||
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As President Bush's neighbors seek relief from protesters by way of the county commission, one local resident took matters into his own hands and now has been charged with criminal mischief. McLennan County resident Larry Northern, 59, faced $3,000 bail Tuesday after witnesses said he swerved his pickup truck in and out of a display of crosses set up on the side of the road by anti-war protesters. Atta boy! Criminals like you deserve your fate.
The crosses represented the U.S. troops who have died in Iraq, with individuals' names on each. Northern was charged with criminal mischief over $1,500 and under $20,000. Worth every penny. How can I donate to your legal fund? Restitution is the least you can do, you cold-hearted Republican.
Cindy Sheehan, who has led the protest outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, said she was very upset by the vandalism. "I just want to say that what happened last night is very disturbing to all of us and it really should be very disturbing to America, because no matter what you think about the war, we should all honor the sacrifices of the ones who have fallen," said Sheehan, whose son Casey died in Iraq in August 2004. You wouldn't know "honor" if it walked up and slapped you.
"What we saw here last night was a sacrilege ... five of those crosses are those of my friends," added protester Charlie Anderson, who said he is a veteran of the Iraq war.
But Sheehan and her group are largely blamed for creating the hostility brewing among the president's neighbors, who have appealed to the McLennan County Commission to erect a barrier that could prevent anti-war protesters from congregating on the road outside Bush's ranch. More than 60 people signed a petition sent to the commissioners asking them to expand the no-parking zone that bans cars within a few hundred feet of the ranch. The effect would be to push the anti-war protesters, who have pitched tents and set up port-a-potties on the winding two-lane road, about seven miles away from the neighbors' properties into the town of Crawford. To hear the MSM spin it, she's sitting out there all by herself, waiting for W. to talk with her.
Some residents said they worry about the safety of children waiting for school buses in the area. Schools began classes Tuesday. "All those of us that live in that area and in that community and our children also have civil rights, and we do feel that those are being seriously compromised at this time," said John Laufenberg, who attended a Tuesday meeting of the commission and refuted concerns raised by protesters that expanding the parking ban would violate civil rights.
"I would encourage the commission to weigh heavily the First Amendment rights that we have, because that's really the fundamental thing: free speech, the ability to protest, legitimate dissent in a democracy," said Ann Wright, who has been in charge of the site, dubbed "Camp Casey." Wright was joined at the commission meeting by about a dozen people from the camp. Sheehan did not attend the meeting, but said her group has been very respectful of the area. Are you a grieving mother or the leader of a mob? You send your flunkies to answer questions for you?
"We're trying to be good neighbors. We're cooperating with law enforcement. If you talk to law enforcement, they'll tell you the same thing. We're trying to make everybody happy, and the only thing we want is to talk to one of their neighbors. And if they want us to leave, they should talk to their neighbor, George Bush, and tell him to talk to us," Sheehan said. Talk to "us"? I thought he was supposed to talk to YOU, Sheehan.
Opponents of the shantytown that has been set up in shallow ditches next to Bush's ranch say the protesters are legally parked, but they are wandering into the street and bringing traffic, which doesn't usually exist there, to a crawl. Some drivers have blown their horns continuously while maneuvering around the crowd, and several have yelled, "Go home!"
Sheehan, of Vacaville, Calif., said she will return to Bush's Texas home every time he is in town until he meets with her and other grieving families. Sheehan started the vigil on Aug. 6 and plans to stay until Bush returns to Washington in September. The county commission is unlikely to vote on changes to the ordinance before Bush leaves. The commission must publicize the petition and advertise a public hearing, which won't be held for another four weeks. The commissioners can vote.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former vice presidential candidate John Edwards, wrote a letter of support for the protesters that urged others to call the president and demand he meet with Sheehan. "The president's cavalier dismissal of Cindy Sheehan is emblematic of a greater problem. This is a mother who raised her son to love his country enough to serve. ... And when the worst does happen, when the world comes crashing down and she puts the boy she bore, the boy she taught, the boy she loved in the ground, what does that government say to her? It says we'll do the talking; we don't need to hear from you," Edwards wrote. Pardon me, you stupid cow, but Bush already did acknowledge Sheehan, face to face, and no "cavalier dismissal" occured.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
08/17/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Are there any anti-loitering local ordinances? Use them.
