Two domestic sex industry workers were removed yesterday from the McLean Saudi Mansion following accusations of slavery servitude. The two women are believed to be from the Philippines. No charges were pressed or will every be pressed against the Saudi officials who reside at the gated compound.
[BBC.CO.UK] Coronation Street star William Roache Who??
is to be charged with two counts of rape involving a 15-year-old girl in the 1960s, prosecutors said. In the 1960s? 50 years ago? One suspects it was statutory, but even if not, it'll be tough to produce actual evidence at this point.
Mr Roache, 81, from Wilmslow, Cheshire, is alleged to have committed the rapes in Haslingden, Lancashire, between April and July 1967, police said. Prosecutors said Mr Roache will appear before Preston magistrates on 14 May.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2013 00:00 ||
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Concern about videos spread through Facebook showing people being decapitated has prompted a member of the firm's own safety advisory board to say it will raise the issue with the social network.
Facebook has refused to ban the clips.
It said people had a right to depict the real world.
However, the US's Family Online Safety Institute told the BBC the graphic nature of the violence involved meant that the material had "crossed a line".
The warnings come after a one-minute long video was uploaded to the site last week showing a woman being beheaded by a masked man.
A voice heard on the footage suggests that it was filmed in Mexico.
A second video clip showing the execution of two men has also been shared on the network after being posted last Wednesday. The victims admit to being drug smugglers for a Mexican cartel before being attacked with a chainsaw and knife.
Ryan L, a student at Belfast University, contacted the BBC after one of the clips spread around his friends' news feeds.
He said he had flagged the material with Facebook as being inappropriate, but was sent the following reply.
"Thanks for your report. We reviewed the video you reported, but found it doesn't violate Facebook's Community Standard on graphic violence, which includes depicting harm to someone or something, threats to the public's safety, or theft and vandalism."
Facebook confirmed it opted to leave such material online.
[Al Ahram] Thirteen people have died and four more are missing in Saudi Arabia after downpours caused flash floods in several areas of the desert kingdom, the civil defence authorities said on Wednesday. "By Allen, Mahmoud! What is that?"
"Water! Run, Ahmed!"
The official SPA state news agency quoted Colonel Abdullah Al-Harethi as saying people died in several areas including in the capital Riyadh, Baha in the south, Hail in the north and in the west.
Harethi urged people to avoid wadi valleys and plains that have been flooded by heavy rainfall that began on Friday. Television footage showed 4x4 cars stuck in the middle of wadis and people clinging to a tree to escape fast-flowing flood waters. The vast Arabian Peninsula country has not experienced such a high volume of rainfall for 25 years. But around 10 people were killed in 2011 when flooding swept through the western city of Jeddah, where 123 people also perished in floods in 2009.
The inability of Jeddah's infrastructure to drain off flood waters and uncontrolled construction in and around the city were blamed at the time for the high number of victims.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
The inability of Jeddah's infrastructure to drain off flood waters and uncontrolled construction in and around the city were blamed...
'Cause we all know it's better to throw the oil money away in Monte Carlo than spend it on such unnecessary and mundane things as flood control.
#2
"Insh'allah." If he wills it, no planning will prevent it. If he wills it not, the planning was wasted effort... and blasphemy. And the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia prides itself on its piety.
#6
That is so phucking funny, do they have flood robes like I am a flooding in my bell bottoms? Who cares!
Posted by: Marilyn Lover of the Hatfields1778 ||
05/02/2013 18:45 Comments ||
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#7
Just left situation room will be sending chins from Gobi in China with sand bag tech stolen in last cyber breach, head of security needs new car and vacation! Moving money now should be on scene in 4 to 6 hours video was horrible! Find alli that knows what a phuckig sand bag is especially in the Middle East, could not find sand blame America guns and a bible!
Posted by: Marilyn Lover of the Hatfields1778 ||
05/02/2013 20:16 Comments ||
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[Al Ahram] Egyptian security forces placed in durance vile Book 'im, Mahmoud! Sheikh Abdullah Badr on Wednesday, upholding a December 2012 court verdict against him for insulting an Egyptian actress on television.
