A Yemeni election official was killed late Thursday in the eastern Al-Jawf Province, hours after candidates for the presidential election launched their campaigns, police said. Muslih Sharian, head of the supervisory election committee of Al-Jawf, was shot dead in an attack on a newly established electoral office in the province, about 170 kilometers east of the capital Sanaa, officials said. Two other people were also killed in the attack, they said, adding that a police has launched an investigation to find the attackers.
Sharian, who belongs to the opposition Islah party, was appointed as the top electoral supervisor in Al-Jawf under a mandate from the country's Supreme Election Commission. Armed clashes between supporters of Yemen's ruling party and those of an opposition group ahead of local council elections, led to the killings officials said yesterday. The ruling General People's Congress candidate for the council of Al-Jawf Province was killed in the clash as well as the head of the local election committee. Eight other people were injured in the confrontation in the province.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/26/2006 00:00 ||
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Grain of salt alert: we must keep in mind that MSM is functionally innumerate and their understanding and analysis of statistics is often appallingly bad. But as this article comes from the Financial Times, the numbers *might* be reliable.
The typical buyer of a £2m-plus home in central London is now more than likely to be a foreigner, in a sign of how international the UK capital has become. More than 51 per cent of homes worth more than £2m ($3.8m, EU3m) sold in the last year have gone to overseas buyers from Russia, the Middle East and elsewhere, according to figures from Knight Frank, the agents. This makes London the most cosmopolitan world city in terms of property ownership.
In New York, foreign owners make up 34 per cent of sales in the prime residential market, ahead of Paris, where they account for 27 per cent. In Hong Kong and Sydney, foreigners account for even fewer prime residential deals, at 13 per cent and 9 per cent respectively.
The data help explain how London prices have soared in the last year while the rest of the UK market has stagnated as a result of affordability issues and interest rate fears. Prices of the most expensive homes in Kensington and Chelsea have risen more than 20 per cent since the New Year. London was so popular because of its financial strength and its good transport connections to the US, Europe and the Middle East, said Liam Bailey, head of residential research at Knight Frank.
The change in ownership of central London streets has happened gradually. In the 1960s, British buyers still made 90 per cent of purchases, falling to 70 per cent in the 1970s, 60 per cent in the 1980s and 1990s and less than half today. "People just want to be in London," said Amanda Craig, director of London houses at Hamptons, the estate agents. "In Germany there are several major cities, you might want to buy in Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, it's the same in Italy, but in the UK it's either central London or a country estate. Our clients aren't interested in Manchester or wherever."
Gathering strength over the central Caribbean, Tropical Storm Ernesto headed toward Jamaica on Saturday and threatened to enter the Gulf of Mexico within days as the first hurricane of the 2006 Atlantic season.
Ernesto, packing 50 mph winds, was projected to reach hurricane strength by Tuesday but it was too soon to predict whether it would hit the United States, said Michael Brennan, a meteorologist with the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.
People should pay attention, especially people on the Gulf Coast, Brennan said. Its a good time for people to update their hurricane plans. And maybe fill 'er up, since you know what's going to happen to the price of gas if it goes anywhere near the oil platforms and refineries in the Gulf...
Ernesto was on a course that would bring it over Jamaica by Sunday afternoon, dumping 4 to 8 inches of rain on the island with up to a foot possible in some areas, the hurricane center said. Fisherman were warned to return to shore with tides up to 3 feet higher than normal expected. Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller met with disaster agencies to prepare.
Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, which both stood in the storms path, issued hurricane watches, meaning severe conditions including winds of at least 74 mph were possible over the next 48 hours. Tropical storm warnings also were in effect for Jamaica and Haitis southern coast.
In Haiti, emergency officials went on local radio to warn people living in flimsy shantytowns on the southern coast to seek shelter in schools and churches.
The impoverished Caribbean nation is 90 percent deforested, increasing vulnerability to deadly flooding and mudslides.
Fears that the storm could damage offshore energy facilities in the Gulf of Mexico had oil and natural-gas prices higher. Oil producers operating in the Gulf said they were prepared to evacuate nonessential personnel if needed.
Max Mayfield, the National Hurricane Center director, said it was too early to say whether the storm would hit the Gulf Coast, which is still recovering from last years Hurricane Katrina. Weve got some time. We dont want people to get too excited about this, but they certainly need to be watching it, Mayfield told CNNs Wolf Blitzer.
