X-rays pics at link. Too dumb to die? I thought nail guns were used in slaughterhouses, am I missing something here?
PORTLAND, Ore. - An Oregon man who went to a hospital complaining of a headache was found to have 12 nails embedded in his skull from a suicide attempt with a nail gun, doctors say. Surgeons removed the nails with needle-nosed pliers and a drill, and the man survived with no serious lasting effects, according to a report on the medical oddity in the current issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery.
The unidentified 33-year-old man was suicidal and high on methamphetamine last year when he fired the nails up to 2 inches in length into his head one by one. Persistent, wasn't he?
I think I would have stopped after the third one.
The nails were not visible when doctors first examined the man in the emergency room of an unidentified Oregon hospital a day later. Doctors were surprised when X-rays revealed six nails clustered between his right eye and ear, two below his right ear and four on the left side of his head.
Wonder if he walked unbalanced?
The study did not say how long the nails were, and a hospital spokeswoman refused to release that information.
Just how long do they have to be fergawdsake?
A photo published in the study suggests the nails range from 1œ to 2 inches long.
No one before is known to have survived after intentionally firing so many foreign objects into the head, according to the report, written by Dr. G. Alexander West, the neurosurgeon who oversaw the treatment of the patient.
The man at first told doctors he had had a nail gun accident, but later admitted it was a suicide attempt. The nails came close to major blood vessels and the brain stem but did not pierce them. The patient was in remarkably good condition when he was transferred to Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, where the nails were removed. The patient was later transferred to psychiatric care and stayed under court order for nearly a month before leaving against doctors orders.
The Zimbabwean government plans to compel internet service providers (IPS) to install equipment worth billions of dollars to enable the state to snoop on online communication, according to a proposed new law. Under the Interception of Communications Bill, the state will be empowered to monitor and intercept internet communications between citizens. ISPs will be required to buy and install software that will enable the interception of information by state security agents. But the Harare authorities who are battling a severe six-year old economic crisis, are said to be too broke to fund the huge operation.
Section Three of the controversial Bill says that internet service providers should have facilities to re-route user information to the monitoring centre that will be monitored by state agents. "A telecommunication service provider is required to install hardware and software facilities and devices to enable interception of communications," reads part of the Bill.
Internet service providers who spoke to ZimOnline yesterday criticised the proposals saying they had no capacity to raise the required funds to buy the equipment and software. The service providers said the interception equipment alone without the software, costs in excess of five million rand (about Z$180 billion).
"If this Bill is enacted into law in its current state, most of the ISPs will be out of business because we cannot afford to buy the equipment," said an internet service provider who refused to be named for fear of victimisation.
#1
Chinese internet monitoring-lite. Nice try Bob, but I doubt you'll get many takers....so you'll just have to shut them all down, which is precisely what you wanted to do anyway. No more on-line shopping for Grace I'm afraid. Keep that Zim Air 737 gassed up and ready to go to Paris mate.
#2
that Zim Air better splash in the Med (if not before), if there's any justice in this world
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/22/2006 19:31 Comments ||
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An airborne battalion to secure the airport followed at first light by a briade of air landed, mobile infantry and Salisbury (Harari) would be secure, democracy restored, and that worthless bugger would be lion food within 24 hours. I'd love to be on the first stick out the door. Unfortunately, the west will do absolutley nothing.
Nigeria is about to become the first African nation to clear its debt to Western nations. President Obasanjo has announced that by today, the $40 billion debt owed to the Paris Club group of Western creditors will be cleared. The move will clear the way for greater government spending on infrastructure, health care and education.
Obasanjo is only taking half his usual vig?
Nigerian High Commissioner in London, Dr Christopher Kolade, says it is also hoped it will prompt greater foreign investment. "Obviously this is of great significance to us because the debt burden that we've been carrying for years and years has been a very definite restraint on development," he said. "For as long as we had to service these fairly heavy debts, we had to separate quite a substantial proportion of our resources towards that end."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/22/2006 00:00 ||
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She and her Mother have been tough old birds and represented the Kingdom well, especially in WW2 and the Falklands "troubles"
Hail to the Queen and congrats on 80yrs old!
