[France24] Libya's newly elected Prime Minister Mustafa Abushagur was dismissed by the country's congress on Sunday after members passed a vote of no confidence. The vote came after politicians rejected Abushagur's nominations for a new government.
Libya's parliament on Sunday passed a no-confidence vote in the newly-elected prime minister, removing him from his post, in the latest blow to stability in the war-ravaged country.
Mustafa Abushagur was Libya's first elected prime minister after last year's overthrow of dictator Muammar Qadaffy ... who had more funny outfits than Louis XIV... that ended eight months of civil war.
He had 25 days from his appointment to form a Cabinet approved upon by parliament, but that deadline expired on Sunday as politicians moved to unseat him. The General National Congress voted 125 versus 44 in favor of removing him as prime minister, with 19 abstaining from voting.
Until a replacement can be nominated, management of Libya's government is in the hands of the legislature.
Abushagur represented an offshoot of the country's oldest anti-Qadaffy opposition movement, and was considered a compromise candidate acceptable to both liberals and Islamists.
But he failed to produce a list of ministers that could win the approval of enough politicians. After 40 years of Qadaffy's divide-and-rule tactics and the 2011 war, Libya's towns, tribes and regions are highly polarized. Many feel entitled to high government positions because of their losses in the war against Qadaffy, and are wary of any power wielded by their rivals.
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10/08/2012 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Members of Tunisia ruling Islamist party marched in the town of Sidi Bouzid, the birth place of the Arab Spring to support Ennahda party, after an anti-government protest demanded the removal of the regional governor
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BIRMINGHAM, England - Britain will have to keep cutting public spending to reduce the budget deficit, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Sunday, underlining the government's tough task of pulling the country out of recession while winning back waning public support.
Cameron cited the euro zone crisis in explaining the problems facing the British economy, comments which are likely to please the influential euroskeptic wing of his Conservatives as they gather for the party's annual conference.
"It is a very challenging situation, you only have to switch on your television set and look at what is happening in the euro zone. We have got many countries going into quite a deep recession, these are very difficult times," Cameron said.
An aide said the government was paving the way for the next phase of austerity rather than signaling bigger than planned measures, but economists say longer or deeper cuts look likely after a return to recession cast doubt over its deficit targets.
The next election in 2015 will be fought on the economy and how best to get the deficit, which peaked at 11 percent of the nation's annual economic output, under control. Cameron's Conservative-led coalition planned to all but erase the deficit by 2015 but has been forced to project two more years of cuts.
Underlying borrowing between April and August was a fifth higher than last year, suggesting that either bigger cuts or a further extension of austerity could be on the cards when the government updates its economic forecasts on December 5.
"We inherited a budget deficit at around 11 percent, it is down to 8 percent," Cameron told the BBC. Referring to this year, he added: "It is too early to say where they will end up."
Official figures in March predicted a fall to below 6 percent this year, a target which now looks uncertain. Abandoning the austerity plan would prove politically disastrous for the Conservatives, who staked their 2010 election campaign on it.
"The economy is healing. But it's a longer and harder road that we have to travel down," finance minister George Osborne told the Mail on Sunday. "There will have to be further cuts."
The Labour opposition has pulled ahead of the Conservatives due to public anger about the austerity drive, while support has dived for the junior coalition partner, the Liberal Democrats. Pollsters say Cameron will struggle to win an outright majority in 2015 unless the economy bounces back and the austerity plan starts to bear fruit.
Labour - which holds a 10 percentage point poll lead - and the Lib Dems want the wealthy to make a bigger contribution to reducing government borrowing.
But the Conservatives dismissed the idea of a tax on the wealthy - such as on expensive homes - and called for more cuts in welfare spending, comments likely to create further tension in an already uneasy coalition. In an effort to woo back middle class voters, Cameron also announced a freeze in a tax that pays for local services and a cap on rail fare increases.
"If we want to avoid cuts in things like hospitals and schools and the services that we all rely on, we have to look at things like the welfare budget," he said.
Beyond the economy, Cameron also faces problems in his center-right party, with some arguing he has not taken a tough enough line on the European Union and a few calling for a new leader, such as Boris Johnson, the Conservative London Mayor.
To pacify anti-EU Conservatives, Cameron threatened to use Britain's veto if the bloc tries to inflate its 2014-2020 budget. He suggested the EU should at some point split its budget into two - one for the euro zone and one for the countries outside the common currency, including Britain. Cameron used the veto last year to keep Britain out of a European fiscal and economic pact aimed at resolving the euro zone debt crisis.
"People in Europe know I mean what I say. I sat round that table - 27 countries, 26 of them signing up to a treaty - and I said this is not in Britain's interest," he said. "I don't care how much pressure you put on, I'm not signing, we are not having it. They know what I am capable of saying, no, and if I don't get a good deal I'll say no again."
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/08/2012 00:00 ||
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#2
And in Scotland 88% of the population receives government assistance of one sort or another. Cut Scotland, and likely the budget will be close to balanced.
#1
Healthy 60. Lenin died at 53, Stalin 74. Sportsman and active lifestyle. 20% of Russian women would marry him. He has put on a good show so far. He is the one to watch. Very large diverse nation. He will have his problems riding that bear but he will I believe.
A TSA agent convicted of stealing more than $800,000 worth of goods from travelers said this type of theft is commonplace among airport security. Almost 400 TSA officers have been fired for stealing from passengers since 2003.
Pythias Brown, a former Transportation Security Administration officer at Newark Liberty International Airport, spent four years stealing everything he could from luggage and security checkpoints, including clothing, laptops, cameras, Nintendo Wiis, video games and cash. Speaking publicly for the first time after being released after three years in prison, Brown told ABC News that he used the X-ray scanners to locate the most valuable items to snatch.