#2
Unbelievable how they are able to get away with setting up a camp with porta-pottys 3 thus far and create a make shift camp on an ACTIVE road. Doesn't sound that safe to me. Not to mention all of the news media circus stopping by for visits.
There should be a crowd setting up a camp representing the neighbor now in defense of his actions to protest his criminal mischief charge. Might as well throw in a donations box.
By the way what's the speed limit on that road? 55?
Posted by: Jan ||
08/17/2005 1:03 Comments ||
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#3
To reduce honorable service and the ultimate sacrifice to rank political theater and farcical burlesque in the service of this bizarre dementia is to confirm beyond any doubt the ghoulish depravity of these Moonbats. Fuck sympathy, this witch and her coven of users, leeches, and puppet masters deserve to be tarred and feathered and ridden out of the county on a sharp splintery rail - just as such subhuman offal would have been dealt with back when America was not shackled by absurd PCism and faux civility.
Indeed, as an astute poster noted yesterday, she is a vampire. The ultimate narcissist. One of the sham crosses should be driven through the hole where this bloodless shrieker's heart should be. My disgust hardens more each day into hatred for her and the circus of soulless freaks and media whores who've pitched their tents and made a grotesque calculated mockery of Casey Sheehan's death.
I sympathize with her soon-to-be Ex-husband, the families, and Casey's fellows, the effect of her unfathomable and sudden leap into insanity must be to increase their grief ten-fold. This defines travesty and betrayal.
You will NOT place signs of any kind on the right of way, if you do, and refuse to remove them, you go to jail.
The people who planted those little crosses are the real lawbreakers. Not the guy (Yea) who mowed them down.
If anyone forgets, the shoulder is made to be driven on by motor vehicles, the guy is innocent of any charges, and should sue the sign planters for any damage to his truck.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/17/2005 2:07 Comments ||
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#5
While my heart is all with .com, my head tells me that this is one of those times when "the best answer to a fool is silence." Sheehan and her ilk will wither and die without publicity. Ignore them and they'll go away.
Posted by: mac ||
08/17/2005 5:32 Comments ||
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#6
I bet it would be a good place, down there by the road, to set up a nice hog pen. Maybe a chicken coop.
#7
You hit the nail on the head .com. Depraved and craven are too nice to describe the dynamics. Is anybody's death ever "honored" by a familymember misusing it like a blunt political football stained, ripped and covered in dirt. When the attention dies down and she's abandoned by the skeleton crew using her and her madness, she'll be discarded like an empty peanut shell the squirrels have worked over for all it's worth. She'll have to live with herself and what she's done. She talks about how hard her son's death is to take, but she has a whole other league of hurt coming to her over the near horizon.
#9
To reduce honorable service and the ultimate sacrifice to rank political theater and farcical burlesque in the service of this bizarre dementia is to confirm beyond any doubt the ghoulish depravity of these Moonbats.
Well said, .com
What we saw here last night was a sacrilege ...
Not as much as the 'sacrilege' of your buffonerey, Anderson.
Chris W. : Worth every penny. How can I donate to your legal fund?
I think Mr. Northern already has a lot of friends locally who would have liked to do what he did, just were beaten to it, and may help him...
#14
This is getting really absurd!!!CUDO"s to the "MAD DRIVER"!!!!I cannot beleive what this woman is doing to her Son. And DISHONERING what he and many others have sacrificed.I have 25yrs in and am still going. Will be on my 4th tour in about a month. MY DECISION!!!!!!!As is everyone's involved!! When you put on the GREEN expect at some point that you WILL go in harms way!!Sheehan needs to pack her BULLSH** UP and GO HOME!!!!!!!
Someone needs to put a website up to help this guy w/ legal fees!!! SO HE CAN DO IT AGAIN!!!
