HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Zimbabwean authorities have arrested more than 2,000 people accused of money laundering since the introduction last week of a currency reform intended to tame the world's highest inflation rate and prop up the teetering economy. The Reserve Bank last week knocked off the final three digits from the currency - thus 100,000 Zimbabwe dollars became 100 Zimbabwe dollars.
The lira, I knew it well.
It also gave a deadline of Aug. 21 for exchanging the old notes but set limits on how much individuals and businesses could deposit without having to answer questions about the origins of the money.
"Where'dja get the wheelbarrow of money?"
"I earned the money, honest!"
"Nevermind the money, where'dja get the wheelbarrow?"
The government also warned it would not tolerate threats against Central Bank chief Gideon Gono, who pushed through the reforms last week, the Herald reported. Gono said the reforms are vital to try to bring down inflation, the highest in the world at nearly 1,200 percent. The measures - which have caused confusion among beleaguered Zimbabweans about the real worth of their money - have met with opposition.
Maybe if he stopped printing money, put a cork on corruption and persuaded Bob to take an extended vacation he'd be seen as doing his job.
On Thursday, a gang of four armed men in an unregistered sports utility vehicle tried to storm a business project of Gono, demanding his residential address. On Friday, a fire gutted part of his farm, destroying some of his maize crop, according to the Herald. Gono said he would not be deterred. "There is no amount of intimidation that will force me to abandon the task at hand," the newspaper quoted him as saying.
State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa pledged full support for Gono. "Government is not happy with the threats directed at Dr. Gono," Mutasa said. "The actions are very deplorable. We take the threats very seriously and let me warn those who want to derail our economic recovery program that they will be arrested and brought to justice."
"He's one of our boyz, so don't mess with him!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/09/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
I read this as 'Monkey Launderers'. I thought people kept monkeys as pets and others were showing entreprenial talent by running washing services. Monkeys smell, worse than dogs.
Then of course zimbob socialism cracks down on capitalism on its way to the socialist utopia.
Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- The Bush administration may change some immigration rules to make it easier for Cubans with relatives in the U.S. to enter the country, two administration officials familiar with the plans said. The administration also is considering refusing visa applications from any Cuban caught trying to sneak into the U.S. by sea. Under the current policy, such people aren't penalized if they later apply for a visa, the officials said.
The U.S. seeks to curb any surge of Cubans to the U.S. following Fidel Castro's handoff of power. The 79-year-old dictator fell ill last week and temporarily turned control of the Caribbean nation over to his brother, Raul. President George W. Bush yesterday urged Cubans to pull away from Castro's ``tyrannical'' grip and create a new government.
``The U.S. realizes that the unfolding events in Cuba might potentially lead to an immigration crisis,'' said Paolo Spadoni, a professor at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, who specializes in Cuban issues.
White House spokesman Tony Snow confirmed today that the administration is thinking about ``what might happen'' in Cuba and how the U.S. should respond. Still, he said there's been no change in policy, and the administration is urging Cubans ``to stay put.''
A policy shift would reflect the administration's desire to prevent a mass migration, yet at the same time send a message that it cares about the Cuban people, including Cuban-Americans and their families, Spadoni said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/09/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Hey Hillary, Bushie is setting you up for Haiti Part Deux. Mahwahahahahahaha.
Havana, Cuba (AHN) - Cuban leaders are warning the United States against any interference in the possible transition within Havana after the death of President Fidel Castro. The U.S., however, has increased its television transmissions to Cuba, and has said it would help fund those working for change, on and off the communist island.
Cuban Parliament Speaker Ricardo Alarcon led the charge against American involvement in any regime change, saying the U.S. would face "hell" if it interfered.
A real sea of fire!
While the U.S. has denied talk of an invasion, President George Bush has said "Our desire is for the Cuban people to choose their own form of government."
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/09/2006 00:00 ||
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#2
Here we go again I just love the way we are going to get hell evertime we piss these tin horn dictators off, if the US sneezed in their general direction they would fall over.
