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Turkish Warplane Vanishes over Syria Border
Today's Headlines
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 6: Politix
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Jerry Sandusky Guilty On 45 Of 48 Counts
BAIL REVOKED: Child Molester Sandusky Heads To Center County Correctional Facility

The verdict will impact not only Sandusky and the eight young men who accused him of molestation, but a range of civil and criminal probes of the scandal that shamed the university and brought down coach Joe Paterno
Posted by: || 06/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Decades pass and nobody knew anything, nobody said anything? Collegiate sports programs, the downside.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/23/2012 6:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Still waiting to see an equal persecution of the collegiate system so persued by the media when a case involving a religious figure is discovered.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 06/23/2012 13:13 Comments || Top||

#3  What I would like to know is if his basement is soundproof. Send Sandusky down there to get buggered by his new cellmate "Bubba" and see if Mrs. Sandusky can hear him holler.
Posted by: gorb || 06/23/2012 15:01 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Forget about the gators, mind the flesh eating druggies
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bath salts? Hah! It is the beginning of the Zombie Apocalypse.
Posted by: SteveS || 06/23/2012 0:22 Comments || Top||

#2  We're linking to huffington post now?
Posted by: gromky || 06/23/2012 0:25 Comments || Top||

#3  I didn't realize there was a list of government gromky-approved sites that had to be followed.
Posted by: Pappy || 06/23/2012 9:04 Comments || Top||

#4  ..come on, we're just trying to avoid unwanted Cooties let alone cookies.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 06/23/2012 10:08 Comments || Top||

#5  WTF??? There was the 400 lb naked woman at the bus stop and one on TX that wrecked her car, left her kids, and was found naked and eating ice cream! They have been banned in some states because of a rash of suicides, too. What is in 'bath salts' that cause such bizarre behavior? I know they are considered designer drugs, like ecstasy, but what is the origin of this? Also, most of the zombies are in FL, with TX and NC on the list of articles of seen...same routes as the Venezuelan cocaine ring.
Posted by: OmuluqueHapsburg5085 || 06/23/2012 10:26 Comments || Top||

#6  ...same routes as the Venezuelan cocaine ring.

Bath salts is just the official storyline. Earlier it was 'bad LSD'. But people ate bad LSD for a decade in the '60s without any outbreaks of face-eating cannibalism.

I suspect Patient Zero, the locus of the infestation, is somewhere in Central/South America. Somewhere in Venezuela, there is a jungle village overrun with zombies.
Posted by: SteveS || 06/23/2012 14:51 Comments || Top||

#7  Welp, time to gas the old chainsaw and oil the slide.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 06/23/2012 17:05 Comments || Top||

#8  Ah, come on, if there was a zombie outbreak you could rely upon the government to tell us. Sorta like if they were running guns to Mexico or something, they'd fess up when something went seriously wrong.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 06/23/2012 18:04 Comments || Top||

#9  Noone ever thought that the likely route of transmission for a zombie virus was gonna be "Hey, try this, it's some Good Shit."
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 06/23/2012 18:14 Comments || Top||

#10  Bath salts is a street term for designer drugs. And by designer it doesn't necessarily man that they have gone through the full FDA approval process. The mix is constantly being changed to skirt the law, so there's no telling what's in each batch. It could have rat poision in it, insecticide, or whatever. As long as it makes the user high, it's good.
Posted by: gorb || 06/23/2012 23:25 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Review recommends combat pay be based on level of danger
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 06/23/2012 13:23 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...To be honest, I don't see a real problem with this recommendation. "Hostile Fire" and "Imminent Danger" are two different things, and I don't think most people affected would argue.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 06/23/2012 16:11 Comments || Top||

#2  I have the mental image that "Pay" is for the second a bullet whistles by, and no other time,

Example a so were shot at, but not hit so?
Paid for that second.(NOT THE DAY)
Yup cheap bastards.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 06/23/2012 18:55 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
HRW Says Arbitrary Arrests, Dire Conditions in South Sudan Jails
South Sudan must stop arbitrary arrests and improve the "dire" conditions in its prisons, where a third of inmates are held on remand and some without having been charged, Human Rights Watch
... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world...
said Friday.

"Flawed processes, unlawful detentions, and dire conditions in South Sudan's prisons reflect the urgent need to improve the new nation's fledgling justice system," the New York-based group said in a report.

"A third of South Sudan's prison population of approximately 6,000 has not been convicted of any offence or in some cases even charged with one, but are tossed in the clink
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
often for long periods," the majority without legal representation in an impoverished country with no legal aid, it said.

