A man in a wheelchair who hijacked a Colombian airliner using hand grenades was sentenced Friday to eight years of house arrest. Porfirio Ramirez faced up to 40 years in prison for commandeering an Aires airliner with 24 passengers aboard, but Bogota Penal Court Judge Jairo Acosta said he reduced the sentence because "his action was aimed simply at pressuring (authorities) to meet his demands" and he surrendered peacefully.
Ramirez hijacked the plane because the government turned down his bid to receive compensation for the injuries he suffered from police gunfire during a raid 14 years ago that left him in a wheelchair. The plane landed at a Bogota airport and several hours later Ramirez — who was accompanied by his 17-year-old son — allowed all passengers and crew to leave the plane unharmed and then turned himself in. Ramirez was convicted of aggravated hijacking of an aircraft. Authorities released the younger Ramirez because they said he was not aware of his father's plan.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
The Chinese government says the spread of the deadly H5N1 bird flu in one of its provinces is not under control and has warned of a potential disaster there. There have been three fresh outbreaks of the avian virus in the north-eastern province of Liaoning in 24 hours, and a new suspected human infection.
And the Middle East has now seen its first definite case of H5N1 bird flu. The authorities in Kuwait have confirmed that a migratory flamingo found on a beach died of the lethal strain. They say another bird suspected of having the virus had the milder H5N2 strain.
There have been six outbreaks in the past month in China and the government has responded with mass culls of poultry. The most recent outbreaks, which killed about 1100 chickens, prompted the authorities to cull 670,000 poultry in the areas affected, and place 116 people in quarantine.
The outbreaks are being blamed on migratory birds, but the head of the UNâs Food and Agriculture Organization in Beijing said it was possible that they were due to village-to-village spread of the virus.
A Chinese agriculture minister has warned that the country faces a âdisasterâ due to the use of sub-standard â and counterfeit â poultry vaccines. These can mask symptoms of the virus, making control difficult, or even introduce the virus.
they can also encourage immune strains to form. wonderful.
Tests on four people suspected to have contracted bird flu are still being carried out, one in Liaoning and three in Hunan province. But the Chinese state news agency Xinhua reports that 121 people from the area in Liaoning who had suspicious symptoms have now been declared not to have the disease by the local health ministry.
The highly pathogenic H5N1 virus has killed at least 62 people in Asia and more than 150 million birds since 2003. In its current form, the virus has killed 50% of people known to have contracted the virus.
To date, there are no confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission, but experts fear the virus will mutate into a form that can pass easily among people and spark a global pandemic. After a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, this week health experts unveiled a $1 billion plan to fight bird flu, with assistance from the World Bank.
Vietnam, which has suffered 42 human fatalities â more than any other country â is currently treating two more suspected cases. It has announced that it is to begin part-production of the antiviral drug, Tamiflu, after agreeing a licence with Swiss drug company Roche. It is also planning a bird flu hospital near its border with Cambodia.
The spread of the virus is expected to increase over the northern hemisphere winter â assisted by the regionâs widely held practice of keeping backyard poultry, which make large-scale, thorough culls almost impossible. Indonesia, which has suffered five confirmed human fatalities, has rejected a $10 million international loan, saying it wants grant money instead.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/12/2005 13:43 Comments ||
Top||
#2
A swine herd was found I think in Vietnam some months ago. The top epidemologist in the region said that each pig was acting like a small bio lab, with several strains fighting each other for dominance; but the herd as a group would take these "semi-finalists", and compete them with each other to generate the "best" strain.
Definitely, herds and flocks speed up the mutation process thousands of times.
#3
The pigs allow the virus to acquire mammal specific adaptations. I read a while back there might be 25 such adaptions required to become a full blown pandemic strain. How many can be acquired in pigs and how many can only be acquired by infecting humans is unknown.
Despite all the hullabulloo over H5N1 in birds, I am certain that the actual threat of a pandemic strain coming directly from birds to humans is somewhere between very small and non-existant.
