A tiny urn of ashes bearing only the inscription, Soldier of Orange will solemnly be carried from an aeroplane at Amsterdam airport on Thursday. For Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, who is rumoured to have planned a royal reception, it will be a poignant moment: the return to his native soil of the remains of Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema, Holland's most heroic and decorated Second World War resistance fighter.
The death of Roelfzema, 90, announced yesterday, has saddened a nation and reminded the world of the brave opponents of the Nazis who risked everything in the struggle for their people's freedom.
Queen Beatrix expressed ''great sadness" and Jan Peter Balkenende, the Dutch prime minister, described Roelfzema as ''a great patriot and a very special person".
He died last week at his home in Honoka'a in Hawaii, where he had lived since 1973.
It was Roelfzema, known in Holland as the Soldier of Orange because of his close links to the Royal Family, who piloted the plane that brought the Queen's late parents, Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard, out of exile and back to Holland after the war. And it was he who accompanied the then seven-year-old Princess Beatrix as she took her first footstep on to her newly liberated homeland. He served at one stage as an adjutant to the House of Orange and it is widely believed that Prince Bernhard was resentful of Roelfzema's close relationship with Queen Juliana.
Roelfzema's wartime exploits are the stuff of legend. He wrote an autobiography, called Soldaat van Oranje, which was turned into a Golden Globe-winning and Oscar-nominated film by Paul Verhoeven.
In the book, Roelfzema revealed how, as a student when Germany invaded Holland, he survived a bloody firefight with Nazi soldiers and smuggled himself to Britain. Once here, he took part in a series of daring raids to deliver radio equipment to Holland and bring back fellow resistance fighters. In the early 1940s he joined the Royal Air Force, flying for the Pathfinders, whose role was to illuminate targets for Bomber Command.
Yet before war broke out in 1939, Roelfzema was an unlikely patriot. A spoiled and lacklustre schoolboy, he struggled to win a place at Leiden University and, once there, Roelfzema paid scant attention to his studies. Instead he concentrated on drinking with friends.
When hostilities started in 1939 Roelfzema supposed that Holland would remain neutral as it had during the First World War. Once it became clear that this was not to be the case, he swiftly developed strong loyalties to his country. He joined up but almost immediately the Nazis occupied Holland. Roelfzema and several friends smuggled themselves on board a boat to Britain.
Once in London, he set up a secret service group, called the Mews after Chester Square Mews, with the leaders of the Dutch Central Intelligence Agency and the Secret Intelligence Service. Their goal was to establish links with the Dutch resistance by parachuting in agents. Roelfzema undertook dangerous missions, managing to drop dozens of fighters on the beaches of Noordwijk and Scheveningen.
His courage was never in question but Roelfzema's volatile temperament and single-minded stubbornness often landed him in trouble. He was threatened with court martial for countermanding orders but the matter was dropped when he was awarded the Willemsorde, Holland's highest military decoration, for bravery. Before long Roelfzema became frustrated with the cloak and dagger tactics and joined the RAF. He trained to fly in Canada, passing out as the best cadet in his squadron. Roelfzema joined the Pathfinder Force with whom he -carried out 72 missions 25 of them to Berlin.
In April 1945, he was appointed adjutant to Queen Juliana, which led to his triumphant return to Holland with the Royal Family. But before long he became restless, finding it difficult to acclimatise to civilian life. Roelfzema moved to Hollywood, enticed by the notion of becoming a film star, but his acting career came to nothing.
He became involved with the Racing Team Holland motor sports group and, in 1970, published his autobiography. Verhoeven made it into a film seven years later, casting a then-unknown Rutger Hauer in the title role. Roelfzema and Hauer became lifelong friends. When the actor heard of Roelfzema's death he described him as a ''heroic and patriotic man." Hauer said he was: ''My second father, my friend and my mentor."
#2
Once again, nobody does an obit like the Brits.
What a brave and special man.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/30/2007 0:45 Comments ||
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He died last week at his home in Honoka'a in Hawaii, where he had lived since 1973.
At least he had the wisdom to abandon Europe's slow decline into dhimmitude in favor of enjoying America's own island paradise. Let's all hope he found comfort with some voluptuous wahines to ease his well-deserved golden years.
