GENEVA - The World Health Organization announced Thursday it will would stop using the term "swine flu" to avoid confusion over the danger posed by pigs. The policy shift came a day after Egypt began slaughtering thousands of pigs in a misguided effort to prevent swine flu.
WHO spokesman Dick Thompson said the agriculture industry and the U.N. food agency had expressed concerns that the term "swine flu" was misleading consumers and needlessly causing countries to ban pork products and order the slaughter of pigs. "Rather than calling this swine flu ... we're going to stick with the technical scientific name H1N1 influenza A," Thompson said.
The swine flu virus originated in pigs, and has genes from human, bird and pig viruses. Scientists don't know exactly how it jumped to humans. In the current outbreak, WHO says the virus is being spread from human to human, not from contact with infected pigs.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/01/2009 00:00 ||
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CHINESE MIL FORUM > MEXICO BLAMES CHINA, PAKISTAN, AND BANGLADESH FOR SWINE FLU
[tourists, new emigres].
#4
We called one strain Spanish flu because we thought it first occurred in Spain. Another was Hong Kong flu because it seemed to come from Hong Kong. So rather that Swine flu, shouldn't this be called Mexican flu?
#16
Wag the Dog is a 1997 film starring Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman, about a Washington spin doctor who distracts the electorate from a U.S. presidential sex scandal by hiring a Hollywood producer, played by Dustin Hoffman, to construct a fake war with Albania.
Wag the Dog flu--distraction from the economy and other things.
[Mail and Globe] The prime minister appointed by Madagascar's ousted president, Marc Ravalomanana, has been arrested by soldiers loyal to the island's new leader.
The arrest marked a new escalation between Andry Rajoelina's new army-backed regime and Ravalomanana loyalists, even as foreign diplomats and the African Union held consultations in Addis Ababa on the crisis.
A group of around 20 soldiers, all armed and some hooded, stormed the Carlton hotel in central Antananarivo where Manandafy Rakotonirina had set up his base to challenge the authority of Andry Rajoelina. "We are here to arrest Manandafy," one of the military officers in charge of the operation told reporters on the scene.
Former Madagascan opposition leader Rajoelina ousted the Indian Ocean island's elected president Ravalomanana with army backing on March 17.
Ravalomanana has recently upped his counter-offensive from exile, claiming to still be the island's only legitimate leader despite resigning and forming a parallel government to challenge Rajoelina's administration. On Tuesday, the rival prime minister he appointed, Manandafy Rakotonirina, unveiled a partial government line-up including all the key portfolios which he said would be tasked with governing the country.
The commando led by officers known for their part in the military deployment that forced Ravalomanana out of power last month searched the hotel for an hour before eventually finding Rakotonirina hiding in a toilet.
Hotel staff told AFP that the soldiers produced a warrant and a spokesperson at Rajoelina's office confirmed that one had indeed been issued. "There has been an arrest warrant against Manandafy for a week. He is the mastermind of last week's violence ... This is also an operation launched in response to a threat on state security," Annick Rajaona said.
Deadly regime
After initially allowing Ravalomanana loyalists to vent their disappointment, Rajoelina's regime has begun to tighten the screw, banning rallies and unleashing security forces on transgressors.
Two civilians were killed on Friday when security forces cracked down on protesters defying the ban, bringing to four the number of dead in anti-Rajoelina demonstrations last week.
Rajoelina's High Transition Authority has blamed Ravalomanana loyalists for the violence and on Monday raided the offices of Madagascar's Constitutional Court in an operation aimed at rounding up remnants of the armed forces still loyal to Ravalomanana.
Diplomats speaking condition of anonymity told AFP on Wednesday that a high-level delegation from Rajoelina's transitional regime arrived in Addis Ababa two days earlier for consultations.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/01/2009 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Two alleged drug peddlers were hacked to death by rivals over internal feud at Aminbazar on the outskirts of the capital yesterday. The deceased were identified as Shahin Mia, 35, and Abul Hossain, 35, of the area.
Locals said unidentified criminals at around 9:30pm on Wednesday hacked Shahin with lethal weapons in front of Abul Hossain's house at Mirdhartek leaving him seriously injured.
Then they also hacked Abul Hossain while attacking on his house. Locals took Abul Hossain to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) where he succumbed to injuries at around 12:30am.
Besides, Shahin was taken to a local clinic where doctors declared him dead.
AKM Nasir Ullah, Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Savar police station told The Daily Star that the deceased were drug peddlers in the area and few days ago another drug peddler Aslam was killed by the deceased.
