[An Nahar] The Miss World beauty contest, which has attracted fierce opposition by hardline Islamic groups in host country Indonesia, is now facing another challenge -- a rival pageant exclusively for Musselmens.
The Musselmenah World contest to be held on Wednesday in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, is "Islam's answer to Miss World", the pageant's founder Eka Shanti said Saturday.
"Musselmenah World is a beauty pageant, but the requirements are very different from Miss World -- you have to be pious, be a positive role model and show how you balance a life of spirituality in today's modernized world," Shanti told AFP.
[FRANCE24] Thousands of villagers fled Sunday after a volcano erupted on Indonesia's Sumatra island spewing rocks and red-hot ash onto surrounding villages, officials said.
Mount Sinabung in Karo district, North Sumatra province, erupted violently before dawn.
"More than 3,000 people have been evacuated from areas within a three-kilometre (two-mile) radius of the volcano, and they are all safe," Asren Nasution, the head of North Sumatra disaster agency, told AFP.
Five halls normally used for traditional cultural ceremonies had been converted into shelters for those displaced.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/15/2013 10:13 ||
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Gah. Again with the goats. Who can resist them? Those rakish little beards. That childlike bleating, so delightfully reminiscent of the little ones learning their shahadah...
Now I'll sing you a song if you'll listen, dear reader,
Of a wonder best known to the Arab goat breeder:
Of all of the thrills Allah's creatures deliver,
There's one that gives every goat breeder a shiver.
The bite of the tiger scares him not a whit,
Nor is he discouraged by cobras that spit.
The swat of the lion's paw leaves him blase',
Like the thoroughbred's hoofstrike when horsey don't play.
The scorpion's sting, though it makes him feel rotten,
Like the dromedary's kick, is too soon forgotten.
And that other fierce camel, the beast with two humps,
Though it's far-famed for giving exemplary thumps,
Fails to quicken the heart of our Arab goat breeder
(not even when teased by a yank of its tail).
The attentions of all these do not float his boat.
So what gives him a frisson? The butt of the goat!
[ALLAFRICA] Borno State Commissioner for Health Dr. Salma Anas-Kolo yesterday said 14 new cases of 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... myelitis have been recorded in the Borno State, describing it as the largest discovery in the country in recent times.
While blaming the Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... insurgency for the setback, Kolo said many health workers find it difficult to move around to immunize children.
"All over the world, Borno is seen as the citadel of knowledge and therefore cannot continue to promote the idea that immunization is targeted at reducing birth," he said
The commissioner, who stated this at the palace of the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar Garbai Al-Amin El-Kanemi during a sensitization programme for traditional leaders, said of the number, six have been recorded in Maiduguri Metropolitan Council and four in neighboring Jere Local Government Area.
She said traditional rulers, who according to her are the closest to the downtrodden, are key players in reversing the trend.
The commissioner said Maiduguri was picked for the kick off of the sensitization programme which is part of the government's efforts to meet the 2014 World Health Organisation (WHO) target of freeing the globe of polio.
The Shehu of Borno called on his subjects to avail their children from 0-5 years to take immunization vaccine against the five-killer diseases.
"All over the world, Borno is seen as the citadel of knowledge and therefore cannot continue to promote the idea that immunization is targeted at reducing birth," he said
Posted by: Fred ||
09/15/2013 09:48 ||
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[An Nahar] A grenade attack at a Kigali market claimed a second victim Saturday as Rwanda prepared for legislative polls predicted to bolster the ruling party of President Paul Kagame.
Two grenades were used in an attack at a market on Friday that had killed one person and left 14 maimed. One of the devices had failed to explode and remained undetected.
"One was caught in the roof of the market but people didn't identify it," police front man Damas Gatare said. "That second grenade is the one that (went) off a few hours ago... It is the same attack."
The second kaboom killed one more person and maimed another eight.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which was similar to blasts that rocked the capital earlier this year as well as before the latest presidential election in 2010.
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09/15/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Three members of the Ivorian security forces have been killed in Yamoussoukro, the administrative capital of Ivory Coast, in two separate attacks by armed gangs, officials said Saturday.
"Gendarmes and coppers were attacked Tuesday and Friday while on duty in Yamoussoukro," the mayor, Kouakou Gnrangbe, told Agence La Belle France Presse.
He said two gendarmes were killed in the first attack and a policeman in the second. The city's governor gave the same toll.
