A ten-year-old boy left home alone with his sister used his mother's gun to shoot an intruder in the face, police said.
Late Tuesday, West Baton Rouge Parish sheriff's deputies received a call to a Port Allen apartment complex after several shots rang out from inside one of the apartments. "You are out here trying to work and for someone to come and do that and invade your home is very hard," the children's mother said. She asked to not be identified.
Deputies say Dean Favron and Roderick Porter knocked several times on the apartment door. The two young children, a ten-year-old boy and eight-year-old girl, stood on the other side, terrified. "He told his sister to be quiet and seconds later, they started kicking on the door and finally kicked the door in," said Sheriff Mike Cazes. The two children ran to their mother's bedroom closet.
In a panic, the ten-year-old grabbed his mother's gun for protection. "He did what I told him to do. I never told him to get the gun, but thank God he did," she said. Once the two suspects opened the door, threatening the kids, deputies say the boy fired a bullet into the lip of Roderick Porter. The two men were taken to the hospital by a third suspect, who is a 15-year-old juvenile. Once they got to the hospital, they were later arrested. "It's just hard. I don't understand why they would do that. I know they have little brothers and sisters and they wouldn't want anyone to break into their house," said the mother.
Each man is held on $150,000 bond. The juvenile, was taken to a local detention center. One of the suspects, Dean Favron, just finished serving almost seven years in prison for aggravated assault on a Baton Rouge police officer and two carjacking charges. He was released on June 6th. Both men will appear before a judge next month.
#2
One of the suspects, Dean Favron, just finished serving almost seven years in prison for aggravated assault on a Baton Rouge police officer and two carjacking charges. He was released on June 6th.
That didn't take long. Any bleeding hearts out there want to have him live in your house and babysit your daughter while he gets rehabilitated? Or is rehabilitation fine as long as it's in somebody else's house and somebody else's daughter?
I'm not sure what to say about the firearm being accessible to the kids, but these kids seem to be able to deal with it. Like most kids from the 19th century seem to have been able to.
#3
I can't wait for the anti-gun crowd to start wailing about this one. I mean, a 10 year old using a gun!
Of course, if the kid hadn't shot the dirtbag, the headline might have read "Two children, 10 and 8, found dead in apartment".
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/19/2009 0:37 Comments ||
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#4
Buy Mom a larger caliber pistol. I like the SW.40 myself. But, in the interest of the kids, I'd spring for something that shoots the EuroPellet (9mm).
#11
In much of the country Mom would lose custody of the kids and likely go to jail for having a gun accessible to children. In Louisiana, for all its faults, she is probably ok.
#2
I wouldn't mess with the Halyburton. She was the ship that took out the 3 pirates who had captured the American ship. (Yes, I know it was the SEALS who actually shot the pirates.)
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/19/2009 1:55 Comments ||
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#4
It's always nice to bring a little something when you go visiting. Whether the gift is booze or some well-armed Marines and a little naval gunfire really depends on the occasion.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Polls closed Saturday in Mauritanian presidential elections nearly a year after the overthrow of the country's first elected president, with the coup leader confident of outright victory. Polling stations began to close at 19:00 GMT, unless voters were still waiting to cast their ballots, and counting at those stations had begun, an AFP journalist witnessed. Initial results were expected on Monday.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2009 00:00 ||
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Janeane Garofalo cut short her Saturday afternoon set in Latitude's comedy tent because of the poor reception she was given by the audience. The American comedienne's rare UK live appearance was expected to be one of the highlights in a strong comic line-up, but she failed to win over the festival crowd.
Best known to TV viewers as talent booker Paula in The Larry Sanders Show and political campaigner Louise in the final series of The West Wing, Garofalo was due perform for half an hour, but left the stage after less than ten minutes when her routine about post-9/11 security checks at airports met with stony silence.
"It's not you, I blame myself for this," she said before leaving the stage. The gap her abrupt exit left in the schedule was filled by the next act Ed Byrne agreeing to go on early. He opened his own routine with a question for the event promoters; "Now that I'm doing a longer set, can I have some of Janeane's money?"
