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MILF coup underway?
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Page 3: Non-WoT
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Cuz That's Where The Money Is...
The ranking of the world's richest people as estimated by Forbes magazine. Listings include rank, name, home country or state, age where known, wealth in billions of dollars and source of the money. Listings where the home country is United States are for American citizens living abroad.

1. William Gates III, Washington, 50, $50, Microsoft
2. Warren Buffett, Nebraska, 75, $42, Berkshire Hathaway
3. Carlos Slim Helu, Mexico, 66, $30, telecom
4. Ingvar Kamprad, Sweden, 79, $28, Ikea
5. Lakshmi Mittal, India, 55, $23.5, steel
6. Paul Allen, Washington, 53, $22, Microsoft, investments
7. Bernard Arnault, France, 57, $21.5, LVMH
8. Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud, Saudi Arabia, 49, $20, investments
9. Kenneth Thomson and family, Canada, 82, $19.6, publishing
10. Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong, 77, $18.8, diversified
11. Roman Abramovich, Russia, 39, $18.2, oil
12. Michael Dell, Texas, 41, $17.1, Dell
13. Karl Albrecht, Germany, 86, $17, supermarkets
14. Sheldon Adelson, Nevada, 72, $16.1, casinos, hotels
15. Liliane Bettencourt, France, 83, $16, L'Oreal
15. Lawrence Ellison, California, 61, $16, Oracle
17. Christy Walton, Wyoming, 51, $15.9, Wal-Mart inheritance
17. Jim Walton, Arkansas, 58, $15.9, Wal-Mart
19. S. Robson Walton, Arkansas, 62, $15.8, Wal-Mart
20. Alice Walton, Texas, 56, $15.7, Wal-Mart
21. Helen Walton, Arkansas, 86, $15.6, Wal-Mart
22. Theo Albrecht, Germany, 83, $15.2, supermarkets
23. Amancio Ortega, Spain, 70, $14.8, Zara
24. Steven Ballmer, Washington, 50, $13.6, Microsoft
25. Azim Premji, India, 60, $13.3, software
26. Sergey Brin, California, 32, $12.9, Google
27. Larry Page, California, 33, $12.8, Google
28. Abigail Johnson, Massachusetts, 44, $12.5, Fidelity
29. Nasser Al-Kharafi and family, Kuwait, 62, $12.4, Construction
29. Barbara Cox Anthony, Hawaii, 82, $12.4, Cox Enterprises
29. Anne Cox Chambers, Georgia, 86, $12.4, Cox Enterprises
32. Stefan Persson, Sweden, 58, $12.3, Hennes & Mauritz
33. Charles Koch, Kansas, 70, $12, oil, commodities
33. David Koch, Kansas, 65, $12, oil, commodities
35. Raymond, Thomas and Walter Kwok, Hong Kong, $11.6, real estate
36. Adolf Merckle, Germany, 71, $11.5, drugs
37. Sulaiman Bin Abdul Al Rajhi, Saudi Arabia, 86, $11, banking
37. Vagit Alekperov, Russia, 55, $11, oil
37. Silvio Berlusconi, Italy, 69, $11, media
37. Lee Shau Kee, Hong Kong, 78, $11, real estate
41. Vladimir Lisin, Russia, 49, $10.7, steel
42. Michael Otto and family, Germany, 62, $10.4, retail
43. Pierre Omidyar, Nevada, 38, $10.1, eBay
44. Leonardo Del Vecchio, Italy, 70, $10, eyewear
44. Michele Ferrero and family, Italy, 79, $10, chocolates
44. Forrest Mars Jr., Virginia, 74, $10, candy
44. Jacqueline Mars, New Jersey, 66, $10, candy
44. John Mars, Virginia, 69, $10, candy
44. Viktor Vekselberg, Russia, 48, $10, oil, metals
50. Mikhail Fridman, Russia, 41, $9.7, oil, banking
51. Spiro Latsis and family, Greece, 59, $9.1, banking
52. John Kluge, Florida, 91, $9, Metromedia
53. Carl Icahn, New York, 70, $8.7, leveraged buyouts
53. Kirk Kerkorian, California, 88, $8.7, investments, casinos
55. Birgit Rausing and family, Sweden, 82, $8.6, packaging
56. Mukesh Ambani, India, 48, $8.5, petrochemicals
56. Serge Dassault and family, France, 80, $8.5, aviation
56. Hans Rausing, Sweden, 80, $8.5, packaging
59. Galen Weston and family, Canada, 65, $8.4, retail
60. Susanne Klatten, Germany, 43, $8.1, BMW
61. Rudolf August Oetker and family, Germany, 89, $8, food
62. Oleg Deripaska, Russia, 37, $7.8, aluminum
63. Sumner Redstone, California, 82, $7.7, Viacom
64. Alexei Mordashov, Russia, 40, $7.6, steel
65. Donald Newhouse, New Jersey, 76, $7.5, publishing
65. Samuel Newhouse Jr., New York, 78, $7.5, publishing
65. Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, France, $7.5, Chanel
65. Reinhold Wurth, Germany, 70, $7.5, manufacturing
69. Joseph and Moise Safra, Brazil, $7.4, banking
70. Philip Knight, Oregon, 68, $7.3, Nike
71. George Soros, New York, 75, $7.2, hedge funds
72. Ernesto Bertarelli, Switzerland, 40, $7.1, biotech
72. Suleiman Kerimov, Russia, 40, $7.1, stocks
74. Philip and Cristina Green, Britain, $7, retail
74. Francois Pinault, France, 69, $7, retail
74. August von Finck, Germany, 76, $7, investments
77. Mohammed Al Amoudi, Saudi Arabia, 60, $6.9, oil
77. Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair and family, United Arab Emirates, 52, $6.9, banking
79. Maria-Elisabeth and Georg Schaeffler, Germany, $6.8, ball bearings
80. Charles Ergen, Colorado, 53, $6.7, EchoStar
80. Edward Johnson III, Massachusetts, 75, $6.7, Fidelity
82. Kun-Hee Lee and family, South Korea, 64, $6.6, Samsung
82. Stefan Quandt, Germany, 40, $6.6, BMW
84. Saleh Bin Abdul Aziz Al Rajhi, Saudi Arabia, 94, $6.5, banking
84. Rafael del Pino and family, Spain, 85, $6.5, construction
84. Stanley Ho, Hong Kong, 84, $6.5, gaming
84. Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller, Denmark, 92, $6.5, shipping
84. Keith Rupert Murdoch, New York, 75, $6.5, News Corp.
89. Philip Anschutz, Colorado, 66, $6.4, investments
89. Hasso Plattner, Germany, 62, $6.4, SAP
89. Vladimir Potanin, Russia, 45, $6.4, metals
89. Mikhail Prokhorov, Russia, 40, $6.4, metals
93. Vladimir Yevtushenkov, Russia, 57, $6.3, telecom
94. Micky Arison, Florida, 56, $6.1, Carnival Cruises
94. Curt Engelhorn, Germany, 79, $6.1, drugs
94. Friedrich Flick Jr., Germany, 79, $6.1, investments
94. German Khan, Russia, 44, $6.1, oil, banking
94. Ronald Perelman, New York, 63, $6.1, leveraged buyouts
94. Johanna Quandt, Germany, 78, $6.1, BMW
100. Dan Duncan, Texas, 73, $6, energy
Stopped at 100 - more at link.
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 00:14 || Comments || Link || [336090 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wish my name was on that list
Posted by: Texhooey || 03/10/2006 2:52 Comments || Top||

#2  3477250005, Mechanic, poorhouse, Enron stock
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/10/2006 8:42 Comments || Top||

#3  Where are the evil 'Merchants of Death'[tm] or 'War Profiteers'[tm]? /sarcasm off
Posted by: Hupoting Groluse9049 || 03/10/2006 10:40 Comments || Top||

#4  Notice -

17. Christy Walton, Wyoming, 51, $15.9, Wal-Mart inheritance
17. Jim Walton, Arkansas, 58, $15.9, Wal-Mart
19. S. Robson Walton, Arkansas, 62, $15.8, Wal-Mart
20. Alice Walton, Texas, 56, $15.7, Wal-Mart
21. Helen Walton, Arkansas, 86, $15.6, Wal-Mart


If Sam was still alive, he'd be worth (a bit over) $75 billion, ahead of Bill Gates.
Posted by: Bobby || 03/10/2006 13:01 Comments || Top||

#5  Maria-Elisabeth and Georg Schaeffler, Germany, $6.8, ball bearings

ball bearings?

Ingvar Kamprad, Sweden, 79, $28, Ikea

Can't be the furniture. It's the lower level, where a woman can't walk through without picking up at least 3 things.
Posted by: Rafael || 03/10/2006 16:08 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Team Cuba protests anti-Castro sign at WBC
Posted by: Ulaise Angavins9207 || 03/10/2006 11:02 || Comments || Link || [336075 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Puerto Rico officials had threatened not to host the opening rounds of the tournament if Cuba was not allowed to play."

