[Bangla Daily Star] Capping a long-drawn-out drama, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia yesterday left her Dhaka cantonment residence and claimed the government had forced her out.
The news sent the muscle of the main opposition party into an orgy of violence in the capital and elsewhere. They vandalised at least 100 vehicles and torched around a dozen.
Some 80 people were maimed in festivities between BNP supporters and police across the country. The law enforcers jugged some 50 party workers.
The party enforces a countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal today to protest the "eviction" of its chairperson.
It said the way the government made the former prime minister leave her house was "illegal and unprecedented", as the matter was awaiting a hearing at the Supreme Court.
The army, however, maintained that Khaleda had voluntarily vacated the house. Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said the BNP chief did it out of respect for the High Court order that asked the government to allow her a month's time to vacate the Shaheed Mainul Road house. The time expired on Friday night.
The ruling Awami League said the government or the party had no role to play in this regard.
Briefing journalists at her Gulshan office at 7:15pm, a weeping Khaleda said, "I was evicted from my house. I was dragged out and forced to get in the car."
She added she was harassed, humiliated and ashamed by the way she was treated.
After the briefing, she moved into her brother Shamim Eskander's Gulshan residence. Some of her household items had already been shifted there.
Khaleda had been living in the cantonment house for 38 years since the days when her husband Ziaur Rahman was deputy chief of the army. After the liquidation of president Zia in 1981, the then army chief HM Ershad had allotted her the 2.72-acre house at a token price.
In April last year, the Cantonment Board declared the allotment illegal and issued a notice asking her to leave the house. Khaleda's lawyers filed a petition challenging the legality of the notice.
On October 13, the High Court declared the notice legal and asked Khaleda to vacate the residence. It directed the government to give her 30 days' time for that.
The BNP chief's counsels went to the Supreme Court for permission to file an appeal against the HC ruling. The apex court is scheduled to hear the leave-to-appeal petition on November 29.
BNP sources said the army authorities on Friday night communicated a message to their chairperson, saying she should leave the house in the morning.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
drama queen
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/14/2010 10:20 Comments ||
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The recent border dispute between Costa Rica and Nicaragua is a sign of an ambitious plan by Venezuela, Iran and Nicaragua to create a "Nicaragua Canal" linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans that would rival the existing Panama Canal.
Something that people have talked about for about 150 years ...
Costa Rica says that last week Nicaraguan troops entered its territory along the San Juan River -- the border between the two nations. Nicaragua had been conducting channel deepening work on the river when the incident occurred.
Sources in Latin America have told Haaretz that the border incident and the military pressure on Costa Rica, a country without an army, are the first step in a plan formulated by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, with funding and assistance from Iran, to create a substitute for the strategically and economically important Panama Canal.
The apparent engineering project was surprisingly placed under the supervision of Eden Pastora, better known as "Commandante Cero", a hero of the former Sandinista underground. This was a hint that the work had more than a simple engineering purpose. Two weeks ago, Pastora went to a farm of a Costa Rican citizen in the Calero Island area and told the farm owner that the area belonged to Nicaragua. The farm owner objected and subsequently farm workers were allegedly beaten and farm animals were allegedly killed. The farm owner called Costa Rican police who arrived and reported to their commanders that Nicaraguan troops had entered Costa Rican territory and raised a Nicaraguan flag.
#1
Good luck with that -- it will only cost a few hundred BILLION to complete and several hundred lives due to endemic fevers in the route of the Nicaraguan Canal. Plus, the fact that there are active volcanoes in the area might make it a little more difficult. There is a reason why the PANAMA Canal was built where it was.
#2
A pretty little engineering problem that will need to be solved at the same time that the Panama Canal is in the midst of a five-year program to widen and deepen it to enable the passage of today's largest ships, currently unable to enter. Still, if the economy picks up, there'd be enough business for two canals, I should think. In the meantime, where will Nicaragua find the funds to pay for the work?
The political changes in the United States Congress has one world leader calling shenanigans. Former Cuban President Fidel Castro wrote a letter about the U.S. elections in his state-run newspaper on Saturday stating that "all power (will fall) to the extreme right."
According to The Canadian Press, the 84-year-old former leader of Cuba wrote a lengthy essay that touched on various topics -- including the November 2nd elections where Tea Party patriots and the Republican Party were able to reclaim control of the House of Representatives. Castro called the it "the biggest defeat in memory in the last three-quarters of a century."
Mr. Batista might beg to differ ...
Castro went out to state that the election ruled in favor of the Republicans as the result of racism and frustration in America. "The most reactionary sectors in the United States are sharpening their teeth," Castro said, predicting that "all power (will fall) to the extreme right in the United States."
Castro has been involved in politics in the communist nation since the Cuban Revolution. He resigned as President in 2008 and currently serves as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba.
