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Mudhat Mursi: Dead Again?
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 5: Russia-Former Soviet Union
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3 00:00 Besoeker [2] 
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17 00:00 Red Dawg [8] 
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 4: Opinion
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
24-year-old son killed parents with hoe
Police say the 24-year-old son of a Rhode Island couple found buried in their backyard cesspool killed his parents with a garden hoe. James A. Soares was charged Sunday with the murders of 60-year-old James A. Soares Sr. and 53-year-old Marian Soares. He's being held until his arraignment Monday.

Major Steven O'Donnell says police believe Soares killed his parents July 9. They were reported missing six days later. On Saturday, police found the couple's bodies in their backyard. O'Donnell said the hoe was found under the senior Soares' body. Police said the younger Soares was the prime suspect early in the investigation. He was taken into custody Friday. Police would not comment on a motive or say whether Soares confessed.
Posted by: Fred || 07/28/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Jamie Soares took a hoe
And gave his father forty blows
And when he saw what he had done
He gave his mother forty one
Posted by: john frum || 07/28/2008 10:13 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Obama on the cover of Paranoia magazine
I am not making this up!

A photo of The Obama and his former pastor (as a matter of fact, the very photo reproduced at right) graces the cover of the August issue of this august publication, calling attention to the cover story, "Rev. Wright Was Right about Man-Made AIDS" by Alan Cantwell.

Other goodies in the upcoming issue: "Invisible Denizens of the Borderland," "The Russian 'Woodpecker' Beam," and "Eros, Magic and the Renaissance." Past issues have covered "Five Real Monsters You Should Be Afraid Of," "Covert Bio-Warfare Research and the JFK Assassination," and "The Israel Lobby." To judge by that topic list, and by what's written in the magazine's blog (which hasn't been updated since 2005--mere coincidence???), the readership and editorial staff of Paranoia is a subset of Democratic Underground.

h/t Jim Geraghty, "The Campaign Spot" @ National Review
Posted by: Mike || 07/28/2008 12:29 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I subscribe to Schizophrenic Magazine, you know. Both of us.
Posted by: mojo || 07/28/2008 16:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Sent the link to the woodpecker's designer. He will have a good laugh.
Posted by: 3dc || 07/28/2008 16:55 Comments || Top||

#3  I get Grapevine, but it actually doesn't mean anything as I don't go to meetings.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/28/2008 17:06 Comments || Top||


Adventurer Steve Fossett 'may have faked his own death'
Fossett, a friend of Virgin boss Richard Branson, and the first man to fly non-stop round the earth in a hot air balloon, went missing last September when his final flight in a light plane over the Nevada desert went missing.

However, Lieutenant Colonel Cynthia Ryan of the US Civil Air Patrol has said Fossett, whose body or plane was never found, could still be alive. She said: "I've been doing this search and rescue for 14 years. Fossett should have been found. "It's not like we didn't have our eyes open. We found six other planes while we were looking for him. We're pretty good at what we do."

Fossett's disappearance sparked the biggest search in American history, with the Civil Air Patrol's Black Hawks, fitted with infra-red technology, joined by over 30 private planes and internet experts scanning the Nevada desert looking for clues.

Lt Col Ryan believes Fossett may have faked his own death due to personal problems or fears about his business dealings. There are also a number of anomalies that question whether Fossett's plane ever crashed.

Only one witness, a pilot at hotel magnate Barron Hilton's flying ranch near Reno, claims to have seen him take off that day. That witness claims Fossett asked him to prepare the plane for take off, even though he had never allowed anyone else to do this before. Fossett also apparently claimed he was going to scout for locations for a land speed record attempt, but he supposedly took off with no emergency equipment. The choice of plane was also a baffling one - a Bellanca Citabria Super Decathlon, which, according to risk assessor Robert Davis said was constructed from a steel and wood frame, but actually covered in fabric, making it easy to dismantle.

