Police conducted several raids at the residence of Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid at Uttara in the capital yesterday but failed to arrest him. But sources said Mojahid went to the daily Sangram office at Moghhbazar 9:00am yesterday and stayed there for two hours.
Earlier on October 6, a Dhaka court issued arrest warrant on the Jamaat leader, an accused in Barapukuria coal mine corruption case.
Eminent citizens and lawyers sharply reacted to Mojahid's presence at his party's dialogue with the government on Tuesday while police reported to the trial court that he is a fugitive.
Witnesses said yesterday a 10-member team from the detective branch (DB) of police and a five-member team of Uttara police raided Mojahid's residence between 4:30pm and 5:30pm.
About 200 Jamaat activists were present in front of the house during the raids. They tried to resist the law enforcers from entering the house, and did not also allow any journalist to enter it.
Contacted, Saiful Islam Chowdhury, officer-in-charge (OC) of Uttara Police Station, said, "We raided his house several times but did not find him there. We have been trying to trace him, and will arrest him wherever we find him."
He however denied presence of Jamaat men at the place during the raids. In reply to a question , he said, "It is not known to us whether he went to Sangram office."
Meantime, eminent citizens and lawyers sharply reacted to Mojahid's presence at his party's dialogue with the government on Tuesday while police reported to the trial court that he is a fugitive.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/19/2008 00:00 ||
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Britain will impose tougher restrictions on immigration as the global financial crisis lifts unemployment to the highest rate in nearly a decade, the country's new immigration minister said yesterday.
"If people are being made unemployed, the question of immigration becomes extremely thorny," Phil Woolas told The Times newspaper. "It's been too easy to get into this country in the past and it's going to get harder," he added in an interview.
In a dramatic change of policy, the Labour government intends placing a limit on immigration, according to the daily. "There has to be a balance between the number of people coming in and the number of people leaving," said Woolas.
The minister said his government would not allow Britain's population to grow to 70 million people. Britain's population grew by about 3.4 percent to almost 61 million people between 2001 and 2007 fuelled by expansion of the European Union, according to latest figures from the Office for National Statistics.
Reacting to the comments made by Woolas, the opposition Conservative Party's spokesman on immigration, Dominic Grieve, said: "We have been calling for immigration limits for years now but the government have repeatedly poured scorn on this.
"But tough talk is simply not enough; they must now explain how they intend to deliver. Will they implement our plans for an annual limit on non-EU immigration, transitional controls on future EU immigration, and establish a dedicated UK border force to secure our borders?"
Britain's unemployment rate jumped to an eight-year high of 5.7 percent in the three months to August, official data showed on Wednesday.
Under the International Labour Organisation measure of unemployment, the rate had stood at 5.2 percent for the three months to May. The 5.7-percent unemployment rate was the highest since the three months to March, 2000.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/19/2008 00:00 ||
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There's a saying for this - it's right on the tip of my tongue - a barn door and a horse are involved....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/19/2008 0:37 Comments ||
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#2
Voluntary deportation for anyone there more than ten years, involuntary for anyone there less than that. No benefits for either.
"Get back, get back, get back to where you once belonged...get back, get back, get back to where you once belonged...Get back MO!"
#3
That would be Good Olde English Shariah Immigration Law then.
Too little ,FAR too late. and, to no indigenous interest. Sort the 'Asylum' laws to stop the enemy infiltrating and the Brits would be happy, ie, stop Muslim immigration.
Gordon Brown playing the Tribal card to avenge some English victory way back
Friends and foes have called Cuba many things -- a progressive beacon, a quixotic underdog, an oppressive tyranny -- but no one has called it lucky, until now.
Mother Nature appears to have blessed the island with enough oil reserves to vault it into the ranks of energy powers. The government announced there may be more than 20 billion barrels of recoverable oil in offshore fields in Cuba's share of the Gulf of Mexico, more than twice the previous estimate.
If confirmed, it puts Cuba's reserves on par with those of the U.S. and into the world's top 20. Drilling is expected to start next year by Cuba's state oil company Cubapetroleo, or Cupet. "It would change their whole equation. The government would have more money and no longer be dependent on foreign oil," said Kirby Jones, founder of the Washington-based U.S.-Cuba Trade Association. "It could join the club of oil exporting nations," he added.
"We have more data. I'm almost certain that if they ask for all the data we have, [their estimate] is going to grow considerably," said Cupet's exploration manager, Rafael Tenreyro Perez. A consortium of companies led by Spain's Repsol had tested wells and were expected to begin drilling the first production well in mid-2009, and possibly several more later in the year, he said.
Cuba currently produces about 60,000 barrels of oil daily, covering almost half of its needs, and imports the rest from Venezuela in return for Cuban doctors and sports instructors. "This news about the oil reserves could not have come at a better time," said Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado, an energy specialist.
However, there is little prospect of Cuba becoming a version of Kuwait. Its oil is more than a mile deep under the ocean and difficult and expensive to extract. The four-decade-old U.S. economic embargo prevents several of Cuba's potential partners -- Brazil, Norway and Spain -- from using first-generation technology.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/19/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
This is outrageous! Cuban oil leaks from cheeeeeep Spanish oil drillin technology is going to cause Florida to loose thousands and thousands of $8 an hour jobs!
Remember deh Maine!
