Can't you hear Les Nessman reporting this story?
A pack of angry Chihuahuas attacked a police officer who was escorting a teenager home following a traffic stop, authorities said. The officer suffered minor injuries including bites to his ankle on Thursday when the five Chihuahuas escaped the 17-year-old boy's home and rushed the officer in the doorway, said Fremont detective Bill Veteran.
The teenager had been detained after the traffic incident, Veteran said. The officer was treated at a local hospital and returned to work less than two hours later, Veteran said.
I dunno - this has nothing to do with the WoT - but we all have to go sometime, and the following story seems fitting as a reminder. Michigan Man Bowls 3rd Perfect Game, Then Dies
PORTAGE, Mich. (AP) - A bowler collapsed and died at a bowling alley shortly after rolling the third perfect game of his life. Ed Lorenz, 69, bowled a 300 Wednesday in his first league game of the night at Airway Lanes. When the retiree got up to bowl in the fifth frame of his second game, he clutched his chest and fell over, and efforts to revive him failed.
``If he could have written a way to go out, this would be it,'' said Johnny D Masters, who was bowling with Lorenz. Friends said Lorenz started bowling in 1957 and ended last season with a 223 average. He rolled his first two 300 games over a one-week period in 2004.
Posted by: Leon Clavin ||
12/30/2005 10:38 Comments ||
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#2
tarry not O ye of little faith
for the Red Bowler down below awaits thee
Posted by: Don Carter ||
12/30/2005 10:54 Comments ||
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#3
Something similar happened in my father-in-law's senior softball league a few years ago. Guy made a great play at second base, accepted congratulations all around, and dropped dead right there on the field. His wife said the same thing - it was exactly how he would have wanted to go out.
#5
My only hope is that the Swedish Bikini Team is somehow part of my demise.
I can read the obit now, "Doctors and mortuary officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, claim that the smile could not be removed from his face."
A drunken air passenger was cast away on an island more than 1,000 miles from home after abusing cabin staff. The unidentified man swore at crew and passengers after being refused a bottle of wine on the four-hour flight from Manchester to Tenerife. He became so abusive the fed-up pilot diverted the Monarch Airlines Airbus to Porto Santo island off West Africa. The Atlantic island, which is 10 miles long and three miles wide, is a two-hour ferry journey to Madeira.
After the plane touched down, the man was marched off by police and had his luggage dumped on the tarmac.
To the cheers of the other passengers, I'll wager
The plane and its remaining passengers then took off again for Tenerife, where it landed almost four hours late after the unscheduled stop.
#3
They Stooge to Conga (1943), a 3 Stooges film where Moe dresses up like Hitler, and tells Nazis to jump, which they do, when the plane is in flight...
#4
well well he got in a nice place with a lot of booze it's only thing there besides beaches. And he just neeeds a trip by boat to the major island Madeira to get in one of most spectacular End of Year fireworks! I went to Porto Santo about 12 years ago. Nice place and the big island is great.Climate at sea level there are always 20-35C´and at 5 miles inside in top mountains can be snow in winters...
German police have captured two men suspected of stealing from 15 cars and two garden sheds by following their footprints in the snow for several kilometres. Policemen were checking up on a car whose alarm had been set off just after midnight in the town of Hoentrop when they found a smashed window and two sets of footprints. They followed the footprints for more than 10 streets. "At one point the tracks disappeared because someone had cleared the pavement outside their home in the middle of the night," police said in a statement. After this minor setback, the officers picked up the trail again. The two sets of footprints led them directly to the entrance of a flat where the burglars not only stored their booty but also left their shoes and gloves to dry.
"Wilkömmen heim, böyz! Schtick 'em ÃŒp!"
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2005 00:00 ||
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Cars, I understand. Garden sheds?
Looking for fertilizer to make bombs with?
I note how completely and thoroughly they do NOT mention the person as either a "Youth" or as a "Muslim" that almost certainly means a Muslim otherwise the word "Youth" would be in headline sized type.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/30/2005 8:50 Comments ||
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Redneck Jim, it's always nice when you can make insinuations without basing them on absolutely anything.
Why the men must *definitely* be Muslim, because they're never referred as such. How logical!
#9
Aris, funny thing is, Redneck Jim will probably turn out to be right. The only way you can get the news from the MSM in these PC times is by reading between the lines.
Western donors are considering withholding millions of dollars of aid to Ethiopia, after a recent crackdown on the opposition and the press. The sum of $375m in direct funding for Ethiopian government programmes is reported to be under review.
Aid donors' frustration with Ethiopia's government has grown in recent months. In an interview with the BBC, the European Union's representative in Ethiopia, Timothy Clarke, said the EU was delaying some aid payments, although no formal decision to stop these had yet been taken.
Ethiopian Finance Minister Sufyan Ahmad told the BBC he was confident aid would not be reduced - and even if it was, this would have little effect on the overall budget, he said.
May's election was the most closely contested in Ethiopian history, and resulted in the opposition winning more than 100 seats in parliament. But the opposition believed they had been cheated of victory, and took to the streets. The clashes left many dead - and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi accusing the opposition of attempting to overthrow his government.
Western governments tried to bring the parties together, but with limited success.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/30/2005 00:00 ||
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ADEN - Hosts Yemen on Thursday offered to mediate in a mounting crisis between Horn of Africa rivals Ethiopia and Eritrea as regional leaders prepared to wrap up a two-day summit in the southern port city of Aden.
Just how screwed does your country have to be such that Yemen becomes a beacon of sweet, reasoned diplomacy?
President Ali Abdullah Saleh âannounced Yemenâs readiness to mediate between the two countries, or play any role that might help to ease tension and serve regional stability,â the official SABA agency quoted his as saying. He called upon Eritrea and Ethiopia to use dialogue to settle their disputes âin order to avoid wasting their energy and capabilities,â at the summitâs opening session on Wednesday.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said that âmaintaining stability in the region would provide more time to focus on development efforts in each member state.â
Not that it's important to do anything for the people, of course ...
The leaders of the Sanaa Forum were expected to discuss regional security and other issues, SABA said. âYemen is following with great interest developments of events in our region, notably in Sudan and Somalia,â Saleh said before proceedings got underway with closed door discussions. He called on the international community to âsupport peace efforts in the region as well as efforts in the fight against terrorism.â
Saleh and Zenawi, as well as Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir and Somaliaâs transitional President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed were also expected to âput in place a (durable) structure for the âSanaa Forumâ,â he added.
