[The Nation (Nairobi)] Burundi's police on Friday foiled a demonstration planned to demand justice for an assassinated anti-corruption activist and tossed in the slammer two would-be protesters.
The demonstration had been organised to commemorate the second anniversary of the killing of Ernest Manirumva, a former deputy of the central African country's Olucome corruption watchdog. He was stabbed to death in 2009.
"We don't understand why the regime is preventing us from marching to demand justice for the third time in a year.
"It is a right enshrined in the constitution," Pacifique Nininahazwe, who heads a civil society group, said.
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[Arab News] UN peacekeepers have surrounded the "last defenders" of Ivory Coast incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo, ... President-for-Life of Ivory Coast since 2000. Gbagbo lost to Alassane Ouattara in 2010 but his representtive tore up the results on the teevee and Laurent refused to leave despite the international community's hemming, hawing, and broad hints... La Belle France said on Thursday, after a week of heavy fighting ... as opposed to the more usual light or sporadic fighting... to unseat him.
Forces loyal to rival presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara have been waging an offensive in Abidjan to topple Gbagbo, who has refused to cede power after losing last November's election to Ouattara, according to results certified by the United Nations. ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
"At this moment the military situation is as follows; the UNOCI (United Nations mission in Ivory Coast) troops have surrounded in a limited area the last defenders of the previous president Gbagbo," French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet told the French Senate on Thursday.
A United Nations front man in Abidjan told Rooters that the United Nations had sent forces into the Cocody neighborhood, where Gbagbo is believed to be holed up in his heavily defended compound, but did not plan to intervene.
"We have sent a patrol to Cocody and the surrounding area, but it is not to intervene," UN front man Hamadoun Toure told Rooters by telephone. "I am not aware that Ouattara has requested our intervention at this stage."
Ouattara's envoy to the United Nations, Youssoufou Bamba, said on Thursday he expected the standoff to be over soon, adding that Ouattara might within days end a ban on cocoa exports which he imposed in January to squeeze Gbagbo's access to funds. Ivory Coast is the world's leading cocoa producer.
"The standoff will be over very soon," he told a news conference in New York. "No negotiation."
Earlier, French forces hit military vehicles belonging to troops loyal to Gbagbo during a helicopter-borne mission that rescued Japan's ambassador to the West African country.
The French went in overnight after Gbagbo soldiers broke into the Japanese residence, where ambassador Yoshifumi Okamura and seven of his staff had taken shelter in a safe room, French armed forces front man Thierry Burkhard said.
Bamba said on Thursday India's ambassador to Ivory Coast was also being evacuated, while Israel and the United States had asked for help with evacuations.
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[Al Jazeera] Forces loyal to Cote d'Ivoire incumbent Laurent Gbagbo ... President-for-Life of Ivory Coast since 2000. Gbagbo lost to Alassane Ouattara in 2010 but his representtive tore up the results on the teevee and Laurent refused to leave despite the international community's hemming, hawing, and broad hints... have regained ground in Abidjan and fully control the upscale Plateau and Cocody areas, UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy said on Friday.
Le Roy said that Gbagbo's forces, under attack by those of internationally recognised President Alassane Ouattara, had used a lull for peace talks that began on Tuesday as a "trick" to reinforce their positions. They still had heavy weapons, though UN and French forces had destroyed some of them, Le Roy told news hounds after briefing the UN Security Council.
"We have seen heavy weapons to be transferred to the Cocody area, including this morning," he said.
Gbagbo forces were just one kilometre from the hotel headquarters of internationally recognised president Alassane Ouattara, Le Roy said.
"While we speak they may be very close to the Golf Hotel," he said.
Al Jizz's Haru Mutasa, reporting from Abidjan, said she had heard gunfire and helicopters from the direction of Cocody throughout the day.
The Constitutional Council declared Gbagbo the winner of the November 28 president election after nullifying earlier results that showed Ouattara emerging with the most votes, but the international community, including the United Nations, ...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involve making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country... has recognised Ouattara and is working to oust Gbagbo.
