Still spiraling downward, still haven't hit bottom.
80 percent unemployment, 1600 percent inflation and four hours of electricity a day sounds like the definition of "bottom."
Beset by the world's highest inflation and chronic shortages of staple foods and fuel, weary Zimbabweans are preparing for yet more hardships: power cuts of up to 20 hours a day. The state-owned Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority announced yesterday that it would cut electricity to residential areas in order to keep irrigation schemes running at the few farms still growing wheat. Harare's residential areas should prepare for power cuts from 9pm until 5pm the next day, said the statement in the state-owned Herald newspaper.
"We are going backwards. We used to have electricity, water, food and fuel, now we don't have regular supplies of any of those things," said Harare worker Iddah Mandaza. "We will be scavenging for firewood just like back in the rural areas."
"I just can't figure out what happened..."
The news comes as Zimbabwe enters its winter months, when night-time temperatures can drop to freezing. Many homes rely on electric heaters.
The company said the cuts were necessary to ensure farmers had enough power for irrigation schemes for winter wheat. The country used to be self-sufficient in wheat and maize but has been dependent on food aid for seven years, since Robert Mugabe's government began seizing white-owned farms. The government has warned of a bad harvest of maize, so it needs to ensure a good crop of wheat.
The country's capacity to generate electricity has fallen during the economic collapse, which has seen the economy decline by 50% since 2000 and inflation of 2,200% and still climbing. The state power company has not adequately maintained or replaced ageing generators. Zimbabwe produces about 60% of its power from the hydro-electric plant at Kariba dam and the coal-fired Hwange plant. It relies on imports from South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo for the rest, but has not been paying its bills.
Harare residents are also facing water cuts; several suburbs have gone without piped water for up to three weeks.
The news of the power cuts came as the Pan-African parliament, meeting in South Africa, scheduled a debate on Zimbabwe for tomorrow. The organisation, part of the African Union, will discuss whether to send a fact-finding team to Zimbabwe to investigate ways to resolve the crisis.
A fact finding team? By Gad! Why didn't we think of that?
I'll bet they have good lunches, unlike the average people in Zimbobwe.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/10/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Correct me iff I'm wrong, but wasn't there a NET news article that said ZimBob will stay in power = can stay in power until the Year 2013 - 20 hours a day and six yarns = 72 mos. to go???
#2
No, no, Steve, you've got it ALL WRONG! They aren't having power CUTS in ZimBobLand, the ZimBobLand Government, out of the goodness of its heard and to establish solidarity with the masses, has, through careful planning, now RAISED POWER SUPPLIES to FOUR HOURS per day. Anyone who dares dispute that clear fact is doubleplus ungood and will soon find him/herself at one with the memory hole.
Posted by: Mac ||
05/10/2007 9:00 Comments ||
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#3
"I'll bet they have good lunches, unlike the average people in Zimbobwe."
And their own generators....
Posted by: Mark E. ||
05/10/2007 9:19 Comments ||
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#4
This situation is reaching the critical point.
Soon, there won't be ANYTHING left to steal!!!
What will Bob do then?
#5
After heaving read the writings and the blogs of non ZANU-PF 'elite' Zimbaweans, I've come to the reluctant conclusion that they deserve words of sympathy, and nothing else. In their view, Bob is indeed a bastard, but he is an 'African bastard'. Zimbawe may be going to hell in a handbasket, but it's being carried by Zimbabweans and not 'Westerners'.
(SomaliNet) The Zimbabwean government under the leadership of Robert Mugabe has been urged by The African Union (AU) Chair to respect law. AUÂ’s chairman, President John Agyekum Kufuor of Ghana, has reiterated his concern at the recent behaviour of the Zimbabwe government. The AUB chief told journalists outside the office of South African President Thabo Mbeki yesterday: "When you have the leader of the opposition [Morgan Tsvangirai] beaten up, things like that, for good or ill naturally all concerned should be worried." He added: "We should all try to allow the law to work."
Kufuor said the situation in some countries, where domestic policies were at complete variance with human rights principles, was regrettable.