Guess we know where they stand when it comes to freedom and liberty.

But then we always did. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/10/2006 16:46 Comments || Top||


El Jefe Gets New Jet, Doubles as "Venezuelan Worker" Transport
Airbus loses yet another sale....sheesh.

Cuba is buying one of Russia's most up-to-date airliners, carefully crafted for President Fidel Castro's personal comfort. The purchase is part of an initial Cuban order for two brand new Ilyushin planes worth $110 million (£63 million) which Russian officials say is a shot in the arm for their struggling airline industry.

To head off criticism that a new presidential jet is an expensive luxury in austere times, Cuba says one of its new planes is being used to ferry workers to and from Venezuela. And anyone else who can pay in advance with hard currency....big bills ok. Call now to make YOUR reservation! 1-800-FLYELJEFE

To finance the deal, Cuba has paid 15% of the total sum up front, the rest coming from a 10-year loan from Russian banks.

Russian NTV Mir television said the designers at Ilyushin had worked hard to give Mr Castro as smooth and secure a journey as possible. "This is a sofa bed on which he can spend his hours of rest or read a book from his own library. Everything has been designed to be as ergonomic as possible, with a personal reading lamp," designer Aleksandr Kuchukhidze told the channel.

The interior of President Castro's new presidential plane
Designers have used beige colours throughout the plane. Principal interior designer Anton Nikolayev added: "Beige colours will predominate. Business meetings and talks can be held here." The station showed the little luxuries the president could expect: a DVD player, drinks bar and leather seats. But security is paramount too: the plane comes with armoured cockpit doors and a system for making bombs safe. I don't think Boeing has that option.

The report showed the Ilyushin Il-96-300, built in Voronezh, being handed over at Havana's Jose Marti airport. It said the order was one of the biggest the Voronezh Ilyushin plant had secured this decade. "These are the first Russian civilian aircraft to have been exported in the last 15 years," Ilyushin finance director Aleksandr Rubtsov said.

"We are convinced that Cuba can become a springboard for exporting our planes, above all in the countries of Latin America." Just tell ol' Hugo that Condi digs anything Russian...especially planes. He'll spring for a couple...

Russia and Cuba plan to sign another contract in Cuba on 10 March for the supply of a further five airliners, for an undisclosed sum. Cuba has been a key customer of Soviet-built aircraft - whether civilian Ilyushins or military MiGs - since the Cold War era. Even today, Cuban pilots for the newest Ilyushins are being trained in Russia, and Ilyushin engineers are in to Havana to school ground crews on maintaining the planes.
Well, that inspires confidence. They've got such a great track record
Posted by: Desert Blondie || 03/10/2006 09:22 || Comments || Link || [336073 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...and we'll toss in the Iranian maintenance for free.
Posted by: Mr. Ilyushin || 03/10/2006 9:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Next thing you know he'll want overflight and landing rights.
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 10:03 Comments || Top||

#3  Maybe he wants to join the Mile High Club
Posted by: Cheaderhead || 03/10/2006 16:22 Comments || Top||

#4  Bet it can't outrun a Standard ER-2.
Posted by: Mike || 03/10/2006 16:49 Comments || Top||

#5  :>
Posted by: 6 || 03/10/2006 19:20 Comments || Top||

#6  foot pegs in the wheel wells for those "passengers" - "dress warm!"
Posted by: Frank G || 03/10/2006 20:06 Comments || Top||


Venezuela slams US rights claim
In the latest diplomatic spat between the two countries, Venezuela has declared that a US state department report, saying Hugo Chavez’s government violated human rights, is nothing more than "toilet paper". The blunt riposte from Caracas is the culmination of weeks of arguments between the two countries which saw two diplomats expelled. The US state department released its 2005 report on world human rights on Wednesday, pointing out that opponents of Chavez were harassed, restrictive laws on the media and use of the judicial system for political ends.

The Venezuelan vice president, Vicente Rangal said: "These reports are just toilet paper, exactly that, toilet paper, because the US state department officials have no authority to judge any country in the world. If any country or any government violates human rights and is a centre of corruption, it's the US government," he said.
So there.
Posted by: Fred || 03/10/2006 00:40 || Comments || Link || [336080 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Right now in venezuela the people are all looking at each other saying, "What the hell is toilet paper?"
Posted by: Thineth Crineger7860 || 03/10/2006 9:35 Comments || Top||

#2  You just don't see the "Poopy Head" defense much anymore.
Posted by: mojo || 03/10/2006 10:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Lol, mojo! Summation par excellence.
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 10:45 Comments || Top||

#4  "These reports are just toilet paper.."

Lies!…all lies...I have a stellar Human rights record.
Besides…who ya gonna believe….The Inter-American commission on Human Rights, Journalists and Reporters without Borders, The Inter-American Press Association, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, The World Bank, Federación Internacional de Derechos Humanos, or the OAS?
Or my friends Libya, Iran, and Cuba?
Posted by: DepotGuy || 03/10/2006 11:47 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Catholic Leader Objects to New Cardinal
A leader of China's state-controlled Catholic church said Friday he suspected the Vatican appointed an anti-communist Hong Kong bishop to be cardinal because the pope wanted to play a role in the Communist Party's demise.

Liu Bainian, vice chairman of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, noted that the Roman Catholic Church was active in toppling communism in Poland in 1989. Liu suggested that Hong Kong Bishop Joseph Zen, whose appointment to cardinal was announced last month, would be part of a similar strategy in China.

"Why would you appoint someone who doesn't support communism as a cardinal?" Liu said in an interview in Beijing with Hong Kong Cable TV.

"Is it like Poland? Didn't the church play a big role in Poland?" Liu asked.

Liu argued that socialism and Christianity were compatible.

"China's socialist system comes from God. We should all protect it and obey it. This is what the Bible tells us to do," he said.

China forced its Roman Catholics to cut ties with the Vatican in 1951, shortly after the officially atheist Communists took power. People can worship only in government-controlled churches, which recognize the pope as a spiritual leader but appoint their own priests and bishops.

But millions of Chinese belong to unofficial congregations loyal to Rome. They say they are frequently harassed, fined and sometimes sent to labor camps by authorities.

On Thursday, Zen said in a statement that comparing China and Poland "is an act of far-fetched imagination."

"It is obvious that Catholics do not accept communism because of its atheistic premises," he said.

Zen noted that Liu speaks for the state-run church, and said that Chinese Catholics can't freely voice their opinions about the church.

"If freedom were granted to the bishops, priests and faithful to speak out, one would hear views that are very different from those expressed by Mr. Liu," he said.
Sounds like Liu is a member of the US Council of Bishops. Catholic or Episcopalian, take your choice.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/10/2006 08:21 || Comments || Link || [336077 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Is it like Poland? Didn't the church play a big role in Poland?" Liu asked.

Yeah, but not the way the Chinese rulers would like.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/10/2006 8:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Bishop Joseph Zen has been around for quite some time, I think.
Posted by: Whumble Whater5278 || 03/10/2006 19:16 Comments || Top||


Kim Jong-Il gets jiggy with it
NORTH Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il may launch a sneak attack on the world's pop charts - with the love-song I Am a Front-line Soldier's Wife. Kim Jong-Il's latest attempt to consolidate power has been to authorise a swathe of new love songs to re-invigorate the population and entrench his control of one of the world's last communist states, according to local reports.

In recent years a moribund economy and several recent severe famines have had a terrible effect on the North Korean people, destroying morale and causing unrest. But many North Koreans are now singing songs glorifying the women revolutionaries helping to build the nation, official media has reported.

In a country where popular reading material includes the mandatory Kim Jong-Il classics On Preserving the Juche Character and National Character of the Revolution and Construction and Songun Politics of Our Party Is an Effective Socialist Political Mode, catchy tune titles such as "Song of Coast Artillerywoman" and "I Am a Front-line Soldier's Wife," are bound to sweep the Korean communist motherland into a love frenzy.

North Korean media outlets have previously labelled the North Korean leader as the world's greatest golfer, reporting that he scored five holes-in-one and scored 38-under-par in his first game.

Since the Korean War ceasefire in 1953, North Korea has waged an unending propaganda war upon the "decadent cesspool" of Western liberal democracies, especially the US, Japan and their allies. The country has jealously guarded its independence, severely limiting the flow of outside ideas, technology and visitors over its borders. But a thriving North Korean love-song export industry may be just around the corner.

For music-lovers tired of silly love songs, say the new North Korean hit tune, "A Girl Innovator Dashing Like a Steed" is a refreshing change of pace. Other popular airs include "Song of Coast Artillerywomen," "Girl Silk-weavers of Nyongbyon" and "I Am a Front-line Soldier's Wife," the KCNA news agency reported. Songs promoting family values include "Love your Wives" and "My Mum Who Worries Herself About Her Child."

