The US State Department said Thursday its website came under cyberattack for a fourth day running as it tried to prevent further attacks. "I'm just going to speak about our website, the state.gov website. There's not a high volume of attacks. But we're still concerned about it. They are continuing," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters.
The US State Department said Thursday its website came under cyberattack for a fourth day running as it tried to prevent further attacks. "I'm just going to speak about our website, the state.gov website. There's not a high volume of attacks. But we're still concerned about it. They are continuing," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters. "We are taking measures to deal with this and any potential new attacks," Kelly added.
According to computer security experts, a dozen US government websites, including those of the White House, Pentagon and State Department, were targeted in a coordinated cyberattack which also struck sites in South Korea.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed earlier that US government and private sector websites had come under so-called "distributed denial of service" attack but declined to identify any of the targeted sites. A denial of service attack attempts to paralyze a website by flooding it with traffic from an army of malware-infected computers known as a "botnet."
Update and run your anti-spyware programs, and if you've got Windows, update that, too.
[Mail and Globe] Zimbabwe's army and police on Friday refused to vacate diamond fields where security forces are accused of human rights abuses, despite a pledge last week for their withdrawal. The announcement came despite a call from the Kimberley Process, which works to end the sale of blood diamonds, for the demilitarisation of the Marange fields, where security forces are accused of torture, killings and other abuses against civilians. "The officer commanding Manicaland province, Senior Assistant Commissioner Munorwei Shava Mathuthu, said security forces will remain in place to deal with illegal diamond dealers and panners," said the statement read on state television.
Mines Minister Obert Mpofu "concurred with the security forces", state television added — although on Sunday the government had said it would conduct a phased withdrawal from Marange.
A team from the Kimberley Process on Wednesday accused the military of being involved in illegal diamond mining in Marange and of perpetrating "horrific" violence against civilians. The team recommended that Zimbabwe remove the army from Marange by July 20. The team visited Zimbabwe last week on a fact-finding mission, after Human Rights Watch accused the armed forces of using torture and forced labour to control the Marange fields, saying 200 people had been killed last year.
Zimbabwe has denied the allegations.
The Kimberley Process was launched in 2003 to stop the flow of conflict diamonds into the mainstream market following wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Zimbabwe has two other diamond mines, Murowa and River Ranch, which are Kimberley certified and are not involved the claims of abuses.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2009 00:00 ||
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March the bastards all down to Kimberley and into the Groot hole. It's still full of diamonds, and plenty of water as well.
Maulana Bhasani University of Science and Technology (MBUST) in Tangail shut its doors indefinitely on Saturday following violent clashes between students and local traders that left at least 50 injured and 25 shops gutted by fire, while police were forced to use rubber bullets to bring things under control.
Police said four hours of violence, from 10am to 2pm, was sparked when an altercation between a student and fish trader at Santash Bazar spiralled out of control. "Police fired 10 rounds of rubber bullets in an attempt to bring the situation under control," officer-in-charge of Tangail Sadar Police Station Jasim Uddin told bdnews24.com.
Sub-inspector of the police station, Mosharraf Hossen, said a group of students set fire to around 25 shops in the market. He said at least 50 people were injured during four hours of violence that began at around 10am.
Two hours into the clashes, around noon, Sadar Upazila chairman Abdur Rashid, Tangail municipality mayor Jamilur Rahman Fazlur Rahman Faruk and general secretary of the district Awami League unit sat with students in the presence of the vice chancellor. Deputy commissioner Maksudur Rahman Patwary and police superintendent also went to the campus around 1pm to negotiate with the students and calm the situation. But students made another united attack on the market just before 2pm.
Ashrafur Rahman, a second year student of textile engineering, told bdnews24.com that shop owners of the kitchen market adjacent to the campus sell goods at "higher prices than normal. They also tease female students when they go shopping." Additional superintendent Bashir Ahmed said a fish retailer sold a fish at Tk 70 to one customer, he demanded Tk 220 for a similar fish from a student. "That was the start of the dispute," he said.
Look at the additional overhead costs of selling to students: 25 shops with their inventory gutted by fire, 50 people injured. "Boys will be boys," has a price, Mr. Rahman.
[Bangla Daily Star] A person was crushed to death under the wheels of a running train while pilfering oil from it at Mobarakganj in Jhenidah on Tuesday. The deceased was identified as Jahangir Hossain of Kashipur village. He slipped off the train while handing a polythene bag of stolen oil to one of his accomplices, said locals.
