#1
Brings back memories of life as a turtle, i.e. You're green, and you carry your whole world on your back.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
08/27/2014 7:55 Comments ||
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#2
I saw this feature a couple of days ago through another website. The photog worked with period re-enactors to put together the various kits. Fun fact - there is a spoon in each and every one of them.
[REUTERS] A U.N. peacekeeping helicopter in South Sudan was shot down on Tuesday and three of its crew were killed, Russian airline UTair, which owns the aircraft, said, citing initial information.
The airline said the helicopter, carrying four crew members, had been shot down as it flew over an area that has been a flashpoint during a civil conflict that is now more than eight months old.
"According to preliminary information, the helicopter was shot down with surface-to-air fire," UTair said in a statement.
"One crew member - the second pilot - is alive and has been transported to a hospital ... with minor injuries. Other crew members - commander, flight engineer and flight attendant - were killed."
The United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... confirmed three crew members had been killed and one was being treated for injuries, but it had no immediate comment on the Russian report that the helicopter, which was on a routine cargo flight, had been shot down.
The U.N. Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said an investigative team would arrive at the crash site on Wednesday.
A front man for the Russian embassy in Sudan, Artur Safukov, told Russia's state broadcaster Rossiya 24 that all four on board were Russian citizens.
The Mi-8 helicopter crashed about 10 km (6 miles) south of Bentiu, the capital of oil-producing Unity State, which lies in the north of the Africa's newest nation, UNMISS said.
Toby Lanzer, the officer-in-charge of UNMISS, and UTair both said the helicopter, which was contracted to the U.N. mission, had been flying from Wau in the southwest to Bentiu in the north.
UTair, which said it has been working with the United Nations since 1991, said it was temporary halting flying over the area.
A rebel commander who warned the UN not to fly over his territory shot down a UN helicopter Tuesday in rural South Sudan, charged a spokesman for a state governor. South Sudanese rebel commander Peter Gadet had warned the UN last week not to fly over his territory, said the spokesman for the governor of Northern Bahr el-Ghazal state, Akol Ayom Wek.
Gadet's forces shot down the helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade, said Wek.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2014 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has fired ministers and top government officials who defied an order to come back to the African country which is fighting against the deadly Ebola epidemic.
The Liberian leader's office made the announcement in a statement released on Tuesday.
She had ordered overseas ministers to return within a week as part of a state-of-emergency announcement on August 6, warning that extraordinary measures were required "for the very survival of our state."
Sirleaf "directed that all officials occupying ministerial level positions or equivalent -- senior and junior -- managing directors, deputy/assistant directors or equivalent, commissioners et cetera who violated the orders are hereby relieved of their positions," the statement said.
Her office added that those who do not have ministerial level positions but hold "important public offices" would have their pay reduced until their return.
"(Sirleaf) commends and appreciates all government officials and senior level public servants who observed the orders and returned to join the fight against deadly Ebola virus disease," the statement said.
It is not immediately clear how many ministers were affected or which ones were dismissed.
According to the latest official figures by the World Health Organization (WHO), a total of 2,615 infections and 1,427 deaths of the disease have been reported in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.
Liberia has been the hardest-hit by the outbreak of the deadly virus that erupted earlier this year, with 624 deaths.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2014 00:00 ||
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Action in Ilovaisk. The pro Russian militia unit "Motorolla" attempts to clear an area of elements of the Ukrainian police battalion Donbass. Most of the last half of the video involves what boils down to be a fight between grenadiers. One of the trophies taken near the end is an AK with a picatinny rail, and some body armor. As far as I can tell with my limited Russian, the unit leader is cutting up with the cameraman calling the old woman who is tending to the soldiers, "his inspiration".
#3
I don't even speak the language and I can sense grab ass and umprofessionalism. No security, clustering, unfamiliarity with weapons, no 'n fok'n clue. Street thugs in camo. I've seen a buttload of infantry and I'm not impressed.
As pro Russian militia forces attempt to solidify their gains on the southern coast of Ukraina, signs are appearing the Ukrainian military are preparing a general retreat west to the Dnepr River.
Sunday it was reported that a company of Russian paratrooper regulars from the Russian 98th Guards Airborne Division crossed the border near Novoazovsk, that 12 of that group were captured by Ukrainian military, and four tanks were destroyed. It appeared by all information that this was a Russian incursion far south of the area of operation that pro Russian militia have been fighting.
Continued on Page 49
[Tolo News] Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko on Monday dissolved parliament, calling for early elections on October 26 as his country continues to grapple with a pro-Russian insurgency in the east.
"I have decided to terminate the powers of Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's parliament) early," his official website quoted him as saying. "The new parliament will be elected on October 26, 2014."
The dissolution of Ukraine's parliament has been widely expected after the ruling coalition collapsed more than a month ago and Poroshenko promised on August 1 to hold new polls in the coming months, rather than in 2017.
The president on Monday also accused some politicians of supporting the pro-Russian rebellion in the east of the country, where over 2,200 people have been killed in the past four months.
"The current makeup of Verkhovna Rada supported (ousted former leader Viktor) Yanukovych," Poroshenko said, accusing politicians of passing "dictatorial" laws under the former Moscow-backed president.
The announcement came just hours ahead of talks with Russia's Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... in Minsk on Tuesday, where the two are expected to try to inch towards resolving the crisis.