[Emirates 24/7] President Barack B.O. Obama has assured Russia's President Dimitri Medvedev on Sunday that getting the US Senate to ratify a new nuclear reduction treaty is a "top priority" of Washington.
In talks with Medvedev at the summit of the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, Obama also reiterated his support for bringing Russia into the World Trade Organisation, calling Russia "an excellent partner".
The treaty has been pending in the Senate for months facing resistance. A congressional aide told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that the White House was adding $4.1 billion in funding for the US nuclear arsenal to pick up the necessary votes.
Obama said he looked forward to seeing Medvedev again at a Nato summit in Portugal next week.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
The summary of this article raises several questions in my mind:
1.) Why will Obama see Medvedev at a NATO summit, since, as far as I know, Russia is not a part of NATO?
2) How does adding $4 billion dollars in funding the nuclear arsenal help pick up votes for a nuclear reduction treaty?
Besides, won't Obama be embarrassed when the Senate doesn't do his will after he promised Medvedev it would?
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/14/2010 0:31 Comments ||
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#2
won't Obama be embarrassed when the Senate doesn't do his will after he promised Medvedev it would?
If he was capable of being embarrassed, he wouldn't be Obama.
#4
How does adding $4 billion dollars in funding the nuclear arsenal help pick up votes for a nuclear reduction treaty?
It's an inducement to bring aboard reluctant Republican senators during the lame-duck session, though I gather that per Senator Graham, discussions on anti-missile defense were also on the table.
#5
ION RUSS, CHINESE MIL FORUM > CHINA FIRED [mystery] MISSLE SEEN OER SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA - WAYNE MADSEN.
ARTIC > IIUC, IOW China + CPLA is getting revenge on Pearl Harbor, HI [Hawaiian Islands] + EASTPAC, making the same untenable for the USNavy-DOD, as the "FIRST ISLAND CHAIN" is for China???
* WMF > RUSIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY SPOKEMAN VLADIMIR DEREK:TEN SOUTH KOREAN + JAPANESE JSDAF FIGHTERS [F-15's, F-16's, + F-2's] SCRAMBLED + TRIED TO INTERCEPT FOUR RAF TU-95MS STRATEGIC BOMBERS + IL-78 TANKER IN INTERNATIONAL AIRSPACE NEAR JAPAN.
* SAME > CHINESE EXPERTS: ARTICLE VIII OF 1945 POTSDAM DECLARATION EXPRESSLY LIMITS POST-WAR/SURRENDER JAPANESE SOVEREIGNTY TO HONSHU, HOKKAIDO, KYUSHSU, SHIKOKU, + OTHER ISLANDS IN JAPANESE ARCHIPELAGO, NOT THE DAOYUS [Senkakus] + OKINAWA.
#7
More from WMF > BOOK: EX-POTUS BUSH WARNED BEIJING + CHIN PRESIDENT JIANG JEMIN BACK IN 2003 THAT THE US MAY NOT BE ABLE TO STOP JAPAN FROM DEV NUCLEAR WEAPONS IN RESPONSE TO DPRK'S NUCPROGS. BUSH THREAT OF US AIR STRIKES AGZ NORTH KOREA"S NUCPROGS TO PREVENT DESTABILIZATION OF NE ASIA + SINO-JAPANESE, REGIONAL WAR [China agz anti-DPRK Nuclear Japan].
* SAME > CHINA + CPLA SHOULD ENGAGE IN BILATERAL SINO-US ANTI-TERROR SECURITY COOPER IN EASTPAC, AS A REWRAD FOR CHINA'S GOOD BEHAVIOR, THE US SHOULD OPEN UP GUAM BASE, MIDWAY, HAWAIIAN ISLANDS, ETC, + SUPPLIES/LOGISTICS-SHARING WID CPLA
* SAME > ROK + JAPANESE MEDIAS: SOUTH KOREA + JAPAN IN NEGOTIATIONS FOR BILATERAL MILITARY, NATIONAL COOPERATION. PROPOSED TERMS INCLUDE JAPANESE SUPPORT FOR SOUTH KOREAN DEV OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS IN RESPONSE TO NORTH KOREA'S MILITARIZED NUCPROGS, PROTECTION OF STATE SECRETS. ROK NUCLEAR WEAPONS AGZ CHINA + NUCLEAR DPRK.
* SAME > JAPAN PM NATO KAN: RISING CHINA AT PRESENT IS STILL GEOPOL WEAK HENCE NO NEED FOR JAPAN FOR ESCALATE IN DAOYUS/SENKAKUS ISLANDS DISPUTE WID BEIJING, WARNS THAT CHINA in 5-10 YEARS [circa]2015-2020] MAY INCREASINGLY RESORT TO UNILATERAL MIL FORCE TO SETTLE REGIONAL DISPUTES.
