The president of Guinea-Bissau survived an apparent coup attempt in the West African nation Sunday, emerging from his bullet-scarred home hours after his guards repelled mutinous soldiers to declare that they wanted to kill him.
President Joao Bernardo Vieira hid in a room in his heavily fortified home while security forces turned back the soldiers in a three-hour gunbattle, Interior Minister Cipriano Cassama said. The attack had begun with heavy artillery fire on Vieira's home shortly after midnight.
Vieira and his wife were unhurt, but at least one of his guards died and several others were injured, Cassama said.
"These people attacked my residence with a single objective--to physically liquidate me," Vieira told the nation in a televised news conference from his home. "No one has the right to massacre the people of Guinea-Bissau in order to steal power by means of the gun."
The walls of his fortified house were scarred with bullets and its floors still were littered with shell casings. Calm appeared to have returned to the capital, Bissau, and Vieira assured the country that the "situation is under control."
Guinea-Bissau, an impoverished nation on Africa's Atlantic coast, has had multiple coups and attempted coups since 1980, when Vieira himself first took power in one. The U.N. says Guinea-Bissau is a key transit point for cocaine smuggled from Latin America to Europe.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2008 00:00 ||
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DHAKA, Bangladesh - National elections in emergency-ruled Bangladesh will be delayed by 11 more days, the Election Commission said Sunday, following a former prime minister's demands that the polls be postponed as a condition for her party's participation.
Chief Election Commissioner A.T.M. Shamsul Huda announced at a news conference that the parliamentary polls would be held on Dec. 29, after consulting with all major parties. The commission also extended the deadline for filing nomination papers by a week to Nov. 30.
Last week, former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia demanded that the elections, which were scheduled for Dec. 18, be moved back by at least 10 days to allow her Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its allies to choose and prepare their candidates. She had initially threatened to boycott the vote altogether if the emergency measures, in place since January 2007, were not lifted.
Huda made no further comment on whether the measures would be lifted. Earlier he had said that decision was up to the military-backed interim government.
President Iajuddin Ahmed instituted the emergency rule, including canceling scheduled elections, after weeks of violent protests demanding electoral reforms. The interim administration has amended electoral laws and cracked down on rampant corruption, arresting dozens of top politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen. But most of those detained, including Zia and Hasina, are now out on bail or parole.
There was not immediate word on the new date from Zia, or from her main rival, Sheikh Hasina. Hasina's Awami League and its allies had earlier insisted on holding the polls as originally planned.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/24/2008 00:00 ||
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CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuelans voted to choose state governors and mayors Sunday in elections that could either hand President Hugo Chavez his second straight electoral setback or give his leftist government a new mandate. He faced an emboldened opposition aiming to break his dominance and win back power in key states and cities.
"We're prepared to recognize any result," Chavez said after voting in Caracas.
Oh sure, we can see that ...
The vote could force Chavez to deal with more hostile opponents at the local level, or help him lay the groundwork to extend his rule beyond 2013, when his six-year term ends.
Chavez said the elections--held one year after voters defeated his attempt to abolish term limits--could decide "the future of the revolution, the future of socialism and also the future of Hugo Chavez."
Candidates included Chavez's brother, Adan, who was trying to succeed their father as governor of Barinas state, and the president's ex-wife, Marisabel Rodriguez, running as an opposition mayoral candidate in one district of Barquisimeto.
Maybe she knows something we don't ...
After a decade in office, Chavez still enjoys solid popularity and has maintained control of most local posts. But last year's defeat energized the opposition, which has also sought to capitalize on complaints about rampant crime, corruption and inflation.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
See also REDDIT > BRAZILIAN AND RUSSIAN MILITARY COOPERATION TO INCREASE.
#5
Opo groups did slightly less well than they expected, but just slightly. Won five governorships (the large urban areas) and the Mayorship of Caracas. Outside chance of a win win Carobobo province which would be huge. CNE still hasn't released total vote counts.
Georgia accused Russian troops near the breakaway region of South Ossetia of opening fire on Sunday after a convoy carrying the Georgian and Polish presidents approached, forcing them to turn back, officials said.
In a statement, the Georgian government said the convoy -- with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and his Polish counterpart Lech Kaczynski in a dark Mercedes-Benz sedan -- "came under fire from a Russian checkpoint."
A spokesperson for Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said Russian troops manning a checkpoint on the boundary since a five-day war in August opened fire when the convoy approached-- a claim that Russia denied.
Spokesman Nato Partskhaladze was not present at the scene, just south of the town of Akhalgori, but told a televised news conference Russian forces "were not happy to see us and reacted in this barbaric way."
