On a day when hundreds of people flocked to Central Lutheran Church in Anchorage for all the Thanksgiving fixings, one woman in line stood out in more ways than one: She was pregnant, in labor and wasn't leaving without her turkey.
A neighbor had brought her Monday evening to the annual Thanksgiving Blessing, as the big pre-holiday giveaway organized by the Food Bank of Alaska and area churches is known. People line up at churches all over town for yams, cranberry sauce, potatoes, apples, stuffing, gravy mix, pie, rolls, vegetables, and a turkey and roaster - everything they need for a feast at home.
Alan Budahl, the incoming executive director of Lutheran Social Services, was in his first day in his new job when the flustered man came up to him.
"Hey, I have my neighbor," the man told Budahl. "She's in labor, and she's in the line and she won't go to the hospital until she gets her food because she needs her Thanksgiving basket."
Budahl told the neighbor to bring the pregnant woman inside. She was breathing through contractions, he said.
Budahl moved her to the front of the line, along with the neighbor, who was driving her to the hospital right afterward. Worth it for the headline alone.
If the BBC was sent the CRU files there is no way the NY Times wasn't sent them.
From TFA:
The controversy surrounding the global warming e-mail scandal has deepened after a BBC correspondent admitted he was sent the leaked messages more than a month before they were made public. Read more at this link.
#2
Dan Riehl checked; the man didn't get the entire file, but he had been cc-ed on a few mail messages. He was able to confirm the authenticity of the messages he had been copied. (Go to Insty for details.)
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
11/26/2009 12:43 Comments ||
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> If the BBC was sent the CRU files there is no way the NY Times wasn't sent them.
Really?? I think not. It's almost certainly a disgusted insider at East Anglia poly (U.K.). The Grauniad might have got them too.
I despise the BBC, but I'll let them off on this one. What are they supposed to do with it?
[Iran Press TV Latest] A massive UN peacekeeping effort in eastern Congo has failed to deliver a knockout blow to the Rwandan rebels, UN experts say.
According to a UN report published on Wednesday, the local insurgents have brought a new territory under their control.
"Far from resolving the root causes of the violence, the presence of the world's biggest peacekeeping mission has aggravated the conflict in North and South Kivu provinces," Reuters quoted the UN report as saying.
The Congolese army, backed by the 25,000-strong UN force, launched an offensive against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) earlier this year as part of a deal to improve ties with neighboring Rwanda, which was considered an enemy state during the 1998-2003 war.
While the UN Security Council has twice voted to continue peacekeeper support for the operations, rights groups and aid agencies have decried the displacement of more than one million villagers, thousands of rapes, and hundreds of killings.
Despite the surrender of more than 1,200 of its estimated 6,000-to-8,000 fighters, the FDLR continues to replenish its ranks through the active recruitment of both Congolese and Rwandan Hutus, the group said.
The rebels benefit from support networks in Africa, Europe and North America, as well as financing from its control of the east's lucrative tin deposits despite army efforts to push them out of mining areas.
"The Group calculates that the FDLR could earn at least several hundred thousand dollars and up to a few million dollars a year from this trade," said the report, which is due to be discussed by the Security Council on Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/26/2009 00:00 ||
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#2
love this comment "Islam has no defense against a well pinned voodoo doll..."
Maybe we should be using them as part of the Gitmo interrogation procedures. Bring in a couple of experts from Haiti, which is practically next-door, for advice; and ostentationally take some hair- and nail-clippings from each prisoner. And be sure to let it slip what they were being used for.
At least 10 people have been killed by flooding in Jeddah and more deaths are feared after heavy rains forced the closure of a motorway to Makkah.
"I confirm that it's 10 bodies but, I can't say anything more for now," a civil defence official told AFP. One person said he had seen several bodies and a bus that overturned in the storm.
The annual haj pilgrimage began with delays for thousands of Muslims stuck in Jeddah on Wednesday, leaving pilgrims stranded.
"We're stuck because of the water and rain. God willing, everything will be okay," said Hakan, a Turkish pilgrim from Istanbul as he waited for a bus to Makkah.
Some 1.6 million pilgrims have come to Saudi Arabia for the haj. Officials appealed to the stranded pilgrims to stay in Jeddah until the motorway reopens.In central Makkah, pilgrims with umbrellas completed Tawaf, walking the ritual path around the Kaaba seven times.
