From The People's Daily - not exactly a neutral source.
Zimbabwe will not brook any outside interference in its political affairs as it is a free and sovereign nation capable of governing itself, President Robert Mugabe said on Friday.
Zimbabwe was a friendly country maintaining relations with other countries based on equality and the principle of noninterference in their domestic affairs, he said. "Those countries in Europe who want to befriend us we are ready for you but if you don't want to befriend us stay aloof. Don't interfere with our affairs," Mugabe said.
"We have gone through it all and we have people who have suffered and died for this country. We will never allow any country no matter how big or wealthy to interfere with our political affairs and to try and dominate us," he said.
Mugabe was addressing the ninth annual people's conference of the ruling party Zanu PF which started on Friday at Goromonzi High school, 46 kilometers east of Harare. He said Zimbabwe was a country looking for friends and not enemies and was not in search of masters because "we are our own masters."
Mugabe, who is also Zanu-PF's first secretary, took a swipe at some western countries, particularly the United States and Britain, who are trying to "manipulate the country's internal system to effect regime change."
He said the European countries had no authority over Zimbabwe and that former colonial power Britain, in particular, should respect Zimbabwe's sovereignty.
"We have the power to do things ourselves. The political system is ours and the British have nothing to do with our political system," he added.
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"In this folk-community, which is based on the bond of blood, and in the results which National Socialism has obtained by making the idea of this community understood among the public, lies the most profound reason for the marvelous success of our Revolution."
Assassination or merely the usual political spin? I leave it to the cousins to critique.
When Alastair Campbell left Downing Street in the wake of the death of Iraqi weapons expert Dr David Kelly, the Prime Minister's allies explicitly stated that he had learned his lesson.
They said that there would be no more spin, no more deception, no more smears, no more burying of bad news. Government henceforward was to be conducted on a straightforward basis.
How utterly wrong these claims turned out to be. I have been keeping a file of ministerial lies and deceptions, and it is now bulging.
Only last week, Defence Secretary Des Browne was forced to apologise to MPs after a leaked document showed that he had misled the House of Commons about plans to axe allowances to British soldiers serving in war zones.
Earlier this month, General Sir Mike Jackson, the former head of the Army, said that he warned ministers about the extreme danger of the Afghanistan expedition, exposing as a piece of tawdry spin John Reid's remarks that he hoped our soldiers would return 'without a shot being fired'.
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Queen gains close-up view of prince's transition to army officer
"Well, no one's fallen over or fainted so far, so things are going well," one senior officer said yesterday, arching an eyebrow as he watched the Sandhurst passing-out ceremony at which Prince William formally completed his army training.
The risk of passing out during passing-out is a hoary old joke at the military academy, but hypothermia seemed the more likely hazard on a bleak and wind-whipped morning, as the Queen inspected more than 220 newly qualified officers, including her grandson, while her son gazed expressionlessly from the sidelines, his wife, Camilla, by his side.
In the outside world, the news media were frenetically digesting Lord Stevens' report into the death of Diana, picking over the remnants of demolished conspiracy theories and trying to build a new one out of Charles's alleged love for Tiggy Legge-Bourke, the princes' former nanny.
But in the leafy grounds of Sandhurst, ringed by machine gun-wielding guards, the feverishness seemed remote.
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the sword of honour, which traditionally goes to the cadet judged to have performed the best during the Sandhurst course, went to junior under-officer Angela Laycock,
I'm sure she was please to have the honour thrust upon her. It will be interesting to see what happens when she becomes a senior over officer.
#3
I noticed that too -- my dad is a lot like Charles. Textbook malignant narcissists who ruined their families without a backward glance, yet insist the world owes them. I'd guess he can barely contain his rage toward Wills, for being much better looking, much more popular, and, especially for loving his mom and keeping her memory alive. Chances are he's anxious for the Queen to kick the bucket so he won't have to pretend anymore.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez denied Friday that Fidel Castro has cancer and said the ailing Cuban leader is eating cautiously and feels well enough to joke.
