Americans avoided television in historic levels over the past week.
CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox together had the smallest number of prime-time viewers last week in two decades of record-keeping, the Nielsen Co. said. Given the dominance of the big broadcasters before then, you'd probably have to go back to the early days of television to find such a collective shrug. My grandson was born in 2002. As far as I know, he's never watched anything but Disney, Nick, or Cartoon Network. Welcome to the new demographic. There's a reason why the CBS Evening News runs ads for Depends ...
The first week of July tends to be among the slowest weeks of the year in television, anyway, with families more engaged in barbecues and fireworks. The problem was magnified this year because July Fourth came on Sunday, largely knocking out one of a typical week's biggest viewing nights.
Together, the four networks averaged 18.9 million viewers last week, Nielsen said. During the season, "American Idol" alone usually gets a bigger audience than that.
NBC's "America's Got Talent" is emerging as the summer's most popular show, with its two original episodes last week the only programs to top 10 million in viewership, Nielsen said.
While the biggest broadcast networks are suffering, the Spanish-language Univision is stepping up. Among the closely-watched 18-to-49-year-old demographic, Univision finished second only to Fox in prime-time last week.
It's not World Cup soccer that is behind Univision's success, it's the prime-time telenovelas "Soy tu Duena" and "Hasta Dinero Separe." Those soaps accounted for eight of the 20 most-watched programs among 18- to 49-year-old viewers of all languages last week, Nielsen said.
For the week, CBS averaged 5.6 million viewers in prime-time (3.7 rating, 7 share), NBC had 4.7 million (3.0, 6), ABC had 4.5 million (2.9, 6), Fox had 4.1 million (2.5, 5), ION Television had 1.1 million (0.7, 1) and the CW had 950,000 (0.6, 1).
Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision led with a 3.5 million prime-time average (1.8 rating, 3 share), Telemundo had 1 million (0.5, 1), TeleFutura had 800,000 (0.4, 1), Estrella had 190,000 and Azteca 150,000 (both 0.1, 0).
NBC's "Nightly News" topped the evening newscasts with an average of 7.8 million viewers (5.2, 11). ABC's "World News" was second with 6.7 million (4.6, 10) and the "CBS Evening News" had 5 million viewers (3.4, 8). NBC's victory margin was undoubtedly stretched because Thursday and Friday night results were not included in the network's average because the Wimbledon tennis tournament.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2010 09:28 ||
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#4
There's a reason why the CBS Evening News runs ads for Depends ...
The suits will never be able to think out of the box.
Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision led with a 3.5 million prime-time average (1.8 rating, 3 share
Shut down the 'news' division, outsource it to English speakers at Univision. At least that way, the American public might be introduced to the war just south of our border. You know, things going on in this hemisphere.
#5
Movies on demand, DVDs that record, mixed martial arts and cable stations for each of the various sports, house and food pron... why would anyone spend the evening in front of the big broadcasters?
And the young people either watch the shows that interest them on demand or on-line on their computers. Collective shrug, indeed.
Apparently parrotheads have parrot brains, too.
Singer Jimmy Buffett is just another mad Gulf Coast native when it comes to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, but with an exception: He's got millions of fans and a way to help lift spirits over the seemingly endless crisis.
Buffett and his Coral Reefer Band will play Sunday on the beach in Gulf Shores, Ala., which has been sporadically hit by oil for weeks. The show already has been postponed once because of Hurricane Alex, and Buffet is hoping bad weather lurking in the Gulf doesn't create problems this weekend.
Known for laid-back tunes like "Margaritaville" and "Cheeseburger in Paradise," Buffett told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday that it's perfectly normal for people to be mad when they see oil washing up on beaches and marshes.
"If you're born and raised on the Gulf Coast and it's kind of in you, and you don't feel anger and rage initially over what's going on down there, I think you're a hypocrite," he said in a telephone interview from New York. "That's the way I felt. Now, what you do with that is a big question."
Buffett said a beachfront concert seemed like the right thing to do after talking to people on the coast.
"People were going, `What are you going to do about things?' I mean, hell, I can't stick my finger in that hole. Everybody wishes they could," said Buffett.
"But there's a huge amount of frustration and probably it will boil over in summertime anger, and I know what I've done for years is entertain. What I'm best at is two hours of escapism for people that have to go back and either live jobs that they don't like or whatever," he said. "It's that Mardi Gras mentality."
Born in Mississippi and raised in Alabama, Buffett has lived all over the Gulf Coast. He said memories of the region are laced through his music.
