The Kazakhstan central bank has misspelled the word "bank" on its new notes
The Kazakhstan central bank has misspelled the word "bank" on its new notes, officials said on Wednesday. The bank plans to put the misprinted notes -- worth 2,000 tenge (8 pounds) and 5,000-tenge -- into circulation in November and then gradually withdraw them to correct the spelling.
The move has drawn the ire of the Central Asian state's politicians who urged the bank to abandon the notes altogether. "The mistake ... is not just a spelling problem -- it has political undertones," a letter from members of parliament to President Nursultan Nazarbayev said.
# 13 metric tons of heavy water to S Korea as moderator
# About 30 metric tons of heavy water was exported from the plant to China
KHAMMAM: The Manuguru heavy water plant has bagged an order to export 13 metric tons of nuclear grade heavy water to South Korea. A high-level team of the Korean Hydro and Nuclear Power Corporation Limited visited the plant on Monday for a pre- dispatch inspection.
The four- member team, which left for Mumbay on Tuesday morning, will meet the officials of the Heavy Water Board for formalising the delivery schedule.
The high-technology heavy water from the plant, used as a moderator and coolant in the nuclear as well as research reactors, could meet the technical requirements of the overseas customer in all respects.
The heavy water board, which had attained self-sufficiency in heavy water production, also achieved the capability to export heavy water of any specification.
The heavy water exports to South Korea from the country date back to 1995 when an understanding was reached with it.
Korea has built reactors, which use heavy water as moderators.
Posted by: john ||
10/18/2006 12:50 ||
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#1
Plutonium envy from the SKors ?
Posted by: john ||
10/18/2006 13:05 Comments ||
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#2
Love that heavy water...
Posted by: The Standells ||
10/18/2006 13:13 Comments ||
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#4
Entertaining, yes, and usually intelligent, to my way of thinking. But if Hillary gets elected by 'single women' in 2008, then Republican Senate candidate Michael Steele gets elected by Maryland black Democrats in 2006.
Got sort of a time-warp thingy goin' here.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/18/2006 16:05 Comments ||
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#5
Morris is generally wise but seems unable to think straight regarding HIllary. I think he's got a crush.
#10
Hillary Rodman was born in Chicago, Illinois on October 26, 1947. Six years later Edmund Hillary became famous when he and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Mount Everest on the morning of May 29, 1953. #9: HMMmmm... Your parents must be highly prescient to have named you after a climber who had not yet become famous. Either that or you are a big liar.
The DSCC's optimism about winning the Senate is apparently contagious as the DNC is going to pony up an extra $5-10M for the Senate committee, according to sources familiar with the previously reported arrangement between the two campaign orgs.
While the DNC doesn't have $10M to just toss around to another campaign committee, the DNC apparently has decided to go into debt to come up with the extra cash DSCC Chair Chuck Schumer has been pleading for from DNC Chair Howard Dean. The actual amount of the loan the DNC is taking out is not known as the committee holds out hope they can raise nearly everything they need before the election. But a line of credit has been opened.
The money is not designated for specific Senate races, however, sources tell us that two races in particular were used as leverage in negotiations between the DSCC and the DNC. Those two races: New Jersey and Virginia. Apparently the extra DNC money will help soften the financial blow the DSCC was taking by incurring the extra cost of saving Sen. Bob Menendez from the challenge of Republican Tom Kean Jr. as well also trying to target Virginia. New Jersey and Virginia sport three of the most expensive media markets in the country (NYC, Philly and DC). In addition, TN was also a factor in the DNC-DSCC discussions as the investment the DSCC is making is possibly more than they expected.
A national party committee taking out a loan toward the end of an election cycle is not unusual, particularly on the Democratic side of the aisle. In '04, the DCCC took out a loan in an attempt to save the Texas Democratic House incumbents. In the end, four of those five Texas Democratic incumbents lost.