And we all know that there can be no Sanaa Forum without Somalia.
Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al Kurbi had told AFP that member states should play a âcommon security role in the regionâs waters to prevent all kinds of sabotage and maritime piracy and enhance stability.â
If it's the pirates versus the combined naval assets of Yemen, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan, I'm taking the pirates and giving the points.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/30/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Time for the UN peacekeepers to leave and let these two slug it out...
Posted by: john ||
12/30/2005 18:17 Comments ||
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Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
They aren't shy.
So let's get it straight:
*Libya has a problem with hard drug use so they try to solve it by restricting the sale of syringes and needles.
*Could be that the re-use of unsterilized needles contributed to the spread of aids in the hospital.
*And/or it could be that some of the mothers have AIDS, infecting their children at birth.
So the families most probably blamed the hospital authorities who in turn blamed the Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor, and then the Libyan 'judicial' system took over.
And now they are indicating that they might go easy on the nurses if the families get 'compensation'.
Ten mutilated bodies were found early yesterday in a southern Egyptian village, some of them missing their vital organs and laying in pools of blood, police sources said. The bodies of 10 Egyptians â four men, two women and four children â were found in three neighboring houses in the village of Ezbet Shams El-Din, 225 kilometers south of Cairo, the sources said. Their stomachs and throats were slashed open and many of their body parts, including genitals, were cut off, said an AFP correspondent in this village near the town of Bani Mazar, in the Minya governorate.
Neighbors and relatives later identified the victims in one of the houses as primary school teacher Yehia Ahmed Abu Baker, his wife Nemaat and two children, Mohammed and Asmaa. A son who spent the night at his grandmotherâs discovered the bodies in the morning. In the second house lay the disfigured bodies of Taha Abdul Meguid Mohammed, a young laborer and his father, Ahmed Hassan. Mohammedâs brother, who lives nearby, found the bodies when he went to the house to wake him up for dawn prayers, police told AFP. The third house contained the bodies of Said Mahmud Awda, a farmer, that of his son Ahmed, and two daughters, Fatma and Sabah. Awdaâs two other daughters who live on the second floor of the same building discovered the bodies.
There was no blood relation between the victims in the three houses in the impoverished village and police said they still had no clue if the crime was committed by an individual or more than one person. Investigations are ongoing to determine the motive behind the brutal slayings and catch the culprits, police said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2005 00:00 ||
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Blood libel accusations against "Zionists" in 5..4..
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) - Tunisia's religious affairs minister has criticized Muslim women's practice of wearing head scarves, saying it does not fit with the North African country's cultural heritage. Aboubaker Akhzouri said the government of the moderate Muslim country also rejects Muslim tunics like those worn in Persian Gulf states and the practice of men wearing long beards.
"It's regrettable that we don't respect our specificity," he was quoted as saying in Assabah newspaper on Wednesday. He said the head scarf is "foreign" and "an intrusion," and recommended a traditional Tunisian Islamic tunic known as the jebbah.
So everyone has the freedom to dress ... they way they're told.
Under a 1981 government order, Muslim head scarves are banned in Tunisian government offices and public schools, though the rule is not always applied rigorously. Some non-governmental groups have criticized the rule as a violation of Tunisians' civil rights.
Akhzouri denied that increasingly more Muslim women are turning to the head scarf. "On the contrary, the phenomenon is in decline ... progressively fading away," he said.
Tunisia, a nation of 10 million people wedged between Libya and Algeria, is considered a stalwart ally of the West and has been cracking down on Islamic militants for years.
It's also a one-party dictatorship, lest we forget.
It also actively promotes gender equality. Tunisian women enjoy rights denied in many other Arab countries, and nearly 54 percent of its university students are female.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/30/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
As an American, I was well received by everyday people. Spent my spare time smoking the hooka, drinking coffee with people who's first question was: "where are you from." When I answered, "America" I was treated like a king.
Then there was the dodgy guest house I stayed in where it seemed everyone I had never met knew I was from America. They did not seem so pleased.
Oh...what was I going to say? ...You cannot be critical of Islam. That will get you A) a trip to the big house or B) a ticket home. I always assumed it was option A.
#2
I did a job in downtown Baltimore one time. I always try to avoid that, because of the bums, but it was that or commute to someplace 42 miles south of Hell, and I wanted to save gas.
One of the sights you sometimes see in any major U.S. city is people who dress funny. I was standing out front, smoking my pipe and cursing, when what to my wondering eyes did appear but one of the locals out for a stroll in complete Moorish attire, complete with curly-toed slippers. He looked like he had his camel parked out back, and he was clearly looking for his scimitar. I went back inside then, because the other reason I try to avoid working downtown is the nuts, and this guy was rolling his eyes and having a conversation with himself.
But I can sympathize with the Tunisians criticizing people who dress funny. Sometimes there's something not quite right about them.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2005 0:33 Comments ||
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#3
I did a job in downtown Baltimore one time.That was a mistake. So was the last 7 years I spent in DC.
#4
You're right about that. It was with an insurance company. With actuaries.
Accountants keep actuaries around to make them look interesting and witty.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2005 0:40 Comments ||
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interesting.
when in Rome....
Posted by: Jan ||
12/30/2005 1:44 Comments ||
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I was standing out front, smoking my pipe and cursing, when what to my wondering eyes did appear but one of the locals out for a stroll in complete Moorish attire, complete with curly-toed slippers
I've had s**t like that too.
Posted by: Leon Clavin ||
12/30/2005 7:21 Comments ||
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#7
Try walking around San Francisco for the true fruits & nuts scenes - even Oakland can occasionally be weird.
The first time I saw a hairy chested man wearing a summer dress I almost did something very politically incorrect.
Then there was the time a guy strolling across a parking lot just squatted down in the middle beside a car and took a nature break then got back up and continued walking like it was his god-given right.
I could tell you stories that would curl your hair...
An independent consumer report says that food prices in Zimbabwe have gone up more than tenfold this year and unemployment is now at 80 per cent. The Independent Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (ICCZ) says the price of buying groceries has gone up more than 1,000 per cent this year. Bread has been in short supply and when available it costs 1,500 per cent more. Milk is 1,700 per cent more expensive. Unemployment is said to be more than 80 per cent since the Government's demolition campaign in May and inflation is more than 500 per cent. The United Nations blames mismanagement for the country's economic situation, but the Government of Robert Mugabe blames Western sanctions. The ICCZ report says 2005 has been agonising for Zimbabwean consumers.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
That's a damn fine sprocket there on Bob's sash. And a chest full of medals too! What's the red ribbon - Order of Economic Buffoonery?
