Burglars snorted the cremated remains of a man and two dogs in the mistaken belief that they had stolen illegal drugs, Florida sheriff's deputies said on Wednesday. Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust.
If you are a Cokehead, Snort them if you must.
The ashes were taken from a woman's home in the central Florida town of Silver Springs Shores on December 15. The thieves took an urn containing the ashes of her father and another container with the ashes of her two Great Danes, along with electronic equipment and jewelry, the Marion County Sheriff's Office said. Looks like they urned a trip to jail.
Investigators learned what happened to the ashes after they arrested five teens in connection with another burglary attempt at a nearby home last week. Teenagers. Dumber than a bucket of hair.
"The suspects mistook the ashes for either cocaine or heroin. It was soon discovered that the suspects snorted some of the ashes believing they were snorting cocaine," the sheriff's report said. Hey, man, I'm not gettin a buzz off this. Tastes like ash.
Once they realized their error, the suspects discussed returning the remaining ashes but threw them in a lake instead because they thought their fingerprints were on the containers, sheriff's spokesman Judge Cochran said.
Police divers were trying to recover the ashes. The suspects were jailed on numerous burglary and other charges.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/20/2011 07:13 ||
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[Emirates 24/7] Soddy Arabia's feared Islamic police raided a house in the capital and jugged five men and three women for indulging in "obscene" acts, the online Arabic language daily Kabar reported on Wednesday.
Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice stopped a man on his way back home in Riyadh and asked him about the girl who was with him in the car before he dropped her at another house.
"The man told them she is his sister but they insisted on going to that house with him to make sure he told them the truth," Kabar said.
"When they entered the house, they found the man's sister with two other women and five men...they were caught in an obscene act at the house, which is owned by a man who had divorced his wife to organize such obscene parties."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2011 00:00 ||
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As active as they have been in the news lately, you gotta wonder if COPS is filming there in Soddy with the Virtue/Vice Police. Bad boys bad boys whatcha gonna do...
From the Unintended Side Effects Department:
SSI has its own set of side effects on children. The benefit was a lot like welfare, better in many ways, but it came with a catch: To qualify, a child had to be disabled. And if the disability was mental or behavioral — something like ADHD — the child pretty much had to be taking psychotropic drugs.
Geneva Fielding of Boston was struggling to raise her three sons on her income as a single mother. Her two oldest sons were particularly troublesome. She applied for SSI for them. Neither was on medications; both were rejected. Then last year, school officials persuaded her to let her 10-year-old try a drug for his impulsiveness. Within weeks, his SSI application was approved.
“To get the check,’’ Fielding, 34, has concluded with regret, “you’ve got to medicate the child.’’
Once a family gets on SSI, the benefit (around $700 a month) is hard to let go of.
[The Nation (Nairobi)] A regular policeman and an Administration Police officer's wife collapsed and died in what is believed to be excessive consumption of chang'aa in Nyamira district.
The two died after allegedly taking too much of the brew in separate chang'aa dens in Nyamira town.
Mr Samuel Lang'at, a constable, and Mrs Sarah Achoki died on the way to the district hospital after they collapsed.
Local deputy OCPD Dishon Chadaka said his officer had gone to the chang'aa den on Monday morning where he continued drinking for several hours before he collapsed.
Mrs Achoki is said to have also taken chang'aa in another den after allegedly differing with her husband.
Angry residents blamed the police for allowing chang'aa dens to continue to operate despite being just 500m from Nyamira police station and notwithstanding the new Alcoholic Drinks Control Act.
Workmates of Mr Lang'at described him as a polite and quiet officer.
A colleague, who was also his neighbour, described Mr Lang'at as a man of few words who became jovial after drinking.
"The officer preferred chang'aa in favour of legally accepted drinks. However, once in a while he could take one or two beers if he is bought," the officer explained.
He said Mr Lang'at, who hailed from Bureti district, was posted to Nyamira police station five years ago.
Another senior police officer, who said he trained him at GSU training college in Embakasi, Nairobi, said Mr Lang'at was "a well behaved recruit."
The Alcoholic Drinks Control Acts prohibits the selling of alcohol before 5pm on week days and 2pm on weekends, and after 11pm all week.
The Act came into law on November 22, last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2011 00:00 ||
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The Wikipedia entry for "chang'aa" is somewhat . . . interesting . . to say the least.
[The Nation (Nairobi)] Japanese toilets are famed for functions such as posterior shower jets and perfume bursts, but entertainment company Sega has gone a step further by installing urine-controlled games in Tokyo urinals.
Four types of "Toylets" games are available to be played during a test period ending this month at four male bathrooms in pubs and game arcades, in a project aimed at drawing attention to digital adverts.
Each urinal is fitted with a pressure sensor, and a small digital display is placed at eye level. Digital adverts are shown after the games.
Games include "Graffiti Eraser" in which a user tries to aim at the pressure sensor in the urinal to erase virtual graffiti on the display.
Or there's "Mannekin Pis" -- named after a Brussels fountain depicting a urinating boy -- which measures the volume of the user's stream. Another is called "The North Wind and The Sun and Me", in which the strength of a urine stream determines the extent to which a virtual girl's skirt gets blown up by a digital wind.
