An untrained ear may hear only "chick-a-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee." To a tiny black- capped chickadee, though, the call could be loosely translated as, "Yikes! Get a load of that pygmy-owl! I'll need the whole flock to help drive it away!"
The chickadee's familiar call, new research has concluded, varies with the size of a potential predator, influencing the number of recruits joining forces to mob it and send it packing. Except, of course, for the ANSWER typesâŠ
Larger predators such as great horned owls are apparently deemed lesser threats to the petite songbirds because of their ungainliness, the study found. But more nimble predators such as northern pygmy-owls can lead sentinel chickadees to repeat the "D" note or syllable of their calls - essentially a plea for reinforcements.
"Certainly, what we're seeing is one of the most sophisticated alarm call systems that's been discovered," said Christopher Templeton, a University of Washington graduate student who completed the research for his masters thesis at the University of Montana. A thesis based in fact! Of course, it's Montana and a reality-based fieldâŠ
Chickadees actually have several calls at their disposal. A "seet" call warns of danger in the air, while the "chick-a-dee" call, depending on the context, can cue other birds about food, identity or predators that have perched too close for comfort.
The vigilant songbirds also have proven adept at recruiting a host of other species. In the wild, their warning call has summoned everything from warblers and nuthatches to sparrows and small woodpeckers flying to mob a predator - likely acts of self-preservation.
For the study, published in this week's issue of the journal Science, Templeton and two co-authors worked with a raptor rehabilitator, giving them access to a range of predators - and the surprising variation in chickadee calls.
When the researchers played back a recorded chickadee call made in response to a great horned owl, only part of a captive flock of six flew toward a hidden speaker. But when the scientists played back a longer call with more D notes, made in response to a northern pygmy-owl, "basically the whole flock comes right to the speaker and gets really agitated."
Ken Yasukawa, a biology professor at Beloit College in Beloit, Wis., said researchers have discovered a whole range of alarms in animals such as Africa's vervet monkeys, whose cough-like "eagle alarm" sends those within earshot running for cover in bushes, while a barking "leopard alarm" spurs them up a tree.
Yasukawa said he welcomes Templeton's study, which he hopes will spur more interest in lesser-known avian alarms. Yasukawa's own study subjects, male red-winged blackbirds, seem to switch among a repertoire of calls with increasing speed and intensity as a threat approaches. Field researchers who trigger this "Geiger counter" effect, in fact, use it to locate their guarded nests.
"It's like playing hotter-colder when you're a kid," he said.
#3
I listened to this twits twattle. This seems to be what the Acedemia deem "Important Research". We are in deep doodoo, acedemically.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/25/2005 18:58 Comments ||
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#4
I saw a falconer performing with various birds: falcon, hawk, eagle and owl. Of all of them he said the owl was far and away the dumbest and hardest to train.
I have been ranting about this ever since the deal with the 14 senators. It is past time to "nuke" the left. They know they can't win, but they know that conservatives lose if the left is continued to allow to obstruct rebalancing the courts.
Edited for the conclusion
Thus, the appointees of three Republican presidents have been responsible for, in the words of Justice OâConnorâs principal (and principled) dissent (joined by Rehnquist, Scalia and Thomas) âwash[ing] out the words âfor public useâ from the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment,â and in the process sending any meaningful principle of private property down the drain.
There is a profound message in the Kelo case for President Bush and those (other than in the Senate) who will advise him on Supreme Court nominees. It is well expressed in the separate dissent of Justice Thomas: the Court must make its decisions based not on ephemeral notions of public good, but âin favor of the Constitutionâs meaning.â
He better be, as well as all the other spineless dipwads in the republican party. If the governments start taking way people's land, there WILL be a revolution. All of my 3 liberal friends are horrified by this ruling and one of them is seriously rethinking his anti-gun views. I also love telling him, "I told you so".
#3
mmurray821 - Ya know... that's interesting. A strip joint would generate more local revenue and employ more people than a mosque. Course the same might go for churches who give their money to the national church or world welfare instead of spreading it locally.
So. Will Trump now show up at the Kennedy manision and demand it as it would earn and employ more as a casino?
#4
mmurray821 is right - there could be not greater incentive for revolution than the destruction of private property rights. The dissenting opinions in this case are brilliant. Is it me or has this decision received no airtime with the MSM? "Nope, nothing to see here. Move along."