Chancellor-designate Angela Merkel pledged Saturday that her new government would work to reverse Germany's troubled economy and not shrink from "doing what we consider right," amid criticism of plans to raise taxes.
Abroad, part of Merkel's agenda will be to mend ties with the United States, damaged by outgoing Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's stark opposition to the war in Iraq. Which party gets the Foreign Minster? That might make it difficult.
The conservatives fulfilled the Social Democrats' demand for a higher income tax for top earners. That will mean a new top tax rate of 45 percent, compared with the current 42 percent. Oh, that's going to help... Ask the Bush '92 campaign.
Germany's main parties have sealed an agreement to create a government of traditional rivals under the leadership of conservative Angela Merkel, breaking eight weeks of deadlock after an inconclusive general election. "I'm convinced that the coalition creates a genuine opportunity for Germany," Merkel said on Friday. She will become the country's first woman chancellor and first from the former communist East if, as expected, the new parliament formally elects her on 22 November. She will head a potentially unwieldy bipartisan government that includes her Christian Democrats (CDU), their Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) and the Social Democrats of outgoing Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
Two years ago, more than 70 percent of Inland California voters supported the recall of former Calif. Gov. Gray Davis â while majorities of voters also backed Gov. Arnold Schwarzeneggerâs election. That same Republican bastion, which includes Riverside and San Bernardino counties, didnât come through at the ballot box this week, party officials said Thursday.
In fact, voter turnout in those key counties was among the lowest in the state, according to a report in the Riverside Press-Enterprise.
Critical Riverside and San Bernardino counties are among the fastest-growing in the state â a region where the number of registered voters has increased by more than 260,000 since fall 2002. Republicans outnumbered Democrats there by more than 120,000, according to a tally last month.
In past elections, the Inland area was a cornerstone of GOP strategy, and the resounding failure of the governorâs propositions this past Tuesday has local Republicans worried about 2006, according to the Press-Enterprise.
"When your own people donât show up, youâve got a heck of a problem,â said Professor Jack Pitney, who teaches government at Claremont McKenna College.
California Republican Party spokeswoman Karen Hanretty said officials will examine turnout in the Inland area. The party wants to know the particulars of the Republican vote - data that will become available when officials finish their canvass later this month.
Kevin Jeffries, chairman of the Riverside County Republican Party, concluded that itâs easier to rally voters around a candidate than around complicated ballot propositions, adding that only half as many volunteers helped get out the vote for Tuesdayâs election as were mustered for last yearâs presidential contest.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/12/2005 20:00 Comments ||
Top||
#2
At least for San Bernardino County, Republican voters pretty much are ignored by the state organization until it's time to vote. The Governor hasn't helped his causes in this area either.
He "bobs and weaves" when asked about running for president in 2008, according to the Washington Post's Al Kamen. But Kamen says that New Mexico's popular Gov. Bill Richardson is telling friends his hat is in the ring for the presidency...
#3
Hmmm...Bill carried out the hachet job and character assault upon Wen Ho Lee at Los Alamos when President Clinton felt the heat for the Chinese infiltration of American classified material. Dr. Lee was guilty, along with a host of other personnel at LANL, in mishandling papers, but never shown to have acted as an agent of a foreign power. Dr. Lee spent way too much time in solitary confinement without cause as the government was 'afraid' he'd compromise highly classified information with inmate at the lockup, Santa Fe County Jail. Anyone who knew the facility, knew that it was a joke that anyone else locked up there would even understand elementary scientific concepts, let alone the stuff the doctor dealt with. The federal judge took it upon himself to personally apologize to Dr. Lee for the gross violations of his rights by the government in the proceedings. Billy Bob needed a scapegoat to cover his ass. Dr. Lee was that person. Bill was the man in charge at DoE that made it all happen. Meanwhile since then LANL has had numerous investigations, coverups, and firings. Can we say 'fumble' boys and girls?