Her gifts included a 21-gun salute, a Union Jack baseball cap, a tea set and a birthday tribute Friday from Prince Charles to his "darling mama," 80-year-old Queen Elizabeth II.
"My sentiments today are those of a proud and loving son, who hopes that you will join with me in wishing the queen the happiest of happy birthdays, together with the fervent prayer that there will be countless memorable returns of the day," Charles said in a greeting aired on major British broadcasters.
"It gives me enormous pride to be able to congratulate her publicly in this way, and to thank her on behalf of us all for the many wonderful qualities which she has brought to almost an entire lifetime of service and dedication to her country."
The prince, the heir to his mother's throne, hosted a dinner Friday night for the queen at Kew Palace in suburban London. The guest list was small and exclusive - two dozen very close family members.
Before the meal, the birthday girl stood in front of the steps of Kew Palace, flanked by Charles and Prince Philip, her husband of 58 years, with the others behind, watching a fireworks display overhead, which was accompanied by music from across the queen's past eight decades. Among the tunes: "Jailhouse Rock" from Elvis, Glenn Miller's "In the Mood" and even the appropriately named rock group Queen performing "Don't Stop Me Now."
Earlier Friday, the queen met well-wishers outside her Windsor Castle home, where an enormous Royal Standard flag flew to mark the day. Thousands of people began gathering outside the ancient castle, founded by William the Conqueror, hours before the queen emerged from the castle gate clad in a cerise suit and matching hat - and with her ever-present handbag.
Royal walkabouts are often quick affairs, but the queen - accompanied by Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, - spent more than 45 minutes on the streets of the quaint town. She saw uniformed schoolchildren, people with balloons in the shape of corgi dogs - one of her favorite animals - and even, strangely, one woman dressed as a fox.
Colin Edwards drove 10 hours from Wales to Windsor to grab a spot outside the castle's Henry VIII gate. An avid royal watcher who said he has met the queen 113 times since 1982, he wore a paper crown and gave the monarch a poem he had written for the occasion.
"I love this. It's my way of showing my admiration and love for her," Edwards said. "I could just have stayed home, and watched it on television, but I wanted to be here, for the atmosphere."
During the walkabout, the queen received hundreds of bouquets of flowers, as well as stuffed animals, a mug and a baseball cap emblazoned with the Union Jack. From Prime Minister Tony Blair's Cabinet, the queen received a Staffordshire tea set by Spode, an item the palace had indicated she wanted.
In Australia, where the queen is still head of state, Prime Minister John Howard said he would present the queen with an album of 15 photographs taken during her visits to the country. A British wildlife charity gave her a pair of swans called Dylan and Deena.
On Thursday, the queen had said all she wanted for her birthday was some sunshine. The day was overcast, but the rain held off.
The queen looked unusually relaxed as she chatted with the crowd. Along with spontaneous - and sometimes off-key - renditions of "happy birthday," she also was treated to a chant from a group of schoolchildren whose punchline was "go Queen!"
"She's always the same. She never changes, does she?" marveled John Tyler, 69, a retired military man who came with his wife Iris from Aldershot. "She's got older, but she's always been a person of the people. She's the queen of the people. Try and find another in the world like her. You won't, will you?"
On the throne for 54 years, Elizabeth is Europe's longest-reigning monarch and her 80th birthday has been the focus of a weeklong celebration in Britain. The festivities culminate in a service of thanksgiving on Sunday at Windsor Castle's chapel.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/22/2006 00:00 ||
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She'll not abdicate, she has far too much sense of duty and she knows her idiot son is the worst thing that could happen to the monarchy. Best to skip him entirely and go straight to William...
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
04/22/2006 10:15 Comments ||
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Yes, Tony. Best leave Charles free to to the global warming climate change grand tour with Al-Gore and the greens. Speaking of which, happy Earth Day, all. It's is icy cold and raining buckets here in DC toady.
#4
Yup, he initially worried me when it was revealed he talked to vegetables, and it didn't help that it's said he would take a different name than Charles III when he ascends to the throne http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4557924.stm
But he totally lost me when it came out he wants to be called 'defender of faith', rather than 'defender of the faith', http://forums.randi.org/archive/index.php/t-926.html
And strangely enough, the weather here in Blighty is rather clement at the moment ;)
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
04/22/2006 11:43 Comments ||
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#5
May she live to be 180! May she never abdicate!