"Aggression continues in Georgia," he said. "The ceasefire and the European Union-brokered agreement are being violated."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2008 00:00 ||
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More than 230 million Chinese left their farms for the new urban sprawls, but the economic expansion has gone into reverse.
He has stretched out his meagre savings for nearly six weeks, but finally, and with only a few hundred yuan left to his name, Gang Wei is giving up. He borrows a friends mobile phone and makes the call he always dreaded.
Im leaving tonight, he says, filling a grey plastic sack with his possessions. Ive got some things to sell.
For Mr Gang, who used to work at a company pressing radio controllers for toy cars, this admission of defeat ends a personal dream that began three years ago, when he left Jiangxi and moved to Guangdong. For the Chinese Government watching nervously in Beijing, the movements of men such as Mr Gang 23 years old and deeply disillusioned pose a darkening threat to national ambition. This exodus was absolutely not part of the plan.
The countrys astonishing growth story has been driven in large part by the more than 230 million people, mainly in their twenties, who have left their farms and migrated to jobs in the countrys expanding urban sprawls. The Governments own calculations suggest that these cities will, in combination, need to create 24 million jobs a year to sustain the pace of migration even before the global economic downturn, that appeared implausible; now, it seems impossible, especially given the pace with which people are heading back to their parents farms.
Only three months ago, the small corner of Dongkeng where Mr Gang worked was yet another booming facet of the mighty Chinese industrial growth story: five huge factories, each employing thousands of workers, would churn out toys, electronics and shoes late into the night, much of it heading directly to the United States and to the shelves of stores such as Wal-Mart or the now-collapsed Circuit City. Smaller factories around them would supply parts, and services.
At the end of each shift, the surrounding cafés and restaurants would spill out into the streets and the shops would hum with business. It was this seemingly unstoppable throb of commercial activity that drew Mr Gang, and ten million migrant workers like him, from rural China into the urban sprawl of the Pearl River Delta.
Today the same corner of Dongkeng is a ghost town, its streets strewn with the raw plastic pellets that once fed the presses. Entire rows of shops are shuttered: those that remain open blare invitations to closing-down sales. The staff of local barber shops, pool bars and mobile phone showrooms stand forlorn and without customers. In the centre of town, the biggest crowds swarm the walls of work-placement offices in a desperate scramble for jobs. Rest at link.
Posted by: ed ||
11/24/2008 15:33 ||
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#1
They have hit their first turn of the capitalist business cycle. A lot depends on how this is handled.
#2
IIRC CHIN NETTERS > the main issue circles around the willingness of the CPC to de-regulate and allow PRC Citizens to engage in FOREIGN LABOR ACTIVITIES = EX-PATRI LABOR INCLUDING $$$ REMITTANCES, ETC. BACK TO THE MOTHERLAND.
E.g. WORLD MILITARY FORUM/OTHER > it appears that Chin has reached a FOREIGN-ECON POLICY MILESTONE, i.e TO DECIDE IFF THE CHIN NATION-SOCIETY SHOULD REMAIN ISOLATIONIST, OR ENGAGE IN UNCERTAIN
"INTERNATIONALISM/GLOBALISM" AS AN AMBITIOUS POST-USA/WEST SUPERPOWER-TO-BE???
#3
Its NOT just CHINA but also most of EAST-SOUTH ASIA where traditional farming is under heavy pressure, from pan-environ desertifications to pro-big industry urban growths.
One of Europes most famous nudist colonies has become the subject of an unusual investigation by French detectives after the destruction of three nightclubs in fires blamed on naturist "hardliners."
The normally peaceful Cap dAgde, a magnet for nudists in the south of France, has been plunged into anxiety as investigators suspect "fundamentalist" nudists of harboring a grudge against the échangistes, or swingers, who are drawn to the town by the promise of sex.
A so-called boîte échangiste or wife-swapping club called Glamour, where couples engage in group sex, was the first to be destroyed in April. The next day, the Palme Ré, another orgy venue, also went up in flames. In September, the Tantra club and Zen, its neighboring bar, were leveled in blazes.
No one was hurt but the fires have shocked a community whose crime rate has been dominated until now by cases of exhibitionism.
Tensions have risen between the naturists, who believe that nudity is a healthy choice of lifestyle and nothing to do with sex, and the échangistes, who are attracted to nudist camps by the prospect of multiple partners.
#2
"In the south there's a difference between 'Naked' and 'Nekkid.' 'Naked' means you don't have any clothes on. Nekkid' means you don't have any clothes on ... and you're up to somethin!"
