[Miami Herald] WASHINGTON - Hillary Clinton recently blasted the hidden financial dealings exposed in the Panama Papers, but she and her husband have multiple connections with people who have used the besieged law firm Mossack Fonseca to establish offshore entities.
Among them are Gabrielle Fialkoff, finance director for Hillary Clinton’s first campaign for the U.S. Senate; Frank Giustra, a Canadian mining magnate who has traveled the globe with Bill Clinton; the Chagoury family, which pledged $1 billion in projects to the Clinton Global Initiative; and Chinese billionaire Ng Lap Seng, who was at the center of a Democratic fund-raising scandal when Bill Clinton was president. Also using the Panamanian law firm was the company founded by the late billionaire investor Marc Rich, an international fugitive when Bill Clinton pardoned him in the final hours of his presidency.
[Tolo News] An 18-year-old girl who was forced to marry a 60-year-old man at the age of 12 has said she wants a divorce.
The Balkh teenager, from Zari district, said that six years ago her family forced her to marry the man. She said she no longer wants to live with him and instead wants a divorce.
Samargul claims she is also a victim of domestic violence and has been beaten and tortured over the years.
"I was ignorant, I didn't know what was good, or what was bad, but now I want a divorce," said Samargul.
Samargul said that she is the victim of her brother's lust.
Samargul is the third wife of Mullah Faiz Mohammad. Faiz Mohammad has ten children from his two other wives.
Faiz Mohammad said his daughter had an affair with Samargul's brother and because of this, and based on local custom, Samargal was given to him.
"It has been six years since we married. She [Samargul] was with me and we didn't have any problems," said Faiz Mohammad. He accused Samargul of having an affair with another person and said he will not divorce her.
Fawzia Hamidi, Chief of the Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) Unit at the Attorney General's Office (AGO) in Mazar-e Sharif, voiced concern over the high number of domestic violence cases. She said they have registered 20 cases of violence against women in less than a month.
She added these acts of violence includes killing, beating, harassment, Baad (a traditional practice of settling disputes) and child marriages. She said that local armed people often prevent justice from being carried out in cases of violence against women.
"In most of the cases of violence, local strongmen in districts and villages, who also have arms, interfere and don't let the cases be made official and don't let justice be carried out," Hamidi said.
She said that with the support of police they are trying to bring perpetrators of violence against women to justice.
Balkh Police Chief, General Sayed Kamal Sadat, however said that bringing those accused of acts of violence against women to justice will take time.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Ahh, the sweet strains of courtly love among the barbarians.
#2
Divorce? In the U.S. the guy would be facing hard time for violating a 12 year old. Moreover, when he got out, he'd have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. The guy is getting off easy if he gets only a divorce in this Islamic paradise (sarc on).
[Iran Press TV] At least 140 people, including women and kiddies, have reportedly been killed after gunnies attacked an area near Æthiopia's border with South Sudan.
According to a Saturday statement from the Æthiopian Government Communication Affairs Office, the attack took place on Friday when gunnies from South Sudan raided the Jakaya area, in Æthiopia's Gambella region.
"140 civilians died in the attack carried out by bandidos that crossed from South Sudan," the statement said.
The statement added that Æthiopian troops had crossed the border to pursue the attackers, saying "60 of the assailants have been killed so far."
The Æthiopian region hosts thousands of South Sudanese refugees who fled conflict in the world's youngest nation. It is also home to Æthiopian and South Sudanese gangs that attack government installations and soldiers.
The statement also said that the gunnies had no relation with South Sudanese government troops or rebel forces that fought the government in the capital, Juba, in a civil war that ended with a peace deal signed last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2016 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] The United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... has acknowledged the receipt of new complaints of sexual abuse by peacekeepers.
Maman Sidikou, the head of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), told news hounds in the capital, Kinshasa, on Saturday that the mission had received seven new allegations of sexual abuse by its soldiers.
Five involve Tanzanian soldiers who arrived last September, one involves the South African contingent and the seventh case involves forces from Malawi, Sidikou said.
Earlier this month, the UN had announced it was investigating accusations regarding Tanzanian peacekeepers based in northeastern Congo sexually abusing and exploiting five women and six girls, leaving them all pregnant.
"All of these cases are presumed cases of either pregnancy or of paternity ... and eight of the victims are minors," Sidikou said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2016 00:00 ||
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[OBSERVERS.FRANCE24] Thousands of people filled the streets of the Zim-bob-wean capital on Thursday in the largest protest against authoritarian President Bob Muggsy Mugabe Octogenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case... in nearly a decade. And for the first time in their memories, protestors did not face police or military repression.