Davis conducted an eight-month investigation for insurers Lloyd's of London, said to face a £25 million payout on Fossett's death. He said: "What I've strived to find out is what happened to this man in the run-up to his disappearance, why did he disappear? I spoke to reporters who were on the scene, people who were helping out with the search efforts, anyone whom I thought could shed some light on this. I discovered that there is absolutely no proof that Steve Fossett is actually dead. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, I'm a man who deals in facts, and I don't really care if he is alive or dead, it make no difference to me. What I am interested in is the truth - and a proper criminal investigation of this man's disappearance was never undertaken by law enforcement or officials in the state of Nevada."
Posted by: mrp || 07/28/2008 09:45 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well I think this is bull****. The founder of my company, along with several of his employees, spent a lot of time looking for this guy. Didn't find squat. He does not think the death was faked. Instead, he's said that the area is so vast that finding Fossett would be like finding a needle in a haystack. He was building a sub for Fossett to fly to the bottom of the Mariana Trench (deepest point of the ocean) to set a single man record. The sub sits unfinished in an office 300 yards from where I am sitting. Very cool craft.
Posted by: remoteman || 07/28/2008 13:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Remoteman, we must know people in common. You know Dirk R? He's a friend of mine.
Posted by: penguin || 07/28/2008 14:04 Comments || Top||

#3  I agree anyone who has flown low and slow out here in the WEST in a light plane can testify how vast the area is.

And how full of rough ground there is...
abrupt vertical rock canyons, gigantic gullies, snow capped mountain crags, sandy deserts and old salt lakes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
side question:

penguin, how's yer Liver doing? mine is mostly stable with possible work comming up...
~:)
Posted by: Red Dawg || 07/28/2008 14:25 Comments || Top||

#4  How is it that the plane wouldn't have a black box and transponder and stuff to help everyone track the plane and find the wreckage? Isn't that standard stuff these days? If not it should be.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 07/28/2008 14:27 Comments || Top||

#5  penguin, yes I know Dirk. I work with Graham's other company.
Posted by: remoteman || 07/28/2008 15:12 Comments || Top||

#6  The liver is hanging in there, Red Dawg. Life is good.
Posted by: penguin || 07/28/2008 15:21 Comments || Top||

#7  As long as we're throwing out possible scenarios, howzabout this one:

Maybe he was murdered, his body buried in the vast desert somewhere, and the plane trip was a coverup.



No dumber than a lot of other theories....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 07/28/2008 15:27 Comments || Top||

#8  Now I don't want to add to the conspiracy theory but Steve Fossett had been involved in recent years in setting records in gliders. I built some of the instrumentation that went into the 51000 foot altitude record flight.
A few weeks ago I heard a rumor that one of his gliding associates thinks he flew into Area 51 and was shot down by the military.
Don't believe a word of it myself. I've flown gliders out of Minden and seen the terrain.
Posted by: Aussie Mike || 07/28/2008 16:42 Comments || Top||

#9  What a crock of S***t. This is a phoney story.
THERE IS NO 'US Civil Air Patrol', there is the auxiliary of the United States Air Force officially named Civil Air Patrol. Civil Air Patrol DOES NOT OPERATE ROTARY WING AIRCRAFT. None, Nada, Zilch and never has. The helicopters used in the search were National Guard and Air Force helicopters.
What happened to Fossett is simple, he and Amelia Earhart eloped.
Posted by: Shusorong White1099 || 07/28/2008 16:54 Comments || Top||

#10  "The answer is clear - He [Fossett] and Amelia Earhart eloped"! > D *** NG IT, I KNEW THOSE TWO WERE UP TO SOMETHING!

Hehe.

