#6
Hmmm, a little seismic action in Yemen on Monday, now this one. I'm betting Haliburton Earthquake/Tsunami Division will need one more for range, then it's "Fire for effect!".
In an effort to recover the money siphoned offshore from the country, the interim government is planning to sign a treaty with the British government for getting assistance from New Scotland Yard.
Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) Secretary Mukhles Ur Rahman yesterday told the Daily Star about the plan. "We are working to strike a deal with the Scotland Yard for recovering the money smuggled off from the country," said the ACC secretary adding that an agreement must be signed between the two countries for the cooperation to take place.
The ACC secretary also said before signing the treaty the Bangladesh government needs to promulgate some laws giving the specific bilateral relation legality for getting regular assistance in the future. "A dialogue is on regarding various strategic issues as the matter is between two states. It is also necessary to give the effort legality to yield long-term results from such a treaty," said the ACC secretary.
A few weeks ago, while ACC Chairman Lt Gen (retd) Hasan Mashhud Chowhdury was visiting the Scotland Yard, the British law enforcement agency assured him of its assistance in recovering the money smuggled off from Bangladesh. The idea of signing an agreement stemmed from the thought of giving a permanent shape to The Yard's assurance of giving occasional assistance to Bangladesh.
Since the drive against high profile corruption suspects had been initiated in February, the interim government repeatedly talked about recovering the huge amount of the money siphoned offshore over the years.
Replying to a question, the ACC secretary told The Daily Star, "I don't know the specific figure of the money siphoned offshore." But different government sources said between the months of April and August of this year the government had recovered more than Tk 3,315 crore of siphoned off money, more than Tk 435 crore of which were deposited to the Bangladesh Bank while the rest of it has yet to be deposited.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/03/2007 00:00 ||
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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's military space commander vowed to retaliate with an arms race if any country started putting weapon systems into orbit, he said in remarks published on Wednesday. "We need to have strong rules about space, to avoid its militarization and if any country will place a weapon in space, then our response will be the same," Space Forces Commander Colonel-General Vladimir Popovkin told the newspaper Trud.
Popovkin's remarks were the latest in a series of increasingly assertive statements from the Russian military, which is alarmed at what it sees as a growing hardware imbalance with the West.
Stung by NATO expansion up to Russia's borders, President Vladimir Putin has given notice that Russia intends to pull out of a treaty limiting conventional forces in Europe.
Tensions between Russia and Washington have deepened over U.S. plans to rekindle the stalled "Star Wars" program from the 1980s with a new generation of missile defense shields.
Popovkin said no country had the right to declare itself the master of space, so strike forces shouldn't be deployed there. He avoided naming names but his comments follow growing friction over space between Moscow, Washington and Beijing. Earlier this year China tested an anti-satellite missile and the U.S. has been developing weapons which can hit satellites.
So the Russkies' major complaint is that they're running third in a three-man race.
Russia has more than 60 military and dual-purpose satellites in orbit for communications and intelligence, Popovkin said. Russia's space forces have responsibility for military and dual-use spacecraft launch as well as helping defend the country from hostile intercontinental missile attacks.
Although the forces were left blind in some areas after the break-up of the Soviet Union, they were now reorganized, Popovkin said. "In 2009, we'll begin testing a new generation satellite. Already, Russia can detect any ballistic missile being launched from earth towards Russia," he said.
#5
Putin is pathetic : the long-term threat to Russia is an energy- and resource-hungry China simply taking the Russian Far East away from the Russians; but Putin would rather piss away billions on a space race with the US, in a vain glorious national episode of "Mine is bigger than yours!!". And that little display is doomed to failure since the US has already been to the Moon several times at government expense, and will have Moon landers there in the next decade per private enterprise.
What the Russians should be doing with the extra billions from oil and gas sales is improving the east-west transportation corridors to and from the Russian Far East; rehabilitating every old Soviet era base in the area up to modern standards; and situating several thousand T-90s, SU-30/35 and MiG-31, and at least 200 thousand more troops there - all to make sure that the Chinese KNOW that a grab for the RFE is going to NOT go well. But instead, Putin is doing all he can to pull a Stalin type deal with the now National Socialist Chinese, and he will get repaid in kind : a Chinese Operation Barbarossa that has a good chance of succeeding.
#6
Iff I remember correctly, RUSSIA has said it will not pull out/abandon the CFE iff the USA-NATO formally adopts the modified version of the agreement.
Pro-Western parties on Wednesday looked certain to win Ukraine's parliamentary election, with firebrand leader Yulia Tymoshenko likely to become prime minister amid fears of new tensions with neighbouring Russia.
President Viktor Yushchenko was to announce the formation of a coalition with Tymoshenko, his partner in the 2004 pro-democracy Orange Revolution, the presidential administration said. With 99.24 percent of ballots counted, their Orange coalition had won 45 percent of the vote. The Regions Party, headed by their bitter rival, pro-Moscow Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, had 34.21 percent. Yanukovych could in theory assemble a rival coalition with 43.5 percent of the vote, just 1.5 percentage points behind the Orange team.
Russia accuses democracy movements in the ex-Soviet Union of serving the interests of Western governments and the return of the Orange team was likely to irritate increasingly powerful President Vladimir Putin.