Kufuor, who was in South Africa to open a session of the Pan African Parliament on Monday, held discussions with Mbeki yesterday. He said before the talks that since South Africa was Zimbabwe's neighbour, he wanted to be "properly briefed" by Mbeki. According to sources, a meeting of heads of state of the Southern African Development Community, held in Dar es Salaam in March, appointed Mbeki to facilitate dialogue among political parties and interest groups in Zimbabwe.
The Ghana News Agency reported that in Kufuor's opening address to the Pan African Parliament, he said Africa should take the lead in respecting and upholding human rights, both within the continent generally, and in individual states. Kufuor said the situation in some countries, where domestic policies were at complete variance with those principles, was regrettable.
This article starring:
Morgan Tsvangirai
President John Agyekum Kufuor
President Thabo Mbeki
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2007 00:00 ||
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Is he kidding? Without brutal suppressive force the masses will promptly "depose" him. That usually doesn't end well for leaders in that part of the world. Think Haiti Slave Revolt.
The military backed caretaker government yesterday imposed a virtual restriction on the movement of former prime minister and Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina, only allowing a handful of her close relatives and some senior AL leaders to visit her at her Sudha Sadan residence.
Regardless of the restriction on her movement, Hasina stepped out in public for the first time yesterday as she went to see the body of deceased AL leader Abdus Sattar Bhuiyan in a city hospital in the morning. In the evening security officials tightened the restriction on Hasina, the eldest daughter of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and also on the visitors who went to Sudha Sadan to meet her. The law enforcers did not let some senior AL leaders into Sudha Sadan yesterday.
The AL chief was scheduled to visit the Bangabandhu Memorial building on Road No 32 of Dhanmondi, where most of her family members had been assassinated, and also her ailing aunt's residence in Gulshan, but she had to cancel the programme due to the restriction, party sources said. Hasina's personal assistant Dr Hasan Mahmud told The Daily Star that the law enforcers restricted almost all the senior leaders from going inside Sudha Sadan. Although police have been saying that there is a restriction, they did not notify the AL chief about it officially, he said.
Intelligence sources said they have government directives to bar everyone from meeting Hasina, except her 'close relatives'. Talking to The Daily Star members of different intelligence agencies said the AL president is going to meet the fate of the BNP chairperson.
Hasina's hitherto bitter political rival BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has been virtually confined in her cantonment residence for almost four months now. The High Court on Sunday asked the caretaker government to explain the restriction on Khaleda within four weeks.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2007 00:00 ||
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BRITAIN'S Royal Air Force (RAF) has revealed that it intercepted two Russian military jets observing a recent Royal Navy exercise, bringing back memories of the Cold War. An RAF spokesman declined to say exactly when the incident above international waters off Scotland took place and said there was no contact between the British and Russian jets.
Two Tornado F3 planes left the Leuchars air base in Fife, Scotland, after two Russian Bear Foxtrot planes were detected on the base's radar screens. The naval training exercise, dubbed Operation Neptune Warrior, involved 14 countries and included warships, submarines and aircraft between April 22 and May 3.
"The Russians obviously thought it might be worth coming through to have a look at what we were up to and probably take some photos,'' said squadron leader Keith Wardlaw. "It's a throwback to the Cold War when they used to fly in regularly to poke and prod at the edges of British airspace and test our reaction times.''
"It's normal to let such aircraft know we're there by pulling up alongside them and they left quietly. The whole encounter probably lasted 15, 20 minutes.''
#4
Bret, the average of US Air Force aircraft is over 23 years, our B-52s are 45 years old, so 30+ year old Bears are nothing to sneeze at. For what it does, the Bear is a good aircraft, the Russian answer to the B-36.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair will make an announcement about his future Thursday, his office said. Downing Street did not give details, but Blair is expected to announce a date for his resignation after a decade as prime minister.