As riot police stood by, supporters of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) called for the "dignified exit" of the president, who’s been in power since 1980.
The actual number of protestors was contested--some sources estimated 2,000 while activists reported 10,000. But everyone agreed that thousands had turned out to protest, except the state-controlled paper, which called the event a flop.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2016 00:00 ||
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No one brought beer, so the Police decided why bother to go.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
04/17/2016 9:36 Comments ||
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'Dignified Exit' or regime change in Africa, anything with a death toll below 100,000.
[FRANCE24] A Rwanda court handed a life sentence on Friday to a former senior politician for hate speech aimed at stirring up killings of minority Tutsis during the central African country’s genocide more than two decades ago.
An estimated 800,000 Tustis and moderate Hutus were killed by myrmidon forces in the then Hutu-dominated regime over a period of 100 days in 1994.
The high court convicted Léon Mugesera, 64, who was then a regional vice chairman in the ruling party, of genocide and crimes against humanity.
During the trial, Mugesera was accused of having referred to the Tutsis as "cockroaches" who should be sent back to Æthiopia.
"The court finds that Mugesera is guilty of ... public incitement to commit genocide, persecution as crime against humanity and inciting ethnic-affiliated hatred," judge Antoine Muhima said.
In 2012 Mugesera, also a former university lecturer, was extradited to Rwanda from Canada where he had lived in exile for years and resisted efforts to return him to face trial on genocide charges.
He said he would appeal the sentence because the court had not heard any of his witnesses or been "impartial and independent."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2016 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff has accused supporters of her impeachment of trying to grab power in order to avoid corruption charges against themselves, saying the country faces the threat of a coup d’état.
In a video and a newspaper column published on Saturday, Rousseff strongly denied No, no! Certainly not! she had committed an impeachable crime, saying the parliamentary bid to oust her from power is the biggest legal and political fraud in Brazil’s history.
"We are facing the threat of a coup d'état, a coup without guns that uses more destructive methods like fraud and lies to try to destroy a legitimately elected government," Rousseff, Brazil's first female president, wrote in the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper.
Rousseff accused Vice President Michel Temer and House Speaker Eduardo Cunha of leading a conspiracy against her.
Lower House politicians are due to vote on Sunday on whether to call for an impeachment. The pro-impeachment camp needs 342 votes, or two-thirds of the 513 votes in the chamber, to send the proceedings to the senate for a possible trial. Then a simple majority among the senators would see Rousseff out of power.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
The Olympics are going to be an epic shitshow - I can't wait!
#2
I am shocked to hear that someone wants to run Brazil.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
04/17/2016 9:27 Comments ||
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Brazil is run by Socialists. Brazilians will tell you themselves quality of Brazilian products is low. Everyone buys American goods sold in Brazil. Taxes are extremely high. Money left over after taxes will take you a lifetime to pay for an un-air-conditioned car that is a standard transmission, not automatic. Most people ride motorcycles or bicycles.
Too many layers of inefficiency because the feds are everywhere duplicating positions that municipalities already have people for. Where you see one municipal police officer in a city, there are two military (federal) police officers. The military and state run operations is the only place to actually make a living. Numerous female Brazilians hold college degrees but are out of work. So they assume the traditional role of house wife and spend the day hanging out with their other girl friends on the front porch in the hammocks and watch the world go by and then everyone parties on the weekends (the carnivals). People learn to live in such environments.
When state owned oil company Petrobraus starting making money all of the politicians required kickbacks. Now it is $300 billion in the red and the numerous political parties are blaming each other for the demise.
All goods and personnel flows between China and North Korea are halted due to US sanctions on North Korea. It's a slideshow, click through and use your left and right arrow keys to page around.
#2
Well, I really don't know what more can be done to convince you people. It is not in China's interest to support North Korea. The Chinese are utterly exasperated that they did not follow Burma's example and reform. Now they're blockading the Norks and you people won't believe it. OK, whatever!
#3
FT9033 - we're just skeptical from all the Kabuki in the past
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/17/2016 14:22 Comments ||
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My read is the ChiComs were quite happy to have their little pitbull-pekinese hybrid terrorizing the neighborhood. But now Pudge is going rogue and they want to reel him back in.
Be most embarrassing if the little scamp kicked off WWIII before the Chinese were ready.
#6
How about thinking independently about it and coming to the same conclusion as the rest of the world: it's not the Cold War any more and it's not in China's interest for North Korea not to reform and open up.
ChiComs? Seriously? Get into the 21st century. That's so dated.
China is unlikely to defend North Korea in case tensions escalate on the Korean peninsula over Pyongyang's nuclear provocations Âdespite a mutual defence pact between the two communist allies, mainland scholars say. The more tension the Norks create, the more neighboring countries feel it's OK to arm themselves, and the worse that is for China.
