A cult leader jailed for sex attacks on children escaped in a helicopter from a prison on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion on Monday, the regional administration said. Oooh! Oooh! I seen this movie! It has Jackie Chan in it, right?
Juliano Verbard, who was serving a 15-year term for rapes and sex assaults on children, and two of his jailed followers were hauled on board a chopper hijacked by three accomplices, said senior official Jean-Francois Clouseau Moniotte. "All our search procedures have been put into action to find them," said Clouseau Moniotte, who is chief of staff to Reunion's prefect, the central government's representative and police chief on the island. "We expect an arrest momentarily!"
The helicopter landed on waste ground a few hundred metres away and the gang escaped in a van that had been waiting for them, he said. And they all had Uzis and MAT-79s and Schmeissers and they were shooting out the back of the van and police cars were exploding and running into each other...
The two crew members were unhurt and are assisting police. "Ohhhh! My head!"
"Did you get a look at your attackers, Jean-Pierre?"
"No, Inspector! They conked us from behind!"
Earlier, the hijackers had boarded the chopper pretending to be tourists, before seizing control and directing the pilots to Domenjod prison, where it landed in the exercise yard and took on the escapees. "One of them put a gun to my temple while another threatened to set fire to a bottle of petrol he had in his hand with a cigarette lighter," the pilot told local broadcaster Antenne Reunion. I've seen that movie before, many, many times. It still works. Every movie I saw, the pilot was really in on the scam ...
Verbard, 27, was the guru of the self-styled "Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary", a cult with no connection to mainstream Catholic institutions, on the island of Reunion, a French territory in the Indian Ocean. He escaped along with two followers, the father and son duo Alexin Jismy and Fabrice Michel, who were jailed for their part in a kidnap. "Alexin, Fabrice, to the chopper! The van awaits!" Fabrice turns traitor, though. I remember that part. And he blows up the good guy's young wife when he kabooms the car. And then he goes on the lam. There's this really great scene where they catch up with him in a pizza shop in Buffalo, and the guy plugs him and he sez "Michel Cour de Lion sends his regards, Fabrice!"
He was jailed in February 2008 for attacks on children aged nine and 13, whose mother was the sect's treasurer. He is also under investigation in two other cases, another alleged sex attack and the kidnap of a 12-year-old. At the time of his trial, psychiatrist Gerard Toulfayan described him as "a extremely powerful manipulator with great intelligence." Jim Jones...with a French accent. "So, Professor Verbard! We meet again!"
"[Gasp!] Inspector Camembert!"
"You'll find the door is barred this time! And the house is surrounded! Legume! Take his... ummm... whatever that is!"
Verbard launched his cult in 2002 after convincing scores of followers that the Virgin Mary appeared to him every month. "Mother Mary comes to me!"
Adepts paid 20 euros (26 dollars) each for the honour of taking part in an appearance ceremony. "Speaking words of wisdom!"
According to Verbard, Mary called him her "Lily of Love". "Let it be!"
Authorities attempted to dismantle the sect after it was implicated in the kidnap of 12-year-old Alexandre, a boy that Verbard claimed was destined to become his successor at the head of the group. "Yes! Get the boy! He is the one foretold in the prophesy!"
Spectacular helicopter escapes have become a regular embarrassment for French penal authorities and, unlike Reunion's Domenjod, jails in mainland France now often have protective nets over their exercise yards. Since 1986, there have been 10 escapes from French jails in helicopters, most recently in July 2007 when gangster and murderer Pascal Payet managed to get out of Grasse prison in a hijacked chopper. It was Payet's second successful helicopter jailbreak, and he was convicted or organising a third which rescued some of his accomplices.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/28/2009 08:51 ||
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Saw headline -- thought they were talkin' about Bambi.
#2
Some strategically placed 10' poles would take care of this problem. Arming the guards might help too. I find it hard to believe that the helicopter doesn't have some holes in it.
Salerno, 28 April (AKI) - The global spread of the deadly swine flu virus affirms Islam's teachings and its holy book, the Koran, according to imam Amadia Rachid based in the Italian city of Salerno. "We believe that what is happening shows the truth of our faith," said Algerian-born Rachid in an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI).
