Tension brewed along the Indo-Bangladesh border when BSF and BDR personnel exchanged fire for over six hours after a Bangladeshi smuggler was shot dead in Nadia district of West Bengal.
A top BSF official said here that the exchange of fire with the Bangladeshi border guards, which began on Friday night at Gede area of the district, continued till the early hours on Saturday. "BDR men resorted to heavy firing of 6,000 rounds and our personnel repulsed with 1,500 rounds and all these happened when BSF jawans challenged some smugglers hurriedly crossing over from our border with items," the official said. The deceased, identified as a Bangladeshi, was carrying four kg of ganja and 50 bottles of cough syrup. Five others accompanying him fled under the cover of darkness, he said.
The BSF official further said that Indian border guards fired six rounds to ward off an attack by the smugglers with sharp-edges weapons. "It is amply clear that BDR has made deliberate attempts to provide cover to the Bangladesh smugglers," he said...
The smuggler's body, lying within the Indian side, was handed over to local police. A flag meeting was scheduled to be held at Gede later in the day. The official said that the BSF lodged a formal protest with the BDR, describing the firing as "unprovoked".
The incident caused panic among the locals and many had already left the area. BSF reinforcements rushed to the area and patrolling has been intensified, the official said.
Posted by: john ||
06/10/2006 10:31 ||
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The second son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il made a secret trip to European countries including France last month, a South Korean newspaper said Friday. The Chosun daily quoted government sources here as saying Kim Jong-Chol using a special plane arrived in Moscow on May 20 for a week-long stay before visiting the Mal de Mer Hospital in France and other European countries. It was the 25-year-old's first overseas trip since he returned to Pyongyang in 2000 after studying in Switzerland, the newspaper said. Suspicions have emerged that the son's recent trip might be related to health problems, it said. South Korean newspapers reported in April that Kim Jong-Chol was suffering from a rare illness that results in his body producing excessive amounts of female hormones.
Oh, great. The hereditary ruler of the world's last remaining Stalinist state has a bosom and sings contralto. And isn't a girl.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2006 00:00 ||
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Pretty gud freaky
Posted by: Captain America ||
06/10/2006 0:30 Comments ||
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MIchael Jackson wearing Motherly women's clothes in Yemen???
#3
As an aside, I met real live North Koreans today for the first time, at a trade show in China. They had the little pins and everything. One of the women was pretty hot, and her English was excellent. It was surreal looking at North Korean import/export companies.
All that is wrong with Europe:
A political party with a paedophile agenda has been registered in The Netherlands, prompting outrage among many parts of society. The party plans to push for a cut in the legal age for sexual relations to 12 from 16 and for legalisation of child pornography and sex with animals. The Charity, Freedom and Diversity (NVD) party says it promotes freedom of speech and will stand in May elections.
MPs say they will ask the government to do something to stop the new party. The Charity, Freedom and Diversity Party says it intends to "shake The Hague awake". The party says its aim is to break taboos and fight intolerance. Its members say they want paedophilia to be freely discussed, arguing that a ban just makes children curious. Uh, what? So it's the kids' fault?
They claim the subject has been a taboo since the 1996 Marc Dutroux child abuse scandal in Belgium. They also want to break the "negative" stigma surrounding paedophilia by getting into parliament. "negative"
But the NVD says it is not just a one-issue party. It also wants children from the age of 12 to be able to vote; it promotes the legalisation of hard and soft drugs and free train travel for all. Free train travel. Well I'm convinced. Europe is sick.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/10/2006 12:23 Comments ||
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#2
The one point they make is that pedophilia should be discussed. It is not just a single evil, but a bunch of them, that need different solutions.
First of all, of course, are the mentally ill child molesters themselves. As determined as junkies, they need to be incarcerated permanently at best.
Second, are parents and other family members that molest, actively pimp, or permit their own children to be molested. A different kind of psychosis, but often just limited to their family. In this case, the entire family needs intensive attention: incarceration, counseling, treatment, and other governmental intervention.
Third, are child traffickers, whose activities are more like those of slavers. These reach beyond national jurisdiction, and involve lots of money being transferred. These people are not psychotic, they are in it for the money.
