PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (AP) - Gunmen smashed in the windows of a car carrying a British girl to school Thursday and kidnapped the three-year-old in the first seizure of a foreign child in Nigeria's increasingly lawless oil region.
The British government called for the immediate release of Margaret Hill, who was taken from her car as it idled in Port Harcourt's heavy morning traffic. Nigerian community leaders were outraged. "Taking an innocent child by force is a criminal act that should be roundly condemned by Nigerians," said Anabs Saraigbe, an influential chief of the ethnic Ijaw people who predominate in the region.
Over 200 foreigners have been kidnapped since militants stepped up their activities against the oil industry in late 2005 and more than 100 expatriates have been seized this year alone as criminal gangs took up the practice. Kidnappers have focused mostly on foreign, male workers of international companies presumed to have the resources for ransom payments. Family acquaintances said Margaret's father works in the oil industry.
While two children of wealthy Nigerians have been seized in the restive Niger Delta in recent weeks, Margaret's seizure was the first of a foreign child. Both Nigerian children were released within days without injury.
Nigerian security forces were investigating the case, said Rivers state police Spokeswoman Irejua Barasua.
Acquaintances of Margaret's family said her father is a longtime resident of Nigeria who works for a firm performing contract work in Nigeria's oil industry, which is the continent's largest. They also said he was the owner of a renowned Port Harcourt night spot popular with expatriate workers. The bar was shuttered Thursday and Margaret's family members couldn't be located by The Associated Press.
Criminal kidnappings have become common in the region. More than a dozen foreigners are currently in captivity, including five seized Wednesday from a Royal Dutch Shell oil rig. Hostages are generally released unharmed after a ransom is paidoften by state governments that control huge, unregulated security slush funds, with officials taking a cut, according to industry officials. At least two hostages have been killed in the crossfire when security forces crossed the kidnappers.
The government of new President Umaru Yar'Adua is trying to calm the oil region, where security began worsening with the emergence of a new militant group in late 2005. The militants, whose bombings and kidnappings have cut Nigeria's normal oil output by about one quarter, say they're fighting to force the federal government to give the Niger Delta region a greater share of state oil money.
Despite four decades of oil production, the region remains among the poorest anywhere in Africa, a situation residents blame on official corruption and mismanagement of government money.
While the militants pioneered the practice of kidnapping, saying it was a pressure tactic used for leverage with the government, most kidnappings now are purely criminal, without a political element. While the militants enjoy some measure of support for their political demands, Nigerians are generally dismayed by the hostage takings, which flourish partly in oil region because hostages can be hidden away in a vast maze of creeks and swamps. "Kidnapping is a violation of the victim's fundamental human rights and can never be justified under any known law," said Onueze Okncha, former head of the Nigerian Bar Association. "It's going to cause problems for Nigeria people in ways we could never imagine."
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - A Zimbabwe Foreign Ministry official gatecrashed the U.S. embassy's July 4 celebrations Wednesday to criticize the outgoing ambassador. Samuel Mhango criticized Ambassador Christopher Dell for remarks he made Wednesday. Dell commented on the assault by police of opposition leaders in Harare in March, the country's worsening economic crisis and what Dell called ``the growing climate of desperation and oppression'' in Zimbabwe.
Good for Dell. That's what our ambassadors are supposed to do.
``Diplomats are supposed to be bridge builders not bridge busters,'' Mhango said. ``We believe ... that national day receptions such as this one are occasions for us to congratulate each other, to say positive things about each other. They are not occasions to attack or abuse each other.''
That's rather .. Soviet, doncha think?
Dell said afterward Mhango was not invited. He asked to speak at the podium to several hundred guests. Dell told guests he himself was not invited to Zimbabwe's Independence Day celebrations on April 18, ``so I did not attend. I see the same rules don't seem to apply in reverse.''
U.S officials said later Mhango told them the foreign ministry was considering banning speeches at foreign national day functions.
Dell, along with independent economic commentators, have recently predicted runaway inflation will likely cause full-scale economic collapse by year end.
``One wonders what authority some have when giving specific time frames for the meltdown of the Zimbabwe economy. This leaves the impression the meltdown is being engineered from outside Zimbabwe,'' Mhango said.
Nah, your boy Bob is capable of this all by himself.
``Zimbabwe brooks no interference in its internal affairs ... Zimbabweans should be left to solve their own problems,'' Mhango said, reading from a prepared text.
Blusters well, doesn't he? Wonder how he'll bluster the day the government is overthrown.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/05/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
``Zimbabwe brooks no interference in its internal affairs ... Zimbabweans should be left to solve their own problems,'' Mhango said, reading from a prepared text.