A syndicate in connivance with some dishonest train drivers, oil depot in-charges and railway security guards are involved in pilfering oil from running trains in the southwestern districts of the country. Every day thousands of litres of oil are stolen from running trains at ten spots for which Bangladesh Railway incurs loss in crores of taka every year. The spots where the oil is lifted are Sundarpur in Jhenidah, Halsha, Poradah in Chuadanga, Pangsa, Daulatdia in Rajbari, Amnura in Chapainawabganj, Bejerdanga in Khulna, Chengutia and Singia rail stations.
The band of pilferers use a kind of polythene for stealing oil; each polythene bag can contain 30 to 35 litres of oil. As the train slows down at the secretly agreed point, the oil is passed on to the people waiting there.
Malek, Sona Mia, Shukur Ali, Amirul Islam, Jahirul Islam of Kashipur village and Khanjar Ali teaming up with some crooked railway security guards and local police are running this lucrative illegal trade at Kaliganj in Jhenidah under the nose of the local administration, a local seeking anonymity said.
Locals know all about the illegal business but they never dare to open their mouth fearing reprisal from those involved in the trade.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2009 00:00 ||
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The odd way this is worded makes me think the "Oil" is Diesel.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/11/2009 4:29 Comments ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Costa Rica's efforts to find a solution to the Honduran political crisis have been declared 'dead' by the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Naturally you're wondering why Hugo would have a formal role in any of this ...
The Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who has taken on the role of mediator, met with the ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti, leader of the newly installed government, in separate meetings at his home on Thursday.
Zelaya and Micheletti later named delegations to continue the talks with Arias, but there has been no sign of a breakthrough.
"I think that this is dead," Chavez, a strong ally of Zelaya, told reporters in Caracas of Arias' efforts. He said it was 'horrible' that Arias had even agreed to meet with Micheletti at the first place.
US State Department Spokesman Philip Crowley rejected Chavez's remarks, calling the Arias effort the 'best route to try to resolve this peacefully'. "Obviously that statement is premature," Kelly said of Chavez.
Wrong way to handle this; better to whack Hugo with a rolled-up newspaper .. or an axe handle ...
Zelaya was ousted last month in a military coup, after weeks of wrangling over his efforts to change the constitution in order to run for another term in office.
Micheletti was named president, but the coup has been widely condemned and the new government has not been recognized by any foreign country.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2009 00:00 ||
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US State Department Spokesman Philip Crowley rejected Chavez's remarks, calling the Arias effort the 'best route to try to resolve this peacefully'.
#3
Would the U.S. military go along with something like that?
The US military will obey the orders of the legally elected and installed Commander in Chief, provided those orders do not abrogate the Constitution, which they have sworn to uphold.
OTOH they might ... carefully take time to do the necessary planning ... while expressing respectful caveats regarding outcomes etc.
#4
the first US GI life lost in furtherment of O's and Chavez's goals will be a rallying cry pushing the Donks into minority party for a decade. Bring it on at your peril, Donks!
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/11/2009 19:52 Comments ||
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July 10 (Bloomberg) -- Honduran officials representing deposed President Manuel Zelaya and interim leader Roberto Micheletti met for a second day in Costa Rica today, after the two leaders avoided a face-to-face discussion yesterday. The delegations are talking with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias at his residence in the capital, San Jose, to try to resolve the nearly two-week stalemate and prevent more violence in the country. Arias called for patience and perseverance, even as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said talks were "dead."
"The two sides are very far apart and these things take time," Arias said yesterday. "I've always said that dialogue can produce miracles, but not immediately unfortunately."
A settlement may take time as both sides accuse the other of violating the Honduran constitution. Zelaya, 56, was put on a plane at gunpoint by the Honduran military on June 28 and sent to Costa Rica after ignoring court orders to reinstate the military chief. The general had refused to help organize a poll seeking changes to the constitution.
The Bloomberg reporter ignores that the poll was illegal, that the Honduran Supreme Court had told Zelaya not to do it, that the military refused to help him do it, and that Zelaya had had the ballots printed in Venezuela.
The delegation representing Micheletti plans to leave the country at 5 p.m. New York time today and neither side has shown much flexibility, Rodrigo Arias, minister to the president's office, told reporters.
