"A study in the Netherlands illustrates car thieves' preferences. From 2004-2008, the most commonly colored vehicle stolen was black. This may be because black vehicles look more luxurious. Following close behind black were gray/silver automobiles. Of the 109 pink cars in the study, not one was stolen. A bright and uncommon color, like pink, may be as effective deterrent as an expensive security system. Ben Vollaard, who conducted the research, wrote, 'If the aversion to driving a car in an offbeat color is not too high -- or if someone actually enjoys it -- then buying deterrence through an uncommon car color may be at least as good a deal as buying deterrence through an expensive car security device.'"
Posted by: Fred ||
07/29/2010 09:50 ||
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#3
An acquaintance and her husband took a sabbatical to bicycle round the world. They had their really expensive tri-athlete bikes repainted baby pink, exactly to prevent them from being stolen. It worked, although two years into it they ran out of money and had to resume the corporate grind.
#7
...but if we all did it, we'd be living in a pink car nation.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/29/2010 16:33 Comments ||
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I knew a guy whose car was theft proof in his bad neighborhood, because he had decorated it inside and out with "bad juju", voodoo variety.
All the doors had small voodoo symbols painted on with Testor's paint, and there were several fetishes displayed inside, featuring a particularly nasty Loa.
There were several times when obviously someone had entered his vehicle, then departed without taking anything.
SonicSpike links to what he calls "a transparent look at some statistics released by a small town's red-light camera program," writing
"Specifically, in the last fiscal quarter, 7,213 incidents were recorded, 2,673 incidents were rejected by the reviewing officer, and 662 incidents were not processed due to technical issues or lack of information. All in all 3,878 citations were issued between April I -- June 30 in a town of 17,000 residents. Interestingly enough there are two nearby cities claiming that individuals 'have no presumption of innocence' when accused by the red light cameras."
3,878 citations in a town of 17,000 residents. My mind just boggled.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/29/2010 09:46 ||
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#1
So, cover the border with red light cameras and compare license plate with citizens and legal aliens. Remove them from list and send photos to police cars to look for possible illegals.
#2
Or just install red light cameras all along the border and fine illegal immigrants $75 every time they move.
Eventually they'll quit coming in disgust, just like we quit going into cities in disgust.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/29/2010 11:42 Comments ||
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#3
I hate speed cameras, too. I've been caught twice by the same camera in the last 3 months. The hell of it is I know it's there but it's on a 4-lane and I get zoned out about speed.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/29/2010 12:33 Comments ||
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Red light cameras are like hotel taxes. They are revenue measures specifically targeted at people from out of town--people who can't vote one way or another about it. All the locals know where the cameras are, after all.
#5
Saw a recent article where in Britian the Outraged citizens are destroying the Caneras, usualy by placing a tire undernearh it, putting a bit of gas or oil in the tire and setting the tire afire, the heat melts the camera's innards desroying it.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/29/2010 14:31 Comments ||
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#6
Don't like it? Install and use Trapster.
Have a link? Any objective third-party reviews of Trapster's effectiveness?
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/29/2010 15:12 Comments ||
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There's a candidate running for office who is running on the issue of extending the yellow interval of the traffic lights where these cameras are.
I went through one of these intersections the other day. I started to go through the intersection while the light was green and the light quickly went to yellow and then red all while I was still in the intersection. These cameras are honey pot for money.
#9
JohnQC: Reason that happens is that cities are contracting for the cameras on a revenue sharing basis. It's an 80/20 split, with the camera company keeping the 80% cut. If revenues fall below a certain baseline, then the city is in breach and the cameras get pulled. This happened in Tennessee recently. One way to artificially boost speed camera revenues is to shorten the yellow interval. Believe it or not, this is actually happening.
Here's a link to a story where a police chief is denouncing Trapster users as "cowardly." Figure anything that gets the ticket factory folks so riled can't be all bad.
From personal experience, the "live police" reports are not alway helpful, though they have saved me once or twice. These reports should be purged at least once a day, but Trapster keeps them in the system for weeks. The real benefit is that you will never be caught by a speed camera or red light camera again.
