The main rebel leader in eastern Congo said Friday he had withdrawn from a committee set up to monitor a fragile cease-fire deal signed last month, sparking fears that a new wave of violence could sweep the region. In a statement, rebel warlord Laurent Nkunda accused the UN peacekeeping force helping monitor the accord of bias after U.N. investigators accused rebels of massacring 30 civilians in the eastern village of Kalonge in North Kivu around the same time as peace talks were being held in January. Rebels denied their fighters carried out the massacre.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2008 00:00 ||
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"Hey mister, you can't just get up and leave! There must be a motion to adjourn and it must be seconded with a 2/3 approval or if not majority and approval by all comittee officers, then entered into the minutes..."
Rebels signed a deal Friday with the Uganda government on major steps to end a brutal 20-year insurgency - a step forward in ongoing peace talks that have progressed in fits and starts for more than a year.
The deal came after mediators spent much of the morning trying to convince the rebels to return to the table after they stormed out Thursday.
"We hope this time they will discuss with the government team until the talks come to a conclusion," Ugandan negotiator Chris Magezi said. The agreement signed Friday sets forth actions the government will take to rehabilitate areas torn apart by the conflict, ensure government and army representation from those areas and promote economic development.
The two sides have been meeting in Sudan-mediated peace talks since July 2006 in an effort to resolve two decades of insurgency in northern Uganda.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2008 00:00 ||
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As many as 10,000 people were converging on a town in southern Zimbabwe for President Robert Mugabe's 84th birthday celebrations, state radio reported Friday. Many were traveling free on stolen commandeered buses and trains, it said.
Organizers of Saturday's ceremonies said they raised about 3 trillion Zimbabwe dollars (or the equivalent of about $250,000 at the dominant black market exchange rate) for the bash amid chronic shortages of hard currency, gasoline, food and most basic goods.
Mugabe, meanwhile, in a television broadcast marking his birthday on Thursday, described former ruling party loyalist Simba Makoni, 57, as a prostitute whose bid to challenge him in presidential elections March 29 was "absolutely disgraceful."
In his first comments since announcing he would step down as Cubas president after almost 50 years, Fidel Castro lashed out Friday at US presidential hopefuls calls for change here, saying the only change needed is in the United States.
In his fifty page column Reflections of Comrade Fidel in the Communist Party newspaper Granma, the ailing Castro, 81, zeroed in on the international reaction, particularly by his US adversary, to his announcement Tuesday of his official departure from Cubas helm. Castro was sidelined 19 months ago after major intestinal surgery, and handed power temporarily to his brother, interim president Raul Castro, 76.
US President George W Bush said my message was the beginning of the road to freedom in Cuba, in other words, to annexion by the United States, Castro wrote. The United States occupied Cuba in the early 20th century and refuses to abandon its controversial base at Guantanamo, on Cubas southeastern tip. That gives Havana plenty of political currency with which to warn almost daily that a US occupation or annexation effort could come at any time.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2008 00:00 ||
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CNN > WOLF BLITZER + FRANK SESNO > despite anti-US rhetoric to the contrary, CUBA remains heavily dependent on the USA for economic trade, and is anticipated to stay same no matter whom succeeds Fidel.
OTOH, A POTUS OBAMA > has claimed will meet wid FIDEL [or successor] WITHOUT ANY PRECONDITIONS, BUT WILL NOT FORMALLY NORMALIZE RELATIONS WID CUBA WIDOUT OVERT EVIDENCE OF PRO-DEMOCRATIC POPULAR REFORMS - DITTO FOR MOUD.
#2
ALso on CNN, FIDEL > still claims that the USA desires to formally ANNEX CUBA. BLITZER, etc say Castro's post-retirement rants show he does not intend to retire quietly.
#6
Careful what you wish for Fidel. We've changed a lot in the last 50 years. Cuba's still the same rathole it was within 1 year of your takeover. Cuba's the place that will change, just like Spain changed after Franco died. (Is he still dead? How long will they ask if Fidel is still dead?) You won't like the changes coming, but the Cuban people will. And you'll still be dead. You wasted your life and brought much human misery to the planet.
