Millions remained stranded in China on Monday ahead of the biggest holiday of the year as parts of the country suffered their coldest winter in a century.
Clearly global warming
Freezing weather has killed scores of people and left travellers stranded before the Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival - the only opportunity many people have to take a holiday all year. It has also brought China unwanted negative publicity six months before the Summer Olympics in Beijing. President Hu Jintao chaired an emergency Politburo meeting on Sunday for the second time in a week to discuss rescue efforts. We have to be clear-minded that the inclement weather and severe disaster will continue to plague certain regions in the south, said a statement issued after Sundays meeting. Relief work will continue to face challenges, posing a tough task. The China Meteorological Administration said the weather was the coldest in 100 years in central Hubei and Hunan provinces, going by the total number of consecutive days of average temperature less than 1 degree Celsius (33.8 degrees Fahrenheit).
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2008 00:00 ||
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#2
Calling all nations! Calling all nations! This is China! Send us all the patio heaters, SUV's, private jets, and farting livestock that you can! And hurry!
Calling all nations! Calling...
#5
My father a student on Chinese History, and I only have a couple of classes under my belt, once said that flooding has toppled Chinese governments multiple times in the past. Anyone out there know of times where weather had a direct, if not delayed, weakening of the chinese government?
What I'm getting at is how many people are huddled in a train station wondering gee, if they would just send one of their new submarines up here all would be ok. What, the train was diverted for coal? The infastructure is collapsed? Well, where is all that foreign money going to?
Or, as it was mentioned, is this more like trying to get through Atlanta or Dallas when there are flurries? What would Tony Romo say?
#6
The problem is not global warming. The problem is climate change. We must prevent the climate from changing in any way. It must remain the same.
/sarcasm
Weather is associated with the 1978 defeat of Mike Blandic by Jane Byrne (a snowstorm in Jan 78 was not dealt with well by the Chi PWorks and Streets dept).
Probably the victory by Bobby Jindal over Kathyleen Blanco in LA was due to the ineffective performance of the LA govt in the Katrina disaster.
Also, it may be that Clinton's victory over GHWBush in 92 was due to the situation following Hurricane Andrew. Of course, in that case, the weak federal response was mainly due to the fact that the Gov of FL (Lawton Chiles) at the time wouldn't sign a statement that would allow relief (and then FL Att Gen Janet Reno managed to do some damage also and blame it on someone else). Of course the leftist press made GHWBush the bad guy.
#9
HEY lay off Atlanta, we are not used too the white stuff around here, but we also dohn't bed down and starve too death either when it snows, that once in a blue moon that it does.Although if you ever here of it going too snow in GA buy stock in a dairy farm or bread bakery
#10
Blame Ross Perot for 1992 with 19% of the vote.
Posted by: ed ||
02/05/2008 13:03 Comments ||
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#11
SwksvolFF,
Several Chinese dynasties changed hand after prolonged droughts or floods. However, there was a religeous reason for this. The emperors were supposed to keep harmony with the Heavens, and when they failed, their claim to legitimacy vanished.
From the pictures I've seem on TV (of SE China) it does remind me of Wash. DC after a snowfall. It looks like they had 3 inches of snow in an area that doesn't get much snowfall. Another problem seems to be 1 - 2 inches of ice (like the ice storms we get in New England).
One thing the MSM is ignoring is the large scale unrest already common in China. Last year there were dozens of demonstrations against corruption every day all over China. So this is agitating and already angry population.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
02/05/2008 13:08 Comments ||
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#12
True, as Katrina continues to pop up every once in a while here. About what my father was talking about I think it was the Yangtze (sp?) destroyed crops and cut the south off from the north and there was a revolt - circa way back in the day of crossbows and catapults.
btw weather here is 40 degrees colder than it was yesterday. If they are going to ban climate change I hope it is on a day where it is about 70 degrees, partly cloudy with occasional light showers throughout the day.
(AKI) - Anchorman for the Arabic TV network Al -Jazeera , Faysal Qassem, has harshly criticised the "sheep-like" Arab press, a charge he also extends to Western media since al-Qaeda's '9/11' attacks on US cities. "Arab people behave like sheep and the Arab press imitates parrots," Qassem told Adnkronos International (AKI). "In the Arab world, the media is constrained and it parrots what the government wants. My mission is to free Arabs from dictatorships and from the legacy of our awful traditions."
The 45-year-old Syrian-born journalist was in the Italian capital Rome to attend a seminar on the Arabic media's perceptions of the West.