Venezuela defended its decision to seize the cargo of a US Embassy convoy for alleged smuggling, while Washington formally protested the incident as a flagrant violation of diplomatic protocol. Justice Minister Jesse Chacon said Friday that Venezuelan National Guard troops did not violate international diplomatic conventions when they stopped trucks carrying cargo from a US military aircraft to the American embassy on Wednesday.
... they stopped trucks carrying cargo from a US military aircraft to the American embassy on Wednesday...
He also backed earlier accusations that US officials may have smuggled military equipment into the country.
"It's not the Venezuelan government that is violating (diplomatic conventions), it's the US embassy that's violating them," Chacon told a news conference Friday evening. The State Department earlier Friday lodged a formal complaint with Venezuela over the seizure, saying it violated international diplomatic laws.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/26/2006 00:00 ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
08/26/2006 7:56 Comments ||
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#4
Probably.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/26/2006 8:43 Comments ||
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#5
If Bush wants to make it one.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/26/2006 12:54 Comments ||
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#6
With all due respect, Mr. Fred, why would we bother? He's just a loudmouth Castro-wannabe, isn't he?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/26/2006 14:54 Comments ||
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#7
I worry that he's a bit more than that. He has seriously intervened in elections in at least 3 other Latin American countries.
The act that most bothers me is when his interior minister casually admitted a couple years ago that they "lost" 120,000 (or was it 20,000?) blank Venezuelan passports, ready to be filled in.
Given the Islamic terror camps in the lawless area where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet, and given Chavez' cozy relationship with Ahmadinajad, I think it's quite likely some of those "missing" passports are now filled in with the Spanish fake names of people from the Middle East.
MIAMI (AP) - A psychology professor accused of being a Cuban agent admitted Friday that he was a ``collaborator'' with Cuba's intelligence service, communicating with officials using a short-wave radio, sophisticated encryption techniques and a code name, ``David.''
Carlos Alvarez insisted, however, that he had distanced himself from the communist government by the time he confessed details of his work last year. He also denied being a Cuban agent and said he was never employed by that government.
``I was not an agent of the Cuban government. I was a collaborator, which is very different,'' the Florida International University professor testified. ``I was collaborating, basically, sharing insights and information with the Cuban government for some years,'' Alvarez said. ``Information that I felt was pertinent.''
Oh. I see. Just a collaborator. Anyone can understand the difference. Can we hang him now?
Alvarez's surprise admission came during a hearing on a defense motion contending that the FBI promised him immunity if he fully confessed his involvement with Cuba. The motion also contends that the confession was coerced, even though the FBI agents repeatedly told Alvarez he was not under arrest and was free to leave the interviews on June 22-23 and July 1, 2005.
If Alvarez prevails on the motion, his confession to the FBI won't be admissible at trial. Prosecutors, however, have other evidence in the case, including material from telephone wiretaps and a listening device in the home of Alvarez, 61, and his 56-year-old wife, Elsa, who is also charged. The couple have pleaded not guilty to charges of being unregistered Cuban intelligence operatives for more than two decades, reporting mainly on activities of Cuban-American exile groups in Miami and on U.S. political developments.
Carlos Alvarez said he quit providing information to Cuba by 1998, well before he was approached by two FBI agents in June 2005 at a Miami supermarket about his involvement. The government contends Carlos Alvarez continued his work until at least 2004. Prosecutor Brian Frazier cited recent meetings between two Cubans, including one he described as an intelligence officer.
In videotaped transcripts of his FBI interviews, Alvarez repeatedly agreed with the FBI agents when they said his confession was voluntary and that he was free to go anytime. Alvarez testified Friday that he feared that contradicting the agents would subject him to criminal prosecution and result in a scandal for his family.
The FBI agents Alvarez confessed to, Albert Alonso and Rosa Schureck, testified earlier this week that they never promised him immunity. The agents also testified that their ultimate goal was to turn Alvarez into a ``double agent'' who would spy for the U.S. against Cuba. Alvarez, however, said Friday that he hadn't heard that before.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/26/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
The word our dear professor is looking for is traitor.
Posted by: ed ||
08/26/2006 1:21 Comments ||
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#2
"Collaborator, not an agent, eh? Le'see here... radio - check... secret code book - check... code name - check... meetings with controller - check... cloak & dagger... cloak & dagger... nope, nope, don't see 'em...they ain't here. He's right, chief! Not an agent!"
