Hi there, !
Today Thu 10/10/2013 Wed 10/09/2013 Tue 10/08/2013 Mon 10/07/2013 Sun 10/06/2013 Sat 10/05/2013 Fri 10/04/2013 Archives
Rantburg
532860 articles and 1859496 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 67 articles and 160 comments as of 4:13.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Opinion        Politix   
SEAL Strike on Shaboob Big Turban Fails in Somalia
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 3: Non-WoT
8 22:23 trailing wife [3] 
1 19:55 JosephMendiola [7] 
13 20:47 Alaska Paul [3] 
1 11:46 Frank G [2] 
11 22:34 trailing wife [4] 
1 06:35 Bright Pebbles [2] 
1 05:56 Bright Pebbles [2] 
0 [2] 
5 22:43 Procopius2k [4] 
2 11:41 Rambler in Virginia [2] 
6 20:58 Alaska Paul [3] 
4 14:23 swksvolFF [3] 
4 15:17 Ebbang Uluque6305 [2] 
0 [2] 
9 23:55 JosephMendiola [3] 
1 00:49 JosephMendiola [3] 
1 13:53 Heriberto Spoluting7333 [2] 
1 02:04 g(r)omgoru [3] 
3 09:49 Besoeker [3] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
10 19:06 Barbara [3]
12 23:30 JosephMendiola [7]
9 23:48 JosephMendiola [2]
3 08:19 Dale [2]
1 01:12 g(r)omgoru [1]
0 [7]
0 [6]
0 [7]
0 [1]
2 06:41 trailing wife [1]
0 [1]
1 11:32 Frank G [1]
0 [2]
0 [1]
0 [1]
0 [1]
4 18:35 Paul D [4]
0 [2]
0 [2]
0 [1]
1 00:41 JosephMendiola [5]
0 [1]
3 16:00 CrazyFool [1]
0 [1]
2 04:13 lord garth [1]
1 05:32 Skidmark [1]
Page 2: WoT Background
2 15:23 Barbara [5]
0 [2]
1 16:16 Shipman [2]
2 23:52 JosephMendiola [4]
0 [4]
0 [3]
0 [2]
1 11:37 Frank G [2]
1 11:38 Frank G [2]
1 01:16 g(r)omgoru [2]
3 16:18 Shipman [2]
0 [2]
0 [5]
3 19:50 JosephMendiola [4]
1 00:31 newc [2]
Page 4: Opinion
0 [2]
0 [4]
3 12:31 Pappy [8]
0 [2]
7 20:41 Harcourt Hitler3148 [3]
Page 6: Politix
6 15:57 CrazyFool [3]
7 23:23 CrazyFool [6]
-Lurid Crime Tales-
Police: Soldier fatally stabbed; may be hate crime
Seems like it was a hate crime. They killed him. Who kills somebody because he likes him?
[KOMONEWS] A Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier was stabbed to death in a parking lot at the 12500 block of Pacific Highway Southwest around 2:30 a.m., officials say.

20-year-old Tevin Geike was walking with two other white soldiers along Pacific Highway SW when a group of black men drove by and shouted a racial comment toward the soldiers, the Lakewood Police Department said.

"One of the soldiers yelled back something about the suspects treating combat soldiers with disrespect," Lt. Chris Lawler said.

The car turned around and the men confronted the soldiers, according to reports. As the verbal confrontation ensued, the driver of the vehicle realized the men were actually combat veterans and called his friends off. While the men headed back to their vehicle, one of the suspects appeared to have bumped into Geike, witnesses say.

The soldiers saw Geike fall to the ground as the car sped away. He was bleeding profusely from stab wounds and died at the scene.

"We came down here, and he was already dead in my brother's arms," said Glenn Zimmerman, a friend of Geike.

Friends say there was a party at the Biltmore Motel that evening, and Geike was gathering with family and friends after being discharged from the military. Zimmerman said Geike's contract was up, and he was celebrating serving his country.

"I don't understand how someone can do this - that man, he almost gave his life for people to enjoy the freedoms they have and he was just stabbed for no (expletive) reason," he continued.

The initial remark that started the encounter seemed derogatory in nature, said Lakewood police Lt. Chris Lawler. He said it was too early to say that race was the motivating factor, but Sherlocks were exploring whether the killing should be classified as a hate crime.

"We are certainly considering it, for sure," Lawler said.
Posted by: Fred || 10/07/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Had it been white on black we'd have a hate crime and Sharpton and J. Jackson would be there on it. Black on white--not a hate crime; not a PC issue. I don't get it either.
Posted by: JohnQC || 10/07/2013 11:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Only whites can commit hate crimes.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 10/07/2013 11:41 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Beer-swilling WA pig meets tragic end
A BEER-SWILLING feral pig that made headlines for stealing six packs from tourists in Western Australia has met a tragic end.