Some worried they would be unable to spend the night in a tent camp in a valley in Mina.
"We are staying in tents for now. Heavy rain turned red-carpeted corridors into streams of water with empty cans of soft drinks floating," said Zohra Nasef, from Morocco and on her second haj.
Authorities have improved facilities to ease the flow of pilgrims, particularly around the area where they throw stones at pillars symbolising the rejection of the devil's temptation. Officials are also trying to prevent a spread of the H1N1 virus during the crowded ritual.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/26/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Allan must be badly annoyed about something. Flooding rains in Saudi Arabia to kill them rather than the 'normally annoyed' method of crowd stomping to kill them?
#2
"We are staying in tents for now. Heavy rain turned red-carpeted corridors into streams of water with empty cans of soft drinks floating," said Zohra Nasef, from Morocco and on her second haj.
hey Zohra, how bout picking up your trash?
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/26/2009 9:30 Comments ||
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Thats 1.6 million bits of trash Frank .
She'll be there all day !
Posted by: Oscar ||
11/26/2009 10:49 Comments ||
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hey Zohra, how bout picking up your trash?
Hum, remember that article about pig killings in egypt having led to an unfortunate garbage crisis... as garbage cleaning is left to those uppity Christians and their pigs.
As far as some populations go, cleaning their own trash simply doesn't seem to a priority, as seen from that example above, to the african/arab 'hoods in Europe.
#5
Allan must be badly annoyed about something. Flooding rains in Saudi Arabia to kill them rather than the 'normally annoyed' method of crowd stomping to kill them?
This just doesn't make any damn sense... I thought it was widely-acknowledged that Allan actually was Loki under a very shallow disguise... but, isn't rain and thunder more of Thor's realm? That's very confusing.
And while I'm at it, can anyone, just anyone, *please* try and locate back that comment (from John Frum???, maybe before he took that handle), about how airlines had to comply with the Haji pilgrims????... Filling planes with trash, cooking, with goats running around, spitting, wimmen kicking the hostesses because of their immodesty, ripping off and stealing anything they can... all this while those pilgrims actually are supposed NOT to be the lowest of the low and the poorest of the poor, given than they can afford this gigantic scam (that brings huge bucks to the saudis)?
2007-12-30 India-Pakistan
Govt to build Haj House near airport
Calcutta, India: The state government has decided to construct a multi-storeyed Haj House exclusively for Haj pilgrims on VIP road, at stone's throw from the airport.
Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who is also the minister-in-charge of minority welfare, will lay the foundation of this sprawling seven-storey building project covering 16 cottah of prime land.
The state's Muslims have always complained about shoddy treatment meted out to them by airline companies during Haj. This time, too, the Hajis, who have been returning from the pilgrimage over the week have been victims of erratic flights.
The state PWD has put Mackintosh Burn on the job. The building will come up near Kaikhali on VIP Road. "We'll complete it in two years. Around Rs 7 crore will be spent on construction which is aimed at providing comfort rather than luxury," Nilmoni Dhar, managing director, Mackintosh Burn, said. The building will accommodate at least 800 Hajis during November and December. For the rest of the year, it will serve as a vocational training centre.
Md Soleman Biswas, councillor, Rajarhat-Gopalpur municipality, and member, West Bengal Haj Committee, said, "Haj training will also be conducted here. In 1996, then chief minister Jyoti Basu had a Haj House constructed on Dilkhusa Street. But that's too small."
Abdus Sattar, minister of state for minority welfare, said, "The plight of the pilgrims who take the Centre's so-called subsidized Haj flights has led us to sanction this project immediately. The Hajis, perpetually on erratic flights, are forced to stay here overnight."
#9
Did the Haj several times. Thing is you have an entire village save $$$ to send 1 eldest male member to Mecca. Often never seen a plane much less been on one. Have to have FA's who speak Arabic/English (usually Indonesian/Filipino/etc) but usual issues there. No clue re how to use toilets - trashed every flights. Usual story is folk trying to brew up tea on sterno in the aisles. Everyone brings souveniers back from Mecca - being poor it's usually rocks from the holy land! Planes waddle off the runway carrying them home. Funniest thing ever was showing the film "Edward Scissorshands" as the in flight movie. That was PERFECT for absolutely weirding out the pax - especially since there was no translation into their native language. Gotta have fun where you can!