He and his party in the state are beholding to the teachers union and resist serious reform, just doing stuff around the edges to give the feel of work, but accomplishing little or nothing in the schools.
Second he's still a big UN supporter and former ambassador. As a governor, that doesn't get in the way. As a President not so good. The time for working with such a corrupt organization, is long past ending with something new composed of dedicated democracies to take its place. It's dead, Jim.
Other than that, he's about as good as the Dem's may have. Good record on tax cuts, just had a speical session of the legislature call and passed an energy rebate [the state's mineral royalties by law must be invested and income drawn from the investments, so NM is part of Big Oil and therefore receipiant of the much condemned profits]. He just pressured the state's Treasury to resign under allegation of corruption [caught on video tape and locally broadcast], a member of his own party. He is popular in a state that voted Bush in 2004. His position on the border is mixed. He nixed legislation to withold services to illegals, but then turns around and declares an emergency on the border to free up funds. For show? With Bill its hard to tell.
#1
Yet, by Boxer's lights, a much worse, and certainly less mythic, fate befalls this "Jules and Jim" trio: once Josh and Ellen pair up, Greg Hunter escapes to the Midwest to learn the newspaper trade and begins to drift to the right politically. In the process, he becomes an actual character, the only person in the book to experience any significant change over a span of decades,
#3
Hey! Maybe a new career for Babs? I'd go buy the book if she'd drop out of the Senate!
I'd not actually read it, of course.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/12/2005 9:18 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Having suffered long under the yoke of Democrat oppression, I can tell you unequivocally that Babs did not write this or any other book. The woman can barely cobble together a coherent thought, let alone put two sentences together. Iâm betting that the term âGhost Writerâ is being stretched to the breaking point.
loyd Brown remembers Armistice Day in 1918 as few - ever so few - veterans can.
"For the servicemen there were lots of hugs and kisses," recalls Brown, of Charlotte Hall, Maryland, a teenage seaman aboard the battleship USS New Hampshire, in port stateside when the fighting stopped. "We were so happy that the war was over."
Now 104, Brown adds, "There's not too many of us around any more."
No one knows exactly how many of America's World War I veterans will celebrate Veterans Day, which marks the armistice of November 11, 1918, that ended what then was considered the Great War.
An estimated 2 million Americans served in Europe after the U.S. entered the war in 1917.
Today, the Veterans Affairs Department lists just eight veterans as receiving disability benefits or pension compensation from service in World War I.
It says a few dozen other veterans of the war probably are alive, too, but the government does not keep a comprehensive list.
The Census Bureau stopped asking for data about those veterans years ago. Using a report of 65,000 alive in 1990 as a baseline, the VA estimates that no more than 50 remain, perhaps as few as 30...
#2
The WWI vets are truely the last of a historic generation of vets. They fought the horrific trench wars of attrition, suffering gas attacks and diease. Honorable warriors who were really the last to define the battlefild in terms like FLOT, and where attacking the enemy meant with fixed bayonetts. God bless them.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
11/12/2005 11:50 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Erich Maria Remarque, author of "All Quiet On The Western Front", also wrote a little-known sequel called "The Road Back", showing the despair in the lives of the same soldiers, returning home to Weimar Germany.
Supervisor Chris Daly is firing back at Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly for comments he made on his radio show Wednesday that encouraged al-Qaida to "blow up" Coit Tower. Well not really, but it sure sounds good.
O'Reilly reacted to San Franciscans' approval of Proposition I, which discourages military recruiters on public high school and college campuses. Sounds fair to me: You don't wanna protect America, okay then, America won't protect you.
He advised President George W. Bush to react by withdrawing any military protection for the city. "...If al-Qaida comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead," O'Reilly said. Rantburgers who work in the Coit Ruins Tower should seek other employment.