One hopes the urinals have splash guards.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2011 00:00 ||
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Here in Tennessee we call them Tinkle Toys.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/20/2011 7:34 Comments ||
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To aim better, you need a wide stance.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
01/20/2011 8:29 Comments ||
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Three-way tie: 2010, 2005, and 1998, says the UN World Meterological Organization.
Ten warmest years ever (ever starting in 1854) have come since 1998, so I guess 10 out of 12 were record-breakers.
Warming is running hot and cold, {sorry} depending on the region, rainfall is way up, here and there, and there was some cooling due to the Pacific La Nina in the latter half of 2010.
Good thing I'll probably be dead before the Himalayan glaciers melt in 2035 and Orlando, Florida becomes an island.
Oh, wait. This study uses figures based on data collected by Britain's Meteorological Office (Phil Jones?) and NASA (James Hansen, right?), so there's no worries!
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/20/2011 17:12 ||
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-25 wind chill tonight in Chicago, warmer by the lake.
#5
The last couple of years, the thermosphere contracted by almost a third. Any other factor at all is not going to come anywhere close to the climate effect of this.
The logical effect of this would be hot summers and cold winters, because the Earth's thermal blanket neither keeps radiation out, nor keeps it in.
#6
Crosspatch,
As I read the graph, current temps are up 0.18C (0.32F) from "baseline". So even if they weren't using Phil Jones' and James Hansen's numbers, it's still much ado about nothing.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
01/20/2011 20:16 Comments ||
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Watts Up With That had and article here that shows the uncertainty of measurement is much larger than the stated 'anomaly' shoot the UN itself says the plus or minus is .2 degrees, more than the claim on 2010 <:'/
Posted by: abu do you love ||
01/20/2011 20:44 Comments ||
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One year measures weather. You need a minimum of 30 years to measure climate. Show me the data from the last 30 years and how it is causing problems. If not, I've got pressing issues like walking the dog.
#9
yea l0 hottest years except for the coldest winters experienced in the northern hemi lately....
what a croc
anyway: even though the climate probably IS changing, Carbon Dioxide is NOT the cause
ask any geologist
they are the historians of the earth - they see the core samples and know that at various points in earth's history the C02 levels have been far higher and the temperature far cooler than now.
levels of c02 reflect the increased plant / life activity that come AFTER warming
not cause it
and as for human c02 emissions making any difference: one volcanic eruption spews forth more than the entire human production in all of history.
not to mention the thousands of volcanic plumes beneath the sea that are erupting all the time
[The Nation (Nairobi)] The elephants are back. With their numbers rising, an unfailing memory and a dearth of poachers, the animals have put the worst time of their lives in Kenya, the 1980s, behind them.
Their population is galloping along at almost four per cent annually, and has almost outgrown the capacity of the protected areas of Maasai Mara and Amboseli national parks.
Following closely the movements of Lady Lorna and an older elephant called Kiramatian, scientists at the African Centre for Conservation have established that elephants are indeed increasingly venturing out of the protected areas.
Between 2006 and 2010 the researchers put electronic collars on the two elephants to help trace the herd movements. This combined with a trained group of security scouts in the South Rift has seen the animals try to reclaim their old rangelands.
Following the elephant poaching years of the 1980s which dramatically cut the country's population from about 167,000 to 16,000, the government established several protected areas.
The population is now recovering with a national heard of about 35,000 animals.
"Now this creates a new problem. Herds have outgrown the resources in the protected areas and are venturing out," says Jim Nyamu, an elephant researcher with the African Conservation Centre.
The main elephant sanctuaries established then, in the South Rift for example, were the Maasai Mara Game Reserve and the Amboseli National Park both running parallel with the Tanzania border.
In between the two protected enclaves, is an estimated distance of 300 kilometres or approximately 12,000 square kilometres falling within Kajiado County and covering Central, Namanga and Magadi divisions.
"This land belong either to individuals or group ranches and once the elephants spill over, there is bound to be competition for water and pasture. Farm raids will be a frequent occurrence," says Nyamu who has also been in charge of the Trans Border Elephant Project.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2011 00:00 ||
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Important note: The two species of African elephants are very different from peaceful, semi-domestic Indian (Asian) elephants. African elephants can be aggressive and dangerous. And on open ground can be very fast, reaching speeds of 25 mph when angry or scared.
#3
Those damned Republicans and their mid-term election victories; it's all their fault!
Posted by: Mike ||
01/20/2011 11:49 Comments ||
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LOL Mike
Yeah, Sarah Palin created a climate of elephant fertility and rampaging with her outrageous website symbols and her bitter clinging. Plus, Glen Beck has a secret plot to start selling ivory when gold prices go down. Eat your heart out, George Soros.
That being said, I have a shiny quarter for anyone who can hack into Obama's teleprompter and have it play Anonymoose's Flash link during his speech to the next Democratic convention.
[Al Jazeera] The Swiss government has ordered a freeze on all funds held by Tunisia's ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Micheline Calmy-Rey, the country's foreign minister has announced.