Pigs are considered unclean animals in the Muslim and Jewish religions and eating pork is proscribed.
"Even Muslims who live in Italy are talking about swine flu at the moment," Rachid said.
Most Muslims are not worried by the disease, as they don't eat pork and don't work with pig livestock, he said. "But many believe the disease confirmed the teaching of the Koran."
The Koran orders Muslims to avoid close contact with pigs, as well as not to eat pork, Rachid noted. "The Islamic faith doesn't explain exactly why pigs should be considered unclean animals," he said. "But it's clear that for most theologians, it is precisely to avoid the spread of disease that Islamic tradition tends to keep men away from pigs," he added.
Scientific truths lie behind the teachings of the Koran that has taken many centuries for man to discover, Rachid claimed.
Workers demolishing the wall of a building that once belonged to the former Nazi German Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp have found a message in a bottle written by prisoners 65 years ago, Auschwitz museum officials said.
"We know two of the Auschwitz prisoners who signed the message survived the camp, but their later fate isn't known," Auschwitz-Birkenau museum historian Jerzy Mensfelt told AFP in a telephone interview....
Workers found the bottled message when recently demolishing a wall at the State Higher Vocational School in the southern Polish town of Oswiecim, the site of the infamous World War II Auschwitz Nazi German death camp. The bottle with a note inside had been placed in the mortar of a wall of building which had served as a warehouse for the camp's Nazi guards during the war. Hand-written in pencil, the note bears the names and camp ID numbers of seven camp prisoners including four Poles and one Frenchman from Lyon, Mr Mensfelt confirmed. All were aged 18 to 20.
...we cant run truth out of town,
only force it underground.
The roots grow deeper
in ways we cant conceive.
--Karin Bergquist/Linford Detweiler, "All I Need Is Everything"
Posted by: Mike ||
04/28/2009 14:27 ||
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From the soon-to-be-late NY Times It was supposed to be a photo opportunity, a showcase of Air Force One alongside the sweep of New York City skyline. But as the low-flying Boeing 747 speeded in the shadows of skyscrapers, trailed by two fighter jets, the sight instead awakened barely dormant fears of a terrorist attack, causing a momentary panic that sent workers pouring out of buildings on both sides of the Hudson River.
I thought there was some kind of an attack, said Paul Nadler, who sprinted down more than 20 flights of stairs after watching the plane from his office in Jersey City shortly after 10 a.m. We ran like hell.
In fact, the blue and white plane with The United States of America emblazoned on its side was one of two regularly used by the president. It was soaring above Lower Manhattan, Staten Island and Jersey City so government photographers could take pictures near the Statue of Liberty for publicity purposes.
Aides to President Obama, who was not on board, said he was incensed when he learned people were not happy of the event Monday afternoon. The White House later issued a formal apology.
Witnesses described the engine roar as the planes swooped by office towers close enough to rattle the windows and prompt evacuations at scores of buildings. Some sobbed as they made their way to the street. As soon as someone saw how close it got to the buildings, people literally ran out, said Carlina Rivera, 25, who works at an educational services company on the 22nd floor of 1 Liberty Plaza, adjacent to the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack. Probably about 80 percent of my office left within two minutes of seeing how close it got to our building.
As the fright wore off, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and other local leaders questioned why the Federal Aviation Administration had ordered local officials, including the New York Police Department, not to alert the public in advance. A F.A.A. memo last week said information about the exercise should only be shared with persons with a need to know and shall not be released to the public or the media. Oh, good. So it's the FAA's fault?
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/28/2009 06:23 ||
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Sorry, I should've known this was yesterday's Rantburg news.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/28/2009 6:48 Comments ||
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#2
Photo Op? I doubt it. You could Photoshop Llodge Bridges parachuting from Air Force One with Paris Hilton and Madonna under each arm.
My guess, and it is only a guess... (a.) a test of some type of defense system or theory. (b.) a Steven Spielberg, Obama Saves the World movie segment. I leaning toward (b.), and they'll be using footate of the panicked New Yorkers as well.
