(SomaliNet) Somalis interim government announced on Sunday that it reopened the flights to and from the self break away republic of Somaliland after week of suspension as the government also disclosed that it would resume the flight relationship with Kenya.
The agreement reached in a meeting held inside the airport today between the officials of the civil aviation and the flight companies. Officials of the flight companies said they were ready to comply with the laws of the civil aviation in the transitional federal government.
On 26 August, Somalis civil aviation department of the transitional federal government suspended all flights to and from the regions of Somaliland. The move came when Somaliland authority warned off the new e-passport saying anyone who holds that document will face eight years in prison.
Meanwhile, Somalia government also revealed today that it would resume its official flights to Kenya. In a news conference held in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia after being sworn for the post of Somalia ambassador to Kenya, Mohammed Ali America said the flights between Somalia and Kenya will be resumed. The Kenyan government closed its border with Somalia late 2006 when the Ethiopian backed Somali government forces drove the Islamic Courts out of the country.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/03/2007 00:00 ||
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CAIRO - Egypts President Hosni Mubarak is in good health, his wife Suzanne Mubarak said, seeking to end speculation in the Egyptian media the 79-year-old ruler may be seriously ill.
'Suzanne'?
The presidents activities have not stopped ... his health is excellent, Suzanne Mubarak told Arab satellite channel Al Arabiya in remarks broadcast overnight.
Just like General Franco.
She said people spreading rumours about his health should be held to account. She did not elaborate.
She didn't need to.
For the past week, Egyptian opposition and independent newspapers have raised the possibility of the president falling ill after he missed some regularly scheduled meetings, including one with university students. Mubaraks live appearance on state television examining a project in Burg el-Arab on the north coast last week failed to end speculation.
The four muscle guys propping him up pro'ly didn't help matters.
Mubarak also postponed a trip to inspect projects in the southern province of Sohag, scheduled for Sunday. The president cancelled the trip on Saturday because the projects there were not ready, an official source told Reuters.
"Nurse! He's doing it again!"
"Hush Gamal and hold him while I get the shot ready!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/03/2007 00:00 ||
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I wonder of the arabic version of this page describes her as a Chairperson:
Law enforcing agencies are yet to arrest any of the 10 'top' listed leaders of outlawed parties and gang groups active in southwestern districts. They are still active in Kushtia, Meherpur, Chuadanga, Pabna, Rajbari and Jhenidah districtscollecting toll and doing other crimes, sources said. The cadres, listed with police as 'hardcore criminals', are evading arrest despite all out attempts by law enforces including Rapid Action battalion (Rab) in last three years to nab them.
Six of them are leaders of outlawed parties and four are of gang groups. The outlawed leaders are Gono Bahini (GB) chief Azibor Rahman and his 'second-in-command' Mandar; Gono Mukti Fouz (GMF) chief Shahin and three 'regional commander' Mukul, Tikka and Bakhtiar; and New Bipplobi Communist Party (NBCP) chief Akdil Hossain alias Buro Leaders of gang groups include Lalchad Bahini chief Lalchad; Mukti Bahini chief Mukti and Hamidul and Rashidul who lead the Hara Bahini. All of them hail from different areas of Kushtia district and conduct criminal activities in Kushtia and adjacent Meherpur, Chuadanga, Pabna, Rajbari and Jhenidah districts.
Sources said GMF leader Tikka demanded Tk.2 lakh from a businessman at Totamtola in Sailkupa upazila in Jhenidah several days ago. The businessman is also an employee at Islamic University. Sources close to the businessman said they informed police about the incident. According to law enforcing agencies, some cadres of GB and NBCP recently held several meetings with a plan to capture some water bodies including Nandia, Uzangram and Chapaygachi in Kushtia Sadar upazila.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2007 00:00 ||
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The owner of a construction firm yesterday filed a criminal case against former commerce adviser and Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Jubo Dal president Barkatullah Bulu, his wife Shamima Akhter and two others for extorting Tk 1.15 crore from him in 2005. Deposition of all prosecution witnesses of the money laundering case against detained former BNP lawmaker from Demra in the capital Salauddin Ahmed ended yesterday. Hearing on charge framing will be held on September 5 against detained former housing and public works minister Mirza Abbas in connection with a money laundering case.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2007 00:00 ||
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Afroza Abbas, wife of detained former housing and public works minister Mirza Abbas, was sentenced to 16 years' imprisonment yesterday in two tax evasion cases. The second special court for dealing with graft charges also fined her Tk 4.92 crore in the cases.