#6
Notice that they're talking about transition though.
I wonder if they picked up any of King Fahd's old used ice machines at some Saudi royal's yard sale?
With the military controlling a good share of Cuba's tourism, electronics imports and foreign currency reserves, the defense minister is as much entrepreneur as soldier. Now that he's filling in as president for his ailing brother, Fidel, Raul Castro can count on a network of similarly positioned uniformed and retired officers who are as loyal to him from behind their desks as they were on the battlefields of Angola and Ethiopia.
“What they are interested in is maintaining their status...”
Those generals and colonels are known as "Raulistas," and their loyalty has helped them move into the highest echelons of the government and the economy.
Even dissident Vladimiro Roca, a former fighter pilot under Castro's command before breaking with the government, believes Castro has the military leadership's support. But more than either Castro, they are "committed to the system," Roca said of the generals. "What they are interested in is maintaining their status."
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/09/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
IOW, cost-inhibitive imported Hams must keep coming in iff RAUL expects to stay on the top. All the Hams belong to Raul now - the glorious gastro-intestinal struggle of the starving Cuban people in defense of the Great Leader's love of costly imported hams must go on. Its for the People, D *** it, for the children and the Revolution.
#2
Notice in these workers paradises, that when the charismatic or Great Leader passes, that those left in the political position seem to have to negotiate their royal throne with the senior military officers standing around? And from that day on, life is one great Byzantine soap opera of shifting loyalties and intrigue?
Which by the way is a warning [which will be ignored] to the Donks, not to try to use generals as political pawns against a sitting president. Or someday you may end up with the office, but without the power.
Cuba's allies urged the United States not to interfere with the communist country during Fidel Castro's absence from power, while the U.S. increased its television transmissions to the island and encouraged anti-Castro activists to push for change.
"Manuel! Manuel! Look! Ricky Ricardo's back on!"
Cuban Parliament Speaker Ricardo Alarcon warned that the United States would face "hell" if it meddled with the Caribbean island. "We demand that the government of the United States respect Cuba's sovereignty," read a letter from 400 leftist intellectuals and human rights activists published Tuesday in Cuba's state-run newspapers. "We must prevent a new aggression at all costs."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Great photo. Whatever the topic how can you not smile at that!
Fidel Castro is expected to recover from surgery for intestinal bleeding and play a public role in the future, according to a host of senior Cuban officials and other sources this week. However, with his 80th birthday looming and the need to resolve the succession in his lifetime to ensure an orderly transition, that role will never be the same.
A week into Cuba's leadership crisis and after decades in which man and country have meant practically the same thing, a new dimension has clearly been added by the health problems and the provisional handing of authority to his brother Raúl – though exactly what the final equation will look like remains unclear. "After 47 plus years of one man symbolising the revolution and with near absolute control, it is hard to think of a Cuba without Fidel," says Frank Mora, a national security and Cuba expert at the National War College in Washington. "But that is certainly what everyone in Cuba and outside has been forced to do."
“His sense of strategy and tactics have kept the Cuban process alive when logic indicated that it was doomed to failure...”
"It should be noted that Fidel indeed possesses political headlights that see far beyond those of the average human," says John Kirk, a Canadian professor of Latin America affairs. "His sense of strategy and tactics have kept the Cuban process alive when logic indicated that it was doomed to failure – particularly after the demise of the Soviet Union. Aware now, following earlier health problems, that his body is warning him in no uncertain terms that he cannot continue with the same pace as before, the passing of power to Raúl Castro illustrates both a temporary political shift and a line in the sand that shows how a different strategy is called for."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2006 00:00 ||
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Can't have a transition without a waxy looking guy sleeping in a sealed plexiglass box, now can we?
Supporters of leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took over toll booths surrounding Mexico City for several hours Tuesday, giving motorists free passage into the metropolis.
“We are going to transform our country and this is going to happen one way or the other...”
The takover came a day after the former Mexico City mayor said his protests over alleged fraud in July 2 presidential elections, which have already clogged the city's center, will transform into a long-term radical movement to change the nation.
