A woman from Russia's Siberian region of Irkutsk has been arrested for killing a friend and then eating part of the corpse, Interfax news agency reported, quoting local investigators.
The incident occurred on March 5 when the two women were drinking together at the suspect's home and an argument broke out between them.
"Investigators have information to suggest the woman cooked pieces of her murdered friend and ate them," said an official with the Russian prosecutor's investigative committee, Vladimir Salovarov. He added that the perpetrator killed her friend with an axe and that uneaten parts of the victim's body had been found in a nearby waste bin.
The detained woman had confessed her guilt, Salovarov said.
In a separate case, prosecutors in Russia's Udmurtiya region said last week they were searching for a man suspected of cannibalism after the mutilated body of a woman was found in the town of Izhevsk, according to the prosecutor's website. No word on whether fava beans and a fine Chianti was also consumed at the meal.
At least eight people have been arrested in Burundi in connection with a trade in human body parts from people with albinism. Those detained had fresh body parts in their possession, police say. Witchdoctors in the region tell clients that potions made with albino body parts will bring them luck in love, life and business. Doesn't seem to be working out that way for the albinos...
At least 10 albino people have been killed in Burundi in recent months and more than 40 in neighbouring Tanzania. Prosecutor Nicodeme Gahimbare told the AFP new agency that those arrested were "simple farmers" acting as middlemen. "They had albino bones with them, some of them still fresh," he said. Eww...
Mr Gahimbare said that three members of the gang had escaped into Tanzania but he said he was confident that the whole network could be dismantled within days.
Kazungu Kassim, the head of a Burundi albino association, said the authorities were now taking the killing of albinos seriously but more needed to be done. "We urge the government to double efforts in protecting albinos, because what we are witnessing here is a planned extermination of the albino community," he said. Think you could kinda pickup the pace? We'd appreciate it...
At least 200 people have been arrested over the trade in Tanzania but none have been convicted, raising fears that senior officials could be involved.
An Iraqi football player has been shot dead by a spectator as he was about to score an equalising goal.
The shooting happened in the last minute of a game between two local rivals on Sunday, police say. The striker was shot in the head during the match in the city of Hilla, according to local security officials.
The game was being played between Sinjar and Buhayra. The suspected killer has been arrested as police carry out an investigation.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2009 00:00 ||
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We used to pay for a sniper to overwatch from the Doak cheep seats back when swing passes were all the rage. he didn't aim at the other team tho.
A 73-year-old Austrian man who fathered seven children with a daughter he imprisoned in a cellar for 24 years goes on trial on Monday for the murder of a newborn boy who died underground.
#2
Mistakes are bound to happen in any population numbering in the millions (even more so when many of the employees are not of the highest dedication and intellect, even for government workers.)
But, was it REALLY a mistake? Or did someone use the system for enforcement of payback?
Actor and longtime political activist Ron Silver died this morning, succumbing to a long battle with cancer, friends of the liberal Democrat-turned-GOP stalwart told The Post.
"Ron Silver died peacefully in his sleep with his family around him this morning," said Robin Bronk, executive director of the Creative Coalition, which Silver helped create. "He had been fighting esophageal cancer for two years and his family is making arrangements for a private service."
The steely-eyed, blunt-talking Silver, 62, enjoyed a long career on the stage, TV and in movies, and most recently hosted a public affairs talk show on Sirius satellite radio. Once a self-identified lifelong Democrat, Silver was a founding member of the liberal-leaning Creative Coalition in 1989. But he made a breathtaking political transformation, going from far left to radical right after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
He spoke at the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York, enthusiastically backing a second term for President Bush. "Twelve years ago I was here for the Democratic convention. I was on the platform committee. Zell Miller was the keynote speaker. A lot's changed since then, I can tell you," a chuckling Silver told The Washington Post.
"If you asked me on September 10, 2001, would I consider going to the Republican National Convention and speaking, I would have thought you were from another planet and didn't know who I was."
He had a great, occasional blog at PJ Media. It's gone now (or at least I can't find it) but he had some interesting insights. Rest in peace, sir.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/16/2009 00:00 ||
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RIP: I've been wondering where he's been...he was a bright spot amongst the many dim-wits in Hollyweird.
#3
But he made a breathtaking political transformation, going from far left to radical right after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
I guess he became "radical right" by seeing the enemy for what it is. The few times I saw him on TV outside of his performances, he was a thoughtful, incisive man. If he had transitioned from center-right to crazed lefty, his obits would saw he "grew."
Instead his thinking matured following 9/11 (actually during the Clinton admin), and he's charactized as "radical right."
Posted by: regular joe ||
03/16/2009 10:01 Comments ||
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RIP Ron.
Check out Roger Simon about Ron. They were two of a kind in their political trajectories. Roger is now CEO of PJM.
#5
My reactionary former colleagues and friends were quite content with the status quo with Saddam in power in a post 9/11 world. I was not. Revolutionary, not reactionary. My friends sound a bit racist when they insist on Arab-Muslim incapacities to expand freedoms and maintain their faith. I believe the Arab world will work its way to achieve this. I know that it will most likely come about through internal Arab-Muslim struggles and not via external pressures, but I believe we are uniquely capable of helping it along. Uniquely, because our Founding scriptures declare, all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights. Revolutionary, not reactionary.
...
So allow me to try to name, provide a reason and a justification for our fears.
International Affairs 101 looks at intentions and capabilities. If my five-year-old son declares the United States his enemy and he intends to destroy it, call me crazy but I take it with a grain of salt. (Although I will monitor more closely what hes watching on TV and check the parental controls on the computer.) If a group of people have the same intention as my son but they may represent the feelings of hundreds of thousands or more likely millions upon millions of people I take the threat more seriously. And when these folks have successfully attacked our military, our diplomats, and our cities and civilian population, well yeah, I take them at their word. Perhaps I didnt when they officially declared war on us more than 10 years ago, but theyve certainly got my attention now.
IN an eye-catching effort to brighten its image, Russia's nuclear power industry has encouraged hundreds of female employees to compete for the title of Miss Atom. Third-placed Alyona Kirsanova, 22, posted photos of herself in a black bikini against a backdrop of giant cooling towers. The women, dubbed "Russia's nuclear bombshells", were competing for the prize of an all-expenses-paid holiday in Cuba. The winner was Ekaterina Bulgakova, 25.