Panic buying swept through the streets of Zimbabwe yesterday, as stores ran out of basic goods and shopkeepers complained that they were selling goods at a loss after the government ordered prices to be halved in a last-ditch effort to tackle hyper-inflation. Shoppers desperate to restock in a country ravaged by shortages cleared out supermarkets in the capital, Harare, and Bulawayo, where shelves were bare of essential items such as maize meal, cooking oil, sugar, milk, soap, bread, chicken, beef and other items.
"I am selling goods at less than what I paid for them. I am selling bread at less than what it costs to bake it," a distraught Harare shopowner said, pleading for anonymity so as to avoid government retribution. "I am following the government's orders. Army soldiers came here this morning to check prices. Mugabe has threatened to seize any business that does not do what he says. I don't know how long this can continue."
Inflation is currently estimated at 10,000% and rising. Armed soldiers and the youth militia are patrolling shops and open-air markets to enforce President Robert Mugabe's price controls. More than 200 retailers have been charged with crimes of charging more than the official prices, police confirmed yesterday.
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Posted by: Steve White ||
07/05/2007 00:00 ||
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So almost everyone's going to be out of food in about a week. Then the fun will really begin. I'd bet Bob's already got his getaway plane on the tarmac, fueled up, full of hard cash, and ready to go...
#5
Exactly, Nimble, and I keep wondering just how in the hell Gaza fell behind Zimbobwe in the race to the bottom.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/05/2007 8:12 Comments ||
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#6
Should be no shortage of toilet paper for a while. And it wouldn't surprise me if their currency was actually better for the purpose than the European TP (softer, stronger and more absorbent.) There is a ceiling to inflation - when the real value of the currency is reached, with 'real value' defined by the worth of the gold, silver, aluminum, or now paper it is made of.
One thing Gaza and the West Bank DON'T have, is their own currency. They use NIS - New Israeli Shekels. So stability of prices is maintained thanks to the Central Bank of Israel, which has leaned fairly heavily monetarist for over a decade.
#9
Msika told state radio. "We will take their businesses, we will take their licences. They have raised prices to a level the people cannot afford so they must die in agony with hunger."
#10
And don't forget 'by the People'. They elected him, and the non-ZANU-PF elite, even though they mourn his 'fallen status', still think he's a cross between George Washington and Nelson Mandela.
#12
Unfortunately the real value of US currency for some denominations is in its substance. I'm surprised US coins aren't disappearing from circulation & being melted down for sale as metals.
"Broadsword calling Danny Boy... Broadsword calling Danny Boy ... The FOX is in the hen house ... repeat... The FOX is in the hen house ... Over..."
Rules governing impartiality in TV news could be relaxed - paving the way for a series of Fox News-style services. Yes, the Beeb, so impartial...
The suggestion by media regulator Ofcom is aimed at creating more "interesting" coverage of world events and extreme political views by opinionated news anchors and interviewers.
Ofcom sources today conceded that relaxing the rules for broadcasters - although not the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 or Five - could lead to British "shock jock" versions of Rupert Murdoch's contentious US Fox News. Sheesh, like Rupert would hire Mancow as an anchor ... hmmm...
The proposal comes after an Ofcom report found increasing numbers of young people do not watch TV news. Half of 16- to 24-year-olds - up from 33 per cent five years ago - only watch the news when a major event is happening, such as terror attacks. This age group watches an average of 45 minutes of TV news a week - about half of that for the wider population. And 64 per cent of young people believe the TV news is not relevant to their lives.
Fox News has been repeatedly accused of promoting a rightwing Republican agenda. The Ofcom report calls UK coverage "middle of the road". Yeah, right
#2
Britain: Different "opinionated news" from the opinionated news that's on now (courtesy of the B'jihad Broadcasting Corp.) to be allowed on TV
There - fixed.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/05/2007 15:15 Comments ||
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#3
*shrug* I didn't watch the news when I sixteen, nor eighteen either. On the other hand, could it be -- is it possible -- that the younger generation gets their news from the internet??? And like in the U.S., are lost to the mainstream British media forever????
DUBAI: Dubai International Capital, an investment company owned by the emirate's ruler, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, became one of the biggest shareholders in European Aeronautic Defense & Space on Thursday, taking a 3.12 percent stake in the company.
The company, based in the United Arab Emirates, said in a statement that it would not seek a board seat or try to take an active role at the maker of Airbus commercial planes and military aircraft, but "will seek to build a strategic relationship with the EADS management and shareholders."