With the end of 2005, the U.N.'s World Food Program is slated to shut down its decade-long food distribution effort in North Korea after Pyongyang told the organization that the aid was no longer needed. The program was the biggest multinational humanitarian program in the country and was instrumental in pulling North Korea out of a famine that killed up to 2.5 million people in the mid-1990s and drove many to flee the country.
At the same time, the government announced it would revert to central control of all grain distribution, shutting down market-based experiments in grain sales that started in 2002. Then the military reportedly seized grain earmarked as incentives for growers, while promising increased rations across the board.
"If you give the food through the WFP, it is more likely to reach vulnerable people," said Noland. "If you give the food to the North Korean government, it will distribute according to its own preferences, which are basically political."
Since the regime's priority appears to be its own survival, experts say, it will naturally favor loyal military and political elite, rather than the most needy. The move to eject WFP may be a Faustian gamble for more help from its neighbors, said Robert Dujarric, a North Asia expert and visiting scholar at Japan's Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry. "They may be hoping that they can get enough aid from Korea and China, which comes with fewer strings attached."
#1
following the advice of Senator Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean and several other leading democrats, the government announced it would revert to central control
#2
Here's an idea: stop worrying about that place and leave it to its fate, whatever that may be. As long as Mr. Forehead and his minions are in absolute control, there will be no going around them to get to the ones that need aid the most.
#3
Damn good idea Bomb-a-rama. I'd like to add about 60 or 80 other countries to your list of "leaving them to their fate." I think we'd be a lot better off if we followed your advice, particularly in the ME.
As much as I don't give a crap about N Korea, the poor and hungry do make for good soldiers, so we do need to deal with this before we have to go fight them again. This war the boomer generation failed to finish, albeit was handed to them also, is now squarely in our lap to finish. If we donât finish it, billions of our tax dollars will be spent in another continuous cold war with this idiot, Cuba take note weâre cleaning up our dance card. I vote we put a bullet in Kim and tear out the minefields. Watch the people of N Korea do the same thing as the East Germans and embrace Western government and build a unification plan.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
12/30/2005 13:34 Comments ||
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China has confirmed its seventh human infection and third human death from bird flu. Officials say a 41-year old factory worker died from the disease over a week ago. The victim, a woman surnamed Zhou, died on December 21. Like previous human victims of the H5N1 virus in China, she apparently contracted the disease in an area that has not officially reported previous outbreaks among birds.
The Health Ministry says "no H5N1 bird flu outbreak in animals was detected in the area where the new case was reported", the Xinhua news agency reports. Ms Zhou "showed symptoms of fever and pneumonia" on December 6 and was admitted to hospital two days later. Initial tests for the H5N1 virus were negative but later tests by provincial investigators and China's Centre of Disease Control showed positive results. H5N1 is the bird flu virus that scientists fear may mutate into a strain that can spread easily among people, unleashing a human pandemic that could kill millions. "Zhou has been confirmed to be infected with bird flu in accordance with the standards of the World Health Organisation and the Chinese government," the Health Ministry said. The H5N1 virus has killed more than 70 people in Asia since late 2003 and is endemic in poultry flocks across parts of the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2005 00:00 ||
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Posted on the off-chance that Europe still matters.
Cheap Monday jeans are a hot commodity among young Swedes thanks to their trendy tight fit and low price, even if a few buyers are turned off by the logo: a skull with a cross turned upside down on its forehead. What every girl and boy wanted under the Christmas tree.
Logo designer Bjorn Atldax says he's not just trying for an antiestablishment vibe. Yo must be kidding??? How could I have ever figured that out without Bjorn admitting it?!?!
"It is an active statement against Christianity," Atldax told The Associated Press. "I'm not a Satanist myself, but I have a great dislike for organized religion." Sounds like a candidate for the ACLU.
The label's makers say it's more of a joke ... Yeah...uh huh. Well...how about marketing jeans that symbolize Swedes as a bunch of blockhead blondes? It's all in fun??
... but Atldax insists his graphic designs have a purpose beyond selling denim: to make young people question Christianity, a "force of evil" that he blames for sparking wars throughout history. Yes, Chief...it's the old "Christianity is a force of evil" trick. Bjorn: You are so right. Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Kim Il Sung, Saddaam Hussein...Every one an evil, nasty Christian.
In more religious countries, that might raise a furious response, maybe even prompt retailers to drop the brand. You might try France. They haven't been much for organized religion for years.
Not in Sweden, a secular country that cherishes its free speech and where churchgoing has been declining for decades. How about this for free speech: SAAB's SUCK!!!
Cheap Mondays are flying off the shelves at 400 kronor (about $50) a pair. Makers say about 200,000 pairs have been sold since March 2004 â and little attention has been paid to the grinning skull and dark texts such as "Over My Dead Body." Even the predominant Lutheran Church of Sweden reacts with a shrug. The Lutheran Church of Sweden has as much life as Generalissimo Franco.
They learned how to shrug from the Anglicans.
"I don't think it's much to be horrified about," said Bo Larsson, director of the Church of Sweden's department of Education, Research and Culture. What about some anti-minority jeans? Would you be horrified then?
"It is abundantly clear that this designer wants to create public opinion against the Christian faith ... but I believe that the way to deal with this is to start a discussion about what religion means." Yeah. That makes sense. Let's call your mother a lesbian prostitute child molester...plaster it across billboards and on jean labels...and let's use it as a place to start a discussion about what that means.
Out in the parishes, however, some Christians believe that approach is too soft. "One cannot just keep quiet about this," said the Rev. Karl-Erik Nylund, vicar of St. Mary Magdalene Church in Stockholm. "This is a deliberate provocation (against Christians) and I object to that." Sounds like a lunatic religious fanatic to me.
She does sound intolerant, doesn't she? Don't the Swedes have a program or a camp for that?
Nylund complained that Swedish companies do not treat Christianity with the same respect in marketing that they afford other religions. Ya think?
"No one wants to provoke Jews or Muslims, but it's totally OK to provoke Christians," he said. Yeah...if Bjorn had cajones he would have put Mohammend on the jeans eating bacon with a Star of David on his tunic. No...he knows the muslims would have done a "van Gogh" on his sorry a** and cut his throat.
