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Qaeda Gunmen, Dressed As Iraqi Army, Slaughter 24 Sunni Iraqis
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Homeowner Ventilates Heavily Armed Intruder
TURLEY - A homeowner shot and killed an intruder Thursday night when the man threatened him with a sword, sheriff's officials said.
A sword? I would have thought a pry bar more practical, but this is not an area in which I have any experience.
The homeowner and his wife arrived at their house in the 6000 block of North Owasso Avenue about 10 p.m. to find the back door ajar and a window open, Tulsa County Sheriff's Office spokesman Sgt. Shannon Clark said.

As the homeowner, who had a concealed weapons permit, searched the house, the intruder, later identified as 19-year-old Billy Jean Tiffey III, confronted him with the sword. The homeowner then shot Tiffey three times in the torso, Clark said.
Ooh! Ooh! I seen dat movie!
Investigators found that Tiffey was also carrying a .38-caliber pistol, the homeowner's 9 mm pistol, a knife and a stun gun.
Ok, now it sounds like he was a tad over-provisioned for the excursion... and he's still missing the pry bar.
Authorities interviewed the residents and no arrests were made, Clark said. The case will be sent to the Tulsa County District Attorney's Office for further review.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 04/03/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "A homeowner shot and killed an intruder Thursday night when the man threatened him with a sword"

I love a happy ending.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 04/03/2010 0:22 Comments || Top||

#2  The best scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 04/03/2010 8:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Nice..
Posted by: CB || 04/03/2010 12:35 Comments || Top||

#4  happiness is a warm gun...and a criminal's cold corpse...
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 04/03/2010 12:47 Comments || Top||

#5  Unless the kid was on the fencing team, he picked the weapon that he was least qualified to weild to threaten the armed homeowner. Obviously the punk's meth connection, the local pawn shop and a high school vice principal have all lost a customer.
Posted by: Super Hose || 04/03/2010 13:51 Comments || Top||

#6  "The best scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark."

Agreed, Eric.

I read that it happened by chance. They were going to do the usual swashbuckling fight scene, but everybody had dysentery and Harrison Ford was too sick to do it, hence our favorite (and smartest) scene.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 04/03/2010 17:45 Comments || Top||

#7  Second version of that story is that Harrison Ford, a party boy, was hung-over that morning when they were to film the scene.

But I've also read that the shooting was in the script, so maybe Spielberg wanted it the way it was.

Best scene of the movie. Now, who was the mod who put the pic in?
Posted by: Steve White || 04/03/2010 17:57 Comments || Top||

#8  Gloria?
Posted by: Frank G || 04/03/2010 17:58 Comments || Top||

#9  Wasn't me -- I haven't figured pictures out yet.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/03/2010 23:39 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Eugene Terreblanche killed in South Africa
South African white supremacist leader Eugene Terreblanche has been killed on his farm in the country's north-west.

Mr Terreblanche, 69, was beaten to death after a dispute over unpaid wages, local media reports said. Two people are said to have been arrested.

President Jacob Zuma has appealed for calm, saying the killing should not incite racial hatred.

Mr Terreblanche, who campaigned for a separate white homeland, came to prominence in the early 1980s.

He became the champion of a tiny minority determined to stop the process that was bringing apartheid to an end.

"Mr Terreblanche's body was found on the bed with facial and head injuries," AFP news agency quoted a police spokesman as saying.

The report said he had been killed after a payment dispute with two workers, who have since been charged with his murder.

"He was hacked to death while he was taking a nap," a family friend in the town of Ventersdorp was quoted as telling Reuters news agency.
Posted by: tipper || 04/03/2010 20:15 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Guinea-Bissau PM will not resign after coup
[Iran Press TV Latest] After an apparent coup attempt in Guinea-Bissau, the country's Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior says he will not resign his post.

The West African nation's premier, who was arrested by a group of soldiers on Thursday and freed after several hours, downplayed the army mutiny, adding that he would not resign.

