[Bangla Daily Star] Police scuffled with protesters and nabbed over 100 people yesterday during a daylong hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... called by the main opposition BNP and its key ally Jamaat-e-Islami to protest what they said moves to scrap the constitutional provision of holding parliamentary elections under a non-partisan caretaker government.
Most shops and schools remained closed and traffic was disrupted during the dawn-to-dusk nationwide hartal that otherwise passed off without any major violence or festivities. Six home-made cocktails went off in parts of the capital, including three in front of BNP's central office at Naya Paltan.
Police jugged more than 100 pickets in the capital and elsewhere as opposition activists attempted to take to the streets to enforce the hartal, the fifth such shutdown by BNP since the Awami League-led grand alliance won the parliamentary polls held on December 29, 2008.
Several people were maimed in the cocktail blasts and in scuffles with police, witnesses said.
The hartal was announced after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said last week there was no scope to keep the provision of non-partisan caretaker government after it was voided by the Supreme Court. However, The over-used However... the fate of the 15-year-old system will be decided by parliament.
Under the 13th amendment to the constitution, an elected government is required to hand over power at the end of its tenure to a non-partisan caretaker administration to oversee holding of parliamentary polls within three months.
In a recent verdict, the Supreme Court knocked off the 13th amendment, but advised that the next two parliamentary elections should be held under the existing caretaker system for the sake of security of the state and the people.
Three successive parliamentary polls, largely seen as free and fair, were held under the caretaker government system since its introduction in 1996. The system came under scrutiny after the last caretaker government, backed by the military, remained in power for two years jailing politicians, including Sheikh Hasina and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... before holding the elections in December 2008.
If the caretaker provision is finally repealed, the next general elections will be held under the supervision of the present Awami League-led government, a situation BNP does not want for fear of rigging.
The raging controversy over the caretaker system has already raised fears about political turmoil and a possible deadlock in the next parliamentary elections, due in 2014.
Khaleda Zia told a presser on the eve of the hartal on Saturday that her party will boycott the election unless it is held under a caretaker government.
She threatened to announce even "tougher" programmes to press for continuation of the caretaker system.
Sheikh Hasina denounced the hartal as "irrational" and urged the BNP to come to parliament to discuss the issue.
"Our door is always open," the prime minister told a function marking the World Environment Day at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre yesterday.
The Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), the country's apex business forum, has stepped into the debate calling for an end to caretaker system.
Meanwhile, ...back at the dirigible, Jack stuck the cigar in his mouth, stepped onto the gantry, and asked Got a light, Mac?
Von Schtinken stopped short, lowering the dagger and trying to control his features. If you light that thing, Herr Armschtröng, he pointed out, his voice tense, we all die!... BNP acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir accused the government of arresting the opposition members and harassing them.
"This is no longer a democratic government. It has turned into an autocratic government," Mirza Fakhrul told BNP activists outside the party central office which was surrounded by police.
Police intervened whenever the protesters tried to come onto the streets or bring out a procession. Some senior leaders were seen scuffling with police to prevent the detention of women activists.
Mirza Fakhrul, however, claimed the hartal was successful and announced two-day programmes to protest the arrest and harassment of party workers. The party will hold protest rally in the city today and across the country in tomorrow.
"People have expressed their support to the caretaker government system by observing the hartal spontaneously. The government must change its stance against the system," the BNP leader later said at a press briefing.
He claimed at least 600 leaders and workers were nabbed, and 400 were maimed across the country due to the police action. He demanded release of the nabbed.
The government blamed the opposition for creating violence during the hartal.
Talking to journalists at his Secretariat office, State Minister for Home Affairs Shamsul Hoque Tuku said pro-hartal pickets damaged and set fire to vehicles to create panic. .
Police said pickets damaged three human haulers at Rayerbazar but a number of motorised vehicles were seen plying in Mirpur and Pallabi as activists and leaders of Awami League and its associate organisations riding around 50 cycle of violences were patrolling the areas to prevent pickets in the morning.
Three cocktails were went kaboom! near BNP's Naya Paltan office, one was went kaboom! in front Mukta Bangla shopping centre at Mirpur that left a ricksaw puller injured. Two more cocktails were went kaboom! near Shilpakala Academy when police were dispersing a procession of Jatiyatabadhi Chatra Dal (JCD) men.