Fourth are the children themselves. Often they become instrumental in their own abuse, and the abuse of other children. Children committing crimes against other children needs an entirely different solution.
Spain could soon become the first country in the world to give chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and other great apes some of the fundamental rights granted to human beings under a law being proposed by members of the ruling Socialist coalition.
The law would eliminate the concept of "ownership" for great apes, instead placing them under the "moral guardianship" of the state, much as is the case for children in care, the severely handicapped and those in comas, said the MP behind the project, Francisco Garrido.
Great apes held in Spanish zoos would be moved to state-built sanctuaries, unless there was a risk that moving them would harm their emotional welfare, he said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/10/2006 02:59 ||
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Apes, then dolphins, then mammals, then fish, then plants, and then we exterminate ourselves. It's the first step down a logical progression.
#2
I remember going to see the Gibraltar apes. Mean, nasty animals. I subsequently learned living in Asia that any ape/monkey that loses its fear of humans is an extremely dangerous proposition.
#5
I presume they will then free all apes from captivity and let them go on a rampage roam free in Spain.
After all, freedom is a basic human right....
Is the Democrat party in Spain? Will they be allowed to vote, too?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/10/2006 12:49 Comments ||
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#6
I subsequently learned living in Asia that any ape/monkey that loses its fear of humans is an extremely dangerous proposition.
If you think about it, a chimpanze , by spending a lot of time hanging at trees will develop incredibly powerful arms. it has also proportionally far more of its muscular mass in arms and less in legs. This an apparently harmless 70 pounds chimpanze will have arms as strong or stronger than those of a heavy weighht boxer.
#7
IIRC, most apes can also bite pretty badly, and except for gorillas, they're meat-eaters as well.
Remember that RB story (in comments) about an elderly chimp owner who was mauled (lost his face, testicles, and a foot), after being attacked by a couple of his protégés during a birthday party thrown for them?
#9
JFM: Also, because the points at which muscles and tendons attach to the bone are in different places than they are in humans, they have a lot more leverage available to their muscles.
Posted by: Phil ||
06/10/2006 16:35 Comments ||
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#10
Spain wants to grant apes human rights
-another euro idea of trying to widen the tax base
#11
I don't think their triceps are that strong (ie that they are able to launch powerful blows) and they can't put their weight behind the blow due to their weak legs. But I have no doubt that their biceps are strong enough that they can litterally tear you apart if you allow them to grab you.
#12
Along with "Rights" come "Responsibilities"
Just what responsibilities does the Spanish Court expect apes to adhere to?
They can't communicate, read, write, or comprehend, so where's the Court's justification for granting "Rights"?
It's judicial impeachment time. Reasob? Insanity.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/10/2006 21:29 Comments ||
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Russia has handed over to Bosnia Dragan Zelenovic, a Bosnian Serb wanted by the United Nations war crimes tribunal for rape and torture. Russia transferred Zelenovic to the Bosnian authorities on Thursday after Carla del Ponte, the UN war crimes tribunal's chief prosecutor, accused Moscow of dragging its feet over the case. On Friday, the Bosnian war crimes court said in a statement: "Dragan Zelenovic will appear before the judge for preliminary proceedings ... at 11.30am (0930 GMT)."
Zelenovic, a former policeman, is wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague for atrocities committed against Bosnian Muslims in the eastern Foca region during Bosnia's 1992-95 war. Del Ponte told the UN Security Council on Wednesday: "The long and unexplained delays in the transfer of Zelenovic ... do not allow for optimism in the future of the ICTY's co-operation with the Russian Federation."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2006 00:00 ||
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Sentenced to death by tedium
Posted by: Captain America ||
06/10/2006 0:31 Comments ||
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Make him watch whatever that crazy courtroom show is, 24/7. He won't last a month.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/10/2006 21:45 Comments ||
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LARKANA: At least 758 Pakistani citizens who were deported from various Gulf countries arrived in Karachi on Friday. They were allowed to leave after immigration officials checked their travel documents issued to them by the Pakistan embassy in Muscat.
"This passport's written in crayon!"
"Try this one."