As a sequel to the killing of Aslam, they might have been killed; OC Nasir said adding they were accused in several murder and extortion cases.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/01/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Here our drug dealers use 9 mm pistols rather than machetes to defend their turf against rivals. I think I prefer the Bangla system - fewer innocent bystanders hurt or killed.
A couple were arrested after being caught having sexual intercourse on the Queen's lawn outside Windsor Castle. The pair, in their early thirties, stripped on a private grass bank at the castle, where Her Majesty was in residence.
They were watched by crowds of tourists beneath the castle's Garter Tower, in full view of hotels, pubs and shops over the road. Several Japanese tourists filmed the couple for up to twenty minutes before they were arrested by armed Royal Protection Squad officers.
The couple, who were described by police as "respectable people with respectable jobs", were said to be "mortified" by their actions. A police source said they were put in cells overnight to sober up before being cautioned for outraging public decency.
Witness Mark Robinson, 44, told The Sun: "One window from the guardroom opened up and when a soldier saw what was going on he told his mates and lots of windows opened. The couple did not care who was looking and just kept going as if they were in their own bedroom. They even ignored the Please Keep Off The Grass signs. A few soldiers were geeing them on from above and plenty of young people did the same from the roadside. There were camera flashes going off and people videoing."
The couple reportedly stopped after being confronted by two protection squad officers arrived in an unmarked Range Rover, accompanied by a police car. A Windsor Castle source said: "The Queen was in residence at the time, but her private apartments are at the other end so she would have been blissfully unaware of it."
#4
"Several Japanese tourists filmed the couple for the up to 20 minutes" > wehell theres a shocker. THAT SOUND YOU HEAR IS GODZILLA + BOYZ NOT ROARING IN SHOCKED, BUT WEIRDLY AND MYSTERIOUSLY CURIOUS, -ZILLA INDIGNATION!
MOSCOW (AFP) -- Russia took formal control of the borders of Georgia's separatist zones and slammed NATO exercises due in the country, as a spy row created new frictions between Moscow and the alliance. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev inked the border defence treaties with the leaders of the Moscow-backed rebel regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in a sombre Kremlin ceremony.
NATO, the Czech EU presidency and the United States voiced dismay at the accords, saying they breached an EU-brokered Russia-Georgia ceasefire deal agreed last August.
Under the pact, effective for 10 years, Russia assumes immediate responsibility for guarding the regions' de facto borders with Georgia, including maritime patrols of Abkhazia's strategic Black Sea coast. Medvedev called the signing a "crucial political act" and said it would be "a key factor for establishing security on our borders and in the whole of the Caucasus".
It comes just one week before NATO holds what it describes as anti-terrorist exercises in Georgia, in the face of vociferous Russian opposition.
"The planned NATO exercises in Georgia, no matter how our Western partners try to convince us otherwise, are an overt provocation. One cannot carry out exercises in a place where there was just a war," Medvedev said at the signing.
Each side accused the other of violating the terms of the EU-brokered ceasefire that ended the five-day Russia-Georgia conflict last August.
"Any actions which would be seen and perceived by Tbilisi as encouragement for the course of remilitarisation... are seen by us as contradicting the six principles for resolving the conflict agreed last August," Medvedev said.
NATO countered that Russia's agreements with the two rebel regions were a "clear contravention" of the ceasefire accord and vowed to press on with the exercises, which will run from Wednesday to June 1 and involve over 400 soldiers. "This is a clear contravention of the 12th of August and 8th of September agreements negotiated by the EU," NATO spokesman James Appathurai said in Brussels.
The Czech EU statement stressed "the EU's full support to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia in its internationally recognised borders."
"This action contravenes Russia's commitments under the August 12 ceasefire," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said in a statement, adding the move "violates Georgia's territorial integrity."
Wood urged Russia to "honor its commitments" under last year's ceasefire deal and said "establishing a 'border' under the control of Russian soldiers marks another step in the opposite direction."
Georgia, for its part, shrugged off the border pacts, saying they simply formalised a state of affairs in place since the end of last summer's war. "This is yet another step by the Russian authorities towards completing the occupation of these two Georgian regions," the secretary of Georgia's National Security Council, Eka Tkeshelashvili, told AFP.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Every war time member of Saakashvili's Cabinet has abandoned him. His public support approaches single digits. And NATO wants to prop this goof.