Venezuelans will spill blood to defend Cuba against a possible US invasion, President Hugo Chavez said. "If the US empire were to invade Cuba, Venezuelan blood would run in the defense of Cuba and its people," Chavez said Friday during a speech to government supporters in Venezuela's capital.
The Venezuelan leader has long claimed that Washington is plotting to overthrow his leftist government - accusations denied by US officials. He repeated Friday that the US "is preparing an aggression," though it was not clear which country he believed was the target.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/22/2006 01:01 ||
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If the US has not made an effort against Cuba by now it is not a target Chavez. Think about it.
#2
Hugo, a freeking legend in his own mind. Chavez we are happy to watch Cuba rot. Don't get in our way, your throw weight is a negative number in the first world unless is with the TRANZI crowd. Less than a zero Hugh, your less than a zero.
Posted by: SPoD ||
04/22/2006 1:40 Comments ||
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Voting has ended in the second round of parliamentary elections in Haiti with turnout low despite calls from the United Nations for a strong showing. The UN had hoped for a healthy turnout in the violence-wracked state to boost the future government. Observers estimate that less than 20% of the 3.5 million voters took part, with results due within a week.
All the efficiency and fanfare of a French election ...
President-elect Rene Preval's supporters should do well but will not necessarily win an outright majority. Mr Preval, elected president in February, had made an appeal to his supporters before election day. "Without support from parliament, there is not much a president can do," he said.
The second round of elections had been set for March but was delayed because of the volume of complaints from the first round in February. Only two candidates for deputy won first-round victories, which meant 97 seats in the lower chamber and all 30 senate seats were up for election on Friday. Under the constitution, the party that holds at least half the seats of parliament will pick the prime minister.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/22/2006 00:00 ||
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Shouldn't we be doing this off the coasts of California, Florida and North Carolina?
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has opened a vast new oil rig which will enable the country to be self-sufficient in oil production. Costing more than $600 million (£337m), the platform will generate 180,000 barrels a day.
In the past, South America's largest country had been painfully dependent on imported oil. For decades Brazil relied on other countries to supply it with oil - a dependency that proved disastrous during the two oil shocks of the 1970s. Then, as prices soared, the Brazilian government had to borrow heavily to meet its energy needs, triggering a destructive cycle of debt and inflation.
Against that backdrop, Friday's opening of the rig off the coast of Rio de Janeiro is being seen as a major step forward in the nation's development. Friday's opening of the rig was greeted with some patriotic fanfare. The total amount of oil produced by Brazil now exceeds the amount consumed by its people.
Dressed in orange overalls, Lula personally flipped the switch to start production. As the flow began, the president gleefully drenched his hands in Brazilian oil.
The state-controlled energy company, Petrobras, says the new rig will increase national production to 1.9m barrels of oil a day - slightly more than the quantity Brazil consumes.
Self-sufficiency is quite an achievement for a country that only discovered off-shore oil 30 years ago. And with global prices on Friday hitting $75 a barrel, it has come at an opportune moment. "It's an extraordinary achievement, a privilege only a few countries have," Lula said.
Looking ahead, Brazil now hopes to become a net exporter of oil, taking advantage of deep-sea drilling technology that is considered some of the best in the world.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/22/2006 00:00 ||
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Costing more than $600 million (£337m), the platform will generate 180,000 barrels a day.
At the current world price of $70 a Barrel (Standardized "Barrel" is 40 Gallons, not 55, for those who do not know)that makes the rig paid for in a bit over 9 years.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/22/2006 8:57 Comments ||
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And if the price of oil decreaces from $70/bbl in six years?
Posted by: Phil ||
04/22/2006 11:11 Comments ||
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Don't count on it.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/22/2006 18:12 Comments ||
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Mandarin Chinese is already the most popular first language on the planet, beating out English by 500 million speakers. And it's the second-most-common language on the Internet. Now, just as China requires students to learn English, Beijing wants to make Chinese the must-take language for English speakers - and everyone else. Ma figures there are currently 30 million people around the world learning Chinese as a second language. Hanban aims to increase that to 100 million over the next four years.