That's a scary image if there ever was one. Maybe now the nutroots will support a war on the "fundamentalists".
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
11/24/2008 17:56 Comments ||
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#4
arsonist/nudist doesn't sound like a safe job description
Posted by: chris ||
11/24/2008 18:31 Comments ||
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#5
Nekkid' means you don't have any clothes on ... and you're up to somethin!"
I'm very confused, Catfish. Shouldn't one get up to whatever it is before taking off one's clothes? It seems to me that getting nekkid beforehand increases the risk considerably not only that one's plans might go awry, but that the outcome will be truly uncomfortable as well.
On Friday I had the honor of addressing the Federalist Society in Washington on the matter of my free-speech travails up north. And, in response to a question on whether the Canadian "Human Rights" Commission were surprised that I'd pushed back against them, I quoted that great line from the Kevin Bacon film Tremors when the giant mutated killer worms attack Michael Gross and Reba McEntire's well-armed basement and wind up blasted to smithereens: "Looks like they picked the wrong rec room to break into."
The giant killer worms of the Canadian "Human Rights" Commission picked the wrong rec room to break into. Ezra Levant and I and a few others went nuclear on the Dominion's thought police and gave them the worst year of publicity in their three-decade existence. The result is that, earlier this month, over 99 per cent of delegates to the Conservative Party convention voted to abolish Section 13 (the "hate speech" provision) of the Canadian Human Rights Act, and a brave principled Liberal, Keith Martin, renewed his private member's motion in the House of Commons to do the same.
This morning, the CHRC issued the so-called Moon Report on free-speech issues. Most of us expected it to be a whitewash. Instead, Professor Moon says:
1. The first recommendation is that section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA) be repealed so that the CHRC and the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT) would no longer deal with hate speech, in particular hate speech on the Internet.
This is a great tribute to what Ezra calls his campaign of "denormalization" of Canada's Orwellian "human rights" racket. They're not yet ready to throw in the towel completely, but it's fluttering limply on the edge of the ring. Canada may be preparing to rejoin the ranks of free nations.
I'm especially grateful to the support I've received from Stanley Kurtz and other NR colleagues, and from many readers, who recognize that America's chances of remaining a beacon of liberty are greatly diminished if the lights go out over the rest of the western world.
Posted by: Mike ||
11/24/2008 12:21 ||
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Thousands of Thai protesters surrounded parliament Monday in an effort to prevent lawmakers from meeting in what they say is their final push in a six-month campaign against the government. Demonstrators began leaving Government House -- the prime minister's cabinet offices which they have occupied since late August -- early Monday and marched towards parliament a few blocks away in Bangkok's historic district.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said about 18,000 protesters from the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) had taken to the streets, and managed to block all three roads leading to parliament by about 7:40 am (0040 GMT). "Today they discuss constitution amendments. Can we let it happen? Can we let the parliament meet?" cried a protest leader on a truck as thousands of supporters cheered "No!" and waved noisy plastic clappers.
A sea of people dressed in yellow shirts and headbands which symbolise loyalty to the monarchy surged in front of police barricades, many waving national flags and portraits of the deeply revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
Witnesses said hundreds of volunteer PAD security guards -- know as the "Srivijaya Warriors" -- wearing black shirts and wielding homemade batons were protecting the crowd of protesters.
About 1,150 police with shields stood guard in and around the barricaded parliament to try and prevent a repeat of bloody street battles on October 7 at the same location that left two protesters dead and nearly 500 people injured. "We don't know what will happen now. We will decide according to the situation," PAD leader Sondhi Limthongkul told AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2008 00:00 ||
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Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. government is prepared to lend more than $7.4 trillion on behalf of American taxpayers, or half the value of everything produced in the nation last year, to rescue the financial system since the credit markets seized up 15 months ago.
The unprecedented pledge of funds includes $2.8 trillion already tapped by financial institutions in the biggest response to an economic emergency since the New Deal of the 1930s, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The commitment dwarfs the only plan approved by lawmakers, the Treasury Department's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. Federal Reserve lending last week was 1,900 times the weekly average for the three years before the crisis.
When Congress approved the TARP on Oct. 3, Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson acknowledged the need for transparency and oversight. Now, as regulators commit far more money while refusing to disclose loan recipients or reveal the collateral they are taking in return, some Congress members are calling for the Fed to be reined in.
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Oil and gas companies appeared to score an all-out victory over the summer when President Bush lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling and congressional Democrats let a moratorium expire soon after. But those who think nothing stands between oil rigs and the outer continental shelf are dead wrong.
