[Daily Nation (Kenya)] La Belle France's ambassador to Liberia is struggling to clear his name in a sex scandal involving street girls.
The diplomat has, through Press statement, asked the Liberian Foreign ministry to take "necessary actions" against journalists he accused of publishing "false and misleading information" about him, regarding his alleged involvement in a sex scandal that could cause a rift between Monrovia and Gay Paree.
The ambassador is accused of sexually enslaving two Liberian girls whom he met at a popular local entertainment centre called 'Red Lion' in Monrovia.
A few of Monrovia's dailies on Monday and Tuesday reported that the two Liberian girls had alleged that the ambassador had hired them for $400 but failed to pay the full amount after an advance of $100.
"As a diplomat representing another country, this is damaging to my private life and my work as ambassador," the ambassador said at a presser in Monrovia on Wednesday. Prostitution is illegal in the West African country.
The French Embassy in Monrovia, following repeated calls for clarification, said in an official reaction to the alleged sex scam that the ambassador had reported the matter to the ministries of Justice, Information and Foreign Affairs and was expecting the authorities to quickly institute an investigation into the matter.
"This is grave and it affects the dignity of a human being, the private life of the ambassador, but also the image of the Republic of La Belle France, an image voluntarily being damaged by some journalists for reasons best known to themselves," the embassy statement released on Tuesday said.
"First of all, the name of the ambassador of La Belle France is not Jacques Gerard as claimed by the papers, as Jacques Gerard was my predecessor and he left in August 2009," it added.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2012 00:00 ||
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A GERMAN couple and their child drowned in a tourist submarine accident overnight off Egypt's Red Sea resort town of Hurghada, security officials told AFP.
The victims were a German man, his wife and child, they said. Thirteen other tourists of different nationalities were rescued.
Egyptian state television said a preliminary tourism police investigation found that the submarine had collided with a coral reef, shattering a glass partition and filling the vessel with water. "I told you not to open the window!"
...over the space of 33 years, so it wasn't real obvious... [An Nahar] Mediator, a drug licensed for use by diabetics that became widely prescribed in France as a slimming aid, "probably" caused at least 1,300 deaths before it was withdrawn, a study published on Thursday said.
Mahmoud Zureik of the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm), who co-led the probe, told Agence France Presse that around 3,100 people had required hospitalization during the 33 years during which the drug was sold.
However, these figures could well be an "underestimate," he said.
The study, appearing in the specialized journal Pharmacoepidemiology & Drug Safety, fine tunes an estimate by Zureik in 2010 that the death toll from the scandal was between 1,000 and 2,000.
Mediator, known by its lab name as benfluorex, was initially licensed to reduce levels of fatty proteins called lipids, with the claim that it helped diabetics control their level of blood sugar.
But it also suppressed appetite, which meant it gained a secondary official use to help obese diabetics lose weight.
In fact, it was widely sold on prescription for non-diabetics wanting to slim.
In 2009, Mediator was pulled from the European market amid evidence that it damaged heart valves and caused pulmonary hypertension.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2012 00:00 ||
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Chemically related to fenfluramine, which was used similarly, caused similar problems, & was withdrawn from the market by the USA in 1997.
[An Nahar] A cold weather spell has killed at least 44 people in Algeria over the past week, sparking strong press criticism of what it sees as the government's poor response to the emergency situation.
Channel Three radio, quoting official sources, Thursday said 30 died in road accidents caused by the weather, and 14 of asphyxia because of poor heating devices.
"Where are you mister ministers?" the popular Ecchourouk newspaper asked Thursday, accusing them of spending more time on the upcoming May general elections than dealing with relief for those caught out by the bitter weather.
"A catastrophe and no emergency relief to deal with it," wrote Al-Khabar newspaper.
"What is the government waiting for to proclaim a state of emergency a week after the start of the cold spell" that affects 20 of the country's 48 regions, it asked.
Newspapers also criticized a sudden increase in food prices, along with that of gas bottles, used for heating, whose price has been multiplied five- or six-fold.
