[Emirates 24/7] Indonesian police said they had jugged three men Thursday after two Melanesian tribes clashed with machetes and arrows over a mobile phone ringtone.
Hundreds of Wamena rustics descended on members of the Yoka tribe on Wednesday morning in the Papua lovely provincial capital Jayapura, after learning that Yokas were sharing a ringtone which insulted Wamenas.
The ensuing clash reportedly left 23 houses burned to the ground, another 56 damaged and 12 vehicles set ablaze. Police said no one was injured.
"We deployed dozens of police to ensure security in the city. The situation has improved after we jugged three men for allegedly composing the ringtone," Jayapura police chief Iman Setiawan told AFP.
The ringtone had a reggae beat and offensive lyrics about the neighbouring Wamena tribe, he said.
"The lyrics were considered humiliating and insulting to the Wamenas, so that triggered a spontaneous reaction," he added.
Papuan tribal groups engage in elaborate war rituals to resolve disputes, often involving arrows, spears and homemade guns. And, yet...they have cellphones.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/19/2010 00:00 ||
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I'd really like to see a translation of the insult.
One of the major controversies surrounding the newspaper was its participation in suing independent bloggers around the country for copyright infringement of stories printed in the paper. Bloggers, from moms at home writing about kids to political bloggers found themselves sued by the papers attack dog law firm, Righthaven. Righthaven would scour blogs to find any information that was taken from the pages of the newspaper. If content was found, however innocent, Righthaven would contact the newspaper and buy the copyright for that particular article, then file a lawsuit demanding money. The law firm filed at least 166 law suits since March.
Needless to say, bloggers nationwide were outraged. The Las Vegas Review Journal and Righthaven received avalanches of complaints but Frederick defended the practice. Now it turns out the pressure from the writing community may have been heard by the owners of the newspaper. Stephens Media was making much money, if any, from the lawsuits although the law firm was earning quite a bit in legal fees.
Frederick will now be a lowly columnist, while Mitchell will be an opinion editor. General manager Allan Fleming was unceremoniously just let go. Bob Brown the newspapers advertising director was named as the new publisher. An editor has not yet been named. As for the legal firm Righthaven of Las Vegas, the CEO says the firings will not affect its operations. However, when high ranking entrenched management officials are suddenly canned, the unpopular practice of suing bloggers may have come to an end.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/19/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Awkward sentence: Stephens Media was making much money, if any, from the lawsuits although the law firm was earning quite a bit in legal fees.
Should that read: Stephens Media WASN'T making much money?
Well, I made up the bankruptcy part, but they have lost in a Las Vegas court. Judge ruled excerpts are indeed Fair Use. The trolls now claim they won't sue anyone who posts less than 75% of an article.
Maybe they should start advising their clients to write shorter articles?
The article further notes:
Righthaven's lawsuits frequently take advantage of a loophole in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Many of its more than 150 lawsuits arise not from articles posted by a website's proprietors but from comments and forum posts by the site's readers. Under the DMCA, a website normally enjoys effective immunity from civil copyright liability for user content, provided it promptly removes infringing material at the request of a rightsholder.
But to dock that legal safe harbor, a site has to register an official contact point for DMCA takedown notices, a process that involves filling out a form and mailing a $105 check to the government. An examination of Righthaven's lawsuits targeting user content suggests it's specifically going after sites that failed to fill out that paperwork.
Let's see what the judges think of that: the failure to file a form and pay a fee versus the willingness and ability of a website owner to remove offending material promptly upon request, form or no form. That to me sounds like a 'minor oversight' of infringement and one that judges will be looking to resolve in favor of the website, particularly small, non-commercial websites.
I'm just guessing here, but I'm going to bet that in six months RH will be out of business and its owner will be on to other things in life.
#5
It's best if we don't comment openly on specifics.
AoS
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/19/2010 9:28 Comments ||
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#6
Let's see what the judges think of that: the failure to file a form and pay a fee versus the willingness and ability of a website owner to remove offending material promptly upon request, form or no form.
