Emirates 24/7
A Saudi man is believed to have been gripped by jinn (ghosts) during a picnic with his friends in a valley which is reputed to be haunted. But he was later treated in an exorcist-style session by the Gulf Kingdom's religious police.
And a good thing, too. Left alone, such things metastasize, and then one has real problems.
The unnamed man and seven friends from the western town of Makkah were vacationing in the nearby Taif city when they decided to descend into Wadi Al-Amak (the deep abyss) despite warnings by local people.
After a short evening trip in the valley, the colour of the man's began to change and his behavior became aggressive before he lost balance and fell down.
When his friends tried to talk to him, he shouted and pushed them away while his eyes were fixed at an area deep in the valley.
"Friends then overpowered him and washed his face with cold water...it was clear the man was haunted by a jinn," Sabq Arabic language daily said.
"They then decided to carry him back to town...they were told that the valley is haunted and that there were two similar cases in the past."
The paper said the man was taken to the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the most influential Islamic law-enforcement authority in the conservative Moslem Gulf nation.
"The Commission brought experts in such cases and subjected the man to a session of Koran recitation and incense burning until the jinn was forced to get out of the man through his hand...once the session was over, the man began to restore his strength...after a while he fully recovered and started to ask his friends why he was brought to that place."
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain ||
08/02/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
"Spooky Valley" tried to sell time shares there a few years ago, tough sell.
Posted by: Steven ||
08/02/2011 0:45 Comments ||
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#2
I have this theory about mooselimbs and mass infestation of rye ergot.
#1
"paging Mr. Cthulhu. Mr. Cthulhu to the white courtesy phone"
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/02/2011 18:39 Comments ||
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#2
D *** NG IT, that can't be - I know for a fact that a number of NOSTRADAMUS Perts interprete "HIDEOUS BEAST SEEN NEAR ORGON" as "THE DEVIL WENT DOWN TO OREGON" NOT GA-A-AWGIA [Georgia, USoA], OR MANHATTAN [Godzilla = Matthew Broderick]!
#6
NEWS KERALA > [University of Oregon Perts]WARMING OF [Ocean]WATER BY JUST TWO DEGREES CAN CAUSE COLLAPSE OF ICE SHELVES, espec in Antarctic + Greenland.
Once again, ME > GWCC-induced new "MINI/NEW ICE AGE" = more correctly be "THE GREAT [Asia-Pacific]SLUSHY"???
Prefer Icy Sleety Haily "JELLO", vee SOLAR STORMS vee BOEHNER vee BAMMER DEBT DEAL???
Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's investment vehicle, Kingdom Holding, has announced that an associate company will partner with the country's Bin Laden Group to build a tower near Jeddah that would replace Dubai's 828m Burj Khalifa as the world's tallest building.
The associate company, Jeddah Economic Co, signed the SR4.6bn ($1.23bn) contract with the Bin Laden Group, a construction company, that will also own a 16.63 per cent stake in the company. Kingdom Co will hold 33.35 per cent.
Better they spend their money on big buildings than jihadi groups...
The U.S. Coast Guard says its crews helped stop a submarine-like craft filled with $180 million of cocaine in the western Caribbean.
Similar crafts regularly smuggle drugs along Central America's Pacific Coast, though U.S. and Honduran authorities said this was the first time such a vessel was intercepted in Caribbean waters.
#2
So that's what, like the street value of a pound and a quarter of cocaine, FBI estimate? I figure they use the same mathematicians as the government uses in calculating budget cuts.
Reconstituting the Russian empire, one nibble at a time. The Little Father is so good to his children...
[An Nahar] Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile... on Monday said he was in favor of Russia and its western neighbor Belarus uniting into a single state, as in the days of the Soviet Union.
"This is possible and very desirable," said Putin, when asked at a pro-Kremlin youth camp on Russia's Lake Seliger if Russia and Belarus could merge into one entity.