"I have pretty much surrounded myself with Gulf Coast influences for a long time, and ... if you listen to those songs, I think it's pretty much in there," said Buffett, 63.
Buffett, a supporter of President Barack Obama, said the roots of the spill lie with the administration of former President George Bush, which was often criticized for being too cozy with the petroleum industry.
"To me it was more about eight years of bad policy before (Obama) got there that let this happen. It was Dracula running the blood bank in terms of oil and leases," he said. "I think that has more to do with it than how the president reacted to it."
The beach concert on Sunday will also feature Jesse Winchester and Allen Toussaint, who also were in the original lineup. Country singers Kenny Chesney and Zac Brown had to drop out because of prior commitments. Buffett said he is still making phone calls trying to add additional acts for Sunday, but he's not sure of the final roster.
#3
So I guess we could have a little charity from him as long as we go along with his little propaganda drive to keep us unemployed for the rest of our lives.
Hmm.... decisions, decisions.... Jimmy Buffet's charity money from one concert, or a hundred and fifteen million dollar a day industry? Choices, choices, choices... It's _so hard_.
I guess if I had a decent car, and a getaway driver, I could rob banks.
#7
"But there's a huge amount of frustration and probably it will boil over in summertime anger, and I know what I've done for years is entertain. What I'm best at is two hours of escapism for people that have to go back and either live jobs that they don't like or whatever," he said. "It's that Mardi Gras mentality."
Just keep that "entertainer" mindset and try to avoid making any "profound" bull$h*t political statements.
#8
"Just keep that "entertainer" mindset and try to avoid making any "profound" bull$h*t political statements."
And don't forget the Dixie Chicks, Jimmy. Especially don't forget the Dixie Chicks. You may have a bigger discography and a long-established fan base ... but hell hath no fury like fans crapped on.
#13
Personally, I blame James Buchanan. He was president when we started all this oil-drilling stuff in 1859.
Since Buchanan was a Democrat, libs like Buffett will have to blame Abe Lincoln instead since he didn't nip this evil practice in the bud a few years later.
#14
Buffett is a fraud. Sorry to all the Parrotheads, but he is. He sings like a pied piper of margaritas and getting drunk turning his concerst into a drunkfest. As he sings of Booze and Burgers, and runs his grease burger chain, he drinks only tea and eats tofu. Of course he supports Obama, all con men stick together. You wont see Hank Jr. supporting Obama, you also wont see Hank singing songs to get people to do things he himself wont do. His songs are catchy and cute, but he leads his follower parrotheads down a road he himself is not willing to travel. In my book hes not welcome.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/10/2010 20:59 Comments ||
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They can share the footwash area.
Now your pet can make a pit stop too before getting on the plane with you at two D.C. area airports. Dulles and Reagan National Airports have opened "pet relief areas" to give dogs a place to go to the bathroom at the airport.
The pet areas were created because of federal rules requiring "service animal relief areas" for service animals that accompany passengers on trips, but the areas are also open for families traveling with pets.
Each fenced-in dog bathroom at Dulles has a fake fire hydrant, artificial grass, and bags so the owners can clean up after their pups. There are three pet areas outside the main terminal and two inside the concourses. The indoor locations have ventilation and flushing systems to keep everything clean.
Reagan National has all four of its pets areas outside on natural grass before you get through security.
#2
This is bizarre an animal rest area? How very strange, it is see seemingly like a tiny plot of green (artificial?) space, where pet owners are encouraged to allow their pets to rest on the lounge at the expense of poor pet less creatures. This is a problem of class. Petless passengers should also be allowed entry into this precious green area at no additional expense to them, otherwise an outrage is occurring.
As a very occasional breeder of dogs who live in loving homes and are often show champions, I've shipped dogs in crates as cargo a number of times and also twice taken a puppy on board with me in a soft carrier that fit under the seat in front of me.
Each time I paid a fee for the privilege. The fees have increased substantially over the last few years. So to a fair degree it is the pet owners who pay this cost, Besoeker.
When arriving at the airport I look for a patch of grass near the parking garage to allow the dog to relieve itself before the long time it will spend in the crate. (Post 9/11 dogs must be checked in 2 hours before the flight.) However, that's not an easy option for people who need service dogs and it's a particular problem with connecting flights.
There are far too many people in our society who have never lived in close proximity to animals or learned the lessons that come from taking responsibility for them. Many of those people are among the loudest advocates of crippling regulations that impact farmers and hunters as well as pet owners. Creating service dog relief areas at airports, and opening them to family pets during travel, is a small price to pay for encouraging responsible pet ownership IMO.
