A Royal Navy parrot with a reputation for embarrassing top brass with her salty language has been ordered ashore. Avast, ye swabs. Arghhhh.
But it was not Sunny's swearing that led to her being taken off the frigate Lancaster. She has been given extended shore leave on medical advice after plucking out her feathers and looking withdrawn. I would rather doubt the average Royal Navy Seaman could use that excuse for Sickcall.
Sunny, a six-year-old African grey with the official service number of RN Parrot No 1, has a habit of squawking "arse" and "bollocks" at inappropriate moments. Sounds like a couple of Chiefs I used to know. I dunno what the big deal is.
During a visit in 2001 by the First Sea Lord, Sunny was banished to a wardroom broom cupboard but could still be heard uttering expletives. Besides a comprehensive list of oaths, her favourite phrases are "Zulus, thousands of 'em" and "You ain't seen nothing, right?" That's just too funny.
Shore leave was ordered when Lancaster returned to its home port, Portsmouth, after tours of duty to the Falklands, Middle East and Africa. Sunny is now recuperating with the family of Lt Mari Duffy, one of the ship's officers, and her feathers are growing again.
Posted by: Carl Sagan ||
11/25/2005 12:19 ||
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A Royal Navy parrot with a reputation for embarrassing top brass with her salty language has been ordered ashore.
But it was not Sunny's swearing that led to her being taken off the frigate Lancaster. She has been given extended shore leave on medical advice after plucking out her feathers and looking withdrawn.
Parrots repeat things they hear frequently, so that should be an indicator of what probably goes on the Lancaster. As for the feather-plucking, there's two likely possibilities - bad diet or psychological stress of some sort.
#2
Sunny, a six-year-old African grey with the official service number of RN Parrot No 1, has a habit of squawking "arse" and "bollocks" at inappropriate moments.
#4
The first thing any parrot of mine will learn is:
"I can talk, can you fly?"
You want amazing? Try Alex the African grey:
With his vocabulary of 90-plus words, Alex can label items by color, shape and material. He can distinguish quantities of items up to six. When considering two objects, he can tell whether one object is bigger or smaller than another and what attribute is the same or different.
And, in his latest amazing accomplishment, Alex is learning to recognize the sounds of some letters of the alphabet and is beginning, when shown these letters together, to sound out words like a child learning to read.
Alex has set the entire world of animal intelligence on its collective ear. A most amazing boid.
A former Canadian Minister of Defence and Deputy Prime Minister under Pierre Trudeau has joined forces with three Non-governmental organizations to ask the Parliament of Canada to hold public hearings on Exopolitics -- relations with âETs.â By âETs,â Mr. Hellyer and these organizations mean ethical, advanced extraterrestrial civilizations that may now be visiting Earth. They have...and are now inhabiting the body of Howard Dean.
On September 25, 2005, in a startling speech at the University of Toronto that caught the attention of mainstream newspapers and magazines, Paul Hellyer, Canadaâs Defence Minister from 1963-67 under Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prime Minister Lester Pearson, publicly stated: "UFOs, are as real as the airplanes that fly over your head." ...and help me swat these flies that are swarming around my head.
Mr. Hellyer went on to say, "I'm so concerned about what the consequences might be of starting an intergalactic war, that I just think I had to say something." Read the rest at the link. I say we just tell Al Jazeere that ET is really a Joooooooooooooooooo and the muslim world will take care of the problem for us.
Posted by: Curt Simon ||
11/25/2005 13:31 Comments ||
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#5
"The Bush administration has finally agreed to let the military build a forward base on the moon..."
Don't forget, Bush manipulated the intelligence to get us into this intergalactic quagmire! And Haliburton got a sweet no-bid contract to build the base.
Worldâs top pop singer Michael Jackson, who recently settled down in Manama has donated a huge amount of money, the figure was not disclosed, for building a state-of-the-art mosque near his luxury palace in the Bahraini capital, according to his spokesman. The proposed mosque would be designated for learning the principles and teachings of Islam, as well as teaching of English language, for which high-standard teachers would be brought from United States under his personal supervision, the spokesman said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2005 00:00 ||
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No doubt to recruit the very youngest Lays Lions of Islambâ¢.
Trial Judge: I declare a recess.
Michael Jacksoffon: Woohoo! Where's the playground?