The research was carried out over 10 months before and after South Sudan's independence from Sudan last July after decades of civil war.

A former rebel army, that fought Khartoum for decades in the bush during decades of civil war, is now tasked with building a new nation from scratch.

"The experience of those in detention in South Sudan reveals serious flaws in the emerging justice system," HRW Africa director Daniel Bekele said.

HRW visited 12 of the country's 79 institutions that were often "damaged or crumbling" with cells that were "unhygienic, severely overcrowded and lack sufficient ventilation".
Posted by: Fred || 06/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Leila Ben Ali says Tunisian strongman was victim of plot
[Al Ahram] Leila Ben Ali, the reviled wife of deposed Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, says a plot by top security officials ended his long rule, in a book launched in La Belle France on Thursday.

The unpopular 55-year-old, dubbed the "Queen of Carthage" and reputed to have a voracious appetite for power and money, also said she and her husband were ready to return to their homeland for trial if guaranteed a fair hearing.

In the book, "My Truth", she also admits that the flashy lifestyle of her Trabelsi clan -- which had a stranglehold on business in the country -- played a large part in ending Ben Ali's 23-year rule in January last year.

Their control over the north African country's economy was vast and they were said to have stakes in banks, airlines, car dealerships, radio and television stations and big retailers.

"Among my own, there were some who exaggerated -- often the younger ones who freely indulged in their appetite for profits and refused to set limits," she says in the book, written from interviews given on Skype to journalist Yves Derai.

"These weaknesses and errors of my family were amplified outside and used with the sole objective of bringing down the regime of Ben Ali... We were the Achilles heel of the president."

Leila, Ben Ali's second wife and 21 years his junior, also denied she had worked as a hairdresser when she met her husband or had numerous lovers, as widely reported in the media.

After Ben Ali took power in 1987 he obtained a divorce and wed Trabelsi, who allegedly set about installing members of her family in positions of power.

In ensuing years, the Trabelsi name came to personify the corruption that riddled Tunisian society and business, and a byword for shameless greed and excess.

Leila Ben Ali squarely blamed her husband's chief of presidential security Ali Seriati, currently in jail, of being behind a "plot" that led to the uprising, which sparked the Arab Spring revolts.

She outlined the stages: "indoctrination of the masses, the distribution of money in poor areas, the recruitment of snipers, the intensification of protests through assassinations, the torching of homes."

Their flight into exile to Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face...
would not have occurred "without Seriati's insistence," she said, adding: "Even once we were in the air, my husband thought he could return the following morning."

Last week, a Tunisian court sentenced Ben Ali, in absentia, to life in prison for presiding over the bloody crackdown on the protests against his regime.

He faces countless trials and has already been sentenced to more than 66 years in prison on a range of charges including drug trafficking and embezzlement.

Despite all that, the former first lady said she and her husband were ready to face trial back home if "we are guaranteed the impartiality of the judgments and assured of the legitimacy of those in charge" of the trial.

She remained largely tight-lipped on her days in exile in Saudi Arabia, saying she passed "the major part of the day looking after my husband and my children... I go out rarely, hardly meet anyone and pray a lot."
Posted by: Fred || 06/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Europe
Debt crisis: Angela Merkel defies Latin Europe and the IMF on bond rescue
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has shot down calls for full mobilisation of the eurozone's bail-out funds to halt the raging bond crisis in Spain and Italy, ignoring unprecedented pleas for action from the International Monetary Fund.

"Each country wants to help but if I am going to call on taxpayers in Germany, I must have guarantees that all is under control. Responsibility and control go hand in hand," she said after a crucial summit of the eurozone's Big Four powers in Rome.

Mrs Merkel -- or La Signora No in Italy -- doused hopes of a break-through on proposals by the "Latin Bloc" leaders of Italy, France, and Spain to deploy the funds (EFSF and ESM) to cap the bond yields of "virtuous" countries vulnerable to contagion, or to recapitalize banks directly to take the strain off sovereign states.

"If I give money straight to Spanish banks, I can't control what they do. That is how the treaties are written," she said, before racing off to Danzig to tonight for Euro 2012 quarter final between Greece and German..

Christine Lagarde, the head of the IMF, warned before the summit that the eurozone is under "acute stress" and at risk of a downward spiral.

"The viability of the European monetary system is questioned. There must be a recapitalisation of the weak banks, with preferably a direct link between the EFSF/ESM and the banks, in order to break the negative feedback loop that we have between banks and sovereigns."

For all the rhetoric at Rome's Villa Madama -- a Rennaissance retreat of the Medici family designed by Raphael -- the trio of Latin leaders seemingly failed to shift German Merkel one inch in the direction of debt pooling or genuine fiscal union.