Mexico's National Human Rights Commission says that followers of the youth music and fashion trend known as "emo" have suffered discrimination and violence, and recommends sensitivity training to prevent it.
#2
first they came for the hyper-sensitive whiners, and I didn't care because I wasn't a hyper-sensitive whiner....
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/16/2009 8:00 Comments ||
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....then they came for the reality-show watchers, but I don't watch reality shows, so I did nothing.
....then they came for the sniveling NPR listeners, but I wasn't an NPR listener, so I did nothing.
....then they came for the status-crazed yuppies but I wasn't a yuppie, so I did nothing.
....then they came for the NASCAR fans, but I wasn't a NASCAR fan, so I did nothing.
....then they came for the dead-heads, but I wasn't a dead-head so I did nothing.
....then they came for the gun-nut veterans, and that's when I shot them.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/16/2009 9:41 Comments ||
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Wasn't there an article over that in Rb quite some time ago already? IIRC, they're getting being targeted by mexican rockabillies (who probably are EVEN more greasy, swarthy and lanky than the US ones ever used to be) for musical reasons, and by the younger male population at large, for being too "feminized" in a macho culture.
MILWAUKEE -- The bitter cold and record snowfalls from two wicked winters are causing people to ask if the global climate is truly changing. The climate is known to be variable and, in recent years, more scientific thought and research has been focused on the global temperature and how humanity might be influencing it.
However, a new study by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee could turn the climate change world upside down. Scientists at the university used a math application known as synchronized chaos and applied it to climate data taken over the past 100 years.
"Imagine that you have four synchronized swimmers and they are not holding hands and they do their program and everything is fine; now, if they begin to hold hands and hold hands tightly, most likely a slight error will destroy the synchronization. Well, we applied the same analogy to climate," researcher Dr. Anastasios Tsonis said.
Scientists said that the air and ocean systems of the earth are now showing signs of synchronizing with each other. Eventually, the systems begin to couple and the synchronous state is destroyed, leading to a climate shift.
"In climate, when this happens, the climate state changes. You go from a cooling regime to a warming regime or a warming regime to a cooling regime. This way we were able to explain all the fluctuations in the global temperature trend in the past century," Tsonis said. "The research team has found the warming trend of the past 30 years has stopped and in fact global temperatures have leveled off since 2001."
The most recent climate shift probably occurred at about the year 2000.
Now the question is how has warming slowed and how much influence does human activity have?
"But if we don't understand what is natural, I don't think we can say much about what the humans are doing. So our interest is to understand -- first the natural variability of climate -- and then take it from there. So we were very excited when we realized a lot of changes in the past century from warmer to cooler and then back to warmer were all natural," Tsonis said.
Tsonis said he thinks the current trend of steady or even cooling earth temps may last a couple of decades or until the next climate shift occurs.
#1
It seems that the "no AGW" crowd was right after all, and all the folly of "carbon caps" and other frauds are just that - frauds. That's especially true of AlGore. Now if only Congress and the President get their act together and IGNORE the climate-catastrophy idiots...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/16/2009 13:40 Comments ||
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Good to see this coming out of one of my state's schools. It had to be from one of the 'satellite campuses', as UW-Madison hierarchy probably wouldn't have let this get published as the findings don't follow their 'conventional wisdom'.
Since it's not from the 'masthead' school, I wonder how much press it will actually get beyond the local media?
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
03/16/2009 14:50 Comments ||
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"NATURAL CLIMATE SHIFT" > read, SOLAR/SUN-CAUSED as many MAJOR NET SCIENCE BLOGS are still repor that Scientists, etc. EXPECT/FORECAST THE SUN TO KEEP GETTING HOTTER AND BRIGHTER OVER [hopefully PROTRACTIVE]TIME.
DEVIL IN THE DETAILS > Sciens pervasive uncertainty over the MAGNITUDE = HOW MUCH SUN-INDUCED, PAN-ENVIRO GLOBAL TEMP CHANGE WILL OCCUR AS THE HUMAN BODY CAN TOLERATE ONLY SO MUCH "EXTREME" HEAT [massive "UFO's"]AND
"EXTREME" COLD ["LOGAN'S RUN" = underground/
enclosed Cities]???
#4
REDDIT > WORLD POPULATION COULD BE DEVASTATED IFF PREDICTED GLOBAL WARMING TEMPERATURE CHANGE OF 9.0 DEGREES OCCURS [aka Earth's normal enviro carrying capacity is 1.0 BILYUHN PEOPLE OR LESS].
Any change in PLANETARY/GLOBAL T-zero above FIVE DEGREES = WE'RE DOOMED.
Kampala After two days of heated debates, the governments of Kenya and Uganda have agreed to a joint boundary survey to solve a dispute over ownership of a tiny island, that is threatening diplomatic ties between the two neighbours.
The survey shall be completed within two months. Officials from the lands, fisheries, agriculture, internal affairs and internal security for Kenya and foreign affairs ministries of the two countries will carry out the work. "There will be an immediate withdrawal of all security forces from the island to create a conducive environment to carry out the joint boundary survey," read the joint communiqué.
The order in council of 1926 and the schedules to the Uganda Constitution of 1995 and the Kenyan Constitution of 1963 will be the primary documents in dealing with the dispute. Officials from both sides expressed optimism that a dispute over the ownership of Migingo Island will be resolved using maps drawn by the two countries' former colonial master, Britain.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/16/2009 00:00 ||
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Madagascar's president said Sunday that he would never resign in response to opposition pressure, setting the stage for prolonged political unrest.
A military spokesman said the army had no plans at this stage to intervene in the power struggle between President Marc Ravalomanana and opposition leader Andry Rajoelina, who proclaimed himself president on Saturday and appointed his own prime minister.
"I will never resign," Ravalomanana told a church service attended by about 5,000 supporters outside his presidential palace. "We have to follow the democratic process," he said, adding that he was ready to hold a referendum on the way forward for his nation of 20 million people.
Several thousand opposition supporters attended another church service in the downtown square that has become the focal point for anti-government demonstrations.
The African Union said it was concerned at escalating tensions in Madagascar, a poor Indian Ocean island known for its rare wildlife but riven by political upheavals. It reiterated appeals to the rivals to find a negotiated solution.
More than 100 people have died in political violence since January.
Ravalomanana has lost the backing of much of the military - mainly because of anger that he ordered soldiers to fire at demonstrators. Ravalomanana's army chief of staff agreed to cede power last week to Andre Ndrianarijaona, who is believed to be sympathetic to the opposition leader but has so far remained out of the political power struggle.