At the same time, prosecutors in Tunisia opened an inquiry into the assets of Ben Ali and his extended family, the official TAP news agency reported.
The Tunisian inquiry will reportedly look into possible illegal financial transactions, foreign bank accounts and real estate held by Ben Ali, his wife Leila Trabelsi and other relatives.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... the last political prisoner has been released from jail, a move promised by the so-called "government of national unity."
Wednesday's move by the Swiss government was announced at a cabinet meeting following domestic political pressure as well as legal action taken by Tunisian exiles in Switzerland this week.
"The government decided at its meeting today to freeze any funds in Switzerland of the ex-Tunisian president and his entourage with immediate effect," Calmy-Reys, who currently also holds the rotating Swiss presidency, said.
"Switzerland wants to avoid our financial centre being used to hide funds illegally taken from the populations concerned," she added.
Calmy-Reys said the move was aimed at both preventing any assets that might be in Switzerland from being withdrawn, and ensuring that Tunisia's new authorities would be able to retrieve illicitly taken public assets.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2011 00:00 ||
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Do the keep the funds if they determine Ben Ali should not have had them? I mean, they were not real prompt reconciling their books after WWII.
[Ennahar] Hundreds of villagers in Ain El Hamra, in the municipality of Khemisti, 71 km east of the capital of the province of Tissemsilt have closed the headquarters of the Daira (sub-prefecture) and tried to enter the office of the head of the daïra (sub-prefect), demanding his departure.
The latter has miraculously beat feet from the angry youths protesting against the lack of drinking water for over two months and the dump which disfigures the image of their town. They were also unhappy with the manner he had completed the distribution of social housing.
The Head of Daira of Khemisti decamped aboard his private vehicle to take refuge in the urban security of the Daira, pursued by some protesters.
According to them, he refused to listen to their claims. The mayor tried to calm the angry crowd but couldn't.
Ennahar tried to get in touch with the Secretary General of the Daira but in vain, the latter has also decamped, fearing the wrath of the angry citizens.
The representative of the head of the Daira in response to our question, promise that the claims of the inhabitants will be covered within twenty-four hours. All doors are open to listen to citizens' complaints, he said. But the main demand of the inhabitants was the departure of head of the Daira, threatening to heighten tension in case he remains at his post.
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01/20/2011 00:00 ||
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[Ennahar] A judicial investigation for "illegal acquisition of property" and "illicit financial investments abroad" was opened in Tunisia against ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his family announced Wednesday the official news agency TAP.
The investigation is open for "the illegal acquisition of movable and immovable property", the "illicit offshore investments" and "illegal export of currency," the agency said citing an "authoritative source".
It targets namely the former head of state, his wife Leila Trabelsi, "the brothers and sons in law of Leila Trabelsi, the son and daughters of his brothers."
the Trabelsi Ben Ali clan is accused of having fleeced the country during 23 years.
The ousted president has abandoned the power on Friday and decamped to Soddy Arabia, after a month of popular uprising.
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01/20/2011 00:00 ||
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[Ennahar] Urgent appeals to meet the economic and social difficulties were launched Wednesday at a summit of Arab heads of state in Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt), against a backdrop of concern over Tunisia events and their implications.
"The revolution in Tunisia is not far from what we discuss here," said Secretary General of the vaporous Arab League, Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa, ... who has been head of the vaporous Arab League since about the time Jerry and Dean split up ... at the opening of the summit devoted to economic issues.
"The Arab soul is shattered by poverty, unemployment and the decline in development indicators," he added, stressing the need to achieve "real success" in these areas.
This is the first summit meeting of Arab heads of state since the departure last Friday, under popular pressure, of the Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, after 23 years of reign.
It must confirm a commitment made at the previous Arab economic summit in Kuwait in 2009, to create a fund of two billion dollars to finance small and medium enterprises, particularly to support employment.
The host of this summit in the resort of the Red Sea, Egyptian geriatric President Hosni Mubarak, has not spoken directly about Tunisia, but stressed that the economic and social development had become "an issue for our future, our continuity, and is a requirement for national security."
Arab governments have multiplied in recent days calls for unity and restore stability in Tunisia, bewitching their worries that the events in Tunis spread.
"We follow the efforts of our brothers in Tunisia to come together and overcome this difficult phase" in order to achieve "peace and security," said the Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah.
Several Arab countries-Algeria, Egypt, Mauritania-have experienced in recent days a series of immolation by fire, similar to the gesture of a young Tunisian street vendor mid-December, which marked the beginning of the revolt that overthrew the President Ben Ali.
In several countries, the example of Tunisia "jasmine revolution" has been taken over by the opposition, Sudan, Jordan and Egypt in particular, to demonstrate that authoritarian regimes that dominate the Arab world may give way to the street.
Ten heads of state attending the summit, out of 22 members of the vaporous Arab League. The others are represented by prime ministers or foreign ministers.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2011 00:00 ||
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[Ma'an] Hundreds of Tunisians rallied against their new government Wednesday, as the leadership tried to defuse public anger over the continued power of the former ruling party.
