A self-styled Hindu holy man and a British Airways flight attendant have been arrested in Delhi on suspicion of involvement in a multimillion-dollar prostitution racket.
Police said that Shiv Myra Dwivedi, a Hindu swami, used his temple in south Delhi as a front to provide as many as 200 prostitutes, including flight attendants and students, often to clients in five-star hotels.
In his spiritual guise he claimed a following of more than 100,000 people, including leading politicians. Undercover officers arrested him, another alleged pimp and six alleged prostitutes including two flight attendants, one from British Airways and one from the Indian airline Jagson, on Friday evening, Delhi police said.
The six women, aged between 19 and 30 and including an MBA student, each gave fake Indian names, apart from one identified only as Ms. Julie.' Delhi police did not specify their nationalities. BA told The Times that it was looking into the report.
A police statement said that the suspects were detained as the alleged pimps negotiated a deal with a group of young men near a cinema in the upmarket Saket neighborhood of the Indian capital. Police also found a network of tunnels and secret rooms at Dwivedi's temple as well as six diaries and other documents detailing his alleged involvement in prostitution, according to media reports.
In disguise of this spiritual façade, he is a pimp and tout who supplies sex workers in posh areas of Delhi,' the statement said.
A Yolo County judge on Monday sentenced a man who walked out of a store with a package of cheese in his trousers to seven years and eight months in prison.
Prosecutors had originally sought a life sentence for Robert Ferguson under the state's "three strikes" law. They dropped that bid last month, saying a psychological report had convinced them that a life sentence wasn't warranted.
At Monday's hearing, Deputy District Attorney Clinton Parish urged Judge Thomas Warriner to consider at least one of Ferguson's prior strikes -- one for burglary and another for assault with a deadly weapon -- and to sentence him to a lengthy term.
Parish said Ferguson was a career criminal who wouldn't change. He had 13 prior convictions and had spent 22 of the past 27 years behind bars, yet still would not obey the law, the prosecutor said. Sounds like he just wanted his three hots and a cot ...
In 1994, Ferguson had escaped a three-strikes sentence, "Yet here we are again," Parish said.
Defense lawyer Monica Brushia told the judge that Ferguson's six prior burglary convictions occurred 30 years ago. His misdemeanor assault conviction was for throwing a soda can at one of his siblings when he was a teen, she said.
No weapons or injuries were associated with his crimes, Brushia told the judge.
She argued a psychologist's report had concluded Ferguson was bipolar and had trouble controlling impulses to steal during manic phases. His latest crimes were so petty that they hardly merited a prison sentence, she argued. "We're talking about a pack of cheese," she said.
On Jan. 6, jurors convicted Ferguson of two counts of petty theft for snatching a woman's wallet from the counter of a 7-Eleven store and for stuffing a bag of Tillamook shredded cheese worth $3.99 into his pants at Woodland's Nugget Market.
The Yolo County District Attorney's Office charged the thefts as felonies.
When it came time to sentence Ferguson on Monday, Judge Warriner chose a middle ground. He accepted a probation department recommendation to disregard the prior strikes and to sentence Ferguson to the upper term for petty theft with priors.
The judge gave Ferguson 825 days of credit for his time in jail awaiting trial and said Ferguson would be required to serve half his sentence in prison. He will be eligible for parole in less than three years. Gee, it's hard to know what to be most appalled about.
#2
Its hard to figure out what to be most appalled and disgusted about. There are too many choices.
1) Clearly mentally ill offender.
2) Pants cheese?
3) 92 months for stealing pants cheese?
4) Assault with intent to soda.
5) Can get out in 3 years and change.
6) Has already served 825 days (2 years, 3 months, 5 days) *awaiting* trial.
7) Freaking California.
8) Insanely long list of prior offenses.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has detained a 24- year-old American lady, Sharon Denis Thorpe, over her involvement in a counterfeit cheque scam valued at $760, 668. DEAREST,
I AM SHARON DENIS THORPE, AN AMERICAN WOMAN STRANDED IN NIGERIA. I GOT YOUR PROFILE FROM THE INTERNET AND I KNOW YOU TO BE AN HONEST PERSON.
Thorpe, a resident of Raleigh, North Carolina, was arrested in Lagos on Saturday, 20 February 2010 while about to board a Qatar Airways flight to Washington DC. I HAVE A NEED TO MOVE $760,668 (760,688 U.S. DOLLARS) IN FUNDS FROM NIGERIA TO ANOTHER COUNTRY OR TO NORTH CAROLINA.
The suspect who parades an American passport had been in Nigeria since November 2009, ostensibly on vacation with one Musediku Akorede Kehinde, her fiancé, who is believed to be the mastermind of the crime. BECAUSE AUTHORITIES ARE WATCHING MY TRANSACTIONS I AM WILLING TO PUT THE FUNDS IN YOUR ACCOUNT AND PAY YOU A 40 PERCENT (40%) COMMISSION FOR HOLDING THEM FOR ME.