Reacting to Rajoelina's claims that he now controls the military, army spokesman Noel Rakotonandrasana said soldiers would only approach the presidential palace if it was necessary to free roads blocked by pro-presidential supporters. "Our main mission is first and foremost to re-establish order. And for that, we won't take orders from anyone," he told The Associated Press.
The opposition accuses 49-year-old Ravalomanana of abuse of funds and power and of being blind to the crushing poverty of his people. The president says that Rajoelina - a 34 year-old disc jockey who became mayor of the capital - is a rabble rouser and his supporters are of street protesters who don't care about democracy.
Ravalomanana is no stranger to power struggles. He won a six-month battle of nerves in 2001, when the island was divided with two governments, two capitals and two presidents. Eventually his rival - a longtime ruler of Madagascar - went into exile in France. He won elections in 2006, although opposition parties contested the result - and the next elections aren't due till 2011.
A Saudi judge has ordered a woman should be jailed for a year and receive 100 lashes after she was gang-raped, it was claimed last night.
The 23-year-old woman, who became pregnant after her ordeal, was reportedly assaulted after accepting a lift from a man. He took her to a house to the east of the city of Jeddah where she was attacked by him and four of his friends throughout the night. She later discovered she was pregnant and made a desperate attempt to get an abortion at the King Fahd Hospital for Armed Forces.
According to the Saudi Gazette, she eventually 'confessed' to having 'forced intercourse' with her attackers and was brought before a judge at the District Court in Jeddah. He ruled she had committed adultery - despite not even being married - and handed down a year's prison sentence, which she will serve in a prison just outside the city.
She is still pregnant and will be flogged once she has had the child.
The Saudi Arabian legal system practices a strict form of medieval law. Women have very few rights and are not even allowed to drive. They are also banned from going out in public in the company of men other than male relatives.
Got all the way to the end of the article and yup, you guessed it, no mention of what happened to the four perps.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/16/2009 00:00 ||
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I think the judge should be gang raped by a bunch of Irish Wolfhounds.
#5
When she is released from prison we, the US, should give her and her child a perm visa to the US. We need people like her around to put a little reality into some folks. Its hard to discount it when they are looking you in the eye.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/16/2009 18:22 Comments ||
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The NHS is to advertise free operations to reverse female circumcisions, Except the removed bits never grow back
with experts warning that each year more than 500 British girls have their genitals mutilated.
Despite having been outlawed in 1985, female circumcision is still practised in British African communities, in some cases on girls as young as 5. Police have been unable to bring a single prosecution even though they suspect that community elders are being flown from the Horn of Africa to carry out the procedures.
The advertisement will appear from next month on a Somali satellite TV station much viewed in Britain. It features Juliet Albert, a midwife who does the reverse operations, and promises, in English and Somali, confidentiality for victims of female genital mutilation.
The advertisement was expected to help to undermine demand for girls to be circumcised, and to popularise the reversal procedure, Ms Albert said. Thousands of such operations have been carried out at specialist clinics and hospitals around Britain and demand is growing slowly.
Female circumcision, which is done for various reasons, such as religious and cultural traditions, can cause severe health complications including infections and psychological problems. The procedure, predominantly carried out on girls aged between 5 and 12, can range from the removal of the clitoris to the removal of all the exterior parts of the vagina, which is then sewn up.
A study by the Foundation for Women's Health, Research and Development (Forward), estimated that 66,000 women living in England and Wales had been circumcised, most before leaving their country of origin. The government-funded research also found that more than 7,000 girls were at a high risk of being subjected to genital mutilation in Britain.
Posted by: ed ||
03/16/2009 19:11 ||
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President Hugo Chavez deployed the navy to Venezuela's seaports on Sunday, and he said state governors who challenge new legislation bringing transportation hubs under federal control could end up in prison.
Speaking during his weekly television and radio program, Chavez ordered naval vessels to seize control of Port Cabello in Carabobo state and Maracaibo Port in Zulia state two of Venezuela's largest seaports.
Then he singled out the opposition-sided governors of those states Carabobo Gov. Henrique Salas and Zulia Gov. Pablo Perez and told military officers they might decide to flout the newly approved law.
Lawmakers loyal to Chavez voted last week to bring all airports, highways and seaports under federal control, a move government adversaries said was designed to expand the president's power.
Opposition governors warned that the law approved last week by the Chavista-dominated National Assembly is designed to strangle the president's foes financially and to undermine support from constituents who elected them in November.
Under the law, states and municipalities can no longer collect tariffs at transportation hubs or establish tolls along highways, meaning governors and mayors will have less money for local public projects.
#1
The link works if you add an "h" to the ttp:// at the beginning of it. Until the mods fix it you can right click on it, copy it, paste it into your browser's address box and then add the said "h". Interesting article.
TBILISI, Georgia - More than 2,500 demonstrators marched through the Georgian capital on Sunday calling for President Mikhail Saakashvilis resignation. Lawyers, journalists, teachers, doctors and others gathered in downtown Tbilisi to denounce what they called Saakashvilis repressive rule, chanting Saakashvili, go away!
While Georgians rallied around their leader against Russia during last Augusts war, many blame Saakashvili for authoritarian trends and accuse him of botching the war. He lost our territories, Nukri Kantaria, a teacher, said at the rally. If he doesnt leave, we will lose more territories.
Most of Saakashvilis opponents share his pro-Western stance, but some say he has hurt the countrys interests by failing to forge normal relations with Russia.
Hard to have 'normal' relations with a country that wants to gobble you up ...
Georgias opposition parties are preparing to launch a wave of street protests to force Saakashvili out if he doesnt step down voluntarily by April 9. Saakashvili has rejected opposition demands and said he would serve through the end of his term in 2013.
Apparently the concept of accepting the results of an election is a rather .. flexible .. one in these parts of the world ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/16/2009 00:00 ||
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The Bank of China will extend a credit line of 60 billion yuan (8.78 billion dollars) to Aviation Industry Corp. of China, the country's main state-owned aircraft builder, state media said Friday.
Under the agreement signed Friday, the bank pledged to build a "long-term, comprehensive" strategic partnership with AICC and help the group expand overseas, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
China's 4-trillion-yuan (about $588 billions) stimulus plan is paying off, providing the country with time to wait for a revival of the world economy, said experts.