And who're you gonna believe, Hugo or the US intel chief?
Castro's medical condition is being kept a state secret, and Cuban officials insisted he is recovering. But US officials say they believe he suffers from some kind of inoperable cancer and will not live through the end of 2007. "Fidel does not have cancer. I'm very well informed... he has instructed them to inform me of all the details of what is happening," Chavez said during a speech in Caracas.
Castro, 80, has not been seen publicly since July, when he temporarily handed power over to his younger brother Raul so he could recover from intestinal surgery.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/16/2006 00:00 ||
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Cuban President Fidel Castro is very ill and close to death, Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte said yesterday. "Everything we see indicates it will not be much longer . . . months, not years," Negroponte told a meeting of Washington Post editors and reporters. Merry Christmas!
Castro relinquished power for the first time in 47 years after surgery July 31 for an undisclosed intestinal disorder. He was last seen in an Oct. 28 video, shown on Cuban national television, in which he appeared gaunt and weak and warned that his convalescence would be lengthy. The Cuban leader did not show up as anticipated at a Dec. 2 national celebration in Havana scheduled to commemorate his 80th birthday and the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/16/2006 00:00 ||
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SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia (AP) - Hundreds of thousands of Bolivians in this eastern lowland city protested Friday to demand more autonomy from the government of President Evo Morales and reject his control over an assembly rewriting the constitution.
The crowds stretched for blocks in all directions from the city's signature giant Jesus statue, forming a sea of green-and-white flags of the state of Santa Cruz, which has long sought greater leeway from La Paz, the capital 400 miles to the west.
A bitter fight over Morales' control of an assembly rewriting Bolivia's constitution has given the cause fresh urgency. Morales envisions a new constitution giving a greater voice to himself the long-oppressed Indian majority, but the opposition-controlled eastern states say they have been frozen out of the process.
"The people of Santa Cruz love Bolivia as a son loves his mother," said German Antelo, president of the Santa Cruz Civic Committee, a non-governmental assembly organizing the protests. "They call us enemies and accuse us of wanting to divide the country," he said of Morales and his allies. "But the truth is that they're anti-Bolivia. Their country is half of the half of a greedy, egotistical, discriminatory heart."
Similar demonstrations also took place in the southern city of Tarija and in the Amazonian northeast city of Trinidad. Another protest was scheduled for Cobija, on the Brazilian border.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/16/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Interesting shirts, (Not Snark) they look expensively printed, a professional job.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/16/2006 8:52 Comments ||
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RJ, the campaign for an autonomous eastern Bolivia is a popular one with both ground support and a political class behind it. Their opinion, as I read it, is that if the majority Indians in the west want their own country, so be it.
The parties behind this have all usual goodies of a political movement including printed T-shirts and protest babes.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/16/2006 11:56 Comments ||
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#3
Redneck Jim:
I'm looking at sumthang more interesting than teeshirts. Ummm, note the abs and belly-button on the protest babe!
Public schools to teach patriotism; Defense Agency gets status as ministry
TOKYO: Japan broke two postwar taboos Friday, as its Parliament voted to bring patriotism back into the classroom and to expand the status and mission of its military forces.
Parliament enacted a law revising the country's 1947 Fundamental Law of Education, drafted during the U.S. occupation to prevent a revival of prewar nationalism in Japan. The new education law stresses "love of country," "public spirit" and "tradition," and gives the country's political leadership greater control over the schools.
#2
Geeze, we'd settle for less UNpatriotic education here in the US...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/16/2006 8:22 Comments ||
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#3
Well, no, that's kind of scary. Japanese schools are *already* over-regulated and censored in a fashion which would make the Texas Board of Education swoon with envy. The appearance of that raving nutcase Ishihara in the article is another bad sign. Finally, what we're looking at here is a set of symbolic, ugly gestures in lieu of anything useful, like a less restrictive set of legislature-controlled RoE. Plenty of stuff which will alienate anyone who remembers the twenties and thirties, nothing which will do any practical good, and a lot more conservative dicking around with school curricula. At least there doesn't seem to be anything in there about revering the emperor...
