Things got even uglier yesterday in the bitter war of words between Donald Trump and Rosie O'Donnell. Trump called the Los Angeles-based morning show Good Day L.A. to sound off on O'Donnell's remarks about his near-firing of Miss USA Tara Conner. "Maybe she wanted to put the crown back on Miss USA's head. I think she's very attracted to Miss USA, so she probably wanted to put the crown on her head herself," the real-estate mogul said of the openly gay O'Donnell, who has four children with her partner, Kelli.
Insult No. 2: "She is a very, very unattractive woman who really is a bully."
Insult No. 3: "Ultimately, Rosie is a loser and ultimately (The View) will fail because of Rosie. . . . Barbara (Walters) made a mistake and let me tell you something, Barbara's a good friend of mine. She cannot stand Rosie O'Donnell."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
I say a no holes holds barred caged grudge match. The loser has to have sex with the winner.
Posted by: ed ||
12/23/2006 6:45 Comments ||
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#2
Ewww, gee thanks, now I have to go scrub my brain.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/23/2006 8:17 Comments ||
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Posted by: the Donald ||
12/23/2006 11:16 Comments ||
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#5
Frankly, I can't stand either one of them, and don't pay attention to their crap. Neither one of them is worth the cost of burying them 20 feet deep in wet sand. What a farce. What's worse, millions of Americans are paying attention to this. We really do need some kind of purge.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/23/2006 16:31 Comments ||
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#6
I thought NOTHING would make me want to see more Britney stories, however ...
A rare viral disease that usually only affects cattle has killed 14 people in north-eastern Kenya and southern Somalia.
Kenyan medical experts last night confirmed that the Zionist occupation of PalestineRift Valley fever, which produces symptoms including bleeding through the nose and mouth, was the cause of 11 deaths around Garissa in recent days. Three people in southern Somalia are also reported to have died from the disease.
This doesn't happen in Alberta.
While it is not as lethal as other viral haemorrhagic fevers, such as Ebola and Marburg, the virus killed more than 200 in a previous outbreak in Kenya, in 1997.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/23/2006 00:21 ||
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WHO: Rift Valley fever
Rift Valley Fever (RVF), is a zoonosis (a disease which primarily affects animals, but occasionally causes disease in humans). It may cause severe disease in both animals and humans leading to high morbidity and mortality. The death of RVF-infected livestock often leads to substantial economic losses.
Since 1930, when the virus was first isolated during an investigation into an epidemic amongst sheep on a farm in the Rift Valley of Kenya, there have been outbreaks in sub-Saharan and North Africa. In 1997-98, there was a major outbreak in Kenya and Somalia. In September 2000, RVF was for the first time reported outside of the African Continent. Cases were confirmed in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. This virgin-soil epidemic in the Arabian Peninsula raises the threat of expansion into other parts of Asia and Europe.
vectors: assholes with wings [mosquitoes] non-human hosts: many domesticated animals including cattle, sheep, camels and goats Transmission to humans: see link above Clinical features of severe cases: see link above
#5
Such a sad thing when expertise is forced to leave due to corruption and tribalism: programs stop working, your people die, and you get a lot of either: infected mosquitoes, or 20 Quadzillion Zimbucks, about a days toilet paper.
The price of bread has nearly tripled in Zimbabwe after the government caved in to pressure from bakers demanding a more realistic selling price.
The new price for a loaf would be 825 Zimbabwean dollars (about R24), up from 295 Zimbabwean dollars.
Industry minister Obert Mpofu said in a government notice that the new price for a loaf would be 825 Zimbabwean dollars (about R24), up from 295 Zimbabwean dollars. "The minister of industry and international trade has set 825 dollars as the new retail price of bread while the producer price of bread has been set at 725 dollars," reported the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation on Friday.
Bread had almost disappeared from shop shelves after bakers said they could not afford to sell it at a loss. They said they would need at least 700 dollars a loaf to break even.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2006 00:00 ||
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#3
I remember way back when (October) when bread was only Zim$195.
Posted by: ed ||
12/23/2006 6:37 Comments ||
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Bread Price Triples in Zimbabwe
How could you tell, the ink on the bills is more valuable than the bills themselves, why just the ink from the number of zeroes alone must be worth near 1/10 cent US.