Four months after China launched the two-year investment plan, which is intended to revitalise the world's third largest economy, its industrial output growth appears to be recovering and the decline in its imports has started to ease.
Industrial output grew 3.8 per cent in the first two months this year down from the 5.7 per cent increase in December. The government did not release the January industrial output figure separately from the two month total, but said output grew 11 per cent in February.
That increase was the first double-digit monthly gain since October, said the National Bureau of Statistics. It should be noted that February statistics have all been affected by the shift in the Lunar New Year, which came two weeks earlier this year than in 2008 and resulted in more working days in the second month.
"Statistics of industrial output last month signalled a good start of this year's production," Zuo Xiaolei with Galaxy Securities told Xinhua. It reflected the impact of the stimulus package on economic growth, she said.
Industrial power use, cement output, coal and steel production all grew year-on-year in February, even as the global downturn cut China's exports to 10-year lows.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2009 00:00 ||
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The last statue of General Franco in Spain is to be withdrawn almost 34 years after the death of the dictator. Spain never did have any national sense of humor. Tearing his statue down doesn't mean he wasn't there.
Though I suppose he is still dead. He's stable!
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2009 00:00 ||
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#2
That Spaniards are not eating bark and grass and (still) have a viable economy is the statute to Franco, in a comparative measure of some of the real alternatives Spain faced from the 30s to the 79s. Although it appears a lot of them are working to move Spain into that direction. Was he a 'good' man? Nope. Has it been far worse elsewhere when managed by the usual suspects, particularly those he fought? Certainly.
#4
Complex issue.
Franco guided Spain through a delicate neutrality in WW II. Arguably, he kept the nation from being a Stalinist fiefdom during the civil war. He will, however, always be a lightening rod for the left.
#5
No, Franco was not a good guy, but the left's real problem with him is that he defeated the Stalinists in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39.
The law that requires this reminds me a little of the Ministry of Truth in Orwell's 1984, where history was re-written every day to suit the ever-shifting bureaucratic line.
A German newspaper reported Sunday that Deutsche Post AG has paid a pension of euro20 million ($26 million) to Klaus Zumwinkel, the former CEO convicted of tax evasion. The news sparked outrage among politicians in Germany, which is grappling with the issue of business leaders getting high salaries and bonuses, despite falling profits or management failures.
German industrial production fell 7.5 percent during January, as the global economic crisis continued to take its toll on the world's biggest exporter and Europe's largest economy.
On Sunday, Deutsche Post spokeswoman Silje Skogstad told The Associated Press that Zumwinkel received the pension that he qualified for in a single payment. But she refused to name the amount. The newspaper, Bild am Sonntag, however, put the sum at euro20 million. It quoted Zumwinkel as defending the payment as "absolutely normal."
Hubertus Heil, general secretary of the main opposition party, the Social Democrats, said: "This behavior is an insult to all those in our country who work hard, pay their taxes honestly and follow the rules." The Social Democrats have been calling for limits on executive pay.
Zumwinkel was convicted in January of evading about euro970,000 in taxes from 2002 to 2006. He was given a two-year suspended sentence and a euro1 million fine.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2009 00:00 ||
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Zumwinkel
Damn, here I get stuck with Uncle Harold.
I mean that name gotter der Gehgenfargenfernsprechery
Investigators discovered part of a human skull and other remains at a site in southeastern Turkey where the bodies of Kurdish victims of alleged extrajudicial killings are suspected to have been doused in acid and buried. A number of bones, remnants of hair and human clothing were also found in what local media referred to as an "acid well."
This is the first investigation into the whereabouts of Kurds who disappeared during the long war between Turkish security forces and rebels from the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. More than 30,000 people, mostly ethnic Kurds, were killed during the conflict, which has simmered since 1984.
The investigation began after a former informant from the PKK said people had been murdered by anti-terrorism squads in the 1990s and then buried in wells.
It's as if no one in the PKK ever saw Midnight Express ...
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2009 00:00 ||
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(Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday picked his new chief of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Margaret Hamburg, 53, the former New York City health commissioner, was nominated to the post. Baltimore Health Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein was chosen to be her principal deputy.
Obama also announced a new working group to examine and upgrade food safety laws. "Protecting the safety of our food and drugs is one of the most fundamental responsibilities government has," Obama said in his weekly radio address.
Mukhtaran Mai, 43, the victim of Meerwala (Jatoi) gangrape, married a constable Sunday in Meerwala.
Constable Nasir Abbas is serving as clerk of store at Jatoi police station in Muzaffargarh district. It is second marriage of Nasir, who has five children (three daughters and two sons) from his first wife Rukhsana Mai. Mukhtaran asked him to divorce his first wife Rukhsana but he could not do so, because his two sisters were married in exchange (Watta-Satta) of Rukhsana and Rukhsana's parents threatened to send his sisters back to home if he left Rukhsana.
Later, Mukhtaran forced him to stay at her home and she would not go to in-laws home, because her many projects are under process. Mukhtaran's brother Abdul Shakoor was married on February 18, 2009, while marriage of her private secretary Nasim is due on March 22, 2009, family sources said.
Ghulam Farid Gujjar, father of Mukhtaran Mai, confirmed the Nikah of Mukhtaran and said it is an arranged marriage and the groom is a resident of a neighbouring village of Ghalwan. SHO Jatoi police station Rehan Rasul said, "It is a confirmed report that Mukhtaran Mai married our constable Nasir Abbas Gabol who is already married."
In July 2002, the world erupted in condemnation of an alleged gangrape of a Pakistani village woman, reportedly on the orders of a local justice council, Punchayat, to atone for a crime, sexually assaulting Salma Mastoi, Mukhtaran's teenage brother Abdul Shakoor was accused of.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2009 00:00 ||
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Email system of the Indian Prime Minister's Office was under the grip of a computer virus for three months last year forcing officials to replace the software. The technical glitch plagued the email communication system of the PMO, which was based on the Microsoft Outlook Express, from February to April in 2008.
Although the extent of damage was uncertain, the PMO said that most of the emails addressed to it were not received. The problem was detected only in late April after which the Microsoft Outlook Express email software was discontinued and replaced by -- Squirrel mail.
The matter came to light during one of the hearings of the CIC where the PMO submitted that "there was virus problem during the months of Feb-Mar-Apr that was diagnosed only late in April". The CIC was hearing the plea of one retired Air Commodore Lokesh Batra, who had complained to PMO, through an email, about discrepancies in the Hindi version of the RTI Act.