ION, methinks #9 is correct about the CAP > TMK, and as per the Guam Area = Andersen AFB only, unless something had changed the CAP here in Guam never oper their own Helos, not for Training purposes nor even for S&R. AFAIK its also true for the mainland CAP???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 07/28/2008 19:01 Comments || Top||

#11  A person looking for a place to set a land speed record would be investigating large flat areas. The best known area for setting speed records in that region would be the Black Rock Desert about 100 miles North of Reno. I believe it is the flattest place in the US with an elevation change of 0.25 INCHES over a run of 25 miles.

I don't understand why they are looking South when the obvious place would be North. Also, the Burning Man arts festival was wrapping up on that day on the Black Rock playa. There is a temporary airport there where he could land or he could land directly on the playa surface outside the BLM exclusion zone set aside for that event.

I would look in the area around Gerlock / Empire / Smoke Creek, etc.
Posted by: knerfley || 07/28/2008 19:17 Comments || Top||

#12  Make that Gerlach, not Gerlock
Posted by: knerfley || 07/28/2008 19:21 Comments || Top||

#13  he was way south of there, IIRC, outside
(east) of Garderville/Minden
Posted by: Frank G || 07/28/2008 21:35 Comments || Top||

#14  Nobody knows where, exactly he went down. They know where he started, which was about 80 miles South of Reno. But again, if I were looking for a place to set a land speed record, Black Rock is the obvious place.

http://www.blackrockfriends.org/wiki/index.php/Land_Speed_Record
Posted by: knerfley || 07/28/2008 21:44 Comments || Top||

#15  When I fly me bird, I file a flight plan with FAA. They are still free, no fees. I stay on my course, and if I deviate, I call Flight Service on their numerous remote radio outlets. Also give position reports every 20 to 30 minutes. If somebody is looking for me, I want them to have the minimum risk exposed in the search. I have been on numerous searches and it does wear and tear on machines, personnel, and treasure. A flight plan is simple courtesy. And keep your ELT battery fresh. You may need it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 07/28/2008 22:33 Comments || Top||

#16  Frankly, the whole thing is a little weird. Sure the desert is vast, I have flown it many times. But the probable (crash) landing radius is finite. Given the cruise speed, fuel burn, range, etc. and factoring out directions he wouldn't fly because of terrain (i.e. no flat areas for his original purpose) the search zone is large but thoroughly searchable. It's not strange to me that he didn't file a flight plan or talk to controllers. That would be a hassle for this kind of a flight. What is weird though is that he had no radio, cell or communication attempts before or after landing. And assuming it was a crash (BTW those Citabrias can be put down almost anywhere safely) there was no ELT signal. ELT batteries are check at every annual inspection. And with all those people searching and no clues I find it weird. Always have.
Posted by: Intrinsicpilot || 07/28/2008 22:59 Comments || Top||

#17  Very Kool Paul... way professional and responsible too.

I know several pilots who almost never file and certainly never give position-reports.

Unless you call a shout out from a bar phone the night before a position-report.
>:)
Posted by: Red Dawg || 07/28/2008 23:14 Comments || Top||


Judge tosses Savage's suit against Islamic group
AP seem to have filed this under "Entertainment News".

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by conservative radio talk show host Michael Savage against an Islamic civil rights group over its use of a portion of his show in which he called the Quran a "book of hate."

Savage sued the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, for copyright infringement and racketeering lawsuit late last year, claiming the group violated his rights by using a segment of his "Savage Nation" show in a letter-writing campaign to get advertisers to boycott the program. In the broadcast used by CAIR, Savage also called the Muslim holy book "a throwback document."

In her ruling Friday, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston said people who listen to a public broadcast are entitled to use excerpts for purposes of comment and criticism. She also said no evidence was presented to show that advertising on the show's broadcast was affected by CAIR's actions.

The racketeering element of the lawsuit alleged that CAIR was not a civil rights group, but a political organization with ties to terrorist groups. CAIR denies those claims, saying it opposes terrorism and religious extremism.

In an interview with The Associated Press after he filed the lawsuit in December, Savage said he was referring to Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his violent brand of Islamic extremism in the broadcast, not about the religion in general.

