More than 45 people died in Balochistan on Friday, while the total death count exceeded 200 following massive flooding throughout Sindh, Balochistan and the NWFP.
Almost 150 people have died and thousands of crop fields have been destroyed in Balochistan. Quetta Railways is non-functional due to flooding of the lines. Meanwhile, Mirani Dam caused flash floods in Dasht damaging the Quetta-Sibi and Pak-Afghan highways and Khad Kocha Dams overflowing flooded the RCD Highway connecting Quetta to Karachi effectively cutting Balochistan off from the rest of Pakistan. The provincial government has appealed to international donor agencies and rescue teams to help it in this time of need. The Kishingi, Bhag and Garani dams also broke apart due to excess water. Quetta had no natural gas for the third consecutive day following a pipe burst, as students protested against lack of government support..
Fifty-six people have been reported dead in Khyber Agency following flooding from the Kabul and Swat rivers. Governor Ali Muhammad Jan Orakzai met with tribal elders and assured them of compensation.
The armed forces have rescued 400 people in Balochistan.
Meanwhile, thousands of people in the NWFP have left villages located near the Shah Alam, Gambela and Kabul rivers after receiving a government warning regarding a possible high-level flood within the next 24 hours.
According to a report released by the Pakistan Meteorological Departments Flood Forecasting Division, flash flooding is expected in the nullahs of Malakand Division and northern areas. It added that low-lying areas of Nowshera, Mardan and Peshawar would also be affected. National Disaster Management Authority Chairman Lt-General Muhammad Farooq Khan said the federal government has released Rs 200 million for Balochistan and Sindh.
The Mirani Dam has been declared safe after a 12 feet reduction in its water level.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2007 00:00 ||
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In'shalla.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/30/2007 0:49 Comments ||
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#2
Can't improve on that Barbara, Inshallah indeed,
(Allah doesn't like you folks, learn from the hint, before he gets serious.)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/30/2007 12:43 Comments ||
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#3
at least they're finally bathing
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/30/2007 12:50 Comments ||
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An immigration judge ruled on Friday that Sam Kambo, who helped overthrow the Sierra Leone government in 1992, may stay in the United States, according to a report on the Austin American-Statesman newspaper Web site.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, arrested Kambo in October and requested his deportation alleging that he participated in discussions leading to the 1992 massacre of 29 people. Immigration Judge Gary Burkholder ruled on Friday that Kambo did not participate in the massacre's planning, the newspaper reported.
The victims were opponents of a government installed by a group of young officers led by Capt. Valentine Strasser who overthrew the government in 1992. Kambo was a member of the group.
There was no word on whether the immigration agency would appeal the ruling.
Kambo came to the United States in 1994 to study at the University of Texas at Austin. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the university. Prior to his arrest, Kambo lived with his wife and four children in Austin. He has been in a San Antonio federal detention center since October.
Up to 1,200 "non-dangerous" offenders walked out of prison up to 18 days early yesterday as the government's emergency package to ease the jails crisis was put into effect.
The release of so many prisoners on end of custody licences came not a moment too soon for the governors of the 140 prisons in England and Wales, who were struggling to cope this week with a prison population that had again topped a record 81,000. A further 400 are expected to be released early on Monday.
The urgency of the situation was underlined last night by the release of official figures showing jail numbers had risen by a further 90 in the last week, with 81,038 held in custody yesterday, including 351 prisoners locked in emergency police cells. The official capacity of the prison estate in England and Wales is just 81,442, including 400 police cells.
The new justice secretary, Jack Straw, yesterday said that about 1,000 offenders a month who are serving sentences of four years or less would be released 18 days early under the scheme: "This will carry on until we do get stability in the prison population," he said.
Mr Straw defended the scheme, saying that those who left prison yesterday had been carefully selected by prison governors and those who were serving more than 12 months would be under the supervision of a probation officer. Others would be recalled if they breach their licences.
He defended the payment of a discharge grant of £172 to each prisoner to cover subsistence payments in lieu of benefits, which they cannot claim until the end of their sentence. Families and friends waited to greet the released offenders outside prison gates across England and Wales yesterday.
