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Saudi Arabia Sentences 8 To Death For 2003 Riyadh Attack
Today's Headlines
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Fellow by the name of Mo Whitaker charged with KC highway sniping.
After nearly a month of reports of gunshots being fired at vehicles and more than 100 tips, authorities announced charges Friday against a Kansas City-area man suspected in connection with about a dozen highway shootings that maimed three people.

Jackson County prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said at a news conference that 27-year-old Mohammed Whitaker, of Grandview, has been charged with 18 felony counts and was being held on $1 million cash bail. Baker said Whitaker, who had been under surveillance by police for about a week before his arrest, was charged with two counts of shooting into a motor vehicle and injuring a person, seven counts of shooting into a motor vehicle and nine counts of armed criminal action.

"This has impacted all of us, each side of State Line, each side of the river," Baker said. "It's been something that's been at the hearts and thoughts of all us since the day this case first broke."

Police Chief Darryl Forte declined to discuss a possible motive for the shootings, and the probable cause affidavit released Friday also does not address the issue. Baker's office said it was unclear whether Whitaker had a lawyer.

Whitaker's mother, Maria Dunn, 55, said she doesn't believe any of the charges against her son, who she said has always been "happy" and a "good kid."
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/23/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Mo'Hamed
Mo'Problems.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/23/2014 17:30 Comments || Top||


ABQ police, criticized for brutality, kill a THIRD suspect.
An Albuquerque, N.M., police officer shot and killed a suspect -- the third in five weeks -- at a time when the city's police department is perhaps the most scrutinized in the country due to its brutal tactics, which have caused 24 deaths since 2010.

The shooting occurred early Monday morning. Police were looking for a car thief in southeast Albuquerque when they encountered a 19-year-old woman. Police claim the woman pulled a gun on an officer and was shot multiple times. She died on site according to KRQE News 13.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/23/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Welcome to the wild west. Pox on both houses. Real and armed criminals and gun happy cops. Though, unlike NYC, they seem to hit the target rather than onlookers. The heavy irony is that both city and county goverment bitched when it was reported that COPS would film with the sheriff's office. The pols expressed the objection that it would give the place a bad rep. Heh.
Posted by: P2Kontheroad || 04/23/2014 8:33 Comments || Top||

#2  All they have to say is they felt "threatened" before they blew you away. Case closed, move along, nothing to see here.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 04/23/2014 12:06 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Golfer-in-Chief Skipped Aunt's Funeral (Important State Business Got in the Way)
Sociopathic President Obama did not attend the funeral of his late aunt Zeituni Onyango. Instead, he went golfing.

The New York Times reports:

After Zeituni Onyango, the woman President Obama once called Auntie, died in a South Boston nursing home this month, her closest relatives gathered her belongings at her nearby apartment. There, framed photographs of her with the president covered the wall.

Weeping before a polished wood coffin at her wake this past Saturday, they described Ms. Onyango, the half sister of the president's father, as "the spirit of the Obama family" and talked about raising money to send her body back to Kenya. Mr. Obama helped pay funeral expenses and sent a condolence note, Ms. Onyango's family members said, but the president did not attend, as he was golfing.

The paper notes that the president has kept his distance from his family:
Yeah, the optics would be bad if he went.
As president, Mr. Obama has kept his distance from, and even failed to acknowledge, members of this eclectic clan. In the time-honored tradition of eccentric presidential relatives, the assorted Obamas have faced deportation and drunken-driving charges, started Obama-branded foundations and written memoirs.
Now if his aunt happened to be his golf caddy, this story would have been entirely different.
Naah, I don't think so...
Posted by: gorb || 04/23/2014 11:32 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bye Aunt Zeituni, I'll be thinking of you...Can you have a talk with the Big Guy and maybe let me have a Hole in One ?



