The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously Thursday to reinforce a beleaguered U.N. peacekeeping mission in the Congo, temporarily approving the deployment of more than 3,100 additional peacekeepers to help protect hundreds of thousands of civilians.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
More child molesting rapists brought to bear, beautiful.
(SomaliNet) In an interview published on Wednesday in Germany, Laurent Nkunda, the rebel chief whose armies have swept aside Congolese government forces, aims to take over the whole of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The DRC rebel chief told the weekly newspaper Die Zeit that under his leadership, the DR Congo would take over a seat representing Africa in the United Nations Security Council within five years.
Nunda's forces have won control in tracts of the east of the DR Congo. Nkunda, a Tutsi general, accused the government of failing the nation, "selling out the country to the Chinese" and co-operating with criminals.
He rebuffed criticism of atrocities by his forces, including one attack in January when 30 people were murdered, some of them with hammers, in a single village. "I cannot rule out that civilians sometimes get killed. Perhaps they get caught in the crossfire," he said.
Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) has routed the Congolese army and seized control of territory in North Kivu province in recent weeks. Nkunda has previously warned that unless the government talks to him, his forces - believed to number between 4 000 and 6 000 - will brush aside the Congolese army and march on the capital Kinshasa.
The DR Congo accuses Rwanda of backing Nkunda, who says he is fighting to protect Tutsis from Hutu militia.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008 00:00 ||
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The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday approved filing of separate cases against three people including Awami League (AL) presidium member Kazi Zafarullah's wife Nilufa Zafarullah and their son Kazi Omar Zafar in connection with concealing wealth information from the commission and amassing wealth illegally.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008 00:00 ||
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The High Court (HC) yesterday granted three months' ad interim bail to former BNP lawmaker Helaluzzaman Talukder Lalu and former Jamaat-e Islami lawmaker Shahjahan Chowdhury.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008 00:00 ||
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The U.S. Embassy has been accused of counterrevolutionary subversion. A nervous Catholic Church is appealing for calm. The opposition party is crying electoral fraud, while roaming gangs armed with clubs are attacking marchers. The mayor here has called it anarchy. And everyone is asking: What is President Daniel Ortega after?
This sounds more like the Central America of the 1980s. But Ortega, the former Marxist revolutionary comandante who returned to the president's office in 2006, is at the center of a chaotic new struggle. Critics charge that he and Nicaragua, the poorest country in Central America, are marching backward, away from relatively peaceful, transparent, democratic elections to ones that are violent, shady and stolen.
The Nov. 9 elections and their disputed results -- for 146 mayoralties, including that of Managua, the capital -- have become a crucial test for the Sandinista National Liberation Front and Ortega, its leader, who seeks to consolidate his power in Nicaragua and enhance his standing as a founder of the "pink tide" of left-leaning governments flowing across Latin America. In the months leading to the vote, Ortega and the Sandinistas cracked down on their critics and revived old antagonisms between the United States and the former revolutionaries.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
"The Fat One," also wants to return to power, though Aleman is a convicted money launderer and embezzler.
#2
I love how communist groups always have names with words like 'liberation', 'people's' or 'Free' in them.
Skimming over Daily Kos, those burnt out bunnies think their way will 'set our country free', even if they have to create a police state to do it.
#3
bigjim, nah....they don't believe it either. They just think that they are gonna be the ones on top when the revolution comes, never the ones up against the wall.
#4
"...electoral fraud, while roaming gangs armed with clubs are attacking..."
Community organizers, no doubt.
Posted by: Minister of funny walks ||
11/21/2008 13:22 Comments ||
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#5
Meanwhile our president-elect and and his fellow democrats ignore event in Nicaragua, Venezuela and Ecuador and spend their time attacking Columbia, a functioning democracy.
#6
The Nov. 9 elections and their disputed results -- for 146 mayoralties, including that of Managua, the capital -- have become a crucial test for the Sandinista National Liberation Front and Ortega, its leader, who seeks to consolidate his power in Nicaragua and enhance his standing as a founder of the "pink tide" of left-leaning governments flowing across Latin America.
Looks like it might be time for Jimmy Carter to fly on down for a whitewash job. Call him, Danny. He's probably still in your Rolodex.
#1
According to the article, Japan's long working hours are exceeded only by South Korea and the U.S. Yet here in the U.S. we don't have a birthrate problem. This suggests the companies haven't quite got the formula quite right; it isn't enough just to leave the office at something remotely resembling a reasonable time, the husbands must go straight home instead of hanging out in the bars until midnight, then stumbling off the train barely able to see the difference between floor and ceiling. Contrary to popular belief, dead drunk is not in the least sexy, however wonderful the person might be when sober. ;-)
#3
Actually, we do have the same birthrate problem in America - if you only count 'salarymen'. The overall birthrate is supported by higher numbers among the unemployed and underemployed, and the lower income levels where work is work and your real life is elsewhere.
