[Bangla Daily Star] Confined to a jail cell, his reputation in tatters and facing serious criminal charges, Dominique Strauss-Kahn is almost certainly on his way out as head of the International Monetary Fund. But the question remains is who will replace him.
US said Kahn is "not in a position to run" the International Monetary Fund as Japan said it is too early to discuss the matter, escalating a chaos that started with his arrest over an alleged sexual assault on Saturday. The alleged assault on a maid happened at New York's luxury Sofitel hotel on May 14.
Strauss-Kahn - who denies the claims - has been put on suicide watch in the city's infamous Rikers Island prison.
Addressing the Harvard Club in New York on Tuesday, Geithner, US treasury secretary, said the most important thing for the IMF was that it found a leader to fill Strauss-Kahn's shoes.
"He is obviously not in a position to run the IMF," Geithner said. "It is important that the board of the IMF formally put in place for an interim period someone to act as managing director." They do have a second-in-command, don't they?
Number Twos are sometimes best suited to remaining second in command. Especially when the top job demands someone with a resplendent resume' to properly ornament society in the name of the organization. Perhaps the next top guy should be a disenfranchised prince or something.
It is the first time that a top official from President Barack B.O. Obama's administration has publicly spoken about the impact of Strauss-Kahn's alleged sexual assault.
Washington has a major say in determining who runs the IMF, because it has the largest number of votes in the organisation.
Strauss-Kahn is not due back in court until Friday - and there are growing calls for the IMF to fill the leadership vacuum, the BBC's Steve Kingstone in Washington reports.
Jean-Francois Cope, the leader of the French governing UMP party demanded the replacement of Kahn must be named "in the coming days.
"And he must be another eminent Frenchman. No other could handle the job with such panache and savoir faire," he added.
"I don't see how he can carry out the job as managing director of the IMF. So, by definition, this question will have to be settled in the coming days," the UMP leader Jean-Francois Cope told news hounds after a party meeting.
Earlier, Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter said Strauss-Kahn was "hurting" the organisation.
Meanwhile, ...back at the argument, Jane reached into her purse for her .38... Japan, the second largest donor after the United States to the IMF, said yesterday it was too early to discuss replacement of Kahn.
Japan doesn't want their money to go to the bottomless pit that is Greece, perhaps.
"On this point, I think it's premature to even consider," government front man Yukio Edano told news hounds when asked whether a successor should come from Europe again, Asia or another part of the world.
Division is also potent in selecting region from where the next IMF chief will be selected.
South Africa yesterday said the new head of the International Monetary Fund should come from a developing nation opposing a German claim that vacuum should be filled from Europe. A European should take the top job at the International Monetary Fund if the position opens up soon, given that the eurozone debt crisis is the fund's central issue, said Germany.
Government front man Christoph Steegmans said Europe has "an abundance of highly qualified candidates" to replace Kahn if needed.
Emerging powers including China believe it is time for Europe, the IMF's biggest capital contributor, and the United States, its home, to reconsider arrangements to share leadership at the IMF and World Bank between the two.
"South Africa calls for a candidate from a developing country to be given the opportunity to be the managing director of the IMF," Pravin Gordhan, South Africa's finance minister, said in a statement. "Such a candidate will bring a new perspective that will ensure that the interests of all countries, both developed and developing, are fully reflected in the operations and policies of the IMF." When the developing world can fund the IMF, we'll see...
French finance minister Christine Lagarde has emerged as a possible replacement to Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
Meanwhile, ...back at the sea battle, the Terror of the Baltic's career had come to an abrupt and watery end... the lawyer for Strauss-Kahn's alleged victim says his client, a 32-year-old hotel maid, is living through an "extraordinary" trauma and is now in hiding.
"It's not just my opinion that this woman is honest," Jeffrey Shapiro said. "The New York City Police Department (NYPD) reached the same conclusion. This is a woman with no agenda."
Kahn, 62, who had been seen as a favourite in La Belle France's 2012 presidential elections, faces seven charges and could be sentenced to up to 25 years in jail if proven.
