On July, 11th 1961, President Mohammad Ayub Khan of Pakistan, accompanied by his daughter Begum Nasir Akhtar Aurangzeb, paid a state visit to the United States.
"This film was digitized as part of the Texas Archive of the Moving Image's mission to provide digital access to Texas-related films. We really appreciate them for letting use this link and making this video public. This video will show the events of President Ayub's trip. Highlights include a state dinner at Mt. Vernon, a visit to the Islamic Center of Washington, and a ticker tape parade in New York City. President Ayub's visit also included a trip to San Antonio where he toured and laid a wreath at The Alamo, followed by a barbecue at Vice President Johnson's ranch in Stonewall, TX.
#1
Khan is acknowledged to be guy who massively looted the country and suppressed dissent. Sadly, he is also considered one of the better Presidents of Pakistan given that his corruption was modest compared to some of his successors and he mostly refrained from experimenting with socialism and islamism.
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/03/2014 14:04 Comments ||
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[AnNahar] At least 41 people have been killed in festivities between rival Sudanese clans over the ownership of land being explored for oil in West Kordofan state, a tribal source said.
Another 13 people were seriously maimed in the fighting that raged through to Sunday between the Zurug and Awlad Amran clans of the powerful Misseriya tribe, the source told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Those involved in the festivities used Kalashnikov assault rifles and rocket propelled-grenades.
A witness, who declined to be named, said the fighting broke out as each group claimed ownership of a plot of land where drilling for oil is underway.
Oil-rich West Kordofan state borders the province of South Kordofan where Sudanese government forces have been battling rebels for nearly three years.
It also neighbours the western region of Darfur, where the army and allied tribes have since 2003 battled rebels demanding an end to economic marginalisation and power sharing with the Khartoum government.
Militias, rebel splinter groups and armed tribes operate in the region, where gunnieskidnapped two Chinese and an Algerian from an oilfield in April. The three were released in May.
But fighting between tribes is frequent in Sudan, and often breaks out over grazing rights.
The Misseriya is a semi-nomadic Arab tribe that raises cattle.
Residents of the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, who already struggle to find toilet paper and deodorant, are facing a new shortage -- drinking water.
The rationing of tap water amid a drought and a shortage of bottles because of currency controls are forcing people to form long lines at grocery stores and bottle shops as soon as deliveries are made. Truck drivers spend much of their day outside water dispatch centers as they try to meet demand.
âI used to have to wait an hour to refill the truck, but now I have to wait six,â said Carlos Miliani from his truck outside the Alpina dispatch center in eastern Caracas. âMore trucks are lining up here because of the shortage of plastic containers and the fact that plants that bottle mineral water have shut down.â
Miliani, who was waiting behind 15 trucks at 11 a.m. to fill up with 5-gallon (19-liter) jugs, said that a government-mandated water rationing plan in Caracas and hot weather are fueling demand as supply shrinks.
âI havenât been able to find 5-liter bottles of water in the supermarket for the past two weeks, and there havenât been half-liter bottles this week,â Maria Hernandez, a 36-year-old secretary, said in an interview in Caracas today. âI have four at home, but Iâm afraid that theyâll run out and that I wonât be able to find more. They ration water at my house on Wednesdays.â
State water utility Hidrocapital this month started rationing water in the capital. Some areas of the city receive water service only three days a week, with most neighborhoods going without water at least one day a week. When water does flow, few residents dare to drink it because of contamination.
It costs 30 bolivars ($4.80 at the official exchange rate) for a five-gallon jug of filtered water that comes in a reusable plastic container.
Regulated prices for bottled water have not been raised since November 2011, industry association Anber said in a May 19 statement. Since then, consumer prices have risen 110 percent, according to central bank data, while the bolivar has lost 87 percent of its value on the black market, according to dolartoday.com, a website that tracks the value on the Colombian border.
âProduction costs have risen with labor and transport,â Anber said. âThe cost of producing and distributing bottled water has more than doubled in the past two and a half years.â
Economy Vice President Rafael Ramirez said today that the government is working to restore the supply of containers and that the currency board had approved dollar payments to small companies in priority sectors.
