Experts have in the last two months been able to extinguish 40 percent of an underground coal fire that has been burning in northern Afghanistan for more than a decade, the mining ministry said Monday. An operation to put out the fire in the Dara-i-Suf coal mine was launched in early July and mainly involved sealing vents that supply oxygen to the fire, ministry spokesman Khoghman Ulumi told AFP. The fire erupted due to natural accidents had devoured tens of tons of coal in the past 10 years, Ulumi added. Efforts are under way to control the fire in the mine, he said. After decades of wars and internal conflict, Afghanistan is trying to revive its rich mining industry. Estimates of the countrys coal reserves range from 73 million tons to 400 million tons.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2007 00:00 ||
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Thought that was in Australia? But yes, China's apparently the world leader in out-of-control coal mine fires.
They tried for twenty years to kill the Centralia fire. I live about an hour and a half from it, but I've never been. I know a spelunker who's been there, though.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
09/11/2007 13:14 Comments ||
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Sounds like a really good source of carbon credits. Any donation to put out these fires should get you at least 3 months of AC a year.
#7
Coal fires in China consume 10-15% of the 1300 Mtons total production. It's a huge waste. Compare w/ the tiny Afghan coal reserves and annual US coal production of 1100 Mtons.
Posted by: ed ||
09/11/2007 20:52 Comments ||
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He was nicknamed the Lord of War, a ruthless Colombian cocaine baron blamed for the death of 1,500 people. His photo appeared alongside Osama bin Laden in the FBI Top 10 Most Wanted. But yesterday morning Diego Montoya was in plastic handcuffs, after soldiers found him cowering behind a bush dressed only in his T-shirt and underpants.
"I lost," was said to be the laconic comment of one of the world's most wanted drug traffickers.
Montoya was captured by an elite army unit during a pre-dawn raid on a farm where his mother and uncle were staying, in Valle del Cauca province. He offered to bribe troops $5 million - the same amount as the US bounty on his head - to let him go. Nobody took him up on it.
He offered to bribe troops $5 million (£2.5 million) - the same amount as the US bounty on his head - to let him go, said Juan Manuel Santos, the Colombian defence minister.
Nobody took him up on it. He faces extradition to the United States within two months to stand trial on charges of leading the Norte del Valle cartel, considered Colombias most dangerous drug trafficking organisation, and of shipping hundreds of tons of cocaine to the United States and Europe.
Russia's Nikolai Kuznetsov's Samara Scientific Technical Complex (Kuznetsov SNTK) is resuming production of its NK-12 turboprop engine under orders from the Russian and Indian defence ministries as part of a re-engining programme for their respective fleets of Tupolev Tu-95 bombers and Tu-142 maritime surveillance aircraft.
An initial six engines are due to be delivered late this year, with India having placed orders in late 2006. Moscow's upgrade programme comes in the wake of president Vladimir Putin's 17 August order to resume round-the-clock long-range air patrols.
Posted by: john frum ||
09/11/2007 18:37 ||
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Tu 95
Maximum speed: 925 km/h (500 kt, 575 mph)
Range: 15,000 km (8,100 nm, 9,400 mi)
Service ceiling: 12,000 m (39,000 ft)
Rate of climb: 10 m/s (2,000 ft/min)
Armament: Up to 15,000 kg (33,000 lb), including the Kh-20, Kh-22, Kh-26, and Kh-55 air-to-surface missiles
Posted by: john frum ||
09/11/2007 18:43 Comments ||
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The Russian military has successfully tested what it described as the world's most powerful non-nuclear air-delivered bomb, Russia's state television reported Tuesday. It was the latest show of Russia's military muscle amid chilly relations with the United States.
Channel One television said the new weapon, nicknamed the "dad of all bombs" is four times more powerful than the U.S. "mother of all bombs." "The tests have shown that the new air-delivered ordnance is comparable to a nuclear weapon in its efficiency and capability," said Col.-Gen. Alexander Rukshin, a deputy chief of the Russian military's General Staff, said in televised remarks.
Unlike a nuclear weapon, the bomb doesn't hurt the environment, he added.
Excepting the immediate environment, of course.
The statement reflected the Kremlin's efforts to restore Russia's global clout and rebuild the nation's military might while the ties with Washington have been strained over U.S. criticism of Russia's backsliding on democracy, Moscow's vociferous protests of U.S. missile defense plans, and rifts over global crises.
The U.S. Massive Ordnance Air Blast, nicknamed the Mother Of All Bombs, is a large-yield satellite-guided, air-delivered bomb described as the most powerful non-nuclear weapon in history.
Channel One said that while the Russian bomb contains 7.8 tons of high explosives compared to more than 8 tons of explosives in the U.S. bomb, it's four times more powerful because it uses a new, highly efficient type of explosives that the report didn't identify.
A double super-secret ingredient, sorta like the secret sauce on a Big Mac.
While the U.S. bomb is equivalent to 11 tons of TNT, the Russian one is equivalent to 44 tons of regular explosives. The Russian weapon's blast radius is 990 feet, twice as big as that of the U.S. design, the report said.
Like its U.S. predecessor, first tested in 2003, the Russian bomb is a "thermobaric" weapon that explodes in an intense fireball combined with a devastating blast. It explodes in a terrifying nuclear bomb-like mushroom cloud and wreaks destruction through a massive shock wave created by the air burst and high temperature. Thermobaric weapons work on the same principle that causes blasts in grain elevators and other dusty places clouds of fine particles are highly explosive. Such explosions produce shock waves that can be directed and amplified in enclosed spaces such as buildings, caves or tunnels.