I could tell whether it was cameras or laptops or portable cameras or whatever kind of electronic was in the bag, he said.
Brown often worked alone, screening luggage behind the ticket counters. He was frequently told the overhead surveillance cameras, installed to prevent theft, were not working.
It was so easy, he said. I walked right out of the checkpoint with a Nintendo Wii in my hand. Nobody said a word.
With more electronics than any one individual could need, Brown began to sell the stolen items on eBay. At the time of his arrest, he was selling 80 cameras, video games and computers online.
Brown said the theft was comparable to an addiction. It was like being on drugs, he said. I was like, What am I doing? but the next day I was right back at it.
Brown was finally caught after selling a camera he stole from the luggage of a CNN producer. When he sold the camera on eBay, he forgot to remove the news networks logo stickers. I got complacent, he said.
But while Brown believes he might have been one of the worst thieves at the TSA, he imagines the agencys culture makes it easy for others to do the same. Many officers dont care about their work and complain about low pay and being treated badly, he claims, which prompts them to steal. To make it even easier to get away with, TSA managers also never search their employees bags.
The agency says it has a zero-tolerance policy for theft and terminates the contracts of all thieves within the TSA. In the past ten years, almost 400 TSA officers have been fired for stealing, 11 of which were fired this year.
ABCs interview with Brown highlights the extent of the dilemma passengers face when traveling with valuables. Brown is just one of many officers caught in the act of stealing goods worth thousands.
In February, 2011, two TSA officers were arrested for stealing $40,000 in cash from a checked bag in New Yorks John F. Kennedy Airport. Using an X-ray machine, the men found that the bag contained $170,000 and removed some of the money.
In the first two months of this year, a TSA baggage screener in Orlando was arrested for stealing valuables by hiding them in a laptop-sized hidden pocket in his jacket and selling the goods on Craigslist. And, a New Jersey-based agent stole $5,000 in cash from a passengers jacket as he was going through security. While in April, a Texas-based TSA officer stole eight iPads from checked bags, while another officer stole a $15,000 watch from a passenger at the Los Angeles International Airport in May.
It was very commonplace, very, Brown said, describing the frequency of theft within the TSA.
TSA is probably the worst personnel manager that we have in the entire federal government, said Rep. John Mica, chairman of the House Transportation Committee. It is an outrage to the public and, actually, to our aviation security system.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/08/2012 13:26 ||
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you dont professionalize unless you federalize.
[Dawn] Unwillingness of parents to immunise their children below five years of age against polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... has become a major issue for the local health and district authorities forcing them to join their heads to find out a solution to it.
The number of such children whose parents are reluctant to administer them with oral polio vaccine is over 2,000, who are vulnerable to attack of crippling disease.
After surfacing of two confirmed polio cases in the district this year the disease is posing a serious threat to thousands of children along with those whose parents are unwilling to vaccinate them.
"In the previous campaign launched last month the health department recorded 2,439 refusal cases and out of them 154 were covered during the three day activities," said an official. He said 827 children were covered during post-campaign catch-up activity while 1,458 children could not be vaccinated due to refusal by their parents.
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10/08/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Situation turned ugly at the Lahore General Hospital emergency department on Saturday when some people resorted to violence while protesting the death of a young woman and held doctors responsible for it.
The protesters told the media that Naureen Bibi (25) of Kacha Jail Road was "stable" when they shifted her to the hospital's emergency department after she fell unconscious at her house.
The hospital administration, on the other hand, claimed the agitators turned violent despite an assurance that the matter would be probed into. The enraged protesters smashed the hospital's windowpanes, furniture and some equipment in the emergency unit, besides occupying the facility for an hour which delayed treatment of some serious patients, the administration alleged.
Barbarians. It's because of this kind of behaviour that more patients die.
However, corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds... the dear departed woman's protesting relatives claimed they turned unruly when the on-duty doctors misbehaved with them and also subjected some of their family members to torture for agitating.
That sounds backward,somehow...
Witnesses said the situation remained tense at the emergency department for an hour, causing disruption in treatment of patients.
Some of whom will take their own turn to smash the nearest real estate, when their patient dies.
Later, senior police officials reached the hospital and the protesters dispersed.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Senate, Odius Sepulcher called for war against the Visigoths... in a statement an LGH front man said Naureen was brought to the emergency ward on Saturday afternoon in unconscious state and she died in spite of provision of treatment promptly.
He said PGMI Principal Prof Anjum Habib Vohra reached the spot and contacted Model Town SP, asking him to control the situation. The police got the emergency vacated after 45 minutes.
According to the front man, Prof Vohra had constituted a four-member committee to hold an inquiry into the incident comprising Prof Dr Ghiasun Nabi Tayyab, Prof Dr Syed Ali Haider, Dr Tanveer Anwar and Additional MS Dr Zia Ullah Cheema.
The principal told the doctors, nurses and paramedical staff of the hospital that action was recommended against the personnel manning the police post inside the hospital for not taking action against violent protesters. He said the number of coppers in the hospital would also be increased.
The front man said Model Town Division SP Malik Awais had assured the hospital's administration that legal action would be taken against the culprits and complete security would be provided to the doctors and other staff.
In a late-night development the police started the paperwork but haven't done much else against six people for damaging state property.
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10/08/2012 00:00 ||
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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.
Libya's newly elected Prime Minister Mustafa Abushagur was dismissed by the country's congress on Sunday after members passed a vote of no confidence. The vote came after 
[Dawn] Unwillingness of parents to immunise their children below five years of age against 
Situation turned ugly at the Lahore General Hospital emergency department on Saturday when some people resorted to violence while protesting the death of a young woman and held doctors responsible for it.
