Jakarta, 5 Oct. (AKI/Jakarta Post) - A Garuda Indonesia airlien party pilot is expected to walk free by March next year after the Indonesian Supreme Court cut his 14-year jail term to only two years, ruling there was insufficient evidence he was responsible for the 'in-flight' murdere of a human rights campaigner, Munir. The court quashed Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto's murder conviction but sentenced him to two years jail for falsifying his assignment documents. First detained in March last year, Pollycarpus is expected to walk free no later than March 2007.
The verdict means the state is yet to hold a single person responsible for the infamous murder that implicates top former officials at the National Intelligence Agency (BIN).
Presiding Justice Iskandar Kamil said here Wednesday that a three-member panel had voted two to one Tuesday that Pollycarpus had not been proven guilty of killing Munir, although he was guilty of falsifying a document. The documents were forged so that Pollycarpus, who was off-duty at the time of the flight, could get on the Garuda flight Munir was on board. "The primary charge of premeditated murder was not proven. That's why the previous ruling was quashed. No witnesses saw him plot the murder," Kamil said.
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Posted by: Steve ||
10/05/2006 08:50 ||
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Can Travis Barker really make women go this crazy? His estranged wife, Shanna Moakler, was involved in a nightclub fracas with Paris Hilton early Wednesday morning. Barker, the drummer for Blink-182, filed for divorce in August from Moakler, a former beauty queen who was recently voted off "Dancing With the Stars."
Hilton says Moakler walked up to her, "used the most vile of language" and then punched her in her jaw.
In September, Barker was apparently videotaped kissing Hilton, who needs no introduction. Then Hilton encountered Moakler at the Hyde club in Hollywood last night. The following reenactment is based on reports by police, publicists for both women, but unfortunately no pugilistic experts: Hilton says Moakler walked up to her, "used the most vile of language" and then punched her in her jaw.
Moakler contends Hilton's ex-boyfriend Stavros Niarchos bent Moakler's wrists, poured a drink on her and shoved her down some stairs.
Moakler contends she exchanged mere profanities with Hilton, at which point Hilton's ex-boyfriend Stavros Niarchos emerged from the entourage, bent Moakler's wrists, poured a drink on her and shoved her down some stairs. Hilton, 25, and Moakler, 31, both filed police reports alleging battery. Officer Karen Smith said police took pictures of Moakler and Hilton at the station, and that police planned to speak with witnesses at the club as part of their investigation.
TMZ.com posted video of Barker and Hilton making out in a New York nightclub last month. Hilton's publicist, Elliot Mintz, said the two are "just friends."
Moakler and the tattooed punk rocker Barker were an unlikely pair when they married in 2004, documenting their lavish wedding and life on the MTV reality show "Meet the Barkers." They had two children. Moakler also has a 7-year-old daughter with boxer Oscar De La Hoya. TMZ.com posted what it said was video of Barker and Hilton making out in a New York nightclub last month. But Hilton's publicist, Elliot Mintz, said the two are "just friends."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2006 00:00 ||
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#5
She somehow becomes less attractive posed next to Travis Barker.
She's a dimwitted round-heeled skank, with more looks than brains. After you got past a few romps in the hay, you wouldn't be able to put up with her crap. And believe me, women that look like that come with a load of crap.
#6
Paris Hilton looks like what would happen when the space aliens messed up their plastic surgery. There is just something *wrong* about her. They Live!
#12
Two non-talented half-wits. One getting by on looks the other on grand-daddy's name and jingle. They need to take it to the octagon in a no-holds barred fight to the death. I'd pay a dollar to see that.
BTW - what nobeards says is spot on. I saw this sign in a bar once, it said: "she's beautiful alright, and you probably want to buy her drink, but somebody somewhere is fed up with her shit."
#3
Another example of typical Afrikan "crisis of memory." The Brits have long been gone, but the ethnic feudalism of the Mau Mau and Kikuyu remains just benieth the surface. The use of the term "veterans" and Mau Mau in the same sentence is disgusting. They want money, not words. Bugger the lot, I blame the hangman for not completing his werk.
#4
French speaking black africans call it 'la connerie des blancs', the stupidity (polite version) of the whites; IE, as long as whitey is ok to pay because he feels guilty, there is no harm in getting free money, is there?
The Ugandan army has resumed military operations against the Lord's Resistance Army despite ongoing peace talks to end the war. An army spokesman said on Wednesday that the renewed operations in northern Uganda should not hinder negotiations between the two sides in neighbouring southern Sudan. Major Felix Kulayigye said any Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) fighters in northern Uganda who had failed to assemble at two locations agreed under a truce that expired on September 19 would be "dealt with militarily".
"This has nothing to do with the peace process which should continue," he added. The LRA - which began a civil war from northern Uganda 20 years ago - said it would defend its men against any army attack but that it remained committed to peace talks.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Makes sense (Sorta) if you can kill them, no need to talk, and if you can't kill them, well, "Talks" are ongoing.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/05/2006 20:03 Comments ||
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A campaign by Swedish Liberal MEP Cecilia Malmström to end the monthly Strasbourg session of the European Parliament has led to a row between the speaker of the parliament and the Nordic countries. The speaker, Josep Borrell, claimed that Sweden did not suffer enought during the Second Ward War to understand the true meaning of the parliaments Strasbourg base. The claim has enraged leader-writers on Swedens newspapers, who were asking whether Borrell really meant that countries who didnt fight in the war should have less of a say in EU matters.
Don't even bring up the subject of Sweden being a Nazi client state during the war ...
Borrell didnt fight in the war himself he was born 1947, wrote Kristian Karlsson in Svenska Dagbladet.But nobody has suggested that his entirely peaceful upbringing should exclude him from political debate.
The row started last Thursday when Borrell, a Spaniard, claimed that the parliament is a symbol of Franco-German reconciliation, adding that this historic dimension cannot be perceived in the same way in some Nordic country which did not participate in World War II.
Unless I missed something, Spain studiously avoided participating in World War II.
#1
Every year, members of the EU parliament pack their shit up (their entire office) and make the move from Brussels to Strasbourg, to spend four (4) days there, and return to Brussels. Oh why not, it's all paid for, it's all good.
#7
France: a country whose military heroes are a foreigner and a teenage girl
Yeah, tell that to the WWI poilus, to the Dien Bien Phu defenders, or to the algeria war paras...