No one simply crews up the Air Force One back-up bird, grabs a figher escort, and goes low-level over NYC in broad daylight. It just don't happen that way. This business about Barry being "very upset", WH Press Secretary Gibbs and the Mayor of NYC having "no knowledge" etc. Sorry, not possible.
#3
IMHO, it's so stupid that it has to be true as described. That the Press Sec and our mayor didn't know is not surprising to me at all- we are LITTLE PEOPLE.
I think the real problem exposed here is that people in the anonymous mid-level of government (some of them anyway) are so worshipful of THE ONE that they will do anything they think would be of service to him, consequences be damned.
And I believe THE ONE is truly upset- the curtain got pulled back and we got a peek at the wizard. Can't have that, ya know.
#5
Hey, if Nerobama wants to get the chariot out, then you best just get the hell out the road, understand? We needed new pictures for the gift shop so get over it.
#11
One thing that has really bothered me was the video of the New Yorkers in Battery Park running and screaming when the plane flew overhead. This will be a great recruiting video for Osama, showing that the US really is the weak horse and trembles before the thought of another jihadi attack. That's why they elected Bambi.
The 9/11 attack was terrible and many of those reacting lost friends and loved ones. But their reaction indicates they think this war had ended some time ago. It also makes me wonder if this is how Londoners reacted to the Blitz.
#12
Sea: Because my mornings are filled with buziness, coffee, and cigarettes. When I was a toddler, it was my NIGHTS that were so occupied. (Has I been bad?)
NS: I see your point, but I can't say that standing fast in the path of a destruction you cannot stop or fight against is the better part of valor. FWIW, away from the destruction on 9/11 (and again during the great blackout of 2003) people here were calm, helpful, and generally following instructions without complaint. At least where I was.
#13
standing fast in the path of a destruction you cannot stop or fight against is the better part of valor.
Neither is running in the direction the plane is headed, which is what some in the Battery Park film seemed to be doing.
And I don't mean to be piling on ordinary New Yorkers who have been through a lot. The swine flu scare seems totally out of proportion to the risk. And Paulson and Geithner have contributed to the recession by portraying fear, panic and an absolute absence of any leadership in dealing with what is simply a recession. If it becomes a depression it will well be due to their virulent fear. And why don't we have the stones to let GM fail? Overall, there's just way too much hysteria and panic being displayed and not enough courage and confidence. And no drama ain't the same as courage.
#14
Neither is running in the direction the plane is headed, which is what some in the Battery Park film seemed to be doing.
Like the firemen and police on 9/11,running toward the catastrophe to help, perhaps? On 9/11 Americans learnt the difference between being a herd and being a pack... despite the exhausted nation longing for the old days, we are not the people we were then.
#15
It's funny how, this sort of thing would have happened in Atlanta or Houston, it would be fodder for amusement. But since it happened in NYC, it's not a laughing matter at all, it needs to be taken seriously.
#16
NS: I don't know that angle of BPC, so I don't know where people were running to. A cross street leading away? A subway station?
TW: The 'unwritten and understood' rule here is that if things go haywire, get out of the way of emergency services. There are a lot of them with training, we should help if asked or trend away from the AO.
Grom: I can only speak for myself- I wouldn't find it the LEAST bit funny if it happened in another city. Are you talking about stupid news-babblers with their ridiculous comments about NASCAR crowds? That was one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard.
#19
Nice of Arlen Spector to push this story off the front page eh?
If we don't see footage of that flight attached to a campaign add for Barry in 2011 I'll kiss your arss. Thank GOD no one died of a coronary arrest, was killed jumping to their death in fear, or getting run over by a car as they looked skyward. These narcissistic, commi bastards don't car. A pox on that smart assed Gibbs and all the rest.
#20
The people of New York and New Jersey voted overwhelmingly for Barack Hussein Obama.
Obama enjoys an approval rating of 68% in the US, probably higher in NY/NJ, even as his administration is making moves to prosecute the Bush administration for harsh interrogation techniques, closing Gitmo and planning to release islamic terrorists into the US.
I would have expected the general population of NY/NJ to have moved on beyond the memory of the tragedy(*) of 9/11, but this is apparently not so.