Thorpe has however, told her interrogators that the counterfeit cheques were given to her by one Femi Atoms, a friend of Musediku who is at large. Thorpe, arrested by officials of the State Security Service, SSS, has since been handed over to the EFCC. The suspect is presently being interrogated.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2010 00:00 ||
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And I will bet the marriage is as fake as the checks.
Posted by: ed ||
03/03/2010 10:59 Comments ||
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Republicans Tuesday launched the second congressional effort in a week aimed at preventing U.S. EPA from regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio and other key Republicans plan to unveil a formal resolution that would effectively veto EPA's "endangerment" finding.
The resolution will mirror the controversial measures introduced by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and several House Democrats. House Agriculture Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) and Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) are spearheading another House resolution introduced last week.
The resolutions are aimed at unraveling EPA's finding using the Congressional Review Act, which establishes special procedures for disapproving regulations from federal agencies. Also, EPA would be prohibited from reissuing that rule or any substantially similar one without the authority of another enacted law, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Congressman Joe Barton, (R-TX) ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, warned last December that the endangerment finding "has policy implications that threaten serious damage to the economy for generations to come. Congress has the right and the responsibility to nullify the decisions of the bureaucracy when they run counter to the people's interests and a formal Resolution of Disapproval is fully warranted in this instance."
Still, observers on and off Capitol Hill expect that efforts to block EPA using the Congressional Review Act would face an uphill battle clearing the Democratic-led Congress and would face a veto from President Obama. Supposing it came to Zero's desk. Does he have the courage to veto it?
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/03/2010 10:25 ||
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#1
How is a "Resolution of Disapproval" different from a law?
A SAUDI woman's to get 300 lashings and 18 months' prison for filing complaints against court officials and being in court without a male guardian.
A human rights group said today Sawsan Salim was convicted last month in a court in Rass, in Qassim province, after petitioning officials in the kingdom's capital Riyadh.
The petition included King Abdullah over what she alleged was years of abuse by local justice officials, the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement.
Despite her request for intervention, two local judges charged her with filing 118 "spurious complaints" against officials, including the judges themselves, and "appearing ... without a male guardian" between 2004 and 2008.
On January 25, she was convicted after a month-long trial before two judges, one of whom was a plaintiff in the case and the original target of Salim's harassment allegations, according to HRW.
The group called for higher authorities to quash the verdict.
Salim alleges that ever since she rejected local judge Habib Abdullah al Aqsa's repeated urging to divorce her husband, who was jailed over debts, in 2004, that judge and other officials continually created trouble for her.
On numerous occasions through 2008, HRW said, officials "chided Salim for not being accompanied by a male guardian during her visits to their offices."
Under Saudi Arabia's ultra-strict version of Islam, women are not supposed to move around outside the home without a male guardian.
Argentina was celebrating a diplomatic coup yesterday in its attempt to force Britain to accept talks on the future of the Falkland Islands, after a two-hour meeting in Buenos Aires between Hillary Clinton and President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.
Responding to a request from Mrs Kirchner for "friendly mediation" between Britain and Argentina, Mrs Clinton, the US Secretary of State, said she agreed that talks were a sensible way forward and offered "to encourage both countries to sit down".
Her intervention defied Britain's longstanding position that there should be no negotiations unless the islands' 3,000 inhabitants asked for them. It was hailed in Buenos Aires as a major diplomatic victory, but condemned in the Falklands.
Obama has a similar position so its not a rogue mission by Hillary
The second newspaper article we've had on the subject in two days. Britain is taking notice, and not at all happily. I wonder if they miss President Obama's predecessor yet...
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/03/2010 06:41 ||
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#1
The Brits should claim Tierra del Fuego and offer to negotiate the surrender terms with the Argentinians.
Posted by: ed ||
03/03/2010 8:00 Comments ||
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#2
There are serious implications to this action by BOA (Big O Administration). It encourages actions by Argentina (Falkland Redux) and other tin pot regimes, and it puts a knife in our ally, Great Britain. Expect pullout of Afghanistan if something starts.
This is not stupidity on the part of BOA, it is by design.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/03/2010 8:22 Comments ||
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#3
Given how much Americans are hated in the UK (they will never forgive you for saving their bacon) I would say that she has done something right.
The problem is that once he learns of British hate towards America her boss will override her.
#4
I don't think we are hated in Britain, at least by the average folks there. The apparatchiks, Labourite leaders and 'elites' may not like us but that's different, that's just to be expected this day and age.
Hillary has created a serious, long-term problem for us with these statements. She should have known better.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/03/2010 9:39 Comments ||
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#5
There goes our left-leaning Secretary of State giving aid and support to left-leaning regimes. Isn't Argentina sympathetic towards Chavez and his failed communist paradise?
#6
But does give cover to the Brits for when they do loose the Falklands....