[Arab News] Think of it as one more reason not to write checks. Hackers believed to be operating out of Russia have figured out a high-tech way to carry out the decidedly low-tech crime of check fraud, a computer security company says -- writing at least $9 million in fakes against more than 1,200 legitimate accounts.
But these hackers got the account information in an unusual way: They broke into three websites that specialize in a little-known type of business -- archiving check images online.
Check counterfeiting is a crime that savvy Internet criminals usually pass up. After all, it's far easier for them to make money by stealing credit cards and online banking passwords.
The scam was discovered by SecureWorks Inc., an Atlanta computer security company. The organization says it is working with the FBI and says the hackers have not been caught.
Retailers and other businesses use the sites to store records of all the checks they write. Check-cashing operations use them to sock away images of checks they receive. And some banks pay them to store images of customers' checks, so the customers can see them when they log in to their online banking accounts.
The criminals downloaded all the images they could find, grabbing bank routing numbers, names and addresses and even signatures of legitimate account holders. They used the information to create their own checks using easy-to-acquire software and printers.
Because all the account information is real and the victims don't know their accounts have been compromised, the odds of the checks going through are high.
SecureWorks notified the three sites and said they have closed their security holes, but warned that the scam is ongoing and targeting other, similar sites.
"It's not the standard kind of criminal operation," Joe Stewart, director of malware research for SecureWorks' Counter Threat Unit, told The Associated Press ahead of the report's scheduled release Wednesday.
"Check counterfeiting is kind of old school, but these guys have figured out how to make it highly automated," he said. "They can get all this data and use that to write counterfeit checks all day long." The research was being released in conjunction with the Black Hat computer security conference in Las Vegas, which runs Wednesday and Thursday and draws security professionals from around the world to hear about the latest vulnerabilities and attacks and ways to thwart criminals.
Notable presentations this year are to include a demonstration of how to break into widely used ATMs, a talk that was pulled last year by the researcher's employer after complaints from the ATM maker. Researchers are also expected to discuss vulnerabilities in smart phones and in the technology used to secure online transactions.
A consistent theme at Black Hat, and at the related DefCon conference this weekend in Las Vegas, is that most Internet criminals are now motivated by money rather than mayhem.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/29/2010 00:00 ||
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The organization says it is working with the FBI and says the hackers have not been caught.
Feh. And they won't either. Not even if the guy lived right next door to the head of the Department of Commerce and had a lawn sign saying he did it.
I had a buddy that was the victim of some kind of scam that sold internet accounts. He even tracked the guys down and contacted every related agency on the planet and told them where the guys lived. Nada. Don't care.
It would be relatively simple to track down most of the scammers and spammers filling everyone's e-mail box with bogus offers and attempts at outright fraud, but clearly the authorities don't give a shit. It almost makes you think they're getting a piece of the action somehow....
In the second bizarre incident at the State Fair in a week, Cal Expo police shot an agitated, pregnant dairy cow that twice escaped her confines and knocked over an officer as she bolted through the fairgrounds Tuesday morning. "Look out! It's a cow!"
Neither the cow nor her calf survived the shooting, which occurred an hour before gates opened to the public. "They're dead, Jim!"
Ultimately, the roughly 1,200-pound cow became a threat to thousands of employees already abuzz in the fairgrounds, police and veterinary officials said. Ummm... Did anybody think of calling a cowboy?
They agreed she had to be put down after a 1 1/2-hour chase. "Goddam, Toody! I can't run no more!"
"Me, neither, Muldoon! I'm just gonna shot it!"
"Shoot the calf, too!"
"Obviously, we're in a caring profession and the last thing we want to do is see an animal euthanized," said W. David Wilson, director of the veterinary medical teaching hospital at the University of California, Davis, which oversaw the care of the cow. "Because we're a caring profession we couldn't set out a coupla eight-year-olds with switches to herd Bossy back into her pen. They mighta hurt her."
However, he added, "A very difficult choice had to be made." "Toody, I can't decide! Should I shoot her in the head? Or the butt?"
About 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, UC Davis veterinarians were delivering the cow to the fairgrounds, where she was expected to give birth to her calf before wide-eyed fairgoers as part of the long-standing Livestock Nursery program. "Line up there, kids! Widen those eyes! Yer gonna see somethin' wondrous here!"
