KUALA LUMPUR: A man who purchased a peepee enlargement device online had a rude shock when he received a magnifying glass instead of the device he thought he had purchased. Well, it DOES look bigger.
MCA Public Service and Complaint Bureau chairman Datuk Seri Michael Chong said Tuesday that the disgruntled customer, known only as Ong from Seri Kembangan, had paid RM450 for the peepee enlarger. There's a sucker born every minute. P. T. Barnum did not say that. One of his competitors did about P. T.'s customers.
"When he received the package, he was shocked to find a magnifying glass inside.
"The instructions that came with the package merely read 'Do not use in sunlight'," he said. You might wind up with a weiner roast.
Chong told reporters that Ong was one of many who have fallen prey to online scams of this sort. They are just too easy.
"Men and women are equally vulnerable to these scams. Three people lost a total of more than RM80,000 to these scams this year alone," he said.
"Lookit this, honey -- I got you a present, 'cause you're so perfect! Yes, I know it looks like a rack, but the salesman showed me what it did for his, and... Why are you crying, honey? I had to make sure it worked, didn't I?"
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/05/2014 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] A former French Legionnaire, questioned during the course of the investigation into the 2012 murder of four people in the French Alps, did away with himself on Tuesday, police said.
Annecy prosecutor Eric Maillaud told Agence La Belle France Presse confirming information reported in the French media, that the former soldier had "left a note of six or seven pages in which he said he was disturbed by the questioning. He felt accused".
"It does not make this the main or sole reason for his action," added Maillaud.
The unnamed former Legionnaire and paratrooper, who was 50 years old, was found dead at his home in Ugine on Tuesday afternoon, apparently rubbed out.
An investigation into his death has been launched.
Saad al-Hilli, a 50-year-old Briton of Iraqi origin, was bumped off along with his 47-year-old wife Iqbal and her 74-year-old mother in a woodland car park in the hills above Lake Annecy in the French Alps on September 5, 2012.
A French cyclist, Sylvain Mollier, was killed after apparently stumbling upon the scene.
We followed the story here at Rantburg at the time. There was some question whether this was some sort of bizarre extension of the War on Terror or a vicious feud over family or funds. It appears that question has not yet been answered.
The unnamed former soldier had been questioned "for two hours in April 2013", in regard to the case of Mollier.
He was not considered a suspect in the case, said Maillaud.
The Hillis' young daughters, Zainab and Zeena, survived the attack.
More than 1,300 people have been heard in La Belle France and abroad in the context of this case.
#1
Being questioned by French police is not the same as in the US. You do not have the right to remain silent, you can't have a lawyer, etc. It's a different country.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
06/05/2014 7:36 Comments ||
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#2
Was the suicide note typed? One presumes it was an actual suicide, but these things have been faked before - could be a revenge killing by someone who thought Maillaud was getting away with murder.
Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the Gipper's passing, would he recognize this nation.....
We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For 4 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 40 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 -- the edge of the cliffs shooting down at them with machineguns 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 2 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 du 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.''
I think I know what you may be thinking right now -- thinking ``we were just part of a bigger effort; everyone was brave that day.'' Well, everyone was. Do you remember the story of Bill Millin of the 51st Highlanders? Forty years ago today, British troops were pinned down near a bridge, waiting desperately for help. Suddenly, they heard the sound of bagpipes, and some thought they were dreaming. Well, they weren't. They looked up and saw Bill Millin with his bagpipes, leading the reinforcements and ignoring the smack of the bullets into the ground around him.
Lord Lovat was with him -- Lord Lovat of Scotland, who calmly announced when he got to the bridge, ``Sorry I'm a few minutes late,'' as if he'd been delayed by a traffic jam, when in truth he'd just come from the bloody fighting on Sword Beach, which he and his men had just taken.
There was the impossible valor of the Poles who threw themselves between the enemy and the rest of Europe as the invasion took hold, and the unsurpassed courage of the Canadians who had already seen the horrors of war on this coast. They knew what awaited them there, but they would not be deterred. And once they hit Juno Beach, they never looked back.
All of these men were part of a rollcall of honor with names that spoke of a pride as bright as the colors they bore: the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, Poland's 24th Lancers, the Royal Scots Fusiliers, the Screaming Eagles, the Yeomen of England's armored divisions, the forces of Free France, the Coast Guard's ``Matchbox Fleet'' and you, the American Rangers.