[Bangla Daily Star] Two recommendation letters have been sent to the home ministry by Sirajganj district administration to drop the names of 11 accused from the charge-sheet of the Randhunibari police outpost attack, police killing, arms and ammunition looting case.
Names of the 11 accused were included in the charge sheet just to harass them politically, according to the recommendation letters.
The charge sheet mentioned that the accused were the active members of outlawed Purba Banglar Communist Party (PBCP) and they were masterminds behind the attack, looting and killing incident.
According to the complaint, around 50 to 60 members of outlawed PBCP equipped with firearms attacked Randhunibari police outpost on September 16 in 2002. The gang led by Nurul Islam opened fire on police personnel and killed four of them. They also looted arms and ammunition including seven SLR, two rifles and 174 bullets during the attack.
After the incident, Police Subedar Abdul Hannan lodged a case with Belkuchi police station in this connection. Seven officers of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) probed into the incident by rotation.
On November 14 in 2008, CID Inspector Abdur Rashid submitted the charge-sheet to the court against 46 persons after completing his investigation. Of the charge-sheeted accused, 35 are now released on bail and 10 are absconding while one is in jail.
The 11 persons who submitted applications to the authorities concerned to drop their names from the charge sheet are Habibur Rahman, Nurul Islam Talukder alias Montu, Selim Reza, Altaf Hossain, Arab Ali, Abed Fakir alias Joynal Abedin, Abdul Matin Fakir, Shafiqul Islam alias Rubat, Nuruzzaman, Abdur Rahim and Kamal Box.
On May 18, the decision of sending recommendation letter to drop the names of 11 accused from the charge sheet was taken at a meeting at the conference room of deputy commissioner Sirajganj.
Sirajganj Superintendent of Police Mosharaf Hossain, Additional District Magistrate Dipak Ranjan Adhikery and Public Prosecutor (PP) Abdur Rahman were present at the meeting. As per the decision, two separate recommendation letters were sent to the home ministry and other relevant departments on May 25 and June 14.
CID police sources said accused Yusuf Ali, Abdur Razzaq, Anwar Hossain Sarker, Abdul Gafur, Saidul Islam, Serajul Islam and Altaf Hossain, who were earlier arrested from Belkuchi Char areas, in a written statement under section 164 before the magistrate court mentioned the involvement of other accused. In the statement, they also said that the 11 accused were not directly involved in attacking, killing and looting incident at Randhunibari temporary police outpost.
Abdur Rashid, CID inspector and investigation officer (IO) of the case, said there is no question of implicating the names of 11 persons in the charge sheet to harass them politically.
He further said that Nurul Islam, a prime accused of the case, formed a team in collusion with extremist leader Abdul Momin in the middle of 1999 and started collecting tolls from local loom owners and traders. Later, a temporary police outpost was set up at Randhunibari following complaints from local people.
As local people stopped paying tolls to the outlaws after setting up of the police outpost, the gang became furious and attacked the police outpost.
When contacted, Advocate Abdur Rahman, public prosecutor of Sirajganj district judge court, said two recommendation letters were sent to the higher authorities to drop names of 11 accused following the request of local Awami League (AL) leaders and high officials. But it is the matter of the higher authorities whether the proposal would be accepted or not, he added.
Deputy Commissioner Md Humayun Kabeer and Superintendent of Police Mosharaf Hossain told The Daily Star that the recommendation letters were sent after analysing the rules and regulations and views of the committee concerned.
However, local people said they now feel insecure after hearing the news that names of 11 accused might be dropped from the charge sheet. The persons will create problem again after returning to their locality, they feared.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/26/2009 00:00 ||
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Interim leader of Honduran de facto government, Roberto Micheletti has briefly stepped down in a bid to legitimize the post-coup polls.
Micheletti, who was propelled to the head of government in the wake of the June 28 military-backed coup that ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya, said he was stepping down to "guarantee free, spontaneous and transparent" elections on Sunday.
De facto leaders behind Zelaya's ouster hope the elections will turn the page on months of political turbulence that saw several deaths and dozens of arrests under a military crackdown on dissent.
Zelaya's supporters sought to boycott the vote following four months of political crisis, as thousands of security forces pressed on to distribute ballot boxes and ordered citizens to turn in their weapons ahead of national elections across the impoverished Central American nation.
