PENNSVILLE, N.J. (AP) - Rather than simply welcoming drivers to the Garden State, a new billboard greeting people entering New Jersey over the Delaware Memorial Bridge slams the state's business climate.
"Welcome to New Jersey. A horrible place to do business," reads the billboard message.
The glaring, red capital letters represent the revenge - misguided, according to officials - of a developer upset with the state's environmental regulators.
William Juliano, whose company is based in Mount Laurel, makes his feelings clear in the third of the four sentences on the cryptic billboard, which he put up just in time for the Memorial Day weekend: "DEP nightmare state."
Back in 1990, Juliano, who has built shopping centers, convenience stores, office buildings and hotels, bought some land in a prime spot near the Delaware Memorial Bridge, which is traveled by 17.5 million people each way each year.
On the land near Interchange 1 of the New Jersey Turnpike, Juliano has built a Hampton Inn and a Cracker Barrel restaurant. He also planned to build a truck stop on the land.
A previous owner received state approval for the truck stop in 1985. But the state now says the land is in a wetlands area and is unsuitable for either a truck stop or a Home Depot, which Juliano proposed building there last year.
Juliano says not being allowed to build what he wants is a symptom of bigger problems. He says the DEP has a staffer in charged of "delaying, hindering and, in general, causing havoc with their permitting process." Other developers are leaving New Jersey because of the issue, Juliano said.
"They (state officials) are antibusiness," he said. "And the state is run by environmentalists." Typical of all blue states. And that is why their economies are almost flat lined and the south and western states are going gangbusters in comparison. source of state by state data
#2
It also doesn't help that the taxes are outrageous, the civil service is corrupt, and the politicians are owned by the mob. I think just about the only way to clean the state out is to line up the bureaucrats and politicians and kill every tenth one. Or maybe every fifth one.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
06/02/2005 13:40 Comments ||
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#3
politicians are owned by the mob Democrats
Or is that just two ways of saying the same thing?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
06/02/2005 13:53 Comments ||
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Heh. Yes, in NJ the terms are interchangeable, RC.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
06/02/2005 14:06 Comments ||
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California isn't all that far back, as far as I'm concerned. If it wasn't for the exceptional weather (its only redeeming quality, IMO), this place would be just as bad.
I mean, when you think about "mob influenced", don't unions pop into your head? And which is the "party of the unions" -- significantly without actually being a party at all concerned about the working man's opinions?
And, I'm not gonna say that a conservative can't be corrupt -- good God, no -- but has anyone noticed that when a Republican gets caught in corruption, it's more likely to be a RINO? The sole Republican arrested in Tennessee last week is widely described as a RINO; and it's significant, I think, that McCain was the only Republican in the Keating 5.
Maybe it's recall bias on my part. I wouldn't be surprised if it were.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
06/02/2005 16:14 Comments ||
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#7
On the land near Interchange 1 of the New Jersey Turnpike, Juliano has built a Hampton Inn and a Cracker Barrel restaurant. He also planned to build a truck stop on the land.
That hardly seems a great loss in my book. Yawn. Rather have the wet lands. NJ has far more problems than the inability to build a strip mall wherever one desires.
#10
I think the complaint is that if you buy a property that is zoned for business development and are then blocked then you have been mislead and are out a substantial amount of cash. States have a right to chase off entrepreneurs. States that make those type of decisions should enjoy their wetlands in peace and not shake down the rest of the states for donations when their schools don't have broadband.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/02/2005 21:02 Comments ||
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#11
States that make those type of decisions should enjoy their wetlands in peace and not shake down the rest of the states for donations when their schools don't have broadband.
Or when they don't have funds for medicare etc.
Posted by: too true ||
06/02/2005 21:05 Comments ||
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#12
I believe there are also federal limitations on the development of wetlands.
And if the law were enforced to the letter, I doubt there would be any cities in Louisiana south of, say, Alexandria.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
06/02/2005 21:44 Comments ||
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#13
I forgo the lawn sprinkler just to keep the Sierra Club off my back.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/02/2005 21:49 Comments ||
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#14
from experience I can tell you that you need a 404 , a 4F and and a 401 permit...approxiamtely 4 yrs
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/02/2005 23:26 Comments ||
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HONG KONG - An earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale has jolted a mountainous region in Tibet, the Hong Kong Observatory said on Thursday. The quake was centred at Medog in Tibet, 370 kilometers (235 miles) east of Lhasa and struck at 4.11 am (2011 GMT) Thursday, the observatory said. There were no immediate reports of any damage.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/02/2005 00:00 ||
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Interior Minister Prince Naif downplayed the ongoing controversy on women driving in Saudi Arabia and said it was a social issue and must be decided by the Saudi society. "It looks like some people want to make it an issue but it's not," the Saudi Press Agency quoted him as saying. Prince Naif also said that women should have IDs if they want to have their own passports. According to press reports, women IDs would be made mandatory within four months for security reasons.
It'll be moderately, but not extremely, interesting to see how many devout Soddy women refuse to take off their veils for their photos, and what the authorities' reaction will be...
There has been a heated debate on the issue of women driving in the Saudi press after Mohammad Al-Zulfa, a Shoura Council member, tried to take up the matter at the 150-member consultative body. Zulfa introduced his proposal tactfully as part of an uncontroversial debate on road safety. He argued that lifting the ban on women drivers could resolve what he considers to be a serious social problem — the presence of some one million foreign drivers needed to enable Saudi women to move around. Zulfa said the obligation to hire a driver represented a financial burden for families with limited income, and cost the country more than SR12 billion ($3.2 billion) a year. He also argued that women and young girls spend long hours in the company of foreign drivers. "This is against Islam, for a woman to be with a stranger. It's forbidden," he said. On the other hand, "there is nothing in the Qur'an that says women do not have the right to drive," he added.
