Absolutely disgusting; this SOB should be shot, then fed to some hungry pit bulls
SAFAGA, Egypt (Reuters) - Survivors of the Red Sea ferry disaster said on Saturday the Egyptian captain had fled his burning ship by lifeboat and abandoned them to their fate, as hopes faded of finding some 800 missing people.
Some passengers, plucked alive from the sea or from boats after the ferry caught fire and sank early on Friday, said crew members had told them not to worry about the blaze below deck and even ordered them to take off lifejackets.
An official at el-Salam Maritime Transport Company, which owned the Al Salam 98, said the captain, named as Sayyed Omar, was still unaccounted for. The company will issue a written statement on the disaster later on Saturday, he added.
Rescue workers have recovered 195 bodies from the Red Sea and saved 400 people, but about 800 more, most of them Egyptian workers returning from Saudi Arabia, are missing.
The director of the Red Sea Ports Authority, Major-General Mahfouz Taha, said 378 survivors had come ashore on the Egyptian side. The Saudi authorities said they had picked up 22.
Survivors said a fire broke out below deck shortly after the 35-year-old vessel left the Saudi port of Duba on Thursday evening with 1,272 passengers and a crew of about 100.
The ship began to list but the crew continued to sail out into the Red Sea rather than turn back to the Saudi port, they told reporters in the Egyptian port of Safaga, where the ferry should have landed early on Friday.
Egyptian survivor Shahata Ali said the passengers had told the captain about the fire but he told them not to worry.
"We were wearing lifejackets but they told us there was nothing wrong, told us to take them off and they took away the lifejackets. Then the boat started to sink and the captain took a boat and left," he added, speaking to Reuters Television.
"The captain was the first to leave and we were surprised to see the boat sinking," added Khaled Hassan, another survivor.
Other survivors also reported that the crew had played down the gravity of the situation and withheld lifejackets.
"There was a fire but the crew stopped the people from putting on lifejackets so that it wouldn't cause a panic," said Abdel Raouf Abdel Nabi, one of the survivors.
"There was a blaze down below. The crew said 'Don't worry, we will put it out.' When things got really bad the crew just went off in the lifeboats and left us on board," said Nader Galal Abdel Shafi, another arrival on the same rescue boat. Rest at link...
Posted by: The Village People ||
02/04/2006 11:03 ||
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#1
If true (and it's hard to believe) it Illustrates another reason we'll win. Course if he slaughters his daughter he could regain his honor.
#2
"We were wearing lifejackets but they told us there was nothing wrong, told us to take them off and they took away the lifejackets. Then the boat started to sink and the captain took a boat and left,"
Questions are being raised over the safety of the Al Salam 98 which had been at sea for 36 years. Hosni Mubarak, the president of Egypt, demanded an immediate investigation into the accident, while a presidential spokesman said the speed at which the ship sank and the fact there were not enough life rafts on board confirmed there had been a safety problem.
Didn't we figure all this out back in 1912?
The Italian classification firm RINA, which is in charge of the ship, said the company was ready to co-operate with investigators. According to shipping expert Yvan Perchoc, the Al-Salam Baccaccio 98 is one of several old Italian ferries to which extra levels were added to boost passenger capacity, sometimes threefold. Farid al-Douadi, the ship's Saudi agent, said the Al-Salaam 98, registered in Panama, was built in 1971 and renovated in 1991. It had a maximum capacity of 2500 passengers.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2006 00:00 ||
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Thousands of Egyptians have crowded around the entrance to Safaga port, weeping and shouting in anger as they await news of relatives missing on a ferry that sank in the Red Sea. Search and rescue teams have found 300 survivors and at least 185 bodies so far after the ship sank during a crossing from the Saudi port of Duba to Safaga, 600 kilometres south-east of Cairo.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
egyptian man on sky news said it was all a 'curse on the ship'. well i guess we all know who put that curse on it eh and somewhere in it it will all be our fault.
Posted by: Shep UK ||
02/04/2006 6:02 Comments ||
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#2
If the original ship had been built in a muslim country, the "Inshallah" rule would apply.
I suspect, however, that because the ship was built in Italy that a cry of infidel meddling will arise. ("italian joos musta built the ship") islamic modifications that rendered the ship unseaworthy, notwithstanding 'cause the ship was already cursed?.
#3
Egyptian officials initially turned down a British offer to divert a warship to the scene and a U.S. offer to send a naval patrol aircraft to the area. Then Egypt reversed itself and asked for both.
The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff said here on Friday that the risk of war with China was diminishing with the growth of economic ties between the emerging superpower and the United States.