Some buyers have ripped off the Cheap Monday labels, or even returned the jeans once they realized what the logo represents. But such cases are very few, said Orjan Andersson, the creator of the brand, who doesn't take Atldax' message too seriously. "I don't believe in neither the devil nor God. I'm not interested in religion," he said. "I'm more interested in that the logo looks good."
Henrik Petersson, 26, said he picked up his first pair of Cheap Monday jeans a few months after they were launched because he liked their punk-rocker style and the logo caught his eye. "I think it's a cool thing. It stands out from the rest," he said. "I haven't really reflected over whether there is an underlying message."
"Like dude, you expect to read stuff and all?"
Martin Sundberg, a 32-year-old co-owner of a clothing store in Stockholm's trendy SoFo district, said he didn't think the logo has a "deeper meaning." "It's just supposed to be a bit of fun, some kind of anti-culture," he said.
Cheap Mondays have started to sell abroad. The jeans are being shipped to Norway, Denmark, Britain, the Netherlands, France and Australia. Andersson said they're working on introducing them in the United States and elsewhere. And he did not expect the ungodly logo to get in the way. "Surely, most people understand that we are not evil people," he said, laughing. "My mom doesn't think so at least." No...evil resides in those who see the right thing to do, and refuse to do it. Your mom also told you that eating sugar will give you diabetes. And don't call me Shirley.
#1
Methinks their muslim guests just won't be able to control themselves when they see what's on the Swedish girls tender young bottoms. "Your Honor, the devil made me do it."
Posted by: ed ||
12/30/2005 14:51 Comments ||
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Arab foreign ministers yesterday lashed out at the Danish government over a growing controversy aroused by the publication in a Copenhagen daily of caricatures representing the Prophet Muhammad (PTUI). Gathered at the Arab League, they issued a statement expressing their âsurprise and indignation at the reaction of the Danish government, which was disappointing despite its political, economic and cultural ties with the Muslim world.â
Good on the Danes. What part of "free press" don't you understand?
Twelve cartoons, which were published in the Jyllands-Posten daily late last September, have sparked an uproar among Muslims in Denmark and abroad. The paper and the cartoonist have even received death threats. Liberal Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has refused to meet 11 Copenhagen-based ambassadors from Muslim countries who wanted to complain about the cartoons and demand an official apology. The foreign ministers also said they were unhappy that European organizations dealing with human rights have not taken a clear position on the issue.
Yes, I'd like to see them take a clear position. I'd like to see them tell the Moose limbs to piss off, that while they're welcome to their peculiar culture, they're not free to foist it on the civilized world.
#2
Why the heck haven't hundreds of cartoonists in the world started cranking out "Mohammed Bibles", on the order of the "Tijuana Bibles"?
Thousands and thousands of cartoons of Mocmud, each vying for grosser and stupider.
The point is that pictures of Mohammed are only blasphemous because everybody is afraid or too "sensitive" to Moslem feelings to make them. But
though they can "jump" all over a single cartoon, if there were thousands of them it would be damn near impossible.
If everywhere you looked, Mukmad was being *laughed* at and scorned, it would at first drive the mullahs nuts, and second, it would start to give the rank-and-file ideas.
*Nobody* has the right not to be made fun of. Especially in a free country. But that right is useless *unless* we make fun of assholes like Mohammed. And LOUDLY.
#3
Arab foreign ministers yesterday lashed out at the Danish government over a growing controversy aroused by the publication in a Copenhagen daily of caricatures representing the Prophet Muhammad..
#8
But with a growing muslim population in the West, we're likely to see less mockery of islam, rather than more. And there's precious little already; the proverbial "climate of fear" has existed since at least the time of the Rushdie fatwah.
#9
Here is a link to the photos, I didn't think they were that bad. Actually they were a bit disappointing, I was expecting some real raw stuff, heh.
Any creative folks out there?
#11
Why the heck haven't hundreds of cartoonists in the world started cranking out "Mohammed Bibles", on the order of the "Tijuana Bibles"?
Thousands and thousands of cartoons of Mocmud, each vying for grosser and stupider.
Because they're deathly afraid of Muslims. I know of two cases where American "artists" backed down from Muslim pressure.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/30/2005 16:10 Comments ||
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That's why the cartoons have to be anonymous. Posted to the internet not to a particular web page or a server that could be threatened, but distributed virally, say in batches of 100, put together in a torrent RAR file for P2P swapping, titled, say, "Britney Spears Lesbian Sex Paris Hilton.rar"
Then all that has to be done is to give out the name of the torrent files to all those individuals who would spread it faster than gonorrhea in a gay bath house.
Even for those non-artistically inclined out there, they could take existing comics and modify them, say, "Doonesbury", for example. Just scratch on a beard, do some cut and paste, and there is Zonker Harris proclaiming he is Mohammed "the prophet of God', and that Allah has just told him to smoke hashish and sodomize a pig before killing three people at random and drinking their blood.
It really wouldn't take a very long time to do a crude cut-and-paste, then just fill and re-fill the dialogue balloons again, sort of like the way that lazy bastard Trudeau does it himself. People do it to Jack T. Chick comics all the time.
The only one the mullahs could get pissed off at would be Gary Trudeau, I guess. Or Ted Rall, say.
A Bosnian laboratory which pioneered new techniques to identify victims of the Balkan wars is to help identify the unknown dead of Hurricane Katrina. The Sarajevo-based International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) will seek to extract DNA profiles from 350 samples provided by US authorities.
Katrina killed more than 1,200 people when it hit in August, and four months on, many bodies remain unidentified. The southern state of Louisiana, which requested the help, was hardest hit.
The ICMP was set up by the international community in 1996, in the aftermath of the Bosnian conflict, to identify about 30,000 people missing from the wars in the former Yugoslavia. It developed specialist large-scale DNA extraction techniques and has helped name 6,000 of the 12,500 Bosnian war dead who have been identified.
It has also worked with the Thai authorities to help identify people killed in the Asian tsunami, as well as those investigating the attacks on the World Trade Center and people missing in Iraq.
ICMP chair, James Kimsey, said the organisation was hopeful of a high success rate in naming unidentified Hurricane Katrina victims. "Hurricane Katrina is a relatively recent disaster and in this case the quantity of DNA is much higher than in older bones," he said.