Afroza Abbas, who was tried in absentia, would have to serve only five years in jail, as the verdict said that the sentences would run concurrently. She will, however, have to pay the full amount of the fine or serve one and a half years more in jail. The court also ordered confiscation of her properties worth about Tk 4.60 crore to the state, which Afroza did not show in her tax returns in different years.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2007 00:00 ||
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Former Bangladesh prime minister Khaleda Zia was charged on Sunday in a graft case, as speculation mounted that the countrys emergency government will arrest her, police said. The countrys anti-graft commission alleged that Zia illegally influenced the selection of an operator for two state-run container depots during her second term as the countrys prime minister, police officer Jane Alam said. Zia and her younger son Arafat Rahman Coco were among the 13 accused in the case. The anti-corruption commission has charged them with illegally influencing the bidding process, he added. This was the first graft case filed against Zia by the countrys emergency government, which has launched a nationwide crackdown on corruption since taking over in January. Mass-circulated Bengali daily Naya Diganta said on Saturday that Zia, whose elder son has already been detained, would be arrested within the next three days as the governments anti-graft body has readied several graft cases against her.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2007 00:00 ||
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CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - President Hugo Chavez said Sunday he could continue governing until 2027 if voters do away with re-election limits because he needs more time in office to establish a socialist economic model in Venezuela. He has previously said he could stay on as president until 2021 if his proposed constitutional reforms - which among other changes would eliminate presidential term limits, letting him run as many more times as he wants - are approved.
Funny how the end-date keeping slipping further into the future ...
Surely he's being too modest? His loving and loyal subjects will certainly wish to keep him on more or less forever!
So build a glass masoleum and mount him in wax ...
Government opponents have attacked the reforms, accusing Chavez of seeking to stay in power for decades like his close friend Fidel Castro of Cuba. Chavez denies the charges and says a new constitution is necessary to move Venezuela toward socialism and help the country's poor. ``I need more time in the presidency to finish this. We are only beginning,'' he said on his weekly radio and television program, ``Maybe until 2020 or 2027. I'd be old if I'm still alive.''
I'll gladly pay for the truffles and the goose liver paté if it helps convert a critical left main stenosis ...
His proposals would also extend presidential terms from six to seven years, and empower neighborhood-based assemblies called ``communal councils.'' The reforms were initially approved last week by the National Assembly. Final approval is expected within two or three months, and the changes will then be submitted to voters in a referendum.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/03/2007 00:00 ||
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China Sunday took two important steps toward increasing the transparency of its military, with announcements that the nation will provide the United Nations with details of its military spending and its trade in conventional weapons.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said China has decided to participate in the UN Military Transparency Mechanism, under which the country will report each year to the UN secretary-general on its military expenditure for the latest fiscal year. The country will also resume providing data on its imports and exports of seven categories of conventional weapons to the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms starting this year, said Jiang, whose remarks were posted on the Foreign Ministry's website.
These are two important decisions made by the Chinese government to increase the country's military transparency, she said.
Jiang emphasized that China had made important contributions toward the establishment and development of the UN Register of Conventional Arms, and provided data required by the register each year. But it was forced to suspend its reporting in 1996, when "a certain country", which she declined to name, provided data on its arms sales to the sovereign nation of Taiwan China's Taiwan Province to the register. This contradicted the spirit of the relevant resolutions of the UN General Assembly and the objectives and principles of the register, she said.
As the country concerned has ceased the above-mentioned behavior, the Chinese government has decided to resume providing the data.
"I would like to reiterate that the Chinese government has all along taken a prudent and responsible attitude to its arms exports, and implemented strict controls on such exports according to its international obligations and domestic laws and regulations," Jiang said.
