[Chicago Trib] Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s 17-year-old son was robbed near the family's Ravenswood home Friday night, according to a mayoral spokeswoman and police reports.
Zach Emanuel was robbed of his cellphone and assaulted Friday night but was able to join his family on a long-planned trip Saturday, according to a statement released by Emanuel spokeswoman Kelley Quinn.
"The Mayor's focus is on his son's well-being, and as parents, he and Amy ask that the media respect their family's privacy at this time," Quinn said in the statement, referring to Emanuel's wife, Amy Rule.
Zach Emanuel was talking on his cellphone in the 4200 block of North Hermitage Avenue, across the street and a few houses down from the Emanuel home, when two males approached him from behind, according to the police report.
One of them "placed his arm around the victim's neck in a rear chokehold," and the second one struck the teen with a fist, knocking him to the ground. The robbers took the teen’s cellphone and patted him down, the police report said. Description of perps, unavailable.
Former model Mandy Rice-Davies, one of the main figures in the 1960s Profumo affair, has died from cancer at the age of 70, her publicist has said.
She - along with her friend Christine Keeler - was at the centre of the scandal which threatened to bring down Harold Macmillan's government.
Rice-Davies lived with Keeler, whose affair with war minister John Profumo prompted his resignation in 1963.
However, she never met the politician herself.
Keeler was also said to be having a relationship with Soviet defence attache Yevgeny Ivanov, although Profumo denied in the House of Commons having an affair with her. Says Mark Steyn:
The great survivor of Britain's Profumo scandal died of cancer on Thursday, aged 70 and a fine looking woman in a way that her younger sallow hard-faced self never quite was. Mandy Rice-Davies was the tarty, assured, provincial teen who toppled a Conservative prime minister, Harold Macmillan, in the summer of 1963, and eventually his successor, Lord Home.
DJIBOUTI -- Federal Government of Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and the leader of Somaliland's separatist administration Ahmed Mohamed Mohamud (Siilaanyo) met in Djibouti on Saturday, Garowe Online reports.
Was there a reason they couldn't meet in Mogadishu?
The second meet came after the two departed Mogadishu and Hargeisa for Djibouti at official invitation by Djiboutian President Ismael Omar Guelleh.
Mohamud and Siilaanyo are said to have discussed Turkey-brokered bilateral talks, national airspace control and the implementation of agreements signed in the Turkish city of Istanbul.
In November, Somaliland declared that it would reconsider its position on talks with Mogadishu. Somaliland accused Mogadishu-based central government of failing to honor the points in series of deals that were brokered by Turkey last year.
Two days ago, International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) handed over airspace management to Somalia Federal Government, a move criticized by Somaliland.
Turkish President Erdogan for the first time facilitated direct talks between delegations led by Mohamud and Siilaanyo on October 5, 2013.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/21/2014 00:00 ||
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Russian president Vladimir Putin called for a revamping of Russia’s secret services in a letter published on Saturday. The Kremlin called for improvements to tackle “modern challenges and threats and the emergence of new destabilizing factors,” Reuters reported.
I thought the old NKVD model was working pretty well in modern Russia...
Mr. Putin, a former KGB agent, said that key tasks for Russia’s secret service were to fight international terrorism and “any attempts of foreign special services to deal a blow to Russia (and) her political and economic interests,” Reuters reported.
The Russian president warned that Moscow will not be intimidated by new U.S. sanctions over its actions in Ukraine and Crimea, as his foreign ministry works to plan a strategy for retaliation.
“Obviously, no one will succeed in intimidating us, to deter, to isolate Russia,” Mr. Putin said speaking at a concert honoring past and present security service staff.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/21/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Evidently there has been some grumbling in the ranks.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
12/21/2014 9:03 Comments ||
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[AnNahar] North Korea said Friday it will not send a representative to a U.N. Security Council meeting next week to discuss the country's human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... record and calls to refer Pyongyang to the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... The 15-member council will on Monday hold its the first-ever meeting on the situation in North Korea, despite objections from China -- Pyongyang's key ally -- and Russia.
Young Kim -- Pudgy to his friends, if he had any -- is just throwing attitude in all directions these days. Can we possibly hope for a quick assassination?
A violent overthrow and a miserable, shrieking death followed by a division of North Korea by China and the South would be acceptable...
"We cannot recognize the Security Council meeting. Its mandate is not human rights," said political counselor Kim Song from the North Korean mission at the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... "We will not attend," he told Agence La Belle France-Presse.
Under U.N. procedures, North Korea can send a representative to the meeting of the top UN body and diplomats had said they were hoping for a face-to-face discussion with Pyongyang's envoy.
Offer them lunch...
The meeting will be held a few days after the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution calling on the Security Council to consider referring North Korea to the ICC for crimes against humanity.