Savage's attorney, Daniel Horowitz, told the San Francisco Chronicle he plans to file a new racketeering suit.
Posted by: gorb || 07/28/2008 06:14 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I have no idea whether or not it was valid to throw Savage's lawsuit, but it causes me to question the timing of the recent media blitz that hyped a bogus claim that Savage had said that autism was nothing but a fraud.

I'm not a Savage supporter, so please don't tell why I should not support him. I just happened to hear the segment on autism (was forced to listen) and by no stretch of the imagination was he implying that autism was a fraud. As was discussed on a previous rantburg thread, he was speaking only to the issue of expanding the diagnosis of autism to individuals who might well be damaged by that diagnosis or label.
Posted by: Percy Spumble4268 || 07/28/2008 9:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Savage is a loudmouth, and quite frequently and idiotic loudmouth, Being a loudmotuh comes with a price - people can and will use your words against you. Savage shoudl try being a man instead of a 2 bit loudmouth behind a microphone. Stand up and take the consequences for his actions.

Savage deserved to lose this suit.
Posted by: OldSpook || 07/28/2008 10:19 Comments || Top||

#3  Now this is interesting.

In her ruling Friday, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston said people who listen to a public broadcast are entitled to use excerpts for purposes of comment and criticism.
Posted by: phxrav || 07/28/2008 11:39 Comments || Top||

#4  I'm with OS on this.

I remember reading the .pdf of the Savage filing and trying to find a plain statement of the damages to Savage and what caused the damages. After a short period of reading I gave up -- there was so much fluff it was nearly unreadable.
Posted by: mhw || 07/28/2008 11:41 Comments || Top||

#5  He's trying to show CAIR that he can play the lawsuit game too and soak them for a ton of money just for fun. Just like they use it as a hammer to silence people, and tried to use it against him. I say its high time someone declared war on those guys, I'm a Savage neutral, but he's got the money to torment them a little, so good on him.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 07/28/2008 12:13 Comments || Top||

#6  In her ruling Friday, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston said people who listen to a public broadcast are entitled to use excerpts for purposes of comment and criticism.
Tell that to the NFL or MLB.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 07/28/2008 12:20 Comments || Top||

#7  In her ruling Friday, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston said people who listen to a public broadcast are entitled to use excerpts for purposes of comment and criticism.

It's called "fair use," and it's the reason you can quote Robert Fisk for the purpose of fisking him without getting tagged for copyright infringement.
Posted by: Mike || 07/28/2008 13:35 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Darwin Fish
OCOEE, Fla. -- A fish-like creature with "legs" caught in a Central Florida lake over the weekend sparked a flood of e-mails after photos of it were aired on Local 6.

Shawna Mitchell said she was fishing on Starke Lake in Ocoee when she pulled something strange out of the water.

Mitchell's photos showed what appeared to be a fish with two front legs and no scales.

She said she was "freaked out a little bit" after pulling the creature to a pier.
Posted by: Beavis || 07/28/2008 12:25 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Action news strikes again! That's a Greater Siren, an aquatic salamander that can grow to a length of 3 feet. A Florida native to boot and really not a rare animal. Now we just need the guy from our herp society that captured the dangerous baby black racer out of the Action 6 newsroom to tell them that they are normally found sitting on firetrucks where they lure sailors to their death but due to global warming they are forced to live in local lakes.
Posted by: bruce || 07/28/2008 19:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Carville!
Posted by: Frank G || 07/28/2008 21:36 Comments || Top||

#3  Are they good to eat Bruce?
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 07/28/2008 23:59 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egypt seizes Israeli radioactive shipment
I have no idea what this means.
EL-ARISH, Egypt - Egypt on Sunday refused to allow entry to an Israeli truck carrying three and half tonnes of ceramics after high radiation levels were detected in the shipment, a security official said.