Channel One said that the temperature in the epicenter of the Russian bomb's explosion is twice as high as that of the U.S. bomb.
The report showed the bomb dropped by parachute from a Tu-160 strategic bomber and exploding in a massive fireball. It featured the debris of apartment buildings and armored vehicles at a test range, as well as the scorched ground from a massive blast. It didn't give the bomb's military name or say when it was tested.
Rukshin said the new bomb would allow the military to "protect the nation's security and confront international terrorism in any situation and any region."
"We have got a relatively cheap ordnance with a high strike power," Yuri Balyko, head of the Defense Ministry's institute in charge of weapons design, told Channel One.
Posted by: john frum ||
09/11/2007 17:40 ||
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Posted by: john frum ||
09/11/2007 17:43 Comments ||
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Posted by: john frum ||
09/11/2007 17:44 Comments ||
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Russian mathematicians, physicist and engineers [reverse and otherwise] are remarkable.
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
09/11/2007 17:54 Comments ||
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Of course the problem is getting it over the target without the delivery aircraft getting blown out of the sky.
Unlike a nuclear weapon, the bomb doesn't hurt the environment, he added.
Well, except for all the nature and wildlife within a 1000 yard radius....
Maximum speed: Mach 2.05 (2,220 km/h, 1,380 mph) at high altitude
Combat radius: =10,500km
Maximum range: 17,400 km
Service ceiling: 15,000 m (49,200 ft)
Rate of climb: 70 m/s (13,780 ft/min)
Empty weight: 110 t (242,000 lb)
Loaded weight: 267 t (590,000 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 275 t (606,000 lb)
2 internal bays for 40,000 kg (88,200 lb) of ordnance, options include:
2 internal rotary launchers each holding 6× Raduga Kh-55 cruise missiles (primary armament) or 12× Raduga Kh-15 short-range nuclear missiles
Posted by: john frum ||
09/11/2007 18:18 Comments ||
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"Unlike a nuclear weapon, the bomb doesn't hurt the environment, he added."
That has *got* to go down as one of the quotes of the year!
#10
the Russian bomb contains 7.8 tons of high explosives compared to more than 8 tons of explosives in the U.S. bomb ... While the U.S. bomb is equivalent to 11 tons of TNT, the Russian one is equivalent to 44 tons of regular explosives.
So at 5.6 times the yield/kg of TNT this means the Russian "explosive" is really a fuel-air explosive (hydrocarbon + oxygen energy = 5 x TNT). Not much of a boom but a huge fireball.
Posted by: ed ||
09/11/2007 19:22 Comments ||
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Patton was right. We're gonna have to fight those sons of bitches someday.
Not necessarily. Russia has less than half the population of the United States and theirs is dropping by about 1,800 people per day while the U.S. is expanding by about 8,000 (excluding immigration). The Russian economy is 1/7th of the U.S. economy and is still very natural resource based.
The Soviet Union went bankrupt trying to maintain an empire and compete militarily with the U.S. If Putin wants to walk down the same path he too will bankrupt his country.
Personally, I enjoy watching him squeeze the EU on energy. I hope it lasts.
#12
They need to remember that it is only the Dad of All CONVENTIONAL Bombs - unless it measures in the megatons it doesn't count in the US vs. Russia scenario. If they want to use it on Chechnya, that's a different argument.
#16
If both sides can deliver hundreds of multi-kiloton warheads, and both sides are even remotely rational, MAD still applies and neither side will use them. The modifier 'rational' is why we are, and should be, so concerned about Iran and Pakistan. And why Tancredo was not wrong to remind them that one of their 'pillars' could/would be permanently eliminated.
#17
Don't forget about the 1000 Mt H-bomb doomsday ship that Khrushchev wanted. It was to be unmanned and explode when a radiation threshold was exceeded. It would have irradiated the northen hemisphere and likely boiled off a chunk of atmosphere into space. Scared the pants off the other Soviets.
Posted by: ed ||
09/11/2007 21:34 Comments ||
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And if the 100 Megaton Bomb lands on the stockpile....
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
09/11/2007 22:43 Comments ||
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Well for starters I gotta wonder if AP is getting their bylines from pravda these days.
First the MOAB isn't a thermobaric or a fuel air explosive. By the book its more like a general purpose bomb. This is what it contains:
"The 21,700-pound [9,500 kilogram] bomb contains 18,700 pounds of H6, an explosive that is a mixture of RDX (Cyclotrimethylene trinitramine), TNT, and aluminum. H6 is used by the military for general purpose bombs"
#20
KOMMERSANT > THE [Russ] GOVERNMENT WILL DEFEAT DEATH. Russ demographics - its shrinking, aging, dying, etc. population. Govt expects to lose up to 27.0Milyuhn by 2050.
French information systems fell prey to cyber attacks "involving China", similar to those reported by the US, British and German governments, a top French security offical told AFP on Saturday.
"We have indications that our information systems were the object of attacks, like in the other countries," the Secretary-General of National Defence (SGDN) Francis Delon said, confirming a report published in French newspaper Le Monde. "We have proof that there is involvement with China. But I am prudent. When I say China, this does not mean the Chinese government. We don't have any indication now that it it was done by the Chinese People's Liberation Army," he added.
Asked which computer systems had been hacked, Delon said they "concerned the services of the (French) state."
A source close to the issue said the French defence ministry's public Internet site was targeted, but that it contained no confidential information. The attack was made by cyber saboteurs to "test information technology defences."