Main Roads in the region confirmed on Monday the wild pig had been found dead after being hit by a truck near Port Hedland. The pig, dubbed "Swino" by locals, had been hunted for weeks after raiding campsites at the De Grey River rest area in the South Hedland region last month.

"We had hoped he could become our mascot, so it is a sad end for him," Fionna Findley of Main Roads said.
I'm not sure why Main Roads would want a beer swilling pig as a mascot.
"It is a very common occurrence for feral animals to get hit and killed by vehicles, but we are all a bit upset."
Indeed it is. I once hit 4 kangaroos in the space of 20 minutes.
The pig was said to have drunk as many as 18 cans of beer in one session, before sticking his snout in bin bags to find late-night snacks left by tourists. Witnesses even reported seeing the porcine predator picking a fight with a cow.

Officers had been trying to locate the animal, who had kept his snout clean since his booze-up a month ago.
I'm off into the Bush with some friends from England in a few weeks time and have been thinking about the hazards to warn them of. Probably the main one is Goannas (a type of Monitor Lizard up to 2 meters long), which while not aggressive to people, sometimes mistake them for a tree, and try to climb up them, with unfortunate consequences.
Posted by: phil_b || 10/07/2013 04:12 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm not sure why Main Roads would want a beer swilling pig as a mascot.
They want to join the elected official mainstream.
Posted by: Skidmark || 10/07/2013 5:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Now, Skid, even pigs have some decency! Have a little respect for the departed!
Posted by: Bobby || 10/07/2013 6:24 Comments || Top||

#3  They have a problem with beer swilling Kangaroos. too:
Posted by: Heriberto Spoluting7333 || 10/07/2013 13:59 Comments || Top||

#4  Last words were of course: Yo, Matey, hold me brew.
Posted by: Shipman || 10/07/2013 16:20 Comments || Top||

#5  Beer-swilling WA pig meets tragic end

Oh, in Australia. I was trying to think who I knew from Washington.
Posted by: SteveS || 10/07/2013 19:49 Comments || Top||

#6  You know what HOMER would say - "HHHHHMMMMMMM, BEER-FLAVORED FRESH ROAD/PIG KILL".
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/07/2013 19:52 Comments || Top||

#7  It was early last December, as near as I remember
I was walking down the street in tipsy pride
No one was I disturbing, as I lay down by the curbing
And a pig came up and lay down by my side

As I lay there in the gutter, thinking thoughts I cannot utter
A lady passing by was heard to say
"You can tell a man who boozes by the company he chooses"
And the pig got up and slowly walked away


One evening in October, when I was far from sober
To keep my feet from wandering I tried,
My poor legs were all a-flutter, so I lay down in the gutter
And a pig came up and lay down by my side.
We sang,"Never mind the weather just as long as we're together"
Till a lady passing by was heard to say,
"You can tell a man who boozes by the company he chooses"
And the pig got up and slowly walked away.

Yes the pig got up and slowly walked away.
Slowly walked away, slowly walked away
Yes the pig got up and then smiled and winked at me
As he slowly walked away.

On cattle shows I've centered, in one a pig I entered
And one day I sat down with him in his sty
Famous people came to visit, when a sweet voice said, "What is it?"
She said "What a lofely fella", poked the pig with her umbrella
Then she looked at me a while and whispered, "Say
Yeah Ay tank dis iss hees brudder"---at my side I felt a shudder
And the pig got up and slowly walked away.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/07/2013 20:31 Comments || Top||

#8  Cute, Alaska Paul.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/07/2013 22:23 Comments || Top||


Jane Austen's 'Emma' to Get 21st Century Update
Guess what's not gonna be remembered two hundred years from now...
[An Nahar] Best-selling British author Alexander McCall Smith is to pen a new version of Jane Austen's classic novel "Emma" with a 21st century twist, his publisher announced on Friday.

McCall Smith, who has sold over 20 million copies of his "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" series, said being commissioned to re-write Austen's 1815 original was "like being asked to eat a box of delicious chocolates".

"Not only is 'Emma' one of the finest novels in the English language, but it is possibly Jane Austen's most thought-provoking and interesting book," the 65-year-old said.

"Writing a contemporary version of Emma is both a privilege and a real challenge."

The book will see McCall Smith swap the setting of his detective novels -- Botswana's capital Gaborone -- for modern-day England.

Publisher HarperCollins said the new version of "Emma" would be released late next year.

Kate Elton, head of fiction at HarperCollins, said the publisher was "thrilled" to have signed up McCall Smith.

"The novels of Austen and McCall Smith share some essential qualities which make them enduringly popular with readers -- gently poking fun at their characters' 'follies and inconsistencies' as Austen would have it, and a sense that people can learn from this so that goodness wins out in the end.