Egyptian officials seized the goods at the Al Oja border crossing after radiation detection equipment showed a high presence of radioactive material in the cargo, the official told AFP. He said a technical team from the Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority was expected to inspect the shipment.

In June, Egypt sent back to Israel a delivery of 32 tonnes of tiles because it was emitting high levels of radiation.
Posted by: Steve White || 07/28/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Could be, the clay is slightly radioactive or even colours in the glaze. I doubt there is some dastardly scheme behind this.
Posted by: phil_b || 07/28/2008 2:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Much ado about nothing. Just some kind of Islamic PR. Ceramics are more radioactive than most things out there. Just ask your teeth.
Posted by: gorb || 07/28/2008 6:05 Comments || Top||

#3  This happens a lot more than you might imagine. I've seen very radioactive ceramics sent from Italy to Germany. Ironically, the tiles were subsidized by Germany to help the Italian tile industry.

Radiation levels were about the same as in pitchblende, because the radioactive matter was concentrated to make the glaze color.

A lot more common is lead contamination. You should never use off-label ceramics for food without testing for lead first. Most hardware stores sell inexpensive lead test wipe kits. Children are especially susceptible and can suffer brain damage even with small amounts.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 07/28/2008 10:02 Comments || Top||

#4  It might very well have been a shipment to Abdul Jihadi p/o box Tel Aviv for all we know.

I can't see the Israeli government shipping anything by land unless it was a false-flag deal. I can see the Palestinians and friends doing so.

Of course the ceramics mentioned by other posters is the most likely scenerio.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 07/28/2008 11:24 Comments || Top||

#5  A truckload of red fiestaware?
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 07/28/2008 12:15 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Extremist killed in police shootout
Top leader and theorist of outlawed Purbo Banglar Communist Party (ML-Lalpotaka) Dr Tutul was killed in police shootout early on Sunday.
Not a Biplobi, a Purbo commie, but just as dead ...
Police said Dr Tutul alias Dr Mizanur Rahman alias Masud alias Dada-bhai was wanted in over twelve systems 200 cases including murders in 16 northern districts including of greater Rajshahi and greater Pabna.
Wherever the heck those are ...
He was a suspect of police killings and arms loot incidents at Randhunibari police camp in Sirajganj, Bamihal police camp in Natore and Tahirpur police camp in Rajshahi and at Choubariahat in Naogaon.
Must have been an honorary doctor ...
Police said acting on a tip off, they raided Kaligram Eidgah ground in Raninagar upazila where 50/60 extremists were holding a clandestine meeting.
Monthly meeting of the Purbo commies, discussing the next shutter-gun raffle fund-raiser ...
"Sensing police presence, ...
Yep, their spider sense tingled ...
... the outlaws opened fire on them ...
Not hitting a thing of course ...
... forcing the law enforcers to retaliate that triggered a gun fight.
All one-sided ...
At one stage the extremists fled the scene", said a police official giving an account of the spot.
As if they were never there in the first place.
Police later recovered the bullet-hit body of Dr Tutul from the scene.
Right where they had dumped him out of the truck ...
When he was taken to the upazila health complex the attending doctors declared him dead.
"He's dead, Jim."
He hailed from Kotchandpur upazila of Jhe-nidah district.
That's somewhere in the equatorial belt of Tattooine ...
Two firearms, 25 rounds of bullet and some sharp weapons were recovered from the scene.
Commies brought knives to a gun-fight ...
Posted by: Steve White || 07/28/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's nice to see a top dog get the RAB treatment instead of low-level thugs.
Posted by: gromky || 07/28/2008 3:58 Comments || Top||

#2  some sharp weapons

"Say, those are some sharp weapons, Hal."