"Ben Ali has gone to Soddy Arabia! The government should go there too," more than 1,000 protesters chanted in central Tunis, referring to former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali who decamped Friday after 23 years of iron-fisted rule.
"We want a new parliament, a new constitution, a new republic! People rise up against the Ben Ali loyalists!" they chanted at the peaceful demonstration.
Some of them waved placards reading: "Down with the RCD!" Ben Ali's Constitutional Democratic Rally party.
An opposition leader who has joined the government as regional development minister told AFP the first cabinet meeting would be held on Thursday but a government front man said the exact date was still up in the air.
An opposition source said the priorities at the cabinet meeting would be to draw up a national amnesty law for victims of the former regime, as well as concrete moves to break up the RCD's stranglehold on organs of state.
The authorities meanwhile eased the timing of a curfew that has been in place for days, saying the security situation had improved, but a state of emergency that bans any public assemblies remained in place.
Traffic was visibly heavier in Tunis and some shops and offices re-opened.
Interim president Foued Mebazaa and Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi on Tuesday quit the RCD, which has dominated Tunisian politics for decades.
But Ghannouchi and seven other ministers from the previous government under Ben Ali held on to their posts including the interior and defense ministries.
"Let's not throw the baby out with the bath water," Tunisia's Le Quotidien daily commented in an editorial that emphasized the new national unity government was temporary and would prepare for democratic elections.
"The resentment is legitimate but it should not transform itself into a blind hatred that blocks the victorious march of the Tunisian people towards liberty," said the independent daily.
"The creation of a national unity government is the only path towards this final victory. The participation of the RCD in this government should not be a source of discord or a stumbling block," it said.
Thousands protested across Tunisia on Tuesday, with police firing tear gas in the centre of Tunis to disperse demonstrations as four ministers pulled out of the government in protest against the RCD just a day after it was announced.
In an apparent bid for political survival, the once all-powerful RCD also officially expelled Ben Ali, who was forced to resign following a wave of protests in which dozens of people were killed.
The tumultuous events in Tunisia -- dubbed the "Jasmine Revolution" -- have inspired dissident across the Arab world and sparked protests in various countries including Algeria, Egypt, Jordan and Egypt.
Ben Ali was the first Arab leader in recent history to quit after protests.
The United States meanwhile welcomed reforms announced by the new government, including media freedoms and the liberation of all political prisoners, but said political change must broaden and deepen.
"Clearly the government has to take steps to meet the aspirations of the Tunisian people.... The interim government is moving in that direction," State Department front man Philip Crowley told news hounds on Tuesday.
"We want to see an open process, significant dialogue between the government and significant groups that want to play a role in Tunisia's future," he added.
UN Secretary General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon called on Tunisia to hold "credible" elections to form a government backed by the whole nation, his front man said.
On Tuesday, two new ministers and a junior minister from Tunisia's main trade union -- a key player in the protests -- announced their withdrawal after the union refused to recognize the government.
The appointed health minister, FDLT leader Mustapha Ben Jaafar, who had yet to be sworn in, also said he would hold off on joining the government. Three opposition leaders including Ben Jaafar were appointed on Monday.
Tunisia's new leadership is due to hold parliamentary and presidential elections in the next six months, although no precise dates have been set. Under the constitution, elections should be held in less than two months.
The banned Islamist Ennahdha (Awakening) movement said it would seek to acquire legal status as a political party to take part in the elections.
One of Ben Ali's fiercest critics, Moncef Marzouki -- who has said he intends to run in the presidential election -- also returned to Tunisia on Tuesday after years of exile in Gay Paree, with emotional scenes at Tunis airport.
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01/20/2011 00:00 ||
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(KUNA) - Acting upon recommendation by Secretary-General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon, the UN Security Council on Tuesday authorized the deployment of additional troops and military equipment to the UN Operation in Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI); allowed UN Special envoy there Choi Yound-Jin to use "all necessary means" to ensure the troops freedom of movement and protect civilians; and expressed readiness to impose targeted sanctions against those who obstruct peace in the country.
Amid reports that the political and security situation in the West African country is still worrisome, the Council authorized additional 2,000 military personnel until June 30 of this year, and the extension by up to one month the temporary redeployment from the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) to UNOCI of three infantry companies, one aviation unit comprised of two military utility helicopters, and three armed helicopters with crews.
The international community has recognized opposition leader Alassane Ouattara as the UN-certified and rightful President of Cote d'Ivoire following the elections last November, and has been trying, in vain, to persuade incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo, who lost those elections, to step down and concede defeat. The Council also urged Gbagbo to lift the ongoing blockade around the Golf Hotel where Ouattara and his government are barricaded and to stop propagating false information about UNOCI and inciting hatred and violence through his radio and television.
Forces loyal to Gbagbo have attacked UN personnel and burned UN vehicles belonging to the 9,100-strong UNOCI which has been supporting efforts over the past seven years to reunify a country split by civil war in 2002 into a government-controlled south and rebel-held north.
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01/20/2011 00:00 ||
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[The Nation (Nairobi)] A group of youths supporting Côte d'Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo on Tuesday attacked UN peacekeepers providing security for Prime Minister Raila Odinga who is the African Union (AU) mediator to the West African state.