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 Americans who fought here that morning knew word of the invasion was spreading through the darkness back home. They fought -- or felt in their hearts, though they couldn't know in fact, that in Georgia they were filling the churches at 4 a.m., in Kansas they were kneeling on their porches and praying, and in Philadelphia they were ringing the Liberty Bell.
Something else helped the men of D-day: their rockhard belief that Providence would have a great hand in the events that would unfold here; that God was an ally in this great cause. And so, the night before the invasion, when Colonel Wolverton asked his parachute troops to kneel with him in prayer he told them: Do not bow your heads, but look up so you can see God and ask His blessing in what we're about to do. Also that night, General Matthew Ridgway on his cot, listening in the darkness for the promise God made to Joshua: ``I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.''
These are the things that impelled them; these are the things that shaped the unity of the Allies.
When the war was over, there were lives to be rebuilt and governments to be returned to the people. There were nations to be reborn. Above all, there was a new peace to be assured. These were huge and daunting tasks. But the Allies summoned strength from the faith, belief, loyalty, and love of those who fell here. They rebuilt a new Europe together.
There was first a great reconciliation among those who had been enemies, all of whom had suffered so greatly. The United States did its part, creating the Marshall plan to help rebuild our allies and our former enemies. The Marshall plan led to the Atlantic alliance -- a great alliance that serves to this day as our shield for freedom, for prosperity, and for peace.
In spite of our great efforts and successes, not all that followed the end of the war was happy or planned. Some liberated countries were lost. The great sadness of this loss echoes down to our own time in the streets of Warsaw, Prague, and East Berlin. Soviet troops that came to the center of this continent did not leave when peace came. They're still there, uninvited, unwanted, unyielding, almost 40 years after the war. Because of this, allied forces still stand on this continent. Today, as 40 years ago, our armies are here for only one purpose -- to protect and defend democracy. The only territories we hold are memorials like this one and graveyards where our heroes rest.
We in America have learned bitter lessons from two World Wars: It is better to be here ready to protect the peace, than to take blind shelter across the sea, rushing to respond only after freedom is lost. We've learned that isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments with an expansionist intent.
But we try always to be prepared for peace; prepared to deter aggression; prepared to negotiate the reduction of arms; and, yes, prepared to reach out again in the spirit of reconciliation. In truth, there is no reconciliation we would welcome more than a reconciliation with the Soviet Union, so, together, we can lessen the risks of war, now and forever.
It's fitting to remember here the great losses also suffered by the Russian people during World War II: 20 million perished, a terrible price that testifies to all the world the necessity of ending war. I tell you from my heart that we in the United States do not want war. We want to wipe from the face of the Earth the terrible weapons that man now has in his hands. And I tell you, we are ready to seize that beachhead. We look for some sign from the Soviet Union that they are willing to move forward, that they share our desire and love for peace, and that they will give up the ways of conquest. There must be a changing there that will allow us to turn our hope into action.
We will pray forever that some day that changing will come. But for now, particularly today, it is good and fitting to renew our commitment to each other, to our freedom, and to the alliance that protects it.
We are bound today by what bound us 40 years ago, the same loyalties, traditions, and beliefs. We're bound by reality. The strength of America's allies is vital to the United States, and the American security guarantee is essential to the continued freedom of Europe's democracies. We were with you then; we are with you now. Your hopes are our hopes, and your destiny is our destiny.
Here, in this place where the West held together, let us make a vow to our dead. Let us show them by our actions that we understand what they died for. Let our actions say to them the words for which Matthew Ridgway listened: ``I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.''
Strengthened by their courage, heartened by their value [valor], and borne by their memory, let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died.
Unexpectedly -- at least for The Smartest Men in the Room.
[AnNahar] Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... is proving a hard man to snub.
The Russian leader was supposed to be the outcast, booted from the rich nations club and disinvited from the G8 party he was planning in the Olympic City, Sochi, his pride and joy.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/05/2014 10:28 Comments ||
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#4
Russia has an extremely active hacker community. I can tell by looking at the logs on my web server. I'd guess they're just about second behind China. Offhand, I'd guess that Ukraine is third and not at all far behind Russia.
[AnNahar] The EU said Wednesday it was "deeply concerned" about the threat of a new nuclear test by North Korea, amid stepped-up activity at one of its main test sites.