Zelaya remains holed up in the Brazilian Embassy after failing to be reinstated before the elections as he had hoped under a US-brokered crisis accord with Micheletti's interim regime.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/26/2009 00:00 ||
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what are the odds Manny gets teh boot from the Brazilian embassy on Monday? He's looking like a fool and so is Brazil
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/26/2009 9:31 Comments ||
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Well, it is a blood sport. If you think Chicago has a tough political hierarchy, welcome to the real world. Keep groveling and apologizing for any and all imagined imperfections of America in a world of Darwin and it's only going to get more 'embarrassing' for you. When you're just a product of the nurturing of the socia!ist dialectic, why should the elders of socia!ism consider you anything less than their tool.
#9
Back in the olden dayz, didn't burly ruskies use to greet each others with sloppy kisses on the mouth? THIS I'd pay to see, hell, two russians to hold barry down, and, here we go. Come on, for tradition's sake. Tough love, really.
#10
Medvedev had Obama sit in a six inch high kiddie chair before the press. Had Obama knees up to his eyeballs, making the taller Obama look like a goofball. Also during a press conference when Obama went to shake Med's hand and press the flesh, Med was dismissive and didn't even bother looking Obama's way.
Posted by: ed ||
11/26/2009 19:08 Comments ||
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A Turkish court Wednesday suspended a reform that would have facilitated university access for religious school graduates and was strongly opposed by secularists, the Anatolia news agency reported.
The ruling by the Council of State, Turkey's top administrative court, comes as a blow to the Islamist-rooted government, which backed the changes, announced by a higher education board in July.
The court said the changes contradicted existing laws and "deviated from the objective of resolving problems" in the education system, Anatolia reported.
It will now decide whether to scrap the regulation altogether.
Education is one of the main battlefields for Turkey's secularists and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the moderate offshoot of a now-banned Islamist movement, which opponents accuse of seeking to raise the profile of Islam in Turkey and undermine the secular system.
Turkey's government-run religious high schools are tasked by law to educate preachers and other Muslim clergy, but many regard them as a breeding ground for Islamist political movements.
The notoriously complicated university entrance system had so far made it extremely difficult for graduates of such schools to gain a place at higher education institutions other than divinity faculties.
The measure had been designed to effectively block Islamist-leaning Turks from obtaining university degrees essential to holding top public service jobs.
The blocked regulation would have removed that barrier by scrapping arrangements setting different criteria at university entrance exams for graduates from different schools.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, himself a graduate of an Islamic high school, had welcomed the changes, saying they "remedied an injustice against freedom of education."
Last year, the Constitutional Court scrapped an AKP-sponsored law that would have allowed students to wear the Islamic headscarf in universities.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/26/2009 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] After Romanians went to polls to help their country emerge from a political and economic crisis, the election becomes overshadowed allegations of vote fraud. Good Gawd! I'm so glad that never happens here!
The complaints of vote fraud were lodged by leading political parties, including the center-left Social Democrats (PSD), the National Liberal Party (PNL) and the center-right Democrat-Liberals (PD-L).
Meanwhile, certain media outlets reported instances of electoral fraud.
The reports come while the controversial presidential election failed to produce a winner and a runoff vote pitting center-right incumbent Traian Basescu against Social Democrat Mircea Geoana is scheduled to be held on December 6.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/26/2009 00:00 ||
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Yeep! I wonder what his old boss at CNN is thinking right about now. He's thinking, "thank Gawd I dumped this screwball at last."
Former CNN host Lou Dobbs fueled already rampant speculation about his political future Monday, sending the clearest signals yet that he's mulling a bid for president -- and leaving third-party political operatives salivating over the possibility of a celebrity recruit for the 2012 campaign.
Less than two weeks after announcing his departure from the cable network -- and after a series of interviews in which Dobbs encouraged speculation about his political plans -- the anchorman known to fans as "Mr. Independent" finally made his presidential ambitions explicit on former Sen. Fred Thompson's radio show Monday.
Asked if he might make a run at the White House in 2012, Dobbs answered flatly: "Yes is the answer."
"I'm going to be talking some more with some folks who want me to listen in the next few weeks," Dobbs told Thompson. "Right now I'm fortunate to have a number of wonderful options."