Qassem hosts the Al ittijah al-Muaakis (Opposite Directions) talkshow on Al-Jazeera, where guests with opposing views do battle, provoked by aggressive questioning from Qassem.
His last programme was devoted to the continuing bloodshed in Kenya and inaction by the Arab world in the face of electoral corruption.
It referred to the weeks of political and ethnic violence which have left hundreds dead in Kenya and driven many thousands from their homes after the opposition claimed the December presidential poll was rigged.
Polygamy is another topic featured on the show and has earned Qassem death threats as well as religious edicts (fatwas) against him for 'blasphemy'. "There is no objectivity in the Arab media, above all with regard to the West, from which it is alienated owing to the Arab-Israeli conflict."
"Arab information is too politicised to be objective," he stressed. "The press in Syria gives a positive image of Italy because relations between Rome and Damascus are excellent, while it speaks negatively of France owing to their differences of opinion over Lebanon."
Qassem had harsh criticism for Western media and governments as well as their Arab counterparts. Especially since the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US, the Western media has aligned itself too much with its governments, he argued.
He described Western news organisations' coverage of the war in Iraq as "derogatory and devoid of objectivity". He reserved particular criticism for "embedded" reporters who he said covered the war "from tanks and helicopters, only giving the version of events that US and British officials dictated."
Qassem flatly rejected criticisms of Al-Jazeera. "It is not factious and is very objective, even in its coverage of such charged topics for Arab audiences as the Arab-Israeli conflict," he said. "We give the Israeli perspective due coverage, even if this angers some of our viewers," he noted.
Six Arab countries have withdrawn their ambassadors from Qatar, where Al-Jazeera is based, citing Qassem's show as the reason for their decision.
Qassem said Al-Jazeera is the only Arab news organisation that has attempted to explain to its audiences that Europe is not a rigid and single entity, but is heterogenous. "In just the same way that the Arab world cannot be seen as monolithic," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Mr. Qassem is trying to 'break out' of the dark ages his people are living in. The fact that he has had death threats and fatwas reminds me of one of Michael Yon's dispatches called "Empty Jars" from a few years ago.
'A Kashmiri Mohammedan said to me, God keeps men in three jars. Do you understand?
Yes, I answered, you say God keeps men in three jars.
In the first jar, the man looked at me, God keeps the Americans. God keeps that lid very, very tight, for the Americans try their level-best (he used Indian phrases) to escape and rule the world.
I nodded, hinting a smile, saying, God is right.
The Mohammedan smiled back, holding up a hand to quiet me, and continued, In the second jar, God keeps the Europeans. But God does not keep that lid so tight, still holding up his hand. as if expecting interruption, You see, God knows the Europeans also want to rule the world, but Europeans do not try hard.
Is true, is true, I chuckled.
But, like a preacher, the man held his hand even higher, and continued on with a louder voice, God keeps Kashmiris in the third jar, but God does not keep a lid on our jar. We also want to rule the world but every time one of us tries to escape, the rest pull him back down! and he clenched his fist!
Sir, my smiled faded, It would be difficult to convey more truth with fewer words.'
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
02/05/2008 9:05 Comments ||
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#2
This guy is an Anchorman, waaaay behind the lines, and is irritated at the disrespectful intrusion of the front-liners who actually REPORT on what THEY WITNESS.
He'd have had a case if he had praised them instead: it would have shown that he had more than an interest in truth, even if it inconvenienced him. instead, he's a contrarian trying to get a bigger audience by pretending to be different, and hoping that nobody notices that "different" is not the same as "not-propaganda".
I liken him to a guy who drinks chlorophyll and sells his green shit as better than the brown shit everyone else is selling. Naturally, he runs down the fruit sellers because they're REAL competition.
Hundreds of thousands of Colombians have poured onto the streets of Bogota to protest against Marxist Farc rebels. The protesters waved flags and wore T-shirts with the slogan: "No more kidnapping, no more lies, no more deaths, no more Farc."
Some estimates put the number of people protesting in Bogota at between 500,000 and two million. Thousands more protested elsewhere in Colombia, and in close to 100 other cities around the world.
Colombian president Alvaro Uribe told people in the north-eastern town of Valledupar: "To our fellow countrymen who live abroad, and who today have united with the rest of their compatriots, we extend our gratitude."
