[Dhaka Tribune] Afghan officials gave up hope on Saturday of finding any survivors from a landslide in the remote northeast, putting the possible death toll at more than 2,100, as rescuers turned their attention to helping the over 4,000 people displaced.
Officials expressed concern the unstable hillside above the site of the disaster may cave in again, threatening the homeless as well as the UN and local rescue teams that have arrived in Badakhshan province, which borders Tajikistan.
"More than 2,100 people from 300 families are all dead," Naweed Forotan, a spokesman for the Badakhshan provincial governor, told Reuters.
On the other hand, officials later said that a maximum of about 500 people died in the landslide that engulfed a village.
"The first figure that we announced was obtained from local people, not from our technical team," Gul Mohammad Bedar, the deputy governor of Badakhshan province, told AFP.
"We think the dead toll will not rise beyond 500."
Many villagers were at Friday prayers in two mosques when they were entombed by a tide of debris, and a second landslide hit people who had rushed to assist those in need.
Rescuers abandoned the search for survivors on Saturday, with officials saying 300 people were now confirmed dead.
"Based on our reports, 300 houses are under the debris," Badakhshan governor Shah Waliullah Adeeb told reporters at the scene. "We have a list of around 300 people confirmed dead.
"We cannot continue the search and rescue operation anymore, as the houses are under metres of mud. We will offer prayers for the victims and make the area a mass grave."
However, the BBC estimates the death count at 2,500 and the Guardian says 2,700 and more people have been affected by the disaster.
Villagers and a few dozen police, equipped with only basic digging tools, resumed their search when daylight broke but it soon became clear there was no hope of finding survivors buried in up to 100metres of mud.
"Seven members of my family were here, four or five of them were killed ... I am also half alive, what can I do?" said an elderly woman, her hair covered in a pink shawl.
The UN mission in Afghanistan said the focus was now on the more than 4,000 people displaced, either directly as a result of Friday's landslide or as a precautionary measure from villages assessed to be at risk. Their main needs are water, medicine, food and emergency shelter, said Ari Gaitanis, a spokesman from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.
The impoverished area, dotted with villages of mud-brick homes nestled in valleys beside bare slopes, has been hit by several landslides in recent years.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2014 00:00 ||
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2,000 dead, but the death toll shouldn't rise beyond 500?
Obama math.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/04/2014 4:12 Comments ||
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Well, it'd be 2000 if they could tie it to the Tea Party NATO somehow in order to file a claim. Guess they've been unable to tag that one, so the number drops to 500. Afghanistan, the US, the integrity of the reporting process is about the same.
At Saudi Arabia's northeastern military base of Hafr al-Batin, the kingdom's armed forces held a massive military parade to mark the conclusion of a major exercise codenamed "Abdullah's Sword." A surprise feature of the parade was the inclusion of two Chinese DF-3 missiles, known as the CSS-2 in NATO nomenclature. These missiles were supplied to Saudi Arabia in 1987 and have long been based in the mountainous desert well south of Riyadh, from where they can target Iran. Today is the first time they have been seen in public.
The main guest at the parade was Crown Prince Salman, the Saudi defense minister; other top guests included King Hamad of Bahrain and Sheikh Muhammad bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, the lead emirate of the UAE. Also present was Pakistani army chief Gen. Raheel Sharif, who sat next to Prince Mitab, the minister of the Saudi National Guard and senior son of the king.
Both Saudi missile systems could probably be adapted relatively easily to carry Pakistani nuclear warheads.
Apart from reflecting Saudi suspicions of Iran, the parade and guest list offer still more evidence of Riyadh's lack of confidence in U.S. foreign policy. Reports from last month's summit between President Obama and King Abdullah indicate it was a difficult meeting. Prince Muqrin, the newly appointed deputy crown prince, later told an American visitor that Obama's trip provided "the opportunity to clarify a number of important issues," a formulation that suggests there was little agreement.
When the liquid-fueled DF-3s were delivered in 1987, Riyadh assured Washington that the relatively inaccurate missiles were not equipped with nuclear warheads. Last year, reports emerged that the kingdom had bolstered its strategic missile force with more modern Chinese solid-fueled DF-21s; Washington agreed to allow the deal so long as various components enabling the missiles to carry nuclear warheads were removed. Today's parade did not include DF-21s, though some of the support vehicles trailing the DF-3s may have been more suited to the newer missiles. Both Saudi missile systems could probably be adapted relatively easily to carry Pakistani nuclear warheads.
We have joked here at Rantburg that Pakistan's nukes really belong to Saudi Arabia...