"Who drew this picture? It don't even look like you!"
"Well, then, try this one."
"Oh, much better. Y'know, you don't look Samoan..."
Some of the Pakistanis had been held in Oman for varying periods. The deportees said that they entered the Gulf States after illegally crossing the Pakistan-Iran border.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2006 00:00 ||
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What a curiosity. Paklanders are persona-non-grata wherever thye sneak to around the world.
Sri Lanka has formally submitted Jayantha Dhanapala, as a candidate to succeed Kofi Annan as UN secretary general, according to a letter seen on Thursday. The letter from Sri Lanka's UN Ambassador Prasad Kariyawasam to his Danish counterpart Ellen Loj, the UN Security Council president for June, noted that Dhanapala, currently an adviser to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, has served 27 years in his country's diplomatic service and another 10 in senior UN management.
"It is the hope of the government of Sri Lanka that the Council will give favourable consideration to the candidature of Jayantha Dhanapala with a view to recommending to the General Assembly his appointment as secretary general of the United Nations with effect from January 1, 2007," it said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2006 00:00 ||
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"served 27 years in his country's diplomatic service and another 10 in senior UN management"
That works better as an indictment, not as qualifications for a nomination. Everything we don't need.
Ah well, no big thing. This sucker's dead. Deader 'n a doornail. Make it official and plull the plug. Some will thank us - the rest can go fuck themselves.
Ever wish you could charge your cellphone or laptop in a few seconds rather than hours? As this ScienCentral News video explains, researchers at MIT are developing a battery that could do just that, and also might never need to be replaced.
[..]
They turned to the capacitor, which was invented nearly 300 years ago. Schindall explains, "We made the connection that perhaps we could take an old product, a capacitor, and use a new technology, nanotechnology, to make that old product in a new way."
Rechargable and disposable batteries use a chemical reaction to produce energy. "That's an effective way to store a large amount of energy," he says, "but the problem is that after many charges and discharges ... the battery loses capacity to the point where the user has to discard it."
But capacitors contain energy as an electric field of charged particles created by two metal electrodes. Capacitors charge faster and last longer than normal batteries. The problem is that storage capacity is proportional to the surface area of the battery's electrodes, so even today's most powerful capacitors hold 25 times less energy than similarly sized standard chemical batteries.
The researchers solved this by covering the electrodes with millions of tiny filaments called nanotubes. Each nanotube is 30,000 times thinner than a human hair. Similar to how a thick, fuzzy bath towel soaks up more water than a thin, flat bed sheet, the nanotube filaments on increase the surface area of the electrodes and allow the capacitor to store more energy. Schindall says this combines the strength of today's batteries with the longevity and speed of capacitors.
"It could be recharged many, many times perhaps hundreds of thousands of times, and ... it could be recharged very quickly, just in a matter of seconds rather than a matter of hours," he says.
This technology has broad practical possibilities, affecting any device that requires a battery. Schindall says, "Small devices such as hearing aids that could be more quickly recharged where the batteries wouldn't wear out; up to larger devices such as automobiles where you could regeneratively re-use the energy of motion and therefore improve the energy efficiency and fuel economy."
Schindall thinks hybrid cars would be a particularly popular application for these batteries, especially because current hybrid batteries are expensive to replace.
[..] Drawings and photos + more story at link. This could be the lightweight car battery
#2
The devil is in the details. What you can do with such devices is based on what discharge curves they can produce.
As an analogy, think of flashlight batteries. They give off just enough current over time to run a flashlight. But you can't force them to give up all of their energy at once, in a single burst of power lasting say, just one second. They can only discharge at flashlight speeds.
For this reason, you may not be able to use such capacitors for high current uses, like an electric car. The current required might burn up the capacitor.
Another problem is current regulation. Many applications need constant, not fluctuating current to operate properly. Again, comparing with the battery, the current provided is almost straight line until the battery is exhausted.
#3
Anonymoose, Current and voltage regulators in front of them should take care of these problems. Imbedding some temp sensors inside with smarts in the regulator should solve heat failure just like the sensors do in your laptop. A $1 or less controller microprocessor should do the deed. That puts the problems you talked about into the software realm.