Hmmm... not paying into the Government protection racket? And yes, IMO the $105 fee is a straight up protection racket- period.
#7
I would go further to suggest both that RH not be referred to by its full name, nor that articles involving it be main paged. This would be to prevent bot archives with comments that might not be helpful in the future.
1960s songbird Joan Baez is "resting comfortably" at an undisclosed location on the ground after falling 20 feet to the ground from a treehouse - a treehouse she purposely had built without walls because she wanted to sleep among real birds at her Woodside, Calif., home. real, not fake, birds, mind you
The 69-year-old Baez was climbing down from the platform Wednesday when she plunged to the ground. like a sack of wet cement
help! I've fallen and I can't get up
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/19/2010 07:48 ||
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How could it be built without the OSHA-required handrails?
Of course, I would've built it with a low wall, to keep me from rolling off. But she fell from a ladder, or whatever sort of green vertical tranportation device she was using.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/19/2010 8:06 Comments ||
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#4
Maybe she can quit dreamin' she saw Joe Hill last night and actually go to Hell to be with him...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/19/2010 10:13 Comments ||
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#5
If she'd eat one of those birds once in a while, instead of just eating the bird seed with them, she might get some protein and have enough muscle to climb up and down the occasional ladder.
SYDNEY - As many as half of the 80 Rolls-Royce engines that power the world's largest jetliner may have faulty parts at risk of oil leaks like the one that caused the fire and partial disintegration of a motor on a Qantas flight this month, the Australian national airline's chief executive said Thursday.
Yeah yeah, not WoT, but it does give me a chance to run the 'flying turkey' pic again ...
The 40 potentially faulty engines on the Airbus A380 would need to be replaced with new engines while the fault is fixed, raising the spectre of engine shortages that could delay future deliveries of the 7-story-tall superjumbo.
The comments by Qantas CEO Alan Joyce were the most definite accounting yet of a problem that now appears far larger than first imagined when one of his airline's engines came apart over Indonesia, spewing metal shrapnel into a wing and severing vital operating systems.
Qantas has grounded its fleet of six A380s, each powered by four of the giant Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine. Joyce told reporters that Qantas may have to replace 14 engines, each worth about $10 million.
Rolls-Royce has indicated that the number of engines that needed to be replaced was "40 engines worldwide," he said."That's what they think they'll have to change."
An Airbus spokesman couldn't immediately be reached for comment. Meanwhile, in the cockpit. Sounds like these guys earned their money that day...
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/19/2010 00:00 ||
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Not quite. Half of A380 delivered have Pratt & Whitney engines, and there are also Boeing airplanes that fly with RR.
Boeing Dreamliner has its own problems.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
11/19/2010 2:45 Comments ||
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#4
Seems to me it shouldn't be that much of a stretch to route critical stuff where it's not going to get blasted if an engine explodes, or at least armor it somehow.
And what about wireless connections as backups if the wired stuff gets shredded?
#6
Agree w/ EC: The FAA has suspended any further in-flight 787 certification testing until the source of last week's in flight e-bay fire is determined. There was a report that said all the 787 test birds haver returned to Everett until the investigation is over. Ground-based cert efforts are continuing.
#7
Ebbang: Qantas has crashed. Bangkok a few years ago when they ran off the end of a wet runway at night at a fair clip and wound up in a golf course(Qantas all inclusive Thai golf tours - gets you right to the course). Cause was a total screwup in crew co-ordination (F/O was flying, decided to go round, opened throttles, Captain then pluued them back ....). Then they sat there for 20 minutes before evacuating the pax. Clearly there were no military or civilian pilots amongst the pax that day and they were damn lucky the thing didn't burn as the damage was severe enough. They had the airplane repaired so they could claim no write offs but technically it was an insurance write off.
Qantas has also had a few near misses including a domestic 737 holding at Canberra early in the morning, waiting for the air traffic controllers to get to work and turn the lights on. They were holding at an altitude below the surrounding mountains and were flying the wrong pattern. Ground proximity warning systems are a wonderful thing.