Posted by: Jans Wittlesbach2039 ||
05/01/2009 7:06 Comments ||
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#2
Saakashvili may have given the Russians an excuse, but it didn't really matter; soon enough they'd have forced some other excuse. It's not about Georgia, per se. Russia badly wants control of the major oil export lines from the Caspian basin to Europe and the west, and Georgia sits on one of the very few outside their control. (Long-term, look for new lines to the EAST, to China. Then Russia's SOOL.)
[Iran Press TV Latest] US President Barack Obama confirms that troubled automaker Chrysler will file for bankruptcy protection, adding that the company will emerge from the process quickly.
President Obama threw his weight behind the nation's third largest automaker on Thursday, adding that his administration would take necessary measures to give the struggling company "a new lease on life".
In brief remarks at the White House, President Obama also revealed that Chrysler completed its long-waited deal with the Italian carmaker Fiat. "Today, I am pleased to announce that Chrysler and Fiat have formed a partnership that has a strong chance of success," said the American president.
Two crappy, government-supported, under-capitalized automakers come together to make and sell cars. What could possibly go wrong ...
The troubled 85-year-old automaker will enter into bankruptcy after failing to reach a settlement with lenders on a 7-billion-dollar loan on Thursday.
The Canadian and Italian governments have also vowed to help the company. Canada says it is allocating 2.4 billion dollars to the automaker to help its restructuring process.
Italian Industry Minister Claudio Scajola spoke in support of the partnership deal between Chrysler and Fiat and said he would try to facilitate talks between Fiat and Italian trade unions regarding the deal.
On Tuesday, a group of Chrysler lenders with a total of one billion dollars in debt announced that they are in talks with the US Treasury to reduce the company's debt. "We are continuing to discuss our position with the United States Treasury," the 20-member group said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/01/2009 00:00 ||
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ION POTUS BAMMER, ISRAELI MIL FORUM > CULTURE OF SURVEILLANCE: OBAMA'S SECRET PLAN TO COPY AND CONTROL THE CONTENTS OF YOUR PERSONAL COMPUTER [ vee COPYRIGHT ACT].
Posted by: no mo uro ||
05/01/2009 6:01 Comments ||
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#3
...Chrysler is too far gone to save, even with C11. Fiat will keep Jeep and sell everything else.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
05/01/2009 6:15 Comments ||
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#4
More nationalization. The UAW - whose members take 7% of costs of car production in union plants - wants to use their pension funds as bonded (guaranteed by government) financial control tool.
Lesson: zero regulation capitalism means zero control over creation of dubious finance products (401 Ks, junk bonds, sub prime loan contracts, derivative markets, etc). Zero financial product control means that funds will flow to unviable investments.
Tag anyone who believes that capitalism will produce balanced development if it is completely self-regulated, with the Moron label.
Posted by: Jans Wittlesbach2039 ||
05/01/2009 7:03 Comments ||
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#5
Jan, wrong.
Zero intervention means these things would have died long ago. Stop attributing to capitalism things that were caused by government interference. C.f. Fanny Mae and Barney Frank + Chris Dodd. Also see the laws allwoing unions to become the fat leeches they are with the force fo government threat behind them.
Government arguably made things FAR worse.
If you want government control, go ask someone that lived in eastern Europe about how well that worked.
Seems a couple of government agencies [not free market] were deeply involved in these, along with Congressional muscle to 'encourage' lending institutions to launder the product. If the government wasn't involved, most parties would likely be facing RICO indictment.
#7
Not to mention that lovely "forced marriage" that B of A got stuck with, courtesy of Paulsen. Funny how Cuomo has been mighty quiet about it as of late. I wonder why.
#9
Yup, if I were a B of A shareholder I'd be planning a lawsuit and my demands for interrogatories and depositions ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/01/2009 9:06 Comments ||
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#10
So, is it ok to say now that GM stands for Government Mule?
Capitalism encourages unequal production with the idea that someone will make an item in a better way. Socialism is based on the lowest common denominator - factor in that there seems to be no limit to stupidity then there you go.
It is the natural order of organisms to evolve or become extinct. This dog should've been put down long ago and would have already been reborn - by prolonging the process ya prolong the pain and rebirth.
Let's go to imaginationland - your car breaks down, so now you have a federal paperwork problem. I have no transportation, so I have to bum a ride from someone to go to the courthouse to pick up forms for warrenty claim, or a lawyer. Say that it is streamlined so all I have to do is go to the DMV and stand in line with everyone else who has a warrenty claim. The DMV is a pain is the ass already, so now its completely overcrowded. The work burdon is overwhelming, so either the gov hires more people and new facilities to handle the load - which of course means more gov, see taxes increased, or stays the same and muddles its way though a disparaging 'stopping the tide with a bucket' work load and becomes a morale killer for the employees. And that is just for fixing an alternator...not getting treatment for a broken arm.