There has been some speculation (driven a bit by Democratic pundits like James Carville) that the DCCC might take out another loan this cycle in order to spend money on some of these new House seats that have come into play over the last few weeks.
The RNC is proving to be an important cog to the Republicans' efforts to hold the House and Senate, particularly the Senate. It's been something that's gotten under the skin of Schumer and DCCC Chair Rahm Emanuel. It'll be interesting to see if Dean's decision to go into debt will finally get Schumer and Emanuel off his back.
White House political strategist Karl Rove yesterday confidently predicted that the Republican Party would hold the House and the Senate in next month's elections, dismissing fallout from the sex scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley.
At a luncheon with editors and reporters at The Washington Times, Mr. Rove -- who is widely credited as the architect of the party's historic 2002 midterm election gains -- said Republicans are beginning to make significant headway in defining their party's differences from congressional Democrats, especially on national security. "I'm confident we're going to keep the Senate; I'm confident we're going to keep the House. The Foley matter has impact in some limited districts, but the research we have shows that people are differentiating between a vote for their congressman and a member from Florida," Mr. Rove said, referring to the Republican who resigned last month after his sexually explicit online messages to former congressional pages were discovered.
President Bush has begun to paint this year's election as a choice between strength and weakness on national security -- and the stark differences will show Americans the true nature of Democrats, Mr. Rove said. "It is useful to remind people what [Democrats] said and what they do. I think they have given us here, especially in the last couple of weeks, a potent set of votes to talk about. You had 90 percent of House Democrats voting against the terrorist-surveillance program, nearly three-quarters of Senate Democrats and 80 percent of House Democrats voting against the terrorist-interrogation act. Something is fundamentally flawed."
#7
Rove has a great big calculator. First of all, the republicans got to gerrymander after the last census, and that solidifies a lot of contentious seats.
Second, the republicans have a seasoned national organization and strong State organizations. Howard Dean has had to abandoned a national strategy in favor of rebuilding State parties that were utterly collapsed. These new party orgs are untried and weak.
Third, the democrat senatorial committee is screaming for money so much that Dean has reluctantly ordered the DNC to go into debt for $5-10M. On the up side, they may be trying to reinforce potential wins; on the down side, they may be reinforcing defeat--a terrible tactic.
Fourth, lots of the big names in the party are preparing for the 2008 presidentials; this is putting them at each others' throats trying to get backers and money.
Hillary is actively undercutting Dean by telling the party deep pocket contributors to give the money to her, not the party, so that she can dole it out in exchange for 2008 support.
Several wealthy candidates are running against very strong republican seats. Democrats like Lamont vs. Lieberman and Pederson in Arizona are wasting millions of dollars on lost causes, money that could have mattered in a dozen other races.
Even the biggest names are divided and contentious. Some are refusing to give to the party as long as Dean is in charge. Others have created an organization that only supports radical candidates.
In other words, the democrat party is a friggin' mess heading into this election. In the last few weeks, some of these pollsters are most likely going to think they've lost their minds.
And meanwhile, deep in his lair of solitude, we hear the voice of Karl Rove: "BWAHAHAHAHAHA!"
#8
Geez, 'Moose - did Lord Rove (VBUH) give you permission let the Dems in on the secret speak?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/18/2006 19:38 Comments ||
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#9
Rove foresees GOP victory, and so do I.
Posted by: Captain America ||
10/18/2006 19:46 Comments ||
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#10
But ask yourself: What is left of the donks when they lose yet again?
Posted by: Captain America ||
10/18/2006 19:47 Comments ||
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#11
From .com's second article:
Much of the fighting stems from a project launched in April by Hillary Clinton advisor Harold Ickes... Some.. have suggested that it is actually an attempt by the 2008 Hillary campaign to sidestep the national organizations apparatus entirely, a charge that Catalist insiders dismiss out of hand.
FWIW, Ickes (and to a lesser extent, HRC) were networking and establishing fundraising contacts out here on the West Coast as far back as 2003.