#7
Well, since you took 'office' in the 60s, we've had a lot of change. In Cuba, not so much, but that is a fundamental aspect of stasis socialism. What we call 'poor' here was actually 'middle class' in the 60s. Human progress and achievement occur in chaos, the key is to be able to ride that beast without straggling it. Your model not only throttles it, it literally chokes it to death. The Chinese are figuring that it today. You and Kimmie, never.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/23/2008 10:58 Comments ||
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#9
Saw Fidel on TV today, no idea if it's an old tape or not, but he's filled out a bit, cheeks not hollow, somewhat less of a "Walking Dead" look.
Still can't wait until the Cubans in Miami get to celebrate "El Morte".
That ought to put Mardi Gras to shame.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/23/2008 12:50 Comments ||
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#11
The US should remove sanctions and travel restrictions. The free flow of cash and info would cause Cuba's government to lose control and force Raul to shut the door himself denying the dictatorship even the figleaf of an excuse for continued failure.
China has built a domestic copy of the famed Su-27 Flanker fighter and may compete with Russia on third-party markets if it sets up the full-scale production of the plane, a Russian daily said on Thursday. China has acquired 76 Su-27SK fighters from Russia since 1992, and bought a license for production of another 200 planes in 1995, in a deal worth $2.5 billion.
"Since 1996, the domestic version of the Su-27 aircraft, dubbed J-11, has been produced at the Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (SAC) with the use of Russian components," the Vedomosti newspaper said.
The licensed production of the Su-27 has given China its most capable fighter aircraft while also providing a vehicle for its industry to gain knowledge of third-generation fighter manufacturing, Vedomosti said. About 95 aircraft had been produced in China by 2003. However, the 1995 agreement did not include the transfer of avionics and AL-31F turbofan engine technology, and the Chinese manufacturers had to rely on the Russian supply of these systems.
In 2004, China requested that Russia's Sukhoi aircraft manufacturer stop deliveries of the assembly kits, stating that the basic variant of the Su-27SK/J-11 fighter could no longer satisfy Chinese Air Force requirements.
But the Russian sources insist that China's decision was prompted by an increased share of domestic components in the assembly of the licensed aircraft and breakthroughs in engine manufacturing technology. "The breakthrough in engine manufacturing technology allowed China to increase its share of domestically developed components and technologies from 70-75% to over 90%," the newspaper cited an official from the Russian state-controlled arms exporter, Rosoboronexport, as saying.
In 2006, China revealed first official details about the domestically developed WS-10A Tai Hang turbofan engine, similar to the Russian AL-31F engine in both technology and performance. China announced that the engine had been successfully tested on a modified Su-27K fighter, but Russian experts believe it is not reliable enough to start the full-scale production of the aircraft.
Rosoboronexport and Chinese officials refused to comment on the latest developments in the situation regarding the licensed production of Su-27s in China.
Meanwhile, Konstantin Makiyenko from the Russian Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, believes that if China manages to launch a full-scale production of the indigenous copy of the Su-27, it would easily push Russia from third-party markets, and it would be difficult to prove a violation of the license agreement. Su-27 Flanker an its variant, Su-30 Flanker C, constitute the bulk of Russia's arms exports. Last year, Sukhoi exported 50 of these aircraft, accounting for 50% of Rosoboronexport's export revenues, Vedomosti said.
The newspaper also noted that China had a long history of copying Russian aircraft. Chinese J-6 and J-7 fighters were modeled after MiG-19 Farmer and MiG-21 Fishbed, H-6 bomber - after Tu-16 Badger, and Y-5, Y-7 and Y-8 transport planes - after An-2 Colt, An-24 Coke and An-12 Cub, respectively.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/23/2008 11:51 ||
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no honor among thieves, huh?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/23/2008 12:20 Comments ||
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They copy the engines too?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/23/2008 12:52 Comments ||
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Russia didn't provide them with Tech Transfer for the Al-31 engines. Complete engines are shiiped in from Russia. By contrast, the Indian contract specifies local manufacture of the engines.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/23/2008 13:00 Comments ||
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#4
The latest victim of IP theft and copying. The potential buyers of these fighters will get screwed, though...substandard components and quality fade is my bet.
#6
Bet there are few if any buyers.
Lousy sales pitch,
"Here's your aircraft, you can buy an engine for it in Russia" just will not fly.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/23/2008 18:25 Comments ||
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#7
I think I would rather go up against the Tigers in a crop duster than against gravity in a Chinese knock-off Flanker. Fine Chinese export craftsmanship along with who knows how much lead. Don't be putting one in your mouth is all I'm saying!
