FORT MYERS, Fla., Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Authorities in Florida say a woman with no sense of proportion threatened to blow up planes when police refused to help her with her husband's work schedule. If that's a police matter, I'm a Dalek!
Lee County Port Authority Police said Soraya Evette Billinge, 36, called from her cellphone and told the dispatcher she was upset about her husband working nights because she doesn't like being home alone, Fort Myers' WBBH-TV reported Tuesday.
A transcript of a recording of her unfriendly chat with the dispatcher indicated she said her husband works for Delta Airlines at the airport.
Billinge became upset when the dispatcher told her police could not help with her problem, police said.
"OK I blow up, I blow up 10 planes," she allegedly said before hanging up the phone. So instead of being home alone, she makes license plates with plenty of company.
Police said they put Billinge in the Gray-Bar Hotel after her husband brought her in to the police offices.
Her husband brought her in? I don't know what to say.
Maybe he wanted to get back to work...
They charged her with making a bomb threat and making a false report. Plus they checked her lips of those telltale burn marks...
[Dawn] A stampede killed 16 Hindu pilgrims and injured about 50 during a religious ceremony Tuesday on the banks of the Ganges River in northern India, an official said.
The stampede at Haridwar in Uttrakhand state was triggered when some of the pilgrims tripped and fell while those behind continued to push forward, government front man Amit Chandola said.
Thousands of people had converged on the river banks for the prayer ceremony in the temple-filled town at the foothills of the Himalayas where the Ganges enters the sprawling plains of northern India. Haridwar is about 300 miles southwest of Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state.
Chandola said police had recovered 16 bodies from the site, and that about 50 injured people were taken to a nearby hospital.
Hundreds of thousands of Hindu pilgrims visit Haridwar every year for bathing in the Ganges, which they believe will cleanse them of sins and free them from the cycle of life and rebirth.
Stampedes often occur at Hindu pilgrimage sites, where authorities are unable to cope with the rush of devotees.
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11/09/2011 00:00 ||
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Liberia's Nobel-crowned president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was poised to win a second term Tuesday in a run-off marked by low turnout following a deadly shooting and her rival's boycott call.
Amnesia Amnesty International called for a shooting in which four opposition supporters were killed Monday to be probed, casting the shadow of Liberia's bloody past over the west African country's second post-war polls.
Sirleaf's challenger Winston Tubman cried foul after trailing Sirleaf in last month's first round but US President Barack Why can't I just eat my waffle? Obama dismissed his fraud concerns as baseless and scolded him over his boycott call.
Whether heeding Tubman's call or shielding from a repeat of Monday's deadly incident, voters turned out in small numbers for an election that looked certain to return the 73-year-old Sirleaf.
"I have come to vote but I am not happy for what happened yesterday, after all we are all Liberian and no one should be happy seeing other Liberians being killed," said Rita Queegbay, 39, one of only about 30 people at the Duport Road polling station.
Sirleaf's fellow Liberian Nobel laureate Leymah Gbowee turned out to vote, saying the election was a "defining moment" for her country's fragile democracy, just eight years after the end of a long and brutal war.
"Liberians lived in fear for so many years and today people, regardless of the number of people ... have defied fear and intimidation and stepped out to vote," she told AFP.
During a protest called by Tubman on Monday, at least four of his supporters were rubbed out following festivities that broke out with riot police when the rally was prevented from turning into a march.
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11/09/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
From what I have heard and read of this matter, Tubman sounds like, "I can't win, so I'm going to take my marbles and go home." Liberia can't afford this kind of behavior.
[Bangla Daily Star] Two friends died and four fell sick after drinking poisonous liquor at Rajbari Sadar upazila early Tuesday.
Drinking is like playing Russian roulette, over there.
The dear departed - Shibu Mollah, 20, and Siddique Moji, 21, of Dayalnagar along with some of their friends went to Suryanagar Railway Station in Mijanpur union and drank liquor, Bangla daily Prothom Alo reports quoting local and police sources.
Some regulation is actually a good thing. It's stopping them when they get overexcited that's tricky.
They took the liquor to share the joy of eid with each other and fell sick.
Siddique died on way to Faridpur Medical College and Hospital while Shibu on way to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital around 3:30am.
Nayan Mollah, Zahidul Sheikh, Robin and Setu-four of their friends who also drank the liquor admitted to Faridpur Medical College and Hospital.
Ali Haider, officer-in-charge of Rajbari Sadar Police Station, said they preliminary suspected that the victims died drinking poisonous liquor.
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[Iran Press TV] The British government is to allow homosexual couples to hold civil ceremonies in church, as the equalities minister, Lynne Featherstone, lifts the ban on 5 December.