She said the "two decisions demonstrate that China pursues a security concept based on mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and cooperation, and supports the important role played by the UN in promoting transparency in armaments and mutual trust in the field of security among nations".
Military strategy expert Peng Guangqian said that the decisions are a further example of China's long-time policy of military transparency, and "were not made as a result of pressure from any other country". "China is highly transparent in terms of military policies and security strategy, as reflected in its commitment to no-first-use of nuclear weapons," Peng told China Daily. But Peng noted: "Transparency will always be relative. The key point is mutual trust."
Responding to some Western concerns about China's increased military expenditure, which stood at 351 billion yuan ($46.4 billion) this year, a year-on-year increase of 17.8 percent, Peng said: "China needs to safeguard itself because there are still so many destabilizing factors in the world, including terrorism, separatism and extremism."
"Some just pointed out that our military expenditure is increasing, but ignored the fact that the major part of this is going toward the improvement of soldiers' livelihoods," said Peng.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/03/2007 00:00 ||
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The good news is China will provide the United Nations with details of its military spending and its trade in conventional weapons. The bad news is they've hired former management of Arthur Andersen LLP to do the books.
The Swedish navy's largest ship, HMS Carlskrona, is to be mothballed due to a lack of officers. A decision on whether to refit, sell or scrap the minelayer will be made later in the autumn.
A minelayer is their biggest ship?
The Carlskrona returned from its most recent long voyage in 2005. Since then, it has been kept in port most of the time. A maintenance crew of eight people has kept it in working order.
The 3rd Naval Warfare Flotilla in Karlskrona currently has 43 vacancies for officers. A number of officers resigned their commissions during the summer.
The commander of the flotilla has asked the navy's top brass for permission to lay up HMS Carlskrona. This permission was granted, but it is unclear what will then happen to the ship. HMS Carlskrona was refitted in 2002 at a cost of 225 million kronor. The refit left the ship fit for active service until at least 2020. In other news, Sweden donates 20 million kronor to save Ingmar Bergman's film prints. How depressing.
TIPTON, Iowa - Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said on Sunday that his universal health care proposal would require that Americans go to the doctor for preventive care. Well, whose gonna pay for all of this? Not to mention freedom of choice over one's medical condition.
Progressives don't believe in 'freedom of choice'. They believe that all goodness comes from the State, and that therefore the primary obligation of all citizens is to the State. Their heritage isn't the American revolution, you see, it's the French one ...
"It requires that everybody be covered. It requires that everybody get preventive care," he told a crowd sitting in lawn chairs in front of the Cedar County Courthouse. "If you are going to be in the system, you can't choose not to go to the doctor for 20 years. You have to go in and be checked and make sure that you are OK." Can I opt out of the System? Or is that mandatory, too?
It's the System, Deacon. The System is not optional. Think inside the box, folks.
It'll just feel like you opted out when you have to wait four years to get your hip replaced ...
He noted, for example, that women would be required to have regular mammograms in an effort to find and treat "the first trace of problem." Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, announced earlier this year that her breast cancer had returned and spread. Tough noogies, people. The Government will require you to have these tests. What else will the Government require? Pre-birth testing for birth defects or hereditary diseases? Will they requie abortions for those fetuses deemed inferior?
Or for fetuses deemed superior?
One of their heroes is Margaret Sanger; connect the dots ...
Edwards said his mandatory health care plan would cover preventive, chronic and long-term health care. The plan would include mental health care as well as dental and vision coverage for all Americans. The key phrase here is "Mandatory" This means everyone will be required to participate.
"The whole idea is a continuum of care, basically from birth to death," he said. The Government will have control of your life from Birth to Death. Is he really stupid enough to not recognize the ramifications of this? I think he is.
It's only mandatory for one of the Americas. The America he lives in will have a different set of rules. Always has, you know ...
The former North Carolina senator said all presidential candidates talking about health care "ought to be asked one question: Does your plan cover every single American? Because if it doesn't they should be made to explain what child, what woman, what man in America is not worthy of Government control health care," he said. "Because in my view, everybody is worth health care."