Prejudice about war proefficiency goes both way : Remember, in Europe, it's the US soldier who's a coward unable to fight without his bottled water, his air support, and all.
That's not true, of course, and so is your view, thanks.
#9
I have a lot of admiration for the French soldiers. The Free French fought well in North Africa and they fought well in Europe with the allies. I realize they were not very good at working with the allies but give 'em a break. They were in their home country and had their own agenda. They fought well against the Germans at the start, it was the Higher Command Levels who couldn't grasp the way to counter the German tactics. The same can be said of the British. The French and British allocated their tanks, except for one massed tank attack by De Gaulle, in penny pacets to their infantry. They saw the tank as an infantry support weapon and not as an armoured spearhed in the attack or coounter attack.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
10/05/2006 9:34 Comments ||
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#10
Napoleon was Corsican. Does that count as French?
Was Charles Martel French or German? Nice bit of work at the Battle of Tours.
#11
While I nothing but contempt for the cowardly French government, let anyone who called the French soldiers cowardly spend a few weeks at Verdun. Or perhaps with Prioux who fought the German Panzers to a standstill (until the line broke elsewhere).
Posted by: Manuel ||
10/05/2006 15:18 Comments ||
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#14
Charles Martel was born in Aachen. However at battle of Tours most soldiers on the Frank side were, according to Davis Hanson, Gallo Romans or
Francks born in France.
Tactics on the Franck side were definitely Roman-like not Germanic.
#15
The French 2nd Army actually did quite well at Sedan in 1940, considering it was regarded as the "weakest link" in their armed forces and got caught by surprise by the elite German spearhead.
A former Russian undercover agent who lived under a false name in Toronto and spied for the Russian government is suing Canada's immigration department for refusing to allow her to return here as a landed immigrant.
Elena Miller, a 43-year-old ex-spy, was deported in 1996 after her cover was blown by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Her second husband, Toronto physician Peter Miller, has tried for eight years to sponsor his attractive wife with the mysterious past, only to be stonewalled by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
Although their marriage was found to be legitimate, an immigration officer ruled in 2001 that Ms. Miller was inadmissible on security grounds because of her past employment with the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, known as SVR. A Federal Court judge recently upheld the decision. "If one of our CSIS agents were to quit, would it be held against him forever?" asked Barbara Jackman, Ms. Miller's lawyer. "In security cases, unlike in criminal cases, you can never overcome your past. It is never forgiven," she said.
That's right. That's why Dr. Mr. Miller ought to consider moving with his wife to another country. You know, like .. Russia. Switzerland's not a bad second choice.
The Millers have filed a statement of claim seeking unspecified damages from Citizenship and Immigration Canada for negligent processing of their file, arguing that the eight-year wait has caused them irreparable harm and suffering.
Dr. and Ms. Miller recently relocated to Switzerland, but the couple would like to return to Canada where Dr. Miller has two grown sons.
Ms. Miller came to Canada in the early 1990s with her first husband, also a Russian spy. In a scenario not unlike a plot from a John Le Carré novel, the pair established Canadian identities, taking the names of Canadian-born babies who had died at birth a quarter-century earlier: Ian Lambert and Laurie Brodie. She found a job at an insurance company in Toronto, while her husband worked at a Blacks photography plant.
CSIS trailed the pair and, based on the evidence they gathered, Ottawa issued a security certificate against them, saying their espionage activities made them a security risk.
The Russian spies, whose real names are Yelena Olshanskaya and Dimitriy Olshanskiy, were deported to Russia in June of 1996 -- but not before their marriage had disintegrated. Both had begun relationships with Canadians while working undercover. "Laurie Brodie" had met Dr. Miller, a British-born physician and Oxford graduate who worked in Canada's medical insurance industry, at a scotch-tasting party.
When news of the spy case became public both Dr. Miller and the girlfriend of "Ian Lambert," a fellow Blacks employee, were shocked to learn the true identities of their paramours. According to notes in Ms. Miller's voluminous immigration file, Dr. Miller was "shaken" about the news as to her double identity, but she talked to him about "her real self, the real Lena."
"I'm not just another beautiful, skanky Russian spy, honest!"
Back in Moscow, she divorced and renounced the international world of espionage, and in December of 1996, married Dr. Miller. He applied to sponsor his wife as a member of the family class. She swore in an affidavit that she would never spy again.
How exactly does a Russian 'renounce' spying? Swear on a bust of Felix Dzerzhinsky?
Ms. Miller claimed in a 2004 letter to then-public safety minister Anne McLellan that she was not only not "detrimental" to Canada's national interest, but that she was making a positive contribution, teaching Russian children about Canada and introducing them to the works of Alice Munro and Yan Martel. "I have dealt with the Canadian government in a co-operative, respectful and low-key manner, despite inquiries from the Canadian media and offers for a book/film," she said.
The Millers have maintained a long-distance marriage for a decade, with Dr. Miller visiting his wife four to six times a year. Their immigration file contains pages of letters, e-mails, phone calls and photographs depicting the couple's close relationship.
Really does seem like perfect cover for a so-called reform 'spy', doesn't it?
Ms. Jackman argued in her appeal that the immigration officer failed to consider this relationship, Ms. Miller's employment as an English teacher and desire to live a peaceful life in Canada. "There is no indication she did anything detrimental to Canada," she said.
Other than spy on them back in the day.
The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service sends intelligence officers abroad to collect political, economic, scientific, technological, and military information, according to notes in the Federal Court file. Sergio Karas, an immigration lawyer, said it is "ludicrous" for an applicant who misrepresented her identity to apply for residency and then to sue when the file is subject to delays. "Security background screening for citizens of Russia and the former USSR is generally lengthy, due to concerns about security and criminality, and more so in a case where the applicant has already been deported from Canada," he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/05/2006 00:35 ||
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Opec has agreed informally that it needs to cut production by at least 1m barrels a day at least 4 per cent in order to boost the falling price of oil.
"Mr. Chavez, you have a call on the white courtesy phone. White courtesy phone, Mr. Chavez."
The majority of the cartels members back a voluntary reduction over the coming weeks and the deal could be ratified as early as the groups mid-December meeting in the Nigerian capital of Abuja. Opec is going to defend a price floor for its oil of $50-$55 a barrel, said one Opec official. The price of Opecs crude oil yesterday fell to $55.27 while Brent oil futures traded in London slipped 33c to $58 a barrel, 26 per cent below their July peak.