Posted by: Kelly ||
03/03/2010 10:21 Comments ||
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#7
If Labour loses the Falklands before the election they'll not be in the Parliament after the election.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/03/2010 10:50 Comments ||
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#8
Not the first US f-p honcho to tilt toward the latins. IIRC, during the Reagan Admin, Jeane Kirkpatrick strenuously argued for neutrality during the first Falklands contretemps
#10
BO hates the Brits because he's Kenyan. I have a colleague from Kenya who grew up under colonialism and he hates the Brits to this day. I don't know what Hillary's excuse is, other than general cluelessness.
#12
Given how much Americans are hated in the UK (they will never forgive you for saving their bacon) I would say that she has done something right.
The problem is that once he learns of British hate towards America her boss will override her.
I think you're describing France there, JFM, not the UK. Though there is still a lot of fashionable anti-Americanism (and not just amongst the usual anti-US suspects, the like of which you'll find in the US itself), in the UK, it's more than outweighed by popular Europhobic (i.e. anti-EU interference) sentiment. Amongst those on the 'Right' who are anti-US (an arrogant 'we're really better' mentality rooted, as usual, in a sense of inferiority) this back-stabbing will pander to their prejudices; amongst the Left, who aren't really pro-'Malvinas', this will probably cause some confusion - but then the BBC will sit on this for as long as possible, just as it kept Obama's previous anti-British demonstrations of sentiment well hidden from its audience.
I suppose if the US wants the UK Government to give the Falklands to Argentina (not 'back' - they have never been Argentinian), the British Government could give Diego Garcia back to its non-British natives - who actually do have a legitimate claim and desire to change the status quo.
In the case of the Falklands, Britain defers the question of sovereignty to the islanders. The people who spend their entire lives there deeply opposed to becoming Argentinians (as, incidentally, are the Gibraltarians).
#16
I could say I feel sorry for the Brits---but, given British attitudes to Israel---I'd be lying.
And, like so many others lack an ability to process information from a variety of sources, you'd be taking opinions you see in the Guardian and on the BBC and ignorantly extrapolating that to the population as a whole.
#17
We aren't too bothered what hilda says or Obama thinks and her rhetoric seems rather 'brush under the carpet' anyway. Labour will be out by June and a conservative gov in place just like 82.. No biggies here and I doubt we would pull out of aghan , that's like cutting off your nose to spite your face.. A lessening of ore sence might occur though.. Let's see what blunders on either side of the pond happen first I.e in June
Posted by: On tour ||
03/03/2010 14:28 Comments ||
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#18
Britain should still withdraw from Astan immediately if it's upset.
#19
**Our presence not ore sence (iPhone malfunction)
Posted by: On tour ||
03/03/2010 14:37 Comments ||
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#20
I bloody hope not nimble... Stay the course
Posted by: On tour ||
03/03/2010 14:39 Comments ||
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#21
I think you're overly optimistic, On Tour. We have what could charitably be called an 'unreliable ally' in the White House; a man so lacking in decency and judgement that one of his first acts in office was to return a bust of Winston Churchill to the UK.
The Tories by no means have the coming election in the bag - the BBC haven't girded up for partisan campaign mode yet, and even at the moment a hung parliament would be likely, and I don't see the Lib Dems rushing to join the Tories in a coalition.
If we came to a point in time where we were fighting in Afghanistan AND the South Atlantic, I think it would be entirely justified to pull our forces out of Afghanistan if necessary to concentrate on a fight which was part-triggered by Washington on our enemy's side. The UK Government, whoever makes it up, needs to carefully consider our national strategic priorities - and in my opinion the Brits of the Falkland Islands should take priority over defending the Afghans from each other, few if any of whom can even be considered our friends.
#22
#16 Actually Bulldog I base my opinions on the actions of your successive governments for the last 80 years. May I suggest that you study the relevant history before opening your mouth.
A good place to start would be to read the following two books.
1) From Time Immemorial
It deals with the creation of Palestinian "nation" via importation of (approx) million Arabs into Palestinian Mandate by Britain.
2) Official Secrets it deals with British complicity in suppressing information about Holocaust.
On the other hand, you can just stick to your opinions---I can assure you, it won't lower my estimate of your education and intelligence.
#23
Grom, your contributions to this website read like a one man campaign to lose friends for Israel - I suggest it's about time you started to think twice in future before posting your usually odious thoughts here.
If it wasn't for Britain's efforts to help the Jewish population of Europe get refuge post-WWII there would be no Israel. Full stop. When the rest of the free world were either already defeated or pleading 'neutrality', only Britain and her Empire were fighting the Nazis as they murdered your people. How many times has the UK fought in your neck of the woods just the past couple of decades to force down the kind of regime which poses a threat to your country. I also suggest you start reading some balanced history, not those revisionist doorstops you link to.
#24
Gentlemen, please! Bulldog, g(r)omgoru is correct about his local history. Britain played favourites and did everything they could to prevent the establishment of a Jewish state in the Palestinian Mandate. However, you are correct that Britain's refusal to surrender to the Nazis, and their continuing to fight until America was ready to join the effort prevented the complete genocide of the Jews of Europe.