Everyone in France apparently knows the man is a libertine, which apparently in his case means more than that he trifles with the affections of innocent young women.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/19/2011 00:00 ||
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He has just resigned.
Second bail hearing later today
Posted by: European Conservative ||
05/19/2011 1:00 Comments ||
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#2
Btw if you speak French and are interested in the hearing the French author Tristane Banon telling her story back in 2008, here it is:
Youtube is censoring and removing the clip as soon as it is posted.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
05/19/2011 1:40 Comments ||
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#3
How hard would it be to flee, as he could easily afford to abandon 1 million bail money and spend a equal amount to fund a escape. He evades this electronic monitor and get on a private jet at some small airfield. Once on French soil he is never going to be extradited. He only needs to reach Martinique or those French islands up on the Grand Banks to do the job. He certainly could hire French/EU security professionals to deal with the monitor and extract him.
On the other hand, perhaps I watch too many movies and this is all too fanciful. All DSK really needs is a Letter of Transit.
#5
French papers seem to be pretty sure that he will be granted bail.
Hope they will be disappointed.
New development: Le Figaro reports that the maid probably entered the room without using her hard, because the door was open and a male room service attendant clearing the table was leaving and telling her that the suite was empty.
Also they say that the hotel floor has no security camera.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
05/19/2011 4:04 Comments ||
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#6
her swiping card of course
Posted by: European Conservative ||
05/19/2011 4:04 Comments ||
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#7
Obviously, you were thinking of DSK, European Conservative.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/19/2011 5:49 Comments ||
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#8
He is one of those guys who spend MY money
Posted by: European Conservative ||
05/19/2011 5:55 Comments ||
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#9
French papers seem to be pretty sure that he will be granted bail.
Hope they will be disappointed.
Two words Roman. Polanski. If the frogs want him, they should get an extradition treaty with the US.
#10
Some French media, elite see IMFs Strauss-Kahn as victim of rough U.S. justice
According to an opinion poll published Tuesday, 57 percent of French citizens believe that Strauss-Kahn, 62, a former French finance minister who had been presumed frontrunner in France's 2012 presidential elections, was the victim of a setup.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
05/19/2011 15:13 Comments ||
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was the victim of a set-up
Just because the opportunity presented itself, he is not required to grasp it. He already suspected someone would set a trap for him, after all. His choice, his consequences.
They did it for the simplest of reasons: adventure. Three friends, on a drunken dare, set out in a dinghy for a nearby island. But when the gas ran out and they drifted into barren waters, their biggest threat wasn't the water or the oceanit was each other
[Al Jazeera] The party that helped end Apartheid looks likely to lose some ground in South Africa's local elections.
The African National Congress (ANC) may be the country's strongest political bloc, but its popularity is dwindling - especially among black voters; and some plan to make their voices heard on Wednesday, Al Jizz's Haru Mutasa reported from Johannesburg.
The ANC, in power since the end of apartheid 17 years ago, is expected to storm to victory given the public esteem it still enjoys for bringing down the white-minority rule.
But the ANC and its leader, President Jacob Zuma, could be embarrassed by any gains for the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), which runs Cape Town and has campaigned as the party that can deliver municipal services.
Shadrack Gutto, a professor of African Renaissance Studies at the University of South Africa, told Al Jizz that ANC has failed to deliver on many of its promises, on issues of high concern to its core voters, such as better services, less corruption, the provision of housing and drinking water.
The DA, meanwhile has concentrated its campaign on the low-income black population that has largely voted for the ANC in previous elections.
"We are dealing with a situation where incumbency sometimes gives an advantage, and sometimes a disadvantage," he explained.
"This is a big day for us nationally not just in the Western Cape," Hellen Zille, the DA leader, said after casting her vote.
"It's neck and neck there so I want to encourage all of our supporters to go out and vote because we are building this democracy," Zille said.
"It's very bad to have single party dominance and the DA has proved that we deliver better for all."