What is this European custom of political parties treating children to summer camp and proselytizing? There's time enough for serious thoughts when they become callow university students, surely.
"It depends completely on the will of the Belarusian people," he added.
Putin's surprise remarks come as Belarus battles a massive economic crisis which has seen Russia extend a bailout loan to its neighbor and eye some of its most prized economic assets.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko is also pressing on with an unprecedented crackdown against the opposition following his controversial re-election in December which has seen opponents set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock and protests brutally broken up.
Economists have blamed Lukashenko for doing little to reform an outdated economic model which has seen Belarus develop one of the biggest current account deficits in the world.
But Putin lavished praise on the man who has ruled Belarus for the last 17 years and was once dubbed Europe's last dictator by the United States.
"Despite the problems that spring up from time to time -- like the economy, energy, the rows with gas -- you need to give respect to the leadership of the country and Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko, who has consistently followed a path of integration with Russia," Putin said.
Russia and Belarus are members of a customs union and also a so-called "unified state" that brings their cabinets together for joint meetings at regular intervals.
But until now, the two states have maintained separate systems with attempts at further unity ending in failure.
In the 1990s Lukashenko was an impassioned proponent of a full union of Belarus and Russia, with some observers believing he had his eye on occupying the Kremlin as president of such a country.
But his pro-Russian rhetoric cooled once Putin entered the Kremlin in 2000, and he has since sought to portray himself as the defender of the ordinary Belarusian.
Meanwhile, ...back at the shattered spaceship, Fffflirgoll the Arcturan slithered stealthily toward the control room, where the humans had barricaded themselves... Putin also indicated he would not be against the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia becoming part of Russia, if its people were in favor.
Russia recognized South Ossetia as independent following Moscow's 2008 war with Tbilisi over Georgian rebel regions.
"The future will depend on the Ossetian people," Putin said. "You know Russia's position -- when Georgia engaged in military action, Russia supported South Ossetia."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2011 00:00 ||
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As long as Putin gets to be the President. But what will Lukashenko do?
#2
I thought Belarus was an economic basket case.
Why, outside of strategic reasons or vanity, would he ever want such a place brought into their workers paradise?
* ION TOPIX > ANALYST: RUSSIA WARY OF UNEXPECTED IRAN ATTACK, be it MilTerr Proxies or LRBMS, Surpise Mil Attack or Diplomatic Crisis.
IIUC ARTIC = Russia's joint development of Iran's BUSHESHR NUCPLANT, etc. doesn't mean Moscow implicitly trusts Iran's intentions despite any [anti-US, UNIAEA] Diplomatic, Media rhetoric to the contrary.
Rumors are spreading quickly that radioactive materials were accidentally leaked from a state-of-the-art Chinese nuclear submarine moored in Dalian Port in Liaoning Province in the northeastern part of China. To summarize, the news wound up on Boxun.com but there have been no official releases of information about the purported event. Who knows?
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain ||
08/02/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
LEAKY STATE-OF-THE-ART PLAN SUB
versus
* WORLD MIL FORUM > AVIATION WEEK: AS PER ALL CAUSES, NEW USDOD REPORT INDICATES THAT THE STRATEGIC FORWARD PRESENCE OF US NAVY SUBMARINES' MAY FALL BY 40%, UW SUBMARINE WARFIGHTING CAPABILITIES REDUCED BY NEARLY 60% FROM CURRENT LEVELS BY JULY 2030.
* SAME > NEARLY-COMPLETE PHILIPPINE MILITARY CONSTRUCTION IN THE CHINA-CLAIMED NANSHA ISLANDS [Spratlys] IS A SERIOUS VIOLATION OF THE "DECLARATION ON THE CONDUCT OF PARTIES IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA".
* SAME > RECOVERY OF TAIWAN ISLAND, DEVELOPMENT + DEPLOYMENT OF MULTIPLE LARGE NUCLEAR AIRCRAFT CARRIERS, + CONSTRUCTION OF THE SINO-THAI "GRAND CANAL" [aka KA Canal Project] IS CRUCIAL FOR CHINA'S GLOBAL NAVAL/MARITIME STRATEGY.