Many of the bodies retrieved from the aftermath of Katrina were so decomposed that standard identification was impossible. Dental records, often used in such cases, had been washed away in the storm, making DNA analysis the only viable option. After a DNA profile is extracted from the bone samples provided, the ICMP will return the information to the US where it will be matched with the DNA profiles of family members.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/30/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
So was this 'facilitated' by Slick Willie's incursion into Bosnia? Somebody help me here; my irony meter is twitching.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/30/2005 1:30 Comments ||
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Would probably be interesting to find out how many of the deceased are still receiving social security, or some other type of government benefit check, and somehow still cashing it.
Jan Srb, a spokesman for the Czech bureau of investigations into communist crimes, said: "Europe was divided by the Iron Curtain and the former adversaries of the West were beginning to become allies. This was hard for the Communist regimes of the East to digest."
I'm all for recycling but I think searching garbage for recyclables goes a bit too far.
SEATTLE - The new year brings a new recycling crackdown in Seattle.
Starting next week, the city is enforcing a new Seattle law that says your garbage cannot contain more than 10 percent recyclables.
"We see a lot of cardboard, glass, and plastic bottles in commercial garbage bins that should be recycled," says senior inspector Peter Russell. "We're more than happy to work with businesses to get them started with recycling and we hope they'll cooperate." Going to be opening some re-education centers?
While 9 out of 10 single family homes in Seattle participate in the free recycling program, only half of all businesses, condos, and large apartments sort their garbage.
To enforce the new rule, three Seattle inspectors will randomly inspect commercial garbage bins.
"We're not sorting through the garbage and looking in garbage bags," Russell explains. "This is just a visual check and we're going to assume what we see on top represents the garbage beneath." So if I don't like a business I simply dump my recyclables in their garabage before their trash-day. Anyone know where the seattle DNC office is located?
Offenders will be warned the first two times and inspectors will take photographs to state their case. The third offense comes with a $50 fine.
The new law only applies in Seattle and while inspectors won't be checking residential garbage bins -- the garbage collectors will. If a trash collector looks in a bin and sees more than 10 percent of material that can be recycled, the trash won't be picked up. A tag will be left on the can instructing the customer to separate the recyclables and try again next week.
Russell encourages all families to sort their recyclables from the trash, help save the Earth and $50.
I don't know but I don't think the Soviet Union dictated what you can have in your trash. (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong)
#1
10% is pretty subjective. By weight? Volume? Numbers? How about if what's below doesn't match what's on top? Idiotarians - feelings and intent over actual actions. I see this as the first wave of inspectors, obviously more will be needed, to make sure you're buying low-fat vs whole milk, and god forbid there are cig butts in there
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/30/2005 21:14 Comments ||
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#2
There's plenty of dumpster divers in Seattle. Just start paying them for what you want recycled and you'll be floating in it within a month.
#4
More subjective then that Frank. Comrade Inspector will look in your garbage bin and if it 'looks' like its more then 10% (on top) recyclables its breaking the law.
BOSTON â The Democratic National Committee requested public records from state agencies on their dealings with Gov. Mitt Romney, who may run for president in 2008. His spokesman called it the work of a "dirty tricks attack squad."
The DNC is seeking similar records on at least 10 other potential candidates for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, spokesman Luis Miranda said.
The letters dated Dec. 7 ask for "any and all records of communication" and are signed by Shauna Daly, who provided a post office box in Washington as her address.
Miranda confirmed to The Boston Globe that Daly is employed by the Democrats as deputy research director. She had previously worked for the presidential campaign of John Edwards, the former senator from North Carolina, and in other races.
The party is asking for records as far back as 1947, the year Romney was born.
THe acts of a party that is desperate to gain power but devoid of morals, ideals and ideas. They have become the party of slime and hate.
#3
IIRC Howie "Yearrrgggghhh" Dean sealed his Governor's office records for 10 yrs...
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/30/2005 13:57 Comments ||
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#4
Anyone that thinks the other parties and individual candidates and campaigns aren't doing this as well is devoid of a basic understanding of modern political campaigning.
They'd be callously irresponsible amateurs if they didn't do opposition research.
This is standard operating procedure for ALL political parties and candidates.
The R's are probably just not so stupid as to have a paid staff member requesting this information.
EP
Posted by: Elvis ||
12/30/2005 14:04 Comments ||
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#5
no resolution to Schumer's aides fraudulently getting the private credit reports of Michael Steele, is there?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/30/2005 14:13 Comments ||
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#6
That gibes with what I found on Google. Daly was working as a volunteer at < href='http://www.ihclt.org/'>http://www.ihclt.org/ which is based in North Carolina
#7
It's irritating when public officials on either side "seal" their records. Kinda makes folks think the worst, why else would they do it other than to hide potentially bad stuff.
Everyone seems to have some dirty laundry somewhere, better to let it hang out and defend your actions and move on than to hide it.
Posted by: Jan ||
12/30/2005 14:25 Comments ||
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#8
I always get a chuckle out of spin articles like these. Maybe people in the world think they're news, but I'm not so optimistic about the world.
I understand that most people want to believe that their preferred candidate or party plays fair, but quite honestly if you really believe that, you're fooling yourself.
Anyone that thinks the other parties and individual candidates and campaigns aren't doing this as well is devoid of a basic understanding of political campaigning or just naive.
They'd be callously irresponsible amateurs if they didn't do opposition research.
This is standard operating procedure for ALL political parties and candidates as well as politically oriented think tanks.
Political campaigning is sadly not about being right or about being the best man for the job. It's about getting the most votes and winning. That being so, the gloves are off in campaigns and very little is considered out of bounds.
This isn't new either, this shit has been going on since electoral politics debuted. You should read some of the historical campaign literature about Andy Jackson calling his wife a whore and so on. That's just the tip of the iceberg. We all may think it's slimy, but the truth is, that it is effective.
These days with Mccain/Feingold or BCRA as it is affectionately known, the responsibility for such attacks had simply been shifted to third party committees like PACs and 527s.
While these changes to campaign finance law may seem like reforms,these changes were extremely beneficial for the individual politicians because now they dont have to actually put the slime out, they can just benefit from it with no strings attached. Swift Boat Veterans for Truth(well known anti Kerry organization) and an organization called Bring Ohio Back( a Hollywood funded Anti Bush group)are good examples of these third party groups used as proxy campaign arms, and you bet your ass both major parties and independent groups have scores of such groups.
Whether or not you agree with this is another matter, but to believe that campaigns are fair is equivalent to believing that the tooth fairy is going to visit you when its time for dentures.
