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Pakistan stops NATO supplies after raid kills up to 28
Today's Headlines
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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Copyright troll continues to file briefs, has paid nothing
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 11/26/2011 08:26 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They should seek a legal injunction against those attorneys for what amounts to "receiving stolen goods", as willing participants in asset diversion and concealment. The court could go so far as to declare that those attorneys return any unused retainers paid to them, or even that contingency fee contracts were now the property of the creditors, and as such could be canceled without any penalty clauses being invoked.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 11/26/2011 11:32 Comments || Top||

#2  RH has brought in a high-powered IP attorney to their outside counsel. Probably both to signal an intent to not roll over, and to make peace with the IP litigation industry.

Would still be nice to get a look at their books.
Posted by: Pappy || 11/26/2011 13:19 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Chavez repatriates Venezuela's foreign gold reserves
Venezuela has received its first shipment of gold bars, after President Hugo Chavez ordered the repatriation of 85% of the country's bullion reserves.

The gold was unloaded from a plane and taken under heavy guard to the Central Bank in the capital, Caracas.

President Chavez has explained the move as an act of sovereignty that will protect Venezuela's reserves from global economic turbulence.

However critics say it is expensive and unnecessary.

Venezuela plans to bring home around 160 tonnes of gold, worth more than $11bn (£7bn).

"The gold is returning to where it was always meant to be: the vaults of the Central Bank of Venezuela," Mr Chavez said.

Hundreds of troops lined the route to Caracas as a convoy of armoured security trucks escorted by military vehicles carried the bullion to the bank.
Posted by: tipper || 11/26/2011 04:50 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The gold will be held overseas as collateral for loans. The banks will only release the gold when the loans are repaid.

Which means Chavez just got a bunch of money from somewhere. Probably China securing oil leases.
Posted by: phil_b || 11/26/2011 6:59 Comments || Top||

#2  As Glenn Reynolds pointed out, it makes it easier for Chavez to steal the gold.
His cronies, too, if they suddenly have to leave Venezuela.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 11/26/2011 7:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Also makes it easier for Chavez to substitute gold plated tungsten ingots for the real gold bars.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 11/26/2011 7:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Hugo has shown he fears the big bankers than his own people.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 11/26/2011 8:14 Comments || Top||

#5  As I recall some of that gold was in the USA as well. China did inject money recently. So much money to settle with those companies he nationalized. Venezuela's economy is sinking also.

Fed inject record "other" cash last week.
Posted by: Dale || 11/26/2011 10:22 Comments || Top||

#6  It's rare that I should agree with fat boy, but on this occasion...
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 11/26/2011 16:14 Comments || Top||

#7  This is assuming that the gold bars he just got were not tungsten plugged. Gold counterfeiting and fraud are running rampant right now, even involving some major players.

The FOREX gold market is only supposed to sell gold by numbered lots, which would be called as such if physical ownership of gold is redeemed. However, of late, demands for physical ownership, while they are still getting gold, they are not getting gold matched to the lots they own. This is not kosher.

Personally, the only physical gold I want would be Canadian Maple Leafs, whose high purity is guaranteed by a hologram engraved in the gold, which would not work with alloyed gold. And then, only if the coins were in tamper-resistant sealed clear plastic containers guaranteed by the mint.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 11/26/2011 17:51 Comments || Top||


Europe
Prepare for riots in euro collapse, Foreign Office warns
British embassies in the eurozone have been told to draw up plans to help British expats through the collapse of the single currency, amid new fears for Italy and Spain.

As the Italian government struggled to borrow and Spain considered seeking an international bail-out, British ministers privately warned that the break-up of the euro, once almost unthinkable, is now increasingly plausible. Diplomats are preparing to help Britons abroad through a banking collapse and even riots arising from the debt crisis.
Oh c'mon now: surely socialists don't riot just because things don't go their way...
The Treasury confirmed earlier this month that contingency planning for a collapse is now under way. A senior minister has now revealed the extent of the Government's concern, saying that Britain is now planning on the basis that a euro collapse is now just a matter of time.

"It's in our interests that they keep playing for time because that gives us more time to prepare," the minister told the Daily Telegraph.
Posted by: tipper || 11/26/2011 16:06 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Playing for time

That pretty much sums up everyones strategy.
Posted by: phil_b || 11/26/2011 16:28 Comments || Top||

#2  I think a capsule summary of the European defensive policy is to hold committee hearings until the situation has become critical, then use nuclear weapons.

Pretty much the same thing with economics.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 11/26/2011 17:28 Comments || Top||

#3  What makes this extra troubling is that a group of major banks are now forming contingency plans openly, explaining that "the collapse of the Euro has moved from a possibility to a probability."

If it was just the FO or the banks, it wouldn't matter so much, but both of them, and right when Portugal, Hungary and Belgium have been downgraded should totally unnerve the markets.