Something doesn't compute here.
(*)Obama wrongly called 9/11 "a tragedy" in one of the debates.
A tsunami is a tragedy, 9/11 was an attack, a war crime, an islamofascist massacre.
#21
Free Radical, hey, it's not like I was referencing something really icky involving gerbils. (I just saw that phrase here on the 'burg before and thought it was cute....)
#22
I want to see somebody up on terrorism charges for this.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
04/28/2009 20:07 Comments ||
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#23
(I just saw that phrase here on the 'burg before and thought it was cute....)
Cornsilk (nee Swamp) Blondie, your truth is in masquerade! Now when I am accosted by the earnest and well-meaning servants of Greenpeace, I will have the most unfortunate images in mind. (I suppose most cases of 'gerbil worming' would be anthropoligic though.)
#24
nee nee Desert Blondie, Free Radical. The lovely lady enjoys her travels. :-) I've wondered, ever since I first saw that phrase, how one can tell a gerbil is in need of deworming. I believe actual deworming involves forcing the liquid medication down the now twice afflicted animal's throat... not whatever it was you were thinking, my dear.
Another advantage of The Religion of Pieces.
Fear of swine flu is a good reason to wash your hands, but not to take pork off the menu.
Federal health officials say the virus that has triggered fears of a flu pandemic is not transmitted by food, and that all food-borne germs are killed when pork is cooked to the recommended internal temperature of 160 F.
There also is no evidence so far that American pigs are infected with the virus, or that people can become infected by touching uncooked pork, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday.
Swine flu can be spread the same way seasonal viruses are, mainly through sneezing, coughing and touching surfaces contaminated with the virus, as well as through contact with infected pigs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/28/2009 06:12 ||
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#1
Visit Parker's BBQ, Wilson, Nc soon! So damn good it'll make ya wanna spank yo mama! Plenty of free parking and inside hand washing available.
Hat tip to Aetiology. The swine flu sequence is posted at the NIH web site for such things. Unfortunately they haven't sequenced the specific H1N1 that is causing fatalities in Mexico, but expect that in a few days.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/28/2009 07:58 ||
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New Zealand's health minister and an Israeli hospital are reporting the first confirmed cases of swine flu to hit the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific regions.
The other case is in Netanya, an Israeli city north of Tel Aviv. Laboratory tests confirm swine flu in a 26-year-old patient who recently returned from Mexico.
Should we be afraid now?
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/28/2009 06:00 ||
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#1
The elephant in the living room that no one is discussing right now is the blood supply and it's potential use as a vector. ISRAEL
#2
flu is spread so easily P2P that blood transfusion risk would be very small. You are more likely to get the flu from the nurse who hooks up your IV.
GENEVA -- While confirmed cases of swine flu increased only slightly on Monday, the World Health Organization voted to raise its global pandemic flu alert level, but at the same time recommended that borders not be closed or travel bans imposed.
The WHO's emergency committee, after meeting until 10:30 p.m. in Geneva, also recommended abandoning efforts to contain the flu's spread. "Because the virus is already quite widespread in different locations, containment is not a feasible option," said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the organization's deputy director general.
The WHO also recommended that vaccine-makers keep making seasonal flu vaccine instead of switching over to a new one that matches the swine flu strain, but it urged vaccine makers to start the process of picking a pandemic strain, weakening it and making large batches of it, which could take six months.
Fukuda emphasized that the committee felt that "a pandemic is not inevitable -- the situation is fluid and will continue to evolve."
A graphic accompanying the article notes that US states have purchased enough anti-viral medication (Tamiflu and Relenza) for about 8% of the US population.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/28/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Travel to Messico discouraged... but as always, the borders remain fully open for northbound voters traffic.
#2
Not if Jan Napoleontini makes good on her promise to cure any Mexican who makes it to/across the border claiming illness.
(I think that is what she said last night, she's such an idiot talker it was difficult to get exactly what she said; saw it on a PBS news program so if I misheard her please correct me)
We have a mom stick a plastic knife into her elementary school kid's birthday cake in their lunch and the kid will get expelled by school administrators under a 'zero tolerance' policy.