"The EU is deeply concerned about reports that the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) may be preparing the fourth nuclear test," EU states said in a joint statement to a meeting of the UN watchdog IAEA's board of governors in Vienna.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, we are in a depression. And we'll stay in it as long as the costs of job creation and retention are so high. (see regulation and taxes)
#2
Im certainly not contending that the level of human suffering in 2014 is anywhere near what it was during the 1930s.
And the press/media of that time didn't play it up as well? (F)*unemployment was 25% in 1933. That meant 75% were working. Things were bad, but they were also relative. We compare the deprivation between the unemployed circa 1930 and what we have today instead of what even the employed at the time had compared to the unemployed. One should see what working class had to live with or without.
*the crock that O apologists have promoted in print this time around.
#3
There has been no recovery. However there has been massive market manipulation, debasement of the US currency, socialization of losses and privatization of gains on a scale previously unknown to human history, the greatest theft in history currently being carried out by agents of the US government. Where's my remote?
#5
Better to be unemployed now than working in 1937. The massive wealth machine of the United States has made this possible. We don't have hunger we have "food insecurity" which means you don't know where your next Whopper is coming from. We don't have greasys wall due to screwed up kerosene lanterns, we have life line electric bills, we don't have dying in the hollows for lack of heat we have a damn strategic supply of heating oil. Life is much better for all of us even the very lowly, we are only starved for an idea, a purpose, a goal, a target --- a frontier if you will. Yeah I know. Been done. But I'll proffer the idea that perhaps our angryness is the pent fury of no horizons. I suspect my friend ThreeDaysofTheCondor is seeking a remedy for this. Mean while let's brighten up War Plan Scarlet and prepare to over run as much of central Canada as we can.
Anyway, whomever takes over from O will probably have to contend with O's minions taking credit for the economic recovery that occurs after regulations are removed and such.
Per capita incomes rise. Two people with $75,000 are better off than four people with $75,000.
Or as my sainted Mother said when I was discussing living arrangements with DDDDDMMMMM she allowed that it was feasible, since 2 can live as cheaply as one, but it costs twice as much.
[Dawn] LUHANSK: Pro-Russian Death Eaters in eastern Ukraine have taken two government bases in battles around Luhansk.
They seized quantities of ammunition and explosives from a border guards post and taking another installation after National Guard forces ran out of ammunition.
The border guards answer directly to Ukraine's president while the National Guard is part of the country's police troops.
Officials said in a statement on Wednesday that six faceless myrmidons were killed and three Ukrainian servicemen were maimed in 10 hours of fighting overnight at the National Guard base.
Rebels seized a border guards' base on the outskirts of Luhansk following a nearly two-day-long siege.
An News Agency that Dare Not be Namednews hound saw pro-Russian militia carrying crates of ammunition and explosives out of the base Wednesday and driving away in border guards' cars.
There was no immediate report of casualties in the fighting at the border guards' base.
Ukraine's fledging government has blamed the recent military failures on the administration of the former President Viktor Yanukovych which, they claim, has left the army penniless and poorly trained.
The defence ministry set up a charity account to support the armed forces while volunteers across the country have been buying provisions for the soldiers.
The fighting in Ukraine's east has escalated following the May 25 presidential election won by billionaire candy magnate Petro Poroshenko, with rebels launching an attack on a major airport and shooting down a government helicopter elsewhere.
Ukrainian troops on Tuesday launched an offensive against pro-Russian Death Eaters in the eastern city of Slovyansk.
"Two government soldiers were killed and 42 injured in daylong fighting," Vladislav Seleznyov, press secretary for Ukraine's operation against the rebels in the east, told Ukrainian news agencies.
Seleznyov put the corpse count of the rebels at 300 but the Death Eaters did not confirm these reports.
US President Barack Obama If you have a small business, you didn't build that... met with Poroshenko in Warsaw on Wednesday and praised Poroshenko for reaching out to the country's restive east.
The White House also said the US would send $5 million in equipment to Kiev including, for the first time, body armour and night-vision goggles for the use of troops.
The United States already has provided ready-to-eat meals and money for medical supplies and other non-lethal assistance, including clothing, sleeping bags and generators.
In Kiev, interim President Oleksandr Turchynov, who will hand over to Poroshenko on Saturday, has asked the country's Security and Defence Council to consider imposing martial law in parts of eastern Ukraine in a bid to stabilise the situation.