#1
"Perhaps most worryingly, such raiding behaviour was often done in the company of juvenile baboons and thus future generations of baboons might have been learning that part of foraging involved breaking, entering and chasing people in their homes."
So, William was not only a terrorist and looter, he was corrupting youth as well.
#6
Buggers have a habit of waiting for you to get out of your car or bakkie then popping in and gabbing soda or food. They will tear holy hell out of a car and YOU in order to get out. Be sure to leave the door(s) open if one leaps in. Do NOT, I say again, do NOT go one-on-one with them in an attempt to shoo them out. Cape Point is full of the little bastids. A picnic or carrying food or drink there is out of the question by the way. They have been known to attack.
#9
Is it a crime to carry a pistol with a Silencer (in where did you say) and just pop the monkeys here and there discretely? No witnesses, late afternoon, no cops about? Wait a week and then go back and pop a few more. Bring them some soft drinks and a few donuts...have a couple of extra loaded mags in your jacket pocket.
Hollow nose 9 mm.
They dont have guns do they? Just teeth and nasty dispositions? We can fix that.
An automatic is easy to conceal and a Silencer doesnt have to be big, the whole assembly can be carried in a jacket pocket. Here, monkey, monkey...
..or just let them do as they please ...and bring your children.
Which is it?
#13
This is why you don't mess around with baboons. If they decide to go after you, it's over.
Chimpanzees don't have so much in the way of teeth, but they can take off your whole hand in one good bite. And even if they're old and don't have such impressive dentition doesn't mean you don't have to watch out for them:
The biggest spy swap since the end of the Cold War appeared to have taken place on Friday as Russian and US planes met in Vienna to exchange agents, defusing an espionage drama that threatened improving relations.
Two planes involved in the swap, one Russian, one US, parked side by side on the tarmac at Vienna airport for around an hour and a half as vehicles shuttled between them. The Russian plane then took off, followed by the US plane. Local officials maintained a strict news blackout throughout.
Moscow and Washington had earlier agreed to swap 10 Russian agents held in the United States for four Russians jailed in Russia on charges of spying for the West.
The dramatic conclusion to the espionage scandal which has gripped America came after spymasters brokered the deal on the instructions of presidents keen not to derail a series of important diplomatic breakthroughs in Russia-US relations.
In the first step of the carefully choreographed swap, the 10 Russian agents pleaded guilty on Thursday in a New York court to charges against them and were immediately deported.
"In exchange, the Russian Federation has agreed to release four individuals who are incarcerated in Russia for alleged contact with Western intelligence agencies", it said.
Nuclear weapons: The US and Russian legislatures are also considering ratification of a key treaty cutting nuclear weapons and Russian accession to the World Trade Organisation, things neither side wants to jeopardise.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the spy swap "gives reason to expect that the course agreed on by the leaders of Russia and the US will be consistently implemented in practice and that attempts to knock the parties off this course will not succeed".
Relatives of spies on both sides of the swap had waited anxiously in Russia -- all bar one of the 14 agents are Russian citizens -- for news of the swap. Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) declined all comment on details of the affair.
Moscow has always prided itself on bringing trusted agents back home and Washington has agreed to swaps before, though rarely on this scale.
The largest known Cold War spy swap was in 1985 when more than 20 spies were exchanged between East and West on the Glienicke Bridge in the then divided city of Berlin.
Spymasters on both sides say that despite generally warmer relations, the two former Cold War foes still fund generous intelligence operations against each other. The current scandal broke when the United States said on June 28 it had uncovered a ring of suspected Russian secret agents who were using false identities to try to gather sensitive intelligence on the United States.
FBI counter-intelligence agents explained that the Russians had communicated with Moscow by concealing invisible text messages in photographs posted on public internet sites and some had met Russian diplomats from the US mission in New York. A Kremlin source said Medvedev and Obama's warm relations had allowed the swap deal to be reached so swiftly.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Personally, I do feel lament for ANNA CHAPMAN - IMO she was just a Kid being USED-N-ABUSED, ETC. FOR AN AGENDUM.
#2
I'm curious as to whether any or all of the 4 jailed in Russia were spies, or whether this was done to give real spies (yet to be discovered) the reassurance they would be swapped were they caught.