Despite likely opposition from religious leaders and church groups, British Prime Minister David Cameron ... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ... has supported the decision.
Under the proposals, no church will be compelled to provide homosexual couples with services. Nevertheless, some officials are to take measures to ensure churches will not deny gay couples civil ceremonies.
Around 1,500 civil partnerships would take place in churches after the ban is lifted.
The proposals have raised great concerns among the Christian community as the Church of England has announced that it would not bless homosexual couples.
Offering services to same-sex couples faced opposition when it was first proposed, with the then Bishop of Bradford, the Rt Rev David James, telling politicians in the House of Lords it would blur the distinction with marriage.
Furthermore, the Church of England proposed that the government should authorize "each religious tradition to resolve these matters in accordance with its own tradition."
Under the scheme, every individual clergy should seek the approval of the whole denomination before asking parish churches to provide homosexual couples with civil ceremonies.
Moreover, the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales has expressed their opposition to the decision.
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#1
Is it just me, or does anyone else see a MORMON-STYLE schism soon to be created???
#4
Is it just me, or does anyone else see a MORMON-STYLE schism soon to be created???
Joe, you're a bit behind on news re: the Anglicans, I think. Here in the US, a number of high profile parishes have already left the Episcopal church and aligned with the more traditionally-minded Anglican Province of Nigeria. This occurred when the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops rejected the Windsor Covenant.
At the last Lambeth Conference the Nigerian primate and others from the global south made it clear they were seriously considering what their responsibilities call them to say and do in response to what they increasingly view as apostasy on the part of the US and UK churches. Since the global south includes a strong element of evangelican protestantism as well as the other tendencies within traditional Anglican theology and worship, they are unlikely to join those parishes who have moved towards Rome. Instead, I think we'll see that the next Lambeth Conference will bring open rebuke at a larger scale. These are churches who, for the most part, gather under physical threat of their lives from both Islamicists and in some parts of the world from repressive governments.
#5
They will NOT be able to use Catholic facilities at all. NY Archbishop and head of the US Catholic Bishops has already set a precedent. if the RC Church in England follows it.
#6
I have no problem with civil marriages among gays if the majority of a society agrees. I have a very large problem with a government forcing a church to take actions that are against the church's doctrine and practice. There is a critical difference between intervening to prevent active abuses (child marriage, for instance) and affirmatively imposing practices on a religious community.
The international medical team treating Venezuelas cancer-ridden leader Hugo Chávez believe that, absent a radical change in his condition, he is not likely to survive more than six months. According to sources that have provided me privileged information and documents from within the Venezuelan regime for many months, recent tests show that Chávezs cancer is accelerating and his chances of surviving until the October 2012 presidential elections are worsening.
This sobering prognosis is a dilemma for Caracas, where Chavista leaders are afraid that their fiercest followers will feel betrayed when they learn his claim to be cancer-free turns out to be a big lie. Meanwhile, Washington policy makers appear unprepared to deal with the chaos that will ensue as the most corrupt members of the Chávez regime plot to retain power at all costs and as the state-run economy collapses.
Chávez wants his people to believe that he was cured months ago and that recent visits to Cuba have been to confirm his miraculous recovery. In fact, his physical deterioration is advancing faster than doctors had expected.
Despite this grave situation, Chávez has insisted on receiving only light doses of chemotherapy to avoid long absences from the political stage during this precarious period. Under his desperate plan, Chávezs team will announce short vacations and rest breaks, during which he really will be receiving treatment at a specialized medical facility that has been installed recently at the presidential retreat on the island of La Orchila.
These latest revelations are consistent with months of reporting from inside sources. What began as an aggressive prostate cancer more than a year ago had spread to his lymphatic system, colon and bones even before Chávez agreed to seek treatment.
#1
The ego of Chavez was or is his undoing. He must have control of everything. Reminds me of Al-Gaddafi. In denial. Fearful and left with an unfulfilled burned out shell of a man. So he has family and friends who control everything. They will scatter or fight for control among themselves. The people supported him not his family. Things are very bad in Venezuela now.
Should he die the elections will be postponed, perhaps indefinitely. This will allow family and friends to manage their situation for themselves, not for their people. The end is near for Chavez. Then for his family and friends the question is when.
#5
Chavista leaders are afraid that their fiercest followers will feel betrayed when they learn his claim to be cancer-free turns out to be a big lie.
Freeze-dry him. He'll still be able to do photo-ops.
In the run-up to the international climate negotiations in Durban later this month, China has responded to efforts to ban the trading of widely discredited HFC-23 offsets by threatening to release huge amounts of the potent industrial chemical into the atmosphere unless other nations pay what amounts to a climate ransom.