China vehemently denied that its army was involved in international computer espionage on Thursday after newspaper reports that the British government had sustained cyber attacks from the Chinese. "Saying that the Chinese military has made cyber attacks on the networks of foreign governments is groundless and irresponsible and are a result of ulterior motives," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.
The Times and The Independent newspapers in London said that Chinese computer hackers had infiltrated British government networks. And The Times on Saturday quoted what it said was a Pentagon report that Chinese military hackers have drawn up a plan to disable the US battle carrier fleet through a cyber attack.
Beijing planned to establish "electronic dominance" over its global rivals by 2050, particularly the United States, Britain, Russia and South Korea, said the daily.
The Pentagon said on Tuesday that several nations and groups had been trying to break into the US military's computer system, after the Financial Times reported China's military had successfully hacked into the network in June. The Pentagon later indicated that the attacks were coming from "states and non-state-owned organisations."
The German weekly Der Spiegel reported that espionage programs traced to the PLA had been detected in computer systems at Chancellor Angela Merkel's office, the foreign ministry and other government agencies in Berlin without identifying its source.
#1
See also HERITAGE.org > CHECKING CHINA article; and speaking of carrier fleets RUSSIA > RUSSIAN NAVY ON FAST TRACK. Meanwhile, back in WAFF.com + BAESYSTEMS, BAESYSTEMS announces new concept of hi-techy surface warship dedicated to [Stealth?]BATTLESPACE UAV WARFARE.
#2
SPACEWAR > China modernizing its Strategic warfare capabilities. My island of Guam mentioned as a possible target for attack from modernized PLAAF H6 bombers [ALCMS?]based in China's Guangzhou region.
#3
Well, jeez. Considering the state of computer security, it's not surprising. It's frightening how ignorant people are, even ones who should know better. Add to this substandard, buggy equipment foisted on government agencies by corrupt vendors and patriotic Chinese-American engineers in hardware companies, and you've got networks that leak like a sieve.
#5
Not on this, Danielle. I work with a couple serious cyberwarfare/cyberdefense folks. These attacks are coming from China - and have been since before the buildup to entering Iraq in March 2003.
The man is a looney, not a jihadi. It's still very sad.
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- A Michigan man, seeking to punish the Netherlands for its support of the war in Iraq, says he killed a 22-year-old Dutch student with an ax after failing to find a soldier to kill, his lawyer said Tuesday. The suspect, Carlos Hartmann, 41, of Tecumseh, Mich., says he was responsible for the slaying Saturday on a train platform in the southern city of Roosendaal, lawyer Peter Gremmen said.
Hartmann appeared before a judge Tuesday and was ordered held for another two weeks for investigation. Under the Dutch legal system, Hartmann was not required to enter a plea Tuesday.
"He hates soldiers and says that the army kills people, so it would be legitimate if he were also to kill someone ... from the American military or from its NATO allies," Gremmen said in a telephone interview. When he failed to find a soldier at the Roosendaal train station, "he got such a crazy, disturbed idea that he killed a civilian," Gremmen said.
Hartmann did not attempt to escape the scene and was arrested shortly after the killing.
Dutch prosecutors confirmed that the suspect had discussed the death but did not identify him or the victim, in keeping with Dutch practice. Prosecution spokeswoman Martine Pilaar said her office was taken aback by Gremmen's willingness to reveal details of the case. But Gremmen said he was only confirming details published by the local newspaper BN/De Stem. The paper's source was not named, and police declined to comment.
"I was also surprised when I saw the paper. I thought, this must be coming from the investigation," he said.
Gremmen said Hartmann has lived in the Netherlands since 2002, supporting himself with English editing work for a Japanese company, which he could do by computer and that he had no fixed address. He said Hartmann had consented to undergo psychological testing, and now was "terribly sorry for his deed."
The victim, identified as Thijs Geers, was waiting for a train and had no connection with the suspect or the military. Online condolence registers in the Netherlands were flooded with messages of sympathy for him and his family.
"It's a sad story," Gremmen said. "But I'm glad he's admitted what he's done and that he's sorry for it."
The 41-year-old American suspected of killing a 22-year-old student with an axe at the Roosendaal train station on Saturday had planned to attack a Dutch commando from the nearby barracks.
He wanted revenge for the Dutch participation in the war in Iraq, he has told police according to reports from BN/De Stem. The newspaper reports that the suspect worked for the US air force in the past. The man's family says he never served in Iraq, has not suffered any trauma, and had resigned from the force himself.
The man claims to have worked out a detailed plan to attack the commandos. He arrived in the Netherlands last Thursday and spent the night in a hotel. Police have searched his hotel room and confiscated several books. On Friday the suspect spent the night in the forest near the commando barracks. When he was unable to commit an attack there he changed his plan and decided to attack a government worker.
The 22-year-old Bergen op Zoom man was most likely his arbitrarily chosen target on Saturday evening. The suspect was arrested at the station.
#2
The 41-year-old American suspected of killing a 22-year-old student with an axe at the Roosendaal train station on Saturday had planned to attack a Dutch commando from the nearby barracks.
I'd have paid good money to see that.
This is kind of a switch. Usually everybody else's lunatics end up over here...
France's new defence minister predicted a delay in the A400M airlifter in another blow for planemaker Airbus, and criticised costly projects to build over-sophisticated weapons when cheaper ones would do. Herve Morin's remarks, in an interview with newspaper La Tribune published on Monday, reflect growing fears that deliveries of the A400M will be hit by a flaw in its turboprop engines.