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
06/25/2005 10:35 Comments ||
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#5
Been listening to FOX for the last couple of hours and not a word.Not surprising,remember Fox and all the other major corps.are the ones who will benifit from this.
CEO:"We need to build a new corporate headquaters,pack your sh^t and get out".
#6
Actually, this has been commonplace for a long time and the Supreme Court just enforced it. The law says you have too have "Due Cause", not that you can't take it. And the homeowners have to be compensated fully. So in truth although it's unpopular, this was actually enforcing the law as crazy as it sounds.
Posted by: Charles ||
06/25/2005 12:12 Comments ||
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#7
The difference is Public vs Private. The constitution makes an exception to the non-seizure of property for the necessary use of Public services. This has been seen as roads, sewage plants, etc., run by the local governments. I do feel this is necessary, simply for the fact we have no idea what 150 years from now will bring and the founders of Chicago could never have see the traffic problems of today. Thus, urban planning and new roads and highways. Where I am cheesed off to no end is the fact the SCotUS said now the governments can seize MY house to make room for a golf course or Wal-Mart. Some other PRIVATE company makes money from MY land. A developer can make a low-ball bid for my home, and I have to take it or loose everything if the government agrees. Good-bye equity, good-bye family home, and for what? So some other PRIVATE company can make money. Tactics like this were used heavy by the British in the 1800s to repress Ireland and the same tactic has been used by many other countries to silence a pocket of unruly people. Hard to get together when your group is spread throughout the country. Our founding fathers came from countries, which did this to their population and put in the Constitution protections against this form of repression. The ScotUS just threw that protection right out the window. One of our most cherished rights with freedom of speech and gun ownership and freedom to worship how we want/donât want. This is one of the few things that terrifies and sickens me. During the election, if Kerry won, it would have been horrible for our foreign policy and made our country less safe, but at the end of it all, we still would have been Americans with our rights. Despite everything that has happened in the past, we still had our rights and that made us Americans. This decision by the SCOTUS is threatening those rights. The rights that make us Americans. No nationality, religion, creed or way of life makes us whole except our god-given rights by the Constitution and the founding fathers. I swore an oath, to defend the Constitution of the United States of America to protect her, against all enemies. Foreign and domestic. The SCOTUS is rapidly falling into the domestic category since they have turned their back on their constitutional duty to uphold the constitution and are not making decisions based on that document. They are not the lawmakers, just the arbitrators, and this judicial theocracy that is coming about needs stopped. I still believe that all this can be solved through congress. Laws to limit judgeâs terms, votes by the people to add and remove judges, constitutional amendments to have the public vote on SCOTUS judges, just like their congressmen. However, time is rapidly running out for peaceful solutions. When people start loosing their homes, livelihood and wealth, just to satisfy the greed of local governments and corrupt business, they will rise up against it and then, God help us all.
#8
Where I am cheesed off to no end is the fact the SCotUS said now the governments can seize MY house to make room for a golf course or Wal-Mart.
Government could already do this: all they had to do was say that your house was in a 'blighted' area. SCOTUS went along with that 40 years ago. They're simply saying now that blight need not be a necessary condition; a desire to increase village/county/state/city tax revenues is good enough.
Two potential solutions, neither mutually exclusive:
1) citizens band together and carry out threats to vote out local officials who start turning over houses to Walmart.
2) a new constitutional amendment to clarify the Takings Clause of the Fifth amendment.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/25/2005 13:38 Comments ||
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#9
Is Bush listening is not the right question. This is only the latest mindless decision coming out of the SC. Bush's slate of judicial nominees fully indicates his interest in allevating this problem.
There is a mounting list of SC decisions that need to be reversed once the deck is reshuffled. The real question is: Are the American people listening? This latest decision is an affront to all American home owners (Dummycrat, Repubs, etc.).
Posted by: Captain America ||
06/25/2005 14:07 Comments ||
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#10
Here is the link to the judgement and the concurring and dissenting opinions.
Steve---good points. The first one about voting out the city officials that put this stuff is more workable, IMHO. A constitutional amendment is a huge undertaking that probably will go nowhere.
