Sam, the dog whose ugliness earned him TV appearances, limousine rides and even a meeting with millionaire Donald Trump, has died, the Santa Barbara News-Press reported Tuesday. The pooch with the hairless body, crooked teeth and sparse tuft of hair atop his knobby head died Friday, just short of his 15th birthday, said his owner, Susie Lockheed. "I don't think there'll ever be another Sam," she said, adding wryly, "Some people would think that's a good thing."
Posted by: Red Dog ||
11/22/2005 13:43 Comments ||
Top||
#7
My usually valiant wonder-dog, Roswell the Atomic Poodle, got one glimpse of this and ran from the room howling.
I think he's hiding under the guinea pig cage in the hope that the nearsighted GP, Area 51, will be able to protect him.
As election time draws closer for Jeddah's Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), many of the female candidates are busy campaigning and engaging with local media, as they each hope to become the first businesswoman to be elected to the chamber's board. Evident, however, was the fact that the chamber's campaign leaflet did not include any pictures of female candidates despite having their images broadcasted in other forms of media. The campaign leaflet that consisted of 84 pages highlighted election dates for each chamber, the names and biographies of each male or female candidate as well as the opening commentary by the current JCCI Chairman Ghassan Al-Sulaiman, and Vice-Chairmen Mohamed Al-Sharif.
A source from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Jeddah told Asharq al-Awsat that pictures of female candidates were not printed in the campaign leaflets subsequent to objections by some of the female nominees themselves. Furthermore, the producers of the leaflet did not push for these images to be included that would better familiarize the candidates to the voters. The source added, "Ethics and integrity pushed us not to include pictures of the female candidates so that the election would maintain its neutrality and so that customs and traditions of our society would continue to be respected." The election results are expected to be announced early December.
If you go printing pictures of women candidates for the Chamber of Commerce it'll get the men all sexed up and they'll be so busy stretching their Islamic baloneys they won't be able to vote coherently.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/22/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Do they vote coherently even when they're not, um, stretching?
TOKYO (AP) - A city on Japan's southernmost Okinawa island Monday urged Tokyo to scrap a plan to move a U.S. Marine facility to another location on the island, while two other cities rejected proposed changes at the U.S. military bases they host, officials and a news report said.
Tokyo and Washington are expected to agree on a schedule by March 2006 to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station on Okinawa and make operational changes at bases in the southern Kagoshima prefecture and another near Tokyo.
On Monday, the Nago city assembly in Okinawa adopted a resolution urging Tokyo to reject a plan to relocate Futenma Air Station to Nago from nearby Ginowan city, said city assembly official Takafumi Tomoyose. "There are concerns about the impact on residents' lives, such as noise. The city assembly cannot overlook oppositions expressed" by residents, the assembly said in a statement. The city planned to deliver its resolution to the Japanese and U.S. governments later Monday.
Meanwhile, Sakae Yamashita, the mayor of Kaya in Kagoshima, met with Japanese defense chief Fukushiro Nukaga and rejected a plan to transfer 12 refueling aircraft from Futenma to a naval base in the city, Kyodo News agency said.
Also Monday, Zama city Mayor Katsuji Hoshino handed a resolution to Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe rejecting a plan to use the U.S. Army base there as the operational headquarters for Japan's Self Defense Forces, the city assembly said.
The changes are part of an interim pact on U.S. forces in Japan that Tokyo and Washington agreed to last month. The plan would also allow the U.S. Navy to station a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in Japan for the first time. The interim pact drew strong criticism in Japan, but the government has said it wants to implement it quickly.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/22/2005 00:01 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I am pretty sure the central government is going to tell them to shut up or start learning to speak Chinese. It's a done deal.
#2
They whined and cried to go back to Mother Japan. The American's unlike the Russians returned it to Japanese sovereignty. Good thing. Otherwise they'd have an unending number of injunctions from some court in San Francisco demanding another and another environmental study till they could identify some obscure sub-sub-sub classification of a weed or insect to stop the whole process for decades.
The U.N. Security Council extended the European Union peacekeeping force in Bosnia for a year on Monday and welcomed the Balkan nation's progress toward EU membership 10 years after a peace agreement ended a bitterly divisive war. A resolution adopted unanimously by the council also extended NATO's mandate to assist the 6,500-strong EU peacekeeping mission in Bosnia.
The council voted on the peacekeeping measures hours after EU foreign ministers authorized the start of negotiations on an agreement to prepare Bosnia for membership. The EU said the negotiations would start Friday in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo.
