In a tale reminiscent of the last Wallace and Gromit movie, furious villagers in northeast England have hired armed guards to protect their beloved communal vegetable gardens from a suspected monster rabbit. Leeks, Japanese onions, parsnips and spring carrots have all been ripped up and devoured by the mystery were-rabbit -- prompting the 12 allotment holders in Felton, north of Newcastle, to hire two marksmen with air rifles and orders to shoot to kill. PETA protest 5..4..3..
"It is the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered rodent you ever set eyes on! a massive thing. It's got a vicious streak a mile wide! It's a killer! is a monster. The first time I saw it, I said: 'What the hell is that?'" the Northumberland Gazette newspaper quoted local resident Jeff Smith, 63, as saying on its website. He claims to have seen the black and brown rabbit -- with one ear bigger than the other -- about two months ago, and at least three fellow allotment holders say they have seen it as well. "I have seen it and it is bigger than a normal rabbit. It's eating all our crops and we grow the best stuff here," said retired miner George Brown, 76, quoted by the domestic Press Association news agency.
"Aye! That's right! 'Tis the Loch Ness Bunny!"
Smith could not be reached for comment Friday, but his mother told AFP that the hare-raising story is true -- and no less an authority than the British Rabbit Council said it was credible. "I warned you, but did you listen to me? Oh, no, you knew it all, didn't you? Oh, it's just a harmless little bunny, isn't it?
Certain breeds do grow very big, like the Continental Giant" which can be 66 centimetres (26 inches) in length or more, a spokesman for the Nottinghamshire-based council, which represent rabbit breeders, told AFP.
#4
Eating a diet of leeks, Japanese onions, parsnips and spring carrots will surely turn him into a tasty flavoursome snack , im sure .. Might even take a potter up there and see if i can bag this elusive Wabbit for myself !! Yummy ..
More of the same sad story - except for the last paragraph.
An MA 60 passenger plane donated to Zimbabwe by China earlier this year packed up just weeks after it was handed over to Harare amid much pomp and ceremony, sources told ZimOnline. The modified light aircraft, with a carrying capacity of 48 passengers, was given to Zimbabwe last January as a thank you gift to President Robert Mugabe's government after purchasing two similar aircrafts from Beijing in 2005. However, Air Zimbabwe engineers yesterday said the aircraft had failed to "live up to expectations" owing to frequent breakdowns right from the day it was received.
"The final straw came when smoke was noticed from its engine while preparing to take off to Zambia weeks after the official handing over ceremony," said an Air Zimbabwe senior official who spoke on condition he was not named.
Shades of Air Ukraine!
David Mwenga, Air Zimbabwe spokesman, confirmed the Chinese aircraft was grounded but said this was because a spare part ordered from the manufacturer in China had not yet arrived.
He said: "It (Chinese plane) is not yet in operation. We are still waiting for a spare part from China to fit."
The gift plane had been hoped to bolster debt-ridden Air Zimbabwe's fleet for domestic and regional routes. The loss-making and wholly state-owned airline has in recent months failed to service some routes or delayed passengers because planes could not fly due to a lack of spares or fuel, blamed on an acute shortage of foreign currency to pay foreign suppliers.
For example, Air Zimbabwe last Tuesday had to cancel a flight to Cuba after failing to secure adequate fuel supplies. The Cuba flight was scheduled to leave Harare on Tuesday morning and make a brief stop-over in London before proceeding to Havana. It had been specifically chartered by the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare to fly back home Cuban doctors who had completed their attachments at government hospitals.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U.N. Security Council members agree the war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor should be moved from Sierra Leone to the Netherlands and could adopt a resolution next week to allow the transfer, the council president said.
Since Slobo's suite cell is suddenly available.
China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya said the Security Council was still debating several issues, including who should pay the costs. He scheduled closed-door consultations Monday on the draft resolution and said he expected it to be adopted "early next week." "I think there is agreement that he is going to be moved to The Hague," Wang said Friday. "Now, it's only the technical side, how the resolution will look ... (so) there will be no misunderstandings, no concerns."
The U.N.-backed Special Court in Sierra Leone has requested that Taylor's trial be moved out of West Africa for security reasons. Taylor has pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of war crimes stemming from his alleged backing of Sierra Leone's rebels, who terrorized victims by chopping off their arms, legs, ears and lips.
The draft resolution states that the costs of trying Taylor in the Netherlands "are expenses of the Special Court" in Sierra Leone, which is funded by voluntary contributions. It reiterates an appeal to U.N. member states "to contribute generously" to the court.
And we know how well that works.
In a March 29 letter to the Security Council, the Netherlands emphasized that the Special Court must shoulder the costs of the trial and "that no additional costs shall be incurred by the Netherlands without its consent." A U.N. appeal for $25 million to fund the Special Court for Sierra Leone this year has so far received only $9 million in pledges and $6 million in funding, which is expected to run out soon.