#2
My suprise reservoir is dry. I think it's a perfect fit, our most demented personality blends right in. You see lots of stretch limos with blacked-out windows in Manama, he's just a leettle fish in a pond of dementia, there. I dount the Bahranis will see much of him. Can't picture him cruising Seef Mall, myself, lol.
#3
True story: Two weeks after 9/11, my sister traveled to NYC for a conference. My mom and I tagged along for the weekend. The city was so quiet and the agony still hung in the air. We stayed at the Marriott Marquis, and since the hotel was so empty, we had a room overlooking Times Square. The rest of the hotel was given over to FEMA and Red Cross employees, as well as dozens of men and women wearing Deloitte & Touche badges. I originally thought that they were part of my sister's conference, but found out later that they had lost their offices at WTC and were renting the bottom four floors of the hotel. They took out all the beds and brought in desks and phones.
The mood as you may guess was very somber. Times Square was so subdued, with the NASDAQ stock quote ticker thingy urging us to give blood, and missing persons flyers everywhere. Nathan Lane and the other B'way performers did a song-n-dance thing right in the middle of the square to ask folks to please come see some shows, and outside my hotel window was a hundred-foot long banner for "Michael Jackson: Invincible".
A few months later he was whining that no one bought his crappy album because of racism. Any bad thin that's happened to him since 1984, he's earned. What a loathesome person. I am so glad I never spent even one penny on Michael Jackson anything.
Theatre producers have been criticised for rewriting parts of a 16th century stage play to avoid upsetting Muslims, it has been reported. Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great includes a reference to Muhammad being "not worthy to be worshipped" and a scene where the Koran is burnt. But a production at the Barbican in London, now ended, altered these scenes over fears they might offend. The decision has been attacked by Marlowe experts, said the Times.
Stage director Terry Hands, who directed a production of Tamburlaine for the RSC, told the newspaper: "I don't believe you should interfere with any classic for reasons of religious or political correctness." And English professor Park Honan, author of Christopher Marlowe: Poet and Spy, said: "It is wrong to tamper with a play, wrong to shorten it and wrong to leave out the burning of the Koran." But Simon Reade, artistic director of the Bristol Old Vic where the production initiated, told the same newspaper not changing the original text "would have unnecessarily raised the hackles of one of the world's great religions". In a statement, the play's director David Farr said: "the choices I made in the adaptation were personal abut the focus I wanted to put on the main character and had nothing to do with modern politics."
The production closed at the Barbican Centre last week. Tamburlaine is not the first production to come under fire for its treatment of religious sensibilities. Last year a production of Behzti by British Sikh writer Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti - which featured a sexual assault in a Sikh temple - was cancelled by the Birmingham Repertory Theatre following violent protests.
And in recent months a National Theatre production of Howard Brenton's play Paul has offended some Christians with its suggestion that Jesus was not the son of God.Nuff said..
Posted by: Howard UK ||
11/25/2005 06:37 ||
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And in a related development, Reade also announced that the Merchant of Venice will be set in Turkey and the part of Shylock played as Armenian.
Timur, (also known as Temur, Taimur, Timur Lenk, Timur i Leng, Tamerlane, Tamburlaine, or Taimur-e-Lang, which translates to Timur the Lame, as he was lame after sustaining an injury in battle) (1336âFebruary 1405) was a renowned 14th century Tatar conqueror, ruler of the Timurid Empire (1370â1405) in Central Asia, and founder of the Timurid dynasty, which survived until 1506. Known for his daring military adventures, audacious campaigns and aggressive expansions, Timur was also responsible for bloodthirsty massacres of civilians and the plunders of whole nations.
Could have been the poster boy for Al Qaeda. Most of the cities he looted and the people he slaughtered were fellow muslims. Things don't change much in that part of the world left to their own.