The fighting between the two sides has raged throughout Cote d'Ivoire and in Abidjan, the country's commercial capital, where both Gbagbo and Ouattara currently reside - Gbagbo in a bunker, Ouattara in the posh but heavily guarded hotel.
Reports of extreme violence have emerged in recent days. The Catholic charity Caritas on Sunday said that more than 1,000 civilians had been killed in the town of Duekoue and blamed Ouattara's troops for the violence. Since Friday, UN forces have found more than 100 bodies in several towns - some burned alive and others thrown down wells.
In Abidjan, Gbagbo has remained defiant in the face of increasing pressure. French and UN helicopters have attacked his presidential palace, where Gbagbo is staying with his wife, while Gbagbo's troops reportedly attacked the residence of the French ambassador, though a front man for the embattled leader denied that such an attack had occurred.
His RTI television also came back on the air Friday and broadcasted an appeal for support.
"The regime of Gbagbo is still in place, a strong mobilisation is required by the population," it said.
Gbagbo is believed to be defended by a force of around 1,000 presidential guard troops and youth militiamen.
Their possible advance led diplomats from 23 countries to ask UN and French forces for help evacuating. The United Nations said that Indian, South Korean, South African and Israeli diplomats had been moved away in armoured personnel carriers with military escorts.
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[Arab News] Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh has strongly warned against maltreating women in any form and said this is totally against Islam. Of course, "women" has a rather strict definition, as does "mistreatment."
In his Friday sermon at Imam Turki bin Abdullah Mosque in Riyadh, the mufti said only bad people treat women badly. "The psychological or physical abuse of wives, daughters and sisters is against the Islamic Shariah and the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad ((PTUI!))," he said. "Foreign women, especially infidels, are fair game!"
Al-Asheikh warned husbands and fathers who take the salaries of their wives and daughters that they are committing anti-Islamic acts. "The fathers who make it a condition to have their daughters' salaries before they give their consent for marriage are equally wrong. Husbands who force their working wives to share in home expenses are committing erroneous acts. Islam made it the responsibility of the man to spend on the house," he told the worshippers. "On the other hand, any infidel servants can be treated as you please, even to the extent of driving nails into them, and there is no obligation to pay them."
The mufti also said it is haram (forbidden in Islam) when husbands ask their wives who request divorce to return the dowry before they consent to divorce. He also said burdening women with bank loans and letting them suffer the payment of installments is equally haram.
The mufti said polygamy, which is allowed by Islam under the condition of being just and fair, is not a loose right. "The first wife should have all her rights," he said.
He also warned against relying on matchmakers who draw a bright picture of the groom who may turn out in the end to be an unethical and irresponsible man. "Matchmakers should convey a true picture of the groom and the bride," he said.
The mufti asked people to make the Prophet a role model in his treatment of women, citing a number of Hadiths that the Prophet never maltreated women. "The Prophet was completely refined in the treatment of his wives, daughter and other Mohammedan women," he said. "Infidels were a different story entirely."
The Prophet has said: "The best of you are the best to their wives; and I am the best to my wives."
The Ministry of Social Affairs has toll free telephone numbers in several cities and towns for women to report cases of violence against them.
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04/09/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Well. Glad we have that sorted out then.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/09/2011 7:44 Comments ||
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It's not abuse, it's how he expresses his love and desire for her to be as perfect as he believes her to be.
[Bangla Daily Star] Some 60 individuals, many associated with Awami League and BNP, have made fortunes through stockmarket manipulations, found the probe into the recent share debacle. Bangla, keep in mind, is only the 134th most corrupt of 178 countries surveyed in 2010.
Many of them can be tried under the existing laws of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Khondkar Ibrahim Khaled, who headed the probe, told The Daily Star yesterday.
He also said the government can publish the report including the names mentioned. This view runs counter to that of the finance minister, who said he would not make the names public until he is convinced about the allegations.
Arguing for disclosure, Khaled said in many cases suspects' names are published on the basis of first information report.
He, however, stressed the need for detailed investigations to bring them to trial.