Acid-tongued Badr was sentenced on 17 December to a year in jail, with bail set at LE20,000, for insulting Egyptian actress Elham Shahin on his programme on conservative television channel El-Hafez.
Shahin filed a lawsuit in September 2012 against Badr after he said on television that she was "cursed" and "will never enter heaven."
The popular actress claimed Badr attacked her publicly after she made a statement expressing her fear of the Islamic political current, saying that she would not vote for Islamist political parties in the elections.
Badr, who was arrested in Egypt's Nile Delta governorate of Sharqiya, will be sent to prosecutors in Cairo to determine how the court order will be executed.
In January, Egypt's Administrative Court ordered that Badr's television show 'Fi Al-Mizan' be taken off air for 30 days.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2013 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] The first district attorney in East Cairo's prosecution office has announced that ten defendants accused of culpability in a mass outbreak of food poisoning at Al-Azhar University on 1 April will stand trial on 15 May. Sounds like a case of bad felafel.
On 1 April, over 500 students were hospitalised with food poisoning after eating on campus, leading to protests.
Earlier this week, a second incident occurred at the same campus, with 179 students hospitalised after eating in the dormitory.
On Tuesday, Al-Azhar's Grand Imam Ahmed El-Tayyeb met with the students union to listen to their demands, and ordered the formation of a committee to supervise the university campus and create a plan for enhancing services.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Kuwait's lower court on Wednesday sentenced a Saudi man to five years in jail for insulting the emir on Twitter, a human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... activist said.
The court passed the sentence on Abdulaziz al-Mutairi in absentia, as his whereabouts are currently unknown, the director of the Kuwait Society for Human Rights, Mohammad al-Humaidi, told AFP.
The court also ruled that Mutairi should be deported after completing his jail term, Humaidi added.
Under Kuwaiti law, Mutairi can challenge the ruling immediately after he presents himself and the lower court is obliged to review his case.
Even if the sentence is upheld, he can still challenge the ruling in the appeal and supreme courts.
Mutairi is the latest in a series of tweeters and former-opposition MPs to receive jail terms or stand trial for insulting the emir.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Tens of thousands of Bangladeshis joined May Day protests Wednesday to demand the execution of textile bosses over the collapse of a factory complex, as rescuers warned the final toll could be more than 500.
Despite calls by the prime minister for "cool heads", tensions over the country's deadliest industrial disaster showed little sign of abating and there were fears of more violence and vandalism at textile mills.
Workers holding red banners and flags chanted "Hang the killers, Hang the Factory Owners" as they erupted into the streets of Dhaka at the start of a series of nationwide demonstrations during the public holiday.
Police put the number of protesters at the main rally in Dhaka at more than 20,000, and there were smaller-scale protests elsewhere in the capital and in other cities.
Kamrul Anam, one of the leaders of the Bangladesh Textile and Garments Workers League, said the demonstrators were angry at "the murder" of their colleagues in the April 24 disaster at Savar on the outskirts of Dhaka.
"We want the severest punishment possible for those responsible for this tragedy," he told AFP.
"Enough is enough," said Liakot Khan, another of those taking part in the Dhaka protest, which echoed to the sound of drums and horns.
"The government should hang the proprietor and the factory owners. We want justice for these murders."
The Bangladesh government is also facing foreign pressure to take credible moves to raise safety standards in the garment industry, with the collapse at the Rana Plaza factory complex only the latest in a series of deadly disasters.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Venezuelan opposition candidate Henrique Capriles said Wednesday that his campaign will formally contest the official results of his country's presidential elections in a Supreme Court filing.
Capriles told a May Day rally the formal challenge would be presented to the top court on Thursday. President Nicolas Maduro was declared the winner of the April 14 vote to replace the late Hugo Chavez as Venezuela's leader.
"We are going to exhaust all the internal fora because we have no doubt that this case is going to wind up before the international community. This case is going to end up going to every country where there is a democracy," he said.
Capriles, who has accused Maduro of stealing the election, has rejected an audit of the vote by the National Electoral Council as a "farce" after it refused to include physical voting records in the review.