Saudi Arabia, Opecs most important member, is unhappy with the move towards voluntary cuts, but at the same time the kingdom has already quietly cut its production by 200,000 barrels a day over the past two months. It would rather reach a clear public position at the cartels meeting in Abuja. However, yesterday the kingdom sharply increased the price it charges European refineries for its oil, making it likely that there will be a further drop in volumes in November.
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Posted by: Steve White ||
10/05/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Saw TV news footage of a sign that indic US$2.30 for gas - sigh, as of today, still US$3.18 here in Guam.
#3
3.27 here in Kauai, Hawaii. How on earth did I get here?
Posted by: Red Lief ||
10/05/2006 5:08 Comments ||
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#4
Being a Swamp Yankee Shoe Buckle Pilgrim, that is. $2.25 in Mass.
Posted by: Red Lief ||
10/05/2006 5:09 Comments ||
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#5
$2.06 last night in Woodbridge, VA (25 miles south of DC)
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/05/2006 6:37 Comments ||
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#6
Interesting. Our market rose more slowly than the rest of the country and now is falling more slowly. It looks like not all domestic markets have the same rate of price change.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/05/2006 8:37 Comments ||
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#8
Opec is going to defend a price floor for its oil of $50-$55 a barrel,
A nice diplomatic way of saying we intend to extort a certain minimum amount of money from the infidels. What's that word for when someone attempts to set an artificially high price for a commodity?
#12
$2.10 here in MN. Does anyone know how Irqas' production is now, and is projected to be a year from now?
Posted by: Mike N. ||
10/05/2006 10:17 Comments ||
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#13
Other than 1973, has OPEC ever been able to set a price? I think supply and demand set the price more than the cartel. After all, they're a bunch of greedy bastards, so they all cheat on their quotas.
#14
Other than 1973, has OPEC ever been able to set a price?
I think not. Even the '73 effort was primarily Saudi. But now they've all gotten as addicted to the dollar flow as we are to the oil. Note that the dollars are accumulating in China, not OPEC. While OPEC will be stung, China will be the one holding the bag.
#15
Does anyone know how Irqas' production is now, and is projected to be a year from now?
The last I noticed, they were around pre-invasion production levels. It was just that saboteurs kept dmamging the pipeline to the shipping points... I think. The key is preventing sabotage. We can't go after Saudi Arabia until Iraqi production is there to fill the gap, and the bad guys know it, too.
Posted by: Jan ||
10/05/2006 12:51 Comments ||
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#20
Besoeker:
Enjoy Helen during Octoberfest, mate! And, the $1.99 price quoted was a local QT. All the other QTs were still at $2.02 this morning. The Costco at Mall of GA was $2.00 last night.
Funny thing is, my wife and I and the future Rantburgians (kids) were up in Dalton last Friday night (HS Football, ya know), and it was ALREADY $1.98 there!
Posted by: BA ||
10/05/2006 13:10 Comments ||
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#21
Re #3:Red "3.27 here in Kauai, Hawaii. How on earth did I get here?" You just turned West at Los Angeles. (rimshot) somebody had to do it.....
#22
Damn case of Premature enterage: also meant to add that this morning here in Skagit County, just north of Seattle, gas is $2.51 (Arco)- $2.79(Shell) within a mile of each other
Thanks! Was at the Victoria Haus in Blue Ridge a few weeks ago. Lovely crab cake dinner there, very civilized. Had to ride that old train again. You know the deal. Safe motoring over the Holiday!
#27
Made a short trip to Montgomery (Alabama)last weekend, $1.99 there and has since fallen here In Mobile from $2.21 to $2.13 as of yesterday morning.
No further fall today (Yet)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/05/2006 20:17 Comments ||
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Oil has been discovered in the Dead Sea area, Dr. Eli Tenenbaum, an official from Genco, the national company responsible for drilling in the region, reported on Wednesday. Tenenbaum stated that the amount of oil could reach commercial levels.
"We noticed that the pressure in the area was very high and when we opened the tap, oil started flowing freely for several minutes," Tenenbaum told Channel 10.
Tenenbaum said that the workers washed their hands with the "black gold" when they made the discovery. "We hope it was the first of many [such discoveries]," he added excitedly.
Not far from the drilling site, the crew spotted an oil reserve that Tenenbaum described as "very attractive," which they believed contained between four and six million barrels, worth an estimated 300 million dollars.
The operation began 10 years ago but was put on hold since it was not deemed economically viable. However, due to the recent soaring oil prices the discovery of new oil sources became necessary. Genco was drilling at a depth of 2000 meters.
Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer said it was "just the beginning" and that is was vital to find out whether the oil field was commercially viable or not.
#8
2000m is a pretty shallow hole for that part of the world. Now watch the goat boinkers claim this is.... really their oil. As if they needed another reason to destroy IS and re-take the land.
#11
This may not liberate them from all their external oil needs, but it would go a long way towards a strategic military reserve. Effectively making it impossible to "cut off their oil".
The first 11 teams for a race in which robot cars will jostle with real ones along mocked-up city streets have been announced. The teams must construct autonomous vehicles to navigate an unfamiliar urban environment in the shortest time possible. The robot racers will face a "simulated" urban course 96 kilometres (60 miles) in length in November 2007. The course will feature urban obstacles, such as trees and buildings, traffic signs and other moving vehicles. Its location is yet to be disclosed. The contestants must obey traffic regulationsso I guess this won't be in Boston?. As well as merging with other women talking on cell phones in their SUVs traffic, changing lanes and observing stop signs, the robo-participants will have to pull into a parking lot for a short period. The first three vehicles to complete the course in less than 6 hours will be awarded prizes.
The event is called the Urban Grand Challenge and organised by the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). It is the follow-up its original Grand Challenge, a robotic race across a 212 km desert course, which was successfully completed in October 2005.
The teams that finished first and second in the desert challenge, from Stanford and Carnegie Mellon universities, are among those chosen to take part in the urban event. The Stanford team will enter a modified Volkswagen, while the team from Carnegie Mellon University has teamed up with General Motors and will enter a Chevrolet. A pre-production Camaro would be so cool "The Urban Challenge will develop a leap of capability beyond what is possible in today's human-driven cars," says William Whittaker, the team leader for Carnegie Mellon University.