The contrast between pro-forma talk of "more Europe" in the Roman hills and the festering reality on the ground in austerity Europe was not lost on those at the summit. Across the Tiber, much of Rome was paralysed by a bus and metro strike, evidence of the growing resitance to the harsh fiscal squeeze imposed by Mr Monti's technocrat government.

French president Francois Hollande did not hide his frustration, warning that France would not accede to German demands for a step-change in EU integration until Berlin puts the neuraligic issue of shared debts on the table. "There will be no transfer of sovereignty without greater solidarity, " he said acidly.

The Latin Bloc's soft diplomacy has essentially failed. Europe's key leaders will converge on Brussels for next week's crucial summit as divided as ever on the great issue of the day.

The leaders were left offering the thin gruel of infrastructure projects and long-term investment worth €130bn or 1pc of eurozone GDP, financed by leveraging an extra €10bn of base capital at the European Investment Bank.

Critics say this type of spending will take years to bear fruit and and will do little to halt the insidious process of debt-deflation already at work across much of Southern Europe.
Posted by: || 06/23/2012 06:48 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Not the biggest Merkel fan, yet all of the rest of the Euro Nations and the US is calling for Germany to open their banks and she seems to be holding in there alone. Kinda gutsy
Posted by: swksvolFF || 06/23/2012 18:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Tell France to follow your lead, Germany. They are going to flush themselves and you down the drain otherwise and they just elected another pampered idiot pandering "leader" for them to the the stupid lemmings they already were.

Posted by: newc || 06/23/2012 22:47 Comments || Top||


Air France to cut 5,000 jobs by the end of 2013
French airline Air La Belle France has announced it is to cut more than 5,000 jobs by the end of 2013 in an attempt to reduce costs and return to growth.

The figure represents just under 10% of the total workforce of 53,000.

The job cuts form part of a restructuring plan to restore profitability, in the face of increased competition and soaring fuel costs.

Air La Belle France says it is hoping to avoid compulsory redundancies through natural turnover and voluntary redundancies.

The company estimates some 1,700 jobs could be lost through natural turnover.

Air La Belle France, one component of the French-Dutch air carrier Air La Belle France-KLM and the first air carrier in Europe, launched a major cost-saving programme, Transform 2015, earlier this year, after posting a loss of 809m euros (£653m) for 2011 and a first quarter net loss in 2012 of 368m euros.

Shares in Air La Belle France-KLM shot up by 6% after the job cuts announcement, the AFP news agency reports.
Posted by: Fred || 06/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  wonder how much of this is due to the carbon tax on airliners.
Posted by: crosspatch || 06/23/2012 1:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Increased taxes => increased unemployment? The devil you say!
Posted by: RandomJD || 06/23/2012 10:27 Comments || Top||

#3  Not to mention all the employees who get sick on their vacations and take more vacations to make up for it.
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 06/23/2012 10:48 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
29[untagged]
7Arab Spring
7Govt of Pakistan
4Govt of Syria
2Boko Haram
2al-Shabaab
1al-Qaeda in Pakistan
1al-Qaeda in Iraq
1Commies
1al-Qaeda in Arabia
1Govt of Sudan
1al-Qaeda
1Hamas
1Pirates

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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2012-06-23
  Turkish Warplane Vanishes over Syria Border
Fri 2012-06-22
  It's Over: A Dozen Dead After Taliban Take Hostages In Kabul Hotel
Thu 2012-06-21
  29 Soldiers among 58 Dead in Violence across Syria
Wed 2012-06-20
  'Al-Qaeda militant' takes hostages at bank in Toulouse
Tue 2012-06-19
  IDF hits terror cell near Gaza fence
Mon 2012-06-18
  Nigeria: 21 killed, 100 wounded in church blasts
Sun 2012-06-17
  Baghdad bombs target Shiite pilgrims, 32 killed
Sat 2012-06-16
  Yemen army seizes Shuqra after Qaeda pullout
Fri 2012-06-15
  Syria Violence Kills More Than 60
Thu 2012-06-14
  Army takes over in Egypt
Wed 2012-06-13
  At Least 73 Dead in Shelling and Clashes across Syria
Tue 2012-06-12
  Helicopter Gunships Deployed as More Than 100 Dead in Syria
Mon 2012-06-11
  Church Bombing Kills 15 in Nigeria
Sun 2012-06-10
  Syria Army Kills 70 Civilians in Protest Cities
Sat 2012-06-09
  Tuareg Rebels, Islamists, Clash in Northern Mali


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