Two top U.N. officials for political affairs and human rights will brief the council, but no decision on a referral to the ICC will be taken on Monday.
Ten of the 15 council members pushed for North Korea to be put on the agenda, but Russia and China argued that rights concerns should be put before the U.N. Human Rights Council and not the Security Council.
The talks will focus mainly on rights violations but council members could raise U.S. accusations that North Korea staged a cyber attack on Sony pictures that exposed embarrassing emails and scuttled the release of a movie.
Up until now, the council had zeroed in on North Korea's nuclear program as a threat to international peace, but the scope has widened to human rights following the release of a U.N. commission of inquiry report.
The year-long inquiry heard testimony from North Korean exiles and documented a vast network of harsh prison camps holding up to 120,000 people along with cases of torture, summary executions and rape.
[AnNahar] China has jugged ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... an American Christian aid worker based near its border with North Korea, his lawyer said Saturday, as authorities deepen an apparent crackdown on religious groups in the region.
Lots of converts to Christianity recently in what may soon be "the country formerly known as Communist China," and most to house churches rather than the officially approved ones. They say China may soon have more church members than any other country in the world. Understandable that the governing Communists grow concerned.
Peter Hahn, a North Korean-born naturalized U.S. citizen, was formally arrested on Friday on charges of embezzlement and counterfeiting receipts, his attorney Zhang Peihong said.
Many Christian groups, mostly run by South Koreans, are active along the border. But they are forced to operate underground as China bans foreign missionaries and vows to arrest refugees escaping persecution in North Korea.
Hahn has been based in the border city of Tumen since the late 1990s, when he founded a Christian NGO providing aid to North Korea and help for refugees. He set up a vocational school for local teenagers in 2002.
A source with direct knowledge of the case but who declined to be named told Agence La Belle France Presse that several foreign workers associated with Hahn's charity have been deported in recent months.
Authorities this summer froze Hahn's bank accounts and barred him from leaving China, according to Chinese media reports.
The 74-year-old maintains his innocence of the charges, which "cannot be stood-up," Zhang added.
Hahn is likely to face trial within three months, he said. The maximum sentence for the two crimes is 12 years in prison.
It comes months after Chinese authorities leveled espionage accusations against a Canadian couple also living close to the North Korean border who provided aid to Christians fleeing the country.
Watching Turkey slowly slide into the Islamofascist abyss.
[AnNahar] Dozens of demonstrators were enjugged Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! on Saturday in the Turkish capital Ankara as police used pepper spray and water cannon to disperse a protest in favor of secular education.
Police moved in on the protest, organised by labour unions, in the Kizilay district of Ankara with protesters forced to take cover from the jets of water and pepper spray, an Agence La Belle France Presse photographer reported.
Some reports said as many as 100 people may have been arrested, including the head of the Egitim-Is education union Veli Demir.
Many activists have been angered by the interventions of the Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the Turkish education system which they allege have undermined the country's secularity.
The government lifted a ban on female students wearing the Islamic headscarf in high schools and has encouraged the opening of Imam Hatip schools which mix religious education with a modern curriculum.
[IsraelTimes] Jordan?s main opposition Islamist party threatened Saturday to take legal action against anyone in the kingdom who signs a controversial gas deal with Israel.
Clearly they feel strongly on the subject.
Amman?s plans to buy gas from the Jewish state have aroused fierce opposition at a time of mounting criticism of Israel?s policies towards the Paleostinians.
Yeah, yeah. So shiver in the dark this winter. Enjoy!
The Islamic Action Front ...Jordan's branch of the Moslem Brüderbund... , political wing of the Jordanian branch of the Moslem Brüderbund, said on its website that it ?strongly rejects the deal in question, no matter what the pretext, political or economic, and will prosecute all those who agree to or sign such an agreement?.
The IAF said it regretted that the government ?has stubbornly ignored the popular will to maintain suspect relations with the occupying power [Israel] and to conclude such an agreement.?
Apparently there are some Jordanians who think highly of Israel.
The 20-year-old peace treaty between Jordan and Israel is deeply unpopular among Jordanians ? almost half of whom are of Paleostinian origin.
Detractors of the September gas deal, under which Israel would supply Jordan with 45.4 billion cubic meters (1.6 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas from its Leviathan offshore field over 15 years, reject any cooperation with a country they regard as an enemy.
A source close to the deal, which has yet to be approved by the government, said it would be worth $15 billion (11.4 billion euros).
Energy-poor Jordan was heavily reliant on gas supplies from Egypt, until they ground to a halt following a spate of kabooms since 2011 on the export pipeline through Egypt?s restive Sinai Peninsula.
Parliament debated the deal on Tuesday after 79 politicians in the 150-seat house filed a motion calling for it to be scrapped.