How many people have died from such a 'weapon'?
We have governmental bureaucrats both internationally and nationally who shrug their shoulders and say there's nothing that can be done to make life more secure from these contagions.
How many people die every year from various flu strains?
We need to move the principals out of the local schools and into DHS and PHS, and move the bureaucrats into the principal offices in the schools.
#5
Give us your tuberculosis, your swine flu infected masses.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
04/28/2009 11:58 Comments ||
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Some interesting parallels between pandemic flu and terrorism. In particular, when only a few individuals are involved (flu infected or active terrorists) the problem can be contained. However, because the resources required for containment are disproportionate (especially when taking a law enforcement approach to terrorism) then a small increase in individuals, either infected or involved in terrorism, outstrips the resources available for containment.
Mexico is well past the possibility of containing this flu outbreak and several countries, including the UK, are past the point terrorism can be contained.
Google-style map with pins for reported cases. Looks like it is updated frequently.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/28/2009 00:00 ||
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Interesting map. If we focus strictly on Influenza, we see a ground zero locus in the United States at three times the incidents of swine flu. But I guess mentioning that point conflicts with the One's D100 party. Better to talk about aerial photography opportunities over Ground Zero.
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A new virus has killed up to 149 people in Mexico and the World Health Organization moved closer on Monday to declaring it the first flu pandemic in 40 years as more people were infected in the United States and Europe.
The WHO raised its pandemic alert level for the swine flu virus to phase 4, indicating a significantly increased risk of a pandemic, a global outbreak of a serious disease. The last such outbreak, a "Hong Kong" flu pandemic in 1968, killed about 1 million people.
Although the new flu strain has so far killed people only in Mexico, there were more than 40 confirmed cases in the United States, including 20 at a New York City school where eight cases were already identified.
Spain became the first country in Europe to confirm a case of swine flu when a man who returned from a trip to Mexico last week was found to have the virus.
Texas health authorities confirmed a third case of swine flu at a school near the Mexican border and California said it now had 11 confirmed cases.
The U.S. State Department and the European Union urged citizens to avoid non-essential travel Mexico and other areas affected by swine flu. Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said the outbreak was now suspected of having killed 149 people and warned the number of cases would keep rising.
Thirty-three million Mexican schoolchildren will be off school until the middle of next week as authorities seek to contain the outbreak. Schools in the sprawling capital had already been closed but the government ordered classes canceled across the country until May 6.
Most of the those who died were between 20 and 50 years of age, an ominous sign because a hallmark of past pandemics has been the high rate of fatalities among healthy young adults.
Worldwide, seasonal flu kills between 250,000 and 500,000 people in an average year but the new strain worries experts because it spreads rapidly between humans and there is vaccine for it.
A New Zealand teacher and a dozen students who recently traveled to Mexico were being treated as likely mild cases.
In the first confirmed cases in Britain, Scotland's health minister said two people tested positive for swine flu and were being treated under isolation near Glasgow.
Suspected cases were also reported in France, Norway, Germany, Sweden and Israel.
Large numbers of Mexicans made it to work in the capital despite the flu outbreak. Traffic in the city of 20 million was brisk as workers, many in surgical masks, packed buses. "I preferred to come by car instead of public transport because I didn't want to be in contact with so many people," said 25-year-old graphic designer Andres Beltran.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/28/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
It is becoming obvious that Mexico's high mortality rate is due to the "cytokine storm" effect, that is nailing their healthy, young people with strong immune systems *because* Mexicans have little exposure to influenza.
Mexico has never had a recorded major flu epidemic, so they have far less resistance to this novel strain of H1N1.
The bottom line is that the swine flu, outside of Mexico, is like a perfect "training exercise" to track the spread and test responses, of a far less lethal influenza than the still extremely ominous H5N1 Avian flu.
#2
I don't have a clue how legitimate this is, but the timing is good.
MONDAY, April 27 (HealthDay News) -- A new, universal flu vaccine might protect against serious complications and death from different strains of flu, Saint Louis University researchers report.