Dobbs's political future, however, remains shrouded in question marks. He has left open a variety of paths to public office -- in addition to toying with a presidential campaign, Dobbs hasn't ruled out a bid for the Senate in 2012 in New Jersey -- and also left his party affiliation a mystery.
A representative for Dobbs said his schedule did not permit him to comment for this story by deadline.
Though Dobbs's criticism of the Obama administration and his famously conservative views on illegal immigration have raised the prospect he could run for office as a Republican, he has staked out a rhetorical position that places him outside both parties. In 2007, he penned a book titled, "Independents Day: Awakening the American Spirit," and in his final CNN broadcast, Dobbs took broad aim at a political culture "defined in the public arena by partisanship and ideology rather than by rigorous, empirical thought and forthright analysis and discussion." Dobbs is smart enough to know that he would be a spoiler as an Independent, and would not win anyway. He'd run as a Trunk. If he runs.
And in an appearance on CNBC last week, Dobbs told Larry Kudlow that he "absolutely" planned to remain independent of a political party.
After two consecutive presidential cycles in which independent contenders had virtually no impact at the polls, independent political strategists are delighted at the prospect of a third-party campaign for the White House headlined by a high-profile, TV-friendly candidate with the potential to scramble the national political map.
"I would assume he's going independent, since he's made a very strong case that that's where he is," said Bay Buchanan, who ran Pat Buchanan's 2000 campaign for president as the Reform Party's candidate. "There's enormous movement out there, I think more so than when Pat ran. I think they've really given up on Republicans, they've given up on Democrats; so he would be stepping into something where a path had been laid."
Buchanan added: "I think he can win." And you can take Bay Buchanan's opinion on winning to the bank ...
Even independent political operatives less ideologically aligned with Dobbs -- Buchanan, like Dobbs, is an immigration hawk -- say he represents an enormous opportunity for foes of the two-party system.
"Lou Dobbs, I think, would be a perfect candidate for us," said former Sen. Dean Barkley, the founder of the Minnesota Reform Party (later known as the Minnesota Independence Party) who managed former Gov. Jesse Ventura's successful third-party campaign in 1998. "We were hoping he would have run last time."
The notion of a cable news personality running for high office seems less far-fetched one year after former comedian and liberal talk-radio host Al Franken upset expectations by defeating an incumbent Republican senator in Minnesota, and after television stars such as MSNBC's Chris Matthews explored running for office and Fox's Glenn Beck leaped directly into political activism. Indeed, operatives say, Dobbs's talent for communicating with a national audience could serve him well as an outsider candidate.
"You know he's got a pretty good sensibility with an audience," said media consultant Bill Hillsman, who worked on third-party campaigns for Ventura and gubernatorial candidates Kinky Friedman in Texas and Chris Daggett in New Jersey.
"There aren't too many people who you can say have that particular skill on a national basis, if you're looking at independents," said Hillsman, who said he urged Dobbs in a letter to run as an independent candidate in New Jersey's 2009 gubernatorial election.
Still, even with his star power, there could be serious limits to the appeal of a candidate best known for his opposition to immigration reform and his indulgence of conspiracy theories about President Barack Obama's birth certificate.
While Dobbs's views on immigration might get him a toehold with some constituencies, there's little modern evidence that opposition to immigration can power a national campaign. In order to have a shot at gaining traction nationally, Dobbs would have to tap into populist anger on a broader range of issues, according to Clay Mulford, who managed Ross Perot's presidential campaign in 1992.
"There's a populist streak in the voting public that spans both left and right, and so you've got the combination of this protectionist element and immigration on one hand, on the right. And on the left you've got this anti-bailout, Wall Street, focus-on-Main Street kind of sentiment," Mulford said. "That streak in American politics is something that's often ignored."
But Mulford, whom New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg consulted in 2008 about a possible independent presidential bid of his own, also poured some cold water on the Dobbs-for-President talk, noting that even a charismatic television personality would face a tough adjustment to the campaign trail.
Dobbs would encounter daunting structural obstacles to fundraising and a patchwork of ballot-access laws that tilt the playing field against any third-party contender. On top of that, Mulford said, Dobbs's hard-line views on immigration might restrict his national appeal in "a country of immigrants."