"Hmmm..." replied Sheikh al-Kaboomi, the local holy man. "I guess that means they should just stay home all the time. Having them out and about must be un-Islamic. I shall issue the appropriate fatwah."
Dr. Suhaila Hammad, a senior member of the National Society of Human Rights, said Prince Naif's words confirm that our leaders are not against women driving. "Our religious leaders also said that there is no religious prohibition of women driving and our traffic laws do not state that women can't have a driving license or drive," she said. "Many husbands would like their wives to drive because of the problems associated with foreign drivers," she said, adding that by allowing women to drive does not mean that they all have to, it is a matter of choice.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
In the old days, of course, all those foreign drivers would have been made eunuchs, removing the threat. But then, in the old days the Saudis hung out at the oases, robbing the occasional passing caravan.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
06/02/2005 8:36 Comments ||
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#3
It'll be moderately, but not extremely, interesting to see how many devout Soddy women refuse to take off their veils for their photos, and what the authorities' reaction will be...
AFAICR, the Saudis require the exposure of the face for ID photos. Any refusal will probably be met with beatings, just like everything else in SaudiLand.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
06/02/2005 8:57 Comments ||
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A curious consensus is emerging among the British political classes. It is said both by Government ministers and Europhile Conservatives that following the French - and now the Dutch - rejection of the European constitution, "Europe" is no longer an important domestic political topic.
The bubble has burst. The "pop" will be louder in some places than in others...
In fact, far from eliminating the issue of European integration, the French and Dutch votes throw it into sharp relief. Assuming that Tony Blair cancels our own referendum on the constitution, Britain still has to host the EU presidency for the six months from July. And in the absence of an agreed text on the way ahead, the period will be fraught with conflict.
He should cancel the referendumb. If not, the Brits should join the Frenchies and the Dutch in rejecting it...
Already moves are being made to press on with reforms whose implementation does not require a new treaty, most importantly changes to the voting rules to dilute further the blocking power of individual nation states. European leaders are keen to replace the rotating six-month presidency by national governments with an individual president appointed for five years, and to create a "foreign minister" to represent us all internationally. There is also the possibility that defence policy will be "supranationalised" without a new treaty.
I don't think anybody expects the Brusselscrats to go softly into that good night. For one thing, they have their new sauna. But the twin rejections pull the red carpet out from under them.
But even if - and it is unlikely - Mr Blair chooses to brave the wrath of his continental colleagues and resist these initiatives, it is not enough for him to argue that the EU can remain as it is. Before the French referendum, the Prime Minister repeatedly averred that the constitution merely codified existing arrangements, and that to reject it would be to reject the EU itself. He should now live up to the implication of this rhetoric.
The Holy Roman Empire wasn't holy, nor Roman, nor an empire. The European Union, as a free trade zone is a good idea. As a government stretching from Finland to Portugal to Greece and maybe Turkey is a crummy idea, a mass marriage of convenience without any choice in who you conveniently marry.
The challenge for Britain now is to disengage from many of the obligations that successive governments have entered into, unasked, on our behalf. There has been talk of "repatriating" powers. Let us now see it happen. Britain should seek to recover control over all those aspects of domestic policy which do not directly impact on the internal affairs of another member state. These include taxation, industrial policy, social policy, asylum and immigration policy and employment law. This would, of course, represent a startling volte-face for Mr Blair. And yet the Prime Minister's particular skill is the performance of the graceful U-turn, couched in the language of the moral imperative. His current crusade is to make African poverty history. Let him start by withdrawing from the two commitments most harmful to that continent: the EU common policies on overseas aid and agriculture.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
he might be able to cancel the people voting, but Britain has to vote.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
06/02/2005 7:47 Comments ||
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#4
Even without ratifying that absurd "constitution," remember that there are innumerable international treaties giving up much of the Brits' sovereignity. They might want to consider pulling out of some of them.
#5
If the euro collapses, German exports will rise sharply. Sounds like the "non" and "nee" voters have achieved what the ECB should have done years ago.
June 2, 2005: Taiwan's defenses may fail not because of a lack of weapons, but because of a lack of ammunition. The Taiwanese legislature has been stalled over proposals to buy more (very expensive) new weapons (eight diesel-electric submarines, 12 P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft, and a dozen Patriot air and missile defense systems). But now another procurement issue has flared up in Taiwan, the lack of ammunition. Taiwanese media is awash in stories about ammunition shortages. The United States has long warned Taiwan that it needed more missiles, in particular, if the island were to hold out for the 5-10 days it would take for American naval and air forces to arrive. No one ever came right out and said it, but the Taiwanese seemed to assume that the United States would immediately fly in thousands of needed air-to-air, SAM (Surface to Air) and anti-ship missiles once China attacked. This would depend a lot on who will be running the White House when the balloon goes up.
Bush would, Carter would have called for talks, Clinton would take a poll and Kerry would have deferred to the UN.
Maintaining a large stock (a "war reserve") of ammo is never popular. That's because the stuff has a short shelf life. Missiles and artillery shells degrade over time, even with maintenance. The problem is that the chemicals that are used for the propellants (in missiles, artillery or small arms ammo) and explosives (missile warheads and artillery shells) are unstable and degrade over time. Most missiles are built to last, with proper care and storage, for ten years. Artillery ammo, depending on the component (fuze, propellant, explosives), lasts 5-20 years. As the stuff gets older, even if well cared for and not past its expire date, it becomes less reliable. When it reaches the expire date, you usually fire it off in practice. This provides good, but expensive, training. Keep it beyond it's expire date, and some of the stuff becomes downright dangerous for the users.