He had until Monday to file suit with the Supreme Court contesting the results, which gave leftist firebrand ...firebrands are noted more for audio volume and the quantity of spittle generated than for any actual logic in their arguments... Chavez's hand-picked successor Maduro victory by a 1.5 percent margin.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2013 00:00 ||
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As the Obama administration prepares to launch a new round of strategic nuclear missile cuts, Russias strategic nuclear forces are undergoing a major modernization, according to U.S. officials.
Russia's military announced last month that as part of the nuclear buildup, Moscow later this year will deploy the first of its new intercontinental ballistic missiles called the Yars-M. Details of the missile are being kept secret, but it has been described as a fifth-generation strategic nuclear system that Russian officials say will be able to penetrate U.S. missile defenses using a new type of fuel that requires a shorter burn time for booster engines.
The solid-fueled, road-mobile ICBM was tested a year ago, and it is said to have an increased payload capacity for a warhead weighing up to 1.5 tons. The range is 6,835 miles. Like earlier mobile missiles known as SS-29s and SS-27s, the new ICBM is expected to have up to 10 multiple, independently targetable warheads.
Retired Russian strategic forces commander Col. Gen. Viktor Yesin has said the Yars-M is one of the military technological measures that the Russian military-political leadership has devised in response to the development of a global missile-defense system by the Americans.
Last year, a Russian official explained the new missiles fuel and anti-missile defense capabilities in an interview with Moskovski Komsomolets. The strategic nuclear weapons specialist said the high-tech fuel allows for the reduction of the working time of the engines during the boost phase of flight, when it [the missile] is most vulnerable to detection by defensive means.
As a result, we achieve the most complex part of the rocket boost so fast that the enemy does not have time to calculate its trajectory and, therefore, cannot destroy it, the official said. That is, we can say that our ability to overcome missile defense will be significantly increased.
In other words, hotter fuel so that it flies faster and gets out of the boost phase faster.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/02/2013 12:57 ||
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Posted by: Marilyn Lover of the Hatfields1778 ||
05/02/2013 18:42 Comments ||
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[MONEY.CNN] In an ad appearing on Penney's YouTube channel, the retailer cops to making mistakes and pleads with customers to come back.
"It's no secret: Recently J.C. Penney (JCP, Fortune 500) changed. Some changes you liked, and some you didn't," the ad states. "But what matters with mistakes is what we learn."
The ad goes on to say it listened to what customers want and need. "Come back to J.C. Penney," it urges. "We heard you. Now we'd love to see you."
The 30-second spot, titled "It's No Secret," comes just a month after the company ousted CEO Ron Johnson, a former Apple retail chief. "Pack your spit and get out!"
Johnson had tried to implement many changes in the stores -- from overhauling prices to ditching older brands -- to no avail. "What's the diffo between selling computers and general merchandise?"
"We thought you knew that when we hired you. This is a fine time to learn."
The retailer is desperate to get customers back to stores, since shares of the company tumbled 50% during Johnson's tenure and it bled $427 million in the fourth quarter alone. "I thought you'd give me more time to figure out the diffo between selling computers and general merchandise!"
"Have you seen what you did to our share price? Get out now!"
This ad is a signal to customers that the company will get rid of many of the Johnson-era changes, since it ends with a tweaked version of the J.C. Penney logo he put in place. Johnson had attempted to rebrand the store with just a simple "jcp." The ad ends with "jcpenney."
J.C. Penney said that the ad will air Wednesday and Thursday on national television, as well as on its social media platforms.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
...after the company ousted CEO Ron Johnson, a former Apple retail chief.
Done behind closed conference doors by professional board members. No board members were hurt during this event. Do not attempt at home.
Any people involved in the hiring getting pink slips too?
Does the board even understand what business they're in?
Has any of them even shopped in their stores?
Have any of them practiced Tom Peters 'management by walking around'? [not that we haven't seen that updated in Undercover Boss]
#3
I see a great future for him in re-rigging the NY Times business plan. Go to it, Ron
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/02/2013 9:57 Comments ||
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Hedge fund big shots have started to move into JCPenny.