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/19/2009 12:48 Comments ||
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#5
Some attendees tweeted their displeasure: Ouch. Jeaneane Garofalo was on the Comedy Stage at Latitude. She lasted five minutes. My interview with her was longer.Sarah Silvermanesque
And: Oh dear, janeane garofalo has just died on stage seriously badly!
from the newsbuster link above: Janeane Garofalo: There Is Almost No Liberal News Outlet in America
stupid deranged twit, sorry, Muck4Doo
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/19/2009 13:05 Comments ||
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#7
he dropped in not that long ago. LettuceLadies are still safe
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/19/2009 14:09 Comments ||
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#8
Joan Rivers once said a great truism. "Comedy can be 49% rage, anger and hate, and still be funny, but the moment it becomes 51%, it stops being funny."
#9
Since the BO administration pulled the government job for a comedian, I guess Garolfalo is SOL. Her being a comedian is really a stretch since she is not funny--just a cranky malcontent.
#14
She's just a pissed off old bitch, not funny now, never really was. She assumed she was smarter than she is. Get outside the SFO/Hollywood/Leftard suckup crowd and all of a sudden, thud.
Original source in Spanish at the link; translation by Fausta at his most-excellent blog.
Negotiations will continue in Costa Rica and Zelaya postpones his ultimatum [deadline] to [July] 24th.
This is Aria's seven point proposal:
1. Zelayas legitimate reinstatement until the end of his period ending January 27 next year, when he will give up his office and allow an election overseen by the international community.
2. Forming a government of unity and national reconciliation composed by representatives of the main political parties.
3. A general amnesty on all political crimes incurred during this conflict before and after last July [sic, should be June] 28.
4. President Zelayas expressed resignation, and of his goverment, from attempting to place a fourth ballot box in the next elections, or to bring about any popular consultation not directly authorized by the Honduran Constitution.
5. Moving up the national election from November 29th to the last Sunday in October, and moving up the electoral campaign from early September to late August.
6. Transfer the command of the armed forces from the executive power to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal a month prior to the elections in order to guarantee transparency and normalcy of the vote, in accordance to the terms of the Honduran Constitution.
7. The formation of a Verification Commission, composed of notable Hondurans and members of international organs, especially representatives of the Organization of American States, that would watch over the compliance of these agreements and supervise the correct return to constitutional order.
All this seems to be a substantial violation of Honduran sovereignty just to please Zalaya. I'm rather hoping Micheletti tells Zelaya to stuff it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/19/2009 12:59 ||
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Zelaya should suck eggs. Even letting him back in the country is just asking for trouble.
#2
point 3 is to cover Zelaya's ass (and Chavez's hooligans) as well for those pre-rigged election returns.
If I were Honduras I'd say let him in and he will be arrested and imprisoned the moment he sets foot in Honduras, the man is a criminal. All else follows the Honduran Constitution as before.
TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez stoked Honduras' political crisis on Friday by saying ousted President Manuel Zelaya would return home imminently, complicating efforts to broker a mediated solution.
It's to Chavez's advantage to keep stirring the pot; Micheletti wins just by staying in power until the next Honduran presidential election.
Chavez's comments that Zelaya had told him he would enter Honduras "in the coming hours" threatened to jeopardize planned talks on Saturday in Costa Rica between the rival sides that both claim legitimacy since the June 28 coup that toppled Zelaya.
Zelaya is currently in Nicaragua, which borders Honduras, and there was no immediate word from him on Friday on his plans. "He's here in Managua, in the Las Mercedes hotel, it's no secret," Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, like Chavez a leftist ally of Zelaya, told reporters late on Thursday.
A unilateral attempt by the deposed president to return home would fly in the face of threats to arrest him by the interim government that replaced Zelaya in the impoverished Central American country.
Hey, they didn't call it a coup! Progress for Roooters!
Chavez's comments appeared to be a typically incendiary expression of his support for his ally Zelaya.
Roberto Micheletti, who was installed as president by Honduras' Congress after the coup, has defied international calls for Zelaya to be reinstated and ruled out his return to office. He says Zelaya was removed because he violated the constitution by seeking to lift presidential term limits.
On Friday, supporters of the ousted president, clamoring for his reinstatement, blocked major highways in Honduras, including the northern access into the capital Tegucigalpa. At the southern entrance to the city, pro-Zelaya protesters lifted their roadblock after police brandishing tear gas canisters gave them an ultimatum.