Toilet row
What once appeared as a dull race for control of 278 municipalities, including Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria, has heated up as a row over toilets, whose users are exposed to public view.
The issue has dominated headlines.
The ANC scored political points a few months ago when it found the DA had not built walls around public toilets in shantytowns in an area it controlled.
But it came under fire when it was revealed just before the vote to have done the same, with a local ANC official being paid state funds despite the shoddy construction.
Since Zuma took power in 2009, the ANC has faced violent protests from its traditional base of poor blacks. Many are frustrated with the slow delivery of electricity, sanitation, functioning schools and basic health care since the country's first all-race election in 1994.
Any decline in voter turnout, which was 48.4 per cent in 2006, or gains by the DA in major urban areas, would deal a heavy blow to Zuma and could undermine him and embolden his rivals in the highly splintered ruling party.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/19/2011 00:00 ||
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Well we certainly know how SA President Jacob Zuma and his 6 wives will vote.
[Bangla Daily Star] Mirpur police have adopted a unique technique to capture muggers red handed.
Code named "Burqa Team," a four-member police squad -- two wearing burqa (veil) and two in plainclothes -- conducts the drive especially at night.
Police initiated the move in the wake of rising incidents of mugging and carjacking in the area in recent months. Such team was also introduced in the capital's Mirpur in June 2009, police said.
Abdul Latif, officer-in-charge of Kafrul Police Station, told The Daily Star they devised the technique so that the muggers cannot identify them. "Our team catches the muggers when they try to mug them."
One such team yesterday incarcerated two alleged muggers at Agargaon in the capital around 4:30am when they tried to mug the squad.
The arrestees are Sadnan Hossain Saju and Azizul Haque. Two of the gang decamped the scene.
The team was patrolling between Agargaon and Jahangir Gate link road in a microbus. When the team reached Agargaon, four criminals in a private car stopped the microbus and tried to mug them.
"Police shot at them with the guns hidden under their veils. The muggers also fired back," Latif said.
The two incarcerated muggers received bullets in their legs. They were admitted to the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD). The police team seized the private car and a pistol with five bullets.
Five such special teams started the operation in the area on Monday, said Imtiaz Ahmed, deputy commissioner (Mirpur Division) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police. One of them is a "Burqa Team" while the four others patrol in plainclothes.
"Mugging had decreased in the area when we conducted such drives in 2009," Imtiaz recalled.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/19/2011 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] Perfidious Albion's queen has marked a new era in the history of Anglo-Irish relations by visiting Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland's capital, where British troops massacred 14 civilians at a football match 91 years ago.
Eamon Gilmore, the Irish foreign affairs minister, said a British monarch visiting the site of November 1920's "Bloody Sunday" was a "hugely symbolic" moment.
He told the AFP news agency that the visit to the 82,300-capacity venue on Wednesday was "part of the making of a statement about the past", but would also acknowledge the key role that Gaelic games play in Irish life.
The incident saw 14 people, including a 10-year-old, killed by British forces when they opened fire on a crowd of thousands of spectators at a Gaelic football game in response to the murder earlier in the day of 14 undercover British agents.
Earlier on Wednesday Queen Elizabeth II laid a wreath at the Irish National War Memorial Garden, which pays tribute to the 49,400 Irish soldiers killed fighting for Perfidious Albion in World War I.
The British monarch is on her second day of a four-day visit to Ireland, the first such visit in a century.
She will round the day off by making the only major speech of her trip at Dublin Castle, the former seat of British power on the Emerald Isle.
While noting the vast improvement in Anglo-Irish ties since a 1998 peace deal in British-ruled Northern Ireland, the queen is expected to tackle the tensions have existed between the two nations.
On Tuesday she laid a wreath in honour of those who died fighting for Irish freedom from Perfidious Albion, bowing her head in respect at the Garden of Remembrance.
But there were rowdy scenes outside where several hundred republican protesters, kept streets away, chanted and torched a British flag.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/19/2011 00:00 ||
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That Queen has got big brass balls.