"Thanks, Ted. I got them at Sharper Image. This one has this thing that tells time..."
Posted by: eLarson || 07/28/2008 7:29 Comments || Top||

#3  One dead commie, a few pieces of broken glass, and the 2 guns and 25 bullets were returned to the police weapons locker (whoever checked them out had to sign a chit). All things considered, a very tidy scene for a shoot-out.
Posted by: Spot || 07/28/2008 8:29 Comments || Top||


Britain
SNP triumph over Labour in Glasgow East
Gordon Brown’s worst nightmare was realised early today as the Scottish National Party triumphed by taking Glasgow East, one of Labour’s safest seats.

The hopes of Labour strategists that their disastrous run of electoral setbacks was about to end were dashed as the SNP’s John Mason achieved the enormous 22 per cent swing required to topple the long-time stronghold.

Mr Mason, a Glasgow councillor, overturned a 13,507 Labour majority at the general election in 2005 to win by 365 votes from Labour’s Margaret Curran. Turnout was just over 42 per cent. Earlier in the day, Labour had requested a recount, which delayed the result being announced by around an hour.

In his victory speech Mr Mason described the result as "not just a political earthquake, it is off the Richter scale. It is an epic win, and the tremors are being felt all the way to Downing Street”.

He added: "We have removed the dead hand of Labour control."
On the heels of the fall of London, this was described "As if the Republicans had won Boston, followed by San Francisco!"
Posted by: Anonymoose || 07/28/2008 14:03 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  However, as EU Referendum has pointed out, this earthquake didn't reach the center of government. AKA Brussels.

Just a provincial cat fight when all is said and done.
Posted by: AlanC || 07/28/2008 15:06 Comments || Top||

#2  So there's hope for old blighty yet?
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 07/28/2008 15:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Not yet. Gordo will be succeeded by the Boy King Cameron. The differences are primarily cosmetic and sartorial.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 07/28/2008 15:22 Comments || Top||

#4  "Earlier in the day, Labour had requested a recount, which delayed the result being announced by around an hour."

Yee-ouch. That's gonna leave a mark. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 07/28/2008 15:36 Comments || Top||

#5  The SNP is more socialist than Labor these days, so thats not entirely a good thing. Its just a shift from one left-party to another.
Posted by: buwaya || 07/28/2008 18:48 Comments || Top||

#6  Meet the new boss, same as the old boss, eh?
Posted by: OldSpook || 07/28/2008 18:57 Comments || Top||

#7  But it means that England won't be ruled from Scotchland.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 07/28/2008 19:55 Comments || Top||


Grandmother arrested on race charges after telling rowdy Asian students to 'go home'
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 07/28/2008 13:21 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So long, England. Ya had a nice run...
Posted by: tu3031 || 07/28/2008 14:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Yet Sharia advocacy is indulged. What a sick society.
Posted by: McZoid || 07/28/2008 20:02 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Barack Obama's brother pushes Chinese imports on US
BARACK Obama's half-brother has been helping to promote cheap Chinese exports in a low-profile business career while the Democratic senator has been winning worldwide fame in his race for the White House.

He has gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid public attention and his family links remain unknown to most of his acquaintances in Shenzhen, a border boomtown in southern China where he has lived since 2002.

Mark Ndesandjo is the son of Barack Obama's late father and his third wife, an American woman named Ruth Nidesand who runs the up-market Maduri kindergarten in Nairobi. Obama, however, refers to him simply as "my brother" and says he was the only uncontested heir after their father, a Kenyan, died in a car crash in 1982.
Why wasn't Barack considered an 'uncontested' heir?
But the two men held sharply diverging views on their African heritage and while Obama chose to live in the glare of publicity, his half-brother submerged himself in the crowds of the most cosmopolitan city in China.

Friends say he has a long-term Chinese girlfriend in her 20s from Henan, a poor landlocked province that sends millions of migrants to the coastal cities. He lives in Nanshan, a brash new district of high-rises and streets teeming after dark with young migrants eating spicy street food and cramming into bars, karaoke joints and massage parlours.

"He is big, strong and full of energy, speaks good Chinese and is a really easygoing guy," said a Chinese friend, "He always wears a hat over his shaven head. I believe he has several consultancy jobs."