Daly responded on the KRON 4 Morning News, "Coit Tower's a monument to San Francisco's firefighters. They put out the fires in San Francisco after the great quake. American heroes -- they were there on Sept. 11 and now you want al-Qaida to blow up Coit Tower? Give us a break. You are out of line." He's out of line? This from the city that believes it is above the state and federal constitutions? Lol.
John Hanley, president of the San Francisco Firefighter's Union Local 798, was incensed. Incensed? You mean he was burned up? Lol.
"Coit Tower is a monument to the bravery of the men and women of the San Francisco Fire Department," Hanley said. "When Bill O'Reilly makes an attack on Coit Tower, he's attacking us and our bravery." "We really love our overnighters at the station. We'll put out a Naked Firefighters Calendar next year."
He added, "Mr. O'Reilly, maybe we should bring you into some of our burning buildings and see how brave you are." He didn't criticize the bravery of SF firefighters, he questioned your common sense and patriotism, moron.
Proposition I got 60 percent of the vote in Tuesday's election. It does not ban recruiters, but it does urge schools to reject them. But don't they realize that will harm their self-esteem? Hypocrites!
Next week, Daly will introduce a resolution before the Board of Supervisors asking that Fox News fire Bill O'Reilly. Lol. Good luck with that, puckerboy.
#1
IMO O'Reilly is over the top on this. What he should have said is: no federal funds for any of the schools, no federal funds for highways or roads, no federal funds for police or fire, no federal funds for airport, or anything. If the congress would move quickly on this, instead of just threatening to, SF would be changing course very quickly.
Don't matter anyway, SF is lost. If you have been there recently you know what I mean. Sure wish none of my tax dollars would ever wind up there.
#2
Ah, shucks. Just advertize that any container with a SanFran delivery address won't be inspected.
Tell them, they're free like Vatican City. No taxes, no federal monies. Though unlike VC, any traffic in or out, will be monitored. Unlike VC, we have no 'accord', so those little things like water, power, food, gas, not to mention what the heck they're going to do with their waste has to be negotiated. Enjoy!
"Who is this guy, O'Reilly?" said Hanley, who identified himself as both a third-generation San Franciscan and military veteran. "I've got guys fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. I'm a veteran myself. What's he talking about?"
I live in the Bay Area. Not SF. The people of SF voted this way, not the region. However, O'Reilly's words are against the region.
I would find it offensive, if I thought O'Reilly was worth his beans. But he has jumped the shark, and just needed to say something sensational so someone would pay attention to him.
I am surprised that no one brought up his problems with employees and dildos. Coit tower is the definitive SF phallic symbol. Right up O'Rielly's alley, from the lawsuit.
#4
SF is a beautiful city. I have family in the Bay area, including in previous years in the city, and loved it before it got so crowded and the moonbat population exploded.
O'Rielly was stupid to pick out Coit Tower. Lots of non-moonbats love the place both for the view and for the memory of the heroism of those firement. My sig other had relatives in that devastating quake/fire whose lives were saved by them.
Now, Berkely on the other hand ....
Posted by: too true ||
11/12/2005 10:41 Comments ||
Top||
#5
SF just passed a handgun ban, so it's already open season - just go after the limo-elites.....they have the good stuff
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/12/2005 11:37 Comments ||
Top||
#6
My prediction: SF will see an increase in home invasions by gang members. The press will do their best to try and ignore it. But it will get so bad that it will eventually come to light.
#7
The Central Coast was having some problems with this back in the late 90's. Asian gangs were starting to find these lucrative, until a few of them got blown away by the home owners.
#8
So much misplaced emotion. This is a simple back in your face hypothetical in which he picked out a landmark just for effect. And people are going off like fireworks - as if it has or will happen. Silly. He gave the Marin Moonbats a taste of their own over the top idiocy and they've freaked out. Once again we see they can't take even a hint of what they dish out in their deranged and smug fantasy world.