Security has improved over the years, allowing the NATO-led force to transfer peacekeeping duties last year to a new European Union Force, known as EUFOR. Monday's resolution authorizes EUFOR to continue "the main peace stabilization role" in Bosnia along with the NATO. It gives both military organizations the right "to take all necessary measures" to implement the Dayton agreement and defend themselves.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/22/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
PARIS (AP) - Railworkers on the French state-run system went on strike Monday night with officials predicted major disruptions to national lines and Paris area commuter trains. The open-ended strike at the SNCF rail network, which started at 8 p.m., comes during a week of demonstrations planned by groups including teachers, researchers and Paris transit workers.
There was no way to gague the impact of the walkout late Monday. About two in five high-speed TGV trains were expected to operate as normal, while 80 percent of international trains would run, the SNCF said.
Four unions representing train drivers called the walkout to protest restructuring, job cuts, pay and what they see as creeping privatization of the train operator. Government and rail officials insisted that the unions' privatization fears were unfounded.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/22/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Four unions representing train drivers
That says it all.
#5
The difference is not the "Railroads" meaning the machinery, But "Railroads" meaning the people who run them.
The machinery is first class, the people who strike at the drop of a "Cliche" are the problem.
Now if they could build a French (Machinery) Railroad, and use some other nationals to run them, yes then I'd buy their stock.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/22/2005 14:18 Comments ||
Top||
#6
If you want a sterling example of why the "youts" in the suburbs are malcontents (no job and no chance of getting one) you only have to look here. The unions in France are nuts. They kill any possibility of reform. I don't discount the muzzie component of the Frenchifada, but these assholes just strangle the country.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - West Virginia is buying land for what federal officials say is the nation's first plan to establish permanent housing sites for people displaced by natural disasters. "We know it's going to happen again, a flood or a natural disaster," Gov. Joe Manchin said Monday. "People need a place to call home for a period of time."
Let me guess, the Sen. Robert C. Byrd Trailer Park
Although the land could be used in case of a national emergency such as Hurricane Katrina, Manchin said it is intended mainly for use by West Virginians, especially those in the state's flood-prone southern counties. Flooding in that region has prompted six state of emergency declarations since 2000. "To our knowledge, this is the first time a state has set aside housing or space for housing for future disasters," said Butch Kinerney, a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Kinerney said that in the Gulf Coast, where so much existing housing was lost because of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, "there's no place to put people." "Hopefully, West Virginia will become a model for other states around the country," he said.
The state's housing development fund already has bought four sites that can hold 194 mobile homes - although about 60 occupied mobile homes are there already. Some of the 134 vacant slots will be reserved for emergencies. The fund also plans to use $600,000 in federal money to buy an 8-acre site where 30 people displaced by flooding in May 2004 have been living in FEMA mobile homes. The purchase will allow those people to continue living there after FEMA's 18-month disaster assistance ends Nov. 28. That money is from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's HOME Program, which helps low-income people find affordable housing.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/22/2005 13:19 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#5
Anyone wish to speculate whether these homes will be available after the second disaster? I doubt it. Once these folks move in they'll stay. We can already see this trend from the report. ....30 people displaced by flooding in May 2004 have been living in FEMA mobile homes. The ( 8 acre)purchase will allow those people to continue living there after FEMA's 18-month disaster assistance ends Nov. 28.
By MICHAEL R. BLOOD, AP Political Writer
Friday, November 18, 2005
Hollywood director Rob Reiner warned the California Hospital Association Friday to withdraw or rewrite a ballot proposal it's pushing for 2006, saying it threatens to snatch up to $34 million a year from needy preschoolers.
"If the initiative remains in its current form, I will have no other option but to actively and aggressively oppose it," Reiner said in a letter to C. Duane Dauner, the association's president.
At issue is the use of tens of millions of dollars in expected tobacco taxes.
Reiner, a longtime activist, championed a 1998 ballot proposal slapping a 50-cents-a-pack tax on cigarettes to fund health and education programs for children up to 5 years old, now known as First 5 California.
In his letter, Reiner argued the hospital proposal, which calls for a $1.50 tax on each pack of cigarettes to fund emergency rooms and other health programs, would slash First 5 funding. Don't quit smoking, folks, I, I mean the kids, need the money!
If the state increased cigarette taxes as proposed by the hospitals, purchases would inevitably decline as smokers shop elsewhere for lower prices or give up the habit. If fewer cigarettes are sold in the state, tax collections will decline. In turn, First 5 would receive less money.