"Hey! Lookit that thing behind her udders!"
"E-e-e-e-e-www!"
"I think I'm gonna [BARF!]"
But the cow became agitated and fled, "Hooooooves, don't fail me now!"
running about 500 yards toward a tunnel connecting to the midway, said Brian May, deputy general manager of the fair. "It's the midway! I'll get lost in the crowd! They'll never find me there!"
Police officers and veterinary officials corralled the cow and penned her in with crowd-control barriers, May said. "Oh, no y'don't, Bossy!"
He added that veterinarians did not want the cow tranquilized because they feared for the calf's health. But they calmed her some by plying her with food and hay, Wilson said. "Here, Bossy! Have some nice food and hay!"
"I wanted cotton candy! And a corn dog!"
An hour later, as officials tried to load her into a trailer, she again became anxious and fled. "Into the trailer wit' yez, Bossy!"
"Moooove outta my way! I'm goin' for a corn dog!"
Getting desperate, veterinarians agreed to tranquilize the cow. "Don't look, Timmy!"
Two attempts failed, "Wow, man! Lissen to the colors!... But whuzzat?... Whuzzat?... It looks like... It looks like... Izzat Beelzebub?"
"Look out, Fat Freddy! She's startin' the mother of all bad trips!"
and the cow again broke loose from another makeshift pen, "Moooo! It'za gonna get me! Don' leddit get me!"
knocking over an officer in the process. "Toody! Look out! [STOMP!]... Oh, that hadda hurt!" Our weapons are useless against her!
At that point, May estimated, several thousand of the fair's 10,000 employees already were setting up shop on the grounds. Proud youngsters were nearby, too, caring for their own livestock on display at the fair. "Just ignore them, Fluffy!"
Officers made the decision to shoot the cow, May said. Wilson said the veterinarians reluctantly agreed. "Well, yeah. I guess so. If we can't do anything [BANG!] else..."
"Very, very rapid" action possibly could have saved the calf's life, but the circumstances were not conducive to such a surgery, Wilson said. "Muldoon! Why'd you shoot her there?"
"I didn't want to spoil the head, for the wall in my den!"
Lafayette resident Jennifer Nelson and her children were inside Cal Expo to promote water conservation when a security guard alerted them about the loose cow. "Everybody get outta here! There's a cow on the loose!"
From a distance, they could see the cow penned in by vehicles. Then she heard shots. Suddenly a shot rang out... Mooo...Rosebud.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/29/2010 00:00 ||
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Good Lord. This was not a 1200 pound brahma bull on the loose. It was a friggin Milk Cow. And giving birth in an strange, unfamiliar area not fit to give birth in, even an animal knows to get out of there. That is called Nature! God help America........
Posted by: George Threger2924 ||
07/29/2010 0:31 Comments ||
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"Toody, I can't decide! Should I shoot her in the head? Or the butt?"
Whatever you do, don't hurt the part that makes steaks!
A GIANT asteroid could be on course to hit Earth causing massive devastation, space boffins revealed today. That does it. I'm outta here.
An international team including NASA experts warned a 560m wide space rock has been discovered heading this way. "Look out! It's a 560m wide space rock!"
If it did hit Earth it would blast a crater several miles wide and could devastate a city the size of London, wreaking death and destruction for hundreds of miles in every direction. "Aaaiiieee! Death! Destruction!"
Anyone concerned by the warning has one thing to be thankful for — if it does hit it is most likely to happen in 2182. Oh. Well. In that case we have time for dinner, don't we?
That gives scientists 172 years to work out how to deal with it. ... and we have time for a few drinks, too... Hmmmmm...I smell an opportunity of a lifetime. Igor, where's that grant paperwork?
The asteroid was discovered in 1999 and is dubbed 1999 RQ36. What? Nobody's done anything about it until now?... Ummm... What have they done now?
The scientists had labelled it a "potentially hazardous asteroid" of the Apollo group because its orbit brings it close to Earth.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/29/2010 00:00 ||
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a 560m wide space rock
Usually that translates into a 1837.27034ft wide space rock. Glad to see they resisted the urge here.