"I will not resign because I was democratically elected. I consider what happened on Thursday as an incident," he told journalists after discussing the situation with the country's president, Malam Bacai Sanha.

Renegade soldiers threatened to kill Gomes on Thursday.

Despite Thursday's rebellion, which drew global condemnation from the United Nations and many other countries, Gomes said the situation in the country had stabilized.

"The situation is now stable. I can assure you that institutions will return to their normal functions," he stated.

The poor West African nation has fallen victim to a series of coups since declaring independence from Portugal in the 1970s.
Posted by: Fred || 04/03/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
Muslim Woman Puts Life On Line In Arabic TV Talent Show - To Huge Applause
A burqa-clad contestant on the Arabic version of "American Idol" landed in the finals after bravely blasting hard-line Muslim clerics on live television, sparking outrage among religious conservatives in the Middle East.

Unlike the wildly popular Fox show, contestants in the Middle Eastern version recite traditional and original poetry rather than sing.

While most regale the audience with odes to the beauty of Bedouin life and glory of their rulers, Hissa Hilal stunned audiences last week by attacking Muslim religious leaders as "vicious in voice, barbaric, angry and blind," and guilty of "preying like a wolf" on people seeking peace. She specifically blasted fatwas -- declarations by imams that often incite violence -- as a side of the extremism that is "creeping into our society."

"I have seen the evil in the eyes of fatwas, at a time when the permitted is being twisted into the forbidden," Hilal recited, speaking with only a hint of her eyes visible through her black veil.

Naturally, her verse has inspired numerous death threats on Islamic militant Web sites. But her brave words clearly tapped a nerve, as she was wildly cheered by the audience and voted into the competition's final round.

"My poetry has always been provocative," said Hilal, a housewife and mother of four from Saudi Arabia. "It's a way to express myself and give voice to Arab women, silenced by those who have hijacked our culture and our religion."

Her poem was specifically seen as a direct assault on a prominent Saudi cleric who issued a fatwa against those who call for the mingling of men and women. More broadly, Hilal was also seen as attacking all the hard-line religious leaders who have widespread influence throughout the Middle East.

"Killing a human being is so easy for them, it is always an option," she said.

Hilal said she is concerned by the threats, but "not enough to send me into hiding." She worries more whether her newfound fame might turn her life upside-down -- facing a fate like that of "Britain's Got Talent" songbird Susan Boyle, who melted down under the spotlight.

"I worry how I will be perceived after the show is over, when judgment is passed and people begin to talk about my performance and ideas," she said. "I worry the lights of fame will affect my simple and quiet existence."

Poetry is hugely popular in Middle Eastern countries, with prominent poets rising to rock-star levels of fame.

On the show, which is called "The Million's Poet" and is broadcast from Abu Dhabi across the entire region, contestants are rated by their voice, style of recitation and the subject matter.

The judges gave Hilal top marks for her impassioned performance and tackling a controversial topic. Their opinions, coupled with voting from people in the audience and through text messages by viewers, landed her in the final round.

"Hissa Hilal is a courageous poet," said judge Sultan al-Amimi, who manages Abu Dhabi's Poetry Academy. "She expressed her opinion against the kind of fatwas that affect people's lives and raised an alarm against these ad hoc fatwas coming from certain scholars who are inciting extremism."
Posted by: Anonymoose || 04/03/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Britain
Rowan Williams Throws A Hissy Fit
Like a Druidic emissary from Tuatha Dé Danaan, the mythic inhabitants of Ireland, the Archbishop of Canterbury will lob a spiritual depth charge at Pope Benedict XVI on Monday when he damns the Catholic Church in Ireland as having lost all credibility.

Dr Williams also reveals on the BBC Radio 4 programme Start the Week that he is withholding his blessing from Anglicans who choose to take advantage of the Pope's offer of a special home in the Catholic Church for disaffected Anglicans. "God bless them. I don't," he says, witheringly.