They tested a vaccine made from the strains of influenza viruses A and B on 377 healthy adults. The volunteers received three injections of the Bivalent Influenza Peptide Conjugate Vaccine (BIPCV) over six months. The low dose of the vaccine was well-tolerated and safe, and triggered a noticeable immune response.
While more research is needed, this study "is a significant step in developing a universal vaccine to help protect against pandemic influenza," Belshe said in the news release.
The findings were to be presented Monday at the National Foundation for Infectious Disease Conference for Vaccine Research in Baltimore.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/28/2009 19:26 Comments ||
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I would never bet against influenza adaptability. Remember that in millions of animals, influenza uses natural selection like a gigantic computer to adapt to continual immune system attacks. No mammal or bird has ever evolved a perfect defense against it.
It took under a year for it to become resistant to Tamiflu.
Nine suspected pirates have been captured north of the Seychelles after an unsuccessful attempt to seize an Italian cruise liner.
The European Union's Maritime Security Centre (MSC) said the pirates were intercepted by a Spanish warship, the Numancia. The suspects, who were "in poor health," were released as a result of lack of evidence, but the Seychelles coastguard then picked them up.
"The capture operation was conducted in co-operation with a... French maritime patrol aircraft and a warship from the Indian Navy which also discovered an abandoned skiff not far from the scene," the MSC said.
The cruise ship, the Melody, was attacked on Saturday night. Armed security guards and the ship's crew repelled the pirates, who approached the ship in a small speedboat, by firing shots into the air and deploying fire hoses against them.
In another incident, the Fairplay shipping news website reported that a Russian tanker crew used fire hoses to chase off pirates in an attempted hijacking on Monday.
Posted by: ed ||
04/28/2009 19:04 ||
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Armed security guards and the ship's crew repelled the pirates,
NOTE, buried in the middle of the story insted of where it should be, In the HEADLINES.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/28/2009 19:31 Comments ||
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[Mail and Globe] Guinea's new military junta must rein in soldiers who have carried out armed robbery, extortion and rape since the new government took power in a December coup, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report on Monday.
According to witnesses quoted in the report, heavily armed soldiers haved raided offices, shops, clinics and homes in broad daylight. At night they have stolen cars, computers, cash and jewellery -- and threatened judges to try to influence rulings.
Guinean army captain Moussa Dadis Camara seized power in the world's biggest bauxite exporter in December after the death of long-standing leader Lansana Conte. Camara's National Council for Development and Democracy (CNDD) junta, which vowed to end corruption and restore the rule of law, was broadly welcomed at first but increasingly erratic behaviour by its leaders have fomented concerns of instability.
"The coup seems to have opened up a rash of abuses by the military; the impunity enjoyed by these soldiers must come to an end," said Corinne Dufka, HRW's senior West Africa researcher. "The coup leaders need to bring the rank and file under control, and ensure those responsible for these abuses are promptly investigated and prosecuted," she said.
HRW said most of the abuses were carried out under the pretext of a crackdown on drug trafficking, counterfeit medicines and corruption. Soldiers targeted neighbours of suspected criminals and Guinean and foreign businessmen.
HRW said military personnel it had interviewed suggested individuals posing as soldiers had carried out the crimes. Victims said they saw stolen goods on sale in a store just outside the main Alpha Yaha military camp and that army personnel had been seen driving seized vehicles round Conakry.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2009 00:00 ||
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WASHINGTON A House committee chairman said Tuesday that he wants Congress to enact a mileage-based tax on cars and trucks to pay for highway programs now rather than wait years to test the idea.
Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., said he believes the technology exists to implement a mileage tax. He said he sees no point in waiting years for the results of pilot programs since such a tax system is inevitable as federal gasoline tax revenues decline.
"Why do we need a pilot program? Why don't we just phase it in?" said Oberstar, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman. Oberstar is drafting a six-year transportation bill to fund highway and transit programs that is expected to total around a half trillion dollars.
A congressionally mandated commission on transportation financing alternatives recommended switching to a vehicle-miles traveled tax, but estimated it would take a decade to put a national system in place.
"I think it can be done in far less than that, maybe two years," Oberstar said at a House hearing. He was responding to testimony by Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., who recommended that the transportation bill include pilot programs in every state to test the viability of a mileage-based tax.