#12
ARTIC > IIUC, our future OWG-NWO has ONE SHOT, + ONLY ONE SHOT, IN YEAR 2082 [NOT 2182] TO SAVE TERRA FIRMA FROM BEING TURNED INTO ROCKY ROAD-ROCKREENIES SPACE MUSH.
By a NOT-THE-YEAR-2030-MOON-OR-PLANET-MERCURY [Fatima "3rd Secret" > "Winged Hoss/Horse"] Minor Bolide-Rock.
D *** NG IT, NASA-JPL, DON'T CONFUSE ME WID MTV RAP!
[Asharq al-Aswat] Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffy said on Tuesday his dream of a United States of Africa was still alive and this week's African Union summit was another step toward that objective.
Gaddafi has been pushing for an African unity government for years, saying it is the only way Africa can develop without Western interference, but many African states say the idea is impractical and would encroach on their sovereignty.
Like previous African summits, this week's gathering in the Ugandan capital Kampala discussed steps toward creating an African government, but the issue was overshadowed by chaos in Somalia and an international arrest warrant for Sudan's president.
"I am satisfied that Africa is going along its historic and right road," Gaddafi told a small group of reporters in Kampala at the end of the summit. "One day it will become similar to the United States of America."
"We are approaching the formation of the African Authority, and each time we solve African problems and also move in the direction of peace and unity. We deal with problems step by step. We are continuing to do that," Gaddafi said.
Gaddafi held the African Union's rotating chairmanship last year, and he used it to push for the organization's small executive body to be granted enhanced powers and remodeled as the African Authority.
Asked about that proposal on Tuesday, Gaddafi said: "Studies are still continuing and it is not finished yet. Experts and the people responsible are still studying the documents. They might be completed at the next summit or after."
Some African leaders say they cannot be expected to cede sovereignty to any African bloc just decades after they wrested it away from their colonial rulers.
But Gaddafi's idea has had a sympathetic response in some states, helped by his reputation in parts of the continent as a champion of the developed world and also by the millions of dollars in aid his oil-exporting country spends in Africa.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/29/2010 00:00 ||
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ION WMF > UNVEILED: LIBYAN LEADER QADAFFI"S REASONS FOR CHOSING CHINA. LIBYA'S ECONOMIC MODERNIZATION REMAINS VERY DIFFICULT + LIBYA HOPES CHIN-LED ECON DEV OF AFRICA WILL INDUCE THE UN TO GIVE THE AFRICAN UNION A SEAT ON THE UNSC. Read, Internal UNO-UNSC Politix-as-usual.
#4
The Arabs tried a United Arab Republic which failed : they at least had religion and ethnicity going for them. How are you going to weld hundreds of hostile tribes with scores of languages into a single unified state? Even the EU is having major problems, and the Europeans have had 60 years of relative peace and prosperity to attempt the joining. Ethiopia is not about to join any organization that allows Somalia and Eritrea to continue to operate the way they do. And does anyone truly think that the Congo region will be peaceful in their lifetime, excluding a huge epidemic that kills off the combatants or massive outside military intervention? This is a pipe dream, spun by someone who had more money than sense.
A clinic in the Eastern Province that provides treatment to people possessed by jinns has volunteered to help Turki, a 29-year-old Saudi from Makkah who according to his father is possessed by a female jinn and has, as a result, been chained to a bed for more than six years.
"I've spoken to the center and they've offered to help my son. They will provide accommodation, food and air tickets for him, his wife, me and his mother who is my ex-wife," said Turki's father.
He, however, added that traveling to the Eastern Province is going to be difficult. "If we try to unchain him, he will become violent. Every limb in his body will undergo a radical change and we won't be able to put him on the plane," he said.
The man has been immobilized for six years. The only question is whether he suffers from muscle atrophy or severe muscle atrophy.
The father said he has taken Turki to see medical doctors and psychiatrists who have all been unable to diagnose his illness or treat him. "We've visited many doctors and none have been able to do anything. They simply gave him sedatives which aren't useful and that's why I started taking him to see religious sheikhs, who've also been unable to do much," he said.
He added that all of the sheikhs who have seen Turki are unanimous that he is possessed by a female jinn who refuses to leave him. "She's supposedly very powerful and said she is of royal stock and will not leave Turki until he dies," he said.