* SAME > WORLD POLITICS REVIEW: INDIA PREMISES THAT IFF THE INDIAN OCEAN DOES NOT BELONG TO INDIA, THEN NEITHER WILL THE EAST, SOUTH CHINA SEAS BELONG TO CHINA. INDIA'S NEW NAVAL BASE AT NHA TRANG, VIETNAM IS MEANT TO ISOLATE CHINA"S MAJOR PLAN BASE AT SANYA ON HAINAN ISLAND.
#3
WAFF > CHINA BUILDING ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE [EMP] WEAPONS FOR USE AGZ US CARRIERS.
Ditto also repor as per TAIWAN agz MAINLAND CHINA.
IOW, "fix" = disable the US CVN in one place long enough for effec follow-on attack + destruction by DF-21 ASBMS, PLAN Subs andor PLAAF Bomber ALCMS.
MOST LIKELY AFTER PRREMPTIVE OR UNILATERAL EMP "SATURATION" ATTACK to offset agz the CVN's possible afloat movements.
versus
* SAME > KING OF THE OCEANS: RENDERING OF [future post-NIMITZ]CVN-78 GERALD R. FORD.
CVN21.
The Island = Castle reminds me of the TRANSFORMERS Movie, i.e. DECEPTICON OR AUTOBOT Helmet = Robot Head.
* FYI DEFENCE.PK/FORUM POSTER = believes that China's first batch of FOUR PLAN CV'S by 2020 will be
> PLAN CV#1 = EX-VARYAG modified Conventional CVT [which IMO is actually "dual-use" since CVT's can be used in contingency as full-fledged combat CV's].
> PLAN CV #2 = Conventional CATOBAR to be built in Shanghai.
> PLAN CV#3 = NUCLEAR-POWERED LARGE CATOBAR/STOBAR CV to be built in Dalian.
> PLAN CV#4 = NUCLEAR-POWERED LARGE EMALS CV [EMCAT].
* ION PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > US ARMY CANCELS
"MULE" FCS UNMANNED GROUND VEHICLE, due to being no longer needed or required.
The first phase of a deal to raise the government's borrowing limit would pose little threat to the economy in the short term because almost none of the spending cuts would occur before 2014.
Discretionary spending, which excludes Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, would be cut by $21 billion in 2012 and $42 billion in 2013, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office. That's a small fraction of the nation's $14 trillion economy. Who rolled who?
#1
And decreasing amounts of those funds are going to cover debt rather for program spending. No program money means: less from the government. Frankly, I don't understand why some see heroism within the Federal political class. Aren't they all parasites?
Many large corporations have monthly crises about being able to cover payroll and inventory with short term financing. They are hanging on because banks are able to use the savings of Americans with little or no costs to them. But even savings are drying up. That means there is less money for investment in business enterprises.
There is one essential solution: debt repudiation. Of course, not from China or Russia (who hold massive volumes of US cash, to settle trade). Imagine what the President of a bankrupt America would have done after September 11, 2001, and do it now. Nuclear arms are cost-effective. And they are better used for blackmail, than mass destruction.
Can BHO point the finger for his fiscalamity, at GWB? The events of October 2008 follow years of regulatory monstrosities and nation-building money burning abroad. Then there is the 3 trillion lost from ineffective tax cuts. Yah, BHO's "Stimulus Package" didn't work. But "infrastructure" components had bi-partisan support. As did the money-printing to increase loan capacity of the Financials.
It would be a catastrophe if "Mr Hope" is re-elected. But, he can win a finger-pointing campaign. He can only be defeated by a solution-based agenda. Who will be first to advocate forthwith reduction of Federal and State public service pensions, to levels of 1% for each year of service, and based on average wages (without overtime) for the entire period? That would mean 4 things: trillions in cost reductions, satisfaction of "States Rights" proponents, and 93% of the population not directly effected by the implementation, and beaten down arrogance within the bureaucracy.