The great battlefield is and will be in selecting Federal judges. It is the last bastion of power for the LLL Dems. It is legislation by judicial fiat. The big battle is coming with nominations to the SCOTUS. The Republicans better approach this one with the nuke option, or they will be finished as a party. This battle is for the soul of the nation, no doubt about it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/25/2005 14:12 Comments ||
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#11
This is not simply about takings, private property, etc. This is really about the New Deal and the idea that the government knows what's good for us all better than we each do for ourselves; Adam Smith and J. S. Mill vs Marx and de Man. The uproar about such a technical decision is refreshing. It indicates yet again that the people understood what Reagan meant. But the elites who run the country were brought up in the New Deal paradigm of government knows best. This is reflected in the Kelo decision and in the Raitch decision that a state can't make locally grown pot legal for medicinal purposes.
The real conservatives here are the elites who are in power. They want to conserve the idea that government knows best and therefore should control every aspect of our lives, from pre-natal care to funeral planning. Old dogs do not learn new tricks. These people will be removed from power and replaced by people who do not share their ideas, if the people keep electing representatives and executives who share their ideas. This dependes on the people maintaining their faith in the individual above the government. That is a radical proposition, expeciall to those in power. And the Democrats have lost almost all the power. That's why they're fighting so fiercely about the court appointments. After the court changes, replacement of the elites will accelerate.
But the people have to keep electing new leaders who are not seduced by the idea that government knows best once they get in power. This requires patience as it will take a long time to clear out all the deadwood from the corridors of our national bureaucracies. It will take even longer to empty those corridors. But the people need to keep trying.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
06/25/2005 15:39 Comments ||
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#14
I have let Bill Frist know in no uncertain terms how I feel about this. Individual property rights here in the US are DEAD! This is socialism pure and simple! Since he is not running for another term he seems to not care. What a piece of shit. I'm sorry I voted for him.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/25/2005 19:04 Comments ||
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LONDON (AP) - Last year's Asian tsunami hit poor people far harder than the middle class and wealthy, and the aid effort could worsen the income gap between the rich and the poor in affected regions, a major aid group warned Saturday. Nearly six months after the enormous Dec. 26 disaster, Oxfam said those aiding the survivors must work hard to reach out to the poor and help them build better lives than they had before.
Just replacing the destroyed assets of landowners and businesspeople would leave behind those who owned little and exacerbate the divide between rich and poor, the agency said. "Desperately poor people have been made poorer still by the tsunami," said Oxfam's Britain director, Barbara Stocking.
Poor people's wooden homes were more likely to be ruined than wealthier victims' brick and stone ones, the agency said. Many poor homeowners have been unable to get compensation for destroyed abodes because they had no deeds. And those who rented informally were often left with nowhere to live, Oxfam said. "These people were already more vulnerable to such disasters because they didn't have any assets, they didn't have insurance, they didn't have any alternate incomes, they didn't have savings ... so when the tsunami came it washed away everything," Cox said.
While many fishermen are getting help in buying new boats and equipment, poor Indians who worked at salt pans that silted over had to move and search for scarce jobs, Oxfam said.
In Sri Lanka, those with businesses that were not registered with the government are finding it harder to access help than more established traders, it reported. Indonesians who worked at ruined small prawn and fish ponds now have no way to make a living, Oxfam said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/25/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
It was always a joke in the 80s and 90s about the various papers headlining the end of the world, with the NYT proclaiming "World to end. Poor and minorities hardest hurt."
There is no behavior so inane that the MSM won't do it.
#2
Good point, Jackal. I guess you have to have a grip on reality for the humor / absurdity to be apparent. Once that's gone, well, with a straight face...
How much did this "report" cost Oxfam? 'Cause I could have written it for half the price, without leaving home, and come to the same conclusion.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/25/2005 11:39 Comments ||
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#5
More money will not really fix the problem. The big enemies are ignorance and corruption. No matter how much money is poured down the hole, it will not go to fixing the real problem.
Prosperous and free societies will take some of their money and spend it on such inane and boring things like tsunami warning systems, creating and enforcing building codes, codifying and implementing good sanitation practices, etc. etc.
Places like Sri Lanka and Indonesia that piss away their wealth and energy on internal conflict will always have a significant percentage of poor people that will be subject to the whims of nature without being prepared.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/25/2005 15:08 Comments ||
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#6
Is there any kind of natural disaster that does NOT hit the poor harder?
Posted by: john ||
06/25/2005 15:44 Comments ||
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#7
Yes John, Fashion Catastrophes rarely affect (effect?) the poor.
LAHORE: Three people were injured during a shootout in Gowalmandi police jurisdiction. The firing stemmed from the intense rivalry between the Billy Truckanwala gang and the Gogi Butt group.