"It promises to be an amazing pairing."
Posted by: Fred || 10/07/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sad that people don't can't read anymore.
Posted by: Skidmark || 10/07/2013 5:47 Comments || Top||

#2  There was the 20th Century movie version, Clueless. There should be a werewolf version now, after the zombie version of Pride and Prejudice.
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 10/07/2013 9:00 Comments || Top||

#3  "Not only is 'Emma' one of the finest novels in the English language, but it is possibly Jane Austen's most thought-provoking and interesting book," the 65-year-old said.

So then why the hell do you have to rewrite it?
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/07/2013 10:31 Comments || Top||

#4  ...with a 21st century twist

Who's coming out of the closet?
Posted by: Raj || 10/07/2013 11:39 Comments || Top||

#5  Never read it.
Posted by: Shipman || 10/07/2013 16:21 Comments || Top||

#6  "Not only is 'Emma' one of the finest novels in the English language, but it is possibly Jane Austen's most thought-provoking and interesting book"

Which you will promptly SCREW UP.

(And I'm not talking about the predictable over-hyped and totally unnecessary sex scenes - no doubt involving another woman and/or a goat.)

What the hell's wrong with people?
Posted by: Barbara || 10/07/2013 19:04 Comments || Top||

#7  What the hell's wrong with people?

You mean that they can't write a good book, but must copy one?

That's not new.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 10/07/2013 19:26 Comments || Top||

#8  I just hope it's better than this...
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/07/2013 19:40 Comments || Top||

#9  being commissioned to re-write Austen's 1815 original was "like being asked to eat a box of delicious chocolates"

So what will publishing the fruits of your labors be like? Smooth simile, ex-lax.

"It promises to be an amazing pairing."

Leering, winking scribbler slips it to Jane Austen's skeleton good and proper. But don't worry, she'd love it.
Posted by: Harcourt Hitler3148 || 10/07/2013 19:47 Comments || Top||

#10  "50 Shades of Emma"
Posted by: Frank G || 10/07/2013 20:14 Comments || Top||

#11  There are dozens of Jane Austen fanfics out there already, published by respectable houses. Some even have a "contemporary twist". Somebody assumes JA fans will spend money on anything with her name attached.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/07/2013 22:34 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Bob Geldof: 'All humans will die before 2030'
[DAILYSTAR.CO.UK] The musician-turned-activist reckons the world will end in 2030 - leading to the extinction of humankind.

Sir Bob, 61, based his miserable prediction on the effects of climate change.

"The world can decide in a fit of madness to kill itself," he told a group of youngsters at a summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The former Boomtown Rats singer also warned "the next war will not be a World War One or a World War Two, it will be the end."

He added: "We may not get to 2030. We need to address the problem of climate change urgently."

Sir Bob is best-known for his attempts in helping to fight famine in Africa, staging Live Aid at Wembley Stadium in 1985.

He finished his speech by apologising for being "bloody miserable", but added: "just get on with it".
Posted by: Fred || 10/07/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Reminds me of a song...
Posted by: Raj || 10/07/2013 0:51 Comments || Top||

#2  the world will end in 2030
What happened to 2012?
Posted by: Skidmark || 10/07/2013 5:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Coincidentally I get all my music advice from politicians...
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 10/07/2013 5:55 Comments || Top||

#4  Party time! Only have 17 years left...
Posted by: Spot || 10/07/2013 8:59 Comments || Top||

#5  And.... who is this guy again?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 10/07/2013 9:02 Comments || Top||

#6  he's the one with the megaphone.
Posted by: linker || 10/07/2013 9:45 Comments || Top||

#7  What sacrifices are you making, Geldof? Or are you expecting the rest of us to shoulder all the burden? Because if we can doom the environment, than I can think of no surer way to do so than to use saving it as an excuse to lord it over everyone else.
Posted by: Korora || 10/07/2013 11:50 Comments || Top||

#8  Sorry to here you will be leaving the planet Geldof, but you know some folks won't be missed.
Posted by: Heriberto Spoluting7333 || 10/07/2013 14:09 Comments || Top||

#9  We can start with the elimination of this clown. If people like this were serious, they would off themselves first as a show of dedication.
Posted by: DarthVader || 10/07/2013 14:32 Comments || Top||

#10  You would think Geldoff would have learned after LiveAid got all that money for food and the dictators confiscated it. Good concert though.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 10/07/2013 14:33 Comments || Top||

#11  Umm, didn't he read the latest IPCC report that said all the enviro-catastrophe crap has been moved to the extremely improbable category?