KABIRWALA: Pursuing justice is not easy for a woman in Pakistan, not if the crime is rape. Ghazala Shaheen knows. Two years ago, relatives say, an uncle eloped with a woman from a higher social caste.
The revenge by the woman's family was the rape of Shaheen, she and relatives charge, after a gang of men raided her father's home and abducted her and her mother in late August.
It is not uncommon in Pakistan for women to suffer callous vendettas for the wrongdoings of their male relatives. That was the case for Shaheen, a 24-year-old from a poor family who had nonetheless managed to earn a master's degree in education. She says she wants to be a teacher.
Under what are known as the Hudood laws in Pakistan, a woman must produce four witnesses to prove rape. A failure to do so can result in her becoming a victim twice over, and being charged for adultery. The stigma alone is enough to keep many women from trying to bring their attackers to justice.
Human rights advocates have repeatedly called for the repeal of the Hudood laws, which were enacted by the country's last military dictator, Gen Zia ul Haq, in 1979. President Pervez Musharraf has vowed to introduce amendments to the laws, but critics say his efforts have been halfhearted.
Under pressure from hard-line clerics, Musharraf's government delayed passage of a proposed law in September that would have allowed rape to be tried in civil courts, where a rape victim needs only to provide a medical witness and other evidence.
In 2002, the case of Mukhtaran Mai became a cause célèbre of human rights advocates after she was ordered gang raped by a village council to avenge her brother's supposed misconduct.
Despite the outcry, lesser-known cases, like Shaheen's, continue to emerge with regularity as the laws go unchanged. Shaheen recounted her ordeal at an uncle's home in Kabirwala. The abductors held Shaheen and her mother for 11 days.
Both said they were beaten. "I was raped by two men," said Shaheen, with moist eyes ringed by dark circles. One of her rapists, she said, was from the rival clan. She did not know the other one.
#3
To cut some slack on those nice pakistanese primitives, I think it's also a problem in rural India, but I'll let the local scholars, namely Mr. John and possibly Mr. Moloney, comment on that.
Seven prisoners escaped from a Palestinian jail located in Beitunya just north of Ramallah, Palestinian sources reported Tuesday morning. Among the fugitives was a man on death row who had killed a Palestinian policeman in 2001. The other six men were serving sentences ranging from 10 years to life.
PA security forces discovered their disappearance early in the morning and said that they had most likely escaped through the bathroom window. Police were conducting searches in the Ramallah area and had set up several checkpoints in the hope of finding the fugitives. The Palestinian Authority distributed mug shots of the escapees throughout the West bank. An investigation was opened following the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/18/2006 00:00 ||
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The Pals have jails? What, did they run out of scimitars?
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/18/2006 6:16 Comments ||
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The United States could be rife with Internet addicts as clinically ill as alcoholics, an unprecedented study released suggested.
Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine in Silicon Valley said their telephone survey indicated more than one of every eight US residents showed at least one sign of "problematic Internet use."
The findings backed those of previous, less rigorous studies, according to Stanford.
Most disturbing was the discovery that some people hid their Internet surfing, or went online to cure foul moods in ways that mirrored alcoholics using booze, according to the study's lead author, Elias Aboujaoude.
"In a sense, they're using the Internet to self-medicate," Aboujaoude said. "And obviously something is wrong when people go out of their way to hide their Internet activity."
According to preliminary research, the typical Internet addict was a single, college-educated, white male in his 30s, who spends approximately 30 hours a week on non-essential computer use.
Latin American immigrants in Texas will send $5.2 billion back home to their relatives this year, ranking second only to California in a state-by-state breakdown released today by the Inter-American Development Bank's Multilateral Investment Fund.
Remittances from Texas will soar by 64 percent this year compared to in 2004, surpassing the national increase of 51 percent, the study found.
