The head of a Chinese toy manufacturing company at the center of a huge U.S. recall has committed suicide, a state-run newspaper said Monday. Shot himself in the head three times and then hung himself.
Zhang Shuhong, who co-owned Lee Der Industrial Co. Ltd., killed himself at a warehouse over the weekend, days after China announced it had temporarily banned exports by the company, the Southern Metropolis Daily said. Lee Der made 967,000 toys recalled earlier this month by Mattel Inc. because they were made with paint found to have excessive amounts of lead. The plastic preschool toys, sold under the Fisher-Price brand in the U.S., included the popular Big Bird, Elmo, Dora and Diego characters. It was among the largest recalls in recent months involving Chinese products, which have come under fire for globally for containing potentially dangerous high levels of chemicals and toxins.
The Southern Metropolis Daily said that a supplier, Zhang's best friend, sold Lee Der fake paint which was used in the toys. "The boss and the company were harmed by the paint supplier, the closest friend of our boss," a manager surnamed Liu was quoted as saying. Liu said Zhang hung himself on Saturday, according to the report. It is common for disgraced officials to commit suicide in China. "When I got there around 5 p.m., police had already sealed off the area," Liu said.
A company official who answered the telephone at the Lee Der factory in the southern city of Foshan on Monday said he had not heard of the news. A man at Lee Der's main office in Hong Kong said the company was not accepting interviews and hung up. According to a search on a registry of Hong Kong companies, Zhang - whose name is spelled Cheung Shu-hung in official documents - is a co-owner of Lee Der. The other owner, Chiu Kwei-tsun, did not return telephone messages left for him.
The recall by El Segundo, California-based Mattel came just two months after RC2 Corp., a New York company, recalled 1.5 million Chinese-made wooden railroad toys and set parts from its Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway product line because of lead paint. The maker, Hansheng Wood Products Factory, was also included in the export ban announced Thursday by the General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, one of China's quality watchdogs. The administration also ordered both companies to evaluate and change their business practices. "Learn to lie better."
Lead poisoning can cause vomiting, anemia and learning difficulties. In extreme cases, it can cause severe neurological damage and death. The quality watchdog also said police were investigating two companies' use of "fake plastic pigment" but did not give any details. Such pigments are a type of industrial latex usually used to increase surface gloss and smoothness. Telephones rang unanswered at the public security bureau in Foshan and at Dongxing New Energy Company, which is the paint supplier. In its report, the Southern Metropolis Daily said Zhang, who was in his 50s, treated his 5,000-odd employees well and always paid them on time.
The morning of his suicide, he greeted workers and chatted with some of them, the newspaper said. Chinese companies often have long supply chains, making it difficult to trace the exact origin of components, chemicals and food additives. Either this changes or there needs to be a total ban on Chinese imports.
On Sunday, a Chinese court sentenced a reporter to a year in jail for faking a television story about cardboard-filled meat buns in a case that has drawn even more attention to China's poor food safety record. Zi Beijia, 28, pleaded guilty to charges of infringing on the reputation of a commodity during his trial at the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate Court, the official Xinhua News Agency said. He was sentenced to a year in jail and a fine of $132, it said. He's hoping they won't like his buns either.
Zi's story, reportedly shot with a hidden camera, appeared to show a makeshift kitchen where people made steamed buns stuffed with shredded cardboard softened with caustic soda plus a little bit of fatty pork. Zi paid four migrant workers from China's northern Shaanxi province to prepare the buns according to his instructions, Xinhua said. The buns were then fed to dogs, it said. The story was first broadcast on Beijing Television's Life Channel, where Zi was a freelance reporter, on July 8 and then again on China Central Television. It was also widely seen on YouTube.com.
#1
You gets what you pays for. Unions are a problem. But so is importing cheap labor outside the law and shipping your manufacturing base overseas. Law-abiding, traditional families are families where a man can earn enough to support his family and a mother can stay home; where he can put something aside for the care of his parents and the education of his children. A strong country makes the steel it will need in time of war and the electronics it will need to make its weapons work.
#3
So Mattel made a deal with the devil and now they're finding it's not as good a deal as it once seemed. Are they getting a little nervous? I hope so. I remember my wife telling me when our children were small what a great reputation Fisher-Price had. Seems to be a little tarnish on that reputation now. But probably not enough that the general public will notice and most certainly not enough to bother the politicians.