Chinese officials said there are unanswered questions about his internet-based company, Worldnexus Ltd. It has provided corporate communications and website design to Chinese firms seeking customers in English-speaking markets, of which the United States is the biggest. Worldnexus is not registered to conduct business in Shenzhen and officials at the city's commercial administration bureau said this raised potential issues of taxation and compliance with the law by its customers.

The company's Chinese-language website promises "increased communication efficiency" to clients and lists Shenzhen exporters of electronics and machine parts among its contracts. The website lists an office address in the west of the city but despite a search of the area and checks with local police, no such building could be located.
How curious ...
Nor is Worldnexus Ltd legally registered in Hong Kong, where many businesses choose to incorporate for their China trade, according to an official data check.

Contacted by The Sunday Times last week, Ndesandjo said: "Thanks for your interest. However I am not giving interviews at this time." He did not respond to four subsequent requests for comment.

However Ndesandjo told a Chinese businessman last week that Worldnexus was not trading at the moment, saying that he hoped to "re-start the business next year" and adding that the website was "out of date."
How curious ...
Any family connection between the Democratic presidential contender and the flood of Chinese imports that are blamed by many Americans for destroying American jobs could be politically embarrassing. Obama has staked out a populist position on trade with China in the US election campaign, calling in December 2007 for a ban on all toys from Chinese factories until safety inspections were put in place.

But although the kinship between the two men is bound to cause a sensation in China -- as in their father's native Kenya, no distinction is drawn between full and half brothers -- they do not appear to be close.

Ndesandjo, who had an elite education in the United States, collecting a degree from Brown University, a masters in physics from Stanford and an MBA from Emory, did not share Obama's emotional view of his roots. Obama painted a disappointed picture of his half-brother in his 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father, in which he celebrated his own return to Kenya and rediscovery of his African inheritance.

At a rather tense lunch, Obama quoted "Mark" -- his family name is never given away in the book - as saying Kenya was "just another poor African country" to which he felt little attachment. Mark added: "there's not much work for a physicist, is there, in a country where the average person doesn't have a telephone."

According to Obama's account, Mark looked him in the eye and said: "You think that somehow I'm cut off from my roots, that sort of thing. Well, you're right."

"At a certain point I made the decision not to think about who my real father was. He was dead to me even when he was still alive. I knew that he was a drunk and showed no concern for his wife and children. That's enough."

Barack Obama senior fathered eight children by four different women.

Obama wrote that Mark didn't want to ask himself a lot of questions about the meaning of racial identity, dismissing the idea with the words: "life's hard enough without all that excess baggage."

Asked last week whether he was quoted accurately in the book, Ndesandjo did not respond. Obama wrote that on parting, "we exchanged addresses and promised to write, with a dishonesty that made my heart ache."

Two decades after that encounter, the extended and complex Obama family is bound to come under further scrutiny as the US election enters its final months after the Democratic and Republican party conventions. "That not enough has been written about his family is strange," wrote columnist Roger Cohen in the New York Times last March, "If nominated, Obama's family baggage will be pored over."
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/28/2008 08:33 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Barack Obama senior fathered eight children by four different women.


Sounds like a solid guy.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 07/28/2008 12:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Mark sounds like he has a better feel for life and reality than his brother Barry. Of course he was trained as a scientist and business man rather than a lawyer.
Posted by: tipover || 07/28/2008 12:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Compare "DADS/PARENTS MISBEHAVIN" wid WHATDOESIT MEAN > VOLTAIRE.net - OPERATION SARKOZY: HOW THE US CIA [wid Mafias] PUT ON OF THEIR OWN AT THE HEAD OF THE PRESIDENCY OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

Lest we fergit, NWO BLOODLINES [Illuminati?]: STUDY SHOWS HILLARY CLINTON IS RELATED TO ANGELINA JOLIE, BARACK OBAMA TO BRAD PITT?

