[Arab News] Malaysian police have nabbed three suspects involved in the heist of some 725,000 condoms, which have not yet been found. Mohamad Shukri Dahlan, the police chief of Malaysia's northern Perak state, says the heist was "an inside job."
He said Friday the suspects work for the firm responsible for transporting the condoms from the factory to the port, where they were to be shipped to Japan. Sagami Rubber Industries Co., one of Japan's biggest condom makers, said 85,000 boxes of ultra-thin condoms vanished last month in the heist.
The merchandise was worth $1.5 million. The suspects intended to sell the condoms in Malaysia, but Mohamad Shukri said they had probably not succeeded.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/19/2011 00:00 ||
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IPOH -- Police have detained three men suspected to be members of an international syndicate involved in the robbery of over 700,000 condoms worth about RM850,000 from a container that was shipped to Tokyo, Japan, last month.(US1=RM3.05) Perak police chief Shukri Dahlan said the suspects, aged between 29 and 30, workers of a condom factory in Batu Gajah, about 20 kilometres from here, were detained Wednesday at Ipoh, Klang and the North-South Expressway. Ah HA! An inside job! Into the wagon with yas...
The men will be remanded until Saturday and police hope to nab several others soon based on information obtained, he said at a news conference at the Perak Police Headquarters, here Thursday.
He said they believed the activity was carried out by several others who were part of a bigger syndicate that may also involve a foreign network. The Rubber Gang...
The missing condoms were realised when the condom-laden container sent from Port Klang to Tokyo on Jan 6, was found empty upon arrival in Tokyo on Jan 25, he said. Uh-oh. Better call Banacek...
The goods were produced in two factories, Sagami Manufacturers Sdn Bhd in the Bemban Industrial Park, Batu Gajah, and the Jelapang Industrial Park, here.
"Based on reports, the container lorry left the factory in Batu Gajah on Jan 6, and stopped at the Jelapang factory before heading to Port Klang, Selangor, where it was stored for several days before shipment to Japan," he said.
#4
Yay, only a million more IPCCs to eliminate before the Federal budget is balanced.
Posted by: Pearl Gleaper1127 ||
02/19/2011 20:44 Comments ||
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#5
Yay, only a million more IPCCs to eliminate before the Federal budget is balanced.
Sure, but they're still working on passing last year's budget, having gone on continuing resolutions, before they start on this year's budget... after which comes next year's. Lots of opportunities to get rid of all the stupid little things that put us deeper in debt, while working on passing the big things that actually fix the problem. ;-)
[The Nation (Nairobi)] Police in Turkana have rescued a 13-year-old girl from an early marriage. The girl's father wanted to marry her off to an elderly man who had paid bride price.
Turkana West education officer Wilson Korombori said the girl's parents stormed Kakuma Girls Boarding School and demanded to take the girl away.
"The parents were accompanied by people who became rowdy, prompting the head teacher to seek our intervention. The man is being held in police custody," Mr Korombori said.
He added: "The father claimed that he used the bride price to marry another wife and the girl must accept to stop learning and become a wife because he could not return the bride price."
The DEO said cases of girls being married off to elderly men without their consent were common in the district. He said the act had adversely affected the education of girls and challenged local leaders to hold regular meetings to teach the community about the value of education.
"Most of the locals view livestock as a source of wealth and marrying off their daughters is one way of generating wealth. This has been a challenge in our efforts to ensure children who have attained school going age remain in school," Mr Korombori said.
The education officer asked the government to set up a rescue centre for girls who escape from forced marriages.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/19/2011 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] Ugandans have voted in a presidential election on Friday which saw a low turnout despite what diplomats described as big state spending to woo voters.
Some European Union observers put the turnout as low as 30 per cent at many polling stations in a ballot pitching Yoweri Museveni, in power since 1986, against his arch rival Kizza Besigye for the third straight election.
Polls closed at 1400 GMT. The country's electoral commission says it will announce the results within 48 hours of the closing.
The election was held after a bitter campaign in east Africa's third largest economy. There have been widespread allegations that Museveni's party has been paying voters to back him for a fourth term.
While the election is expected to extend Yoweri Museveni's term in office to three decades, opposition parties in the country have threatened that they will take to the streets if the polls are deemed to have been rigged. Museveni has given warning thon the lam-scale protests such as those being threatened will not be tolerated, and anyone taking part will be nabbed.
Kizza Besigye, the opposition front-runner, has already lost two previous elections to Museveni, a former ally.
Many Ugandans complain of rampant corruption and a lack of investment in basic public services and infrastructure under Museveni, but others respect him for bringing stability to the country.
One of the major issues on the agenda for whoever wins the election will be managing the country's newly discovered oil reserves, which are estimated to be in the billions of barrels.
Oh, so Uganda can be the newest member of the resource trap.
The country's last two elections, in 2001 and 2006, ended in dispute, after Besigye unsuccessfully appealed to the supreme court both times to overturn the results. The time, he says that he is producing his own results tally, and if it does not match the official outcome, he has threatened mass protests.