"A lot of songs have been composed in the country in reflection of the pride and happy life of the women who are playing a great role in all fields of social life," official media said.

It is unclear whether the tunes have a beat that people can dance to. However it may be the first step towards cultural colossus Kim Jong-Il filling the hearts and minds of twelve year-old girls with such movie classics as "They Were Always Together on the Road to Bring about the People's Well-being," and "Great Leadership over the Drive to Successfully Build a Great Prosperous Powerful Nation."
Posted by: tipper || 03/10/2006 01:07 || Comments || Link || [336081 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It is unclear whether the tunes have a beat that people can dance to.

This article needs a 'Risk of Choking' warning at the begining.
Posted by: phil_b || 03/10/2006 1:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Warning: do not play backwards.
Posted by: Screaming Nun || 03/10/2006 3:25 Comments || Top||

#3 
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 3:34 Comments || Top||

#4  If you sing loud enough, you won't hear your stomach growl, or your kids cry.
Posted by: Thineth Crineger7860 || 03/10/2006 9:31 Comments || Top||

#5  Tonight on "Norkie Idol"...can Kim Jong Il defend his title for the 751st straight week? Tonight at 9 on KCNA, right after "Dances With Human Scum"...
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/10/2006 9:34 Comments || Top||

#6  North Korean media outlets have previously labelled the North Korean leader as the world's greatest golfer, reporting that he scored five holes-in-one and scored 38-under-par in his first game.

Miniature golf, no doubt, given his stature
Posted by: Snoluting Ebbinetle3163 || 03/10/2006 14:22 Comments || Top||


Europe
Paintings reveal artistic side of General Franco
I also heard he was nice to little old ladies and once petted a dog on the head, and the dog wagged its tail.
Posted by: Seafarious || 03/10/2006 11:12 || Comments || Link || [336073 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Somebody has to do this...
I HEAR HE'S STILL DEAD!
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/10/2006 11:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Yes, he and Gary Gilmore competed at the '76 Corpse Diving championships, but Gilmore lost points due to poor execution.

God, I'm getting old ...
Posted by: Unung Flinens2749 || 03/10/2006 14:43 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Pulitzer Finalists -- Here's the Likely List (just what you'd expect, too)
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 12:56 || Comments || Link || [336073 views] Top|| File under:

#1  One of 'em -

(Photography)
Rocky Mountain News ('Final Salute')

was even featured on the 'Burg.
(Story about Marines notifying and helping the families of the flallen Marines...nice piece).

Wot happened to Michael Yon?
Posted by: Bobby || 03/10/2006 13:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Edged out by NYT / WaPo agenda brilliance.
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 13:10 Comments || Top||

#3  I wrote a comment to Michael Yon when the possibility of the Prize came up to remain independent and forget that Pulitzer Prize crap. He needed to keep his distance from the MSM people to maintain his edge and quality. They will use him and discard him. Who needs the MSM?
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, AK || 03/10/2006 15:25 Comments || Top||

#4  Claudia Rosett is MIA as well - bastards!
Posted by: ryuge || 03/10/2006 21:43 Comments || Top||

#5  Final Salute made me weep like a little girl. That was before I found my son is joining the Army.
Posted by: Frank G || 03/10/2006 22:05 Comments || Top||


WaPo To Cut 80 Newsroom Jobs, Sources Say
The Washington Post plans to cut at least 80 newsroom jobs through attrition and buyouts, according to sources at the paper who said editors began giving staffers the bad news on Thursday in meetings and will continue today.

"My understanding is that the editors and managing editors brought this up with other issues of downsizing, but with no layoffs," said one source in the metro staff, which got first word of the news in a meeting Thursday. "It looks like through attrition and buyouts."

Another source in the national staff said a meeting was being held this morning to give them the bad news, with similar gatherings throughout the day. "Eighty through attrition and buyouts," the source said. "They are going staff by staff."

The paper has about 800 editorial employees, many represented by the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild. Rick Weiss, a Post reporter and Guild unit chair at the paper, could not be reached for comment this morning.

Other cost cuts also are being rumored, including the eventual closing of at least two foreign bureaus and changes to some other overseas bureaus that would have staffers working out of their homes.

Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. and Publisher Bo Jones did not return calls seeking comment.

Post spokesman Eric Grant offered no comment when asked about the pending cuts or any official announcement, saying only, "not at this point."
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 11:47 || Comments || Link || [336074 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "according to sources... said one source in the metro staff… Another source in the national staff said… are being rumored…"

Even stories about the WaPo are un-sourced conjecture. Ohh the irony!
Posted by: DepotGuy || 03/10/2006 14:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Well, it's not like they need reporters to actually investigate and report news or anything.

It will be interesting to see what they'll do for "stories" the day after Bush leaves office at the end of his second term.

Or rather, it would be interesting if I gave a sh*t about those biased clowns.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/10/2006 16:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Do they want suggestions?
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/10/2006 16:49 Comments || Top||

#4  Finally figured out they're not adding any value.
Posted by: DoDo || 03/10/2006 19:32 Comments || Top||

#5  "Mr. Milbank? please clean out your desk...."
Posted by: Frank G || 03/10/2006 20:33 Comments || Top||

#6  Can they get rid of Tina Brown too? Pretty please?
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 03/10/2006 22:12 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
UAE Firm to Sell U.S. Ports to Wal-Mart
ScrappleFace warning
(2006-03-10) — Dubai Ports World, the Arab state-owned firm that recently bought control of six major American sea ports, today gave in to pressure from Congress and agreed to sell its U.S. operations to Arkansas-based Wal-Mart Stores.

The giant retailer’s CEO, Lee Scott, immediately addressed lawmakers’ concerns about security by announcing that blue-vested Cargo Greeters would be stationed at close intervals on docks, piers and tug vessels.

“While the ship captains will see these jovial, elderly folk as ambassadors of courtesy,” said Mr. Scott, “they actually have been trained in our stores to spot suspicious activity and to make sure criminals never leave the parking lot. In addition, we’ll provide them with weapons training in preparation for this new assignment.”

In other words, he said, “if you’re trying to move WMD through a Wal-Port, you may be surprised to learn that in addition to smiley stickers, Granny’s got a Glock.”

The Wal-Mart chief noted that because Cargo Greeters won’t have company-paid health insurance, “they’re highly-motivated to win the war on terror — to shoot first and ask questions later, rather than risk an expensive visit to the emergency room.”
Posted by: Sherry || 03/10/2006 16:54 || Comments || Link || [336072 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Halliburton would be good, too.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/10/2006 17:03 Comments || Top||

#2  I don't believe this story. Double check this guy's sources. Walmart will just import Chinese ports for 1/3 the price and charge 5% less than Ports-Я-Us.
Posted by: ed || 03/10/2006 18:45 Comments || Top||

#3  I think leaving off the warning might be fun.
Posted by: 6 || 03/10/2006 19:27 Comments || Top||

#4  Hillary'd have a bazillion shares of Walmart before she found out it was a joke. She made $450K from UAE (on her tax forms, trolls) - while shrilly denouncing the deal and turning a blind eye to what Bill's been doing (not a first)
Posted by: Frank G || 03/10/2006 19:49 Comments || Top||

#5  Methinks its either NY DAILY NEWS or NEW YORK POST that already has an arty on Hillary and Wal-Mart.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/10/2006 22:05 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Boy sodomized and murdered in mosque
The body of an eight-year-old boy was found from the toilet of a mosque on Tuesday and police claimed that the child was killed after being sodomized. Hadyara police station duty officer Shaukat said that Suhail was the son of labourer Yaseen, a resident of Pathankay Village in the Hadyara police precincts. The boy’s uncle Sardar said that Suhail was a student at a madrasa near his house. He said Suhail left the house around 11am to play with other children and was not seen again. He said some villagers went to the mosque for prayers around 1pm and one of them went to the toilet, where he found Suhail’s slaughtered body. The villagers told Suhail’s family and called police, who sent the body for an autopsy and started an investigation on Sardar’s complaint. Investigators said the unidentified murderer (s) could have cut Suhail’s throat after sodomizing him.
Posted by: john || 03/10/2006 05:57 || Comments || Link || [336075 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I give up, this whole thing sounds very "Islamic" to me.
Posted by: Thineth Crineger7860 || 03/10/2006 9:28 Comments || Top||

#2  most of the sodomy in the Islamic world is covered up

this one --- wow
Posted by: mhw || 03/10/2006 9:33 Comments || Top||

#3  I can see the local headlines now:

YOUNG SHAHEED ATTAINS PENETRATING INSIGHTS AT MADRASA BEFORE GLORIOUS MARTYRDOM
Posted by: Zenster || 03/10/2006 15:11 Comments || Top||

#4  Silly child. Submit. don't scream!
Posted by: Hupomoger Clans9827 || 03/10/2006 22:19 Comments || Top||