The hospital proposal would compensate First 5 programs with $70 million a year to make up for the expected losses, according to an analysis by the state's Legislative Analyst's Office. Even so, analysts said those programs could lose up to $20 million annually because of lower cigarette sales.
Reiner, who finds himself in the awkward position of arguing against a tax increase that could decrease smoking, pegged the loss at $34 million.
"We all share the goal of reducing the harmful effects of smoking and improving access to health care," Reiner wrote. But "an initiative which cuts funding for children's health and early education is bad for California."
When asked if the hospitals' campaign would drop or revise its proposal considering Reiner's complaint, spokeswoman Kris Deutschman said, "We have to move forward with the priority of keeping emergency rooms open. We would invite and encourage all parties to come join us."
In a later phone call, she said the group would be eager to discuss the issue with Reiner.
If enacted, the hospitals' proposal would raise an estimated $1.4 billion yearly. About two-thirds of it would go to fund emergency and trauma care services, with the rest distributed to a host of programs, including nursing education and those that discourage smoking.
State law requires any increase in cigarette taxes also be applied to other tobacco products, such as snuff or loose tobacco, in an equivalent amount.
Earlier this week, Reiner announced he collected more than a million signatures to get a separate initiative on the June ballot that would fund preschool for all California children, expanding on First 5. It would raise income taxes on wealthy residents to fund a year of preschool for all 4-year-olds.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
11/22/2005 10:19 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
This guy is so full of himself. Hewitt thinks he might run against Arnold, but by the sound of him he thinks he is Governor already.
A French judge is in Rwanda to investigate accusations that Paris helped a former Hutu government massacre ethnic Tutsis during the 1994 genocide, the French embassy said on Tuesday.
I don't pretend to know much about the Rwandan genocide, but if the investigators are now calling for French jurisprudence, the aggrieved parties ought to be concerned...
Rwanda's Tutsi President Paul Kagame, whose government came to power after the genocide, accused France last year of training and arming Hutu militias who were the main force behind a 100-day slaughter that killed some 800,000 people.
"A French judge arrived last evening to hear allegations from six Rwandans accusing France of taking part in the genocide," French ambassador Dominique Decherf told Reuters. The six are all genocide survivors. Decherf said the judge, Brigitte Raynaud, would return to France on Friday to make a report from which Paris would decide if further investigations or trial hearings were necessary.
Kagame's accusation last year, at a ceremony to mark 10 years since the genocide, further strained already tense relations between Rwanda and France. His remarks followed a report in French paper Le Monde accusing him of ordering a rocket attack on then President Juvenal Habyarimana's plane. The death of Habyarimana, a Hutu, triggered the attempt to wipe out the Tutsi ethnic moderate and kill Hutu moderates. France had replaced ex-colonial power Belgium as Rwanda's main Western backer and was close to Habyarimana's government. When Kagame's Tutsi-dominated rebel army, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), launched its war against the Hutu authorities in the early 1990s, France sent soldiers to Kigali. The French helped stop the RPF advance and then stayed on, as military advisers, up to the start of the genocide. France has vehemently denied any direct involvement in the killings.
In the matter of Henhouse v. Vulpina Industries, Judge Fox presiding.
#1
RB previously posted a French article accusing De Villepin of personally being involved in the Rwandan genocide. The French have made their own bed.
Concerns about turbulence behind Airbus' new A380 superjumbo might mean longer waits between take-off times when the airliner takes to the skies next year, the company's chief executive said.
Another nail in it's coffin
Responding to a report in the Wall Street Journal Europe that industry regulators are concerned about the wake created by the A380, Gustav Humbert said that longer separation times between aircraft might initially be introduced "as a precautionary measure" before being reduced. "It's possible that they (regulators) say 'let's have entry to service of the A380 with longer separation times' as a precautionary measure and then reduce them," the European aircraft maker's chief executive told journalists on the sidelines of the Dubai air show.
Close the distance till you get a crash, then back off.
The report in the WSJE, quoting preliminary safety guidelines from the International Civil Aviation Organization, said that airliners may have to fly at least twice the normal distance behind the A380 to avoid possible danger from vortex turbulence in its wake. The overall effect of a rule delaying the arrival of following aircraft would be to increase congestion at hub airports and reduce a cost-advantage selling point of the A380, which is to increase efficiency at congested mainline airports, the newspaper said.
Heh heh
Gumbert said that longer separation distances had also been introduced when the 747 jumbo was launched by Boeing in 1970. "Even if at the beginning they do it like for the 747, we should not be surprised," he said.