Edwards said his plan would cost up to $120 billion a year for statrters, a cost he proposes covering by ending President Bush's tax cuts to people who make more than $200,000 per year. Yup. kill the economy and make people dependent on The Government.
Edwards, who has been criticized by some for calling on Americans to be willing to give up their SUVs while driving one, acknowledged Sunday that he owns a Ford Escape hybrid SUV, purchased within the year, and a Chrysler Pacifica, which he said he has had for years. "I think all of us have to move, have to make progress," he said. "I'm not holier-than-thou about this. ... I'm like a lot of Americans, I see how serious this issue is and I want to address it myself and I want to help lead the nation in the right direction." Except for me. I already have mine and refuse to give it up. All you "Little People" need to understand you are incapable of determing for yourself what is best for you.
He said he would not buy another SUV in the future. The Ford Escape, the first hybrid SUV on the market, gets an estimated 36 mpg in the city and 31 mpg on the highway. Wow. He's really saving. How many times does he fly Coach?
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/03/2007 00:00 ||
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he owns a Ford Escape hybrid SUV, purchased within the year, and a Chrysler Pacifica
It's OK, he's part of the "other" America -- he can afford to buy Carbon Indulgences.
#3
Y'know this would really bother me if he had a chance in hell of winning. Right now all he basically is is Kucinich with money.
Good comic relief though...
#4
This POS trial lawyer has a chance, don't underestimate him, the other lawyers will flock to him and bury him in support and money. The Dems want you to focus on Hillary and Obama when this is the turd they want to run.
#5
This plan has Edwards-style lawsuits written all through it. He'll take second or third in the primaries, and the honourable Senator Clinton will have to find someone she doesn't despise to take the vice president slot on the ticket. I've recently read that Democrats involved in the House and Senate races -- and those concerned about the results -- are starting to worry how many seats she's going to lose for them.
#6
Don't go down the route of Government "heath care" it basically means that the state nationalises everyone's body.
There are ways for the state to subsidise healthCARE without owning people, but that removes power from politicians, and they won't go for those ideas.
#7
So, Sen. Edwards, when will we nationalize legal services?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
09/03/2007 7:08 Comments ||
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#8
...patients develop 1.7 million infections in hospitals each year, and it says those infections cause or contribute to the death of 99,000 people a year â about 270 a day.â - http://www.timegoesby.net/weblog/2007/08/medicare-and-ho.html
If you kill them off fast enough, your costs will eventually start to 'stabilize'. The more you force into the environment, the more opportunities for lawyers like Mr. Edwards.
#12
My brother-in-law's dad,Ershel, had a triple bypass 20 years ago when he was 60 years old.At 80 years of age, He went to the doctor for a check up, and the heart doctor told him they might have to go in again and do more work on his heart.Ershel reminded the doctor that at the time of the surgery he was promised that the triple by-pass would last him his lifetime.The doctor replied "I know Ershal,but to tell you the truth, I didn't expect you to live this long!"
#15
Totalitarianism comes soooo easily to leftist-liberals. No point in debating the issue with them though. They feeeeel they know what's best for those whom they govern.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
09/03/2007 12:05 Comments ||
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#16
I reckon they want to won people, not govern them.
#17
For crying out loud, just look over the pond to the NHS. Double the money spent on it since ZaNuLabour came to power. You're ok if you happen to have the right post (zip) code and if you happen to have something that is one of their 'targets'. But otherwise, forget it. We're letting in Doctors from all around the world (many with very dubious credentials - remember the filth that tried to kill people in Glasgow? - they were Doctors) because the older Doctors left in disgust at the way they were being treated (amongst other reasons).
Total control - that's all they want, and that's all they'll accept.
Throw this out, throw it out, kill it, drive a stake through its heart and then burn it. You don't need this. Want to know what's going to have the most effect on American's health care over the next few years? Medicare's decision to stop paying out on 'preventable errors' . As they say, RTWT.