Local media said the attackers were bandidos who have been ambushing vehicles on the roads of the west African country, whose economic capital Abidjan is a major regional hub.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/15/2013 00:00 ||
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A number of recent reports in Chinese state-run media indicate that the countrys carrier-based J-15 multirole fighter jets have entered mass production.
The Shenyang J-15 (also called Flying Shark) is Chinas carrier-based fighter aircraft. It was reversed engineered from a Russian Sukhoi Su-33 that China acquired from Ukraine, although it reportedly is equipped with some indigenous weapons, avionics and other features that Beijing claims greatly enhances its capabilities. The J-15 is also powered by the Chinese-built Taihang (WS-10) turbofan engine.
A J-15 prototype conducted its first flight test in August 2009. In November last year it was announced that a PLA Air Force (PLAAF) pilot conducted the first take-off and landing from Chinas aircraft carrier, Liaoning, using one of the J-15 tester jets. Throughout 2013 the PLAAF has continued holding take-off and landing exercises using the J-15 aircraft.
The Peoples Daily Online carried a couple of reports this week on the J-15. Most of them begin by noting that many keen military observers have noted that the J-15s that have appeared on CCTV as of late have been painted gray with a Peoples Republic of China flag on them, in contrast to the initial five J-15s that were painted yellow and were therefore marked as being intended solely for testing and development. The reports then note that the new paint job has led these keen military observers to speculate that the J-15 fighters have entered mass production.
Once mass production is under way, the Peoples Daily paraphrases Admiral Yin as saying, the aircraft design will be fixed other than in terms of possible changes to radar and electronic communication systems, or modernization of the engine after 10 to 15 years of service. However, the profile, basic finish, and performance standards of the aircraft have been established.
Notably, the reports coincide with the Commander of PLAN, Admiral Wu Shengli, visiting the United States. The commander of the Liaoning carrier and the pilot who first landed on the carrier last November are accompanying Admiral Wu on the trip, according to Reuters.
We have around 36 airplanes operating on board our ship, Captain Zhang Zheng, the Liaoning commander told reporters in Washington this week, referring to aircraft carrier. And we are still practicing and doing tests and experiments for the equipment and systems.
Admiral Wu, on the other hand, told reporters that the Liaoning is just for training and experimentation and after a final evaluation the PLAN will decide on the development of a new aircraft carrier for the service.
Meanwhile, one of the other J-15 articles that appeared on the Peoples Daily website compared it favorably relative to other countries carrier-based aircraft. Indeed, Admiral Yin, who was also quoted in that article, is paraphrased as saying that the J-15 reaches a similar level to the U.S. F/A-18C/D Super Hornet and is superior in terms of its air combat capability.
However, Want China Times flags a Xinhua report that quotes Sun Cong, the J-15s designer, noting that currently the aircraft cannot launch attacks against ships and ground targets when taking off from the Liaoning. That is because the aircraft carrier utilizes a ski-jump ramp and the J-15 would be too heavy to take off if it was carrying air-to-surface missiles and bombs. Thus, until the Navy acquires a Catapult-Assisted Take-Off But Arrested-Recovery (CATOBAR) carrier, the J-15, which is a multirole fighter, will be limited primarily to air superiority operations (and ship defense).
Notably, one of the Peoples Daily reports observed that the J-15s front wheel is suitable for catapult launch similar to the carrier-based fighter of the U.S. Navy. The catapult launch was taken into consideration at the beginning of its design.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/15/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
The J-15 is also powered by the Chinese-built Taihang (WS-10) turbofan engine.
Couldn't quiet reverse engineer the Russian equivalent and that's a problem area.
#2
nice, except the Hornet C/D is the regular garden variety version; didn't get the 'super' moniker until the E/F came along.
wonder how reliable the WS-10 is....
[An Nahar] Slovenia's prime minister, Alenka Bratusek, on Saturday laid the foundation stone for what will be the country's first mosque -- 44 years after the initial request to build it was made.
The laying of the stone, in the presence of a government minister from Qatar which is helping to fund the project, was a "symbolic victory against all forms of religious intolerance", said Bratusek, adding that Europe would not be as culturally rich without Islam.
About 10,000 attended the ceremony in Ljubljana, according to an Agence La Belle France Presse photographer at the event.
Building will begin in November and should be finished by the end of autumn 2016. The cost of the project, which includes a Musselmen cultural center, is 12 million euros ($16 million), 70 percent of which will be met by the Qataris.