What a contrast with the joyful ecumenical greetings between the Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie and Pope John Paul II during the last papal visit in 1982, when they entered Canterbury Cathedral together, greeted each other with the sign of peace, knelt in prayer before the nave altar and then moved to the high altar where they kissed the Canterbury Gospels, a gift from Pope St Gregory the Great to St Augustine.

This time, although Benedict's visit has the status of a state and not a mere pastoral visit, his welcome from the primus inter pares of the much smaller and itself divided Anglican Communion will be less effusive.

Dr Williams has plenty of problems of his own. Next month the Episcopal Church of the US will consecrate its second openly gay bishop, Canon Mary Glasspool, as a bishop in the Los Angeles Diocese.

Dr Williams's efforts to keep Anglicans united have succeeded to the extent that none quite knows if schism has occurred or not. New churches keep being formed, but to the extent that all 39 church leaders are expected to be invited to the next primates' meeting, they are all still in the same Anglican boat, even if that boat seems barely to be staying afloat.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 04/03/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is that a photo of the last primates' meeting? Rowan's the beta-chimp with the beard, I take it...
Posted by: lex || 04/03/2010 3:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Dr Williams also reveals on the BBC Radio 4 programme Start the Week that he is withholding his blessing from Anglicans who choose to take advantage of the Pope's offer of a special home in the Catholic Church for disaffected Anglicans.

Oh, dear. Next thing you know, he's gonna defriend them on Facebook!
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie || 04/03/2010 8:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Considering that Benedict XVI has tried to poach a significant chunk of Williams' flock it wouldn't normally be that surprising that there was some sort of a response. In a way its quite impressive that the Pope has managed to piss off Williams to such an extent that this rather effete, woolly creature has seemingly grown some venom glands.
With respect to the loss of credibility by the Irish Church, in the wake of the Ryan & Murphy reports & the relevations about Sean Brady, then I think that's nothing but the truth. Considering how verbose Williams is its not that amazing if he comes out with the truth once in a while. Also worth bearing in mind that despite the man's verbosity & doziness he's yet to compare the state of being appalled at the antics of men like Bernard Law with that of being an active anti-Semite.
Posted by: Bill Spulet5498 || 04/03/2010 9:10 Comments || Top||

#4 
...he damns the Catholic Church in Ireland as having lost all credibility.

Pots, kettles, etc.
Posted by: Parabellum || 04/03/2010 9:42 Comments || Top||

#5  Rowan is a little pink mousey eating at a saucer of vanilla pablum.

The Catholic Church has been around for how many Centuries now? About 19 or twenty? Survived about 16 centuries of Heresies, about 800 years of Religious wars, Galileo, the Inquisition, Plagues, Famines.... and now bum groping Queers.

Its still here and numbers in the sheer Billions.

Somehow, I dont think its going to fold up and sink anytime soon. A year from now ask Andy Warhol if ten or 15 minutes is a long or a short time for a news item. Six weeks from now its page sixteen for just about everything you see today.

Am I lyin' to 'ya?

The Pope will get up tomorrow morning and there will still be a lot of people out there who hate what he says before he says it, and hate what he does because its always the same and probably wont change much in the next Thousand years , and hate what he stands for because they would like to have his silk hat and fancy shoes themselves.

Lost credibility? Just tuck into the back of any quiet Cathedral and listen to the Silence and look at the flickering candles in the corner and the old women lighting them...go over and ask one of them what she thinks about the latest Scandal. Go on, ask her.

Go to any Monastery out in the boonies on a side road and ask any Monk in the Cloister ( yeah they still have places like that..surprised?)what he thinks. See it they all are lined up to take you seriously. Go ring the bell in some musty Convent vestibule and shuffle past the Holy Card rack and ask to see the Mother Superior to get her views. See if she is really giving a fly f*uck for your shocked and appalled perspective.