âThere is a problem with the supply of plastic used to make the bottle caps, so weâre bringing it in ourselves,â Ramirez told reporters in Caracas. âMineral water is a government issue, as companies need permission to bottle it. If they leave us without water, weâll look into it.â
Annual inflation in Venezuela hit 59 percent in March after the government carried out the biggest devaluation since currency controls were instituted in 2003. The central bank hasnât provided data on product scarcity since January, when it said 28 percent of basic goods were out of stock at any given time. Shortages of everything from car parts to flour have spurred almost four months of protests against the government of President Nicolas Maduro, leaving 42 people dead.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/03/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
The bottled water is not to be trusted either, rainwater or Polar Beer are the only safe choices.
#2
State water utility Hidrocapital this month started rationing water in the capital. Some areas of the city receive water service only three days a week, with most neighborhoods going without water at least one day a week.
First toilet paper. Now no running water. Socialism at its finest. The usual covet and envy crowd aren't too good of actually making things work themselves. Under socialism you truly are either part of the inner party one percent or the 99 percent.
[AnNahar] NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... and Russia had a "very frank" exchange of views on the Ukraine crisis Monday but found no common ground in the first such meeting since Moscow annexed Crimea, officials said.
"I can say it was a very frank exchange of views," alliance spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said after a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council which groups the 28 member state ambassadors with their Russian counterpart.
The meeting clearly showed "that there are fundamentally different views on this crisis, on its origins, on what is happening now and on how it should be resolved," Lungescu said.
There had been some hope the meeting, the first since Crimea's annexation in March, could serve to ease tensions after Russia began withdrawing troops massed on the Ukraine border and progress was made in talks with Ukraine on resolving their dispute over gas deliveries.
NATO member states "repeated their very strong and clear position on the illegal and illegitimate annexation" of Crimea, Lungescu said.
"They made clear that they would not recognize it, they commended the elections in Ukraine as a clear vote for the unity of Ukraine and called on Russia to engage constructively with the newly elected president," she said.
They also called on Russia "to respect its international commitments, to stop the flow of arms and weapons across the border, to stop supporting armed separatists in Ukraine," she added.
Russian troops meanwhile should be withdrawn in a "full and verifiable manner," Lungescu said.
Lungescu gave no details of what Russian Ambassador to NATO Alexander Grushko had said in response.
The Ukraine crisis will be a major talking point at a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday, just before a G7 summit takes up the issue at the highest political level later in the week, also in Brussels.
The defense ministers in particular will discuss the long-term security implications of Russian actions in Ukraine and what action NATO member states must take in response.
"These are fundamental decisions," a senior NATO official said, and would go up to NATO leaders at their September summit in Britannia.
Monday's meeting was held at the request of the Russian ambassador, a move seen initially as a possible sign of Moscow's readiness to compromise.
NATO suspended all practical cooperation with Russia after Crimea's annexation but excluded this particular meeting on the grounds it was important to keep this diplomatic channel open.
[PressTV] Russia is to submit a draft resolution to the UN Security Council (UNSC), calling for the creation of aid corridors in eastern Ukraine to allow civilians trapped in the country's conflict-ridden areas to escape.
Speaking at a news conference in the capital Moscow on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow is planning to put forward the draft later on the day.
Preparing "corridors" approved and funded by the UN, for the big push.
Ethnic cleansing to be sanctioned by the U.N. Much more sophisticated than what Uncle Joe did after WWII...
[AnNahar] The United States said Monday that Russia is continuing to support the pro-Russian insurgency in Ukraine, despite U.S. sanctions aimed at punishing it for its alleged interference in its neighbor.
"There is evidence that Russia continues to allow the free flow of weapons, funds, and fighters across its borders and President (Vladimir) Putin's next steps are still not clear," Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said, in a speech in Washington.
Lew said the United States had worked with the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and its G7 partners to coordinate a response to the crisis and provide Ukraine with financial and technical assistance.