The Washington, D.C.-based fund estimates that the 12.6 million Latin American immigrants living in the United States will send $45.3 billion home this year.
These cash flows have captured the attention of U.S. and Mexican businesses in the last few years, with banks trying to tap into that market by offering money wiring services. And in Houston, furniture, cement and real estate companies offer immigrants here the chance to pay for sofas, construction materials and new homes in Mexico and Central America.
More people are sending cash home because "it is now becoming an expectation," said Sergio Bendixen of Bendixen and Associates. For this study, he conducted 2,511 telephone interviews with Latino immigrants and focus groups in both the U.S. and Latin America. "People almost feel obligated to do so."
Advertisements remind Latinos to send cash or gifts, such as appliances, home to relatives for holidays, such as Mother's Day, he said.
Latino immigrants regularly call relatives back home and know when someone is in financial straits or needs money for a special occasion, Bendixen said.
"Because of this constant communication, they have the pressure to send money," he said.
Indeed, Mexican immigrant Juan Torres said he calls his mother every two days and if his relatives are having a problem, "then I'll send money for medicine or for a doctor."
The study also found that immigrants from Mexico, Central America and South America also contribute to the economy inside the United States.
Latin American immigrants have more than $500 billion in buying power and send about 10 percent of their earnings home to relatives, according to the study. In Texas, immigrants contribute about $52.8 billion to the local economy, according to the study.
"These remittance families are contributing to two countries," said Donald Terry, manager of the fund, dubbing immigrants "transnational families."
But other groups view these cash transfers as an example of immigrants living in the U.S. simply to work instead of fully integrating here.
"It represents a one foot in, a one foot out sensibility on the part of immigrants," said John Keeley, spokesman for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that supports tougher immigration laws.
Immigrants living in California will send about $13.2 billion this year to Latin America, making it the only state with higher remittances than Texas.
And this year, Texas will overtake New York, which ranked second on the list the last time this study was conducted in 2004. New York ranks third, with $3.7 billion bound for Latin America, because some immigrants from the state moved to nearby New Jersey, Bendixen said.
The study has a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points.
Texas also has twice as many immigrants than New York with the Lone Star state's immigrant population growing because of its proximity to Latin America and job opportunities in everything from construction workers to restaurant cooks, Bendixen said.
"There's been a huge influx in the last five years," Bendixen said, because of "a combination of difficult times in Latin America and a booming U.S. economy."
More than half of Latin Americans who sent money abroad did not have a full-time job in their home countries, the study found. But once they touched U.S. soil about half found a job within a month, earning an average monthly salary of $900.
"They need the jobs. We need the workers in the U.S.," Terry said. "That's what drives immigration in the U.S. and that's what drives remittances."
#1
Image a US company that takes payments form US businesses, some of it illegally and some of it "off the boks", then turns around and removes that money formt he US economy by sending 5.2 billion dollars of it out of the country.
You'd hear screams of outrage from the left over that evil company.
Where is the outrage for this? Its still 5.2 billionn leaving the economy like a drain, and some of it untaxed illegal eranings.
If the Repubs lose this election it will be due to R voters not showing up because Bush and company, the country club Repubs, did precisely DICK for 5 years on securing the borders and handling illegals.
Wholesale inflation plunged by the largest amount in more than three years in September as a record drop in the cost of gasoline offset rising prices in a number of other areas. The Labor Department reported that wholesale prices overall fell 1.3 percent last month, nearly double the decline that analysts had been expecting.
Gasoline prices plummeted 22.2 percent, the biggest one-month decrease on record.
Gasoline prices plummeted 22.2 percent, the biggest one-month decrease on record.
While the overall inflation performance was much better than expected, core inflation, which excludes energy and food, jumped by 0.6 percent in September, the biggest increase in this area in 20 months. Much of that gain was due to a jump in new car prices, which had been falling previously because of the widespread use of attractive incentives aimed at moving a backlog of unsold cars.