#12
Chrysler is too far gone to save, even with C11. Fiat will keep Jeep and sell everything else.
To who?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/01/2009 12:13 Comments ||
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#13
I think Chrysler's product line will do well once consumer confidence revives. Structural adjustments are already in play. The UAW has the money to sustain them. Every dollar sent to Chrysler will be paid back with dividends.
How was Madoff able to Ponzi billions, in face of red-flags?
Why was Enron able to sell by prospectus, based on purely subjective projections of earnings?
In which month of 2002 did the sub-prime mess begin - and it can be positively dated - and what political affairs conditioned the spree of tossing capital into non-viability pits?
Supporting Good Regulation does not mean supporting Lefties.
Posted by: Jans Wittlesbach2039 ||
05/01/2009 16:02 Comments ||
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#14
I think Chrysler's product line will do well once consumer confidence revives. Structural adjustments are already in play. The UAW has the money to sustain them. Every dollar sent to Chrysler will be paid back with dividends.
Structural adjustments??? You mean how the government forced secured lenders to take a bath to the benefit of the UAW? And, pray tell, how will the UAW suddenly learn how not to drive the company with which it is associated into bankruptcy? And finally, tell me about all those cutting edge Chrysler models that folks are going to break down the door to buy.
#18
Chrysler is too far gone to save, even with C11. Fiat will keep Jeep and sell everything else.
To who?
Nobody. Perhaps the properties can be sold to other car companies looking to expand, but the Chrysler brand itself, unless there's some great autos in the works has no value.
With the exception of Dodge trucks and the Jeep line, they're in a bad way.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
05/01/2009 23:58 Comments ||
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AMSTERDAM -- The man who drove his car into a crowd of parade spectators and killed six people died of his injuries Friday, leaving unresolved the mystery of why he tried to attack the Dutch royal family. The 38-year-old suspect, identified by Dutch media as Karst Tates, had been in critical condition since the attack Thursday on Queen's Day, the Dutch national holiday.
Ten other people were hurt when the man rammed his small black car through police barricades toward an open-topped bus carrying Queen Beatrix and several other members of the royal family.
He told one of the first police officers to rush to his car that the attack was aimed at the royal family, prosecutor Ludo Goossens said Thursday. But the motive was unclear. "It is very difficult now that we no longer have the suspect to reconstruct what was behind this," said Fred de Graaf, they mayor of Apeldoorn where the incident occurred.
Dutch media, citing neighbors, said Tates recently was fired from his job as a security guard and was to be evicted from his home in the small eastern town of Huissen because he could no longer afford the rent. Police said he had no history of mental illness or police record.
The neighbors described him as friendly, but a man who kept to himself, the NRC Handelsblad reported. He was a "quiet man". Or a "loner". We don't know yet.
Prosecutors said the suspect's death ended the criminal investigation against him, but that they would continue to investigate whether he acted alone. "So far there are no indications" anybody else was involved, prosecutors said in a statement.
Police who searched the man's house Thursday "found no weapons, explosives or indications of other suspects," prosecutors said. No links with terrorism or ideological groups were immediately uncovered, they said.
(04-30) 18:07 PDT Oakland -- Even the state's top law-enforcement officer isn't immune to crime.
A scofflaw made off with the two passenger side tires from state Attorney General Jerry Brown's state-owned Toyota Camry hybrid (natch) as it was parked outside his Oakland hills home, his office said Thursday. Um, I'm pretty sure this 'scofflaw' had some help...
Brown, Oakland's former mayor, was attending the state Democratic convention in Sacramento when the theft occurred April 24, said Brown's spokesman Scott Gerber.
It was not known whether the culprits knew that the black car was used by Brown, police said. No arrests have been made, said Oakland police Sgt. Rich Vierra, chief of staff to acting Police Chief Howard Jordan.
There's no surprise ...
Amy Morosini, 40, a neighbor of Brown's, said she was driving with her family to a college reunion on Saturday when she saw the car on a cinder block. "I kind of just pointed it out to my husband and said, 'Oh my God, look! Someone stole Jerry's tires!' " Morosini said Thursday.
"Even though I am California's 'top cop,' 2 of my tires were stolen. No matter. I got 2 new ones and I'm rolling again!" Brown said in a message posted on his Facebook page.
