Mauritania's ousted president, Sidi Ould Sheikh Abdallahi, was released from house arrest on Sunday following a coup on August 6 that left him detained for 136 days, a security source said. "President Sidi has been freed," the source told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that he was back in Nouakchott after his confinement in his home village of Lemden, 250 kilometers (150 miles) from the capital.
Mauritania's ruling junta, under international pressure to free Sidi, was expected to free him in the coming days to allow him participate in a "national consultation meeting" on December 27.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2008 00:00 ||
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Grand alliance candidate for Sirajganj-2 constituency Jannat Ara Henry alias Henry Talukder came under attack by some unidentified youths in Dhanmondi area of the capital yesterday.
"A gang of youths attacked my microbus with hockey sticks near road no. 5 at about 11:15am while I along with my husband and a relative was returning to Sirajganj from Sudha Sadan," said Henry who is also the forest and environment affairs secretary of Central Women Awami League.
She alleged that the youths also hurled brickbats at the microbus damaging windowpanes of the car. "I also heard two gunshots at the spot and took immediate cover under a seat while microbus driver sped away from there. I stopped the car near Mercantile Bank on Green Road where we took shelter," said the AL leader.
On information, police rescued Henry, her husband Shamim Talukder Labu and others from inside the bank. She also registered a general diary (GD) with Dhanmondi police station. No one was injured in the attack, police said.
Party insiders said followers of Henry requested former home minister Mohammad Nasim to introduce her as a candidate of grand alliance during a reception ceremony of Nasim in Sirajganj town on Friday. As Nasim did not comply, AL activists ransacked district AL office and damaged Nasim's portrait, sources said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
"A gang of youths attacked my microbus with hockey sticks near road no. 5 at about 11:15am while I along with my husband and a relative was returning to Sirajganj from Sudha Sadan," said Henry who is also the forest and environment affairs secretary of Central Women Awami League.
...Hockey sticks? Yeah, I wanna see the home ice of the Islamic Ice Hockey League...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/22/2008 6:13 Comments ||
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#2
In Bangla, no less. The country so hot the walls are sweating.
#3
Ah, there's this game called Field Hockey. Played with sticks, and much more violent than your normal ice hockey.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/22/2008 18:57 Comments ||
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#4
Speaking of "grand Alliance(s)", WORLD MIL FORUM > IIUC CHINA, JAPAN, + SOUTH KOREA MEET TO IMPROVE REGIONAL COOPERATION, MAY ASK USA FOR SHARE IN GOVERNING THE PACIFIC.
The REST OF ASIA + PACIFIC????
And so, VIRGINIA, OWG-NWO = EMERGING GROWTH BLOCS begins.
President Hugo Chavez ordered construction halted on a major shopping mall in Caracas on Sunday, saying the government will expropriate the unfinished building.
Chavez said the new Sambil mall would severely clog downtown Caracas with traffic and would not be permitted to open its doors. "We're going to expropriate that and turn it into a hospital -- I don't know -- a school, a university," Chavez said to applause during his Sunday television and radio program, "Hello, President."
Constructora Sambil, the company building the mall, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. It operates Sambil malls in cities across Venezuela, including another vast shopping center in Caracas.
Chavez objected to the new mall scheduled to open in Caracas' downtown La Candelaria district next year, saying the area is already so crowded that "not a soul fits." The hulking concrete and brick structure takes up an entire city block and according to the Sambil Web site was to include 273 shops.
The Venezuelan leader said it would be out of line with his government's socialist vision to allow such a mall to take up precious urban real estate -- and that unbridled consumerism isn't his idea of progress either. "How are we going to create socialism turning over vital public spaces to Sambil?" said Chavez, who has nationalized Venezuela's largest phone company, electric utilities and oil fields.
The president also has urged Venezuelans to shed their materialism and their taste for designer clothes, sport utility vehicles, Scotch whisky and plastic surgery.
Oh, enough about Kimmie ...
Yet consumerism has flourished in recent years, with the economy awash with cash and windfall oil earnings rolling in. Malls are often packed, and new shopping centers have been sprouting up quickly.
The president did not say how much the government might pay the mall's owners in compensation.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2008 00:00 ||
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The federal and Ontario governments will provide the Canadian subsidiaries of General Motors and Chrysler with $3.29 billion in emergency loans, the prime minister said Saturday.
The announcement follows a pledge Friday by President Bush to offer $17.4 billion in emergency loans to the two Detroit automakers. Ford has not sought the aid.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Canada's pledge, the equivalent of 20 percent of the U.S. aid package, will help keep the Canadian plants operating while they restructure their businesses to retain one of the country's most important sectors.
"We cannot afford, in the United States or Canada, the catastrophic short-term collapse of the Big Three automakers. The U.S. has signaled that they are not going to allow these companies to fail, and we will do our share of the North American package to see that this doesn't happen either," said Harper, speaking at a news conference in Toronto.
Canada's automotive industry represents 14 percent of the country's manufacturing output and 23 percent of manufactured exports, and directly employs more than 150,000 Canadians. It is the country's largest industry within the manufacturing sector.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
ION CHINESE MIL FORUM > MERCANTILISM HERE WE COME/CRISIS OF US-GLOBAL CAPITALISM MAY LEAD TO FORMATION OF NEW EMERGING "GROWTH BLOCS" [closed], for Region andor Multi-Regional Survival.
IOW, EXTRA-NATIONAL + EXTRA-REGIONAL REGULATORY GOVERNANCE, aka "GLOBALISM", OWG-NWO, NEW WORLD ORDER, + SOCIALIST-GOVTIST WORLD ORDER..@etc!?
And yes, the above is also is inclusive of CONTINENTALISM + EXTRA/TRANS-CONTINENTALISM,
...etc. precepts.