"There is a slight delay. It will reach our forces several months later than planned," Morin, who was appointed in May, told La Tribune. The newspaper quoted unidentified sources as saying French procurement agency DGA expected the A400M to enter service as much as six to nine months behind an end-2009 target date.
Airbus has already delayed by three months the start of A400M assembly in Spain as well as next year's maiden flight. A source close to the project told Reuters the programme was losing money despite sales to Malaysia, South Africa and Chile, and to make money Airbus would need to secure more exports.
#1
And with this proven track record, the USAF continues to consider the Northrop-Grumman-Airbus A-330 based tanker against that of Boeing's 767....
any bets who wins???
#3
"reflect growing fears that deliveries of the A400M will be hit by a flaw in its turboprop engines."
Surprise, surprise - this comes after Pratt & Whitney, who had a superior engine ready to go, was dumped for a "European" engine. The shareholders will love this one.
ROME - Seven Tunisian fishermen detained in Italy since August 22 for allegedly smuggling immigrants were released Monday, activists advocating their release said.
Figures. Get caught smuggling people and get set free. This is Europe. Or Arizona.
The men, all hailing from the eastern region of Monastir, were found carrying 44 would-be immigrants on August 8, who they said were on other boats which risked capsize off Lampedusa, Italys southernmost island.
Five of the men are due to return home and come back to Italy for the trial, which resumes on September 20. The two others will stay in a religious establishment in the nearby town of Licata. Its a very positive decision, an official from a committee campaigning for the fishermens release said, underlining that domestic and international pressure had helped.
They're smuggling humans. How positive is that?
Earlier, Savio Pezzotta, president of the Italian Council for Refugees (CIR) described as incredible the decision of a court in Agrigente, Sicily, to turn down their lawyers bid to have the fishermen released. Some of those rescued had told the court that the fishermen had carried out a courageous rescue operation, said the CIR.
"Um, yeah, that's right, it was a rescue operation, that's the ticket! Just ask my wife, Morgan Fairchild!"
The crew members of the trawler Mortadha and the Mohammed-el-Hedi risk up to 15 years jail if found guilty.
Doesn't seem to be much chance of that, does there.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/11/2007 00:00 ||
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If they'd been smuggling cigarettes instead of Muslims they wouldn't be set free. Or guns - unless the guns were held by the Muslims, in which case it's ok.
Canadian fighter jets have scrambled as recently as this week to intercept Russian bombers flying over the Arctic, says the new commander of this countrys air force. CF-18 Hornets met the Tupolev-95 Bear bombers outside Canadian airspace, Lt.-Gen. Angus Watt told The Chronicle Heralds editorial board Friday.
"Its not exactly a new challenge; its an old challenge that has returned," Lt.-Gen. Watt said Friday.
The recent encounter took place near Inuvik, N.W.T., inside what the military dubs its air defence identification zone. "Its where we pay attention to people coming in," Lt.-Gen. Watt said. "They were never in our airspace. They were never in our sovereign territory."
But the Russian aircraft were within visual range of the Canuck fighter pilots during their meeting, something that has become a more frequent occurrence lately. "We take pictures," said Lt.-Gen. Watt, who began his military career as a Sea King pilot at 12 Wing Shearwater.
In what seems like an echo of the Cold War, the Russians have also been testing British and U.S. air defences more frequently than they have since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russian bombers never stopped flying up to the Canadian Arctic, but the patrols had greatly diminished in the past 15 years.
"We have responded in the traditional way to Russian incursions of our airspace by meeting them as they enter our airspace with our fighters to escort them through to show them that were paying attention," Lt.-Gen. Watt said.
Despite the apparent flexing of Russian military muscle, dont expect a return to the icy animosity that once existed between the Kremlin and countries belonging to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
"Its a different world. Were not going back to the Cold War," Lt.-Gen. Watt said. "But in the end, it does, I think, prove the point that we cant take anything for granted."
On Thursday, British jets intercepted eight Russian nuclear-capable bombers heading for Britain Russias largest show of strength since President Vladimir Putin ordered strategic air patrols to resume last month. Col. Alexander Drobyshevsky, a spokesman for Russias air force, reportedly said that 14 long-range bombers began missions over the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans on Wednesday night.
The Canadian intercept occurred as Russia dispatched 14 long-range bombers on missions over the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic Oceans.
In other words, last week's reported flight of eight Bear H's over the North Atlantic was part of a much bigger effort--apparently, one of the largest (if not the largest) operation by Russian bombers since the Cold War. General Watt didn't provide specifics on the Canadian intercept, but it apparently happened about the same time that Norwegian F-16s, and later, British F3 Tornadoes were shadowing TU-95s over the North Atlantic. According to General Watt, the Canadian encounter took place just outside his country's airspace, near Inuvik in the Northwest Territories....
So far, there's been no reporting on the "Pacific leg" of the operation. For decades, Russian bombers have periodically tested U.S. air defenses in such locations as Alaska and Guam prompting scrambles by USAF F-15s and U.S. Navy aircraft. Russian Bear and TU-22M Backfire bombers have also flown profiles against Japan, prompting intercepts by Japanese Self Defense Force (JSDF) F-15s and other aircraft.
... Given the scope of last week's mission, we'll stick by our earlier prediction: a Bear "run" against the U.S. east coast now seems inevitable, and the number of aircraft that participate in that mission may be higher that what we saw in the Cold War.
Indeed, the only limiting factor for that profile would be the availability of aviation fuel at their most likely destination--Cuba. But, if the TU-95s decide to fly on to Venezuela (or Hugo Chavez has filled the POL tanks at Fidel's airfields), then we might see a "large" Bear formation--four or more aircraft--off our east coast, in a matter of weeks.