At Walton prison, Liverpool, which was criticised by the chief inspector of prisons as severely overcrowded with its full-capacity population of 1,335, about 70 offenders were released. At HMP Leeds in Armley a 27-year-old man who walked free three days early after serving eight weeks for driving offences said: "It's all right for us. I'm happy." He said he was glad to be out as there were "way too many people in there." Another man nearby who did not want to be named said he was waiting for his father: "He's only been in prison for two weeks. It's ridiculous, but I'm well happy - we're going out for a drink tonight."
The daily prison population has risen from 66,000 in 2001 to more than 81,000.
The end of custody licence scheme is part of a wider package of emergency measures, including an accelerated jail building programme, to ease the prison crisis. The daily prison population has risen from 66,000 in 2001 to more than 81,000.
A radical extension in the use of bail hostels is expected to reduce prison numbers by a further 1,000. Ministers have, however, made clear they believe it will be necessary to keep Operation Safeguard - housing prisoners in police and court cells - going until the end of the year.
Juliet Lyon, of the Prison Reform Trust, said: "The sight of 1,000 people leaving prison early, ill-prepared for life outside, must prompt a new team of justice ministers to put aside panic measures and make sensible plans for the future."
Paul Cavadino of Nacro, the ex-offenders' charity, welcomed the move, saying it was the only immediately available way of relieving the prison population crisis.
#1
Alternate solutions:
Bring back the 'hulks' (of old ships) and prison barges in the Thames.
Capital punishment (lots).
Call Joe Arpaio for referrals to good tent suppliers.
Bloemfontein (April 2 - July 2, 1901 Total prisoners = 4339)
Deaths Men 33 Women 80 Children under 8 years 198
Total deaths 311
Infectious disease 101
Lung and heart disease 99
Typhoid, dysentery, diarrhoea 107
Debility, old age 4
Kroonstad (1 April - 26 May, 1901: Total prisoners = 2638)
Deaths Men 17 Women 20 Children under 8 years 67
Total deaths 104
Infectious disease 33
Lung and heart disease 30
Typhoid, dysentery, diarrhoea 39
Debility, old age 8
HONG KONG - Chinese President Hu Jintao, in Hong Kong to celebrate ten years since the end of colonial rule, was Saturday expected to face fresh calls for democracy in the former British territory. The Chinese leader Friday managed to avoid several protests held across the city, including one rally by pro-democracy activists, but demonstrators vowed to mass outside his hotel on Saturday before an official welcome banquet in his honour.
I am not sure how many slogans I can shout out before security guards pull me away, said radical lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung, vowing to demand democracy for Hong Kong and an apology from Hu for the bloody 1989 Tiananmen crackdown.
It was not clear if protesters would be allowed anywhere near his hotel, where a massive security cordon has been set up, with police vans lining the streets and officers guarding the surrounding area.
Later, a group of Buddhists were to ring a bell for two hours. Shortly before midnight, a group of pro-democracy activists were to stage a rally to urge the public to march on Sunday, to call for greater democracy in the city.
One of the pro-democracy lawmakers, barrister Ronny Tong, said Hong Kongs democrats had requested a meeting with Hu who is making only the fourth visit by a Chinese president since the handover but had not yet received a response. We wanted to speak to him about how we can reach a consensus on universal suffrage. We hoped to bridge misunderstanding and distrust, Tong said. We dont expect to have a chance to speak to the leader now.
China dismissed as groundless the contents of the reported declassified CIA documents on events leading up to the 1962 Sino-Indian war and went on to claim that positive progress has been made on the vexed boundary negotiations between the two countries.
"The comments are groundless," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a terse one-liner when asked to comment on reports which blamed the 1962 India-China war on Chinese perfidy, especially by late Premier Zhou en-Lai.
#3
China is the strategic threat, and we are the source of their growing power. Stop buying everything Chinese (interesting to see how that will work) and re-industrialize America. Moving manufacturing from China back to the US and customer service back from India (leaving a huge number of Indians with useless names like Steve)will reintroduce Americans to entry level jobs and reassert quality and confidence in our everyday goods and services.