He and AlGore make a lovely couple.
Posted by: AlanC || 10/07/2013 15:43 Comments || Top||

#12  I thought it ended in the 70's.
Posted by: Woodrow Guelph8541 || 10/07/2013 19:39 Comments || Top||

#13  Show us the way Bob! We are all right behind you! Some 5000 yards off observing with heavy lenses.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/07/2013 20:47 Comments || Top||


Olympic flame arrives at Kremlin, extinguishes itself
Posted by: ryuge || 10/07/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Here you go, all fixed :

Posted by: Bertie Bonaparte9468 || 10/07/2013 0:50 Comments || Top||

#2  The Olympic flame...is a Zippo!
Posted by: Skidmark || 10/07/2013 5:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Send this gut over to Russia for a relighting ceremony, he is from the Redneck Games:
Posted by: Heriberto Spoluting7333 || 10/07/2013 14:03 Comments || Top||

#4  You could send Cheech and Chong. They probably have matches.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 10/07/2013 15:17 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Madagascar arrests 26 after mob lynchings
[Bangla Daily Star] Police in Madagascar made seven more arrests yesterday over the lynching by a raging mob of two Europeans and a local man accused of killing and mutilating a young boy.

Authorities on the idyllic Indian Ocean island have now placed in durance vile
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
26 people in all after the bloody events on the resort island of Nosy Be on Thursday.

The situation appeared calm on Sunday, with members of the security forces patrolling the streets while local residents attended church and tourists strolled in town or headed to the beach.

Thursday's rampage was sparked by the gruesome death of an eight-year-old local boy, whose body was found on the popular Ambatoloaka beach a week after he went missing.

An official at the local gendarmerie said seven people had been arrested early Sunday in Ambatoloaka and the suburb of Dar-es-Salam where the boy lived.

Vincent Laza, a neighbourhood leader on the island, told AFP that the boy's body was wet when it was found, suggesting he may have drowned, and that his genitals were missing and his intestines were exposed.

Reports circulated that the boy had been kidnapped, causing a mob to storm the gendarme station -- convinced that one of the boy's killers was being held there.

Officers opened fire and two people were killed.

Amid rumours that foreigners were involved, a mob of hundreds got their hands on a Frenchie and a Franco-Italian on Thursday and torched them on Ambatoloaka.

Pictures and video images taken by residents captured the moment when one of the bodies was burned in front of about 100 people, including a man who was both armed and wearing a uniform.

Afterwards a pile of ash, wood, a torso and a pair of charred legs were the only recognisable signs of the orgy of violence.

The boy's uncle was later also killed and burned.

With its white sandy beaches and turquoise waters, Nosy Be is Madagascar's main tourist magnet, but it also has a seedy underbelly and is known for sex tourism.

Mob justice is common on the vast island nation off the southeastern African coast, which authorities struggle to police effectively.

One resident of Nosy Be claimed the crowd had made sure the Europeans were guilty.

Posted by: Fred || 10/07/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  One resident of Nosy Be claimed the crowd had made sure the Europeans were guilty

"They denied it. Now who would deny it? The guilty ones, that's who."
Posted by: Frank G || 10/07/2013 11:46 Comments || Top||


Britain
Shitsville: Travel guide pokes fun at just about everywhere in UK
[DAILYSTAR.CO.UK] A few samples...

CARLISLE:
"People who have failed at real life move to Carlisle to hide themselves away in shame. It is so far north that every time the map is redrawn we try and sneak it into Scotland, but the bastards are too sharp for that and keep amending the lines. Even though it's in Cumbria, it's nowhere near the pretty bits with all the lakes."

CAMBRIDGE:
"Cambridge is a rotten and diseased coagulation of reeking, uneducated, inbred libertines with more money than brain cells -- and that's just the University. Here, gout is the ultimate status symbol. The race to gout is a furiously competitive one and there are only so many bottles of oak-aged port you can drink in one sitting, so foie gras actually comes-on tap in Cambridge. You get three taps in the kitchen: hot water, cold water, and liquidised goose livers harvested from birds force-fed corn until their internal organs implode."

LIVERPOOL:
"It would be easy to attack Liverpudlians for being violent misogynistic thieves, feral savages without culture or even basic human decency. This is categorically not true. It is their children that are just plain f****** evil. You remember those tiny weeny dinosaurs from Jurassic Park that hunt in big packs and eat the old guy with a white beard at the end? Yeah. Like that."

THE CITY OF LONDON:
"Five minutes walk away from the third world Borough of Hackney. In the City of London pudgy posh boys with quirky ties and horse teeth, fresh from the private school system, with no children, no social responsibility and each gifted with a sense of entitlement the size of Yorkshire (where many of them own land), earn thousands of pounds a minute for playing what is essentially a glorified game of dice."
Posted by: Fred || 10/07/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I visited the UK in 1994, I thought the same thing. In the City of London pudgy posh boys with quirky ties and horse teeth, fresh from the private school system

I rest my case.
Posted by: Bertie Bonaparte9468 || 10/07/2013 0:27 Comments || Top||

#2  It's a little too kind.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 10/07/2013 6:03 Comments || Top||

#3  These are fantastic! I see a great opportunity for an analogous travel guide to the US.
Posted by: Glenmore || 10/07/2013 10:05 Comments || Top||

#4  Every country has a city they poke fun of. In America, its Detroit. In England, its Detroit.
/Y.Smirnof
Posted by: swksvolFF || 10/07/2013 14:23 Comments || Top||


Imams in UK willing to marry girls of 14 in secret
Clerics from four British mosques, including one in West Yorkshire, are under investigation after being caught on camera agreeing to conduct secret marriage ceremonies involving girls as young as 14. They include a senior Muslim leader who has worked with West Yorkshire Police as an advisor on community cohesion.