No. I'm sorry. I know it would probably end up getting my throat cut if I lived in Lahore, but I simply can't work up a good case of fear over Billy Truckanwala and Gogi Butt. It just doesn't work.
The station house officer said that Amir Butt, cousin of Billa Truckanwala, fired on chemical shop owner Khawaja Abdul Salam, his brother-in-law Hafiz Sohail and son Saleem at Basaanwala Bazar. He said that Amir wanted the three to support him, but they refused and he shot them in frustration.
Yeah. That's what I usually do when I can't have my way, too...
Sources said that the injured men supported Amirâs rival party Billa Truckanwala group (Amir supports the Gogi Butt group). A case was registered against Amir following the incident. He is already nominated in the murder of Asim Iqbal Butt, alias Chand Pahalwan, who was killed in Ravi Road police limits on May 11. Amir is currently on bail. The enmity between the two groups started on October 2, 1994, when Tipu was attacked by Hanif, alias Hanifa, and Shafique, alias Baba. Both were Tipuâs former friends. Two days later, Tipuâs father Ameerudin, better known as Billa Truckanwala, was killed in the courtyard of his goods transport company at Shah Alam Chowk.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2005 23:54 ||
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The United Nations will ask France to take legal action against a former U.N. employee accused in the killings of 33 Rwandans in the 1994 genocide, after an internal review found the world body bungled his case and failed to protect its Rwandan staff. Callixte Mbarushimana, who has lived under refugee protection in Paris since 2003, vehemently denies the charges and says he would welcome his day in court. Rwanda has a warrant for his arrest on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.
For the last year, U.N. officials have quietly pressed Rwandan authorities and the U.N. war crimes tribunal for Rwanda to seek his extradition, without success, and are turning to France. "We've exhausted the possibilities," Mark Malloch Brown, chief of staff to Secretary-General Kofi Annan, told The Associated Press. "We are going to ask the French authorities where he's resident to pursue a case against him."
French justice officials refused to comment until they get the request from the U.N. Development Program. U.N. officials, who agreed to discuss the request only on condition of anonymity because the note had not yet been delivered, said the note would not specify whether France should prosecute Mbarushimana or extradite him to Rwanda. While denying it's the main reason for pursuing the case, U.N. officials say French action could help them avoid paying 13 months' pay that Mbarushimana won in an administrative ruling last September. The three judges found his rights were violated when the United Nations decided not to renew his contract after the genocide claims gained attention in 2001.
Mbarushimana's case has been a stain on the United Nations and emblematic of some of its most serious failures during Rwanda's genocide, which saw more than 500,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus massacred over three months in 1994.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2005 09:46 ||
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#1
So genocide is not sufficient justification to get you fired from the UN. I'm sure the MSM will be all over this.
Hundreds of homes have been built in Zimbabwe's capital to replace some of the thousands destroyed in a widely criticized official "cleanup" campaign, the government said Saturday ahead of a planned visit by a United Nations envoy. President Robert Mugabe earlier scorned Western "demonization" of his five-week program called Operation Murambatsvina, or "Drive Out Trash," which has left between 200,000 and 1.5 million Zimbabweans without homes or livelihoods. Saturday's announcement followed the condemnation by 10 U.N. human rights experts of the demolition of tens of thousands of homes in shantytowns and the destruction of street markets and vegetable gardens. More than 200 international human rights and civic groups Thursday demanded an end to the campaign, as have Western governments, including the United States, Britain and Australia.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2005 09:47 ||
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#1
Eminent Domain. Looks like Bob is taking a page from the SCOTUS playbook.
Reg required - posted in full. The scale of the task facing Tony Blair in his drive to help Africa was laid bare yesterday when it emerged that Nigeria's past rulers stole or misused £220 billion.
That is as much as all the western aid given to Africa in almost four decades. The looting of Africa's most populous country amounted to a sum equivalent to 300 years of British aid for the continent. The figures, compiled by Nigeria's anti-corruption commission, provide dramatic evidence of the problems facing next month's summit in Gleneagles of the G8 group of wealthy countries which are under pressure to approve a programme of debt relief for Africa.
Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, has spoken of a new Marshall Plan for Africa. But Nigeria's rulers have already pocketed the equivalent of six Marshall Plans. After that mass theft, two thirds of the country's 130 million people - one in seven of the total African population - live in abject poverty, a third is illiterate and 40 per cent have no safe water supply.