#4
Too right, GC228. I become ever less amused at how our politicians seem to have no problem sending endless quantities of American dollars to our worst enemies. We finance both China and the MME (Muslim Middle East) with our money and this shit has got to stop.
#5
You volunteering to work a manufacturing job at Chinese wages, GC? Hell, even at twice the prevailing Chinese wage?
I worked light plastics for a few months when I was out of college with a useless liberal arts degree. The minimum-wage convenience store job that came afterwards was a step up.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
06/30/2007 9:39 Comments ||
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#6
You volunteering to work a manufacturing job at Chinese wages, GC? Hell, even at twice the prevailing Chinese wage?
Please recall how the Chinese wage structure and export pricing is completely manipulated, much like their currency. If China had to comply with environmental laws, health and safety codes, quality control and other such niggling little matters their cheap crap wouldn't be so cheap any more.
#7
Zenster: there you go making complete sense again. Do you really think there is anyone in DC that would even think about placing something something as odius as a 'duty' on incoming foreign goods that didn't have all those niggling details in place? working in the manufacturing sector, i would love to see that also, FWIW.
#8
I worked light plastics for a few months when I was out of college with a useless liberal arts degree. The minimum-wage convenience store job that came afterwards was a step up.
Ummm, Mitch, you took a job paying below Minimum Wage?
Bad choices do not mean "Oppression".
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/30/2007 12:57 Comments ||
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Chinas government has appointed a second non-Communist cabinet minister as the party seeks to burnish its reformist credentials before this years five-yearly congress and next years Beijing Olympic Games. French-trained scientist Chen Zhu, 54, was named health minister, handing him a difficult and sensitive portfolio at a time when the sector is debating extensive reform.
But the manner of Mr Chens appointment underlined the limits of his real powers, even as a minister in theory, the top job in the health bureaucracy. In a puzzling move, Gao Qiang, the present minister, was retained both as a vice-minister and as the secretary of the ministrys Communist party committee, meaning he will continue to outrank the minister.
Not being a party member, Mr Chen will be ineligible to attend the ministrys party meetings, creating a potentially awkward relationship with other officials.
Won't be awkward at all. He'll do as he's told.
Lacking party status and networks, he will also struggle to impose his own agenda on the ministry.
He won't have an agenda to impose.
Mr Chens appointment follows that of Wan Gang, a German-trained engineer who worked at Audi for many years who was made science minister this year.
As the party and its 70m-plus members control every other significant government post in the country, the ministerial appointments represent a symbolic rather than a substantive change. But such appointments do point to the partys rising sensitivity about its absolute monopoly on political power. The five-yearly congress, scheduled for late October, will choose the new top leadership, a process that has traditionally taken place out of sight of the public.
Is the Financial Times this clueless on the meaning of a 'figurehead'?
#1
Not being a party member, Mr Chen will be ineligible to attend the ministrys party meetings, creating a potentially awkward relationship with other officials.
More Chinese opera theater of the absurd from Beijing. Pure window dressing for the outsiders in order to ensure the success of their Olympics tourism fest. How the hell is a "health minister" supposed to fulfill his duties if he's not permitted to attend party meetings?
One thing is patently clear; China's intentions of cleaning up its tainted exports are a complete and total sham. Chen Zhu's "appointment" is living proof of this.
On June 24, hundreds gathered at the former site of Leáky village, east Bohemia, to commemorate the 65th anniversary of its destruction at the hands of the Nazis.
A week prior, on June 18, a similar group gathered at a church on New Towns Resslová street to remember the seven Czechoslovak Resistance fighters who died there 65 years ago during a shootout with the Gestapo.
Though separated by time and place, both tragedies were the fallout from one morning in May 1942 when resistance fighters attacked a Nazi convoy in Prague 8. As a result of that days events, one Nazi despot died, thousands of civilians were murdered and the future of the nation was cemented. We are talking about the assassination of the most important officer of the Third Reich, says military historian Michal Burian of the killing of Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich. The Czech nation paid a bloody tax for this deed, but it had declared its resistance to the occupation clearly in front of all the world.