Lopez Obrador, who claims electoral officials tried to rig the vote, told a crowd of about 5,000 supporters on Monday that his movement is just beginning. "We are going to start a movement for the transformation of the nation's institutions," Lopez Obrador said. "We are going to transform our country and this is going to happen one way or the other."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Shhhh... No one tell them the election is over...They get to vote all over again....campaign time...
#4
"we will take our protest from the voting booths to the...uh...toll booths...to the....um...phone booths...to the ...'4 pictures on a strip of film' tourist booths...to the ....Yeeaarrggghhhh!!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/09/2006 22:59 Comments ||
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North Korea has asked Seoul for aid to repair damage from floods that could tip the impoverished state into famine, a South Korean group said on Wednesday.
It is the first time a North Korean organization has formally requested help from the South for help for the flooding, which destroyed roads, railways and homes.
South Korea has said it is considering a one-time package of aid to avert a crisis in North Korea despite strains between the neighbors over Pyongyang's July 5 missile tests.
Three major storms hit North Korea last month, causing floods that killed at least 151 people, and possibly more.
The secretive state is suspicious of outside aid workers and limits their access to people and places, making it difficult to receive a clear picture of the extent of the damage. It has said the storms left hundreds dead or missing.
A North Korean committee on reconciliation sent a fax to its counterpart in the South requesting building material, machinery, food, blankets and medication to help it cope with a disaster international aid agencies say left tens of thousands homeless.
"We express our appreciation for the efforts by the ... (South Korean) committee and other groups to overcome the difficulties with brotherly love faced together by the North and the South due to the unexpected floods," it said in the message.
The North, which battles chronic food shortages, has relied on food handouts from Seoul for years.
The South suspended regular food aid last month after Pyongyang officials stormed out of an inter-Korean meeting at which Seoul asked the North to explain why it defied international warnings and test-fired seven missiles.
The North has halted several inter-Korean cooperation projects in retaliation for the collapsed discussions.
The South said it could resume food aid if the North returned to stalled talks on ending its nuclear weapons program.
More
#1
Remains to be seen if the South will be foolish enough to once again bail out the NorKs. However, I'm inclined to believe they will. As people who actually remember the Korean war start to shuffle off this mortal coil in increasing numbers, the tendency towards wishful thinking on the part of South Korean politicians grows.
#2
Where is all the Love from the cadre of communist states? Why isnt hugo on a plane promising billions to the afflicted masses living under lilkims boots?
hugo will turn venezuela into the same kind of tyranical state as n korea is, count the minutes, these two have everything in common, loot loot loot....excuse excuse excuse....as they use use use....the lives and property of everyone living under the retrograde pathology of the socialist international.
#4
Finish them, finish them! Korea pulled their aid from the chinese satalite in hopes of getting them back up to the table to talk about settling concerns over the errors in the Norks ways. Don't waffle know!!!!! If they want to eat, they need to come to the table - no more food scraps thrown to the wind less you want a tom cat meowing beneath your window and raping your new pet kitten.
Posted by: Rick ||
08/09/2006 12:53 Comments ||
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#7
SKOR will bail them out. They still have relatives there and despite Kim's lack of concern for the lower class SKOR won't want peasants to starve. As much as I hate that F&%k using food against the peasants seems to me not the right answer.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/09/2006 21:26 Comments ||
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SEOUL: North Korean workers risked their lives to protect pictures of their leader when the communist country was hit by devastating floods last month, state media said Tuesday. The official Korean Central News Agency, monitored by South Korea's Yonhap news agency, reported tales of the bravery of North Koreans dedicated to saving Kim Jong-Il's images from harm. A forestry research institute official died after saving portraits of Kim Jong-Il and his late father Kim Il-Sung on July 16 when a landslide hit his home in the eastern county of Yangdok, it said. On another occasion, a miner fled to the rooftop of his house but was swept away by floods after handing over Kim Jong-Il's portrait to his colleages, KCNA said. "Such impressive stories are common in many flood-hit areas. Our people are faithful to the Dear Leader as they are willing to risk their lives for him," KCNA said in a commentary.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Perhaps the paper Dear Leader ws printed on was made from soybeans and thus had nutritional value
#2
Iff memory is correct, its Norkie law that every North Korean home have one or more pictures of "the Great/Dear Leader" lest they be viewed as traitors to the anti-Chinese Chinese kimchee-land.