* SAME > RISE OF CHINA + ASIA-PACIFIC NATIONS, + SHIFT OF WORLD ECONOMIC CENTRE FROM WEST TO EAST, IS INDUCING THE US-EUROPE TO JEALOUSLY RESIST THE VERY SAME PROCESSES/DYNAMICS OF "GLOBALIZATION" IT SUPPORTED IN THE RECENT PAST.
** WMF POSTER(S) > RUSSIA should sell the former JAPANESE KURILS to China; + also perhaps
SAKHALIN???
* SAME > PRE-WAR NAVAL PREPARATIONS: CPLAN ACTIVITIES IN US-SENSITIVE WATERS. CPLAN AT PRESENT IS NOT STRONG ENOUGH TO CHALLENGE OR DEFEAT THE US NAVY IN MAJOR CONVENTIONAL OR LIMITED NUCLEAR NAAL WARFARE BETWEEN OPPOSING FLEETS, + MUST CURR DEPEND ON SUBMARINE-BASED PREEMPTIVE, RETALIATORY NUCLEAR STRIKES.
Aka during US-USSR/Soviet Cold War as "USE-IT-OR-LOSE-IT" + "BOLT-FROM-DA-BLUE" [surprise attack] SCENARIOS.
Oh yeah, well I'm convinced > D *** NG IT, MOVE ALONG PEOPLE, CLEARLY RISING CHINA DOES NOT WANT NOR NEED WARM-WATER MIL, TRADE PORTS BEYOND THE "FIRST ISLAND CHAIN" HERE!
BRITISH singer James Blunt said his refusal to obey orders from an American general helped avert an international incident, and a potential Third World War.
The Youre Beautiful singer, a former captain in the Life Guards - the senior regiment of the British Army - said in an interview today he risked a court martial by countermanding an order from General Wesley Clark to attack Russian forces.
Blunt, then 25, was in command of British troops ordered to take control of Pristina Airfield in Kosovo in June 1999, during the Balkan conflict.
However, 200 Russian soldiers got there first, and Blunt was asked to remove them.
He said in an interview for BBC radio program Pienaars Politics that Col Clark wanted him to destroy the Russians.
Blunt, now 36 and a patron of the UK Help for Heroes charity, was at the head of a column of 30,000 NATO troops with his unit.
I was given the direct command to overpower the 200 or so Russians who were there. I was the lead officer with my troop of men behind us ... The soldiers directly behind me were from the Parachute Regiment, so theyre obviously game for the fight," he said.
The direct command [that] came in from General Wesley Clark was to overpower them. Various words were used that seemed unusual to us. Words such as destroy came down the radio, he added.
Blunt, who sometimes kept his guitar strapped to the side of his tank, also said that we had 200 Russians lined up pointing their weapons at us aggressively ... and wed been told to reach the airfield and take ahold of it. Thats why we were querying our instruction.
"Fortunately, up on the radio came [commander of the British forces] General Mike Jackson, whose exact words at the time were, Im not going to have my soldiers be responsible for starting World War III.
He told us, why dont we encircle the airfield instead? And after a couple of days the Russians there said, Hang on, we have no food and no water. Can we share the airfield with you?"
The musician insisted that even if Jackson had not intervened, he would have refused to carry out the order from Col Clark, who was in overall command.
#1
...THIS twink was a Captain in one of the British Army's most elite regiments? Takes all kinds, I guess.
OTOH, still waiting to hear the full story of how that moron Clark damn near started a shootout (wouldn't have been war - think instead a REALLY good Tom Clancy scenario) between us and the Soviets Russians.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/14/2010 10:37 Comments ||
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"Weaselly" Clark had a bad reputation among his peers. One referred to him as a "gifted self-promotarian".
"Interviews with a wide variety of current and retired military officials reveal that Clark was disliked by only three groups: Those whom ranked above him in the chain of command whom he ignored, his peers at the same rank whom he lied to, and those serving beneath him whom he micromanaged. Other than that, everyone liked him."
"The simplest, most likely reason for the scathing, if vague, criticisms of Clark from former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Henry Hugh Shelton and Defense Secretary William Cohen, is this: As NATO commander, Wesley Clark had problems with the Pentagon's chain of command. When Clark's bosses didn't agree with him, he just went around them."
(Jumping the chain by going to Sandy Berger and Madeline Albright.)
#6
I have first hand knowledge of this event on the day in question. Nobody had any idea that the Russians were anywhere near Kosovo, let alone Pristina Airfield. Early morning photos showed BMPs and other vehicles placed on the runway to prevent landings. Not sure what transpired between Wesley and the Brits, but the American forces were readying to take the place by force. Everyone was told to stand down before any shots were fired, but from my vantage point on the operations net, we were very close to attacking the Russians. Afterward everyone was thinking "WTF" but I suppose both of the stories (Blunts and Jacksons) make sense. On a side note I would add that since we saw no Russian columns or air traffic into Pristina IMHO the equipment was Serbian with Russian markings.