But undercutting both remembrance ceremonies this month was a growing swell of protest that the government has failed to properly commemorate this episode of history. Speaking at the memorial ceremony in Leáky, Senate Chairman Petr Pithart told the Czech News Agency that a planned memorial chapel at the site of the razed village has yet to be built.
And years of stalling mean theres still no proper memorial in Prague 8 to the two men who assassinated Heydrich. Plans for one have snagged on disagreements over the nature of the memorial and its location. Fed up with waiting, two citizens groups secretly erected their own illegal memorials June 10 and 18. The two plaques were placed near the site of the assassination.
#1
I have to wonder at the timing of this, it's only been 53 years, surely there's been plenty of time to honor these heroes before now?
So "Why Now"?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/30/2007 12:50 Comments ||
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#2
It's been 53 years,but I don't think that the Soviets would have been interested in a commemeration of the assassination of occupiers. I don't know that I would agree with memorializing an assassination, but certainly a memorial to the town that was razed certainly is in order.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/30/2007 21:29 Comments ||
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Poland is threatening to reopen a bitter dispute about European Union voting rights after the countrys prime minister claimed his country had been sold short at last weeks summit.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, prime minister, said the voting issue, which threatened to derail EU treaty talks at the Brussels summit, was not yet fully settled for Poland. We have to finally resolve this issue at the intergovernmental conference being held by the EU from next month, Mr Kaczynski said, when asked if he planned to fight for Polands interpretation of the deal.
The proposal risks further deepening rifts between Poland and the rest of the EU if it unpicks part of the painful compromise reached on a revised version of the EU constitution.
Senior European leaders warned that the matter was closed, but Mr Kaczynski said closer examination of the deals fine print suggested Poland had not been given what it wanted. The warning has dismayed José Socrates, Portugals prime minister, who assumes the EU presidency tomorrow and who has the task of finalising technical work on the Unions reform treaty. Mr Socrates said Polands plan to reopen the deal appeared to be based on a misunderstanding. The mandate is very clear and precise on what has to be done. I am sure this is only a misunderstanding, he said.
But Mr Kaczynski said it was not a renegotiation but a question of putting on paper what had already been agreed informally on voting rights. Anna Fotyga, Polish foreign minister, called it a gentlemens agreement struck late at night with the German presidency.
His threat to block a new treaty won Poland a reprieve in the introduction of the new system until 2014. It will not come fully into effect until 2017. Now he claims there was a misunderstanding on a specific part of the deal which would allow a country to delay EU decisions if they are just short of enough votes to block them. Warsaw says it had agreed to a delay of two years in such cases, but EU officials say the deal was for decisions to be postponed only until the next EU summit. The summits are held three to four months apart.
That Poland agreed a deal without fully understanding it supports suspicions in the outgoing German EU presidency that Warsaw did not have the technical expertise to grasp the complexity of the negotiations. A purge by Polands ruling Kaczynski twins Mr Kaczynskis brother Lech is president has removed many experienced diplomats because of their links with Polands communist past.
A quarter of the countrys embassies are without ambassadors; it has no ambassador in Lisbon in spite of the new EU role about to be assumed by Portugal. José Manuel Barroso, Commission president, said adjustments to the treaty agreement could be discussed, but nothing that would contradict the agreement that was unanimously obtained.
#1
Take this excerpt from the article; "That Poland agreed a deal without fully understanding it supports suspicions in the outgoing German EU presidency that Warsaw did not have the technical expertise to grasp the complexity of the negotiations."
Interpretation speaks to the rules of the imbeded comintern, that by purging its former communists, that Poles now lack qualified members who might be admitted to full session meetings where the CP (com party) sits and ultimately steers policy.
This article should be read in the context of another article on this Daily Page where China appointed a non party member to its Directorship of Health services without portfolio. Same scenario extrapolated to different times occupying different spaces. Systems are only as good as thier sensory organs, and these pieces together illustrate that the CP control units will make changes only to the extent that gives the Systems an appearance of openess, when in fact this is all just slieght of hand.
The Poles are serious, the EU center is saying we cant admit you because it would change the centers dynamic and subsequently affect all 25 year plans........the CP has no intention of standing down to liberty.