Posted by: Aussie Mike ||
11/19/2010 19:09 Comments ||
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Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- A suspected bomb found in a bag at a Namibian airport two days ago didn't contain explosives and was a mockup device made by a U.S. company designed to expose lax security, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said.
Officials at Germany's Federal Criminal Office, or BKA, traveled to Windhoek to examine the luggage and concluded that the contraption was a dummy, de Maiziere said at a conference in Hamburg televised by N-TV today.
Such devices "are intended to uncover security gaps," he said.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/19/2010 20:06 Comments ||
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#3
Don't know if I can pull quotes but the German of Iraqi origin: other than the glass and concrete and malls and hotels and that I thought they were part of the visiting ritual, it was just like heaven.
(KUNA) -- The new-year rise in VAT is set to make the UK unaffordable to many would-be visitors from overseas, a poll showed Thursday.
The increase from 17.5% to 20% will mean UK holidays will be "too expensive", according to 24% of 3,200 worldwide travellers surveyed by the "TripAdvisor" company.
In addition, a further 26% were still undecided as to whether the tax hike would deter them from holidaying in Britain next year.
The survey also showed that around a quarter of Britons reckoned the VAT rise could make domestic holidays in 2011 too expensive.
TripAdvisor spokeswoman Emma O'Boyle said: "The UK is one of Europe's most popular holiday destinations, with London in particular regarded as a world-class shopping hub.
"With a quarter of both continental European and British travellers anxious about a UK holiday because of the VAT increase, we may see some excellent travel deals in 2011 as the British tourism industry works hard to be seen as an attractive and competitive holiday option."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/19/2010 00:00 ||
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Phenom Penh is "affordable" to visitors. Unfortunately affordability has done little for Cambodia's tourism industry.
#2
I'm not a fan of tax increases of course, but this is quite nonsense. Food for example has 0% Vat in the UK, and if you cannot afford a 2% price hike (yes it comes to 2%, not 2,5%) you better stay home.
Btw visitors from overseas get a VAT refund on their purchases.
I'd rather watch where the pound is going
Posted by: European Conservative ||
11/19/2010 2:51 Comments ||
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#3
Not for UN workers Besoeker.
Theyz gonna need an ad campaign, perhaps a footie pissing in a tea cup could convey both dignity and the down to earth sensibilities of the UK leadership.
[El Universal] The National Statistics Institute (INE) said that the percentage of households in poverty, as measured by income, grew slightly to 26.8 percent at the end of the first half of the year.
The percentage of households in poverty in the same period last year stood at 26.4 percent, a 0.4 percent increase compared to the previous period.
Elías Eljuri, the president of INE, said that the most recent result "means that Venezuela has managed to maintain the statistical stability in one of the most sensitive social variables, despite the fact that the global economic crisis has caused a declined in the country's oil revenues."
However, The infamous However... the government's official acknowledged that there has been little progress in access to adequate housing.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/19/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
since Hoogo is seizing housing developments without compensation, don't expect to see much more housing constructed
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/19/2010 11:37 Comments ||
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[El Universal] As part of its policy to seize and occupy agricultural lands, the Venezuelan government plans to seize some 450,000 hectares of lands (1,111,974 acres) in 2011, said Yvan Gil, the Vice Minister of Agroproductive Circuits, Ministry of Agriculture and Lands (MAT). The ministry's budget includes VEB 17.9 billion (USD 4.16 billion) to seize lands.
The Executive Office told the National Assembly's Committee on Finance that ever since the Law on Lands became effective, Venezuelan authorities have seized 3 million hectares, while other 14.1 million hectares have been duly legalized.
Delays on land-use certificates
Vice Minister Gil acknowledged that after the Ministry of the Interior and Justice prevented the public record of transactions involving agricultural farms in the absence of land-use certificates, there have been bottlenecks in the issuance of this document. "We expect to speed up paperwork, to accelerate the process," Gil added.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/19/2010 00:00 ||
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[El Universal] Oil prices have risen in world markets, but declining exports of oil by state-run oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa) has prevented recovery of the sector that generates more US dollars to the Venezuelan economy.