Blair's official spokesman said the prime minister would make a statement to Cabinet colleagues about his future as Labor Party leader. Blair is then expected to travel to his Sedgefield constituency in northern England to make a public announcement. Speculation about Blair's resignation date has swirled for weeks, and intensified after he celebrated the landmark of 10 years in power on May 1.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2007 00:00 ||
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I understand this is news but find I no longer care what happens to the man. Some promising speeches and, yes, he took the UK to war in Iraq. But he clearly lacks the intelligence or the will to confront the real problem: a couple million pirate enemies infecting the British isles as part of a 1500 year rape-war.
A mysterious illness that has swept through pig populations in southern China and killing at least 300 of the animals has been identified as a strain of "blue ear disease," state media said Wednesday. The official Xinhua News Agency said that an effective vaccine has already been developed and authorities soon will start to administer it to pigs in Guangdong province. That was fast! Could the Center for Disease Control accomplish such a thing so quickly?
The disease spread to China in the mid-1990s, and the recent outbreak was a caused by a new mutation, it said.
Blue ear disease is also known as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome or PRRS, and was first identified in the United States in 1987, according to the World Organization for Animal Health. The pigs in Guangdong showed symptoms typical of the disease, including loss of appetite, fever and bleeding, Xinhua said.
The affected pigs were all raised by individual households instead of large-scale farms and were not for export, it said. Hong Kong media said Monday that 1,300 pigs were believed to have been infected.
#1
Blue ear is to porkers what bird flu is to chickens/poultry, although I've never seen a bleeder pig on any Guam ranchos, or even the feew stateside farms I've seen. Blue-eared pigs are typically given anti-biotics and reviewed by Fed-Guam Agriculture or animal Perts before any slaughter takes place - hasn't stopped a barbecue or stew yet. Methinks the key words in this article is "LARGE-SCALE FARMS" = PCSpeak for STATE-OWNED/SUBSIDIZED, COMMIE-STYLE? COLLECTIVES???
Posted by: Threng Scourge of the Jutes3969 ||
05/10/2007 0:15 Comments ||
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#5
Blue ear disease is also known as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome or PRRS, and was first identified in the United States in 1987, according to the World Organization for Animal Health.
#12
TW. I saw no mention of antibiotics. The vaccine that is mentioned will inoculate any non-infected pigs but the ones already infected will either develop their own immunity or die depending on the severity of infection.
#15
The CDC could indeed identify a known virus or disease within at most a few days.
Modern DNA sequencing and analysis gear, particularly the 454 sequencers from Life Sciences, can sequence and analyze samples within 24 hours. Preparing the sample takes longer than it does to sequence the sample.
Comparing the sequenced sample to a bank of known diseases (that have already been sequenced) is childs' play.
BEIJING - The Chinese government on Wednesday denied media reports that Vice Premier Huang Ju, one of the nine most powerful men in the Communist Party hierarchy, had died.
Earlier, Hong Kong’s Phoenix Television -- citing unidentified sources -- reported that Huang, 68, had died after a battle with cancer. Phoenix reported the news in an on-screen ticker and said it had no further updates. The network later said its earlier report was a “rumour”, and an announcer after a thorough beating later apologised on the air.
“It is our understanding that news regarding comrade Huang Ju’s death is totally unfounded,” an official with the cabinet spokesman’s office said by telephone. State television and radio made no mention of Huang’s condition, despite months of speculation over his health and recent widespread rumours that he was in critical condition.
Huang is ranked sixth in the Communist PartyÂ’s Politburo Standing Committee, the all-powerful group of nine that rules China, where he has been responsible for the key economic and financial portfolios.
An engineer by training, Huang emerged from the Shanghai powerbase of former leader Jiang Zemin, becoming mayor of the financial capital in 1991 and Communist Party boss there in 1994. Huang was educated at the elite Tsinghua University in Beijing, and spent more than four decades as a party member. A native of the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang, Huang was promoted in 2002 to the Politburo Standing Committee.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/10/2007 00:00 ||
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Saudi Prince Nayef Al-Shaalan was sentenced in absentia yesterday to 10 years in jail on charges of involvement in a cocaine smuggling gang, at the outcome of his trial in France. The 53-year-old prince, who is not in line for the Saudi throne, was one of 10 people handed jail terms of four to 10 years in connection with an operation which landed two tonnes of cocaine at an airfield outside Paris in 1999. The judge ruled to uphold international arrest warrants against Prince Nayef and the nine other defendants, who include three former Colombian drugs barons.