The Taiwanese legislature would have no problem with paying for emergency deliveries of missiles, and they know that the fighting in Iraq has not depleted American inventories of missiles Taiwan would need (air-to-air, SAMs and anti-ship). Perhaps arrangements have already been quietly made to make those air freight deliveries. But these may not be quick enough. Taiwan only has about 900 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles on hand, for over 300 first line jet fighters. China can mass over a thousand fighters on their side of the Taiwan Straights for their initial attack. Taiwanese pilots are better trained, and perhaps expect to take down many of the less modern Chinese fighters with cannon, instead of missiles. That can be dangerous for the attacker, getting in close like that. But with their small supply of missiles (the Taiwanese also have nearly a thousand air-to-air missiles of various other types), cannon will be the only option after a few days. But China has several thousand fighters it can send in to replace losses. In a war of attrition, Taiwan could lose control of the air.
Taiwan also has low stocks of artillery ammo, although they justify that by putting lots of effort, and money, into building up their air and naval forces. The Chinese can't walk on water, they must control the air over the Taiwan Straights in order to get troops ashore on Taiwan. But there's always the chance that the Chinese marines will hit the Taiwanese coast before the American missile resupply flights arrive. If you don't have a lot of artillery shells, you can lose the ground war as well.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/02/2005 12:02 ||
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#1
Maybe they need a couple of nukes, like the ones we sold Israel. That's the only reason Israel is still in existence.
#9
The Taiwanese want to make this clash between Uncle Sam and China. Is it in the US interest to defend Taiwan? I think it is in the US interest to supply Taiwan. Risking American lives over Taiwan is a completely different issue. I believe the Taiwanese hope to avoid fighting altogether, hoping to leave the fighting to American troops. This is the meaning of repeated cuts to Taiwanese defense expenditures even as Chinese defense spending has skyrocketed. The Taiwanese have also criticized the US for the high cost of the weaponry that is being sold to them, even though many of these weapons systems are being sold at or below cost. If the Taiwanese don't believe enough in their own freedom to commit the resources to defend it, it's not clear that American boys should be risking their lives to defend them.
#10
LH: Pardon, but Clinton sent carriers during the last big straights crisis.
I think that's the one area in which I agree with Clinton's foreign policy. In tactical terms, it was nonsensical in terms of how carriers are normally used*, but it was an indication that Uncle Sam was prepared to go to war, if necessary. I don't know if Clinton would have followed through if the Chinese had upped the ante, but it definitely got the Chinese to calm down.
* There was a possibility that the Chinese could have damaged them using subs or antiship missiles. When a Chinese submarine was detected in the Taiwan Straits, the carriers scurried out of range - carriers are for battering the enemy while staying out of the range of his weapons. Having them show up in the straits was pure in-your-face symbolism, kind of like a guy with a rifle getting within arms length of a knife fighter. (An actual combat deployment would probably have the carriers positioned hundreds of miles east of the Taiwan Straits).
#11
the Taiwanese want to make this clash between Uncle Sam and China. Is it in the US interest to defend Taiwan? I think it is in the US interest to supply Taiwan. Risking American lives over Taiwan is a completely different issue.
That question becomes academic if China attempts to prevent US resupply and assitance, which I think in the case of an attempt to take over Taiwan, the Chinese would do.
#12
One of the unstated advantages of the rise of long-range precision strike weapons is they make it easier for the US to wage war on China. Previously American options were short-range airstrikes from carriers or USAF from bases that may not be available in Korea and/or Japan.
Posted by: Stephen ||
06/02/2005 15:05 Comments ||
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#13
Oh, the joys of living at the headquarters of the PLAN East China Sea Fleet!
#14
N.B.: In the D-Day invasion, the assumption was made that if only 10% of the invasion forces survived long enough to establish a beachhead, the invasion would be a success. If the Chinese have made a similar calculation, that they would de facto "win" Taiwan with only 10% of their forces actually landing, then Taiwan, and the US, have a big problem. Practically speaking, if the Chinese can land enough forces by hook or crook, fast enough, even if the US counter-invades, which would be politically extremely difficult, it would be damnably hard to pry the Chinese forces from the Taiwanese population. I am not talking about concentrated enemy forces, but dispersed throughout Taiwan, with emphasis in the cities.
#15
S: Previously American options were short-range airstrikes from carriers
Carriers are used to stage long-range airstrikes - and did so even during WWII, during the Battle of Midway, when the fleets were 300 miles apart, way beyond direct visual range of each other. Afghanistan was, of course a shining example, with strike fighters flying 500 miles each way through Pakistan, from carriers in the Arabian Sea.
#17
For the Chinese, the ultimate nightmare would be to destroy the Taiwanese air force, send their boats over (four hours transit time) and then get the crap kicked out of their invasion fleet by the USAF. They'd better be sure.
#18
It would not take much to defend the straits from the amphibious force currently available to the PRC. Still it is quite disappointing to get a glimpse of this idiocy from the Taiwanese legislature. Why have their politicians been continuously floating trial balloons about independence when they have no ammunition?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/02/2005 21:12 Comments ||
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#19
Old program manager's tactic, SH. Get the customer fired up and spend the money on the big items ... then they pretty much have to go along with an increased budget to cover the expendables .... LOL
#20
Should add that sometimes the customer wants the pgm mgr to do this (whether it's the govt pgm mgr or the contractor's) in order to overcome political budget hurdles. In this case since the story says Taiwan can afford the stuff, it's clear that the problem is a political one.
#21
ZF - IMHO it's in our interests to cover the safety of our democratic ally off the coast of the hegemonic wanna-be. We will face each other, sooner or later (unless they collapse). Why not have help. Arm Taiwan. Donate a nuke for Three Gorges Was-A-Dam
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/02/2005 22:09 Comments ||
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SEOUL - Remains of American soldiers killed in North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean war can never be recovered, Pyongyang has said in response to Washington's decision to suspend its search operation.