Don't fuck up the flats and don't annoyer deh bonefish or else
More than 300 have been killed as Mexico's security forces have intensified their war against drug traffickers during the past two weeks, media say.
The death toll hit 387 people in the first two weeks of October with more than 3,800 deaths already recorded since the start of the year, Mexican newspapers reported Saturday.
The government has announced a massive crackdown on drug cartels, trafficking and related violence by criminal networks in January 2007 and it has dispatched tens of thousands of soldiers across the country to do battle with heavily armed drug gangs.
This month the government has adopted a new measure of leniency in the war against drugs as President Felipe Calderon has sent a proposal to Congress that would decriminalize possession of small amounts of illegal substances.
Mexican officials have said they are going to ease up on pressure for users and increase facilities for the treatment of drug addicts instead of simply sending them to jail. These measures would help free human and financial resources to go after higher-level drug criminals.
Mexico's drug war stretches back over more than two decades now but saw a startling uptick in August concentrated in the northern border regions, where cartels are fighting over key smuggling routes into the United States.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/19/2008 00:00 ||
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#2
"...cartels are fighting over key smuggling routes into the United States."
Meanwhile, back in the U.S., the Democratically-controlled Congress is focusing on getting out the message that Joe the Plumber is actually "Samuel Joseph", not "Joseph Samuel". Details at 11.
#3
Narco-traffickers, Are awash with Billions in $$$ CASH $$$..
Over time Our Gubmint Officials/workers might be tempted by that loose cash if a family emergency comes up they may be picked off by the Narco-Traffickers.
Most of our Polititions will always be tempted for a hand out of cash....
Plus
The Narco-Traffickers are experts at using both Bribes [Pile'o'Cash] and Absolute Violence to achieve their bloody ends..
Plus
A current Sub-Rosa Culture War between the North Americano Gringo "Squatters" and the righteous True Race of Indigenous Peoples [La Raza].
Contemplate those tremendous forces and how they play out in our National domestic scene.
Recall that both parties raced each other to the bottom with the Politics of a FAST-TRACKING....A FULL-BLOWN, PELL-MELL, NAFTA RACE to DESTROY OUR BORDERS!
BTW Citizen did you git a chance to mull over NAFTA?
Did you git a chance to VOTE?
Hey Not To Worry Citizens, just look at the ROSTER of names in the House of Reps and Senate; And when the NAFTA ENEMA Was Jammed Up Yourn Arse, Be Grateful for the Speed and Thank Fast Tracking, Cause from now on, you're gonna git FAST TRACKED MANY TIMES A DAY!
#4
Iff one believes that the 2008-2016 Post-Dubya POTUS Period = imposing SOCIALISM IN AMERIKA, IMO these Killings includ WARS FOR CONTROL OF THE BORDERS = OWG FREE TRADE ENTRY-EXIST POINTS BEOMS MOOT. IFF COLD WAR SOVIET = COMMIE BLOC TOTALITARIANISM IS ANY EXPAMPLE, SOCIALISM = GOVT HYPER-REGULATION = these guys are killing and destroying themselves for TEMPORARY/SHORT-TERM PROFITS FOLLOWED BY LONG-TERM STAGNATION AND DECLINISM FOR ALL CAMPS.
Iff the COMMIES + SOCIALISTS still describe themselves as COLD WAR-STYLE "PARTIES OF WAR/REVOLUTION" = "PERMANENT STATE OF WAR", in the absence of any absolute or conclusive, etc. winner in the GWOT [WAR FOR OWG-NWO]bwtn the US-Allies versus Radicla Islamism and aligned [e.g. Commies-Maoists, Anarchists], the only way to impose and "justify" Anti-Democratic Socialism-Govtism in Amerika is to empower LONG-TERM OR PROTRACTIVE NATIONAL-GLOBAL ECON MORASS AND CHAOS, STAGFLATION STAGCESSION AND STAGPRESSION, etc. FOR MINIMA OF SEVERAL DECADES!?
* HENRY FONDA stars in "THE DATES {Middle East] OF WRATH"???
#5
THe MAHICO, etc. BOYZ had better think LONG, HARD, and CAREFULLY about what they're actually trying to achieve as per their present and future interests.
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR - YOU JUST MIGHT GET IT!
Russia's deputy PM has told the BBC the country's Black Sea Fleet will vacate its naval base in Sevastopol in 2017 if the Ukrainian government demands it. Speaking exclusively to Panorama, Sergei Ivanov said Russia would seek to renew its lease on the Crimean port, but will move the Fleet if it cannot.
I wouldn't take this as gospel ...
The move will anger nationalists who consider Sevastopol a part of Russia. It is feared the port could become a flashpoint in already strained relations between Russia and the West.
Asked if he could envisage the Fleet not being based in the Crimea - its home for the last 225 years - Mr Ivanov, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's number two who oversees Russia's military and industry, said: "Yes I can imagine that easily after 2017. Why not, if the Ukrainian government then in power decides not to prolong the lease?"
It will also surprise the West where in the wake of the war in Georgia many fear Moscow could seek to reclaim parts of the Crimea by force to secure the Fleet's future.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/19/2008 11:25 ||
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at least all that can sail under their own power
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/19/2008 12:38 Comments ||
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Russia has been quietly doing in Crimea what it did in Ossetia, providing ethnic Russians with valid Russian passports.