Prince Nayef was convicted of illegally importing drugs, of complicity in the transport, detention and provision of drugs and of criminal conspiracy. He is accused of using his diplomatic immunity to smuggle drugs to France on board a private jet. A grandson of Saudi Arabia's founding monarch Abdulaziz and son-in-law to the Saudi deputy defence minister, the prince denies any involvement in drug trafficking. A Saudi representative at the hearing said he intended to appeal.
The investigation leading to his prince's conviction began in June 1999, when police acting on a tip-off seized 800 kilos of cocaine with a street value of $30 million a raid near Paris. Prince Nayef - who is alleged to have made contacts with Colombia's Medellin cartel while studying at the University of Miami in the early 1980s - is accused of providing a jet to transport the drugs from Colombia to Paris.
He was indicted on the basis of testimony from three former Colombian drug barons - Oscar Eduardo Campuzano Zapata, Juan Gabriel Usuga Norena and Carlos Alfonso Ramon Zapata - as part of a plea-bargain in a separate drugs trial in the United States. The Colombians, also convicted in absentia by the Paris court, were respectively handed four-, nine- and 10-year jail sentences. They and Prince Nayef were ordered to jointly pay a total fine of 80 million euros ($110 million) to the French customs service.
A Spanish art dealer and financier, Jose Maria Clemente, was handed a five-year sentence for taking part in a conspiracy with the aim of importing drugs. Five other defendants, Mario Oller-Martinez, Jean-Francois Tixador, Wilson Rodrigo Jimenez Montanez, Humberto Gomez Maya and Edgar Augusto Gutierrez Guevara, were given 10 years on the same charges as the prince. - AFP
Posted by: Steve ||
05/10/2007 07:39 ||
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IIRC, a french journalo wrote a book about that particular case, arguing that it was not a persoanl venture, but part of a larger drug ring whose profits were re-injected as "black money" into saudi ops in France.
#6
The re-assembly isn't mechanical - scans of the fragments are pattern recognized and algorithms re-assemble the scan pieces like a digital jigsaw puzzle. Still, cross-cut shredding would make the process harder, slower and more error prone, but if you've got the time and the cpu cycles, it can be done. Burn to be sure...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/10/2007 14:53 Comments ||
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#7
I believe the Pentagon takes their shredded documents, dumps them in a vat of water, pulps them, then presses them into a solid block.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/10/2007 15:20 Comments ||
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#8
If you want to read some stories of what life might have been like in East Germany I can recommend Stasiland
It's written with a person's story per chapter, showing the madness of the whole crazy thing as it touched the people at the bottom.
Violent protests against Nicolas Sarkozy's election as president took place for a third night, the French interior minister said on Wednesday, with around 200 cars torched and some 80 people arrested. "For the last three days, since the night of the election, we have had an unacceptable situation," said Interior Minister Francois Baroin, blaming the far-left for the violence.
Police reported trouble in a number of places overnight, including around Paris's Bastille Square which has been the epicentre of anti-Sarkozy violence in the French capital since Sunday's presidential vote. "This past night around 200 vehicles were torched and there were slightly more than 80 arrests. It is clearly politically motivated and linked to the extreme left," Baroin told France Info radio. "The electorate has spoken, we have seen a remarkably vigorous democracy in our country. Changes of mood should be reflected at the ballot box and not in the street."
Between 200-300 demonstrators blocked Paris's Bastille Square late Tuesday chanting: "Fascist Sarko! The people will have your skin".
Local residents said large numbers of police sealed off the area and took around two hours to restore order. There was also violence in and around the southeastern city of Lyon, where an office belonging to Sarkozy's UMP party was set ablaze by youths throwing Molotov cocktails. French radio reported that arsonists had also set fire to an infant school in a Paris suburb.