Blumenauer said public acceptance, not technology, is the main obstacle to a mileage-based tax.
Pilot programs "would be able to increase public awareness and comfort and it would hasten the day we could make the transition," Blumenauer said.
Oberstar shrugged off that concern.
"I'm at a point of impatience with more studies," Oberstar said. He suggested that Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., chairman of the highways and transit subcommittee, set up a meeting of transportation experts and members of Congress to figure out how it could be done.
The tax would entail equipping vehicles with GPS technology to determine how many miles a car has been driven and whether on interstate highways or secondary roads. The devices would also calculate the amount of tax owed.
"At this point there are a lot of things that are under consideration and there is also a strong need to find revenue," Oberstar spokesman Jim Berard said. "A vehicle miles-traveled tax is a logical complement, and perhaps a future replacement, for fuel taxes."
Gas tax revenues the primary source of federal funding for highway programs have dropped dramatically in the last two years, first because gas prices were high and later because of the economic downturn. They are forecast to continue going down as drivers switch to fuel efficient and alternative fuel vehicles.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has ruled out raising gas taxes to make up for the funding shortfall, and the White House has rejected a mileage-based tax. They have not offered an alternative.
"The funding of the highway trust fund is a complex issue that will require consultation with Congress and consideration of a number of creative ideas," said Transportation Department spokeswoman Jill Zuckman. "The secretary looks forward to working with Chairman Oberstar and others as they consider how to keep the highway trust fund going."
A mileage-based tax has been unpopular in some states where it has been proposed. Critics say it unfairly penalizes drivers who live in rural areas and intrudes on privacy.
"When we can solve the equity issues to a majority's satisfaction in the Congress, when we can solve the privacy issues to the satisfaction of the American people, we can look at moving forward, but I just don't think we have the data or the experience right now to say we can set a timeline or a deadline," DeFazio said in a recent interview.
#1
There already is a mileage based tax. You drive more you use more gas and thus pay more of that gas tax. I dare politicians to link their names to this. The citizens do not exist to furnish new taxes when government revenues decline. Highway and transit programs should be passed back to the responsibility of the states.
"At this point there are a lot of things that are under consideration and there is also a strong need to find revenue," Oberstar spokesman Jim Berard said. "A vehicle miles-traveled tax is a logical complement, and perhaps a future replacement, for fuel taxes."
#5
I foresee a great market for a transmitter that tells the car it rarely leaves the garage.
Posted by: ed ||
04/28/2009 19:26 Comments ||
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#6
This is a death sentence to cars that get very high gas mileage, such as electrics and hybrids.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/28/2009 19:36 Comments ||
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#7
You'd better have a gun to my head when you install a GPS tracking device on my personal vehicle.
You will also have to keep said gun to my head 24/7/365 to make sure I don't remove the tracking device.
These leftist/statist a-holes don't know what they're getting into. When the SHTF those of us on the right/libertarian will fare much better than urban leftist leeches. We have the guns, skills and supplies socked away. Be careful what you wish for, lefty.
#11
This is an odd tax for a liberal/green government. It encourages, or at least does not discourage, vehicles which get poor gas mileage. Not that I am suggesting it, but wouldn't it make better sense to just raise the tax per gallon?
#12
maybe those RFID tire pressure sensors are.......nahhhh. We already know the Comp Mod keeps track of everything: speed, revs, braking, etc. - theoretically you can have accident reconstruction from data that screws you in court or denies your insurance claim even if you weren't in the wrong. All it takes is a Nanny State Gov't to implement...oh, wait, who switched sides?
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/28/2009 20:05 Comments ||
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#13
One way or other the nations transportation systems must be paid for or they will go away and you WILL need a horse. And a horse is much more dangerous than a car. If you don't want a gps in your rig you had best come up with an alternative. And for many reasons aggregate, asphalt, concrete, steel and labor will NOT get cheaper.