"The Electoral College makes it, unless you're going to really be at the 30 percent level and go from there, it's a hard slog, nationwide," Mulford warned. "Without some really substantive positions, given his lack of experience, a national effort would be difficult."
And for all the talk of a presidential campaign, Dobbs has yet to contact leading third-party operatives such as Buchanan, Hillsman, Mulford or Ed Rollins, the Perot campaign veteran who shared Dobbs's affiliation with CNN until the anchor quit this month, the operatives said.
Given the hurdles Dobbs would have to clear in order to run nationally, Democrats in his home state of New Jersey are responding seriously to Dobbs's hints about a Senate campaign.
"I assume he'd be a formidable candidate in terms of his skills and his ability to raise funds or self-fund," said a Democratic consultant based in New Jersey. "None of us are sitting around going, 'Oh, that's a joke.'"
At the same time, the Democrat said, Dobbs would be hampered from the first day of a Senate campaign by the optics of running as a border security hard-liner against the Senate's lone Hispanic.
"He's probably out of the mainstream on a bulk of issues. He's going to have a particularly delicate time running against the Senate's only Latino member. He certainly has no infrastructure on which to build in New Jersey," the consultant said. "I don't sense that anyone is sitting around going, 'Lou Dobbs is the next big thing.'"
Even as independents look eagerly forward to a possible Dobbs campaign -- for president or another office -- Republicans have responded much more warily to suggestions that Dobbs, a resident of Sussex County, could run for Senate on the GOP ticket in 2012.
"I don't think people know whether he'd run as a Republican and also don't know where he stands on anything but immigration," said a Republican strategist from New Jersey.
Brian Walsh, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told POLITICO: "It's not even on our radar screen. Neither New Jersey senator is up in 2010, and 2010 is where our sole focus is right now."
#2
Dobbs would almost be a shoe-in if he runs for senator from NJ, where he and his wife own a big ranch. This is the career path already proven by Fred Thompson, albeit in Tennessee.
Likewise, if he chose to run as an independent, he would be less effective than if he ran as a "perpendicular Republican". That is, not to the left, and not to the right of mainstream Republicans, but off to the side, with his own agenda. Much like Ron Paul.
In fact, the Republicans are ripe to have an internal faction of federalists, who are not "agenda Republicans", but whose emphasis is to rebalance the national power of the US government with that of the individual States.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A review of U.S. landmines policy is ongoing and will take awhile to complete, a State Department spokesman said on Wednesday, clarifying an earlier comment that the Obama administration had concluded it needed the weapons.
"The administration is committed to a comprehensive review of its landmines policy. That review is still ongoing," spokesman Ian Kelly said in a statement.
Bambi will fold on this one, it's a 'cheap' way for him to placate the Left.
Speaking ahead of a review conference next weekend in Cartagena, Colombia, on the 10-year-old international Mine Ban Treaty, Kelly said the U.S. policy review was "going to take some time" and while it continued the current policy of declining to join the accord would remain in force.
The Mine Ban Treaty bars the use, stockpiling, production or transfer of antipersonnel mines. It has been endorsed by 156 countries, but the United States, Russia, China, and India are among the countries that have not adopted it.
The United States generally abides by the provisions of the treaty. It has not used antipersonnel mines since the 1991 Gulf War, has not exported any since 1992 and has not produced them since 1997, Steve Goose, director of the Arms Division of Human Rights Watch, told a briefing on Monday. But it retains a stockpile of some 10 million mines, which would contravene the accord.
Kelly had told a briefing on Tuesday the "administration undertook a policy review and we decided that our land mine policy remains in effect."
"We determined that we would not be able to meet our national defense needs nor our security commitments to our friends and allies if we signed this convention," he said.
Those comments had drawn fire from Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat who is a longtime advocate of the treaty, and expressions of concerns from anti-mine campaigners.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Wednesday said the administration had conducted an interim review in light of the upcoming summit in Cartagena, and decided the old policy should remain in force so long as the broader review continued.
The United States has decided to send humanitarian mine relief experts from the State Department, Defense Department, U.S. Agency for International Development and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as observers to Cartagena. It is the first time the United States has sent observers to a gathering of states that have accepted the treaty. Anti-land mine campaigners saw that decision as an encouraging sign but had hoped the administration would announce its intent to join the treaty at some future point.