Three Asian men who bragged âwe killed a white manâ after kicking an office worker to death were jailed for life on Thursday. Christopher Yates, a 30-year-old data inputter, was killed in Barking, east London, after he had walked a female friend to her bus on November 7,2004. On his way home, he entered the grounds of the University of East London where the three men knocked him down and kicked his head like a football, inflicting what police called âhorrific facial injuries.â
Imran Maqsood (22), Zarhid Bashir (24) and Sajid Zulfiqar (26) were sentenced to life imprisonment at the Old Bailey. A witness heard one of them say after the attack, âThat will teach a white man to interfere in Paki business.â But the judge ruled the attack was not racially motivated, ordering they should each serve a minimum of 15 years, for the âcallous and brutal murder of a decent man who was doing you no harm.â
After murdering Yates, the three men, who had spent the evening drinking in Londonâs West End, went on to smash up cars and assault staff in a curry restaurant. âBetween you that morning you attacked people of all races, white, black and Asian,â said judge Martin Stephens. âThese in my judgment were random attacks carried out on people who had the misfortune to come across you in your drink-fuelled rampage.â
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2005 00:04 ||
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Posted by: Red Dog ||
11/25/2005 2:51 Comments ||
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Ah.. "asian" those Japanese..no Cambodian ... no.. Chinese... no ... Thai ... no, Korean ... no... Indian ... no...
What a descriptive term..
And all the British need to say is "Paki"
Posted by: john ||
11/25/2005 4:49 Comments ||
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15 years.. should be double that and some.. just hope they get a warm welcome on the inside.. heh.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
11/25/2005 6:27 Comments ||
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'Three Asian men who bragged âwe killed a white manâ...âThat will teach a white man to interfere in Paki business.â...But the judge ruled the attack was not racially motivated'
Ahh yes...another shining example of equal application of "Hate Crimes".
A proposal to restrict foreign-funded nongovernment organizations received initial parliamentary approval Wednesday amid growing Kremlin displeasure with groups that promote human rights and democracy. Critics called the move another step in President Vladimir Putin's tightening of controls over Russian society.
The bill requires local branches of foreign organizations to reregister as Russian entities subject to stricter financial and legal restrictions. It also further increases government control of NGOs, allowing official oversight of their finances and activities. Foreign-funded groups say the bill, which passed 370-18 in the Russian parliament's lower house on the first of three readings, could effectively terminate their Russian operations.
"The express purpose of this law is to emasculate the NGO community," said Holly Cartner, regional director of U.S.-based Human Rights Watch. The group said the bill would "eviscerate" civil society in Russia if passed.
The Kremlin has shown increasing unease with non-profit groups that criticize the government. Such groups played significant roles in the mass demonstrations that brought opposition leaders to power in the former Soviet republics of Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. Putin told human rights experts this summer that Russia would not allow foreign organizations to finance political activities. In May, the head of the Federal Security Service, the main successor agency to the KGB, accused U.S. and other foreign intelligence services of using NGOs to spy on Russia and foment upheaval in former Soviet republics.
Authors of the bill say the measure will make the NGOs' work more transparent. Critics, however, say it is meant to silence Russia's voices of opposition. Under Putin's administration, national television has fallen into state hands, parliament has become dominated by pro-government forces and the Kremlin has eliminated popular elections of governors in far-flung provinces.
The bill gives Russian authorities the right to conduct annual checks at NGO offices and issue warnings if they are found in violation of regulations. A court could close down a nonprofit group if its activity violates the Russian constitution, or if it is linked to extremist activity or money laundering. The new restrictions include a tax on contributions from donors not on a government list of tax-exempt sponsors and a requirement for founders and managers to be Russian citizens or permanent residents.
Two of the most pressing problems facing the Chinese government crossed paths on Thursday at a modest collection of buildings in the north-eastern city of Harbin, just round the corner from an old Russian Orthodox church. The Harbin Veterinary Research Institute has been at the forefront of Chinaâs efforts to contain the bird flu epidemic. Since the government announced a massive bird vaccination campaign earlier this month, the institute has been working overtime to produce as many as 20m doses a day of the vaccine its researchers invented. However, vaccine manufacturing was put at risk this week when the local authorities announced they were suspending the cityâs water supplies because of a chemical spill from a plant 200km away that was fast approaching the city. Not only is water used in producing the vaccine, but a plentiful supply of high-quality water is needed to keep the machinery clean.
The Harbin authorities have come under attack over the last two days for concealing the threat from the chemical spill and then providing misleading information â a response to health risks that has been seen elsewhere in China, most notably during the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak. Yet the response in Harbin this week has also underlined another prominent Chinese trait, the capacity to deliver swift logistical relief in times of crisis, especially if it involves solving a delicate engineering problem.