The cars involved in the original Grand Challenge were fitted with various on-board sensors, including laser range-finders, radar units, stereo cameras and GPS receivers. They also carried several networked computers to process this sensor information and control the vehicle in response. Stanford's vehicle used a machine learning algorithms to mimic the behaviour of a human driver.
The other nine teams selected to participate come from academia and the automotive industry. They are from MIT, Caltech, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Cornell University, RaytheonI guess I gotta root for the home team, then, Honeywell Aerospace, Autonomous Solutions, Golem Group and Oshkosh Truck Corporation. "We received more than 60 proposals from across the US and the world, representing a broad array of backgrounds and technical approaches," I wonder how many they got from Islamic countries? says Norman Whitaker, DARPA's Urban Challenge programme manager.
Each of the 11 teams announced by DARPA will receive $1 million in funding from the agency. Later in October 2006, another set of teams will be announced, but this group will receive no funding from DARPA.
#1
Each of the 11 teams announced by DARPA will receive $1 million in funding from the agency................from honest US Taxpayers who have absolutely no clue that DARPA hasn't created a piece of new technology lately.
A pisser....!!!!! A bunch of geeks, academians and pin heads playing with robot cars? Next thing you know they'll be soliciting for Mars Landing money. What is this doing for the war effort? How about more IED robots for sojurs in Iraq?
#3
women talking on cell phones in their SUVs traffic ahem! A bit sexist, wouldn't you say? You put two kids and a cell phone in a man's car and I assure you he can't handle it if cute woman drives by. All that we women need to do to control the world is to come up with some really hot robots.
#5
Autonomous convoys with MP guards mixed in make a much less attractive target for IEDs, then a slow moving convoy loaded with drivers to behead on video. Also, the Israelis and the West have been working for years on counters to IEDs, and the best one {technological} so far is spotting by UAV through route picture comparision over a few hours. The absolute best way is the locals call us and let us know where the IEDs are, and that is happening more and more.
Also, DARPA exists to make the technology happen that would not ordinarily happen, even if it takes 15-20 years to show up. So, even if the technology is not applicable to the war at hand, it will be to the next one or two down the road. Because as soon as we are done in Iraq, maybe even before, some asshole is going to make sure that we have to fight somewhere else in the world.
#6
The entire design of a vehicle can be different without a passenger cab for driver and shotgun.
Think of the difference between a regular plane and a UAV.
And if you have a fairly straight route from the rear area to the combat area, without too much enemy harassment, it would just be heavenly to have autonomous trucks.
Having seen a two-week-long logistics heavy large unit exercise, the transport and supply guys were friggin' exhausted, putting in hard working 18-hour days.
By Deborah Zabarenko, Rooters Environment Correspondent For those who love New England's mild summer weather, scientists have some advice: enjoy it while you can. Okay, here we go... Kick it off with something a leelte skeery...
If greenhouse gas emissions continue on their current course, Massachusetts may feel more like sultry South Carolina by century's end, researchers said on Wednesday in a report on clear signs of global warming in the U.S. Northeast.
The region, comprising nine of the 50 U.S. states, is critical, since it alone is the world's seventh-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, just behind the entire nation of Germany and ahead of all of Canada, said Cameron Wake, a University of New Hampshire climate scientist and a co-author of the report.
"While we've been tracking global climate change from a scientific perspective, the way that we're going to experience this is on a regional and local level," Wake said by telephone. "So it's really important to perform these kinds of regional analyses around the globe. because some of the global signals in fact might be amplified locally."
A two-year study by the Northeast Climate Impacts Assessment group found that, if emissions go unchecked, the U.S. Northeast could see a rise in average summer temperatures of more than 12 degrees F (6.66 degrees C) by 2100.
However, the report stressed that even a 3 percent annual reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide would be enough to substantially lower the amount of warming and its effects.
ENVIRONMENTAL OPTIONS (a.k.a. Grant Applications)
"It provides a comprehensive view of where we're headed and what our options are," said Bruce Anderson of Boston University, a co-author of the study. "There are certainly things that are unavoidable at this point."
Climate changes already under way will continue to accelerate in the next few decades, whether the high-emissions or low-emissions path is taken, but the results will diverge dramatically by the time today's newborns reach middle age, the study found.
By the year 2100, there will be higher annual average temperatures, but under the low-emissions scenario, the temperature increase is projected to be between 3.5 degrees and 6.5 degrees F (1.94 degrees and 3.61 degrees C).
Cities will see more days of extreme heat, with 30 or more over 90 degrees F (32.22C) if the lower-emissions path is taken; the high-emissions road would see 60 or more extreme heat days.
Currently, Northeast cities have one or two days each year with temperatures over 100 degrees F (37.77C); by 2100, this number could increase to nine days even with lower emissions, and 14 to 28 days with higher emissions, the study said.
There would be less snow in winter and more frequent droughts in either case, but both these conditions would be more extreme if high emissions continue.
There would be more frequent, intense heavy rainfall under both scenarios, the researchers said.
The study was written by the Northeast Climate Impacts Assessment, a collaboration between the Union of Concerned Scientists and independent scientists in the Northeast and around the United States. Well, there you have it. Say Doom! And be quick about it, grants and suckers are at risk.
#3
"The region, comprising nine of the 50 U.S. states, is critical, since it alone is the world's seventh-largest emitter of greenhouse gases"
You don't say! You mean the blue state lands of Seantors Kennedy and Kerry and Clinton are not environmentally sensitive?
"the U.S. Northeast could see a rise in average summer temperatures of more than 12 degrees F (6.66 degrees C) by 2100"
I call total bullcrap from this New Hampshire "climate scientist". His model must not include the mixing effects of prevailing winds from other areas or the giant heatsink called the Atlantic Ocean. Total, total bullcrap.
#4
It's interesting to see how hyped up this article is as compared to Cameron Wake's website. In fact, his website almost suggests that he's interested in everything but this.
http://www.ccrc.sr.unh.edu/~cpw/
My guess is that the Rooters reporter was just trying to reach her quota for alarmist crap.
#9
Never fear, Besoeker and tu3031: the cost of living will go way down after we seize the Middle Eastern oil fields and New England no longer needs heating oil. Bwahahaha!