#4
Actually, the reports from last year said that more Japanese men are using those life-like dolls rather than real women. If true, shows a bigger social problem than just being tired.
Hillary Rodham Clinton has decided to give up her Senate seat and accept the position of secretary of state, making her the public face around the world for the administration of the man who beat her for the Democratic presidential nomination, two confidants said Friday.
#3
Maybe she thinks a wren in the fist is better a pidgeon on the roof... but Obamarx is radioactive and when time comes that Obamarx is cooked, she'd be thrown in the pot too.
g(r)om, it is not her intelligence but a politician's integrity. Oxymoron? Yewbetcha! ;-)
It turns out Islamophobia is no myth. Researchers in psychology and medicine have found that anti-Muslim sentiment is a very real phenomenon with potentially dire effects on safety and medical care.
During last week's United Nations interfaith dialogue, Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon singled out Islamophobia as "a new term for an old and terrible form of prejudice."
Simply appearing Muslim can increase aggressive tendencies towards Muslims a recent study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology found. They termed this bias the "Turban Effect."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008 00:00 ||
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#2
You think maybe that business about ramming airliners into tall buildings and having suicide bombers target pizza parlors and shopping malls might have something to do with it?
Nah, couldn't be. It's just whitey being racist again. That's it, yeah.
#3
It goes without saying that Muslims are devoid of anti-anything "sentiment", lack any "form of prejudice", and have no "aggressive tendencies" whatsoever.
#10
Islanophobia implies that bias against islam and muslims is a psychological impairment. Call anti-muslim bias what it is. A rational objection to an objectionable religious/political worldview and group.
#11
The man makes the suit. The suit is a way to make a first impression without saying anything and is based on a stereotype which of course is a generic set of values (right or wrong) based on experience with people who wear that suit. For example, every Bond has been sharped dressed - people have favorite Bond characters despite the suit yet the suit makes an actor automatically looked Bond-ish (also Jackie Chan in The Tuxedo). Suit = uniform style of dress whether military, gangster, yuppie, pizza delivery so forth.
Therefore if wearing a Turban makes a person look and therefore treated as a violent instead of a peacemaker (Buddhist, Nun garbs for example) or otherwise then you know what maybe there is a reason for that; that is the bias didn't come from a random dice roll. Maybe if the first turban wearers were handing out bags of mustard seed instead of tools of violence...wanna change that perception start with yourselves and it will take time - for a people who measure wars in generations it should be not problem to be peaceful for a single generation if the will is there.
Iranian top judge, Ayatollah Seyyed Mahmoud Shahroudi, says judicial security is a precondition for a sound legal system in the country.
Iran's judiciary chief said on Thursday that popular participation, promotion of culture, and creating the superstructure of a modern judicial system are all vital in helping to attain an improved judicial system.
The three major legal systems of the world consist of civil law, common law and religious law. However, each country often develops variations on each system or incorporates many other features into the system. The pivot of Iran's judicial system is Islamic law he said.
Shahroudi also called on 'all organizations' to work together to provide security for the society and put a damper on criminal activities. "People should be informed about their civil and economic rights by the mass media and the judicial system," underscored the judiciary chief.
In a comment in June, Shahroudi said that many countries are 'envious' of Iran's progress in the judicial arena, especially the attention it pays to finding justice. He said certain characteristics of the Islamic Republic's judicial system make Iran's judicial policies 'exemplary' throughout the world.
Addressing a group of judicial officials in Tehran, Shahroudi added that the Islamic Republic's judicial system is so comprehensive that some nations have sought Iran's assistance in establishing a judicial system of their own along similar lines.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
The death penalty for parking tickets I presume.
#3
I strongly agree not only with the idea of being liquid right now, but not just relying on having your money in the bank, but in "mattress cash" as well. Income is not the issue, wealth preservation is. But it has to be where you can get to it, and nobody else can get to it.
Very quickly, a cash run on banks could deplete their currency stores, and virtual money in the bank could be frozen or nontransferable. Does anyone out there think in their wildest fantasies that if CITI folded, the FDIC could cover its collapse? If its share price drops below $5/share, a lot of pension funds and institutional investors are required to dump their shares. Aftermarket today, it closed at $4. Monday the hammer comes down.
(I just looked) Since late 2006, 304 major lending institutions have failed. The money in them either ceased to exist or was covered by the USG or other companies that took them over. With the folding of major corporations like GM, there is no way even the USG can cover those losses.
The risk of keeping a few thousand dollars at home in a safe place is very low, theft or fire. If inflation hits, you can spend it quickly. But if things hit the fan, you are covered.
That giant sucking sound that Pinchie hears is the drain ...