Ukraine's prime minister, defence, interior ministers as well as heads of other security and intelligence agencies are all members of the council.
Turchynov was reported to have left for a visit to eastern Ukraine on Wednesday.
Ukraine's deputy prime minister Vitaly Yarema was quoted by the Interfax Ukraine news agency as saying that the council will convene to discuss martial law only after Poroshenko's inauguration on Saturday.
[AnNahar] Crisis-hit Ukraine won a vital reprieve from Russia on Monday when Moscow pushed back a possible cut in gas shipments, which would also impact parts of Europe, until next week.
Russia's surprise decision came hours before the two sides were to lock horns in Brussels over a price dispute that emerged when Moscow cancelled the discounts it awarded the pro-Kremlin regime which was ousted in February street protests.
Moscow had threatened to halt all shipments to Ukraine -- a vital gas transit nation -- from Wednesday in a repetition of interruptions that also hurt swathes of Europe in 2006 and 2009.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Russia has discovered 'unintended chain of events' in this story. [1]Cut off gas to Ukraine, [2]Power plants shut down, (drumroll) [3]Lights and other services go off in Crimea.
Crimea in general and Sevastopol in particular are connected to the Ukraine, not Russian, power grid. The two used to be interconnected, but, oh, about 20 years ago they started disconnecting for some reason...
Posted by: ed in texas ||
06/05/2014 7:26 Comments ||
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Our president ran on the promise that he would make friends and influence people so much better because of his intelligence, international childhood, and savoir faire. How unexpected this result!
[AnNahar] Germany's federal prosecutor said Wednesday he had opened an investigation over alleged snooping by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) on Chancellor Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom... 's mobile phone.
"I informed parliament's legal affairs committee that I have started a preliminary investigation over tapping of a mobile phone of the chancellor," Harald Range said.
The long-anticipated probe, which follows an explosive allegations last year that U.S. spies had eavesdropped on Merkel's mobile in the past, is against unnamed persons, Range said after addressing the committee.
However he said he had decided against opening an investigation into claims of wider NSA surveillance against German citizens.
The move may again strain Berlin's ties with Washington that both countries' leaders have been at pains to restore following the reports of sweeping NSA spying on Internet and phone communications overseas, which Merkel has described as "grave".
Data-sensitive Germans reacted with outrage to the accusations by runaway intelligence contractor Edward Snowden amid sensitivity over mass state spying on citizens by the Stasi secret police in the former communist East.
A parliamentary panel has been established to assess the extent of spying by the NSA and its partners on German citizens and politicians, and whether German intelligence aided its activities.
Recent reports that Range did not plan to go ahead with the wider probe had prompted anger from some politicians.
U.S. President Barack Obama Ready to Rule from Day One... sought to quell the international furore over the reports, announcing in January that he had halted spy taps on friendly world leaders and curtailed the reach of mass NSA phone surveillance.
In an interview with a German TV channel a day later he assured Merkel that he would not let intrusive surveillance harm their relationship, but said intelligence gathering on foreign governments would continue.
#2
I can't wait for the 'outstanding' warrants to be issued. Seems a lot of the apparatchiks of someone's administration better not journey too far from the protection of their borders.
[AnNahar] President Barack Obama Dreams of My Sainted Father... met Ukraine's president-elect Petro Poroshenko on Wednesday, in a show of U.S. support for Ukraine's right to chart its own future, before an encounter with Russia's Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead....
A photo at the link demonstrates the precise degree of President-elect Poroshenko's delight with the assurances of The Smartest Man in the Room.
Obama sat down with Poroshenko in Warsaw, during a trip designed to assuage security concerns in eastern Europe following Russia's annexation of Crimea and what Washington says is an effort to destabilize Ukraine.
The talks on day two of Obama's European tour will come after the president met central and eastern European leaders in Warsaw and before he heads to a G7 summit in Belgium which is designed to cement Western policy towards Russia.
Obama will come face to face with Putin during 70th anniversary commemorations of the D-Day landings in Normandy, La Belle France on Friday.
The leaders of Britannia, La Belle France and Germany will go a step further and hold one-on-one talks with Putin.
The accelerating diplomacy over Ukraine comes as a seven-week pro-Russian insurgency in Ukraine's eastern rust belt grows only more violent after Poroshenko swept to power in a May 25 presidential ballot.