During the first nine months, the oil sector tumbled 3 percent, as shown in the data submitted on Tuesday by the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV).
The oil sector's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which has an accumulated decline of 11.4 percent since the third quarter of 2008, has been hit by the drop in oil production. While the BCV attributes such performance to the agreement reached by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to cut oil output, official data issued by state-run oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa) show that the Venezuelan government invests increasingly fewer funds to improve production levels.
The state-run oil holding reported in its recent financial statements that it has invested USD 5.23 billion in operation and exploration activities in the first half, while it invested USD 7.63 billion in the same period last year, a 31.4 percent decline in a year.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/19/2010 00:00 ||
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(KUNA) -- US President Barack Obama expressed on Thursday confidence that the new START treaty with Russia will pass in Congress calling this step as "a national security imperative". "I am confident that we should be able to get the votes. Keep in mind that every president since Ronald Reagan has presented an arms treaty with Russia and been able to get ratification," said Obama in remarks at the White House. Since it's going to be Groundhog Day again tomorrow this one will certainly be passed, too.
"The majority of them have passed overwhelmingly, with bipartisan support. There has no reason that we should not be able to get that done this time as well," he affirmed. "Bi-partisan" = "Blame came be shared all around"
After dozen of hearings and deliberations, the treaty was approved by the Senate foreign relations committee by 14 votes to 4 and awaits the general vote of 67 Senators to be ratified.
"It is a national security imperative that the United States ratify the new START treaty this year. There is no higher national security priority for the lame-duck session of Congress," said Obama. "The stakes for American national security are clear, and they are high. The new START treaty responsibly reduces the number of nuclear weapons and launchers that the United States and Russia deploy while fully maintaining America's nuclear deterrent," he added. The New START treaty was signed between Obama and Russian President Dimitry Medvedev in Prague last April, but congressional ratification is still pending.
Obama noted that "if we ratify this treaty, we are going to have a verification regime in place to track Russia's strategic nuclear weapons, including U.S. inspectors on the ground." "If we do not, then we do not have a verification regime. No inspectors, no insights into Russia's strategic arsenal, no framework for cooperation between the world's two nuclear superpowers," he added.
Obama described the treaty as "a cornerstone of our relations with Russia, and this goes beyond nuclear security. Russia's been fundamental to our efforts to put strong sanctions in place to put pressure on Iran to deal with its nuclear program". "It has been critical in supporting our troops in Afghanistan through the northern distribution network. It has been critical in working with us to secure all vulnerable nuclear materials around the world and to enhance European security", he added.
Obama's remarks came as he dropped by a meeting hosted by Vice President Joe Biden dedicated to the discussion of the START treaty with former secretaries of defense and state.
The US leader affirmed that "we cannot afford to gamble on our ability to verify Russia's strategic nuclear arms, and we cannot jeopardize the progress that we have made in securing vulnerable nuclear materials or in maintaining a strong sanctions regime against Iran. These are all national interests of the highest order". He further noted that the new START "is completely in line with a tradition of bipartisan cooperation on this issue. This is not a Democratic concept; this is not a Republican concept. But this is a concept of American national security".
Some Republican senators, mainly Jon Kyl who is negotiating with the White House, have hinted that the treaty could not pass before next year when the new Congress takes over and they have been asking for more allocation of money for modernizing US nuclear arsenal and to remove any Russian precondition on deploying US missile defense systems. Obama assured that his administration is prepared "to go the extra mile to ensure that our remaining stockpile and nuclear infrastructure is modernized, which is a key concern of many around this table and also many on Capitol Hill".
"This is not a matter that can be delayed. Every month that goes by without a treaty means that we are not able to verify what is going on the ground in Russia. And if we delay indefinitely, American leadership on nonproliferation and America's national security will be weakened," he concluded.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/19/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
That imbecile overdid his tap dance as to why the US should sign away many of our strategic nuclear weapons. By using too many "if we don't, it will hurt puppies and kittens" excuses, it shoots his credibility to hell.