George Soros now owns about 8%. William Ackman (Pershing Capital) owns about 5%.
Posted by: lord garth ||
05/02/2013 10:20 Comments ||
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#5
Wife works for JCPenney (sales associate - aka - sales lady) and she knew right off that getting rid of the Coupons and sales was a bad idea. She noticed right off that some of the repeat customers she would see every 'sales weekend' simply weren't coming around any more. Sometimes she would come home and notice that 'there weren't many customers today.' (and this is at a Mall).
They also got rid of a lot of front-line managers.
[Pak Daily Times] One person was killed and nine injured after mobs attacked mosques and burned homes in central Myanmar, authorities said Wednesday, in the latest religious unrest to erupt in the nation.
Riots sparked Tuesday in the small town of Oakkan, around 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Yangon after a woman accidentally knocked into a young monk, authorities said, amid acute Buddhist-Mohammedan tensions following a series of attacks in March.
"A man died in hospital of his injuries this morning," a police official told AFP.
Authorities have locked away Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! 18 people after some 77 homes in four villages in the region north of the commercial hub Yangon were burned during a spate of arson on Tuesday evening, president's front man Ye Htut said in a Facebook update. Terrified villagers of both faiths said police were not there to protect them when a crowd attacked a local mosque on Tuesday evening in Mie Laung Sakhan village.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2013 00:00 ||
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Somebody in the 3rd-ish(4th?) world is actively anti-muslim?
#2
ION TOPIX > [IRDW.org] CHINA SELLS HELICOPTER GUNSHIPS TO UWSA [United Wa Sachin Army], seemingly in defiance to Myanmar's Govt.
The helo gunships may prove to be a decisive "game-changer" between the UWSA's fight wid the Govt. + other Militant factions.
VERSUS
* TOPIX > JONATHAN MANTHORPE: CHINA RISKS WAR AS IT AS IT PUSHES TERRITORIAL CLAIMS ON THREE CLAIMS.
ARTIC = denotes that China is prepared to risk de facto military confrontation + conflcit.
I've said before that any US-China mil conflict can poten blow open all of East-South Asia + Pacific as China may attempt to forcibly settle its "strategic access" + territorial issues in various regions = fronts.
* STRATEGYPAGE > CHINA'S "OCCUPY AND DEFY".
China's aggressive tactics, espec as per disputed territories claimed by other sovereign nations, is forcing its neighbors to reconsider defense or security plans.
Ditto Rising Iran, from Syria-Lebanon to Azerbaijan to Afghanistan + the C.A.R???
#3
Normally, I am opposed to ethnic or racial violence but in this case, the seasoning of turn about fair play does make this stew in BURMA a bit more appetizing.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
05/02/2013 10:16 Comments ||
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The helo gunships may prove to be a decisive "game-changer" between the UWSA's fight wid the Govt. + other Militant factions.
I understand that flying and landing helicopters without crashing into the ground is hard, JosephM, as is maintaining the things to prevent crashing into the ground once facility is achieved. What odds do you give the USWA?
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] With just three weeks before the Boy Scouts consider opening membership to homosexual boys, a new threat to the organization is being raised by the proposed rule change: It could go broke. I think I keyed in on this about thirty seconds after the incident came up first, several long years ago.
Critics say the rule change could financially starve the 103-year-old Texas-based group in two ways: Church-based troops, which comprise the majority of Boy Scout units, are threatening to leave, Good idea. Make them all church-based. Call them "Pathfinders" or something, and to back to teaching them to make campfires and tie knots and hike.
and the potential for sexual harassment and bullying could lead to massive legal fees. Doh! If the potential's there a suit's gonna follow, as sure as night follows day.
What's more, even liberal groups are raising concerns that the rule doesn't also allow gay adults to join or be Scoutmasters, meaning that a gay Eagle Scout would be forced out when he turns 18. How very sad.