A number of bakers have closed because of lack of flour, Channel Three radio said, while fuel and medicine were short in several parts of the northeast of the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
I suggest the next AGW summit to be held in Algeria.
#2
typical high in Algiers about now would be 64F with a low about 44F. The past 10 days have averaged about 10-15F colder than normal. However, Sunday and Monday next week are forecast to be even colder (max about 45F, min about 30F).
Per wunderground
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/10/2012 8:31 Comments ||
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Officials with the Mexican Procuradoria General Republica (PGR) or attorney general's office have jailed two officials allegedly involved in a scheme to acquire loans from private banks for the Coahuila state government using fraudulent means, according to Mexican news accounts.
Jaime Rene Jimenez Flores and Jorge Lopez Alarcon were imprisoned at the Distrito Federal (DF) prison, Reclusorio Norte del Distrito Federal, where the two will be held as a federal district judge proceeds with the case.
The two men were among the 12 former and current public officials officials that the PGR said were involved in a program of document forgery to secure loans from local Mexican banks. In late December, 2011, the 12 had been summoned to Mexico City to explain their involvement in obtaining loans through false pretences.
The amounts of the fraudulently obtained loans vary according to news reports, but the latest report said the amount involving the two arrestees is more than MP $1 billion (USD $77 million). That money was secured in 2011, at about the time Humberto Moreira Valdes resigned his governor's post to become Partido Revolucionario Institucional president. Moreira was forced to relinquish that job after suffering weeks of attacks from politicians, from within his own party as well as PRI's rivals, for his role in the run up of debt in Coahuila, much of which was apparently fraudulently obtained..
Two of that group, Javier Villareal Hernandez and Sergio Flores Ricardo Fuentes had their bail revoked by a Coahuila state judge Wednesday, both men said to have fled the jurisdiction.
El Diario de Coahuila reported late Thursday that Villareal was arrested along with his wife, Maria Botello in Smith County, Texas following a traffic stop for improper display of vehicle license tags. A vehicle search turned up USD $67,000 in cash.
Reports say two children were in the car with Villareal and his wife, along with a third unidentified adult. It is unknown if the children were Villareal's, or of their legal disposition.
Villareal was held for six days until bond was posted of USD $20,000 for the charge of money laundering He was released February 6th. Wednesday's news reports placed Villareal in Cuba. Villareal's booking photo is here. Maria Botello's booking photo is here. An image of the arrest record from Smith County is here.
According to news reports and official announcements made Thursday, five other officials with newly issued PGR arrest warrants were named, but cannot be served because they have probably fled Mexico.
The officials include:
Miguel Ramon Rodriguez Flores formerly Tesoreria General del Estado de Coahuila, or Coahuila state treasurer.
Sergio Ricardo Fuentes Flores, formerly Administrador General de Políticas Públicas del SATEC or Director of Public Policy under the Tax Administration Service.
Juan Manuel Froto Garcia, formerly General del Fondo de Garantías para el Impulso de la Micro Empresa del Estado de Coahuila, or Director General of the Guarantee Fund for the Promotion of Micro Enterprises of the State of Coahuila.
Enrique Ledezma Sanchez, formerly Subadministrador de Políticas Públicas del SATEC, under Undersecretary for Public Policy of the Tax Administration Service.
Jaime Rene Jimenez Flores formerly Director de Deuda Pública de Entidades y Municipios de la Unidad de Coordinación con Entidades Federativas de la Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público or Director of Public Debt and Municipal Entities Unit Coordination with Federal Entities of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit.
To read the Rantburg report about the investigation by the PGR in December 2011, click here.
All seven individuals under investigation have been charged with felonies under the Ley de Instituciones de Crédito or Credit Institutions Act. That law permits prosecutors to charge suspects with felonies if loans are obtained through false pretenses, or cause material loss to the credit institution, according to reports on the PRG announcement.
Some of the fraud was uncovered in May, 2011 when Coahuila banks attempted to collect on loans and were told the loans were fraudulently made.