Witnesses said the pro-Gbagbo supporters calling themselves "The Youth Patriots" lined up the road leading to Pullman Hotel before Odinga's arrival from the Abidjan airport.
There were reports that UN troops exchanged fire with supporters of Mr Gbagbo on the road leading to Mr Odinga's hotel.
Speaking on phone from Abidjan, Mr Odinga clarified that the attack did not directly target him or his convoy. "That is not correct (that we came under attack)"
He added that he was safe as were the people who accompanied him to Abidjan.
The UN mission in the country condemned "repeated acts of aggression" and confirmed that its soldiers responded with gunfire after coming under attack.
The United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI) said in a statement that a group of young people from Gbagbo's camp on Monday encircled UN forces waiting at a luxury hotel for the arrival of Mr Odinga.
"The armed elements, who were supporting them, opened fired in the direction of the UNOCI vehicles forcing the peacekeepers to respond by shooting in the air," it said.
Gbagbo government front man Ahoua Don told AFP on Monday that the incident, which was in the Plateau area where the strongman is supported, had caused some light injuries although not from the gunfire.
Gbagbo has repeatedly demanded that UN forces leave the country.
The UN Security Council was on Tuesday voting to send 2,000 more soldiers to Côte d'Ivoire, bringing the deployment to about 11,500 troops.
An aide travelling with Mr Odinga's, Mr Salim Lone, described the incident as "a small event" which only gained significance because the PM was expected at the hotel.
He said incidents of Mr Gbagbo's supporters attacking UN peacekeepers are common in Abidjan.
"Youth who gathered when they saw the UN cars had no idea Mr Odinga would be coming to the venue," he said in a telephone interview with Daily Nation.
Mr Lone said both Mr Gbagbo and his rival claimant to the presidency, Mr Alessane Ouattara, warmly received Mr Odinga when they separately met the PM.
Mr Odinga is on his second trip to Abidjan as the AU mediator to try and end the stalemate over disputed presidential elections.
In Nairobi, the director of the PM Press Service, Mr Dennis Onyango said Mr Odinga was still airborne when the incident happened.
"The festivities were part of the growing tension between Mr Gbagbo's supporters and the UN troops, which has led to other festivities in the recent past and may have had nothing to do with Mr Odinga's visit at all.
"The PM landed in Abidjan moments after the incident and was driven to his hotel by UN troops, as has been the case before. He is safely in his hotel and not at a UN facility.
"As has been the case before, he is guarded at the hotel by UN troops."
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01/20/2011 00:00 ||
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[The Nation (Nairobi)] The African Union envoy Mr Raila Odinga was due to leave Côte d'Ivoire Wednesday morning without a deal in the country's post-electoral crisis.
Journalists were told Tuesday afternoon that Mr Odinga would have a presser at 7.30 am (Côte d'Ivoire time) before leaving the country for Ghana.
Earlier a front man for Kenyan Prime Minister Salim Lone told Rooters news agency the mediator was leaving Côte d'Ivoire for Ghana, Burkina Faso and South Africa. "No, he's not given up on this process," Salim Lone also said.
According to sources close to the mediation, after the Tuesday meeting with incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo and his opponent Alassane Ouattara, Mr Odinga was expecting concessions from both men.
Gbagbo's camp accepted to have direct talks with the opposition but refused to remove the blockade of the hotel where Ouattara camp is staying. Mr Ouattara on his part maintained his condition, for Gbagbo to recognise him as president before any negotiation.
The Kenyan premier met some ambassadors in Abidjan Tuesday, being optimistic about talks he had even with the two leaders fighting for Côte d'Ivoire's presidency.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... army chiefs of staff of the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) started a two-day meeting in Mali to discuss plans in case a military intervention is required to remove Mr Gbagbo. According to AFP news agency the bloc's military chiefs would work off a report drawn up in December which envisages Nigeria at the head of a regional intervention force and the deployment of combat troops and attack helicopters.
The report also said that Benin, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mali and Togo are expected to send troops while Niger is uncertain.
"Our preparations are very advanced and we are ready to move into action if necessary and that must be clear," senior Nigerian officer Olusegun Petinrin told AFP.
In another development, the two camps are still fighting for the control on the country resources. In fact, a front man for Gbagbo's government Ahoua Don Mello said Tuesday in a statement that through "various letters" directors of national banks and financial institutions were threatened of sanctions. The government "assured them that all measures would be taken to enable them to conduct their business in peace," the statement added.
Gbagbo's Cabinet also warned the "authors of these threats and all those who are publishing it that the law will be applied in its entire rigour".
Last week the European Union expanded sanctions to companies supporting beleaguered Ivorian leader including some banks and financial groups. The same companies have also been threatened of sanctions by Ouattara's cabinet if they continue to collaborate with Gbagbo's regime.
The opposition premier Guillaume Soro renewed the move Tuesday informing operators of coffee-cocoa and banks not to pay taxes to the "illegitimate government of Mr Gbagbo". All amounts paid under these operations "will be considered not received by the State of Côte d'Ivoire and will remain due", he concluded.