Semi-serious comment, is it worth buying toilet paper, or are the bills cheaper to use directly?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/23/2006 8:19 Comments ||
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(Xinhua) -- The government of Burkina Faso said on Thursday that it had cancelled a regional summit amid clashes between police officers and soldiers. The Foreign Ministry said a summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) due to be held in the capital this weekend had been cancelled.
The Foreign Ministry said it had also asked for the postponement of a summit of the West African Economic and Monetary community (UEMAO) which was scheduled to be held on Saturday. In a broadcast statement, junior foreign minister Dieudonne Somda said it was inappropriate for Burkina Faso to welcome guests amid the gun battles between police officers and soldiers in the capital. Somda said the foreign ministers of countries concerned had been officially informed of the government's request. The ECOWAS summit was off until further notice, Somda added.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2006 00:00 ||
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(Xinhua) -- Rioting soldiers in Burkina Faso threatened to torch the capital Ouagadougou on Thursday, plunging the city deep in a panic with streets deserted and businesses shut down. Following days of a police-soldier clash, the capital turned into a ghost town amid rumors that the soldiers would bury their slain man and then set the city ablaze. Residents stayed at home, businesses closed down and government buildings were evacuated. Foreign missions in the capital remained shut, witnesses reported early in the day. Only a few taxi vehicles were seen driving down the city's main streets, while the public transportation system has come to a halt.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2006 00:00 ||
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"I'm calling for an international boycott of German and Austrian historians until they put pressure on their governments to end the Stalinist legislation which puts historians in prison for expressing the wrong opinions about history - politically incorrect opinions."
Boycott historians? That's purdy draconian, but h'okay, yah shure.
We shouldn't imprison historians who express 'wrong opinions', we should ridicule them mercilessly. Let Rantburg show you how.
#1
IIRC..Irving's main contention that there is no documentary evidence linking Hitler to issuance of the final solution order, is technically correct. He does admit however, in a Fuhrer state a directive of that magnitude could only have been issued by Hitler himself. Himmler never came out and said it but he alluded to a Fuhrer order in a private speech in 1943 to his SS Generals.
I don't think Irving's problem is his historical research, but the anti-semitic stupidity he has a tendency to utter in public.
#2
There is also the nature of bureaucracy that confuses those not familiar with it. For example, a read of the Wansee conference shows a great deal of attention to the bureaucracy of racial actions, and far less to the execution of such actions.
Hitler's inner circle had two noteworthy characteristics: everyone in it was a "defective" in some way, physically or psychologically (the notable exception being Reinhard Heydrich); and everyone had overlapping authority.
Hitler wanted freaks so that nobody but him would be politically popular, and he wanted nobody to be secure in their authority, so they could build an empire to challenge his authority in the government.
This also meant that Hitler was always indirect with his orders, even to the military. A long used leadership principal, in which you say something that has several meanings, expecting your subordinates to correctly interpret you, and yet allows you to shun responsibility.
#3
"...everyone in it was a "defective" in some way, physically or psychologically..."
This was noted at the time, and the source for a much quoted and bitter jest that the perfet German Aryan speciman was blond like Hitler, slim like Goering, and handsome like Goebbels."
Cuba's parliament opened its year-end session Friday with the chair normally occupied by Fidel Castro empty, in the first meeting of the National Assembly of Popular Power since the 80-year-old leader fell ill.
Cubans were riveted to Friday's meeting because of the mystery surrounding Castro's health after his July 31 intestinal surgery. As the session began, lawmakers sang the national anthem and observed a minute of silence for a parliament member who had died. Raul Castro, who temporarily took power from his elder brother after the surgery, sat in his customary seat just to the left of the chair normally used by Fidel Castro. National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon, as usual, presided over the session.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2006 00:00 ||
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Hang in there bonefish buddies. It won't be long, I'll be evaulating the gear.
Venezuela's state oil company said Friday that it will buy four oil tankers from Iran, expanding its fleet with the help of a nation closely allied with President Hugo Chavez.
Petroleos de Venezuela SA said in a statement that its shipping subsidiary, PDV Marina, had signed a contract to buy the tankers from the Iran Marine Industrial Company. It did not disclose the price. PDV Marina president Asdrubal Chavez, who is a cousin of the president, said the deal is among various projects involving the two governments, and is also part of Venezuela's larger plan to expand PDV Marina's current fleet of 21 oil tankers.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
I wonder whether the tankers will arrive empty or full or mislabled things?