The report in the WSJE said that the standards put out by the aviation organzation this month were provisional and probably more cautious than formal rules expected next year. The Airbus A380 can carry up to about 850 passengers and is due to go into service next year. The ICAO report said that the "significantly stronger" turbulence left by the superjumbo, compared to the draft left by smaller airliners, indicated that the minimum distance left by following aircraft when landing should be 10 nautical miles instead of five, and that the distance in the air should be 15 miles.
When they're trying to land as many planes as quickly as possible, this is a bad thing
The report quoted a spokesman for the German airline Lufthansa as saying that the airline operated at congested airports and that "it is crucial for us that the separation is the same as for a (Boeing) 747".
Posted by: Steve ||
11/22/2005 14:50 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
If I took off behind an A380 in my Cessna 172, it would be the equivalent of flying into a blender. The 757 used to have the worst reputation for wake vortices. The A380 will be something else.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/22/2005 15:29 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I see a vision of a rock pounding a nail into a simple wooden casket taking the body of the A380 to the crematory. The only planes they will sell are those the EU is sure to mandate they buy.
I imagine the Titanic and the Hindenburg also won awards.
Posted by: SLO Jim ||
11/22/2005 17:29 Comments ||
Top||
#8
The good news is that if you are a pilot, and your contract bases your wages on aircraft weight, then you will be rich. Unless the contracts are renegotiated, heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/22/2005 17:37 Comments ||
Top||
#9
hey! it works!
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/22/2005 17:42 Comments ||
Top||
#10
I don't see this puppy landing at O'Hare any time soon. The taxiways, gates and aprons aren't big enough even at the international terminal.
But hell, what international airline needs a plane that can land at O'Hare?
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/22/2005 18:33 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Looks like the only airports that can handle this beast will be JFK, LAX, MEM, IND, and ANC.
(CNN) -- While health officials have serious concerns about the H5N1 bird flu virus becoming a pandemic, they say it won't be a worldwide threat until the virus is able to spread easily between people. That has not happened yet, and scientists stress that it might not happen with this strain.
Three things have to happen for a pandemic to start, according to the World Health Organization. First, there has to be a new substrain of the flu virus. Second, it has to spread to humans and cause serious illness. Finally, it has to spread easily between people.
The flu virus currently circulating in Asia and parts of Europe has made the first two steps. But so far only 130 people have been infected with the H5N1 flu virus in Asia over the past two years -- 67 have died, according to the WHO. Almost all of the human cases have involved people who had direct contact with infected birds.
Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt has told CNN that there was no way to know if this bird flu would lead to a pandemic, but said it was only a matter of time before some strain of flu virus did. He said that such an outbreak would be a natural disaster of unique proportions. "It can happen in 5,000 different communities around the world at the same time. No central place can manage all of those difficulties and so local communities need to be ready, and part of the president's plan is to assure that they are," Leavitt said.
The CDC has set up quarantine stations at 18 U.S. airports to monitor and respond to potential outbreaks.
President Bush outlined a $7.1 billion plan to prepare for a potential pandemic in a November 1 speech. Much of the money would be spent on a stockpile of vaccine and antiviral drugs, but about $583 million is being spent on domestic preparedness and $251 million would go to help other countries detect and contain a potential outbreak. "The most effective way to protect the American population is to contain an outbreak beyond the borders of the United States. While we work to prevent a pandemic from reaching our shores, we recognize that slowing or limiting the spread of the outbreak is a more realistic outcome and can save many lives," according to the Department of Homeland Security's national strategy plan.
The federal plan calls for coordination with international organizations such as the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization to isolate outbreaks.
Health officials stress that there is no risk of catching the bird flu by handling or eating birds in the United States. The H5N1 virus has not shown up in the United States.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/22/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The CDC has set up quarantine stations at 18 U.S. airports to monitor and respond to potential outbreaks.
Completely useless and an utter waste, anyone aboard an aircraft who's infected, and everyone, showing symptoms or not, is a carrier.
Only semi-sure protection is to stop all flights from an infected area, that will NOT happen.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/22/2005 8:26 Comments ||
Top||
#2
you'd better have your ducks in a row and be of strong mind.
Dont be a coward.
Its a good day to die.
Posted by: bk ||
11/22/2005 10:04 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Actually, it does help. It's all a matter of timing.
First of all, the quarantine station is there for the entire crew and passengers if someone is stricken with the flu, or shows symptoms, during the flight.