Posted by: Caribbean Pete || 04/23/2014 12:59 Comments || Top||

#2  He would've been ripped to shreds if he showed up. And when it comes down to "doing the right thing" or "doing what's best for Barry", you know which way that's gonna fall.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/23/2014 14:36 Comments || Top||

#3  eclectic clan
Eclectic, yeah, that's the ticket.
Posted by: Shipman || 04/23/2014 15:59 Comments || Top||

#4  He's such a good boy.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 04/23/2014 16:41 Comments || Top||

#5  Are reunions confusing and hectic?
Would hosting send you cataleptic?
Would comparing the stories
Mean the end of your glories?
Congrats! You just might be "eclectic."

Thank heavens his families' rascality
Failed to warp young Barack's personality.
Think how lucky we are
That he carries no scar
From their biblical disfunctionality!
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 04/23/2014 18:44 Comments || Top||

#6  Bravo! Bravo!
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 04/23/2014 19:10 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
God Must Love This Fool
Stowaway was trying to get to Somalia, ended up in Hawaii
Posted by: Unins Slavinter4636 || 04/23/2014 13:14 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Am sure they ran every test possible on the kid at the hospital.

Would be interesting to find some DNA markers indicating human cryogenic capability.
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 04/23/2014 21:37 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
JHC!!!: Reid: 'Something Will Happen' To Stop Nevada Rancher Cliven Bundy
Harry forgot the veil.
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 04/23/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  “This would never happen in any state east of the Mississippi, because they own their own land,” said Janine Hansen, a state’s rights advocate.

Or so we're led to believe.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/23/2014 0:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Yeah... right.

The second a species is listed "endangered" because some politician wants to make use of the land you'll see how far that goes.

That and $2.50 will get ya a small cup of coffee.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/23/2014 1:05 Comments || Top||

#3  Keep talking, Harry. You will prejudice any court case against Bundy, regardless of the facts.

Of course Dingy is just trying to deflect against revelations of his dealings with the Chinese and others, IMHO.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/23/2014 1:11 Comments || Top||

#4  'Something Will Happen' To Stop Dingy Harry, Say Impeachmnt?

(Say, Selling China Land under his control)
That'll do it,
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/23/2014 2:47 Comments || Top||

#5  Something, even superficially, legal?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/23/2014 5:59 Comments || Top||

#6  Technically, everything George III and the privy council did was 'legal', It just violated the 'natural rights of Englishmen',
Posted by: P2Kontheroad || 04/23/2014 8:43 Comments || Top||

#7  To repeat what I've said elsewhere.. I know Sen. Reid suffers from "Little Man" syndrome. I know it must have been a hardship growing up in the Whorehouse town of Searchlight NV. BUT WTF is his problem? By his age he should have got a life!
Posted by: 3dc || 04/23/2014 10:05 Comments || Top||

#8  By his age he should have got a life!

Some whores never retire. They just become the Majority Leader in the worlds most prestigious whorehouse.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 04/23/2014 10:21 Comments || Top||

#9  He's really a 'toon CondorMan.
Posted by: Shipman || 04/23/2014 16:02 Comments || Top||

#10  Like this Ship? link
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 04/23/2014 16:21 Comments || Top||

#11  Harry Reid indicated that he will run again in 2016 about a year ago. Maybe he will be indicted for his backdoor illegal dealings before the election.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/23/2014 17:28 Comments || Top||

#12  The BLM fight has pulled stakes in Nevada. They are headed to Texas where they say land that was deeded to a family over 100 years ago is rightfully the feds property. This is the heart of the fed/state land wars. It will be an interesting fight.

When Gov. Perry was asked about the militias breaking the law, he responded it was sad that the fed has put people into a position where they fell the have to defend themselves this way. I like Perry...
Posted by: 49 Pan || 04/23/2014 17:44 Comments || Top||

#13  Maybe Mr. Reid had something to do with THIS.
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 04/23/2014 19:41 Comments || Top||

#14  If I was the BLM, I'd be afraid to come to Texas
Posted by: Silentbrick || 04/23/2014 21:43 Comments || Top||


'Trespass Cattle': One of the Latest Theories on the Bundy Ranch and the Feds
[The Blaze] Allegations that the so-called "land grab" showdown between the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and Nevada rancher terrorist Cliven Bundy was influenced by a deal involving Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and a Chinese-backed company failed to hold up to closer scrutiny last week.
Not nearly close enough in my view.
The Bureau of Land Management has begun to round up what they call "trespass cattle" that rancher Cliven Bundy has been grazing in the Gold Butte area 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

But now, a new claim regarding what may have led to the tense standoff is starting to gain traction.