A Saudi man who had a fourth wife decided to divorce the first three in return for an expensive car gifted to him by his new rich spouse.
The first three wives had already felt worried when their 40-year-old husband got a new wealthy wife and decided to give up their low-paid jobs to please him.
Apparently he would have been more pleased if they had gotten high-paying jobs and bought him expensive things.
"But his new wife gave him an expensive car as a present and asked him to get rid of the first three wives...so he divorced them," the online Arabic language daily Kabar said in a report from the eastern province of Ihsa on Wednesday.
"He divorced them all at the same time at the request of his new wife, who works as a doctor....but she denied that she asked him to divorce them as a condition for getting the car...she claimed she knew of the divorce only after it happened."
[Emirates 24/7] Ousted Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has been barred from any political activity relating to his country while he shelters in Soddy Arabia, Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said Wednesday.
"This act (of sheltering Ben Ali) should not lead to any kind of activity in Tunisia from the kingdom... There are conditions, and no act in this regard will be allowed," Faisal told Saudi television.
Soddy Arabia has kept a total blackout on Ben Ali's activities since he landed early on Saturday in the Red Sea city of Jeddah with six members of his family.
In a palace statement, Soddy Arabia said Saturday the move was "out of concern for the exceptional circumstances facing the brotherly Tunisian people and in support of the security and stability of their country."
Ben Ali decamped to Soddy Arabia in disgrace after 23 years of iron-fisted rule following a wave of protests in which dozens of people were killed.
"We support the Tunisian people in reaching their goals," Faisal said in Wenesday's television interview, a transcript of which was published by state news agency SPA.
He said the kingdom had agreed to receive Ben Ali in line with "an old tradition."
"It is not the first time that the kingdom helps someone seeking protection... I do not believe that this affects the Tunisian people and their will, or that it represents an interference in internal affairs," the foreign minister added.
Several other leaders who found refuge in Soddy Arabia in the past were taken under the same conditions.
Until his death in 2003, Uganda's ex-president Idi Amin spent more than two decades in exile in the oil-rich kingdom, while being kept away from politics and the media.
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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier applied for a new passport Wednesday and intends to leave the country when he gets it, a spokesman said, insisting that the ex-strongman can neither be forced to leave his homeland nor compelled to stay and face a potential criminal trial.
Duvalier had been scheduled to leave Thursday but can't because his passport has expired, said spokesman Yves Germain Joseph.
Duvalier also has new legal problems: Michele Montas, a journalist and former UN spokeswoman and Haitian journalist, and several other people persecuted under the former's dictator's regime filed lawsuits against him Wednesday, claiming torture, arbitrary detention and civil rights violations. Montas told Haitian national television that Montas she hoped her suit would educate Haitians too young to know or remember the terror of the dictatorship.
#5
The Serpent and the Rainbow, part II, "The Return of Baby Doc".
The original movie was quite good, with the final scene of him flying out of Haiti right as Baby Doc was overthrown.
Then you could tell the moment when some studio suit walked on to the set and said, "Bo-ring! We need more special effects! And like flying voodoo thingys! And smoke and flame and explosions and stuff!"
So the last five minutes utterly destroyed the movie.
Port-au-Prince - Former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide says he hopes to return to Haiti from exile in South Africa 'in the next coming days,' following the footsteps of another Haitian strongman Jean-Claude Duvalier, who returned Sunday. They could share a cell...
In a letter addressed to the government of South Africa, Aristide - who was escorted out of the country in 2004 amidst an armed uprising - said he wanted 'to contribute to serving my Haitian sisters and brothers as a simple citizen in the field of education.' Ah, yes...a simple teacher.
Aristide's letter was posted Wednesday on the website of the populist leftist political party Fanmi Lavalas, which still names Aristide as its leader. He said he was responding to increased calls from Haiti for his return, and he hoped that the Haitian and South African governments would 'enter into communication in order to make that happen in the next coming days.'
Aristide, 57, said his return was also 'indispensable' for medical reasons, due to six eye operations over the past six years.'It is strongly recommended that I not spend the coming winter in South Africa (due to) the unbearable pain experienced in the winter.' He indicate that a return to Haiti would 'reduce any risk of further complications and blindness.' Yeah, those "brutal South African winters"...
Aristide said he was answering increasing calls for his return.'Since my forced arrival in (South Africa) six and a half years ago, the people of Haiti have never stopped calling for my return to Haiti,' he wrote. Since the deadly earthquake, 'their determination to make the return happen has increased.'
The prospect of two controversial leaders returning home amidst Haiti's year of horrors - a quake that killed more than 220,000, a cholera epidemic that has killed thousands and an unresolved presidential election - has stirred more uncertainty about the fate of the poverty-stricken Caribbean country. Two men enter! One man leaves!
Two men enter! One man leaves!
Aristide's return would be harder than Duvalier's arrival, however, because Haitian authorities have denied him a passport.
[El Universal] A newly created Superintendence of Costs and Prices seeks to control the profits of private companies, said Noel Alvarez, the president of the Venezuelan Federation of Trade and Industry Chambers (Fedecamaras), Venezuela's main business association.