The threat of the gulag andor death camp, etc, naturally has nothing to do wid anything.
#5
I'd not be surprised if this is absolutely true. If you read accounts of the sinking of Imperial Japanese Navy warships in WWII, you'll notice there's always some guy who gets detailed to rescue the emperor's portrait. If the emperor--ooops, excuse me, I meant Dear Leader--is a living god, it's the least you can do.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/09/2006 7:09 Comments ||
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#6
Gotta wonder if they could've floated out of there and made some money off the portraits on Ebay.
Posted by: BA ||
08/09/2006 9:46 Comments ||
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#7
It's just not the same as reading the unexpurgated KCNA version:
Spirit of Defending Leader with Life Displayed by Flood Victims
Pyongyang, August 8 (KCNA) --The Korean People are willing to dedicate their lives for guarding the leader. The lofty spirit of defending the leader with the very life was given full play among the people in the flood-hit areas of the DPRK including South Phyongan, Kangwon and North Hwanghae Provinces in the middle of July.
Kim Tok Chan who was a designer of the Yangdok Forestry Designing Institute, South Phyongan Province, awoke from a sound sleep by a roaring sound of landslide triggered by torrential rains on the dead night of July 16.
He brought down the portraits of President Kim Il Sung and General Secretary Kim Jong Il from a wall of his house, wrapped them with care and tried to evacuate. Having lost time to do so, he handed them over to his wife and pushed her to a safe place before he was buried in the landslide.
That's gotta be the slowest moving landslide in history...
There are so many similar stories in the flood-damaged areas.
The Piryu River flooded to inundate some parts of the Jangrim workers' district in Songchon County, South Phyongan Province. The house of Kim Sung Jin, a tunneling worker of the Unsu Pit of the Songchon Mine, was waterlogged. His family members were stranded on the roof. Seeing this scene, head of the production workshop Ri Sang Son and rock-drill operator Jon Tae Yong swam to them. Kim Sung Jin gave them the portraits of the President and the leader, not his children.
Yeah, well ya can't eat Kimmie portraits...
Ri Hak Chol, manager of the Songchon Mine, told KCNA on the spot: "We suffered a serious flood damage this time. However, the workers of the mine and the residents displayed the noble spirit of defending the leader with their lives during the natural disaster. As the saying goes that the hard time tests a man, our people put the Party and the leader above their lives and property on the crossroads of life and death."
And, in the immortal words of Roseanne Rosanadana, as the saying goes, "It just goes to show ya, it's always sumthin!"
#8
I don't think they save their pictures out of admiration. It's total fear. They all wear a lapel pin with his picture all the time. And I mean all the time. My friend that was there last year said not one person the entire time was without the lapel pin. Not one person forgot it at home. Not one person's pin was lost in the laundry. Not one person had their pin fall off inadvertently. Pretty harsh control eh?
#9
Do not imagine, comrades, that leadership is a pleasure. On the contrary, it is a deep and heavy responsibility. No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?
#10
Do not imagine, comrades, that leadership is a pleasure. On the contrary, it is a deep and heavy responsibility. No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?
ATLANTA - Following U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney's second ouster from office in four years, some are already closing the book on her political future.
The word you're looking for is "has-been."
But anyone who has followed the dipsy doodle fiery Democrat's career - including her election as Georgia's first black congresswoman 14 years ago and her recent scuffle with a Capitol Hill police officer - would know that she doesn't give up that easy. McKinney lost her bid for a seventh term in Congress on Tuesday.