Oh, and anyone who pays $1000+ for a haircut that looks like the one he's got can't be taken seriously.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
09/03/2007 14:17 Comments ||
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Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
09/03/2007 14:19 Comments ||
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#19
I heard a story about how Joe Stalin once told one of his generals that he needed surgery. The general didn't think so but had no choice but to undergo the prescribed procedure. I can't remember how it turned out.
Posted by: Abu Uluque6305 ||
09/03/2007 14:36 Comments ||
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#20
Stalin never trusted doctors. But then, hasn't Edwards made a career suing doctors? If you were a doctor, how would you feel about treating a guy like that? How many good doctors have quit because they couldn't pay their malpractice insurance? How many would quit if they had to work for the government? Why would they go into medicine in the first place if they knew they wouldn't be able to make a decent living? And then we would be recruiting doctors from Cuba and Pakistan.
Posted by: Abu Uluque6305 ||
09/03/2007 14:47 Comments ||
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SULAIMANIYA, Iraq: In this corner of Iraq untouched by war, people are able to focus on the more normal attributes of building a nation, like starting a university. In a ceremony here last week, Iraq's leaders gathered for the groundbreaking for the American University of Iraq, a private institution that they hope will one day grow to mirror the more well-known American universities in Beirut and Cairo. The first classes, which will be conducted in English, are set to begin in a donated office next month.
In the shorter term, supporters of the new university will stand as a symbol for the sort of positive change that is possible, if not in all of Iraq, then at least in its Kurdish north. "This shows what Iraq could be like," Barham Salih, Iraq's deputy prime minister told the gathering here, which included the American ambassador, Ryan Crocker, and the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani. "This is a dream that has to come true."
They got a pretty good down payment on that dream last week. Following a sumptuous lunch for local businessmen here, Salih secured promises for $10 million in donations. That, along with the pledges secured so far - including one for $10.5 million from the U.S. Congress - brought the total promised to $40 million. In meetings with Americans and Iraqis, Salih was pleading for as much as he could get. "Your moral support is good, but your financial support is even better," Salih said to Crocker.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/03/2007 00:05 ||
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#1
My hat is off to the Kurds; you have to give them credit for the very tight security crackdown for their people, that only the Israelis could admire. With building that moat around their entire town(s), the "to know you is to see you" visitations and not letting anything larger than a gnat's ass get through without permission, they should be congratulated by the 'other' Iraqis!
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.
(SomaliNet) Somalis interim government announced on Sunday that it reopened the flights to and from the self break away republic of Somaliland after week of suspension as the government also disclosed that it would resume the flight relationship with Kenya. 
CAIRO - Egypts President Hosni Mubarak is in good health, his wife Suzanne Mubarak said, seeking to end speculation in the Egyptian media the 79-year-old ruler may be seriously ill.
Former Bangladesh prime minister Khaleda Zia was charged on Sunday in a graft case, as speculation mounted that the countrys emergency government will arrest her, police said. The countrys anti-graft commission alleged that Zia illegally influenced the selection of an operator for two state-run container depots during her second term as the countrys prime minister, police officer Jane Alam said. Zia and her younger son Arafat Rahman Coco were among the 13 accused in the case. The anti-corruption commission has charged them with illegally influencing the bidding process, he added. This was the first graft case filed against Zia by the countrys emergency government, which has launched a nationwide crackdown on corruption since taking over in January. Mass-circulated Bengali daily Naya Diganta said on Saturday that Zia, whose elder son has already been detained, would be arrested within the next three days as the governments anti-graft body has readied several graft cases against her.
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - President Hugo Chavez said Sunday he could continue governing until 2027 if voters do away with re-election limits because he needs more time in office to establish a socialist economic model in Venezuela. He has previously said he could stay on as president until 2021 if his proposed constitutional reforms - which among other changes would eliminate presidential term limits, letting him run as many more times as he wants - are approved.
China Sunday took two important steps toward increasing the transparency of its military, with announcements that the nation will provide the United Nations with details of its military spending and its trade in conventional weapons.
The Swedish navy's largest ship, HMS Carlskrona, is to be mothballed due to a lack of officers. A decision on whether to refit, sell or scrap the minelayer will be made later in the autumn.