These would be great for lasers, railguns and maybe stuff like UAV's too.
If Ford's angle works for autos we could have quick charge electric stations (maybe even with small PBRs in remote ones) to quickly charge an auto as fast (or faster) then you currently fill it with gas... (imagine an electrified slot car track zip on it for a few feet without slowing down and you are re-charged!)
At that point dumpping the oil based and mid-east linked current system looks real promising!
Oh and that distructive discharge if it was too quick... some folks here could make ideal "dial a yield" small bombs out of it with an emf punch!
#6
I once saw the damage a 25,000 volt capacitor made when it discharged all at once. I don't think the light table jockey that spilled his soft drink onto it will EVER drink a soda at work again. At least he survived with no major physical damage.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/10/2006 21:56 Comments ||
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Burma's National League for Democracy (NLD), the party founded by democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, has denied reports that the Nobel Peace Prize laureate had been hospitalised. "I have investigated these reports, and it's not true," party spokesman Lwin told AFP.
He says he cannot not explain the reports, which originated from US-based exile groups.
Aung San Suu Kyi is under house arrest and is only allowed periodic contact with her doctor, who could not be immediately reached for comment. The 60-year-old Opposition leader has been detained at her lake-side residence in Burma's capital of Rangoon following a May 2003 attack on her convoy by junta-backed militia in the country's central region. She has spent more than 10 of the last 17 years under house arrest.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/10/2006 00:00 ||
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How come I didn't get an invite?
Posted by: Captain America ||
06/10/2006 0:32 Comments ||
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Just as soon as the World Cup is over. Would you care for some lutefisk?
COLOMBO - Norway was reconsidering its peacebroker role on Friday as Tiger rebels aborted talks and demanded the removal of ceasefire monitors from European Union member states. The parties must take responsibility for the worsening situation, Norways top peace envoy Erik Solheim told AFP in Oslo. They have been acting contrary to our advice.
There is at the present time no room for a Norwegian initiative in the peace process, an angry Solheim said.
And you don't want to anger a Norwegian.
However, the Sri Lankan government Friday reiterated that it was still ready for a peaceful settlement to the ethnic conflict, which has claimed at least 60,000 lives since 1972. We have not lost hope, media minister Anura Yapa said. Still, we believe we can start negotiations and come into some agreement with the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam).
Norway demanded Friday that Sri Lanka and Tamil Tiger rebels reaffirm their commitment to the Oslo-led peace process, saying their replies would dictate its future participation. In a hard-hitting statement blaming Tigers for the impasse, Norway said the situation was grave after the parties failed to discuss the safety of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) observing an already troubled truce.
What comes after 'hard-hitting statement'?
The rebels, meanwhile, called for removal of truce monitors from European Union states, following an EU decision last month to put the LTTE on its list of terrorist organisations.
Norway, Sri Lankas peacebroker since January 2000, called the failure to hold the meeting between Colombo and the LTTE on Thursday a major blow to their peace efforts. The Norwegian government is profoundly concerned with the gravity of the situation on the ground, the objection by the LTTE to collaborate with the SLMM with its present composition, the lack of dialogue between the parties ... Norway said. It also raised doubts over the continued full commitment of the parties to the ceasefire agreement.
The bullets whizzing by might suggest that, yes.
Oslo said it had taken the unprecedented step of writing to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse and the Tamil Tiger chief Velupillai Prabhakaran to ask about their commitment to the process. The responses by the parties ... will determine which steps will next have to be taken by the Norwegian government and the SLMM in close partnership with other actors in the international community, the statement said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/10/2006 00:00 ||
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Norway has been at peace too long. They don't understand how to do threats.
BEIRUT - An Arab satellite channel in Beirut received on Friday a bomb threat by telephone Friday, prompting the evacuation of the building as well as of UN employees in an adjacent building. The TV channel Al Arabiya and its sister company MBC received the threat from an unidentified caller claiming to be speaking on behalf of the followers of the group of slain terrorist leader Abus Musab Al Zarqawi that a bomb was about to go off in its offices in Beirut.