The Honduran police seem to be perfectly capable of offering the protesters a whiff of grape ...
"We're going to bring "Mel" (Zelaya) back," said teacher Noemi Farias as she took part in the pro-Zelaya protests.
"Zelaya said that in the coming hours he'll enter Honduras. We're behind him, we have to support him," Chavez told reporters outside the presidential palace in Bolivia. Chavez, who had attended a meeting in Bolivia of leftist Latin American allies of Zelaya, gave no more details about how Zelaya intended to return home.
U.S. President Barack Obama's administration, which has urged the rivals in the Honduran crisis to give the Costa Rica talks a chance, called for restraint. A senior State Department official, who declined to be named because his comments were sensitive, said Chavez's current role was "not helpful."
Chavez said Honduras' army would not be able to control popular pressure for Zelaya's reinstatement. "What do they want? A civil war? The people will sweep them away," he said.
A U.S. State Department spokesman, P.J. Crowley, said Washington supported, but "would not impose," a peaceful negotiated solution.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/19/2009 12:55 ||
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This is like Britain insisting Lincoln give Jefferson Davis a chance to talk things over about power sharing.
[Iran Press TV Latest] The acting government of Roberto Micheletti, in power in Honduras since a recent military coup, rejects the reinstatement of ousted President Manuel Zelaya.
On Saturday, a spokesman for the provisional administration ruled out any chance of such restoration, Reuters reported. The rejection came shortly after Zelaya agreed to share power with Micheletti and his men in exchange for them returning him to power. "They want the reinstatement of Zelaya without any form of negotiation," the agency quoted government Spokesman Mario Saldana as saying. The proposal for the return was put forward by Costa Rica which is mediating the reconciliation talks.
On June 28, two days before Zelaya was to attend a regional summit in Nicaragua, the military spirited him off to Costa Rica and the Honduran radio said he had been exiled. His supporters as well as Latin American allies including the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have been pushing for his comeback. Defying his challengers' arrest warnings, he has reportedly said that he would return within the next few days.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2009 00:00 ||
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Deposed Honduran leader Manuel Zelaya is expected to return to his home country if the mediation talks on Saturday fail to reinstate him, his wife says. Xiomara Castro de Zelaya declined to give the exact date of her husband's return to Honduras. Earlier, the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had said that Zelaya was due to return home soon. "Saturday is the deadline ... Time runs out tomorrow," Castro de Zelaya told Reuters in an interview in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, on the eve of the talks in Costa Rica. "He has to come back to the country. He has to come publicly. He is not a criminal and does not need to be hiding."
Zelaya and the head of the coup government, Roberto Micheletti, have sent high-level delegations to Costa Rica where the country's president, Oscar Arias, is trying to broker an end to the power struggle.
The development comes as thousands of supporters of the ousted President have rallied across Honduras to protest against Micheletti. Demonstrators blocked major roads and seized universities, despite tight security for the second day in a row. A military coup overthrew and exiled Zelaya on June 28th.
Micheletti has already said that he would only resign if Zelaya does not return to power and has vowed to arrest Zelaya upon his return to the country. The military-backed government prevented Zelaya's earlier attempted homecoming on July 5.
Left-wing leaders in Latin America who also back Zelaya have been vociferous in condemning the "coup" against him. The Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who brought Honduras's ousted foreign minister Patricia Rodas in his plane with him to Bolivia, vowed to fight against "conspiracies" targeting Honduras, Venezuela and Bolivia. The Cuban revolutionary leader also repeated a previous accusation that a US military base in Honduras is helping the coup. The Honduran military is known to be trained and closely influenced by the US military. "The correct thing in this moment is to demand that the United States government cease its intervention, stop its military support to the coup leaders and remove its (military) force from Honduras," said Castro.
Although the US has condemned the coup and the US President Barack Obama has said that Zelaya should be returned to power, the democratically-elected but militarily ousted President has said the US needs to do more to help him back in power. The US has also said it opposes any attempt by Zelaya to return home.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2009 00:00 ||
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jeebus. This is like Waiting for Godot. Try it or shut up, Mini-Chavez
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/19/2009 11:52 Comments ||
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THE human rights activist Natalia Estemirova, who was abducted from her Chechen home last week and murdered, had been forced to flee to Britain last year after the republic's president personally threatened her, say colleagues. Estemirova left Chechnya for four months because she no longer felt safe after a heated exchange with President Ramzan Kadyrov. He was angry that she had challenged his order that women should wear headscarves in public in the predominantly Muslim territory.