SF is utterly politically dysfunctional and socially insane. They have chosen to be insane. They have chosen to ignore laws and thumb their noses at the little people. They ask for derision and scorn in almost everything they do. Every local poll proves the point. Every sneering SF columnist bangs the LLL drums. Every attempt to usurp or flaunt the law demonstrates that they, as elitists and faux intellectuals, presume they know much better than the flyover bumpkins.
They would consider anyone who reads and doesn't troll RB to be a mouth-breathing knuckle-dragging Neanderthal. It is likely they rank as a terror target - and they would probably represent an easy one, too - and thus deserve whatever they get. O'Reilly isn't some wild-eyed Al Qaeda jihadi - and he didn't say anything that they wouldn't think of if they decided to target the place. Living in the area is a choice.
Hang onto the railing if you start feeling all dizzy and woozy. Firm up that grip. Laugh, it was ridicule and meant to be over the top.
#9
SF is dying. Literally. I can't bring myself to even care about the dumb selfish SOBs. The have a total fertility rate less than Europe. Young people move there to party and enhance their careers. If they have kids, they move away. The ones who stay don't have kids. By 2050, California's population is predicted to hit 50 million from 34 m. The state demographers predict SF will lose population.
H/T to an engineer buddy in The Magic Kingdom who shall remain nameless, lol... Keep your head down bro, heh.
Abstract: Among a fringe community of paranoids, aluminum helmets serve as the protective measure of choice against invasive radio signals. We investigate the efficacy of three aluminum helmet designs on a sample group of four individuals. Using a $250,000 network analyser, we find that although on average all helmets attenuate invasive radio frequencies in either directions (either emanating from an outside source, or emanating from the cranium of the subject), certain frequencies are in fact greatly amplified. These amplified frequencies coincide with radio bands reserved for government use according to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). Statistical evidence suggests the use of helmets may in fact enhance the government's invasive abilities. We speculate that the government may in fact have started the helmet craze for this reason. Written with tongue firmly planted in cheek. See the article for pix and much more, lol.
#1
how do I invest in these? Sure, they are useless - but offered at $19.99, with a 100% satisfaction guarantee (and some other freebie if ordered now) these could net me some serious cash.
#2
I will forward this to the Pres of the Tin Hat society, Barb Streisand, and let her know the tests went even further and now we can read their dirty little minds. How dare she have those nasty sexy thoughts about our commander in chief!
Posted by: 49 pan ||
11/12/2005 9:00 Comments ||
Top||
#3
I suspect that the commonality of the mental illness that responds to the "tin foil hat" remedy is more than coincidence. There seems to be several standard motifs in such wackiness, and those individuals, as often as not, come to the same conclusions about preventative measures.
Another often shared delusion is the use of the "paper clip chain grounding device", in which they literally wear a paper clip chain that drags behind them, to "ground" themselves.
#5
It's a trap! Foil hats only work against orbiting CIA satellites. True conspiracy theorists know Halliburton beams mind control rays from the earth's core which is reflected and concentrated by the hats onto the pituitary gland, the brain's master control center. The only way to prevent this is to also wear the foil diaper.
Posted by: ed ||
11/12/2005 10:25 Comments ||
Top||
#6
You forgot the use of low-frequency sonar by the Navy. Remember: NSA used to be a Naval agency and they have their own secret programs too.
Better wear foil earmuffs. Or roll foil into a Faraday cage and walk around inside it 24/7.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) - Eritrean authorities keep placing more restrictions on U.N peacekeepers patrolling the tense border with Ethiopia, a U.N spokeswoman said Thursday. U.N. and other observers fear tension could escalate into a new war.
Ethiopian and Eritrean troop movements are continuing along the 621-mile border, said Gail Bindley-Taylor Sainte, spokeswoman for the U.N. mission to the two countries. "The restrictions have increased almost daily," Sainte said during a regular briefing for journalists via video link from the Eritrean capital of Asmara. "Before the restrictions were more sporadic, now we have almost daily restrictions."