It's an audacious goal, and the government is backing it by funding - to the tune of nearly $25 million a year - the teaching of Chinese as a foreign language. Last year, Hanban sent 1,042 volunteer teachers to France, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Mauritius, Nigeria, Colombia, and 16 other countries. This year, it will top that number.
Hanban provides schools, centers, and Confucius Institutes with seed money, textbooks, and game-based learning software. College kids and adults play Great Wall Chinese, while middle school students get a game called Chengo Chinese, which Hanban developed through a partnership with the US Department of Education. Nearly 15,000 American kids in 20 states helped beta-test the game, and it's now used in Mandarin classes offered through the accredited Michigan Virtual High School.
Beijing isn't doing anything different from what the British or the Americans or the French have done - sending emissaries abroad to spread its language and culture. It's not the first time the Chinese have pushed their native tongue, either: In the 17th and 18th centuries, imperial China brought several Chinese languages to much of Southeast Asia. But this 21st-century push is more global in scope, as befits an emerging world power. "This is the linguistic equivalent of sending a person to the moon," says Oded Shenkar, a professor at the Ohio State University and author of The Chinese Century.
Chinese bureaucrats take their evangelism seriously. The country is "merging into the world," Zhang Xinsheng, China's deputy minister of education, explained to reporters before the first World Chinese Conference last June. The event attracted diplomats and teachers from 65 countries - all there to partake in China's efforts to export Mandarin. "China, as the mother country of the language, shoulders the responsibility of promoting [the language] and helping other nations to learn it better and faster."
Chinese authorities also see spreading Chinese as an important part of the country's "peaceful rise," says Elizabeth Economy, the director for Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York foreign-policy think tank. This was the philosophy articulated in 2003 by China's president, Hu Jintao. China wants to emerge as a global power without threatening global security. "I think the Chinese have been very careful and thoughtful about assuaging the fears of the rest of the world," says Economy. "There's a benign element of the language work: to help educate."
#1
This is real cart before the horse stuff. If China becomes a significant economic power, as opposed to living off table scraps, the way it is today, the use of Mandarin will spike. Until that happens, all the promotion in the world will be for naught. Japanese caught on big-time when it seemed as if Japan would overtake the US in GDP per capita. Now that this is no longer conceivable, Japanese language studies have fallen through the cracks. Even so, there are probably more non-overseas Japanese learning Japanese than there are non-ethnic Chinese learning Chinese - again, Japanese is simply far more useful than Chinese, because Japan is far richer than China will be for at least the next 50 years.
#2
The other point not noted here is that it is not the number of native speakers of a language that is an indicator of relative influence - it is the number of non-native speakers. The total number of native speakers of English is more or less the same as the number of native speakers of Arabic and Spanish. But the number of non-native speakers of English numbers in the high hundreds of millions - and many of them speak it well enough to read English newspapers, which is a relatively high level of literacy.
#3
Most of what needs to be read by others (I'm thinking business and technical, not literature) was originally written in English, even, or especially, if only yesterday. I'm not so sure this will be true in 50 years unless we start producing more engineers.
Posted because nobody does political theater better than the Italians.
ROME - Just two days after his election victory was confirmed, Italys prime minister-in-waiting Romano Prodi struggled on Friday to contain a row within his centre-left coalition that boded ill for his future government.
Opponents always said Prodi would be unable to hold together his broad alliance, which spans diehard communists to Roman Catholic moderates, but few expected the cracks to emerge even before Prodi had formally taken office.
Oh please, this is Italy!
The fight centres on who should be appointed speakers of the two houses of parliament. The posts are highly prestigious and Prodis three main coalition partners are all pressing hard for their own candidates to be elevated.
The major tussle is over the lower house, with two political heavyweights -- Communist Refoundation head Fausto Bertinotti and the chairman of the Democrats of the Left (DS), Massimo DAlema -- demanding the job. La Stampa newspaper quoted Bertinotti as saying he might withdraw from Prodis Union alliance if he does not get the nod while the DS has indicated that as the largest party within the centre-left coalition, it deserves the job.
Prodi told reporters on Friday he was working to resolve the dispute, saying all sides had promised to accept his decision. It is not going to be a difficult decision, even if it is obviously going to be a painful one, said Prodi, whose previous term as prime minister ended after just two years in 1998 when Bertinotti turned against him.