According to Estemirova's colleagues, Kadyrov lashed out at her for daring to stand up to him. It is said he told her that only loose women would not wear a headscarf and reportedly stated: "You must understand there's no place for you here. Yes, my hands are covered in blood. I'm not ashamed of it. I killed and will kill bad people. We are fighting Chechnya's enemies." Estemirova, a former teacher, argued back but later felt vulnerable. Memorial, the Russian human rights organisation she had worked for since 1999, felt it was too dangerous for her to stay in Chechnya, so she moved to Britain in March 2008 but returned in the summer.
"Kadyrov directly threatened her and she took it seriously," said Oleg Orlov, the head of Memorial. "She agreed it was best to leave, but after a while she felt things had calmed down so she wanted to get back." Orlov blamed Kadyrov -- who for five years has ruled Chechnya with an iron fist -- for her murder, saying: "He threatened and insulted her and considered her his personal enemy. We don't know if he personally gave the order or if his people did it to please him, but either way he's responsible."
Estemirova, 50, a widow with a 15-year-old daughter, was seized by four men as she left her flat for work last week. Witnesses saw her being bundled into a car and shouting: "I'm being kidnapped!" Her body was found hours later in a field in neighbouring Ingushetia, shot in the head and chest. The murder was strongly condemned by the Kremlin which vowed to bring the killers to justice, but Estemirova's colleagues are sceptical. Similar promises made after other high-profile murders have not led to any convictions.
Kadyrov, 32, has been accused of abducting, torturing and executing his opponents, but vehemently denied any involvement and said he would take personal control of the case. He reportedly told Orlov in a telephone call: "Estemirova posed no threat to me and was not a problem. You'll be ashamed when your accusations turn out to be wrong."
Estemirova had begun documenting a sharp rise in kidnappings and extrajudicial executions in Chechnya. "We're witnessing a crime wave," she said in an interview on the eve of her death. A week before, she had revealed that Chechen security forces had abducted a civilian named Rizvan Albekov and his son Aziz. Armed men in camouflage had paraded him in underpants in a village square. They asked him whether he had helped insurgents, then shot him when he replied "no". His son's fate remains unknown.
In the fortnight before her death, Estemirova reported on other abductions, the alleged murder of a Chechen woman suspected of links to rebels and an arson campaign that razed the homes of militants' relatives. "There was no one like Natalia in Chechnya," a friend said. "That's why they killed her. Now we won't hear of such crimes any more."
Ironically, in April Estemirova had told a friend: "I'm almost scared to say so, but I'm starting to think I've made it out alive."
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/19/2009 00:00 ||
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TOPIX > ISLAMIST FIGHTERS ON THE SILK ROAD, agz the "soft underbelly of RUSSIA + CHINA. Russia's NORTH CAUCASUS REGIONS returning to a new historical "ancient period" of intensive instability and violence. NEW POST-SOVIET
"SECOND WAVE" OF ISLAMIST ACTVITIES-VIOL SET TO BEGIN IN CHECHNYA + CAUCASUS.
* SAME > IRAN CRACKS DOWN AS BALOCH REBELS STEP UP CAMPAIGN [Jundallah]; + IRAN UNRESTS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR NEW DEMOCRACY?
#3
Mr. Harrison will have to explain to his supplier how he lost $4 million worth of coke. I expect he might live longer had he been in jail
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/19/2009 11:54 Comments ||
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$4 Mil on the street, but probably only $200 -300k at that level. %100 plus markup on each step in the distribution chain. Law enforcement likes to use the final 'street' value for the eye popping headlines. Only small scale end users actually pay that price.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
07/19/2009 21:07 Comments ||
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#5
acknowledged
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/19/2009 21:34 Comments ||
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Now, you don't get this often. An Indian minister talking straight and sharp. Less diplomatic, but quite political on an important global issue.
In the presence of the United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Todd Stern, US president Barack Obama's special envoy for climate change, Indian minister for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh spoke in no non-sense term on India's actual position on climate change and, in process, gave a response in the same coin to none-other-than New York Times's strong editorial which gave advise and comments on the Indo-US bilateral issues, including climate change and Pakistan.