NAB arrests 2 officials for quake fund plunder
PESHAWAR: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has arrested two government officials accused of releasing millions of rupees from the President’s Relief Fund for Earthquake Victims to their relatives and undeserving people on fake national identity cards. Saifur Rehman, a patwari, and Mir Dad Khan, a general councilor, were nominated for distributing relief funds among the October 8 earthquake victims in Abbottabad district. Iqbal Ahmad Khan, the NAB prosecutor, told the court that the accused were arrested on the complaints of the earthquake victims, adding that the accused issued funds to people who were not entitled to receive them.
Posted by: Fred || 03/10/2006 01:16 || Comments || Link || [336073 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Off with their heads!
Posted by: Thineth Crineger7860 || 03/10/2006 9:33 Comments || Top||

#2  The National Accountability Bureaucracy---now there is an oxy-moroon if I ever hear one.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, AK || 03/10/2006 11:28 Comments || Top||


Basant cancelled under mullah pressure
The Punjab government buckled under pressure from religious parties on Thursday and imposed an immediate ban on kite flying in the province, effectively cancelling the Basant festival. The prohibition order means that festive Basant activities planned for the weekend will no longer be held. Officials of the Punjab government told Daily Times that all the district governments and relevant law enforcement agencies have been directed to ensure the implementation of the ban. Violators of the ban can be punished for up to three years’ imprisonment or a fine of Rs 40,000, or both.

The MMA had planned a protest rally against the Basant festival today (Friday) after the Friday prayers, while a faction of the Jamiat Ulema Pakistan (JUP) had announced a shutter-down strike on Saturday. The provincial government was concerned that protests on the two days that Basant festivities would be at their peak were likely to turn violent, sources said. They said that the government has imposed the ban to avoid a “law and order situation”. A provincial government official said that the decision to ban kite flying immediately was taken in a meeting chaired by Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi late on Thursday night. The meeting was also attended by Punjab Law Minister Muhammad Basharat Raja and Chief Secretary Salman Sadiq. The official said that the government took the decision to prevent more casualties in kite flying accidents. At least 10 people have died in the last 12 days while flying kites in Lahore alone. Four children were injured in the latest kite flying accident on Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred || 03/10/2006 01:13 || Comments || Link || [336087 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The M³ cave in to the radicals demands as always. It's not a "public saftey" issue from someone who cares about people flying kites with wire for string around power lines. Life is really cheap in Punjab. It's all about keeping the radical allenists happy. It always will be.
Posted by: SPoD || 03/10/2006 2:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Fun is sin. No fun.
Posted by: Hupomoger Clans9827 || 03/10/2006 22:20 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
UN staff votes no confidence in Annan management
The U.N. Staff Union voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to express no confidence in U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his top managers after Annan announced plans to overhaul the U.N. bureaucracy.

A motion "to express a statement of no confidence in the secretary-general and his senior management team" was opposed by just two of the more than 500 U.N. employees attending a closed-door emergency meeting of the staff group, said Staff Union official Guy Candusso.

But a U.N. official said the vote at U.N. headquarters did not reflect the views of the far greater number of employees working in the field, who were pleased Annan's overhaul plan would improve their working conditions and career prospects.

Annan explained the plan in a videoconference on Thursday with staff in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Ivory Coast, Haiti and Liberia, the world body's five biggest peacekeeping missions, the official said.

Annan earlier this week had unveiled a 33-page report on U.N. management reform that proposed outsourcing some U.N. work or moving staff out of the United States for some translation services, document production, printing and publishing and information technology.

He also recommended more financial oversight, simplified hiring and firing procedures, staff buyouts, more training and a modern information system.

The costs of the plan could run to $500 million. Approval rests in the hands of the 191 U.N. member-nations.

Annan argued existing rules and regulations "make it very hard for the organization to conduct its work efficiently or effectively" and said a "radical overhaul" was needed.

But staff members said they feared he would slash payrolls and programs in order to cut down on costs.

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton, whose government has pushed hard for extensive reforms at the United Nations, declined comment on the staff vote but said all organizations needed to regularly review their activities to see which were better performed internally and which could be outsourced.
Posted by: lotp || 03/10/2006 09:52 || Comments || Link || [336073 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Looks like they're in agreement with Bolton.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/10/2006 11:37 Comments || Top||

#2  *snicker*
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 11:42 Comments || Top||

#3  heh, heh!
Posted by: 2b || 03/10/2006 12:04 Comments || Top||

#4  Doesn't sound like they agree with Bolton. They are afraid of losing their $100k+ salaries for doing jack sheit.
Posted by: NickVtx || 03/10/2006 12:05 Comments || Top||

#5  Gotta watch those Spembles. Sometimes they play with yer head...
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 12:06 Comments || Top||

#6  The way of the Spembles is indeed obscure.
Posted by: 6 || 03/10/2006 19:28 Comments || Top||


U.N. emergency fund opens with half needed pledges
The Vampire Elites spring into action...
The United Nations' new global emergency fund began work on Thursday with slightly more than half the $500 million dollars its director had hoped for.
We ordered a really big pot. Please fill it with money so we can "manage" it and take credit for everything, k?
The first grants from the Central Emergency Fund went to drought-stricken northeastern Africa and western Ivory Coast, where angry mobs recently burned down U.N. aid offices. The dollar amounts of the grants were not given.
They're, um, classified. It's a special feature of the new "transparency" thingy.
The fund opened for business with pledges totaling just $256 million from 36 donor governments. Canada, Australia, Spain and the United States were among governments announcing pledges at the launch.
*groan*
The goal had been to raise $500 million, but U.N Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland said the response nonetheless amounted to "a big step" forward as the sole source of emergency funds had previously been a U.N. standby loan facility of just $50 million.
Yes, we have so much more to play with now! No more 3-star hotels - we're waay too important. Now about that 7% tax thingy...
But international relief group Oxfam has argued the fund would need $1 billion to ensure an adequate U.N. response.
Hey! We want in, too!
"The fund will make us quicker, more flexible and predictable" in dealing with both man-made humanitarian disasters like the crisis in Sudan's western Darfur region and with natural disasters like the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Egeland said.
We have a track record of doing nothing, even when funded, but we hold the most fabulous press conferences!
He had asked for the fund after the tsunami, and the 191-nation U.N. General Assembly approved it last December.
Classic Other People's Money UN Resolution.
The idea is to give the world body the ability to quickly send emergency supplies to an affected area without having to wait for international donors to send checks or make good on pledges.
Lol. Right.
The money in the fund would be continually replenished as contributions later poured in for each individual disaster.
So it would really be better if you just go ahead and open up a vein, you see...
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 06:23 || Comments || Link || [336077 views] Top|| File under:


Polar Ice Caps Melting; Sea Levels Rising
A classic piece of BBC 'science' reporting that buries the real conclusions toward the end, in the hope most people don't read that far. This is the interesting paragraph.

"The study indicates that the contribution of the ice sheets to sea-level rise during the decade studied was much smaller than expected, just two percent of the recent increase of nearly three millimeters a year," he said.

A human hair is about a millimeter thick, so over ten years the melting ice caps have raised sea levels about half the width of a human hair.
Posted by: phil_b || 03/10/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336110 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "over ten years the melting ice caps have raised sea levels about half the width of a human hair"

OMYGODWEREALLGONNADIE!

/moonbat-gorebot
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/10/2006 0:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Call me when S.F., Marin and Santa Monica are under water OK?
Posted by: SPoD || 03/10/2006 0:50 Comments || Top||

#3  and as a result of this millimeter rise in the melting ice caps, we Texans and all of the Southwest portion of the US are suffering droughts, while there is snow in the Sahara Desert. This increase, just goes to proves, this all means, Gore's discovery of the Internet just increase our knowledge of the coming end of our world, created by Global Warming.

Or somethin' like that
Posted by: Sherry || 03/10/2006 0:53 Comments || Top||

#4  This so called global warming is pissing me off.
I want to grow pecans and oranges in Chicago. Its not looking like it will happen anytime soon.
Posted by: 3dc || 03/10/2006 0:53 Comments || Top||

#5  A human hair is about a millimeter thick, so over ten years the melting ice caps have raised sea levels about half the width of a human hair.

More if it is an RCH.
Posted by: Penguin || 03/10/2006 1:19 Comments || Top||

#6  0.1 mm is used as the standard thickness for human hair, or sea level rise of 6 hair thicknesses over 10 years due to Polar icecap melting.
Posted by: ed || 03/10/2006 1:24 Comments || Top||

#7  Ed, you are quite right. I managed to drop a zero in there. I amend my conclusion.