Rat bastards.
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last week recommended the suspension of efforts that began in 1996 to find remains of US troops, accusing North Korea of creating an atmosphere dangerous to US workers.
Pyongyang retaliated late on Wednesday, saying Washington had brought a military overtone to the humanitarian mission. "The US side's use of even the humanitarian work, which had been underway as requested by itself, for a sinister political and military purpose, once again fully revealed what a foolish group the present US administration is," North Korea's official KCNA news agency quoted a spokesman for the (North) Korean People's Army as saying. The North said no member of a US recovery team had ever been harmed in their work in the country.
Pyongyang called the US administration "rude", adding that since it saw Washington as violating the joint agreement on searching for remains, "the KPA side has decided to totally dismantle its side's investigation and recovery unit", KCNA reported the army spokesman as saying. "In consequence, the US remains buried in North Korea can never be recovered but are bound to be reduced to earth with the flow of time," the spokesman said.
Larry Greer, spokesman for the Pentagon's POW/MIA office, said US personnel have worked inside North Korea every year since 1996, undertaking five one-month missions annually to search for remains of Americans. During that time, US teams have recovered more than 220 sets of remains, Greer said. Of those, 25 have been identified and returned to their families for burial with full military honours, Greer said.
There was a previous suspension in late 2002 and early 2003, the Pentagon said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/02/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
This is not likely to induce the US to provide food, oil, etc. to North Korea. The DPRK is slightly smaller than Mississippi with only about 21% of its land is arable and only 2.5% is planted in "permanent crops". Even if NorK agriculture were less third world, they couldn't feed their population of 22.9M people. KJI's bizarre foreign policy can only increase the continuing increase in donor fatigue and hunger will give way to famine and death.
#4
one report described him (Dresnok) as âa chronic complainer, lazyâ and âdefiant to authority.â
ummmm..lets see....I'm lazy, I complain alot, and I hate authority....what to do...what to do..
*light bulb* thats it!..I'll defect to the NORKS!
Posted by: Red Dog ||
06/02/2005 3:55 Comments ||
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#5
Gromky-
Checked out the Ebay page - those screenshots (especially the one of the American giving a maniacal thumbs-up) look for all the world like the clips that used to end each ep of MST3K...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/02/2005 7:46 Comments ||
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#9
The Kim-beasts have the pirated intelligence ship USS Pueblo on display as a "museum" of various American atrocities and misdemeanors. The ship was captured by the Norks in 1968, apparently at the instigation of the Walker spy ring, whose data would be much more useful if a Soviet puppet could manage to grab some of the cryptographic hardware such ships were known to carry. The mission was a success, and some equipment was indeed captured, though the Walkers' role was unknown until recently.
Since it still exists and the US has never acknowledged a transfer, the ship has not been stricken from the US Navy list. My recommendation is that we declare this museum a target vessel and blow it to shreds with a MOAB or some similarly emphatic device. This seems to be the only language the Norks understand.
Europe was home to more hacker-controlled (zombie) computers in May than anywhere else in the world, according to vendor research.
Zombie computers are typically infected with viruses and used to send spam and perform denial of service attacks.
Using a tool that can track zombie machines, CipherTrust found that 26 per cent of them were hosted in European countries, with most of them in Germany (six per cent), France (five per cent) and the UK (three per cent).
The company's ZombieMeter found that hackers were hijacking around 172,009 computers every day. Approximately 20 per cent of those machines were based in the United States, and 15 per cent were found in China. CipherTrust did not provide details of where the attackers resided.
Until this month, the company said the largest percentage of zombies alternated between China and the United States.
International trade associations are currently urging internet service providers (ISPs) to stamp out zombie networks of computers used for sending spam.
Members of the London Action Plan (LAP), which include the UK Office of Fair Trading, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and government agencies in 18 other countries, have launched Operation Spam Zombies - a campaign to make ISPs quarantine customer computers used to send spam.
Posted by: too true ||
06/02/2005 12:05 ||
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Twenty-six percent is a majority? And Gore won Florida.
I wonder how this compares to the number of machines everyone owns? Does the US have 20% of the PCs on the 'net? Does Europe have 26%?
#5
I don't know why Badanov keeps linking to BSD with a "Dawn of the Dead" label. The Apple laptop I'm using runs on a BSD variant.
(And for the life of me, I find the BSD "ports" system to be the most irritating upgrade system I've dealt with in a while. Gimme debian apt any day. Or I'll go back in my cave and switch to slackware. Og like slack!)
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
06/02/2005 21:41 Comments ||
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#6
S'posed to be a joke. I use FreeBSD myself as a server OS.
From the Wall Street Journal. Subscription req'd, so presented here entire.
A French court last week found three writers for Le Monde, as well as the newspaper's publisher, guilty of "racist defamation" against Israel and the Jewish people. In a groundbreaking decision, the Versailles court of appeal ruled that a comment piece published in Le Monde in 2002, "Israel-Palestine: The Cancer," had whipped up anti-Semitic opinion.
The writers of the article, Edgar Morin (a well-known sociologist), Daniele Sallenave (a senior lecturer at Nanterre University) and Sami Nair (a member of the European parliament), as well as Le Monde's publisher, Jean-Marie Colombani, were ordered to pay symbolic damages of one euro to a human-rights group and to the Franco-Israeli association. Le Monde was also ordered to publish a condemnation of the article, which it has yet to do.
Continued on Page 49
#2
It's about damn time they were held accountable: start w/ Le Monde and work through the whole damned MSM.
Posted by: too true ||
06/02/2005 9:43 Comments ||
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#3
To the TRANZIs (which are natural anti semites) being Jewish is a crime. Israel has no right to proactive defense against those who have attacked them with arms at every chance in their self blinded eyes. All these papers and persons are useless filth.