#2
Thumper you speak the truth. Making payroll has got to hurt. To maintain standard of living many have gone into retirements:
"Commerce employees owed their 401(k) accounts $8.6 million at the end of 2010, a 21 percent increase from 2008.
Data covering more than 20 million participants in 401(k) plans nationwide showed 21 percent had taken out loans against their accounts at the end of 2009, up from 18 percent in the three previous years.
It was the highest level ever found by the Employee Benefit Research Institute since it began collecting the information in 1996.
EBRI hasn't reported on last year yet, but companies that administer plans say they saw increases in 2010 on top of those in 2009".
#4
Things could be turned around. I always told my son's that your business is either growing or shrinking. In one ear and out the other. This article shows promise for managing this mess:
#5
Many large corporations have monthly crises about being able to cover payroll and inventory with short term financing
Nonsense. Small corporations, perhaps. But large corporations in that situation should already have been cutting unprofitable products and unnecessary or semi-necessary personnel. They pay those MBA types the big bucks to know about such things, after all. Even the car manufacturers in Detroit have done so. In fact, our honourable president has gone on record demanding that the large corporations start hiring and investing again, instead of hoarding large cash cushions.
#6
I was looking at the National Debt Clock. Each one of the taxpayers owes $1,027,463. The assets of each citizen are $243,275. I'm not good at accounting but I think that says we are bankrupt. Can each of us file a Chapter 11? Joe Biden says the Tea Party are terrorists. The terrorists are in Washington, D.C. I thought the 14th Amendment abolished slavery!
#7
Washington is an Alice in Wonderland kind of place. Nothing is as it appears. Spending cuts become spending increases. Removal of the Bush tax cuts become tax increases or revenue. Muslim terrorists are called "man-caused" disasters by Janet Napolitano. Tea Party citizens become terrorists according to Joe Biden when in truth the terrorists are the politicians who keep spending each of us into enslavement in Washington. Maybe Napolitano's definition of a terrorist is appropriate since this economic disaster in Washington is a man-caused disaster.
#8
Congress let NBC monitor their dirty work a few days ago. What a bunch of pampered poodles. I didn't see a single politician in an off the rack suit. They all looked like a bunch of sleezy, ambulance-chasers. In fact, a lot of them would do that if they didn't con voters into supporting them.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] President Barack B.O. Obama on Monday said Republican and Democrat leaders have struck a deal to raise the US debt limit.
Under the proposal, which is set for debate and votes in Congress on Monday, the US debt ceiling would rise by up to $2.4 trillion from the current $14.3 trillion. The US government deficit will be cut by a similar amount over 10 years, and a special bipartisan committee will also be set up to agree spending cuts.
Without a deal the US would face the prospect of defaulting on its debts.
Party leaders in the House of Representatives and Senate still have to present the deal to their members on Monday, before the package goes to a vote.
The House could begin voting on the agreement from around midday local time, with the Senate working to a later timetable, the Washington Post reports.
The BBC's Jane O'Brien says the package is still likely to be a tough sell, with some Republicans and Democrats in the House remaining opposed to different aspects.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2011 00:00 ||
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WHAT? no comments? I am disappointed and surprised that there are no comments to this post. Is this a situation of Where Angels fear to Tread?
Well Fools rush in:
Is it just my mis-understanding of this wonderful "Victory" for the Democratic process....or AT the rate we are solving our debt problem... it will take about 130 years for us to pay our debts down ....at the rate we are going?
Or am I wrong, we are actually just fine and our Courageous Leaders are now "IN CONTROL" of the situation. Reminds me of Alexander Haig when he was there to calm everyone's fears with his Sarg. Preston impersonation.
And dont I recall a Reagan Tax Bill Act, the largest tax CUT bill back in 1989 ( was it?) that set off the longest Boom in the economy in American history? Nah....must be my imagination.