A human hair is about 0.1 of a millimeter thick, so every year the melting ice caps have raised sea levels about half the width of a human hair.
Posted by: phil_b || 03/10/2006 1:36 Comments || Top||

#8  Well, it was nice knowing you all. Puttin' on my scuba gear now.
Posted by: Seafarious || 03/10/2006 1:53 Comments || Top||

#9  Yeah but, what about them hurricanes? Surely that's all the evidence one needs.
Posted by: Rafael || 03/10/2006 2:32 Comments || Top||

#10  We can't do much about global warming, extreme weather, extinction, etc. But do we really need to add nuclear proliferation to that list?
Posted by: Listen To Dogs || 03/10/2006 4:03 Comments || Top||

#11  I'm really scared, though, cuz of the headline. I mean, I don't have the time to read articles, so I rely on the headlines. Wonder how many others do that. Wonder if the news organizations know that . . .

Posted by: ex-lib || 03/10/2006 4:50 Comments || Top||

#12  So the increase is 3mm a year? Ie 1 foot per century. At this step it would take 6 centuries before the seas raise as much as an average man height.

Oh and there is just 98% of the raise who is not explained by ice-cap melting. Where is this water coming from? Volcanos? Leftist crocodile tears about Irak? Pissing contests?
Posted by: JFM || 03/10/2006 7:44 Comments || Top||

#13  jfm

The majority of ocean scientists feel that most of the rise in sea level is due to the expansion of water (it gets less dense when it is warmer).

the warming of the oceans over the past few centuries is undoubtedly due to a whole number of reasons; warming of the lower troposhere is one of them
Posted by: mhw || 03/10/2006 8:07 Comments || Top||

#14  Damn, no wonder I found a good deal on a beachside condo.....
Posted by: Desert Blondie || 03/10/2006 8:41 Comments || Top||

#15  If the rising sea level is because of the polar ice caps melting then the rise in level has to be exclusively from the South Pole. Since the northern ice cap contains no land underneath, it could melt in its entirety and not raise sea level one iota.
Posted by: Texican || 03/10/2006 8:54 Comments || Top||

#16  Ya beat me to it, Texican. Glacial melt and South Polar ice melt will raise the level, but not North Polar ice.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 03/10/2006 9:43 Comments || Top||

#17  Lol - I can see it now: the brains of thousands of liberal arts majors exploding... Yeah, okay, some of the burger-flippers (philosophy majors), too.
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 9:48 Comments || Top||

#18  Greenland DB gottem Eskimos, ducks eider, icesheet and land underneeth the ice.
Posted by: 6 || 03/10/2006 10:23 Comments || Top||

#19  A human hair is about a millimeter thick, so over ten years the melting ice caps have raised sea levels about half the width of a human hair.

Should read: A human hair is about 0.1 millimeter thick, so over ten years the melting ice caps have raised sea levels about six times the width of a human hair, or approximately 6 * 10 -20 light-years.
Posted by: KBK || 03/10/2006 10:58 Comments || Top||

#20  .com,

Hey, us philosophical guyz know about Archimedes. (G)
Posted by: Ernest Brown || 03/10/2006 11:48 Comments || Top||

#21  Lol EB. Lemme phrase it this way:
All burger-flippers are philosophy majors, but not all philosophy majors are burger-flippers.

Better? Lol...

I know I shoulda made it ethnic-studies majors but it didn't hit me until about 3 microseconds after I hit submit. Ain't that always the way?
;-)
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 11:53 Comments || Top||

#22  Shit. Now South Jersey's gonna be under water.
Posted by: Gletle Snarong3002 || 03/10/2006 12:24 Comments || Top||

#23  Bangladesh is going to be in deep doodoo water, too. There goes the RAB and the Crossfire Gazette stories, unless they go Water World.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, AK || 03/10/2006 15:37 Comments || Top||

#24  #23 Gletle Snarong3002: "Shit. Now South Jersey's gonna be under water."

And the downside is....? ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/10/2006 16:50 Comments || Top||

#25  Bangladesh's problem is the land is sinking, due to the uplift of the Himalayas.
Posted by: phil_b || 03/10/2006 17:19 Comments || Top||

#26  Well, if George Bush would have signed Kyoto the bloody Himalayas would not be uplifting!
Posted by: kelly || 03/10/2006 17:49 Comments || Top||

#27  "And the downside is....? ;-p"

All the freeloaders from Camden will be over here on this side of the river, knocking on our doors wanting free stuff. Think NOLA was bad? HA!!!
Posted by: Gletle Snarong3002 || 03/10/2006 18:03 Comments || Top||

#28  The majority of ocean scientists feel that most of the rise in sea level is due to the expansion of water (it gets less dense when it is warmer)

Even if we admit it the rest of the math is correct: a 1 foot raise per century. It would take centuries before it is a problem for the Seychelles Islands.
Posted by: JFM || 03/10/2006 18:23 Comments || Top||

#29  Two hundred year old paintings of Kenya's Mount Kilimanjaro, reveal a large ice cap. That has gone now. I wouldn't mind some good science on global warming, but not from the Beeb.
Posted by: Listen To Dogs || 03/10/2006 20:22 Comments || Top||

#30  200 yrs of industrial age around Mt. K, huh? Lotsa impact there
Posted by: Frank G || 03/10/2006 20:37 Comments || Top||

#31  Even if the current rate of rise in sea level would produce 12" increase in a century, there is nothing in the literature to suggest that this rate of rise could be or should be expected to be constant or increase or decrease over a hundred year period.

Predictions over time like this are usually probability measures for single event occurances, such as severe storms or damaging rainfalls, not for predictions of trends.
Posted by: john || 03/10/2006 20:52 Comments || Top||

#32  Were those Mt. K pictures painted in 1816?
Posted by: Darrell || 03/10/2006 20:59 Comments || Top||

#33  If you take your typical 12 inch world globe, the average ocean depth on that scale is about the thickness of a hair. I'd put my money on deep ocean vents being the source of the 'excess' water.
Posted by: KBK || 03/10/2006 23:05 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Think the sun's interior is too hot?: Try 3 billion degrees
Record Set for Hottest Temperature on Earth: 3.6 Billion Degrees F in Lab that's only 2 billion KelvinScientists have produced superheated gas exceeding temperatures of 2 billion degrees Kelvin, or 3.6 billion degrees Fahrenheit. This is hotter than the interior of our Sun, which is about 15 million degrees Kelvin, and also hotter than any previous temperature ever achieved on Earth, they say. They don't know how they did it.

The feat was accomplished in the Z machine at Sandia National Laboratories. "At first, we were disbelieving," said project leader Chris Deeney. "We repeated the experiment many times to make sure we had a true result." let the speculation begin
Posted by: mhw || 03/10/2006 12:50 || Comments || Link || [336095 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Impressive, but I always try to bring such things into some sort of perspective, if possible. In this case, well, of course I'm forced to guess, since there's no precedent, but I still have doubts it would melt my ex's heart. ;-)
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 13:04 Comments || Top||

#2  try3 billion degrees

mental note: don't forgit, patent chile recipe.

Posted by: RD || 03/10/2006 13:12 Comments || Top||

#3  It's not the heat, it's the humidity...
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/10/2006 13:15 Comments || Top||

#4  Headline: "Hottest March on record. Bush's fault."
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/10/2006 13:20 Comments || Top||

#5  How can they measure this, I wonder? And, more importantly, how do you contain something like this? It's like that old brain teaser, how do you contain an acid that eats through everything!
Posted by: Dar || 03/10/2006 13:26 Comments || Top||

#6  Thai reds, Scotch bonnets, and a can of refried beans...
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/10/2006 13:29 Comments || Top||

#7  Headline: "Hottest March on record. Bush's fault."

They don't know how they did it.

If we had only signed Kyoto...
Posted by: Xbalanke || 03/10/2006 13:47 Comments || Top||

#8  You measure the temp Dar, by looking at the wavelength of the light. Wein's Law. YOu contain it with a magnetic field. Any more questions?
Posted by: Thineth Crineger7860 || 03/10/2006 14:06 Comments || Top||

#9  temp is average kinetic energy of molecules.An average test tube of air has about 1 followed by about 19 zeroes of air molecules.If you can accelerate one atom or one molecule up to very superhigh velocities that velocity can be said to be superhigh temp,but the first contacts with other molecules slows the speedy one down.the energy density is infinitesimally small,and useless for ordinary purposes although i am sure here are scientific uses,etc
Posted by: j morrissey || 03/10/2006 14:23 Comments || Top||

#10  I thought this part was interesting:

One thing that puzzles scientists is that the high temperature was achieved after the plasma’s ions should have been losing energy and cooling. Also, when the high temperature was achieved, the Z machine was releasing more energy than was originally put in, something that usually occurs only in nuclear reactions.
Posted by: Gloting Shomonter6233 || 03/10/2006 14:38 Comments || Top||

#11  One thing that puzzles scientists is that the high temperature was achieved after the plasma’s ions should have been losing energy and cooling. Also, when the high temperature was achieved, the Z machine was releasing more energy than was originally put in, something that usually occurs only in nuclear reactions.