Muhammad Al-Suhaili, professor of Shariah at Umm Al-Qura University in Makkah, confirmed that Turki has been possessed by a female jinn who talked to him and refused to leave him.
The father appealed to the authorities to treat his son in Makkah and to provide financial assistance to his family which is extremely poor.
#9
if this is Posh Spice can you imagine how awful Scary Spice (Melanie Brown) must look by now
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/29/2010 9:56 Comments ||
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#10
Well, an islamic fundamentalist has to keep up with trends in women's clothing.
They can't be caught trying to escape in last year's burqa, after all.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
07/29/2010 10:05 Comments ||
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#11
I would not be comfortable if my wife or daughters dressed like it.
"I would have to kill them both. After molesting my daughters. No, wait. Kill the wife first. Then molest my daughters. Then kill them. Then plead insanity. Unless it's a Sharia court, then they'll give me a pass. Okay, it's settled. Everybody dies, and I get away with it. Sounds like a plan. DAMN YOU, VOGUE!"
#13
I know, to each their own and all that, but that is one thoroughly unattractive woman on that cover.
Mike, I don't know about that,not bad for a mum of three, maybe a bit skinny, but I lean towards the Jacqueline Kennedy school of thought, who said "you can never be too skinny or too rich"
#15
Wait till they get Yvonne Ridley on the Turkish Vogue cover.......they will go on a rampage.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/29/2010 11:32 Comments ||
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#16
What do the usual Turkish Vogue covers look like? Until we have a comparison, I'm going to assume it's just that the subject got the fundamentalists' attention, and normally they don't pay attention to secular women's fashion magazines.
"US Ambassador to Japan John Roos will represent the United States at the Aug. 6 Hiroshima Peace Memorial to express respect for all of the victims of World War II,," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley was quoted as saying at a press conference.
"We thought it was the right thing to do," he said in response to a question as to the decision to send a U.S. representative to the event has any special meaning.
#1
So, when's the Japanese ambassador going to show up at Manila for the 'victims'.
Note to the hand wringers, the Japanese choose not to fold the cards even when they knew they'd lost the war. Time to put the blame on the leadership in Tokyo for the pain and suffering of their civilian population. The same population who the same leadership told to commit suicide at Saipan and Okinawa rather than be captured.
Nepal has forcibly repatriated three Tibetan refugees, the United Nations said on Wednesday, adding it was "extremely concerned" by the move.
I'm guessing that 'extremely concerned' is a higher level of concern than 'seriously concerned', but I don't have my decoder ring handy ...
The UN refugee agency said it had written to the Nepalese government about the incident in early June, details of which were published in a report by the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT).
Two of the refugees -- a Buddhist monk and a young woman -- are now in jail in Tibet after they were detained in western Nepal and taken by helicopter to the border, where they were met by Chinese security forces, the ICT said.
Theirs is the first such case to be reported since 2003, when 18 Tibetans, some of them children, were detained by Nepalese police and sent back to China in a move that sparked international condemnation.
"Three Tibetans were forcefully returned to China from Nepal in early June 2010. It is a very serious issue and we are extremely concerned," Nini Gurung, spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency in Kathmandu, told AFP by email.
Thousands of Tibetans used to make the difficult and dangerous journey to Nepal every year, fleeing political and religious repression in China. They have traditionally been given safe passage through Nepal under an informal agreement between the government and the UN refugee agency put in place in 1989, when Nepal stopped giving them refugee status.
They are then given UN assistance to travel on to India, where the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama lives in exile.
But their numbers have fallen sharply since March 2008 riots in Tibet led China to strengthen border security and increase pressure on authorities in Nepal to stem the flow of refugees.
"Nepal is duty-bound under its own agreement with the UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) to ensure the safe transit of Tibetan refugees through its territory," said ICT president Mary Beth Markey. "We urge the Nepal government and the UNHCR to work together to investigate this incident, including China's extra-territorial role, and to adopt remedies that prevent future occurrences of refoulement (forced return) from Nepal."
But there isn't anything the UN can do about it if Nepal decides to stop cooperating ...