On the streets of Bogota, the message was blunter. "No more Farc, we don't want any more Farc, young people have to say no to the Farc and tell them to stop their violence," student Jaime Martinez said. Former hostage Clara Rojas, who was freed last month after nearly six years as a captive, said: "I hope the Farc is listening."
And a woman marching with her three children told the BBC: "I think this march will set a precedent in Colombia because for the first time all Colombians are going to protest as one body."
Schools were closed in many big cities, and businesses closed, allowing workers to march.
Media take-up
The protest was started less than a month ago on the social networking website Facebook by a 33-year-old engineer, Oscar Morales, from his home in Barranquilla on Colombia's Caribbean coast. Over 250,000 Facebook users signed on, and the movement was taken up by newspapers and radio and television stations across the country.
Some people, including relatives of kidnap victims, oppose it. They fear the demonstrations may provoke Farc into treating more harshly the 700 captives it is believed to be holding. It has been fighting the Colombian government for 44 years. "Maybe neither the hostages nor the humanitarian exchange or peace will benefit," the mother of Ingrid Betancourt, a high-profile hostage, is quoted as saying in Semana magazine. The betancourt family constantly and loudly blames Uribe for not appeasing the Farc enough, I can understand their concerns and their pain, but they're unsufferable (and ingrid is a leftard who was kidnapped because she tried to stick it to the Man, too). No wonder they're pals of dominique galouzeau "de villepin", they're from the very same mold.
But armed forces chief Gen Freddy Padilla says negative coverage coming from the 'No More' movement was behind the Farc's weekend announcement that it would release three more political captives. The rebels said that former lawmakers Luis Eladio Perez, Gloria Polanco and Orlando Beltran, who have been held for over six years, were to be released on the grounds of their health. No further details were given.
But letters from fellow captives, carried by freed hostages Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzales last month, describe harsh detention conditions and debilitating jungle illnesses including malaria and chronic diarrhoea.
Chavez role
A Farc statement said that the planned release sprang from mediation efforts by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in the long-running conflict. The group offered to make the handover to our dear best buddy Mr Chavez and a Colombian opposition senator "personally, or through representatives".
The group released Ms Rojas and Ms Gonzales in January in a deal that Mr Chavez helped to broker.
The BBC's Jeremy McDermott, reporting from Bogota, says the march has showed two things: the deep vein of outrage among ordinary Colombians over the Farc's violence; and the power of the internet to mobilise people across the world. But he says it remains to be seen whether the Farc, which has traditionally been impervious to public opinion, will listen to the voices raised against it.
#1
How many in the West believe in astrology? How many joined home-grown cults in the 1960s-'70s? Hare Krishna, Scientology, Nation of Islam? The Russians are just in the early stages; they'll grow up, like we did.
#2
alot of ppl here haven't grown up yet. Look at how much attention the nut tom cruise gets. And the nation of islam has been kinda quiet in the US but is stil pretty strong in the prison systen and we have a towel head running for pres.
Barry ... watch your 6!
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has expressed his support for Democratic candidate Barack Obama in the race for the US presidency.
Having looked analyzed all the candidates' policy platforms, Reinfeldt said he felt most affinity with the views of the Chicago senator. "It's hard to oppose one's own politics," Reinfeldt told reporters at the Riksdag on Tuesday.
The Prime Minister noted that Obama's 'Making work pay' programme was very similar to the tax breaks for workers introduced by his own centre-right government, with low-income earners standing to benefit most. "He is particularly close to the Moderates in the areas of economic and climate policy," said Reinfeldt.
But he was also critical of the more protectionist trade stance favoured by both Obama and Hillary Clinton. Reinfeldt said he shared John McCain's free trade line but was less impressed by the Republican candidate's plans for tax cuts and a swelling of the defence budget. Any increase in the US budget deficit would have a negative impact on the Swedish economy, he said.
France's Europe minister on Monday warned that former British prime minister Tony Blair did not have the right profile for the future post of European Union president.
In an interview on French television, Jean-Pierre Jouyet appeared to directly contradict President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has indicated his support for Blair to take the European job. "To be president of the council of the European Union... you need leadership -- Tony Blair has many faults but he has undeniable leadership," Jouyet told BFM-TV.
But Jouyet said Europe's future president also needed "to be very close to all the European groupings, whether the (15-nation) euro zone or the Schengen (free-travel) zone," neither of which include Britain. "It is a good idea in terms of leadership. Regarding the other two criteria, he doesn't seem to me to meet all the criteria," said Jouyet, a left-winger recruited to join Sarkozy's bi-partisan government line-up.