Despite concern over Beijings rapid and secret military build-up and tension in the Taiwan Strait, General Peter Pace said Washington and Beijing had more shared interests than differences. I am optimistic about the future with regard to China. There is much more that the two countries have in common than we have not in common, said Pace, the top military advisor to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. As we continue to build the economic bridges between the two countries and as each country becomes more and more dependent on the other for prosperity, when you do that you lessen significantly any probability of military complications, he said.
A Pentagon report last year estimated Chinas defense spending at two to three times greater than acknowledged by Beijing, or up to 90 billion dollars for the year. Last month Japan identified China as a military threat because of its opaque military spending.
Pace, a Marine Corps officer who took over as chairman of the joint chiefs last year, said it was the militarys job to identify the capabilities it would need for future events. You do not focus on countries but on potential capabilities that you will need, and then build to that, he said.
He said that on North Korea, Washington needed to look at the communist countrys fighting capabilities which included an army of 1.2 million troops and be prepared to counter that overwhelmingly. He said a transformation of the US-South Korea alliance was in progress, including reducing US forces in South Korea from 37,000 to 25,000 by 2008 and withdrawing them from the border with North Korea to bases south of Seoul. He said it was hard to be certain of North Koreas intent, but you need to be prepared if their intent is ill.
We are fully capable today of defeating any North Korean aggression and we will maintain that capacity, he said.
Pace said that Pentagons Quadrennial Report, to be released next week, will assess US military needs over the next 20 years. It will be a lookout, as best you can look out, 20 years into the future, he said.
South Koreas move to regain wartime control over its troops, which now would come under the operational control of the commander of US forces here in times of conflict, was welcome, he said. This is an opportunity, not a challenge, he said of talks scheduled for this year.
Pace was visiting Seoul for a change of command at the US military base here. Outgoing commander General Leon LaPorte was replaced by General B.B. Bell as new head of US Forces in Korea and head of the combined US-South Korean command. He also leads the UN Command, representing the 16 nations that fought against the communist North in the 1950-53 Korean War.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/04/2006 00:53 ||
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#1
Russia and Germany were fast friends too, before the war.
#2
China has to be feeling the heat regarding the Islamist threat as well. I don't know enough about China to predict - but it would not surpise me if China will someday want to work with us to fight against it.
The Molotov-Ribbentrop nonagression pact was signed on August 23, 1939, just a week before Poland was finally invaded by both Hitler and Stalin.
As to China, I think there is an understanding that any conflict will result in the collapse of trade and the undermining of their economy resulting in civil disorder and a much greater threat to the leadership's power than any external one.
#6
But what did Pace say in Arabic? "We're planning for it - it'll be here someday"
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/04/2006 13:42 Comments ||
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#7
Russia was - German intel detected the movements of large Russian units to near the Polish-German border in violation of the Non-Agression Pact, Hitler. amongst other reasons, basically attacked Stalin before Stalin could attack him. Historical revisionissm > No one remembers that Russia's military deployments caused TWO WORLD WARS, NOR THAT STALIN'S BOYZ OFTEN SHOT/FIRED AT ALLIED FORCES GIVING THEM AID TO SURVIVE AGS GERMANY.
LAYYAH: The police have arrested a person who was allegedly claiming to be a prophet. Moulana Muhammad Hussain Layyah, Ameer Alami-Majlis Tahfuz-e-Khatam-e-Nabuwat, filed a complaint on which the police arrested Allah Wasaya Sahu, 80 years of age and visibly insane.
Those bastards really do have religion on the brain, don't they?
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2006 22:24 ||
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LAHORE: People attacked a church in Kanwanlit village, Daska tehsil (Sialkot district), over a land dispute at about 10:00am on Friday morning and manhandled a couple Christian women. However, local police claimed that only a minor scuffle took place between the women of the Christian and Muslim communities and that the church was not damaged. Members of the Christian community claimed that the local station house officer (SHO) and assistant superintendent of police (ASP) had visited the place and seen the damage. The incident took place in Daska Saddar Police precinct.
The churchs parish priest told Daily Times that about 20 people including women attacked the church and injured two people including an old woman who was pistol-whipped. He also said several windows had been broken. He said the attackers moved in on the church when most members of the Christian community had gone to work or to court. He said the attackers injured 70-year-old Veero (w/o Mehnga) and 50-year-old Salima. Both of Veeros legs were broken and her back was also injured, he added. The attackers broke several church windows, damaged the main alter and several copies of the Bible, he said, adding that the Christian community had also been warned not to seek legal action.