#15
for oneresponse: social engineering is attempting to pry everyone from their single-occupancy-vehicle (SOV) and force you into mass-transit. They are stealing gas tax money destined for freeway improvements (as promised when approved) and subsidizing fares on buses/trolleys that serve a minor portion of the population. In a densely-packed, long-arranged urban city like Chicago and NY, mass-transit is da sh*t. However, when you extend to my peronal space, San Diego, even with our trolley sysstem (packed to the gills at rush) it requires subsidy. We like our cars because they take us where we're going in a reasonable amount of time at a reasonable cost. Beware the political/social engineering thumb on that scale
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/28/2009 21:16 Comments ||
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#16
They (the government) already do this with tobacco. Notice how, as smokers quit, the tax continues to rise? All for the benefit of nonsmokers.
[Maghrebia] Algerian Energy Minister Chakib Khelil expects petrol prices to reach $60 per barrel by the end of 2009, APS reported on Sunday (April 26th) in Algiers. Khelil was speaking during a joint press conference with Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Secretary-General Abdullah El Badri, who is on a three-day working visit to Algeria as part of the cartel's meeting in Vienna on May 28th.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2009 00:00 ||
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One of the Auschwitz prisoners who left a message in a bottle found recently near the Nazi death camp has likely been located living in France, memorial spokesperson Jarek Mensfelt told The Local on Tuesday.
Just a few days ago, workers in the Polish city of Oswiecim found the bottle encased in a cement wall they were tearing down at a former Nazi bomb shelter now used as a vocational school, Mensfeldt said.
In 1944 there were camp prisoners constructing a bomb shelter for the soldiers and they must have placed the bottle in the wall as they were pouring concrete, he said.
The letter may have been hastily scribbled on a piece of a cement bag.
Seven prisoners, among them six Poles and a Frenchman aged 18 to 20-years-old, signed the letter and included their camp identification numbers. Other contents of the letter have not yet been released.
Based on this information, Mensfelt said Auschwitz-Birkenau historians were able to determine that two of the Polish men had survived, but their whereabouts were unknown.
But on Tuesday, Mensfelt spoke with the granddaughter of the French prisoner, Albert Veissid, who just celebrated his 85th birthday in Marseilles, France.
A man in northern Poland read the newspaper story and found him via Google, Mensfelt told The Local. He called and it appears to be the right person. The former prisoners granddaughter, whom I spoke with, is also on Facebook and so far it all sounds credible.
According to Mensfelt, finding concentration camp survivors can be extremely difficult, so the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial and museum put out a personal appeal for anyone with possible knowledge of those who wrote the letter to contact them.
The man who found the family in Marseilles simply took a personal interest in the story, got lucky, and found them, he said.
Former prisoner Veissid told French news agency AFP that he doesn't remember the bottle, "yet it's absolutely my name on the message and my registration number: 12063. I can't forget that number becasue it's on my arm."
The letter will be officially handed over to the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum on May 6.
Another concentration camp message in a bottle from a former Sachsenhausen prisoner was found in 2003.
Nazi Germany established twin concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau on the outskirts of Oswiecim in 1940. It grew into the Nazis largest death camp, where more than one million Jews, Roma and prisoners of war from across Europe were murdered.
Polish media has listed the other prisoners, in order of registration number, name and hometown as: 121313 Bronislaw Jankowiak (Poznán), 130208 Stanislaw Dubla (Laskowice), 131491 Jan Jasik (Radoma), 145664 Waclaw Sobczak (Konina), 151090 Karol Czekalski (Lodz), and 157582 Waldemar Bialobrzeski (Ostroleka).
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.
It was supposed to be a photo opportunity, a showcase of Air Force One alongside the sweep of New York City skyline. But as the low-flying Boeing 747 speeded in the shadows of skyscrapers, trailed by two fighter jets, the sight instead awakened barely dormant fears of a terrorist attack, causing a momentary panic that sent workers pouring out of buildings on both sides of the Hudson River.
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A new virus has killed up to 149 people in Mexico and the World Health Organization moved closer on Monday to declaring it the first flu pandemic in 40 years as more people were infected in the United States and Europe.
Gas tax revenues the primary source of federal funding for highway programs have dropped dramatically in the last two years, first because gas prices were high and later because of the economic downturn. They are forecast to continue going down as drivers switch to fuel efficient and alternative fuel vehicles.