Harare - Zimbabwe is taking legislative steps to force foreign-owned mining houses to cede 30% equity to local black investors in the next 10 years. Most of the mines in Zimbabwe are foreign owned and the move could help redress this imbalance. However, the timing and motives of the legislation, 25 years after independence, will undoubtedly fuel uncertainty in the country's troubled economy, which is struggling to attract foreign direct investment. Analysts also argued the move was a ploy by the forex-strapped government to retain some of the mining sector's profits. Fears were raised that, as with their South African counterparts, mining stakes will be secured by a well-connected elite close to the government.
Draft regulations to be inserted into the Mines and Mineral Act through a statutory instrument show government is mulling over plans to reform the sector using SA's mining charter as a model. The amendment, yet to be tabled before parliament, says: "In order to increase participation and ownership by historically disadvantaged persons in the mining industry, companies shall achieve 30% ownership of the industry assets in 10 years of which 20% shall be achieved in two years, 25% in seven years and 30% in 10 years from the date on which these regulations take effect. "Mining companies shall give historically disadvantaged persons a preferred supplier status, where possible, in all three levels of procurement, namely capital goods; services; and consumables."
Mining companies will now have to apply to the mining department when they want to import capital goods, services or consumables and justify their actions -- a requirement that analysts said could cripple their operations given the inefficiency of the Zimbabwean government's bureaucracy. However, the regulations do not say how the locally held 30% stakes are to be funded. Zimplats, owned by Impala Platinum, has already offered 15% to local investors who have, however, failed to fund the stake and have been fighting over it for the past two years. Borrowing rates in Zimbabwe are at astronomically high three-digit levels. Mines Minister Amos Midzi would not comment on the draft yesterday, saying he was "too busy". Chamber of Mines CEO David Murangari was also not available for comment.
Although the Zimbabwean plan is meant to transform the mining sector, dominated by British, South African and Australian companies, it has been dogged by controversy stemming from repeated official threats to nationalise foreign companies, including mines. International mining companies operating in Zimbabwe include Anglo America, Rio Tinto, Implats, Mimosa Platinum, and Aquarium Platinum. Implats financial director David Brown says the 30% figure bandied about was not dissimilar from empowerment requirements in SA, which his company was comfortable with. He suggested that funding empowerment deals in Zimbabwe was likely to be more challenging than in SA. "These requirements need to be balanced with what is do-able in reality," Brown said. He said this requirement should be "almost reversed", given what was achievable in reality. Rio Tinto's London office said it would not comment before the bill was published. Anglo American, which has significant mineral assets in Zimbabwe, also said it was unable to comment on a document they had not yet seen.
President Robert Mugabe has often threatened forced company takeovers.
A few years ago Mugabe's supporters invaded companies' premises, trying to take them over by force. Although the mining sector has been slowly recovering in the past 18 months, with mineral exports increasing 10% in the first quarter, it is still reeling from a skewed exchange rate, foreign currency shortages and high inflation. Zimbabwe produces minerals such as platinum, diamond, gold, black granite, coal, chromate, cobalt, graphite, iron ore, iron pyrites, lithium minerals, magnesite and nickel. The mining sector's foreign-exchange contribution has also fallen in recent years from more than 30% of the country's total net
#8
Thanks Thabo Mbeki! Your enabling allows this country to dive into chaos, death, hunger, and corruption. Good example for anyone else facing a rebel insurrection. Fight to the death
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/17/2005 18:59 Comments ||
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COLOMBO - The Indian Ocean state of the Maldives will press ahead with reforms despite political protests that have seen the arrest of more than 100 anti-government activists, Foreign Minister Ahmed Shaheed told AFP.
The government will stick to an original schedule to have a fully-fledged democratic system in the nation of 300,000 before the end of 2005, the 41-year-old minister said in an interview in Colombo. âIt is not just a multi-party system we are talking about, but an electoral system, a judiciary and a media that will also go with that,â Shaheed said.
He said the government had secured the support of two European experts to set up an electoral system for the former British protectorate, which for the first time wants to conduct multi-party parliamentary elections.