It would therefore be a very good idea for Ukraine to start a very gradual policy of encouraging Russians to leave Crimea--more carrot than stick, as they have about eight years grace if they are lucky. The fewer Russians living there when the time comes, the better.
#4
Per Wikipedia, according to the 2001 Ukrainian government census, 71% of the population of Sevastapol is Russian already.
Looks like a good excuse for Russia to invade the Sudetenland, er Crimea, to protect their citizens.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
10/19/2008 15:21 Comments ||
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#5
No mention whether the Russians have any intention of Crimea remaining Ukrainian in 2017.
Posted by: ed ||
10/19/2008 19:51 Comments ||
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Ukraine's feuding president and prime minister sought help from the International Monetary Fund in separate meetings Friday as a political dispute between them complicated talks for a multibillion-dollar loan to stabilize the country's struggling financial system.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/19/2008 00:00 ||
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Composer John Adams accuses US of paranoia and says its security forces are following him
John Adams, one of the most revered living classical composers, ...
... in the proper neighborhoods of Manhattan ...
He ain't no Mozart. In fact, he wouldn't be fit to dust Salieri's shoes...
... has claimed that he is blacklisted in his native America and is being followed by the security services.
For good reasons ...
... which might include his music...
The 61-year-old musician has accused the United States of being in the grip of a political and moral panic and has complained that he is now grilled by airport immigration officers whenever he flies home because of his controversial reputation.
But he won't make his home in the tony districts of London or Paris ...
Mention "John Adams" to most people and they think "Abigail," unless they're not quite on top of things, in which case they think "Dolly Madison."
Adams made his name 20 years ago with his opera Nixon in China.
There was a real toe-tapper ...
I vaguely recall hearing excerpts of pretentious honking and hooting. Has it ever been played again since? Or do they have it filed away with the "Yellow River Concerto"?
It sounds better in the original Klingon ...
Although it is now regarded as a landmark in modern music,
... which is just littered with operatic Kilamanjaros and symphonic Fujis and Matterhorns and such...
the opera made headlines when it opened because it was heavily critical of the former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger.
Real courageous. No one has ever been critical of Kissinger before or since ...
I can remember how surprised everybody was at the time...
Then the content of The Death of Klinghoffer, Adams's 1991 opera about the Palestinian Liberation Front's 1985 hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro, provoked a storm of protest for its treatment of the murder of a disabled Jewish passenger.
In which Mr. Adams romances the terrorists and puts them on an equal moral footing as an old man in a wheelchair who was dumped overboard. Mr. Adams said it was something about 'poetic justice' ...
Well, y'know, he was an old man. He was gonna die soon, and y'cant' make an omelette without breaking eggs or maybe dropping them into the Mediterranean...
Interviewed on BBC Radio 3's Music Matters yesterday, Adams said he was now 'blacklisted'.
"They got a list at the National Symphony Orchestra. I seen it. My name's got a big black mark next to it."
'I can't check in at the airport now without my ID being taken and being grilled.
Do they make you take off your shoes?
"Hey, Bob! Check this guy out! Sez his name's John Adams!"
"Huh. Thought he was dead. How y'doin', Mr. President? How's Dolly? You sure don't look 273!"
You know, I'm on a homeland security list, probably because of having written The Death of Klinghoffer, so I'm perfectly aware that I, like many artists and many thoughtful people in the country, am being followed.'
Such lovely, thoughtful people who believe the terrorists are of higher moral worth than their own countrymen ...
"They're really good at it though. Sometimes I turn around real quick, without warning, to catch 'em at it, but they're not there. They're too fast for me! That sez they're professionals, prob'ly the CIA or maybe the Rosicrucians."
The suggestion that Adams, who received a Pulitzer Prize for the choral work he wrote to commemorate the victims of 9/11, does not feel welcome in his own country will send shock waves through the musical world.
And they're easily shocked ...
"John Adams? Not welcome in his own country? I am so shocked!"
"Me, too. I just can't understand it. Dolly is such a nice lady!"
The impact of his remarks will be amplified by the fact that his 2005 opera Doctor Atomic has its New York premiere at the Metropolitan Opera tomorrow, in a production directed by British film-maker Penny Woolcock.
The heart swoons ...
I was gonna go, but I have to wash my hair that night.
I'm rewinding my DVDs ...
During the interview, presenter Petroc Trelawny
Is that Professor Trelawny, from the Harry Potter movies? How can she see with those glasses?
asked Adams if he felt that America was living through an age of paranoia that resembled the McCarthy era of the Fifties.
And you're just wondering what the answer to that question will be, aren't you ...
Keep in mind that while some people will tell you that the McCarthy era ended in the early 50s, and others will tell you it ended with Kennedy's election, and still others will tell you that it ended last Thursday, those who Really Know will tell you that it never ended, that Tailgunner Joe retains his seat, if only figuratively, and continues rooting out innocent commies from the State Department, the arts, the sciences, and the janitorial staff of the Smithsonian...
'Well it is, and of course Congress has continued to sign off on these Patriot Acts that continue to clip the wings of human rights,' said Adams, adding that poets, novelists and musicians with left-wing leanings are often watched, including, he said, the American composer Aaron Copland,
Copland is still alive?
who was 'hounded' all his life. 'I'm sure the FBI had a large file on him. So we artists assume that we are being followed.'
Feeling a little self-important? You couldn't carry Copland's quill ...
... and neither of them's a Prokofiev...