#5
Are these "racist defamation" laws the same sort of thing that they're using on Fallaci in Italy?
Posted by: James ||
06/02/2005 12:34 Comments ||
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#6
The writers of the article, Edgar Morin (a well-known sociologist), Danièle Sallenave (a senior lecturer at Nanterre University) and Sami Nair (a member of the European parliament), as well as Le Monde's publisher, Jean-Marie Colombani, were ordered to pay symbolic damages of one euro to a human-rights group and to the Franco-Israeli association. Le Monde was also ordered to publish a condemnation of the article, which it has yet to do.
So, it was a "symbolic" ruling, eh? And, is it just me, or does Sami Nair really sound like a good ole' French name?
Posted by: BA ||
06/02/2005 13:14 Comments ||
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The German Finance Ministry declined to comment on a magazine report that discussions took place last week between Finance Minister Hans Eichel, Bundesbank President Axel Weber and economists on a possible failure of European Monetary Union.
Stern magazine said in a pre-released article today that the group discussed a scenario for the single currency's collapse as differences in inflation and growth rates within the union grow. An internal ministry document formed the basis of discussions, Stern said.
The Finance Ministry ``doesn't comment on internal papers or meetings,'' said spokeswoman Sandra Hildebrandt in a telephone interview today. ``The euro is a success story.'' -
#1
It's part of their job to worry about even the remotest scenarios, just like the guys that make all the contingency plans in the files of our Defence Dept. I'd be more concerned if they didn't think about such things.
#2
I would rate a 'collapse' of the Euro as distinctly possible. A couple of countries, notably italy, are experiencing problems due to their ECU membership. Italy has historically devalued its currency as a way to maintain export competitiveness as social policies cause inflation. As a member of the Euro, it can not longer do this, but seems unable to reform the social policies, as a result its exports have been falling, a situation that will only worsen resulting in higher unemployment and ironically higher costs for social programs accelerating the spiral (downwards).
#4
Socialist economics can only survive when there is someone outside the system willing to pump ever increasing amounts of money into it. It cannot stand competition with a capitalist system, either within a given country, or between countries. Therefore, whatever European country is least socialist will benefit most from the Euro, unless they have their economy artificially supressed by the others. The flip side of this argument is that the most socialist and least responsible country will also benefit, by being the biggest parasite on the system. The end result is that labor and capital will flee to the least socialist country, and all the human parasites will flee to the parasitical country.
#5
Anonymoose, I could be wrong but I think you're painting Socialism with a pretty big brush. It is possible for a Socialist economy to tax the people and all goods (and not the companies or exports) to support the heavy welfare state. The trade off is standard of living of course but it'd stil be socialism and it would still be competitive.
I don't think any have done so, but I'd still say that would qualify and eventually the Europeans may figure that out and go against their knee-jerk corporations bad leftism.
#6
Ironically, a collapse of the euro is the best possible way to boost growth immediately in Germany especially, France and Italy to a lesser extent. The strong euro has absolutely crushed Germany's export sector, which accounts for an extremely high % of German GDP.
The No voters will have achieved what the incompetent European Central Bank could not: a more rational monetary policy for Europe.
#7
I think that the devaluing of the Euro would probably be good for most European countries. Afterall, what's the point of having a museum if nobody visits it?
#8
thibaud, actually no. The Euro has not crushed Germany's exports which have never been better. Most exports go into the Eurozone, that means no currency risks (and no strong Mark that makes exports more expensive to France or Italy).
The Euro has been a problem for interior consumption, has caused permanent price hikes. And it has been bad for interest rates. While interests are currently low, Germany finances the low interest rates in Italy or Greece, which traditionally have had much higher interests due to a weaker currency.
The Euro will not collapse, but it may not always have the same countries as now.
Greece should never have joined, and Portugal and Italy neither.
Trichet's statement that California or Texas won't leave the Dollar either is stupid. The US (apart from being one nation), has a completely free market, people are very mobile when it comes to work and there is a federal budget etc.
Prices vary quite a bit in Europe. One Euro in Germany is only worth 0,89 Euro in France.
Could we leave the Euro. It has always been said that we can't but that's nonsense. If the basis (the Maastricht criteria) is permanely violated countries can leave.
Leaving would be less complicated than joining. You would just replace Euro by Mark (as 1:1) and then let the Mark float.
#10
TGA - am I an old fogey for missing the Deutschemark? ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/02/2005 17:28 Comments ||
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You are not, Barbara.
The euro was a political decision, not an economical one. It was invented by France to kill the Bundesbank and feared German dominance after the reunification. Lots of French politicians secretly gloated that they won the war against Germany.
After the French referendum a German politician was overheard saying: Germany just won the war against France without firing a shot.
#12
. While interests are currently low, Germany finances the low interest rates in Italy or Greece, which traditionally have had much higher interests due to a weaker currency.
And there you have it. The Bundebankers Ants get to finance the Grasshoppers.
The prosecution at the trial of Slobodan Milosevic yesterday produced what it claimed to be the first public evidence of a link between the former president of Serbia and the massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica in July 1995. A videotape, parts of which were played to the court, showed a group of Bosniaks being held by an armed unit, then driven by lorry and marched to a site where they were summarily shot.
The lead prosecutor, Geoffrey Nice, said the victims had been transported from the Srebrenica area after the fall of the enclave, and that the executioners were part of the infamous Scorpions unit, under the command of the secret services, or DB, of Serbia's interior ministry, and within Mr Milosevic's chain of command and control.
It is still not clear whether the tape can be introduced as evidence, with a year now passed since the prosecution closed its case. Mr Milosevic's court-appointed counsel, Steven Kay, hinted at a legal battle should Mr Nice seek to enter it.