Adding to Prodis woes, the head of another small coalition party, the centrist Democratic Union for Europe (UDEUR), said he was unhappy with the centre-left leaders first steps and threatened to quit the alliance unless things changed quickly. Clemente Mastella, in a pugnacious interview in the Roman Catholic daily Avvenire, did not spell out what his demands were, but other newspapers speculated that he was seeking to be named either upper house speaker or defence minister.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/22/2006 00:00 ||
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Popcorn anyone?
Posted by: SPoD ||
04/22/2006 2:14 Comments ||
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Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, toured a house on Friday that the Hurricane Katrina floods wrecked, picking up debris, lamenting the federal response and leaving little doubt of the powerful symbolism his party sees in the ruined neighborhoods here.
As Mr. Dean's well-covered hurricane-cleanup mission suggested, New Orleans may well become for Democrats in 2006 and 2008 what New York was for Republicans after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, an evocative metaphor rooted in tragedy that can potentially be turned to electoral advantage.
Where Republicans looked to the imagery of a battered but resilient New York to project a tough president standing up to the dangerous world, Democrats are looking to this city as the symbol of an administration that is at once incompetent and heartless.
"It brings back home the notion that there is a difference with the two parties," said Donna Brazile, a Democratic leader whose family home was ravaged by the flooding.
The Democratic National Committee gathered this week on the edge of the French Quarter for its spring meeting. Talk is in the air of staging the 2008 nominating convention here, though that would require scaling considerable logistical obstacles.
For now, the backdrop has proven politically irresistible to the party. Mr. Dean was one of 100 Democratic committee members who volunteered for community work projects with names like Dems in Blue Jeans, gutting houses, working in parish kitchens and distributing food.
In the Lower Ninth Ward, Mr. Dean put on a white hazardous-materials suit and, more than a little winded, helped gut a house. He needed barely a nudge from reporters to declare the federal effort here a disgrace that would cost Republicans control of the government.
"This is a searing, burning issue," Mr. Dean said, "and I think it's going to cost George Bush his legacy, and it's going to cost the Republicans the House and the Senate and, maybe very well, the presidency in the next election. People will never forget this."
Pointing to two abandoned hulks of cars, he added, "I hate to be partisan at a time like this, but this is why the Republicans are going to be out of business."
Even some Republicans view the events here as, at the least, politically potent.
"There's no question that it has refocused attention on issues of race and economics and the poor and a number of domestic issues," said Mark McKinnon, who as Mr. Bush's media adviser incorporated Sept. 11 imagery into advertisements for Mr. Bush's re-election campaign. "There's a possibility that New Orleans has transformed the politics of the nation."
Still, the parallels that Democrats are looking for may extend this week just so far. For one factor, Sept. 11 put the entire nation on edge about the threat of terrorism. By contrast, the hurricane catastrophe was confined to one region. As a symbol, it may be powerful, but perhaps not as enduringly powerful as what occurred in New York and at the Pentagon.
As the White House saw in 2004, there are risks to being perceived as manipulating emotional images for political gain. A spokesman for the Republican National Committee, Tracey Schmitt, was quick to accuse Democrats of "exploiting a human tragedy" after learning of Mr. Dean's remarks.
A senior adviser to Mr. Bush's presidential campaign, Matthew Dowd, argued that Democrats were vulnerable to criticism if they criticized the hurricane response without offering their ideas about what to do, drawing a contrast with how the White House responded after Sept. 11.
"For Republicans, it would probably have come back to bite them if the only thing they had was the negatives," Mr. Dowd said. "But what was beneficial was we had the right folks and the right policies to address the aftermath of the crises. If it looks like a partisan thing they are just using for an election, it can easily backlash on them."
For all the criticism the White House took for pressing the imagery of Sept. 11 in the political campaign, it never backed down. The party's convention in New York was a nonstop blur of invocations of the attack.
Since Mr. Bush's victory, his advisers have argued that they were helped by the backlash from the advertising because it drew more attention to the issue that they saw as central to his re-election, a point of view that Democrats have come to accept.