NEW YORK, Nov 20 (Reuters) - The New York Times Co slashed its dividend by almost three-quarters and said it would cut spending and reevaluate its assets to cope with a slump in advertising revenue that is gouging U.S. newspaper publishers. The Times cut its dividend to 6 cents a share from 23 cents a share, or 74 percent, and said in a statement that it would reduce capital spending and lower its operating costs.
The trustees of the Ochs-Sulzberger family's shares in the Times said they support the move, but called it difficult.
Makes it tougher to keep the house in the Hamptons ...
The family's statement amounts to a vote of confidence in the Times as buzz builds among industry watchers over whether the family would sell the company and The New York Times newspaper, ending more than a century of family ownership. The Ochs-Sulzberger family controls a special class of shares that give it more control over the company than non-family shareholders. The Times board also cut the dividend on the family's shares.
The company did not say whether it would cut jobs or whether it could sell newspapers or other properties. The company is under increasing pressure from declining advertising revenue and circulation as more people get their news online.
Cutting the dividend is important for the Times in a financial sense. It has about $1.1 billion of debt on its books as of its quarterly financial results in October, and a declining income stream to pay it off. It has $46 million in cash and cash equivalents.
"This was a difficult but necessary decision that will provide us with greater financial flexibility in these uncertain economic times," said Times Chairman and New York Times newspaper publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. Sulzberger said the company has weathered difficult periods by maintaining its promise to provide high-quality journalism, and would take these actions to keep doing that.
Speculation in the media world is rampant that the Times must sell off some of its properties. Two years ago, General Electric Co's former chief executive Jack Welch was part of a group that bid for The Boston Globe. The company has resisted efforts from several dissident shareholders to get rid of some of its properties.
And now it's too late. Who'd want the Globe now? At any price? Who'd want the other newspapers? They're dying. The time to sell was five years ago. Now they're stuck trying to move the papers to the internet. It's not going to work because there is too much competition for them on the net, both in terms of news aggregation and in terms of advertising revenue. Why pony up for a Times electronic subscription when you can surf something like Google News and find the news for free?
The Times, which also owns other U.S. daily papers around the country, also reported a 9.4 percent drop in revenue from continuing operations. Ad revenue fell 16.2 percent, while circulation revenue climbed 3.9 percent.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2008 11:16 ||
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#4
I think the NYT still has some very good reporters - but they hamper them with a lot of PC BS, plus horrible editorial oversight. There is a market in this country for a conventional - but national - newspaper, unfortunately the NYPravda is not that paper anymore.
#6
This dividend cut is actually a good (and long overdue) move. It means they no longer have to borrow money just to pay it. NYT has a great franchise, but has been so badly run, from a financial perspective, that their results stink to high heaven.
#9
Pinchy: Johnson, you're fired! I want your desk and office cleaned out and be out of here in an hour.
Johnson: Can do, Boss!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/21/2008 16:48 Comments ||
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#10
Actually the New York Times (paper) is horribly run and has squandered its reputation for quality. The NYT (company) did better financially by purchasing smaller and local papers (My mom's paper in Sarasota is owned by the NYT).
These smaller papers were more concerned with local news and better plugged in with local advertizers. In effect the smaller papers were subsidizing the "mother ship".
Unfortunately, Pinch has managed to screw up his flagship paper so badly that even his smaller papers can't save him. He's going to have to sell off his profitable papers to raise cash to keep the New York Fishwrap going. Watch him go the way of GM (only without the bailout).
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
11/21/2008 16:48 Comments ||
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#11
I read recent numbers that said they have $450 M in short term debt they can't pay back. If so, bankruptcy within a few months.
#14
put their staff out for hires as prostitutes. It's no worse than they've done for the DNC and Obama, they'll meet a better clientele, and they'll actually bring in some coin. Except for Mo Dowd, no John would want that bitter skank
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/21/2008 19:45 Comments ||
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#15
Steve, I think you're wrong. General Electric could run the Globe as a loss leader propaganda outlet, just like they do PMSNBC and NBC (and all of their other channels.)
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc lost more than one-quarter of its market value on growing worries over whether it has enough capital to withstand billions of dollars of potential losses and despite new support from its largest individual investor. The second-largest U.S. bank by assets is looking at options now, including a sale of parts of the company or a merger with another firm, after its stock fell 50 percent this week, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
Discussions so far have been internal, and some options --such as entering into a merger where other executives end up running the company -- are unpalatable to managers at Citigroup, the person said. The bank's board of directors is set to meet on Friday, and Morgan Stanley is not considering a possible bid, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Citigroup did not comment on the report, repeating that it has a "very strong capital and liquidity position" and is focused on a strategy that will generate benefits "over time." Morgan Stanley did not immediately return a call for comment.
Earlier Thursday, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said he plans to increase his stake in Citigroup to 5 percent from less than 4 percent, calling its shares "dramatically undervalued." Alwaleed expressed "full and complete support" for management, including Pandit, who said this week the bank will slash 52,000 jobs and 20 percent of expenses.