I think that means they'd rather have the insider contacts and the French bribe money.
The stake would be worth around 614 million, or $835.7 million, at the Wednesday closing share price.
"We are confident that EADS's superior product offering, comprehensive restructuring program and committed management represent a strong fit with the fund's investment strategy," the company said in a statement. "We are supportive of EADS management's announced steps to regain investor confidence by delivering the envisaged recovery plan at its Airbus subsidiary," it said.
Airbus said in February that it would cut 10,000 jobs and sell up to six factories after a two-year delay in delivering the A380, the world's largest commercial passenger aircraft.
EADS said it welcomed the investment.
Since they had no choice.
The stake deal means that Dubai is now one of EADS's largest shareholders while also being one of the biggest buyers of Airbus planes. The government-owned Emirates airline currently has 50 Airbus planes, with a further 116 on order. It is the biggest customer for Airbus' A380 superjumbo jet, with 47 on order. Dubai International has spent $6 billion since 2004 buying stakes in DaimlerChrysler and other companies.
#3
The Sheik of Dubai tends towards long-term investments and may be looking at the fact that EADS now has a US order for helicopters. EADS can survive the A380 debacle since the Europeans will NOT let the company fail, and if the Helicopter Division keeps winning contracts, it could be spun off of the main company. That is the area of interest for Dubai, as far as I can tell.
"We call for the immediate launch of Zwentendorf nuclear power plant, the groups Web site proclaims. Austrias populist, alibistic, unecological politics must stop."
The members of Start Zwentendorf, a freshly minted Czech nuclear power advocacy group, are on a bold mission. We call for the immediate launch of Zwentendorf nuclear power plant, the groups Web site proclaims. Austrias populist, alibistic, unecological politics must stop.
Zwentendorf, Austrias only nuclear power plant, has been inactive since its completion in 1978, when Austrians decided in a public referendum they would prefer not to launch it. Start Zwentendorf (SZ), an open-source community that operates through an online wiki site and has no organizational hierarchy, claims to be a partner organization of Austrias Stop Temelín, an anti-nuclear group. The latter has for years been a vocal opponent of the Czech Republics Temelín nuclear power plant, organizing border blockade demonstrations to protests a perceived lack of safety measures.
SZ says the inactive Zwentendorf is more harmful to the environment than Temelín since it means Austria must generate its electricity from other, less ecological sources, such as coal-burning power plants.
more at the link. This group understands the new media and is using satire, Wikis and a savvy media campaign for (gasp) un-PC aims.
#1
Thank you for posting this, lotp. Few people seem to remember that risks must be taken in order to eliminate the real threats we face.
Though separated by time and place, both tragedies were the fallout from one morning in May 1942 when resistance fighters attacked a Nazi convoy in Prague 8. As a result of that days events, one Nazi despot died, thousands of civilians were murdered and the future of the nation was cemented. We are talking about the assassination of the most important officer of the Third Reich, says military historian Michal Burian of the killing of Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich. The Czech nation paid a bloody tax for this deed, but it had declared its resistance to the occupation clearly in front of all the world.
Furious, Hitler ordered the killing of thousands of civilians, resistance fighters and their collaborators. The villages of Lidice and Leáky were razed and nearly all inhabitants killed. Kubi and Gabèík were betrayed by a comrade and died inside the church of Sts. Cyril and Methodius on Resslová street, where they were hiding. Some of the men, including Kubi, died from Gestapo bullets, while others, like Gabèík, committed suicide, Burian says.
Despite the bloody reprisals, the killing of Heydrich was symbolically important for a nation downtrodden after the 1938 Munich Agreement, in which the United Kingdom, France and Italy handed parts of Bohemia and Moravia over to Hitler in an attempt to slake his thirst for war.The assassination and the following reprisals led to one of the most important moments of World War II from the point of view of Czechoslovakia: the renouncement of the Munich Agreement by Britain and France, Burian says.
FRENCH President Nicolas Sarkozy has fallen foul of intellectuals and critics who see his passion for jogging as un-French, right-wing and even a ploy to brainwash his citizens.
Doesn't own a bicycle, does he?
Attacks on Mr Sarkozy's pastime, which he has made a symbol of his presidency, began on the internet as soon as he bounded up the steps of the Elysee Palace in shorts when he took office in May. That has become the icon of his hyper-energetic administration. The grumbling has now moved to television and the press.
"Is jogging right-wing?" wondered Liberation, the left-wing newspaper.