I do feel for Ireland though: they really should be one country on their whole island
Then again they've been there so long , it's hard to kick them out now. Kind of like the Aborigines trying to kick all the non-Aborigines out of Australia. It's been 223 years now - it's too late, we feel like we're natives too.
JERUSALEM Russia has expelled Israels military attache at its Moscow embassy on spying allegations, the Israeli military said on Wednesday, dismissing the charges as unfounded.
The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) military attache and ministry of defence representative in Russia, an IDF colonel, was detained for investigation last week by Russian authorities, on suspicion of spying, a joint statement by the defence ministry and the military spokesmans office said.
The statement did not name the man, who it said had been due to complete his posting in two months.
Security authorities in Israel completed a thorough investigation and concluded that these claims were unfounded, it added.
Military sources identified the envoy as air force Colonel Vadim Leiderman and said he returned to Israel several days ago after being questioned by Russian authorities over espionage allegations and then told to leave the country immediately.
Israels state-run Channel One television said he was arrested while sitting at a cafe with a Russian.
He was suspected by the Russians of running several local residents, the network said. He was taken in for questioning in Moscow about 10 days ago, the police asked him some questions. Because of his diplomatic immunity they were not able to do more but he was asked to immediately leave the country and he did so, it added.
It said that in Israel he was cleared of all suspicion after interrogation by his military superiors and by agents of the Shin Bet security agency.
Ynet, the website of top-selling Israeli daily Yediot Aharanot, said Leiderman maintains that the allegations are baseless and false and that the entire incident is rooted in a misunderstanding.
The past few days have seen hectic efforts by Israel to appease Moscow and stop the already grave diplomatic incident from escalating further, but the Russians seem adamant to exhaust all the legal measures at their disposal against the officer.
Israel has substantial political and security interests in Russia and is now concentrating on damage control, Ynet said.
Israel daily Haaretzs website said Leiderman was arrested during a May 12 meeting, in what appeared to be a violation of his diplomatic immunity.
It said news of the affair was blocked in Israel until Wednesday evening by a court gag order.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/19/2011 00:00 ||
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The US administration has temporarily halted payments to the retirement and federal pension accounts of workers after the government hit its debt limit.
The American administration has also begun to dip into federal worker pension funds after reaching the United States' $14.3 trillion debt ceiling on Monday.
The latest development prompted the government to start borrowing from pensioners, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner informed US Congress, DPA reported.
Geithner sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid ... the charismatic former Senate majority leader ... , warning that the government can move money around for about 11 weeks but if a new debt ceiling is not agreed to by August 2, the US government could effectively default on its obligations to its creditors.
He also warned of "catastrophic economic consequences for citizens."
"We're trying to figure out what to do about the budget. The situation creates an urgency to do something to the budget in order to get that debt ceiling increased. Government pensions or agriculture will probably see a lot of changes, to make us able to lift that debt ceiling," said Maya McGuineas, the head of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
US President Barack B.O. Obama has warned of a double dip recession if his administration is not allowed to keep borrowing, but a Gallup public opinion poll indicates that nearly half of those polled oppose raising the national debt ceiling.
The new poll shows 47% of Americans do not want the debt ceiling raised.
If Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling by August 2, it would force the administration to choose between paying creditors or paying for military operations, social security and Medicare payments, and other commitments.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/19/2011 00:00 ||
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Did anyone tell the messiah obama that the end of the world is in August?
#2
So we're down to plundering pensions?
I'm sure the 'loaned' money will be replaced with 'valuable' govt. bonds, just like Argentina.
This in the same week that he announces a massive new handout to the mddle east and north africa?
This dude is crazy, there is NO money left, we're raiding pension funds to pay the daily overhead and he's giving away Billions.
Army chief General V.K. Singh has presented a three-pronged strategy to counter China's growing presence in the Tibet Autonomous Region and its recent activities in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
The proposal came at a recent meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that was attended by the army chief as well as top bosses of the security establishment.