The veterinary institute only discovered the water cuts on Tuesday, when they were formally announced. Within hours, it had applied to the city government for permission to dig a well and had secured the services of a local construction company. Digging began at 3pm on Tuesday, in the compound of the instituteâs downtown plant, and by Wednesday morning the well was completed. The well can supply 50 tonnes of water an hour, enough to meet the 400 tonnes needed daily to support vaccine production. By yesterday, normal production had resumed. âIt is not as difficult as it sounds,â said Zhang Xiaopeng, an official at the institute. âAt this time of year, only the first couple of metres were frozen and the geological structure of Harbin makes it relatively easy to find water.â
The digging at the institute is part of a flurry of engineering activity around the town to locate alternative sources of water to keep important facilities, such as hospitals and power plants, going. Although vaccine production is no longer under threat, analysts believe the initial response to the problem does not inspire confidence over the bird flu threat. Andy Rothman, an economist at CLSA in Shanghai, says the danger is that officials treat a wider outbreak of bird flu in the same way they first responded to the chemical accident. âThe accident and initial cover-up illustrate the problems Beijing faces in managing the bird flu problem,â he said.
#1
a plentiful supply of high-quality water is needed to keep the machinery clean.
Where are they going to get that? Chinese rivers are NOT clean, even when they don't have toxic spills coursing through them. The two rivers in my city are filthy. You can stand on a bridge and watch (and sometimes smell) the nasty stuff float by.
Btw, a newspaper (Financial Times or Wall Street Journal) theorized that the SARS "cover up" may have been instead been a disconnect and communications-networking failure between the central and local governments. The latter not wanting to report bad numbers, and the power of the central government to affect local matters (i.e. corruption) kinda supports this idea.
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
11/25/2005 1:40 Comments ||
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EY: The latter not wanting to report bad numbers, and the power of the central government to affect local matters (i.e. corruption) kinda supports this idea.
This makes a lot of sense. In China, local governments report to the central government, which is to say that they are hired and fired by the central government. In countries, where local governments are autonomously elected by the local electorate and do not answer to the central government, they will tend to scream loudly when anything bad happens and blame the central government when things go south (as they did during Katrina). When they answer to the central government, you tend to get cover-ups by the local government in hopes that the issue will just go away before the central government decides to jump in and fire them all. I don't even think it's losing their jobs that is 100% of their concern - it's having newly-appointed officials look over their books, which may be full of diversions of funds from tax collections and the local government treasury.
Two Chinese environmental experts warned on Thursday there was a risk of dangerous chemicals getting into the food chain in the north-eastern province of Heilongjiang because of the toxic slick in the Songhua River.
The warning came as authorities in Russia considered imposing a state of emergency today in the border city of Khabarovsk amid fears that it could be hit by the chemicals spill, caused 12 days ago by an explosion at a petrochemical plant.
On Thursday, the poisonous slick of benzene and other toxins reached the outskirts of Harbin, a large industrial city in the north-east, which draws drinking water from the river. Its 4 million residents have had their water cut off for four days because of the pollution scare.
Gao Zhong, a water expert who runs the non-governmental organisation Clean Water, said the chemicals could be dangerous because the slick was moving very slowly along the river.
âIf it stays there for a certain length of time, the land beside the river will absorb the chemicals and they could get into the food chain,â said Mr Gao. âIf the contamination was bad, it could take several years to eradicate the chemicals.â
Cui Guangbo at Hehai University in Nanjing said the slow pace of the river â always low during the winter â was increasing the risks of considerable environmental damage.
According to the Xinhua news agency, the Chinese environmental administration said the riverbanks near the chemical plant, 200km from Harbin, contained 100 times more than the normal levels of chemicals such as benzene.
In Russia, Yuri Trutnev, Russiaâs environmental protection minister, said all steps would be taken to ensure there was no health risk to the residents of Khabarovsk. He called for more information from the Chinese. Khabarovsk, home to more than half a million, draws its drinking water from the Amur River, which flows from China to Russia. The Songhua is a tributary.
In Beijing, Zhang Lijun, the vice-minister of the State Environmental Protection Agency, said the slick would not reach Russia for 14 days and promised to keep the authorities there informed.
He blamed the accident on PetroChina, Chinaâs largest energy company, which owns and operates the plant where the blast occurred. He declined to say whether it would be fined or its managers prosecuted. PetroChina, in a statement on its website, apologised for the âinconvenienceâ caused by the spill.