#4
So he's a collaborator, not a traitor because he wasn't employed by the Cubans. I guess that makes sense in the way that giving it away for free to all comers makes you a slut instead of a whore.
#5
A psychology professor accused of being a Cuban agent admitted Friday that he was a "collaborator" with Cuba's intelligence service, communicating with officials using a short-wave radio, sophisticated encryption techniques and a code name, "David."
ISLAMABAD: Dr Aamir Liaqat Hussain, minister of state for religious affairs,
...it was 'un-Islamic to stop husbands from having sex with their wives even if they were doing so without their consent'...
opposed Kashmalas proposal that men having sex with their wives be tried under rape charges, saying that it was un-Islamic to stop husbands from having sex with their wives even if they were doing so without their consent, sources told Daily Times. Aamir quoted Surah Nisah to defend his contention. Noorul Haq Qadri and Sher Afgan Niazi defended girls marriages at an early age. Niazi referred to marriage of Prophet (PBUH) to Hazrat Ayesha (RA), the sources added.
Posted by: john ||
08/26/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
It's about time for Lorena Bobbit to go on a Middle East lecture tour.
#2
Mooselimbs are so obsessively horny vis a vis everyone else and that's why they're most effectively manipulated clerically by their pricks. All grey matters are resited in the wrong head, hence crippling thinking.
KARACHI: Only a handful of protestors participated in demonstrations organised by mullahs against the Women's Protection Bill in several cities of Pakistan on Friday.
We will even sacrifice our lives for this and will not allow these amendments to be made...
Participants of the unsuccessful protests vowed to resist attempts to amend Islamic laws that liberals have long deemed unfair to women.
The ruling party introduced the Women's Protection Bill in parliament this week, aimed at amending these laws, to the fury of religious conservatives. "We will even sacrifice our lives for this and will not allow these amendments to be made," Mirajul Huda Siddiqui, an MMA leader, told a small crowd in Karachi. Similar small protests were held in Lahore, Peshawar and Islamabad. Protestors said that prostitution would be promoted if the bill was passed.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/26/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
"We will even sacrifice our lives for this and will not allow these amendments to be made,"
Good. If all of you sacrifice your lives, then there might not be any need for special legislation.
#2
The hilarity is that the women's opinion is the only one that matters. If the social tide has turned among women, then what the men want doesn't matter for squat.
Call it a "slave's strike". If the women just refuse to play along, the men can beat them, but they can't make them work. Since most of these men are utterly incapable weaklings in the first place, they cave pretty quick.
#3
The hilarity is that the women's opinion is the only one that matters.
Only if you're allowed to vote. If not, it doesn't help much that rape is de facto legalized, physical abuse institutionalized and outright murder part of canonical law.
Were it possible to disregard terrorism (and it's not), Islam would still be invalidated by its congenital abuse of women. Islam is an outmoded cultural artifact whose hour passed long ago and needs to be expunged from modern history.
#4
Zenster: I am a firm believer that nobody can make another person a victim without their assent. A person can be beaten, raped, or even murdered without submitting--and by not submitting, it drains their oppressor of strength.
Even a woman with a 3" needle can defend herself. Most anything can be a weapon, and time is on her side. She can tell her husband that he can rape her, but he will never sleep well again.
And this resistance is passed from woman to woman. If a woman is beaten by her husband, yet is too afraid to resist, other women may join in, without warning, and attack her husband.
He can no longer walk the street in ease, trust his food and drink, even trust that his reputation is secure--remember that poisoned tongues can kill as easily as a dagger.
The other women may turn their men against him.
As I said, the choice here is that of the women. It just doesn't matter what the men think.
And even harder to organize in the face of centuries of practice and the womens' own upbringing.
Posted by: a woman ||
08/26/2006 20:30 Comments ||
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#6
As I said, the choice here is that of the women.
'moose, I agree with you in principle but Muslim women are essentially nothing more than a gigantic example of the Stockholm Syndrome. The programming runs too deep and the consequences are too severe. Sure, a woman might be able to inflict grievous injury, even fatal harm to her abusive husband. Then what awaits her? Being beaten to death by the husband's outraged mail relatives. Being hung from a lamp post by a male-dominated sharia court. Being exiled from her entire community.
At the very least, she will lose her children. Which is something that, by dint of tradition and maternal feelings (especially in such an environment of sensory deprivation) she is deeply attached to and represent one of the only productive outlets in her entire life.