The death of Roelfzema, 90, announced yesterday, has saddened a nation and reminded the world of the brave opponents of the Nazis who risked everything in the struggle for their people's freedom.
Not nearly enough, elsewise Islam would not be making such inroads in Europe.
Scores of candidates and officials have been murdered in Colombia ahead of Oct. 28 local elections by leftist rebels and new gangs replacing right-wing militias that once brutally ruled provincial politics. With a month to go before ballots are cast, the government says there have been 69 political murders in this campaign season, including 27 candidates, 13 town council members, five campaign volunteers and a campaign manager.
In the last nationwide local elections campaign four years ago, 94 people were killed by illegal groups including well-organized paramilitary militias, most of which have since disbanded under a government peace plan.
But thousands of former "paras" have joined a new generation of Colombian gang with no ideology or agenda other than to bribe or cow politicians into turning a blind eye toward their extortion and drug-smuggling businesses. "We are seeing new drug-trafficking groups that include some former paramilitaries but not with the same organization as the paramilitaries," Deputy Interior Minister Maria Isabel Nieto told Reuters on Friday.
Crime is down in Colombia thanks to President Alvaro Uribe's U.S.-backed crackdown on leftist guerrillas. Still, Nieto said the rebels are behind nearly half of this year's political murders. The government has provided bodyguards, bulletproof vests and armored cars for some candidates in a bid to reduce political violence. It says such measures have helped foil 35 attacks this year.
Colombia's right-wing paramilitary groups were organized in the 1980s to help landowners beat back communist insurgents. More than 31,000 paramilitaries have demobilized in a deal offering reduced jail terms for crimes such as massacre and torture. The rebels remain at war with the state and often threaten to kill people if they vote at all.
More than half of Colombia's towns face intimidation ahead of the October vote, according to an independent study released this week that the government says exaggerates the threat. The report by universities and human rights groups said 576 towns around the country are at risk of political violence.
In a bold jab before a key meeting of China's Communists, a 90-year-old former secretary to Mao Zedong has urged the Party to embrace democracy, saying that only political freedom can end instability and corruption.
Li Rui issued his demand for citizens' rights and legal shackles on Party power in a Beijing magazine, China Across the Ages (Yanhuang Chunqiu), just over two weeks before President Hu Jintao opens the 17th Party Congress, which is set to give him five more years in power. Hu cautiously has signaled modest political adjustments under strict one-party limits. But in a sign that liberal reformers may feel emboldened to press for bigger steps, Li argued that tinkering was not enough.
In the October edition of the outspoken magazine, Li said his country could be dragged back into past decades of chaos unless long-delayed democratization catches up with three decades of market reforms, ending the Party's "privileged status."
"Our Party must lead the way in exemplary enforcement of the Constitution and guaranteeing that the people enjoy their civic rights of freedom of expression, freedom of news, freedom of publication and freedom of association"
"I believe that reforming our Party is the crux that will decide the success or failure of all of China's reforms," wrote Li. He joined the Communists in 1937 and served as revolutionary founder Mao's biographer and secretary in the 1950s and later as a senior official under economic reformer Deng Xiaoping. "Our Party must lead the way in exemplary enforcement of the Constitution and guaranteeing that the people enjoy their civic rights of freedom of expression, freedom of news, freedom of publication and freedom of association."
Li's challenge to one-party control is the boldest yet in a series of strikingly candid calls for liberalization from older Party intellectuals this year. Purged by Mao for doubting the calamitous policies of the Great Leap Forward of the late 1950s, Li remains influential among liberals shunted aside after the bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests, although he does not have much sway over those now in office.
But the open publication of Li's call on the sensitive eve of the Congress suggests that Hu has not been able to still calls for political relaxation even from within the Party.
Earlier this year, China Across the Ages published an essay that lamented Soviet socialism as an abject failure and urged China's Communists to follow the Nordic "democratic socialist" model of respecting social equality and political liberty. "Freedom of expression is the essential condition of democracy," is the title of an essay in the September issue of China Across the Ages, which is sponsored by old Party reformers.
Li argued that only empowered citizens could end the corruption he said was rotting the foundations of Party rule.