The latest theory on what may have provoked the armed showdown between Bundy and federal agents involves the Bureau of Land Management at one point referring on its website to "trespass cattle" in the Gold Butte area, the same area that the federal government and the 67-year-old rancher have battled over for more than 20 years.

The document, titled "Cattle Trespass Impacts," which was removed from the Bureau of Land Management's website in the midst of the standoff, discusses the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone project and its effect on the local wildlife.
Yes, an inconvenient fact removed from the BLM website, but archived at above link.
"Non-Governmental Organizations have expressed concern that the regional mitigation strategy for the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone utilizes Gold Butte as the location for offsite mitigation for impacts from solar development, and that those restoration activities are not durable with the presence of trespass cattle [emphasis added]," the Bureau of Land Management said on its website.

But here's the thing: The passage referring to "trespass cattle" appears to indicate only that the federal agency has an interest in detailing which of its solar projects have negative impacts on the local wildlife and vice versa.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/23/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Dry Lake Solar Energy links.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/23/2014 0:44 Comments || Top||

#2  The land within the Dry Lake SEZ is undeveloped scrubland, characteristic of a semiarid basin. Vegetation within the SEZ is predominantly creosotebush and other low shrubs.

And PROTECTED turtles that are doomed to BLM'S extension ummm Relocation, then Kill them,(Because there's too many turtles)

Nice excuse.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/23/2014 2:42 Comments || Top||

#3  The whole thing was about military style confiscation of property. Judging the facts i dont really support the Bundys but the gov overstepped big time so on general principal i now support the ranchers.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 04/23/2014 9:38 Comments || Top||

#4  BLM needed a reality check and they got it. 200 pissed off, armed cowboys should sober up anyone.
The Fed agencies get mission creep and need to be tuned up every now and then. LEOs in general could use a refresher course on why they are allowed to wear the gun and badge. I think the whole event will end up being constructive, lead to a lot of discussion and, hopefully, some changes in the way that LEOs, both state and federal, interact with citizens.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 04/23/2014 11:14 Comments || Top||

#5  The best reasons for the Fed I have heard are back taxes and turtles.

Back taxes is a financial issue, but if it is a financial issue, killing the bulls, destroying the water system, and losses to the herd via incompetence destroys the value of the property seized and renders incapable any effort to gain value to pay accused grazing fees/taxes/whatever.

Its like trying to get a person to pay back their college loan by cutting his arms off, if the real reason for cutting the arms off is to get that particular account even monetarily.

As for the tortoise, you know what helps grow items in the tortoise diet? Cow poop. You know what keeps at bay the predators of the Desert Tortoise? Cattle and Cowboys. You know what cows don't like to do and keep an eye out for? Stepping on things which might hurt them.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 04/23/2014 12:52 Comments || Top||


They're at it Again
After the recent Bundy Ranch episode by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Texans are becoming more concerned about the BLM's focus on 90,000 acres along a 116 mile stretch of the Texas/Oklahoma boundary. The BLM is reviewing the possible federal takeover and ownership of privately-held lands which have been deeded property for generations of Texas landowners.

Sid Miller, former Texas State Representative and Republican candidate for Texas Agriculture Commissioner, has since made the matter a campaign issue to Breitbart Texas.

"In Texas," Miller says, "the BLM is attempting a repeat of an action taken over 30 years ago along the Red River when Tommy Henderson lost a federal lawsuit. The Bureau of Land Management took 140 acres of his property and didn't pay him one cent."
Eminant domain, dontch know.
Miller referred to a 1986 case where the BLM attempted to seize some of Henderson's land. Henderson sued the BLM and lost 140 acres that had been in his family for generations. Now the BLM is looking at using the prior case as a precedent to claim an additional 90,000 acres.