Educate me. They have just kicked the can down the road again, havent they? Until after the elections, now is it? We STILL are in the hole for the next Century at least. Our fiscal ass belongs to the Interest we are going to pay and THAT will amount ( in the long haul) to more than the Debt itself, by a long shot. Yeah?
And Obanana is taking a victory Lap around the Rose Garden?
The American people sure are good judges of Character.
Meanwhile, Standard and Poors is still going to clip the Credit Rating and nobody ever goes Up on that once they go DOWN. You go down from Triple AAA and you never go back up. Name one.
How would you like to be in a Platoon with Obama as your steely-eyed Lieutenant and all your squads packed with the best fighting Congressmen that courage and competence can provide?
Your'e dead meat, Chuckie, ... and this time tomorrow when we meet the enemy you get to meet Custer and shake his hand.
Cause clue you, the Chinese R&D is growing 29% faster than ours is and they will not hesitate to eat our Lunch.
The Messiah sez: "Hope and Change, suckahs."
You out of a job? get a Donkey to get you one.
Posted by: de Medici ||
08/02/2011 8:01 Comments ||
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#2
First you slow the runaway train, then stop and back it up, Mr. de Medici. it took this much jumping up and down and screaming to get the Democrats to even accept the idea of not significantly increasing spending. And they'll get to come up with even more cuts in December, which should prove an amusing exercise for some involved.
As for the rest, do sit down next to me on the fainting couch while I rub your temples with my handkerchief bathed in cologne. And after a bit I'll make you a nice cup of chamomile tea. There are real concerns here, but running in circles and flapping your hands isn't going to help.
#4
Dunno, usually behind the scenes process made transparant, el prez on TV waiving his arms about, fiscal conservatives stood the line; not a bad first outing in major conflict.
Have not read the bill and/or been about good breakdown of, so no real comment available. All I know is no matter what the Dims will attempt to spin this to look poorly upon the Pubs, oh sometime in February or March with a preview reminder in November/December, likely with the Dims hooking arms and forcing the across board cuts looking tough and cutting defense, maybe give more cover for chinooks over kabul (my theory is not if or when ISF leave Afghan, but How).
#5
Liberals hate this Satan sandwich. Conservatives hate it because it doesn't end DOE, BATF, HUD etc. and looks like it will end up raising taxes. I don't think it does a damned thing towards solving any of our problems.
#6
I think it's a start. Republicans (and the vast majority of conservatives) control just over 1/2 of a third leg of the Legislative/Executive branches. Elect more next year and take control of the Executive and the Senate, and you've got your stomping boots on
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/02/2011 19:20 Comments ||
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#7
CNN + FOX NEWS AM > most Panel Perts agree or infer that this Debt Deal, which has formally bee passed the US Senate + now quickly signed by POTUS Bammer into law, is mostly ABOUT PDENIABILITY GOING INTO THE 2012 US ELEX, I.E GETTING RE-ELECTED.
AFAIC, 08/02/2011 = OCTOBER 1917 = BIRTH OF AMERICAN BOLSHEVIKISM + AMERIKAN SOCIALIST-GOVTIST STATE ["Command" Govt-Econ].
ME "JASMINE" REVOLUTIONS/UPRISINGS = BIRTH OF OWG ISLAMIST GLOBAL SOON-TO-BE-NUCLEAR
"CALIPHATE", HOWEVER IMPERFECT; while 08/2/11 = BIRTH OF RED AMERIKA, HOWEVER IMPERFECT.
Amerikan "Lenin", "Trotsky", + ultimately "Stalin", etal. to be forthcoming in due time.
#8
I'm sure that with the help of a good tax attorney and accountant that I could find lots of prospective "tax the rich" schemes that the left is going to hate.
#9
Heck Thing - I can think of one right off the bat.