Ms. Brazile rejected the notion that Democrats were exploiting a tragedy.
"We're highlighting the incompetence of the government," she said.
Ms. Brazile said she never agreed with Democrats who criticized Republicans for using Sept. 11.
"Oh no," she said. "We should have used it, too."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/22/2006 01:07 ||
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YJCMTSU. Your Dem governor amd mayor did such a grand job. You might not want to bring this up, really.
Posted by: SPoD ||
04/22/2006 1:42 Comments ||
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The Dems control Noo Orleans to the extent that whoever gets elected there is gonna be a Dem.
Posted by: Phil ||
04/22/2006 1:47 Comments ||
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I'd hope that folks see the local corrupt government for what it is.
Also with the locals moved out to Houston and other places, and the new illegals getting entrenched doing the jobs there it'll be interesting to see how things get voted on.
To talk of "Katrina" as having been an event a though it's over with is amazing in itself. They are still suffering down there, it's still a big issue. Where is all of the money that they've been given?
Posted by: Jan ||
04/22/2006 6:54 Comments ||
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The Republican-run states hit harder by Katrina than Louisiana seem to be doing pretty well. Maybe the Donks should avoid this topic.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/22/2006 9:44 Comments ||
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Oh, and there's a scandal-in-hiding over the handling of bodies in Louisiana, thanks to their governor hiring some of her cronies to handle the job.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/22/2006 9:45 Comments ||
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"Where is all of the money that they've been given?"
By now, most of it is probably in the hands of crack dealers, Democrat ward captains, and union/mob bosses.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/22/2006 10:11 Comments ||
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The problem is that the Republicans went about handling the disaster the same way the Democrats do things. Big, centrally-controlled, bureaucratic nightmares. Flooded cars are STILL all over the place and FEMA trailers STILL stacked up in Arkansas because they insist on dealing with single mega-contractors rather than handing control down to local level (of course the local level would be full of frauds, but at least they'd be cheaper frauds and you'd get some legitimate workers mixed in with them.)
But there is no way this issue is going to work the way the dems want it to. If anything, it will allow us to re-fight the political aspect of the Katrina battle. This time without heartbreaking live shots and MSM lies and instead with a thorough appreciation of the corruption and incompetence of NO officials.
As a rightwinger, I relish the chance as the Bush admin's PR job was actually EVEN worse than it's relief effort.
QUETTA, Pakistan Ragged men with sickly yellowed faces tread through trash and wastewater to the junkie slum in Quetta's main drain _ a pit of filth and disease where heroin from nearby Afghanistan sells like candy.
They call it home, this scene from hell in the southwestern Pakistan city of Quetta. For a dollar they can smoke away their troubles. If they die, the pushers will pay other addicts to dump the bodies by the road.
Tentacles of the booming narcotics trade reach from Afghanistan, 2 1/2 hours' drive away, into Quetta's back streets where the drug is smoked or injected, and into the pockets of corrupt officials and police.
About 400 addicts live in hovels that line the wide, open drain. Hundreds of others visit daily, climbing in under a bridge near an entrance to the city's vast military garrison with its smart army barracks and tended lawns.
Among them are listless, barefoot boys, gray-bearded men and even government officials who come for a fix before and after work. They huddle around charcoal burners and candles placed on upturned bricks, smoking hashish and brown heroin that bubbles and melts on tin foil before they inhale its fumes.
"It's easier for us to get heroin than it is to quit," said Jan Bibi, looking haggard beyond her 40 years as she stares from beneath a grubby shawl. Her brother introduced her to the drug to "relax" her after her husband beat her.
Her son, Dad Mohammed, 18, was already an addict. He started at age 11.
"Nobody accepts us in society. Everybody hates us. They abuse us in the street," he said, his hands trembling eight hours after his last 70-rupee ($1.15) smoke.
Aftab Ali works for a charity, the Milo Shahid Trust, which runs detoxification and rehab programs. He sees new faces at the slum each time he visits the drain, twice a week _ people from Quetta, refugees from Afghanistan, addicts from other parts of Pakistan who come for the cheap and plentiful drugs.
According to dated and imprecise statistics, the nation of 160 million people has half a million heroin users.
Ali said there are at least 5,000-6,000 addicts at about a dozen hangouts around Quetta.