The committee has warned the government high-ups against the influence of market players like pro-AL business tycoon Salman F Rahman and former DSE president Rakibur Rahman.
"The government must stay watchful so that Salman, Rakibur and other top market players cannot influence policymaking or appointments to the SEC through recommendations or lobbying," said Khaled.
During the two-month investigation, the committee had talked to over 500 traders including all members of Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges, and also journalists, professors and researchers.
"We got the impression after talking to people," said Khaled, also chairman of Bangladesh Krishi Bank.
He said though the committee has named the individuals as suspects, there are strong grounds for the allegations. The SEC, however, has to conduct further investigation.
"In the report, we have detailed how the regulator should conduct investigation," Khaled said. "It [SEC] has to be completely restructured and its current leadership removed."
Khaled's comments came a day after the four-member committee submitted its 320-page report to Finance Minister AMA Muhith.
The probe body also found involvement of opposition-linked influential businessmen and traders in the stockmarket debacle.
It observed that the SEC will remain ineffective and exposed to manipulations as long as the market players are able to influence the regulator.
The committee said Salman and Rakibur were named as suspects also in the probe report on the stock manipulation in 1996.
The investigation into the recent bourse debacle found their roles to be under widespread public suspicion.
There have been allegations that the two influenced the SEC and lobbied for the appointment of Ziaul Haque Khandaker as SEC chairman and reappointment of Mansur Alam as SEC member.
Salman lobbied the Bangladesh Bank governor to soften the central bank's stance on BD-Thai Aluminium that had been involved in money laundering, said the report.
Besides, he had links with overpricing of shares and overvaluation of assets of GMG Airlines and Unique Hotel, it said.
Salman and Rakibur exerted undue influence on the SEC and tarnished the government's image in the process, the report said.
When contacted, Salman, now in London, said he would return home soon and go through the probe report.
"Whatever I did in the stockmarket had the approval of the SEC," said the influential businessman.
He could not find any reason why the probe committee has warned the government about him.
"I will look into the matter on my return home," he said.
Rakibur, a DSE director, has denied the allegation of influencing the SEC in any way.
"I have no power to influence the SEC. Is there any proof that I influenced it?" he questioned.
The probe has found instances of fraudulence in omnibus accounts. It traced existence of several lakh shadow accounts that had been used as tools for trickery.
But the committee could not look into them properly for lack of adequate time. It however sampled some accounts and examined them.
The report said the shadow accounts shown as omnibus accounts with merchant banks did not reflect deposits and withdrawals properly.
Some of the accounts belong to former BNP politician Mosaddeq Ali Falu, Unique Hotel and Resorts Ltd, former Awami League politician HBM Iqbal, Muniruddin Ahmad, Roksana Amjad, Golam Mostafa, Ahsan Imam, Yakub Ali Khandaker, New England Equity Ltd, Md Lutfar Rahman (Badol) and Shoma Alam Rahman.
Khaled said: "Trading through beneficiary owner accounts had been transparent in the secondary market, thanks to Central Depository Bangladesh Ltd. But suspicious trading had been done from omnibus accounts."
These omnibus accounts must be examined after reforming the SEC, said the former deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank.
The committee recommended that the government turn these omnibus accounts into beneficiary owners (BO) accounts, otherwise the SEC would block them.
When the stockmarket was on a bullish run, some individual accounts showed high levels of transaction. The individuals include Golam Mostafa, Abu Sadat Md Sayem, Yakub Ali Khandaker, Syed Sirajuddoula, Md Kholiluzzaman, Md Shahidullah, Arifur Rahman, and Shoma Alam Rahman, said the report.
The then SEC Member Mansur Alam had a pivotal role in legitimising the irregularities. The chairman is also responsible for the wrongdoing, as the commission's approval could not come without his consent, said the report.
Executive directors Anwarul Kabir Bhuiyan and Tariquzzaman were at fault for supporting the chairman and the SEC member. Many SEC officials took undue advantage under the shelter of these four brass hats, according to the report.