Iran's supreme leader answers questions on masturbation and other topics on his website
Deliberate masturbation during the month of Ramadan renders a fast invalid, Iranian Supreme Leader Sayyid Ali Khameini has ruled.
"Go stretching your doinker and you might as well have a ham sammitch and a beer. Same thing."
Khameini, who is Iran's most powerful political and religious figure, was asked on his website: "If somebody masturbates during the month of Ramadan but without any discharge, is his fasting invalidated?"
"If he do not intend masturbation and discharging semen and nothing is discharged, his fasting is correct even though he has done a ḥarām (forbidden) act. But, if he intends masturbation or he knows that he usually discharges semen by this process and semen really comes out, it is a ḥaram intentional breaking fasting," the Iranian leader said, posting the reply on his website.
"It's kinda the same thing as breaking your fast during the day, only not chewing. So just forget the whole idea unless there's a holy man involved."
Another reader asked: "Once in the holy month of Ramadan, I forgot to brush my teeth, and some tiny bits of food remained in my mouth. I swallowed the bits unintentionally. Do I have to perform the qaḍa (repent) for that day's fast?"
"If you did not know that some bits of food remained between the teeth, or you did not know that they would reach the throat, and they were swallowed unknowingly and unintentionally, then you are not liable to make (repent) of the fast," said Khameini.
'Drink water while standing'
On the website, Khameini also tells Iranians that only jockeys are permitted to gamble on horse races.
#2
And don't hesitate to submit yourself questions to the Great Ayatollah Black Hat - the link is up at the top of the article. Make it good, lol, and post the results if you get a reply. This should become a regular RB feature - until the bloody end.
#5
eeeew, BP! i'm still wondering how one unintentionally masturbates. Reach into one's pocket to get keys and grab something else instead? Stand too long next to a washing machine? Inquiring minds do NOT want to know.
#8
islam is not a religion, it's a Law, binding the "faithful" in a web of circular-thinking, contradictory prescriptions, etc, etc... negating free will and leaving thinking to the Holy Men and to the power-that-be.
When each and every minute action of everyday life (be it excreting, intercourse, eating, washing,...) is codified to the absurd, this insure total dependency of the faithful to the System.
The kind of NON-SENSE (come on...) in the article above, and in many, many others sad examples brought in here before, is a feature, not a bug.
#14
Muslims have a fasicination with Pamaela Anderson & Michael Jackson. You should see the porn we would find in there "safe houses". Apparently, just like Mohammed Atta hanging out in strips clubs before his mission, when you dance with death, you can masterbate, drink, and do what ever you need to. Question from G. Gordon: "Why would one want 72 virgins? Wouldn't you rather 72 experienced women?"
Just a thought....
#20
It was "not permissible" to take part in meetings attended by both men and women, he told another reader.
Is it just me, or is this not halal during non-Ramadan days too? Man, it depresses me how much complete silliness I now know about this death cult religion.
Posted by: BA ||
10/05/2006 11:59 Comments ||
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#21
Well, being that there seems to be an obsession with homosexual activies among many Iraqi men, I'd say some of the sticky pages might have had Wacko Jacko on them. They would always say, "Michael Jackson fiki fiki [the dirty deed] little boys?" And than not at too disgusted when you told them yes. He must be their hero!
Will .com be the first to ask the Great Leader if flushing Korans down the toilet or using your right hand to wipe with Koran pages as T.P. halal during Ramadan? Or will it be Al-Aska Paul?
Posted by: BA ||
10/05/2006 13:13 Comments ||
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#23
...is permissible for a man to marry a woman only in order to be able to live in his wife's country...
Refering to EUrope ... answer being only if her father approves and she is a virgin
Europe and Virgin (not airlines, spacelines or records), father's approval in the same paragraph sounds a bit improbable unless they are "OR" not "AND" logical relationships...
#24
"islam is not a religion, it's a Law, binding the "faithful" in a web of circular-thinking, contradictory prescriptions, etc, etc... negating free will and leaving thinking to the Holy Men and to the power-that-be."
You're right on track here. The problem with the law is that man can't keep it. The Bible contains "law" too, but it's intent is to be a 'schoolmaster', to teach us that no matter how hard we try, nobody can keep the law. Of course, there are some more lawful than others, but everybody is a lawbreaker.
Devoid of the concept of God's grace, and bound only to a set of codified rules, islam results in a miserable existence, always trying to gain perfection with their 'god', even through violent and degenerated means, but never attaining it.
#29
The Iranian leader also told readers they were allowed to "to drink water while standing" at nights
What kind of so-called "god" would give so much as a candy-coated crap whether or not someone "drinks water while standing at night"??? These people don't worship a "god": they worship a neurotic, obsessive-compulsive, sociopathic control freak.
Two things have always struck me about Islam. One is the way in which, in any conflict between Muslims and non-Muslims, most Muslims will show absolute, unconditional solidarity with the Muslim party to the conflict-- no matter what horrible deeds he's committed.
The other thing is this picayune shit: go to any of the "online fatwa" websites like www.askimam.com, and it's amazing what trivial crap these people think their "god" wants them to do.
We're accustomed to religion providing some kind of overarching system for discerning right from wrong-- for being ethical human beings. But Islam seems to provide absolutely NOTHING but an enormous canonical list of largely nonsensical do's and don't's.
No wonder we've got such a problem with these jerks...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
10/05/2006 19:23 Comments ||
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#30
Good summation Dave D.
...and people wonder why some of us are leary about Iran attaining a nuclear weapon.
#31
(Jesus, regarding self-aggrandizeing and controlling religious leaders, scribes of his time, who were more concerned with the letter than the spirit of God's law)
... do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice.
Matthew 23:2-3
Seems things haven't changed for the Mullahs, and for many preachers of any sort, now that I think about it.
Syria took an additional step toward setting up a stock exchange when President Bashar Assad issued a decree to the market, Syria's state news agency reported on Monday, but there was no word on when it would be operational. The Damascus Stock Market is to be an independent entity responsible for regulating and developing financial markets and related activities, according to a decree Assad issued late on Sunday, SANA reported.
In summer 2005, Assad ratified a law to establish a stock market and shortly after set up a committee to work out the details. Sunday's decree completes the legal framework for the exchange but does not give a date when it would open.