Didn't they have it a year ago, or was it left in Carla del Ponte's VCR?
Mr Milosevic denies involvement in the Srebrenica massacre. If the tape's authenticity can be proved, it could help the charge against Mr Milosevic for the only legally established genocidal episode of the war.
The tape was shown during a cross-examination of Obrad Stevanovic, assistant interior minister under Mr Milosevic, who appeared for the defence. The witness was asked to identify the killers, but said he could not, although he was aware of the Scorpions. Mr Stevanovic has said "a group under that name was never active" under the interior ministry, but some of its members may have been policemen.
The prosecution has been at pains to establish how units under Mr Milosevic's command, from Serbia proper, were active in Bosnia, notably the Scorpions and special units of the Serbian interior ministry, or MUP. There is film of MUP commander Franko Simatovic boasting to the president about how well his soldiers were fighting.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/02/2005 00:05 ||
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Slobodan Milosevich vs Mr.Nice. Predictions, anyone?
Aside from the obvious anti-American angle inherent in it, the EUropeans wonder why we want no part of the ICC? Between the beyond-parody nature of the Milosevic trial and the "you naughty boy" sentences handed down for the earlier convictions, I can't believe anyone takes these courts seriously. I suppose that having a trial at all is considered justice in EUrope.
#3
" The campaign continues " - Richard Daley , after results of the previous days election day poll established George W Bush the winner of florida's crucial 25 electoral votes. Subsequent recounts, a full statewide recount was mandatiory in such a close vote, only confirmed Bushes 549 vote lead. If its not close they can't cheat.
But think about this, with a margin of 549 votes, is it conceivable that there were five, six hundred muslims who had registered and voted for George Bush, with the expressed racist aim of voting against Gore, simply because his running mate was a Jew? And have decided an otherwise draw, in a nationally close election?
Posted by: an dalusian dog ||
06/02/2005 16:25 Comments ||
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#1
I am sooooo freaken sick and tired of the damn left spouting the same crap over and over trying to bring down a sitting president in time of war. Soooo close to killing every LLL in sight.....
#2
What those lefty dickheads don't realize is that if GW gets the boot then Dickey C. gets the seat, and I guarantee that they'll like him even less.(maybe we're onto something here)
#4
What sort of illegal activity has been committed and covered up that requires the services of a modern Deep Throat? Or is that loser George McGovern simply talking out of his ass?
#2
What has Maverick got against the 1st Amendment?
It lets people say things he doesn't like to hear. Like "McCain is a corrupt egomaniac who should never have been elected dog catcher, let alone Senator."
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
06/02/2005 7:49 Comments ||
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#3
Keating 5 reprobate shutting down his opponents via laws unconstitutional
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/02/2005 9:36 Comments ||
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#4
I wish McCain would quit being such a godd@mned irritant. He doesn't want to do anything unless it is totally counterproductive or completely unrelated to the business of the day.
For what its worth, just one guy talkin
One hundred days into his tenure as the high-energy, higher-decibel chairman of the Democratic Party, Howard Dean is in trouble with party powermongers moneybags. The former Vermont governor seems to be doing a better job flaying the Republicans than bridging the cash chasm between the parties. Given Dean's 2004 run as a populist crusader, moderates were never wild about his takeover of the Democratic National Committee. So some big donors are sitting on their wallets.
Dean wowed the gullible faithful in '04 with his Web-based fund-raising magic. But major business donors still count Ted Turner, where are you?, and in his new role as party honcho, the feisty doctor seems to be struggling to connect. After achieving money parity with the GOP in 2004, Democrats have fallen far behind. According to the Federal Election Commission, the DNC raised $14.1 million in the first quarter of 2005, vs. the Republican National Committee's $32.3 million. Dean drew about 20,000 new donors, while his rivals picked up 68,200. The bottom line: Republicans have $26.2 million in the bank vs. $7.2 million for the Dems. $7.2 million will just about pay for Ted Kennedy's traffic violations
Why the yawning gap? For starters, Dean is not a natural fit for the "stroke and joke" circle-jerk style that traditional party chiefs use to extract blackmailbribes cash from well-heeled contributors. "It appears that the chairman has come to the conclusion that he doesn't need major donors," sniffs one LLL fat cat. "He hasn't made any effort to reach out."
#6
maybe there aren't as many democrats as there used to be. It's not as in vogue to be a supporter of mass murder, genocide and rabid hate-America delusions as it once was.
#7
I thought he'd be good for ginning up the money but now I see the error. The kind of grass-roots folks that will donate because of Dean are gonna wait until we're closer to the 2006 campaign. A fundraiser can't wait.
#2
Great article, glorious rip is right! This line is telling: Some people really believe the world will be saved by multilingual European technocrats
They must be living on some other planet.
The Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry smashed a syndicate from China, said to be singing a fake drill song worth around RM100,000. However, this is the second time round for this syndicate, the first raid was in Kota Kinabalu last week, when different members of the same syndicate were arrested.
The Ministry's Deputy Director General of Enforcement, Zainal Abidin M.D Noordin said [the] men, aged between 17 and 42, entered the country as tourists but misused this status by undertaking business activities, with the hotel being their "warehouse" or "store".
"Amongst the goods seized in the raid were, 500 fake 'Bosch' drills, Chinese currency worth RM100,000, and 10 cellular phones," he said at a press conference at his ministry today.
"Last week, we caught three other Chinese nationals in Kota Kinabalu while they were selling the drills with the name 'Bosch' on them, and we recovered 50 drills in that raid," he said. He believes the syndicate hawks their goods at shops and also to individuals at lower prices than an original item would cost.
All the Chinese citizens would be handed over to the immigration officials before being charged in a court of law soon.