On Sunday afternoon, during Clinton's visit to ITC green centre in Gurgaon, few questions were invited from media. In response to a question Ramesh said, "Let me tell you clearly and categorically that we are simply not in a position to take on legally binding emission reductions."
By saying this India has told Todd what is the bottom-line of the talks on climate change, which he is going to have with Ramesh on Tuesday.
On its 17 July editorial, New York Times sharply commented on various issues including climate change. The editorial says that it is time for India to take more responsibility internationally.
As opposed to Bambi ...
"It needs to do more to revive the world trade talks it helped torpedo last year and -- as a major contributor to global warming -- to join the developed countries in cutting greenhouse gas emissions."
Ramesh told the gathering in Gurgaon that India is not running away from mitigation of carbon emission. India already has the National Action plan on Climate change in place. It will enable India to adapt to effects of climate change.
He said that the plan is very specific and pointed policies for mitigation of carbon emission. He said with emphasis that India is not oblivious to the issue of carbon emission. He said, "Energy efficiency is fundamental driver of our economic strategy."
But they're not going to condemn a half-billion of their poorest citizens to starvation just to help western eco-nuts feel better ...
In fact, Jairam Ramesh presented a smart power-point message outlining India's stand on climate change and he invited Indo-US joint action in the sector.
Ramesh also said there should be joint research programmes between India and US on climate change, joint efforts in institution building as well.
Many experts believe that in view of the Western countries' pressure, ultimately India and China will have to accept some quantifiable cap on it's carbon emission at the Copenhagen conference on climate change; but Ramesh's unambiguous language on India's "bottom-line" on the issue, that too in presence of Clinton and Stern, makes it clear that India will play a hard bargain contrary to media reports that suggests that in Italy , among major economies India has changed its position on climate change.
Those 'many experts' are wrong: India and China simply cannot say to their people, "the westerners want us not to develop our countries because of greenhouse gasses" and expect to survive in government. It simply won't happen.
Posted by: john frum ||
07/19/2009 11:43 ||
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KUPWARA: Late in June, Kolkata resident Junaid Alam Sheikh arrived in Kupwara to holiday in the Lolab valley with his wife and small children. He also hoped to catch up with an old friend he had not seen for a decade and to recover an old debt he was owed.
Now, Mr. Sheikh is in Kupwara jail, facing prosecution on terrorism charges: charges which could lead to his spending a decade or more in prison, before he is deported back to Pakistan. Mr. Sheikh, the Jammu and Kashmir Police says, is in fact a Pakistani national who served as an al-Badr operative in the mountains of Kupwara, before escaping to build a new life in Kolkata.
Thurunnisa Sheikh, the mother of Mr. Sheikhs two children, has seen her life destroyed by a past she did not know existed.
Born in 1975, Mr. Sheikh has told police he grew up in the Pakistani town of Rawalpindi. He studied at the Iqra Public School until 1990, when he failed his ninth-grade examinations.
Kaloo Sheikh, Mr. Sheikhs father, could no longer afford to support his studies: there were six other siblings to be supported. Mr. Sheikh told the police he worked odd jobs, but became increasingly frustrated with his life. In 1997, Mr. Sheikh was drawn to the jihad in Jammu and Kashmir but not, unlike many others, because of calls from right-wing clerics. Al- Badr, then among the more important jihadist groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir, offered him Rs.1 lakh up front for volunteering for a two-year tour of duty across the Line of Control, with promises of more if he returned.
During the summer of 1999, Mr. Sheikh crossed the Line of Control in Kupwara, as part of a surge of terrorists who took advantage of the withdrawal of troops from Indias counter-insurgency formations to fight the war in Kargil. He was assigned to a Kupwara-based al-Badr unit, operating under the command of an operative code-named Junaid.
Like other jihadist units in Jammu and Kashmir, Mr. Sheikhs group soon found itself embroiled in some of the most intense fighting seen in the State. Within days, Mr. Sheikh decided that he wanted a less dangerous livelihood. He stole Rs.8 lakh from his commander, and fled the mountains.
The money was to prove his downfall.