Political and economic freedoms are extremely limited in Syria. Assad, since taking power in 2000, has taken small steps toward liberalizing the economy, including allowing private ownership of banks and currency exchange bureaus. Syrian Finance Minister Mohammed Hussein anticipated the bourse would start operating in 2007, SANA reported. "It's a dream come true. It reflects the credibility of the policy of economic openness and development espoused by Syria," said Mohammed Imadi, head of the committee Assad established to hammer out the regulations for the market.
Ah, yes. The "free speech for me, but..." thing. And an Ivy League school. Can ya believe that?
Students stormed the stage at Columbia University's Roone auditorium yesterday, knocking over chairs and tables and attacking Jim Gilchrist, the founder of the Minutemen, a group that patrols the border between America and Mexico.
Mr. Gilchrist and Marvin Stewart, another member of his group, were in the process of giving a speech at the invitation of the Columbia College Republicans. They were escorted off the stage unharmed and exited the auditorium by a back door.
Having wreaked havoc onstage, the students unrolled a banner that read, in both Arabic and English, "No one is ever illegal." Arabic. How... interesting.
As security guards closed the curtains and began escorting people from the auditorium, the students jumped from the stage, pumping their fists, chanting victoriously, "Si se pudo, si se pudo," Spanish for "Yes we could!" I thought it meant "Submit. Or die."?
The Minuteman Project, an organization of volunteers founded in 2004 by Mr. Gilchrist, aims to keep illegal immigrants out of America by alerting law enforcement officials when they attempt to cross the border. The group uses fiery language and unorthodox tactics to advance its platform. "Future generations will inherit a tangle of rancorous, unassimilated, squabbling cultures with no common bond to hold them together, and a certain guarantee of the death of this nation as a harmonious melting pot,'" the group's Web site warns.
The pandemonium that ensued as the evening's keynote speaker took the stage was merely the climax of protest that brewed all week. A number of campus groups, including the Chicano caucus, the African-American student organization, and the International Socialist organization, began planning their protests early this week when they heard that the Minutemen would be arriving on campus. Yeah, the usual suspects. Did they bring their Big Giant Puppets?
The student protesters, who attended the event clad in white as a sign of dissent, booed and shouted the speakers down throughout. They interrupted Mr. Stewart, who is African-American, when he referred to the Declaration of Independence's self-evident truth that "All men are created equal," calling him a racist, a sellout, and a black white supremacist. If only Mr. Stewart were considered a "white black supremacist". The boys and girls of Columbia would be organizing his ticker tape parade instead of acting like some spoiled child lynch mob.
A student's demand that Mr. Stewart speak in Spanish elicited thundering applause and brought the protesters to their feet. The protesters remained standing, turned their backs on Mr. Stewart for the remainder of his remarks, and drowned him out by chanting, "Wrap it up, wrap it up!" Mr. Stewart appeared unfazed by their behavior. He simply smiled and bellowed, "No wonder you don't know what you're talking about."
"These are racist individuals heading a project that terrorizes immigrants on the U.S.-Mexican border," Ryan Fukumori, a Columbia junior who took part in the protest, told The New York Sun. "They have no right to be able to speak here." Wonder if Ryan wore his jackboots? Oh, wait. That's the other side...
The student protesters "rush to vindicate themselves with monikers like liberal' and open-minded,' but their actions, their attempt to condemn the Minutemen without even hearing what they have to say, speak otherwise," the president of the Columbia College Republicans, Chris Kulawik, said. On campus, the Republicans' flyers advertising the event were defaced and torn down. We'll decide what's free speech, dammit!
The College Republicans expressed their concern about the lack of free speech for opposing viewpoints on the Columbia campus in the wake of the evening's events. "We've often feared that there's not freedom of speech at Columbia for more right-wing views and that was proven tonight," the executive director of the Columbia College Republicans, Lauren Steinberg, said. Kinda looks that way...
The Minutemen's arrival at Columbia drew protesters from around the city as well. An hour before Messrs. Stewart and Mr. Gilchrist took the stage, rowdy protests began outside the auditorium on Broadway, where activists chanted, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, the Minutemen have got to go!" My, how original...
#1
A number of campus groups, including the Chicano caucus, the African-American student organization, and the International Socialist organization, began planning their protests early this week when they heard that the Minutemen would be arriving on campus.
Shameful to believe we've got young men and women dying for the cause of freedom and these communist bastards riot! Expell them permanently, deport them to muzziland where they belong.
#2
The group uses fiery language and unorthodox tactics to advance its platform. "Future generations will inherit a tangle of rancorous, unassimilated, squabbling cultures with no common bond to hold them together, and a certain guarantee of the death of this nation as a harmonious melting pot,'" the group's Web site warns.
ooooh. Where's the fire extinguisher? I'm guessing that if they had called for the destruction of Israel it would have been ok by them. Beheadings - good. Robbery and rapes by coyotes - unpleasant but necessary. Death of our soldiers - a cause celeb!
#4
So wrapped up in themselves they don't even see the irony.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/05/2006 17:13 Comments ||
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#5
It always surprises me when folks on the right agree to speak at these leftist schools. I suppose they think they are providing an opposing point of view, and that maybe they will influence the thinking of some on campus.
In my mind this is a very naive point of view. These moonbats will not be changed. They KNOW they are right, and nobody's going to change that. Anybody who tries will be met with virulent, and often violent opposition. Hey, if you want to go to one of these cesspools and 'debate' or 'speak', more power to you, but don't come crying to me after the pie hits your face.
Personally, I'd rather shake off the dust of my feet, write "Ichabod" over the doors, and go exert myself in venues where I can actually have an impact.
#6
mcseg -
I think they accept speaking engagements at those places BECAUSE the opposition will act like total idiots. That behavior does have its price - Horowitz was to speak at Brown a few years ago and was either shouted down or the invitation pulled due to protest, I disremember which. Alumni contributions went down. He was invited again later, with strict orders from the administration to behave civilly. He was, of course, thoroughly disagreed with, but treated civilly. The yoots learned a little something in the process.
#7
"These are racist individuals heading a project that terrorizes immigrants on the U.S.-Mexican border," Ryan Fukumori, a Columbia junior who took part in the protest, told The New York Sun. "They have no right to be able to speak here."
I'd like to see this stupid moron name one, only one, real immigrant who has been terrorized or even opposed by the miniutemen. Just one! Immigrants don't come over the border illegally - ILLEGAL ALIENS do.