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
12/16/2006 12:37 Comments ||
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#4
I'm worried that patriotic education there will exclude from discussion the Japanese role in WW2, in China and Korea, and so on. The Rape of Nanking will be right out.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
12/16/2006 13:47 Comments ||
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I'm worried that patriotic education there will exclude from discussion the Japanese role in WW2, in China and Korea, and so on. The Rape of Nanking will be right out.
As I understand it, Japanese secondary education system teaches the following history of WWII:
#6
Japan already spends quite a bit of time on teaching "how to be Japanese." This is adding on to that.
Most average Japnese don't have the time to care about this stuff they are to busy trying to earn the money needed to survive. I have been told that the common citizen of Japan thinks the nationalist are nuts and on the same level as criminals.
This is something we need to keep an eye on to be sure.
A two-day gap between the sinking of HMAS Sydney and the German warship Kormoran has been highlighed in startling documents reproduced in a new book.
The documents also say that 30 Sydney survivors were taken aboard the Kormoran, only to die when the Kormoran itself went down.
The official version is that the ships sank each other at about the same time in November 1941, and that all 645 Sydney crewmen died and 317 sailors from the Kormoran survived.
The documents, allegedly summaries of signals from the Kormoran after she had sunk the Sydney, are so far removed from the officially accepted account of the disaster that they would today cause international tensions if authenticated.
This account would send into turmoil the Sydney search team, now raising funds to locate the Sydney wreck.
The signals say HMAS Sydney was sunk by the Kormoran's fast motor torpedo boat, a 70-foot steel vessel capable of 40 knots and armed with machine-guns...
#1
The unofficial version is that a Japanese submarine torpedoed the Sydney, more than 6 weeks before Pearl Harbor.
Still a very live issue in Australian Naval circles.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/16/2006 09:25 ||
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#1
Don't be surprised if he is the d's VP candidate in '08. He has a middle America demeanor, not seen as a big liberal and he comes from what appears to be a developing swing state.
For me, he's a scary candidate because he'd really pull in the swing voters. After Hillary gets her cross hairs on and drops barack hussein obama, I think she'll go for Evan to moderate the ticket and pick up a traditionally Republican state.
#3
Lanny D,
I think there's credence in this. She'll likely select someone like Bayh or Vilsack to pick up centrist voters from mid-America. She's got to court Vilsack a while longer tho, because, due to nature of Iowa's caucus voting, he'll automatically win Iowa. She doesn't have the time to spend in Iowa on the lead up. She doesn't win there, but no one else does either. Vilsack is the place holder. She probably wins New Hampshire. She's well known and exposed there, so this gives her a good lead off. Nevada is in between now, and due to moneyed interests she'll do no worse than second there. If she shows well in the first 5-6 primaries, she's got it. Note that she's now conferring with all the old team from Bill's runs. They are starting to get serious now. If she's the candidate, she's going to be difficult to beat in the election. Republicans have yet to identify a viable candidate.
NEW DELHI, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- A senior member of the nationalist BJP Party argues that India "frittered away a historic opportunity" for a Kashmir settlement at the end of the 1971 war.
In a statement to mark the 35th anniversary of the war between India and Pakistan that ended with the creation of Bangladesh, former Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani said 90,000 captured Pakistani soldiers could have been used as a bargaining chip, the Press Trust of India reported.
"It was the biggest surrender since World War II. Had the Indian government of the day used this advantage in summit talks with Pakistan in Shimla in 1972, the Kashmir issue could have been solved once and for all," he said.
Kashmir remains divided between India, Pakistan and China almost half a century after the partition of the Indian subcontinent, although India does not recognize the other country's territories.