"SEC Chairman Ziaul Haque Khandaker and executive directors Anwarul Kabir Bhuiyan and Tariquzzaman should be removed from the SEC and Mansur Alam should be investigated for irregularities," the report said.
The government has cancelled the contractual appointment of Mansur for his involvement in irregularities.
The probe found that Roksana Akter, wife of Anwarul Kabir Bhuiyan, traded shares worth a huge sum from her four accounts in a breach of SEC rules.
Bhuiyan, however, claimed he was unaware of his wife's involvement in share business.
"My wife is not financially dependent on me. She might be involved in stock business," he said.
Khaled said the SEC rules bar wife, children, parents or dependents of SEC officials from getting involved in share business.
Continued on Page 49
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[Bangla Daily Star] In a clash between police and BNP activists some 40 people including 12 copperswere maimed in Shakta union of Keraniganj on the outskirts of the capital yesterday.
To bring the situation under control, the law enforcers fired 25 rubber bullets and hurled 20 teargas canisters, said Assistant Superintendent of Police Mohammad Faruque Hossain.
Keraniganj police said local BNP leader Amanullah Aman and his several hundred followers around 5:30pm gathered at Shikaritola blocking the road to hold a rally of Shakta union BNP activists. The crowd caused traffic congestion in the area.
As the police tried to remove the crowd from the road, the BNP activists started throwing brickbats at them, said witnesses. They also damaged two vehicles including a police vehicle.
Chase and counter-chase also took place between the police and the activists of the main opposition. During the hour-long clash, Aman and some other leaders took shelter at the local BNP office.
Of the injured, two were rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital and the others received treatment at local hospitals and clinics.
Officer-in-Charge Mohammad Asaduzamman of Keraniganj Police Station said 15 people were picked for assaulting coppers.
Aman told news hounds after the incident that some 200 BNP activists were maimed in the incident.
Some BNP activists alleged that local ruling party activists also attacked them during the clash.
The programme was announced earlier and as part of the arrangement, several arches were built five-six days ago, said party sources. Two days ago Awami League activists took down some of the arches.
Yesterday's attack on them was planned and it was made to foil the rally, party sources claimed. They were supposed to form a convening committee in the rally, they said.
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A top Kremlin official has told the United States Russia wants "red button" rights to a new US-backed missile defence system for Europe, a move that would allow it to influence the shield's day-to-day operational use.
President Obama is in the White House. He might say yes, so why not ask?
#3
"Red Button" Rights = a polite, PCorrrect-Deniable way of saying of RUSSIA GETS TO SHUT DOWN ANY EACH + ALL BMD MISSLE INTERCEPTORS - ANYWHERE, ANYTIME, POST-LAUNCH OR ON-THE-PAD, ETC.
Once again shows that Moscow does consider US GMD-TMD as "destabilizing" even iff they don't want to publicly admit it.
ROME -- Italy and France agreed on Friday to carry out joint sea and air patrols to prevent Tunisian migrants from arriving in Italy, a move that appeared to ease tensions between them over how to contend with thousands of North African colonists who have landed in Italy since January. Do or become a ME muslim cesspool.
Italian officials boarded a boat filled with migrants in a port of the Italian island of Lampedusa.
Cede Lampedusa to Tunisia. Problem solved.
Thousands of North African migrants, mostly from Tunisia, have landed in Italy since January.
"We agreed on the need to develop a joint action between Italy and France on certain issues," Mr. Maroni said. He added that both countries would "take initiatives to block the departure of illegal migrants from Tunisia."
Since unrest began in Tunisia in December, leading to the overthrow of the president in January, more than 20,000 migrants have arrived on the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa. But when the island became overwhelmed, Italy began moving them to District Nine makeshift tent camps on the mainland. Many have easily escaped by design and crossed the border into France.
The issue has underscored strains in the European Union over the application of the Schengen agreement, which loosens border controls among the union's 27 member nations, except Britain and Ireland. It also comes at a time when the domestic politics of both Italy and France are being shaped by parties with strong anti-immigrant agendas: the National Front in France and Italy's Northern League, of which Mr. Maroni is a member.