Blair's possible candidacy has been slapped down by several high-profile figures in Sarkozy's right-wing camp, including former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing and former prime minister Edouard Balladur. Leaders of France's opposition Socialist Party have also criticised the choice of Blair for the European job.
#1
France's Europe minister on Monday warned that former British prime minister Tony Blair did not have the right profile for the future post of European Union president.
#2
not suited means he isn't a frog or kraut. You just know that Giscard d'Estaing is salivating at the chance to be the big EUro. Hell, he wrote the rejected great EU constitution, so he's the natural choice, right? right?
#4
France's Europe minister on Monday warned that former British prime minister Tony Blair did not have the right profile for the future post of European Union president.
Agreed. Britain should not be part of the EU in the first place.
Belgium plans to launch an international promotion campaign to improve the country's image abroad.
Belgium has an 'image'?
Well, yeah. But it's transparent.
Belgium is especially concerned with drawing more investments to our country. The campaign will focus on Belgium as a country with a good investment climate.
We'll start by showing how up is down and then move on to show how compulsion = liberty.
And how Belgians will prosecute anyone for human rights violations, no matter where they occurred (offer void in Congo).
The system of 'notional interest' will be explained: thanks to this system, companies that invest in Belgium enjoy low corporate tax.
The chamber of commerce in the United States reported last week that Belgium was a bad place for foreign investments. The aim of the new international campaign is to refute this image of Belgium. There will be advertisements in newspapers and on television: including on CNN and BBC World, and in the Financial Times of London.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/05/2008 7:15 Comments ||
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#5
Oooo. Who has that beige? At first I thought the pink mod had faded; but I see his comments later. Is it for the luscious Belgian milk chocolat?
Beige is noted commenter/poster John Frum IIRC, though a post-it somewhere about the Rainbow Coalition of mods would be useful. And, remember, we all AGREE here it's not pink, it's "salmon", because, yes, it's "salmon", why, of course! The important thing is, the good doctor believes that, and we all AGREE with him. Because it's "salmon", not pink. Really.
#7
Now, now, now, remember, here, nobody judges Mr. White for his "salmon" thing. It's the way it is, and no one has the right to judge him for that, it's not his fault, he didn't choose it. And it's "salmon", of course, we all believe that.
#10
Have they gotten around to putting together an actual government, as opposed to the interim cabinet which was running things the last time I checked?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
02/05/2008 9:05 Comments ||
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#11
Real men use only these colours red, blue, green, black & white.
That's the nice thing about America - we can use any damn color - I mean 'colour' - we want. I use gray - I mean, 'grey'. You might see it sometime.
#14
Maybe they could hire eurostar who did the 'Visit England' campaign.
Hows about: Saifu Deen al Muwahhied squating down, covering his buttocks with his left hand, taking a crap into a chocolate confectionary mold with a tulip gripped in his mouth and diamond earrings a'sparkling. Caption: If you don't think Belgium is super chic neat, we will make you think otherwise.
#15
Scooter MacGrooder (sp?) is pepto-bismol pink. John Frum is peach, not beige. Dave D., who is on hiatus, kindly consented to be identified as goldenrod as a sop to my tender sensibilities, although he insisted the colo(u)r he'd chosen was really baby-poop brown. As for dear Dr. Steve's need to have his colour be called salmon, the less said about that, the better. ;-)
DoDo, you are confusing sport, or perhaps science, with Art.
swksvolFF, the tulip belongs to Holland. But put a lace cap on his head, and you've got my vote.
As for American colour sensibilities,
#18
Fred, can you put that in a "Meet the Mods" link to the right?
Posted by: ed ||
02/05/2008 14:54 Comments ||
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#19
damn. that .com note makes me feel very sad
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/05/2008 15:03 Comments ||
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#20
I'm saving his place.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2008 15:12 Comments ||
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#21
Beyond the rainbow, can we assume that Belgium is a notion rather than a nation ? And that the notion of a nation based on a split between 2 totally unrelated factions will not endure ?
#28
Yeah, that's the plan. Hold any corporate investment in Belgium hostage because of some pol you don't like in the home office's country of origin. That'll get the investments pouring in.
#29
I had no idea AutoBartender ever left the O Club. We can now proudly say that Rantburg is not life-ist, or perhaps organicist. Separately, I asked Mr. Wife, and he doesn't know whether Belgium has installed a new government yet, either.