But he added that the population is transient, so it's unclear if numbers are increasing because of the huge output of drugs from Afghanistan, the world's top opium producer. Last year it grew enough opium to refine 450 tons of heroin, much of it trafficked to Europe, and to a lesser extent, North America.
Addicts at the drain mostly smoke rather than inject, which is forbidden by the half dozen dealers who supply the heroin. "They're thinking of their business. If addicts inject, they will die and sales will go down," said Ali.
Nevertheless, each month at least two or three addicts die from disease or overdoses, rising to four or five during winter, he said. Dealers pay other addicts in heroin to haul the dead to a roadside to be collected by charity workers.
"Police don't come inside the drain, as they get weeklies and monthlies (bribes) from the dealers," said 30-year-old addict Saifullah, who like many addicts uses one name.
"If they try and arrest us outside, we have knives to cut our bodies or will bash our heads with stones. If we bleed, they'll be afraid and leave us alone."
Superintendent Qazi Abdul Wahid said police do pursue traffickers, but conceded that low salaries breed corruption. A policeman earns $65 to $83 a month, a superintendent $420.
A sad camaraderie exists among the addicts, who support themselves by begging and petty crime. They pick the lice from each other's matted hair in the shacks they share, the grimy brick walls sometimes decorated with fraying posters of Indian movie stars.
Many complain they can't afford to quit _ a two-month rehab program at the Shahid Trust costs $65. But they get little public sympathy. "If we just shot three or four of these guys, then they would quit," said Gul Khan, an excise department official.
Asamatullah, 37, who smokes eight to 10 times a day, runs what could pass for a convenience store in the drain, peddling hashish, heroin, sedatives and drug paraphernalia, including cigarettes, tin foil and string for wicks.
His youngest customer is 9.
"I'm ready to sacrifice this life if the police want to shoot me," Asamatullah said, slurring his words and struggling to keep his drooping eyes open as clients smoked nearby and the stinking drain gurgled past.
"I'm ready to become a lesson for other drug addicts ... I've already lost my life."
Posted by: john ||
04/22/2006 15:36 ||
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Killing the weakest third is always good genetics.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/22/2006 18:15 Comments ||
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Pakistan's military ruler, President Pervez Musharraf, has tussled with Islamist terrorists, fundamentalist mullahs and liberal intellectuals in the struggle to shape Pakistan's identity.
But he is now facing an altogether different foe: the cross-dressing son of a retired colonel.
Ali Saleem, 27, has shot to fame as the most famous television personality in the predominantly Muslim, male-dominated country by donning a silk sari and adopting the alter ego of a flirtatious widow hosting a chat show.
Such is the popularity of Late Night Show With Begum Nawazish Ali, that Pakistan's military leadership has threatened to take the programme off air.
The Begum [the honorific in Urdu for Mrs] has ruffled feathers in a country where, despite the existence of a marginalised group of transsexuals that performs at weddings and birth blessings, cross-dressing is generally frowned upon.
"We decided to create a larger-than-life character to host a talk show where the host would be flirtatious and look good so she would be on a strong footing with her guests," said Mr Saleem.
Posing controversial questions that journalists routinely steer clear of, Pakistan's Dame Edna Everage tackles taboos as a routine.
He questions prominent Islamic religious figures, celebrities and politicians on issues such as Pakistan's support for the US-led war on terror, Gen Musharraf's dictatorship and discrimination against women.
"Ever since I was a child I used to fantasise about growing up to be a woman," he said over lunch yesterday in Karachi, where the programme is recorded. "My friends all said that I am like a 60-year old woman. I am a woman in a man's body."
Articulate and theatrical, Mr Saleem's earrings, waxed forearms and plucked eyebrows were offset by a day's growth of stubble on his chin. In private he eschews his character's low-necked chiffon robes, preferring a T-shirt and jeans.
A rarity in Pakistan for his openness, Mr Saleem describes himself as a bisexual.
He first earned a name impersonating former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, and then added Margaret Thatcher, the late Diana, Princess of Wales and Noor Jehan, the actress who inspired the Begum's 1970s sartorial style.
His mother, a former government official and his father, a polo-playing army officer, both applaud his success.