Chavez today became the first president in the hemisphere to openly criticize the talks and said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shouldn't have supported them. "It was a grave error," Chavez told reporters in Caracas. "It's turned into a very dangerous trap for democracy that sets a very grave precedent."
Like how you could be ousted and have trouble talking your way back in ...
Arias will continue with talks and take any criticism from Chavez as a "compliment," said Robert White, a former U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador who now heads the Center for International Policy in Washington. Other than Chavez, most Latin American leaders realize that Zelaya is a "bull in the China shop" and may be difficult to support, White said in a telephone interview.
That's the interesting thing, isn't it: most people in Latin America, and especially most of the citizens of Honduras, understand Zelaya. His supporters support him precisely because he's in the Chavez mold, and his opponents oppose him for the same reason. There's no real disagreement on what he is. It's only Bambi and the rest of the gringo world that don't seem to get it.
Zelaya and Micheletti, both dressed in dark suits with red ties, met separately with Arias yesterday on the condition that they wouldn't have to meet face-to-face, Costa Rican Information Minister Mayi Antillon told reporters.
"We've begun talks and the only thing remaining is a personal meeting between the two, but it's not yet the moment," Antillon said.
Micheletti, who left Honduras for the first time since being sworn in as interim president, said he was "totally satisfied" with the talks and returned home yesterday.
Since nothing happened, and every day nothing happens Micheletti and his country enjoy the benefits of possession.
Zelaya arrived in the Dominican Republic this morning to meet with that country's President Leonel Fernandez.
It appears that the two leaders have left behind teams to negotiate without having created a "good" framework for a solution, Jose Miguel Insulza, the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, said today on Chile's Radio Cooperativa.
Because there is no 'good' framework. Zelaya wants back in, the Hondurans want to keep him out.
"It's one of those things where the protagonists come, talk and go and leave behind their negotiating teams, who it turns out aren't really negotiating," he said. "I don't expect to see white smoke."
Solutions to the stalemate including a government of national unity and amnesties need to be negotiated with the return of Zelaya to Honduras, Insulza said.
The leaders remained entrenched in their positions. Zelaya said he must be reinstated as president and Micheletti said his government would hold previously scheduled presidential elections on Nov. 29, backing away from his comment last week that he would be willing to hold early elections.
My guess is that Micheletti ran that up the pole, and since no one saluted he ran it back down. I don't see him offering that again.
In their absence, Honduran officials including Zelaya's foreign minister Patricia Rodas, ex-foreign ministers Milton Jimenez and Carlos Lopez and the former president of the Supreme Court Vilma Cecilia Morales will look to reach an accord.
While the interim government in Honduras has institutional support from the Supreme Court and Congress, it is facing international pressure after the Organization of American States voted to remove Honduras as a member and the U.S. cut military aid to the Central American nation.
"It's difficult to talk about a successful negotiation that doesn't involve the restitution of Zelaya as president," Arias said. "The dialogue has to continue and eventually it will have to be them two that reach a deal."
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/11/2009 00:00 ||
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You don't try to come back, and you'll stay alive, end of disussion.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/11/2009 4:37 Comments ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] The Turkish President Abdullah Gul has commended a new law which paves the ground for the referral of certain military offenses to civil courts.
He would do, since it was his idea.
The new legislation requires civilian courts to try members of the armed forces who are accused of crimes including threats to national security, constitutional violations, organizing armed groups and attempting to topple the government in times of peace.
Gul giving the green light to the law has however been greeted with stiff opposition from other political powerhouses, vowing to fight the legislation. The opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Spokesman Mustafa Ozyurek, criticized Gul saying that he simply lost the opportunity to represent Turkey as a president and in its place preferred to be the head of his own ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). This is while the CHP Deputy Chairman Onur Oymen also slammed the Turkish President's move. "The president's approval was the wrong decision. We will apply to the top court as soon as possible to annul the law, which is technically flawed and unconstitutional," he commented. The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) also declared that it would challenge what it called the divisive new law in court. "Gul justified the criticism that he is not objective and neutral by approving the law," MHP Deputy Chairman Cihan Pacaci said.
Meanwhile, President Abdullah Gul has called upon the lawmakers in Ankara to offer amendments to the bill in a bid to alleviate Turkey's General Staff's concerns. The General Staff assumes the law as 'unconstitutional' and states that it would undeniably bring about disputes between military and civilian prosecutors.