Investors were unimpressed, and drove the bank's shares below $5, a level not seen since 1994. The market value of Citigroup has fallen $48.7 billion this month alone.
Citigroup is not seeking any government financial aid, and is not seeing any unusual business activity, a person close to the bank said. But government aid may have to be part of any deal for Citigroup, investors said. Raising capital, whether through a share sale or selling businesses, would be difficult in the current environment.
Citigroup "will get bailed out, and that's another unfortunate strain on the U.S. government," said Saj Karim, an investment adviser at Cannacord Capital in Waterloo, Ontario. The government may look to augment the $25 billion it injected last month from a $700 billion industry rescue package. The bank has raised another $50 billion since the middle of 2007.
Analysts said the bank could face more than $20 billion in losses in 2009 on commercial real estate, credit cards and emerging markets, as the world economy sinks into recession.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2008 11:15 ||
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Does this mean I can stop paying my credit card off? Because I'd hate for all that money go to waste.
Oil sank below $50 a barrel, reaching its lowest point since May 2005 amid fears over the outlook for demand in the face of a global recession. The drop in oil prices led a broader retreat in raw materials, with the Reuters-Jefferies CRB commodity index, a global benchmark, falling to a five-year low. December West Texas Intermediate fell $4 to $49.62 a barrel.
January WTI traded $4.68 lower at $49.42 a barrel. ICE January Brent dropped $3.64 to $48.08. "Oil prices are searching for an elusive bottom," said Antoine Halff of Newedge brokerage in New York. "Demand destruction today rivals that caused by the oil shocks of the 1970s."
The options market is pricing in a growing likelihood that oil prices could sink as low as $40-$45 a barrel before the end of the year, with the cost of insuring against such an event jumping more than 90 per cent overnight.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008 00:00 ||
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From what I hear, the only thing selling in the U.S. right now is guns and ammo. Those items the gun shops have lines out the door to sell.
#2
No shit. I went into my local gunshop to pick up some shells and a cleaning kit and that tiny little basement shop was crowded wall-to-wall. The shells were insanely overpriced, but I still got 'em.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
11/21/2008 12:41 Comments ||
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#3
"The best time to shop for December gifts was in August. Remember: shop smart, shop S-Mart."
China is now officially the US government's largest foreign creditor after overtaking Japan, in a development that signals Washington's increasing reliance on Beijing to save its economy. China became the largest foreign holder of US Treasuries, owning 585 billion dollars worth as of September, according to US Treasury Department figures.
But, analysts warned Wednesday, neither country should be celebrating the development, which underlines serious imbalances in the global economy.
"China's GDP per capita ranks around 100th in the world but it is actually subsidising the world's richest country," said Zhang Ming, an economist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government think-tank in Beijing. Zhang argued that becoming the largest foreign holder of US Treasuries is only an illustration of how serious the imbalances are in China's overly export-driven economy, rather than an indicator of its strength.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Yes, and the American consumer is the only thing standing between Beijing and its first major social experiment in a massive economic downturn. After you entice literally millions off the farms and into urban dwelling, what's going to happen when the jobs start to evaporate? Been there, seen it, done it. May you live in interesting times if you want to play this game.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
(SomaliNet) In an interview published on Wednesday in Germany, Laurent Nkunda, the rebel chief whose armies have swept aside Congolese government forces, aims to take over the whole of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The DRC rebel chief told the weekly newspaper Die Zeit that under his leadership, the DR Congo would take over a seat representing Africa in the United Nations Security Council within five years. 
The High Court (HC) yesterday granted three months' ad interim bail to former BNP lawmaker Helaluzzaman Talukder Lalu and former Jamaat-e Islami lawmaker Shahjahan Chowdhury.
The U.S. Embassy has been accused of counterrevolutionary subversion. A nervous Catholic Church is appealing for calm. The opposition party is crying electoral fraud, while roaming gangs armed with clubs are attacking marchers. The mayor here has called it anarchy. And everyone is asking: What is President Daniel Ortega after?
Russian leader obligates the energy giant Gazprom to collect the USD 2.4 billion debt it is owed by Ukraine even if done in a 'compulsory manner'.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc lost more than one-quarter of its market value on growing worries over whether it has enough capital to withstand billions of dollars of potential losses and despite new support from its largest individual investor. The second-largest U.S. bank by assets is looking at options now, including a sale of parts of the company or a merger with another firm, after its stock fell 50 percent this week, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
Oil sank below $50 a barrel, reaching its lowest point since May 2005 amid fears over the outlook for demand in the face of a global recession. The drop in oil prices led a broader retreat in raw materials, with the Reuters-Jefferies CRB commodity index, a global benchmark, falling to a five-year low. December West Texas Intermediate fell $4 to $49.62 a barrel.