So on a meta level there would indeed be no Israel without British efforts. However, Britain's effort was not to create Israel per se, which was an undesired side effect as far as the government at the time was concerned.
As for how many times British troops have fought in the Middle East post-1948, that I can only think of the British-French-Israeli effort to reverse Nasser's closing of the Suez Canal in 1956, and the UN effort in Lebanon in the 1980s, clearly demonstrates one of the many depths of my ignorance.
In the meantime, Britain should be seriously annoyed at the American government's position. President Obama is a fool on this matter and, while it is the job of the secretary of state to present her government's position in public, it is her responsibility to oppose such stupidities in private, even to the point of resigning her position when her advice is not followed.
On Tour, I hope you're the one who read the situation correctly -- no matter what our president may think, we all need what our British cousins bring to the table.
#1
The mood of the picture masks the celebration that must be occurring in Carrakedass.
bobo knows he is years behind the norks, his drive to live like kimmie, as slum lord extrodinaire, will not be denied, hes got the passion the drive and years of pent up envy to guide him.
each successive drop...puts the life style of kimmie that much closer to fullfilment.
"It s why I get up every morning he muses to himself; before excoriating his attache, for not getting the starch right.
[Iran Press TV Latest] At least one Armenian soldier has been killed in a clash between Azeri and Armenian forces in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
According to Armenia's Defense Ministry, the 29-year-old Sergeant Sargis Voskanian was killed amid rising tensions between the two countries.
Tensions over Karabakh have heightened in recent months amid efforts by Armenia and Turkey, a close ally of Azerbaijan, to re-establish diplomatic ties and reopen their common border after decades of hostility.
There was no immediate comment from Azerbaijani officials.
Backed by Yerevan, ethnic Armenian forces seized control of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts from Azerbaijan in the early 1990s, in a war that claimed an estimated 30,000 lives. The two former Soviet republics have cut direct economic and transport links and failed to negotiate a settlement on the region's status.
Armenian and Azerbaijani forces are spread across a ceasefire line in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, often facing each other at close range, with shootings reported as common.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2010 00:00 ||
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BEIJING (AP) The discovery in Chinese markets of tons of beans treated with a highly toxic pesticide has prompted an indignant response from an official responsible for the safety of the produce, despite a public outcry over recent food safety scandals. One city's decision to publicize the problem was "inconsiderate of friends," according to Zhou Qingchong, deputy director of the agriculture bureau law enforcement team. Authorities in the central city of Wuhan recently announced it had destroyed 3.5 tons of "yard-long" beans from Sanya that had been treated with isocarbophos, a banned pesticide. Zhou told China National Radio for a report this week that his city and the Ministry of Agriculture had lost face because of the complaint from Wuhan. China finds it more considerate (and less expensive) to poison its own people.
#1
Some local CCP Officio(s) gonna be gulagged, or worse.
ION, IIRC CHINESE MIL FORUM > [BBC Artic]CHINESE VILLAGE/FARMERS MOVED TO QUENCH URBAN THIRST [ CPC Party-State controlled, pre-planned expansion of local Cities versus agrarian countryside]. HARDWORKING LOYAL, BUT UNEDUCATED CHINESE FARMERS ORDERED BY BEIJING + LOCAL PARTY TO NOT ONLY MOVE FROM TRADITIONAL HOMES, BUT ALSO TO GROW NEW UNPROFITABLE CROPS.
IIUC ARTIC > Beijing is giving these rural people NEW MODERN HOMES whose amenities they are NOT [immediately] used to nor know how to operate in near term, + is making them grow new crops which can neither be sold for their family's profit/benefit nor even eaten???
BESIDES FORCING, ORDERING TRADITIONALIST RURAL FARMERS TO BECOME HI-TECH, EDUC FACTORY-INDUSTRIAL-OR-WHITE-COLLAR WORKERS OVERNITE???
Looks like Greenland might turn green again.
China has started exploring how to reap economic and strategic benefits from the ice melting at the Arctic with global warming, a Stockholm research institute said Monday.
Chinese officials have so far had been cautious in expressing interest in the region for fear of causing alarm among the five countries bordering the Arctic, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said.
"The prospect of the Arctic being navigable during summer months, leading to both shorter shipping routes and access to untapped energy resources, has impelled the Chinese government to allocate more resources to Arctic research," SIPRI researcher Linda Jakobson said.
Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States are already at odds over how to divvy up the Arctic riches, claiming overlapping parts of the region -- estimated to hold 90 billion untapped barrels of oil -- and wrangling over who should control the still frozen shipping routes.
Most Europe-Asia trade now travels through the Suez Canal.
Diverting this traffic through the famed Northwest Passage, which according to different predictions could become ice-free in the summer months any time between 2013 and 2060, would cut travel distance by 40 percent.
"To date China has adopted a wait-and-see approach to Arctic developments, wary that active overtures would cause alarm in other countries due to China's size and status as a rising global power," Jakobson said.