Many politicians are "if not direct sponsors and accomplices, then supporters of the separatist bully boys" in eastern Ukraine, he said, adding that "snap parliament polls are part of my peace plan".
"I consider a victory in Donbass and a victory of the forces of democratic reform in Verkhovna Rada as a linked process," he said, referring to the popular name for Ukraine's eastern separatist strongholds of Donetsk and Lugansk.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2014 00:00 ||
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With all respect to the reporters with Rooters: They wouldn't know a tank unless it ground one of them into the ground with its treads.
[REUTERS] On Monday, a resident of Novoazovsk in south-eastern Ukraine said she saw a column of armored vehicles approach the town and start shooting.
"It all started at 8:00 this morning, tanks appeared, no fewer than seven of them," the woman, who gave her name only as Lyudmila, told Rooters by telephone. "Right now I can hear rumbling, kabooms ... the residents are hiding."
[Iran Press TV] Russian President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko have agreed on the need to de-escalate the raging conflict in eastern Ukraine.
The two presidents reached the consensus during their first bilateral talks that were hosted by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in his countryâ™s capital Minsk on Tuesday.
Lukashenko said despite the agreement, fundamental differences remain.
"Most likely, we shouldnâ™t expect a major breakthrough. But we need a conceptual decision, or order to start moving towards peace," Lukashenko said at a meeting in Minsk with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
He also expressed confidence that "the EU does not object to further dialogue until complete settlement of the situation."
The talks were aimed at de-escalating the worsening crisis in eastern Ukraine that heightened tensions between Moscow and the West, and prompted the United States and EU to slap sanctions on Russia.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2014 00:00 ||
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Better late than never. Nearly a week after other repressive countries used protests in Ferguson, MO to critique the United States' human rights record, North Korea joined the fray on Tuesday, calling the U.S. "the laughing stock of the world" over its actions over the last few weeks.
North Korean state news agency KCNA has a habit of asking the most leading questions possible to spokesmen for the Foreign Ministry. In this instance, KCNA inquired about the "serious racial discrimination" on display in the United States. "Some days ago, a black teenager was shot to death by a white policeman in Ferguson City, Missouri State, the U.S. and police ruthlessly cracked down on protesters, leveling their rifles at them and firing tear gas and smoke shells," the spokesman is quoted as saying.
"The U.S. is, indeed, a country wantonly violating the human rights where people are subject to discrimination and humiliation due to their races and they are seized with such horror that they do not know when they are shot to death," the spokesperson continued. "The protests in Ferguson City and other parts of the U.S. are an eruption of the pent-up discontent and resistance of the people against racial discrimination and inequality deeply rooted in the American society."
The statement went on to call for the United States to face trial at a human rights court, echoing other countries' demands that the leadership in Pyongyang do the same. North Korea has long chafed at reports from the United Nations and other rights bodies documenting the horrors that go on within the country's borders and used the response to Michael Brown's shooting to again ask to be left alone. But given that the city of Ferguson is now far quieter than it has been in weeks, with the nightly clashes between heavily-armed police and demonstrators receding into memory, it seems odd that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea waited this long to use the events there as a way to prod Washington.
Other countries were more quick on the uptake, seizing the opportunity to dish out the criticism that they're normally on the receiving end of. Egypt, whose military government killed an estimated 1,150 protesters last year, called for the police in Ferguson to "show restraint" in their actions. The foreign ministry in Moscow, where 60 percent of black and African people said in 2009 that they'd been physically assaulted over their race, chided the U.S. on its race relations and said it "should take care of large-scale internal problems and take effective measures to resolve them."
In addition to taking every opportunity to engage in "whataboutism" in response to critiques about its human rights record, North Korea is also attempting to set the record straight on its own. Earlier this month, Pyongyang announced that it would be writing up a response to a U.N. report that cataloged a number of mass atrocities committed by the government -- including "evidence of an array of such crimes, including 'extermination,' crimes against humanity against starving populations and a widespread campaign of abductions of individuals in South Korea and Japan." North Korea says that the assessment it plans on publishing will instead "show the true picture of the people of the DPRK dynamically advancing toward a brighter and rosy future while enjoying a free and happy life under the socialist system centered on the popular masses."
[ARABNEWS] [ARABNEWS] A closed-door trial began Tuesday for the first of five janitors accused of raping a kindergartner in a bathroom at a prestigious international school in Indonesia that is facing a storm of controversy following more abuse allegations.
An American who taught at the Jakarta International School for 10 years killed himself earlier this year as the FBI was investigating evidence that he sexually abused scores of teen boys while working at 10 schools across four continents.
The custodians contracted to work at the school were arrested in April -- five men accused of attacking the boy and a woman accused as an accomplice. Police said one man committed suicide while in custody after drinking bathroom cleanser.
A media horde surrounded Agun Iskandar, 25, as he entered the courtroom. The remaining four suspects were expected to appear in court Wednesday, and the men could face up to 15 years in jail if found guilty. The 6-year-old boy's parents have sued the school, seeking $125 million in compensation.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2014 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.
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
Better late than never. Nearly a week after other repressive countries used protests in Ferguson, MO to critique the United States' human rights record, North Korea joined the fray on Tuesday, calling the U.S. "the laughing stock of the world" over its actions over the last few weeks.