Remember, female illiteracy is rampant. Women are not allowed to drive cars. They cannot obtain a divorce without presenting evidence that is essentially impossible to secure. They are frequently subject to genital mutilation. They cannot leave their own house unless chaperoned by a male relative.
In the West, all of these manipulations represent blindingly obvious hallmarks of spousal abuse and women are granted divorces based on even a single instance of these behavior patterns in their mate.
Now imagine living within such a constrictive milieu and having had it presented to you, from birth, as being religious dictum, cultural imperative and a requisite for physical survival.
Pray tell. Just how quickly will Muslim overcome this sort of entrenched abuse?
#9
a woman : agreed - if they weren't convinced they'd face worse punishment at the hands of muslim mobs, they'd kill the f*cker and face Judicial review
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/26/2006 22:28 Comments ||
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. NASA engineers are battling thunderstorms and rain as they struggle to understand the impact of a launch pad lightning strike that scrubbed the planned Sunday liftoff of the space shuttle Atlantis.
Shuttle officials have found at least two anomalies one on Atlantis Pad 39B launch pad and another on the orbiter itself associated with a powerful lightning strike Friday that led them to postpone the Aug. 27 space shot. But a comprehensive survey of those areas must wait until heavy thunderstorms and a lightning threat pass over NASAs Kennedy Space Center (KSC) launch site.
We think it may be the largest lightning strike in terms of the current, Cain said in a press briefing here after the scrub, adding that the bolts strength measured around 100,000 amps. We know just enough to know that we dont know enough to be able to press on into a launch countdown tomorrow.
Atlantis was set to launch six astronauts toward the International Space Station (ISS) at 4:29:57 p.m. EDT (2029:57 GMT) Sunday on NASAs STS-115 mission to resume construction of the orbital laboratory. The shuttles 60-foot cargo bay is filled with a 17.5-ton pair of portside trusses and solar arrays to be installed aboard the ISS.
Severe storms have been a daily phenomenon here at NASAs launch site, highlighted by the 1:49 p.m. EDT (1749 GMT) lightning strike at Atlantis Pad 39B.
It was certainly not a hit to the vehicle, I want to make that perfectly clear, said NASA launch director Michael Leinbach of the strike. But you can get an induced voltage field around the lightning strike, and thats what were looking at now.
The lightning struck one of a network of cables designed to protect shuttle launch pad structures and orbiters from being hit. The one-inch steel runs over the top of an 80-foot fiberglass mast and stretches about 1,000 feet on either side to the ground.
After reviewing data from the lighting strike, engineers detected a small spike in the voltage readings from one of the three electrical buses that supply power to certain systems aboard Atlantis, Cain said. The spike in a unit known as Essential Bus 1 BC spanned just 80 milliseconds, but was enough to begin checks to ensure none of the shuttles systems were compromised during the lightning strike.
A second area of interest is a vent arm that siphons off gaseous liquid hydrogen, which is used with liquid oxygen to fuel shuttle launches, from Atlantis 15-story external tank. The vent arm attaches to a region near the mid-body of Atlantis external tank and separates from the vessel via an explosive pyrotechnic device less than one minute before launch during a typical shuttle liftoff, NASA officials said.
We are 99.9 percent sure the pyro did not fire, Leinbach said. We dont suspect it fired, but again thats why we have to go out and look at it.
Checking the vent arm, its associated cables and electronics will take several hours, he added.
Leinbach said it typically takes about 96 hours to check all of the necessary systems at a launch pad, any orbiter thats present, and associated external tanks and boosters after a lightning strike. Engineers dont plan to check all of those systems, only those required to make sure Atlantis is safe to fly Monday.
We need to let the folks go off and look at their data, Cain said. And thats what were going to do.
NASAs window to launch Atlantis runs through Sept. 7. The shuttles chances of actually rocketing spaceward Sunday were a bit low due to a 60 percent chance of rain, thunderstorms and clouds near its launch site.
Lt. Kaleb Nordgren, of the 45th Weather Squadron at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, said Mondays forecast calls for only a 20 percent chance of bad weather preventing a launch. Tuesdays launch forecast is also favorable, though weather conditions will again begin to deteriorate on Wednesday, he added.
Lightning typically strikes NASAs two shuttle launch pads about five times each year, though no reports of serious damage have been recorded to date, according to NASA records. In 1983, bolts of lightning struck the launch pad while an orbiter was present three times, records show.