However, a statement issued by the presidential office on Wednesday said that "the law is in line with requirements for Turkey's bid to join the European Union and Gul believes the law to be compatible with the existing law on military courts. However, it will be beneficial to undertake legal arrangements without delay to dismiss concerns on legal guarantees and discipline of military service that might arise during its implementation."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2009 00:00 ||
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The United States' top fighter jet, the Lockheed Martin F-22, has recently required more than 30 hours of maintenance for every hour in the skies, pushing its hourly cost of flying to more than $44,000, a far higher figure than for the warplane it replaces, confidential Pentagon test results show. THAT's not a very good ratio! It's an air superiority fighter with a lot of new technology. They're fragile beasts when they're not in the air.
The aircraft's radar-absorbing metallic skin is the principal cause of its maintenance troubles, with unexpected shortcomings - such as vulnerability to rain and other abrasion - challenging Air Force and contractor technicians since the mid-1990s, according to Pentagon officials, internal documents and a former engineer.
While most aircraft fleets become easier and less costly to repair as they mature, key maintenance trends for the F-22 have been negative in recent years, and on average from October last year to this May, just 55 percent of the deployed F-22 fleet has been available to fulfill missions guarding U.S. airspace, the Defense Department acknowledged this week. The F-22 has never been flown over Iraq or Afghanistan.
Sensitive information about troubles with the nation's foremost air-defense fighter is emerging in the midst of a fight between the Obama administration and the Democrat-controlled Congress over whether the program should be halted next year at 187 planes, far short of what the Air Force and the F-22's contractors around the country had anticipated.
"It is a disgrace that you can fly a plane [an average of] only 1.7 hours before it gets a critical failure" that jeopardizes success of the aircraft's mission, said a Defense Department critic of the plane who is not authorized to speak on the record. Other skeptics inside the Pentagon note that the planes, designed 30 years ago to combat a Cold War adversary, have cost an average of $350 million apiece and say they are not a priority in the age of small wars and terrorist threats.
But other defense officials - reflecting sharp divisions inside the Pentagon about the wisdom of ending one of the largest arms programs in U.S. history - emphasize the plane's unsurpassed flying abilities, express renewed optimism that the troubles will abate and say the plane is worth the unexpected costs.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/11/2009 00:00 ||
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"Vulnerability to rain and other abrasion"?!?!? Assuming that's true (and this IS the WaPo, so salt to taste), that means forget about using it anywhere there's a desert. Or anywhere there's NOT a desert. Sounds like this plane might be an example of the old saying "the perfect is the enemy of the good".
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
07/11/2009 0:40 Comments ||
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Some former generals need to lose their pensions.
#3
F-117: Over 100
B-2: Over 100
F-15: 22
F-18E: 15
F-22 maintenance hours don't seem so out of whack when considering the stealth coating work.
Posted by: ed ||
07/11/2009 1:27 Comments ||
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...The WaPo is using a perfectly normal statistic and relying on the public's ignorance as a weapon. ANY new weapons system has a learning/break-in curve that is going to last for a few years. (The F-22 only officially entered active service in December 2005 and didn't start flying regular sorties until late 06). That's point number one.
Number two is that the F-15 is a thoroughly mature weapons system that has been in service since 1976 - every cost and expense has long since been amortized. The -15, in fact, was a notorious hangar queen for the first three or four years of its service, though it should be pointed out that the Carter Administration was pretty bad about funding parts and maintenance funds. (One legendary exercise in 1979 badly embarassed the entire F-15 community and cost the wing commander at Langley his job when they couldn't get 8 F-15s flying in 4 days.)
Whenever a new aircraft enters service, parts and maintenance funds - the very definition of 'unsexy' - tend to take a back seat to getting the bird on the ramp, and when you can't get parts or they're delayed, maintenance hours tend to get stretched out...which costs more money. The bottom line is that so far the -22 has done remarkably well for a new aircraft, but you're not going to hear about that.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/11/2009 9:20 Comments ||
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I recall the B-2 had the same vulnerability to rain and also a very high maintenance/flight ratio too; did it ever improve?