Posted by: john ||
04/22/2006 08:11 ||
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Musharraf is missing a bet, here. This guy is not his enemy, he is his greatest ally. While Musharraf might be touchy about his jokes, his enemies must be positively livid. As such, Musharraf, a pragmatist if there ever was one, can live with it; but it is an intolerable thing to Musharraf's fanatical enemies.
A court on Friday dismissed a remand application for a girl and her husband who had been booked under the Hudood Ordinance for marrying without the consent of girls parents. Aruna of Okara had married her class fellow Moazzam Ali of Karachi without the consent of her father. Punjab and Sindh police had arrested the couple and Waqar Ahmed, Alis brother, at Latifabad in Sindh, taking them to Okara. Later, the Okara judicial magistrate disposed off all cases against the couple and ordered their immediate release.
Recording her statement before a civil magistrate in Hyderabad earlier, Aruna Bibi said that she had married Ali six months ago against the wishes of her father. She said that her father, a retired sessions judge, had implicated them in a false case for marrying without his consent. On the way to Okara, Punjab police officials allegedly tortured Sindh police officials and threw them out of the police van, including a lady Sindh police constable.
The Interior Ministry has asked the Punjab and Sindh home secretaries to submit reports about the Aruna case and take action against police officials who abused their powers under the influence of the complainant. Later, Sindh High Court (SHC) Justice Musa K Leghari on Friday took suo motu notice of the arrest of Aruna Ata, a retired sessions judges daughter, and her husband Muazzam and his brother. The judge suspended the order of a Hyderabad civil giving custody of the detainees to the Okara police.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/22/2006 00:00 ||
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Indonesian Playboy's publishers are weighing whether to print again after violent protests over the first issue, now being offered on eBay as a collector's item. The first issue on April 7 was a tame affair by the standards of the US original, with less flesh visible than on many beaches, including those on Indonesia's resort island of Bali, or than in many magazines already for sale in the country.
Even so, the power of the Playboy name as the iconic symbol of relaxed Western attitudes toward sex drew strong opposition in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation. A demonstration last week at the building housing Playboy's offices turned violent. Protesters threw rocks and broke windows, prompting the publishers to move the operation elsewhere. That protest and others created security concerns, spokesman Priambudhi said by phone on Friday. "Playboy is considering safety and security for its staff. The consequence is no editorial activity now."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/22/2006 00:00 ||
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Help, these poor ladies have been sacked.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/22/2006 2:20 Comments ||
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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.
Nigeria is about to become the first African nation to clear its debt to Western nations. President Obasanjo has announced that by today, the $40 billion debt owed to the Paris Club group of Western creditors will be cleared. The move will clear the way for greater government spending on infrastructure, health care and education. 
Venezuelans will spill blood to defend Cuba against a possible US invasion, President Hugo Chavez said. "If the US empire were to invade Cuba, Venezuelan blood would run in the defense of Cuba and its people," Chavez said Friday during a speech to government supporters in Venezuela's capital.
Voting has ended in the second round of parliamentary elections in Haiti with turnout low despite calls from the United Nations for a strong showing. The UN had hoped for a healthy turnout in the violence-wracked state to boost the future government. Observers estimate that less than 20% of the 3.5 million voters took part, with results due within a week.
Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, toured a house on Friday that the Hurricane Katrina floods wrecked, picking up debris, lamenting the federal response and leaving little doubt of the powerful symbolism his party sees in the ruined neighborhoods here.
A court on Friday dismissed a remand application for a girl and her husband who had been booked under the Hudood Ordinance for marrying without the consent of girls parents. Aruna of Okara had married her class fellow Moazzam Ali of Karachi without the consent of her father. Punjab and Sindh police had arrested the couple and Waqar Ahmed, Alis brother, at Latifabad in Sindh, taking them to Okara. Later, the Okara judicial magistrate disposed off all cases against the couple and ordered their immediate release.
Indonesian Playboy's publishers are weighing whether to print again after violent protests over the first issue, now being offered on eBay as a collector's item. The first issue on April 7 was a tame affair by the standards of the US original, with less flesh visible than on many beaches, including those on Indonesia's resort island of Bali, or than in many magazines already for sale in the country. 