The review conference next Sunday is expected to draw more than 1,000 delegates representing more than 100 countries, including ministers and heads of state. It will look at the progress of a broadly popular treaty that has helped cut land mine casualties around the world and provided relief to victims.
Landmines are known to have caused 5,197 casualties last year, a third of them children, according to the Nobel Prize-winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), which links some 1,000 activist groups.
Our landmines aren't the problem. The US banning landmine use wouldn't change anything. We're responsible; it's the irresponsible parties that use landmines that are the problem.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/26/2009 00:00 ||
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It's like DDT. When used properly and for its purposes of reducing the spread of killing diseases by various vectors, it saves lives. When employed improperly by miscreants thinking it gives them a short term economic edge, it has serious consequences. So, the gullible focus on the latter resulting the deaths of millions. Landmines when properly employed saves lives of defenders directly or indirectly. Two heavily mined borders have included Finland-USSR and North-South Korea.
Here's the Quality Assurance subprogram. The offices at State that work to end landmine use are subject to random drafting to provide hostages observers at outposts and defensive positions in hostile territory.
Three leading scientists who on Tuesday released a report documenting the accelerating pace of climate change said the scandal that erupted last week over hacked emails from climate scientists is nothing more than a "smear campaign" aimed at sabotaging December climate talks in Copenhagen.
"We're facing an effort by special interests who are trying to confuse the public," said Richard Somerville, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and a lead author of the UN IPCC Fourth Assessment Report.
Dissenters see action to slow global warming as "a threat," he said.
The comments were made in a conference call for reporters.
The scientists--Somerville, Michael Mann of Penn State and Eric Steig of University of Washington--were supposed to be discussing their new report, the Copenhagen Diagnosis, a dismal update of the UN IPCC's 2007 climate data by 26 scientists from eight nations.
Instead they spent much of the time diffusing the hacker controversy, known in the media as "Climate Gate."
The scandal began on November 20, when an unknown hacker stole at least 169 megabytes of emails from computers at the prominent Climate Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia and put them online for the world to see.
CRU is considered one of the world's leading institutions concerned with human-caused global warming. The leaked emails contain private correspondence on climate science dating back to 1996.
Skeptics of global warming say these messages are filled with evidence of manipulated data from lead authors of the UN's highly influential IPCC reports.
U.S. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma), a climate skeptic, said he would launch an inquiry into UN climate change research in response.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/26/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
If it's a smear campaign, then they best hunker down for at least the next six months. That is IMO how long it will take for the enormity of the scam perpetrated to be fully understood and reported.
And as the press is about to find out, the damaging stuff is in the computer data, now only just starting to be analyzed.
#2
I find it interesting to note that the exposure of their own words becomes a "smear". Usually a "smear" campaign is when someone else says things that are damaging. In this case any "smear" campaign would be originating from within the CRU of UEA.
#3
Why are you suprised crosspatch? After all quoting the Quaran and other holy Islamic texts has been classifed as 'Hate Racist Speech' against Muslims.
Why wouldn't quoting their own email be considered a 'Smear Campaign'?
#5
The only "smearing" going on, is the poop these eco-facists are "smearing" around with the reports, white papers, and other sorts of baloney, which have now been shown to be bogus.
#11
Frank G,
Not just New Zealand data which has been gamed, Australian data has also been queered. Just as well that it has been exposed as the Liberals are in meltdown over ETS now before parliament.
#12
How can you have "smear campaign" based on gossip spread by some silly bloggers and FOX unNews? The Real Media have not even mentioned the CRU data theft occurred. So what's the campaign?
Data used by CRU to model NZ's temps for the last 150+ years doesn't match the actual data maintained by the New Zealand National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA). Dr. J. Salinger, the person responsible is an ex-employee of CRU.
The son of a Philippines clan boss, suspected of the massacre of at least 57 journalists and political activists, turned himself in today, as investigators announced that the entire police force of his family's ancestral town was under suspicion of playing a part in the killings.
Andal Ampatuan Jnr, whose father is a key local supporter of the Philippines president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, was taken by helicopter and plane to the capital Manila for questioning. The authorities said that 20 other men had been arrested on connection with the massacre on the southern island of Mindanao. "There is no truth to that [allegation]," Mr Ampatuan Jnr told reporters before he was flown out.