Financial markets are hoping that a slowing economy and recent sharp declines in global oil prices will help to lower inflation pressures in coming months and keep the Federal Reserve from pushing interest rates higher. After raising rates for a record 17 consecutive times, the Fed left rates unchanged at its August and September meetings. The Fed meets again next week and economists widely expect no change at that meeting either.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/18/2006 00:00 ||
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#2
Holy smokes! 2.14 in Exeter, NH VT 13 Oct 2006 at Mobil. Mobil was 2.24 in Ascutney, VT; tax diff I think.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
10/18/2006 1:11 Comments ||
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#3
And a poll on Fox News last night suggested a large part of the US subscribes to the Dem view of 'the economy' - that'd be the one where Bush has wrecked it.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/18/2006 6:28 Comments ||
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#4
proving the old adage that you can fool some of the people all of the time.
If Bushie and Cheney could engineer this price drop, then by golly those are the people with the kind of power I want in those positions. I don't want some whining wannabe whimp in those offices. Does the name Jimmy Carter ring a bell?
Citgo Petroleum Corp. went on the attack Monday in new ads that blast what it calls "misleading and inaccurate" criticisms of the Houston-based arm of the Venezuelan oil company.
The ads reaffirm its commitment to the U.S. market and work to counter the backlash from a speech a month ago by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, in which he called President Bush "the devil" during a visit to the United Nations.
The ads reaffirm its commitment to the U.S. market and work to counter the backlash from a speech a month ago by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, in which he called President Bush "the devil" during a visit to the United Nations.
In the first ad, which appeared Monday in the Washington Post, Citgo President Felix Rodriguez said critics are doing more damage to Citgo's thousands of U.S. employees and small-business owners who sell Citgo gasoline than to the company itself. "We understand that, as a corporation, we cannot always control the environment in which we operate, but we feel compelled to set the record straight out of respect for our employees, business partners and consumers," he said.
Other national and regional newspapers, including the Houston Chronicle, will run the ads later this week, and TV commercials are on the way, Citgo spokesman David McColluma said. But one analyst said it remains to be seen whether many consumers connect Citgo and the Venezuelan national oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, better known as PDVSA. "For all intents and purposes, most people don't even know they're owned by PDVSA," Fadel Gheit, with Oppenheimer & Co. in New York, said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/18/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
"Aren't affecting the bottom line."
Bulltwaddle. There is no reason why Citgo would spend a bunch of moolah on fighting a negative image that didn't exist and wasn't hurting them.
It's hurting them, and when the stock analysts get wind of the damage, Citgo shares will go in the dumper, even more so than lower earnings due to lower prices have reduced their value.
#2
great idea. Spend a bunch of money to remind the public that it is Citgo they are supposed to boycott - just in case they had forgotten (which I sure many had). Brilliant, Holmes, Brilliant!
#3
Prices are falling. Thus for the moment supply exceeds demand. A boycott of a specific oil company, e.g. Citgo, can only be effective when that is the case. You won't be able to break Chavez - somebody will buy his gas at some price that is still profitable for him - but you can make him squirm, and probably make 20 cents or so per gallon less than he otherwise would.
#7
And just remember that the real enemy enablers are those who keep obstructing extraction of our own domestics supplies of oil and gas. Its easy to blame Hugo just as its easy for Hugo to blame the Yankee. However, the cartel of evil are able to sustain themselves because of decades and generations of NIMBY.
How do you know? Unless you buy branded Shell or BP or Exxon (and sometimes even then), you have no idea of who sold the gas to the local station. If you buy Bingo gas or some such, you're as likely to get Citgo as any other.
That's a major reason why I never went in for those "Boycott brand X" campaigns. All you do is punish the guy running the station, usually someone who has his whole net worth invested in his store. The producers just sell their excess to jobbers on the market, which matches the higher supply with the higher demand of everyone who switched to some other brand.