China's threat comes after the European Union and other nations moved to ban HFC-23 credits from internal carbon markets in recognition of the perverse incentives created by these credits under the UN Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The vast amounts paid for HFC-23 offsets have led factories in China and elsewhere to manufacture far more HCFC-22 and its HFC-23 by-product than necessary, just to maximize the amounts paid to destroy HFC-23 through the UN-backed carbon trading scheme. And if China goes through with its threat, and nothing much happens, a lot of western schemers 'gonna have a lot of 'splainin' to do'.
#1
This is how they repay us for letting them do our manufacturing. They might think twice, though, if our leaders had the balls to slap some tariffs on them.
The Tesuque Pueblo Tribal Council has decided to ask all residents of a tribal-owned and paid for mobile home community for proof of U.S. citizenship or proper immigration documentation.
Under New Mexico law, illegal immigrants do not have to show they are legally in the U.S. to rent housing. However, tribes have authority over who they permit to live on tribal lands, as long as their housing is not federally funded. They may legally exclude non-tribal persons.
#2
Any random grouping can form their own 'tribe.' The trick for any tribe is to sign a treaty with the federal government. By the way, that has to have been done at least a century before anyone now living was born.
State Issue 2 spiraled to defeat by a 2-1 margin Tuesday night, but that might not be the last time Republicans try to curb union power. At issue were recently passed changes made in Ohio laws governing unions of public employees: Public employees would have had to pay at least 15 percent of their health-care premiums and 10 percent of their retirement and would be compensated on merit. They would not have been allowed to strike and would have been heavily penalized if they did.
Riding high after the GOP successes of the 2010 election, Republicans might have felt they had a mandate from the voters, analysts said, but they seriously underestimated the counterpunch unions could still deliver. Unions proved they have heft, contributing $30.6 million -- four times the amount of their opponents -- to defeat the issue. Ohio state media went out of their way to say nothing about what was really at stake in this issue.
Unfortunately, the parties on each side of the issue also went out of their way to say nothing useful. Had I not been reading about it elsewhere I would not have known.
The issue goaded unions to take action like in no other time in recent memory, assembling a fierce team of 35 field offices that claimed 17,000 volunteers amid a sea of 350,000 union members statewide. This year's spade work will help the unions to get out the vote in next year's presidential race, said the president of the Akron Education Association which represents 1,700 teachers.
"Organized labor is not going to forget," said Paul Hlynsky, president of the Akron Fraternal Order of Police. Whatever you say, Ohio disorganized taxpayers are not going to cough up whatever public unions think they deserve. Unlike the federal government, Ohio is obligated to balance its budget. The gravy train has left the station. Hello, layoffs.
#1
...meanwhile the resources expended in Ohio will not be unavailable for the election next year. The members in Ohio should look forward to a nice dues increase in the near future.
#4
-- Ohio Tea Party seemed to be AWOL on this issue.
-- The players, mechanisms, and memes that will be in action between now and the next election day are lining up:
---Public unions
---"Give a dog a bad name & hang him." - This worked very well on defeating Issue 2 and is now being used to work over Herman Cain.
--- Saturate the media with lies & distortions
--- An electorate that doesn't want to pay for government expenditures, but does want the government to spend, spend, spend: aka the Free Lunch Party
-- GOPs chances for an real success in 2012 look a lot dimmer today.
#6
But then, if voters aren't willing to read these ballot issues for themselves so they can make up their own minds instead of just listening to the soundbites on TV, this is what they deserve.
#8
I Am flat out sick of this extortion racket called "public sector" unions. Its racketeering and should be illegal. RICO statutes should apply to the government as well as the governed.
[Dawn] Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi ...current Italian prime minister, known for his plain (for a European politician) speaking and his liking for hookers a third his age or less... 's future hung by a thread on Tuesday after the embattled leader was hit by a rash of defections in parliament that put his ruling coalition in a minority.
A vote on Italia's 2010 public accounts, a precondition for the approval of future budgets, was passed by 308 votes in favour and none against with one formal abstention but 321 deputies refused to take part in the vote.
The absolute majority in Italia's 630-seat parliament is 316 votes.
A sombre Berlusconi could be seen in parliament immediately after the vote consulting a list of votes cast and he later left for his office nearby.
The result leaves Berlusconi's centre-right coalition effectively with no mandate to pass the ambitious reforms needed to rescue Italia's finances.
Borrowing rates hit new records after the vote indicating investor fears, with the yield on 10-year bonds reaching 6.7 per cent and the spread between Italian and German benchmark bond yields widening to a new high of 4.9 per cent.