Defending the project, Energy Minister Mohammed Hamed told parliament buying gas from Israel ?does not threaten the future of Jordan nor does it leave Jordan?s economy hostage in the hands of any country.?
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/21/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Back through time wars have been fought, borders redrawn and countries names changed.
Yet the middle east is the only place people are coddled by their leaders to believe a false narrative about the land that they inhabit.
The Turks owned that land for almost 800 years before they lost it to the Brits.
The Brits rewarded the King of the Hashemites with his own country for being on the British side in WWI. That land became The Kingdom of Jordan, with the Jews getting a sliver of a piece of the land after WWII as their homeland despite the fact they actually could lay claim to all of the land. but they abided by the divisions set to them.
Nowhere in the world have people clung to such delusions like the palestinians.
Did the Indian citizens complain when their land was renamed Pakistan? Yeah maybe some, but not on this scale of delusionment the palestinians have practiced.
One day you live in a centuries old city.
The next day it's a refugee camp??
Why is it none of the palistinians ever demand 'their' land back from Jordan?
Why don't they accept the fact that they either are Jordanians, Gazans or Israelis.
Let it go. The New Englanders certainly have.
Enough with this campaign of terrorism to reverse history and re-redraw boundaries to conform with an alternate version of history they have been coddled and misled into believing by their corrupt leaders.
Over the years, the world has donated so much money to the "palestinians" that each man, woman and child would be millionaires already.
Instead they spend every cent on terrorism, trying to turn back the hands of time.
Ain't gonna happen.
Ladies and gentlemen of Rantburg, your perspective, please. Is this as dreadful as the New York Times would like us to think?
[AnNahar] The FBI has mishandled large amounts of evidence in its offices across the United States, The New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... reported Friday after reviewing an internal report from the investigative force.
The FBI has failed to keep close track of the weapons, valuables, money and drugs it keeps as part of its criminal cases, the report said, adding that almost half of the evidence reviewed by an internal investigation had errors.
The probe reviewed more than 41,000 pieces of evidence.
Mistakes in evidence collection pose a serious problem for the Federal Bureau of Investigation since errors can cause judges to toss out cases.
The FBI is notifying prosecutors of the report results and the risk of a mistrial.
Many errors were attributed to computer glitches, but the report also found instances of agents taking evidence from storage and not returning them for months. In several cases evidence has not been returned for years.
#4
Heck, if you can plant a virus on Iran's nuclear program computers, you can plant anything on anyone's computer. And you wonder why the NSA has hissy fits because some of the players in the field want real encryption? Why worry about real evidence when you can create your own?
#8
Ditto at #7. You can count arrests or you can count convictions. If the perp is actually convicted and imprisoned, it could be a very long time until the fellow can be counting again. A definite statistical downside. Convictions and long imprisonments also have a detrimental effort on source reporting, which gets back to Pappy's comment on "pressure to produce."
#9
Never understood why the right is so pro-cop. The police are nothing more than the armed accounts receivable department of that big government you claim to hate.
Know why police have MAXIMUM allowable IQs for hiring? Smart people tend to think for themselves, and the powers that be want cops who just do what they're told.
#10
It's funny how leftists claim to despise the police up until they get into power, then suddenly the tune changes and we all need to obey the people's police and report our neighbors for hoarding food or disagreeing with the leader.
Posted by: Big Jiper1622 ||
12/21/2014 14:56 Comments ||
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#11
Know why police have MAXIMUM allowable IQs for hiring? Smart people tend to think for themselves, and the powers that be want cops who just do what they're told.
Ever do police work, Iblis? It's 99% routine, and boring as hell. Even investigative work. After a while, "smart people" tend to get bored or distracted doing the job. That tends to lead to mistakes or get people in addition to the "smart people" hurt or killed. But I'll bet you already knew that.
We've got super-smart people in the Executive branch of government, in State, in DoJ. Harvard graduates, even.
#13
Iblis - I take exception as well. Most Police are not State Apparatchiks. They want to protect and serve, and have a civil society of laws they and their families can live in
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/21/2014 16:47 Comments ||
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#14
Hey, Pappy. Ever read Ordinary Men?
Yes. It was required reading at a point in my military career. Are you stating that that's the norm?
#15
Raw IQ isn't the right question anyway. Is the person a sheepdog, does he/she have good situational awareness and a terrifying memory for details, both physical and interactional? Can he/she remember all the laws, and apply that knowledge intelligently. And is she capable of handling a physical situation when needed?
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.
Very, Very strange. He wears his cap on backwards and everything. 
Former model Mandy Rice-Davies, one of the main figures in the 1960s Profumo affair, has died from cancer at the age of 70, her publicist has said.
North Korea
North Korea
[IsraelTimes] Jordan?s main opposition Islamist party threatened Saturday to take legal action against anyone in the kingdom who signs a controversial gas deal with Israel.