"It appears that the only goal of this agency is to control corporate profits and prices of goods and services," the business leader added.
According to Alvarez, no additional economic controls will boost supply and curb inflation. "As long as actions are taken to discourage supply, as is the case now, there will be less variety of products. In turn, waning supply will result in increased prices of goods and services," he said.
Last Saturday, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez raised the possibility of creating a Superintendence of Costs and Prices within the framework of the enabling law, in order to fight speculation.
The president of Fedecamaras recalled, however, that controls similar to those proposed by Chavez have failed in the past, just like government's price controls are failing now. "With all previous experiences, we dare to say that this measure will fail, just like the Commission on Costs, Prices and Salaries (Conacopresa) did in the past."
The business leader stressed that the government must prepare a plan to encourage domestic production.
"Production in Venezuela should be increased dramatically in order to bring prices of goods and services down. Producers should not be persecuted. On the contrary, entrepreneurs should be supported, so as to galvanize the domestic production apparatus and create goods and services."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
For once, Obama is ahead of Chavez; we already have a guy who can tell private companies what they can pay their managers!
[El Universal] Based on economic figures at the end of 2010, consumption in Venezuela has declined, thus curbing credit card financing and car loans.
In 2010, credit card loans amounted to VEB 26.66 billion (USD 6.20 billion), according to data provided by the Venezuelan Superintendence of Banks. After inflation, this represents a 2 percent fall compared to 2009.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... car loans decline is 22 percent, after inflation.
Even though poor car supply, reduced US dollar quota to make purchases over the Internet, and restricted use of the annual US dollar quota for travels abroad have had a negative influence, the main factor is the declining purchasing power of wages.
Venezuelan households have been seriously hit by the highest inflation in Latin America, as in the last 12 months prices increased dramatically by 27 percent. This surge has not been offset by modest wage increases in the private and public sectors.
In real terms, after inflation, tumbling purchasing power at the end of the third quarter of 2010 amounts to 1.8 percent for workers in the private sector and 15.3 percent for public workers.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Printing money produces nothing but wastepaper.
FRANCE is failing in its duty to protect the Great Hamster of Alsace, "Aye, children! The Great Hamster of Alsace! If you don't clean your room he'll come and gobble you up!"
a cute fur-ball facing extinction with fewer than 200 remaining, the advocate-general of Europe's top court said on yesterday. Usually the way to get more hamsters is to leave a boy hamster and a girl hamster together for 24 hours, then remove the remains of the boy.
"If agro-environmental measures were put in place, in 2008, to protect the Great Hamster, they are incomplete at this stage," Juliane Kokott, a top legal expert at the European Court of Justice, wrote in an opinion. "All you have to do is change the way you farm! What could be simpler?"
The opinion of the advocate-general is not binding, but in most cases the judges in Luxembourg take the same line -- in which case France could land a multi-million-euro fine. Which works out to how much per surviving hamster? And helps the hamsters precisely how? Well, someone has to represent the hamsters to the court! You think that's cheap? Riddle me that one!
The European Commission brought the case, arguing that France has not applied European Union law covering protected species. I'm guessing the lemming is also a protected species?
The hamster, Cricetus cricetus, an animal that hibernates for six months and spends the vast majority of its life alone, Which is why there's only 200 of them...
has been protected legally since 1993 but is now only found in fields around the eastern French city of Strasbourg. All hamsters spend all the time they're not on exercise wheels or eating asleep.
You forgot fighting. Two hamsters in one cage equals lots of time spent trying to disembowel one another while screeching much more loudly than their size would suggest.
Commission figures show its numbers fell from 1,167 in 2001 to as few as 161 in 2007. Sounds like too much time on the exercise wheel and not enough time alone with female beating up the male...
The creature, which can grow to 10 inches (25 centimetres) long, has a brown and white face, a black belly and white paws. If you replaced them with guinea swine would anybody notice the difference? Maybe not even a Great Hamster of Alsace?
Cavies are sweet, loving, placid creatures, who haven't figured out the screeching-while-disembowling game that hamsters so enjoy.
In old times, the paws were much prized by farmers who made them into trinkets. My sainted father used to lug around a rabbit's foot. But I guess it coulda been a Great Hamster Paw.
The preferred grazing of the Great Hamster of Alsace -- forage crops such as alfalfa -- have largely been replaced by the more profitable maize, which it cannot abide. "Yuck. Ptui. Corn. I guess I'll just lay down and go extinct."
France has previously given subsidies to farmers to grow alfalfa or wheat, but the commission wants it to do more. It's really great living in an age when this is a major problem. When it comes down to choices among the Black Death, cholera, smallpox, Napoleon Bonaparte, Hitler, and the Great Hamster of Alsace, I'll go with the Great Hamster.
#1
Given that it's also called the "Common Hamster" and is insanely prevalent in places which ain't the fields around Strausburg, I think somebody's gone utterly mad.
The critter is endangered only in the fevered imagination of Brussels visionaries.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
01/20/2011 15:22 Comments ||
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#2
There is a simple, and very French solution: give Alsace back (again/whatever) to Germany.