#3
If you're gonna use Microsoft products you gotta keep up with the patches. Anit-virus software, spam filters and firewalls are also a must. You might also want to watch out for emails with attachments from China.
Indian Babus can. They work using manila files, lots of them, all requiring various signatures. Chinese hackers must be confused trying to find the top secret info, not realising these are on paper, in a file on a Babu's desk, which he will release when he is good and ready.
Legacy of the British Raj.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/16/2009 14:52 Comments ||
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Pakistan agreed Monday to reinstate a fired chief justice, a government official said, a move that could help defuse a political crisis that has sparked street battles and raised fears of instability in the country at a time of surging Islamist violence. I knew he'd cave. And it's not going to "defuse" anything, since Uncle Fester wants to be in charge.
Opposition leaders and lawyers had vowed to sit-in at the parliament later Monday until Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, known for his independence and willingness to challenge authority, was reinstated. The capital has been barricaded and scores of extra police brought in amid fears of violence.
A senior government official said Chaudhry would be sworn in on March 22, the day after the current chief justice was due to retire. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the prime minister was due formally announce the decision later Monday.
Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani would soon have "good news" for the country that would "end the crisis."
The concession came as thousands of protesters led by Nawaz Sharif, the head of the largest opposition party and a longtime foe of President Asif Ali Zardari, were traveling to Islamabad in a convoy to join the planned sit-in. Sharif joined the convoy after ignoring a house arrest order in his hometown of Lahore in Punjab, where his supporters fought running battles with police.
Pakistan opposition leader Nawaz Sharif defied house arrest Sunday to lead an anti-government convoy toward the barricaded capital and a showdown with its pro-Western president.
Earlier, Sharif's supporters fought running battles with riot police in the eastern city of Lahore, a taste of what could come if authorities make good on pledges not to allow him and other anti-government protesters to enter Islamabad.
The power struggle between President Asif Ali Zardari and former Prime Minister Sharif threatens to paralyze the one-year-old government and, alarmingly for the U.S., distract the nuclear-armed country from its fight against Taliban and al-Qaida militants operating along the Afghan border.
"People have responded very overwhelmingly to the call of the hour, and I am thankful to the nation," Sharif told Geo television by phone from his car. "This is a prelude to a revolution."
A prolonged crisis could lead to early elections or force Zardari to resign, particularly if the powerful military decides to intervene. Sharif and Islamist parties would be well-placed to profit from any early elections given popular discontent with Zardari's party.
Zardari's spokesman said late Sunday the president had no intention of resigning, while the information minister repeated earlier offers of negotiations to end the standoff. "We want to get the nation rid of this situation at the earliest, this state of instability and uncertainty," Information Minister Qamar Zaman said.
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03/16/2009 00:00 ||
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The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) has decided against reducing oil supplies despite concerns over the declining price of crude.
Members of the 12-nation body meeting in the Austrian capital, Vienna, on Sunday said that production levels would remain the same until the group's next meeting in May.
"It's a rollover until May," Hussein al-Shahristani, Iraq's oil minister, said.
However, Opec members, who produce about 40 per cent of the world's crude, pledged to fully comply with dramatic output cuts announced last year.
Before the meeting, Ali Ibrahim al-Nuaimi, Saudi Arabia's oil minister, said that there was only an 80 per cent compliance level with the 2008 cuts - meaning that Opec still has yet to remove about 800,000 barrels per day of production from the market.
BAGHDAD - The Tigris river did not run green and there wasn't a pint of the black stuff for hundreds of miles as American forces in Iraq staged their first Saint Patrick's Day parade on Sunday. But this did not dampen spirits on a dusty day in the appropriately named Green Zone where several hundred men and women, soldiers and civilians turned out to cheer ahead of the day itself on Tuesday.
As incongruous as the event may seem in bombed-out Baghdad, the festivities came with top level authorisation and were staged at a time of better security. "We are not quite marching up and down the streets of Baghdad yet, but we do continue to see the improvement in security," said Major General Michael Eyre, commander of the Gulf Region Division.
Security was key in obtaining the green light for the parade that was organised by 1st Sergeant Scott McWilliams, a native of Chicago's south side. "They don't have too many Irish out here," he joked, "although there are a few."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/16/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
'tis appropriate the engineers did a lot of this as St.Patrick is the patron saint of combat engineers.
Officials from Israel's Likud and Kadima parties are reportedly re-examining the possibility of the two factions forming a ruling coalition.
A report in Israel's Haaretz newspaper on Saturday said that the "senior figures" from both parties had again discussed the possibility of the parties' leaders alternating as prime minister.
Tzipi Livni, Kadima's leader, had previously rejected attempts by Benyamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister-designate, to tempt her party into a coalition.
The alliance would give Netanyahu's government stronger international support because of Livni's stated commitment to the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Yoel Hasson, a senior Kadima legislator, said that the party "would be happy to renew unity talks" with Netanyahu, but on condition any joint government set Livni's goals as policy.
#1
What's the benefit to killing malaria pathogens rather than not? If there's no benefit, I don't see why the killer gene would spread preferentially throughout the species.
Officials said the three centers will advance research in air-breathing propulsion, materials and structures, and boundary layer control for aircraft that can travel at Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound, and faster.
#1
Hypersonic airbreathers are one of NASA's version of the tokamak. It's a way to spend billions of dollars on launcher technology and still get an expensive and/or non-working launcher.
#4
FREEREPUBLIC > GLOBAL BANK, GLOBAL CURRENCY IN ANOTHER 15 YEARS?
KELLY BUNDY = "THE HELL YOU SAY"! She's shocked, she tells ya, Shocked SHOCKED S-O-O-...-O-C-K-E-D [NOT]!
* Probably by circa Year 2050 the OWG USSA = USR will see more and more of popular or mass-produced "flying cars". CORSICANT'S = ROME/CARTHAGE,USA, etc. may have to wait until the first MOON/LUNAR BASES ARE ESTABLISHED - D *** NGED "FREE MARKET" THINGYS.
#7
ION REDDIT > SCIETISTS SEEK TO REPLICATE THE SUN; + US PENTAGON'S DARPA TO BEGIN INVESTING IN GEO-ENGINEERING [Man-made/controlled Global Climate-Weather = Enviro Control]
D *** NG IT, when JEAN-LUC PICARD absolutely positively categorically undeniably ... HAS TO BUILD A SUPER-MISSLE TO DESTROY THE SUN, ETC. OVERNITE [force the SUN + SPACE + Orion Babes, etc. to surrender]???