#7
Good points, Mike (and I did say "salt to taste" since it was the WaPo). Brings back some memories of my own service in the peanut farmer's Navy...and the "less costly" local-oscillator tubes that had an average life span measured in minutes and made it damn near impossible to keep my fire-control radar operational.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
07/11/2009 13:23 Comments ||
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Two things here that need to be dealt with separately. First, the plane is fantastic and completely dominates the air. These maintenance issues are within reasonable start up levels and the contractors and airmen are sorting it out.
The other issue is that the US doesn't need the plane even if it were perfect. The current aircraft are fine. Also, Navy air is more likely to meet and defeat any enemy, who dares take to the skies than Air Force platforms. Every penny spent on additional F-22's is money wasted, when we really do need to spend more C-17's and small diameter bombs.
#9
I don't think this is good news, and I don't think they're likely to sort it out, as Mike suggested.
These problems are inherent to the aircraft. It has to do with the radar and infrared coatings on the skin of the aircraft. The materials are really finicky. I think the maintenance figures for the F-117 and B-2 that Ed put up are likely to hold true with the F-22. As Ed points out, they're stealth aircraft.
I don't agree with Ed's assessment that it's "reasonable." The F-117s, for example, were designed for a very specific purpose: take out vital nodes in a high-threat environment at night. It was understood that they wouldn't generate high sortie rates, even with the Soviets rolling towards the Rhine. They just had to get to East Germany and Poland and drop bridge spans or whatever. There were never that many F117s put in service.
The F22 is our new front-line air superiority fighter. It's also supposed to do some strike missions, like the F117. They've got to be in the air constantly. I don't think they'll be able to do the mission.
The US Air Force has risked everything on stealth. Now, stealth is quite useful. But it should be just a part of the toolkit. The Air Force made a conscious decision to abandon electronic warfare and wild weasel platforms. The brass bureaucracy made sure the F-22 is the only game in town, and now we're going to pay for it.
#11
If the 30 hrs/ flight hr is correct then the F-22 is only slightly more fragile than the F-15.
Considering it is a brand new airplane, this makes it an amazingly reliable craft!
IIRC the stealthy coat of the B-2 was a major cause of its high maintenance hours. The AF actually bought a bunch of robots to crawl over the skin and repair small tears, bubbles etc.
Posted by: Fozen Al ||
07/11/2009 17:33 Comments ||
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Wonder if this is just the WaPo following the talking points from the White House. Obama and Gates want to reduce the number of F-22s to be procured and Congress is fighting every step of the way.
They are considered risque dens of iniquity and have been bombed simply for providing a place where men and women can talk to each other. Fruit juice bars may seem an unusual front line in Pakistan's war on Islamic militancy, but many of their owners feel deserving of combat pay these days for serving up cold smoothies. Although there haven't been any attacks for several months, fears linger and many people say they're aware that violence could come at any time.
Attacks on fresh-juice bars in Lahore late last year centered on the Garhi Shahu neighborhood, where bearded men crouch on low stools in front of small shops to gossip, gulp down sweet tea and launch tobacco clouds skyward from communal hookahs. It's also a part of Lahore where many Afghans and Uzbeks have settled, residents say, creating a subculture of Islamic fundamentalism in a historically more tolerant city. Anti-Taliban cleric Sarfraz Naeemi was killed in the neighborhood last month by a suicide bomber.
Navigating through a jumble of parked motorcycles brings you to Dasko Juice, decorated with dusty, low-hanging plastic fruit, a picture of London's Tower Bridge and pyramids of canned orange juice. The reason Dasko was among those attacked with bombs late last year is six booths in an adjoining room, some of which have small curtains for privacy, where men and women can chat discreetly.
"Basically it's just a place where girls and boys come and drink juice," says Muhammad Naeem, Dasko's owner, dressed in a shalwar kameez, the traditional loose-fitting pants and long shirt. "These people try and portray us as immoral, but it's not true. They're just sitting and talking, but that's a threat to them." As he speaks, a woman dressed in a burka enters with a male companion. She looks embarrassed at the presence of a foreigner and immediately leaves. In one of the two booths without a curtain, businessman Muhammad Yasim, 45, sits talking with a woman in a head scarf. Asked whether it's a sensitive issue to be seen here with a female companion, he gets visibly irritated. "She's my sister; she's my sister," he blurts out. "We're only talking family business."