Posted by: john ||
12/16/2006 18:01 ||
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A Pakistan stamp depicting the 90,000 PoWs in Indian camps. This stamp was issued with the political aim of raising the POW issue at a global level in securing their release.
Posted by: john ||
12/16/2006 18:08 Comments ||
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Toronto scientists cure disease in mice
In a discovery that has stunned even those behind it, scientists at a Toronto hospital say they have proof the body's nervous system helps trigger diabetes, opening the door to a potential near-cure of the disease that affects millions of Canadians.
Diabetic mice became healthy virtually overnight after researchers injected a substance to counteract the effect of malfunctioning pain neurons in the pancreas. "I couldn't believe it," said Dr. Michael Salter, a pain expert at the Hospital for Sick Children and one of the scientists. "Mice with diabetes suddenly didn't have diabetes any more."
The researchers caution they have yet to confirm their findings in people, but say they expect results from human studies within a year or so. Any treatment that may emerge to help at least some patients would likely be years away from hitting the market.
But the excitement of the team from Sick Kids, whose work is being published today in the journal Cell, is almost palpable. "I've never seen anything like it," said Dr. Hans Michael Dosch, an immunologist at the hospital and a leader of the studies. "In my career, this is unique."
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#4
Interesting how they managed to cure it overnight but quickly developed a treatment that will require constant maintenance. Good news in either case though.
#5
Don't get overoptimistic. The history of biomedical research is full of "breakthroughs" that came to nothing (except to yield the researchers some serious grant money).
#6
I have a friend in ill health, he's developed diabetes AFTER taking cortisone, each cortisone injection creates a spike in blood sugar.
Interesting, no?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/16/2006 8:55 Comments ||
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#7
Capsaicin is in arthritis creams to reduce inflammation locally. The inflammatory response is accredited for other stress-induced auto-immune diseases as well as heart disease and arterial plaque formation, and even gum disease. My Mom took cortisone for her arthritis, before her diabetes diagnosis and heart attack. Cortisone is also a standard treatment for inflammation and used to treat other auto-immune diseases. I think it is the inflammation at the core of the problem.
Does this mean eating chili peppers and laying off the carbs will reverse our obesity and health care crisis? This is really interesting. Maybe raising chili peppers will give our southern friends a new incentive to stay with families and improve their own homelands. I'm having Mexican tonight!
#10
Hell I got some stuff in a tiny little pimento jar from DB than can reverse time as we know it.
Sounds like those Guatemalan insanity peppers, the "merciless peppers of Quetzlzacatenango, grown deep in the jungle primeval by the inmates of a Guatemalan insane asylum".
And that whole time reversal thingy is just how you wish you could go back in time and not eat those peppers come morning.
#12
DB sounds like my kinda' guy then! I love the hot stuff. Some has put me over the edge though....feel sorry for all those lil' bacterium in my digestive tract, lol!
Posted by: BA ||
12/16/2006 20:44 Comments ||
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There are certain Central American peppers so hot that you do not need to brush your teeth after eating them. All the bacteria in your mouth are dead already.
#15
good reason for the SoCal diet: Machaca burritos in the AM, cheese enchiladas/taco salad at lunch, and a #4 Combo plate from Los Nachos Taco Shop™ in Santee in the evening...you'll be regular, and happy with all the endorphins
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/16/2006 23:37 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.
Queen gains close-up view of prince's transition to army officer
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez denied Friday that Fidel Castro has cancer and said the ailing Cuban leader is eating cautiously and feels well enough to joke. 
Cuban President Fidel Castro is very ill and close to death, Director of National Intelligence 
SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia (AP) - Hundreds of thousands of Bolivians in this eastern lowland city protested Friday to demand more autonomy from the government of President Evo Morales and reject his control over an assembly rewriting the constitution.
Public schools to teach patriotism; Defense Agency gets status as ministry