Singh pitched for a dedicated mountain strike corps, significant enhancement in the army's tactical airlift capability and improvement in the border infrastructure.
The army had long been pushing for the proposal, which were caught in a bureaucratic cobweb. The move follows inputs from intelligence agencies that China has continued upgrading its border infrastructure.
The army wants the proposals cleared soon as it is concerned over the growing nexus between Pakistan and China in the northern areas of Gilgit and Baltistan.
After strengthening its position on the line of actual control, China is now trying to develop a commanding presence closer to the line of control between India and Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir. China has been given access to PoK by Islamabad to take up infrastructure projects in a big way. China's capacity to swiftly deploy a large number of troops at the border has forced the government to draw up a counter strategy.
The army's plan to form a mountain strike corps would be in addition to two new divisions already coming up in the north east. The three existing strike corps are based in the plains and focused on Pakistan.
Sources said the proposal could cost the government around Rs 12,000 crore. The focus will be on developing highly agile and flexible formations which could be mobilised rapidly.
The urgency to get the proposal cleared is greater as it would take years for the formation to take shape.
The army has also sought approval to strengthen its tactical airlift capability. It wants to have its own transport helicopters in addition to that of the Indian Air Force. Sources said the army was unimpressed with the performance of homemade advanced light helicopters.
The proposal also stressed the need to speed up existing border infrastructure projects and to take up new programmes like adding more airports in the north east and preparing advanced landing grounds. The Border Roads Organisation has undertaken 39 projects on the Sino-Indian border to increase connectivity.
[Dawn] The Lahore High Court has taken a serious notice of reports of illegal gratification being demanded by some of the court staffers from lawyers and litigants.
"In future, no leniency will be shown to any official found involved in receiving illegal gratification and alike malpractices in any manner," says a circular issued by LHC Additional Registrar (G&S) Attaur Rehman on Tuesday.
Expressing his concern at the reports, Mr Rehman said such practices became more unacceptable in the backdrop of reasonable increase in pay and allowances of the high court employees.
The circular said such misdeeds were not only earning a bad name for the institution but also called for penal action against those involved.
All the private secretaries, readers attached with the courts and assistant registrars, deputy registrars, additional registrars have been directed to detect such misdeeds and to immediately report to the competent authority for necessary penal action against the delinquents, failing which the officer in charge will also be treated as an accomplice.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/19/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Not the Large Hadron Collider?
"Give me the money or we destroy the planet! Muahaha"
Dominique Strauss-Kahn hired prostitutes from the "Manhattan Madam" who infamously also served Eliot Spitzer, the disgraced former Governor of New York, she claimed on Wednesday night.
Kristin Davis said she provided young women for the IMF chief in 2006, as he ran for the French Socialists' presidential nomination, and that one complained about his "aggressive" behaviour.
"He was a client of my agency," she told The Daily Telegraph. "When men abuse women I'm no longer going to protect their identities".
Mr Strauss-Kahn, 62, has been charged with sexually attacking a 32-year-old hotel maid at the Manhattan Sofitel on Saturday. He denies the claims and is being held in Rikers Island prison.
Miss Davis, 35, who claims to have a long list of celebrity clients, said Mr Strauss-Kahn called her directly on her mobile phone and paid $1,200 cash for two-hour sessions in hotel rooms.
"He wanted an 'All-American girl', with a fresh face, from the mid-West," she said. "A girl in January 2006 complained he was rough and angry, and said she didn't want to see him again".
#1
the chimp on heat had the grace to pay for it, he should have continued instead of taking it by force.
Why do rich, powerful men, feel turned on at the thought of taking advantage of (or just impregnating) poor US maids just working a humble job for a living? two in a week. different circumstances but both targetted by rich men.
of course in Arnie's case it was civilised affair not attempted rape unlike that frenchman with the girly name
don't let them rehabilitate that asshole via the down-the-memory-hole trick. They have yet to mention Spitzer in their coverage of DSK, Arnold, etc.....