[Arab News] Turkey's government sparred with the military on Thursday amid tension over the trials of retired and active military officers and other alleged coup plotters, some of whom have been in jail for years. Turkey's military is not a good military to spar with.
This week, top prosecutors investigating the alleged plots by hard-line secularists against the Islam-based government were replaced in what analysts saw as an effort to restore confidence in the judiciary's handling of the cases.
Hundreds of people, including military figures, academics and journalists, are accused of involvement in conspiracies to topple the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which seeks a third term in elections in June.
Around 400 people, including some of Erdogan's fiercest critics, have been on trial since 2008, charged with terrorism as part of an alleged anti-government network called Ergenekon. Oz accused them of trying to pave the way for a takeover in 2003 through attacks designed to create chaos and trigger a military takeover.
Another 163 retired and active military officers were also tossed in the clink on suspicion of plotting a separate coup in a case known as Sledgehammer. The military, perpetrator of coups in the past, says the case is based on documents presented to a military seminar where scenarios of how to handle internal strife were discussed.
On Wednesday, the military criticized decisions to keep more than 100 active duty officers tossed in the clink pending the outcome of the trial, saying it could not understand the lengthy detentions. The statement on the military's website drew sharp rebukes from ruling party officials, who accused the armed forces of interfering with the independence of the judiciary.
"Court decisions may not be to everyone's liking," Huseyin Celik, a politician with the Justice and Development Party, said Thursday. "However, The emphatic However... if an armed organization reacts and makes an official statement, this amounts to interference in the judiciary." Parliament Speaker Mehmet Ali Sahin made similar remarks, according to Turkey's Anatolia news agency.
"So shut up!"
Supporters of the coup plot trials hail them as a pillar of democratic reform, an opportunity to unveil an alleged network of armed Orcs and similar vermin with links to the state who targeted perceived enemies over the decades. The cases highlight the gulf between the government, which has a strong electoral mandate, and opponents who alleged a government bid to muzzle dissent and undermine secular principles.
International observers initially welcomed the trials as a step toward transparency and accountability, but have grown increasingly uneasy at the long detentions of suspects without a verdict as well as concerns about freedom of expression in media reports on the cases.
The shakeup of prosecutors came after two investigative journalists, Ahmet Sik and Nedim Sener, were tossed in the clink for links to the Ergenekon. Turkish and international media groups denounced the arrests, and the West raised concerns about free expression in Turkey.
"There were so many flaws in the way the cases were being handled," said political commentator Cuneyt Ulsever. "The journalists' cases were the drops that caused the glass to overflow." President Abdullah Gul, a close ally of Erdogan, has also expressed concern about how perceptions about the trials are hurting Turkey's image. Other government officials have acknowledged the trials are moving slowly, although they have also said the cases are a matter for the judiciary.
In such a highly charged political atmosphere, however, many analysts doubt the trials can be conducted entirely free of influence from Turkey's power structures.
In the judiciary's shakeup, lead prosecutor Zekeriya Oz, who had investigated the Ergenekon case from its inception several years, was transferred to the position of deputy chief prosecutor in Istanbul. Although a promotion, the new job effectively removes him from the coup plot investigations.
He was replaced Tuesday by Cihan Kansiz, a prosecutor who has led high-profile investigations, including that of the 2007 murder of ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, and prosecutions of leftist Islamic fascistiaccused of terrorism.
Oz's deputy was also replaced.
Nihat Ali Ozcan, a political analyst at the Economic Policy Research Institute in Ankara, said Oz had become a polarizing figure but doubted that the new appointments would lead to a significant change in the course of the trials.
"The foundations have already been laid by Oz," he said.
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[The Nation (Nairobi)] Rich and poor nations were on Friday close to agreeing on a roadmap for UN climate negotiations this year, but only after long-running feuds flared over who would do the most to tackle global warming.
The four days of talks had an apparently modest main goal of sorting out an agenda for the rest of the year's negotiations, which would lay the foundations for agreements at an annual UN climate summit in South Africa in November.