What are the odds that his and the official tally will match? Anyone have the line from Vegas?
"If the electoral commission releases results that we know to be fraudulent, at that stage we shall recommend the Ugandan people deal with the matter directly," Besigye said earlier this week.
Museveni appeared confident in the lead-up to the polls, however. "It will be a big win," he said on Wednesday.
His government has deployed thousands of security-forces personnel to oversee the holding of elections, and he has cautioned bodies other than the electoral commission against declaring results.
Suspicions of rigging were already rife on Friday, particularly in the Rubaga area, an opposition stronghold. Voters there said that ballot papers had not been delivered to polling stations by the time that voting was due to start.
Polling stations across the capital, Kampala, also reported delays.
Museveni is making the dictator's mistake: he's insecure in his power so he thinks he has to win the election 'big', which means 80 percent or more of the vote. That means massive fraud easily detected and understood by the citizens. Whereas, all he needs is fifty-five percent: he'd still be the winner, the need for rigging is less, the opposition areas of the country could be mollified by thinking that at least they had their say, and the international finger-pointers would have less to point at. But Museveni is a dictator.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/19/2011 00:00 ||
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[The Nation (Nairobi)] Former Madagascan president Marc Ravalomanana will return to the island nation on Saturday to help prepare for new elections nearly two years after his army-backed ouster.
The deposed president, who returns under the threat of arrest, declared himself as Madagascar's rightful leader today and said he is going back to start "desperately needed" talks that must pave the way to new polls.
Order some more fireworks!
"I am the democratically elected and constitutional president of Madagascar," he told a presser in South Africa, where he has been in exile. "I return to my country humbly, so that we can return to democracy, and together create a bright future for Madagascar."
The rule of his rival Andry Rajoelina, the army-backed opposition leader who ousted him in a coup in March 2009, was illegal and it was time for him to return home, he said.
"I am going back to start genuine dialogue, which is desperately needed," he said.
"Only a truly national consensus, forged by the Malagasy people, through direct talks in our own country, can restore us to democracy -- and can ensure that nobody can ever seize power illegally in Madagascar again," he said.
A Madagascan minister however warned on Wednesday that Mr Ravalomanana would be nabbed if he returned.
He was sentenced in absentia to life in prison and hard labour last year for the death of 30 opposition protesters killed by presidential guards as they attempted to march on the presidential palace on February 7, 2009.
Whether it's true or just a convenient excuse.
"I know the risks facing my return, but cannot allow them to get in the way of us restoring democracy. I have nothing to fear. I have done nothing wrong," he said.
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[Pak Daily Times] Ivory Coast's incumbent leader has seized four major international banks that had shut down operations this week in the West African country, a government front man said.
The front man for the sitting president Laurent Gbagbo read a decree on state TV late Thursday saying that the banks did not respect the law and closed without proper notice. According to Ivorian law banks have to give three months notice.
Dummy. It's not like Citibank keeps a lot of cash at its Abidjan branch. All this does is turn the international bankers against him, and that's never a good idea for a dictator.
Ahoua Don Mello said the government had taken over the offices for Britain's Standard Chartered, La Belle France's BNP-Paribas and Societe Generale along with US bank Citibank. These banks hold a majority of the bank accounts for civil servants.
Gbagbo's government would nationalize the banks and would pay February salaries, Don Mello said. It is unclear, however, if Gbagbo will have access to the banks' funds.
It's perfect clear: he won't. Societe Generale isn't stupid.
Both Societe Generale and BNP-Paribas declined immediate comment on Friday. Nine private banks began shutting down earlier this week including Nigeria's Access bank. La Belle France's Societe Generale, the country's largest financial institution, announced it was shuttering all 47 branches of its local subsidiary serving 230,000 clients.
The international community had said it would use financial sanctions to dislodge Gbagbo, who is refusing to step down although results issued by his country's election commission and certified by the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society showed he had lost the Nov. 28 ballot by nearly 9 percentage points. Among the sanctions slapped on Gbagbo's regime was the revocation of his signature on state accounts at the regional central bank which prints the currency used in Ivory Coast.
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[Arab News] Soddy Arabia is a special case in need of climate aid if the world shifts to clean energy, the world's top oil exporter told the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society ahead of a Monday deadline for proposals about slowing global warming.
Almost 200 nations agreed in Mexico in December to a package of measures including a new fund to help poor nations, due to be worth $100 billion annually from 2020, find ways to adapt to climate change and protect tropical forests.
That deal set a Feb. 21 deadline for detailed comments.
Soddy Arabia said that it would need help to develop solar power and financial aid to diversify, as it was "among the most vulnerable economies," dependent on oil exports whose use may be curbed under a climate deal.
"Impacts are expected to be massive and deep," it said of countries dependent on fossil fuels, noting that oil makes up half Soddy Arabia's gross domestic product and 90 percent of its export earnings.