An ITV investigation has been told by experts that children as young as 10 are being forced into marriage in the UK. Undercover reporters from the network posed as the mother and brother of a 14-year-old girl who they wished to marry to an older man. The pair approached 56 mosques across the UK and 18 said they would be willing to perform a nikah, or Islamic marriage.

Shams-Ul Huda Khan Misbahi, who preaches at a mosque in Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire, agreed to marry the 14-year-old, despite having previously publicy denounced forced marriages. The mosque said it has launched a 'thorough investigation" and that it does not endorse forced or underage marriage.
Posted by: ryuge || 10/07/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Caribbean-Latin America
President Maduro has 'bankrupted' Venezuela: opposition
[CA.NEWS.YAHOO] Opposition leader Henrique Capriles accused Venezuela's "incompetent" President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday of bankrupting the nation in an increasingly radical blame-game over the OPEC member's economic distortions.

Since late socialist leader Hugo Chavez died
...horribly...
of cancer
...making a great many people very happy indeed...
in February, the economy has joined crime as Venezuelans' top concerns. Prices are soaring at an annualized 45 percent, a black market for dollars is booming, and basic goods from flour to toilet-paper are often scarce.

A self-declared "son" of Chavez, the 50-year-old Maduro says local opponents, backed by the United States and cheered by compliant foreign media, are deliberately "sabotaging" the economy in an attempt to bring down his government.

"There's a criminal war against the Venezuelan people. They want to lead us to chaos, division and confusion," he again said at the weekend, accusing three just-expelled U.S. diplomats of lending cash, logistics and planning to the cause against him.

Capriles, who narrowly lost an April vote to Maduro and has refused to recognize him, said the president's tolerance of corruption among his team, adherence to a failed socialist model, and personal incapacity, were to blame.

Though said by one fellow opposition leader this week to be facing imminent arrest by the government, Capriles, 40, held nothing back in a blistering Sunday column.

"I warn you, Nicolas," he said, using the informal Spanish "tu" not the "usted" a president would usually be addressed by.

"We're not going to let the country go off a cliff due to your incompetence and the corrupt ones you protect ... You cannot hide the fact you have bankrupted one of the richest nations in the region, and during an oil bonanza."
Posted by: Fred || 10/07/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It seems that socialist utopias all go this way--utter failure. Why our dear leader (aka Champ) doesn't see and understand this is baffling.
Posted by: JohnQC || 10/07/2013 16:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Surprised there was anything left to loot after Hugo.
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/07/2013 19:35 Comments || Top||

#3  there's no checking accounts in hell, tu3031
Posted by: Frank G || 10/07/2013 20:16 Comments || Top||

#4  "there's no checking accounts in hell"

Think of all the disappointed murderous dictators .... :-D
Posted by: Barbara || 10/07/2013 22:10 Comments || Top||

#5  Why our dear leader (aka Champ) doesn't see and understand this is baffling.

Cause in his mind, the political science is settled, Neo-Marxism (aka redistributionism) is the only valid form of government.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 10/07/2013 22:43 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Steven Seagal hopes to become part of Chechnya

Pretty sure the bloody combatants in Chechnya would like nothing better than to turn his ass into mulch...
Hollywood star Steven Seagal said he hopes to become a part of Chechnya in the future and that leader of the republic Ramzan Kadyrov would always be his friend.

Speaking at the at a gala concert for the 195th anniversary of the republic's capital of Grozny, Seagal thanked Kadyrov for inviting his family to the event, which coincided with the Chechen leader's 37th birthday. Seagal also called Kadyrov the great leader of the republic and praised his father Ahmad, who became the leader of Chechnya in 2003 but was assassinated in a terrorist attack in May 2004.

This wasn't Seagal's first visit to Chechnya this year. In May, he met with Kadyrov at his residence in Grozny and Kadyrov later said that Seagal was "almost a Chechen" national.