European diplomats demanded Friday that Serbia provide better protection for Western embassies, warning that further talks on ties between Belgrade and the European Union could not take place unless violence subsided.
One person died and more than 150 people were injured in unrest in central Belgrade on Thursday night during which opponents of Kosovo's independence set fire to the U.S. Embassy and attacked those belonging to Britain, Germany, Croatia, Belgium and Turkey.
On Friday, the State Department ordered all nonessential diplomats and the families of all American staff at the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade to leave Serbia after the attack on the embassy.
In the ethnically divided Kosovo city of Mitrovica, long a flash point for violence between ethnic Albanians and Serbs, 5,000 Serb demonstrators Friday confronted United Nations police officers guarding a bridge leading to the Albanian side of the town. The police said no one was injured.
The Serb demonstrators waved Serbian flags, threw stones, glass bottles and firecrackers and chanted "Kosovo is ours!" in the fifth day of demonstrations since Kosovo declared independence. Earlier in the week a group of Serbs, some wearing ski masks, torched two UN border posts in northern Kosovo in what appeared to be an attempt to undermine the UN administration and try to force partition of the territory.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Serbia to EU - come down here and make us.
US out of there, embassy and all..let the EU deal with its European problem (screw you Willy J president clinton). No excuses about not being able to get there bs. Go on big pants, stop your compadres from fighting in the back yard. Better get in there before you really get embarassed in front of your UN lovers.
#2
Yes, the brave defenders of Europe against the Muzzie Scourge(tm) at work. Guess they couldn't make Mardi Gras in N.O. to join the locals Katrina style.
A CHARRED body was found in the US Embassy in Belgrade after protesters smashed their way into the building in anger at Kosovo's independence and set the building on fire.
The British Embassy also came under attack as riots swept the Serbian capital but staff were said to be unharmed. Belgian, Croatian and Turkish missions were also attacked. Both the UK and the US have recognised Kosovo after it declared independence from Serbia earlier this week.
Last night officials in the US said all American personnel at the embassy had been accounted for and there was nothing to suggest the body was an embassy employee. But it was unclear if staff who were not US citizens were accounted for.
William Wanland, a spokesman for the embassy, said the body appeared to have been a protester. About 1,000 protesters attacked the US compound, which was closed at the time, just after 7pm, throwing flares through the window while others scaled walls to rip down the US flag. Masked attackers broke into and tried to throw furniture from an office. They set fire to the office and flames shot up the side of the building. The blaze raged for half an hour, and when firemen finally managed to get inside the building they found a charred body.
It appeared police were not protecting the embassy, but riot police later intervened, firing tear gas. Businesses and restaurants in the city were also attacked and up to 100 people were injured.
The violence followed a peaceful demonstration earlier by at least 150,000 people outside the main parliament building. At the rally the ultra-nationalist leader Tomislav Nikolic accused the US and EU of trying to steal Kosovo: "Hitler could not take it away from us, and neither will today's (Western powers]." Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica had earlier delivered an impassioned speech condemning the territory's secession. "As long as we live, Kosovo is Serbia. Kosovo belongs to the Serbian people," he told the flag-waving crowd.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
With luck, one of the "Leaders".
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/23/2008 13:00 Comments ||
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One of the organizers of the Embassy barbeque winds up being the main course.
A WOMAN alleged to have murdered prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp during the Second World War has died aged 86. Erna Wallisch died in hospital on Saturday, a month after Austria reopened an investigation into her past that had been dropped in 1973 for lack of evidence.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2008 00:00 ||
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Being a German hostage just got more expensive. A Berlin court has ruled that the government can force victims to pay for the expenses incurred in rescuing them. Huegun Etxeberria of Spain and Reinhilt Weigel of Germany were rescued after 10 weeks' captivity in the Colombian jungle in 2003. Now Weigel will have to cough up the cash for her rescue.
No person in their right mind aspires to be taken hostage, but now there's even more reason to avoid the experience. According to a court ruling reached on Thursday in Berlin, Germans who are taken hostage abroad can now be required to cover the costs incurred by their release.