A total of 365 vehicles were burnt in metropolitan France in the night of Monday to Tuesday, marking the second consecutive day of violence since the presidential run- off on Sunday, according to official figures issued by police on Tuesday. The head office of the national police (DGPN) shows in its figures issued late Tuesday that 160 arrests were made and a policeman injured. The figures are lower compared to those recorded in the night of Sunday to Monday when 730 vehicles were torched and 595 people arrested.
The new wave of anti-Sarkozy demonstrations which degenerated into serious clashes with the police were condemned by leftists political parties, who called for calm and urged those responsible to express their discontent through voting during the forthcoming legislative elections scheduled for June 10 and June 17. Socialist party leaders said such violence would only boost support for the UMP ahead of next month's parliamentary election. "I launched an appeal Sunday evening for responsibility and calm," Socialist Party's secretary general Francois Hollande said on RTL radio.
Paris socialist mayor Bertrand Delanoi said "democracy calls for the respect of universal suffrage."
Sarkozy has a reputation as a law-and-order hardliner, making him a hate figure for the left. The Socialist party's presidential candidate Segolene Royal warned last week there would be violence if he won Sunday's election. The UMP accused her of looking to incite trouble.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Will the USA dev its own version of the GENDARMERIE, which iff I recall correctly is still a special or unique Corps with the French Army. WAFF.com Poster > IS A UNITED STATES POLICE FORCE NEEDED? aka FEDERAL POLICE or US NATIONAL POLICE, ec. *AFTERMATH OF FORT DIX INCIDENT???
MSNBC TV > in aftermath of anti-Sarkozy riots, PERT > FRANCE'S GENDARMES > GENDARMES EXIST TO SERVE AND PROTECT THE FRENCH STATE, NOT THE RIGHTS OF THE FRENCH PEOPLE, ergo have even more "liberal" = intense/stronger? US PATRIOT ACT-STYLE rules regarding suspect detention, public and personal surveillance, investigation, and interrogation. IOW, DESPITE EURO COMPLAINTS ABOUT ALLEGED PATRIOT ACT ABUSES BY THE USA, OUR PATRIOT ACT IS LITE COMPARED TO THEIRS.
You have it all wrong. The founder of gendarmerie a such Napoleon Bonaparte didn't want a that gendarmerie engage in dishonorable acts who would have ended tainting the honor of French Armed forces as a whole. Therefore Gendarmerie is supposed to serve the law and is not allowed to operate out of uniform. That means no spying, no infiltrating, no shady deals with truants. This is the realm of the "Police Nationale" (civilians). The tacit rule is gendarmerie serves the law first and governemnt later while for police nationale it is the opposite.
#6
Sarkozy can start his administration out the right way if he says his government will not interfere with the protesters calling for his skin provided they do not break the law while simultaneously using as much force as needed to arrest all rioters, looters and arsonists.
#7
Leeftists, more and more, remind me of a certain religious element whose slogan seems to be, "My way or the die way."
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/10/2007 6:36 Comments ||
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#8
Events like this are not necessarily bad. They show the real face of, so called, activists. Those activists gained a reputation of acting from position of higher moral ground. In fact it turns out they are just old fashion left wing extremists, hard line communists and terrorist supporters.
Activist are very loud and a lot of people hesitate to argue with them, partly because they are agressive, partly because of their reputation. In a couple of situations I was in a situation to openly chalenge their views, and, being given an example, other people started to challenge them, too.
I think that it is important to speak out and expose their propaganda.
#9
If they cant get their agenda approved at the polls, they go directly to to courts and attempt to bypass the voters. When the courts fail to uphold their ass-hatery they are left with no other intellectual tool other than violence.
#12
Remember to fill the water cannons with indelible UV fluorescent penetrating dye. This makes it easy to sort out who was on the front lines throwing those firebombs and stones. When the water runs out, reload with raw sewage.
Also, blaming the "far-left" for disturbances with some "200 cars torched" is dissembling at best. We all know who the Car-B-Que chefs are and they ain't leftists.