Discovery is carrying a seven-astronaut crew and the final pair of solar arrays and the last big American-made piece of the International Space Station (ISS) into space for a planned 13-day mission.
An otherwise vapid NYT article about the new trend, dance club brunches. Unremarkable except for the last two paragraphs:
As for how he and his fellow Wall Streeters could still afford such afternoons, he said: "We all made so much money in the past five years, it doesnt matter." Yup. They happily drove America's economy off the cliff, knowing full well what they were doing. But who cares? They made a ton of cash, and aren't affected by the consequences of their actions. Why shouldn't they have done what they did.
A 29-year-old man who works for a large investment management firm and was at Bagatelles brunch one recent Saturday and at Merkato 55s the next, put it another way: "If youd asked me in October, Id say itd be a different situation, and I dont think Id be here. Then the government gave us $10 billion." Makes me so mad I could spit.
Bonus quote:
Moments later, a striking woman standing 5 feet 11 made her way past the doorman. As she approached the host, Mr. Laba waved him over and exchanged a few quiet words with him.
"I wanted to make sure he wasnt sending her away, Mr. Laba said. "Im fully booked, but shes someone I want to keep in the restaurant."
What she had going for her, he said, was being stunning, sophisticated and African-American.
"Its all about diversity," Mr. Laba added. "Euros, Muslims, everything goes." Racist. I'm out of spit at the moment.
THE US Government will modify a planned $US30 billion ($45 billion) capital injection for American International Group to try to recoup hundreds of millions of dollars in controversial bonuses, a Treasury official said.
Meanwhile, New York's top legal officer vowed to take AIG to court if it did not provide full details of the bonus payments.
The US Government's actions came after President Barack Obama expressed "outrage" over the bonuses to AIG employees, and ordered officials to take all legal measures to block them.
The Treasury Department plans to attach new provisions to the terms of its latest AIG rescue package, announced on March 2, to force repayment of the bonuses, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, New York Attorney General and political gladhander Andrew Cuomo said he will subpoena the insurer for more information, including the names of those enriched by the bonuses, as taxpayers continue to pour billions of dollars into the insurer.
Mr Obama said in remarks at the White House he was "choked up with anger" over the executive payments, which is a hot button issue in the deepening recession. "How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?," said Mr Obama.
The US Government has spent up to $US180 billion in taxpayer money to bail out AIG, and the insurance giant continues to bleed red ink.
AIG said last week its hands were tied contractually over $US165 million in bonuses due to AIG employees on Sunday. Mr Cuomo told reporters on a conference call that he believed the bonus payments were paid last week.
Chief Executive Edward Liddy told US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in a letter the insurer was legally obligated to make 2008 employee retention payments, but had agreed to revamp its system for future bonuses after the Obama administration objected.
AIG disclosed that Goldman Sachs Group and a parade of European banks were the major beneficiaries of $US93 billion in payments - more than half of the US taxpayer money spent to rescue the massive insurer.
#1
Guess Bambi has never heard of the word "contract" before. Most of them bonuses are due to contractual signed agreements. Go ahead donks destroy AIG for fulfilling its signed agreements and kiss goodbye to any hope of businesses staying in the US. It wont be a safe haven for any type of business if the goverment can come in at anytime and say any or all of you contracts are void.
#3
I don't remember anything in AIG contracts saying that the US taxpayer will fork over $160 billion in what is a deal between two private parties. Nor do I remember any clause that the US taxpayer has to pick the $2 trillion of AIG possible liabilities.
Posted by: ed ||
03/16/2009 20:42 Comments ||
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#5
Meanwhile, New York's top legal officer vowed to take AIG to court if it did not provide full details of the bonus payments.
That will prove interesting. But a point, Nimble Spemble: the autoworkers' unions have had to give back contractual pay and benefits, and likely will have to give back more, because conditions have changed significantly since the contracts were signed. How does that differ from what the government is demanding from AIG?
#6
Well, now he understands how we feel about the Donk Porkout Act of 2009 Bonus that his party rewarded itself with. Not that the federal budget has had much of a better year than AIG.
#7
hahaha, I heard this today and LMAO. What a bunch idiots our congresscritters are - they are only getting what they asked for. Of course the $$$ was going to fulfill contractual obligations, especially since Obama and Sheriff Joe Biden didn't put any strict stipulations on how AIG was supposed to divvy it up from the beginning. What a bunch of morons. Thank you again to the ignorant American electorate for electing these two clowns.
Tune in to conservative talk radio in California, and the insults quickly fly. Capturing the angry mood of listeners the other day, a popular host in Los Angeles called Republican lawmakers who voted to raise state taxes "a bunch of weak slobs."
With their trademark ferocity, radio stars who helped engineer Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's rise in the 2003 recall have turned on him over the new tax increases. On stations up and down the state, they are chattering away in hopes of igniting a taxpayers' revolt to kill his budget measures on the May 19 ballot.
But for all the anti-tax swagger and the occasional stunts by personalities like KFI's John and Ken, the reality is that conservative talk radio in California is on the wane. The economy's downturn has depressed ad revenue at stations across the state, thinning the ranks of conservative broadcasters. For that and other reasons, stations have dropped the shows of at least half a dozen radio personalities and scaled back others, in some cases replacing them with cheaper nationally syndicated programs.
Casualties include Mark Larson in San Diego, Larry Elder and John Ziegler in Los Angeles, Melanie Morgan in San Francisco, and Phil Cowen and Mark Williams in Sacramento. Two of the biggest in the business, Roger Hedgecock in San Diego and Tom Sullivan in Sacramento, have switched to national shows, elevating President Obama above Schwarzenegger on their target lists.
Another influential Sacramento host, Eric Hogue, has lost the morning rush-hour show that served as a prime forum to gin up support for the recall of Gov. Gray Davis. Now he airs just an hour a day at lunchtime on KTKZ-AM (1380). "It's lonely, it's quiet, and it's a shame," Hogue said of California's shrinking conservative radio world. "I think this state has lost a lot of benefit. I don't know if we can grow it back any time soon."
The immediate question facing the state's conservative radio hosts is whether they can wield enough clout to block Schwarzenegger's ballot measures in May. They portray them as reckless proposals that would hasten California's economic decline. The worst, they say, is Proposition 1A, which would extend billions of dollars in tax increases for an extra two years, even while it imposes a spending cap long sought by conservatives.