Li called for citizens to be encouraged to defend their rights, for legislation to protect a free news media from censorship, and for strict constitutional yokes on the long unfettered Communist Party.
He called for citizens to be encouraged to defend their rights, for legislation to protect a free news media from censorship, and for strict constitutional yokes on the long unfettered Communist Party.
Contacted by Reuters, Li's family said it was "inconvenient" for him to talk and he could not answer any questions. When Hu took power about five years ago, Li circulated a similar call for reform that stirred controversy and prompted the closure of a newspaper that reprinted it. People familiar with that earlier call have told Reuters a privately-circulated version pressed the Party to admit Deng's 1989 crackdown was a mistake.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has said it will be a long time before his country is ready to directly elect even low-ranking officials, arguing that swift reform would be a recipe for chaos. China has nothing to fear from full-fledged democracy, Li wrote, adding that it "will only promote social stability."
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In a bold jab before a key meeting of China's Communists, a 90-year-old former secretary to Mao Zedong has urged the Party to embrace democracy, saying that only political freedom can end instability and corruption.
I foresee the strong liklyhood of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome in Li Rui's future.
#2
... only political freedom can end instability and corruption.
Cause we know how well that works in Massachusetts, New Jersey, St. Louis, etc. Democracy by its own definition is instability. The key to good democracy is to avoid the consolidation of power. And any governmental social system is going to have corruption, its the nature of power. You need to spend the resources and effort to suppress corruption like murder, robbery, rape, etc. By reducing the concentration of power, you reduce the corruption. In return you accept a degree of chaos and inefficiencies and injustices, cause the alternative is clearly more destructive of 'freedom' in the long run.
#3
Approaching it directly may be less effective than if he called for a multi-party split *from* the communist party, based on a current factional division. This would mean that those currently in power would stay in power, but would compete with each other to continue to stay in power.
Each faction would then create its own leadership, and each region in China would appoint its own representatives, much like how the US States originally appointed US senators.
Democracy wouldn't begin from the top down, but from the bottom up.
SAN LUIS, Ariz. The federal government's border fencing effort has accelerated rapidly in recent weeks with barriers rising in towns from California to New Mexico and workers completing the longest stretch of continuous fencing on the U.S.-Mexico frontier. The Department of Homeland Security reached its goal of completing 70 miles of new fencing by the end of this month, nearly doubling the length of barriers on the border to about 145 miles.
"When we make a commitment, we will carry through on the commitment," said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who went to Arizona on Friday to mark the progress and welded part of the fence in the town of Douglas.
Sure, okay Mike. I confess to being a little impressed, though, because I figured they'd just blow the money on 'virtual' fences, doing no one any good except Boeing. The physical fence going up is (by the picture accompanying the story at the link) really nothing more than a single layer of tube steel and chain link, and not the sort of fence that some Burgers believe is necessary, but I'm still a little amazed that ANY fence is being built.
Whether the new fencing slows illegal immigration remains to be seen, but the project is a milestone in another way. Once limited mainly to cities, fencing along the 1,952-mile border is now going up in rural areas, where much of the illegal immigration traffic has shifted in recent years.
Fleets of tractor-trailers loaded with fence posts and steel tubing have been crossing remote highways and deserts. Crews of National Guard troops spend hours welding raw materials under tarps. In some areas, contractors are installing the barriers at a pace of about half a mile per day.
That's a pretty good pace. I doubt it can be sustained in rough territory and in urban areas, but it does suggest that a good portion of the fence could be done in a year -- something the critics said could never happen.
A line of towering steel now slices for about 32 miles through a sea of sand from San Luis to the Tinajas Altas mountains. The fence, built to prevent incursions on the Barry M. Goldwater Range, is now the longest on the border, more than twice as long as the 14-mile fence separating San Diego from Tijuana.
"This is going to be a rude awakening for the crowds [of immigrants] that come in the fall," said Welby Redwine, a Boeing Co. engineer overseeing work in a canyon crisscrossed by smuggling trails in the Tinajas Altas mountains, 40 miles from the nearest town. "When they see it they're going to say, 'Wow, what happened?' "
In the vast Altar Valley, where hundreds of immigrants have died of dehydration over the years trying to reach Tucson 70 miles away, a 15-foot-high steel-tube fence is rising.