Hundreds of separatist gunnies on Monday attacked a Ukrainian border guard service camp in the region of Lugansk on the border with Russia.
Obama said Tuesday that U.S. commitment to eastern European security was absolute.
"Our commitment to Poland's security as well as the security of our allies in central and eastern Europe is a cornerstone of our own security and it is sacrosanct," Obama said after inspecting a joint unit of Polish and U.S. F-16 pilots.
He proposed a "European Reassurance Initiative" of up to $1 billion (730 million euros) to finance extra U.S. troop and military deployments to "new allies" in Europe.
NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... defense ministers also agreed Tuesday a series of steps to bolster protection in eastern Europe after the Ukraine crisis, but insisted they were acting within the limits of a key post-Cold War treaty with Moscow.
#3
Every day Ukraine manages to dodge the Russ bullet gives them a chance. Neither oBama nor the Russ headman will have power forever. Meanwhile, hoping the rump states of the EU try to help out a bit with cash and training at least. Tying down the Russ beast won't cost that much if started early.
[AnNahar] Five Turkish soldiers were maimed on Wednesday during festivities with Kurdish protesters over government plans to build military barracks in the southeast of the country.
Soldiers fired tear gas and water cannon to break up a 12-day sit-in by some 400 protesters in the Lice district of Kurdish majority Diyarbakir province.
Five military officers were hospitalized after demonstrators responded with gunfire, and hurled stones and fireworks, according to an AFP news hound on the scene.
The situation was still tense on Wednesday afternoon as demonstrators roamed the streets. No arrests had been confirmed.
The protesters are against the construction of new army posts in Kurdish-majority areas, which they see as a threat to a grinding of the peace processor launched in 2012 between government and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The local governor's office in Diyarbakir on Monday called for additional security to face what it said was increased activity by the PKK, which is blacklisted as a terrorist organization by Turkey and much of the international community.
The rebels declared a ceasefire in March 2013, but the grinding of the peace processor appeared to stall in September after the Kurdish rebels announced they were suspending their retreat from Turkish soil, accusing the government of failing to deliver on promised reforms.
The PKK launched an insurgency seeking self-rule in the southeast in 1984 that has claimed about 45,000 lives.
Foto at the links shows a man with two rifles, one of which appears to be a semiautomatic SKS. The alleged rifleman appears to be unserious about his predicament. Unlike the RCMP who will be deadly serious...
A gunman who is still at large shot and killed three local police officers and injured two others in Moncton, N.B., Wednesday evening, police said.
Police are advising people in the Moncton Coliseum area and Pinehurst subdivision to stay inside as they hunt for the shooter.
Codiac RCMP tweeted that they are looking for 24-year-old Justin Bourque, of Moncton. He is considered armed and dangerous. Police tweeted a photo of the suspect dressed in military camouflage and carrying guns.
The RCMP in New Brunswick says an undisclosed number of people have been shot and a manhunt is underway in the north end of Moncton for a man armed with guns.
The Horizon Health Network, New Brunswick's largest health authority, tweeted that they have received two patients with gunshot wounds.
"TMH is restricting visitors to those with critically ill family members. All others are asked to refrain from visiting at this time," Horizon Health tweeted.
Maybe we should ask Modi to head the VA
NEW DELHI: How good are you - and how much do you work? The Narendra Modi government is asking these questions of senior bureaucrats and planning to put in a new appraisal and working hour system.
Bureaucrats are being quietly appraised on parameters like their project delivery record, neutrality and dedication to work - plus, the Narendra Modi government is set to change a 29-year-old rule instituted by the Rajiv Gandhi government to ensure government officials put in more hours at work.
At least two senior officials in know of the developments have told ET that formal orders could soon be issued extending work hours from the existing limit of 40 hours a week. "This could be done by making each Saturday or alternate Saturdays working days," one senior government official said on condition of anonymity.
Appraisal could be basis for reshuffle for officials
"An alternative could be to stick to the 5-day week system but extend the daily work hours on the five working days from 8 am to 6 pm or even 8 am to 8 pm. The matter is being discussed," the official added. At present, the working hours for central government officials, as per an order issued in 1985, are 9 am to 5 am with a 30-minute lunch break and each weekend being off.Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office and Ministry of Personnel, Jitendra Singh, said he would not reveal if any move was afoot to increase the working hours for bureaucrats. "There is no official circular by us yet. If something is issued, we will duly inform you from the Prime Minister's Office," Singh told ET.