Police picked up 30 activists of BNP and its wings and associate bodies, including JCD leader Saiful Islam Feroz, as they tried to enter the Naya Paltan party office, which was almost cordoned off since morning. A journalist and a policeman got injured in a cocktail kaboom in a lane near the BNP office. Later, Rab raided nearby offices and hotels.
Police also held 14 BNP men from Mohakhali crossing in the morning when they were trying to bring out a processions led by Maj (retd) Hafizuddin Ahmed, Altaf Hossain Chowdhury and Selima Rahman.
DMP Deputy Commissioner Khandaker Lutful Kabir said they were nabbed on charge of obstructing vehicular movement.
Three JCD men were picked up from Raysaheb Bazar in Old Dhaka for attempting to bring out a procession at about 10:45am.
Pro-BNP lawyers held rallies on court premises in support of the hartal.
A group of Jamaat workers brought out a procession led by party politician Hamidur Rahman at Motijheel but dispersed voluntarily when they saw police coming towards them.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/06/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
How many years has this taken before muslim groups start acting?
At least its a start but how long before the men call her kuffr/infidel and stay at home where you belong!
A muslim guy i know said their life is about the patriarchal society and they fear giving women the power the west have given and point to the amount of divorces in the west women have asked for.
Posted by: Paul D ||
06/06/2011 10:52 Comments ||
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#2
Muslim women mentioning "jihad" in their struggles against violence is not a good PR word choice.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/06/2011 17:44 Comments ||
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Well, I can tell you the Crusade For Moorish Dignity is straight out.
Excerpt:
BEIJING (AP) -- The Chinese military accused the U.S. on Friday of launching a global "Internet war" to bring down Arab and other governments, redirecting the spotlight away from allegations of major online attacks on Western targets originating in China.
The accusations Friday by Chinese military academy scholars, and their urging of tougher policing of the Internet, followed allegations this week that computer hackers in China had compromised the personal Gmail accounts of several hundred people, including government officials, military personnel and political activists. More info at the link. But I think I need a new irony meter
#2
ION PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > [Fukushima] RADIOACTIVE WATER [100,000 tonnes]MAY BREACH PLANT STORAGE TRENCHES IN FIVE DAYS.
versus
* TOPIX/WORLDNEWS > CHINA WANTS TO SEE STABLE JAPAN, "GRAND COALITION" POSSIBLE: EXPERT [Ma Junwei].
* IIRC PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > CHINA'S SUBMARINES RUN DEEP TO BREAK THE BARRIERS OF THE FIRST ISLAND CHAIN.
NET POSTERS = China's desire to break same is why it will never evar! give up or stop targeting TAIWAN, + why Beijing continues to base its most advanced LRBMS, Milfors across from there.
#3
It is all America's fault. If America had not invented the internet, The People's Republic of China would never have been tempted to hack everybody's web sites.
I expect Obama to appologize shortly!
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
06/06/2011 12:05 Comments ||
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We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied peoples joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For four long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps -- millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved, and the world prayed for its rescue. Here in Normandy the rescue began. Here the Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history.
We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France. The air is soft, but forty years ago at this moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon. At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June, 1944, 225 Rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs. Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the invasion: to climb these sheer and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. The Allies had been told that some of the mightiest of these guns were here, and they would be trained on the beaches to stop the Allied advance.
The Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers -- at the edge of the cliffs shooting down at them with machine guns and throwing grenades. And the American Rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty-five came here. After two days of fighting, only 90 could still bear arms.
Behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them there.
These are the boys of Pointe de Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.
Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen Spender's poem. You are men who in your "lives fought for life...and left the vivid air signed with your honor ."
Forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith, and belief; it was loyalty and love.
The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the deep knowledge -- and pray God we have not lost it -- that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt.
You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One's country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you.
The information on Operation Jedburgh is only recently coming to light. Their service was crucial in Normandy. The book also provides some insight into the history of the development of the CIA.
Second, for a powerful history of the Army Nurses, see the book And if I Perish, Evelyn Monahan and Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee
This book mostly follows the nurses in the European Theater of Operations, including their service in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and Normandy, in great detail. Speedy Glidewell has become my personal heroine.