When Aleksandr Zaporozhsky, one of four Russians delivered to the West in this weekâs spy swap, landed at Dulles International Airport on Friday to join his family in the United States, it was only the latest unexpected twist in a classic story of espionage and deception.
For several years in the 1990s, Mr. Zaporozhsky, a colonel in Russian intelligence who became deputy chief of the American Department, was secretly working for the C.I.A., one of the highest-ranking American moles in history, Russian prosecutors say.
After surprising his colleagues by retiring suddenly in 1997, he moved with his wife and three children to the United States and went into business. But in 2001, confident that his C.I.A. link was unsuspected, Mr. Zaporozhsky was lured back to Moscow by his former colleagues for what they promised would be a festive K.G.B. anniversary party. He was arrested at the airport, convicted of espionage and sentenced to 18 years in prison.
On Friday, Mr. Zaporozhsky was flown to Vienna and then to the Washington area for the 10-for-4 spy exchange that promises to bring to a swift conclusion the saga of the Russian spy ring exposed by the F.B.I. early last week.
His Moscow lawyer, Maria A. Veselova, said Friday that she âdid not find any proof of his guiltâ in her review. But circumstantial evidence suggests that he may well have provided valuable information to the United States and was well rewarded for doing so. One account by a Russian security official published in January in the newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta claimed that Mr. Zaporozhsky, who it said was code-named The Scythian by his C.I.A. contacts, was given an estimated $2 million in house purchases and other benefits by the Americans.
Another of the four, Sergei V. Skripal, also seems to fit the classic cold war model, though without quite the roller-coaster intrigue of the Zaporozhsky case. A retired colonel in Russiaâs military intelligence service, Mr. Skripal was convicted in 2006 of having passed classified information to British intelligence, MI6, for a decade, in return for $100,000 wired to a bank account in Spain.
But there is at least a little post-Communist ambiguity surrounding the two other men in the swap. Gennadi Vasilenko, a former K.G.B. major, was arrested in 1998 for contacts with a C.I.A officer but soon released, only to be arrested again in 2005 and imprisoned not for spying, but for illegal trafficking in weapons and explosives.
And Igor V. Sutyagin, working at a Moscow think tank, did contract research for a British company that may or may not have been a front for Western intelligence. He has maintained his innocence, and human rights activists have defended him.
While all four men signed written confessions to espionage as a condition for their release â and then were immediately pardoned â some of the cases show how the definition of spying has grown murkier since relations have warmed between the United States and Russia. For an arms-control researcher like Mr. Sutyagin to supply information to a British company would have been unacceptable to the Kremlin in the 1970s. In more recent years, boundaries have not been so clear.
But American officials demanded precisely these four Russians as soon as talks about a swap began and valued them enough to make the lopsided trade. That suggests indebtedness on the side of the United States, said David Wise, a Washington author and veteran chronicler of espionage. âWe obviously feel some obligation to them,â Mr. Wise said in an interview on Friday. âYou donât leave your men behind on the battlefield.â
The American willingness to quickly release 10 Russian agents operating inside the United States, after huge expenditures of money and manpower on a decade of surveillance, would have been hard to imagine a few decades ago. The stakes for American security seem far lower today, said Steven Aftergood, who studies government secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists. âNow it seems more comical than anything else,â he said.
But the case was never funny from the point of view of the 10 Russians who faced prison sentences here â and certainly not for the four Russians serving time in grim Russian prison camps.
Yelena P. Lebedeva-Romanova, a lawyer for the 59-year-old Mr. Skripal, said his release was especially welcome because he had diabetes and she worried about his health in the prison camp in the central Russian republic of Mordovia, where he was serving his sentence.
The relationship of Mr. Vasilenko, once a top-ranked Soviet volleyball player, with a particular C.I.A. officer, Jack Platt, has been well documented over the years. Mr. Platt has said in interviews that he tried repeatedly to recruit Mr. Vasilenko, who worked for the K.G.B. in Washington and Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s, but was rebuffed.
But in 1988, the K.G.B. learned of the contacts between the men, and Mr. Vasilenko was arrested in Havana and imprisoned in Russia for about six months before the espionage case against him fell apart. Years later, Mr. Vasilenko and Mr. Platt, both retired from their intelligence agencies, went into the private security and investigation business together.
But in 2005, when he was 64, Mr. Vasilenko, then providing security to a Moscow television channel, was rearrested and charged after a search of his home allegedly found pistols and TNT. He was convicted and remained imprisoned until his release for the exchange.