And the little Nun in the Kitchen who is stacking and wrapping Cheese...ask her for her Opinion. Look at her face when she goes "Huh".

yeah, I dont think the Catholic Church is lurching toward Doom because some bushey eye-browed Mick or some hash mark in his shorts German plays with juniors peter in the Confessional.

Happens every day, Hello. It will happen tomorrow and it happened yesterday and it will happen a hundred years from now. And Junior, well, Junior will live and learn. And he will grow up to be as bad as the rest of us too. We all have it coming, kiddies, none of us is fit to do much but carry a knife even on the best of days. Its the world we made because its made of us. Your grandmother gave a mean blowjob...trust me.
Posted by: Blackbart || 04/03/2010 9:58 Comments || Top||

#6  "God bless them. I don't," he says, witheringly.

When did Rowan Williams get religion?
Posted by: ed || 04/03/2010 10:06 Comments || Top||

#7  I read an article yesterday that said that statistically, the Catholic church has a significantly smaller problem with priestly attacks on children and teens than does the American public school system. I don't mean to excuse the behaviour, but a little perspective is in order.

This is a witch hunt by the newsies trying to blacken a major opponent of the health care bill in the U.S. ... and just a favoured target in Europe.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/03/2010 12:21 Comments || Top||

#8  I read an article yesterday that said that statistically, the Catholic church has a significantly smaller problem with priestly attacks on children and teens than does the American public school system. I don't mean to excuse the behaviour, but a little perspective is in order.
But the issue isn't that a few pedophiles & predatory 'lifters managed to get ordained. It would be unfair & unreasonable to assume that seminaries could detect 100% of potential offenders. What is a 'cause for concern' is that in too many cases when the proclivities of these individuals came to light their superiors (the Laws & Comiskeys & Cormac Murphy-O'Connors of this world) chose to, in effect, protect the offenders & allow them access to more potential victims. I mean how many times was the infamous John 'effective life of ministry' Geoghan moved onto fresh parishes after parents had caught him molesting their kids?
I'm not sure how this whole sorry saga can be tied in any way to Obamacare - this has been running for a good few years now, Cardinal Law finally managed to resign in 2002, Murphy-O'Connor 'fessed up to letting a known molester continue with his ministry back in 2000, the Murhy report into the 'issues' of the Dublin diocese came out last year as did the Ryan report into the less savoury aspects of Ireland's Industrial Schools. The abuse scandals in Ireland have been newsworthy at least since 1994 & the whole Brendan Smyth fiasco.
Posted by: Bill Spulet5498 || 04/03/2010 15:33 Comments || Top||

#9  What Bill said. It's the coverup (and the reassignment of criminal rapists so that they could rape again, and again and again) that's appalling. And no, I'm not a Catholic-hater (my aunt was a nun), just someone who cares about major institutions observing the law where felonies are concerned.
Posted by: lex || 04/03/2010 16:45 Comments || Top||

#10  agree with Bill and Lex, and yes, I am a Catholic. Should've drummed those priests with credible evidence against them out and reported them as criminal offenders. No excuse. None.
Posted by: Frank G || 04/03/2010 17:34 Comments || Top||

#11  I'm not arguing that it's ok. What we're talking about is typical organizational behaviour; unfortunately, protecting the organization at the expense of the victim is the instinctual response. The thing is, the American public schools -- and the Boy Scouts, and juvenile prisons, and no doubt other organizations that work with children and teens in quantity -- they all have the problem, and they all cover it up... But on a percentage basis the Catholic church has fewer bad apples than the others, which is seriously counter-intuitive.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/03/2010 17:53 Comments || Top||

#12  Agreed, but those are not religious/ethical/moral teaching enterprises as a basis for existence. Especially not the public schools
Posted by: Frank G || 04/03/2010 17:57 Comments || Top||

#13  I agree, Frank. But TW has an important point: the poisonous tone of the coordinated series of articles on this in pretty much every major paper here during Holy Week came of the heels of publicly expressed fury against the Catholic hierarchy for its stance on abortion and the health care bill.