One of the problems facing China is that manufacturers continue to engage in a practice I call "quality fade." This is the deliberate and secret habit of widening profit margins through a reduction in the quality of materials. Importers usually never notice what's happening; downward changes are subtle but progressive. The initial production sample is fine, but with each successive production run, a bit more of the necessary inputs are missing.
What is maddening to importers is that quality fade often occurs in the last place an importer thinks to check. The factory owner who practices quality fade knows exactly where he stands with his customer in these cat-and-mouse games. He has virtually nothing to lose and only margin to gain--and, having gotten away with it once, no one should be surprised when he goes for it again. Because it takes importers a long time to find suppliers and to get them up to speed, importers keep their suppliers a secret. Even when it is in their collective interest to share information, importers keep to themselves.
When a product is recalled in the U.S., the importer pays the cost of that recall. It remains next to impossible to take legal action in China, and only in the rarest case can an importer successfully sue the supplier responsible for a product failure. Since most suppliers are paid in full well before goods leave the factory, the importer doesn't even enjoy the leverage that comes with owing payment to the supplier. The average importer has far less leverage than imagined.
There is a sense of urgency in China, the feeling that one must work fast before the window of opportunity closes. For factories, that means taking shortcuts on quality. Many factory owners can't see beyond the next purchase order. One reason for the short-sightedness may have to do with China's political environment.
The one-party government does what it wants, when it wants. And while there may be some advantages to a government that can operate without restraint or controversy, such a system limits predictability and leaves the business sector keenly aware that it is subject to the whims of officials who may or may not know which policy is best.
#6
Pappy, this was discussed previously, although it is no less pertinent. However, America's politicians have no excuse for ignoring the threat to their electorate.
DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM! I'M A POOR WIDOW OF ONE OF THOSE...FREEDOM FIGHTER GUYS!! GIMMEE A SECOND, I'LL REMEMBER HIS NAME...
Bethlehem Ma'an The Tunisian President, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, has withdrawn Tunisian citizenship from the widow of the late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat, the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi daily newspaper reported on Monday. BASTARD! I'LL SCRATCH YOUR EYES OUT!!
And give me back those Kruggerrands you bastard!
Suha Arafat received notification of the withdrawal last September, but the news has only just been made public. According to the formal publication of the Tunisian republic, the decision bears the number 1976, and was issued in August. The Tunisian government did not give the reason behind the decision. We can say no more...
but what a fat obnoxious bitch! Pay me, pay me, pay me! That's all we ever heard from her. And then she's lay that, "I'm MRS. ARAFAT, DAMMIT!!" shit on us and, I mean, we got sick of dealing with the fat cow...
Suha Arafat has been living in Tunisia with her daughter since the death of her husband.
Wonder if darling daughter has volunteered to be a shaheed? Somehow I doubt it ...
She was a close friend of the Tunisian president's wife, Layla. There were rumours of a marriage to the president's brother-in-law last year. Suha Arafat vigorously denied the rumours. When reached for comment, the president's brother-in-law was quoted as saying, "Yikes!"
The things you have to do to marry into money ...
It has been reported that Suha Arafat has left Tunisia and moved to Malta. The Tunisian journalist, Tawfiq Ayyashi speculated that Suha Arafat's departure to Malta could have been as a result of a disagreement between her and some of her business partners in Tunisia. Geez, not moving back to Gaza, baby?
#1
Gaza? Not sure he was ever there, albeit she visited Ramallah (West Bank) a couple of times. More like Paris. But without loads of cash, Malta may be a more affordale option.
Because of the Quitting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) movement triggered by the book Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party (The Nine Commentaries), a soldier called the "voice of the army" appealed recently for all ex-service personnel and active-duty soldiers to withdraw from the CCP. Accordingly, many ex-servicemen and active military personnel announced that they were quitting the CCP. On August 5, nine officers and enlisted men withdrew from the CCP together. At the same time, some officers and army personnel made statements to quit the CCP that included their family members.
An officer at the basic level who formerly worked in the number 38th Army Group wrote in his statement of quitting the CCP: "I've been a demobilized soldier since 1999. I realized that it was an evil political party, a fascist feudal political group, a political tool forfeiting the future of our mother country and enslaving the Chinese people, through my life in the military and what I saw and heard in the society. The Chinese Army was reduced to an army only servicing the CCP, family servants of the CCP, and hatchet men. I make this statement to withdraw from the CCP."