By about 60-40...
Her challenger, Hank Johnson - a political unknown before the July 18 primary - defeated her 59 percent to 41 percent in the runoff election.
That's known in the trade as "getting trounced."
After her first re-election defeat in 2002 following 10 years in Congress, she toured the country protesting President Bush and the war in Iraq before winning back her old seat two years later. Even in conceding defeat in Tuesday's runoff, she ripped into Republican leadership and vowed to continue her fight against war, poverty and injustice.
Maybe she'll move to Crawford and share expenses with Mother Sheehan.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2006 23:05 ||
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HT - DRUDGE
Iranian doctors have overseen the country's first animal cloning _ a lamb that died minutes after birth _ and plan future experiments in genetics and stem cell research, a member of the team said Wednesday.
Iran's program is part of the Islamic regime's ambitions to become a regional center for medical, aerospace and nuclear technology _ which has led to an international showdown over Western claims that Tehran also seeks atomic weapons.
"We learned a lot about cloning during the experiment. It made us more hopeful about further cases," said Dr. Morteza Hosseini, a member of cloning team at Isfahan Royan Institute in central Iran. Hosseini said the cloned sheep died five minutes after birth Aug. 2 due to respiratory problems. The female sheep implanted with the cloned embryo gave birth a week ahead of schedule and was healthy, he said.
Hosseini said Iranian researchers in Tehran and Isfahan expect to carry out more cloning experiments over the coming months.
The program has won backing from Iran's Shiite Muslim religious leaders, who have issued religious decrees authorizing animal cloning but banning any such experiments with humans. A majority of Iran's nearly 70 million people are Shiites, which comprise about 15 percent of the world's 1.2 billion Muslims.
Many Sunni Muslim clerics, however, have spoken against cloning in any form.
British scientists made world headlines a decade ago with the cloned sheep Dolly. Since then, rapid progress in stem cell research and genetics have raised widespread debates about ethics and the boundaries of medicine. Scientists say cloning sheep and other animals could lead to advances in medical research, including using cloned animals to produce human antibodies against diseases. Of course I know what everyone is thinking about "other uses" Shame shame shame....
:)
#12
'This is not good, not good at all.'
Why Tony? the fact is that the best Iranian scientists cannot compare with the west and are at best decades behind our research.
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.
Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- The Bush administration may change some immigration rules to make it easier for Cubans with relatives in the U.S. to enter the country, two administration officials familiar with the plans said. The administration also is considering refusing visa applications from any Cuban caught trying to sneak into the U.S. by sea. Under the current policy, such people aren't penalized if they later apply for a visa, the officials said.
Cuba's allies urged the United States not to interfere with the communist country during Fidel Castro's absence from power, while the U.S. increased its television transmissions to the island and encouraged anti-Castro activists to push for change. 
Fidel Castro is expected to recover from surgery for intestinal bleeding and play a public role in the future, according to a host of senior Cuban officials and other sources this week. However, with his 80th birthday looming and the need to resolve the succession in his lifetime to ensure an orderly transition, that role will never be the same.
Supporters of leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took over toll booths surrounding Mexico City for several hours Tuesday, giving motorists free passage into the metropolis. 
SEOUL: North Korean workers risked their lives to protect pictures of their leader when the communist country was hit by devastating floods last month, state media said Tuesday. The official Korean Central News Agency, monitored by South Korea's Yonhap news agency, reported tales of the bravery of North Koreans dedicated to saving Kim Jong-Il's images from harm. A forestry research institute official died after saving portraits of Kim Jong-Il and his late father Kim Il-Sung on July 16 when a landslide hit his home in the eastern county of Yangdok, it said. On another occasion, a miner fled to the rooftop of his house but was swept away by floods after handing over Kim Jong-Il's portrait to his colleages, KCNA said. "Such impressive stories are common in many flood-hit areas. Our people are faithful to the Dear Leader as they are willing to risk their lives for him," KCNA said in a commentary.
ATLANTA - Following U.S. Rep. 