Sainte said the restrictions were heightening suspicions along the frontier and the situation remained "tense and potentially volatile." Sainte would not give details on the size of the armies facing each other, but Western diplomats estimate around 300,000 troops are hunkered in on the border. Eritrea has said its troop movements are for harvesting, while Ethiopia says they are carrying out training exercises.
For what -- a bunch of sand and rocks in a gawd-forbidden landscape. These guys rival the Somalis in their common sense.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/12/2005 00:40 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
IIRC, there were reports of a substantial US Military facility in Eritrea. Any validity to this?
Supporters of George Weah, a former soccer star and presidential candidate, clashed with U.N. peacekeepers Friday as his party gathered evidence of alleged fraud in Liberia's first postwar election. The peacekeepers fired tear gas and swung batons to disperse hundreds of people trying to break through a U.N. barrier near the U.S. Embassy, according to a Jordanian officer who commanded the unit. Two U.N. soldiers suffered injuries, said the officer, who refused to give his name because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. He did not elaborate. Witnesses said three Liberians were also injured. Weah had implored about 1,500 supporters at his party headquarters to reject violence, saying his hopes for victory in the runoff against former Finance Minister Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf were not lost.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
Would it be fair to remind everyone that Pakistan spent billions on a nuclear arsenal whilst municipal code enforcement officers looked the other way as all these substandard buildings were erected? This is a matter of skewed priorities.
In an ultimate irony, there has been speculation that many of Pakistan's nuclear tipped missiles are now crippled in cracked underground silos.
Billions spent on nothing, and a tenth of a million people dead in a nation more focused on hostility than prosperity. This is the real legacy of Khan.
MUZAFFARABAD: The police baton-charged around 250 earthquake survivors in Pakistani Kashmir who were protesting against orders to vacate a squalid makeshift camp on Friday, the police chief said. A number of the demonstrators were arrested as they marched through the centre of the regional capital Muzaffarabad, said Shahid Hassan, Azad Kashmir police chief. âThey were ordered to leave the temporary camp because it was set up in the middle of the city and it did not have any proper sanitation or waste disposal facilities,â Hassan said.
The protest comes as aid officials struggle to contain an outbreak of acute diarrhoea at Muzaffarabadâs main tent camp â in the sports ground of the cityâs university â and a number of other spontaneous settlements. âWe were shifting them to a proper camp with better living conditions but they did not agree,â police chief Hassan added. âAround 250 people protested, and police, in order to disperse them, used a mild baton charge. They arrested a few people and dispersed the rest of the crowd,â he added.
They were stopped because they were heading towards a âsensitive areaâ where a US military hospital for quake victims was located, said Tahir Qureshi, the deputy police chief. âThey were blocking traffic and they were told many times to behave, then the police officers had to resort to a baton charge to disperse them,â Qureshi added. âThe camp where they are living has no sanitary facilities, no latrines and there was a danger of disease.â
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
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.
A man in a wheelchair who hijacked a Colombian airliner using hand grenades was sentenced Friday to eight years of house arrest. Porfirio Ramirez faced up to 40 years in prison for commandeering an Aires airliner with 24 passengers aboard, but Bogota Penal Court Judge Jairo Acosta said he reduced the sentence because "his action was aimed simply at pressuring (authorities) to meet his demands" and he surrendered peacefully.
Germany's main parties have sealed an agreement to create a government of traditional rivals under the leadership of conservative Angela Merkel, breaking eight weeks of deadlock after an inconclusive general election. "I'm convinced that the coalition creates a genuine opportunity for Germany," Merkel said on Friday. She will become the country's first woman chancellor and first from the former communist East if, as expected, the new parliament formally elects her on 22 November. She will head a potentially unwieldy bipartisan government that includes her Christian Democrats (CDU), their Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) and the Social Democrats of outgoing Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) - Eritrean authorities keep placing more restrictions on U.N peacekeepers patrolling the tense border with Ethiopia, a U.N spokeswoman said Thursday. U.N. and other observers fear tension could escalate into a new war.
