[An Nahar] A Canadian tourist who was shot in a southern Egyptian family feud died on Saturday after an unsuccessful operation, the state-owned al-Ahram newspaper reported on its website.
The man, identified as Jean Francois, was shot when his taxi refused to stop at a checkpoint manned by villagers from al-Samata, who were looking for members of a rival clan, the report said. He was heading to Sohag province to visit an ancient temple, the paper said.
The Canadian embassy could not confirm the incident, while al-Ahram reported that villagers had expressed their contrition at the death and would send a delegation to the embassy.
Violent family feuds in the underdeveloped south can sometimes engulf several towns and may fester for years.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Personally, I think they should lower the British flag and raise the English (St. Georges cross) flag. But that would make everyone think it was an EDL city.
#3
if you're too diverse to accept the flag of the nation you are living in sponging off of. Get the f*ck out!
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/13/2011 16:42 Comments ||
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#4
The UK could have brought in, as immigrants, the population of Hong Kong and Nepal and be a lot further along than they are now. Instead they brought in Pakistanis.
I mean, imagine, there are Laotian and Burman refugees out there that'll go to any country that'll take them. Instead, the UK has decided to become Pakistan North and we've decided to be Mexico North.
For a map, click here. To read the latest full Rantburg report on the growing Moreria debt scandal, click here
As Ruben Moreira Valdes, brother of PRI leader Humberto Moreira, savored his victory as governor elect of Coahuila early in July, negotiations began in Coahuila's Chamber of Deputies to slash much of the state budget.
Much of the coming cuts will likely affect Moreria's income support programs. Those program were central to his drive to put himself forward as a populist.
Among those programs included an elderly meal subsidy program called Comedores de la Gente Mayo which provided meals to 1,500 elderly clients, Tarjeta del Hogar which provided an income supplement of up to MP $200 (USD $16.01) a month and Seguro Escolar which provided free health care to students and employees of Coahuila's educational system.
News of those cuts are rather old now, only three months after they were offered on the chopping block. So is the news that the 14 banks which held Coahuila's long term debt demanded as a condition for financing their bonds collateral in the form of 100 percent of the state's payroll tax revenues.
The agreement was reportedly hammered out towards the end of August. The deal was to have remedied the cut of Coahuila's bond quality which had plummeted five levels. The new deal was supposed to bring Coahuila's credit quality higher, and its interest rates lower.
Now, almost three months later Coahuila's debt load is expected to climb even farther from MP 34 billion (USD $250,394,020.00) to MP $37 billion (USD $272,487,610.00), which is an increase of about eight percent in one quarter, and an annualized rate of increase of close to 32 percent.
A report released by the Coahuila state treasurer's office said the debt increased because, apparently, agreements with three banks, Banobras, HSBC and Banco de Baijo, reportedly were not finalized to give Coahuila favorable terms.
The Coahuila state political class has reacted. A proposal was submitted in the Chamber of Deputies Tuesday which would triple the state's payroll deduction tax from one percent to three percent. The new proposal will likely be a job killer.
The complaint now is that Coahuila's debt load is now 260 percent of the revenue it currently gets.
For a map, click here. To read the latest full Rantburg report on the growing Moreria debt scandal, click here
By Chris Covert
Still under pressure from opposition party leaders and members in his home state of Coahuila, Humberto Moreira Valdes, national leader of Mexico's most powerful political entity received a much welcome statement of support from rank and file members Friday, according to Mexican news accounts.
Moreira has also been under some pressure within his own party to explain the massive acquisition of public debt in Coahuila state during his term as governor, where the state obligations went from less than MP $500 million pesos (USD $36,822,650.00) to well over MP $33 billion (USD $243,029,490.00) in the span of just six years.
Coahuila's debt load is Mexico's heaviest in terms of per capita as well as as a percentage of the state's Gross Domestic Product. Coahuila's debt is Mexico fourth largest in absolute terms.
Meeting Friday members of Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) Comision Politica Permanente voted their support of Moreira calling attacks on his term as governor "perverse".
Carlos Jimenez, the committe's executive director said that Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) attacks on Morira were an "attack on democracy". PAN is PRI's long time and bitterest rival.
The committee's vote comes days after a speech given by Senator Manilo Beltrones called for Moreira to explain his actions which caused Coahuila to accrue its debt. Beltrones' calls for an explanation have, however, in recent days been toned down by the senator since he is running for president under the PRI banner. Beltrones told Mexican reporters later in the week that "you have to tke care of strategy".