You can just feel FUTURAMA's "INSPECTOR/
BUREAUCRAT LEVEL #18", LOWER + HIGHER, slowly becom reality, can't ye!?
D *** NG IT, MORIARITY, JAMAICAN RULES, JAMAICAN RULES, JA-MAY-KAN RUUUUUUULLLLLLEEEEESSSSS!
#2
BAILOUT + US-GLOBAL RECESSION/DEPRESSION + SOCILAIST ORDER = Sub-IOW, what Washington is trying hard NOT to say is GREAT LAKES OWG FREE TRADE ZONE = SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE.
Caroline Kennedy, who wishes to succeed Senator Hillary Clinton, has explained her views on a wide range of issues, including Israel.
In just a few days after announcing that she wants to win the New York senate seat, the 51-year-old daughter of an American political dynasty has come under scrutiny. Her critics say she does not possess any of the right credentials to be a US senator.
Kennedy spokesman Stefan Friedman on Saturday sought to gag silence the critics by answering questions raised by US media. She opposes the war in Iraq while supporting "President-elect Obama's plan to work with our military leaders to begin a responsible withdrawal," Friedman said in response to a CBS News question.
Why not let the Princess answer the questions ...
According to the New York Times, Kennedy supports the auto industry bailout bill passed by the House and widely supported in parts of New York that are home to auto-parts manufacturers. Her stance appeals to New York's Democratic governor, David Paterson, who will choose the next senator.
One of her significant differences with Senator Clinton as well as the president-elect, meanwhile, is her stance on same-sex marriage. "Caroline supports full equality and marriage rights," her statement to the Times said.
On Israel, one of the central issues in New York politics, she "strongly supports a safe and secure Israel."
When asked whether she would support an Israeli air strike on Iran, Kennedy said "Israel's security decisions should be left to Israel."
Caroline said during the presidential campaign that Barack Obama could carry on his father's legacy.
Kennedy's stance toward Israel suggests that she has decided not to follow in the footstep of her late father, president John F. Kennedy, who enraged Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion over Tel Aviv's nuclear ambitions. Ben-Gurion, who ruled Israel from its inception in 1948 until he resigned on June 16, 1963, was convinced that Tel Aviv needed nuclear weapons to ensure its survival. President Kennedy, who was assassinated on November 22, 1963, was dead-set against Israel becoming a nuclear power.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Aw c'mon Caroline, put down your tiara and come out and play with the press directly. Don't send minions. Don't worry, the press will just toss you softballs and make the dumb parts of your answers as indirect quotes or paraphrases.
Caroline said during the presidential campaign that Barack Obama could carry on his (sic) father's legacy.
By the way is it his (Obama's) father's legacy or her father's (JFK's) legacy that Obama could carry on? Either way I read it, "legacy" sounds too much like "banging chicks and moving on."
#3
Fox News has already sued the government under the Freedom of Information Act.
Personally, I think that if tax dollars are going to private companies the public deserves to know where their money is going. This is how revolutions get started people. Let's knock of the elite cronyism before we knock some heads.
#5
This just further cements my belief that we're past the point of a governmental singularity - i.e. we, the people, can no longer effectively control the course of government. All the branches are so completely out of touch with reality that they're living in their own bubbles.
We can tweak around the edges and influence some things like foreign policy via presidential elections, but the majority of governmental functions are run by unelected beureaucrats who have ways of getting their way in the end. Not to mention a Congress that is so fundamentally corrupt and utterly dishonest that absolutely nothing worthwhile comes from it.
I know I've painted with a broad brush and thrown out a few babies with the bathwater [insert metaphor of choice here], but I really see far too few exceptions to make a real difference. Any "reform" is inevitably corrupted by inertia, competing interests, and dishonesty and lack of transparency.
And, yes, we the voters are ultimately to blame for being so disinterested that we let the inmates take over the asylum.
I'm convinced nothing short of another revolution will truly clean out the cesspit that Washington has become.
/apologies for the grim rant Spam content is 0 percent
As US banks are getting taxpayers' money to bail them out, they have paid up to USD 1.6 bln in salaries and bonuses to their executives.
An Associated Press analysis revealed on Sunday that US banks, which have called on the US treasury to rescue them amid a credit crunch, have never hesitated to pay their executives large salaries, bonuses and other benefits using government loans.
Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services committee and a long-standing critic of executive bonuses and benefits, said the bonuses are a bribe 'to get them (executives) to do the jobs for which they are well paid in the first place'.
"Most of us sign on to do jobs and we do them the best we can,'' said Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat. "We're told that some of the most highly paid people in executive positions are different. They need extra money to be motivated."
The benefits have include cash bonuses, stock options, personal use of company jets and chauffeurs, home security, country club memberships and professional money management. The total amount paid to nearly 600 executives would cover bailout costs for many of the 116 banks that have so far accepted tax dollars to boost their bottom lines.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
The benefits have include cash bonuses, stock options, personal use of company jets and chauffeurs, home security, country club memberships and professional money management
. . . and haircuts, franking priviledges, fully funded pensions, no pay into social security, and more.
#2
You take the taxpayers dollars in 'bailout' you take the federal pay cap for all your executives. See how many 'institutions' discover other ways of funding. Bonuses in illiquid paper/assets only.
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 federal and Ontario governments will provide the Canadian subsidiaries of General Motors and Chrysler with $3.29 billion in emergency loans, the prime minister said Saturday. 
Caroline Kennedy, who wishes to succeed Senator Hillary Clinton, has explained her views on a wide range of issues, including Israel. 
As US banks are getting taxpayers' money to bail them out, they have paid up to USD 1.6 bln in salaries and bonuses to their executives. 