#7
Might have done a lot of good if we could have gotten the Russians to take over the whole thing in Kosovo (with the knowledge that they would be held accountable before the world if their Serb friends did anything nasty). Such a move could have (a) Gotten Russians transport troops out of East Germany and into the Balkens (with our transportation help if needed) (b) stroked their fragile egos that they were still a great power able to protect their friends and (c) Kept us out of a conflict we really had no interest in.
At the same time we should have worked with the Ex-Warsaw pact to create a NEUTRAL military alliance that could act as a buffer between Western Europe and Russia making both sides happy. Such an alliance could have purchased Russian arms to ensure the Russians felt they had some interest in it. Such an alliance could also have kept the Russian paranoia down and provided Peacekeepers for UN missions that didn't have as much baggage.
Of course either move required a bit more forward thinking than anyone seemed to have during the day.
PARIS - Frances President Nicolas Sarkozy accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Francois Fillon and his cabinet on Saturday, paving the way for a long-awaited cabinet reshuffle.
The resignation is a traditional formality, allowing the head of state to pick new ministers without having to fire his existing team, and government sources said Fillon was expected to be quickly re-appointed premier.
Then, he will assemble a new ministerial team for Sarkozys approval, probably as soon as Monday. Most observers expect a smaller cabinet, drawn mainly from Sarkozys right-wing majority party, the UMP.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/14/2010 00:00 ||
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Out homosexual seeks "better fortune" in a moslem country.
GFL with that one.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
11/14/2010 13:36 Comments ||
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I've been told by people from Iran that their definition of homosexual acts is different. Somehow (I'm not sure of the details because it involves sexual matters that I don't understand), the many Mullahs who sodomize boys and young men are not guilty of homosexual acts. Yet, somehow some sexual acts between men or between women do fall into the homosexual category.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
11/14/2010 13:53 Comments ||
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#3
that's like in Mexico and Latin America. Only the catcher, not the pitcher, is considered gay. = maricón
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/14/2010 14:00 Comments ||
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#4
Only the catcher, not the pitcher, is considered gay.
It's because the others are only doing what it is that men do, whether the recipient is male, female, sheep, or camel. Or so Mr. Wife explained to me.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/14/2010 16:28 Comments ||
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#6
seeks "better fortune" in a moslem country.
According to the article, Turkey provides a temporary asylum for a certain number of refugees from around the world for various reasons who have to get sponsorship of another country that will take them in. The guy in the article managed to get Canada to take him (although he considered trying to stay in Turkey!).
The article says that Turkey has been willing temporarily take in refugees because it "hopes its generosity will help its case for inclusion in the [EU]." Wonder how long this policy will last.
[Pak Daily Times] Myanmar's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi walked free on Saturday after seven years as a prisoner in her own home, calling on a sea of jubilant supporters to unite in the face of repression.
Waving and smiling, the Nobel Peace Prize winner appeared outside the crumbling lakeside mansion where she had been locked up by the military rulers, to huge cheers and clapping from the waiting crowds.
"We must work together in unison," she told thousands of waiting people, suggesting she has no intention of giving up her long fight for democracy in what is one of the world's oldest dictatorships.
Suu Kyi asked the crowd to come to her party's headquarters at noon on Sunday to hear her speak after she struggled to make herself heard over the roar of cheers, then went back inside her home as the crowds lingered outside.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2010 00:00 ||
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ARIZONA voters have approved a measure that will legalise medical marijuana use in the state for people with chronic or debilitating diseases.
Final vote tallies showed that Proposition 203 won by a tiny margin of just 4341 votes out of more than 1.67 million votes counted. The measure had started out losing on election day by about 7200 votes, but the gap gradually narrowed in the following 10 days.
"Now begins the very hard work of implementing this program in the way it was envisioned, with very high standards," said Andrew Myers, campaign manager for the Arizona Medical Marijuana Policy Project. No pun intended
"We really believe that we have an opportunity to set an example to the rest of the country on what a good medical marijuana program looks like."
Arizona is the 15th state to approve a medical marijuana law. California was the first in 1996, and 13 other states and Washington, DC, have since followed suit. The Arizona measure will allow patients with diseases including cancer, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and any other "chronic or debilitating" disease that meets guidelines to buy 71g of marijuana every two weeks or grow plants.
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.
PARIS - Frances President Nicolas Sarkozy accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Francois Fillon and his cabinet on Saturday, paving the way for a long-awaited cabinet reshuffle.
Myanmar's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi walked free on Saturday after seven years as a prisoner in her own home, calling on a sea of jubilant supporters to unite in the face of repression. 