Turkey's parliament officially halted on Wednesday a presidential election process that triggered a major political crisis and forced the Islamist-rooted government to call early national polls. The parliament accepted Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul's petition to withdraw from the presidential contest, in which he had been the sole candidate. Gul's withdrawal became inevitable after he failed to win enough backing from the assembly in two rounds of voting. "As there is no presidential candidate, there is no possibility of electing a president. For this reason, the voting has been cancelled," parliament's deputy speaker Nevzat Pakdil told the chamber in televised remarks.
A new parliament will now choose a president after the July 22 general election. President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, who had been due to retire on May 16, will stay on as interim head of state until his successor can be chosen. Turkey's parliament gave initial approval on Monday to a major constitutional amendment to make the presidency a popularly elected post.
The ruling AK Party moved the reforms after secularist opposition parties boycotted a parliamentary vote and prevented Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul becoming president. The secularist establishment fears AK seeks the presidency to press a secret Islamist agenda, a charge the government denies.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Take it from Old Sages. Islam will get you nowhere.
#2
WORLDTRIBUNE > Sol Sanders' QUANDRY FOR TURKS: IS MODERNIZATION AND ISLAM AN EITHER/OR PROPOSITION. For TURKEY + MUSLIM WORLD or "UMMA", can a modernized Islam be created or possible? Can there be an Islam that at least will not inhibit or forbid the processes-dynamics of modernization?
#4
Here's a suggestion. Most civilized nations hold elections with multiple candidates. You know, at least for the important posts. It isn't as if "head of state" is a who-cares job like "Register of Wills", where nobody really minds if the same little old lady who's been doing the job for sixty years is on both parties' ticket as the sole candidate.
Although now that I think about it, that kind of describes Elizabeth II's situation, doesn't it?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
05/10/2007 9:48 Comments ||
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Former President Jimmy Carter recently has stepped up his efforts to split the bonds between Evangelical voters and Israel. From The Jewish Week:
Wading into the delicate fray over the alliance between Jews and pro-Israel Evangelicals, former President Jimmy Carter last week reportedly said it was a mistake for Jews to accept such ties, and that he was working to convince Southern Baptists to change the way they look at Judaism and the Middle East.
Christian Zionists can be better friends of Israel by challenging its government's policies, while accepting Judaism as a legitimate path to God, Carter told a group organized by Rabbi Michael Lerner in California last week, according to the rabbi.
"He said it was a terrible error for Jews to become allied with Christian Zionists who actually desire our conversion or burning in hell," Rabbi Lerner related in an interview Tuesday.
The alliance between Jewish and Evangelical Christian supporters of Israel has grown over the years. Evangelical support for Israel is often misunderstood and in some cases maligned-it comes often from the most noble of reasons. Regardless of one's views, this support has been very important.
The International Fellowship of Christian and Jews, headed by Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, has been in the forefront of building these links and raises many millions of dollars from Evangelical Christians to help Jews around the world who are in need.
Christians United for Israel has become a politically influential voice for Israel around the nation.
In an era during which Israel has lost support in many quarters, this support from Evangelical Christians should be welcomed. Yet, there are forces developing that are not attempting to erode this support.
#5
For those of us in the military during the Carter years, Carter belongs in the Ninth Circle of Hell, the one reserved for treachery, somewhere between the second region (Antenora) reserved for political traitors and the third region (Ptolemea) reserved those who betrayed friends. When Carter dies, his funeral ceremonies should be a pinched and miserable as his presidency. His only real contribution was to set the stage for Ronald Reagan.
#6
Carter belongs in the Ninth Circle of Hell, the one reserved for treachery, somewhere between the second region (Antenora) reserved for political traitors and the third region (Ptolemea) reserved those who betrayed friends.
One'd think that Dante would've had the presence of mind to include a special region for those who betray their entire country. Carter needs to experience some prolonged grief before he takes the dirt nap. He is a disgrace to man and country alike.
#7
He did worse than that, Zenster. He betrayed the entire Western World, and everyone else who doesn't want to have to fight off the jihadis to live in freedom.