Which in and of itself is a humanitarian service, stopping the 'coyotes' from dumping people in the desert without so much as a bottle of water.
Authorities hope the fence can slow the busiest illegal immigration corridor in the country, where more than 1 million people have crossed in recent years.
In Calexico, Calif., the same style of fencing will block a 7-mile stretch where smugglers have had easy access to launch boats across the All American Canal into California. Other fencing has been built in the Arizona border towns of Naco and Douglas, and in Columbus, N.M. And the government plans to break ground in coming months on new projects from California to Texas.
The progress marks an abrupt turnaround from one month ago, when the Homeland Security Department reported having completed only 15 of the 70 miles promised by Sept. 30, drawing criticism from many Republicans and activists against illegal immigration.
The Secure Fence Act, which President Bush signed into law last fall, called for 700 miles of new fencing. The administration set a goal of completing nearly 300 miles by the end of 2008. The project got off to a slow start because of environmental assessments, land acquisition and fencing design that had to be completed before the start of construction, officials said.
The recent rapid pace of fence construction has been welcome news to federal border officials whose broader security plan -- called the Secure Border Initiative -- has experienced setbacks in recent weeks. An Arizona project to line the border with camera towers as part of a high-tech "virtual fence" is behind schedule. Chertoff has suspended funding to project overseer Boeing Co. until progress is made.
New barriers have had an effect in San Luis, once one of the busiest crossing points in the nation. Immigrants by the hundreds would jump over the steel-mat fencing and disappear into nearby neighborhoods. That route is now blocked by two new layers of fencing: a 15-foot-high steel-mesh secondary barrier and a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire.
Now that sounds like a fence.
The number of illegal immigrants apprehended daily in the area has dropped from 800 to as low as 15, according to Border Patrol officials.
Border experts say it is too soon to determine the overall success or failure of the effort, pointing out that previous fencing projects, most notably in San Diego, shifted immigrant traffic elsewhere.
Which is why we'll need a fence eventually from San Diego to Brownsville. But one point of a fence is to channel people to areas where the Border Patrol can have a stronger presence.
U.S. Border Patrol Chief David V. Aguilar, in an interview in San Diego, said the plan to complete about 225 more miles of fencing next year would anticipate shifts in immigration patterns, much of it controlled by smuggling rings. "For the first time," Aguilar said, "we're getting ahead of where the criminal organizations are going to go."
#2
perhaps a fence along our northern boarder might be something to think about as well
Posted by: Hupusoth Scourge of the Infinitesmal7702 ||
09/30/2007 13:53 Comments ||
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#3
finish the South fence first :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/30/2007 13:56 Comments ||
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#4
I figured they'd just blow the money on 'virtual' fences
I'm all for virtual fences as long as they involve autonomous kill-bots!
Something to remember about real fences is that even if they are not contiguous, they serve to channel and concentrate traffic which reduces the area you need to patrol. More is better!
#5
Instead of either/or, we could have both. Physical barriers can break down, the technology isn't perfected yet. Put them together you have a stronger capability.
#9
South fence first. The illegals are fleeing the round-ups by crossing north into Canada.
Then the Border Patrol can determine which sections need the additional layers, like in San Luis. That'll be relatively easy, because the permits will already be in place. I'm glad things were happening below our radar.
Hundreds of lawyers were repeated pushed back as they surged ahead time and again on Saturday noon by a heavy contingent of police that had besieged the Karachi Bar Associations premises, anticipating trouble after a protest call.
KBA members attended an emergency general body meeting at 11:00 a.m. after which they came out to stage a protest on main M.A. Jinnah road where the police were waiting to check their movement ahead of time.
The groups of lawyers were forced to retreat by batteries of policemen in riot gear. They pushed the lawyers back into the alley in front of the KBA office. This led to some stone pelting from the lawyers side as the police responded with baton charge.