Mr. Sheikh decided to head for Kolkata, a city he had been told offered anonymity and the prospect of escape to Pakistan through Bangladesh. Before leaving Kupwara, he left the money with a local shopkeeper for safekeeping.
Once in Kolkata, Mr. Sheikh has told police, he dropped his plans to return to Pakistan: al-Badr, he understood, would execute him as a traitor if he ever returned home.
Posing as a migrant from Jammu and Kashmir, Mr. Sheikh found work in the city. For two years, he drove a taxi. Later, from 2001 to 2003, Mr. Sheikh worked as an ambulance driver at the MR Bangur Hospital in Kolkatas Tollygunge area, and then got a job chauffeuring a doctor in Kolkatas Salt Lake area. He married in 2003, and fathered two children, Mohammad Rehan Khan and Nasreen Khatoon.
Early this summer, hoping to fund an independent business, Mr. Sheikh decided to return to Kupwara and seek the return of the money he left behind. His friend promised him the money but instead called the police.
Thurunnisa and the children are still in Kupwara, struggling to make sense of the events around them. Later this week, police are expected to go to Kolkata to investigate the case further and return Mr. Sheikhs family to their home. Divided by a bitter conflict and an iron border, it is unlikely the family will ever be reunited.
Posted by: john frum ||
07/19/2009 10:05 ||
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*sniff*
I love a happy ending
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/19/2009 11:57 Comments ||
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It would seem that in Pakistan there is nothing you need to watch out for more than making a joke about President Asif Ali Zardari by SMS (Short Messaging Service). If you mistakenly, or just for fun, share with a friend one of the hundreds of derisory jokes about the leader floating around electronically, you could get a 14-year prison sentence.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik announced last week that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has been tasked to trace SMS (or text messages) and e-mails that "slander the political leadership of the country" under the vague Cyber Crimes Act. In addition to facing up to 14 years in the jail, violators could have their property seized, Malik said, adding that the government would seek Interpol assistance in deporting foreign offenders.
Surrounded by controversy throughout his political career, Zardari has been a subject of harsh public criticism since he was elected as president by the national parliament a year ago. Most of the criticism stems from his government's sluggishness in addressing problems such as severe power outages, intolerably fast-rising inflation, and a sputtering economy. But many jokes hint that Zardari still acts as "Mr 10 per cent" - a label referring to the percentage he would allegedly receive in kickbacks in the 1990s during the two terms as prime minister spent by his assassinated wife, Benazir Bhutto.
Fred, do be careful. It would take a bit of doing to get you out of a Pakistani prison.
I dunno, we have some ex-mil types at the Burg. On an unrelated topic, can anyone here fly a helicopter?
One such joke portrays a school for demons at roll call. All the demons report for class, except one named Zardari. When the demon teacher asks where Zardari is, a student replies that he has "gone to rob Pakistan". Another joke claims that the words that most frighten Zardari are the slogan: "Bhutto is still alive." It's a mantra his party workers chant often in public meetings, but it can be interpreted to mean it is unfortunate for the nation that Bhutto died and Zardari became president.
Most of the hundreds of jokes shared by 50 million SMS users of about 80 million mobile phone customers seem innocuous but can have disastrous political implications for Zardari, who according to some recent surveys is already highly unpopular among the public. "Jokes in Pakistani political culture are a very effective way to delegitimise rulers. Historically, these have been used by the weak and helpless against the powerful," said Rasool Bux Raees, a political analyst at Lahore University of Management Sciences.
Local media, human rights activists and bloggers have been swift in criticising the proposed law against anti-government SMS and online texts as "draconian and authoritarian". The English-language newspaper the Nation said early this week that Malik's statement showed that Zardari's government had lost its nerve. The newspaper urged the leadership of Zardari's liberal Pakistan People's Party "to consider why no other politician has become such a common butt of naughty anecdotes". The newspaper further said the government's using the FIA's short-staffed cyber wing for political means would "seriously compromise anti-terrorism investigations".
The former director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, IA Rehman, condemned the legislation as "standing in conflict with the freedom of expression that is guaranteed by the Constitution of Pakistan". He hoped the law would soon be challenged in the Supreme Court and eventually abolished.
"For a moment I thought it was a bad joke!" wrote a blogger. "But nah its reality - Yes, 14 years for sending an indecent SMS."