While on the surface it may appear bank officials were fooled into believing the loans they made were good, their lack of diligence regarding loan documents could be characterized as nothing short of willfull blindness.
In at least one instance, Coahuila bankers had been flown to Mexico City aboard official aircraft to accompany public officials as those loans were registered with the Mexican secretary of the treasury.
To date no official of any Mexican bank involved in loaning money to Coahuila has been publicly questioned about their role in the loans.
[An Nahar] Russian strongman Vladimir Putin ...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile... may join a mass campaign rally that plans to draw 200,000 people on to the streets of Moscow 10 days before next month's presidential polls, his front man said Thursday.
Putin's campaign deputy chief Alexei Anisimov said authorities will bus up to 200,000 Putin supporters from the provinces to Moscow.
From there, they will march through the city center and rally near the Kremlin walls on February 23, when Russia marks Defender of the Fatherland Day.
"We've received this request from the regions," Anisimov told AFP. "The main slogan of the rally will be 'We'll Defend our Fatherland'".
Putin's chief front man said the Russian premier may himself attend the event, although no firm plans had yet been set.
"It cannot be ruled out that he will take part," front man Dmitry Peskov told AFP by telephone.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2012 00:00 ||
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In other news, Chinese social media was seen dragging the screaming forty-eight hour rule into a back alley with a long-ass knife and blood in his eyes.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
02/10/2012 14:54 Comments ||
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The Fat Lady is on vacation and could not be reached for comment.
#8
China silent over the ninjas in Beijing????? Love this one, too: BREAKING: Kim Jong-Un death confirmed, now registered to vote in Chicago, wrote a Washington Times correspondent. It is a campaign year and nothing surprises me anymore.
#9
Might Our Ninja Pharaoh have "shape-shifted" and "time-traveled" to "get the Un-job done"? Prolly so, if past-performance is any bench-mark. He be one stealthy AF-1 "airstairs" prancer...Anything possible with Him. Un, dead? Odds be wif Pharaoh.
h/t Instapundit
Just as he promised he would do if the United States rejected the Keystone XL pipeline, Prime Minister Stephen Harper headed to Beijing earlier this week on a four-day trade mission in which he is expected to seek a deal to sell millions of barrels of Canadian oil to China. Since China is aggressively pursuing energy deals around the world to support its economic expansion, expect Harper to come home with an official signature on the dotted line.
#1
The Donks are exhibiting political stupidity or suicidal tendencies. First, trying to shove birth control/sterilization/abortion on the Catholics. Obama said he would not force this issue on Catholics and issued an Executive Order stating such. He did this to get enough donk votes to pass Obamacare. Now he reverses himself. That sounds a lot like is a lie in just about anyone's book. Second, shutting down the pipeline and preventing oil independence.
The real impact would seem to be the jobs, the increased risk to the environment over such a long haul and Chinese environmental standards as well as the conyism involved in the decision.
#5
Its not only the oil. Signatures were inked on a plephora of economic matters ---all designed to increase trade. Some granted are agreements to agree" such as a Canada- China free trade agreement. But that is big! Perhaps the Chinese will actually honor such an agreement unlike the US position of NAFTA -- meaning the US will follow it unless there is any reason to go protectionist, like say a self created "derivitive" ponzie scheme that puts the world economy on its head.
Canada is the USA's largest trade parter in the world, including the largest importer of USA goods and services. That said, no respect ever seems to be given -including the Neysay on the the pipeline deal that would have created far more jobs in the USA than in Canada. So the fungible product will be sold to consumers willing to buy it. - The perfect free market answer.
[Dawn] Unidentified gunnies on Thursday looted around Rs 60 million from a Qatari minister in Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... province, DawnNews reported.
According to levies sources, Qatar's petroleum minister Sheikh Ali bin Abdullah Thani Al-Thani was on a hunting trip in Turbat when the armed myrmidons stopped his car and got away with the loot.
Sheikh Ali is a member of the supreme council of the royal family of Qatar.
The assistant commissioner of Turbat had initiated an investigating into the incident and no arrests had been reported yet.