China has no Arctic coast and therefore no sovereign rights to underwater continental shelves, and is not a member of the Arctic Council which determines Arctic policies.
"China's insistence on respect for sovereignty as a guiding principle of international relations deters it from questioning the territorial rights of Arctic states," according to SIPRI report "China prepares for an ice-free Arctic".
Officially, the country's research remains largely focused on the environmental challenges of a melting Arctic.
"However, in recent years Chinese officials and researchers have started to also assess the commercial, political and security implications for China of a seasonally ice-free Arctic region," Jakobson said.
She points out that the country has one of the world's strongest polar scientific research capabilities and already owns the world's largest non-nuclear icebreaker.
Last year Beijing approved the building of a new high-tech polar expedition research icebreaker, to set sail in 2013.
"Despite its seemingly weak position, China can be expected to seek a role in determining the political framework and legal foundation for future Arctic activities," Jakobson said.
#2
Ah-HA! Now I get it! They didn't support Obama at Copenhagen becasue they want to keep making greenhouse gases to add to global warming so they can control the artic!
[/paranoid]
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/03/2010 6:15 Comments ||
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#3
ArCtic, Bobby. We arctic circle types are sensitive, ya know.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/03/2010 8:24 Comments ||
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#4
Give 'em time. Eastern Siberia will be Chinese in two generations.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
03/03/2010 12:54 Comments ||
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#5
Diverting this traffic through the famed Northwest Passage, which according to different predictions could become ice-free in the summer months any time between 2013 and 2060, would cut travel distance by 40 percent.
They mean the North East Passage, which is already sufficiently icefree to allow navigation with help of icebreakers.
The NW Passage is a longer route from China, but already ice free in some years. However, narrow channels make commercial shipping problematic.
Give 'em time. Eastern Siberia will be Chinese in two generations
#6
RUSSIA'S "CHINA THREAT" THEORY > Moscow needs the economic trade wid CHINA to support its vital national modernization while simultan recognizing Chin's LT ambitions = strategic threat to its Far East-SIberia + Central Asia [Chin-desired future "living space"].
RUSSIA'S GOT AMBITIOUS NUCLEAR CHINA ON ONE FLANK, AND AMBITIOUS NUCLEAR-HAPPY/WANNABE RADICAL ISLAM ON THE OTHER.
#1
If China does decide to mobilize for a major land war with India, and India does the same, they could both get rid of their 30-50 million "excess" males. And in a disputed place on their border where collateral damage would be minimal.
#2
WND > JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN > seems MOSCOW = RUSSIA is fearful that China's on-going mil modernization + new PLA training programs-regimens means CHINA DESIRES RUSS FAR EAST + IN TIME WILL EVENTUALLY TO WAGE WAR AGZ RUSS FOR IT???
#3
ION WMF > US MILITARY PROTECTION OF TAIWAN DEPENDS ON AMERICA'S ABILITY TO PROJECT POWER FROM THE WESTERN-CENTRAL PACIFIC. GETTING THE US TO LEAVE ITS JAPAN AND GUAM BASES IS KEY/CENTRAL TO CHINA'S MILITARY VICTORY IN SINO-US WAR IN THE TAIWAN STRAITS AND PACIFIC.
* SAME > WEST SHOCKED: US HERITAGE FOUNDATION STUDY RVEALS THAT IN WARTIME, CHINA'S PLA CAN RELY ON WORLD'S LARGEST MERCHANT FLEET TO SUPPORT COMBAT OPERATIONS. CHINA'S PLAAF NOW HAS 36,000 ELITE AIRBORNE TROOPS ORGANIZED IN THREE DIVISIONS. PLA DESIRE FOR QUALITATIVE MECHANIZATION OF AIRBORNE FORCES BROADLY BASED ON THE COLD WAR SOVIET MODEL WITH "CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS".
DETROIT (AP) - Ford Motor Co. outsold General Motors Co. in February for the first time in more than a decade. Ford sold 334 more cars than GM in the U.S. It was the first time since August 1998 that Ford outsold GM.
Ford's said Tuesday its sales jumped 43 percent thanks to strong demand for its cars. The automaker grabbed some sales from Toyota, which is struggling with a massive safety recall.
Ford said it saw renewed demand from rental-car companies and other corporate fleets, which are buying again after weak sales in 2009. Ford's fleet sales surged 74 percent over February of last year.
Ford had expected sales to climb from last February, when U.S. sales plummeted in the midst of the recession. Ford says car sales climbed 54 percent as consumers continued to shop for more fuel-efficient vehicles. Look out for Retaliation by the Federal Government Nah, they'll let the UAW do their dirty work -- oh wait, they're one and the same ...
KIEV, Ukraine--Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's governing majority in Ukraine's parliament collapsed Tuesday, bringing her newly elected rival, President Viktor Yanukovych, a step closer to his goal of removing her from office.
Volodymyr Lytvyn, the parliament speaker, declared that Ms. Tymoshenko's coalition had failed to collect enough signatures from legislators to show that it maintained a majority in the 450-seat body. That means Ms. Tymoshenko is likely to lose a parliamentary vote of confidence Wednesday, giving Mr. Yanukovych's Party of Regions a chance to form a new government.