"Our goal was to impose a cost on Russia for its occupation and attempted annexation of Crimea and to deter Russian military intervention in Ukraine," he said, according to prepared remarks for an event at the Center of Strategic and International Studies.
Lew said the Treasury's coordinated and precise sanctions had put "enormous pressure" on Russia, with limited collateral damage to the U.S., European and global economies.
President Barack Obama They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them... , he said, "has given us the authority to take even more powerful action if Russia continues to support armed separatists in eastern Ukraine."
Russia has insisted it is not destabilizing Ukraine and has demanded that Kiev halt its military operations in the eastern part of the country. Fighting in the region has left nearly 200 dead -- soldiers, rebels and civilians -- since it broke out on April 13.
Lew also said that U.S.-led international sanctions against Iran, to convince Tehran to abandon its program to develop a nuclear weapon, have produced positive results.
"Currently, Iran is at the negotiating table for the first time in a decade and progress on Iran's nuclear program has been halted while key elements of this program have been rolled back," he said.
"All options remain on the table to keep Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon but we have a chance to resolve our differences peacefully and without the use of force."
Iran denies allegations it is developing a nuclear weapon, insisting the aims of its nuclear program are entirely peaceful.
[AnNahar] The U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene Monday in the case of a New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... news hound involving the protection of sources and the CIA.
The top panel rejected an appeal by journalist James Risen, who has been summoned to testify in the trial of former Central Intelligence Agency official Jeffrey Sterling.
Sterling stands accused of leaking confidential information about a secret Iran operation.
In his book "State of War," published in 2006, Risen describes an aborted CIA effort to send a former Russian scientist to Iran to transmit false information in an attempt to undermine the country's controversial nuclear program.
The Supreme Court did not comment on its decision, which upholds an order to testify issued to Risen by a federal appeals court.
Risen, who faces jail time if he refuses to reveal his sources, did not immediately respond to an Agence La Belle France Presse request for comment.
The case is being seen as a test of the freedom of the press in investigating government abuses.
#1
The case is being seen as a test of the freedom of the press in investigating government abuses.
That was resolved in November 2008, two years after his book was published, when the "free press" (not to be confused with the free flow of information), aka Donks with bylines, gave up investigated reporting.
Wow.
After years of passing more conventional capabilities by, I think it is time for the Marine Corps, and the "Gator Navy" for that matter, to get serious about getting the very most out of their soon to be fielded, extremely expensive and controversial F-35B force. At $150 million a pop, they need to be more than nicer Harriers.
With the fielding of the F-35B, the Navy almost doubles its theoretical "first day of war," fixed wing capable, carrier force. This means that more ships capable of operating high-performance, low-observable, multi-role fighters, can be in more places at a single time. This enhancement to America's naval power projection capability will complicate the war plans of any potential peer state belligerent, and will result in a highly relevant strategic boost for the US, especially in the dawning age of Air-Sea Battle and the Obama Administration's attempted "pivot" towards the Pacific theater.
#1
I understand they've spent $400B for the program so far. Somehow the military needs to save a bunch of money over the next few years. Who thinks they're going to order the full 2000 planes?
#4
They should secretly replace the F-35 serial numbers with those of A-10's. I'd wager that's a good swap.
Emotionally, I agree with you. However anybody in Congress who thinks that you can replace the A-10 with the F-35 is smoking something. The F-35 lacks comparable capabilities (e.g. GAU-8 Gatling gun) while having a higher operating cost.
The A-10 is a significantly cheaper aircraft to maintain, costing about $17,564 per flight hour. In contrast, the F-35A nearly doubles that with a hefty $35,200 per flight hour. Accounting for this difference are facts like the A-10s 1:5 fuel consumption ratio.
Close air support heavily depends on the aircrafts loiter time. Loiter time is defined as the ability to cruise at slow speeds over a small area. Loiter range is, in part the function of range the greater the range, the longer it can spend over an area of interest, where ground support may be needed. Compared to the F-35A, which has a range of about 1,200 nautical miles (the B version is even less), the A-10 out flies its potential successor by about twice the distance, reaching a distance of 2,240nm. That additional range allows the A-10 to loiter above areas of battlefield activity further from its takeoff origin without the need to refuel.