The first request to build a mosque in Slovenia was filed in 1969. In recent years the project has run into difficulty over the issue of land, but was eventually solved when the council in Ljubljana sold an area ready for construction to the Musselmen community.
However, the hip bone's connected to the leg bone... opponents of the mosque have twice tried to halt the project, once in 2004 and again in 2009, by asking for a referendum. The requests were denied each time by the constitutional court.
Some 47,000 Slovenians declare themselves Musselmen, in a country of two million people. A 2002 census found that it was the second largest religion in the country behind Catholicism, which has 1.1 million followers. Musselmen groups claim there are around 80,000 Musselmens in the country.
There was a previous mosque in Slovenia, before it was an independent country, but it was abandoned and destroyed after World War One.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/15/2013 00:00 ||
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BALASORE (ODISHA): India on Sunday conducted a second test flight of its indigenously developed nuclear- capable 'Agni-V' long-range ballistic missile, which has a strike range of more than 5000 km, from the Wheeler Island off Odisha coast.
The three stage, solid propellant missile was test-fired from a mobile launcher from the launch complex-4 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at about 8:50am, defence sources said.
The surface-to-surface missile, which can carry a nuclear warhead of more than one tonne, witnessed an 'auto launch' and detail results of the trial will be known after thorough analyses of all data retrieved from different radars and network systems, they said. Today's launch was the second developmental trial of the long range missile while the first test was conducted on 19 April, 2012 which was a total success.
The indigenously developed missile Agni-V is capable of striking a range of more than 5000 km. It is about 17 meter long and 2 metres wide with launch weight of around 50 tonnes.
Unlike other missiles of indigenously built Agni series, the latest one 'AGNI-V' is the most advanced version having some new technologies incorporated with it in terms of navigation and guidance, warhead and engine.
Many new technologies developed indigenously were successfully tested in the first Agni-V trial. The redundant navigation systems, very high accuracy Ring Laser Gyro based Inertial Navigation System (RINS) and the most modern and accurate Micro Navigation System (MINS) had ensured the missile reach the target point within few meters of accuracy.
The high speed onboard computer and fault tolerant software along with robust and reliable bus guided the missile flawlessly, said a defence official.
In the Agni series, India at present has Agni-1 with 700 km range, Agni-2 with 2000 km range, Agni-3 and Agni-4 with 2500 km to more than 3500 range.
After some more trials, Agni-V will be inducted into the services, the sources said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/15/2013 10:02 ||
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#1
If there are any faults, We won't know of them.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/15/2013 21:59 Comments ||
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[Dawn] Governor Sindh Ishratul Ibad Khan has reportedly faxed his resignation to the President House, according to various TV news channels.
Ishrat, belonging to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... (MQM), was seen at the 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... airport to be leaving for Dubai late on Friday amid protests by the party against the ongoing operation in the thriving provincial capital.
The operation which the MQM has dubbed as one-sided action against its office bearers is being conducted by the Sindh government.
The most significant arrest during the action has been that of former MQM politician Nadeem Hashmi, following which urban areas of Sindh, including Hyderabad and Karachi, observed a shutdown earlier on Wednesday.
Hashmi was later sent on week-long physical remand by an ATC in Karachi.
Ibad, who was appointed to the post on Dec 27, 2002, is also the longest-serving governor of the province.
In his more than a decade long time at the governor house, this is not the first instance when the MQM leader has tendered his resignation. He has previously resigned from the position and then withdrawn his resignation on insistence of his party's chief Altaf Hussain.
Upon persuasion by former president Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistain Peoples Party (PPP) -- the former coalition partners of MQM -- Hussain, on more than one occasion, advised Ibad to take back his resignation.
In June 2011 and again in February this year, he tendered his resignation hours after the MQM pulled out of the ruling coalition in the province and at the centre in protest that its 'reservations' were not being addressed by the PPP.
On both counts, Hussain asked the governor to reconsider his decision in the light of requests made by the business community, industrialists, religious scholars and people belonging to different spheres of life.
Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan, who was appointed on Dec 27, 2002, is the longest-serving governor of the province.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/15/2013 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.
[An Nahar] The Miss World beauty contest, which has attracted fierce opposition by hardline Islamic groups in host country Indonesia, is now facing another challenge -- a rival pageant exclusively for 