Adams - whose autobiography, Hallelujah Junction, is out this month - was born in New Hampshire in 1947.
He's so persecuted that he composes his operas, writes his music, and publishes his book all without any government interference ...
His mother was a Democratic volunteer in the crucial presidential election primaries held there every four years. 'She was a passionate liberal and I've always had a fascination with political life,' he said.
You wonder if 'passionate liberal' is a code-phrase ...
I thought it was French for "dipshit."
Adams went to Harvard in 1966, but abandoned his music studies for a factory job because he wanted to compose.
I suppose that makes sense somewhere ...
Wanted to write proletarian music, y'see. To which I reply "Gershwin lives, lived and will live."
His success was crowned following 9/11, when the New York Philharmonic invited him to compose an 'aural monument' to the victims of the terrorist attacks.
And what better choice?
His choral ode, On the Transmigration of Souls, was premiered by the orchestra in 2002.
Which is comprised of a lot of pre-recorded sounds played through a blender and mixed with live instruments that hoot and screech.
However, Adams believes that the Republican administration manipulated the memory of the attacks. '9/11 was a very glamorous event,' he said. 'I'm using the term in a very ironic sense - 3,000 people being killed; it's a terrible tragedy, but in the scale of human tragedy it's very small.
Unless it's your family or friend, but heck, who cares about that ...
The English lost 112 dead at Agincourt. The Athenians lost 192 men at the Battle of Marathon. The Austrians lost 963 dead at Marengo. At the Battle of Actium Marc Anthony and Cleopatra lost something like 5000 dead. The Habsburg-Polish forces lost 4000 dead at the Battle of Vienna. Such losses are pretty small potatoes compared to the Marne or Kursk or Okinawa, I guess. But somehow they managed their significance, however paltry. Our losses on 9-11-01 (2,998) were greater than our human losses at Pearl Harbor (2,402).
'I think Americans went into what the novelist Philip Roth ...
... another knuckle-head ...
... called "an orgy of narcissism" as a result of 9/11 - we kept replaying those images and kept re-reminding ourselves of what an indignation and how horrible and terrible that event was.
There's a large empty space inside this man's soul, isn't there? We replayed those images in our minds to remind ourselves who was responsible, and why, and to strengthen our resolve not to let it happen again.
I'm trying to imagine anything more narcissistic than airily waving a damp, limp hand to dismiss the genuine human grief and anger of 9-11. To paraphrase Curly, "I'm tryin' to imagine and nuttin's happ'nin'!"
And then, of course, we struck out by invading the wrong country.'
As if you would have responded well to invading any other country ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/19/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Mister Idiot Adams, get over yourself.
We. Don't. Give. A. Shit. About. You.
Or any other pretentious asshole.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/19/2008 0:36 Comments ||
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#2
Either John Adams is lying about his victimitude via the US Goverenment, or the US Government really sucks at the oppression thing.
#3
That's some seriously fine tag team inline there, boys!
I take some small comfort in the knowledge that people will still be enjoying the music of Bach, Vivaldi, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelsohn, Tchaikovsky, Gershwin, and a host of other greats, long after anything this bozo wrote has crumbled to dust.
"Even more fun to stage than the cannon in the 1812 Overture or one of the operatic spectacles with real horses and horse poop. I just love watching the coloraturas trying to avoid stepping in it while they emote their arias," Mr.Adams added, peeking over his shoulder to make sure the CIA weren't listening. "But," he added, "watching them try to sing while bodies float down like confetti around them is even better... in an ironic sense, of course."
#5
I had to listen to "Doctor Atomic" when it premiered on the Met Radio broadcast, and I was still working the Saturday shift at KPAC-San Antonio. Ye gods, what a pretentious, egotistical pile of s**t.
Like creator, like creation, I guess. "Doctor Atomic" sucked all the way up to eleven. (obscure Spinal Tap reference)
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/19/2008 11:01 Comments ||
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#11
After reading this, I suddenly feel the urge to give someone I've never met a good kick in the ass. And a couple extra on behalf of a certain old guy in a wheel chair.
#12
I am a fan of classical music. Adams, in comparison to other composers of the last 50 years is more listenable. Adams' "Harmonilehre" is an example of modern classical symphonic music. That being said, we all must remember that like 90% of all people in the arts and entertainment comminity he is a lefty loon. An apolitical symphonic work like "Harmonilehre" will be what he will be rememberd for. These kinds of things regarding his personal life (paranoia) will be left to the analysis of wonkish musicologists.
There are those who write "serious" music who are not loony like me (I write music). I am troubled by the onesided left that seems to permeate the arts.
#17
Faint praise, true. I actually like his "The Chairman Dances." I can't think of anything else of his I've heard that I can endure, though.
Posted by: James ||
10/19/2008 18:23 Comments ||
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#18
Another mentally ill Marxist musical masturbator existing on grant money left by rich dead white capitalists from foundations taken over by Red Diaper babies to fund the destruction of the system with the capital these men left behind. One of the best things that could be done for American is to legislate that all foundation funds must be spent in 10 years and then dissolved.
The real composers live in Nashville and sell their music by the millions.
Posted by: ed ||
10/19/2008 19:21 Comments ||
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#19
...his 2005 opera Doctor Atomic has its New York premiere at the Metropolitan Opera tomorrow, in a production directed by British film-maker Penny Woolcock.