Using military displays to send diplomatic messages can spur responses in kind from other states. But for Iran, any counter-display could prompt more pressure to include the regime's much larger missile force in the nuclear negotiations. For Washington, the Saudi display is a reminder that Riyadh remains profoundly concerned about the course of events in the region. As the dominance of U.S.-supplied equipment in the parade indicated, Washington is still the kingdom's preferred security partner, but the relationship continues to show signs of being frayed.
[Dhaka Tribune] Law enforcers yesterday rescued a businessman from Jurain of the capital, two days into his abduction from Bangshal of Old Dhaka, and tossed in the calaboose Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! five alleged kidnappers.
In another incident, detectives arrested three persons from Jatrabari for their alleged involvement in the abduction of Narayanganj businessman Saiful Islam who was rescued on Friday night.
Moreover, Jatrabari police rescued a schoolboy, 13 hours after he had been kidnapped from Narayanganj.
Monirul Islam, joint commissioner of the DMP, at a press briefing said police conducted a raid in Jurain area around 5am and rescued Abdul Hakim, 50, a spare parts trader, from a house.
After his abduction on Thursday, the kidnappers had demanded Tk3 lakh as ransom from the family members, the police official added.
The police team arrested Mohammad Rana, 25, Shamsuddin Ahmed, 24, and Mohammad Hridoy, 20, from the place on charges of abducting Hakim. Based on their information, the law enforcers later nabbed Nishi Begum, 26, and Bhagya Rani, 23, from Bangshal and Shyampur, he added.
"We recently found that at least six abductors' gangs are active in the capital. They have female members who trap people by developing fake love affair or working as house helps," said Monirul.
At the briefing, Hakim said on Thursday afternoon he had gone out from his Mokimbazar house and reached Bangshal intersection on a rickshaw. As soon as it stopped, some youths on a microbus intercepted him and forcefully took him inside the vehicle.
"They blindfolded me and took me to a house. From my phone they forced me to call my younger brother Matin and ask to send them Tk10,000 via bKash. Later they demanded Tk3 lakh. My brother initially gave them Tk10,000," he said.
The victim said the abductors had tortured him with hammers. He also showed the news hounds several injury marks on his body.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Alamo, Davy was wondering if Buck was okay. He suspected he wasn't... the DB police yesterday arrested three persons including a couple in connection with the abduction of Saiful from Narayanganj. The arrestees are -- Nurjahan Begum, her husband Yunus Ali and a bKash agent of Jatrabari Md Akash.
He was kidnapped around 10pm on Thursday from Sanarpar of Narayanganj. Abductors left him on a road at Savar's Nabinagar on Friday night with his eyes blindfolded and hands tied with ropes. Later, RAB members brought him before the media.
After his appearance, the DB conducted raids at Jatrabari and made the arrests.
Monirul said: "Akash made the arrangement of money transaction which was demanded from the victim's family. All the arrestees were involved in the abduction," he claimed.
Police said they would interrogate the arrestees to know about the abduction plan, execution and the cause.
Schoolboy rescued Ten-year-old schoolboy Abir Alam, who was reportedly kidnapped from Fatulla in Narayanganj, was rescued from the city's Jatrabari area on Friday night.
Police arrested Ismat Ali, 25, Jabbar Ali, 35, Monir Hossain, 25, and Meher Ali, 28, in this connection.
Abir was rescued from a house at Mominbagh of Konabari. On Friday morning, Ismat, who is a relative of Abir, kidnapped him alluring a trip to Dhaka.
Abir is a fifth grader of Pagla High School in Fatulla.
Sub-Inspector of Fatulla model cop shoppe Mizanur Rahman said the abductors had demanded Tk5 lakh from his mother Ayesha Begum following the abduction. Police with technological assistance tracked the phone and arrested Ismat.
The three others were arrested around 11pm upon primary information extracted from Ismat.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2014 00:00 ||
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Police arrest 12 abductors, rescue 2 in Dhaka
Well, those 2 rescued abductors must be very important...or maybe they were police informants...either way, I'm confused...
Venezuela will raise the minimum wage by 30% on 1 May, President Nicolas Maduro has announced. He said he would also raise pensions by the same amount. The minimum wage would go up from 3,270 bolivars ($520; "310) to 4,252 bolivars. The increase is below the level of annual inflation, which official figures put at 56.2% for 2013.
The announcement comes after almost three months of mass protests against Mr Maduro's government triggered by rising inflation, shortages of some basic goods and a high crime rate. In an address to workers from different key sectors, Mr Maduro said he hoped that "by the end of the year, we will be choking off and overcoming (...) inflation".
The increase comes just months after the government raised the minimum wage by 10%.