Mr. Yanukovych, who defeated Ms. Tymoshenko in the Feb. 7 presidential election, is seeking to consolidate his power to govern a country that has long suffered political paralysis, and that last year saw its economy shrink by 15%. At his inauguration on Feb. 25, the new president promised to revive the economy, overhaul state structures and fight corruption--and called for "effective cooperation between the president, parliament and government."
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Posted by: Steve White ||
03/03/2010 00:00 ||
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Turkish prosecutors have charged the highest-ranking serving officer yet, a four-star general, in a widening circle of arrests of officers in a nation that has hitherto regarded its military as virtually untouchable.
The charges against General Saldiray Berk follow the detention of scores of officers last week over an alleged conspiracy to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, which has its roots in political Islam.
Last week's detentions were related to an alleged plan for a military coup in 2003, but the case against Berk is more recent.
Charges laid late on Monday, according to the Anatolia news agency, accused the commander of the 3rd Army of leading "an illegal group which was working to implement the anti-Islamist plan" in the eastern province of Erzincan.
Turkish media reported that the charges brought against Berk and 15 others, including a state prosecutor, involved "Ergenekon", a suspected ultra-nationalist network said to be plotting to sow chaos in order to justify a military takeover.
More than 200 people, including retired generals, lawyers and journalists, have been charged in connection with Ergenekon. Critics accuse the AK Party government of using the investigation to hound secularist opponents.
The plan in Erzincan is alleged to have involved fomenting nationalist opposition to the government and planting weapons in houses used by followers of influential Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen to create a militant scare.
Gulen has lived in self-exile in the United States since 1999, but critics say his followers have infiltrated the police and courts, and also control newspapers critical of the army.
The government's face-off with the secularist establishment, whose strongholds are the military and judiciary, raised fears of instability and depressed the lira and stocks and bonds last week, but markets have rallied since.
Those charged in Erzincan included Ilhan Cihaner, a state prosecutor who had investigated Islamist groups. His detention last month sparked a row between the government and the judiciary, which called it illegal and replaced the four prosecutors who had ordered the move.
The government struck back by threatening a referendum to force through constitutional reforms of the judiciary unless parliament passes them first. Erdogan has said a reform package will be sent before parliament as soon as possible.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2010 00:00 ||
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#6
ION TOPIX > TURKISH FM [davutugoli]: ITS TIME FOR TURKEY AND MUSLIMS TO REBUILD THE MIDDLE EAST. IIUC, ti make the MIDEAST more diverse + pluralist + democratic, etc. under ISLAM.
IMO read, OTTOMAN = OTTOMAN EMPIRE, ETC. TURK-LED THINGYS REDUX.
#7
* SAME > TURKEY WARY OF IRAN DESIGN ON CASPIAN.
ALso, STRATFOR ANALYST: A NAGORNO-KARABAKH WAR MAY HAVE GLOBAL IMPACT ["1914 SARAJEVO/BOSNIA Incident" which started WW1]; + SARKISIAN, SAAKASHVILI CALL FOR ARMENIA, GEORGIA INTEGRATION.
[Al Arabiya Latest] A Lebanese wedding in Germany ended with the arrival of dozens of ambulances and even more police officers when the celebration took a turn for the worse and a fight grew into a full-blown rumble, according to press reports Tuesday.
And a good time was had by all.
The wedding, held Saturday in a spacious celebration hall in the city of Peine, in the northwestern German state of Lower Saxony, had 800 guests from all around Germany, the London-based newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reported.
The fight is rumored to have started with the cliché scenario of two men fighting over a girl. However, no official reason has been given for what triggered an outbreak so big that allegedly 200 guests resorted to using knives. What is known is that both the bride's and the groom's families took part in the tussle.
The police, who have so far listened to the testimony of 165 guests, said six guests and one policeman were injured. Four of the injured sustained cuts as a result of the knife fights. One guest was shot in the leg while another guest as well as the policeman were hit in the head with a bottle.
Unable to put an end to the out-of-control brawl, the local police force in Peine had to call for reinforcement from neighboring cities, Salzgitter and Braunschweig.
It took a total of 30 ambulances and police cars and five rescuing teams to restrain the enraged guests and put a stop to the fighting. Guests were later driven to their home towns in police cars for fear further fights would erupt in the streets.
The wedding hall's manager, Ali Ehsan Yildrim, said he organizes an average of 30 parties per year and had never faced any trouble before. Yildrim is waiting for the families to pay compensation for damaging the hall.
Germany has lately witnessed several weddings turn violent, many of which involved ethnic minorities.
A Kurdish wedding held in the city of Essen, in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, turned into a fight involving knives and bottles and resulting in three guests being injured. Vogelheim, also in North Rhine-Westphalia, witnessed a similar incident when four people were injured in a 600-guest Turkish wedding.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2010 00:00 ||
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#2
" Whadda ya mean calling her an old goat an' an old bat?" "I didn't. I said she has a nice coat and it matches her hat." "Did not." "DID too!" Bap. KaPow! Bam!