Beltrones' reference to strategy is a clear reference to Moreira's countercharge, probably untrue, that PAN's bringing his action as governor front and center is politically motivated. The leader of PAN, Gustavo Madero began to make much of Coahuila's public debt problem some moths ago, and in that time press accounts have been cause of much of the trouble Moreira now faces.
Even so, it is very clear Madero intends to keep pounding on Coahuila's debt crisis, and in the process, Moreira throughout the presidential selection process already under way, thus making Moreira himself the most salient national issue.
Moreira has resisted calls to provide his side of the story claiming his work to retake the presidency for PRI takes precedence over his past.
Despite that, PAN politicians and supporters in in Coahuila late this week have staged demonstrations in Saltillo, Coahuila's capital wearing Moreira masks and crowding into the the entrances to Coahuila government officials' offices.
Part of the problem for PAN politicians and the charges they make against Moreira is that much of the state's expenditures are not public record, but even so those politicians and party members have been demanding disclosure on how so much money was spent.
Meanwhile, Asociacion Civil Claridad y Participacion Ciudadana or Association of Citizens for Clarity and Participation, a business group has filed a complaint with Coahuila state calling for Moreira's impeachment, a move which would potentially end his political career.
The petition has been backed by Partido Revolucion Democratica (PRD) and Partido Trabajo (PT) members. Both the PRD and PT, representing Mexico's mainstream left lost big in July's statewide elections.. Also Jesus Gonzalez Schmal, a former candidate for Coahula governor and a member of Converencia has said he would have "no rest or respite" against Moreira.
Schmal said the case for fraud, embezzlement and crimes against public property were "obvious", as he put it, although he did not specifically mention Moreira.
Schmal is apparently the first politician of any kind to accuse Moreira of using Coahuila state resources financed through questionable loans to finance PRI campaigns in states such as in Zacatecas, Durango, Nayarit and the State of Mexico.
Moreira's strongest supporter amongst the PRI presidential candiate field is Enrique Pena Nieto, Mexico state's last governor, whose state was won by PRI in a crushing landslide victory last July. That campaign caused one unidentified official with the PRD to accuse PRI of spending eight times the legal limit.
Now with Schmal's accusation, the charge of illegal campaign spending in Mexico state last July -- not yet official and only a few months old -- now carries some weight with it.
More press reports are coming out which specifically name Moerira. For example, in a Tuesday edition, Reforma said that while governor, Moreira knew of at least one loan for MP $1.650 billion (USD $121,514,745.00) gained through false documents.
That loan was through BBVA Bancomer bank, which was registered with the finance ministry on December 2nd, 2010. On that document was the Spanish acronym, Ccp (con copia para), which is a cc element. The implication if the story about false documents are true, is that Moreira did receive notification about the loan, and did nothing about it.
Moreira submitted his resignation as governor of Coahuila state January 4th, 2011.
Moreira has yet to comment on the latest Reforma report.
El Universal also report Wednesday the discovery of an additional three loans through Banorte for a total of MP $3 billion (USD $220,935,900.00). Those loans were obtained through fraudulent means, according to El Universal.
#5
Darwin airport is a combined civilian airport/ RAAF base, so they are probably there already. Or thereabouts- most Air Force assets are up that way.
We were camping on the Daly River once, and something came upriver, supersonic, at first light. Bounced me right out of my swag.
#6
Awwwww, #1, I wanted to say it - my alternate was the Zeroes from Balakashina or Truk were too far away???
FYI CHINA BLOGGERS = are belabeling Obama's venture to set up a new US Marine training base in Ozland as a US attempt to turn same into a future US State or Protectorate from China.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [Permanent]US BASES IN AUSTRALIA RULED OUT, by the AUS Govt.
US Marines are welcome to train alongside Aussie forces [ + MWR, MIl Tourism], but NOT to stay???
Also from SAME > CHINESE PENETRATION IN SOUTH ASIA NOW BEYOND INDIA'S CONTROL.
* SAME > [Peoples Daily Online] US UNLIKELY TO CONTAIN CHINA'S RISE.
* SAME > CHINA UNLIKELY TO BUDGE ON THORNY SOUTH CHINA SEAS DISPUTES.
* SAME > CHINA PLANS CHEQUERS TO CHECKMATE INDIA | PLANS TO BUILD THREE AIRCRAFT CARRIERS [ + Escort/Battle Groups] TO DOMINATE INDIAN OCEAN.
On a separate but related note, RUSSIA is repor planing to build two new super Shipyards-Ports in its Far East, which Bloggers ostensib believe are mainly for the construx + support of Russia's proposed new Aircraft Carriers.