#8
Jimmy Carter--not as bad as Hitler or Stalin, but worse than Walter O'Malley.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
05/10/2007 21:57 Comments ||
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#9
He did worse than that, Zenster. He betrayed the entire Western World, and everyone else who doesn't want to have to fight off the jihadis to live in freedom.
I refuse to argue against your well-established refutation, trailing wife. All I have to offer is my abject apology for having entertained such a limited scope of Carter's betrayal. May he rot in the worst everlasting Hell of anybody's choice.
#11
Iff JIMBO knows something, his duty as a leader is to tell us, the Amer people, what it is, NOT to play PC POLITIX and leave us guessing. The latter is helping or caring for us, just being self-centered, malicious and apolitical. ACTIONS, NOT JUST WORDS, BELIES INTENT.
ZURICH, May 6 (Reuters) - A Swiss magistrate has launched a formal investigation into allegations of fraud four years ago in leadership elections at the World Meteorological Organisation, a spokeswoman for the U.N. agency said on Sunday.
Spokeswoman Carine Richard-Van Maele was confirming a report in the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper that Geneva public prosecutor Daniel Zappelli was investigating alleged attempts to use embezzled U.N. funds for influence peddling in a 2003 vote for the post of secretary-general. "At the request of the Swiss authorities, the (WMO) secretariat has provided them with detailed information relating to election procedures in WMO and to the elections in 2003," she told Reuters.
The probe comes as the 188 member states of the WMO gather in Geneva for a four-yearly congress at which Secretary-General Michel Jarraud of France is standing for a second term. Jarraud has denied any wrongdoing.
"Lies! All lies!"
Zappelli was not immediately available to comment on the investigation which is linked to an earlier Swiss probe into allegations of embezzlement, which first came to light in 2003. "I opened an investigation on Friday based on the suspicion of bribery by foreign officials," Zappelli was quoted as saying in the newspaper.
The probe into the WMO, whose aims include safeguarding the environment and water resources, adds to a series of probes hanging over various United Nations bodies. New U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has pledged to root out corruption.
NZZ said that according to prosecution documents there was a "reasonable suspicion that in the runup to the election of a new WMO general secretary, there was an attempt to favour the election of a specific candidate." It cited a leaked internal agency memo as saying that WMO officials allegedly offered to pay travel costs and provide an allowance to some of the delegates from developing countries in return for their pledge to vote for a certain candidate.
It did not say who the candidate was, but initially Kenya's Evans Mukolwe stood against then French official candidate Jean Pierre Beysson. Jarraud subsequently emerged when neither of the two won sufficient votes. Jarraud took over from long-serving WMO secretary-general Godwin Obasi of Nigeria. Obasi had earlier suspended without pay and then dismissed a Sudanese employee in charge of funds involved in the embezzlement probe.
The WMO filed a criminal complaint with Swiss judicial authorities the same year and lifted diplomatic immunity from those implicated and implemented new internal controls. In January, the WMO said it had recovered some $300,000 of the $3.4 million believed to have been embezzled.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/10/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
They're corrupting the weather now? Will the UN stop at nothing?!? ;-)
#2
But... but... this means everything we have been told about global climate change may be based on a lie for personal gain by a group of corrupt transnational bureaucrats! This scarcely seems possible. I question the timing.
#3
Why do they waste their money with probes and investigations?
You know damn well that they will find all sorts of evidence, but the UN won't do a thing about it.
Military and civilian health facilities will be overwhelmed if a nationwide flu pandemic hits the United States, and the National Guard may have to be called out to provide medical help and even enforce a quarantine, the Defense Department warned in a report released Wednesday.
As the Pentagon fights criticism from congressional Democrats that the war in Iraq is depleting the National Guard's ability to help out in domestic crises, the 86-page report says a possible pandemic could require National Guard assistance in supplying medical aid or isolating groups of people to minimize further spread of the disease.
About 3 million people could die as a result of a possible pandemic, with up to 35 percent of the population falling ill, reads the report dated August 2006 and titled "The Department of Defense Implementation Plan for Pandemic Influenza."