And then Germany had a bond issue failure, with 1/3rd left unsold. They are the most secure bond on the continent.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 11/26/2011 17:39 Comments || Top||


Gigantic baby ‘Jihad’ born in Berlin
Doctors were left astounded after a gigantic baby set a new record for Germany’s heaviest-ever naturally born newborn Friday. The boy was named Jihad.

The 6-kilogramme (13-pound) boy was born at Berlin’s Charité hospital to a 40-year-old, 240-kilogramme (528-pound) woman who also had gestational diabetes and most likely a metabolic disorder, according to doctors.

Women suffering from untreated gestational diabetes – when a pregnant woman who doesn’t previously suffer from diabetes has excessively high blood sugar – tend to produce particularly overweight babies.

Such newborns are often delivered via caesarean section because they can suffer from oxygen deficiency or shoulder dislocations during birth.

But in this case the mother opted for a vaginal birth, which lasted seven hours and luckily went off without a hitch.

“She insisted on a vaginal birth despite the very high risk,” said Wolfgang Henrich, the chief doctor at Charité’s obstetrics clinic. “We usually advise mothers carrying a child with an estimated weight of more than 4.5 kilos to opt for a caesarean section to avoid complications.”

The boy will join nine brothers and four sisters – four of which had birth weights of more than five kilograms.

The woman claimed she didn’t know of her diabetes, but doctors believe she was aware and ate too much sweet food.
Posted by: tipper || 11/26/2011 07:59 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Jihad? That's about like naming your kid Adolph Hitler.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/26/2011 8:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Pshaw! - "Hoss Cartwright" - Dan Blocker - weighed 14 lb. at birth.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 11/26/2011 10:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Let's hope he is a failure in living up to his name.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/26/2011 11:00 Comments || Top||

#4  Jihad? That's about like naming your kid Adolph Hitler.

And the Germans are oblivious to the situation. They would take the kid away if the parent named him Adolph H.

There are none so blind as those who will not see.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 11/26/2011 18:04 Comments || Top||


Belgium’s Credit Rating Lowered to AA
h/t Instapundit
Belgium’s credit rating was cut one step to AA by Standard & Poor’s, which said bank guarantees, lack of policy consensus and slowing growth will make it difficult to reduce the euro region’s fifth-highest debt load.
Somebody been talking about North vs. South?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/26/2011 05:16 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  bank guarantees means Belgium backstopping the bank's debt is driving the state toward bankrupcy.

More of the same economic lunacy.
Posted by: phil_b || 11/26/2011 6:56 Comments || Top||

#2  It's not lunacy it's a scam.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/26/2011 7:36 Comments || Top||

#3  Belgian parties reach 2012 budget deal
BELGIAN politicians reached a deal on the 2012 budget today, ending a 19-month deadlock that had prevented the formation of a stable government and led to a debt downgrade, a negotiator said.

"There is an agreement," said a spokesman for the French-speaking socialists, one of six parties in the linguistically-divided country that had been struggling to reconcile spending cuts with tax rises.

The accord, reached after 17 hours of negotiations, opens the way to forming a new government after 19 months in caretaker management.

Friday night's downgrade by ratings giant Standard and Poor's, which saw Belgium drop by one notch to AA, piled pressure on the parties to reconcile spending cuts with tax rises to avoid EU penalties next month.
Posted by: tipper || 11/26/2011 12:48 Comments || Top||

#4  At the same time, Portugal and Hungary have been downgraded to junk status.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 11/26/2011 17:40 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Father of murdered American wife is chief suspect in Pak honor killings after fleeing to US
The father of a woman gunned down with her Scottish businessman husband was last night named as the chief suspect in what is thought to have been an ‘honour killing’.

Glasgow-based Saif Rehman, 31, and Uzma Naurin, 30, from New York, were shot dead on a trip to Pakistan, when their car was ambushed in the north-eastern city of Gujrat.

Police in the country say Miss Naurin’s taxi driver father, 58-year-old Muzaffar Hussain, is being viewed as a chief suspect in the shootings.

A friend of hers in Scotland last night said the marriage had been ‘approved’ by her family – but her first husband, who has not yet been identified, is said to have killed himself.

She was later told to marry the dead man’s brother in another arranged match but refused to do so as he was too young.
The Paki punishment for wasting a free American visa is ... Death.
Posted by: Eohippus Phater7165 || 11/26/2011 15:04 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Imran says Allah Almighty not the secret hands behind him
[One Pakistan] Beautiful Downtown Peshawar , Chairman Pakistain Tehrik Insaf Imran Khan
... aka Taliban Khan, who who convinced himself that playing cricket qualified him to lead a nuclear-armed nation with severe personality problems...
has rejected the notion that he has been backed by secret agencies saying the Allah Almighty and people of Pakistain are his supporters.