The coordinated attacks on Dasko and several competitors -- part of a chain of neighborhood threats and violence targeting cinemas, DVD stores and barbershops -- started about 10 p.m. one night in October with an explosion at the Chino Juice Corner down the street. Some initially thought the blast was a gas cylinder blowing up. One person died and several were injured. Chino is now out of business.
A few minutes later, an explosion was heard at the nearby Al Rehman juice bar, followed by the bomb at Dasko, left on the wall of an empty shop next door. The blast blew apart the wall, destroying booths and causing other damage. The operators received no warnings, although posters in the neighborhood had been prodding people for months to end their sinful ways and one of the other juice bars had been ordered to stop letting boys and girls "indulge in immoral acts" on its property. "We never knew who placed the bombs," says Khuram Butt, a waiter. "Fortunately, the one that hit us was relatively small and seemed to be aimed more at scaring than killing."
An adjoining shop that sold DVDs suffered collateral damage of sorts. "The militants also hate DVDs, so I got very scared and switched to selling clothes," says Abdul Kalam, his window decorated with five pairs of dusty jeans and three handwritten signs seeking someone to take over his lease. "I probably lost $7,000 and make no money at this, all because of fear."
Juice bars, a feature in many Pakistani cities, seem a reasonable way for many lower-middle-class young people to relax. "It's something to do, and it doesn't cost much, maybe 70 cents," says Zulqernain Tahir, a reporter in Lahore with the newspaper Dawn. "These attacks are very unfortunate."
Dasko's sales fell sharply after the explosion. But without another juice bar attack in several months, business has begun to increase. The staff has stepped up security, proudly displaying a "Super Scanner" brand metal detector wand, although its use seems a bit random. "I could tell you weren't dangerous so I didn't use it on you," Butt, the waiter, says to a Westerner. "You didn't seem to be carrying anything." Until you've been super-scanned by Butt, you really haven't had the full Pakistani juice-bar experience.
The staff says it's now keeping a closer eye on customers leaving bags behind and keeps only one door open to better monitor those entering. It has also put up some new drywall and repaired decorative arches damaged by the blast. "They were trying to stop our way of life," says Naeem, the owner. "Sure, it's dangerous to stay in this business, but what can we do? We have no other way of making a living."
[Geo News] Rise in demand of electricity due to increase in temperature has caused the total power shortfall of the country to mount to over 3,600 MW. PEPCO spokesman told Geo News the total demand of power has risen to 14,500 MW while the supply is only 11,400 MW. Two units of Mangla power house will start supplying 220 MW of electricity which will help ease the shortfall, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2009 00:00 ||
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How much power will a djinn spinning at 3000 rpm generate?
Posted by: ed ||
07/11/2009 1:33 Comments ||
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#2
Your Djinn needs to spin at 1800 or 900 rpm, generators spin slower as they get larger.
Cuts down on vibration.
Water turbine Djinns are spinning very slowly, they just put more coils per spinning generator Rotor.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/11/2009 4:34 Comments ||
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Yeah, RJ, high rpms are critically dependent on perfect balance, and I don't think anything in the whole djinn culture is well-balanced.
[ADN Kronos] The G8 summit has pledged 20 billion dollars over three years to boost agricultural investment and fight hunger. The leaders of the world's wealthiest countries announced the global aid on the final day of their three-day summit in the central Italian city of L'Aquila.
"Wealthy nations have a moral obligation as well as a national security interest in providing assistance and we 've got to meet those responsibilities," Obama said. "The flip side is countries in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere in the world that are suffering from extreme poverty have an obligation to use the assistance available that is transparent and accountable and build on rule of law and institutional reforms.
"There is no reason why Africa cannot be self-sufficient."
They could be self-sufficient. Except they can't grow GM-food since the Euros don't want it. They can't have legal systems that honor contracts. They can't provide basic security, build roads to get food to the markets, and allow farmers to sell food for what they can get for it. They can't keep ports open to ship food in and out, they can't stay off the international aid dole which wrecks local markets, and they can't get the politicians and generals to leave the people alone. Other than that, there's no reason at all ...
The investment, which is 5 billion dollars more than expected, will fund a three-year initiative to help poor nations develop their own agriculture.
US president Barack Obama said the issue of food security was of major importance to every country around the world. Richer nations had a moral obligation to help poorer nations, he said.