This sounds like good old cold fusion.....well, okay maybe not really cold....

Do the ions decompose, at those temperatures, like into quarks or something to get that energy gain?
Posted by: AlanC || 03/10/2006 15:16 Comments || Top||

#12  TC7860--Yes, one more question--can you elaborate on the magnetic containment? I should have known about the wavelength measurement (duh!), but I'm admittedly clueless about a magnetic field containing heat.
Posted by: Dar || 03/10/2006 15:33 Comments || Top||

#13  Magnetic containment is like Mars Flies in a Klein Bottle, couldn't help it. Magnetic containment keeps the matter in the center of your vessel or along the path of a beam using the properties of a magnetic field. Physics stuff.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, AK || 03/10/2006 15:44 Comments || Top||

#14  Dar
can you elaborate on the magnetic containment? I should have known about the wavelength measurement (duh!), but I'm admittedly clueless about a magnetic field containing heat.

Sure no prob Dar.


You've got to Accent-tchu-ate the positive,

E-lim-my-nate the negative,

Latch on to the affifmative,

and Don't mess with Mrs bosons In-between! »:-)
Posted by: RD || 03/10/2006 17:04 Comments || Top||

#15  Is it just me or should I be concerned that at 3 billion degrees anything burns?

One breach in the containment field Gordie and there goes Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the planet earth. But, what the heck, it's science!
Posted by: Grains Sloger8947 || 03/10/2006 18:21 Comments || Top||

#16  Okay, I do appreciate the help from the scientists here, but I am still confused.

Heat is a form of energy, and energy is neither created or destroyed, right? How is the energy dissipated by a magnetic field, i.e. what form does the energy take and where does it go?

Also, where does the energy to create something 3.6 billion° F come from? I imagine there was not an abundance of matter heated this high--but still it seems that it would take massive amounts of energy to accelerate matter this highly.
Posted by: Dar || 03/10/2006 19:07 Comments || Top||

#17  Heat is a form of energy, and energy is neither created or destroyed, right

Well now it depends Mr. Dar. It is possible to have an ideal energy - here look out my window. See that tank farm? That's energy. Now to be truthful it exists only in an ideal state, that being Texas, so it's hard for it to be useful. To be useful it must be moved (FOB) NY. That requires either more energy or $.
Posted by: Billie Sol || 03/10/2006 19:37 Comments || Top||

#18  Paging Dr. Tesla!
Paging Dr. Tesla!
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 03/10/2006 21:12 Comments || Top||

#19  D *** it, decadent capitalist Amerikan-skis stole from the we-invented-everything North Koreans and Russians again - first Chechyna, now the Sun. * BUGS BUNNY - "Of course you know this means war", in IRAN!?
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/10/2006 23:26 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Malaysia To Test Fire Latest Anti-ship Missile
For the first time in the region, the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) will test fire its latest anti-ship missile --the Sea Skua --next week, but the location is still being kept secret. The Sea Skua has never been used by any ASEAN navy and it will be the first time that it will be fired from a helicopter.

According to a defence source, RMN's latest helicopter, the Super Lynx 300 has been entrusted the responsibility to launch the British-made weapon.

"The purchase of the Sea Skua had never been announced but has been in RMN's inventory since last year, and will be tested by RMN for the first time next week," the source told Bernama. According to reports in several defence journals, the purchase of the Sea Skua for RMN's Super Lynx helicopters was sealed in 2001 but details had been kept secret.

The source said that probably only one Super Lynx would be involved in the exercise but the location would be closely watched by RMN's state-of-the art warships like the KD Jebat and KD Lekiu, which are equipped with the sophisticated Seawolf missile system.

It is believed that only one of the missiles - which proved its worth during Operation Desert Storm in the Persian Gulf - will be test-fired during the exercise.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/10/2006 00:38 || Comments || Link || [336077 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm sure the RN zapped argie ships with this during the falkland conflict a quarter century ago, hardly modern.
Posted by: pihkalbadger || 03/10/2006 6:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Wikipedia: The Sea Skua is a lightweight short range Air-to-Surface (ASM) missile designed for the helicopter launched anti-shipping role. It is primarily used by the Royal Navy on the Lynx helicopter, although it can be ship launched and is in place as a shore battery in Kuwait.

With a weight at launch of only 320 lb (145 kg), the Lynx can carry up to four missiles simultaneously. The missile flies at high subsonic speed over ranges of 15.5 miles (25 km). It can be set to travel at one of four pre-selected heights, depending on the surface conditions. Near the target the altitude is raised to target acquisition height. The Sea Skua has semi-active radar guidance; the launching helicopter illuminates the target with its radar (originally the specially developed Ferranti Seaspray in the case of the Lynx), and the missile's homing head homes in on the reflected energy. On impact it penetrates the hull of a ship before detonating the 44 lb (20 kg) blast/fragmentation warhead. The Sea Skua is judged capable of sinking ships of approximately 1,000 tons displacement with a single shot, and can disable much larger vessels.

As well as the United Kingdom, the Sea Skua has seen service with Germany, India and Turkey. It was launched 12 times during the Gulf War, sometimes in appalling weather conditions, registering direct hits on every occasion.
Posted by: Steve || 03/10/2006 8:26 Comments || Top||

#3  For the first time in the region, the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) will test fire its latest anti-ship missile --the Sea Skua --next week, but the location is still being kept secret.

Maybe, hopefully, on a pirate ship in the Malaccan Strait?
Posted by: Hupoting Groluse9049 || 03/10/2006 10:44 Comments || Top||

#4  It's a tipical Light Heli anti ship missile. Nothing to talk about dozens of firings like this are made in whole world every year. Including big ones(Western standart) like Harpoon or Exocet
Posted by: Omoter Hupolurt9095 || 03/10/2006 11:23 Comments || Top||

#5  Yeah, but Sea Skua is just a hell of a good name.
Posted by: 6 || 03/10/2006 19:29 Comments || Top||

#6  sounds like a Johnny Quest© weapon
Posted by: Frank G || 03/10/2006 20:32 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Hell's Angels Suing Disney For Copyright Infringement
The Hell's Angels Motorcycle Corp. is suing a division of Walt Disney, Buena Vista Motion Pictures and a film production company for infringing on its trademark in the development and production of "Wild Hogs," a comedy about middle-aged bikers.

The motorcycle club says in the suit that it never approved Walt Disney Motion Picture Group's use of its trademark, and that the film studio has repeatedly exploited the Hell's Angels name as well as its trademark design featuring a helmeted, horned and feathered skull while publicizing the "Wild Hogs" movie.

Disney (Research) and Tollin/Robbins Productions have repeatedly referred to "Wild Hogs" as a movie about a "group of middle-aged wannabe bikers look(ing) for adventure out on the open road, where they soon encounter a chapter of the Hell's Angels," according to the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

"We believe the suit is without merit," Disney spokesman David Caouette said.

Tim Allen, John Travolta and Martin Lawrence are slated to star in the film, which is expected to start production in late spring.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/10/2006 19:11 || Comments || Link || [336088 views] Top|| File under:

#1  sounds like trademark and copyright infringement to me.
Posted by: 3dc || 03/10/2006 19:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Umm.... PD?
Posted by: 6 || 03/10/2006 19:23 Comments || Top||

#3  as long as they don't cut into the crystal trade....
Posted by: Frank G || 03/10/2006 20:05 Comments || Top||


Bin Laden niece to star in reality show
Osama bin Laden's niece, an aspiring singer who posed for a sexy photo shoot in a men's magazine last year, has signed up for a reality television show about her life and her as yet unfulfilled "quest for stardom."
Is she the next one to see George Galloway in a catsuit?
Wafah Dufour Bin Ladin, whose mother was married to the al Qaeda leader's half brother, was born in California but lived in Saudi Arabia from the age of three to 10. "I understand that when people hear my last name, they have preconceived notions, but I was born an American and I love my country," Dufour said in a statement from ReganMedia announcing the deal to develop a reality TV series.
Is all teevee "reality" teevee anymore? Why do the glimpses I see of it seem so... unreal?
Dufour has dropped the "Bin Ladin" -- a different spelling of the Arabic name from that used by Osama bin Laden -- and now goes by the name Wafah Dufour. Based in New York, Dufour has been promoting herself as a musician and last December appeared in a sultry GQ photo spread, reclining on satin sheets wrapped in feathers and posing in a bubble bath wearing nothing but a necklace. "Her story will bridge the gap that people feel exists between the cultures she has lived in," ReganMedia President Judith Regan said.
Guess it'll bridge the gap between people who like women in neckties and people who like women nekkid...
"She is also a young woman who falls in love, has her heart broken, worries about her looks, doesn't always listen to her mother, and hasn't spoken to her father in years," Regan said.
"Dad?... Dad?... Hmmm... Lemme see, here... He's got a turban, right?"
Dufour's mother Carmen bin Ladin wrote the 2004 bestseller "Inside the Kingdom: My Life in Saudi Arabia," an account of her rocky marriage to Yeslama, Osama's half-brother, who amassed a fortune in the family's construction business and started his own investment firm. Dufour, who earned a master's degree in law from Columbia University, was in Geneva with her mother at the time of the September 11, 2001, attacks. She had said in the past she has never met Osama bin Laden.
"I'm sure I'd remember it if I had..."
She cites U2, Depeche Mode, The Cure and The Cranberries among her musical influences.
I'm trying to reconcile her "master's degree in law" — from a law school? Didn't take the bar exam? Didn't pass it? — her vapid fixation on pop music.
Regan has published a string of celebrity authors including Michael Moore and porn star Jenna Jameson, and she was an executive producer on the reality show "Growing Up Gotti" about members of the family best known for its Mafia empire. The statement did not say when the show would be aired or on what channel.
"Growing up bin Ladin"?Makes me yearn for the understated good taste of the old Gong Show.
Posted by: Jinemp Shereque7033 || 03/10/2006 16:03 || Comments || Link || [336089 views] Top|| File under:


SF gives the Iowa heave-ho
Surprise, surprise, surprise...
In the two years since the USS Midway found a permanent dock in San Diego Harbor, it has become a major tourist attraction. Nearly 900,000 people boarded the aircraft carrier in its first year of operation, rejuvenating shops and restaurants on the waterfront. The ship is booked years in advance for functions at up to $30,000 a pop.
Now the Navy has another ship it wants to bestow on a West Coast port: the big World War II battleship USS Iowa. But the ship has run into rough sailing and a harsh political headwind in the city the Navy thought would be an ideal home: San Francisco.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 8-3 to spurn the ship. Supervisors who oppose the offer say they don’t want a ship from a military in which openly gay men and women cannot serve. They also say they don’t want it because they oppose the Iraq war, which city voters condemned in a 2004 ballot question.
What is we painted it pink and made it a homeless shelter? Nah, nevermind...
“I don’t think the climate has improved for tying a 10-story warship, or gun, to the waterfront,” Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval says.
Ooooooooooh...icky guns!
Veterans in the former Navy town are saying enough is enough.
“It’s outrageous, even for San Francisco,” Ingrid Sarembe, a Vietnam War-era vet and commander of an American Legion post in the city, says of the opposition to the Iowa. “And we have some pretty outrageous things going on here.”
So we've heard...
U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a former mayor of San Francisco, had pushed for her city to welcome the ship and to create a museum that would attract and educate tourists — but a challenger has emerged. Stockton, a farm hub in California’s Central Valley, is putting together a bid to place the Iowa at its freshwater port up the San Joaquin River from San Francisco Bay.
Richard Aschieris, director of the Port of Stockton, says the port has put together a donation of facilities worth more than $33 million, including a 1,000-foot-long berth, a building for a museum and 15 acres of parking on a site where the Navy once had supply and communication centers for the Pacific Fleet.
Hey, someplace normal will take it and the money it brings in...
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/10/2006 14:04 || Comments || Link || [336103 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hum -- wonder if the Navy is considering cancelling a tourist, money making event in October? Fleet Week. Would be more dollars they will lose.
Posted by: Sherry || 03/10/2006 15:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Put the Iowa in San Diego, next to the Midway. Frank G gave me the tip about the Midway when I was down there. Great ship to tour through.

San Fran Freako used to be a great navy town, with a great history and tradition. Not any more.

The USS Iowa ought to fire a few farewell 16" salvos on the way out of the Golden Gate. Blanks or live rounds their option.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, AK || 03/10/2006 15:32 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm shocked. I would have thought the San Francisco Supers would have been all tingly to have 9 of the world's biggest phallic symbols on public display.
Posted by: ed || 03/10/2006 15:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Stockton, a farm hub in California’s Central Valley, is putting together a bid to place the Iowa at its freshwater port up the San Joaquin River from San Francisco Bay.

Yes, and when Lucifer’s Hammer strikes, Stockton will have their ark ready.
Posted by: Elmasing Speting4453 || 03/10/2006 15:54 Comments || Top||

#5  shouldnt SF want to honor the fact that many gay actually have served in the USN, openly or not?
Posted by: liberalhawk || 03/10/2006 16:35 Comments || Top||

#6  I wonder if they'll feel the same way about the big bad evil military when the BIG earthquake finally hits and the military's the only organization in a position to do something about it?
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/10/2006 16:54 Comments || Top||

#7  Oakland or Alameda (both across the bay) may have been contenders; Alameda already has the Hornet. They don't do much to promote it though.

A pity. SF has the dock space, and they have no use for it.
Posted by: buwaya || 03/10/2006 16:57 Comments || Top||

#8  San FUcisco, home of the druggies, trannies, queers, and whinos does not want the Iowa to dock there.

Say, is SF closer to Kimmie nukes than most cities in US? Just asking
Posted by: Captain America || 03/10/2006 17:41 Comments || Top||

#9  Is there any way to relocate ships currently in San Franscisco area to more accomodating areas? I'm sure we could take all the Bay Area tourist ships to somewhere more welcoming!
Posted by: Charles || 03/10/2006 18:45 Comments || Top||

#10  Hell, I don't see why New York couldn't have accepted! :D
Posted by: Whumble Whater5278 || 03/10/2006 19:15 Comments || Top||

#11  Send the Iowa home to Davenport. Time to improve the inland waterway system.
Posted by: 6 || 03/10/2006 19:26 Comments || Top||

#12  fuck you SF and pink tank ya rode in on.
Posted by: RD || 03/10/2006 19:29 Comments || Top||

#13  Thanks AP - the Midway keeps getting better with more areas opened up for touring and more planes on the deck for exhibit. Pretty impressive that Stockton wants it - let them have it and send fleet week away from SF - gay PC pussies triumph over history and gratitude
Posted by: Frank G || 03/10/2006 19:54 Comments || Top||

#14  The Iowa ahould not be humiliated and forced to go to SF. It is a great ship with great history and the gay, anti war, PC idiots would only use it as an example of how mean and bad DOD is. The ship and the men who served on it deserve more respect.
Posted by: 49 pan || 03/10/2006 20:25 Comments || Top||

#15  Be fun to watch the Navy float Iowa into SF Bay and aim the big guns on city hall....
Posted by: john || 03/10/2006 20:33 Comments || Top||

#16  shouldnt SF want to honor the fact that many gay actually have served in the USN, openly or not?

Ah yes, I can see it now; the title of the documentary:

I took one for the team...
Posted by: badanov || 03/10/2006 21:16 Comments || Top||

#17  I'm sorry but I'm still holding out for a return visit by the BB's to Korea.

Tomahawks and 16 inch shells.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 03/10/2006 21:16 Comments || Top||

#18  maybe if the Supervisors saw that they were breech-loaded?
Posted by: Frank G || 03/10/2006 21:55 Comments || Top||

#19  Wonder if the Village People could plead the case?
Posted by: RWV || 03/10/2006 22:38 Comments || Top||

#20  Thought just occurred about whether or not SF will be willing to accept help from the "homophobic" military after their next big quake. The rest of California would just like to see all of SF sink into the bay. Especially if Feinstein and Boxer went down with the rest of the human flotsam.
Posted by: RWV || 03/10/2006 22:41 Comments || Top||


Home Front Economy
WalMart Threatens US Banking System!
Congressmen: Wal-Mart threatens US payment system
A group of congressmen on Friday said an industrial bank owned by Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, could threaten the stability of the U.S. financial system and drive community banks out of business.

In a highly critical letter to the acting chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., obtained by Reuters, a group of more than 30 congressmen asked the bank regulator to reject Wal-Mart's application to open a bank in Utah.

"Wal-Mart's plan, to have its bank process hundreds of billions in transactions for its own stores, could threaten the stability of the nation's payments system," the lawmakers wrote. "Given Wal-Mart's massive scope and international dealings, it is not possible to rule out a financial crisis within the company that could damage the bank and severely disrupt the flow of payments throughout the financial system."

The group included Ohio Democrats Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones and Rep. Tim Ryan, Hawaii Democrat Rep. Neil Abercrombie and California Democrat Rep. Loretta Sanchez. A complete list of signatures was not immediately available.

Wal-Mart is trying to open an industrial bank to handle electronic payment processing. Industrial banks are state-chartered and state-regulated, and fall under the supervision of the FDIC. Commercial companies may own them because federal laws that bar non-financial companies from engaging in banking activities do not classify them as banks.
Prolly time to close 'em all down and shoot everyone in the Walton family.
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 11:58 || Comments || Link || [336074 views] Top|| File under:

#1  and drive community banks out of business.