Shuntian Wang, a family member of an officer in Xinjiang Military Command, said that many years ago he recognized the evil characteristics of the CCP and had withdrawn from the CCP. "The CCP is the source of all disasters the Chinese people have suffered. Let us wipe out the CCP from China by following the mandate of heaven." In response to the appeal from the "voice of the Army", he plans to tell all officers and soldiers he knows not to assist in the CCP's massacre of the Chinese people.
Officers And Enlisted Men from the Number Two Artillery Group Quit the CCP
"I vow I have already realized the evil characteristics of the CCP and from now on I announce that I withdraw from the CCP and its organizations and will not be a soldier servicing only the CCP. I treated the basic interests of the Chinese people as the highest value and support the nationalization of troops. I promised to join in the army of the democratic China of the future at an opportune moment. I promise to join in the army focused on disintegrating the CCP, at the right moment. Even if I were unable to join in the movement of eliminating the CCP, I promise not to fire at the people disintegrating the CCP and never serve as an evil tool suppressing those who are wiping out the CCP."
Pledger: "Nine people total , including Officer Zhang, Sergeant Chen, Sergeant Li and other sergeants from the Number Two Artillery Group."
"Pledger: veterans in the 256th regiment (army unit 32362, element 89), 86 Division , 31 Army Group in Qujiang"
Pledger: "Army unit 38396 in the South Sea Fleet"
Pledger: "Liu Yuan in a rear-service unit of an airplane group in the Huadong Military Command
Pledger: "Heart clear like water"
Pledger: "Immortal in the field"
At press time the number of people publicly announcing withdrawal from the CCP on Epoch Times websites hits 24 million. Withdrawal web site
Posted by: Won Hung Lo ||
08/13/2007 11:50 Comments ||
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#3
It's from a Falun Gong-sympathizing journal. This is pretty radical propaganda - that bit about the mandate of heaven is classic Chinese revolutionary talk. Quoting a military officer as denying the party's mandate is just this side of reporting a coup d'etat. If I understand the implications, reporting this about a real person would net said real person a very long jail term, if not an execution. That is, assuming that he doesn't actually have any military units backing him, in which case I'd expect real, blood-on-the-walls civil strife.
It's got to be bullshit.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
08/13/2007 12:43 Comments ||
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#4
If I understand the implications, reporting this about a real person would net said real person a very long jail term, if not an execution. That is, assuming that he doesn't actually have any military units backing him, in which case I'd expect real, blood-on-the-walls civil strife.
Depends... If there is enough PLA members quiting, they would be likely found in the PLA hospitals--psychiatric wards. From CPP POV, "Who in their right mind...". Until the wards fill up.
I think that it's a propaganda scheme too, but who knows, an ounce of impetus may sometimes trigger a chain of events, if the attacked system's building blocks are rotten enough. Things snowballed pretty fast in Eastern Europe in 1989.
It's not a bunch of students in one square in this case. If PLA members start really quitting CCP en masse, CCP is as good as done. They better start devising some way to adapt Pooty's style of rule pretty fast if they want to survive in some form. Which is not to say that would be much better, as China has more love than hate relationship with authoritarian rule, so not much chances that it would end up with a truly democratic (not meaning a rule of majority here, but rather guaranted freedoms) system.
Just the usual Sunday afternoon in Oslo: Guns blazing, arm-severing, rampaging car driver, dead and injured Tamils lying in the street ...
The raw violence erupted around 6pm, when two men were shot repeatedly in broad daylight in the Kalbakken district of the capital on the city's northeast side.
One of the victims was also attacked with what police are calling a scimitar Samurai sword, in addition to being shot several times in the chest. Newspaper VG reported that one of the man's arms was chopped off, but police wouldn't confirm that.
Missed the head, did they?
Doctors at Ullevål Hospital in Oslo worked through the night trying to stabilize him and save his life. His condition remained critical on Monday.
"Yåh, wé døn't knøw ïf hê'll mäké ït!"
A second victim was also reported in critical condition after suffering multiple gunshot wounds. A third victim was treated at Oslo's emergency clinic after being hit by what police believe was a car driven by the assailants.