NEW DELHI - In strategic groupings, India and United States are seen as being partners to dilute the influence of China. Recent events only underline such assertions. Suspicions refuse to die as far as India and China are concerned.
Recently declassified Central Intelligence Agency documents detail what the US saw as Chinese deception and Indian naivety that led to the 1962 war between the two sides. This will only add to the mutual distrust over the border issues.
Actually the declassified documents only confirm what has been known for many years and which Chou En Lai noted - Nehru was an useful idiot
New Delhi and Washington, meanwhile, are breaking new ground, including in defense-related matters. This week China asked India, the US, Japan and Australia, which are looking to form a quadripartite arrangement with Tokyo taking a lead, to be "open and inclusive".
"China believes that to enhance mutual trust, expand cooperation for mutual benefit, it must be open and inclusive," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gan, reacting to the first meeting of officials of India, the US, Japan and Australia in Manila last month on the sidelines of a Southeast Asian summit.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has sought to allay such anxieties, saying, "I have told Chinese President Hu Jintao that there's no question of ganging up against China. This group isn't a military alliance." (The focus is on disaster management and energy.)
However, there are other issues as well. Recently, Taiwanese presidential candidate and opposition leader Ma Ying-jeou visited India in what was termed a private and unofficial visit. Officials say the visit was to foster closer economic relations irrespective of India's diplomatic ties with Beijing. Ma met Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, top opposition leaders and business executives.
Some suggest that the Taiwanese politician's visit was planned as a reaction to the recent issue over the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh (AP), where armies clashed 40 years ago. China claimed that a senior Indian official from AP did not require a visa as AP was a part of China. In the past, too, Beijing's leaders have raised the "AP is part of China" issue whenever it has suited them.
Indian diplomats say the Ma visit was arranged in a manner meant not to offend Beijing, while at the same time sending a message that India too can up the ante and create irritants. Beijing let its discomfort become apparent, with the Chinese Foreign Ministry saying that the "relevant country should adhere to the 'one China' policy".
India has already been seeking out Japan as a partner in the region. The two countries find common cause in their bid to be permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. The first joint naval exercises of India, the US and Japan were held in April last year, much to the chagrin of Beijing.
Last week, the estimate for the cost of India's biggest infrastructure project, the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, with Japan as the official partner, was doubled to US$100 billion. The DMIC revision is ahead of discussions with a team from the Japanese government that is scheduled to visit early next month. The Japanese government and its corporate sector are estimated to be providing up to $30 billion in loans and investments in what would be one of Japan's biggest financial contributions to a single foreign project of this nature.
Though the Indo-US nuclear deal is still unconsummated, the two countries have made advances in other defense arrangements. The two signed a historic defense framework agreement in June 2005. The US has been keen to push the nuclear deal to leverage possible defense contracts with India. However, the country has been winning Indian purchases without the pact being finalized.
This month, the Indian Navy acquired its first US warship, the Trenton, rechristened INS Jalashwa, meaning "River Horse". INS Jalashwa is now the Indian Navys second-largest combat platform. India's cabinet committee on security approved the acquisition last July, for $400 million.
Last month, India and the US finalized a deal worth $1 billion involving the sale of C-130J Hercules transport planes. This is the single largest Indian military purchase to date from the United States.
This week, New Delhi granted permission for the US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz to dock at Chennai in early July. This is not the first US Navy visit to an Indian port, but New Delhi chose not to consult or inform the left-wing parties. The Nimitz will be the largest vessel of its kind to dock at an Indian port. Defense Minister A K Antony has said this is part of the ongoing Indo-US defense cooperation.
Leftist leader Sitaram Yechury has, however, severely castigated the government as a stooge in Washington's strategy to take on China and Iran. The Nimitz has been active in the Persian Gulf.
Meanwhile, the Indian and US navies have been conducting regular exercises. The Malabar series of India-US exercises have also broadened in scope over the years.
US companies will now be eyeing the 126 multi-role combat jets that India plans to purchase in the near future, in a deal that could be worth $10 billion. The makers of the F-16 and F/A-18 Super Hornet are already being seen as favorites to win the contract.
This week, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stressed the need to push the nuclear deal through. "I cannot tell you how much the world is watching to see if we can complete this. We need to get it done by the end of the year," she said.