Some persecution - the a**hole is still composing and having opera premiers. He ought to have experienced what Shostakovich experienced under Stalin to know what real persecution is.
#21
pretty good licks, Bad, but they don't yet have the charisma/road chops that Bon Scott/Brian Johnson and the Young Bros. have. Thetrademark camp and attitude of AC/DC has always been part of their fun, and at age 49, if they tour, I'll be there ;-)
for some reason, I always missed their tours. Not this time
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/19/2008 20:48 Comments ||
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#22
AC/DC was my first concert in 1986...
BTW - as for Mr. Adams, I hear no one composes like him...no one even tries (another obscure TAP reference...)
#1
Funny, I was just listening to Colin Powell on Meet the Press saying how Obama only had limited contact with Ayers and the whole thing was being blown out of proportion. Must be something in the water at the State Dept.
#4
I never woulda voted for Powell anyway, even at the height of his popularity after Desert Storm. He was for affirmative action and gun control and that told me all I needed to know.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/19/2008 11:04 Comments ||
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#5
Off topic I suppose but Powell was a "political" officer for most of his career. While he did have some time in combat in Vietnam he spent a sizable percentage of his time in DC assigned to the Pentagon or even the White House.
He has always been smooth and diplomatic but I have never seen him as socially conservative.
#6
See also TOPIX > ARMENIA NEWSNETWORK - MANDELA, OBAMA, AND THE POST-RACIAL AGE. Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama succeed wid non-African/Black Voters due to SocioCulture-related LOW HATE RETENTION = ANTI-HATRED, + OVERT PERSONAL FORGIVENESS OF PUBLIC OR POL ADVERSARIES > NOT PERFECTLY to be sure, but enuff to inspire Non-African/Black Majority confidence in their agendums and leadership as to overwhelm Race-related = anti-Black "Glass Ceilings".
MUMBAI: The 44.4 m tall Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) with the fully integrated moon-bound Chandrayaan spacecraft was shifted to the launch pad in the new secondary launch area at Sriharikota at about 7pm on Friday, ISRO chief spokesperson S Satish said.
The much-awaited lift-off, first international lunar mission led by India, is slated for takeoff at 6.20am on October 22.
Satish said the vehicle carrying the rocket moved at a snail's pace a few metres per minute taking more than an hour to reach the launch pad from the vehicle assembly building.
The movement of the vehicle was extremely slow to ensure that everything was intact with the rocket and the mooncraft.
"Even though it rained at Sriharikota on Friday evening when the rocket was shifted, it was no cause for concern. Forecast suggests that weather on October 22 will be benign and launch will take place," said Satish. Other space officials have repeatedly said that even if it rains on the morning of October 22, the rocket will lift off.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/19/2008 08:49 ||
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New Delhi, Oct 19 (ANI): Indo-US bilateral naval exercise "Malabar 08" began today in the Arabian Sea, in which frontline units from both the navies are participating. The scope of Malabar exercise includes diverse activities, ranging from gun-firing and fighter combat operations from aircraft carriers, to combating the scourge of terror, through Maritime Interdiction Operations exercises.
During Malabar 08, the US Navy will be represented by the Ronald Reagan Strike Group (RRSG) of the USN 7th Fleet which is based at Yokosuka, Japan. The RRSG will include USS Ronald Reagan, a nuclear powered aircraft carrier, USS Chancellorsville, USS Gridley, USS Decatur, USS Thach and USS Bridge, an underway replenishment tanker. In addition, one submarine, USS Springfield and one P3C Orion aircraft will also participate in the exercise.
The Indian Navy will be represented by, INS Mumbai, an indigenous Delhi Class guided missile destroyer, INS Rana, a Rajput Class guided missile destroyer and four guided missile frigates, namely, INS Talwar, Godavari, Brahmaputra and Betwa. In addition, INS Aditya which is an underway replenishment tanker and one Shishumar class submarine, Sea Harrier fighters, fixed and rotary wing aircraft are also scheduled to participate in the joint exercise.
The regular IN-USN interaction over the years has resulted in an increase in the complexity and professional content of the bilateral exercise. The thrust of the exercise this year would be on Surface or Air Operations, Advanced Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW), Surface Firings, VBSS (Visit Board Search and Seizure) and Submarine Operations.
The exercise is primarily aimed at deriving mutual benefit from the experiences of the two participating professional navies. The confidence gained through interoperability during such exercises has proved to be of immense use, particularly, when involved in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations.
Naval cooperation between India and the USA epitomises the logical relationship between two large and responsible maritime powers. Both navies have, over the years, undertaken diverse bilateral activities such as training exchanges, information exchange, and technical cooperation. The navies, much like their parent nations have significant convergence of interests, especially in the maintenance of maritime security in this fragile region.
Towards this, an India - USA Framework for Maritime Security Cooperation was signed in 2006. The annual Malabar series of exercises that commenced in 1992 provides such an opportunity. Eleven such exercises have been held so far.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/19/2008 08:39 ||
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A day after the CPN (Maoist) revealed it was considering a name change, another communist party, the CPN (UML), has said it is also in the process of changing its name. "We are thinking of retaining our original name," said CPN (UML) general secretary Jhalanath Khanal on Saturday. "We could just be called the Communist Party of Nepal," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/19/2008 00:00 ||
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Madonna may be divorcing her husband Guy Ritchie seven-and-a-half years after marrying him for love but your average Joe may soon be routinely meeting and marrying Jane from next door, who his mother invited to dinner. After yoga and software professionals, here is India's latest export to the West: the arranged marriage.