Congressman Mac Thornberry (R-TX) represents the ranchers in this region of north Texas. According to Thornberry's legislative analysts, the issue of the ownership of this land dates back to the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. When the BLM made the claim on Henderson's land, their position was that Texas never had the authority to deed the land to private parties and therefore it would fall under federal control.
Interesting assumption by the BLM as Texas was not part of the Louisana Purchase. Neither was Oklahoma.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 04/23/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  With a $117 / barrel, one year forecast....Just a wild guess.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/23/2014 1:03 Comments || Top||

#2  It doesn't say exactly when the land was deeded but Texas was an independent republic before it joined the Union. They won their sovereignty from Mexico without any help from the US, er, unless you count Davy Crockett. As such I would think they had the right to deed that land as they saw fit. Maybe they'd like to revert to being an independent republic again.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 04/23/2014 15:49 Comments || Top||

#3  They (Texas) have the right to secceed whenever they want , maybe they better advertise it.

BLM Seems to have forgotten.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/23/2014 16:33 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
'Piles and piles' of bodies in South Sudan slaughter
[FOXNEWS] Gunmen in South Sudan who targeted civilians including children and the elderly left "piles and piles" of bodies, many of them in a mosque and a hospital, the U.N.'s top humanitarian official in the country said Tuesday.

Toby Lanzer told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named in a phone interview Tuesday that the ethnically assassinations in a quiet provincial capital are "quite possibly a game-changer" for a conflict that has been raging since mid-December and that has exposed longstanding ethnic hostilities.

There was also a disturbing echo of Rwanda, which is marking the 20th anniversary this month of its genocide that killed an estimated 1 million people. The Rwandan genocide saw kill orders broadcast by radio and it happened in South Sudan, Lanzer said.

"It's the first time we're aware of that a local radio station was broadcasting hate messages encouraging people to engage in atrocities," said Lanzer, who was in Bentiu on Sunday and Monday. "And that really accelerates South Sudan's descent into an even more difficult situation from which it needs to extract itself."

U.N. human rights
When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much...
Sherlocks said late Monday that hundreds of non-combatants were killed last week because of their ethnicity after rebel forces seized Bentiu, the capital of oil-producing Unity state. Those rebel forces are Nuer, the same ethnic group that former Vice President Riek Machar, who is now a rebel leader, comes from.

Lanzer said thousands of civilians from several ethnic groups are streaming to the U.N. peacekeeping base in Bentiu because many believe more violence is coming. The base now holds 25,000 people but has only one liter of water per person per day and only one latrine per 350 people.

"The risk of a public health crisis inside our base is enormous," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 04/23/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Morocco refuses bail for 9 detained activists
[Al Ahram] Nine activists with Morocco's February 20 pro-reform movement, who were tossed in the slammer
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
this month during a mass demonstration in Casablanca, had their request for bail rejected on Tuesday.

Police arrested 11 activists during a "national march" organised by the country's three main unions on April 6, in which some 10,000 took part.

Accused of "organising a non-authorised protest" and of carrying out "acts of violence against coppers", two of the 11 activists have since been released on bail.

During Tuesday's hearing, the court in Casablanca refused a renewed demand for bail by the remaining nine defendants,with the trial adjourned to April 29, an AFP journalist reported.

A few dozen activists gathered outside the court house to demand their release, denouncing what they called a "political trial."

The march organised by the unions primarily targeted the policies, and especially the austerity measures, introduced by Islamist Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane.

But the February 20 activists had shouted slogans "against the regime as a whole," according to several watchdogs, including the Moroccan Association for Human Rights, which has expressed "concern" over the arrests.
Posted by: Fred || 04/23/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Algeria probes police violence in Kabylie
[MAGHAREBIA] Algerian authorities on Monday (April 21st) announced an inquiry into allegations of police violence in Kabylie, AFP reported.

A video posted online Sunday reportedly showed police beating protesters in Tizi Ouzou.