Noman Bashir, 23, a student in Islamabad's prestigious Quaid-e-Azam University said initially his friends were frightened by the law but later on they thought up ways to get around it. "We now draft the text in such a way that Zardari's name is not mentioned and yet everyone who receives it knows the joke is about Zardari," laughed Bashir. "We are not running some organised political campaign against Zardari, but we cannot stop writing about him," he said. "You know, he is such a funny character."
Posted by: john frum ||
07/19/2009 09:03 ||
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It would help if he stopped putting his Grandma's doily on his head when he meets guests
Posted by: john frum ||
07/19/2009 11:41 Comments ||
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New Delhi: With the fate of billions of dollars of reactor sales riding on the outcome, India and the United States will begin formal negotiations next week on the conditions under which American-origin spent nuclear fuel will be reprocessed within the country.
The talks, which get rolling in Vienna on July 21, are aimed at finalising the arrangements and procedures under which the spent fuel generated by U.S.-supplied reactors will be reprocessed. The reprocessing is to be done in the new safeguarded facility India agreed to build in its nuclear cooperation agreement with the U.S, also known as the 123 agreement.
Under the terms of the agreement, Washington will have until July 21, 2010 to reach an understanding with Delhi once the negotiations commence. The one-year deadline was insisted upon by India with the negative experience of Tarapur in mind. Decades after the U.S.-supplied reactor there became operational, India is still waiting for America to make the joint determination necessary for the reprocessing of accumulated spent fuel to begin.
According to a senior official from the Ministry of External Affairs, India will be represented in the talks by a five-member technical delegation headed by R.B. Grover, while Richard Stratford, the State Departments top negotiator on nuclear energy matters, will lead the U.S. side. Like Dr. Grover, Dr. Stratford is a veteran of the complex and difficult negotiations that followed the signing of the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal in July 2005, especially the 123 agreement.
Indian officials said a U.S.-prepared draft handed over earlier this month will be the basis for the talks. The brief for the Indian delegation is also clear: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had assured Parliament in 2006 that the country would accept only standard IAEA safeguards on its civilian facilities. The problem is that IAEA procedures are themselves changing as the technology for measurement precision evolves. Safeguards on the Rokkasho-Mura plant in Japan, for example, involve the use of expensive monitoring equipment, all of which the U.S. got the Japanese to pay for. All told, the negotiations are expected to be tough but doable. One major Indian concern is irreversibility: what the country does not want is a situation where Washington terminates consent on some ground.
Although a senior U.S. official, Robert Blake, was quoted on Thursday as saying the reprocessing talks would begin only after India files a declaration with the IAEA on its facilities to be safeguarded, South Block officials said the declaration as envisaged by paragraph 13 of the safeguards agreement would likely be made some time later. They also said there was nothing in any Indo-U.S. agreement to imply linkage.
The declaration will consist of the list of civilian nuclear facilities India will place under safeguards. Officials confirmed that a draft declaration has been prepared and is undergoing internal vetting. When filed, however, the individual facilities listed will only come under IAEA inspection after separate notifications are filed and the concerned facilities added to the safeguards annexe one by one.
Indian officials say the notifications process is still some distance away, since facilities will be placed under safeguards only when lifetime fuel supply arrangements have been tied up for them.
Posted by: john frum ||
07/19/2009 00:00 ||
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Palestinians with a sweet-tooth gathered on Saturday around a giant syrupy cheesecake treat they hope will set a new Guinness world record in their occupied West Bank city.
More than 100,000 Palestinians thronged Nablus city centre for a slice of Knafeh -- a cake sprinkled with pistachio and made of semolina, white cheese and a sugary syrup sprinkled with rose water.
Nablus bakers used 700 kilograms (1,540 pounds) of semolina flour and the same amount of cheese as well as 300 kilos (660 pounds) of sugar to produce the 74 meter long (243 feet) cake weighing 1,765 kilograms.
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and local dignitaries were among the first to receive a slice before the crowd was invited to dig into the Knafeh.
Hazem Shunnar, from the Guinness Book of World Records, and project mastermind Muhannad al-Arabi said that 170 bakers from 10 Nablus pastry shops helped make the giant Knafeh which cost around 15,000 dollars, the Palestinian news agency Maan reported.
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.