Alain Finkelkraut, a celebrated philosopher, begged Mr Sarkozy on France 2, the main state television channel, to abandon his "undignified" pursuit. He should take up walking, like Socrates, the poet Arthur Rimbaud and other great men, Mr Finkelkraut said. "Western civilisation, in its best sense, was born with the promenade. Walking is a sensitive, spiritual act. Jogging is management of the body. The jogger says I am in control. It has nothing to do with meditation."
"Besides, it's really hard to run with a Gauloise in your mouth."
Mr Sarkozy's habit infuriates his critics - and some supporters - because he flaunts it so hard. He has practised it at summits in Brussels and Germany and he is looking forward to a bonding jog with Jose Socrates, the Prime Minister of Portugal, which took over the European Union presidency this week.
Until "Speedy Sarko" won office, French heads of state shunned physical exercise in public. The late Francois Mitterrand was privately partial to golf, but the reflective stroll was his public trademark. Jacques Chirac, Mr Sarkozy's predecessor, was famous for his energy, but in public he moved at walking pace and in suit and tie.
Jogging caught on in France, as elsewhere, in the 1980s and eight million claim to indulge. But Mr Sarkozy has rekindled a French suspicion that the habit is for self-centred individualists such as the Americans who popularised it.
Jogging is, of course, about performance and individualism, values that are traditionally ascribed to the Right.
French intellectuals had always held sport in contempt, while totalitarian regimes cultivated physical fitness
"Jogging is, of course, about performance and individualism, values that are traditionally ascribed to the Right," Odile Baudrier, editor of V02 magazine, a sports publication, told Liberation. Sports sociologist Patrick Mignon noted that French intellectuals had always held sport in contempt, while totalitarian regimes cultivated physical fitness.
Beyond the self-promotion, some commentators see something sinister in the media fascination with le jogging de Supersarko. The "hypnotic" daily images of presidential running are not innocent, said Daniel Schneidermann, a media critic. He said Mr Sarkozy used the video images of his jogging as "a major weapon of media manipulation". And some experts have questioned Mr Sarkozy's running style and say that he is not helped by being overweight.
Wonder what they thought of Clinton's belly-hanging-out jogging jaunts?
#1
The Australian media used to ridicule John Howard's morning power walks. He then offered to give interviews during the walks. Reporters half his age too out of breath to ask questions and being told by JH that he can walk more slowly if they can't keep up, soon put a stop to the ridicule.
#3
"Is jogging right-wing?" wondered Liberation, the left-wing newspaper
As we know stupidity has no limits.
and when we're talking about French leftists, stuipidity assimptotically strives towards infinity.
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
07/05/2007 5:45 Comments ||
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Two pieces of this jumped out at me: "He should take up walking, like Socrates,..." and "he is looking forward to a bonding jog with Jose Socrates, the Prime Minister of Portugal"
So, Socrates does jog!
#6
I guess the depth of French hatred for Americans shouldn't surprise me anymore, but this one takes the cake. We fat, unfit Americans are selfish, jogging, health nuts.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
07/05/2007 20:49 Comments ||
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Authorities have arrested some 80 suspects on the charge of damaging gas stations and looting shops during last week's protests against fuel rationing, state-run television reported Wednesday.
Authorities could indict the suspects, mostly detained since last Wednesday, after watching films by video surveillance and security cameras in the looted shops and damaged gas stations, state TV said.
The report was the first confirmation that people were arrested for protesting the new fuel rationing measures. Announced last Wednesday, the government's rationing drove angry Iranians to smash shop windows and set fire to more than a dozen gas stations in the capital, Tehran, and several other cities.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/05/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Not quite up to the 160,000 arrested by the Fashion Police earlier this year.
Posted by: ed ||
07/05/2007 6:54 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.
Panic buying swept through the streets of Zimbabwe yesterday, as stores ran out of basic goods and shopkeepers complained that they were selling goods at a loss after the government ordered prices to be halved in a last-ditch effort to tackle hyper-inflation. Shoppers desperate to restock in a country ravaged by shortages cleared out supermarkets in the capital, Harare, and Bulawayo, where shelves were bare of essential items such as maize meal, cooking oil, sugar, milk, soap, bread, chicken, beef and other items.
DUBAI: Dubai International Capital, an investment company owned by the emirate's ruler, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, became one of the biggest shareholders in European Aeronautic Defense & Space on Thursday, taking a 3.12 percent stake in the company.
FRENCH President Nicolas Sarkozy has fallen foul of intellectuals and critics who see his passion for jogging as un-French, right-wing and even a ploy to brainwash his citizens.