Lebanese army troops immediately cordonned off areas near the MBC office in Hamra street and also near the building of the Al Arabiya which also houses offices for the British network BBC, the American channel CNN and the Associated press. The offices of Al Arabiya are adjacent to the building that houses the UN in Beirut which prompted security officers to immediately evacuate all employees from the UN building as well.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/10/2006 00:00 ||
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ANN Coulter hates the liberal media almost as much as she despises Hillary Clinton - but that is surely an exaggeration, as the conservative commentator owes them all - big time.
Powered by criticism from Senator Clinton and blanket coverage in the U.S. media, Coulter's new book Godless: The Church of Liberalism, has soared to the top of bestseller lists.
Last night, Godless was the most bought book on Amazon.com, thanks to reaction to comments about four September 11 widows.
"These broads are millionaires lionised on TV and in articles about them, revelling in their status as celebrities . . . I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much."
Coulter's sharp phrasing and caustic opinions have made her America's most famous fundamentalist Christian and, through four previous books and many speaking engagements at $20,000 an appearance, have earned her a small fortune.
Coulter owns luxury homes in Manhattan and Florida, and boasts about her wealth.
America's constitutional protection of free speech allows her to make statements that would be considered unutterable almost anywhere else.
Yesterday, Coulter, 44, responded to Senator Clinton's criticism by linking Bill Clinton, one of her favourite targets, to a rape and a suicide.
"Hey, if Mrs Clinton is going to start being concerned about angry women," said Coulter, "perhaps she should go talk to her husband who was accused of rape by Juanita Broaddrick and was groping Kathleen Willey at the moment Kathleen Willey's husband was committing suicide."
The former corporate lawyer has been a media success ever since scoring headlines at the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, when she asked if Bill Clinton deserved impeachment or assassination.
On September 13 2001, Coulter wrote of Muslims: "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."
Her favourite targets, aside from Muslims, are liberals. Sometime she hits the two with one precise jab.
"Even Islamic terrorists don't hate America like liberals do. They don't have the energy. If they had that much energy, they'd have indoor plumbing by now," she said.
Coulter has been featured on the cover of Time magazine, inspired the hatchet-tongued West Wing character Ainsley, and is now so notorious she can't walk the streets unaccompanied by bodyguards.
Those bodyguards were called into action yesterday, when a West Virginia councillor interrupted a book signing to hand her a letter asking her to retract the comments on the September 11 widows.
"Miss Coulter, I think you are a disgrace . . ." said Mark Cuthbertson before the crowd shouted him down.
She ripped the letter in two as bodyguards pulled him away.
Coulter has been called the right-wing version of Michael Moore. She bristles at the comparison, saying she'd preferred to be known as the right-wing Mark Twain.
#4
"Even Islamic terrorists don't hate America like liberals do. They don't have the energy. If they had that much energy, they'd have indoor plumbing by now,"
#7
Personally, I hope she really gets into a brawl with Hillary. Down and dirty and nasty. It will sell even more books, and Hillary will lose. Imagine if she included some really snarky and even mean comment about Hillary in her next dozen columns.
Hillary just goes into a blind rage when she is criticized.
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.
The second son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il made a secret trip to European countries including France last month, a South Korean newspaper said Friday. The Chosun daily quoted government sources here as saying Kim Jong-Chol using a special plane arrived in Moscow on May 20 for a week-long stay before visiting 
LARKANA: At least 758 Pakistani citizens who were deported from various Gulf countries arrived in Karachi on Friday. They were allowed to leave after immigration officials checked their travel documents issued to them by the Pakistan embassy in Muscat. 
Burma's National League for Democracy (NLD), the party founded by democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, has denied reports that the Nobel Peace Prize laureate had been hospitalised. "I have investigated these reports, and it's not true," party spokesman Lwin told AFP.
BEIRUT - An Arab satellite channel in Beirut received on Friday a bomb threat by telephone Friday, prompting the evacuation of the building as well as of UN employees in an adjacent building. The TV channel Al Arabiya and its sister company MBC received the threat from an unidentified caller claiming to be speaking on behalf of the followers of the group of slain terrorist leader Abus Musab Al Zarqawi that a bomb was about to go off in its offices in Beirut.