According to an earlier Dawn report from last year, at least 25 special permits had been issued to dignitaries belonging to the Arabian peninsula allowing them to hunt the internationally protected houbara bustard.
The dignitaries were allotted several different locations in Pakistain. Sheikh Ali was allotted the Turbat district in Balochistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2012 00:00 ||
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1 Pakistani rupee = 0.0110 US dollars
So Rs 60,000,000 x 0.0110 $/Rs = $660,000
This seems a large sum for walking-around money, but I'm not an oil country government minister
[Dawn] The army deployed to the Maldives' second-largest city Addu on Thursday as officials struggled to contain outbreaks of violence across the holiday paradise archipelago.
After what Addu City Mayor Abdulla Sodig described as a "complete breakdown" of law and order, around 300 troops and armed police arrived on a coastguard vessel from the capital Male.
"They are on the streets now making arrests," Sodig, who said his wrist was fractured when he was beaten up by a group of people who attacked him in his office, told AFP by phone.
The deployment followed a night of violence which saw two cop shoppes, a courthouse and a private residence in Addu attacked and burned by groups of protesters.
The unrest had spread from Male, where police clashed Wednesday with supporters of Mohamed Nasheed, the former president who said he was ousted in a coup the day before.
Prior to the troop deployment in Addu, the mayor said security forces had been absent from the city streets, with soldiers from a nearby military base focused on protecting Gan Airport.
The airport is a major conduit for foreign tourists travelling from the capital to luxury resort islands.
With 32,000 residents, Addu is the second-largest city in the Maldives.
Sodig, a member of Nasheed's Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), said the initial protests in Addu had been peaceful by MDP supporters against the new administration installed in Male.
"But then other groups became involved and it all turned violent," he said.
"Tourists flying directly off to the resorts would be safe, but nobody should come into the city proper," he added.
In Male, military front man Abdul Raheem Abdul Latheef confirmed troops had moved in.
"The military has not taken over Addu but yes, our men are on the ground,"he said.
"We are guarding the airport and in Addu troops are trying to maintain law and order with the police."Addu City comprises three small islands linked by causeways.
The tourist resorts are located on small coral islets a short plane flight away.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] A Maldives court issued an arrest warrant Thursday for former President Mohamed Nasheed, who resigned this week but later insisted he had been ousted by coup plotters in a political dispute that sparked rioting.
Police front man Abdul Mannan Yusuf refused to disclose the grounds for the criminal court's warrant, or say when Nasheed _ who is living at his Male home, surrounded by supporters _ would be placed in durance vile. Later, Police Commissioner Abdullah Riaz said it was not clear if the warrant was constitutional. He declined to provide details, but said the warrant's legality was still being examined.
Rioters had rampaged through the streets of the Maldives capital Wednesday to demand Nasheed's return, and more had attacked cop shoppes in remote parts of this 1,200-island archipelago nation off the southern coast of India.
Nasheed says he was forced to resign Tuesday while his successor's government maintains he left voluntarily.
The dispute has plunged the mostly Moslem nation of 300,000 people into political turmoil that could threaten its crucial tourism industry, which relies on dozens of high-end resorts that cater to the rich and famous. The developments also raise questions about the future of a decampedging democracy that only recently shed a 30-year, one-man rule with multiparty 2008 elections that brought Nasheed to power.
The city was calm but tense Thursday, with the streets of Male crowded with commuters. Police said the violence in outlying islands had stopped.
But the new defense minister vowed to punish those responsible for Wednesday's violence, calling the destruction "acts of terrorism."
"The Maldives national defense force remains vigilant in enforcing the law and order and upholding the constitution of the Maldives," Mohammed Nazin told news hounds Thursday, barely 12 hours into his new job.
What really happened to Nasheed, a onetime human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... campaigner, remained unclear. He resigned Tuesday, after police joined months of street protests against his rule and soldiers defected, but insisted he had not been forced from power. He was replaced by his vice president, Mohammed Waheed Hassan.
On Wednesday, though, Nasheed said he had been ousted in a coup, and his supporters swept into the streets of Male and rampaged through a series of small, remote islands.