Second, and this is being done, infra-red cameras are being put up to detect if anyone is running a fever. They may run a fever for quite a while before showing other symptoms.
Both of these put pressure on the window of "infected-communicable-showing symptoms" of the flu, which means that there are only a few hours before the flight in which they could catch the disease and not get picked up at some point.
Finally, the quarantine station acts as a public health clearinghouse of information. For example, when someone comes down with the flu, and the local authorities discover that they had just arrived in country, they would contact the quarantine station to get the manifest of the other passengers and crew.
#4
Moose is right. All containment and control measures are additive and reduce the level of onward transmission. Get the level of onward tranmission (termed RO) below 1 and an outbreak dies out.
What we know of past pandemics says initially transmission is, and for a considerable period, not that efficient (i.e. RO is not that much over 1).
The chances IMO of relatively modest containment activities in the early stages of the pandemic of stopping outbreaks is very good. And if even if the chances are not good of containing outbreaks, not to try would be criminally irresponsible.
Disguised as a woman, smuggled across borders by train, plane and speedboat -- the flight of a Nigerian state governor charged with money-laundering in Britain is fast becoming the stuff of legend in his home country. Diepreye Alamieyeseigha earned the title of "Master of Deception" in Tuesday's This Day newspaper, which published a digital photo-montage of him in a red dress, sparkling necklace, red woman's head-dress and lipstick.
The governor of Bayelsa state was facing trial in London for laundering 1.8 million pounds. But in Nigeria he enjoys immunity from prosecution and when he returned home on Monday thousands of supporters gave him a hero's welcome. Police had found 1 million pounds in cash at his London address and authorities have restrained cash and property worth 10 million pounds held in Britain in the governor's name.
MY NAME IS DIEPREYE ALAMIEYESEIGHA, GOVERNOR OF BAYELSA STATE, NIGERIA.....
But Alamieyeseigha forfeited a 1.25 million pound bond, jumped bail and made his way home with forged documents and wearing women's clothes, according to the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
DO TO EVENTS BEYOND MY CONTROL I AM UNABLE TO ACCESS TEN MILLION POUNDS HELD IN BRITISH BANKS. I AM ASKING FOR YOU HELP
Tuesday's Vanguard newspaper, quoting a security source, said the governor took a train from London to Paris, then flew from Paris to Douala, a port in Cameroon which neighbors Nigeria. There, a speedboat was waiting to whisk him back to his home village of Amassoma, in the mangrove swamps and creeks of the Niger Delta, where he arrived in the dead of night. Asked how he had managed to evade British controls, he was quoted as saying in Nigeria's Sun newspaper: "I don't know myself. I just woke up and found myself in Amassoma." The Guardian quoted a personal aide of the governor in London as saying the escape was run "like a mafia operation."
Just like his country
A British security source said Alamieyeseigha had not been watched around the clock because that would have required a large team due to the layout of his London home. "We don't do surveillance unless it's a terrorist or high-profile case. In white-collar crime or fraud it isn't done," the source said. "If you're dressed as a woman and you carry the passport of a woman I don't think anyone is going to look too closely. Our borders are not too secure." News filtered out in the early hours that the governor was back and by daybreak hundreds thronged his Amassoma home. Then he drove in triumph into the state capital Yenagoa, where thousands lined the streets to cheer him. The governor is popular in Bayelsa, partly because he is an ethnic nationalist from the Ijaw, the dominant tribe there. Not all Bayelsans were delighted to see him back, however, and on Tuesday about 2,000 people marched in protest in Yenagoa. Pictures from Monday showed a beaming Alamieyeseigha waving to the crowds wearing a man's cream suit and a black hat. He looked much trimmer than when he left Nigeria, suggesting that at least one aspect of his trip to Europe was a success. He underwent a tummy-tuck operation in Germany just before he was arrested in London in September.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/22/2005 15:34 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The voices in my head tell me to kill him to stop the Nigerian emails.
A village council in Pakistan has decreed that five young women should be abducted, raped or killed for refusing to honour childhood "marriages".
The women, who are cousins, were married in absentia by a mullah in their Punjabi village to illiterate sons of their family's enemies in 1996, when they were aged from six to 13.
The marriages were part of a compensation agreement ordered by the village council and reached at gunpoint after the father of one of the girls shot dead a family rival.
The rival families have now called in their "debt", demanding the marriages to the village men are fulfilled.