No tear here. It was the 'community' banks and savings and loans who brought on the Great S&L failure of the mid-80s. Even though they were not federally insured, the taxpayers ended up paying nearly a half a trillion dollars in the bailout. It was a prime time crying game with MSM focused upon some 70 year old farmer losing his stead or some 80 year old widow who put her savings in a non-FDIC bank/S&L. Real reporting was not to be found on how the banks and S&Ls had engaged in land speculation and unsound loans got them in the hole in the first place.

Get the names of the 30 congressmen and check if the local owners of the banks had made contributions to election committees. Usually the case at that level. Why would I be surprised?
Posted by: Elmasing Speting4453 || 03/10/2006 12:41 Comments || Top||

#2  The group included Ohio Democrats Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones and Rep. Tim Ryan, Hawaii Democrat Rep. Neil Abercrombie and California Democrat Rep. Loretta Sanchez. A complete list of signatures was not immediately available.

I think they are 'saying' it's the local banks, but I bet the big money is coming from MBNA/Citigroup etc. There is mondo dollars in point-of-purchase fees (ie the credit card terminals, and WalMart wants to pwn them)
Posted by: Seafarious || 03/10/2006 12:59 Comments || Top||

#3  Also: Heh.

Go Walmart! Bring the banking system to its knees! The last thing Walmart needs is to have its customers, ya know, unable to *pay* for anything.
Posted by: Seafarious || 03/10/2006 13:04 Comments || Top||

#4  I thought this was precious:

"In a highly critical letter to the acting chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., obtained by Reuters..."

Bet there was no strain attached, lol.
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 13:09 Comments || Top||

#5  I'd bet Walmart's more interested in a reliable payment processor -- and skimming the float -- than anything else.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/10/2006 13:20 Comments || Top||

#6  Finally a challenge to the British oligarchy that controls the worlds financial institutions that Lyndon LaRouche was talking about.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 03/10/2006 14:08 Comments || Top||

#7  Wasn't it Wal-Mart who led the charge to get those POS payment-processing stations to recognize debit cards so they wouldn't have to pay Visa/MC charges? E.g. if you enter your PIN, it's a debit card transaction and no charge to Wal-Mart. If you sign the receipt, it's a credit card transaction and Visa/MC get their cut.
Posted by: Dar || 03/10/2006 15:38 Comments || Top||

#8  The Real Banks[tm]have been screwing the general population now for decades. Back before the Carter inflation kicked in, most states had usury laws with fix limits on the amount of interest that banks could charge. When the inflation rate climbed to 8%, the banks said they couldn't issue credit anymore and demanded the states drop the laws. The state governments paniced and did just that instead of modifying them to make the rate adjusted by the Prime [Interest Rate] of the Federal Reserve. Rates climbed to 21%. Then the Fed rate dropped and continued to drop, but the banks keep the credit rates high. Sucking vast capital out of the average household and into their pockets.

When Pappa Bush talked about doing something about it, the bankers/investors dropped a load on the Stock Market panicing the old guy who retreated. He was more interested in reelection than fighting by sending the SEC and DoJ after the wanks with RICO. A day or two of seizures [of personal assets under RICO] and playing with the market like that would have ended. Now the Bankers whine that they have to cover bad credit by consumers [rather individuals or other countries], but they are the one's making the loans, and the rest of us carry the consequences. The public is tagged with the liability not the lender. Have you ever seen a major institution report real loses and waved a stock payment? When you give credit cards to college students who have no assets, that should be the bank's problem not the other consumers.

Yep, get Walmart in there. The old saying 'sick a dog on a dog' comes to mind. Wish them luck.
Posted by: Elmasing Speting4453 || 03/10/2006 16:10 Comments || Top||

#9  Prolly time to close 'em all down and shoot everyone in the Walton family.

Especially John-Boy. He always creeped me out.
Posted by: SteveS || 03/10/2006 16:21 Comments || Top||

#10  There is definitely bigger money than Mom-n-Pop Bankers-n-Kettle Corn at play here.

The big banks must be nervous as all get-out. WalMart has worked much harder at gaining their customers' trust, and they know how to control costs. Which is something MBNA has no clue about.

Go Walmart!
Posted by: Seafarious || 03/10/2006 16:21 Comments || Top||

#11  and they know how to control costs

Union busting being one of the ways.
Posted by: Rafael || 03/10/2006 16:30 Comments || Top||

#12  Works for me, Rafael.

Everything unions were started for is now US labor law. The only thing the unions are "good" for anymore is protecting slack-offs, inflating wages (and therefore the cost of the end-product to consumers) in some industries far beyond their true worth, using the money skimmed (often unwantedly) from their members' paychecks for their own political and personal gain, and general corruption.

Pfui on the lot of them.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/10/2006 16:40 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Harris Poll Shows Military Still Most-Admired U.S. Institution
WASHINGTON, March 7, 2006 – The military continues to be the most admired institution in America, according to the latest Harris Poll.

A total of 47 percent of Americans said they have a "great deal" of confidence in the military. Some 38 percent of Americans said they had "only some" confidence and 14 percent said they had "hardly any" confidence in the military.

The military was followed in the poll by small business - a new category in 2005 - with 45 percent of Americans saying they had a great deal of confidence; colleges and universities, 38 percent; the Supreme Court, 33 percent; and Medicine, 31 percent.

At the bottom of the survey, released March 2, were law firms at 10 percent, Congress at 10 percent, organized labor at 12 percent, major companies at 13 percent and the press at 14 percent. Yea, baby!

Anchoring the middle was organized religion at 30 percent, the White House at 25 percent, public schools at 22, the courts and justice system at 21, and television news at 19.

The military has done well in the poll since the mid-1980s. The first poll, conducted in 1966, had the military at 61 percent approval rating. The next poll, conducted in 1971 showed the corrosive effect of the Vietnam War on America. Only 27 percent of Americans had confidence in the military then.

The public confidence in the military climbed after the 1970s and by 1989 the military was the most-trusted organization in the United States.

Harris Interactive, based in Rochester, N.Y., conducts the poll without sponsors. "We do this on our own," public relations coordinator Kelly Gullo said.

Gullo said Harris Interactive pollsters canvassed 1,016 U.S. adults via telephone. She said the sampling error for the survey is plus or minus 3 percent.
Posted by: Sherry || 03/10/2006 10:09 || Comments || Link || [336075 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Congress at 10 percent

What the Dems don't grasp is that in their efforts to undermine the President, they're also taking themselves down.

the White House at 25 percent

Which supports the old saying that 'you don't have to be faster than the bear, just faster than someone [Congress] else in your group'.

A total of 47 percent of Americans said they have a "great deal" of confidence in the military

Which while good in a normal sense, because of the low numbers on the first two, it is not healthy for a republic. There is a little thing Jefferson wrote about 'consent of the governed'. Tick off too many people, too long, and that consent could move to other institutions. Something about ignoring history. I doubt the American military has any stomach to step in to the situation, that does not preclude it from being forced upon them. Fortunately, in the record the usual American approach up till now has been for military leaders [Washington through Eisenhower] to do it through more traditional methods.
Posted by: Hupoting Groluse9049 || 03/10/2006 10:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Not at all a knock on the miliary, but this is actually very bad for the (small "r") republican form of government.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/10/2006 10:47 Comments || Top||

#3  The good news is the press is working very hard to beat lawyers in this poll. They'll be around 9% before you know it!
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/10/2006 12:31 Comments || Top||

#4  Polls are the height of idiocy. The only kind of poll that is remotely accurate is an immediate "yes or no" poll, done right after people have been focused on something. e.g. coke vs. pepsi.

However, if even intelligent people have not been thinking about something, and are "ambush polled", which is most of the time, the results make them sound like dumbasses.

That is, if you were asked, right now, to name the justices of the Supreme Court, and only given 30 seconds to reply, how many would you get right; compared to if you had several minutes to think about it first?
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/10/2006 13:32 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2006-03-10
  MILF coup underway?
Thu 2006-03-09
  Qaeda fugitive surrenders in Kuwait
Wed 2006-03-08
  N. Korea Launches Two Missiles
Tue 2006-03-07
  15 Dead, Dozens hurt in blasts in north Indian temple town
Mon 2006-03-06
  Bangla Bhai bangla nabbed
Sun 2006-03-05
  Ayman issues call for more attacks
Sat 2006-03-04
  EU3 Begin To Realize They Were Duped
Fri 2006-03-03
  Leb Army seals Syrian border
Thu 2006-03-02
  JMB chief Abdur Rahman nabbed
Wed 2006-03-01
  US journo trapped in Afghan prison riot
Tue 2006-02-28
  Yemen Executes American Missionaries’ Murderer
Mon 2006-02-27
  Saudi forces clash with suspected militants
Sun 2006-02-26
  Jihad Jack Guilty
Sat 2006-02-25
  11 killed, nine churches torched in Nigeria
Fri 2006-02-24
  Saudi forces thwart attack on oil facility

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