#3
I'm pretty sure the reporter was correct to say the tires were stolen. I imagine the wheels were too, because it's a little tricky to get the tires off the wheels without a machine.
Hmmm...no, the state got 2 new ones for the state-owned Toyota Camry. Does the UAW know that little fact oh mighty champion of the working class? /sarc off
Why does the attitude come off like a 'resource redistribution' view by a socialist bureaucrat? /rhetorical question. It's not like it was his personal money/resources involved.
#8
At least old Jerry is trying to keep up with the times by driving a hybrid. When he was governor he rode around in an old Plymouth instead of riding in a decent limo like any sensible governor would. But then, he's a real "man of the people".
Hustice David Souter has told the White House that he will retire from the Supreme Court at the end of the court's term in June, according to media reports.
Justice Souter is the only judge within the Supreme Court that has not hired law clerks for the term beginning in October, raising speculation that he is preparing for retirement.
Eight justices are known to have hired the four law clerks who will work with them in the next term making people speculate that Souter, 69, is not be hiring clerks because he isn't planning to be in Washington in the fall.
A retirement would give President Barack Obama his first chance to nominate a justice and the next few months would bring Senate confirmation hearings.
This is concededly an unusual way to signal that a retirement announcement is imminent, but one former senior government lawyer who declined to be named because he practices in front of the Supreme Court said, "It's getting late, even for Souter."
For the last three years, at least, the identities of Souter's clerks for the upcoming term have been known by now. Gossipy legal blogs actively seek out the names of the clerks recent graduates of the nation's top law schools who go on to lucrative careers and, sometimes, the Supreme Court.
Clerkships are highly sought and applicants have been known to interview with multiple justices in the hopes of landing a job at the high court.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Stephen Breyer and John Paul Stevens were clerks when they were younger.
#2
If this is so the entertainment value will be substantial. A contentious pick has the potential to knock the rest of Bambi's agenda off the schedule for the summer.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/01/2009 9:09 Comments ||
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#3
How can a Zero pick be 'contntious'? He could appoint Karl Marx and he'd still have the votes to confirm.
The Iraqi government decided Thursday to kill three wild boars at the Baghdad Zoo amid worldwide fears of swine flu, officials said. No cases of swine flu have been reported in Iraq, and global health officials have said there is no evidence that people have contracted swine flu by eating pork or handling pigs. But Iraqi officials say they don't want to take any chances.
Iraq has few, if any, pigs used as livestock because its dominant religion, Islam, considers the animals impure. Wild boars roam the countryside in some areas.
"The ministry of agriculture made a decision today to kill the three pigs in Baghdad Zoo as a precautionary measure," Dr. Sabah Jassim Mozan, the head of the ministry's veterinarian department, told The Associated Press. No date has been set for their killing, according to Dr. Ihssan Jaafar Ahmed, who heads Iraq's swine flu committee. Zoo officials could not be reached for comment. Earlier Thursday, the mud-covered boars grazed quietly inside their large pen at the zoo.
Iraq's decision is among several drastic measures governments have taken to combat swine flu. Egypt began slaughtering the roughly 300,000 pigs in the country even though no cases have been reported there.
#1
That is drastic, because most likestock resist epidemics. Their immune systems are better than ours.
Egypt has plans to kill all pig stock. Almost 10% of Egyptians are Christian and pork is a major food source. There were 1,000,000 Christians in Iraq in March 2003; that number has been halved. Christians will pay for more muslim pseudo science.
We need controlled experiments, where a single infected pig is placed among 50 healthy ones. Then test same daily for susceptibility and immunity. Any other approach is unfair to both farmers and the public. This will be a good test for Obama-Regulation.
Those of us who have been to Japan are aware that it has long been the practise for persons with cold or flu, to wear the standard mouth covering. Good idea.
Posted by: Jans Wittlesbach2039 ||
05/01/2009 15:18 Comments ||
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[Straits Times] A FORMER Khmer Rouge prison chief on Thursday said regime leader Pol Pot was worse than China's 'Gang of Four' as he admitted further 'cowardly' deeds at Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court.
Duch - real name Kaing Guek Eav - is on trial for overseeing the torture and extermination of 15,000 people who passed through the regime's Tuol Sleng prison, also known as S-21. He told the tribunal on Thursday that the regime's hardline communist theory was worse than China's cultural revolution, led by the so-called 'Gang of Four' who orchestrated extremist social reforms over ten years up to 1976.