Their fathers are supporting them and have refused to hand them over, leading to a resumption of the blood feud, with two relatives shot recently and 20 people arrested, while promises of further retribution and murder abound.
In addition to the sentence on the women, the village council has sentenced to death Jehan Khan Niazi, the father of three of the women, and the fathers of the other two for failing to honour the supposed bond with men whose identities they are not even certain of.
The women have said they will commit suicide if their fathers obey the council.
Speaking at their home in Sultanwala, a remote cotton and sugar-cane growing village, Amna said: "It is a great injustice that should be ended. Why should we pay for a crime committed by someone else? We will commit suicide if it happens. We would be treated like animals by them. Our misery would never end as this is just another way of using us as tools in the feud." None of the women has so far been able to marry as their childhood "marriages" hang over them.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan condemned the "barbaric custom of vani", - the tradition of handing over women to resolve disputes - and called on President Pervez Musharraf to enforce a ban.
Last year a three-year-old girl near Multan was betrothed to a 60-year-old man in a similar settlement. The case led to parliament passing a law banning vani and honour killings, but it has been widely ignored.
The case of Mukhtar Mai, a Pakistani woman whom a village council ordered to be gang-raped for an alleged offence committed by her brother, has also reached international attention.
The Daily Telegraph was granted access to the young women, despite Mr Niazi's fear that the village will further condemn him for being "un-Islamic" by allowing his daughters to be photographed, albeit with their faces covered by veils.
Amna, who hopes to become an English lecturer, said: "We are proud of our father. Despite having little money, he has educated us and shown us that we must stand up in society and demand our rights."
She is studying at a college affiliated to the university of Lahore, while her sister Abida, 18, is applying to study medicine, and Sajida, 15, is still at secondary school.
The other girls, Assia, 20, and Fatima, 16, are the daughters of Mr Niazi's brothers.
"Only a few of my friends know about this," said Abida. "But those that do support us and say we are fighting for the oppressed women of Pakistan."
Mr Niazi, who is a government accountant, was candid about the cause of the feud. "My brother murdered one of our neighbours after being shot at. But it is complicated, they had already insulted us by making indecent remarks to our girls," he said.
He added that his family had already paid blood-money to the aggrieved party. "I have refused to give into the council's request as it is un-Islamic. I cannot hand over my girls like goats to marry these illiterate boys," he said
Posted by: john ||
11/22/2005 05:45 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Very brave ladies, not giving in to the barbarians.
#4
"We are proud of our father. Despite having little money, he has educated us and shown us that we must stand up in society and demand our rights."
Fine sentiments, the problem being a prerequisite is to have a functioning society rather than a bunch of twisted barbarians living in mud huts
#10
One of the first instances I've seen so far where the father has refused in such a public way. Hopefully its catching....In the meantime, perhaps the girls should be moved somewhere and Ptah's plan put into place.
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- NGO leaders dedicated to development in Africa met in Santo Domingo on Saturday to take part in a discussion on developing a new future for Africa.
It's so important that they met in a lovely hotel in the Caribbean.
According to the U.N.'s Human Development Report 2003, Africa is the world's poorest inhabited continent. The poorest 25 countries of the world all reside in Africa according to the report.
While most of the developing world is experiencing an overall improvement in its quality of life, thanks to increased access to medicine and education as well as the products of foreign trade, Africa is moving backwards in these areas, in part due to the corruption and despotism that plagues many African governments. "The major cause of Africa's problems is its lack of proper governance which is a prerequisite of economic development," James Mancham, former president of Seychelles, said.
Please tell me no American tax dollars were used to generate that scintillating comment.
In addition Mancham said that there must be a resolution of all conflicts, an investment in the people and a diversification of the continent's economies if Africa is to achieve sustainable progress.
He's just hitting on all cylinders, isn't he.
"The idea that the problems of Africa are endemic due to an African mentality is unjust and unfair," said Mancham, pointing out that many African nations gained their freedom during the Cold War and were thus caught up in its politics and influence.
And socialism. Don't forget all the socialist nonsense all those newly-freed countries bought into.
According to Mancham, the first leaders of liberated Africa oversimplified what needed to be done, "buying into the rhetoric that once the exploiters were gone, there would be enough for all." Mancham said that after they demolished the old order these leaders failed to build a new one.
No, they bought into socialist clap-trap, and did so because it allowed them to stay on top as the 'elites' who would bring salvation to the masses. Most of the elites were stupid, corrupt, dishonest and incompetent, so it's no wonder Africa failed.