ATHENS - Tens of thousands Greeks rallied in central Athens on Sunday to denounce politicians, bankers and tax dodgers, as the government prepared to inflict another bout of austerity demanded by its international lenders.
"Thieves - hustlers - bankers," read one banner as more than 50,000 people packed the main Syntagma square outside parliament to vent their frustration over rising joblessness as austerity bites, blaming the crisis on political corruption. Turnout was the biggest so far in a series of 12 nightly rallies on the square inspired by Spain's protest movement.
Amidst a sea of splayed hands waved at the parliament building -- an offensive gesture for Greeks -- one demonstrator raised a placard reading "Bravo Yemen", whose president underwent surgery in Saudi Arabia for injuries suffered in a rocket attack on his palace.
Police put the crowd at 50,000 by mid-evening, but numbers continued to grow as dusk fell over the Greek capital. Another banner drew comparisons with rallies early this year in central Cairo which ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. "From Tahrir Square to Syntagma Square, we support you!" it said.
The cabinet of Prime Minister George Papandreou is due to discuss on Monday an economic plan, which a senior government official said would impose 6.4 billion euros of budget measures this year alone, on top of austerity already imposed under Greece's original international bailout agreed last year.
The medium-term plan includes tax increases while the international lenders are pushing for a crackdown on widespread tax evasion. The black economy is thought to be around 20-30 percent of gross domestic product. The extra austerity is the price for a new bailout agreed with the European Union and International Monetary Fund to replace the old one, which has proved overoptimistic in assuming Greece could resume borrowing commercially early next year.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/06/2011 00:00 ||
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We have a lot of the same 'Stupid Idiots' over here in the U.S. who will react simularly when we are forced for end some of the entitlement programs we have. Greece is just a preview of what's to come.
#6
Fine Greece. Lets let all the bankers close up shop, liquidate holdings, and take their money and leave. Your society will collapse. Good luck with that.
Posted by: The Other Beldar ||
06/06/2011 10:50 Comments ||
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Just a note....
All the Greek banks should shut up shop, they're all bankrupt.
#2
How many governments have the left lost in the past year? Ireland, Canada, New South Wales in Australia, the local elections in Spain, Catalonia in Spain (semi-autonomous region), Hungary, Estonia, Slovakia, Lithuania. Sweden re-elected a center-right government. The EU Parliament moved to the right.
The "progressives" are in global retreat. As the lose office, they lose influence and they lose money.
#3
Now that all they can do is be the Austerity Guys, and it's guaranteed pain and suffering for the next decade if not more, _sure_ they'll give the conservatives a chance...
#4
Humala won inPeru by pretending to be right of what he is, just like obooboo. Did not hurt that he ran against the Peruvian equivalent of Nixon's daughter. When you the likes of him, ooogoo and evoooooo bounced in South America the trend will be for real...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/06/2011 17:50 Comments ||
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when you see. Unh..
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/06/2011 17:50 Comments ||
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Dear Sir,
That's what happens when one tries to indulge the Muse of Clever Names.
#7
It doesn't matter which bunch of seat warmers gets in, Portugal is now simply a vassal state of the IMF and the ECB, who will be running the show. The indentured servants will only have one function, namely to line up and donate their pound of flesh as required.
To think that Dominique could now be Czar of Portugal, if only he could have kept his grubby hands off that maid in New York. And who knows he may have been able to institute Droit du seigneur as a fringe benefit.
The Indian government approved a plan to buy 10 C-17 Globemaster III aircraft from Boeing Co. for $4.1 billion, in the nation's largest military transaction with the U.S.
The deal also includes an option for India to order six more C-17 aircraft.
That'll keep that assembly line rolling for a while. And it lessens the sting of not getting the F16 and F18 orders.
Posted by: John Frum ||
06/06/2011 15:36 ||
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If I were running the Indian thing I would have gone for a split order, and tried to order 20 or so of the EW version of the F-18.
Posted by: john frum ||
06/06/2011 18:27 Comments ||
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There is another opportunity with towed and self propelled artillery. The Indian tender process for this is broken (due to politics) and the Indian army hasn't been able to buy any 155mm guns for decades. Direct Foreign Military Sales can get billions worth of orders for guns and ammo.