One of the leading opposition groups, OnMyHonor.net, is circulating a 10-point legal analysis to the delegates expecting to vote on the Boy Scouts of America resolution change. In addition to raising the financial and age issues, the group suggested that the new rule could allow transgendered girls into the all-male club, a potentially explosive new change. If a girl who thinks she's a boy engages in sexual exploration on an overnight hiking trip with a boy who's convinced he's a boy is it homosexual activity? What if the boy thinks he's a girl? Would that make it some kind of counterintuitive heterosexual activity? By this point, I'm ready to go back to church and let the Pope figure it out.
"The effect of the phrase 'sexual preference' in the BSA resolution could be used by LGBT activists to push for transgendered girls in the BSA. If a biological girl 'prefers' acting out as a transgendered boy, she must also be allowed into any Boy Scout troop," according to the analysis provided to Secrets. Conversely, shouldn't boys who think they're girls be allowed to join the Girl Scouts and sell cookies?
"Because the vague and undefined phrase 'sexual preference' is used in the resolution, it opens the door and requires Scout units to accept any sexual preference expressed." If the Boy Who Loved Chickens applies for membership, you can't keep him out. Same with the kid who likes wearing nothing but a domino mask and being publicly flogged.
OnMyHonor and other groups including the Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America, the American Family Association, and Focus on the Family are urging the 1,400 delegates of the BSA National Council to reject the rule change at the upcoming May 22-25 convention. OnMyHonor is holding a Sunday night simulcast to plot a strategy to fight the pro-homosexual rule. I've said it before and I'll say it again: at that age sex shouldn't exist for them. They'll learn more than enough hanging around street corners. And in school.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2013 10:35 ||
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at that age sex shouldn't exist for them.
Yep. And, what stops them from forming their own club? Call them Pathfinders or something. "Snake Eaters," if they want to sound really tuff.
#3
During the Second Boar War, Robert Baden-Powell saw that his countrymen had lost their field craft skills. On his return from Africa in 1903, Baden-Powell found that his military training manual, Aids to Scouting, had become a best-seller, and was being used by teachers and youth organisations.[26] Following his involvement in the Boys' Brigade as Brigade Secretary and Officer in charge of its scouting section, with encouragement from his friend, William Alexander Smith, Baden-Powell decided to re-write Aids to Scouting to suit a youth readership. In August 1907 he held a camp on Brownsea Island to test out his ideas. About twenty boys attended: eight from local Boys' Brigade companies, and about twelve public school boys, mostly sons of his friends...Boys and girls spontaneously formed Scout troops and the Scouting Movement had inadvertently started, first as a national, and soon an international phenomenon.
Note well the confluence of urbanization and the loss of skills, leading to Powell's initiative.
Enter stage Left, the need of urbanists to co-opt anything that doesn't align with their culture. Either morph it, through force or intimidation, into something that aligns with the priorities of the ruling urban caste, or destroy it.
The right of free association also includes the right of non-association. Just ask the Black Congressional Caucus. They know if they open membership to everyone, they'd soon be a minority again and out of control of its agenda.
#6
Difficult to practice effective "field craft" whilst marched headlong into walls of well aimed Mauser fire by incompetent English officers. - didn't learn well from other colonials be it Bunker Hill or New Orleans did they?
Should read up on how officers were selected and promoted in the British Army of the time. Wouldn't be surprised on the results encountered in South Africa. Best read is probably Pakenham's The Boer War which describes well an army trying to reform itself during a war. The out numbered Old Contemptibles learned well enough to handle the Germans smartly in 1914.
#7
They've picked the very worst option of the three possible: 1. Keep current exclusionary policy; 2. Remove exclusion entirely; 3. Allow gay boys but not adults.
Number three adds together the worst outcomes of both 1 and 2: Those who favor exclusion will hate allowing gay boys, AND those who favor INclusion will hate excluding gay men. Presto! Worst of all outcomes. Brilliant.
When Scouting tried to de-emphasize traditional values and outdoor skills in the 70s and 80s, it was a membership disaster. When they woke up and restored these things, ("Character Counts") this trend was reversed.
This change, if ratified, will doom them.
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.
[An Nahar] Kuwait's lower court on Wednesday sentenced a Saudi man to five years in jail for insulting the emir on Twitter, a 