On the plus side, even the Democrats in the senate are not so subtly sabotaging this one. Kerry pissed off several key Republicans by showing up late to a meeting, then when the Republicans asked him what the rush was, he replied that the Democrats had been talking about it among themselves form months, and had ironed out all the details already.
#2
Reducing the number of our ICBMs is not a big deal and, yes, it would be nice to be able to have a better handle on how the Russians are handling their missiles, fuel and weapons.
However, the tricky language about anti ballistic missiles is a big deal and needs study by experts not connected to the administration.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
11/19/2010 9:10 Comments ||
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(KUNA) -- U.S. initial claims for unemployment increased in the week ending November 13 reaching 439,000 compared to the previous week, official data showed here Thursday.
The Department of Labor indicated that in the week ending November 13, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 439,000, an increase of 2,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 437,000.
It added that the four-week moving average was 443,000, a decrease of 4,000 from the previous week's revised average of 447,000. Furthermore, the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.4 percent for the week ending November 6, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week's revised rate of 3.5 percent. The four-week moving average was 4,353,250, a decrease of 45,500 from the preceding week's revised average of 4,398,750, the Department showed.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/19/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
i thought the conomy had been improving since 09. Well it improved for Nobama so I guess he wasn't lying in that aspect of thinking.
Posted by: chris ||
11/19/2010 13:50 Comments ||
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Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/19/2010 19:49 Comments ||
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#2
There is a TFR (temporary flight restrictions)in effect east of Cantwell. This area is south of the really rugged part of the Alaska Range near Windy Pass. HERE is a sectional map of the area of the TFR.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/19/2010 19:56 Comments ||
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[Dawn] A Pak cabinet minister on Thursday called for a thorough re-investigation and fair appeal for a Christian mother sentenced to death for blasphemy after the Pope called for her release.
On November 8, Asia Bibi was sentenced to hang in Pakistain's central province Punjab after being accused of insulting the Prophet Mohammed in 2009.
Pakistain's minister for minority affairs, Shahbaz Bhatti, told AFP that Asia had filed an appeal at the Lahore high court, the highest court in Punjab.
"We have requested the Punjab government that the trial should be fair in the high court. She must also be provided security in jail," he said.
Asia's supporters say the case is baseless and that her first trial "was not heard properly," Bhatti said.
"We have, therefore, asked the Punjab government that the case be reinvestigated properly."
Pope Benedict XVI this week called for her release and said Christians in Pakistain were "often victims of violence and discrimination."
Pakistain has yet to execute anyone for blasphemy, but the case spotlights a controversial law which rights muscle say encourages extremism in a Mohammedan country on the front line of the US-led war on al Qaeda.
Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has said he was told during a visit to Islamabad last week that Pakistain was committed to changing the blasphemy law and promised to join the fight to save Asia.
Asia's husband Ashiq Masih confirmed to AFP that the appeal had been filed, but said the family had no contact from the government.
In June 2009, his wife was asked to fetch water while out working in the fields. But Mohammedan women labourers objected, saying that as a non-Mohammedan, she should not touch the water bowl.
A few days later the women went to a local holy man and alleged that Asia made derogatory remarks about the Prophet Mohammed.
Police jugged her in Ittanwalai village and prosecuted under Section 295 C of the Pakistain Penal Code, which carries the death penalty.
Rights muscle and minority pressure groups said it was the first time that a woman had been sentenced to hang in Pakistain for blasphemy, although a Mohammedan couple were jugged for life last year.
Only around three per cent of Pakistain's population of 167 million is estimated to be non-Mohammedan.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/19/2010 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Pakistain's Ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani has called for greater American public support for the country's flood victims. Aww, geez, I left my wallet in my other pants...
Haqqani faulted coverage of the tragedy in the American media. He pointed out that the media ignored the plight of flood victims and instead focused unduly on political and security implications of the floods that triggered an epic humanitarian crisis.
Haqqani was making an impassioned appeal to back recovery efforts for flood victims to a gathering of American citizens, Congressional staffers and Pak-Americans at an event the ambassador and his wife, MNA Farahnaz Ispahani, hosted at their residence.