Critics say that while the new minimum salary amounts to $675 at the government-set exchange rate, it adds up to little over $67 at the black market rate. They say strict currency controls have only increased the shortage of dollars available in the country and driven up their price further.
Opposition leader Henrique Capriles said the 30% raise was "insufficient" and that a real improvement would only be achieved if wages were lifted above the level of inflation.
The president also did not rule out another raise in the last trimester of the year, at which point he promised to "re-assess" wages.
#2
Watch carefully America as everything goes up , this is a lesson that raising the minimum wage doesn't help, Liberals take note.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/04/2014 4:09 Comments ||
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Now that's just mean RJ, you know if liberals could learn, they'd not be liberals. You shouldn't make fun of their mental health issues like that. :p
#5
Seattle is raising minimum wage to $15 over the next few years, the Dem mayor decreed it earlier this week.
Posted by: USN, Ret ||
05/04/2014 10:04 Comments ||
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Cause central planning didn't work before because the 'right'* people were not in charge. /sarc
*the centralization and accumulation of power means that there never will be the 'right' people. "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" - Sir John Acton.
Several dozen Russian planes including what appeared to be strategic bombers and fighter jets have been spotted in the sky above the Moscow-controlled peninsula of Crimea, witnesses and experts said.
Why not? The Russians own it now. It's like the USAF overflying Nevada...
According to Russian media, President Vladimir Putin is poised to visit Crimea on Friday after overseeing the main military parade on Red Square when Russia celebrates its victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
A local aviation expert told AFP on Sunday that he had sighted a number of planes over the peninsula's main city of Simferopol on Saturday, including supersonic heavy strategic bombers and heavy military transport aircraft. The expert said he had also seen refuelling tankers and MiG-29 jets.
Another expert, Alexei Savich, who was shown footage of the aircraft, said a Sukhoi Su-34 fighter jet could be seen among the planes. He also identified the tankers and military transport planes.
Many local residents have also seen the aircraft rumble over the peninsula including in Simferopol and the neighbouring town of Bakhchisarai.
"It was a bit scary," local resident Arzy Khaibulaeva told AFP. "Children were frightened."
She said the planes were flying low and some were seen re-fuelling in mid-air.
The Russian defence ministry declined to comment on Sunday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/04/2014 11:26 ||
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Once again, iff the Bammer = USA + NATO-EU = Western JudeoChristianity won't make a move to preemptively? prevent or otherwise block any penetration of OWG Caliphate, Jihad, + Nuke-happy Hard Boyz into Europe + Caucasus, PUTIN + RUSSIA = RUSSIAN/EASTERN ORTHDOX CHRISTIANITY WILL ACT ON ITS OWN WIDOUT THE US + NATO-EU, BY + FOR ITSELF-N-ONLY-ITSELF.
* FYI TOPIX > OBAMA INACTION LEADS TO WAR.
Ukraine-vs-East/South-China Seas, ITS [ANTI-US US?]OWG-GLOBALISM-VS-GREAT-GAME???
[DAWN] Upscale Jinnah Super Market is abuzz with suspicion that a moral brigade is out after discovering that someone had disfigured faces of women on a few advertisement billboards on the College Road.
Women advertising a beauty care salon and summer fabrics offended the unknown vigilantes who either scratched or blackened their faces.
Neither the advertising agencies nor their clients reported the acts of vandalism to the police or the Capital Development Authority (CDA).
"There is no use involving the police or anybody else," said advertiser Sohail Shah, adding that "the best thing is to replace the ad before the client complaints".
However, alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk... religious elements are suspected to be behind the defacing of ads.
Sobia Amir, owner of the salon, said her "well-wishers" thought it was the act of "right wing students".
"Madressah students usually do such things. But Islamabad has seen very few such incidents," said Iskander Khan, who owns a shopping plaza overlooking College Road, which leads to a girls college.
There are two madressahs in the vicinity and seminary students are often seen strolling on College Road.
While the management of Jamia Fareedia, located at some distance in sector E-7, refused to comment on the defacing incident, a religious student on a stroll said there should be a complete ban on the display of "bare faces" in Islamabad, which many classify as "a liberal city".
"I do not know who defaced the advertisements but they should not be there in the first place," he said pointing to the billboards hanging from the electricity poles.
"These pictures are immoral and give rise to many ills in the society."
Hafiz Mohammad Fahim, a holy man of the Madressah Taleemul Koran situated in Jinnah Super grounds, denied that his students were behind the act of vandalism but praised it at the same time.
"We are against displaying women like this -- and feel worst for the women who pose for them willingly," he told Dawn.
"Though the defacing would have been done by some pious person, we are against using illegal methods to convey the right message."