A spokesman for the home ministry in Nepal declined to comment, saying he had no information about any such incident, which involved two Tibetan monks living in a monastery near the border and a 22-year-old woman.
China is a major donor to Nepal, and news of the forced repatriations followed reports of a new aid package designed to help its impoverished neighbour improve border security.
Improve border security for whom, exactly?
The governments of the two countries will set up a joint mechanism to help share intelligence on "anti-China activities" in Nepal, the Kathmandu Post daily reported, following a meeting of security officials in Kathmandu.
Tibet, Nepal, Burma, Pakistan and all the Maoist crazies roaming around India. It's like a plan or something ...
China's biggest problem is their population control policy. It's made them a nation of sole surviving sons. Once the sole surviving son goes the entire family's winked out of existence. We're looking an a receding military threat even as we look at a growing economic threat.
A German court has ordered Verena Becker, a former member of the far-left Red Army Faction, to be put on trial for alleged involvement in the murder of Attorney General Siegfried Buback in 1977. The case was re-opened after new forensic technology revealed her DNA on a letter claiming responsibility for the killing.
Verena Becker, a former member of the far-left Red Army Faction (RAF) which waged a campaign of terror in Germany in the 1970s and 1980s, will be put on trial in September for alleged involvement in the murder of Attorney General Siegfried Buback in 1977, a higher regional court announced on Wednesday.
The case against Becker, 57, was re-opened in 2008 after newly available forensic technology detected her DNA on a letter by the RAF claiming responsibility for the murder.
Buback was killed together with his driver Wolfgang Göbel and a judicial officer, Georg Wurster, in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe when a motorbike pulled up alongside the car they were driving in and the passenger on the rear of the motorbike opened fire with an automatic weapon, shooting at least 15 times.
In an indictment issued in April this year, federal prosecutors accused Becker of being involved in the decision to assassinate Buback, in the planning and in preparing subsequent statements of responsibility.
The higher regional court in Stuttgart, southwestern Germany, said on Wednesday it was allowing the trial to go ahead with no changes to the indictment.
In and Out of Jail
Becker was arrested in May 1977 following a wild shootout with police. She was sentenced to life imprisonment for six counts of attempted murder in that shootout, not for involvement in the Buback murder. She was paroled in November 1989 and has been living quietly under a new identity.
She was arrested again at her home in the Berlin district of Zehlendorf last summer in connection with the Buback murder investigation. She was released from prison last December, but remained a suspect. The Federal Court of Justice ruled at the time that there was no danger she would try to flee the country.
The Red Army Faction, which was allied with Palestinian terrorists, killed 34 people and injured scores more in bomb attacks and assassinations targeting top German civil servants and corporate executives as well as US military installations.
The guerrilla campaign and the draconian security measures imposed by authorities in the manhunt deepened divisions between the left and right and plunged West Germany into a crisis of confidence at a time when it was still a young democracy, just three decades after World War II.
The RAF was bent on fighting "US imperialism" and overthrowing the West German elites. It declared in April 1998 that it had disbanded itself.
[Tolo News] The parliament in Catalonia voted a ban on bull-fighting on Wednesday after receiving a petition from thousands Catalonia becomes Luxembourg... They wish ...
The decision to vote on a ban came after the parliament in Catalonia received a petition from thousands of
people who considered bull-fighting as barbaric.
The vote which got a 68 percent back from the parliament will take effect from 2012.
A Catalonian literary agent in Barcelona, Carlota Torrents, told TOLOnews on the phone that she respects the decision of the majority.
Bull-fighting has already lost popularity in our country, she said.
According to Carlota, bull-fighting is practiced in some Catalonian villages in a less violent way in which they play with bulls without killing them.
"I think, even if the parliament had not decided to ban bull-fighting, it could have gone itself in some years," she said.
When asked whether she supports the ban, Carlota said: "Personally, I'm against any kinds of fight, including bull-fighting. I think it's not a good idea to make animals suffer in any way. I don't consider bull-fighting as an 'equal fight' because the bull is weakened and bleeds a lot and then gets killed by the bull-fighter. That's not bravery!"