"The contents of the video shows actions that are unacceptable and damage the reputation of the police force, whatever their motivations," national security (DGSN) spokesman Djilali Boudalia said.
Posted by: Fred || 04/23/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Jew-Jitsu: Jewish Lawyer Seeks To Join Islamist Party In Morocco
[Ynet] Lawyer praises party ideals, questions specific policies in open letter: 'There is no longer a viable alternative to your party.'

Leaders of Morocco's ruling political party, the Islamist Justice and Development Party, recently received an unusual request from Jewish lawyer Yitzhak Sharia to join their movement. The lawyer was still waiting for an answer on Monday.

Led by Abed al-Ayala Ben Hiran, the party took over parlaiment in elections in 2011 and follows moderate Islamic ideals supporting democracy and human rights
When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much...
as well as educational reform and greater economic ties with foreign countries.

Sharia approached the party through an open letter in which he explained that despite the difference in religion, he sees true patriotism in the movement.

The letter continued to say that when compared to Morocco's other parties, the Justice and Development Party is uncorrupt and displays a certain innocence in its ideals of modernization and cooperation.

The lawyer expressed his desire to join the "fighters of the Justice and Develpment Party" in their struggle to end corruption and bring the north African nation to a quality of life seen in the world's most advanced and modern countries.

"I saw that the Morroccan political arena had completely degenerated and for decent citizens who want to take a part in politics, there is no longer a viable alternative to your party," wrote Sharia.

Sharia, who was once a member of the Moroccan Liberal Party, said in his letter that joining the Justice and Development Party would also help to legally protect the country's Jewish community, in which he has extensive connections, and to recover their stolen rights.

While Sharia's letter expressed support for many of the party's underlying ideals, he was unsure how his request might be received and questioned several points of party policy which he may oppose.

"I want to know what the party stance is toward Morocco's Jews and toward foreigners in Morocco - both investors and immigrants," wrote the lawyer.

In an interview with local media, Sharia explained that his purpose is not to embarass Morocco's leaders, but to call upon the party to accept people who believe in certain ideas that contradict party ideas.

In his letter, the laywer critisized the party for investing more energy in external issues than critical national problems.

Sharia also questioned what the party stands to gain by supporting Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, over Fatah and what interest it has in aiding Sunnis over Shi'ites in Syria and Iraq. "Isn't this the beginning of civil war?" asked Sharia.

He also wondered why the Justice and Development Party offers support to the Moslem Brüderbund in Egypt and shares views with the Egyptian military.

Khaled A-Rahmouni, a member of the General Secretariat of the party received the letter and said in an Al-Arabiya interview that some members of the party were surprised by the request, but others regarded the letter as routine.

According to A-Rahmouni, "He is free to submit such a request to the party. This man's religious affiliations aren't relevant because the Party's philosophy is based on the principle of citizenship - a political party that has no problems with religions."

"The Party does distinguish between Judaism and Zionism as a racist movement and therefore it is the right of every Moroccan Jew to join the Party on the condition that he doesn't support Zionism."

Deputy Secretary General ofthe Party, Saliman al-Amrani, told Al-Jazeera
... an Arab news network headquartered in Qatar, notorious for carrying al-Qaeda press releases. The name means the Peninsula, as in the Arabian Peninsula. In recent years it has settled in to become slightly less biased than MSNBC, in about the same category as BBC or CBS...
that "Our doors are open before every Moroccan on the condition that they respect the Party's internal rules and agree to follow the principles, goals, and decisions of the Party."

Al-Amrani also noted that the party maintains a good connection with the Jewish community and reminded interviewers that the prime minister recently took part in a Jewish religious ceremony in Fes, a city in north-eastern Morocco.

Despite good domestic relations with Morrocan Jews, the Moroccan government opposes normalization of relations with the State of Israel.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/23/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Subsaharan
Ugandan forces capture fugitive LRA officer
[Iran Press TV] Ugandan soldiers have captured a runaway member of African myrmidon group Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a perennial thorn in Africa's side and freed 10 hostages, the army says.