Pompous festivities dedicated to the anniversary of Grozny and Kadyrov's birthday on October 5 are often attended by foreign celebrities. Last year the celebrations were attended by French actor Gerard Depardieu and in 2011 by Hollywood stars Jean-Claude Van Damme and Hilary Swank.
Posted by: ryuge || 10/07/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Maybe he could, like, found an acting school or something.
Posted by: SteveS || 10/07/2013 2:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Turning cooler. It's the start of Rodman-ism season. Starts with the sniffles.
Posted by: Skidmark || 10/07/2013 5:57 Comments || Top||

#3  ..you knew it was all going to lead to this.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 10/07/2013 8:41 Comments || Top||

#4  Standing applause for the dipstick graphic. Unfortunately, I continue to bang against the inclines on both ends of normal :-(
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/07/2013 10:04 Comments || Top||

#5  so where does one insert said dipstick to get an accurate reading?
Posted by: Angomoter Fillmore8308 || 10/07/2013 10:50 Comments || Top||

#6  Guess he wasn't invited to be in the Expendables movies.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 10/07/2013 14:34 Comments || Top||

#7  Steven Seagal better think about this. Read a little recent Chechnya history and see if he is man crazy enough to be a part of it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/07/2013 14:43 Comments || Top||

#8  "Look at me, look at meeeeeeee!"
Posted by: Barbara || 10/07/2013 15:22 Comments || Top||

#9  "MACHETE III: LINDSAY'S [Lohan's] CHECHNYA VACATION".
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/07/2013 23:55 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
China, Taiwan in ‘milestone’ talks at APEC
China said on Sunday that it was open to a visit by Taiwan’s top cross-strait official as it called for a political settlement to prevent their differences being handed down “from generation to generation”.

Chinese President Xi Jinping met Vincent Siew, Taiwan’s former vice president, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Indonesia. They shook hands and smiled for the cameras.

Xi emphasised that both sides should keep pushing for a political settlement to their longstanding division, and that they should see themselves as “one family”, China’s Xinhua news agency said. The Chinese communist supremo said “we cannot hand those problems down from generation to generation”, it reported.

Siew, the special envoy to APEC of Taiwan’s business-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou, told reporters that he and Xi discussed mainly economic and trade issues during their 30-minute meeting.

Ma, while pushing through a startling transformation in the business climate across the Taiwan Strait, has been more resistant to opening up a political front to the rapprochement.

But Taiwan played up the symbolic import of a separate encounter in Bali between Wang Yuqi, its top official on mainland affairs, and his Beijing counterpart, Zhang Zhijun. The meeting was the first such political encounter between the heads of the respective cross-strait bodies, the island’s government said.

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council described the meeting as “the good start of a normalised official interaction between the two sides”, stressing that Zhang had referred to Wang by the Taiwan official’s formal title of “chairman”.

“It showed that the two sides respect each other and have adopted a more pragmatical attitude,” the Council said in a statement.

According to Xinhua, China’s Zhang said that he welcomed Wang “to visit the mainland at a proper time”. It did not go into further detail.

President Ma himself was not at APEC. Taiwan’s leaders are barred from the grouping’s summits due to objections from China, which claims sovereignty over the island, and are represented instead by senior economic advisers or business leaders such as Siew.
Posted by: Steve White || 10/07/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  IMO Beijing is just acting or playing PR "nicey-nicey" - its getting ready to initiate milaction at the right time.

It cannot keep unilaterally claiming that it is par wid world #1 Superpower US in Asia-Pacific, but yet there are no PLA Milbases anywhere in East Asia andor PACOAS, i.e. outside of mainland China per se. CHINA MUST GIVE UP, OR ATTACK!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/07/2013 0:49 Comments || Top||


Europe
Bank of Cyprus Fined for Greek Bond Buys
[An Nahar] Bank of Cyprus and six former executives were fined by the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday for failing to inform shareholders over the risk of its Greek bond purchases.

The island's largest lender was fined 160,000 euros ($218,000) for non-disclosure on its high-risk junk-rated Greek bond buys to the tune of 2.4 billion euros in 2010. This compared to the bank's equity capital of 2.5 billion at the time.
Boy howdy, that'll teach 'em...
The SEC said the bank had a duty to inform investors to ensure transparency while non-disclosure "deprives the investor public of information which they have a right to know."

It said that the bank's management had given the impression that it had off-loaded toxic Greek bonds when in fact it had invested heavily in them.

Ex-CEO Andreas Eliades and former executive director Yiannis Kypri received fines of 140,000 euros and 120,000 euros, respectively, for being "negligent" in their duty to protect shareholders.
That's walking around money for both of them...
Four ex-members of the bank's asset liability committee were fined 10,000 euros each.
...and that's lunch...
Cypriot banks lost a total of 4.5 billion euros in the Greek bond haircut, which forced the cash-strapped government to seek EU financial aid as it could not financially rescue them.

In March, Cyprus agreed a 10 billion euro ($13.3 billion) rescue package negotiated with the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund to bail out its troubled economy and oversized banking system.
Posted by: Fred || 10/07/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bet they were under order to buy them to prop up the euro-disaster.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 10/07/2013 6:35 Comments || Top||


Greece Vows to Eradicate Police Links to Neo-Nazis
[An Nahar] Greece is determined to rid its police force of any links with Golden Dawn, the minister for public order said Sunday, after the arrest of officers with ties to the neo-Nazi party.