#2
British jets intercepted eight Russian nuclear-capable bombers heading for Britain
Eight, eh? An interesting step up from the usual pair flying show the flag, everyone wave and take pictures missions. Moving to more of a "train like you fight, fight like you train" scenario?
The agency that oversees elections in Canada said Monday it cannot demand Muslim women to uncover their faces at polling stations if there is nothing in the law that requires it.
Elections Canada said last week that Muslim women will be allowed to wear veils when they vote in by-elections later this month in Quebec, where the issue of the traditional covering has been hotly contested. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Sunday he "profoundly" disagreed with the decision and said a law had already been passed to ensure that does not happen. Elections Canada Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand said Monday he has no authority to read more into the law than what is there explicitly, but he must uphold the constitutional right of freedom of religion on behalf of voters.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2007 00:00 ||
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Then they can have no objection to my turning up to vote in a Hamburglar mask.
#2
Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand said Monday he has no authority to read more into the law than what is there explicitly..
Amazing how lefties become 'strict constructionists' when it suits them. You mean the law isn't a living breathing entity, flexible for interpretation? /sarcasm off
Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign dramatically severed all ties to disgraced fundraiser Norman Hsu, announcing Monday night it will return more than $850,000 he raised from some 260 donors.
I can see Hillary's fingernails on each bundle of dough. "Give 'em back! You bastards, I want that money back right now!!"
Clinton's campaign, one of several Democratic committees that Hsu raised money for or donated to, also has decided to increase its screening of major fund-raisers, requiring them to submit to the extraordinary additional step of a criminal background check, campaign aides said.
That's going to cut the dollars coming in. And I want a copy of each report.
Clinton's campaign decided more than a week ago to return some $23,000 Hsu personally donated to her various campaigns. After learning of a Los Angeles Times report that the FBI was investigating Hsu, Clinton on Monday personally ordered her campaign to return all the money he has raised, a senior aide said.
"Mr. Hsu donated to numerous charities and more than two dozen candidates and committees," Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said. "Despite conducting a thorough review of public records, our campaign like others were unaware of Mr. Hsu's decade-plus old warrant. "To help ensure agsint this type of situation in the future, our campaign will also institute vigorous additional vetting procedures on our bundlers, including criminal background checks," Wolfson added. "In any instances where a source of a bundler's income is in question, the campaign will take affirmative steps to verify its origin."
The dramatic return of all Hsu-raised donations was aimed at ending a controversy that awakened comparisons to Bill Clinton's 1990s fund-raising scandal and renewed scrutiny of others major fund-raisers and donors inside Sen. Clinton's presidential campaign. Sen. Clinton "simply didn't want to have to keep answering questions about a bundler whose background is now clearly in question," a senior adviser said, speaking only on condition of anonymity.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/11/2007 00:00 ||
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Oh, she must be a total joy to be around right about now...
#4
You are right, Zenster. That quote really stands out.
The Clinton campaign has no shame whatsoever. They do not care who was ripped off by Hsu and they would gladly accept the dirty money even knowing it was obtained criminally if it would not cause them any political headaches.
#5
They do not care who was ripped off by Hsu and they would gladly accept the dirty money even knowing it was obtained criminally if it would not cause them any political headaches.
While you are absolutely right, I find it even more telling that Hillary avoids any and all mention of concerns over how this money may well have come directly from communist China.
Once again America is treated to the vile spectacle of anti-republican elements engaging in the most flexible sort of ethics as they pursue their agenda. Dan Rather thought nothing of his attempts to throw a presidential election with obviously faked "evidence". It can only be far more dismaying that someone so close to the throne as Hillary does not seem at all concerned that her campaign may have received financing from America's declared enemy.
I cannot tell you how grim it is to watch both of America's political parties betray the electorate on such a regular basis. It is only the republicans' marginally more open recognition of Islam's threat that prevents them from tieing with the democrats for delivering us into the hands of our enemies.
#9
To those who complain about the extended election campaign season, note well it's better to have extra time to allow one's enemies opponents greater opportunity to show their true selves. And things like these have a tendency to repeat and compound over the long haul rather than be buried as a blip on the usual attention span.
#12
260 people just hit the lottery thanks to Norm and Hill. Now the big questions are who gets the money when the refunds are undeliverable and will the IRS treat this as income?
India has added teeth to its nuclear weapons delivery system. A ballistic missile was successfully testfired from a submarine on Tuesday. The test was carried out in the Bay of Bengal a few days ago.
The missile, which has been under development by the DRDO for some years, will have a range of about 1,500 km. More tests are expected before formal induction takes place. The DRDO is also working on a submarine launched cruise missile that will have a range of about 1000 km.
The tests come in the wake of reports that India's homegrown nuclear submarine - the Advanced Technology Vessel will begin sea trials next year. Russia is also expected to deliver an Akula class nuclear submarine to the Indian Navy by 2009.
Posted by: john frum ||
09/11/2007 06:45 ||
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Sources have told TIMES NOW that India has secretly tested a SLBM (Submarine-launched ballistic missile) which can be capped with a nuclear war-head and which has a range of 1500 km.
The tests which were conducted jointly by the DRDO & the Navy are said to be a much bigger technological achievement than even the successful test of Agni 3 missiles.