#8
I am SOOOOO glad I am not going to school these days. I would be in jail and probably expelled for disrupting this type of behavior. I noticed that the malcontents were not stopped by campus security. Good job rent-a-cops you bring honor to the badge. I just want to read one time: "Protestors beaten and dragged away by Campus Security after attempting to infringe on someones freedom of speech." SI SE PUDO!
#9
Columbia can make the right choice - prosecute and expel the students, who were clearly filmed and are identifiable, or turn the keys over to the leftist hoodlums. Who's in charge? Make the choice
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/05/2006 18:39 Comments ||
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#10
Noooo, Frank! They were simply expressing freedom of speech!
Who? There was another speaker there?
You don't say!
Columbia U
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/05/2006 21:48 Comments ||
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Forgiveness, not anger, after Amish school massacre
NICKEL MINES, Penn. (Reuters) - This Amish town showed more forgiveness than anger on Tuesday, a day after a 32-year-old dairy truck driver stormed a one-room school and tried to execute all the girls, killing five. imagine what fallout there would be if this had been a muslim school
The third deadly U.S. school shooting in a week shattered the calm of an Amish farm community where there is little crime and where the sight of horse-drawn buggies, bearded men in straw hats and suspenders, and women in bonnets conjures up a bygone age.
The Amish, descendants of Swiss-German settlers, are a traditionalist Christian denomination who place particular importance on the Gospel message of forgiveness. They believe in non-violence, simple living and little contact with the modern world.
Several Amish interviewed by Reuters said they were sad but not angry and emphasized the need for forgiveness of gunman Charles Carl Roberts, who as a non-Amish person was what the locals refer to as "English." "It's just not the way we think. There is no sense in getting angry," said Henry Fisher, 62, a retired farmer with five grown children and 33 grandchildren who has lived all his life in the town some 60 miles (100 km) west of Philadelphia.
He said the Amish lifestyle with no cars, television or credit cards, was "a more peaceful life ... to keep the next generation living a more humble life." He also said he did not expect additional security such as locks on schools because this was a "freak accident." There is no police station in town and there were no signs of new security in the rural area on Tuesday.
"This community is trusting. They don't expect somebody to just come in the doors and start shooting," said Fran Beiler, 66, of Nickel Mines.
Three miles (5 km) away, the one-room Green Tree Parochial School in Bart Township resembled the Nickel Mines school before the shooting. Run by the Amish, it has 24 schoolchildren aged 6 to 13 who were playing in the school yard on Tuesday morning. "We want to forgive," he said. "That's the way we were brought up -- turn good for evil."
One parent who declined to be named said the school board on which he sits decided against closing on Tuesday. The parent, who has three of his eight children at the school, said one of his daughters dreamed last night that Monday's attack had taken place at her own school. He said he discussed the attack with his own children and that they were nervous but had walked to school on their own as usual today.
A 25-year-old Amish man who declined to be named said his 13-year-old niece died in Monday's shooting and that another niece, 11, was recovering in a Philadelphia hospital. "I think it was going to happen. God has his hand in it," the man said with resignation.
#2
I left this lifestyle 40 years ago but with Fred's grace I'd like to clue the RBers in on how the funeral for these innocents will be done. Every Amish community is different but almost all Amish funeral practices are the same.
A funeral director will be hired but will participate in the most minimal fashion. He will embalm the body and secure whatever permits are necessary.
After embalming, the girls will be returned to the home. A plain coffin will be prepared and the deceased placed into it. The girls will be dressed in a plain white dress that their mother or aunt made for them.
The furniture will be removed from one of the bedrooms or other room on the first floor of the home. The coffin will be placed in there.
The body will be viewed by friends and family as they arrive. Immediate family will receive visitors in the front room of the house. There will be no flowers in the house and there are never any photographs. (Considered to be graven images). The tone in the home is not a celebration of life but rather the realization of God's promise of heavenly reward and the fact that we do not (and can not) understand God's ways.
Aunts and community members will prepare all the food for all visitors, many of which have traveled hundreds of miles. Travelers will have hired drivers to drive them from communities far distant.
The men of the community will take over all farm or business chores for the next few days or longer if needed.
After the viewing, a simple service will be conducted by the Bishop. A white handkerchief will cover the face of the girl until the end of the service. The bishop will remove the handkerchief after the service is concluded.
Pallbearers will remove the coffin to a larger than normal buggy for transport to the cemetery.
At the cemetery, there is one last viewing before the coffin is lower into the ground. The grave was hand dug previously. When I was a child one of the elders would nail the lid of the coffin shut - I pray that is no longer done as there is no worse sound.
There are no eulogies - respect for the girls is show but not praised. The would be a sign of individual pride which is to be avoided at all costs.
There is no singing - a hymn may possibly be spoken. All will be in the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect.
The grave marker will be a simple stone will just the name and dates of birth and death. Since we all are the same in the eyes of the Lord, there are never any ostentatious stones.
Amish tradition requires that the female relatives wear black dresses in public for mourning. Mourning is one year for each parent, spouse, and sib, six months of mourning for a grandparent or grandchild, three months for an aunt or uncle and six weeks for a cousin.
The family will console themselves with the principle "The Lord giveth; the Lord taketh away". It is the sum of their being.
#3
Thanks, GORT; by the way, this reminds me of the wakes one could read about in 19th writer like Zola, interesting how this IMHO saner and less sanitized relationship with death has been retained.
#4
I look at the witness that these people are giving to the world of how 'our faith in Christ' is lived and practiced and I can not say enough how much I respect these people.
#5
I shouldn't mind that when the time comes, except for the open coffin. Thank you for explaining, GORT.
However, I personally think that however noble, it is unwise to forgive before the offender ceases offending... and works to repair the damage he has done. I don't mean that I need to carry anger against him -- I can't waste my energy on that -- but to go the step beyond to forgiveness must be earnt. Anything less is the farmer's apology to the pigs just before he sends them off to the slaughterhouse. What matters it then if the pigs forgive him for it?
#6
Yes, TW, except in this case there's no one left to either apologize (a REAL apology, not the made for TV ones) or to EARN that forgiveness. He's dead and gone too.