Meanwhile, Zainal said that together with Business Software Alliance (BSA) and the Malaysian Recording Industry Association (MRIA), his ministry had hauled in roughly 2,800 computer software items and pirated CDs worth RM2.2 million on May 28. They will be charged under the Copyright Act 1987.
THIRTEEN people have been killed and more than 500 injured during an annual kite-flying festival in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore. Seven people with severe head injuries died in the city's General Hospital alone, and about 220 people were admitted with a variety of injuries including broken bones, hospital officials said.
The two-day festival of Basant, marking the start of spring, began with thousands of revellers perched on rooftops. Two teenagers were killed when they fell from a roof, and two more were killed when a car hit them while they were trying to catch a stray kite, police said.
A man was killed by a stray bullet, while another was electrocuted when metal wire used to fly a kite became draped over live electric lines. Officials said more than 300 injured people were taken to four other hospitals in different parts of the city.
Meanwhile, the festivities continued amid chants of "Bo Kata" (We have cut) as rival kites came down. Victory was celebrated with drumbeats, firecrackers and often firing in the air. The celebrations also included concerts and dinner parties.
President Pervez Musharraf and his wife Sehba had visited Lahore for Basant, officials said. He watched from the roof of a historic building in the old part of the walled city.
Officials said more than 50,000 people from across the country had arrived in Lahore along with 10,000 other Pakistanis residing in the Middle East, Europe and the US to celebrate the occasion with friends or relatives.
Hundreds of shops and stalls across the city were selling kites, while many multinational companies distributed free kites carrying their insignia. Police said more than 50 people had been detained for using metal kite strings or firing in the air.
City police chief Aftab Ahmad Cheema had warned before the festival that police would take "stern action" against both offences.
Leading lights of Lahore including civil society members and intellectuals have unanimously blasted a Lahore District Government resolution which calls for 'Islamisation' of 58 Lahore streets.
Yeah. That's what they need. More Islam.
After passing a 'unanimous' resolution, the district government has advertised in the newspapers, notifying the public that it plans to change the names of city streets named after prominent Hindu personalities. The ads also call on the public to voice any objections it may have. However a city district government spokesman said that the process of changing the names had just begun and could take a long time, as the process had to be approved by several tiers of Punjab government before the new names could be announced. There are 58 proposed names. Twenty streets that don't have names will be named after prominent local personalities, while 38 streets that have established Hindu names such as Qila Gujjar Singh will have names such as Qila Shah Faisal after the late Saudi king. Durand Road is being changed to Mussadaq Ahmed Khan Road, main Rajgarh bazaar will be called Karim Bakhsh Road, Poonch Road has been renamed Chaudhry Sarwar Gujjar Road and Lake Road will be called Hakim Allah Ditta Road.
"All of the light poles on each of those roads will be fitted with turbans. Sidewalks will be resurfaced with materials comfortable for walking in curly-toed slippers..."
"It's amusing to say the least," said Saleema Hashmi, dean of the school of visuals, Beaconhouse University. "We are erasing history instead of making it. It looks superficial and based on prejudice rather than anything else," said Hashmi adding "the city government, it seems has nothing better to do." Prominent architect Nayyar Ali Dada also condemned the effort being launched by the city government. "We should not try to change the course of history. What are we trying to prove here?" wondered Dada. "No one can champion the cause of Islam by changing the names of streets," said Dada.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2005 00:00 ||
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No one can champion the cause of Islam by changing the names of streets
True.
But you can champion the cause of having a future worth living by making judicious use of the lamp posts on said streets.
Rope and some assembly required. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/02/2005 17:33 Comments ||
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CNN should cover international news and the environment, not the "pervert of the day," network founder Ted Turner said Wednesday as the first 24-hour news network turned 25.
Dang. How long has it been since I've agreed with Ted Turner? Though I'd leave out the part about the environment. Hard news environmental stories, yes, but most of the pseudoscientific viewing with alarm that passes for "news," no.
Turner, an outspoken media mogul who started CNN in 1980 but no longer controls the network, said he envisioned CNN as a place where rapes and murders that dominated local news wouldn't be emphasized, but he's seeing too much of that "trivial news" on the network he created, now second in ratings to Fox News Channel.
Fox News runs too much of the Scandal du jour, too. When Greta comes on, I just turn it off.
"I would like to see us to return to a little more international coverage on the domestic feed and a little more environmental coverage, and, maybe, maybe a little less of the pervert of the day," he said in a speech to CNN employees outside the old Atlanta mansion where the network first aired. "You know, we have a lot of perverts on today, and I know that, but is that really news? I mean, come on. I guess you've got to cover Michael Jackson, but not three stories about perversion that we do every day as well."
I suppose he'd have to be mentioned, even on a hard news channel, but I'd give him maybe 30 seconds and then get back to the substantial stuff.
His remarks won applause and laughter from CNN employees, but the moderator for Turner's remarks, CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour, said: "But everyone else is doing that. Why do you think it's important not to?" Turner replied: "Somebody's got to be a serious news person. Somebody's got to be the most respected name in television news, and I wanted that position for CNN."
During GW-1 CNN did one hell of a job, even with Peter Arnett in Baghdad, even with the occasional story on combat gynecologists. The network news organizations couldn't touch them, and they bitched about how CNN was just reporting what was given to them or what they saw, not "helping the public understand." Apparently they listened to the criticism, because now Fox is walking all over them.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2005 00:00 ||
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Most international news doesn't affect us, whereas the pervert of the day does. When you compare the number of murders over three decades to the number of victims of terrorist attacks, there is simply no question as to which is more deadly. (Of course, where the police are stretched to the limit trying to catch murderers, our military wasn't doing enough to protect us from terrorists. Until after 9/11).
#2
is there anyone who really cares about Michael for him to rate the 24/7 coverage.