In a special election likely to draw a dismal turnout, they hope that those most upset by the $12.5 billion in new taxes will be the ones most strongly motivated to cast ballots. Their inspiration is Proposition 13, the 1978 ballot measure that capped property-tax increases.
"What we see is a significant parallel between what is happening now and what happened in 1977 and 1978, when established political elites, whether in the media or in Sacramento, pooh-poohed the idea of a taxpayer revolt," said Inga Barks, whose talk show airs in Bakersfield and Fresno. "People are very upset."
Unless organized labor -- which is divided on the budget measures -- spends millions of dollars to get its supporters to vote, "the only other ones who are going to show up at the polls are the die-hard, true-blue American voters, and those are the ones who listen to talk radio," Barks said.
Still, in a state that Obama won handily in November, a decisive conservative push-back against the tax-spend-and-borrow ballot measures is far from certain. The older white Republicans who tend to listen to conservative radio are a shrinking portion of the state's voters.
It's also no sure bet that the radio shows are converting listeners who might disagree with their agenda. "All these people are going to vote the conservative line anyway, or they wouldn't be listening to those shows," said Jim Nygren, a Republican strategist.
Conservative radio reached its peak in California in 2003, when stations prodded listeners to sign petitions for an election to recall Davis, then drummed up GOP support for Schwarzenegger as his replacement. Since then, it has been a favorite ad vehicle for Republican candidates and causes, such as Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage last November.
Leading the charge against Proposition 1A are John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou, whose afternoon drive-time show on Los Angeles' KFI-AM (640) draws 670,000 listeners a week, according to the Arbitron ratings agency. That makes them the most popular conservative talk radio hosts in the state. Day after day, they pound Schwarzenegger and the Republican lawmakers who joined Democrats in approving the tax increases. They are encouraging recall drives against the legislators. Their website features pictures of the governor and the lawmakers -- with their severed heads on sticks.
"They're all pretty shaken up by it," said Nygren, who counts some of the lawmakers as clients.
Last week, John and Ken urged listeners to show up with tax-revolt signs "outside Octomom's house," taking advantage of the media presence surrounding Nadya Suleman, the Whittier mother of octuplets. "It's guerrilla warfare," one of the hosts said.
Many of the others on California's conservative radio circuit are less belligerent. "It doesn't need to be ranting and raving all the time," Hedgecock said.
And apart from KFI, whose morning show with Bill Handel draws 652,000 listeners a week, the California shows are far less popular. The only hosts of conservative programs with a weekly audience of more than 100,000 are Doug McIntyre of KABC (790) in Los Angeles, Lee Rodgers of KSFO (560) in San Francisco and Rick Roberts of KFMB (760) in San Diego. "The content is the same," said Hogue, "but it doesn't have the reach it once did. There are major players gone."
The U.S. Air Force may soon be adding some serious bling to its aircraft, in the form of windows made from 80-carat diamonds.
In theory, the windows would protect jets from high-powered microwaves (HPMs) they would themselves produce. The Air Force is vague on the details, but HPM devices aboard a jet could be used to disrupt or destroy enemy electrical systems. The problem is, they could also disrupt systems on board the jet itself.
That's where the diamond comes in. "In general, windows such as these are required to shield sensors or sources from outside environments," said William Mitchell, a physicist and project manager at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. "Diamond is special because it has a very high thermal conductivity, a very wide transparency range, and is strong. These three qualities are difficult to find in any other material."
The proposed windows would be 2.5 inches across and weight between 15 and 17.5 grams. "Those weights correspond to between 75 and 87 carats," said Mitchell. "For comparison, the Hope Diamond in the Smithsonian is 45.5 carats."
The diamond-based aircraft windows would differ from the Hope Diamond in two big ways. The first is that the Hope Diamond is a single crystal. The Air Force diamonds would be polycrystalline, with many very tiny diamonds put together. As long as the individual diamonds that make up the larger diamond are much smaller than the wavelength of light shining through them, the diamond's superior optical qualities are maintained, said Mitchell.
The second big difference is how the diamonds are formed. Instead of crushing a chunk of carbon over millions of years deep in the Earth, the diamond windows will be created in several weeks by spraying carbon atoms over a silicon substrate in a high-pressure chamber, a process known as chemical vapor deposition.
Companies like Apollo Diamond and Gemesis specialize in creating the synthetic diamonds that the Air Force is interested in. Apollo Diamond CEO Patrick Doering said his company plans to submit an invited proposal to the Air Force for the project. "The critical thing is that you don't want a lot of absorption [of high-powered microwaves]," said Doering. "What can happen is that if a material absorbs too much heat its properties can change, it might absorb more heat, and then you get this runaway situation."
Within seconds, a cloudier material like glass would melt or shatter from the microwaves passing through it.
Combine diamond's optical and thermal properties with its physical strength, more than enough to withstand bird strikes and other physical stresses encountered during flight, and you have a material uniquely suited for a new weapon capable of destroying unshielded electrical systems.
When high-powered microwaves encounter an electrical system, they cause a short-lived but overwhelming power surge. An electrical system struck by an HPM, or its better-known cousin, the electromagnetic pulse, simply stops working. There is no explosion or sound. Incoming missiles or other aircraft that encounter HPMs, in theory, would just drop out of the sky.
Mitchell says that it typically takes about 10 years for new materials or technology to make it into commercial or military devices, so diamond-encrusted aircraft won't be flying over battlefields anytime soon.
#3
The article is incompetent. The CVD diamond windows serve
as the exit port for the HPM system. They don't protect other systems on the originating aircraft.
Nor does HPM switch off rocket motors or repeal Newton's laws. They are pretty good at inactivating guidance and proximity fuses, though.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/16/2009 17:45 Comments ||
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#6
Thought the preferred solution was to use the AESA radar. That doesn't require a diamond window. It seems to me the diffraction angle of a 2.5 inch microwave beam is so severe as to be useless as a weapon.
Posted by: ed ||
03/16/2009 18:46 Comments ||
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#7
how about no window at all?
put a 180 camera system in the nose. lots cheaper, plus we have computers smart enough to color code in real time for hostile/friendly.
Wherein the NYT explains that The Lightbringer is really out ahead of all this.
The Obama administration is increasingly concerned about a populist backlash against banks and Wall Street, worried that anger at financial institutions could also end up being directed at Congress and the White House and could complicate President Obamas agenda. Oh come on. Did Lenin let a few unruly kulaks complicate his agenda?