The R's are probably just not so stupid as to have a paid staff member requesting this information.So if you want to bash something, bash the idiocy of the D's for making this a transparent process.For that was truly the stupid move. Not the aforementioned assumption that this is not what all politicians do.
Posted by: Dan Rather ||
12/30/2005 17:08 Comments ||
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#11
Fake But Accurate is a solid liberal journalistic standard (as most recently seen in a smearing of a republican governor over stat handling of wolves), especially when its handed to the press by liberals. Things liek that go with their predispositions to dislike conservatives, and their innate laziness at fact checking things, especially when they come from "trusted sources" (i.e. people with the same prejudices and biases they hold).
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Lynndie England, the U.S. soldier incarcerated for abusing detainees in Iraq, was badly burned in a prison kitchen accident, her mother said on Thursday. England, who was pictured holding a leash to a naked, hooded Iraqi inmate at the Abu Ghraib prison, was sentenced in September to three years for her part in the abuse scandal that sparked worldwide outrage. She is now confined to the Naval Consolidated Brig Miramar in San Diego, California.
England works in the prison's kitchen, where she suffered second- and possibly third-degree burns from being splattered with grease over her chest as she removed chickens from a tall oven, her mother, Terrie England, said in an interview.
Ah. Gee. Shucks.
"She was in severe pain," she said of the December 14 incident. "Everybody in the prison heard the scream."
Terrie England, who is caring for England's infant during her incarceration, faulted prison officials for not giving better treatment during a visit to the emergency room. "They gave her nothing," she said. "When this happened I was furious. ... To think they give you nothing for pain."
Brewster Schenck, a spokesman for Consolidated Brig Miramar, confirmed England had been assigned to the kitchen, where inmates prepare and serve food mostly for other prisoners. He declined to discuss the accident or her medical condition.
Brewster Schenck? Some parents really hate their kids
Terrie England said the arrival of her daughter at the military prison caused a lot of curiosity, including autograph requests. "It wasn't just prisoners, it was guards and everything," she said.
Maybe somebody got jealous and tried to shove our girl into the oven
She said Lynndie England had been taking a Bible prayer class in prison and telephoning home from prison about once a week.
In a September interview with Reuters, England blamed her involvement in the Abu Ghraib scandal on then-lover Charles Graner, who is serving a 10-year sentence on abuse charges and is the father of her baby.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/30/2005 08:38 ||
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#1
When this happened I was furious. ... To think they give you nothing for pain."
Sounds like they did give her a trip to the emergency room. YJCMTSU
#2
Yea, Reuters would have a bugger of a time indeed figuring out why common Americans would want England's autograph. Quite frankly, I'm sick of everyone kicking this kid and our soldiers. The gov'ment would had her kissing the royal asses of the Abu Ghraib prisoners of the "wonderful Faith of Islam" and aborting her baby. I'm glad she did neither. I'm also glad she was cooking in prison, doing something productive. I'm glad she has a family supporting her, and that she's going to bible classes. Blaming England, Graner, or a squad of Rangers (the enlisted!) for misconduct is not the answer, it is sickening and disgusting. Unlike the thousands of draft dodgers that smoked pot and were pardoned after Vietnam, these young people volunteered and deployed. I suspect many US POW's would have been glad to have been photographed wearing bikini undies over their heads. At least their families would know that they were still alive.
"Men of the ranks are cunning and devious, and bear close watching."
Where were the officers? Why are there no officers going to jail?
#3
Besoeker, again you show you have probably not been in the military. Officers are responsible for what the soldiers under their command do but not to the exten (nowadays) of being criminally responsible. Lyndie England was a clerk and not supposed to be in the prison area. Her lover let her in and the results are well known. The officers whose command she was under failed to excersise proper control over their troops, but to put them in prison for soldiers who wilfully disobeyed orders is not warrented. Bust them in rank is about all that can be done.
At least 24 people were killed in an avalanche while hunting precious stones in a remote mountain range in northwest Pakistan, police said. The incident happened on Tuesday in the rugged Karakoram range in Kohistan district, local police chief Ashfaq Ahmed told AFP Friday. "There were around 120 people extracting gemstones when the avalanche struck, burying a number of them," Ahmed said. "Twenty-four were killed and the rest are fine. Locals have dug all the bodies out of the snow," Ahmed said. He said a military helicopter had been despatched to the hard-to-reach area and had so far brought back 12 bodies to Dassu, the main town in the region, where they were handed over to relatives.
Police only learned of the avalanche late Thursday, when residents of the far-flung village of Sputmali in the highlands arrived at their police post. Kohistan is located in the region of Pakistan that was devastated by a massive earthquake in October, which killed more than 73,000 people. Since then, the mountainous area has been jolted by more than 1,500 aftershocks. Ahmed said it was possible that Allan is angry, and that His wrath a tremor had triggered the avalanche. The gemstones are one of the only ways of making a living in the rugged area, which is four days trek from Dassu. The stones are sold through intermediaries to buyers in foreign countries. "This is a good source of income for many people in the region where there is no industry and very little agriculture," local administrative official Niaz Mohammad told AFP. It was the first reported incident of its kind to hit gemstone prospectors in the area, he added.
ISLAMABAD - A moderate earthquake measuring 5.3 on Richter Scale shook parts of northern Pakistan and India early Thursday but there were no reports of any casualties or damage, seismic center officials said.
The epicenter of the quake, which occurred at 3:04 a.m. local time, was located in Hazara division, about 120 kilometers north of capital Islamabad, officials at the seismic center in Pakistanâs northern city of Peshawar said. The earthquake was felt in Islamabad, Peshawar and Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/30/2005 00:00 ||
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A team of 35 Malaysians will try to drape Egypt's great pyramid at Giza with the flags of the world's 57 Muslim countries, an official said in a televised public ceremony.
Malaysia's Defense Minister Najib Razak announced the project during a ceremony Tuesday, when he presented a Malaysian flag to the team's leaders.
Najib said the expedition, planned for May 18, is a"commendable effort," and comes in response to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's call to raise Malaysia's profile in the world.
The flag-draping event, sponsored by Malaysia's Youth and Sports Ministry and the Selangor state government, is slated to be broadcast live on a Malaysian television channel.
It was not clear if Egypt's government or antiquities department, which is responsible for the Giza site, have given permission to the so-called Malaysian peace mission team for the project - which would involve climbing the 4,600-year-old world heritage site.