* SAME > SOUTH CHINA SEA: A NEW GEOPOLITICAL NODE.
ARTIC > Professor NI LEXIANG = argues that by China absolutely controlling its own maritime lifeline, China is also controlling the lifelines = security of JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA, + OTHER SCS/ASEAN NATIONS.
Five-Year Plan... Was that Lenin or Stalin who (originally)invented that? Mao? Can't have a proper socialist state without a five year plan developed by elite experts, Bobby. Ev'ryone knows that...
Stalin was the backer of five-year plans; the USSR had thirteen of them.
The Obama administration's new five-year plan for offshore oil and gas drilling includes lease sales in federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Alaska but will not offer leases for drilling off Virginia or other parts of the eastern United States.
The Interior Department's proposed plan delineates where oil and gas companies can bid, from 2012 to 2017, to lease offshore areas they think hold the promise of new oil and gas reserves. The plan drew fire from some environmental groups, which said it went too far, and from the American Petroleum Institute, whose president, Jack Gerard, called it a "missed opportunity" and said it did not go far enough in opening up new areas for drilling.
In postponing lease sales along the Eastern Seaboard, the plan took a step back from proposals President Obama made in the spring of 2010 before a blowout triggered last year's spill in the Gulf. Instead, the plan would allow seismic tests off the Atlantic coast to gather more information about how much oil and gas might be there. Seismic? Doesn't that bother the whales? Won't it trigger stronger earthquakes in Virginia? We just had a dandy last August 23rd!
"Here's a state that has strong bipartisan support [for drilling], that has repeatedly asked the secretary to include a lease sale off Virginia, and they refuse to do it," Gerard said. We could drill on land in Alaska. We could build a pipeline from Canada. We could frack gas in Pennsylvania or oil in North Dakota. When you are against it somewhere, we should ask if they are for it anywhere. That'd give a little perspective!
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/13/2011 10:38 ||
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Better IMHO to bid in terms of %age extracted given to the state.
Also IMHO citizens should be given an equal oil dividend.
#2
Huh? Most of the Gulf of tamaleland oil heads are capped. And extracted oil from the US' biggest oil exporter - Canada - could flow if there was no political interference.
#3
VARIOUS NET ARTICS = give the impression that POTUS Bammer is in favor of NON-US = FOREIGN COMPANIES drilling for energy in the GUlf of Mahico + then selling same to the US.
IMO the above is why, in part, many US Oil-Gas workers were upset wid the Bammer, as in their view "GLOBALISM" = GIVING GOOD-PAYING CONUS-NORAM JOBS TO FOREIGNERS WID NO RECIPROCATION IN KIND AS PER FOREIGN EMPLOYMENT FOR US WORKERS, SAVE OF COURSE FOR THE LATTER APPLYING FOR NEW UNEMPLOYMENT + FOOD STAMP, ETC. GOVT. LT BENEFITS???
Public Benefits that unemployed US Workers, not employed Foreign Workers, have to pay for via [higher] US public taxes???
Clearly, federal energy tax incentives play a big role in jump-starting a green energy movement. Yet now there is a good chance they will be scaled back significantly -- or eliminated altogether. Remember, a tax credit is "somebody else's money" subsidizing something, which means taxpayers pay for it. Always someone else's money. That's the key to crony socialism...
Rob Williams, associate professor of agriculture and resource economics at the University of the Socialist State of Maryland, says he prefers taking the opposite tack by forcing consumers to make energy-efficient improvements with the threat of a penalty. One way would be to impose a tax on "dirty energy," such as a British thermal unit (BTU) tax or a carbon or gas tax.
"This would give incentive to save energy in any way possible, rather than in one particular way supported by a tax incentive," he says. How about cost? Is that an incentive? Why did whale-oil lamps go away? Why are computers and TVs so cheap?
Check out DSIREUSA.org, a government-funded site run by the North Carolina Solar Center, to get a full picture of the various federal, state, local and utility incentives that are still available. See what your grandchildren will be paying for in 2050.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/13/2011 10:18 ||
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#1
Remember solar is not 'clean' or 'safe' energy. Tens of thousands die around the world every year from sun exposure related cancers.
#4
Rob Williams, associate professor of agriculture and resource economics at the University of the Socialist State of Maryland,
sounds like a good little fascist, and a punk, too.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/13/2011 12:19 Comments ||
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#5
The argument against solar lies in how much it costs to collect enough energy to make the product. I ate plenty of 'maters & peppers produced by solar energy last summer. My plants have died of frost, but I still came out ahead.