"One fifth of Pakistain, an area of the size of Italy, an area of the size of the entire east coast of the United States all the way from Maine to Florida, was inundated...two large rivers basically merged into each other...ten years of rainfall occurred in a space of seven days in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, aka Terrorism Central... province.
"When 20 million people are in trouble, the first priority is saving lives, making sure that there are no waterborne diseases, no epidemics and making sure that immunisation of children remains on track...and the people are enabled to return to their farms and homes," he stated as a slideshow of images illustrated the extent of human suffering and infrastructure losses.
The ambassador appreciated that the US government had allocated $ 493 million towards flood relief and was in the process of directing $ 500 million from the Kerry-Lugar funds, approved by Congress last year. However, The infamous However... he stressed that Pakistain's flood victims would still need a lot of support from individual donors and private charitable giving in the United States.
"More than the dollar cheque that you may write for the effort, what is more important is to contribute to increasing the awareness of this tragedy, taking the focus away from the political debates to humanitarian dimension of the tragedy," he said. Aww, geez, I left my checkbook in my other pants. In Japan...
Jonnah Blank, chief policy advisor for South Asia to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, reaffirmed the influential panel's support for flood victims.
Speaking on behalf of Senator John I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry ... the Senate's current foreign policy expert, filling the empty broghans of Joe Biden... he commended Haqqani's efforts to improve relationship between the two countries.
"Ambassador Haqqani has been a lynchpin in the US-Pakistain relationship. I don't think that is any exaggeration. Anyone who looks at the US-Pakistain relations will come to the same conclusion," Blank said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/19/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Wait a sec! They're asking for imperialist crusaders to take over? Oh, just the cash! Gotcha!
#2
"One fifth of Pakistain, an area of the size of Italy, ..two large rivers basically merged into each other...ten years of rainfall occurred in a space of seven days"
Considering that this is the will of Allan, it would appear y'all done got crosswise with the old geezer. Something you did, maybe?
[Geo TV] Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik has warned that if the violence over animal skin collection in Bloody Karachi continues the government would impose the ban and take over the system.
The minister noted that the government could give this responsibility to any trust. He was talking to state media here today. 'Unfortunately skin collection is also being politicized.'
Posted by: Fred ||
11/19/2010 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Even without factoring in the impact of climate change, the World Bank and the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society said Thursday annual global losses from natural disasters could triple to $185 billion by the end of the century.
The report said the negative impact of climate change could by then add $28 billion to $68 billion a year more in damage from tropical cyclones alone.
The 250-page report, "Natural Hazards, Unnatural Disasters: the Economics of Prevention," was released Thursday in Washington.
It warns that the number of people exposed to storms and earthquakes in large cities could double to 1.5 billion by 2050.
The report suggests a number of measures to prevent death and destruction from natural hazards such as earthquakes, hurricanes and flooding that have ravaged several countries this year from Haiti to Pakistain. Undertaking these measures does not necessarily require governments to spend more, the report says, but to spend better.
For example, governments could make information about hazards and risks easily accessible. Schools could serve as cyclone shelters as in Bangladesh and roads could double up as drains as in Malaysia.
The report says undertaking preventive a measure does not necessarily require governments to spend more but to spend better.
"This report presents necessary evidence and a compelling case for our client countries to reduce their vulnerability to natural hazards," said Robert Zoellick, the bank's president. "We and our (UN) partners stand ready to scale up efforts to assist disaster-prone developing countries."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/19/2010 00:00 ||
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TO HELL with climate change. The world banking system is the real disaster.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the leader of the world's Anglicans, met Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday after five Church of England bishops switched to Roman Catholicism this month.
The audience with the pope came as Williams visited the Vatican for a conference on the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, the Vatican said in a statement.
"Despite new problems or difficult points in dialogue, the goal of the path towards ecumenism remains unchanged, as does the firm commitment to achieve it," Benedict told conference participants, his press office said.
"This is not... a commitment that falls under political categories in which the ability to negotiate or find compromises come into play or in which you might expect agreements acceptable to everyone," he said.
"The unity of Christians is, and remains, a prayer," he added.