These latest tests, that were conducted in secret, comes on the heels of 3 other tests that India has conducted in the last one year, taking India closer to possessing the nuclear triad - land based missiles, bombers & Submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
India doesn't have a nuclear submarine yet, to launch the SLBMs, in fact the DRDO used a pontoon, or a long tube, in the Bay of Bengal to conduct the test. Government officials have said that the tests have met all key parameters.
Posted by: john frum ||
09/11/2007 6:50 Comments ||
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This is the submersible pontoon launcher developed by the DRDO
Posted by: john frum ||
09/11/2007 7:37 Comments ||
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Why go to the expense of a nuclear submarine fleet? Does India really need anything more than underwater launch tubes in the Indian Ocean some where able to reach Pakistan, Bangla and China? They could have a submarine that just cruises around the Indian Ocean to do routine maintenance and relocate them from time to time. Launch from land, air or ocean signals.
#4
Nimble: it's the triad. India now has proven itself to have nuclear-capable bombers, land-based missiles and sea-launched missiles. They want the triad for the same reasons we and other nuclear powers have wanted it -- a guarantee of survivability in case the balloon goes up.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/11/2007 11:45 Comments ||
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No submarine-launched missile tested: defence ministry
New Delhi, Sept. 11 (PTI): In the apparent run-up to its first launch of a submarine-launched missile, India today carried out "technological development tests" to validate potential underwater launch capabilities.
"Technology elements for potential underwater launch capabilities are in progress," a defence ministry spokesman said here today, clarifying that no test firing had been undertaken of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM).
The trials are being undertaken in the Bay of Bengal, a brief statement from the ministry said.
Earlier reports had said that India had carried out a test firing of a SLBM with a range of 1,500 km.
"No SLBM of the stated range has been launched," the spokesman said.
Posted by: john frum ||
09/11/2007 14:55 Comments ||
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#6
India has tested systems for using submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), The Associated Press reported Sept. 11, citing unnamed officials. SLBMs can improve nuclear deterrence by boosting second-strike capabilities in the event land- or air-based weapons are neutralized. An Indian Ministry of Defense spokesman denied that SLBMs had been launched, saying India had only tested the technological components that would make an SLBM launch possible. India does not currently possess submarines with missile-launching capability, Defense Minister A.K. Antony has said.
Posted by: john frum ||
09/11/2007 16:36 Comments ||
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#7
RUSSIA > intends to deploy "ISKANDER" missles in organz units by 2010. Putin has ordered advanced timetables for procurement, testing, and deployment of new systems. *ITAR-TASS > USA TURNS OVER K-129 ARCHIVE RECORDS TO RUSSIA. Dead sub from Feb-March 1968 - Russ media-article does not mention theory that rogue elements may had intended to fire missles at US targets, nor of skeleton found outside of sub whom may had died trying to prevent missles from being fired/launched??? MARIAH CAREY > THREE LIONS OF ANCIENT TROY > her song "HERO".
#8
MADONNA would agree > iff any anti-Commie Commie sailor deserved a HERO OF THE SOVIET UNION = ORDER OPF LENIN decoration(s) for saving Russia + World from nuclear war and mutual destruction, it was him.
Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was on Monday arrested and deported to Saudi Arabia four-and-a-half hours after he arrived in Islamabad from London to challenge the rule of President General Pervez Musharraf.
That worked well.
PIA flight PK-786, carrying the former prime minister, his party workers and journalists, landed at 8:45am at Islamabad International Airport, but Nawaz refused to leave the aircraft for about 90 minutes.
"Don't make me go out there!"
All other passengers were allowed to leave the plane and a team of officials, accompanied by black-uniformed commandos, went on board to discuss various options with Nawaz.
"You can go hard, or you can go easy, but you're goin'!"
Surrounded by the commandos, Nawaz eventually stepped off the aircraft and was frog marched escorted to the Rawal Lounge, where he refused to hand over his passport to immigration officials. Sources said officials again held talks with him but he remained steadfast in his decision to stay in Pakistan.
"Youse can't toss me! Do youse know who I am?"
An official said Nawaz was shown arrest warrants for corruption and money laundering charges and a copy of his 2000 exile agreement. Government officials and some Saudi officials held talks with him for about two hours, a source said.
"See that? It sez we won't hit you if you leave the country and don't come back!"
"I left the country!"
"You came back, too. Mahmoud! Hit him!"
"Owwwwwww!"
AFP adds: Nawaz later arrived in Jeddah, where the official SPA news agency reported: Nawaz Sharif is a guest of Saudi Arabia, which welcomed his coming to live in the kingdom forever and ever once again. He was greeted by Saudi intelligence chief Prince Muqrin, SPA said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2007 00:00 ||
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Shahbaz Sharif has said that his brother Nawaz Sharif was kidnapped and sent to Saudi Arabia but he would try to return to Pakistan again. Those who kidnapped Nawaz Sharif and sent him out of the country are grossly mistaken. Nawaz Sharif will be back in Pakistan soon, Shahbaz told a private television channel from London. Today once again the government has ripped apart the sanctity of the judiciary.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2007 00:00 ||
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Kulsoom Nawaz, the wife of former premier Nawaz Sharif, announced on Monday that she would return home and challenge President Pervez Musharraf, as her spouse was deported a few hours after he returned to Pakistan the same day. I will return to Pakistan in a few days and see who dare stops me, Kulsoom told Geo TV from London. The (Sharifs) deportation shows how the dictatorship has been exposed, she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2007 00:00 ||
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Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) spokesman Farhatullah Babar on Monday reacted cautiously to former premier Nawaz Sharifs deportation, saying that it was a matter between Nawaz, his guarantors and the courts.