Mancham said that stability and an honest and effective government that works for the people were preconditions for economic development, while democracy was not, citing Taiwan and China as two successful examples.
Though raising living conditions and development almost invariably leads to democracy -- Taiwan, South Korea, Latin and South America are all examples of this.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/22/2005 00:18 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I think we need a Homer Simpson forehead-slapping 'DOH!' Graphic here.
#2
Call me when it happens. I'll be watching the Olympic ice hockey finals they'll be televising from Hell but that's all right, you can interrupt me.
Posted by: mac ||
11/22/2005 6:03 Comments ||
Top||
#3
"The major cause of Africa's problems is its lack of proper governance which is a prerequisite of economic development," James Mancham, former president of Seychelles
Compared to the contemporary models, one would suspect that several territories in Africa had proper British government fifty years ago. The 'nationalists' just forgot the old Chinese saying - be careful what you wish for, you may get it. Like the monkey with its hand caught in the jar, they won't let loose and escape. Ever thought of 'outsourcing' your government and bureaucracy to people who demonstrate much better handling of the issue?
#4
We all know what the problem is, but for NGOs and 3rd world leaders to recognize and speak it is actually remarkable. The first step in dealing with a problem is recognizing that you have one. Not that they'll go further, unfortunately...
#6
This makes me wonder...How does one go about becoming an Expert of the Obvious(tm) and get to travel off to warm climates and 5-star resorts? I've always wondered what some of these so-called experts' true backgrounds are.
Posted by: BA ||
11/22/2005 9:48 Comments ||
Top||
#7
This makes me wonder...How does one go about becoming an Expert of the Obvious(tm) and get to travel off to warm climates and 5-star resorts? I've always wondered what some of these so-called experts' true backgrounds are.
Posted by: BA ||
11/22/2005 9:49 Comments ||
Top||
#8
"The idea that the problems of Africa are endemic due to an African mentality is unjust and unfair," said Mancham
The African mentality seems to be to believe that the Europeans are at fault for nearly all of their failures. I'd say that's a big part of the problem. But Mancham is right, that is unjust because the lefties of the world have fought really hard to convince Africans of that as well so they deserve a lot of the blame as well.
#9
This makes me wonder...How does one go about becoming an Expert of the Obvious(tm) and get to travel off to warm climates and 5-star resorts? I've always wondered what some of these so-called experts' true backgrounds are.
This story might give you an idea: A few years ago, I applied to the UN to become an arms inspector - I figured, what the hell- the pay was INCREDIBLE (looking at 6 figures a year), it would get me away from the ex, and I knew ammo, having played with it for 20 years in the USAF.
Was shot down of course, but I didn't take it too hard. On the other hand, a guy who WAS hired for the job at about the same time turned out to have NO qualifactions whatsoever...but he WAS very big in the NYC S&M community - which the MSM, to is credit, did make known when it was discovered that he had no qualifications. Go figure.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/22/2005 12:45 Comments ||
Top||
#10
My God, Mike! And I thought ZimBOBwe magically making electricity out of uranium they just found was the top "You couldn't make this crap up if you tried" story of the day! Now, your story is one for the ages (but doesn't at all surprise me)!
Posted by: BA ||
11/22/2005 13:04 Comments ||
Top||
#11
That made the news didn't it Mike? I seem to recall that.
#13
Compared to the contemporary models, one would suspect that several territories in Africa had proper British government fifty years ago. The 'nationalists' just forgot the old Chinese saying - be careful what you wish for, you may get it. Like the monkey with its hand caught in the jar, they won't let loose and escape. Ever thought of 'outsourcing' your government and bureaucracy to people who demonstrate much better handling of the issue?
Posted by: Whating Elmeath2891|| 2005-11-22 08:11 ||Comments Top||
Oh but that was nasty ole white colonialism. They'd much rather return to boiling one another in large pots for dinner. Let the buggers all die of HIV, the Kalashnakov, collective stupidity and be done with it. The world needs a continental game and wildlife sancturary.