The first sign of trouble came Tuesday, just as early results indicated possible victory for the Orange team, when Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom warned it would cut gas supplies next month if Ukraine failed to pay debts of more than one billion dollars. Ukraine rushed its energy minister to Moscow for talks as the political tensions remained high in Kiev.
Sunday's election was held to end months of political chaos in this ex-Soviet republic of 47 million people, but the slender margin of victory for the pro-Western camp meant further wrangling was inevitable. The results indicated that the 450-seat Rada, or parliament, was likely to be heavily divided, with the Orange coalition's majority numbering only a few seats.
The dispute with Russia over payments for gas sparked alarm in the European Union, which heavily depends on Ukraine for the transit of Russian energy. The the EU Commission calling for a "swift settlement" to the dispute.
Although Gazprom insists that its policies are based entirely on business needs, critics accuse the giant exporter of bullying former Soviet republics that get too close to the West. "It could be Russia's way of saying that if Tymoshenko doesn't give up her prime ministerial ambitions she could have very big problems," a source closely connected to the government told AFP.
Russia's Kommersant newspaper said the link was clear. "Gazprom, which held off discussing gas deliveries to Ukraine before the elections, was not slow to react to their results. Victory by the Oranges cannot suit either Russia or Gazprom," the daily wrote Wednesday.
#1
Here's an idea: why doesn't Ukraine pay for the gas it uses? Then Gazprom can't use this excuse. Oh, they can still cut off the gas if they don't like the government, but jeez pay your bills people.
Top Pakistani government officials on Tuesday agreed to grant exiled former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto an amnesty from prosecution in corruption cases pending against her, a cabinet minister said.
Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, who attended a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz that discussed the issue, said ministers and top officials had agreed "in principle" to quash old cases pending against Bhutto. Bhutto has held monthslong talks with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf over a possible power-sharing agreement. Among her demands has been for longstanding graft cases against her and other politicians to be dropped.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/03/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Mebbe the bigwigs have had enough of the Taliban trying to kill them all and would rather have someone who's willing to let us come in and mop up this fetid mess.
The Burmese general responsible for the city of Rangoon was sacked yesterday, suggesting that last week's popular uprising may have exposed divisions in the military.
Problem is, the people haven't yet suffered enough to be enraged enough to knock the generals aside.
According to the Mizzima website, run by Burmese exiles, Maj Gen Hla Htay Win was "allowed to retire" yesterday, allegedly for being too moderate in crushing the protests. He had supervised lethal dawn raids on monasteries and arrested many hundred monks and protesters. His men fired automatic weapons into crowds of unarmed civilians, killing an unknown number of people.
A Western diplomat said that Senior General Than Shwe, who controls the junta, favoured crushing the protests with even more extreme violence. Hla Htay Win is seen as a loyalist of Than Shwe's deputy and potential rival, Vice Senior General Mg Aye.
Mg Aye is sometimes portrayed as a moderate, although in the context of the Burmese junta that is a relative term which does not imply moderation as most people understand it.
There's a nice understatement.
At the height of the government's brutal crackdown last week there were widespread rumours that some troops in Rangoon had refused orders to fire on unarmed protesters. Rumours also suggest that Than Shwe was sufficiently worried as the street protests grew to send his family to safety in Dubai.
America yesterday accused Than Shwe of personally ordering the crackdown. "The stories are that he is isolated and that his staff are afraid to give him bad news but we do believe that he is the one to give the orders to crack down, so he is not totally out of touch," said Shari Villarosa, the US charge d'affaires in Rangoon.
Meanwhile fears mounted for the wellbeing of an estimated 1,500 people who were taken away by the army in the city last week. The Asian Human Rights Commission said that they "must all be treated as disappeared, not arrested, until their whereabouts and conditions are confirmed".
Some accounts say that they are being starved and that prisoners have died of untreated injuries. Miss Villarosa said that she had heard that up to 200 people had been killed during the protests and thousands had been arrested. "We have had people going around various monasteries and they have found them deserted," she said.
The junta is now confident enough that the protests have been crushed to remove the barbed wire and security cordons around the Shwedagon Pagoda, the starting place of daily demonstrations last week.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/03/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
This is why the pin-stripe and academically challenged can't fathom that in Iran, there is not going to be an effective popular uprising to remove those who control the reigns of power. As long as they have enough people willing to pull the triggers, the only change will happen from external forces. Hope is not a strategy. The mullahs, like these 'generals', know that if they lose power, they lose their heads. It's the golden rule of dictators, 'Do on to others, before they do on to you'.
A UN envoy met pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday, hours after an audience with Myanmar's military leader in his quest to end the junta's crackdown on democracy advocates. Ibrahim Gambari, the UN's special envoy to Myanmar, met with Senior Gen. Than Shwe in the junta's remote new capital, Naypyitaw, two foreign diplomats said. Other diplomats said he then flew to Yangon to see Suu Kyi, who has come to symbolize the yearning for democracy in Myanmar.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/03/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Aung San Suu Kyi is the God appointed leader of Burma. And where does all this Myanmar crap come from and how are they in the UN when Taiwan cannot even get a phone call?
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.
In an effort to recover the money siphoned offshore from the country, the interim government is planning to sign a treaty with the British government for getting assistance from New Scotland Yard. 
The Burmese general responsible for the city of Rangoon was sacked yesterday, suggesting that last week's popular uprising may have exposed divisions in the military.