#4
Actually although most Alsatians are pro-French and oftern quite nationalistic most Alsatian cities and villages have distinctly Germanic names (in fact it is the cities founded prior to the annexation by France). Most funny is in the Sarre region whre Sarrebruck is French while Sarrelouis is German.
#6
Sent the link to my Dad, who spent part of the Cold War in the 68th Strategic Missile Squadron. He's got a few amusing stories about what goes on down in the launch centers. Like the PA gurgle test....
Posted by: Silentbrick - Lost Drill Bit Division - Halliburton ||
01/20/2011 15:09 Comments ||
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#8
According to my Dad, one of the senior Missile Launch Officers would call one of the newbies at the wee hours of the morning and inform them it was time for a PA gurgle test. This would be done in a deadpan serious tone, as if it's one of the normal routines. The fresh-faced officer would be directed to flush the toilet and count the number of gurgles it made during the flushing cycle and duly report this back to the S-MLO. My Dad they had one poor guy doing this for hours.
The only story he told about them trying something on him was where they'd unscrewed part of the alarm panel, hidden an old two bell alarm clock set for 3-4 am and put the panel back. He said he went over and listened a moment, then got a screwdriver and took it apart. This does fit his character, given he took apart his mother's washing machine to make a centrifuge that wound up being unbalanced and sent a flying two by four through the garage window. Lucky for the mice in the cage on the end, the acceleration of being spun around had already killed them. Needless to say, his idea of a science fair project involving mice living in high gravity had to be replaced.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Lost Drill Bit Division - Halliburton ||
01/20/2011 16:01 Comments ||
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#9
Silentbrick: Best Science-fare project ever.
Posted by: Charles ||
01/20/2011 17:46 Comments ||
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AHMED PUR LAMA: A 5-year-old girl and seven-year-old boy were hospitalised after a madrassa cleric beat them for not learning their lessons properly.
Ahmed Pur Lama Police has registered a case on the complaint of the children's parents.
According to the police, F-21 resident Muhammad Iqbal submitted an application with the police stating that his five-year-old daughter, Amna Bibi, and a seven-year-old boy, Fahad Qadri, were beaten up with a chair by their teacher, Shehzad. Both children were severely injured as a result.
They were taken to the DHQ Hospital, where doctors said that Amna had broken the bones of her right hand and Fahad had cut his head.
The two children had been beaten by cleric, Syed Rehman Shehzad, because they had failed to memorise their lessons properly, according to the parents.
"When we questioned him, he said that the children had not learned a dua properly and that they deserved to be punished for mispronouncing Arabic verses," Iqbal said. The cleric showed no remorse over the incident according to medical officials, who said that they had accompanied the children's parents to question him. Ahmed Pur Lama Police have registered a case against Shehzad.
According to numerous reports, beating is the standard teaching technique. Using a chair is a bit more extreme than the traditional tools: hands and sticks.
Reminds me of my third grade teacher, Sister Mary Emasculata. She wielded a mean yardstick...
Posted by: john frum ||
01/20/2011 00:00 ||
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[Straits Times] THE Myanmar junta has been committing abuses in a remote state that need a crimes against humanity investigation, an international rights group said on Wednesday.
The Physicians for Human Rights group trained volunteers to survey hundreds of families in Chin state, many of whom said relatives had been killed, raped or forced into slave labour.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu, the anti-apartheid campaigner, and former International Criminal Court prosecutor Richard Goldstone called the results of the survey 'devastating' as they joined a call made in the report for an international inquiry into alleged crimes of humanity across Myanmar.
Physicians for Human Rights issued its report ahead of a review of Myanmar's record by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva next week. Demands for an international commission of inquiry have eased since Myanmar's election in November, which was dominated by pro-junta parties, and the later release of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
But the US-based group, which shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for its work in the international campaign to ban landmines, said the election had not 'addressed the suffering' of the Myanmar people. Its 'Life Under The Junta' report said that Myanmar's 'authoritarian system, with all the harm it has generated remains intact' and ethnic minorities like the Chin have faced 'particularly brutal treatment under military rule'.
The survey, carried out between October 2009 and November 2010, interviewed 621 families across Chin state, which is on the border with India. Physicians for Human Rights said it was the first detailed study of its kind. Crimes committed in Chin state 'include murder, rape, torture, group persecution and other inhumane acts,' said the report.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2011 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.
[Emirates 24/7] 
[The Nation (Nairobi)] A regular policeman and an Administration Police officer's wife collapsed and died in what is believed to be excessive consumption of chang'aa in Nyamira district.
[The Nation (Nairobi)] The elephants are back. With their numbers rising, an unfailing memory and a dearth of poachers, the animals have put the worst time of their lives in Kenya, the 1980s, behind them.
[Ennahar] A judicial investigation for "illegal acquisition of property" and "illicit financial investments abroad" was opened in Tunisia against ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his family announced Wednesday the official news agency TAP.
[Ma'an] Hundreds of Tunisians rallied against their new government Wednesday, as the leadership tried to defuse public anger over the continued power of the former ruling party.