Ugandan army front man Paddy Ankunda said on Tuesday that LRA officer Charles Okello was taken into custody in the southeast of the Central African Republic (CAR).

Ankunda described Okello as a field commander of the "notorious" LRA, saying, "Most importantly we released 10 people, seven children and three women, who had been held hostage for six months."

The Ugandan army has been leading an African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
force tasked with capturing the LRA's members, some of whom are wanted by the International Criminal Court
... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ...
(ICC) in The Hague.

The LRA is said to have split up into small groups and its runaway leader, Joseph Kony
... The Lords Resistance Army is a religious and military group formed in 1987. It is led by Joseph Kony, who proclaims himself the spokesperson of God and a spirit medium, and who is periodically possessed by demons, Beelzebub and Legion prominent among them. Kony advises his soldiers to draw crosses on their chests as a protection against bullets. This does't work, but nobody outside the LRA minds. The group is based on a hodge podge of apocalyptic Christianity, mysticism, and traditional Acholi religion, and claims to be establishing a theocratic state based on an odd interpretation of the Ten Commandments. The LRA is famous for systematic criminal conduct, including murder, abduction, mutilation, sexual enslavement of women and children, forcing children to participate in hostilities, and occasional cannibalism. The LRA operates mainly in northern Uganda and also in parts of Sudan, Central African Republic and DR Congo...
, is thought to be hiding in a place where the borders of the CAR, South Sudan, and Sudan meet.
Posted by: Fred || 04/23/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Hit by 'hard times', Mugabe accepts $4,000 a month
[Al Ahram] Zim-bob-wean President Bob Muggsy Mugabe
Octogenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case...
has said he gets by on a modest salary of $4,000 a month because of the "hard times" facing the country, state media reported Tuesday.

Zim-bob-we is still recovering from years of economic collapse attributed mainly to government policies under Mugabe, who has run the country since independence in 1980.

"I am earning $4,000 (2,900 euros) just now, because of the hard times. This is what we decided on, that we should recognise the hard times at the moment," Mugabe said in a BBC interview at the weekend, according to excerpts published in state media.

The average wage in Zim-bob-we is $300 a month, but unemployment runs at 80 percent and most of the population of 13 million live in poverty.

The report did not say how much the 90-year-old president, who favours designer suits and Rolex watches, might receive in allowances or what he earns outside government.

Mugabe has interests in farming among known business entities under his name.

The president built a plush private mansion on the outskirts of the capital Harare, reportedly worth more than $10 million.

Last month the veteran leader gave a $100,000 gift to his daughter and son-in-law at their wedding, which he hosted at his mansion with more than 4,000 guests.

Last month Zim-bob-we announced a $6,000 salary cap for executives working for state-owned companies following reports that some of them were grossly overpaid.

The head of the public health insurance fund was a top earner, with a gross monthly salary of $535,499, while the Zim-bob-we Broadcasting Corporation boss took home $37,050 a month.

The country in 2009 ditched the worthless Zim-bob-we dollar currency in favour of the US dollar and a raft other regional currencies.
Posted by: Fred || 04/23/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Last month Zim-bob-we announced a $6,000 salary cap for executives working for state-owned companies following reports that some of them were grossly overpaid.

Signs of how desparate they are due to their cluelessness. Oh wait, aren't they floating that idea over here?
Posted by: gorb || 04/23/2014 15:22 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Novii Los Vegas
Now that Russia has officially annexed Crimea from Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has big plans for the region — he wants to make it into a gambler's paradise.
According to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti, on Monday, Putin submitted a bill to the State Duma, the lower house of Russian parliament, to establish a specially designated gambling zone in Crimea.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/23/2014 16:39 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As Elvis would end in song, "Viva! VIVA! C-R-I-M-E-A"!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/23/2014 20:27 Comments || Top||

#2  The movie alluded to would be absolutely magical if dubbed by the Russian tongue and culture.
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 04/23/2014 21:21 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
China: Angry mob pulverizes chengguan on city street
Nearly 1,000 outraged Chinese besieged a group of urban management officials in an eastern city on Saturday, smashing their vehicle with bricks and windows, beating them bloody and unconscious, and then flipping over the ambulance that came to provide medical treatment.