Posted by: Fred ||
07/29/2010 00:00 ||
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ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska Four airmen were killed in a cargo plane that crashed during a training run at an Air Force base, military authorities said Thursday. The crash sent a fireball hundreds of feet into the air, witnesses said.
Three of the men were in the Alaska Air National Guard and the fourth was on active duty at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Air Force Col. John McMullen said. Their names have not been released pending notification of relatives.
The C-17 was from the 3rd Wing, based at Elmendorf near downtown Anchorage. The crash happened about 6:14 p.m. during a training demonstration for an upcoming weekend air show, Lt. Gen. Dana Atkins said.
#1
This was a tough one up here. Just got home when this happened. Reminded me of the AWACS flight Yukla 27 in September 1995 that killed the crew. Our thoughts and prayers for the crew and families of the C-17.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/29/2010 11:25 Comments ||
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My deepest sympathies to the family and friends of these warriors, and to the units where they were assigned. Barbara Boxer was right in one point - those that serve in the military develop exceptional bonds with one another, especially among combat units and those that constantly train for combat. The other members become as close as family. Losing one of them is like losing a favored cousin. It's never easy. Losses during training are especially deeply felt, because they're so unexpected. All of us who have served, or are serving, feel deeply about the loss of any of our family members, whether biological or military.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/29/2010 13:44 Comments ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] All those on board a Pakistani passenger jet died Wednesday when the Airbus 321 crashed in the hills of Islamabad while trying to land on a flight from Karachi, a cabinet minister said.
"Nobody survived," Interior Minister Rehman Malik told Express TV.
Earlier reports had said that they were a handful of survivors, but asked whether all those aboard had died, Malik replied: "Yes, all of them are dead".
Imtiaz Elahi, the chairman of the Capital Development Authority, told The Associated Press that earlier reports of five survivors from the crash were wrong and that all aboard died. The Capital Development Authority has a group that responds to emergency situations.
There were conflicting reports over the number of people on the doomed plane. The civil aviation authority said there were 152 while police said there were 149.
Islamabad's police chief Bani Amin said that rescue workers had recovered all bodies from the site of the plane crash, in densely wooded hills outside the Pakistani capital.
"All bodies have been recovered. I cannot give you an exact number because most of them are in pieces," Bani Amin told AFP.
"According to our information, there were 149 people on board. The search is continuing. Maybe we will find one or two more," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/29/2010 00:00 ||
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Okay... every time there is a big plane crash in Pakiwakiland I have to ask what person they don't want anybody talking to was on it.
After all Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and others come to mind.
[Dawn] Six people including three children of a family were killed over an old enmity at village Fatehpur near Depalpur. Girls aged between one and half years to six years were also among the victims.
Police sources said that the killers belonged to Fazal Shah Group of Nankana Sahab.
The children's father, Nawaz, mother Hafeezan and uncle Taj were also killed.
The incident took place after Fajr prayer on Wednesday morning.
Peoples from the area said that both the families had an old enmity since many years.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/29/2010 00:00 ||
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Dateline: The Hell on Earth that is Gaza...
After the shopping mall and several fancy restaurants, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have recently invested around $20 million in new seaside and tourist resorts. According to sources in there, thousands of Palestinian families have started visiting the resorts, which offer a wide range of attractions.
The boom in the local tourism industry is largely attributed to the fact that the underground smuggling business along the border has become less profitable since Israel's recent decision to allow various goods into the Gaza Strip reduced prices of many items significantly. Moreover, the Israeli and Egyptian crackdown on the underground tunnels has made it too risky and expensive to continue operating them. Dozens of Palestinians have been killed while working in the tunnels over the past few years.
As a result, many investors who used to put a lot of money into the smuggling business have shifted their attention to other projects, including the seaside resorts. Paleos are capitalists. Who knew?
Samir Saed, owner of Crazy Water Park in Gaza City, said that until now, restaurants had been the only entertainment sites for most families. He rejected allegations that the owners of the resorts were charging high fees and offering expensive food. He said his resort was charging only NIS 10 per person for a variety of attractions, including a clean beach and playgrounds.
Ahmed Sani, owner of one of the city's fancy tourist resorts, said he established his business after renting a plot on the beach from the Hamas-run municipality. "I'm renting for a period of five years," he told the Hamas-affiliated Web site Al-Resalah. "It's in the interest of the citizen to have as many resorts as possible so that there could be competition."