U.S. Mission spokesman Benjamin Chang said the United States would seriously consider the request "because we want the court to be able to bring Charles Taylor to justice."
As usual, Uncle Sugar steps up, and without any thanks.
The Dutch government also asked for assurances that once a verdict is reached, Taylor would immediately be transferred out of the Netherlands. Sweden and Austria said Wednesday they had received requests to imprison Taylor if he is convicted, but no decision has been announced.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2006 00:23 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
Life in Zimbabwe is shorter than anywhere else in the world, with neither men nor women expected to live to 40, World Health Organisation statistics showed on Friday.
I think the central problem here is that Bob is expected to live until two or three weeks after Doomsday.
The WHOs World Health Report for 2006 said the average life expectancy in the AIDS and poverty-stricken country was 36 years - less than half of the 82-year life span in Japan, which lies at the top of the table with San Marino and Monaco. The report used the latest data from 2004. Last years report, based on 2003, put Zimbabwes average life expectancy one year higher at 37. Women in Zimbabwe were the worst-off in the world, living an average 34 years, down from 36, the WHO data showed. Male life expectancy was 37 years, unchanged from 2003.
So, how's that socialism thing working out for you, Bob?
Posted by: Fred ||
04/09/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Well, for Bob, it's just dandy. For the rest of Rhodesia, it sux.
#3
I suspect that drastically shortening the life expectancy of one Bob would greatly lengthen the life expectancy of lots of other people there.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/09/2006 0:22 Comments ||
Top||
#4
The real story, which is course is taboo in our PC times is that black African life expectancy under the 'racist white regime' of Ian Smith was double what it was today.
A truthful headline would be - Political Correctness Kills Millions in Zimbabwe.
#7
Well, I think that we can all live with a clear conscience in the knowledge that no one thinks that it is possible to improve on this state of affairs.
CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said the U.S. ambassador was "provoking the Venezuelan people" and threatened Sunday to expel the American diplomat, whose convoy was chased by pro-government protesters.
"I'm going to throw you out of Venezuela if you continue provoking the Venezuelan people," Chavez said in a nationally televised speech addressed to U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield.
Start packing your bags Mister, if you keep on provoking us, start packing your bags, because Ill kick you out of here, Chavez said in the speech, part of his regular Sunday television program.
Venezuela's acting foreign minister on Saturday condemned the crowd of protesters for pelting Brownfield's car with eggs and tomatoes, but suggested that Brownfield is partially responsible for failing to advise authorities of his travel plans in order to avert such problems.
Chavez's more incendiary comments came after Washington warned of "severe diplomatic consequence" if a similar incident repeats itself.
Relations between Chavez and Washington have fast deteriorated as the two governments spar over his close ties to Cuba and Iran, and U.S. officials portray the Venezuelan leader as a threat to regional democracy.
He's a punk who's blackmailing us for oil; I hope we are doing more than just diplomacy, we need to embarrass this guy in his own backyard, divide divide divide!
Hey, Hug, baby! Simply withdrawing our embassy personnel's too good for you. Let's withdraw our oilfield workers, shut down the taps, sabotage the taps, and turn off the US money tap as well.
There's a couple other countries the US could turn to for replacement supplies of Venezuelan crude - plus we got that and a buttload more in our own ANWR, Rocky Mts, Gulf Coast, West Coast, and a couple other regions!
Three _hundred_ years estimated supply in Rocky Mt oil shale alone.
_WE_ do not need _you_, Hugo.
But _you_ definitely will not survive without US cash.
MINSK: Belaruss President Alexander Lukashenko, his re-election contested in the West, took the oath of office on Saturday for a new term and told critics to stop trying to impose a coloured malaise in his ex-Soviet state. With his right hand on the Belarussian constitution, Lukashenko looked resolute, if a bit pale, in vowing to serve the Belarussian people and uphold their rights during a ceremony in the imposing Palace of Republic in central Minsk. In a short, emotional speech after taking the oath, the 51-year-old leader vowed to maintain the policies which have drawn such stinging criticism from the European Union and United States. And he launched a fierce new attack on both Belaruss liberal opposition and the West, saying that his state of 10 million had rejected the coloured revolutions that helped sweep leaders from power in ex-Soviet Georgia and Ukraine.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/09/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
The United Nations (UN) should be made more effective to eradicate poverty and sustain development and humanitarian programmes, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told the second meeting of a UN panel on reforms on Saturday. Aziz said that developing countries should be considered when the UN provides assistance to various countries for development projects. He told the meeting that the UN panel would complete its suggestions by August so that they could be tabled in the UN General Assemblys meeting in September. UN Secretary General Kofi Anan also addressed the meeting.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/09/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"The UN should be made more effective"
By disbanding?