Considering the agreement, in which Nawaz volunteered to give up his right to live in Pakistan, it is a matter between Nawaz, his guarantors and the courts, Babar said in a statement. The PPP has observed Nawaz admitting a deal ... with Gen Musharraf to get his sentence in treason and tax evasion cases remitted for his going into exile and not doing politics, he said. He claimed the PPP refused a similar deal. He called for the release of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz workers.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2007 00:00 ||
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Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) President and Jamat-e-Islami (JI) Amir Qazi Hussain Ahmad has demanded the Saudi government explain why it detained former premier Nawaz Sharif in Saudi Arabia despite the Supreme Court (SC) decision allowing Nawaz to return to Pakistan, adding that it amounted to disrespect to the holy land. A statement issued from Mansoora quoted Qazi as saying that depriving a citizen of his rights was unconstitutional. The government should not stop the movement for the supremacy of the Constitution and setting up a democratic government, he said. He said transparent elections were not possible with President General Pervez Musharraf in power, adding that Nawazs deportation was pre-poll rigging. The JI amir said the 160 million people were the real source of politicians power, not the SC and the people would continue their struggle for democracy. He said the judiciarys independence had become a question mark.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Qazi's predecessor, Maulana Maududi, wrote that "democracy seizes sovereignty from Allah." Ergo: Qazi democracy is one-vote, one-time.
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have flouted international law by forcibly transferring Nawaz Sharif into exile in Saudi Arabia, Human Rights Watch said on Monday. The Pakistani governments actions are a direct affront to the Pakistani constitution and a recent Supreme Court ruling, the HRW said in a press statement.
According to Ali Dayan Hasan, HRWs South Asia researcher, General Musharraf has brazenly flouted international law in forcing Sharif back into exile. He has violated Pakistans constitution and defied a direct ruling of Pakistans Supreme Court. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have colluded in bundling a Pakistani citizen into a plane and forced exile. The group pointed out that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is recognised as reflective of customary international law, states: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. It also states that everyone has the right to return to his country.
Does that include all the dead Ismailis?
Saudi intelligence and diplomatic officials were present at Islamabad airport when Sharif was forcibly exiled to Saudi Arabia, the statement noted.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Someone should remind HRW that the alternative was probably "Aquino at the Airport II - Swiss Cheese on the Tarmac."
President General Pervez Musharraf is a coward, who has committed a shameful act by sending PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif back into exile in defiance of the Supreme Court verdict, former interior minister and PPP leader Maj Gen (r) Naseerullah Babar, told a private TV channel on Monday.
He was commenting on the daylong developments regarding Nawaz Sharifs return to Pakistan and his deportation. The president cannot withstand pressure and has deported Nawaz Sharif while denying him his basic right as a citizen of Pakistan in defiance of the Supreme Court verdict, Babar said. The PPP leader said people of Pakistan would react and protest against this shameful act of Musharraf.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Any relation to Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) spokesman Farhatullah Babar, last seen "react(ing) cautiously to former premier Nawaz Sharifs deportation, saying that it was a matter between Nawaz, his guarantors and the courts."?
(That's a "don't drag me into it", I think.)
#2
General Nasrullah Babar was Interior Minister under Prime Minister Benazir Benazir. He created the Taliban.
Babar is sometimes called the "godfather" of the Taliban, whom he used to call "my boys". The ISI actually opposed him on this. They backed Gulbuddin Hekmatyar instead.
Posted by: john frum ||
09/11/2007 6:34 Comments ||
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#3
John, Haz Perva$$ lost Gen. Mahmood Ahmed's support?
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
09/11/2007 20:35 Comments ||
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#4
One of the "godfathers" anyway. The Taliban had a lot of Pakistani sperm donors.
Posted by: ed ||
09/11/2007 20:42 Comments ||
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The U.S. trade deficit unexpectedly narrowed in July as Boeing Co., General Electric Co. and Deere & Co. shipped more airplanes, engines and tractors overseas.
Surging exports may help cushion the U.S. economy from the impact of higher borrowing costs, weakening employment and waning consumer confidence. Exports reached records in each of the past five months, buoyed by the strongest global expansion since the 1970s and a weaker dollar.
The gap shrank 0.3 percent to $59.2 billion from a revised $59.4 billion in June that was bigger than previously estimated, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. Economists anticipated a shortfall of $59 billion.
Sales overseas climbed 2.7 percent, the most in three years, while imports rose 1.8 percent to $196.9 billion, also a record. The increase in imports reflected greater purchases of crude oil, drilling equipment and appliances. Overall demand for foreign-made capital goods slackened, led by a drop in computers.
The trade forecast was based on the median estimate of 70 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Projections ranged from deficits of $57.5 billion to $61.5 billion. The June deficit was initially reported at $58.1 billion.
The dollar remained lower against the euro after the report, trading at $1.3831 at 12:18 p.m. in New York, from $1.3802 late yesterday.
The inflation-adjusted deficit, used to calculate growth, shrank to the smallest in three years.
American exports are benefiting from a decline in the dollar, which makes U.S. goods cheaper for foreign buyers. The dollar is down 7.9 percent since the beginning of 2006 against a basket of currencies from major trading partners, according to the Federal Reserve's Trade Weighted Broad Dollar Index.
Faster growth overseas is also protecting U.S. companies from slower demand at home. In the second quarter, China expanded 11.9 percent from a year earlier, the most in more than 12 years, and India grew at a 9.3 percent rate. Argentina's economy, the second-biggest in South America, will expand more than 8 percent this year, the government said on Sept. 5.