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/03/2010 12:15 Comments ||
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#3
At least they restricted it to knives. I was expecting the usual AK-47s fire a clip into the air routine.
Can't understand why the Europeans would object.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
03/03/2010 14:43 Comments ||
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#4
Oh hell, a brawl at an Irish Catholic wedding wouldn't even cause a raised eyebrow.
Get out the defibrillator quick: CNN is dying. What other conclusion can be drawn from the Nielsen ratings from February, which showed the once dominant news network finishing in fifth place for the first time ever- and now trailing CNBC and Headline News as well as its main competitors, FOX and MSNBC?
The numbers are, as you can imagine, pretty stark. Wolf Blitzer's show, The Situation Room, was down 44% in total viewers in February. Campbell Brown, Larry King, and Anderson Cooper all posted their lowest ratings ever in February among total viewers, declining 50%, 55%, and 59%, respectively.
The numbers are equally grim among the coveted 25-54 demographic. CNN's share of the market with this group during prime time declined from 21% last February to just 10% this year. Even worse, its market share among viewers 25-54 in day time - what's been seen as the network's bread and butter - declined nine percent in the last year to 14%.
After a good year in 2008 fueled by sharp election coverage, CNN President Jon Klein has stubbornly refused to change course despite the network's epic slide over the last 15 months. The loss of Lou Dobbs last year obviously made things worse. But as CNN continues to fade, the question is whether anything less than a radical makeover can save this once proud, but deeply humbled network.
#1
Campbell Brown, Larry King, and Anderson Cooper all posted their lowest ratings ever in February among total viewers, declining 50%, 55%, and 59%, respectively.
That's because they all SUCK and are pathological liars!!
#3
If they ever lose that crucial "stuck in the airport waiting to make a connection" demographic, they've lost about half of their remaining "viewers".
#4
at least Headline News has employed noted genius and scholar, Joy Behar. Apparently a "bag of hammers" and a "box of hair" declined the position as the pay and "intellectual climate" was beneath them
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/03/2010 20:44 Comments ||
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Posted by: ed ||
03/03/2010 11:23 ||
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#1
"A lot of surveys have focused on the Tea Party movement, but they've been about what others think of them, and don't reveal the motives of actual Tea Partiers," said Sam Adams Alliance chairman Eric O'Keefe. "We decided to learn what the Tea Party leaders are up to the old fashioned way: We asked them."
Gee, thanks for asking. What made you stop trying to ignore them?
#2
Three political issues stood out as being the most important to Tea Party activists. When asked which issues were "very important" to them, 92 percent said "budget," 85 percent said
"economy," and 80 percent said "defense." No respondents listed social issues as an "important direction" for the movement.
Ay-Pee article. More at link.
In a bit of political sleight of hand, Obama said he might include four GOP-sponsored ideas in his plan, even though virtually no one in Congress or the White House thinks it will procure a single Republican vote.
The move is aimed instead at wavering Democrats, especially in the House. Some of them might find it easier to vote for the health care package if they can tell constituents it had bipartisan elements that Republicans should have supported. Yet there is no guarantee that Democratic leaders will incorporate Obama's suggestions in revised legislation.
#2
Republican strategy should have been simple from the beginning.
No tort reform, we don't even bother to sit down to talk with you about anything else.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/03/2010 6:46 Comments ||
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#3
Tort reform alone could save 38 billion a year and change.
then you have the scooter scams, and the medicare oxygen tank scams, and a slew of many government things that are making the costs so high. Government is why the system is so expensive right now.
Even as many Americans still struggle to recover from the country's worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, another crisis one that will be even worse than the current one is looming, according to a new report from a group of leading economists, financiers, and former federal regulators.
In the report, the panel, that includes Rob Johnson of the United Nations Commission of Experts on Finance and bailout watchdog Elizabeth Warren, warns that financial regulatory reform measures proposed by the Obama administration and Congress must be beefed up to prevent banks from continuing to engage in high risk investing that precipitated the near collapse of the U.S. economy in 2008.
The report warns that the country is now immersed in a "doomsday cycle" wherein banks use borrowed money to take massive risks in an attempt to pay big dividends to shareholders and big bonuses to management and when the risks go wrong, the banks receive taxpayer bailouts from the government. But I thought Bambi was watching their every move . . . .
"Risk-taking at banks," the report cautions, "will soon be larger than ever."
Without more stringent reforms, "another crisis a bigger crisis that weakens both our financial sector and our larger economy is more than predictable, it is inevitable," Johnson says in the report, commissioned by the nonpartisan Roosevelt Institute.
The institute's chief economist, Nobel Prize-winner Joseph Stiglitz, calls the report "an important point of departure for a debate on where we are on the road to regulatory reform."