There were at least 10 witnesses to the bloody shootout, including several young children, and police were scrambling to secure their accounts of events. Police said they found handguns, knives and the scimitar sword strewn over the scene around the football field at Nordvedt. Police couldn't confirm what set off the violence, but said it apparently followed "an event" the day before, believed to be tied to a conflict within the Tamil community. All three victims are Tamils.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Karl Rove, President Bush's close friend and chief political strategist, plans to leave the White House at the end of August, and since no first sentence is complete without some spin joining a lengthening line of senior officials heading for the exits in the final 1 1/2 years of the administration. Local news at 5:30 a.m. said all staff were told go now, or stay to the end. Rove chose now. The 6:00 a.m. national news said nothing about that, only that Rove was implicated in the PlameGame and Attorney Firing scandals.
"Obviously it's a big loss to us," White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said. "He's a great colleague, a good friend, and a brilliant mind. He will be greatly missed, but we know he wouldn't be going if he wasn't sure this was the right time to be giving more to his family, his wife Darby and their son. He will continue to be one of the president's greatest friends."
Rove is expected to write a book after he leaves. He disclosed his departure in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "I just think it's time," Rove said in an interview at this home on Saturday.
He first floated the idea of leaving to Bush a year ago, the newspaper said, and friends confirmed he'd been talking about it even earlier. However, he said he didn't want to depart right after the Democrats regained control of Congress and then got drawn into policy battles over the Iraq war and immigration. "There's always something that can keep you here, and as much as I'd like to be here, I've got to do this for the sake of my family," said Rove, who has been in the White House since Bush took office in 2001.
Rove's son attends college in San Antonio and he said he and his wife plan to spend much of their time at their nearby home in Ingram.
Rove, currently the deputy White House chief of staff, has been the president's political guru for years and worked with Bush since he first ran for governor of Texas in 1993. More AP spin at link, and another page not reviewed.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/13/2007 06:35 ||
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And we thought Beauchamp-gate sent the kiddies into a headspin, LOL!
Posted by: BA ||
08/13/2007 9:19 Comments ||
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#5
This is itself all part of 'da plan;' Rove leaves, taking the big target with him, but still 'assists' as a 'paid consultant.'
Removes wind from Dem's fluffy sails....
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
It was pay to play - $35 a vote. He paid the most, so he got the most. 4500 or so people paid (regardless of source) to vote for Romney, many of them bussed in from other places.
Its non binding, the main candidates other than Romney were not even participating (i.e. paying) and it was much smallet than tthe last one in terms of turnout: not even 2/3 of those who did the last one (14K turnout versus over 24K for Bush). About 85% wouldn't have shown up without a campaign paying their way.
All in all, another attempt by Romney to buy credibility, and something he cannot purchase: genuuineness. Ol' Slick, Multiple-CHoice Mitt the flip flopper wants to make a big deal of this, but it ultimately means nothing.
#3
I watched one of the debates as objectively as I could. I personally like former AR Gov Huckabee the best out of the field. I also like Newt Gingrich, I think he might declare his candidacy in October. I don't know much about Fred Thompson though.
As long as we all go vote and nobody stays home on election day, there will never be a president (vomit) Hillary. So, don't get your pants in a wad if your man doesn't win the primary.
So did Bush when he was a candidate. Look at him now - HArriet Myers nomination, Ted Kennedy's No Child Left Behind Act, the Medicare expansion (largest increase EVER of a government program), his willingness to sell out the nation to illegal aliens, and complete wimpiness when it comes to getting district court and appeals judges appointed to some vital places.
So, you want a replay of that when Romney gets in there? Giuliani or Thompson (although IU liked Huckabee's performance even though he's way wrong on some issues). That's the only way out. Romney would be a disaster - and whats worse he'd probably lose to Hildabeeste,
Russia is not allowing China to re-export its RD-93 engines for Chinese-made fighters to Pakistan, an Indian newspaper said Monday on its website.
Beijing concluded a contract with Moscow in 1992 for supplies of a 100 RD-93 engines with options for another 400 to equip its JF-17 Thunder fighters, jointly developed with Pakistan.
Pakistan has announced that it could procure 150-300 aircraft to meet the tactical and strategic needs of its Air Force, but India, concerned over Islamabad's growing military potential, has asked Russia, its close ally, to "freeze" the deal, the Indian Express daily said.