Malaysia, one of South-East Asia's most developed nations, is a moderate Muslim country. It wasn't immediately clear, from Najib's remarks or news reports, why an Egyptian pyramid - which predates Islam by thousands of years - was chosen for the project.
Sports ministry and Selangor government officials were not immediately available for comment.
The great pyramid at Giza was built by the pharaoh Khufu, or Cheops, with 3 million stone blocks weighing 2.5 tons each, without any cementing material.
#2
Getting permission may not be easy unless they promise to get the head of the antiquities departments plenty of face time on TV. He likes being the "Star."
#3
It wasn't immediately clear, from Najib's remarks or news reports, why an Egyptian pyramid - which predates Islam by thousands of years - was chosen for the project.
Duh! For the same freakin' reason they can claim that the Wailing Wall and the Temple Mount have always been Muslim sites - because they can (rewrite history to suit themselves and their dimwitted take on history)!
It doesn't matter that the Temple also predates Mohammad by at least a thousand years. It doesn't matter that the Great Pyramid predates Mohammed by at least 5 thousand years. They're obviously Muslim artifacts handed down by Allah thousands of years before Khufu and the Hebrews slaved to build the edifices.
Not meaning to change the subject, but I can't help wondering how many of those 57 show up on the Guinness list of the World's Most Suckiest Countries.
A coalition of religious minorities in Malaysia has urged the government to curb the powers of Islamic legal authorities who forced the burial of a soldier as a Muslim despite his Hindu widow's protests. The Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Sikhism said on Thursday that the Islamic Shariah court's insistence that M. Moorthy converted to Islam before his death could be a setback for racial and religious harmony in this mostly Muslim nation.
Ummm... Barely mostly. They're by far the largest single religion, but only 52 percent of the population. The actual stats: 52% Muslim, 17% Buddhist, 12% Taoist, 8% Christian, 8% Hindu, 2% tribal.
"If what happened to Moorthy's family happens to other Hindus, or to Christian and Buddhist families, then national unity will suffer because the non-Muslims will feel they have no protection," said R. Thiagaraja, the council's secretary-general. Moorthy, an ex-army commando who died on 20 December, was accorded a Muslim funeral on Wednesday, after his widow, Kaliammal Sinnasamy, lost her appeal in the High Court against a Shariah judge's ruling last week that Moorthy was a Muslim convert who should be buried with Islamic rites. The Islamic Shariah court is separate from civilian courts and hears cases involving Muslims. But Moorthy's case underscores how civilian judges are unable to override the Shariah court's authority when their jurisdictions occasionally overlap.
I'm not too sure where a religious court gets any authority at all in a secular state. I know Malaysia's trying not to be one, but they haven't made the jump to an Islamic republic yet (and hopefully never will)...
High Court Judge Raus Sharif said on Wednesday that he was powerless to review the Shariah decision, which came after the Islamic Affairs Department claimed that Moorthy, 36, verbally converted in October 2004 and was registered as a Muslim following an application by the armed forces. Thiagaraja said leaders in the inter-religious coalition hope to meet with Maximus Ongkili, the government minister responsible for national unity, to call for changes in the law. "It's wrong for the Shariah court to assume jurisdiction in cases that affect non-Muslims," Thiagaraja said, expressing hopes for constitutional amendments so that civilian courts can determine whether conversions to Islam are legally valid.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2005 00:00 ||
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KUALA LUMPUR - A rebellion is stirring in Malaysia over new legislation which critics say undermines the rights of Muslim women by making it easier for men to take multiple wives and claim property after divorce.
The government was forced to strike down opposition in the usually tame upper house Senate to push through the bill last week, only to face an avalanche of protest from civil society groups and ordinary citizens.
Letters pages in the usually tightly-controlled media have also been full of complaints over the âIslamic Family Lawâ bill which affects Malaysiaâs Muslims, who make up about 60 percent of the population of 26 million people. âNow I learn that if my husband were to marry another, he has the right to my property to support his new lifestyle!â wrote one outraged reader of the New Straits Times.
âAnother provision makes it easier for men to obtain divorce ... it is hard to imagine how much easier it can be, given the current situation where men can divorce their wives for no reason and even via SMS,â said another.
Sucks to live in an Islamic paradise, huh.
Malaysian Muslim men are allowed four wives under Islamic law, but under the new amendments they no longer have to prove they are financially capable of treating all their wives equally before taking on another. On taking a new wife, men can now seize property belonging to existing wives, and they are also given new rights to claim assets after a divorce, as well as less obligation to pay compensation and maintenance.
âThey are giving more rights to the men whilst taking back the traditional Muslim womenâs rights,â said Razlina Razali from Sisters in Islam, one of several activist groups in an alliance demanding that the bill be abandoned. âItâs not justified under Islam because Islam promotes the principle of equality and justice, and traditionally it guards the rights of Muslim women,â she said.
Have you read the part about the expanded provisions for stoning uppity women?
The provisions have already been rolled out in some states, and it hasnât taken long for the first casualties to emerge.
Zaidah Abdul Rahman, a 44-year-old mother of three, lived in the capital Kuala Lumpur for much of her two-decade marriage, but in 2004 her husband divorced her in their one-time home state of Johor Baru where the act is in force. Soon she found her personal bank account and that of her oldest daughter frozen, and she was forced to sell her jewellery so she could pay the bills.
After giving up her career as a real estate agent because her husband wanted her to stay at home with their children, and years of being a dutiful corporate wife with many relocations, she is furious at being left with nothing. Once well-off, her home is now in disrepair and she has been forced to take out a court order to prevent her husband from seizing her Volvo. âIâm totally upset and fiercely opposed to the amendments which are against Islamic law, which forbids harshness against women,â she told AFP.
âThis is against Malaysiaâs image which is known worldwide as a modern Islamic country.â
Modern? In whose eyes?
Much of the opposition to the bill is being led by educated, vocal and affluent Muslim Malaysian women -- like Zaidah -- who are worst affected by the new property-division rules.
Razlina said that even though women can argue to retain their assets in the courts, they are unlikely to get a fair hearing in a system skewed towards men. âWe are still living in a patriarchal society,â she said. âMen can access justice easily. But for women, even though it is expressed in the act, it is very, very hard for them to get it.â
The unusually strong protest over the bill has also been fuelled by the way it was forced through the upper house, triggering a tearful protest from women senators who denounced it as âsinfulâ.
Womenâs groups are planning petitions, letter-writing campaigns and other strategies to put pressure on the government, which rarely faces such open opposition. Women, Family and Community Minister Shahrizat Jalil has upped her rhetoric, saying she will petition the nine Sultans who are the religious heads in their states, to appeal for the bill to be substantially amended.