Mueen Abu Khair, owner of a popular seaside fish restaurant, said the Gaza Strip had witnessed a "revolution" this summer in the field of local tourism. He estimated that local businessmen had so far invested $15m. to $20m. in an unprecedented number of tourist projects throughout the Strip.
"Many investors now prefer to put their money in businesses that are safe and more profitable than the underground tunnels," said economist Mueen Rajab. "Most of the money is now being invested in vehicles, restaurants, supermarkets, boutiques and stores for electrical appliances."
[Straits Times] INDONESIA'S highest Islamic body has issued a fatwa banning Muslims from watching gossip shows or having sex-change operations, an official said on Wednesday.
The increasingly assertive Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) said gossip shows about the intimate details of people's private lives - a popular genre on Indonesian television - were immoral and threatened society.
'We considered it important to pass the fatwa as infotainment programmes may contain immoral material and violate the journalistic code of ethics,' MUI official Asrorun Niam Soleh said. 'We're not against all infotainment programmes... What's haram (forbidden) is material that's gossipy and exposes shameful details about people.
'When people start spreading rumours, the joints holding a nation together will be crushed.' Profiting from infotainment shows is also forbidden under the edict, posing a theological conundrum for the media industry in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country.
Gossip shows are allowed only if they 'uphold the law, warn the public and help people", Mr Soleh said.
The ruling will be presented to the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission as a guideline for future infotainment programmes, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/29/2010 00:00 ||
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[Straits Times] IN A sensational twist in Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy trial, a prosecutor has been dropped after being accused of having an affair with the star witness.
Defence lawyers said the surprise move bolstered its claim that Anwar, a former deputy premier who was sacked and jailed on separate sex and corruption counts a decade ago, is the victim of a political conspiracy. The prosecution said it was dropping Farah Azlina Latif from its team in the ongoing trial, following claims she was romantically involved with Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan, 25, who has accused Anwar of sodomising him.
'This can be very difficult for us but any personal matter, if it can have any implication in whatever form... will be handled very seriously,' attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail told state media late on Tuesday. 'This move is also to ensure that the smooth running of the case is not affected,' the government's top lawyer said, without specifying whether or not the claims were true.
An official at the attorney-general's office confirmed his comments to AFP, and said that Farah Azlina would also be transferred to another department. The defence said it had sought an official explanation from the prosecution after a leading Malaysian political blogger said on his website that the lawyer was in a sexual relationship with Saiful, who has a fiancee.
'The implications are serious,' Anwar's lawyer Sankara Nair told AFP on Wednesday. 'There is a perception that Saiful could have been given access to confidential information of the trial and that would compromise the integrity of the prosecution,' he said.
Mr Sankara said the development strengthened claims that there was a conspiracy against Anwar, after Saiful testified that he met with high-profile individuals including Prime Minister Najib Razak before lodging his complaint. The attorney-general however said that Farah Azlina, one of eight prosecutors in the Anwar case, had no access to confidential information. The sodomy trial, which began in February and has been punctuated by lengthy delays, is set to resume on August 2 for a one-month session.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/29/2010 00:00 ||
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Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail said late Tuesday that Farah Azlina Latif had been removed not because she was guilty but to protect the integrity of the prosecution team.
The move came after an online news portal romantically linked Farah to key witness Saiful Bukhari Azlan.
Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/malaysian-politics-sex-sodomy-and-trials-40294?cp
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.
In the second bizarre incident at the State Fair in a week, Cal Expo police shot an agitated, pregnant dairy cow that twice escaped her confines and knocked over an officer as she bolted through the fairgrounds Tuesday morning.
A GIANT asteroid could be on course to hit Earth causing massive devastation, space boffins revealed today.
[Asharq al-Aswat] Libyan leader Muammar 
[Straits Times] INDONESIA'S highest Islamic body has issued a fatwa banning Muslims from watching gossip shows or having sex-change operations, an official said on Wednesday.
[Straits Times] IN A sensational twist in Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy trial, a prosecutor has been dropped after being accused of having an affair with the star witness.