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/19/2011 8:04 Comments ||
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I've seen speculation that a costumed professional had been ordered, and the poor man was confused when the real thing showed up first.
It would be interesting if that turns out to be his defense in trial.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
05/19/2011 13:39 Comments ||
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#9
Anon1, what bieber did with satan to get famous is not out because, quite literally, people would fall dead.
If he is a professional of professionals, easy mistake I guess. Perhaps him and Gore could hang out. Kind of a piker in the big world, a UN boss would have had a 10 year old boy in a maid outfit.
AMMAN Egypt is withholding its contracted gas supply to energy-poor Jordan unless a new deal is signed at a higher price, a Jordanian official said on Wednesday.
Egypt wants to raise the gas price and that requires signing a new contract with Jordan, which had been receiving supplies at a preferential price, said the Jordanian official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Under a 14-year deal signed in 2002, Egypt used to sell gas to Jordan at a discounted price half of the market price, or $3 (2.16 euros) per million British Thermal Units (1,000 cubic feet of gas equals 1.027 million BTU).
Now Egypt has decided not to wait until 2016 and wants to raise the price immediately, the official added.
Egypts Prime Minister Essam Sharraf has asked for the revision of all contracts to supply gas abroad, including to Israel, the official news agency MENA reported on Wednesday.
In late April, unknown attackers used explosives against the pipeline in the town of Lihfen in northern Sinai, near the Gaza Strip, halting supplies to Jordan and Israel.
The pipeline has been repaired but Egypt refuses to provide Jordan with gas unless a new agreement is reached, the official said.
Jordan has called on Egypt to respect the signed contract ... only additional supplies should be included in the new contract, the official said.
The gas cut is costing Jordan $3.5 million (2.4 million euros) a day, officials have said.
Jordan, which buys 95 percent of its energy needs, imports about 240 million cubic feet (6.8 million cubic metres) of Egyptian gas a day, or 80 percent of its electricity requirements.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/19/2011 00:00 ||
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One exhibit at the Virginia Historical Society featured a letter, handwritten and dated 1876, with what appeared to be a smallpox scab pinned inside--light brown, about the size of a pencil eraser, and crumbling. The letter said,
"Dear Pa...the piece I inclose is perfectly fresh and was taken from an infant's arm yesterday... Dr. Harris says the inclosed scab will vaccinate 12 persons, but if you want more, you must send for it. I will pin this to the letter so that you cannot lose it as you did before."
The museum staff assumed it wasn't infectious and put it on display. Others were more concerned and the Centers for Disease Control [CDC] were eventually notified. Two CDC representatives, both immunized against smallpox, arrived at the museum in March. They donned disposable surgical gowns and gloves, lifted the scab from a display case, sealed it in bio-bags inside a red cooler, and drove 9 hours straight back to a high security CDC lab in Atlanta.
Within a few hours researchers determined the scab contained vaccinia virus, which has been used for centuries to 'vaccinate' against the actual smallpox virus.
Smallpox & vaccinia scabs can remain infectious for decades under the right conditions. Even if research labs destroy their remaining smallpox virus stocks, nobody truly knows how much smallpox virus may be lurking in archives or cemeteries. The CDC is only a phone call away. The assumptions utilized by the museum & the cavalier attitude of those it first consulted were unjustified. The tipoff originated with a local electrical engineer who at least respected the limits of his knowledge.
#1
I suspect the timing of this "discovery", as the WHO is debating right now as to whether the two remaining smallpox live cultures should be destroyed. This "discovery" gives both the US and Russia an excuse to not do so.
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.
JERUSALEM Russia has expelled Israels military attache at its Moscow embassy on spying allegations, the Israeli military said on Wednesday, dismissing the charges as unfounded.
Harry Reid
AMMAN Egypt is withholding its contracted gas supply to energy-poor Jordan unless a new deal is signed at a higher price, a Jordanian official said on Wednesday.