People of the area told Daily Times that the church was built about 20 years ago, but the land dispute between the church and the family of Muhammad Iqbal and others arose a year ago. Sialkot DPO Dr Tariq Khokhar told Daily Times that a minor scuffle had been reported between women of both communities. He also said police did not register any cognizable offence. He said the Christian community had only lodged a complaint. He said police had increased patrols the area to stop further incidents.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Next escalation of this conflict will be the Muslim accusation of blasphemy against Mohammed and/or profanation of the Quran followed by a massacre of the Christians and the razing of their church. You can see this coming from here.
Federal Relief Commissioner Maj Gen Farooq Ahmed Khan said on Friday that that US marines working in quake-hit areas would leave Pakistan by next month, while the US would continue to provide air support for relief operations. "North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) troops, who came to Pakistan to help earthquake survivors, have already left the country," he said while responding to queries during a press conference at Prime Minister's Secretariat.
The Federal Relief Commissioner appreciated the foreign support extended to Pakistan in relief and rehabilitation activities and said that countries like Cuba, Iran and the US had promised to donate their field hospitals to Pakistan to continue relief efforts in the quake-hit areas. He said that Cuba had sent more than 2,300 doctors and paramedical staff to help the injured. "They will leave their equipment here and train Pakistani doctors. The Cuban foreign minister is also due in Pakistan on February 7-9," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2006 00:00 ||
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UN Security Council members have agreed to a request by John Bolton, the US ambassador, to attend regular morning briefings on the latest world developments. Some council members grumbled when Bolton made the request saying they were too busy for the daily briefings. Bolton said: "Sweet reason prevailed and today the council agreed to try it as an experiment."
"I find your lack of attendance... disturbing."
The new daily briefings agreed on Friday are due to begin next Tuesday, when Haiti holds presidential elections, and will regularly cover "hot spots and crises and overnight events around the world," Bolton said. But at the insistence of Wang Guangya, the Chinese ambassador, the experiment was limited to an initial two-week period, council diplomats said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
I'll echo it again. That Darth Bolton graphic is just awesome.
#5
I know he has his challenges but Sweet Jesus! A resolution on getting them to just F*&King come to work?? Let alone on time. If this is where he has to start, he will certainly fail. I am shifting from my hope that he fixes it to hoping he destroys it and we start over. Bolten is too great an American to be sacraficed.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
02/04/2006 12:38 Comments ||
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#6
It may be a big mistake to get the UN to acutually do something... since that something frequently bad and expensive. Perhaps the daily briefing could include a "scandal du jour" segment so everyone can see what goes on there.
Posted by: CA Screaming ||
02/04/2006 12:52 Comments ||
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The equipment was Belgian, but Belgium's not really the focus of the story.
Belgian military material valued at several million euros went missing in the African nation Equatorial Guinea at the end of last year. Some 15 expensive armoured Pandur vehicles, several trucks, radio equipment and tents went missing, newspaper 'Het Laatste Nieuws' reported on Friday. The material was meant to be delivered to UN peacekeeping troops in Benin. The troops are to protect election observers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo later this year. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is now negotiating with the Equatorial Guinea government in a bid to regain the military equipment.
How high has the bidding gone, do you think?
Check Kojo's pockets ...
The Belgian Defence Ministry said the equipment departed
from Zeebrugge in December and travelled to Tanzania on a Ukrainian container ship. The captain moored the ship at an island near Equatorial Guinea, but the four soldiers entrusted with guarding the equipment were captured. The military equipment was then unloaded and has since disappeared. The Defence Ministry fears the armoured vehicles and other equipment have been sold.
#4
A Carribbean news forum about a year ago mentioned quite a few illegal Eq. Guineans had been caught with forged Carribbean passports, enabling them to island hop. Can't remember the island, but it seems they were going to Venezuela to work. With Chavez' ties to Haiti and Cuba, as well as Iran and all the drug smuggling, the hellhole Africa has become, and now the corrupt and clueless UN losing equipment, it could be anywhere. Why don't they tag this stuff, as well as all missiles and other military equipment? We have the technology but we don't use it appropriately.
They are the Pentagon's new "rules of engagement" the diamond ring kind. U.S. Army chaplains are trying to teach troops how to pick the right spouse, through a program called "How To Avoid Marrying a Jerk."
The matchmaking advice comes as military family life is being stressed by two tough wars. Defense Department records show more than 56,000 in the Army active, National Guard and Reserve have divorced since the campaign in Afghanistan started in 2001. Officials partly blame long and repeated deployments which started after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and stretched the service thin.