Professor Pang Zhongying, an international relations expert at Renmin University, said Pyongyang's nuclear development, which Beijing viewed as a threat to its security interests, had irreversibly damaged Sino-North Korean relations and rendered the treaty effectively null and void.
"The treaty is China's only legally binding bilateral security pact remaining in force. But it exists only in the legal sense and it is highly unlikely that China will provide military aid in the event of a conflict or war," he said.
Professor Shen Jiru of the Institute on World Economy and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said Beijing should not be bound by the treaty if Pyongyang continued to pursue its programme to develop nuclear weapons.
"The treaty was a relic of the cold war which made no mention of specific circumstances under which China would provide military aid,"he said.
He noted when the treaty was signed in 1961, the Chinese government was "immature and diplomatically inexperienced" in entering into a vaguely worded defence treaty.
Kerry Brown, professor of Chinese studies at London's King's College, said the treaty put China in "permanent quandaries".
"In 1961, I guess the treaty was a means for China to control North Korea against Soviet influence. But now the tables are turned and it is North Korea which is blackmailing and controlling China," he said.
Shen also said the treaty did not make any sense in the light of the national security concept Beijing has adopted since Jiang Zemin was president, namely opposition to military alliances with other countries.
When asked at a press conference last month on the sidelines of the ÂNational People's Congress meeting whether China would help defend North Korea in case of a conflict or war as Beijing did during the 1950-53 Korean war, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China would neither tolerate instability on the Korean peninsula, nor accommodate Pyongyang's pursuit of a nuclear and missile programme.
In a sign of China's growing frustration and impatience with North Korea, China backed a United Nations resolution early last month to toughen sanctions against Pyongyang. Last week, China's Ministry of Commerce rolled out new bans on imports of coal, iron ore, gold, titanium and rare earths, and exports of a range of products, including jet fuel, to North Korea.
#4
Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China would neither tolerate instability on the Korean peninsula, nor accommodate Pyongyang's pursuit of a nuclear and missile programme.
Didn't quite answer the question of "whether China would help defend North Korea in case of a conflict or war," did it?
Millions of Texans could soon lose in-network coverage at dozens of hospitals and outpatient centers. That could double their out-of-pocket costs ‐ or worse.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, the state's largest insurer, is fighting over payment increases sought by Hospital Corp. of America, one of the nation's largest hospital chains. Care to guess which one made the biggst on campaign contributions to Harry and Nancy?
Blue Cross has reason to push back hard. Since the Affordable Care Act kicked in fully in 2014, the Texas Blue has lost $720 million on its exchange business. HealthCare.gov customers turned out to be sicker than expected, and its parent company, which includes Blues in five states, lost over $2 billion in the market niche. Unexpectedly.
Over the same two years, HCA Holdings earned $4 billion and revenue grew 16 percent.
Cost-sharing has already become a burden for many workers. Since 2010, deductibles have grown seven times faster than wages and inflation, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Unexpectedly!
Higher deductibles have helped hold down monthly premiums. So have higher co-pays, narrower networks and restrictions on prescription drugs. Before the ACA, insurers also limited risk by excluding people with pre-existing conditions. I wonder what percentage of people were denied due to pre-existing condition's? Bet they're all covered now! I don't know about coverage, but the pre-existing conditions piece has helped drive costs sky high.
Through surveys and the ACA exchange, customers have consistently shown they'll trade lower premiums for a narrower network. So they'll have to get used to changes, even the occasional extreme disruption. Coming soon! Even lower cost and fewer choices!
"This is an evolution, and people sometimes forget that in 2014, the insurance market fundamentally changed," Carpenter said. Anyone think that was unexpected?
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/17/2016 14:18 ||
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I'll have 2 yrs of free-for-all costs between Cobra from 60-63 and Medicare at 65. Thanks, Obama!
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/17/2016 15:20 Comments ||
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[HOSTED.AP.ORG] Chancellor Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom... 's decision to allow the possible prosecution of a TV comic for writing an intentionally offensive poem about The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's president prompted mixed reactions in Germany on Saturday.
Some commentators praised the move as a vote of confidence in the country's justice system while others accused Merkel of kowtowing to Turkey, whose president had filed a legal complaint against the comic.
In the unusual move, Merkel called a short-notice news conference Friday to personally announce that her government had granted Turkey's request to let prosecutors examine a criminal complaint against the comic for writing an intentionally offensive poem about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... . Under German law, the government has to grant permission before prosecutors can consider whether to press charges against someone for the crime of insulting a foreign head of state.