Not a chance in H3ll that that's a coincidence.
Posted by: lotp || 04/03/2010 19:24 Comments || Top||

#14  Hope it all backfires on them like thier recent attepts at pounding Toyota. Toyota led industry sales last month. Keep in mind also, we now have our first bowing Muslim president. Why would we expect anything good to be said about any facet of Christendom.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/03/2010 19:31 Comments || Top||

#15  lotp - no doubt an agenda was picked for holy week...
Posted by: Frank G || 04/03/2010 19:54 Comments || Top||

#16  So this is the monkey that is advocated
universal Sharia law for England!!!

Photobucket

Funny, this quasi-mollah never mention the
thousands of dieing little girls filling
the hospitals in Teheran, consequences
of forced sexual relations with adults,
often by the Mollahs Willian the creep love so much...

The big problem of the Catholic Church is
that they tried too much to appease the
leftist sodomite lobby, now they are paying for it.

Yes there was a large minority of katamite
molesters in the church.

They are today the one leading the assault
on the church, now militant anti-clericals,
the same sodomites are condemning what
they elsewhere advocate, children molestation,
consequence of same sex marriage and adoption
of children by sexual perverts.
Posted by: Hotspur666 || 04/03/2010 23:40 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Vladimir Putin meets Chavez in Caracas
[Iran Press TV Latest] Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has received Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at the presidential palace in Caracas. Putin is in Venezuela as Moscow is actively seeking closer ties with South America. The two leaders discussed further military cooperation among other things.

Venezuela plans to secure the purchase of 90 "T-72" class tanks.

The two sides have also discussed further cooperation in the energy sector and granting Caracas a financial credit worth as much as over two billion dollars.
Chavez reiterated that Russia will help Venezuela develop nuclear energy -- a plan he has mentioned previously that has yet to take shape.

"We aren't going to make an atomic bomb, but we are going to develop atomic energy with peaceful aims," he said. Chavez, whose country is a major oil exporter and OPEC member, says "we have to prepare ourselves for the post-oil era."

Chavez and Putin plan to sign a 20-billion dollar agreement which allows Russia to tap the Orinoco heavy oil belt. The oil reserves are calculated to contain 35 billion barrels.
Posted by: Fred || 04/03/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ION WORLD NEWS > RUSSIA'S CAUCASUS REGION RIPE FOR TROUBLE.

* SAME > BEYOND 50: AMERICAN STATES THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN.

LONG ISLAND
DESERET
TEXLAHOMA
TRANSYLVANIA
LOST DAKOTA
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/03/2010 2:09 Comments || Top||

#2  There's also Upper and Lower Guam... Lower Guam, of course, being the underwater parts.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 04/03/2010 14:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Did it tip over?
Posted by: jay-dubya || 04/03/2010 15:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Hey, Vlad. You ever get the feeling this guy's not dealing with a full deck? Don't you ever wish some of your so-called allies were a little more "with it"?
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 04/03/2010 17:04 Comments || Top||

#5  Venezuela plans to secure the purchase of 90 "T-72" class tanks.

wonder if the lights stayed on for the entire meeting
Posted by: Frank G || 04/03/2010 17:36 Comments || Top||

#6  Venezuela plans to secure the purchase of 90 "T-72" class classic tanks.
Posted by: Shipman || 04/03/2010 18:17 Comments || Top||

#7  Frank G, most likely the lights were on for the whole meeting. When I was in Guyana we stayed at the Georgetown Club they had power more or less 24 hours since they were on the same grid as the hospital. Our guide said he had power for 24 hours for a whole week since the PM had some big wigs he was showing around. Can't have Putin in the dark with no A/C. Get those stand bys running and don't show the VIPS the neighborhoods you've blacked out to keep the lights on,Third world SOP.
Posted by: Galactic Coordinator Grolumble6435 || 04/03/2010 18:56 Comments || Top||