The new government insists there was no coup.
Maldives police commissioner Abdullah Riyaz said 18 cop shoppes on several islands, along with an undetermined number of court houses and police vehicles, were destroyed in the violence. Police said they jugged 49 people after the Male rioting.
The rights group Amnesia Amnesty International put some blame on the new government, saying Maldivian security forces attacked Nasheed's supporters Wednesday, failed to protect them from counter-demonstrators and jugged five members of parliament.
The rights group called on the new government to investigate the attack and ensure freedom of expression.
"The ballot should decide, not battles," Nasheed told news hounds Thursday. He said he would fight in 2013 elections, and was confident he would win.
Nasheed's party insisted his ouster was engineered by rogue elements of the police and supporters of the country's former autocratic leader, whom Nasheed defeated in the Maldives' first multiparty elections in 2008. Others blamed Islamic hard boyz in the Moslem country where some have demanded more conservative government policies.
Hassan, who was Nasheed's vice president, denied claims there was a coup or a plot to oust Nasheed. He said he had not prepared to take over the country and called for a unity coalition to be formed to help it recover.
"Together, I am confident, we'll be able to build a stable and democratic country," Hassan said, adding that his government intended to respect the rule of law.
The military denied that it forced Nasheed to resign at gunpoint. "There is no officer in the military that would point a gun toward the president," said Brig. Gen. Ibrahim Didi.
"The military did not call for his resignation, he resigned voluntarily."
Police official Abdul Mannan Yousuf promised investigations into complaints of excessive use of force.
Before Wednesday's festivities, Nasheed had demanded Hassan's immediate resignation as he spoke to about 2,000 wildly cheering members of his Maldivian Democratic Party in Male. Police later fired tear gas at the demonstrators.
"If the police are going to confront us we are going to face them," Nasheed told the rally.
Nasheed's supporters began rioting, throwing fire bombs and vandalizing a private TV station that had been critical of Nasheed's government.
Reeko Moosa Manik, a politician and chairman of the party, was beaten unconscious by police and hospitalized, said his son Mudrikath Moosa. Nasheed and other politicians were beaten as well, he said.
Hassan, who had promised to protect Nasheed from retribution, said his predecessor was not under any restriction and was free to leave
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2012 00:00 ||
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You, fish farmer in hut, come out-hands up! You know emirate domain, all land belong central government. You no likee, take smelly business elsewhere. Bang! bang! Kawooosh! Rata-tat-tat, bang!
#5
Lets see - wasteless swamp land turned profitable, and then the gov sents in a 100 cops to evict the guy. I smell something worse than fish here. Take a look at where Vietnam stands on the World Corruption index - I expect the answer is there. I was just in Vietnam for a month. Never saw a policeman - certainly none monitering the millions of moterbikes anywhere. Yet a SWAT team of a 100 to do an eviction off a farm. Naaaaa - sumpin's going on.
NASA's budget for the next fiscal year is likely to include deep cuts to planetary science programs, forcing the space agency to withdraw altogether from an international effort to send two new missions to Mars, experts say.
President Barack Obama is slated to submit his administration's federal budget request for fiscal year 2013 on Monday (Feb. 13), and NASA will hold a series of briefings to discuss its share on the same day. While exactly how much money is allocated to NASA is unknown, insiders expect a significant reduction in the portion slotted for robotic exploration of Mars and other solar system bodies.
The cuts probably will compel NASA to bow out of the European Space Agency-led ExoMars missions, which aim to launch an orbiter and a drill-toting rover to the Red Planet in 2016 and 2018, respectively, says one space policy expert.
"NASA has, I think, already told ESA it's not going to be able to provide a launch vehicle in 2016," said John Logsdon, professor emeritus at George Washington University. "So that is going to cause a big international uproar on one dimension. And the planetary community in the U.S. is going to be very unhappy about the fact that there's no money for major new planetary missions." Question....with the loss of the Space shuttle, what does NASA do? I mean seriously. If they aren't exploring planets, where is the money going? Besides muslim outreach programs. If NASA isn't leading the charge to the great unknown, then why the fuck are we spending billions on it?