His words echoed the speeches made at a recent meeting of the Milli Yekjehti Council (National Solidarity Council). There religious leaders of all sects expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... over "vulgarity and obscenity spilling over from the media onto the streets, and spreading".
They traced the unhealthy trend to "a conspiracy by the West to weaken Pakistain by promoting a liberal lifestyle".
The telltale vandalism in Islamabad was reminiscent of such acts witnessed in the northwest Pakistain and in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... years ago.In 2006, religious activists had pulled down billboards in the then Northwest Frontier Province after the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal-led provincial government warned of action against advertisements featuring women.
And around the same time, the nazim ...small time big shot, the chief elected official of a local government in Pakistan, such as a district, tehsil, union council, or village council... (mayor) of Karachi Naimatullah Khan, who belonged to Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... , had ordered that all advertisements featuring women needed a certificate of decency from his office.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2014 00:00 ||
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[The Peninsula] A massive blaze broke out in a firecracker factory Saturday in central India, killing at least 15 people, local media said.
CNN-IBN and other television stations reported that the fire began as people were working at the manufacturing plant in Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh state.
The reports said more than a dozen people had suffered injuries and were in hospital.
CNN-IBN television said that the corpse count was expected to rise.
No further details were immediately available.
Many Indian cracker factories are makeshift, sometimes even in people's homes, and they often employ children.
There are fatal accidents nearly every year as people toil in congested, unsafe conditions.
Factories start producing crackers months before the nation's biggest Hindu festival, Diwali, or Festival of Lights, when people set off fireworks in celebration.
Diwali falls in either October or November each year, depending on the cycle of the moon.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2014 00:00 ||
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The article is from February before the whole mess with sanctions and the Ukraine blew up. Now ULA and LM are lobbying for domestic production of the Russian rocket engine used the the Atlas 5 rocket. This is also the subject brought out in SpaceX's recent lawsuit against ULA/LM/Boeing/USAF/and the black hats who need the rockets. US considers launching production of Russian rocket engines
The US Air Force is studying the possibility of launching the licensed production of Russian RD-180 rocket engines in the United States. According to the Space News weekly, the US will begin assessing the licensed production of such engines in the next few weeks.
Life for the Energomash Corporation
The Russian-made RD-180 rocket engine is one of the few high-tech Russian products that are in demand in the United States. The engines are manufactured by the Energomash Russian power engineering corporation. In the United States, the RD Amross joint venture adapts the engines for use in the heavy Atlas-V launch systems.
RD-180 is one half of the RD-170 four-nozzle engine, which was designed for the first stage of the Energiaheavy-lift expandable launch system decades ago.
In 1996, the RD-180 project won the tender for developing and delivering the first stage engine for an updated PH Atlas rocket, manufactured by the US Lockheed Martin Corporation. The development of the engine, based on the series-produced RD-170/171, helped Energomash survive the hardest years for Russian rocket-building companies, - from the mid-1990s to the mid-zeros. An agreement was signed in 1997 on the delivery to the United States of 101 RD-180 engines until the end of 2018. By late last year, Energomash had supplied to the US more than 70 rocket engines for 10 million dollars each, which accounted for a sizeable part of the corporations revenues, - more than a third, according to some estimates. Given that the supply of engines to the home market yielded hardly any profit at the time, it is safe to claim that the RD-180 programme kept the corporation out of bankruptcy.
Political complications
The agreement with the United States has been performed by 75%, however, the US is not about to stop using its Atlas rockets, which will call for extending the agreement. But Russia considered the cessation of deliveries of RD-180 engines to the United States in summer 2013 since the US has been using its Atlas-V launch systems to place defence-related devices into orbit. Although no decision was made to that end, the very fact that Russia considered the stopping of supplies prompted the US to overhaul its space launch programme. According to one option, Washington could launch the series licensed production of RD-180 in the United States. But the option obviously suffers from a couple of flaws, namely the cost of the engine is estimated to grow by approximately 50% and, secondly, a licensed agreement per se and the supply of key engine components from Russia call for trust-based relations between the two countries.
The full-cycle production of RD-180 in the United States would prove a guarantee against any risks, of course, but Russia is hardly prepared to accept that and, besides, the expenditures will be comparable to the spending on the designing of a new engine.
But nor will Russia stand to gain by ending the deliveries of the RD-180 engine to the US, since Washington will find some other engine to replace this one sooner than Energomash will be able to raise funds to survive. The Russian space programme could keep Energomash afloat only by increasing the annual number of space launches to six or seven despite the fact that some 30 rockets blast off from Russian space centres every year. But the situation could improve due to the recently launched reform of the space industry, whereby Russia is due to launch a lot more rockets in the interests of Russian customers, both civilian and military.