Meet LTC Greg Gadson. Star player for Army when the Point dominated national college football. His teammate Mike Sullivan left after his 5 year service and ended up a coach for the NY Giants. LTC Gadson ended up in Iraq, where an IED cost him both his legs.
This story is about how they met up again ... and the impact it had on this year's Giants team.
And why Eli Manning's receivers have been handing their game winning balls to this soldier on the sidelines.
#4
I heard about this the other day. It is another example of the impact our soldiers have/will have on the rest of society. Just the same way they had/have/will have on the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. I don't think I would be wrong in saying this man was the difference in the Giant's season.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Environmental groups seeking to protect whales from the potentially harmful effects of sonar cheered a legal victory against the Navy and the Bushitler administration. U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper ruled Monday that the Navy is not exempt from complying with both the National Environmental Policy Act and a court injunction that created a 12 nautical-mile no- sonar zone off Southern California.
"It's an excellent decision," said Joel Reynolds, attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, which is spearheading the legal fight. "It reinstates the proper balance between national security and environmental protection."
Scientists have said loud sonar can damage the brains and ears of marine mammals, and may mask the echoes from natural sonar that some whales and dolphins use to locate food.
The president signed a waiver Jan. 15 exempting the Navy and its anti- submarine warfare exercises from the injunction, arguing they are vital to the nation's national security. "We disagree with the judge's decision," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said Monday. "We believe the orders are legal and appropriate."
The judge also said she has "significant concerns about the constitutionality of the President's exemption," but that "a finding on this issue is not necessary" to reinstate the sonar injunction.
The Navy maintains it already minimizes risks to marine life, and has employed sonar for decades without seeing any whale injuries. It said the sonar is essential for tracking submarines.
The carrier strike group of the USS Abraham Lincoln wrapped up a sonar training exercise last week. There are currently no such training exercises off the coast of California that use sonar.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco had been expected to rule on the future of the Navy exercises last month. But after Bush's decision, the appeals court sent the issue back to the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to consider.
Navy spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Cindy Moore said the military was studying the decision, but did not say what its next legal move may be. Government attorneys can appeal Cooper's decision to the 9th Circuit or could ask the appeals court to allow sonar exercises until the appeal is resolved.
#1
and just how will this dipshit enforce her "order"?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/05/2008 7:57 Comments ||
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#2
Does the Judge's order also apply to Chinese and Russian subs?
A zone off the American coast where they can't use active sonar to locate you. How convenient.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/05/2008 8:23 Comments ||
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#3
Excuse me but isn't Navy operational proceedings out of bounds for the judiciary?
Also, who will pay damages in case a carrier is sunk because an iranian sub went undetected?
The judiciary knows no bounds. They have become a power upon themselves. Granting themselves powers unthought of by the founding fathers in the Constitution. They're our new aristocracy. Thus the bloody fights over appointments because they become life long tribunes over the people. We can have totally opposite decrees operative in different jurisdictions for decades. It's arbitrary and undemocratic. However political interests like it because that means they don't have to convince the body of the people of the 'nobleness' of their agenda. They simply find a sympathetic prince. Thus the unwillingness to remove judges for bad behavior which the Constitution authorizes the legislative branch. It's a convenient way of saying that even though you elected me, I can't do anything about it. Plausible Deniability
#8
Yeah, but one on such a scale it would make the Gordans man crap his rubbers - talking 628 mile circumfrence one for each carrier group. Or they could get to working on un-inventing the submarine.
#10
I have a dream. How about a maritime exclusion zone around the entire west coast?
Posted by: ed ||
02/05/2008 13:37 Comments ||
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#11
But if the WH said they are within their rights, then would it not be true that GWB is in contempt?
what are they gonna do, toss him out of office??
#12
Next time a sub rises beneath a ship killing civilians I can imagine this Judge will regret this decision based on unknown and protentially junk science.
KARACHI/SWAT: Government officials confirmed on Monday an outbreak of the deadly bird flu virus at a second farm in Karachi and said 12 people had been placed in an isolation ward, AFP reported. The virus was discovered at a poultry farm run by security forces, three days after it was found at another farm in the port city, Agriculture and Livestock Ministry official Rafiq-ul-Hassan Usmani said.
I would think the Pakistani Rangers would be far better occupied fighting the Taliban then rearing poultry... but that's just me. I'm no Pakistani military genius
I'm going to resist the obvious chicken joke ...
We have found H5N1 virus in the second farm too this morning, Usmani told AFP, adding that both farms have been sealed off and officials have culled around 10,000 chickens.