Fox has the best reporting - in that it actually reports, rather than proselytizes like all of the other news channels do. But even Fox has the same daily line up of Laci, jonbenet, michael, martha, car bomb, whip america with a wet noodle, and democrat blames republican.
In the new world where the news of the world, whatever I personally consider to be news, is at my fingertips in an instant - they just can't survive until they start reporting something of substance.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
06/02/2005 1:43 Comments ||
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lol, RD! I'm like Fred on this one though...when's the last time I agreed with Ted Turner? ZF is right in 1 respect...MOST int'l news doesn't really affect us, but I would like to see more int'l news on the jihadis (and not just the latest bombing in Israel). Cover more of SE Asia/Africa. Some stories appear on the surface not to affect us, but in the WoT, they just might if you dig deep enough. Of course, digging is asking too much of the MSM "journalists." I learn more about the WoT by 8 am on Rantburg than I could watching any Cable news channel (incl. Fox). Of course, that's what you get when you want "news" 24/7...you have to fill in the slow news days w/ more mundane/local stuff.
Posted by: BA ||
06/02/2005 7:46 Comments ||
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CNN should cover international news and the environment, not the "pervert of the day," network founder Ted Turner...
Q: Mr. Turner, are you saying they spend too much time with Ted Kennedy?
#8
This man has issues: "I wanted to be the New York Times of the airway -- not the New York Post, but the New York Times -- and that's what we set out to do, and we did it." Yes, you sure did.
#10
More international news = Bush is bad type stuff.
Less Pervert news = Stop pointing out the holes in the Democrats light on crime everything goes social agenda.
He may be right (I think it's a crime that the Michael Jackson/Scott Peterson/Robert Blake stories get any play) but I don't trust his motives.
#14
Turner's pitch is that the news shouldn't focus on crime because it detracts from reporters telling us about all the great ways in which liberals can take money out of our pockets and hand it to someone currently on the their favored list - and pat themselves on the back for their public-spiritedness.
As opposed to the peace and calm in Ivory Coast east ...
At least 41 people are dead and many other wounded after renewed fighting in western Ivory Coast, the army says. The fighting took place near Duekoue, in a cocoa-producing region near the Liberian border. Local officials and witnesses spoke of shootings and stabbings, and said homes had been set on fire. Last month, at least 25 people died in ethnic clashes in the area.
Ivory Coast has been in crisis since rebels launched an insurgency in 2002. Thousands of peacekeepers have been patrolling a buffer zone between the rebel-held north and the government-controlled south, under an agreement to try to end the civil war.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2005 00:00 ||
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For a moment I thought that it said "Soros Killed in West Ivory Coast."
South African President Thabo Mbeki has urged US President George Bush to deliver more African aid, ahead of a G8 summit where the fate of a multibillion-dollar rescue plan for Africa will be decided.
How's "no" sound?
Mbeki said at a briefing with Bush: "I'm going to create more problems for you, President, because I'm going to ask for more support because the contribution of the United States to helping us to solve the issues related to peace and the security on the continent, that contribution is very great. That contribution, in terms of the recovery of the economy and recovery of the continent, is very important, and I - we believe very strongly, President, that the forthcoming G8 summit in Scotland has a possibility to communicate a very strong, positive message about movement on the African continent away from poverty."
Yeah. It's coming any day now.
But Bush appeared not to budge.
Good.
Washington has been lukewarm to British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Commission for Africa, which calls for doubling aid with an extra $25 billion annually until 2010 and then, following a review, an extra $50 billion per year. Blair's initiative also proposes 100% debt relief for poor sub-Saharan countries and cautions donors against attaching too many strings to their money.
It might have been worth the investment in 1960, though I doubt it. By now things are pretty much set in concrete. Some African states, like Botswana and Kenya, are moderately successful and don't really need their hands held. Others are ruled by senile Marxists, generals, boy emperors, various "liberation armies," and God knows what else, and no amount of aid is going to change that. I'd like to see generic African aid become a thing of the past, and specific aid to individual countries for specific projects become the norm — when we part with any money at all. I wouldn't give a nickle to any state that wasn't friendly to the U.S. And I wouldn't trust Thabo in administering any of it.
How about this: we'll provide generous amounts of aid to any African country that 1) adopts the U.S. constitution (except the slavery part) as its own 2) pegs its currency to the dollar and 3) signs a free trade agreement with the U.S.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2005 00:00 ||
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Doc Steve, their problems are deeper than that. No matter their currency or constitution, the problem is leadership: corruption, incompetence, and stupidity are the norm and not likely to change soon.
#3
"..the contribution of the United States to helping us to solve the issues related to peace and the security on the continent, that contribution is very great."
Doing things just to be nice has its limits. What's the payoff in return for all this aid?
#4
How about a weighted system? More democracy and free markets, more aid. Less democracy and free markets, less aid. Let us know when you do more for your aid since you aren't doing anything for it now and we are cutting all aid.
#5
No matter their currency or constitution, the problem is leadership: corruption, incompetence, and stupidity are the norm and not likely to change soon.
Sounds like any large U.S. city, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Tennessee...
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.
HONG KONG - An earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale has jolted a mountainous region in Tibet, the Hong Kong Observatory said on Thursday. The quake was centred at Medog in Tibet, 370 kilometers (235 miles) east of Lhasa and struck at 4.11 am (2011 GMT) Thursday, the observatory said. There were no immediate reports of any damage.
Interior Minister 
A curious consensus is emerging among the British political classes. It is said both by Government ministers and Europhile Conservatives that following the French - and now the Dutch - rejection of the European constitution, "Europe" is no longer an important domestic political topic.
CNN should cover international news and the environment, not the "pervert of the day," network founder 
South African President 