The crisis in Harbin was discussed at a meeting of the State Council, Chinaâs cabinet, which had been called to discuss environmental policies. âThe environmental situation is grim,â Wen Jiabao, the premier, told the meeting, state media said.
#1
SO now they're getting worried - had no probs pre-explosion as they allowed the trash heaps/dumps, civilian and industrial, to get higher and higher everywhere. every year.
BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) - Serbia's president on Thursday formally proposed dividing Kosovo between its independence-seeking Albanian majority and a Serb minority as the chief U.N. mediator met with government officials.
Martti Athisaari, the envoy who was appointed earlier this month by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and is on his initial fact-finding mission in the Balkans, said the troubled province's final status will ultimately be decided by the Security Council after his report. The U.N.-sponsored process is aimed at settling one of the most intractable disputes left over from the ethnic and sectarian wars in former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Working well, huh?
Kosovo, considered by the Serbs to be the cradle of their statehood and religion, legally is part of Serbia-Montenegro but has been administered by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO bombing halted a Serb crackdown on separatist ethnic Albanians.
Serb President Boris Tadic offered his proposal to the Serb government on Thursday, saying Kosovo should be divided along ethnic lines to give Albanians virtual independence while keeping the province within Serbia's borders. Government officials said Thursday the proposal will be a part of Serbia's negotiating package.
The proposal, which was first unveiled by Tadic during his recent visit to Russia, has been rejected by ethnic Albanian leaders who are seeking nothing but full independence for the whole province. It also drew angry reactions from Serb ultranationalists who demanded that Tadic be impeached by the parliament for ceding part of ``sovereign Serbian territory'' to the Kosovo Albanians.
How's it feel to be the jelly in the sandwich, Tadic?
The division of Kosovo, or its return to the direct Belgrade administration, has been rejected by the United States - which wields veto power as a permanent Security Council member - and the European Union. But Russia and China - who also have veto power in the council - oppose Kosovo's independence.
Also Thursday, the Serb government named a negotiating team for the U.N.-mediated Kosovo talks that will be led by Tadic, Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and Serbia-Montenegro Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic. Ahtisaari met separately with Kostunica and Draskovic and the Serb officials insisted on their government's rejection of Kosovo's independence. Draskovic warned that Kosovo's independence from Serbia-Montenegro, the union that replaced Yugoslavia, ``would cause a chain of dramatic turbulence in the region.''
Athisaari said Wednesday that a negotiated solution for Kosovo will depend on how fast the two sides move forward to end the dispute over the province. ``Timing will depend on the parties, how they move forward, how they cooperate,'' Ahtisaari said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/25/2005 00:00 ||
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A top Bundesbank governor warned yesterday that Germany was sliding deeper into fiscal crisis and risked a profound failure of nerve.
Jurgen Stark, the bank's deputy chief, said it was far from clear that the new Left-Right government of Angela Merkel was up to the task of rescuing Germany from slump and self-despair.
"There is no confidence in the future, there is no confidence in the sustainability of public finances, and no confidence in the ability of policymakers to solve the problems," he said. "It remains to be seen whether the grand coalition under Merkel can solve the confidence and growth crisis."
Under pressure from the Left, Chancellor Merkel has had to abandon plans for an overhaul of the tax system.
Instead, the coalition is raising VAT from 16pc to 19pc. The economy could face a "double whammy" as the European Central Bank moves to raise interest rates next week for the first time in two and a half years. The IFO business climate reported yesterday showed a sudden slide for October.
After stewing in its worst slump since the Great Depression, Germany has shown signs of life over recent months - growing 0.6pc in the third quarter. But there have been two false dawns already, and the latest recovery is driven by exports.
While Germany has overtaken the US to become the world's top exporter, capturing 10pc of the global share, it is a double-edged feat.
Ultra-competitiveness has come at the expense of German workers. The corporate wage squeeze has driven down unit labour costs by 4pc over the last year alone. Shell-shocked Germans are still staying away from the shops. Unemployment has averaged 4.9m this year.
Adding to the gloom, Berlin failed to sell a â¬7.96billion block of 10-year bonds this week, the first auction flop since 2000.
It follows a warning by Standard & Poor's that Germany might lose its coveted AAA credit agency unless it seizes the nettle of reform.