Hmmm, that makes it a little difficult but let's see:
A Mk. 48 torpedo costs about $3 million and it might take 2 or more for each tub. Pricey but covert. OTOH, sea mines are much less expensive and can be just as covert if laid by subs or B-2s just before Pumpkin-head's new acquisitions pass some choke point.
I think there are several ways we can come out ahead on this deal.
#6
Hey, hands off those tankers. Chavez needs them to transship Russian oil in order to meet US contract obligations. Let's hope the oil majors insist that Vladivostok oil be delivered all the way to Gulf coast refineries.
Posted by: ed ||
12/23/2006 6:36 Comments ||
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hmmmm - "lost at sea with all hands" sounds nice
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/23/2006 6:46 Comments ||
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Seriously, this seems to me to be a "Sell it quick before it's sunk by the Americans" scenario.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/23/2006 8:23 Comments ||
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Second thought, bet there's a buyback clause after the hostilities end.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/23/2006 8:24 Comments ||
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#10
1) L.A., San Francisco, New York harbor and D.C.
#2
Does the US have any heavy water reactors we can ship to Georgia?
On a more serious note: US plans portable nuclear power plants A nuclear reactor that can meet the energy needs of developing countries without the risk that they will use the by-products to make weapons is being developed by the US Department of Energy. The aim is to create a sealed reactor that can be delivered to a site, left to generate power for up to 30 years, and retrieved when its fuel is spent.
And I do advocate financing reactors for pro western FSU and Warsaw Pact countries so they can get out from Russian energy blackmail. It's cheap insurance and money better spent than on muslims.
Posted by: ed ||
12/23/2006 7:33 Comments ||
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Ummm, I'm a Machinist, you know the fellow who makes things like this, "Sealed for thirty years" and still working, is simply not possible.
While some parts will survive thirty years easily, the statement "Still Working" is the killer here, maintenance is required.
If they use no pumps, relying on convection only, it's possible for the reactor itself to have a 30 year or longer lifetime, but then all you've got is hot water/steam, chnging steam to electricity requires expensive turbines, generators, bearings etc, and those simply cannot be left un-maintained for any such length of time.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/23/2006 8:40 Comments ||
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Actually, there are such reactors in operation today: naval nuclear reactors. They're welded sealed, can go from 0 to 100% power in minutes, and require very little nuclear-related expertise to change reactivity. They are designed so that power manipulations are dictated by the mission, not the reactor. However, to get this sort of performance, the enrichment is nearly bomb-grade.
However, Redneck jim is right when it comes to the part that turns the steam into electricity: THAT will definitely not last 30 years.
#5
Ptah has it: simply drive a nuclear boat to the main Georgian port. Connect it to the national energy grid and fire it up. It's American property, but we sell electricity to the Georgians at a mutually-agreed price.
If one isn't enough, bring in another one. We have plenty of Los Angeles boats tied up in the boneyard Ready Reserve.
Vlad will seethe but he won't interfere.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/23/2006 12:49 Comments ||
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Vlad will seethe but he won't interfere.
Especially if they're still armed to the teeth, like LA class can be...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/23/2006 16:59 Comments ||
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Anyone who voluntarily puts themselves at the mercy of Russian gangsters deserves it.
Turkmenistan's interim leader says the country will remain "stable and calm" following the unexpected death of its authoritarian president. Saparmurat Niyazov, who ruled for 21 years, pegged out died on Wednesday from a heart attack. He will be buried on Sunday.
He leaves no designated successor and analysts are warning of a power struggle to fill the vacuum. The acting leader, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, told state TV the government was "firmly in control".
Mr Niyazov, who was made president-for-life in 1999, exercised almost total control over the resource-rich country through a cult of personality. In the capital, Ashgabat, shops were closed and flags flown at half-mast. Newspapers were entirely devoted to his death. A period of national mourning will continue until 30 December and security has been stepped up in the capital.