'Pol Pot evacuated all the people from Phnom Penh city, smashed the former regime officials, smashed the capitalists, smashed the intellectuals. So... only the peasant worker class remained,' Duch said.
The Khmer Rouge regime used the word 'smashed' to refer to killing. 'This 'Gang of Four' went one step forward, but Pol Pot went ten steps forwards... Pol Pot's theory was even crueller than the theory of this group of four,' Duch said.
Duch said his appointment as chairman of S-21 prison meant that his 'duties became crimes against humanity by way of (overseeing) killing", but said his early sympathy for the victims gave way to an instinct for self-preservation.
'I was compelled to go on,' Duch told the court. 'I was rather cowardly in that I did not contest but went on carrying out their orders and sometimes even exercised my power... to ensure that myself and the lives of my family would be out of danger,' he said.
'Therefore, I committed all kinds of crimes, serious crimes. In S-21 no one is considered to have committed more crimes than me,' he added, saying that he 'regretted' the killings.
Earlier Duch told the court he knew the hardline communist regime would eventually be brought to justice.
'It is clear that the communist party (Khmer Rouge) could not avoid being prosecuted for the crimes they have committed,' Duch told the five-judge panel, while saying he had lived in fear of being beheaded if he spoke out.
Duch later confirmed that 'all prisoners sent to S-21 must be killed", including those mistakenly arrested in order to ensure 'secrecy and security.' He said the party had an 'absolute' rule that meant those sent to S-21 would never be released.
'No one was entitled to release them, (not) even Pol Pot,' Duch said.
Tribunal judge Nil Nonn late Thursday announced the trial would adjourn and resume hearings on May 18.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Makes you wonder about who was in charge of S-1 through S-20 and how high up the numbers went.
[Straits Times] MALAYSIA needs to enact a law to ban forced conversions, a controversial issue in this mainly Muslim country, rather than just relying on rulings from ministers, according to lawyers for a women fighting custody.
An ethnic Indian Malaysian woman, Indira Gandhi, whose estranged husband embraced Islam and converted their children to the religion, is fighting to get them back.
Malaysia's law ministry last week said that it had banned forced conversions, saying the religion of the parents when they married applied to children, but Gandhi's husband has said that civil laws do not apply as the conversions were approved by a sharia court.
'If they (Muslims) do not submit themselves to the civil court, where is the remedy for the non-Muslim? where is the equality in law?,' Ms Gandhi's lawyer, A. Sivanesan, told a press conference.
Islam is the official religion in Malaysia, but non-Muslims are allowed to practice their faiths. Muslims, who make up around 65 per cent of the Southeast country's 27 million population, are bound by Islamic family laws, while civil laws apply to non-Muslims.
There has been growing unease among Malaysia's mainly Chinese and Indian ethnic minorities who are mostly Buddhists, Christians and Hindus over numerous complaints of discrimination and unfair treatment by the authorities when seeking legal redress following cases of divorce and religious conversions.
The disquiet built up during the case of Lina Joy, a Malay Muslim who converted to Christianity at the age of 26 but was forced to endure a long legal battle to have her conversion legally recognised by the Malaysian courts.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/01/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
ION MALAYSIA, WORLD MIL FORUM > CHINA SENDS ATTACK SUBMARINE TO PROTECT ["monitor"] NANSHAS, CHINESE FISHING BOATS AGZ MALAYSIAN NAVY.
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.
A couple were arrested after being caught having sexual intercourse on the Queen's lawn outside Windsor Castle. The pair, in their early thirties, stripped on a private grass bank at the castle, where Her Majesty was in residence. 
MOSCOW (AFP) -- Russia took formal control of the borders of Georgia's separatist zones and slammed NATO exercises due in the country, as a spy row created new frictions between Moscow and the alliance. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev inked the border defence treaties with the leaders of the Moscow-backed rebel regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in a sombre Kremlin ceremony.
[Iran Press TV Latest] US President Barack Obama confirms that troubled automaker Chrysler will file for bankruptcy protection, adding that the company will emerge from the process quickly. 
The Iraqi government decided Thursday to kill three wild boars at the Baghdad Zoo amid worldwide fears of swine flu, officials said. No cases of swine flu have been reported in Iraq, and global health officials have said there is no evidence that people have contracted swine flu by eating pork or handling pigs. But Iraqi officials say they don't want to take any chances.
[Straits Times] A FORMER Khmer Rouge prison chief on Thursday said regime leader Pol Pot was worse than China's 'Gang of Four' as he admitted further 'cowardly' deeds at Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court. 