Russia, whose military cooperation with India has been bogged down by a number of sensitive issues, such as a delay in the overhaul of the Gorshkov aircraft carrier and a price escalation with the Su-30 MKI contract, informed China last year that re-exporting RD-93 engines was not allowed without Moscow's permission.
However, Beijing went ahead and delivered two RD-93 equipped JF-17 fighters to Pakistan in March 2007 prompting India to protest the deal as a violation of the end-user agreement between Russia and China.
The Indian Express said the two fighters had since been returned to China following Russian pressure, and Moscow would officially inform India of its decision to prohibit Beijing from re-exporting RD-93 engines during high-level defense talks in late August, when India's National Security Advisor M K Narayanan arrives in Russia for a visit.
Pakistan is supposed to start its own serial production of JF-17 fighters in 2008.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/13/2007 08:16 ||
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#1
China has the option to build these engines themselves but then the quality couldn't be guaranteed could it?
#2
China bought the RD-93 and the AL-31 engines because they can't build the equivalent themselves.
The Russians have refused "deep" technology transfer and sell the Chinese CKD engines. In contrast, India got full tech transfer.
Of course, the Indians actually obey contract license agreements, unlike the Chinese.
And they represent no military or demographic threat to Russia.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/13/2007 14:26 Comments ||
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#3
In the end, the 'Dragon's' hegemony will trump the 'Bear's' territorial Cold War antics; and this time I hope the 'Eagle' won't 'come a callin' such as was done during WWII to split the German's fronts for them!
#4
smn, China does not have to do anything but wait it out and in some 45 years they would take over Sibiria by default--there won'tbe anyone there, except indigenous Evenks and other tribes. Of course, there is one problem--what to do with the excess of males in the meanwile.
NEW DELHI - A landmark civilian nuclear deal between India and the United States will face dissent in the US Congress but will ultimately be approved, an influential senator said on Sunday. The pact, finalised last month, will be closely scrutinised for allowing India to reprocess used nuclear fuel, for the impact of any future nuclear test by India on the deal and for New Delhis relations with Iran, Senator Joe Lieberman said.
There will be debate, there will be some dissent, Lieberman told reporters. In the end, it will be accepted and endorsed by strong majority in both houses of Congress because it is so clearly in the interests of the United States. Its a good agreement, its a honourable agreement, said the independent lawmaker from Connecticut, the 2000 Democratic vice-presidential nominee known to be close to the White House.
The framework deal was approved by the US Congress last December, but the detailed pact that governs nuclear trade between the two has to get Congress backing, and only after India secures other international nuclear approvals.
Lieberman, who is a senior member of several Congressional committees, said he expected the pact to come up for legislative approval before the end of 2007.
Although the pact does not mention Indias relations with its old friend Iran, these would loom large over Congress due to the fanaticism of the regime in Tehran, its direct threats to Washington and its support for anti-American forces in Iraq, Lieberman said. No one can reasonably or fairly ask India to disengage from Iran, no matter how negatively we feel about the government, because some of our close allies in Europe and Asia, including Japan, have diplomatic relations with Iran, he said. But the question is ... to be certain that India, in its commercial relations with Iran, does not fall on the wrong side of any of the US sanctions legislations against Iran.
(AKI) - Muslims leaders in India on Friday condemned the attack on the exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen. The controversial feminist writer was assaulted at a book launch in Hyderabad on Thursday. Noted lyricists and author Javed Akhtar described the incident as "outrageous and shameful".
"In a civilised society, you have a right to approve or disapprove of anything," he was quoted by the Press Trust of India (PTI). Akhtar said that the fundamentalists were becoming "bolder and bolder by the day".
On Thursday lawmakers and members of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen party are reported to have attacked the author at the Hyderabad press club at the launch of a Telugu translation of one of her novels. In the assault the author is said to have been backed into a corner as people threw things at her. Nasreen described the attack as barbaric.
Many Muslims have accused the author of ridiculing Islam in her writing and she was forced to leave Bangladesh in 1994 after her writing led to calls for her execution. For the past two years she has lived in Calcutta and has applied for Indian citizenship. Critics say that she called for the Koran to be changed to give women more rights, however she denied that she ever made such a statement.