#9
"We understand that, as a corporation, we cannot always control the environment in which we operate, but we feel compelled to set the record straight out of respect for our employees, business partners and consumers,"
Unadulterated hogwallow. You sir, work for a two-bit marxist anti-American thug, bent on rallying other thugs for our destruction. That cannot be spun away. You may not like the characterization, but that doesn't make it any less true. Bite me, Citgo.
#10
I was the same way about a year ago. I boycotted just about every gas place except the ones we have here on base and Hess. I then watched Britt Hume recently on FOX News & a segment w/Cavuto/Boortz and some other money experts on debating this very subject. The result was that boycotting Citgo really did hurt the Americans who worked there a lot more than Hugo. I was kind of dissapointed because I really hate that fucker Hugo and I love boycotting places (yes, I revel in being a vindictive fuck). However, I trust that I got the straight scoop overall.
I see no intrinsic difference between these two rationales. If you work for Citgo, I sympathize with you if the boycott causes you hardship. But then again, tough sh*t. Go work for someone who's ultimate goal is not the destruction of the United States. Nobody forces you to work there.
I still boycott everything from Olde Europe and China. Russia? WTF do they export 'sides oil? Oh, yeah, I forgot: hookers, air defense systems, night vision goggles, nuke reactors... Lol.
NS - I though all the Spembles were rich... Or is that how you got rich? Lol.
#15
I recommend buying Valero (they operate under several names such as Beacon, Shamrock, Diamond Shamrock, and Ultramar).
Valero appears, from a Wikipedia entry, to be entirely American-owned, is based in San Antonio, Texas, has $80 billion in sales a year, and their name stems from the mission most commonly known as The Alamo, all of this according to Wikipedia.
While oil is a fungible product, you don't have to give your money to non-American stores.
Valero's 18 refineries chew through 3.3 million barrels of crude oil a day, oil that the San Antonio-based company buys from around the world.
The Department of Defense has awarded Valero Energy Corp. a $36.8 million contract to supply military-grade jet fuel to the government of Israel -- the United States' key ally in the Middle East.
Of the 3.3/mbd of crude oil processed, about 65% is bought under long term contracts. The remaining 35% is bought on the spot market.
Valero buys 25% of its oil domestically. The rest is purchased from countries all over the world including Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Venezuela, Ecuador and several nations in Africa.
Refineries that can turn heavy sour crude into gasoline aren't evenly distributed around the world. Europe and the United States have more than their share. About 60% of the crude refined in 2005 by Valero Energy (VLO, news, msgs), for example, was heavy sour crude.
The 3.3 million barrels Valero buys and processes each day represents almost 4% of world production.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The DSCC's optimism about winning the Senate is apparently contagious as the DNC is going to pony up an extra $5-10M for the Senate committee, according to sources familiar with the previously reported arrangement between the two campaign orgs. 
White House political strategist Karl Rove yesterday confidently predicted that the Republican Party would hold the House and the Senate in next month's elections, dismissing fallout from the sex scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley. 
Seven prisoners escaped from a Palestinian jail located in Beitunya just north of Ramallah, Palestinian sources reported Tuesday morning. Among the fugitives was a man on death row who had killed a Palestinian policeman in 2001. The other six men were serving sentences ranging from 10 years to life. 
Latin American immigrants in Texas will send $5.2 billion back home to their relatives this year, ranking second only to California in a state-by-state breakdown released today by the Inter-American Development Bank's Multilateral Investment Fund.
Wholesale inflation plunged by the largest amount in more than three years in September as a record drop in the cost of gasoline offset rising prices in a number of other areas. The Labor Department reported that wholesale prices overall fell 1.3 percent last month, nearly double the decline that analysts had been expecting. 
Citgo Petroleum Corp. went on the attack Monday in new ads that blast what it calls "misleading and inaccurate" criticisms of the Houston-based arm of the Venezuelan oil company. 