It was a dramatic and violent reversal to the usual order of events when notorious urban officials, called chengguan in Chinese, get into conflicts with street vendors and pedestrians. Though their official job is to enforce local street ordinances, chengguan have gained a reputation for their arbitrary brutality across China over the years.

On April 19, a group of chengguan in Cangnan county, part of Wenzhou City in Zhejiang Province, were seen to be bullying a street vendor. A passerby, 36 year-old Mr. Huang, began taking pictures of the encounter with his cell phone. One of the officials told him to delete the pictures. He refused. A flurry of abuse, kicks, and punches followed.

The crowd saw Mr. Huang being attacked, and decided to intervene. Online rumours then rapidly proliferated that "someone was beaten to death by chengguan," which intensified public anger and drove more people to the scene, according to the Chinese newspaper Southern Metropolis Daily.

"Such tragedies have happened again and again in recent years," said Duan Xingyan, a user of Weibo who identified himself as a police officer. "The root reason is the severe lack of rule of law in our society."
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 04/23/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  These chengguan don't have their own swat team.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/23/2014 6:05 Comments || Top||

#2  I translate chengguan as "Out of Control cops".
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/23/2014 11:04 Comments || Top||

#3  chengguan = HOA board members with guns
Posted by: Frank G || 04/23/2014 12:31 Comments || Top||

#4  Another element in this story is the theme of suspects dying under Chinese police interrogation. It goes back many centuries.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 04/23/2014 14:36 Comments || Top||


Europe
Ukraine to resume "anti-terror" operations in east
[Iran Press TV] Ukraine's acting president has ordered the resumption of what he calls "anti-terror" operations in the east of the country.

Oleksandr Turchynov's call came on Tuesday after claiming that two "tortured bodies" were found near the eastern city of Slavyansk.

The bodies reportedly belong to a politician from the acting president's Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party and a member of the city council, who were allegedly killed by pro-Russians.

Turchynov also blamed the deaths on what he labeled as "terrorists, who have taken the whole region hostage."

On April 15, Kiev launched a controversial "anti-terrorist" operation in a bid to root out pro-Russian protests.
a
The operation was suspended three days later, due to the Easter holidays and a Geneva agreement signed by the United States, the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
, Russia and Ukraine on April 17.
Posted by: Fred || 04/23/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Ukraine president orders military operation restart against rebels
[Straits Times] Ukraine's acting president on Tuesday ordered a military operation against pro-Kremlin separatists resume, after two "brutally tortured" bodies were discovered in the restive east, one of whom was a kidnapped local councillor.

"I demand the resumption of effective counter-terrorism measures to protect Ukrainian citizens in the east from terrorism," Oleksandr Turchynov said, according to a statement from his other office as parliamentary speaker.
Posted by: Fred || 04/23/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Government
Jim 'Not wittingly' Clapper forbids employees from Media contact
[Breitbart] A leaked memo from the country's top intelligence director informs the government's intel employees that they are forbidden to talk to the media, a new report claims.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/23/2014 06:17 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  First thing the intelligence employees do is leak the memo...whahahha.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/23/2014 8:16 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm sure someone in charge said something about being the most transparent administration ever.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/23/2014 8:18 Comments || Top||


First Hipanic Justice heard in Affirmative Action case.
Soto writes first opinion on race in 5 years on the job. Sez her colleagues on the bench.... "fundamentally don't understand."
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/23/2014 01:44 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Video: IRS agents who didn't pay their taxes get $1 million in bonuses
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/23/2014 00:16 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  For the people that approved this... Tar. Feathers. Firing with no pension.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/23/2014 0:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Bonuses for WHAT?
Posted by: Bubba Graiting8281 || 04/23/2014 0:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Bonuses for helping the boss with some..... special projects concerning other gov't agencies that we ain't at liberty to discuss. They helps us with our special projects, and we helps them with their back taxes. Everyone keeps their jobs, eh.