Many other developing countries -- including the poorest in Africa and Pacific island states at risk of rising sea levels -- have expressed irritation that OPEC nations harp on about their vulnerability.
Soddy Arabia's gross national income per capita was about $25,000 in 2008, similar to that of New Zealand, according to the UN Development Programme.
Countries have squabbled for many years on sharing the cost of carbon emissions cuts and the benefit of funds, making a comprehensive deal increasingly unlikely from 2013 after the present round of the Kyoto Protocol expires
They are meant to agree this year fine print including how to share funds meant for countries which are vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, and to raise money, for example from carbon markets.
But the submissions also showed a rift between rich and poor about the makeup of a new panel meant to help poorer countries adapt to climate change, by methods such as developing flood defenses or new drought-resistant crops.
Ghana said that the board of the Adaptation Committee should comprise 32 members with a majority from developing nations, or two-thirds, according to Soddy Arabia. The European Union said that it should have 12-18 members, equally split between rich and poor.
The climate funds will likely in large part be levied from carbon markets, where developing countries sell carbon offsets to rich countries struggling to meet their emissions caps in a trade worth 2.2 billion euros ($2.98 billion) last year.
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#1
Clearly they need to take their education up another level. Did nobody think of harvesting sunlight in the desert and storing it in batteries to sell? There'd be the initial investment in solar panels and batteries (possibly have them made in Yemen -- but only in the morning, or in Egypt, for solidarity reasons.
#2
This is nonsense. All the Arab Gulf States have been aware that there is going to be oil income disruption, sooner or later, for at least 20 years. That is why they have all been building huge airport hubs, lots of tourism, and trying to figure out any other way to make a living once their oil money runs out.
In fact, since some of their great schemes have turned into disasters, they are about to the second generation of schemes.
That is why they have all been building huge airport hubs, lots of tourism, and trying to figure out any other way to make a living once their oil money runs out.
FWIW, that's a big problem for the Saudis - they don't do tourism in any way, shape or form. And that is actually a shame - I've been there, and though I wasn't exactly welcomed like a long lost relative, I was treated correctly and politely. On top of that, there is some truly beautiful scenery there. Tourism would probably help moderate the Saudis a bit, but knowing the way many tourists behave (including, regrettably, Americans) it would probably just drive them a bit deeper into their shell.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/19/2011 9:52 Comments ||
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#4
Climate change aid? So where is the most of the money coming from? I suspect the U.S. A scheme for "income redistribution." More social justice garbage. Forget about it, we've got more important problems in the U.S. to straighten out. Do the Saudi's not have enough of our money? The average income is fairly high in the magic Kingdom. They don't need outside money to deal with climate change formerly known as global warming.
Not exactly, grom. It's like paying rich guys not to "farm" the land they weren't going to farm anyway. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/19/2011 14:53 Comments ||
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#8
It really pisses me off that a nation, no wait make that a cuture that has benefited from the oil economy simply by being in the right place at the right time is also going to be a big winner in solar power generation that like it or not will come to pass. And with the money they have been making they should og been able to develop this them selves. Instead they build BS projects to spread the wealth
#3
What they are not saying is that the Democrats are actively opposed to any energy based, or other missile defense system, for the US, or the US Navy.
This is so bad that even though the airborne laser had proven itself, the Dems cut its funding immediately on getting control of congress, along with several other anti-missile programs.
Boeing and the other manufacturers said they were going to continue research without government money, because it was working so well. And they expect the Republicans to bring it back, with interest.
#5
Lasers propagate much better in the upper atmosphere and space due to a lack of scattering and absorption by the atmosphere. The problem with airborne lasers shooting down ICBMs is distances of hundreds or thousands of km vs a few to tens of km for shipborne air defense. Even the FEL won't work when it is raining or fogged over.
Posted by: Pearl Gleaper1127 ||
02/19/2011 20:38 Comments ||
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#6
Curvature of the earth/line of sight also a figure.
#7
Since the atmosphere is such a problem for ground based lasers, do you think that maybe the target for a big airborne laser could be something not in the atmosphere? Perhaps it gives our enemies a reason for pause...
#1
Bundle up the info and send it to the medical insurance issuers. The quickest way to gut one's practice or fly without insurance [how does that work under Obamacare?].
#2
Our own Dr. Steve wrote about this today. Apparently, not only is this unethical -- practicing medicine without doing a proper work-up with written notes kept on file -- but ought to be prosecutable fraud by both noter and notee. And some of the doctors talked on video, which makes it hard to say, "Wudn't me."
#3
Note: I've X'd out the good doctor's address and phone number. Let us take the high road and not put citizen's addresses and phone numbers out there. We don't need to offer the possibility of joining the culture of harassment -- the idiot savant will discover the natural consequences of her actions soon enough.
In a breathtaking case of government incompetence not seen since the last breathtaking case of government incompetence, DHS ordered the shuttering of 81,000 internet domains belonging mostly to individuals, families and small businesses. Visitors to these domains were redirected to a DHS page accusing the domains of supporting child pornography.
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.