S&P doubted whether the package agreed after weeks of arduous talks was enough to stop the downward drift. "The coming years offer the last chance to mitigate the long-term fiscal implications of Germany's ageing population in a manner that is not socially disruptive,'' it said.
It said Berlin must stick to a "credible medium-term fiscal plan that will stabilise and eventually reverse the current rise in government debt".
The budget deficit could reach 4pc of GDP this year, breaching the constitution, while the national debt is nearing the danger level of 70pc of GDP. Undaunted, foreign funds have been snapping up German assets at bargain prices this year, while Frankfurt's Dax stock index is up strongly.
The budget deficit could reach 4pc of GDP this year, breaching the constitution, while the national debt is nearing the danger level of 70pc of GDP
For comparison, the US Deficit was around 368 billion for fiscal year 2005, total debt is 8.1 trillion, and GDP is 11.75 trillion. Thus our deficit 3.1% of GDP and our national debt is 69% of GDP. Not that much different from Germany.
The big difference is that our economy is growing at 3-4%, and our budget deficit is dropping. President Bush pushed through the tax cuts which helped boost both GDP and tax revenue.
How does Germany get its economy growing when it can't enact needed economic reforms?
#4
Actually, given population trends and the lack of demand it's more likely we'll see deflation similar to Japan's rather than the German inflation of the Great Depression.
#5
Please to be hush.
A German defecit is not to mucher to be feared, worry about when the ECB starts discounting Itaian and perhaps Spanish bonds. Thatn skary.
#7
wait til their leader gets attacked by a rabbit...then you'll know malaise
"profound failure of nerve"
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/25/2005 18:26 Comments ||
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#8
It will be interesting to see who is the first German politician to call for departure from the Euro and return to the DM. While I think that has very little to do with Germany's problems or their resolution, it will strike a responsive chord with the electorate.
Angela Merkel, the new German chancellor, set the stage for a tense meeting with Tony Blair in Downing Street today when she called for European leaders to revive the EU constitution. In a statement that will alarm Mr Blair, Mrs Merkel said during a visit to the European Parliament in Brussels: "Europe needs the constitution⊠[we] should not give up the constitutional treaty." She said the rejection of the constitutional treaty by the French and Dutch in referendums in the summer was not the end of the matter. The comments suggest that Mrs Merkel, whose Christian Democrats are tied into a grand coalition with the Social Democrats, may not shift German policy on the EU as much as British ministers and diplomats had hoped.
Frank Walter Steinmeier, the Social Democrat foreign minister, who is accompanying Mrs Merkel, played down hopes of any fundamental change of direction on EU policy under Mrs Merkel, saying there would be "much continuity" from Mr Schröder's tenure.
Both emphasised what they called the need for a strong and effective partnership to continue at the heart of the EU. Mrs Merkel had already acknowledged the significance of the Franco-German axis by making Paris the first stop of her tour. Nevertheless, Mrs Merkel has already proved an irritant to the French by showing signs of sympathy for Britain's objections to giving up its EU rebate without movement on farm subsidies.
French observers have also been looking for signs that the countries' closeness could be threatened by Mrs Merkel's wish to improve relations with America. They did not have to wait long for hints that repairing the damage to that relationship inflicted under Mr Schröder is now a priority for Berlin. But she promised to continue her predecessor's boycott of Nato's training of Iraqi military officers inside Iraq.
Paul Martin's government is accused of losing its moral authority Canada's three opposition parties have introduced a motion of no-confidence which could topple Prime Minister Paul Martin's government within days. MPs will vote on the motion, tabled by Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper, on Monday evening. It claims the minority Liberal party no longer has the moral authority to lead, citing a corruption scandal linked to a previous Liberal administration. If the government falls, an election is likely to be scheduled for January. Campaigning would take place over the Christmas and New Year holidays.
Mr Harper said his party would join forces with fellow opposition parties the New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois last week, after Mr Martin's office rejected their demand for an early general election in February. The Liberal party became vulnerable after it lost the support of the New Democrats earlier this month following a row over private health care spending. Their backing had helped Mr Martin's government survive a no-confidence vote in May which he won by a single vote. The government has been dogged by allegations of irregularities over contracts awarded by a previous Liberal administration. Mr Martin is not implicated in the scandal, but the opposition says his government is tainted and should be forced out of office.
#6
Bush bashing is one major reason these guys keep getting votes.