Play along - move along, you capiche ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/23/2014 0:28 Comments || Top||

#4  Yeah, I capiche. Bastards cleaned me out this year and laughed all the way to the bank with their bonuses.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 04/23/2014 11:55 Comments || Top||

#5  Rules are for the little people.
Posted by: P2Kontheroad || 04/23/2014 17:22 Comments || Top||


WTF Headline Of The Day: Tax-Cheating IRS Staff Got Bonuses
Based upon stories like these, it looks like I have made SERIOUS career errors.

Although the Nervousness Alert flag of Zero Hedge is hoisted, I've seen additional sources reporting this.
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 04/23/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Culture Wars
CT Professor: "If pubs win, America will be a very different kind of country."
[Gateway Pundit] Brent Terry, professor at Eastern Connecticut State University, told his class that a GOP victory will turn America into a "very different kind of country."
I'm certainly hoping Professor Terry is correct.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/23/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  People like this professor would do more good for this world as worm food.

All they do is spout hatred and poison.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/23/2014 0:06 Comments || Top||

#2  "If pubs win, America will be a very different kind of country."

If?
I read a report saying it's a certainty.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/23/2014 2:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Assuming free elections, RJ?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/23/2014 6:03 Comments || Top||

#4  Projection.

Libs want to change your country dramatically, to a failed model where they are in control.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/23/2014 8:10 Comments || Top||

#5  The Liberal News Cycle

University professor tells his Class that Republicans are Racist
Posted by: Caribbean Pete || 04/23/2014 12:39 Comments || Top||

#6  ECSU Professor’s Remarks Prompts Response From Lawmakers

Posted by: Caribbean Pete || 04/23/2014 12:40 Comments || Top||

#7  ECSU professor apologizes for controversial comments
Posted by: Caribbean Pete || 04/23/2014 12:42 Comments || Top||

#8  Tenure is great isn't it!

/sarc
Posted by: CrazyFool || 04/23/2014 13:30 Comments || Top||

#9  Eastern Connecticut State University is the safety school for those who can't get into community college.
Posted by: regular joe || 04/23/2014 13:48 Comments || Top||

#10  If ‘Racist’ Republicans Win – Colleges Will Close

And what would the world be without the hallowed halls of Eastern Connecticut State University???
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/23/2014 14:52 Comments || Top||

#11  Hopefully, the Pubs will win and slow the destruction.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/23/2014 17:24 Comments || Top||

#12  Here is his ratings page - check out the comments: LINK
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 04/23/2014 21:07 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2014-04-23
  Saudi Arabia Sentences 8 To Death For 2003 Riyadh Attack
Tue 2014-04-22
  33 killed, dozens injured in terrorist attacks across Iraq
Mon 2014-04-21
  30 'Qaida' Suspects Killed in Yemen Drone Strike
Sun 2014-04-20
  Hamid Mir wounded in Pakistan gun attack
Sat 2014-04-19
  Drone Kills 15 'Qaida', 3 Civilians in Yemen
Fri 2014-04-18
  Afghan woman MP shot in Kabul
Thu 2014-04-17
  Al-Nusra Chief Killed by Rivals in Syria
Wed 2014-04-16
  Deputy Minister Kidnapped in Kabul
Tue 2014-04-15
  Twin bomb blasts kill 71, injure 124 in Nigeria
Mon 2014-04-14
  Boko Haram massacres students, kills 200 others in Borno
Sun 2014-04-13
  Gunmen storm 'pro-govt' Pak village, kidnap 100 men
Sat 2014-04-12
  ISIS on retreat in Deir al-Zor after surprise attack
Fri 2014-04-11
  5 Killed as Houthis Press 'Advance' on Yemen Capital
Thu 2014-04-10
  Baloch separatists claim Islamabad terror attack; 24 killed
Wed 2014-04-09
  Netanyahu instructs government ministries to cease cooperation with Palestinians

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