Reva Seth, whose recent book 'First Comes Marriage' is catching the West's fancy, argues that the developed world needs a different method of finding a spouse in an age of uncertainty. There are signs that some are listening.
Elaine McCabe, 33, a physiotherapist in Michigan, USA, has just permitted her father to invite men he thinks eligible to meet his daughter with a view to their marrying. McCabe, who took her cue from an Indian friend, says, "Any of us with Asian friends know if someone could save us from all those terrible nights next-to-zero hits and nearly-all misses, it would be wonderful." But she adds, "This does not mean I am supporting the kind of marriage in which the parties are left with no choice. The word is arranged, not forced."
For Seth, champion of the great Indian arranged marriage, it may be one way of preventing divorce. Just last week, she told The Times, London about her own happy, (arranged) marriage and the blissful arranged unions of more than 300 others. Seth claimed that divorce rates only ever rose to a maximum of 7% for arranged marriages.
It is a view that finds some favour with Marian Salzman, New York trend spotter and partner at PR firm Porter Novelli. She says the arranged marriage has to flourish in this economic downturn, which Time magazine describes as "new hard times". She says the cost of courtship -- and god forbid, divorce -- is so high that people increasingly want the institution of marriage to have more structure. "In these hard times, lust wears thin."
This is why, says Salzman, the West "is beginning to realise that the partner they choose may not be enough to sustain a relationship socially and economically (and that the arranged marriage may be a way to find) happiness as a family and a community.
Clinical psychologist and psychotherapist Varkha Chulani agrees that the arranged marriage could be a popular, if unlikely export to the West because its very basis shared values and similar backgrounds are more likely to sustain a union than the heady idea of romantic love.
But is the arranged marriage quite as Indian as it is portrayed? History records that the West once encouraged a system of arranged marriages in order to safeguard property and inheritance. There is evidence of arranged marriages in Western societies as far back as the 1500s and in the prim Victorian era, which encouraged a union for cultural and economic reasons rather than mere love. Ask any married person and they will tell you that marriage is a unique bond, whose strength lies in commitment, responsibility and the law and it has little to do with being madly in love with one's intended.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/19/2008 00:00 ||
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You mean, like all those computerized dating sites that make you fill out those immensely long forms about likes and dislikes, then offer a dozen possible matches from their data base? Or my mother's best friend, who used to host dinner parties presenting the latest eligible bachelor, until the last one, where Mama met Daddy? But it's nice that the practice has been rediscovered -- it's so much safer than picking up strangers in bars.
CHENNAI A group of Indian lawmakers, whose support is crucial to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, handed their resignation letters to their party chief on Friday over the conflict in Sri Lanka, officials said.
The 14 Members of Lower House (Lok Sabha) of Parliament, including six ministers of a regional party in southern Tamil Nadu state, wants India to ask Sri Lanka to call a ceasefire immediately. The MPs belong to Tamil Nadus Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi. The MPs say they share the increasing concern of the mainly Tamil population on the island that Sri Lankan troops are wiping out Tamils there.
No word on their position of the LTTE setting off bombs to kill civilians, but we can guess ...
Sri Lanka has vowed to crush the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) militarily. It says its troops are 2 km from the rebel capital of Kilinochchi, a strategic and symbolic target. Troops stepped up the offensive against the LTTE rebels fighting for a separate homeland this year and the government says its forces have killed thousands of rebels since January.
The MPs resignation could force a vote of confidence in Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs government if the letters reach the speaker in Indias parliament. But opposition parties, which have described the move as a farce, and analysts said the threat may be more about making political noise for their local constituencies. They are unlikely to carry out the threat and the government will not face a crisis, C. Uday Bhaskar, a strategic analyst said.
Earlier this week, about 39 lawmakers, all allies of Indias ruling Congress party-led coalition met in the southern city of Chennai and gave the Indian government two weeks to intervene or face being brought down. The meeting was chaired by M. Karunanidhi, chief minister of Tamil Nadu state and leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party (DMK), a key ally of the Congress party. We are not speaking for the LTTE, but for the orphaned Tamils, Karunanidhi said on Friday. I am not asking for armed intervention but only restoration of peace in Sri Lanka.
Indias prime minister has urged Sri Lanka to solve the conflict politically but said it was not going to intervene. India sent peacekeepers to the island nation in 1987, only to withdraw them after losing more than 1,200 men in battle and facing allegations of human rights violations. I am sure Mr Karunanidhi will understand that our prime minister has come out in support of innocent Tamils caught in the battle, Veerappa Moily, a senior Congress party spokesman said in New Delhi. This issue will be resolved.
But not by Indian troops. India has a potential two-front war already with Pakistain and China, and doesn't need to tie down military resources on a third front, particularly one that they can't win.
Karunanidhi however, said that India could certainly intervene in Sri Lanka to alleviate the sufferings of Tamil minorities there - and cited the 1971 India-Pakistan war that led to the creation of Bangladesh to support his contention.
Hint, hint ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/19/2008 00:00 ||
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Pic and address deleted -- ... sad pic, but no proof. Exhibitions of this type do not win guilty verdicts at Rantburg.
Tamil kids butchered by Sinhala military.