#8  no doubt, you're correct. Those plebes who went without will, I'm sure, be pleased to know Putin and entourage had full power and the &-72's will be bought to ensure full power and water in the future for Chavez and junta
Posted by: Frank G || 04/03/2010 19:22 Comments || Top||


Patrol boat bought from Spain arrives in Venezuela
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez announced that the Coastal Surveillance Ship "Guaicamacuto", built in Spanish shipyards, arrived on Friday at the Venezuelan port of Turiamo, in central Aragua state.

"The empire (the United States) tried to prevent this. So I must thank the Government of Spain and the strength of the government of (José Luis) Rodríguez Zapatero, because the US exerted a lot of pressure to prevent the construction of these patrol boats for Venezuela," added the ruler, Efe reported.

The vessel was delivered to the Venezuelan Navy on March 2 in the town of San Fernando, stopped in the Canary Islands before docking at Turiamo, the main naval base of the Venezuelan Navy.

"This ship will allow us to monitor the 12 nautical miles comprising Venezuelan territorial sea, but it has capacity to go beyond," the president said.

He briefly described the patrol boat's defense features and said that to a helicopter deck, the boat carries a 76 mm cannon and other equipment. Guaicamacuto is 79.90 meters long, and displaces 1,500 tons, with a maximum speed of 22 knots.

Venezuela bought from Spain three coastal patrol boats and four ocean patrol boats that will be delivered in 2010 and 2011.

"They are intended to defend our maritime space and the wealth we have, namely, freedom and sovereignty of Venezuela," Chávez argued.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/03/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I thought they were intended to run cocaine. Gotta pay the utility bills somehow...
Posted by: imoyaro || 04/03/2010 9:53 Comments || Top||

#2  if they ever confront us with it, it will at least make a nice artificial reef somewhere, which is nice
Posted by: Frank G || 04/03/2010 9:59 Comments || Top||

#3  It's the equivalent of a US Coast Guard Medium Endurance Cutter.
Posted by: ed || 04/03/2010 10:39 Comments || Top||

#4  Two harpoons and it's time to learn the backstroke.
Posted by: Super Hose || 04/03/2010 13:45 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Russia delivers S-300 missile system to China
[Iran Press TV Latest] Russia has completed the sale of a package of S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems to China in a deal which is said to be worth over two billion dollars.

Igor Ashurbeili, the general director of the Almaz-Antei joint, which manufactures the S-300 system has confirmed the delivery of 15 batteries of the long range surface-to-air missile system to Beijing, reported RIA Novosti.

All the supplied S-300 systems will be used for the defense of the Chinese cities of Beijing and Shanghai, according to a Russian official.

Each battery contains eight missiles in itself, making it an effective tool for warding off airstrikes.

The S-300 was first deployed in the former USSR in 1979, but it is still considered a potent defense against air attacks. The latest version of the system, S-300PMU1 (SA-20 Gargoyle) can shoot down cruise missiles and aircraft at a range of up to 150 km (93 miles).
Posted by: Fred || 04/03/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  For your pleasure VLAD + DIMITRI,

To wit,

TOPIX > RUSSIA WARNS JAPAN OVER TERRITORIES CLAIMS [South Kuriles],

and

WMF > CHINA'S SEVEN POTENTIAL ENEMIES WROUGHT BY ITS SEVEN MAJOR MILITARY MODERNIZATION PROJECTS.

PRIMER = We already know zabout TAIWAN, INDJUH, VIETNAM, JAPAN, + ASEAN Nations?, ETC. but ARTIC > CHINA must NOT fergit that RUSSIA PER SE IS ITS GREATEST SINGLE HISTORIC OR TRADITIONAL ENEMY, MORE THAN EVEN JAPAN.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/03/2010 0:29 Comments || Top||

#2  did they deliver 1 so china could copy it? bet it pissed iran off thugh
Posted by: chris || 04/03/2010 2:48 Comments || Top||


Europe
French workers threaten to blow up factory facing closure
Workers at a factory facing closure in France have threatened to blow up the plant unless they are given better layoff compensation.