Posted by: john frum ||
06/06/2011 18:29 Comments ||
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BTW, those C17s were bought with China in mind... resupplying the mountain warfare divisions in Leh (Jammu and Kashmir) and Arunachal Pradesh who face the Chinese PLA
Posted by: john frum ||
06/06/2011 18:31 Comments ||
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"That'll keep that assembly line rolling for a while."
Hope it's rolling in South Carolina, John.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/06/2011 18:37 Comments ||
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The C-17 line is in LA, I think. The South Carolina plant was for something else.
I'm not sure it makes sense to move the C-17 line somewhere else.
#7
The SC line is for the 787. unless The Won's NLRB has its way and is successful in suing the Lazy B for WA job loss. the IAM says that the new SC line moved jobs from WA. not so sez Boeing.
the EW version of the Hornet and the Growler are the same thing; doubtful if the Prowler is ever offered up for Foreign Military Sales due to the ICAP III status of all the electronics. I do not think that even the EF-111 was offered up, even to the Australians who are the only foreign country to fly the Electric Aardvark. ITAR is a funny thing sometimes......
[Dawn] Leading British charity Oxfam is carrying out an independent and external audit of funds after financial irregularities were found in the Sindh flood relief programme.
The internal monitoring and auditing system of Oxfam had identified the financial irregularities, a statement issued by the charity said.
Any financial commitments for the flood relief programme would remain suspended until the investigation was completed, Oxfam said, adding it took transparency and accountability extremely seriously.
The statement says that while the investigation is continuing, it will be unfair to name any partners who may have been involved. Oxfam will use 'every means' to recover any money found to be missing, it added.
"We are conducting this investigation to allow us to continue to be accountable to communities that we work with, and ensure improved service delivery in future," it says.
According to the statement, the financial irregularities initially identified, even if confirmed, would represent less than two per cent of Oxfam's emergency flood aid being spent in Pakistain.
Oxfam, it said, was committed to upholding the strictest and most rigorous financial controls and ensuring its programme was delivered in a transparent and accountable manner.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/06/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Sindh is PPP country, as I recall, home seat of the Bhutto family and Mr. Ten Percent himself.
The Palestine Monetary Authority plans to issue its first Islamic bond, worth $50 million, by the end of the quarter.
Jihad al Wazir, the governor of the authority, said, "It is testing the market and it will be a useful instrument. If we can speed it up considering the political situation, the end of this quarter would be a good time frame."
The authority controls 18 banks in the Palestine territories. It expects more debt issues in the coming months as it seeks to securitise its existing debt burden. Public debt now stands at about $970 million. The latest will be denominated in US currency, with a tenor of five years.
Mr al Wazir said Palestine's $7.5 billion economy expanded by 11.3 per cent last year. In recent years it has benefited from increasing financial donations from the West and better oppression security.
It's a bad day to be a rocket-propelled grenade or anti-tank missile, as Israel is field testing and deploying its "Trophy" active defense system that uses fancy radars and jets of liquid metal to autonomously shred any incoming threats in the blink of an eye.
In Afghanistan today, threats to tanks and vehicles don't generally come from other tanks and vehicles. Instead, threats come from nowhere, when somebody jumps out from behind something and fires a rocket-propelled grenade at you.
There's often no good way of stopping this from happening, which is why Rafael Advanced Defense Systems has developed "Trophy," a vehicle-mounted package that can autonomously shoot down incoming RPGs and missiles before they can do any damage.
The Trophy system uses radar to detect incoming threats, and when it sees something on the way, it autonomously deploys some adorable little extra tracking radars. If you watch closely, you can see this happen at about 0:55 in the above video.
These radars determine exactly where the grenade or missile or whatever is headed, and just before impact, a countermeasure is fired that blasts the incoming projectile with jets of molten metal, shredding it into harmless pieces.
The first successful field test of Trophy took place in March, when a prototype system mounted on a tank patrolling the Gaza Strip shot down an incoming anti-tank missile. Expect to see this system, along with similar systems from DARPA and Raytheon, in active use on combat vehicles by 2012. Very sharp viddy of the system in operation.
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.
Khaleda Zia
ATHENS - Tens of thousands Greeks rallied in central Athens on Sunday to denounce politicians, bankers and tax dodgers, as the government prepared to inflict another bout of austerity demanded by its international lenders. 
The Palestine Monetary Authority plans to issue its first Islamic bond, worth $50 million, by the end of the quarter.