Ah, yes. All the politicians in Canada need to do when their serfs get restless is to shake the shiny Bush keys and the serfs will quiet down and be amused.
What the Canadians really need is someone who could sell the idea that all of their troubles result from the fact that Bush IS an alien. That will really solve their woes.
TOKYO (AP) - Japan finalized an agreement Thursday to forgive $6.1 billion of Iraqi debt, or about 80 percent of the total owed by Baghdad, a government official said. The two countries signed the formal accord on debt reduction, which was in line with a framework agreed by the world's main creditor nations, the Paris Club, one year ago. At that time, the Paris Club nations all agreed to reduce by 80 percent the $38.9 billion Iraq owed to its member states.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/25/2005 00:00 ||
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Any mention of this in the MSM? I googled but didn't get a hit.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
11/25/2005 20:04 Comments ||
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Dr Shazia Khalid and her husband have been granted political asylum by the British government. The couple's application for immigration to Canada is being processed by the Canadian authorities and it is expected to be approved in a couple of months. Dr Khalid and her husband are due to arrive in New York at the invitation of a women's rights organisation called Equality Now, which will honour the rape victim from Pakistan at a ceremony on December 14. She is also planning to travel to Florida where Somi Ali of the Asian American Network Against Abuse of Women is planning to host a ceremony honouring her. A visit to Washington and the West Coast, to be arranged by Equality Now, is also expected.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2005 00:01 ||
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Yep, they're getting ready to fight over a pile of sand and rocks.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) - Ethiopian troops briefly entered the demilitarized zone along the disputed border with Eritrea, but the soldiers left after United Nations peacekeepers intervened, a U.N. spokeswoman said Thursday. About 20 soldiers occupied part of the Temporary Security Zone for five days after U.N. troops vacated the position because of restrictions imposed by Eritrea on peacekeeping operations there, said Gail Bindley-Taylor Sainte, spokeswoman for the U.N. mission.
On Wednesday, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution warning of possible sanctions unless Eritrea lifts the restrictions and both East African nations reverse a worrisome troop buildup. The resolution also urged Ethiopia to accept a 2000 border accord.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/25/2005 00:00 ||
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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.
Worldâs top pop singer 
Three Asian men who bragged âwe killed a white manâ after kicking an office worker to death were jailed for life on Thursday. Christopher Yates, a 30-year-old data inputter, was killed in Barking, east London, after he had walked a female friend to her bus on November 7,2004. On his way home, he entered the grounds of the University of East London where the three men knocked him down and kicked his head like a football, inflicting what police called âhorrific facial injuries.â 
Two of the most pressing problems facing the Chinese government crossed paths on Thursday at a modest collection of buildings in the north-eastern city of Harbin, just round the corner from an old Russian Orthodox church. The Harbin Veterinary Research Institute has been at the forefront of Chinaâs efforts to contain the bird flu epidemic. Since the government announced a massive bird vaccination campaign earlier this month, the institute has been working overtime to produce as many as 20m doses a day of the vaccine its researchers invented. However, vaccine manufacturing was put at risk this week when the local authorities announced they were suspending the cityâs water supplies because of a chemical spill from a plant 200km away that was fast approaching the city. Not only is water used in producing the vaccine, but a plentiful supply of high-quality water is needed to keep the machinery clean.
Angela Merkel, the new German chancellor, set the stage for a tense meeting with Tony Blair in Downing Street today when she called for European leaders to revive the EU constitution. In a statement that will alarm Mr Blair, Mrs Merkel said during a visit to the European Parliament in Brussels: "Europe needs the constitution⊠[we] should not give up the constitutional treaty." She said the rejection of the constitutional treaty by the French and Dutch in referendums in the summer was not the end of the matter. The comments suggest that Mrs Merkel, whose Christian Democrats are tied into a grand coalition with the Social Democrats, may not shift German policy on the EU as much as British ministers and diplomats had hoped. 
Canada's three opposition parties have introduced a motion of no-confidence which could topple Prime Minister Paul Martin's government within days. MPs will vote on the motion, tabled by Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper, on Monday evening. It claims the minority Liberal party no longer has the moral authority to lead, citing a corruption scandal linked to a previous Liberal administration. If the government falls, an election is likely to be scheduled for January. Campaigning would take place over the Christmas and New Year holidays. 