Four lawyers, including Salahuddin Gandapur of the Sindh Bar Council, were arrested and shifted to an undisclosed location. Meanwhile, the police also arrested and bundled away 11 workers of NGOs and civil society who had gathered in front of the provincial Election Commission, Sindh. Later, District and Sessions Judge South on a complaint by Javed Burki, counsel for Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, ordered judicial magistrate Ashique Ali Ghauri to conduct raids to recover the detained. The police also attempted to arrest a number of KBA office bearers including its honorary secretary, but failed. The entire legal fraternity has supported a boycott of court proceedings on Monday also.
Security forces on Saturday charged a crowd of about 100 protesters in the centre of Myanmars main city Yangon, beating many of them and arresting about five, witnesses said.
The group had gathered on the Pansoedan bridge in downtown Yangon, and as soon as they started to clap their hands, the squad of about 50 security forces swooped and began attacking them, they said. United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari arrived in Myanmar on Saturday and was headed straight to the capital, Naypyidaw, for talks with junta leaders, sources said. He will go directly to Naypyidaw, a Western diplomat said. A European diplomat summoned Myanmars charge daffairs in Brussels to explain the possible tightening of sanctions against his strife-torn country, a spokeswoman said on Saturday.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/30/2007 00:00 ||
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Posted by: Fred ||
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AAAS took the incident reports and combed over commercially available satellite images of around 2,000 sq. km of the country, searching for before and after pictures that would visually confirm what the human rights groups were telling them. The satellites can see objects as small as 60 cm across, and in 31 out of 70 attempts, researchers were able find physical evidence village houses that had disappeared, the sudden appearance of military camps that corresponded with the reports. "As these attacks take place, there's often denial from the military government," says Bromley. "If you can put together an image of the aftermath of an attack, it discredits that denial."
This is an absolutely outstanding example of high technology being used to combat tyranny and crimes against humanity. Much like Zimbabwe, Burma is yet another example of massive human rights abuses being cloaked by secretive despots. I would cheerfully contribute to a campaign whereby single-purpose satellite cell phones are air-dropped into conflict areas like this so that confirming reports can reach the outside world.
Actually, I'm surprised that Time is even reporting on this. I suppose that they must feel a rather urgent need to preserve at least some minute vestige of their reportorial integrity. Too bad that this same level of observation and publicity is not being applied to Chinese pollution, Islamic population displacements and the usual nefarious activities of those who treat our world as their own personal litter box.
The last time Burmese soldiers fired on their own people there were few witnesses, and those who were there had no way of telling the story. Two decades and a technological revolution later, the protesters challenging the government are ready to risk their lives so the world can hear their story. Armed with mobile phone cameras, they have become the eyes of the "saffron revolution".
No foreign TV crews have been able to enter the country and networks such as the BBC and CNN have been forced to report from neighbouring Thailand. From the point of view of television, the situation is the same as it was in 1988, when the massacre of nearly 3,000 people went unreported by most TV news programmes.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/30/2007 00:00 ||
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The cell phone camera may well end up being one of those ubiquitous consumer products that cause a huge paradigm shift in global culture. Witnesses to all sorts of criminal and despotic acts immediately will be able to bring them to the world's attention. It will be no surprise if these simple mobile devices prove far more effective in combatting evil than all of the public monitoring cameras combined. Anyone who doubts this need only note how repressive countries like Saudi Arabia already have attempted to outlaw them. This can only speak well on behalf of such elementary technology.
A U.N. special envoy arrived in Myanmar today for talks with the country's military rulers, whose ruthless crackdown on anti-government protesters has sparked international outrage. The streets of Myanmar's main city, Yangon, were virtually empty of demonstrators for the first time in nearly two weeks and devoid of the gunfire and chaos that marked three days of violent suppression by soldiers and police. Security forces continued to patrol and seal off parts of the city, including the monasteries whose monks spearheaded the protests.
After landing in Yangon this afternoon, U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari immediately traveled to the new capital of Naypyidaw, about 240 miles to the north, where the generals who rule Myanmar live in relative isolation from the people.
Details of Gambari's schedule were not available, nor was it clear whether he would be allowed to visit Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and pro-democracy leader who has lived under house arrest for most of the last 18 years. "I expect to meet all the people that I need to meet," Gambari told reporters in Singapore before departing for Myanmar, also known as Burma. He did not elaborate.