Africa took centre stage at the G8 summit on Friday and the world's wealthy countries were asked to respect aid that they had pledged in the past. After two days of talks focused on the economic crisis, trade and global warming, the final day of the meeting in Italy looked at problems facing the poorest nations, with a US-led focus on aid for farmers rather than emergency food supplies.
The US will reportedly contribute some 3.5 billion dollars to the programme.
The United Nations estimates the number of malnourished people has risen over the past two years and is expected to top 1.02 billion this year, reversing a four-decade trend of declines. "Food aid is necessary because we have people suffering from drought, from flood, from conflicts and what they want is immediate food to eat," Jacques Diouf, head of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, said at the L'Aquila summit.
At Gleneagles in 2005, G8 leaders promised to increase annual aid by 50 billion dollars by 2010, half of which was meant for African countries.
But aid bodies say some G8 countries have gone back on their word, especially this year's G8 host, Italy.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2009 00:00 ||
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"Wealthy nations have a moral obligation as well as a national security interest in providing assistance and we 've got to meet those responsibilities,"
Such as sending gobs of it to South Africa after they stole all the land from the existing evil white farmers so they could replace them with a bunch of idiots? Such as sending more gobs of it to other countries that are being run into the ground by corruption? I don't think so. I have a feeling the West is going to be needing most of it themselves pretty soon, so don't get them too dependent on it.
#2
In reality, when all the meetings and press conference have ended, the United States donates 1/2 or more of the world's food aid each year. And we receive 0% of the recognition or gratitude.
Posted by: ed ||
07/11/2009 1:38 Comments ||
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"There is no reason why Africa cannot be self-sufficient."
Why should they be when idiots like Barry send them 20 billion in food aid every three years?
[Iran Press TV Latest] Thailand says it will deploy 10,000 security personnel and will ban all rallies during the ASEAN Summit to be held later this month. The country's Defense Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, said all rallies were banned from Friday until July 24 when top dignitaries are scheduled to meet from July 17-23 during the Summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Foreign Ministers from the US, the European Union, China, Japan, Australia, Russia, New Zealand, India, South Korea, Canada and the 10 members of the ASEAN are scheduled to meet on the tourist island of Phuket, he told Reuters in an interview.
Prawit, also a retired army general, said that rallies are being banned to prevent a repeat of April's ASEAN Summit, which was cancelled after protesters poured into the meeting venue in Pattaya, east of Bangkok. "I will do whatever it takes to stop these demonstrations from happening", Prawit said. The cancellation of the summit in Pattaya caused huge embarrassment to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, whose country holds the rotating chair of ASEAN, he added.
Prawit admitted that the government had underestimated the determination of the protesters in Pattaya, who broke through multiple police, army and navy lines before invading the summit venue and prompting the evacuation of leaders by helicopter. He said he would assure that it would not happen again.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2009 00:00 ||
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All plans are afoot to hold the annual feast of Our Lady of Madhu on a grand scale from August 6, with Senior Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa MP, personally monitoring the arrangements for the convenience of pilgrims.
A discussion was held at the Presidential Secretariat yesterday chaired by Basil Rajapaksa MP with the participation of the Catholic clergy and Government officials involved in facilitating the Feast through various channels to evaluate the progress of the preparations for the occasion. MP Rajapaksa instructed officials to finalise all pre-arrangements by the end of this month, including the upgrading of infrastructure facilities with the provision of other amenities to cater to the large number of devotees expected at this year's feast.
The feast will last for 10 days from August 6 to 15. Around 500,000 devotees are expected at this year's Feast. "We are grateful to our heroic Forces for their great sacrifices to liberate this country entirely from the clutches of terrorism.
#5
you stay classy racial apartheid counters! I hope they Bork her to withdrawal. She's a bad choice pushed by people with bad intentions for a LIFETIME APPOINTMENT. F*ck em. They threaten that the replacement will be worse? We'll deal with it when it comes. Round 1!......
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/11/2009 19:48 Comments ||
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#6
These people are modern day brownshirts. Filthy nasty jewsconservatives. Now we will go from slander and slime, wont be long until we get to beatdowns.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/11/2009 22:06 Comments ||
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#7
DrudgeReport.com today linkedto a report that Judge Sotomayor's ratings are about the same as Harriet Miers when President Bush put her name forward...
#8
Let the dems call racism™ etc. Just have the repubs keep bringing up her history and record for the public to see. The facts will outlast the racism labels.