The ruling of the Berlin-Brandenburg Higher Administrative Court is based on the case of Reinhilt Weigel. On Sept. 12, 2003, the Bremen physiotherapist, together with six other tourists, was kidnapped by leftist rebels while visiting the ruined ancient city of Ciudad Perdida in northern Colombia. After 10 weeks in captivity, she and Spanish fellow hostage Huegun Etxeberria were rescued by helicopter from a jungle hide-out. But there was an unexpected postscript to the story two months after Weigel's return home, when the German Foreign Ministry asked her to pay 12,640 ($18,735) for the helicopter flight.
I'll just note here that the charge was for transport and not ransom, and that this case didn't involve Talibs or Sadrists...
Weigel found the sum excessive and took legal action against the government's demand. In the first instance, the administrative court decided in Weigel's favour. But the German government then appealed that ruling -- and won.
In its ruling Thursday, the court deemed that, according to consular law, the Foreign Ministry had the right to demand compensation for expenses incurred in a rescue. Consular law states that Germans who require assistance abroad must be granted it by the state if no other means of help are available. However the recipient is required to later repay the expenses incurred.
A related issue of ongoing concern in government circles is that of ransom payments. Given the steady rise in their cost and the fact that these payments often land in the pockets of terrorists, some security experts question the wisdom of making them at all.
#1
Since some of the SCOTUS bench warmers are keen on incorporating international law, this may be a good opportunity to stick those righteous individuals who put themselves and this country into jeopardy by going into dangerous situations because its "Their Right"(tm) only to then have them or their family whine and cry for rescue.
For many black Americans, it's a conversation they find hard to avoid, revisiting old fears in the light of bright new hopes.
They watch with wonder as Barack Obama moves ever closer to becoming America's first black president. And they ask themselves, their family, their friends: Is he at risk? Will he be safe? And how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?
There is, of course, no sure answer. But interviews with blacks across the country, prominent and otherwise, suggest that lingering worries are outweighed by enthusiasm and determination.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Let's just go by the national crime stats. Likelihood of Obama being accosted by an angry racist knuckle dragging pickup driving moonpie chewing cracker? Likelihood of Obama being done in by a bro from the 'hood? If you're worried about your safety, do the math not the hype. Remember Malcolm.
#2
Nice job of race baiting. But since blacks commit more than half the the murders in the US, seems O'bama best be looking out for the brothers who skipped bag check.
Posted by: ed ||
02/23/2008 15:39 Comments ||
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#3
Yeah, I'm sure Obama and Michelle are just in terribly dire danger of suffering the same fate as Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom.
The face of violent crime in America is black, as should be expected when 13% of the population commits more than half of the violent crime. Rather than worrying about Obama being taken out by some white, blacks should be looking in the mirror because the problem--and the solution--is there. Until blacks stop being grossly overrepresented in the nation's criminal statistics, there will be racial prejudice. It's that simple.
#5
Importantly, while the (often Hillary supporting) black "leadership" strongly try to imply that Obama might be killed by a "redneck Klansman type", if you suggest to the *typical* black person that the Clintons are the prime suspects in wanting Obama dead, you get an interesting response.
It is a denial that stops halfway out of their mouth. They then get thoughtful for a second, before wanting to change the subject.
In other words, they are scared of the Clintons.
After all those years of poo-pooing the Clinton death lists and suggestions of the liberal use of violent crime against their enemies, suddenly the shoe is on the other foot.
And suddenly they realize that Bill and Hillary are as ruthless as any Roman emperor ever was.
Barack Obama does have to worry about getting popped. Every presidential candidate does. There are plenty of crazies. And Barack being black, no doubt there's some crazy maroon out there who's convinced he'll be a 'hero' if he can just take the man down.
It's a legitimate concern. This isn't about ordinary violent crime, this is about a nutter getting too close.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/23/2008 19:36 Comments ||
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#7
Bring in the Bow-tie NOI Boyz. Too many crackers in the Secret Service
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/23/2008 19:38 Comments ||
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#8
The "SS" WOULD NOT have authorized or waved 17,000 people through to get to a Bush event! There's nothing wrong with the premise of the "SS" in assuming the popularity of Obama now far exceeds that of "W". The protective coverage of Obama should have been increased, bottomline!! I hope Obama's coverage isn't kept smaller than Bush's just to keep from embarrassing the Pres!!