In New Delhi, Manmohan said that "one or two issues" needed to be resolved in the nuclear deal and that he hopes it will be done soon. The deal is in a limbo as New Delhi has refused to accept any embargo on nuclear testing and fuel-reprocessing rights, as impinging on sovereignty.
There may be differences over opening of agriculture in multilateral world trade talks. But it is apparent that the US and India now stand together on strategic matters.
Posted by: John Frum ||
06/30/2007 15:30 ||
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heh - India can tweak the Chinese nose in many ways - the visit by Taiwan's guy was one
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/30/2007 19:46 Comments ||
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#2
India is important enough, that if the US and India decided to break the Chinese boycott of Taiwan, that would effectively torpedo the mainland's economic noose.
#4
I agree with OS. Israel and India are the best friends we have in the region. Its common sense to make the most of our relationship with both of those nations. In addition to the obvious reason of India hating terrorists as much as we do, they're also potential very useful wrt China.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
06/30/2007 22:16 Comments ||
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#5
Ima agreeing as well, and if we can tweak the Chinese, build a Japan/Aussie/India/US alliance, even better
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/30/2007 22:18 Comments ||
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MMA deputy secretary Liaqat Baloch has been elected the Public City Transport Action Committee of Punjab (PCTAC) chairman. He said at a press conference on Friday that rickshaw-wallahs and religious parties would go on strike through out Punjab on July 14 against the governments decision to ban two-stroke rickshaws in Lahore. He said the government should provide the owners of two-stroke rickshaws Rs 20,000 to convert their vehicles to four-stroke instead of giving subsidy on four-stroke rickshaws.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Some of these names look like a hamster was loose on the keyboard.
Iwegnleq Eryjfadjpoc disambiguated his fardels today during a very public intercourse with bystanders in the Punjab Integrated Management Program (PIMP).
With a much larger population, India had to build six hospitals for every one constructed by Pakistan and train six times the manpower just to keep its inferior status.
That Pakistan has now fallen so far behind, especially after the removal of its poorest part (now Bangladesh) shows the spending priorities of the Pak government.
Posted by: John Frum ||
06/30/2007 12:47 Comments ||
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#8
Meanwhile....
India, Japan to discuss Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor
India has fine-tuned an ambitious plan for the industrial corridor project and will make a presentation to the Japanese side to increase funding for the project, now expected to cost $90-100 billion.
The project entails the development of infrastructure along the 1,483-km dedicated freight corridor between New Delhi and Mumbai that includes the building of airports, setting up of several agro-processing parks and special economic zones, creating 4,000 MW of power generation facility and two ports in Gujarat and Maharashtra.
The industrial corridor project, which was initiated during Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Tokyo visit in December 2006, is likely to be finalised during Abe's visit to India in the last week of August.
The first phase of the project is expected to be completed by 2012. The second and the last phase of the project are expected to be completed by 2016.
Japan is keen to invest in India's infrastructure and make it a hub for production and exports to Europe and West Asia.
Posted by: John Frum ||
06/30/2007 12:59 Comments ||
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#9
Nice little bit of info, John Frum. I wouldn't mind buying something Made in India. It'd be nice if we could begin to see more of that in our stores and less Made in China especially since we've gotten so wimpy that we can no longer make anything ourselves.
Pakistan Peoples Party President Makhdoom Amin Fahim said on Friday his party would neither support the re-election of President Pervez Musharraf nor resign from the assemblies. Any attempt to postpone the elections will be foiled, Fahim told a press conference in New Jersey. We will fight against the dictatorship and foil all attempts to postpone the general elections, he added.
He said all citizens of Pakistan of above 18 years had the right to vote as per Constitution. About an oppositions all parties conference, Fahim, who also heads the ARD, said the conference should conveyed a message to the nation that it should not accept any army general again. The PPP leader said, All military rulers from Gen Ayub Khan to President Musharraf have destroyed national institutions.