And sink this nomination on its merits, or lack, thereof. No need to do personal smears.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/11/2009 23:43 Comments ||
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WAUSAU, Wis. -- An American flag flown upside down as a protest in a northern Wisconsin village was seized by police before a Fourth of July parade and the businessman who flew it -- an Iraq war veteran -- claims the officers trespassed and stole his property. A day after the parade, police returned the flag and the man's protest -- over a liquor license -- continued.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin is considering legal action against the village of Crivitz for violating Vito Congine Jr.'s' First Amendment rights, Executive Director Chris Ahmuty said. "It is not often that you see something this blatant," Ahmuty said.
In mid-June, Congine, 46, began flying the flag upside down -- an accepted way to signal distress -- outside the restaurant he wants to open in Crivitz, a village of about 1,000 people some 65 miles north of Green Bay. He said his distress is likely bankruptcy because the village board refused to grant him a liquor license after he spent nearly $200,000 to buy and remodel a downtown building for an Italian supper club.
Congine's upside-down-flag represents distress to him; to others in town, it represents disrespect of the flag. Hours before a Fourth of July parade, four police officers went to Congine's property and removed the flag under the advice of Marinette County District Attorney Allen Brey.
Neighbor Steven Klein watched in disbelief. "I said, 'What are you doing?' Klein said. "They said, 'It is none of your business.'"
The next day, police returned the flag. Brey declined comment Friday. Marinette County Sheriff Jim Kanikula said it was not illegal to fly the flag upside down but people were upset and it was the Fourth of July. "It is illegal to cause a disruption," he said. Damned mullahs. At it again I see.
The parade went on without any problems, Kanikula said.
Village President John Deschane, 60, an Army veteran who served in Vietnam, said many people in town believe it's disrespectful to fly the flag upside down. "If he wants to protest, let him protest but find a different way to do it," Deschane said. Brainwashed peasantry.
Congine, a Marine veteran who served in Iraq in 2004, said he intends to keep flying the flag upside down. "It is pretty bad when I go and fight a tyrannical government somewhere else," Congine said, "and then I come home to find it right here at my front door." What? Where? My mistake, I thought this story was in Iran . . . .
#3
He might get by in Milwaukee's upper east side, too.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/11/2009 8:35 Comments ||
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#4
Sorry, but since flying the flag upside down is an internationally known symbol of distress, it is a public disturbance because decent citizens will call into emergency services to tell them someone is in distress, which if nothing else, wastes time. I don't blame the cops for taking it down on the 4th of July, a day that is filled with emergency calls.
#6
The city will argue his safety was at risk for disrespect. Besides, who now would go there, certainly not me or anyone I know.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/11/2009 12:10 Comments ||
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#7
The local law should beat him around the kidneys with a rubber hose while the fireworks were going. Pissing blood for a month would have made him a better person.
#8
Sorry, but since flying the flag upside down is an internationally known symbol of distress...
On a ship or a besieged fort, yes. In this case, it's an internationally known symbol of a crank. There's a house near me that has four state flags flown upside-down. I think they're supposed to be the boundary markers for the Sovereign Republic of Lolostan, but I can't be sure. Should I call the cops, just in case this guy's in permanent distress? Seriously, he's in such trouble he can't dial 911 or put a big HELP! sign in the window, but he can go out and turn the flag upside-down?
Guy has a right to be a jackass on his own property. People have a right to boycott his business in indignation. Cops have no right to enter and seize property for this reason.
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.
Maulana Bhasani University of Science and Technology (MBUST) in Tangail shut its doors indefinitely on Saturday following violent clashes between students and local traders that left at least 50 injured and 25 shops gutted by fire, while police were forced to use rubber bullets to bring things under control. 
The United States' top fighter jet, the Lockheed Martin F-22, has recently required more than 30 hours of maintenance for every hour in the skies, pushing its hourly cost of flying to more than $44,000, a far higher figure than for the warplane it replaces, confidential Pentagon test results show. 
They are considered risque dens of iniquity and have been bombed simply for providing a place where men and women can talk to each other. Fruit juice bars may seem an unusual front line in Pakistan's war on Islamic militancy, but many of their owners feel deserving of combat pay these days for serving up cold smoothies. Although there haven't been any attacks for several months, fears linger and many people say they're aware that violence could come at any time.