Anybody want to place odds on this ending up in the very political WTO and the US losing?
It's a nasty problem.
The easy solution is to use Delta rockets (Boeing) for the big jobs (Since SpaceX hasn't flown it's F9Heavy yet) and a mixture of Delta's and Falcon9s for the rest of the launches after ULA runs out of RD-180s for the Atlas.
To make matters worse it is looking in arguments made after the SpaceX lawsuit that if the Atlas rockets are only used for the key launches ULA will not be profitable and in deep trouble. ULA is hampered by it's unique creation out of LM and Boeing rocket divisions at the behest of the AirForce. It has some very strange constraining rules on what it can and can't do in regards to LM, Boeing, RD-Amross and PW. It's rules could be enough to kill its ability to respond to this crisis created out of two current primary factors. The first factor is the Russian Sanctions (Ukraine). The second trying to avoid competition by what appears to casual outside observers to be shell game type maneuvers with the AirForce to avoid awarding any contracts for any EELV launches to SpaceX. This to keep it profitable for ULA? (the lawsuit will determine the accuracy of this viewpoint) The judge has issued an injunction against buying RD-180 parts and kit as the contact person in Russia is named in Obama's Sanctions as an individual to be sanctioned.
It's complicated further as the Atlas and Falcon9 are Man Rated and the Atlas is nuke rated but the Delta is not Man Rated. The two competitors to SpaceX for commercial manned space flight are being designed to fly on an Atlas. The big SLS booster intended for Mars and beyond manned flight by NASA is currently playing with using RD series Russian engines so only SpaceX has fully domestic production of a man rated craft.
Next year the SpaceX Falcon Heavy should launch with it's ability to lift 53 metric tons to Low Earth Orbit (about 2/3s a Saturn 5 moon rocket's and more than 2 times the Space Shuttle's throw weight). It will be Man Rated and could take a craft to Mars... but Elon Musk (SpaceXs owner) would prefer to wait for his BFRs (Big F Rockets) on the drawing board. One, planed to be reusable and having Methane/Oxygen engines has a throw weight of between 300mt and 600mt - about 2X to 4X the largest's disposable Government designed SLS Rocket. It is being specified to take 100 astronauts at a time to Mars as Elon Musk wants to colonize Mars.
#1
Here's a fun fact for ya to consider if you're going to throw around terms like "man rated:"
* The shuttle was never man rated.
* The Atlas, Titan, and Saturn rockets used in Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo weren't man-rated by modern regulatory definitions of the term.
* Only by writing the regulations to conform to the rocket could the Ares 1 have even remotely been considered man-rated. Same for the Ares IV. Their thrust termination systems would be problematic.
There will be no WTO involvement, national security is specifically exempted from WTO review. Article XXI: the security exception in states that a country can not be stopped from taking any action it considers necessary to protect its essential security interests; actions "relating to the traffic in arms, ammunition and implements of war and such traffic in other goods and materials as is carried on directly for the purpose of supplying a military establishment (or) taken in time of war or other emergency in international relations." The reality of the situation is NPO Energomash has ULA by the you know what while at the same the US Defense Department has NPO Energomash in a huge bind. If the US DoD ever decides to throw ULA under the bus Energomash is in big trouble.
[IsraelTimes] Participants in a Paleostinian wedding procession which took place in Jerusalem's Old City on Thursday with police authorization displayed the flags of Hezbollah, Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, and al-Qaeda alongside those of Paleostine, Walla news reported.
According to the report the crowd also chanted anti-Israeli slogans as it passed through the streets.
Local resident Sarit Applebaum told the news website that such incidents were becoming increasingly common.
"Every few days there is a procession of some kind, which is usually followed by rock-throwing at our homes," she said. Applebaum added that such rallies prevented Jewish residents from leaving their homes for long hours due to safety concerns.
"Sometimes we simply cannot return home and have to remain outside," she said.
Soft jihad the easy way. One of these years Israel will finally put her foot down on such blatant provocations.
Jerusalem's Old City has recently become a hotspot of Israeli-Paleostinian festivities, with riots often occurring in or around the Temple Mount as Paleostinians protest Israelis visiting the compound, which houses the al-Aqsa mosque.
Last week Jordan's foreign ministry summoned Israeli ambassador Daniel Nevo to protest Israel's actions in the Temple Mount. Jordanian officials protested what they called a "gross breach of international law and of the peace agreement between the two nations."
They accused Israel of allowing myrmidon Israeli Jews to enter the compound and of attacking Mohammedan worshipers at the al-Aqsa mosque.
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.