A spokesman for the paramilitary Rangers force, which owns the farm, said they had alerted authorities and destroyed infected poultry and feedbags after hundreds of chickens were found dead. We have shifted nine of our workers to a hospital and doctors are monitoring them in an isolation ward, said the spokesman, Major Asad Ali.
Another three poultry handlers from the other farm where the virus was discovered last week have also been placed in an isolation ward at a local hospital, medical officials said. Our doctors are observing all the farm workers and have so far found no signs of transmission of the dangerous virus in any of them, Sindh Health Secretary Abdul Majid said.
Pakistan recorded its first death from bird flu in December when a man died in the NWFP. The victims brother also died before being tested for the virus.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/05/2008 08:06 ||
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#1
from the recent demonstrations of courage, strategy, planning and skill by the Pak Army, I'd suggest the poultry are advisors
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/05/2008 8:50 Comments ||
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#2
It is not unrealistic to consider that if the Indonesian strain becomes readily H2H, that a neutron bomb be used to sterilize the area. It is that deadly.
#4
"I would think the Pakistani Rangers would be far better occupied fighting the Taliban then rearing poultry... but that's just me. I'm no Pakistani military genius"
Ima thinking the Paki military geniuses are not military geniuses, either. but that's just me, too.
from australia - another entry into the alt fuel field
----------------
By making changes to the chemical process, weve been able to create a concentrated bio-crude which is much more stable than that achieved elsewhere in the world, says Dr Steven Loffler of CSIRO Forest Biosciences.
This makes it practical and economical to produce bio-crude in local areas ...The process [basically heat a biomush to 600F w/o oxygen and let the vapor condense] uses low value waste such as forest thinnings, crop residues, waste paper and garden waste, significant amounts of which are currently dumped in landfill or burned.
Two Iranian sisters convicted of adultery face being stoned to death after the supreme court upheld the death sentences against them, the Etemad newspaper yesterday quoted their lawyer as saying. The two sisters were found guilty of adultery -- a capital crime in Islamic Iran -- after the husband of one of the pair presented video evidence showing them in the company of other men while he was away.
"Branch 23 of the supreme court has confirmed the stoning sentence," said their lawyer, Jabbar Solati. The penal court of Tehran province had already sentenced the two sisters identified only as Zohreh, 27, and Azar (no age given) to stoning, the daily said. Solati explained that the two sisters had initially been tried for "illegal relations" and received 99 lashes. However in a second trial they were convicted of "adultery".
The pair admitted they were in the video presented by the husband but argued there was no adultery as no scene on the video showed them engaged in a sexual act with the other men. "There is no legal evidence whereby the judge could reach the knowledge for issuing a stoning sentence," Solati said, adding that he had appealed to the state prosecutor. "The two sisters have been tried twice for one crime," Solati protested.
Under Iran's Islamic law, adultery is theoretically punishable by stoning although in late 2002 judiciary head Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi issued a writ suspending such executions. However in July 2007, Jafar Kiani was stoned to death for adultery in a village in the northwestern province of Qazvin in a rare execution by stoning that provoked a wave of international outrage.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Of course the guys in this incident get off scot-free. One of those cat<=>meat thingies.
Why don't they just kick them out of the country or something instead?
Nine minors condemned to death in Iran are waiting in prison for their 18th birthday when they will be executed. The minors - Benjamin Rasouli, Behrooz Shojaii, Morteza Feizi, Massoud Kafishir, Saiid Gazi, Hossein Taranj, Mehdi Azimi, Hamed Pour Heydari and Mostafa Naghdsi - are all minors that committed crimes during their adolescence.
All were found guilty by Islamic courts and condemned to death. The teenagers are being detained in prison in Rajaishahr, around 100 kilometres from Tehran. Although it has signed all the conventions that ban the death penalty for minors, Iran has hanged many young people who at the time they committed their crimes were under 18 years of age.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2008 00:00 ||
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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.
Millions remained stranded in China on Monday ahead of the biggest holiday of the year as parts of the country suffered their coldest winter in a century. 
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Environmental groups seeking to protect whales from the potentially harmful effects of sonar cheered a legal victory against the Navy and the Bush
Two Iranian sisters convicted of adultery face being stoned to death after the supreme court upheld the death sentences against them, the Etemad newspaper yesterday quoted their lawyer as saying. The two sisters were found guilty of adultery -- a capital crime in Islamic Iran -- after the husband of one of the pair presented video evidence showing them in the company of other men while he was away.