According to Maryland property records, Mr. Zaporozhsky still owns the house on a cul-de-sac in Cockeysville, north of Baltimore, where he lived until 2001 with his wife, Galina, and their three children. No one answered a knock at the door on Friday morning, and one son, Pavel Zaporozhsky, declined to comment by telephone.
Aleksandr Zaporozhsky might not want to risk another trip back to Russia. But he and the other three men who flew west on Friday are free to return when they wish, said Nikolai Kovalyov, a deputy in the State Duma and former director of the F.S.B., the successor to the domestic security operations of the K.G.B.
âThere is no formal prohibition on this from the Russian side,â Mr. Kovalyov told RIA-Novosti on Friday. "Their accommodation and job security in prisons and labor camps will be kept open for them".
#6
Yeah, Besoeker. Seems like we rolled up those 10 (seemingly) jr. league Russian spies as cover for whatever it was we had already given/promised the Russians for our spies.
#9
Gosh aint it a cowinkeedink that Medvedev and his entourage were just here? But Im sure they were here just to shoot the breeze, eat cheeseburgers, and opening twitter accounts. Yep umhum
Functionally already happened when dear President Obama decided not to sell them Patriot missiles, lex. Of course, Poland and the Czech Republic spent so much time bargaining with his predecessor (He Who Shall Not Be Named) that they ran out the clock -- their mistake.
A prisoner at a Makkah reformatory allegedly lost his eyesight after he was whipped before being medically examined, his younger brother told Arab News on Friday.
"My eldest brother was suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure. He had suffered from a stroke and was whipped while sitting on his wheelchair. While being whipped, he became blind," Ali Muhammad alleged.
Muhammad said his brother was sentenced about eight months ago on charges of fraud and ordered to serve a six-month prison sentence, in addition to 150 lashes, to be applied on three separate occasions.
"Before he started his jail term, my brother was suffering from diabetes, hypertension and heart problems. He prepared an official medical report about his health condition and sent it to the Makkah Governorate in the hope the authorities would waive his punishment," Muhammad said.
He said the governorate asked the prisons department to refer the prisoner to a hospital in Makkah to help decide if his sentence should be waived.
"The prisons department did not send my brother to any hospital. While in prison he had a stroke which paralyzed him from the left side," he added.
"When he was about to complete his jail term, he was whipped before being seen by the prison doctor. Before the whipping was completed, he cried that he could not see. He had lost his eyesight."
Muhammad said his mother complained to the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) in Makkah, asking it to investigate the incident.
The society asked one of its members, Islamic Shariah professor Muhammad Al-Suhali, to look into the case.
Al-Suhali said he met with the director of Makkah prisons, Col. Muhammad bin Shahlool, who promised to cooperate fully with the NSHR.
"It was clear to me from the testimonies of other inmates that the prisoner was whipped while on his wheelchair and that the beating was focused on his neck, the only visible part of his body," Al-Suhali said.
Al-Suhali quoted eyewitnesses as saying that they saw blood spots on the prisoner's forehead. "This is what actually caused his blindness," he said.
He confirmed that before he was sent to the penitentiary, the prisoner was suffering from underlying health conditions.
He also alleged a civilian who oversaw the flogging told him that the flogger, a prison employee, initially refused to whip the prisoner because of his health but was forced by the prison authority to do so.
Al-Suhali said this civilian, the prison's medical doctor and a number of inmates all testified that they saw bloodstains on the prisoner's forehead and heard him crying that he could not see.
He said the next day the prisoner complained he had not received any real care when he was sent to Al-Zahir hospital.
He added the prisoner had told him that he had asked for an MRI, but the hospital said its equipment was in use and referred him to Hira hospital, which then refused to receive him.
Al-Suhali said he sat with the prisoner. "He is paralyzed, blinded and neglected. He is also suffering from poverty as he cannot support his mother and underage brothers," he said.
He added that the victim's debts had reached more than SR350,000 and that the landlord kicked his mother, a cancer patient, and his brothers out of their rented apartment.
The NSHR member said he met with a committee composed of the prison doctor, the director of the prison's health center, the health supervisor and the supervisor of the prison ward and ascertained that the whipping had been carried out before the prisoner had been examined by a doctor.
He alleged that the doctor had denied signing a report by the prison's management claiming the victim was medically examined before being whipped.
He said the NSHR's branch office had filed a complete report about the investigations with the society's main office in Riyadh. The main office had sent follow-up reports of the case to the Makkah Governorate, the Prosecution and Investigation Commission (PIC) and the committee for the care of prisoners.