"Every lease that has been granted in the last several years has been immediately challenged in the lawsuits, 100 percent," said Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C.
When the ban was lifted, the federal government was permitted to sell drilling leases three miles off the nation's coastlines, free of state objections.
The Interior Department has already started surveying the water and has drawn up maps for lease sales. So far, the government has collected $8.4 billion from the five-year leasing plan that covers 2007 to 2012. Another round of sales will be held next March.
But several environmental groups have sued the federal government over the offshore plans, arguing that the Interior Department failed to consider drilling's impact on endangered marine life such as bowhead whales and polar bears.
"It is something that has put a cloud over the lease sales," said Erik Milito, general counsel of the American Petroleum Institute, which has filed a brief in support of the government. "There's a lot of money at stake in terms of the government receiving the bonus bids already, and there's also the potential for delay in oil and gas activity."
The lawsuits were brought by a wide array of plaintiffs, the majority of which are conservation groups. The rest include state governments, businesses and individuals.
In February 2008, the administration issued 487 leases in Alaska's Chukchi Sea. The Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity and Alaskan Native groups challenged all of them in court. That's on top of 108 cases filed against federal agencies over drilling permits in 2006.
Supporters of the lawsuits don't see themselves as litigation-happy. "Over the history of the offshore drilling program, litigation has been generally brought only as a last resort, where the Interior Department is trying to proceed in drilling in a very sensitive area," said Richard Charter, who lobbies on behalf of Defenders of Wildlife, a conservation group.
And every location is a 'sensitive area', don't you know ...
Defenders of Wildlife sued the Bush administration in 2005 over the government's decision to extend 37 undeveloped oil and gas leases off the central California coast.
Charter said he prefers to fight against oil and gas drilling in Congress, rather than in the courts. Last November, he helped fend off an 11th-hour move by Republicans to lift the offshore oil and gas drilling ban. This year, however, the line of defense against offshore drilling crumbled in Congress. The 27-year-old drilling moratorium is now gone, and conservationists like Charter are eying the court as the next possible battleground.
"We are kind of entering a new era here," Charter said, "Without the congressional oversight the moratorium has brought, I think litigation will become more frequent. It could become more protracted."
How can one have 'oversight' in the face of a moratorium? Oversight implies that some go forward and some don't. A moratorium kills everything.
Court decisions have swung both ways in the past, with the majority of the results favoring the defendants. Charter acknowledged that litigation is an imperfect but necessary tool, as "it generally in the past has resulted in delays, but has never successfully stopped drilling."
But it's the only tool he has now so that's the one he'll use, at least until Bambi and the Dhimmicrats re-implement the moratorium.
But delays are costly to oil and gas companies. "The litigation has thrown a lot of uncertainty into the business," said Milito of the API. "We've seen many projects that have been delayed, if not stopped, causing companies to lose hundreds of millions of dollars that have been invested."
Congressional Republicans have sought to limit lawsuits against oil exploration. South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, for example, introduced a bill last month that would allow only 90 days to submit a legal case.
#1
that the Interior Department failed to consider drilling's impact on endangered marine life such as bowhead whales and polar bears.
I was not aware that we had Endangered Polar Bears in the Gulf of Mexico?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/24/2008 12:42 Comments ||
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#2
Can we start a class action lawsuit against all these groups for higher gas prices? They are taking money out of my wallet. Not only that, I find them offensive and creating a hostile environment to my peace of mind.
#6
1) But delays are costly to oil and gas companies - actually, I think consumers pay for all of it.
2) I'm not worried. Under President-elect Obama's recovery bill we won't need any more carbon based energy. We'll be moving into the green age, with reliable solar and wind energy heating our homes, running our computers and powering our affordable electric cars.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/24/2008 14:12 Comments ||
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#8
Oil companies should begin suing "environmentalists" and demand that they PROVE, not just "believe" that drilling will harm wildlife in the area. The same kinds of environmental noises were made about drilling in the Gulf off the coast of Texas and Louisiana. The real result was that these oil platforms actually INCREASED the quantity and diversity of marine creatures. The "environmentalists" are now suing to stop oil platforms from being removed when they are no longer producing - something they DEMANDED in earlier litigation.
Most major oil companies have an environmental impact study group, and know more about the environmental impact of drilling than any of the conservation groups. This is litigation in order to stop something the rest of us want. It should be stopped, immediately. If the "environmentalists" persist in trying to stop oil exploration and production, they should be branded as "terrorists" and treated accordingly. No minority group should be able to dictate to the nation at large, just because they're doing it "for the childrenenvironment".