About 50 workers at Sodimatex, which makes car rugs, have been occupying the site in Crepy-en-Valois since Thursday. They are pressuring the company for better compensation.

The employees have placed petrol bombs near a large gas tank and are threatening to set them ablaze.

The French industry minister has condemned the move and urged the workers to settle the row through talks. France is suffering a 10 percent unemployment rate -- highest in a decade.

The car industry is among the hardest-hit by the economic slowdown.

Plant closings have led French workers to increasingly militant behavior, with numerous cases of boss-napping over the past year and one other case of a threat to blow up a factory.
Posted by: Fred || 04/03/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Only in France is terrorism considered a legitimate labor negotiating tactic.
Posted by: gromky || 04/03/2010 0:10 Comments || Top||

#2  As long as they are forced to stay in the plant while it ignites, I consider their proposal to meet win-win criteria.
Posted by: Super Hose || 04/03/2010 13:41 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
India to raise 2 additional mountain divisions for China border
In a major decision aimed at countering the growing threats from China, the Government has sanctioned raising of two mountain divisions (20,000 troops) to be deployed on the India-China border. Taking the urgency of the situation into account, the Government has lifted a 37-year-old freeze on making fresh recruitment for the China-centric mountain division.

The Army was raising new units in the last 25 years from within its existing sanctioned troop strength. One division has about 10,000 men.

At present, the Army has two divisions and the sanction for two more divisions will help the Army plug all operational gaps and help it defend its eastern and western borders and wage two-front war if need be.

The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) recently gave the go-ahead to the Army to raise two more mountain divisions, sources said here on Friday. The Government has also decided to speed up the process to procure specialised weaponry needed for mountain warfare.

China was rapidly modernising its armed forces and strengthening the infrastructure all along the 4,500-km Line of Actual Control(LAC). Acknowledging the fact that Chinas preparedness was better, India took a series of steps like improving road network in States like Arunachal Pradesh and raising specialised mountain divisions, sources said.

They, however, claimed that these mountain divisions would be trained to fight a two-front war simultaneously with China and Pakistan as the Army was now capable of rapidly transferring troops from one theatre to another at a very short notice.

Elaborating upon the decision to remove the cap on fresh recruitments, sources said the Army raised the first two divisions from within its existing resources. It stretched the Armys resources and realising its adverse impact on preparedness, the Government allowed additional recruitments.

With the hike in sanctioned manpower strength, the Army would now have more elbow room to rapidly raise the two divisions and train them in the shortest possible time. Moreover, the Government asked the Army to hasten the process of procuring Howitzer guns aptly suited for mountain warfare.

The Army planned to go in for more than 200 Howitzer guns which can be carried on horse back or in helicopters to the remotest posts in the rugged mountain terrain in Jammu & Kashmir and North-East.

The guns were likely to procured through the foreign military sale (FMS) route from the US, sources said.

Incidentally, the new Army chief General VK Singh said on Thursday infrastructure development in border States facing China was “slightly behind' and the Government was giving due attention to this fact.

Stating that China was not only focusing on modernising its armed forces in Tibet and the stress was now on making Chinese soldiers operate in a digitised battlefield. Giving reasons for slow pace of infrastructure development on the Indian side, he said the terrain was “friendly' on the Chinese side as it was a plateau. However, the terrain was mountainous on our side thereby making it all the more difficult for fast road building, he said.
Posted by: john frum || 04/03/2010 18:06 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'd set Artillery GPS coords for that Chinese "friendship" resupply train track. Pick the worst passes and spans.
Posted by: Frank G || 04/03/2010 18:24 Comments || Top||



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