With more people and more natural resources than any other African country, Nigeria is the key to the continent's success. Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, set up three years ago, said that £220 billion was "squandered" between independence from Britain in 1960 and the return of civilian rule in 1999. "We cannot be accurate down to the last figure but that is our projection," Osita Nwajah, a commission spokesman, said in the capital, Abuja.
The stolen fortune tallies almost exactly with the £220 billion of western aid given to Africa between 1960 and 1997. That amounted to six times the American help given to post-war Europe under the Marshall Plan. British aid for Africa totalled £720 million last year. If that sum was spent annually for the next three centuries, it would cover the cost of Nigeria's looting.
Corruption on such a scale was made possible by the country's possession of 35 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. That allowed a succession of military rulers to line their pockets and deposit their gains mainly in western banks.
Gen Sani Abacha, the late military dictator, stole between £1 billion and £3 billion during his five-year rule. "We are only now beginning to come to grips with some of what he did," Mr Nwajah said. Nigeria has scoured the world for Abacha's assets but has recovered only about £500 million.
Olusegun Obasanjo, the current president, founded the commission and launched a crackdown on corruption to try to end the country's reputation as Africa's most venal. The figures all apply to the period before he came to power.
The amount of money involved has prompted the Government to seek ways to enhance Britain's ability to help developing countries recover stolen funds. In the autumn the Government will introduce legislation to pave the way for British ratification of the United Nations convention against corruption. A money laundering directive agreed by EU finance ministers this month will impose new responsibilities on banks, casinos and other establishments to be more alert to signs of corruption. They will be expected to help stamp out financial abuse by high-risk customers in a position to abuse public office for private gain.
Mr Obasanjo will travel to the G8 summit to press the case for debt relief. Nigeria is Africa's biggest debtor, with loans of almost £20 billion, because previous rulers not only looted the country but also borrowed heavily against future oil revenues. The G8 has refused to cancel Nigeria's loans, despite writing off the debts of 14 other African countries this month.
Prof Pat Utomi, of Lagos Business School, said that was the right decision. "Who is to say you won't see the same behaviour again if it is all written off?" he said.
#3
A money laundering directive agreed by EU finance ministers this month will impose new responsibilities on banks, casinos and other establishments to be more alert to signs of corruption.
hahahhhaaaaa!!! sniff, sniff. Oh, good one. Oh wait, they are serious? Oh yeah, it's the PU.
#5
notice they say "responsibilities". Not regulations. Watch out, if you aren't responsible, they'll sic Hans on you. Then they better comply ....or else
#6
That's odd. The total of offers I've received to transfer money for former Nigerian officieals is $430 billion. I wonder if some of it was legitimate.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
06/25/2005 7:51 Comments ||
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#7
OMG - does this mean another flurry of spam requesting assistance to move monies :P
#10
Giving money to the African countries without forcing political, economic, and social reform is just pissing money away. They simply don't a system in place to use the money in a effective way. The have corrupt or criminal systems that are ripe for pillaging any aid that comes in but nothing that will use money for social or economic projects. A good example is the old welfare system where we gave money to people for sitting around and doing nothing. Sure they spent the money on food and whatever else but they were not shown how to better themselves or their children.
BOMBAY: Tens of thousands of dancing girls in India's financial and film capital of Bombay have won a delay against a government decision to close them down. State governor S.M. Krishna, has refused to approve the move for now, saying in a statement on Friday he saw "no immediate reason" to do so. The Congress party-led state government wants to close the bars in Bombay and across the state of Maharashtra because it says they corrupt local youth, threaten the culture and are a front for prostitution and organised crime. About 75,000 women work in the bars, along with another 75,000 waiters, bouncers, cooks and cleaners.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
I wonder if any of the Congress Party members who voted for this gave much thought to the big picture or know shit from shinola. 150,000 (just the tip of the iceberg if you think about it) immediately out of work. And it will all come back, again, because the market didn't (and won't) disappear - ever. They've just guaranteed that every single person in the new incarnation will be working for organized crime.
Social Engineering. Wanking for Dollars or Show. Think Prohibition.