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/24/2008 14:31 Comments ||
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#9
I think we should sue to enforce drilling in 'sensitive' areas becase extinction is a completely natural and evolutionary process which enriches the envronment as new species move to take over from extinct species who were, frankly, to specialized and/or and 'weak' to compete.
Like the Bowhead Whale and the Polar Bears of the Gulf of Mexico.
George W. Bush was the U.S. president at an economic summit here this weekend, but many foreign leaders were focused on President-elect Barack Obama instead.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper cautioned Obama against plans to rework the North American Free Trade Agreement, saying it would worsen a global financial crisis. Chinese President Hu Jintao said he hoped Obama would recognize the importance of U.S.-China ties while treading carefully on the thorny issue of Taiwan.
And Mexican President Felipe Calderon, in an impassioned speech to delegates at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum on Saturday, warned Obama that any tightening of trade restrictions would send a flood of illegal immigrants into the United States. "The next U.S. administration must assume leadership in a very firm manner--not just for Americans but for the whole world," Calderon said.
It's not like Calderon can control his country or his borders, after all ...
The stern words for Obama came during an annual APEC gathering dominated by fears over the ongoing financial crisis, and underscored the difficult balance that Obama must strike if he intends to forge a new economic path for the United States.
Bush was returning to Washington from Peru on Sunday after securing an agreement from the 21-member group to keep trade barriers low along the Pacific Rim as leaders fashion responses to the global financial storm. The APEC statement closely mirrors a pledge signed in Washington on Nov. 15 by a group of the world's 20 major economies, nine of which were represented in Lima.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > REDRAWAN THEORETICAL MAP OF SOUTH ASIA HAS PAKISTAN WARY, ala Ralph Peters - HOW A BETTER MIDDLE EAST WOULD LOOK, Armed Forces JOurnal. The PETERS MAP basically has many of the current major ME States [e.g. IRAQ, SAUDI ARABIA, AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN] broken up = reorganz, DIVIDED OR EXPANDED, into NEW SOVEREIGN STATE ENTITIES/POLITIES???
Also from SAME > BANGLADESH IS THE BIGGEST THREAT TO INDIA [Multiple, Potent Anti-INdia + Regional TERROR links] + JAPAN's PACIFISM NEEDS REVISION [Japan to consider Rearmament, New Internationalism?] + PRIME MINISTER MANMOHAN SINGH: INDIA IS FAILING AGZ MAOISTS + INDIA TO UPGRADE NINE AIR BASES ALONG PAKISTAN BORDER + US SECDEF GATES BACKS TROOP BUILDUP IN AFGHANISTAN; + STRATEGYPAGE > CHINA: COMMUNISTS FACING RURAL REBELLION + ALGERIA: WHY ISLAMIST TERRORISTS WILL NOT GO AWAY; + WORLD MIL FORUM > JANES: CHINA MAY HAVE ENOUGH NUCLEAR WEAPONS TO DESTROY THE WORLD. China only needs 210 Nuke Warheads of perceived 1000 aproximate Warheads already in arsenal to destroy major enemy targets [ e.g. Cities], + CHINA'S AIRCRAFT CARRIER WILL BE A THREAT TO SOUTH KOREA AND JAPAN + US REPORT: FOUR SCENARIOS FOR SINO-JAPANESE CONFLICT [c. before Year 2025] + CHINA CLOSES HK, CHINESE PORTS TO US NAVY, ENDS MILITARY EXCHANGE PROGRAM WID USA OVER US$6.0BILYUHN TAIWAN ARMS SALE.
#3
I'm waiting anxiously as well. Waiting to see how long will it take for The One and his dream team to decide to sell Alaska back to the Russians to pay for the bailout program.
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.
DHAKA, Bangladesh - National elections in emergency-ruled Bangladesh will be delayed by 11 more days, the Election Commission said Sunday, following a former prime minister's demands that the polls be postponed as a condition for her party's participation.
Georgia accused Russian troops near the breakaway region of South Ossetia of opening fire on Sunday after a convoy carrying the Georgian and Polish presidents approached, forcing them to turn back, officials said. 
Oil and gas companies appeared to score an all-out victory over the summer when President Bush lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling and congressional Democrats let a moratorium expire soon after. But those who think nothing stands between oil rigs and the outer continental shelf are dead wrong.
George W. Bush was the U.S. president at an economic summit here this weekend, but many foreign leaders were focused on President-elect Barack Obama instead. 