#7
The argument is in reply to those who do indeed label solar as safe and clean and ignore that there's a difference between those claims and "there's nothing you can do about it, so you might was well take advantage of it".
Iodine-131 has a half-life of ~8 days. But Iodine-131 has been detected for weeks "Across Europe" indicating that the release was not a single event. So either a nuclear reactor is leaking (?), organized crime has gone into the medical radioactive waste disposal business, or some (inept) bad actors are at work.
Governments typically mandate that nuclear power plants collect and analyze environmental samples from the area surrounding the plant on a periodic basis. I therefore find it hard to believe that a European nuclear plant is leaking. Russia/Ukraine?
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
11/13/2011 08:41 ||
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The end of civilization is at hand when people refuse to understand the difference between contamination (iodine-131) and radiation (alpha, beta,etc.). Crack a book, people.
After two days of sending out distress calls from a satellite phone in the Mediterranean Sea, 44 people, mostly sub-Saharans, were rescued by an Italian military vessel on November 10. UNHCR was alerted that relatives of some of the passengers onboard the boat called from a satellite phone on Tuesday evening. Italian navy took this initiative despite the fact that the boat was in Maltese search and rescue waters.
Complaint by the UNHCR that it took the Italians 48 hours excised.
A woman with a small baby was evacuated by helicopter to Sicily from Lampedusa.
This is the first boat originating from Libya that has arrived in Europe since August 17th.
#1
I thought "Opération Harmattan by France; Operation Ellamy by the United Kingdom; Operation Mobile for the Canadian participation and Operation Odyssey Dawn for the United States" were supposed to stop the flow of refuges?
[Iran Press TV] Italian politicians have adopted the controversial package of austerity measures ahead of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi ...current Italian prime minister, known for his plain (for a European politician) speaking and his liking for hookers a third his age or less... 's resignation.
Update: Now former Italian prime minister. Mr. Berlosconi has officially resigned.
On Saturday, the Italian lower house of parliament gave its final approval to a package of austerity measures which was Berlusconi's precondition for resignation, AFP reported.
Good for them. Hopefully it will be enough to start improving the situation.
Berlusconi is expected to announce he is stepping down at a cabinet meeting later on Saturday, and to formally submit his resignation to the Italian head of state.
Good for him. Not that it will be fun for the new guy, whoever it is.
A candidate who will then attempt to form a new government is to be nominated.
The reforms are intended to drastically cut public spending in a bid to reduce the third eurozone economy's EUR1.9 trillion debt.
Berlusconi, 75, has been under immense pressure to step down over a series of scandals and for mishandling the country's economy.
Berlusconi's popularity rating recently slipped to a record low of 22 percent as his team was unable to address the financial crisis and he faced legal battles over bribery, tax fraud and abuse of power.
Italia's debt is 120 percent of its Gross Domestic Product. In August the country passed a 60-billion-euro austerity package to balance the budget by 2013.
There is growing fear among EU leaders that Italia might be drawn into the crisis that has already claimed Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2011 00:00 ||
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Resigned? He was pushed.
What MP would oppose the "reforms" when they saw how easily the P.M. was ousted by the antidemocratic E.U.?
[Dawn] Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan said on Saturday Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who isn't your heaviest-duty thinker, maybe not even among the top five... was not a threat to the PML-N.
He said, some circles are backing and sponsoring Imran but he does not have the capability to become a popular leader.
Talking to the media here, he claimed the PML-N popularity graph was growing day by day in the country and people would elect it in the upcoming elections by a big majority.
He said the PML-N's public meeting on Novermber 23 being held in Faisalabad would be successful like the Lahore rally.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2011 00:00 ||
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h/t Gates of Vienna
The Guardian in the UK is reporting that India has started the process of building the worlds newest thorium fueled prototype nuclear power plant. As prototypes go, this is a big one with a proposed rating at 300MW or about 30% of a customary 1GW uranium fueled station. This commitment deserves congratulations. Finally thorium has a toehold on the world power generation markets and its far less worrisome than a uranium solution.
#2
Thorium and pebble-bed reactors are where it's at. Almost impervious to meltdown; we could have 'em in every county.
While every other 'Green tech' that has been funded in the last 3 years has gone belly up without heavy government subsidies.
#5
FTA: The U.S. did promising early research in the 1950s to 1970s only to shelve the effort in favor of the uranium fuel that produced weapons supplies in the spent fuel.
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.
Punjab