A Pakistani woman gang-raped in 2002 on the orders of a village council said she can never forgive her attackers and she hopes they are sentenced to death. The case of Mukhtaran Mai provoked a national outcry and has focused international attention on the treatment of women in rural areas. The Supreme Court will on Monday begin hearing Mukhtaranâs appeal against the acquittal of five of six men convicted of attacking her and sentenced to death. âRight now I just have one (wish) that, God willing, there is a good decision in the case ... like the first decision,â said Mukhtaran. âThey should get the same punishment ... the death penalty.â
Mukhtaran was gang-raped on the orders of a traditional village council after her brother â who was 12 at the time â was judged to have offended the honor of a powerful clan by befriending a woman from their tribe. Asked if she could ever imagine reconciliation with the men who attacked her, Mukhtaran said that would be impossible. âI cannot do that; I cannot do that at any cost,â she said. âCanât you understand this yourself? After all that happened how can there be reconciliation? When a person has suffered such excesses, how can she even hear talk of reconciliation? At least I canât.â
Six men were originally convicted of the attack and sentenced to death, but five were acquitted after appealing to the Punjab provincial court, which cited a lack of evidence. A sixth had his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment. âIt made me think âthey are the plaintiffs and I am the accused,ââ Mukhtaran said. The provincial government later intervened and ordered the six detained for three months pending the outcome of Mukhtaranâs appeal against the acquittal. Another six men who served on the village council were detained at the same time. All 12 were ordered released by a higher court this month although they remain in detention.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Kill everyone of these bastards involved, it's the only message these backwards POS understand.
MULTAN: Authorities ordered an investigation on Friday into claims that Vehari police sewed up a prisoner's lips to stop him screaming obscenities, sources said. Policemen allegedly used a needle and jute yarn to silence Muhammad Hussain when he fought with a fellow prisoner, tore an officer's shirt and shouted while being taken to court on Thursday. Hussain, facing trial over a fight between rival groups, badly damaged his lips when he tried to speak again. "I have ordered an inquiry into the sewing of the lips of an under-trial prisoner, Hussain, to keep his mouth shut," said Malik Muhammad Iqbal, deputy inspector general of police in Multan. "The policemen responsible will not be spared if they committed such a crime."
Well, at least they didn't abuse his Koran.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2005 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.
LONDON (AP) - Last year's Asian tsunami hit poor people far harder than the middle class and wealthy, and the aid effort could worsen the income gap between the rich and the poor in affected regions, a major aid group warned Saturday. Nearly six months after the enormous Dec. 26 disaster, Oxfam said those aiding the survivors must work hard to reach out to the poor and help them build better lives than they had before.
LAHORE: Three people were injured during a shootout in Gowalmandi police jurisdiction. The firing stemmed from the intense rivalry between the Billy Truckanwala gang and the Gogi Butt group.
Hundreds of homes have been built in Zimbabwe's capital to replace some of the thousands destroyed in a widely criticized official "cleanup" campaign, the government said Saturday ahead of a planned visit by a United Nations envoy. President Robert Mugabe earlier scorned Western "demonization" of his five-week program called Operation Murambatsvina, or "Drive Out Trash," which has left between 200,000 and 1.5 million Zimbabweans without homes or livelihoods. Saturday's announcement followed the condemnation by 10 U.N. human rights experts of the demolition of tens of thousands of homes in shantytowns and the destruction of street markets and vegetable gardens. More than 200 international human rights and civic groups Thursday demanded an end to the campaign, as have Western governments, including the United States, Britain and Australia.
BOMBAY: Tens of thousands of dancing girls in India's financial and film capital of Bombay have won a delay against a government decision to close them down. State governor S.M. Krishna, has refused to approve the move for now, saying in a statement on Friday he saw "no immediate reason" to do so. The Congress party-led state government wants to close the bars in Bombay and across the state of Maharashtra because it says they corrupt local youth, threaten the culture and are a front for prostitution and organised crime. About 75,000 women work in the bars, along with another 75,000 waiters, bouncers, cooks and cleaners.
A Pakistani woman gang-raped in 2002 on the orders of a village council said she can never forgive her attackers and she hopes they are sentenced to death. The case of Mukhtaran Mai provoked a national outcry and has focused international attention on the treatment of women in rural areas. The Supreme Court will on Monday begin hearing Mukhtaranâs appeal against the acquittal of five of six men convicted of attacking her and sentenced to death. âRight now I just have one (wish) that, God willing, there is a good decision in the case ... like the first decision,â said Mukhtaran. âThey should get the same punishment ... the death penalty.â