He said the history have shown that whenever an army general comes to power he had attacked the judiciary. But now the judiciary is struggling for its independence and the movement launched by lawyers is commendable, he said. About the provincial autonomy, the PPP leader said the matter could be settled by restoring the 1973 Constitution. To another question, he said his party would never support President Musharraf whether he was in uniform or not. If it comes to power, he said, the PPP would change the foreign policy to suit the national interest. Special emphasis will be laid on improving relations with the neighboring countries, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2007 00:00 ||
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Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has cancelled its Sindh Council meeting in London after the British High Commission (BHC) here refused visas to the councils senior members including parliamentarians, Daily Times learnt on Friday. Those who were refused visas included Nisar Khoro, leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly, Ms Shamshad Sattar Bachani, directly elected MNA from NA-223, Hyderabad, and Khurshid Junejo, former district nazim of Larkana, said the sources.
A senior leader of the party when contacted confirmed the news on condition of anonymity. Most of the leaders who were refused visas were divisional presidents of the party, said the sources, adding, they had submitted new passports for visas. Khoro had applied for a family visa, said the sources.
When contacted the BHC neither denied nor confirmed the news but stated that they evaluated all the visa applications on individual basis irrespective of peoples political affiliations.
The Sindh Council members including divisional and district presidents were invited to London by the partys chairwoman Benazir Bhutto to finalise the party candidates for the forthcoming general elections. Ms Bhutto has also invited the partys Federal Council (FC), Central Executive Committee (CEC) and provincial and division leadership to finalise the candidates for the general elections. These meetings are scheduled to take place from mid of July to the end of month.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2007 00:00 ||
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JERUSALEM - Israels disgraced president Moshe Katsav resigned on Friday after signing a controversial plea bargain that will see him convicted of sexual offences but escape jail for initial rape charges. The father of five, who suspended himself from duty in January over the worst scandal to befall an Israeli leader, sent a letter of resignation by courier to parliament speaker Dalia Itzik, a senior aide to Katsav told AFP. His resignation will take effect in 48 hours, when Itzik will be named interim president and the state prosecution will indict Katsav.
The Iranian-born president was forced out of his seven-year term in office some two weeks before Nobel peace laureate Shimon Peres is officially sworn in as his successor, having been elected Israels ninth president this month. I wish to end the term of my office two weeks in advance and therefore I announce my resignation, Katsav wrote in the letter to Itzik, according to parliamentary sources.
The 61-year-old and Israels first head of state born in an Islamic country on Thursday signed the deal, admitting to a series of sex offences, including harassment and indecent acts, but dropping two rape charges. The plea bargain sparked a wave of national outrage.
In a rare departure, the International Committee of the Red Cross on Friday publicly slammed Burmas military junta for human rights abuses that it said had caused immense suffering to civilians and prisoners.
Jakob Kellenberger, the ICRC president, denounced the military regime for violating international humanitarian law by murdering civilians, forcing prisoners to serve as army porters in combat areas strewn with landmines and destroying village food stocks.
The abuses recounted in thousands of interviews between 2000 and 2005 occurred mainly in eastern Burma along the Thai border, where the military has spent decades battling ethnic minority insurgents, including the Karen National Union.
The Geneva-based ICRC normally expresses concern about humanitarian violations confidentially to governments, hoping quiet dialogue will lead to improvements.
In the past two decades, its sparing public criticism has been restricted to the Iran-Iraq war in 1987; Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1992; Rwanda in 1994; and Israel in 2004 over the route of the West Bank barrier.
But Mr Kellenberger said Burmas military junta has consistently refused to enter into a serious discussion of these abuses with a view towards putting a stop to them, prompting the agencys rare public denunciation.
The militarys actions have helped to create a climate of constant fear among the population and have forced thousands of people to join the ranks of the internally displaced, or to flee abroad, the agency said.
Meanwhile, the institutionalised and widespread practice of forcing prisoners to carry army supplies in the landmine littered conflict zone has subjected detainees to the dangers of armed conflict. Along with malnutrition and exhaustion, prisoners used as porters had suffered abuse, degrading treatment, while some had been murdered.
The ICRCs statement which is likely to heighten international concern over a little-seen conflict comes days after Eric John, the US deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia, met Burmese cabinet ministers in Beijing where he pressed for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Prize-winning democracy leader, and other political prisoners.