"It's not clear what reasons weighed so heavily that she had to take this legally, politically and morally unnecessary as well as disastrous step," wrote Torsten Krauel, chief opinion writer of the center-right German daily Die Welt.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
There's a saying about "when the only tool you have is hammer, all problems look like nails."
This is an illustration.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
04/17/2016 9:17 Comments ||
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#1
When [the conch is] first blown, it calls the children to an assembly, where Ralph is elected leader. They agree that only the boy holding the conch may speak at meetings to forestall arguments and chaos, and that it should be passed around to those who wish to voice their opinion. The conch symbolises effective democracy and, like Ralph, civility and order within the group. When Piggy is killed, the conch is smashed into pieces, signalling the end of order and the onset of chaos. Originally the conch is portrayed as being very vibrant and colourful, but as the novel progresses, its colours begin to fade, the same way society begins to fade on the island.
Refugee Resettlement: Wheaton Bible Church has partnered with World Relief to resettle refugees for over thirty years. Our commitment today is as strong as it was when World Relief opened its doors in DuPage County thirty years ago. We are committed to welcoming the stranger no matter their country of origin. Every weekend we welcome refugees from around the world to Worship with us. Twice per month we host an adult community made up of current and former Muslim’s to study the Bible together. We believe the movements of people is directed by the Hand of God. And we are responding to this opportunity to share or lives as Christ followers with any and all refugees.
Great civilizations are not conquered, they commit suicide.
~ Arnold Toynbee
#1
At least the fuckers moved out of Wheaton. They are now on the North side of North Ave, West of County Farm Rd. (It's a coin toss if it is the City of Carol Stream, or West Chicago or just unincorporated DuPage.) They sold their old church in Wheaton to the Missouri Synod Lutheran church. There is one church on the East edge of Wheaton that when it went belly up became a mosque. This article makes it more understandable. This is not the Black Baptist Church in Wheaton. Never heard of them ever having anything to do with Muslims. This one it tied in with Billy Graham's nuts and Wheaton College.
#4
For fun try applying with a job online at Wheaton College. Their application is only legal as they claim to be religious.
Most of the application (even for tech jobs) is how you came to be born again. (I applied once just for fun.) They want to know your flavor of Christian, who your pastor is, when you were divorced - everything.
They were not happy with me as my parents were Lutheran Missionaries to China and everybody knows Lutherans are not "Christian".
Even worse as a child I attended 4 years of school at a school they founded and sponsored in Taiwan. The more I got into their application and the more I learned about them they really just want to know stuff about you to hold over your head and make them feel superior to you.
They are welcome to sue me for all I care. I consider them to be down with the pond scum on the evolutionary scale. Tough ...
#5
Wow, if they don't think Lutherans are Christians, I wonder what they think about us Catholics.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
04/17/2016 16:23 Comments ||
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I wonder what they think about us Catholics
Papist degenerate scum, Rambler. (The young Wheaton lady I asked several years ago didn't quite say 'scum', but it was fairly close and she did use the word 'Papist' and 'degenerate')
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
04/17/2016 18:47 Comments ||
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#7
Mullah Richard - places like these make me reconsider tax exempt status for religions.
[Breitbart] The once wholesome Miley Cyrus has partnered with feminist artist Marilyn Minter to raise funds for Planned Parenthood, the abortion business announced Thursday in New York.
Minter photographed Cyrus, now 23, as if she was behind a steamy shower door. Only 50 of the limited edition prints are being sold at Artsy for $5,500 each, with 100 percent of the proceeds supporting Planned Parenthood. For those with a smaller piggy bank, Marc Jacobs will sell t-shirts featuring other more sexually provocative images from Minter’s session with Cyrus, including "Miley Hearts Planned Parenthood," and "Pro Choice Miley." The cost of the t-shirts is $60 each and will be available at Marc Jacobs shops on May 16.
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.
[Iran Press TV] The 
[FRANCE24] A Rwanda court handed a life sentence on Friday to a former senior politician for hate speech aimed at stirring up killings of minority Tutsis during the central African country’s genocide more than two decades ago.
Cost-sharing has already become a burden for many workers. Since 2010, deductibles have grown seven times faster than wages and inflation, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
When [the conch is] first blown, it calls the children to an assembly, where Ralph is elected leader. They agree that only the boy holding the conch may speak at meetings to forestall arguments and chaos, and that it should be passed around to those who wish to voice their opinion. The conch symbolises effective democracy and, like Ralph, civility and order within the group. When Piggy is killed, the conch is smashed into pieces, signalling the end of order and the onset of chaos. Originally the conch is portrayed as being very vibrant and colourful, but as the novel progresses, its colours begin to fade, the same way society begins to fade on the island. 