Nikos Dendias said there should be "a total catharsis so that there is nothing suspicious that could cast a shadow on the majority of coppers, who are honest," in an interview with Greek daily Kathimerini.

Dendias admitted that there were "corrupt officers who had collaborated with Golden Dawn", which he labeled "a criminal organization."

Four coppers have been locked away
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
over their links to the far-right party, whose leader was indicted this week along with five others for taking part in a criminal organization following the murder of an anti-fascist musician last month.

Among the officers arrested are a former police chief of the Agios Panteleimon neighborhood of central Athens -- the scene of multiple attacks by neo-Nazis on immigrants in recent years -- on charges of abuse of power and arms trafficking, and an officer at the Piraeus port near the capital charged with belonging to a criminal organization.

The arrests are part of efforts by the Greek authorities to dismantle the Golden Dawn following the murder of hip-hop artist Pavlos Fyssas by a self-confessed neo-Nazi.

The killing sparked protests, forcing officials to take action against a group long accused of attacking immigrants, charges that it denies.

"We are talking about a party that, aside from its sickening ideology, behaves like a mob," Dendias said.

Golden Dawn, which only entered parliament in 2012, struck a chord with Greeks angry at having to struggle under the weight of heavy austerity measures and high unemployment in a sixth year of recession for the debt-wracked nation.

But the party's popularity has fallen since the murder of Fyssas. A poll published in the weekly Proto Thema on Sunday put the party's popularity rating at 6.7 percent, down from 10 percent in June.
Posted by: Fred || 10/07/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  But not police links to international-socialists?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 10/07/2013 5:56 Comments || Top||


Greek Lawmakers Say Germany Owes Reparations
Ummm... We seen dis movie...
[BREITBART] Some Greek lawmakers say they want Germany, Greece's main banker, to pay reparations for Greeks killed during World War II.

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras' government has created an 80-page report on reparations it believes it is owed by Germany, which includes a huge, never-repaid loan Greece was forced to give Germany under Nazi occupation from 1941 to 1945, The New York Times reported Saturday.

Although the government has not given an official total owed, the figure most often discussed is $220 billion, which is about half of Greece's total debt.
How convenient, both the amount and the timing...
Posted by: Fred || 10/07/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
Posted by: Bertie Bonaparte9468 || 10/07/2013 0:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Seems they forgot about that whole Marshall Plan thingy. Give em all 40 acres and mule.
Posted by: Victor Emmanuel Gurly-Brown1384 || 10/07/2013 0:42 Comments || Top||

#3  Just taking the lead from Jesse and Al. It's worked for them for most of their lives.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 10/07/2013 7:38 Comments || Top||

#4  Oh, and be careful or it will turn into a divorce settlement.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 10/07/2013 7:41 Comments || Top||

#5  So how much does Germany get from Greece for propping up their economy for decades?
Posted by: DarthVader || 10/07/2013 11:22 Comments || Top||

#6  The Greeks should bring it up next Festivus, when the first part of the observance is the airing of the grievances.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/07/2013 20:58 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Back to Work: Guess we'll be looking for a new Secretary of Defense soon
Administration lawyers OK return of furloughed civilian Pentagon workers
Posted by: Skidmark || 10/07/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  But ... I thought Champ was dead-set against "piecemeal" actions to fund bits and pieces? So Hagel will be going under the bus?
Posted by: Bobby || 10/07/2013 6:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Bobby: AFGE.
Posted by: Pappy || 10/07/2013 9:26 Comments || Top||

#3  But, but, but they are mostly dems anyway. Now the administration can be seen as their ultimate savior.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/07/2013 9:49 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
2 Indian Navy nuclear engineers found dead in suspicious circumstances
VISAKHAPATNAM: Bodies of two defence personnel were found under suspicious circumstances on the railway tracks falling under Pendurty railway station (PRS) limits of East Coast Railways (ECoR) here on Sunday morning.

On being informed by railway trackmen, Government Railway Police (GRP) at Visakhapatnam railway station immediately reached the spot. Following enquiries, one of the deceased was identified as KK Josh, 34, chief engine room artificer (CERA) at Shipbuilding Centre, a unit of ministry of defence at the Eastern Naval Command (ENC) premises here. The other was identified as Abhish Shivam, 33, a chief engineer working at INS Arihant, India's first nuclear-powered submarine.

While Josh, a resident of Kakani Nagar near the airport, was a native of Kozhikode, Shivam belonged to Ernakulam district in Kerala and was living at the Navy quarters at Dolphins Hills. Both of them were posted in the city three years ago.