#1
Excuse me but wouldn't it be better to fund NASA than squander the money on subsidizing, bailing out and stimulating a bunch of fat cats? I mean, this way you encourage bright young people to go into engineering and various scientific fields. You never know what benefits we might reap from it but isn't it better to create employment opportunities for people who can actually get some work done instead of encourage welfare moms to sit on their butts?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/10/2012 10:42 Comments ||
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Question....with the loss of the Space shuttle, what does NASA do?
Without Buck Rogers, no bucks?
Stay local. Weather satellites and GPS systems were fundamentally government programs, but communication satellites while initially also part of that plan have been largely overtaken by commercial utilization. Imagery, also once the initial purview of government, has also gone private. It's functional.
Exploration for exploration sake is not sustainable. There has to be a purpose and one that is not simply thought up for justify its own existence. That's why we haven't been back even to the moon. No compelling reason. The species has too short a memory and attention span to be motivated to get off the rock. Even commercial efforts at space flight is being largely sold on the 'thrill' and 'unique' aspect rather than some tangible end.
#4
I would love to see us land on Mars before I die but the best way to do that is a series of X-prizes, not some giant NASA mission plan that would take over a decade and cost money we are unwilling to spend at this point.
#6
For me, and what a lot of people in space feel about NASA is that it should be the bleeding edge in exploration. It takes the first step since that is usually the most dangerous and expensive. After NASA had charted a path, i.e. low earth orbit, satellites, remote droids, etc., the commercial companies would take full advantage of the inventions and knowledge gained and follow with the commercial aspect.
With NASA not leading the charge anymore, what really is its point? For me, it seems the US has lost interest in the high ground (space) and is in full retreat from the universe.
#10
Maybe people thought Queen Isabella was nuts when she funded Christopher Columbus. A shorter route to China? That never happened, did it? But look what did happen. When you head on out there you just never know.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/10/2012 18:47 Comments ||
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#11
Maybe we could take one of those "lead from behind" roles. Will NASA have enough to be able to buy some used Dallas Cowboys cheerleader outfits?
h/t IMAO
The American public's dependence on the federal government shot up 23% in just two years under President Obama, with 67 million now relying on some federal program, according to a newly released study by the Heritage Foundation.
The conservative think tank's annual Index of Dependence on Government tracks money spent on housing, health, welfare, education subsidies and other federal programs that were "traditionally provided to needy people by local organizations and families."
#2
when they can vote themselves money from somebody else's pocket, it's no longer a Representative Democracy - it's parasitical socialism.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/10/2012 10:24 Comments ||
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#3
Do not believe everything you read. These numbers are deceiving and obviously politically biased. As used here, the word "dependency" is racially charged and could contribute to potential hate speech.
As additional FEMA Region food bank volunteers step forward, the stigma of food stamps will become history. Sugar cured hams and potato chips are still very popular by the way. In order to avoid long queues and inclement weather, a new scheme utilizing the USPS, goat carts, and reusable TV trays (no tray left behind) is currently in beta testing.
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.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] 
[An Nahar] Mediator, a drug licensed for use by diabetics that became widely prescribed in France as a slimming aid, "probably" caused at least 1,300 deaths before it was withdrawn, a study published on Thursday said.
A cold weather spell has killed at least 44 people in Algeria over the past week, sparking strong press criticism of what it sees as the government's poor response to the emergency situation.
...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...
The army deployed to the Maldives' second-largest city Addu on Thursday as officials struggled to contain outbreaks of violence across the holiday paradise archipelago.
[Dawn] A Maldives court issued an arrest warrant Thursday for former President Mohamed Nasheed, who resigned this week but later insisted he had been ousted by coup plotters in a political dispute that sparked rioting.
NASA's budget for the next fiscal year is likely to include deep cuts to planetary science programs, forcing the space agency to withdraw altogether from an international effort to send two new missions to Mars, experts say.