Troops also are coming home with life-altering injuries.
Many come back better people, others worse-off but either way, very changed from who they were when they wed. "Being in the military certainly raises the stakes when you choose a mate," said Lt. Col. Peter Frederich, head of family issues in the Pentagon's chaplain office.
The "no jerks" program is also called "P.I.C.K. a Partner," for Premarital Interpersonal Choices and Knowledge. It advises the marriage-bound to study a partner's F.A.C.E.S. family background, attitudes, compatibility, experiences in previous relationships and skills they'd bring to the union.
It teaches the lovestruck to pace themselves with a R.A.M. chart the Relationship Attachment Model which basically says don't let your sexual involvement exceed your level of commitment or level of knowledge about the other person.
Goes against everything I knew when I was 17 but what the heck.
Maj. John Kegley, a chaplain who teaches the program in Monterey, Calif., throws in the "no jerk salute" for fun. One hand at the heart, two-fingers at the brow mean use your heart and brain when choosing.
Though the acronyms and salute make it sound like something the Pentagon would come up with, the program was created by former minister John Van Epp of Ohio, who has a doctorate in psychology and a private counseling practice. He teaches it to Army chaplains, who in turn teach it to troops. It also is used by social service agencies, prisons, churches and other civilian groups.
Commanders once discouraged troops from starting a family while serving. Thus the old saying: "If the Army wanted you to have a wife, it would have issued you one." Today, the military supports families more than any other employer, Frederich said.
The Bush administration proposes to spend $5.6 billion in the next budget year for quality-of-life services for troops and their families. That includes help with child care, education, spouse job hunting, legal assistance, commissaries, relocation counseling programs on every family issue imaginable to promote stability, and thus troop readiness.
Some 740,000 people or a little more than half of all troops in the active-duty armed forces are married. Of those, some 96,000 had spouses also in uniform in the 2004 budget year, according to Pentagon figures.
Such support notwithstanding, "not everybody is cut out" to marry into the military, said Army spokeswoman Martha Rudd.
The Army hopes the "no jerks" program will help couples decide if they are ready for a long-term commitment and can cope with the unique stresses of military life. "Settings like military bases are incubators," said Van Epp, of Medina, Ohio. "They try to hatch ... relationships extremely fast," leading to higher divorce rates and more domestic violence.
The program teaches troops not to cave in to the pressure of a ticking clock like rushing to marry before shipping out for a deployment, or too soon after homecoming.
#1
"Settings like military bases are incubators," said Van Epp, of Medina, Ohio. "They try to hatch ... relationships extremely fast," leading to higher divorce rates and more domestic violence.
And the proof of this statment is? When I was in Korea, I was advised that the divorce rate among military personnel and local nationals was about 50%. Wow! However, at the time, the divorce rate among Americans in general was about 50%. GeeWhiz.
So show us the numbers to back the claim that there is a significant difference between military marriages and non-military marriages of the same socio-economic/geographical/age groups. Or is this another media based bias? You know the one that only the losers join the military. Therefore they're all Springer folks.
#5
"Settings like military bases are incubators," said Van Epp, of Medina, Ohio. "They try to hatch ... relationships extremely fast," leading to higher divorce rates and more domestic violence.
That makes sense. Sounds like a good program to me.
#6
Since the most important decision a person will make in their entire life is choosing a mate, I'm glad to see that the military is beginning to deliver some much needed advice on the subject. There's little worse for a deployed serviceman than to be desperately worried about a flaky/philandering spouse back home, particularly if children are involved. Productivity and engagement drop dramatically for the deployed spouse when it starts; when they find out something's really wrong back home, things go to hell in a handbasket. Carefully picking someone who can stand up to the strains of military married life is a prerequisite for a successful military career because, truth be told, there aren't that many folks in our society who are up to facing those challenges. Military members DO need to be very selective for just that reason.
Posted by: mac ||
02/04/2006 11:08 Comments ||
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#7
There used to be a lot of what we called "Tech School Marriages". Kids would marry someone they barely knew during their brief technical training program. I can't say all, but most of those marriages I knew of didn't last past the first enlistment. They usuually ended when they were sent to different assignements based on the needs of the service. Marrying a civilian may be worse because they don't or won't understand why your first assignment is to say Thule Greenland and your spouse can't come with. As a confession here, I did meet my wife in Tech School but we married a year afterwards and have been together for 24 years, but we are the exception and not the rule.