#1
The Geneva-based ICRC normally expresses concern about humanitarian violations confidentially to certain governments, hoping quiet dialogue will lead to improvements.
The rush for biofuels is causing massive environmental damage and must be halted, a campaign group claims. Whole ecosystems are being destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people are being thrown off their land to make way for the crops needed to make biofuel, it alleges.
The charity Grain ...
Who?
... says there has been a stampede towards biofuels - an alcohol-based fuel made from crops and trees planted on a large scale - as a 'greener' alternative to fossil fuels. But it claims that some biofuels are as damaging as traditional fuels and there is hardly any saving on carbon emissions.
For its hard-hitting report Grain claims it has gathered material from around the world and concluded that the rush to biofuels is causing enormous environmental and social damage.
#4
I was impressed that this group actually looked at data rather than just emoting their way to public policy. They're one up on the Gorester at least.
#5
Is there anything that doesn't damage the environment?
Probably not. We are well beyond hunter-gatherer population densities in most places. Providing food and energy will therefore leave some sort of "footprint". Absent functional fusion power generation, nuclear power is the only viable alternative at this point. Even Greenpeace finally admits this. One can only imagine how much their vocal opposition has caused damaging polarization on the issue of constructing more reactors. A hydrogen economy is one of the few prospects with any real potential for minimizing environmental impact. Towards that end, building more nuclear reactors makes ultimate sense.
#6
Unfortunately, advocating nuclear power won't put contributions in Greenpeace's purse. Eventually they will come such a 'reluctant' conclusion, but only after their contributors and most vocal supporters accept it.
#7
Unfortunately, advocating nuclear power won't put contributions in Greenpeace's purse. Eventually they will come such a 'reluctant' conclusion, but only after their contributors and most vocal supporters accept it.
Pappy, reality has already gobsmacked these gits long ago. The guy's language reveals what a total loon he still is.
In the early 1970s when I helped found Greenpeace, I believed that nuclear energy was synonymous with nuclear holocaust, as did most of my compatriots. That's the conviction that inspired Greenpeace's first voyage up the spectacular rocky northwest coast to protest the testing of U.S. hydrogen bombs in Alaska's Aleutian Islands. Thirty years on, my views have changed, and the rest of the environmental movement needs to update its views, too, because nuclear energy may just be the energy source that can save our planet from another possible disaster: catastrophic climate change.
[emphasis added]
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.
More than 45 people died in Balochistan on Friday, while the total death count exceeded 200 following massive flooding throughout Sindh, Balochistan and the NWFP.
Up to 1,200 "non-dangerous" offenders walked out of prison up to 18 days early yesterday as the government's emergency package to ease the jails crisis was put into effect.
HONG KONG - Chinese President Hu Jintao, in Hong Kong to celebrate ten years since the end of colonial rule, was Saturday expected to face fresh calls for democracy in the former British territory. The Chinese leader Friday managed to avoid several protests held across the city, including one rally by pro-democracy activists, but demonstrators vowed to mass outside his hotel on Saturday before an official welcome banquet in his honour.
Poland is threatening to reopen a bitter dispute about European Union voting rights after the countrys prime minister claimed his country had been sold short at last weeks summit.
Pakistan Peoples Party President Makhdoom Amin Fahim said on Friday his party would neither support the re-election of President Pervez Musharraf nor resign from the assemblies. Any attempt to postpone the elections will be foiled, Fahim told a press conference in New Jersey. We will fight against the dictatorship and foil all attempts to postpone the general elections, he added. 
JERUSALEM - Israels disgraced president Moshe Katsav resigned on Friday after signing a controversial plea bargain that will see him convicted of sexual offences but escape jail for initial rape charges. The father of five, who suspended himself from duty in January over the worst scandal to befall an Israeli leader, sent a letter of resignation by courier to parliament speaker Dalia Itzik, a senior aide to Katsav told AFP. His resignation will take effect in 48 hours, when Itzik will be named interim president and the state prosecution will indict Katsav.
In a rare departure, the International Committee of the Red Cross on Friday publicly slammed Burmas military junta for human rights abuses that it said had caused immense suffering to civilians and prisoners. 