"The government no longer has a majority in this chamber," Pier Luigi Bersani, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, said after the vote.
Addressing Berlusconi, he added: "Hand in your resignation.""We have a problem with credibility with this government. This government is no longer able to face the situation and confront it," he said.
The premier's main coalition partner had called for his resignation ahead of the vote, with a nervous Europe watching on as political consultations also continued in crisis-hit Greece over the formation of a new cabinet.
"We have asked him to step aside," Northern League party leader Umberto Bossi, a long-term ally of Berlusconi from the early 1990s, told news hounds.
Global markets were focused on the political crisis playing out in Italia, the third-biggest economy in the eurozone, while European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... ministers held talks in Brussels in which they voiced concern about the situation.
"We're in the eye of the global storm... Italia needs international credibility," business daily Il Sole 24 Ore said in an editorial.
In Brussels, Austria warned Italia was too big to bail out, saying it could not rely on "help from outside" because of the size of its economy.
Britannia and Sweden meanwhile led calls by non-euro EU members for eurozone countries to move fast with a convincing firewall to stop crisis contagion.
Finland said the Italian government should stop making "empty promises".
The combination of Italia's low growth rate and 1.9-trillion euro ($2.6-trillion) debt has fanned investor alarm that it could be the next victim of Europe's debt crisis even though its deficit is relatively low.
A defiant Berlusconi on Monday dismissed talk of his possible resignation as "baseless" and warned against calls for the creation of a unity government to fight the crisis, saying it would be "the opposite of democracy."
Although the current political picture in Italia is far from clear, the idea that Berlusconi, a dominant feature in Italian politics for almost two decades, could step down is no longer taboo, including among his supporters.
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11/09/2011 00:00 ||
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From a blog comment on the fix Italy is in now: Italy has the third largest sovereign bond market in the world, after the US and Japan. However, unlike US and Japan, Italy cannot print its own money. At 125% debt to GDP, Italy is already in a debt trap. At current 6mth yield of 6%, Italy needs to maintain a primary surplus of 7.5% just to keep debt to GDP stable, at zero growth. That is just impossible
[Dawn] A former policeman on Tuesday did away with himself after killing his aunt and her four children in a land dispute in the Rajanpur district's town of Kot Mithan, DawnNews reported.
According to sources, Aamir injured a policeman deputed at the Khwaja Ghulam Fareed shrine and snatched his rifle and then went to his aunt's house and opened fire, killing her and her four children.
He also injured her neighbour who came out of his house after hearing gunshots.
Aamir later shot himself and was struck down in his prime. The injured neighbour was shifted to the Sheikh Zaid Hospital.
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[Dawn] Gunmen rubbed out three Hindus in a remote southern Pak town in a dispute over a dancing girl with a local Moslem tribe, officials said on Tuesday.
The incident took place on Monday in Chak town near Shikarpur city, 400 kilometres north of Bloody Karachi.
"Two men riding a cycle of violenceshot up a clinic, killing three Hindu doctors and wounding a paramedic seriously," Pakistain Hindu Council chief Ramesh Kumar told AFP.
He said the dispute had erupted between the Hindu community and the local Baban Khan Bhayo tribe after local Hindu boys brought a Moslem dancing girl to the area.
"Police raided the house where the girl was dancing and placed in long-term storage four boys," said Kumar.
He said that the issue had been taken to the local assembly of elders to be resolved peacefully after the ongoing Eid holidays, but before that could happen the shooting took place, he said.
Kumar said the Hindu community had sought protection from police after receiving anonymous calls threatening them with "serious consequences".
Sindh police Inspector General Mushtaq Shah also confirmed the explanation for the incident and the casualties.
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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.
FORT MYERS, Fla., Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Authorities in Florida say a woman 
[Dawn] A stampede killed 16 Hindu pilgrims and injured about 50 during a religious ceremony Tuesday on the banks of the Ganges River in northern India, an official said.
[Bangla Daily Star] Two friends died and four fell sick after drinking poisonous liquor at Rajbari Sadar upazila early Tuesday.
The British government is to allow homosexual couples to hold civil ceremonies in church, as the equalities minister, Lynne Featherstone, lifts the ban on 5 December.
The international medical team treating Venezuelas cancer-ridden leader Hugo Chávez believe that, absent a radical change in his condition, he is not likely to survive more than six months. According to sources that have provided me privileged information and documents from within the Venezuelan regime for many months, recent tests show that Chávezs cancer is accelerating and his chances of surviving until the October 2012 presidential elections are worsening.
Italian Prime Minister 
[Dawn] Gunmen 