The administrations sharp rebuke of the American International Group on Sunday for handing out $165 million in executive bonuses marks the latest effort by the White House to distance itself from abuses that could feed potentially disruptive public anger. A "sharp rebuke"? Is that like putting AIG on double-secret probation?
Weve got enormous problems that need to be addressed, David Axelrod, Mr. Obamas senior adviser, said in an interview. And its hard to address because theres a lot of anger about the irresponsibility that led us to this point. The whole Obama campaign Axelrod orchestrated was about stoking public anger. The law of unintended consequences is a bitch.
This has been welling up for a long time, he said. Translation: We intend to Blame Bush.
Mr. Obamas aides said any surge of such a sentiment could complicate efforts to win Congressional approval for the additional bailout packages that Mr. Obama has signaled will be necessary to stabilize the banking system. A crowd of voters with pitchforks tends to have that effect.
Beyond that, a shifting political mood challenges Mr. Obamas political skills, as he seeks to acknowledge the anger without becoming a target of it. A central question for Mr. Obama is whether his cool style in a time of crisis, we cannot afford to govern out of anger, he said in his address to Congress last month will prove effective when the country may be feeling more emotional. "Quit reading soundbites off the goddamn teleprompters!"
Never underestimate the capacity of angry populism in times of economic stress, said Robert Reich, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and labor secretary under President Bill Clinton. A big challenge for President Obama will be to maintain a rational and tactical public discussion in the midst of this severe downturn. The desire for culprits at times like this is strong.
Posted by: Matt ||
03/16/2009 00:00 ||
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#2
Mr. Obama's aides said any surge of such a sentiment could complicate efforts to win Congressional approval for the additional bailout packages that Mr. Obama has signaled will be necessary to stabilize the banking system.
"Such a sentiment"...as in will of the American people. How quickly they forget who they represent. Or did they every know?
#4
The Obama administration is increasingly concerned about a populist backlash against banks and Wall Street, worried that anger at financial institutions could also end up being directed at Congress and the White House and could complicate President Obamas agenda.
Translation: We are worried that the voters will actually hold us accountable in 2010 and the donks will lose their majority, thus complicating the socialist push Obama is doing. We blame Bush.
#5
Whoa! Obama was a Senator? Who knew?
After this NYT piffle last night about the problems presented by populist anger blah blah Obama gets on TV today and says that he's "choked with anger" over the bonuses. Apparently anger is best left to the professionals.
Posted by: Matt ||
03/16/2009 15:17 Comments ||
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#6
I thought one of the major reasons to vote for Obama was that he is so cool, calm, and collected when facing a crisis. What's this "choked with anger" stuff all about then -- which is the fake and which the real Barack Hussein Obama?
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke suggested in a taped interview on Sunday that the U.S. recession could last most of the year and said the biggest risk was that the political will needed to fix the fractured financial system could be lacking.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Why? The recession wont recede until something changes. So, what's going to change to make a difference? Preiction without explaining why is empty blather. Sounds to me like Ben is just talking through his hat. The recession may end by 2010, but this guy doesn't sound like he has a clue as to how that would come about. Historically, the stock market has been the better forcaster and it isn't optimistic.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
03/16/2009 8:10 Comments ||
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#2
Maybe he think's Pelosi will be voted out in 2010, along with lots of her fellow-travelers? (One can dream!)
#3
He is more than likely working on the basis that the faster things hit the bottom, the faster they will turn up. It doesn't matter if the upturn is minimal growth, it will still signal that a recession has ended even though unemployment will persist and even though it is an L shaped bottom. Its just statistical noise. It will be prolonged the longer that the administration keeps postponing taking remedial steps which should be taking rather than political steps. Rick Mishkin has some good points on it on CNBC this morning. You can get excerpts on the video replays on CNBC in the Sqwark Box segment.
#7
On 28 March 2007 Bernanke testified before Congress, "At this juncture, however, the impact on the broader economy and financial markets of the problems in the subprime market seems likely to be contained"
Why should we believe him now?
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.
A woman from Russia's Siberian region of Irkutsk has been arrested for killing a friend and then eating part of the corpse, Interfax news agency reported, quoting local investigators. 
An Iraqi football player has been shot dead by a spectator as he was about to score an equalising goal. 
A 73-year-old Austrian man who fathered seven children with a daughter he imprisoned in a cellar for 24 years goes on trial on Monday for the murder of a newborn boy who died underground.
IN an eye-catching effort to brighten its image, Russia's nuclear power industry has encouraged hundreds of female employees to compete for the title of Miss Atom. Third-placed Alyona Kirsanova, 22, posted photos of herself in a black bikini against a backdrop of giant cooling towers. The women, dubbed "Russia's nuclear bombshells", were competing for the prize of an all-expenses-paid holiday in Cuba. The winner was Ekaterina Bulgakova, 25. 
Mexico's National Human Rights Commission says that followers of the youth music and fashion trend known as "emo" have suffered discrimination and violence, and recommends sensitivity training to prevent it.
"Imagine that you have four synchronized swimmers and they are not holding hands and they do their program and everything is fine; now, if they begin to hold hands and hold hands tightly, most likely a slight error will destroy the synchronization. Well, we applied the same analogy to climate," researcher Dr. Anastasios Tsonis said.
Madagascar's president said Sunday that he would never resign in response to opposition pressure, setting the stage for prolonged political unrest. 
A Saudi judge has ordered a woman should be jailed for a year and receive 100 lashes after she was gang-raped, it was claimed last night.
President Hugo Chavez deployed the navy to Venezuela's seaports on Sunday, and he said state governors who challenge new legislation bringing transportation hubs under federal control could end up in prison.
Mukhtaran Mai, 43, the victim of Meerwala (Jatoi) gangrape, married a constable Sunday in Meerwala. 
Pakistan agreed Monday to reinstate a fired chief justice, a government official said, a move that could help defuse a political crisis that has sparked street battles and raised fears of instability in the country at a time of surging Islamist violence.
Pakistan opposition leader Nawaz Sharif defied house arrest Sunday to lead an anti-government convoy toward the barricaded capital and a showdown with its pro-Western president.
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) has decided against reducing oil supplies despite concerns over the declining price of crude.
Officials from Israel's Likud and Kadima parties are reportedly re-examining the possibility of the two factions forming a ruling coalition.