Asilent appraisal of top bureaucrats is also on that could be the basis for a reshuffle in secretary-level and other senior positions soon. An official of Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) aware of this exercise said bureaucrats are being assessed on four parameters: Past performance, quickness of delivery, dedication to work and neutrality.
"Past performance of a period of over a decade is being taken into consideration as well as achievements specific to quick delivery of targets. Dedication to work is a key parameter and bureaucrats devoting time to hanging out at clubs or page 3 activities may find themselves out in the cold in this government," this official told ET.
"Neutrality or political non-allegiance" is another key factor being analysed for bureaucrats who are holding senior positions in the government, the official quoted earlier said. Many bureaucrats right now in secretary-level and other senior positions are perceived to be close to the erstwhile UPA government since it was in power for the last decade and had appointed all of them to these posts. Modi has met all secretaries to the government on Wednesday evening to lay out a policy map for the bureaucracy.
"What is being checked is whether the bureaucrat is neutral in his work and does not let his political preferences cloud his decision-making activity," an official said. Modi himself works nearly 18 hours a day and his "I-mean-Business" approach is already percolating down the bureaucracy with most secretaries and other senior officials arriving in their offices sharp by 9 am and working late till 8 pm these days, very much like the new ministers. The changeover from a 6-day week to a 5-day week happened in 1985 - an initiative by the then prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi. A May 21, 1985 order had stressed a 5-day week was important for "improving the efficiency of the administration."
[Dawn] KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain, who is currently being held by London Police on charges of money-laundering, urged his followers and party workers late on Wednesday night to remain peaceful and not to take the law into their own hands.
Speaking to MQM's international secretariat in London over telephone, he advised the party activists and sympathisers to show courage and remain peaceful.
Hussain also apprised the party members of his health.
"I have never disappointed the nation in the past nor will I do so in the future," said Hussain, adding that the current circumstances were not new and that he has faced tough times before as well.
The MQM chief vowed to continue his struggle for the party cause and said that he was still indomitable.
Rabita Committee's senior deputy convener Nadeem Nusrat, party members and office bearers and a large number of activists were present on the occasion.
The party workers in London, Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... and elsewhere expressed their joy upon hearing the voice of their leader.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wine tasting, Vince was about to start tasting his third quart... upon conclusion of an emergency meeting by the MQM's Rabita Committee in London, the party has appealed to traders and transporters in Karachi and other cities and towns of Sindh to resume their businesses. However, some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go... it added that ongoing sit-ins across the country would continue.
The party also urged the workers and symphatisers to attend the main Numaish Chowrangi sit-in with same spirit they have shown so far.
Governor Sindh Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan also visited the sit-in at Karachi's Numaish and assured the MQM protesters that everything would be done for the well being of Altaf Hussain.
He thanked all politicians including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... and Pakistain Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari for extending help to the MQM chief.
The MQM chief was nabbed Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! by the Bitish police on Tuesday on suspicion of money-laundering. He was arrested in northwest London where he has been living in self-imposed exile since 1992.
Thousands of Altaf Hussain's supporters continued the sit-in protest on second day on Wednesday.
"The people of Sindh still see Altaf Hussain as their leader," said MQM leader Nasir Jamal.
"The thrust of this protest is the release of Altaf Hussain. We are here until we see positive indications from London."
The ability of Hussain's supporters to shut down Pakistain's commercial hub for two days underscores his influence and many fear that riots might still erupt. But as of Wednesday evening no major acts of violence had been reported.
A front man for London police said Hussain remained in jug where he is being questioned on suspicion of money laundering.
"By this evening we will probably know if he's going to be charged or released," the front man said.
[Ynet] NEW YORK - A prominent scholars' group has failed to pass a resolution critical of Israel and travel restrictions in the West Bank. The Modern Language Association announced Wednesday the measure did not win the required support from at least 10 percent of the 23,900 members.
The resolution urged the US State Department to challenge Israeli restrictions on travel by some American academics of Paleostinian descent who wanted to work with Paleostinian universities.
The final tally was 1,560 votes in favor and 1,063 votes against. The measure failed by 830 votes.
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.
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
North Korea