The entire police force of the town of Ampatuan name are also under suspicion, according to the country's interior minister Ronaldo Puno. "All members of the Ampatuan police station are under investigation for complicity in the crime," he said today.
Soldiers in armoured personnel carriers were patrolling the roads of Maguindanao province, where the massacre took place last Monday. "Most of the armed group that perpetrated this crime have run away towards the mountainous area of Maguindanao," a military spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Brawner, told national television. "That is where we are conducting our pursuit operations."
Most of the victims were relatives, lawyers and supporters of Ismael Mangudadatu, a rival of the Ampatuan family, who were travelling to register his candidacy in next year's election for provincial governor. Twenty-two of them were journalists covering the event and ten are reported to have been motorists who happened to have been passing by and to have witnessed the massacre.
The candidate himself, Ismael Mangudadatu, who had received death threats, sent his wife and sisters and two female lawyers to file his nomination, in the belief that as women they would not be victims of violence.
All 24 women in the six vehicle convoy were killed, and apparently raped, and Mr Mangudadatu's sister and aunt were pregnant. Some had hands bound behind their backs; Mr Mangudadatu reported that the body of his wife was mutilated.
President Arroyo declared a state of emergency in Maguindanao and neighbouring areas on Tuesday, and promised to bring the killers to justice for what she called "a supreme act of inhumanity".
Yesterday her ruling Lakas-Kampi-CMD party expelled Andal Ampatuan senior and junior and another son, Zaldy, who is governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
A MALAYSIAN woman who was converted to Islam as a child is battling to be recognised as a Hindu, in the latest conversion dispute to erupt in Malaysia.
Ms S. Banggarma, 27, has said she was made to convert to Islam at the age of seven when she was placed at a children's home in Penang state. She was given a Muslim name and her identity card - a critical document in Malaysia - declared her to be a Muslim. But as a teenager she rediscovered her identity and later married a Hindu man in a religious ceremony.
However, she cannot register the marriage due to their different religions - Malaysian Muslims are not permitted to marry someone of another faith, unless the spouse converts to Islam. She is also unable to name her husband as the father of their two children, aged eight and two, on their birth certificates.
Ms Banggarma is now seeking permission to change her name and religious status on her identity card but conversion out of Islam is extremely difficult in Malaysia.
Welfare Department director-general Meme Zainal Rashid has refuted allegations that department officials forced Ms Banggarma to convert to Islam, and said her father was responsible for the change of religion.
However, Ms Banggarma dismissed the official version. 'My father was a practising Hindu until he died and he never mentioned anything about converting anyone in the family to become a Muslim,' she said.
Malaysia's inter-faith council has thrown its support behind Ms Banggarma and rejected the government's stance that she must go to the religious Sharia courts for permission to revert to Hinduism.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/26/2009 00:00 ||
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PHILIPPINE President Gloria Arroyo on Wednesday vowed to hunt down the perpetrators of a political massacre that left 52 people dead, as one of her allies was named the prime suspect.
Mrs Arroyo faced increasing pressure to take decisive action as more bodies were pulled out of shallow graves and relatives of the victims reported horrifying details of the killings, including that two women shot dead were pregnant.
'This is a supreme act of inhumanity that is a blight on our nation,' she said in a statement as she declared Wednesday a national day of mourning. 'The perpetrators will not escape justice. The law will hunt them until they are caught. No citizen in our nation should ever have to fear for his or her life in the free expression of political will.'
Police earlier said the top suspect in the massacre was Andal Ampatuan Jr, a member of Mrs Arroyo's ruling coalition and the son of a powerful regional politician who has helped secure votes for the president in previous elections.
'According to the initial reports, those who were abducted and murdered at Saniag were initially stopped by a group led by the mayor of Datu Unsay,' national police spokesman Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina said.
Ampatuan Jr is the mayor of Datu Unsay in Maguindanao province, a lawless part of the southern Philippines where Muslim clans have long waged vicious campaigns against each other to grab power. His father of the same name is the provincial governor who commands his own private army and is also a member of the ruling Lakas Kampi CMD coalition.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/26/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
It's been getting sporty out there as of late. Crackdown is imminent.
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.
[Iran Press TV Latest] A massive UN peacekeeping effort in eastern Congo has failed to deliver a knockout blow to the Rwandan rebels, UN experts say. 