The growth rates compare with a 1.9 percent pace of expansion in the U.S. and a 2.5 percent gain in the 13 countries using the euro.
Chicago-based Boeing is among the companies seeing overseas demand growing. The world's second-biggest airplane maker after Airbus SAS won a $1.9 billion order in August from Xiamen Airlines of China for 25 craft. Boeing delivered 25 planes to foreign buyers in July, up from 21 in June. Last month, overseas deliveries rose to 30.
GE projects that as much as 60 percent of sales may come from outside the U.S. within five years, from 50 percent now, as it sells electronics and engines to emerging markets such as India and China.
Deere, the world's largest farm-equipment maker, increased its full-year profit forecast last month after third-quarter earnings rose 23 percent on orders for tractors overseas. Deere's sales of machinery outside the U.S. jumped 30 percent.
The trade gap with China, the second-largest U.S. trading partner after Canada, increased 13 percent to $23.8 billion in July, second only to the record $24.4 billion reached in October 2006.
Trade with China has become a politically sensitive issue as some policy makers and manufacturers say that country has kept its currency, the yuan, artificially low to stimulate demand. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has urged China to let its currency rise more.
China reported today that its trade surplus in August widened 33 percent to $24.97 billion from a year earlier, the second-highest monthly total. The surplus with the U.S., $15 billion, accounted for more than half the total. The figures reported by China and the U.S. don't match because of differences in methodology.
Oil imports will remain a concern as prices continue to climb. The cost of imported petroleum surged 7 percent in July after a 4.4 percent gain the prior month, Labor Department figures show. Prices have increased even more since.
After eliminating the influence of prices, which are the trade numbers used to calculate gross domestic product, the deficit narrowed in July to $53.5 billion, the lowest since September 2004.
(RIA Novosti) - State-controlled Russian gas giant Gazprom tried to outbid a $5-billion offer for The Wall Street Journal's publisher, Dow Jones & Co., from media giant News Corporation, The Times reported.
The British paper, owned by Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., said Monday the bid underscored "Gazprom's and Russia's global ambitions," but that it had had little chance of success. "If Gazprom had proceeded, it is thought highly unlikely that The Wall Street Journal would have been allowed to fall into the hands of a state-backed Russian company," the Times said.
The newspaper highlighted the Russian energy giant's media acquisitions, in particular its takeover of the previously-independent Russian TV channel NTV in 2001, and its buyout of national daily Izvestia.
News Corp. offered $60 a share for Dow Jones on May 1, a premium of around 67% on the company's share price before Murdoch's bid was announced. According to The Times, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission confirmed that "an international oil and gas company" had bid for Dow Jones. The paper cited "a source" who confirmed that the company was Gazprom. Maybe we can convince them to buy MTV instead, and convert it back to Music Television.
#1
HMMMMMM, compare to MEMRI/WORLDNEWS/OTHER > ECONOMIC JIHAD [agz USA-West/Superiority]FINDS ITS WAY INTO [mainstream]ISLAMIC DISCOURSE; + WAFF.com > HUMAN RIGHTS FROM ISLAMIC WORLDVIEW.
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.
France's new defence minister predicted a delay in the A400M airlifter in another blow for planemaker Airbus, and criticised costly projects to build over-sophisticated weapons when cheaper ones would do. Herve Morin's remarks, in an interview with newspaper La Tribune published on Monday, reflect growing fears that deliveries of the A400M will be hit by a flaw in its turboprop engines.
ROME - Seven Tunisian fishermen detained in Italy since August 22 for allegedly smuggling immigrants were released Monday, activists advocating their release said.
Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign dramatically severed all ties to disgraced fundraiser Norman Hsu, announcing Monday night it will return more than $850,000 he raised from some 260 donors.
Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was on Monday arrested and deported to Saudi Arabia four-and-a-half hours after he arrived in Islamabad from London to challenge the rule of President General Pervez Musharraf.
Kulsoom Nawaz, the wife of former premier Nawaz Sharif, announced on Monday that she would return home and challenge President Pervez Musharraf, as her spouse was deported a few hours after he returned to Pakistan the same day. I will return to Pakistan in a few days and see who dare stops me, Kulsoom told Geo TV from London. The (Sharifs) deportation shows how the dictatorship has been exposed, she said.
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) President and Jamat-e-Islami (JI) Amir Qazi Hussain Ahmad has demanded the Saudi government explain why it detained former premier Nawaz Sharif in Saudi Arabia despite the Supreme Court (SC) decision allowing Nawaz to return to Pakistan, adding that it amounted to disrespect to the holy land. A statement issued from Mansoora quoted Qazi as saying that depriving a citizen of his rights was unconstitutional. The government should not stop the movement for the supremacy of the Constitution and setting up a democratic government, he said. He said transparent elections were not possible with President General Pervez Musharraf in power, adding that Nawazs deportation was pre-poll rigging. The JI amir said the 160 million people were the real source of politicians power, not the SC and the people would continue their struggle for democracy. He said the judiciarys independence had become a question mark.
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have flouted international law by forcibly transferring Nawaz Sharif into exile in Saudi Arabia, Human Rights Watch said on Monday. The Pakistani governments actions are a direct affront to the Pakistani constitution and a recent Supreme Court ruling, the HRW said in a press statement. 
President General Pervez Musharraf is a coward, who has committed a shameful act by sending PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif back into exile in defiance of the Supreme Court verdict, former interior minister and PPP leader Maj Gen (r) Naseerullah Babar, told a private TV channel on Monday.