MIANWALI: Five men released on bail in the Chidroo Vani case on Monday vowed to marry the girls promised to them or else continue their vendetta against the latterâs families. The girlsâ brothers have sworn they will kill the men rather than hand their sisters over. Iqbal Khan was convicted of murdering Zaman Khan and was sentenced to death. However, a punchayat decided that five girls from Iqbalâs family would be wedded in Zamanâs family as reconciliation and the case was withdrawn. Later, Iqbalâs family said the girls did not want to marry the men. The enraged men attacked the girlsâ brothers and injured two. Presently, the girlsâ fathers have offered Zamanâs family money, land and other belongings to end the conflict.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/22/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
The Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, has said his country will process recently discovered uranium deposits in order to resolve its chronic electric power shortage. Mr Mugabe, who has close ties with Iran and North Korea, two countries with controversial nuclear programmes, made the announcement on Saturday, state radio said yesterday. It was not clear how Mr Mugabe intended to use any uranium deposits, as the country does not have a nuclear power plant. He unveiled plans in the 1990s to acquire a reactor from Argentina, but nothing more was heard about the idea. Zimbabwe was not previously known to have any workable deposits of uranium, and South Africa has the region's only nuclear power station, at Koeberg.
"Zimbabwe will develop power by processing uranium, which has recently been found in the country," the radio quoted Mr Mugabe as saying. "The discovery of uranium will go a long way in further enhancing the government rural electrification programme."
Voters in rural areas make a substantial portion of Mr Mugabe's support.
Especially ever since he bulldozed all the homes and camps in the cities...
Zimbabwe needs 2,100 megawatts of electricity a day but has a daily shortfall of 400 to 450MW and has had difficulty meeting bills from Mozambique, South Africa and Congo for imports from the regional electric grid. It has suffered a chronic shortage of foreign exchange since the seizure of 5,000 white-owned farms and the collapse of an export-oriented agricultural industry.
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.
Sam, the dog whose ugliness earned him TV appearances, limousine rides and even a meeting with millionaire Donald Trump, has died, the Santa Barbara News-Press reported Tuesday. The pooch with the hairless body, crooked teeth and sparse tuft of hair atop his knobby head died Friday, just short of his 15th birthday, said his owner, Susie Lockheed. "I don't think there'll ever be another Sam," she said, adding wryly, "Some people would think that's a good thing."
As election time draws closer for Jeddah's Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), many of the female candidates are busy campaigning and engaging with local media, as they each hope to become the first businesswoman to be elected to the chamber's board. Evident, however, was the fact that the chamber's campaign leaflet did not include any pictures of female candidates despite having their images broadcasted in other forms of media. The campaign leaflet that consisted of 84 pages highlighted election dates for each chamber, the names and biographies of each male or female candidate as well as the opening commentary by the current JCCI Chairman Ghassan Al-Sulaiman, and Vice-Chairmen Mohamed Al-Sharif. 
The U.N. Security Council extended the European Union peacekeeping force in Bosnia for a year on Monday and welcomed the Balkan nation's progress toward EU membership 10 years after a peace agreement ended a bitterly divisive war. A resolution adopted unanimously by the council also extended NATO's mandate to assist the 6,500-strong EU peacekeeping mission in Bosnia.
A French judge is in Rwanda to investigate accusations that Paris helped a former Hutu government massacre ethnic Tutsis during the 1994 genocide, the French embassy said on Tuesday. 
(CNN) -- While health officials have serious concerns about the H5N1 bird flu virus becoming a pandemic, they say it won't be a worldwide threat until the virus is able to spread easily between people. That has not happened yet, and scientists stress that it might not happen with this strain.
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- NGO leaders dedicated to development in Africa met in Santo Domingo on Saturday to take part in a discussion on developing a new future for Africa. 
MIANWALI: Five men released on bail in the Chidroo Vani case on Monday vowed to marry the girls promised to them or else continue their vendetta against the latterâs families. The girlsâ brothers have sworn they will kill the men rather than hand their sisters over. Iqbal Khan was convicted of murdering Zaman Khan and was sentenced to death. However, a punchayat decided that five girls from Iqbalâs family would be wedded in Zamanâs family as reconciliation and the case was withdrawn. Later, Iqbalâs family said the girls did not want to marry the men. The enraged men attacked the girlsâ brothers and injured two. Presently, the girlsâ fathers have offered Zamanâs family money, land and other belongings to end the conflict.
The Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, has said his country will process recently discovered uranium deposits in order to resolve its chronic electric power shortage. Mr Mugabe, who has close ties with Iran and North Korea, two countries with controversial nuclear programmes, made the announcement on Saturday, state radio said yesterday. It was not clear how Mr Mugabe intended to use any uranium deposits, as the country does not have a nuclear power plant. He unveiled plans in the 1990s to acquire a reactor from Argentina, but nothing more was heard about the idea. Zimbabwe was not previously known to have any workable deposits of uranium, and South Africa has the region's only nuclear power station, at Koeberg. 