The nation of Sunni Muslims will also for the first time have independent commissions to run the civil service, the judiciary and to conduct elections, while there will also be an independent press complaints commission, he said. âWe have already fast-tracked the process and judges are being trained, the electoral system is being drawn up,â Shaheed said. âThis is a tremendous task, but we will have it as the president promised by the end of the year.â
It would be tremendous indeed if it worked.
Political parties were allowed in the Maldives, one of South Asiaâs most exotic tourist destinations, for the first time in June this year in line with reforms promised by President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who has ruled the country since 1978.
Anti-government demonstrations and protests since the weekend have gripped the capital island of Male where about a third of the nationâs population lives. Shaheed said about 130 people were in custody by Tuesday morning, including the main opposition leader Mohamed Nasheed who was taken in on Friday. âWe will release him soon if there are no charges against him,â Shaheed said before accusing Nasheedâs Maldivian Democratic Party of creating trouble and trying to push the country into anarchy.
âWe knew they would try to create violence and that is exactly what they did. We have arrested about 130 people by Tuesday morning for creating violence and causing trouble.
âThey (the MDP) have no political plan. They have no proper program. All they want to do is to push the country into anarchy. I think the moderates within the MDP are not happy with this situation.â
He said dissidents who were for the first time allowed to carry out political activities openly had launched the campaign to demand Gayoomâs ouster without offering any political alternative. âAll they say is Gayoom should go. But if Gayoom goes tomorrow, we will have chaos,â the minister said. âWe want democracy and what we see is that with democracy we canât expect everyone who comes in to be a liberal.â
Another leading Maldivian dissident based in Colombo, Mohamed Latheef, said a major crackdown on opposition activists was under way despite Gayoomâs pledge to allow political pluralism. Latheef said his activist daughter had been arrested on Friday and subsequently released, but her whereabouts were unknown. âThere is a major crackdown going on and we feel we are isolated,â Latheef told AFP.
He said the capital was tense amid mounting protests against the administration. However, foreign minister Shaheed said the situation was slowly returning to normal as the government had used âminimum forceâ to contain the protests.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/17/2005 01:04 ||
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#1
I could be wrong, but the Maldives locals is probably in no mood for the title "Maldives To Implement Waves Of Sweeping Reforms."
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A fast-moving computer worm Tuesday attacked computer systems using Microsoft operating systems, shutting down computers in the United States, Germany and Asia.
Among those hit were offices on Capitol Hill, causing Mike Dewine to cry, which is in the midst of August recess, and media organizations, including CNN, ABC and The New York Times. The Caterpillar Co. in Peoria, Illinois, reportedly also had problems. Rachel Corrie lives!
While the worm affects primarily Windows 2000, it also can affect some early versions of Microsoft XP. Symptoms include the repeated shutdown and rebooting of a computer. Shoot. That happens all the time.
Microsoft has a downloadable patch on its security homepage.
What was causing the damage was unclear, although experts pointed to a new worm called worm-rbot.cbq. David Perry of Trend Micro, an Internet monitoring firm, said the latest worm may have been derived from the Zotob worm, which was first reported over the weekend. Ullrich, of the Sans Institute, said Zotob "will connect to a control server to ask for instructions. It scans network neighborhoods and tries to infect them, as well."
Around 5 p.m. problems began at CNN facilities in New York and Atlanta before being cleared up about 90 minutes later. Since this article is from CNN, I guess they're still up
The New York Times also was able to bring its systems back up, and "newspaper production will not be affected," spokeswoman Kathy Park said. Mission not accomplished.
Too much to hope for.
The White House said it did not have reports of computer problems. Except an evil laugh from Karl Rove.
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.
A joint Chinese and Russian military exercise set to begin tomorrow is meant as a political signal to the United States, in addition to helping Moscow showcase its weapons for sale to China, U.S. defense and intelligence officials said yesterday.
Anti-war mom Cindy Sheehan isn't running for Congress yet, but she's getting the kind of publicity that most politicians can only dream about. She has urged her supporters to organize vigils across the country -- "before one more mother's child is lost" -- and now a liberal advocacy group is making it happen.