The A-10 was built to be survivable. The A-10 however needs a long runway.
This is why the "7 things ..." article appealed to me. You can't just plug the F-35 into the A-10 role. The F-35 is good at very different things so if you are stuck with the F-35 you better change the game plan to optimize the F-35's value.
#5
I think the suggestion was more along the lines of buying up a boatload of A-10s instead of one of the F-35. I understand the military branches wanting to be independant but we are in budget crunch time and it just doesn't make sense for all to get the super-shiniest toys. They should worry abou their core tasks and let the Air Force or Navy worry about the F-35B.
#6
The A-10 is much better a close air support than the F-35 but you can't launch a warthog from an amphibious assault carrier. Either or is a false premise; they don't do the same things. Budgets not withstanding, you need both.
[AnNahar] Pak police investigating the murder of a woman bludgeoned to death outside a court have tossed in the slammer Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! five more men in connection with the brutal killing, a bigwig said Monday.
Farzana Parveen was killed last Tuesday outside the High Court in the eastern city of Lahore by more than two dozen attackers armed with bricks, including numerous relatives, for marrying against her family's wishes.
"We have arrested five more people in this case," Umer Riaz Cheema, a senior police official investigating the murder, told AFP.
"With this the total number of the arrested people comes to 10 including Parveen's father. However, a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... the newly detained five men aren't among the directly accused killers," he said.
Parveen's husband Mohammad Iqbal claims more than two dozen people were responsible for her killing. Parveen's two brothers, two cousins and a female relative are still on the lam.
Her father, Mohammad Azeem, was detained at the scene of the attack, and a Pak court on Saturday remanded him in jug for a further seven days.
Hundreds of women are murdered by their relatives in Pakistain each year in the name of defending family "honor".
Police were apparently at the scene, but did not stop the mob killing Parveen, who was three months pregnant.
Meanwhile, ...back at the alley, Bugs Moroni was holding Slats from behind while his brother Greasy Thumb was pounding his face into paste ... around four dozen human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. activists held protests in Lahore on Monday against Parveen's murder and urged the authorities to punish her killers in order to avoid future attacks against women.
New tests conducted by Malaysian officials found that Cadbury chocolate bars contain no pig DNA, contrary to a previous finding, according to the country's Islamic affairs agency. Cadbury withdrew two types of its chocolate snacks from sale in Malaysia last week after government tests found traces of pork in them, causing some Islamic groups to call for a boycott on all of its products. Following last week's announcement, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia said they were also carrying out tests on Cadbury products.
Malaysia's Islamic Development Department (Jakim) said none of the 11 samples it tested had shown positive results for pig DNA. In a statement, Jakim said that Cadbury's halal certification for the two products would remain suspended pending further tests and investigations of its supply chain.
The previous tests were conducted in February by the country's health ministry on products taken from store shelves. Jakim had said those tests might not have been fair to the confectioner since the products could have been contaminated after leaving the factory.
#2
I suspect that the Malaysia Islamic Development Dept. 'found' the pig DNA in order to extort $ from Cadbury; after Cadbury paid the extortion, the Dept. 'found' no pig DNA.
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/03/2014 8:28 Comments ||
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[AnNahar] At least four people were killed and dozens injured in Tehran on Monday when an unprecedented sandstorm and record winds hit the city, Iranian news agencies reported.
Allah is clearly making his opinion known about recent Iranian choices.
I think locusts send a better signal...
The freak weather also knocked out power in 50,000 homes, said an electricity official quoted on the ISNA agency.
According to Amin Saberinia, Iran's chief emergency official, the deaths were caused by falling trees.
He added that at least 27 people were maimed, 10 of them in a road accident south of the capital when gloom hit and drastically reduced visibility.
The sandstorm struck at 5:10 pm (1240 GMT), sending residents dashing for cover as debris swept across streets and snapped trees.
Iranian authorities warned Tuesday that a second sandstorm could hit Tehran, a day after freak weather killed five people in the capital.