Under the constitution, the Parliament chairman Ovezgeldy Atayev should have become the interim leader, but Mr Berdymukhamedov, the deputy prime minister, elbowed him out of the wayhad him shot was named instead. He told state television that Mr Atayev had been strangled sacked after a criminal probe was opened into his activities on Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2006 00:00 ||
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(Xinhua) -- Turkmenistan's acting President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said that the country would stick to the policies of late President Saparmurat Niyazov, the Interfax news agency reported Friday. The people of Turkmenistan would be loyal to the political lines set by Niyazov, who died early Thursday from a heart failure,Berdymukhamedov said on national television on Thursday night. Turkmenistan would preserve its policy of neutrality and develop relations with other countries as good neighbors and friends and based on the principles of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit, he said. The acting head of state promised his country would remain committed to its international obligations.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2006 00:00 ||
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So, is he gonna call himself Turkmenboobie or what?
WASHINGTON -- Massachusetts lawmakers are set to launch a blizzard of investigations in the new Congress, probing issues such as wartime contracting, post-Katrina housing assistance, and the Bush administration's relationship with Cuba and other countries in Latin America.
In what could be closely watched proceedings, two members of the Massachusetts delegation -- representatives William D. Delahunt of Chavez Quincy and Martin T. Meehan of term limits Lowell -- are planning joint committee hearings to examine the administration's Iraq war policies, particularly the reasons for the military's lagging efforts to train Iraqi troops. Delahunt is in line to become chairman of the House International Relations Committee's subcommittee on oversight and investigations, and Meehan will take over the same subcommittee on the House Armed Services Committee. Can you say 'gridlock'?
Armed with the power to force sworn testimony for the first time after 12 years in the minority in Congress, members of the state's all-Democratic congressional delegation are positioned to criminalize policy differences play major roles in investigating policies and actions that cut across the federal government and the business community.
"We could be the Bush administration's worst nightmare come to pass, in terms of the questions we'll be able to ask from positions of power," said Representative Edward J. Markey of Malden, the dean of the Massachusetts delegation. "There are a lot of secrets that have been hidden from the American people in terms of the way business has been done for the past six years." I seem to recall the Clinton administration claiming all sorts of 'privileges' when the tables were turned.
Democrats in general say that when they become the majority party in Congress, they intend to shine a spotlight on administration policies and management, where the Republican power structure has done little to check the authority of the president. With the GOP powerless to stop them, Democrats say, they hope their oversight will protect taxpayer dollars and shape the political agenda going into the 2008 presidential election.
The hearings and investigations planned by Massachusetts' members of Congress will complement and, in some cases, compete with a dizzying array of other investigations Democrats are expected to launch early next year, and Senate committees are expected to be just as active as those in the House.
In addition to Delahunt and Meehan, Massachusetts will have House members in high-ranking posts on several major investigatory committees.
Representative Barney Frank of Newton will become chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, which has sweeping authority over the Treasury Department, the Securities and Exchange Commissions, and the nation's housing policies. Frank has outlined an agenda that includes a year long examination on the issue of wage inequality in the United States.
He is also planning hearings in late January or early February on consumer protections in federal banking laws, as well as the federal government's efforts to rebuild housing destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast.
#3
Since congress no longer cites people who refuse to testify for contempt of congress, private citizens can just blow them off. Government officials brought forward for testimony just repeat over and over again their written statements, no matter what questions are put to them.
#5
Go ahead and probe into Katrina: then stand back for all the LA-demos to get smacked down. Yeah FEMA dorked it, and Brown said so on his way out the door, but you can bet your ass that once the money and other assets got into the state, there was a whole lot of graftin' (and just plain ineptness) goin' on.
Space shuttle Discovery and its seven astronauts safely returned to Earth on Friday after some last-minute suspense over which landing site to use, closing out a year in which NASA finally got construction of the international space station back on track.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Must have been the lowest visibility ever. LIFR conditions. Course all the pilot really has to do is hit the gear down thingy.
Remember the first landing where the gear didn't go down until 5 seconds before touchdown, and all the justified panic as the spectators thought it was going to belly-flop and be destroyed?
Hurried re-programing to make the landing gear deploy earlier was the order of the day. No Gear problems since then.
My dad, (An Engineer) said (Sarcasticly) "Good programming, it deployed when needed, and not before."
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/23/2006 8:53 Comments ||
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Having blind faith in HAL can lead to some bad things: Early Airbus a/c had 100% computer control of the flaps and there was at least one accident in Europe that would have been avoided if the aircraft had responded to the pilot's input: he wanted flaps up but the computer refused and the plane crashed. He was looking for a go around and wanted to pull up the flaps when he put the power on, at the very worst he could have flown the aircraft into the ground gracefully (thought I would never describe a gear up landing like that!) but was unable.