Who is the terrorist?
#2
What pic and address? There was none in the original article -- I checked. And why are Tamil kids fighting with the Tamil Tigers, anyway? Should they not be kept safely at home while the grownups do the fighting?
#3
Child fighters appear to be pretty useful, unfortunately. They aren't good fighters, but they're OK for terrorizing civilians, and adult fighters have some issues about shooting kids or getting wounded by them--it is very bad for morale. I don't know how they'd stack up against a well-trained army, but apparently having a group of stoned kids shooting at you from the jungle was pretty hard on Liberian soldiers.
Posted by: James ||
10/19/2008 17:21 Comments ||
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Tamil Net admits the LTTE turns kidnapped children into suicide bombers The semi-official organ of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE), the Tamil Net, admitted that a suicide cadre of their organization, known as a Black Tigress about whom a Norwegian documentary film has been made was a child kidnapped at the age of 12 years.
Outrage over child soldiers in Sri Lanka The Tamil Tiger rebels have long been known to use child soldiers in their extended campaign against the Sri Lankan government. The average age of the Tigers' child soldiers, according to UNICEF, is 16 years old.
Child soldiers still being recruited Over 1,189 child soldiers below the age of 16, recruited by the LTTE from the North and East, are still in LTTE custody, UNICEF official told the Sunday Observer.
The LTTE are anal byproducts of humanity and the quicker they are put down the better off will be civilization.
Posted by: ed ||
10/19/2008 18:10 Comments ||
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OPEC oil producers will cut oil supplies when they meet next week in Vienna and "the reduction must be significant," the group President Chakib Khelil was quoted as saying on Saturday. "There will be a reduction of the output and the reduction must be significant to restore the balance between supply and demand," Algerian state news agency APS quoted Khelil as telling reporters. I hereby vow to drive my car as little as possible as long as it's not electric or CNG and there's a digit to the left of the decimal point. I urge everyone else in the country to do the same.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will hold an emergency meeting on Oct. 24 in Vienna to discuss the impact of economic weakness on oil markets.
Pressure is mounting within OPEC to reduce supplies as oil prices have fallen more than 50 percent from July's record of $147.27 and expectations have grown that a global recession will erode fuel demand.
"If the cut is 1.5 million barrels per day, then it will be 1.5 million barrels. If it is 2.0 million barrels per day, it will be 2.0 million barrels per day," added Khelil, who is also Algeria's energy and mining minister. Earlier, Khelil was quoted in Saturday's edition of Algerian daily al-Watan as saying that OPEC saw oil prices bottoming at $70-$90 per barrel.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/19/2008 00:00 ||
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Go ahead & cut your balls off. Just remember to use a rusty knife.
Aswat al-Iraq: Next week will see the signing of a contract with an Omani company to set up a number of projects in al-Diwaniya, the province governor, Hamed al-Khodari, said on Saturday.
"The Omani company al-Taher will sign a contract next week to build a trade center under the name Diwaniya Mall over an area of 40,000 square meters, including a large parking lot and a fuel station, in the central part of the city," Khodari told Aswat al-Iraq, not revealing the costs of these projects.
"The Omani delegation will get abreast of other investment fields, namely housing, energy and tourism, to consider ventures in the province," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/19/2008 00:00 ||
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It's called "buckypaper" and looks a lot like ordinary carbon paper, but don't be fooled by the cute name or flimsy appearance. It could revolutionize the way everything from airplanes to TVs are made.
Buckypaper is 10 times lighter but potentially 500 times stronger than steel when sheets of it are stacked and pressed together to form a composite. Unlike conventional composite materials, though, it conducts electricity like copper or silicon and disperses heat like steel or brass.
"All those things are what a lot of people in nanotechnology have been working toward as sort of Holy Grails," said Wade Adams, a scientist at Rice University.
That idea that there is great future promise for buckypaper and other derivatives of the ultra-tiny cylinders known as carbon nanotubes has been floated for years now. However, researchers at Florida State University say they have made important progress that may soon turn hype into reality.
Buckypaper is made from tube-shaped carbon molecules 50,000 times thinner than a human hair. Due to its unique properties, it is envisioned as a wondrous new material for light, energy-efficient aircraft and automobiles, more powerful computers, improved TV screens and many other products.
So far, buckypaper can be made at only a fraction of its potential strength, in small quantities and at a high price. The Florida State researchers are developing manufacturing techniques that soon may make it competitive with the best composite materials now available.
"If this thing goes into production, this very well could be a very, very game-changing or revolutionary technology to the aerospace business," said Les Kramer, chief technologist for Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, which is helping fund the Florida State research.
So far, the Florida State institute has been able to produce buckypaper with half the strength of the best existing composite material, known as IM7 graphite.
"By the end of next year we should have a buckypaper composite as strong as IM7, and it's 35 percent lighter."
The military also is looking at it for use in armor plating and stealth technology.
"Our plan is perhaps in the next 12 months we'll begin maybe to have some commercial products," Wang said. "Nanotubes obviously are no longer just lab wonders. They have real world potential. It's real."
#2
The problem with geodesic domes is that, generally speaking, the technology stopped there. What was needed was instead of imagining the domes as things in themselves, to have them as just a starting point, like any other building.
For instance, the outside could be designed for water collection and distillation, solar power and water pre-heating, algae biodiesel generation, light inclusion and exclusion, insulation and heat exchange, as a complex antenna, etc.