But delegates were forced into intense and long debates as poor countries demanded a greater focus on actions rich countries must take, particularly over cutting the greenhouse gas emissions that are blamed for global warming.
"There have been several days of honest, very straight forward talks among countries on what is the task ahead," UN climate chief Christiana Figueres told news hounds in the early evening before a final workplan had been agreed upon.
"It's a very important discussion, (so) it is not surprising that parties are still in that heated discussion."
Many delegates came to Bangkok with a sense of cautious optimism after rich and poor nations made a series of compromises to achieve breakthroughs at the last annual summit in the Mexican resort city of Cancun in December.
But the Cancun agreements focused mainly on the easiest steps to be taken, and the harder issues immediately flared when delegates began meeting on Tuesday.
"This year will be more difficult... the power struggle is back," La Belle France's ambassador for climate change negotiations, Serge Lepeltier, told AFP.
The talks began on Tuesday with poor nations demanding that rich ones agree to a second round of legally binding greenhouse gas emission reduction commitments.
A Green Climate Fund was established that aims to channel $100 billion annually from rich countries to poor ones to help them cope with climate change by 2020.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
"The Power Struggle is back" > iff GUAM-WESTPAC, + US-WORLD, are wondering how COMET APHOPHIS 2029/30-2036 could possibly accidentally slam into the MOON, WELL WONDER NO MORE!
My fellow Americans = Amerikans of the OWG Mighty-USSA-versus-OWG-Weak-USRoA.
And like the loyal Space Rock that it is, APOPHIS is NOT a SOLAR STORM NOR A "PEAK OIL/RESOURCE" ENGINEER, ETC.
A futuristic laser mounted on a speeding cruiser successfully blasted a bobbing, weaving boat from the waters of the Pacific Ocean -- the first test at sea of such a gun and a fresh milestone in the Navy's quest to retrofit the fleet with a host of laser weapons, the Navy announced Friday.
"We were able to have a destructive effect on a high-speed cruising target," said chief of Naval research Rear Adm. Nevin Carr.
The test occurred Wednesday near San Nicholas Island, off the coast of Central California in the Pacific Ocean test range, from a laser gun mounted onto the deck of the Navy's self-defense test ship, former USS Paul Foster.
In a video of the event, the small boat can be seen catching fire and ultimately bursting into flames, a conflagration caused by the navy's distant gun. Some details of the event were classified, including the exact range of the shot, but Carr could provide some information: "We're talking miles, not yards," Carr said.
"This is the first time a [high-energy-laser], at these power levels, has been put on a Navy ship, powered from that ship and used to defeat a target at-range in a maritime environment," said Peter Morrison, program officer for the Office of Naval Research.
The weapon, called the maritime laser demonstrator, was built in partnership with Northrop Grumman. It focused 15 kilowatts of energy by concentrating it through a solid medium -- hence the name.
"To begin to address a cruise missile threat, we'd need to get up to hundreds of kilowatts," Carr said.
The Navy is working on just such a gun of course.
Called the FEL -- for free-electron laser, which doesn't use a gain medium and is therefore more versatile -- it was tested in February consuming a blistering 500 kilovolts of energy, producing a supercharged electron beam that can burn through 20 feet of steel per second.
The FEL will easily get into the kilowatt power range. It can also be easily tuned as well, to adjust to environmental conditions, another reason it is more flexible than the fixed wavelength of solid-state laser. But the Navy doesn't expect to release megawatt-class FEL weapons until the 2020s; among the obstacles yet to be overcome, the incredible power requirements of the FEL weapons require careful consideration.
#1
Meanwhile, SUPER-AEGIS is repor selling like hotcakes, being in mucho demand by international seekers + buyers.
* ION DEFENCE.PK.FORUMS > [Retired JSDF VADM] FAR EAST GOING BALLISTIC.