He said the PIC had sent one of its staff members to meet with the prisoner before a decision was made to set up a Shariah committee to look into the case and decide whether he was entitled to be released. "Two weeks have passed but the committee has not been formed," he added.
Al-Suhali said the poor condition of the prisoner was enough reason to sign off on his release. He said the society would approach philanthropists and welfare societies to pay the prisoner's debts and help him financially.
He noted that the prisoner's health condition had worsened and that he had lost control of his bladder.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2010 09:56 ||
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#1
ahhh whippings. One of the joys of the Islamist system of Sharia governance.
But when the refugees come to sunny Australia they soon start demanding Sharia here too. Go figure
#1
Stanton was just one of the technology evangelists whom the Obama administration recruited, mostly from Silicon Valley, to propel Washington into the digital age.
Evidently the Obamanic Gospel didn't agree with her. An awareness or awakening appears to sweep over Obama insiders in time. Few if any confront it with public admission and disclosure however. Strange that, fear or simple pride?
[Al Arabiya Latest] A Moroccan man who refused to shake hands with a French female official and whose wife wears the full Islamic veil has been denied French citizenship, the immigration ministry said Friday.
The man, who has been living in France since 1999 and married a French woman in 2004, failed to "assimilate into French society" and displayed a "discriminatory attitude toward women," said the ministry.
He "refused to shake the hand of a female official whom he met at the state prefecture because it was 'against his religion'", said a statement.
The man's wife wore the full veil and only agreed to uncover herself in a room where no men would be present, the statement added.
The decision was announced a few days before the National Assembly is to vote on a bill banning the full-face Islamic veil as part of what the government has described as an effort to assert French values.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2010 10:06 ||
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#1
A man, her political opponent, not shaking her hand won Ann "silver foot in his mouth" Richards the governorship of Texas.
What's all the fuss about? The Dems released their 2700+ page monstrosity of a bill about four days before it was voted on. Plenty of time to figure out the impact before voting on it. Right? These clowns should have been done long ago.
Every year, the Annual Report of the Social Security Board of Trustees comes out between mid-April and mid-May. Now it's July, and there's no sign of this year's report. What is the Obama administration hiding? Nuttin' honey.
The annual report includes detailed information about Social Security and its financing over the next 75 years, produced by the Office of the Actuary of the Social Security Administration. Ohfergawds sake I don't understand what the delay is given they only have to project out about ten years now before they go undeniably broke. Continued on Page 49
[Dawn] Pakistan Muslim League--Nawaz (PML-N) leader Nawaz Sharif on Saturday expressed support for the media in the on-going protests.
Sharif vowed to protest against media restrictions and said he would support them in their struggle for freedom.
The PML-N chief said in a statement that the freedom of media is equally important to him as freedom of judiciary.
Sharif added that his party can withstand constructive criticism and will work towards ensuring the freedom of media in Pakistan. He suggested that people like Sanaullah Mastikhel should be expelled from the party.
Nawaz Sharif has alleged PML-Q of being part of the conspiracy against the media.
Meanwhile, journalists registered their protests at a ceremony attended by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif in Rahimyar Khan.
Addressing the ceremony, Shahbaz Sharif said that he would try to resolve the matter through mutual understanding.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2010 10:11 ||
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YANGON - Former members of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyis National League for Democracy have been allowed to form a new political party to run in upcoming elections, state media reported Friday.
The activists have been granted permission to create the National Democratic Force (NDF) to stand in the military-ruled countrys first election in two decades some time this year, according to state TV and radio.
The NLD refused to meet a May 6 deadline to re-register a move that would have forced it to expel Suu Kyi and opted to boycott the vote, which critics say is a sham designed to legitimise the juntas half-century grip on power.
Under election legislation unveiled in March, anyone serving a prison term is banned from being a member of a political party and parties that fail to obey the rule will be abolished.
The NLD, which was founded in 1988 after a popular uprising against the junta that left thousands dead, won a landslide victory in 1990 elections but the military rulers never allowed it to take office. Suu Kyi has spent much of the past 20 years in jail or house arrest.
There have been signs of friction between older hardline opposition figures and younger more moderate figures who opposed the boycott decision.
Former top NLD members have accused the NDF of copying their symbol of a bamboo hat and recently lodged a complaint with the election commission in the capital Naypyidaw about its use of the image in an official seal.
So far 38 political parties out of 43 which applied to be recognised have been given permission to register ahead of the elections.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/10/2010 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