The Vatican did not provide any more information about the talks with Williams and a spokesperson for Williams said it was "a private meeting."
Five Church of England bishops this month announced they would convert to Catholicism under an offer from Benedict to welcome Anglicans disaffected by moves to ordinate women and homosexual clergy.
The Roman Catholic Church last year unveiled a controversial new juridical framework that made it easier for Anglicans -- both clergy and parishioners -- unhappy in the Church of England to join Catholic ranks.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/19/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] Physicists have created, and for the first time trapped, antimatter atoms, one of the biggest mysteries of modern science, the European Centre for Nuclear Research says.
The Switzerland-based research institute, also known as CERN, said on Wednesday it had produced antihydrogen atoms - the opposite of a hydrogen atom - in a magnetic trap and kept them viable for more than 170 milliseconds.
Holding the antimatter in a vacuum for this fraction of a second allowed the physicists to study the atoms, CERN said in an article in the British journal Nature.
"We're ecstatic. This is five years of hard work," Jeffrey Hangst, a spokesman at CERN, told the journal.
An antihydrogen atom is made from a negatively charged antiproton and a positively charged positron, the antimatter counterpart of the electron.
Experiments have produced antimatter atoms before but only in a free state. That means they instantly collide with ordinary matter and get annihilated, making it impossible to measure them or study their structure.
"The goal is to study antihydrogen and you can't do it without trapping it," Cliff Surko, an antimatter researcher at the University of California, San Diego, said in Nature.
"This is really a big deal."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/19/2010 00:00 ||
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#6
One antihydrogen for 170 ms doesn't sound like its anything close to bomb-ready...
All we need is to convert some turban matter into anti-turban matter and release it along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The anti-turban matter will seek out the turban matter. As we all know, it doesn't take much to make a turban explode.
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.
[Emirates 24/7] Indonesian police said they had 
1960s songbird Joan Baez is "resting comfortably" at an undisclosed location 
SYDNEY - As many as half of the 80 Rolls-Royce engines that power the world's largest jetliner may have faulty parts at risk of oil leaks like the one that caused the fire and partial disintegration of a motor on a Qantas flight this month, the Australian national airline's chief executive said Thursday.
(KUNA) -- The new-year rise in VAT is set to make the UK unaffordable to many would-be visitors from overseas, a poll showed Thursday.
[El Universal] The National Statistics Institute (INE) said that the percentage of households in poverty, as measured by income, grew slightly to 26.8 percent at the end of the first half of the year. 
[El Universal] As part of its policy to seize and occupy agricultural lands, the Venezuelan government plans to seize some 450,000 hectares of lands (1,111,974 acres) in 2011, said Yvan Gil, the Vice Minister of Agroproductive Circuits, Ministry of Agriculture and Lands (MAT). The ministry's budget includes VEB 17.9 billion (USD 4.16 billion) to seize lands. 
[El Universal] Oil prices have risen in world markets, but declining exports of oil by state-run oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa) has prevented recovery of the sector that generates more US dollars to the Venezuelan economy. 
(KUNA) -- US President Barack Obama expressed on Thursday confidence that the new START treaty with Russia will pass in Congress calling this step as "a national security imperative". "I am confident that we should be able to get the votes. Keep in mind that every president since Ronald Reagan has presented an arms treaty with Russia and been able to get ratification," said Obama in remarks at the White House.
(KUNA) -- U.S. initial claims for unemployment increased in the week ending November 13 reaching 439,000 compared to the previous week, official data showed here Thursday.
[Dawn] A Pak cabinet minister on Thursday called for a thorough re-investigation and fair appeal for a Christian mother sentenced to death for blasphemy after the Pope called for her release.
[Dawn] Pakistain's Ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani has called for greater American public support for the country's flood victims.
[Dawn] Even without factoring in the impact of climate change, the World Bank and the 
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the leader of the world's Anglicans, met Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday after five Church of England bishops switched to Roman Catholicism this month.
[Al Jazeera] Physicists have created, and for the first time trapped, antimatter atoms, one of the biggest mysteries of modern science, the European Centre for Nuclear Research says.