Posted by: BA ||
10/05/2006 12:05 Comments ||
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#7
However, I personally think that however noble, it is unwise to forgive before the offender ceases offending
TW - re: Christian forgiveness, while I can't speak for the Amish, to most Christians, forgiveness and letting a killer go free are not one in the same. It isn't just letting go of the anger, either. It's more about understanding that we are all sinners and being willing to forgive another for their sins since none of us are perfect.
The way I see it is kind of like this: A town drunk drives drunk and kills some people. You don't hate him for it, but you do take action to assure he doesn't do it again - take away his license, etc. The idea is that you are not punishing for the sake of punishment itself, but doing what needs to be done for the safety of all concerned. The key to me is that you aren't punishing for the sake of punishment itself.
You also touched on the point that holding the anger is not healthy - that is true, but forgiveness goes a step beyond that.
"There but for the grace of God go I", is the phrase that best captures it, IMHO.
#9
Thanks. I want to add just one more point re: Christians and punishment. It often seems a bit contradictory that they support punishment for crimes. Like all good concepts, the devil is in the details and if you ask 100 Christians, chances are you will get 100 different opinions on this; these are just my own.
If one is interested in understanding that contradiction of Christian forgiveness v/s their willingness to mete out punishment it is because we live in this world - and aspire to a better one. Thus we render unto Caesar in this world, ie: submit to the laws and rules. A simple way of making my point would be to say, if you do the crime, you do the time. Thus, we make laws and adhere to them. While that could open a discussion in and of itself, (what if the laws are bad, etc) I can only say that no one here on earth has the all the answers and life is complicated. But we do the best we can to balance the laws of God and the laws of man.
It's a bit like free speech or democracy. If you ask 100 different people, you will get 100 different ideas on what it means, but the underlying principles are what those who believe in it strive for.
#10
Hi Guys! Did you catch the crap that the westburo baptist church (notice the lack of capitolization) was spewing on this whole affair? Hell, even Alan Colmes got spun up about it! Check out the link on Fox News... http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,217975,00.html
#11
A poster referencing Fox News with an army.mil e-mail addy? Jeebus wait til the freaks at koz get a load of that one, lol!
And Bodyguard, we 'round here, absolutely loathe Fred Phelps and crew. They were completely out of bounds (but "within the ballpark," maybe) with their protesting of soldiers' funerals. But, at the freakin' victims of the Amish Schoolhouse shootout funerals? He's WAAAAYYY off his rocker there, methinks.
Posted by: BA ||
10/05/2006 15:15 Comments ||
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#12
Personally, I considered them out of the ballpark at the soldiers' funerals too.
Posted by: BA ||
10/05/2006 15:16 Comments ||
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#13
"re: Christians and punishment. It often seems a bit contradictory that they support punishment for crimes."
To the uninformed, perhaps. But the concept of differences between governmental roles and individual roles runs througout the scripture. Look at Prov. 25:2, for example:
"It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter."
Simply put, God forgives sin. Governments should punish it.
As to forgiveness, I'll give you what I think is the Biblical take.
It's precisely when the offender 'has not ceased offending', and the offended forgives anyway, that he/she has exercised true Biblical forgiveness.
It's precisely when the forgiveness has not been 'earned', but the offended forgives anyway, that he/she has exercised true Biblical forgiveness.
Why? How does God forgive? Does he forgive only when we have ceased offending? NO. We can never cease offending. It's our nature. Does he forgive only when the offender has 'earned' forgiveness? NO AGAIN. We can't earn it at all. Instead, he extends his grace. By definition, grace is unmerited.
I'm not saying I could have forgiven as easily as these Amish have. Recognizing my own weaknesses and limitations, I could only hope to aspire to such a faith. But I am saying they seem to have a pretty good understanding, and are practicing Biblical forgiveness.
#14
We just buried a good chum (and fellow Cav. Man) up in Kansas City not too long ago. The mother of the fallen didn't put out an obituary until after the funeral cuz' she didn't want those lunatics at the cemetary. God will deal with them when the time comes, and they alone will have to answer for what they have done. God Bless you Specialist Mathurin, the Cavalrymen of Echo Troop and the whole 2-17 CAV miss you Brother.
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.
Jakarta, 5 Oct. (AKI/Jakarta Post) - A Garuda Indonesia airlien party pilot is expected to walk free by March next year after the Indonesian Supreme Court cut his 14-year jail term to only two years, ruling there was insufficient evidence he was responsible for the 'in-flight' murdere of a human rights campaigner, Munir. The court quashed Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto's murder conviction but sentenced him to two years jail for falsifying his assignment documents. First detained in March last year, Pollycarpus is expected to walk free no later than March 2007. 
Can Travis Barker really make women go this crazy? His estranged wife, Shanna Moakler, was involved in a nightclub fracas with Paris Hilton early Wednesday morning. Barker, the drummer for Blink-182, filed for divorce in August from Moakler, a former beauty queen who was recently voted off "Dancing With the Stars." 
The Ugandan army has resumed military operations against the Lord's Resistance Army despite ongoing peace talks to end the war. An army spokesman said on Wednesday that the renewed operations in northern Uganda should not hinder negotiations between the two sides in neighbouring southern Sudan. Major Felix Kulayigye said any Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) fighters in northern Uganda who had failed to assemble at two locations agreed under a truce that expired on September 19 would be "dealt with militarily".
A campaign by Swedish Liberal MEP Cecilia Malmström to end the monthly Strasbourg session of the European Parliament has led to a row between the speaker of the parliament and the Nordic countries. The speaker, Josep Borrell, claimed that Sweden did not suffer enought during the Second Ward War to understand the true meaning of the parliaments Strasbourg base. The claim has enraged leader-writers on Swedens newspapers, who were asking whether Borrell really meant that countries who didnt fight in the war should have less of a say in EU matters.
Opec has agreed informally that it needs to cut production by at least 1m barrels a day at least 4 per cent in order to boost the falling price of oil.
For those who love New England's mild summer weather, scientists have some advice: enjoy it while you can.
Iran's supreme leader answers questions on masturbation and other topics on his website
Syria took an additional step toward setting up a stock exchange when President Bashar Assad issued a decree to the market, Syria's state news agency reported on Monday, but there was no word on when it would be operational. The Damascus Stock Market is to be an independent entity responsible for regulating and developing financial markets and related activities, according to a decree Assad issued late on Sunday, SANA reported. 