"I always sought help from Allah and he is backing me. With the support Allah and back of people of Pakistain I will clinch two wickets of President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari
... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ...
and Mian Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
with a single ball, " Imran said while addressing a party gathering in Jhagra area in the outskirt of Peshawar.

Mr. Khan who address the gathering of thousands people, where considerable number of females were also present, said his first priority will to bring uniformity in the educational system as well bring financial reforms in order to provide equal opportunity to the poor to compete with those belongs to high class,".

He said PTI Tsunami has reached Jhagra and no one can stop it. He said that PTI stands for liberating masses from the clutches of inflation, and will introduce uniform education system and social justice to the masses.

Khan said that the era of old politics of lies and old parties has come to an end and that they were going to make a new Pakistain.
He said that the people were being crushed in a crucible of the inflation, adding that PTI will impose taxes on the rich.

He came down hard on Pakistain Mohammedan League (PML-N) Chief Mian Nawaz Sharif saying that he even failed to control dengue mosquito, so how can beat PTI in politics.
He said that PTI was Pakistain?s political party and belonged to all persons without any discretion of caste and creed and that they will end the hatreds.

We will put an end to begging for and make Pakistain a donor country,? Khan added.

At the start of the meeting Pakistain Peoples Party (PPP) leader and member of its Central Executive Committee (CEC) Iftikhar Khan Jhaghra announced to resign from his party and joined PTI.

Speaking at this occasion, Jhaghra said that the PPP days were numbered due to its corrupt leadership.

PTI Provincial Chief Asad Qaiser said at this occasion PTI was the province largest political party. Qaiser at this occasion enumerated Imran Khan?s services for Pakistain and said that Imran Khan is representing Pakhtuns.

He said that it was time of change and asked the people join Imran to create a new Pakistain.

Others party leaders also spoke at this occasion.
Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  He sounds a bit more rational in his newly released book;
Imran Khan 'understood how people lose will to live' after divorce
In a new book that charts his rise from political no-hoper, he says that when he married Miss Goldsmith in 1995 - she was 21 and he 43 - he had no intention of setting up his own political party.
He said he “discussed the issue endlessly” with her and adds: “There was simply no way left but for decent Pakistanis to get involved in politics.”

The party was established the following year but in his first election in 1997 his party won no seats and he describes it as “the Charge of the Light Brigade but without the horses and without the arms.”

He said that after the drubbing, “I have to say I was roasted by the media...People love to see an icon fall, it is part of human nature, and we had been completely wiped out. It wasn’t just defeat, it was decimation.”

Meanwhile his wife, who had converted to Islam when she married him, was faced with allegations that she was part of a Zionist plot to take over Pakistan.

“Poor Jemima, as well as putting up with the whole Zionist plot story, had to see endless articles criticising, mocking and ridiculing her husband,” he says
Posted by: tipper || 11/26/2011 3:20 Comments || Top||

#2  WOW! He looks like "Bucho" in the Desperado movie!
Posted by: Water Modem || 11/26/2011 3:29 Comments || Top||

#3  Bucho (Joaquim de Almeida)

Posted by: Water Modem || 11/26/2011 3:30 Comments || Top||

#4  Lots of promises
Posted by: Spogum Henbane7455 || 11/26/2011 8:29 Comments || Top||

#5  Wonder if he's a drug dealer too...
Posted by: Water Modem || 11/26/2011 12:11 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Quds commanders asks for martyrdom
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 11/26/2011 07:58 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:



Who's in the News
37[untagged]
5Govt of Syria
3Govt of Pakistan
2Commies
2al-Shabaab
1TTP
1al-Qaeda in North Africa
1Govt of Iran
1Hezbollah

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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2011-11-26
  Pakistan stops NATO supplies after raid kills up to 28
Fri 2011-11-25
  47 Syrians Dead, Including 29 Civilians, as Homs Clashes Rage
Thu 2011-11-24
  Police continue attacks on protesters, Tahrir chants for field marshal to go
Wed 2011-11-23
  Yemen's president signs power transfer deal
Tue 2011-11-22
  Yemen Opposition: Saleh Agrees to Sign Peace Plan. Really.
Mon 2011-11-21
  Colombia Farc rebel radio station 'shut down' by army
Sun 2011-11-20
  Libya: 'the executioner' Abdullah al-Senussi captured
Sat 2011-11-19
  Saif al-Islam Gaddafi captured in Libya
Fri 2011-11-18
  Sufi Mohammad's sons acquitted by Swat ATC
Thu 2011-11-17
  Saleh again refuses to sign power transfer
Wed 2011-11-16
  Missile raid targeted top Shabaab leaders
Tue 2011-11-15
  Suspected suicide bomber killed near Afghan loya jirga site
Mon 2011-11-14
  Syria Calls for Urgent Arab Summit
Sun 2011-11-13
  Syrian brownshirts storm Saudi embassy
Sat 2011-11-12
  Iranian Terror Plot Against Bahrain Uncovered


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