In Washington, Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council at the White House, urged Myanmar's leaders to give Gambari "access to all those he wishes to meet with, including religious leaders as well as Aung San Suu Kyi."
Analysts question how much Gambari, a former foreign minister of Nigeria, can achieve in discussions with an iron-fisted junta that has repeatedly shown itself impervious to outside pressure. His mission to Myanmar reflects the growing international concern and anger arising from the generals' brutal clampdown on protesters, in which the government acknowledges that 10 people have been killed. Diplomats and dissident groups estimate the true death toll to be many times that figure, possibility as high as 200.
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Analysts question how much Gambari, a former foreign minister of Nigeria, can achieve in discussions with an iron-fisted junta that has repeatedly shown itself impervious to outside pressure.
From Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
Three Iranian-Americans who were released from Iranian detention in September were reportedly all held in section 209 of Tehran's Evin prison. The three -- academics Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh and peace activist Ali Shakeri -- are only a few of those who have been held there. They also include Amir Kabir University students Ahmad Ghasaban, Majid Tavakoli, and Ehsan Mansuri, who remain in Evin.
The ward is the detention center for Iran's political prisoners and is said to be run by Iran's Intelligence Ministry. It is also thought to be beyond the control of bodies like Iran's prisons authority. In recent months, numerous reports of harsh conditions in section 209 have led Iranian officials to comment on the situation there.
A top judge within the prosecutor's office, Hassan Hadad, told Iran's official news agency IRNA earlier this month that section 209 is the best detention center in the world. He added that "some prisoners tell us they want to be transferred to the section 209."
Sudabe Ardavan is a former political prisoner who was held in section 209 during the early years after the Iranian revolution. She gives a daunting account of her experience in prison. "At about 4 or 5 p.m. they would turn off the lights in our cells," Ardavan says. "Only a little bit of light would get in from a tiny window near the ceiling. After sunset, we were left completely in the dark, so we could do nothing but sleep. But when we put our heads down, we heard voices from the basement, where prisoners were tortured. At night, when things quieted down, they came to collect the death-row inmates. One of my cellmates was a 15-year-old girl. Every day, they would take her down to the basement and interrogate her. She described the place as resembling a bathroom, with dirty walls and a mix of blood and water on the floor." ....
Human rights activist Shiva Nazar Ahari was kept at Evin for one month in 2001. At night "we could do nothing but sleep. But when we put our heads down, we heard voices from the basement, where prisoners were tortured."
Kianush Sanjari, a former inmate of ward 209, claims to know prisoners who committed suicide under the pressure that they had to endure at Evin. "I know prisoners who committed suicide because of the pressure in that ward, including Hamid Reza Mohammadi, who was in touch with an opposition television station based outside Iran." ... After enduring five months in solitary confinement, Mohammadi could no longer bear the situation and cut his veins with a spoon. According to Sanjari, another prisoner he knew hanged himself with his own clothes.
But not all former Evin inmates recount the same gruesome stories. Bahare Hedajat, a member of Iran's largest pro-reform student group, Daftare Tahkim Vahdat, was recently released from Evin's ward 209. Hedajat says she never witnessed physical torture at Evin. But she stresses that solitary confinement causes great psychological distress.
The families of Amir Kabir students held in section 209 have alleged that the three have been subjected to physical and psychological torture. .... Amnesty International reported on September 26 that the families of the three Amir Kabir students were asked to go to the office of Tehran's chief prosecutor, Said Mortazavi, on 19 August. Mortazavi reportedly warned the families, saying they should not have given interviews or divulged information about section 209. As a result, he is said to have told them that the students would be held in solitary confinement and forbidden from family visits or telephoning them.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
SAN LUIS, Ariz. The federal government's border fencing effort has accelerated rapidly in recent weeks with barriers rising in towns from California to New Mexico and workers completing the longest stretch of continuous fencing on the U.S.-Mexico frontier. The Department of Homeland Security reached its goal of completing 70 miles of new fencing by the end of this month, nearly doubling the length of barriers on the border to about 145 miles.
Hundreds of lawyers were repeated pushed back as they surged ahead time and again on Saturday noon by a heavy contingent of police that had besieged the Karachi Bar Associations premises, anticipating trouble after a protest call.