The GRP team along with a dog squad and fingerprint team scouted the area around the tracks and collected clues. While GRP cops maintained that a case was registered and awaiting the postmortem report from King George Hospital, relatives of the deceased and the leaders of Kerala Kala Samiti (KKS) alleged that the deaths appeared to be under suspicious circumstances and demanded that the police immediately launch a high-scale probe into the incident.
Always the suspicion of Pak involvement.
Posted by: phil_b || 10/07/2013 00:58 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The IN's newest, most deadliest toyz have been suffering a rash of deadly or poten deadly fires + other accidents of late.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/07/2013 19:55 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Security Forces Foil Drug Smuggling Attempt Near Egyptian Border
[Ynet] IDF and police forces operated in recent hours on the Egyptian border, in the vicinity of Eilat, in order to foil a drug smuggling attempt from Sinai to Israel. There were no injuries reported.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/07/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
Posted by: Heriberto Spoluting7333 || 10/07/2013 13:53 Comments || Top||


Christians in Israel Declare Renewed Identity and Bonds to Jewish State
Leading Israeli Christians gathered at a Jerusalem conference to declare their own identity apart from Arab Muslims, and their support for Israel.

"We are not Arabs," the group declared. "We are Christians who speak Arabic."
The times, they are a-changing.
Maybe they could learn English. American Christians would be far more likely to identify with them then...
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 10/07/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Been paying attention to what happens in the rest of ME, have they?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/07/2013 2:04 Comments || Top||


Olde Tyme Religion
Orthodox Leader Urges End to 'Persecution' of Christians, Especially in Mideast
[An Nahar] The spiritual leader of the Orthodox Church called Sunday for an end to the persecution of Christians, especially in the Middle East.

"Have we not been persecuted these days, our Christians in Syria, Egypt... and the Middle East, just for spreading God's words?" asked Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.

"They cherish everyone while being persecuted by everyone... They live in faith while being persecuted as villains," he said, marking the 1700th anniversary of the Edict of Milan -- a document that introduced tolerance for Christianity in the Roman empire.

Thousands of people, along with the leaders of seven Orthodox churches, high-ranking clergy and Serbian state officials, attended the ceremony.

The edict, adopted in 313, was agreed between Constantine I, the emperor of the western part of the Roman empire, and his rival Licinius, ruler of the eastern part, proclaiming to treat Christians with benevolence.

The ceremony was held in Nis, 240 kilometers (145 miles) south of Belgrade, where Constantine I was born in 272.

Most of Serbia's population of 7.2 million are Orthodox Christians. Since the fall of communism in the early 1990s, the Orthodox Church has increased its influence in the Balkan country.

Representatives of the Catholic Church and the Islamic community, as well as other religious confessions, were in attendance.

Although the two main Christian churches have made attempts towards overcoming centuries-old divisions, Roman Catholic Pope Francis did not attend.

Patriarch Bartholomew and Russian Patriarch Kiril, Theopholis of Jerusalem and their counterparts from Serbia, the Czech Republic, Albania, Cyprus and Poland, held a joint liturgy to mark the end of nine months of observations.

They called for the unity of Orthodox churches and closer ties with other churches and religious communities.

"The spirit of religious tolerance should prevail everywhere," Irinej said.
If that were a possibility, your people wouldn't be living as dhimmis under Muslim rule.
Posted by: Fred || 10/07/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:



Who's in the News
40[untagged]
4TTP
3Arab Spring
3Govt of Syria
2al-Qaeda
2Govt of Iran
2Govt of Pakistan
2Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant
2al-Qaeda in Arabia
1Palestinian Authority
1al-Qaeda in Kenya
1Thai Insurgency
1al-Shabaab
1al-Qaeda in Pakistan
1Commies
1Moro Islamic Liberation Front

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2013-10-07
  SEAL Strike on Shaboob Big Turban Fails in Somalia
Sun 2013-10-06
  Abu Anas al-Libi snatched
Sat 2013-10-05
  Boko Haram: 186 killed, 15 arrested as Military raids insurgents' camp in Yobe
Fri 2013-10-04
  Belgium Extradites Nisar Trabelsi to U.S.
Thu 2013-10-03
  Iranian cyber warfare commander shot dead in suspected assassination
Wed 2013-10-02
  Iraq Executes 23 People in Two Days
Tue 2013-10-01
  Drone strike in North Waziristan kills two, injures one
Mon 2013-09-30
  US drone kills three in Pakistan
Sun 2013-09-29
  Boko murders up to 50 students in their sleep
Sat 2013-09-28
  Sudan Arrests 600 over 'Vandalism'
Fri 2013-09-27
  Peshawar Bus Bombing Kills 17 Govt Employees
Thu 2013-09-26
  Syria rebels reject opposition coalition, call for Islamic leadership
Wed 2013-09-25
  AQIM replaces dead emirs
Tue 2013-09-24
  Nairobi attack: Kenya's President Kenyatta says siege over
Mon 2013-09-23
  Egyptian court bans Moslem Brüderbund activity, confiscates assets


Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
3.137.187.233
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (26)    WoT Background (15)    Opinion (5)    (0)    Politix (2)