I'll help 'em pack. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/09/2006 0:18 Comments ||
Top||
IRAQ has announced the discovery of oil reserves in the mountainous Kurdish region of Zakho, close to its border with Turkey.
"We have discovered oil at Zakho, 470km north of Baghdad," announced Iraq's deputy oil minister Motassam Akram. He said the oil wells were drilled by a Norwegian company, DNO and added that the actual crude reserves would be known "soon".
In March, the Kurdish authorities had announced the signing of a contract with a Canadian company, Western Oil Sands, to survey the region of Garmain, 120km south of Sulaimaniyah. Most of Iraq's crude reserves are in Shiite-dominated southern regions and are exported through the two southern terminals. Exports from Iraq's northern fields around Kirkuk, just south of Kurdistan, have effectively been shut down by insurgent attacks.
The self-rule Kurdish region, which groups the provinces of Sulaimaniyah, Arbil and Dohuk, has a small number of oil fields.
In 2005, the country lost $US6.25 billion in oil revenues due to sustained insurgent attacks on its oil infrastructure.
A local edition of Playboy went on sale for the first time yesterday in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, pitting its tolerant mainstream against Islamic radicals.
The magazine, which is devoid of nudity but carries an interview with the Indonesian author Pramoedya Ananta Toer and an article on the former Indonesian province of East Timor, sold briskly.
As office workers in Jakarta passed it from desk to desk, one lamented: "It is too soft, no good at all. I thought it was going to be like the magazines in Europe and America."
But while its content differed little from other publications already available in the country - which has an active sex trade - militant groups threatened to take action against it. "The magazine has no goodwill and is threatening the very life of our nation," said Usman Alwi, from the Islamic Defenders Front. "If it does not shut within one week, we are prepared to launch a physical war against it."
Islam in Indonesia is proudly moderate. The vast majority of women go unveiled, even in the devout province of Aceh, often dubbed the "verandah of Mecca". The bombers of Jemaah Islamiyah, perpetrators of the Bali atrocities and attacks in the capital, are extremists with virtually no support among the population.
No Islamic radicals stood at the last presidential election, in 2004. But some politicians are keen to burnish their Islamic credentials, typified by an anti-pornography law currently before parliament.
In its draft form, among other measures, it would outlaw public kissing and the display of undefined "sensual body parts". It is intended to check moral decline. But the text has been condemned by women's groups and led to fears that sunbathers on Bali and elsewhere - which is majority Hindu - could face prison, putting Indonesia's tourist industry under threat.
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.
In a tale reminiscent of the last Wallace and Gromit movie, furious villagers in northeast England have hired armed guards to protect their beloved communal vegetable gardens from a suspected monster rabbit. Leeks, Japanese onions, parsnips and spring carrots have all been ripped up and devoured by the mystery were-rabbit -- prompting the 12 allotment holders in Felton, north of Newcastle, to hire two marksmen with air rifles and orders to shoot to kill. 
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U.N. Security Council members agree the war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor should be moved from Sierra Leone to the Netherlands and could adopt a resolution next week to allow the transfer, the council president said.
Life in Zimbabwe is shorter than anywhere else in the world, with neither men nor women expected to live to 40, 
CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said the U.S. ambassador was "provoking the Venezuelan people" and threatened Sunday to expel the American diplomat, whose convoy was chased by pro-government protesters. 
MINSK: Belaruss President Alexander Lukashenko, his re-election contested in the West, took the oath of office on Saturday for a new term and told critics to stop trying to impose a coloured malaise in his ex-Soviet state. With his right hand on the Belarussian constitution, Lukashenko looked resolute, if a bit pale, in vowing to serve the Belarussian people and uphold their rights during a ceremony in the imposing Palace of Republic in central Minsk. In a short, emotional speech after taking the oath, the 51-year-old leader vowed to maintain the policies which have drawn such stinging criticism from the European Union and United States. And he launched a fierce new attack on both Belaruss liberal opposition and the West, saying that his state of 10 million had rejected the coloured revolutions that helped sweep leaders from power in ex-Soviet Georgia and Ukraine.
The United Nations (UN) should be made more effective to eradicate poverty and sustain development and humanitarian programmes, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told the second meeting of a UN panel on reforms on Saturday. Aziz said that developing countries should be considered when the UN provides assistance to various countries for development projects. He told the meeting that the UN panel would complete its suggestions by August so that they could be tabled in the UN General Assemblys meeting in September. UN Secretary General Kofi Anan also addressed the meeting.
IRAQ has announced the discovery of oil reserves in the mountainous Kurdish region of Zakho, close to its border with Turkey.