The report blasts some of Washington's key players. Johnson writes, "Our government leaders have shown little capacity to fix the flaws in our market system." Two other panelists, Simon Johnson, a professor at MIT, and Peter Boone of the Centre for Economic Performance, voiced similar criticisms.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner "oversaw policy as the bubble was inflating," write Johnson and Boone, and "these same men are now designing our 'rescue.'"
The study says that "In 2008-09, we came remarkably close to another Great Depression. Next time we may not be so 'lucky.' The threat of the doomsday cycle remains strong and growing," they say. "What will happen when the next shock hits? We may be nearing the stage where the answer will be just as it was in the Great Depression a calamitous global collapse."
The panelists call for major banks to maintain liquid capital of at least 15 to 25 percent of their assets, the enactment of stiffer consequences for executives of bailout recipients and for government officials to start breaking up firms that grow too big.
In the report, Elizabeth Warren, who was chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, reiterates her calls for an independent agency to protect consumers from abusive Wall Street practices.
"While manufacturers have developed iPods and flat-screen televisions, the financial industry has perfected the art of offering mortgages, credit cards and check overdrafts laden with hidden terms that obscure price and risk," Warren writes. "Good products are mixed with dangerous products, and consumers are left on their own to try to sort out which is which. The consequences can be disastrous."
Frank Partnoy, a panelist from the University of San Diego, claims that "the balance sheets of most Wall Street banks are fiction." Another panelist, Raj Date of the Cambridge Winter Center for Financial Institutions Policy, argues that government-backed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have become "needlessly complex and irretrievably flawed" and should be eliminated. The report also calls for greater competition among credit rating agencies and increased regulation of the derivatives market, including requiring that credit-default swaps be traded on regulated exchanges.
With the Senate Banking Committee, led by Chris Dodd, D-Conn., poised to unveil its financial regulatory reform proposal sometime in the next week, the report calls on Congress to enact reforms strong enough to prevent another meltdown.
"Sen. Dick Durbin once said the banks 'owned' the Senate," says Johnson. "The next few weeks will determine whether or not that statement is true."
#1
including requiring that credit-default swaps be traded on regulated exchanges
One important cause of the subprime crisis was that sub-prime mortgage bonds were structured in such a way that they couldn't be shorted by 'speculators'.
CDS were eventually created to short sub-prime mortgage bonds largely thanks to one person. His story
IMO the GFC wasn't a failure of the financial markets. It was a failure caused the avoidance of finacial markets.
[Straits Times] A DEBATE in Parliament over the final report on the controversial Bank Century bailout yesterday ended with a brawl in the House and police firing tear gas on demonstrators outside.
A vote on whether to hold Vice-President Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati responsible for the affair is expected to be held today.
Yesterday's report faulted Dr Boediono, who was then Bank Indonesia Governor, for providing short-term funding for the bank before the bailout. It also found that Dr Sri Mulyani, as chairman of the Financial System Stability Committee, approved the bailout that cost the government 6.7 trillion rupiah (S$1 billion), five times more than the amount authorised by Parliament.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has defended his two officials and taken responsibility for the bailout. 'Although I did not make the decision or give the order, I would say the move was correct,' he told reporters on Monday.
The ruckus in Parliament occurred shortly after the chairman of the inquiry committee Idrus Marham read out the final report of its three month long investigation into the scandal.
Several legislators demanded the right to speak as Mr Idrus, who is Golkar's secretary-general, presented conflicting views that betrayed the split within his 30-member inquiry committee.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2010 00:00 ||
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ION TOPIX > [India] NO COPROMISE WID MAOISTS. Maoists-Naxals must accept authority from NEW DELHI, OR ELSE [Army move in].
* SAME > [Philippines] ISLAMIC MILITANTS MASTER BOMB-MAKING/SCARE TACTICS IN MINDANAO. Despite recent setbacks. MINDA MILTERRS are escalating, working harder to dev new Bombs + methods???; + FEAR OVER 43 MUSLIM MILITANTS AT COURT [Will Milits Cohorts try to force a violent escape or ambush, etc?].
[Al Arabiya Latest] Relatives of passengers killed in an Ethiopian Airlines crash in Lebanon earlier this year have filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit in a U.S. court against plane-maker Boeing, their attorney said Tuesday.
"We have filed a lawsuit in Chicago, Illinois, against the Boeing company," Manuel von Ribbeck, of the U.S. firm Ribbeck law, told AFP.
An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 went down minutes after taking off from Beirut in bad weather on January 25, killing 83 passengers and seven crew. The cause of the crash has not been announced.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2010 00:00 ||
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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.
Get out the defibrillator quick: CNN is dying. What other conclusion can be drawn from the Nielsen ratings from February, which showed the once dominant news network finishing in fifth place for the first time ever- and now trailing CNBC and Headline News as well as its main competitors, FOX and MSNBC?
Even as many Americans still struggle to recover from the country's worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, another crisis one that will be even worse than the current one is looming, according to a new report from a group of leading economists, financiers, and former federal regulators. 