Lightning also struck the launch pad perimeter not the pad itself six days before NASAs July 4th launch of the space shuttle Discoverys STS-121 mission last month.
Milwaukee has been ranked by Forbes.com as "America's Drunkest City" on a list of 35 major metropolitan areas ranked for their drinking habits.
Whassha madder widdat?
Forbes said Tuesday it used numbers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to rank cities in five areas: state laws, number of drinkers, number of heavy drinkers, number of binge drinkers and alcoholism. If Milwaukee hasn't changed from what I remember as a tiny tot who got dragged up there every summer vacation to see the relatives, they could've won it based strictly on number of bars alone. It was quite impressive to see how many intersections had a tavern on each corner...of course, if I lived there, I'd get bombed every chance I could, just like my relatives.... Minneapolis-St. Paul was ranked second overall; followed by Columbus, Ohio; Boston; Austin, Texas; Chicago; Cleveland; Pittsburgh and then Philadelphia and Providence, R.I., in a tie for ninth. Hmm. Aren't they all "blue" cities? Maybe there's a connection?
Rick DeMeyer, 28, said Wednesday as he was celebrating his birthday at G-Daddy's BBC he could understand Milwaukee's ranking. "I have had people stay with me from London and Chicago, and they can't get over how much we drink," he said. "I guess we do."
"Sometimes we don't drink. My cousin Bob, he throws up a lot."
But officials at Visit Milwaukee, the area's convention and visitors bureau, contend that the city has come a long way in ridding itself of its beer-guzzling image.
"Oh, yasss! We do ever so many other things than guzzle beer! We got... ummm... birds. You can go birdwatching!"
Milwaukeeans have plenty of other ways to entertain themselves without drinking alcohol, said Dave Fantle, a spokesman for the group. Hey! Youse in da back! Stop yer chortling!
He noted a new convention center and baseball park had been built and the Milwaukee Art Museum expanded in recent years. "We've gone from Brew City to new city," he said.
Last time I went to a convention, I... ummm... drank a lot. Maybe too much. And what's baseball without a few beers?
Former President Ford underwent his second heart procedure in a week at the Mayo Clinic when stents were placed into two of his coronary arteries to increase blood flow, his spokeswoman said Friday. The angioplasty procedure on the 93-year-old Ford was successful and he was resting comfortably in his room at the hospital in Rochester, spokeswoman Penny Circle said in a statement.
On Monday, doctors at the clinic had fitted Ford with an implantable cardiac pacemaker to regulate his heartbeat. Mayo Clinic spokesman John Murphy confirmed the procedure, but would not comment further. "No further releases or updates are anticipated for several days," he said.
Get well soon, Chief.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/26/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Good man, nice pic
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/26/2006 2:53 Comments ||
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#2
Yup, one of the Good Guys for sure.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/26/2006 8:44 Comments ||
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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.
A Yemeni election official was killed late Thursday in the eastern Al-Jawf Province, hours after candidates for the presidential election launched their campaigns, police said. Muslih Sharian, head of the supervisory election committee of Al-Jawf, was shot dead in an attack on a newly established electoral office in the province, about 170 kilometers east of the capital Sanaa, officials said. Two other people were also killed in the attack, they said, adding that a police has launched an investigation to find the attackers.
MIAMI (AP) - A psychology professor accused of being a Cuban agent admitted Friday that he was a ``collaborator'' with Cuba's intelligence service, communicating with officials using a short-wave radio, sophisticated encryption techniques and a code name, ``David.''
ISLAMABAD: Dr Aamir Liaqat Hussain, minister of state for religious affairs, 
KARACHI: Only a handful of protestors participated in demonstrations organised by mullahs against the Women's Protection Bill in several cities of Pakistan on Friday. 
Milwaukee has been ranked by Forbes.com as "America's Drunkest City" on a list of 35 major metropolitan areas ranked for their drinking habits. 
Minneapolis-St. Paul was ranked second overall; followed by Columbus, Ohio; Boston; Austin, Texas; Chicago; Cleveland; Pittsburgh and then Philadelphia and Providence, R.I., in a tie for ninth. 
Former President Ford underwent his second heart procedure in a week at the Mayo Clinic when stents were placed into two of his coronary arteries to increase blood flow, his spokeswoman said Friday. The angioplasty procedure on the 93-year-old Ford was successful and he was resting comfortably in his room at the hospital in Rochester, spokeswoman Penny Circle said in a statement. 