Manual override is a wonderful thing.
#5
It's true that glide path and landing can be on computer, but the Shuttle pilot normally overrides at ~ 50,000 feet and flies the glide himself. The co-pilot overrides and lowers gear based on the chase plane callout of altitude. When they get close, chase will call out (in feet estimated )100, 50, 40 ,30, 20 , etc. Then he'll confirm gear lockout, and bogey touch when the wheels hit the tarmac. Gotta give them somethin' to do, otherwise, as Yeager said years ago, they're just "Spam in a can."
yesterday we had this post in response to Abu Bakar Bashir story
"#3: Wouldn't it be funny, er, coincidental if there just happened to be another earthquake there? i mean in response to the verdict and all...
But when there is, you can bet that the good ol' (gullible) USA will be first in line with all sorts of aid; aid that will never get those that truly need it.
Posted by: USN, Ret.|| 2006-12-22 13:48 Top||
Today we get this:
Officials in the Indonesian province of Aceh say six people are dead and 11 are missing after floods that have forced more than 70,000 people from their homes. They say most villages in affected areas of north Aceh are under water. The officials say they are yet to get reports from the east of the province.
In Malaysia, the worst floods in 37 years have displaced nearly 100,000 people. Weather forecasters have warned that the floods in southern states could spread to the central and north-eastern parts of Malaysia if the unusually heavy monsoon rains persist.
At least two villages remained isolated and 5,000 people fled their homes in Langkat in northern Sumatra, about 80 kilometres north-west of the provincial capital, Medan, Indosiar TV news reported. In the Aceh district of Langsa, police diverted traffic from continuing southward as floods have cut off the main road connecting Banda Aceh, the provincial capital of Aceh, and Medan.
Langkat district head Syamsul Arifin has blamed rampant illegal logging in nearby Gunung Leuser National Park as the main cause of the heavy flooding.
"Irresponsible logging in Gunung Leuser National Park caused us this disaster," the Kompas daily reported him as saying. Illegal logging in the national park was also blamed for flash floods in North Sumatra's Bahorok region in 2003, which killed hundreds of people.
In June, floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains killed more than 200 people in South Sulawesi province. A separate incident killed more than 20 people and forced 40,000 people from their homes in Borneo island in the same month.
#4
There was another 6.1 "aftershock" in the Andaman islands yesterday. I'm sure there will be other "acts of God" in the area over the next ten years. The events are a natural occurrence. The greater than average destruction and death can be squarely blamed on islamic ideas of engineering and cause/effect.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/23/2006 19:41 Comments ||
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#5
All that's missing now is the US Aid part.
(my crystal ball is in the shop, along with my giveadam)
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.
Things got even uglier yesterday in the bitter war of words between Donald Trump and Rosie O'Donnell. Trump called the Los Angeles-based morning show Good Day L.A. to sound off on O'Donnell's remarks about his near-firing of Miss USA Tara Conner. "Maybe she wanted to put the crown back on Miss USA's head. I think she's very attracted to Miss USA, so she probably wanted to put the crown on her head herself," the real-estate mogul said of the openly gay O'Donnell, who has four children with her partner, Kelli. 
A rare viral disease that usually only affects cattle has killed 14 people in north-eastern Kenya and southern Somalia.
The price of bread has nearly tripled in Zimbabwe after the government caved in to pressure from bakers demanding a more realistic selling price. 
(Xinhua) -- The government of Burkina Faso said on Thursday that it had cancelled a regional summit amid clashes between police officers and soldiers. The Foreign Ministry said a summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) due to be held in the capital this weekend had been cancelled. 
(Xinhua) -- Rioting soldiers in Burkina Faso threatened to torch the capital Ouagadougou on Thursday, plunging the city deep in a panic with streets deserted and businesses shut down. Following days of a police-soldier clash, the capital turned into a ghost town amid rumors that the soldiers would bury their slain man and then set the city ablaze. Residents stayed at home, businesses closed down and government buildings were evacuated. Foreign missions in the capital remained shut, witnesses reported early in the day. Only a few taxi vehicles were seen driving down the city's main streets, while the public transportation system has come to a halt.
Cuba's parliament opened its year-end session Friday with the chair normally occupied by Fidel Castro empty, in the first meeting of the National Assembly of Popular Power since the 80-year-old leader fell ill. 