Monday's huge sandstorm and record winds plunged Tehran into darkness for 15 minutes during rush hour and forced thousands to run for cover.
Darkness was the last plague before the slaying of the first born sons, even if it isn't actual locusts...
"One of the casualties, who was hospitalised after being hit by debris, lost his life due to the severe injuries," the official IRNA news agency reported Tuesday, raising the corpse count to five.
The winds, as high as 110-120 kilometres per hour (70-80 miles per hour), levelled trees and swept other heavy material across streets and into the windscreens of cars as people headed home from work.
The news of the sandstorm and highest winds in 50 years hit the first page of capital's newspapers, along with criticism of forecasters for failing to predict or warn citizens of the approaching storm.
Allah does as he wills, guys. Pay heed, lest he work harder to get your attention.
[AnNahar] Leb seems to be looking at additional power rationing hours in the looming summer as the result of the Electricite du Liban's fiscal deficit, and the inability of the Finance Ministry and the Energy Ministry to solve the differences that have been lingering on for long.
Power rationing hours could be upped to as long as 10 hours per day including administrative Beirut, a letter sent by EDL to the Energy ministry said on Monday.
The letter said that the deficit compels the institution to either up rationing hours or increase the tariff in a bid to reduce the current deficit.
EDL had requested the allocation of 3097 billion LBP to cover the deficit, but the Finance Ministry asked to reduce this amount to 2537 billion in a bid to urge better bill collection, and to reduce waste and electricity theft.
Electricity is a constant concern for the government, which allocates the third largest slice of its budget, after debt servicing and salaries, to power supply.
The country suffers daily power cuts, including in the capital where many businesses and apartment blocks use generators to tide them over during lengthy blackouts.
#1
I have voted for every park, every library, all the school improvements, for light rail, for anything that will make this city better. But now I cant afford to live here anymore. Ill protest my appraisal notice, but thats not enough. Someone needs to step in and address the big picture.
Someone needs to educate you on who will pay for all those nice things you voted for.
#7
much of texas has decided to lean toward more sales tax and away from more property tax
the sales tax, while slightly regressive, does capture purchases by tourists; also, much of Austin is public land (e.g., University, State Govt) which does not by property tax but the people employed there do buy stuff and would have to pay sales tax
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/03/2014 13:47 Comments ||
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#8
Austin is the San Francisco of Texas, go 10 miles in any direction of Austin and you find a lot of distain and dislike for the crowd that migrated to Texas with Xerox and other techic companies from Californicate.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/03/2014 14:53 Comments ||
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#9
"Liberal Austin homeowners surprised to find they have to pay all the taxes they voted for"
Heh.™
Posted by: Barbara ||
06/03/2014 15:51 Comments ||
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#10
Someone is finding out 'they' are the 'other people's money' they've been spending. Thanks rube. File under useful idiots.
Theu still won't get it. She's an "artist". She doesn't think. Economics is magic to those kinds of people.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/03/2014 16:13 Comments ||
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#11
..thus their belief in the "Magical Money Tree"
#13
Wecome to The People's Republic of Travis County. I talked to a vendor rep a few weeks ago, a fellow that lives in Austin, and was under the impression that the rest of us in Texas were going to buy this crap for them. WRONG!
Posted by: ed in texas ||
06/03/2014 18:43 Comments ||
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#14
The extra profits from exterior sales will be recycled into higher land prices.
#15
I am waiting for the same light bulb to come on here in California, the land of the perpetual approval of bond issues for everything from schools to PTSD therapy for bullied poodles.
Sadly, as long as we have San Francisco and San Jose in the state, we are going to have bond issue piled on bond issue to finance the previous bond issue etc...ad nauseum.
Luckily, for Texas, that mindset has not metastasized into the rest of the state.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/03/2014 22:00 Comments ||
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#16
I talked to a vendor rep a few weeks ago, a fellow that lives in Austin, and was under the impression that the rest of us in Texas were going to buy this crap for them.
It seems Detroit thought the same thing about the rest of their state picking up the tab. How'd that work out?
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.