So-o-o, IIUC/IICC, HILLARY = LARA KROFT "TOMBRAIDER" JOLIE, a future OWG-NWO, Gun-toting, sexy slinky "CHINA RULES THE WORLD" SUPERMODEL whom wid Sisters makes her male classmates at BRAND NEW = FUTURE "OLD" ST. FRANCIS SCHOOL, YONA GUAM DROOL???

D *** GED DEEP SPACE NINE = HADRON WESTPAC WORMHOLES [shaking future ancient Old Earth-Guam fists angrily]!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 07/28/2008 21:17 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Hindus struggle to take back Manora temple
The Hindus of the city are struggling to take complete control of the located historical Manora Island temple dedicated to Hindu god Varun Rai. They want to acquire rights to 11,000 square feet that the temple is built on, instead of the 2,500 square feet that the Pakistan government recently handed over.

"We have repeatedly requested the federal and provincial governments to hand over the complete temple area to the Hindus so that they can renovate and reconstruct this historical temple and perform their routine religious ceremonies, but despite our continuous requests, we have received only a quarter of the total area," said former minority MPA Sindh Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani.

Vankwani said that the temple is about three centuries old. It was last renovated by the British government in 1930 and till a few years back, about a dozen statues of god Varun Rai, Shiva Ling and other statues of different gods and goddesses were kept there. Some are still present. The official records of the British government confirm the lease and the area of the temple. "We have official copies of the record which says that the temple had a total area of 11,000 square feet," said Vankwani. Quoting it, he said according to the official letter (DD-Government 1183/2/P4/172/1942, dated February 2, 1943) registered in the official book of the Government Land Record (GLR) Volume 1, the British government leased an area of about 11,000 square feet for the temple.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 07/28/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Good luck with that. I think you can ask the Buddhists how well respected their religion was. If I were a hindu I'd be far from Pakistan.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 07/28/2008 14:25 Comments || Top||


Sri Lanka
'Fake' airline pilot held in Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan police on Sunday detained a German man on suspicion that he used false documents to secure a job as a top pilot for Sri Lanka's national carrier, a spokesman said.

Ranjith Gunasekara said the man had been flying for the company for 10 months before an internal probe found he was only qualified as a co-pilot, and not as a captain of a wide-bodied airliner. "We are going to take over all the documents from personal files for our investigations," Gunasekara said. "The German national is now being held by the airport police."

There was no immediate comment from Sri Lankan airline, which until April this year was fully-managed by Emirates of Dubai. Sri Lankan airline sources said the German national was discovered when a junior pilot, who had been sent for routine training on a bigger Airbus A-340, noticed that the "captain" was uncomfortable with the controls.

However, he had still captained Sri Lankan flights to European destinations including London, Frankfurt and Paris, as well as Dubai, the sources said.
Posted by: Fred || 07/28/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:



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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2008-07-28
  Mudhat Mursi: Dead Again?
Sun 2008-07-27
  3 people killed in second day of Tripoli festivities
Sat 2008-07-26
  India: Serial kabooms in Ahmadabad
Fri 2008-07-25
  Serial booms in Bangalore
Thu 2008-07-24
  'Mohmand Agency now under Taliban control'
Wed 2008-07-23
  Sheikh Aweys claims Somali opposition leadership
Tue 2008-07-22
  Another Paleo Bulldozer Operator Goes Jihad
Mon 2008-07-21
  Death-row Bali bombers forgo presidential pardon
Sun 2008-07-20
  B.O. visits Afghanistan on grand tour
Sat 2008-07-19
  Mighty Pak Army zaps 10 Hangu Talibs
Fri 2008-07-18
  Four Madrid bomb convicts cleared
Thu 2008-07-17
  Israel-Hezbollah 'prisoner' exchange
Wed 2008-07-16
  Paks: NATO massing forces on border
Tue 2008-07-15
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Mon 2008-07-14
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