Shahrizat said Malaysian women were slighted by the law and that their rights needed to be protected by correcting discriminatory clauses.
Activists however have dismissed the governmentâs promises to amend the more contentious points as a hollow gesture designed to cool the angry public mood. âHow long will it take to amend? Fifteen years? And how many women will suffered under it by then?â asked Razlina.
The point is, the men don't care.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/30/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Perfect candidates for the first crew of the first StarShip. Wouldn't need matter-antimatter drive, a wormhole or even nuclear propulsion, use big-ass chemical rockets and fire them towards Barnards star at 50,000 mph. How you say? Because TIME STANDS STILL FOR THESE MORONS.
Posted by: Leon Clavin ||
12/30/2005 8:44 Comments ||
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#2
..because Islam promotes the principle of equality and justice, and traditionally it guards the rights of Muslim women,â she said.
Really??????
If I were still in my 20s I'd be asking this person, "Can I have some of what you've been smoking???"
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.
A drunken air passenger was cast away on an island more than 1,000 miles from home after abusing cabin staff. The unidentified man swore at crew and passengers after being refused a bottle of wine on the four-hour flight from Manchester to Tenerife. He became so abusive the fed-up pilot diverted the Monarch Airlines Airbus to Porto Santo island off West Africa. The Atlantic island, which is 10 miles long and three miles wide, is a two-hour ferry journey to Madeira.
German police have captured two men suspected of stealing from 15 cars and two garden sheds by following their footprints in the snow for several kilometres. Policemen were checking up on a car whose alarm had been set off just after midnight in the town of Hoentrop when they found a smashed window and two sets of footprints. They followed the footprints for more than 10 streets. "At one point the tracks disappeared because someone had cleared the pavement outside their home in the middle of the night," police said in a statement. After this minor setback, the officers picked up the trail again. The two sets of footprints led them directly to the entrance of a flat where the burglars not only stored their booty but also left their shoes and gloves to dry. 
Ten mutilated bodies were found early yesterday in a southern Egyptian village, some of them missing their vital organs and laying in pools of blood, police sources said. The bodies of 10 Egyptians â four men, two women and four children â were found in three neighboring houses in the village of Ezbet Shams El-Din, 225 kilometers south of Cairo, the sources said. Their stomachs and throats were slashed open and many of their body parts, including genitals, were cut off, said an AFP correspondent in this village near the town of Bani Mazar, in the Minya governorate.
An independent consumer report says that food prices in Zimbabwe have gone up more than tenfold this year and unemployment is now at 80 per cent. The Independent Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (ICCZ) says the price of buying groceries has gone up more than 1,000 per cent this year. Bread has been in short supply and when available it costs 1,500 per cent more. Milk is 1,700 per cent more expensive. Unemployment is said to be more than 80 per cent since the Government's demolition campaign in May and inflation is more than 500 per cent. The United Nations blames mismanagement for the country's economic situation, but the Government of Robert Mugabe blames Western sanctions. The ICCZ report says 2005 has been agonising for Zimbabwean consumers.
With the end of 2005, the U.N.'s World Food Program is slated to shut down its decade-long food distribution effort in North Korea after Pyongyang told the organization that the aid was no longer needed. The program was the biggest multinational humanitarian program in the country and was instrumental in pulling North Korea out of a famine that killed up to 2.5 million people in the mid-1990s and drove many to flee the country.
China has confirmed its seventh human infection and third human death from bird flu. Officials say a 41-year old factory worker died from the disease over a week ago. The victim, a woman surnamed Zhou, died on December 21. Like previous human victims of the H5N1 virus in China, she apparently contracted the disease in an area that has not officially reported previous outbreaks among birds. 
Arab foreign ministers yesterday lashed out at the Danish government over a growing controversy aroused by the publication in a Copenhagen daily of caricatures representing the Prophet Muhammad (PTUI). Gathered at the 
A Bosnian laboratory which pioneered new techniques to identify victims of the Balkan wars is to help identify the unknown dead of Hurricane Katrina. The Sarajevo-based International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) will seek to extract DNA profiles from 350 samples provided by US authorities.
THE mysterious death of the wife of a senior French government official, killed in 1957 by an exploding cigar box, has come a step closer to being solved after two Czech spies were charged with her murder. Following a nine-year investigation, two former agents of the Statni Bezpecnost - the secret police in communist Czechoslovakia - identified only as Stanislav T and Milan M, both aged 78, will stand trial in Prague early next year for the murder of Henriette Trémeaud, the wife of Andre-Marie Trémeaud, the prefect of the eastern French city of Strasbourg, on 17 May, 1957.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Lynndie England, the U.S. soldier incarcerated for abusing detainees in Iraq, was badly burned in a prison kitchen accident, her mother said on Thursday. England, who was pictured holding a leash to a naked, hooded Iraqi inmate at the Abu Ghraib prison, was sentenced in September to three years for her part in the abuse scandal that sparked worldwide outrage. She is now confined to the Naval Consolidated Brig Miramar in San Diego, California.
At least 24 people were killed in an avalanche while hunting precious stones in a remote mountain range in northwest Pakistan, police said. The incident happened on Tuesday in the rugged Karakoram range in Kohistan district, local police chief Ashfaq Ahmed told AFP Friday. "There were around 120 people extracting gemstones when the avalanche struck, burying a number of them," Ahmed said. "Twenty-four were killed and the rest are fine. Locals have dug all the bodies out of the snow," Ahmed said. He said a military helicopter had been despatched to the hard-to-reach area and had so far brought back 12 bodies to Dassu, the main town in the region, where they were handed over to relatives.
ISLAMABAD - A moderate earthquake measuring 5.3 on Richter Scale shook parts of northern Pakistan and India early Thursday but there were no reports of any casualties or damage, seismic center officials said.
A coalition of religious minorities in Malaysia has urged the government to curb the powers of Islamic legal authorities who forced the burial of a soldier as a Muslim despite his Hindu widow's protests. The Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Sikhism said on Thursday that the Islamic Shariah court's insistence that M. Moorthy converted to Islam before his death could be a setback for racial and religious harmony in this mostly Muslim nation.
KUALA LUMPUR - A rebellion is stirring in Malaysia over new legislation which critics say undermines the rights of Muslim women by making it easier for men to take multiple wives and claim property after divorce.