ARTIC = Friend andor Foe, East Asia is going NOT-LADY-GAGA oer Mil Buildups + new inter-State(s)Defense-Security coops + alliances. JAPAN CAN NO LONGER BE ON THE SIDELINES, ESPEC AS PER GROWING REGIONAL DOUBTS OER US MILPOL RELIABILITY.
#2
And That-Guy-from-Guam sill has not received his much-beloved, much-deserved Hoagies from DARPA, JPL - the Fed must still be love wid SOLYENT GREEN.
DARPA wants to put your strategic savviness to real military use by integrating its Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) configurations into the sub-hunting simulator game Dangerous Waters. Download and play the game, and your tactical prowess may just be implemented into ACTUV's prototype software.
DARPA's ACTUV program aims to develop new tools for anti-submarine warfare that include unmanned autonomous ocean-going vessels that can track quiet submarines hiding in the depths. But in order to figure out what tactics work (and don't work) for their ACTUV software, they need to test a variety of maneuvers and sub-hunting configurations in naval scenarios.
That's where the crowdsourcing comes in. At the end of each round, the software will ask if you want to send your game data to DARPA for analysis--and for possible use in the crafting of ACTUV's software brain, once it is developed. Corner the crafty AI sub commander, and your data could inform a future line of defense against threats from the deep.
#3
At the end of each round, the software will ask if you want to send your game data to DARPA for analysis--and for possible use in the crafting of ACTUV's software brain
Very smart. DARPA wants to use large numbers of human decisions (the successful ones) to program their ASW neural net.
h/t Gates of Vienna
A group of African students whose college tuitions are being paid by the U.S. government yesterday received a boost of additional funds to continue their educations -- and an executive from the private contractor coordinating the program just happens to be the wife of a senior Obama administration official, WND has learned.
According to a document uncovered by officials with T-RAM, the U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor blog, during a routine search of a federal contracting database, the U.S. Agency for International Development under the current initiative has already spent nearly $2.1 million to send 16 students from the southeast African nation of Malawi to colleges in their homeland as well as in the U.S. and Kenya.
Because the final "task order" of the contract is set to expire in May -- and since USAID says it is not finished fully training the Malawian students -- the agency has granted a $650,000 "bridge" contract to the Vermont-based organization World Learning.
The single-source, one-year award will enable the students to complete their degree programs, prevent damage to the reputation of the U.S. and will help USAID to avoid tens of thousands of dollars in expenses stemming from additional airfare and other logistical costs, USAID says.
World Learning's senior vice president for international development and exchange programs is Carol Jenkins. The group on its website touts that under Jenkins' leadership, "the unit has seen revenue increase by 14 percent with continued anticipated growth."
Jenkins is the wife of Robert Jenkins, director of the USAID Office of Transition Initiatives within the agency's Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance.
#1
I have always said USAID would be the first budget cut I would make! They are a black hole for US taxes!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
04/09/2011 8:52 Comments ||
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#2
USAID has been turned into a gigantic slush fund that is used to fund the leftist agenda overseas. W. Bush demanded that they not use their money to fund abortion under the name of "family planning", so they still fund abortion, often government coerced abortion and sterilization, under the name of "reproductive health services".
They are just as much on the chopping block as is NPR, so expect to see a lot more stories about "all the good things that USAID does".
#3
and an executive from the private contractor coordinating the program just happens to be the wife of a senior Obama administration official, WND has learned.
Simply 'community organizing' on an international level.
#5
Careful Pan; somebody might think your reference to a black hole concerning USAID to African students to be racist. i happen to think ANY aid outside our borders to those that don't tow our line is a black hole and should be cut off.
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.
Laurent Gbagbo,
Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh
[Arab News] Turkey's government sparred with the military on Thursday amid tension over the trials of retired and active military officers and other alleged coup plotters, some of whom have been in jail for years.
[The Nation (Nairobi)] Rich and poor nations were on Friday close to agreeing on a roadmap for UN climate negotiations this year, but only after long-running feuds flared over who would do the most to tackle global warming.
"It's a very important discussion, (so) it is not surprising that parties are still in that heated discussion."
"This year will be more difficult... the power struggle is back," 