#10
I should think a knuckledragging racist might welcome the Presidency of an unexperienced African American in a time of multiple crisis. The potential of failure of Jimmy Carter proportions could ensure another African American isn't given a shot for another century.
Johnny Mac offers Barack Obama a free taste of what's coming this fall, and he gets a shot in at Fidel. This is a two-fer.
Presumptive Republican nominee John McCain Friday said he hoped Fidel Castro's resignation would be followed by his speedy demise, and rapped Democrat Barack Obama for offering talks with Cuba's next leader. "Fidel Castro announced that he would not remain as president -- whatever that means," McCain said in Indianapolis. "And I hope that he has the opportunity to meet Karl Marx very soon.
"But the point is, the point is that apparently he's trying to groom his brother Raul. My friends, Raul is worse in many respects than Fidel was."
In a formal written statement, McCain also took a shot at Obama, the Democratic front-runner who renewed his offer to speak to leaders of US foes without preconditions in a campaign debate with rival Hillary Clinton in Texas. "So Raul Castro gets an audience with an American president, and all the prestige such a meeting confers, without having to release political prisoners, allow free media, political parties, and labor unions, or schedule internationally monitored free elections," McCain said.
"Senator Obama says he would meet Cuba's dictator without any such steps in the hope that talk will make things better for Cuba's oppressed people.
"Meet, talk, and hope may be a sound approach in a state legislature, but it is dangerously naive in international diplomacy where the oppressed look to America for hope and adversaries wish us ill."
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/23/2008 01:02 ||
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A teeny-tiny good start for Mav. This sort of "attack" (I love how a substantive and well-founded criticism of someone's statements or ideas is now called an "attack") will need to become MUCH more vituperative and some way will be needed to get it past the media filters.
With the mood of her campaign darkened by the death of a motorcycle officer escorting her motorcade Friday, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton vowed to carry on her campaign despite reflective remarks in a debate Thursday night that some people took as a valedictory to her long effort to win the Democratic presidential nomination.
In television interviews and at two voter rallies here in Texas, Mrs. Clinton returned to the theme of her closing remarks at the debate with Senator Barack Obama on Thursday night. In those remarks, Mrs. Clinton said that, whatever happens in the election contest, she and Mr. Obama would prosper.
Aides insisted the remark was not an admission that she believed she would lose the race but rather an attempt to refocus the campaign from the drama of the two compelling and historic candidates battling for the nomination to the struggles of ordinary voters. You know I made it very clear that this election is about all of you, she said at a morning rally on a chilly street corner in Dallas Friday morning. Its about your futures, your families, your jobs.
For me, she added a moment later, it really is about what we can do together.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2008 00:00 ||
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VARIOUS NETTERS > either a POTUS OBAMA will be a harbinger of positive change and renewed idealism in America; or else will prove to be a BLACK JIMMY CARTER = "PEACE IN OUR TIME" CHAMBERLAIN???
#3
I can only hope this stings as badly as possible for both of the Clintons. Rejected and spurned in their lying power-grasping ambitions by their party. Gonna need extra blankets on that marital bed - frigid just became Siberia
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/23/2008 11:27 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.
The main rebel leader in eastern Congo said Friday he had withdrawn from a committee set up to monitor a fragile cease-fire deal signed last month, sparking fears that a new wave of violence could sweep the region. In a statement, rebel warlord Laurent Nkunda accused the UN peacekeeping force helping monitor the accord of bias after U.N. investigators accused rebels of massacring 30 civilians in the eastern village of Kalonge in North Kivu around the same time as peace talks were being held in January. Rebels denied their fighters carried out the massacre.
In his first comments since announcing he would step down as Cubas president after almost 50 years, Fidel Castro lashed out Friday at US presidential hopefuls calls for change here, saying the only change needed is in the United States.
A CHARRED body was found in the US Embassy in Belgrade after protesters smashed their way into the building in anger at Kosovo's independence and set the building on fire.
A WOMAN alleged to have murdered prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp during the Second World War has died aged 86. Erna Wallisch died in hospital on Saturday, a month after Austria reopened an investigation into her past that had been dropped in 1973 for lack of evidence.
With the mood of her campaign darkened by the death of a motorcycle officer escorting her motorcade Friday, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton vowed to carry on her campaign despite reflective remarks in a debate Thursday night that some people took as a valedictory to her long effort to win the Democratic presidential nomination. 