Delhi Minorities Commission chairperson Kamal Farooqui also condemned Thursday's assault particularly because three lawmakers were involved. However he also said that the government should ensure that Nasreen was not allowed to do anything that would hurt the sensibilities of Muslims. "The government should immediately cancel her visa and make her go out of the country," he was quoted as saying in the PTI report. "She should realise that this is not Bangladesh or Pakistan, but India where the sentiments of all communities are respected".
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
So the attack was bad, but the victim should be exiled,first? Then executed?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/13/2007 11:13 Comments ||
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#2
"... where the sentiments of all communities are respected".
Except for those communitites we don't like. They have to be kicked out.
Emergency could not be declared in Pakistan after US Foreign Secretary Condoleezza Rice phoned President Musharraf, said Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri on Sunday, reported ARY television.
Addressing a public meeting in Kasur, the foreign minister said Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh would visit Pakistan after general elections and hoped there would be progress on the Kashmir issue.
APP adds: He said no one could dare to dictate Pakistan because Pakistan is a sovereign country. "Pakistan is a nuclear power and a sovereign nation and nobody can dictate to us, nor we will accept dictation." The foreign minister said Pakistan would further develop ties with the US on an equal basis. "Owing to its successful foreign policy, Islamabad has cordial relations with all superpowers including China, Saudi Arabia and European Union on an equal basis," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
China, Saudi Arabia and the EU are Superpowers?
Meretz Chairman Yossi Beilin sharply criticized the state budget, approved on Sunday by the cabinet, Israel Radio reported Monday.
"The combination of Kadima, Labor and the Pensioners' party [GIL] gave birth to a piggish capitalism which could easily compete with the capitalism of the [Likud leader and former prime minister Binyamin] Netanyahu years," Beilin said. If Yossi dislikes it, it must be good
It's the Color out of space!
SCIENTISTS have discovered that inorganic material can take on the characteristics of living organisms in space, a development that could transform views of alien life.
An international panel from the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Max Planck institute in Germany and the University of Sydney found that galactic dust could form spontaneously into helixes and double helixes and that the inorganic creations had memory and the power to reproduce themselves.
A similar rethinking of prospective alien life is being undertaken by the National Research Council, an advisory body to the US government. It says Nasa should start a search for what it describes as weird life - organisms that lack DNA or other molecules found in life on Earth.
The new research, to be published this week in the New Journal of Physics, found nonorganic dust, when held in the form of plasma in zero gravity, formed the helical structures found in DNA. The particles are held together by electromagnetic forces that the scientists say could contain a code comparable to the genetic information held in organic matter. It appeared that this code could be transferred to the next generation.
Professor Greg Morfill, of the Max Planck institute of extra-terrestrial physics, said: Going by our current narrow definitions of what life is, it qualifies.
The question now is to see if it can evolve to become intelligent. Its a little bit like science fiction at the moment. The potential level of complexity we are looking at is of an amoeba or a plant.
I do not believe that the systems we are talking about are life as we know it. We need to define the criteria for what we think of as life much more clearly.
It may be that science is starting to study territory already explored by science fiction. The television series The X-Files, for example, has featured life in the form of a silicon-based parasitic spore.
The Max Planck experiments were conducted in zero gravity conditions in Germany and on the International Space Station 200 miles above earth. The findings have provoked speculation that the helix could be a common structure that underpins all life, organic and nonorganic.
#9
If it is discovered that under certain conditions molecules which previously were thought to only form within living organisms can spontaneously come into existence, organized religions might have to update their creation mythos to incorporate the finding.
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.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Karl Rove, President Bush's close friend and chief political strategist, plans to leave the White House at the end of August, 
NEW DELHI - A landmark civilian nuclear deal between India and the United States will face dissent in the US Congress but will ultimately be approved, an influential senator said on Sunday. The pact, finalised last month, will be closely scrutinised for allowing India to reprocess used nuclear fuel, for the impact of any future nuclear test by India on the deal and for New Delhis relations with Iran, Senator Joe Lieberman said.
Delhi Minorities Commission chairperson Kamal Farooqui also condemned Thursday's assault particularly because three lawmakers were involved. However he also said that the government should ensure that Nasreen was not allowed to do anything that would hurt the sensibilities of Muslims. "The government should immediately cancel her visa and make her go out of the country," he was quoted as saying in the PTI report. "She should realise that this is not Bangladesh or Pakistan, but India where the sentiments of all communities are respected".