The inside could be just as complicated, using upper portions of the dome as a heat trapping small hydroponic greenhouse, along with mycoprotein (fungus) vats, with excess CO2 cycled up there to stimulate growth further. The external solar panels could power electrolysis to produce both hydrogen fuel and oxygen as a purifying bleach-oxidizer.
Police in suburban Chicago have arrested a Muslim college student for allegedly faking a racist attack by a masked gunman, an attack police now say never happened.
Earlier this month, Safia Jilani, 19, was found by friends in the basement bathroom of the Schaible science building of Elmhurst College, claiming she was clubbed with a gun by a masked assailant. Anti-Muslim epithets were found scrawled on a nearby mirror, similar to a hate-filled graffiti that had been found on Jilani's locker only a week earlier.
The college locked down the campus after the alleged attack and, according to the Chicago Tribune, later released an advisory warning students of a 5-foot, 8-inch, white male attacker guilty of committing a "hate crime."
According to a joint statement just released from Elmhurst Police, the college and the state's attorney's office, however, there was no gunman, and the attack was staged.
"The totality of all the evidence, and interviews with staff and students at the college concluded that this incident never happened," Elmhurst Police Chief Steven Neubauer told the Tribune, though he refused to elaborate.
Word of the attack spread when Jilani, one of approximately 25 Muslim students out of 3,300 enrolled at Elmhurst College, sent a text message to friend Carly Notorangelo on the evening of Oct. 9, begging for help.
According to the Elmhurst Press, the text read, "Emergency. Basement of Schaible. Bathroom."
Notorangelo told the Press she found Jilani unconscious on the floor of the bathroom with the words "Kill the Muslims" scrawled on a nearby mirror.
Jilani's friends later reported that she had suffered bruised ribs and a concussion, though Jilani refused emergency medical care immediately following the incident.
Notorangelo told Chicago's WBBM-TV, "I found my friend, my sister, one of the most courageous people I know, unconscious on the floor, because somebody hit her with a gun. Because they don't think it's okay for her to express her love for God by wearing a piece of cloth on her head."
The next day, hundreds of students at the campus held a sit-in to protest the alleged hate crime and show their support for Jilani.
News of Jilani's arrest and the staged attack has left students at the campus baffled.
"We had a rally," said Richie Palys, a freshman jazz studies major, to the Tribune. "People cried over what happened, and her best friends gave speeches for her. I don't even know what to believe anymore." "I feel so violated."
Jilani has since surrendered to the authorities and has been booked on filing a false police report, a felony punishable by one to three years in prison.
#1
"The next day, hundreds of students at the campus held a sit-in to protest the alleged hate crime and show their support for Jilani."
So now, will hundreds of students at the campus hold a sit-in to protest the hate crime HOAX perpetrated by the supposed "victim" and show their disdain for Jilani?
Or will they just suck their thumbs, make excuses for her, and demand more cheese with their whiiiiiine?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/19/2008 18:04 Comments ||
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Too bad for her she didn't try this at Duke University when Mike Nifong was DA of Durham County. She could have looked through the yearbook, picked out a few dozen white guys, and Mike would have them tried and convicted in the media before any investigation was done.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
10/19/2008 21:44 Comments ||
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Oct. 18 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush said he will host a summit on the global financial crisis in the ``near future'' and he is confident the world's nations will weather the breakdown in credit markets. ``For this meeting to be a success, we must welcome good ideas from around the world,'' Bush said as he welcomed French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Commission President Jose Barroso to Camp David, the presidential retreat in rural Maryland, for dinner and three hours of talks.
The conference agenda will include ideas on how to prevent future crises in a way that preserves the free-market system, Bush said. ``It is essential we preserve the foundations of democratic capitalism,'' he said. He said leaders from both developed and developing nations would be included.
Sarkozy and Barroso, in separate statements, welcomed Bush's invitation. ``We want to work hand in hand with the Americans to create the capitalism of the 21st century,'' Sarkozy said. ``The meeting should be held rapidly, perhaps before the end of November. Since the crisis started in New York, maybe we can find the solution in New York.''
``We must reform capitalism so that the most efficient system ever created doesn't destroy its own foundations,'' Sarkozy, 53, said yesterday in a speech to Quebec's National Assembly. Sarkozy represents all 27 nations of the European Union.
Would that include reforming the politicians?
Sarkozy and Barraso are pressing Bush for a G8 agenda that includes stiffer regulation and supervision for cross-border banks, a global ``early warning'' system and an overhaul of the International Monetary Fund. Talks may also encompass tougher regulations on hedge funds, new rules for credit-rating companies, limits on executive pay and changing the treatment of tax havens such as the Cayman Islands and Monaco.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/19/2008 00:00 ||
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PLEASE have this 'summit' on some island somewhere... we don't need another "Battle In Seattle.'
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.
Ukraine's feuding president and prime minister sought help from the International Monetary Fund in separate meetings Friday as a political dispute between them complicated talks for a multibillion-dollar loan to stabilize the country's struggling financial system.
A day after the CPN (Maoist) revealed it was considering a name change, another communist party, the CPN (UML), has said it is also in the process of changing its name. "We are thinking of retaining our original name," said CPN (UML) general secretary Jhalanath Khanal on Saturday. "We could just be called the Communist Party of Nepal," he said.