#8
Not to mention all the marriages solely for the purpose of getting BAQ and moving out of the barracks.
lot of what we called "Tech School Marriages".
I had one female maintenance tech (Air Force) who married a Marine at tech school and couldn't understand why she couldn't get a joint spouse assignment to be with him. She turned out to be full blown nut case, got booted out.
Posted by: steve ||
02/04/2006 11:28 Comments ||
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#9
I remember a young couple, she E2 and he SP4, who had wild sex for two weeks before deciding to get married, and with a real "us vs. the world" attitude.
He was a good SP4, and I knew she was crazy as a bedbug, so I volunteered to give them some of the questions they would be asked during the "mandatory military pre-marriage counseling" (bullshit, bullshit).
I said, Oh, don't tell me your answers. I just want to give you the questions *they* will ask, so you can think about them.
Well, I gave them some softball questions, like "where do you plan to live", and "who will cook?", and their eyes had that rigid, unpersuadeable set in them. But then I mentioned kids, to which they blurted out, "Oh, they'll come when they come."
And I knew I had them.
After that, though her eyes were still fixed, his kept darting off, the thick grease around his brain gears starting to loosen up a little. After a few more easy questions, I wished them the best at their counseling and to have a nice day.
Their argument started almost as soon as they left the room. Within a few days the SP4 announced they had broken up, and he was damn glad, because she was "one crazy bitch".
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/04/2006 13:32 Comments ||
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#11
Old fashioned way worked for me:
Both of us NCOs in Intel billets stationed overseas. Lots of booze in me and even more for her. Married a few weeks later. Like a "tech school" marriage.
Thats was almost a quarter of a century ago, and we've manage to hang on in spite of some of the wilder rides I've been on where I coudlnt tell her where I was, what I was doing, and when (or even if) I'd be back. Her having been "in the business" is what made it all possible, that and having a world of patience.
#13
.com's pic reminds me of a similar cartoon, of a tall, buxom woman and a very short doctor, and the woman is saying, "a gynecologist? Whatever made you decide to become a gynecologist?"
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/04/2006 18:04 Comments ||
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#16
Yes, it does take a very special person to be the trailing spouse in a military marriage. It's not something I could handle -- I'm only just brave enough to handle being married to a civilian who can tell me where he's going to, and possibly when he'll come back. Oldspook, Cyber Sarge, you are to be congratulated on catching such a rarity; may your next 25 be even better than what came before. ;-)
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.
Questions are being raised over the safety of the Al Salam 98 which had been at sea for 36 years. Hosni Mubarak, the president of Egypt, demanded an immediate investigation into the accident, while a presidential spokesman said the speed at which the ship sank and the fact there were not enough life rafts on board confirmed there had been a safety problem. 
The Italian classification firm RINA, which is in charge of the ship, said the company was ready to co-operate with investigators. According to shipping expert Yvan Perchoc, the Al-Salam Baccaccio 98 is one of several old Italian ferries to which extra levels were added to boost passenger capacity, sometimes threefold. Farid al-Douadi, the ship's Saudi agent, said the Al-Salaam 98, registered in Panama, was built in 1971 and renovated in 1991. It had a maximum capacity of 2500 passengers.
Thousands of Egyptians have crowded around the entrance to Safaga port, weeping and shouting in anger as they await news of relatives missing on a ferry that sank in the Red Sea. Search and rescue teams have found 300 survivors and at least 185 bodies so far after the ship sank during a crossing from the Saudi port of Duba to Safaga, 600 kilometres south-east of Cairo.
LAHORE: People attacked a church in Kanwanlit village, Daska tehsil (Sialkot district), over a land dispute at about 10:00am on Friday morning and manhandled a couple Christian women. However, local police claimed that only a minor scuffle took place between the women of the Christian and Muslim communities and that the church was not damaged. Members of the Christian community claimed that the local station house officer (SHO) and assistant superintendent of police (ASP) had visited the place and seen the damage. The incident took place in Daska Saddar Police precinct.
Federal Relief Commissioner Maj Gen Farooq Ahmed Khan said on Friday that that US marines working in quake-hit areas would leave Pakistan by next month, while the US would continue to provide air support for relief operations. "North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) troops, who came to Pakistan to help earthquake survivors, have already left the country," he said while responding to queries during a press conference at Prime Minister's Secretariat. 
UN Security Council members have agreed to a request by 
They are the Pentagon's new "rules of engagement" the diamond ring kind. U.S. Army chaplains are trying to teach troops how to pick the right spouse, through a program called "How To Avoid Marrying a Jerk."