According to the report, in the event of a pandemic or a bioterror attack, the Defense Department may be called by the president to assist civilian authorities in minimizing the spread of disease by placing restrictions on interstate transportation. Jurisdictions, the report adds, would be overwhelmed and unable to provide essential commodities and services. In addition, the nation will not be able to rely on airlines...
#2
The National Guard, the police, whatever Armed Forces units are home recovering from the external war... even a mere epidemic in an emergency justifying such strong measures, let alone a pandemic. In the case of a pandemic, surely everyone would hunker down wherever they were until the emergency has been resolved, which is why responsible companies are figuring out ahead of time how people will be fed and housed for the duration. Where do they get these people?!?
#3
All the planning is good but it won't mean squat if individuals aren't prepared.
And as I inventory my own home, we're not. I'm going to have to fix that.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/10/2007 16:49 Comments ||
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#4
Steve White: My shopping list of stuff for a flu epidemic.
1) Walgreens $4/qt hand sanitizer, plus 2oz bottles to carry around and have spares in the car. I keep about 10 gallons total for several people.
2) Plastic, medical latex and rubber household gloves. A bunch of them.
3) Several pair of clear cheap shop glasses, frame type.
4) Both dust (cheap) and ear loop (not so cheap) masks. Don't worry about getting N95s.
5) A cheap vaporizer. You can add disinfectant to the water and the droplets will sanitize a room. Alternatively, a forced air cleaner with a UV light.
6) Lots of household cleaners. If someone gets diarrhea, pour a few ounces of bleach into the toilet *before* flushing, so the air isn't filled with a contaminated spray of vapor.
I wouldn't worry about food shortages, but you might lay in a store of canned chicken and turkey, in case lots of birds are wiped out. Maybe even some some big bags of frozen chicken parts.
You might plan for a "sick room" in case a family member gets ill. It's not advisable to run off to the country, as there will be a lot of heavily armed fruitcakes out there who will shoot on sight.
#5
As for home schooling, as long as the internet still works, we'll be ok. Either the school district will put up lessons and assignments, or we'll work from their textbooks with Google research to assist. Of course I'll go mad -- I'm not meant to be a teacher -- but that won't be so much of an issue.
Question: how long does the hand sanitizer keep? We haven't yet used up the several small bottles I bought after our discussions during the SARS situation.
#6
FOX NEWS has been reporting lately a HANTA-VIRUS EPIDEMIC-PANDEMIC is the worst-case potential flu scenario for US agencies, followed by 1918-style INFLUENZA including SPANISH FLU.
The Teheran City Council defied hard-line government pressure on Wednesday, re-electing a moderate-leaning mayor who is seen as a potential rival to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The government had been campaigning to keep Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf from being picked again as mayor of the capital city. But the City Council vote appeared to indicate waning support for Ahmadinejad, especially in the city he used to lead. Qalibaf's re-election would be seen as a victory for "moderate conservatives" - supporters of Iran's cleric-led power structure angry at Ahmadinejad over his harsh anti-Western rhetoric and faltering economic policies.
This article starring:
Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2007 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.
The military backed caretaker government yesterday imposed a virtual restriction on the movement of former prime minister and Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina, only allowing a handful of her close relatives and some senior AL leaders to visit her at her Sudha Sadan residence.
BEIJING - The Chinese government on Wednesday denied media reports that Vice Premier Huang Ju, one of the nine most powerful men in the Communist Party hierarchy, had died.
Turkey's parliament officially halted on Wednesday a presidential election process that triggered a major political crisis and forced the Islamist-rooted government to call early national polls. The parliament accepted Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul's petition to withdraw from the presidential contest, in which he had been the sole candidate. Gul's withdrawal became inevitable after he failed to win enough backing from the assembly in two rounds of voting. "As there is no presidential candidate, there is no possibility of electing a president. For this reason, the voting has been cancelled," parliament's deputy speaker Nevzat Pakdil told the chamber in televised remarks.
ZURICH, May 6 (Reuters) - A Swiss magistrate has launched a formal investigation into allegations of fraud four years ago in leadership elections at the World Meteorological Organisation, a spokeswoman for the U.N. agency said on Sunday.