* Flat 18% tax - no exemptions - everyone pays. If you are on welfare - you pay your share out of that. If you have a paper-route - you pay 18%. If your the CEO of Goldman Sachs - you pay 18% of *all* your income, bonuses, stock-payments, etc.. Flat means flat. If you are a crack dealer making 20K a month - you pay your 18% or face tax evasion.
* Everyone writes a check for their taxes - no 'automatic withholding'. Does allow automatic payment from *your* bank account - but you have to set it up and you have to deduct it from your register.
That would cause just about every elected federal offical's head to explode.
#10
PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > [Jacob S.Hather & Oona A. Hathaway = Yale University] US: A CRISIS OF DEBT, AND OF DEMOCRACY.
ARTIC = New Debt Deal threatens the Constitutional balance = "separation of powers"? between the Executive Branch [Obama] + the Legislative Branch [Congress].
POLITBURO-VERSUS-PRESIDIUM???
[PENN STATE = RUSSIAN FSB SPY BABE ANNA CHAPMAN-N-GUN PLAYBOY SPREAD here].
* SAME > ANALYSTS: DEBT DEAL WILL HAVE LITTLE IMPACT ON US ECONOMY [Jobs], DEFICIT. | REAL MEANING OF DEBT DEAL IS THAT US [Govt = Bammer, Congress] AVOIDS DEBT FIASCO FOR A FEW MORE WEEKS.
* DAWN.PK > CHINESE STATE MEDIA CRITICIZES US DEBT DEAL, arguing that resolution of longstanding US sovereign debt problems will merely be "deferred" for a time while US Govt. "tendencies" to expand or increase its debt will be empowered., wid poten detrimental consequences as per US + GLOBAL INFLATION. AS ITS ECON WOES CONTINUE UNABATED, THE US IS LIKELY TO TAKE STEPS TO FURTHER LOWER THE VALUE OF ITS OWN ALREADY DEVALUED USD [Dollar].
versus
* DAILY TIMES.PK > [Analysis]PAKISTAN RELYING TOO MUCH ON CHINA AGZ US.
ARTIC = As Rising China has its own GLOBAL = SUPERPOWER AMBITIONS, Pakistan may be naively or seriously overestimating its intrinsic value to "Big Brother" + new BFF China vee Beijing's geopol relations wid the US. MORE, THE LATEST XINJIANG VIOLENCE INVOL CHINA-ALLEGED PAK-TRAINED UIGHURS HAS NOW PUT CHINA IN SAME BOAT AS POST 9-11 US AS PER SUFFERANCE FROM COMMON SINO-US ALLY PAKISTAN'S DIRECT LINKS TO VIOLENT REGIONAL, INTERNATIONAL MUSLIM TERRORISM.
> US = "Core" Al-Qaeda [Osama Bin Laden], PAK Taliban.
> China = ETIM, post-Osama/2014 Taliban???
[Dawn] PESHAWAR: A man allegedly killed three persons, including his wife and sister-in-law, for honour and managed to escape here at Mathra area on Sunday.
The complainant in the case is Ms Khiala, mother of the alleged killer Ajab Khan. She told the local police that her son suspected that his wife was having illicit relations with one of her relatives, Nasrullah.
She claimed that on Sunday Ajab Khan killed Nasrullah outside the latter`s house and then came to his own residence and killed his wife.
The complainant stated that her daughter-in-law, Bakht Ranra, who is wife of her another son, Mohabat Khan, when came to the rescue of the victim was also rubbed out by Ajab Khan. The bodies of the two women and the man were shifted to the Lady Reading Hospital.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Waiting for another kind of honor killing in Pakiwakiland... One where the wife kills the pedophile husband (chirp)
Posted by: Water Modem ||
08/02/2011 16:40 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 unnamed man and seven friends from the western town of Makkah were vacationing in the nearby Taif city when they decided to descend into Wadi Al-Amak (the deep abyss) despite warnings by local people.
...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] President 
PESHAWAR: A man allegedly killed three persons, including his wife and sister-in-law, for honour and managed to escape here at Mathra area on Sunday.
