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Gunmen kill 40 in attacks on two Ahmadi mosques in Pakistain
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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
2nd, stronger Iceland volcano 'to erupt'
Scientists have warned a second much larger volcano in Iceland is showing signs of eruption, with the government expressing readiness to face a possible crisis.

After the successive eruptions of Eyjafjallajokull which caused air traffic mayhem in Europe and brought thousands of flights to a halt earlier in the year, Katla volcano is also threatening to blow.

Experts say there has been a 200 percent increase in its volcanic activity in recent days, MSNBC reported.

"An eruption in the short term is a strong possibility," the University College London (UCL) institute for risk and disaster reduction outlined in a report.

Seismic readings indicated a substantial increase in tremors in the areas surrounding the volcano, the report said.

On May 21 alone, four earthquakes near Katla were detected in 12 hours; a record since the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull volcano in March.

The previous volcanic eruption in Iceland caught the entire aviation system off guard.

Some airlines, such as Ryanair, have demanded compensation for closure of airspace claiming European governments were "hopelessly unprepared," the Independent reported.

"The response to the ash cloud's arrival in the UK and adjacent airspace was entirely reactive and therefore less effective than it should have been," the UCL report said.

This time round, Icelandic President Olafur Grimsson is warning European governments that a potential eruption is near.

"We have prepared ... it is high time for European governments and airline authorities all over Europe and the world to start planning for the eventual Katla eruption," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 05/28/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We will be in Iceland on the 20th of June. Assuming air travel does not shut down then from the US to Keflavik, your intrepid Rantburg reporter will bring you the latest scoop, with text and pictures.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/28/2010 1:02 Comments || Top||

#2  The previous volcanic eruption in Iceland caught the entire aviation system off guard.
That's because our very own One wasn't in charge!
Posted by: Bobby || 05/28/2010 6:05 Comments || Top||

#3  Volcano in question should not be an issue for travel to/from Iceland. They are S and winds tend to blow S to SE. So, ironically, while travel in continental Europe and England was shut down, you could fly just fine to/from Iceland, and anyplace that flies N of Iceland (great circle routes). I have a friend was was stuck in German, took a ferry from Denmark over to Sweden, then caught a flight from there to the US via Iceland.
Posted by: OldSpook || 05/28/2010 8:17 Comments || Top||

#4  I gather these two volcanoes are in the habit of acting as a team. In several past eruptions, one goes, then goes the other.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/28/2010 9:35 Comments || Top||

#5  Obama to warn Iceland that it holds them accountable.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/28/2010 10:29 Comments || Top||

#6  OS---I do not see a problem from the continental US, given the prevailing winds. After Iceland, heading to Greenland for 5 days. Definitely not heading to Europe!
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/28/2010 10:59 Comments || Top||

#7  So much for Al Gore's plans for more global warming.

Gaia just checkmated him.
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/28/2010 11:08 Comments || Top||

#8  Hey hey hey...you got a permit for that?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/28/2010 11:53 Comments || Top||

#9  Sutr ferr sunnan
með sviga lævi:
skinn af sverði
sól valtiva.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/28/2010 11:58 Comments || Top||

#10  Let's plug the crater with Al Gore. I think we could just about fit him in there.
Posted by: charger || 05/28/2010 12:01 Comments || Top||

#11  The previous volcanic eruption in Iceland caught the entire aviation system off guard.
That's because our very own One wasn't in charge!


Q from one of the First Daughters:" Did you plug the hole yet, Dad?"
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 05/28/2010 18:06 Comments || Top||

#12  This is going to really suck. My MMORPG is based in Iceland. I have they have backup servers.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 05/28/2010 18:44 Comments || Top||

#13  Watchoo doin' in Iceland, AP? Work, or an interesting (!) vacation? :-D

I was in Iceland for a short time on my way to Europe back in 1970, but didn't have much time there to look around. Looking forward to your pics & report.

Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/28/2010 20:07 Comments || Top||

#14  Yokay, I'll bite, wasn't "KATLA" the name of one of the Babe characters in one of the STAR TREK Series???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/28/2010 20:51 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
First Results - Illegal Alien Families Leaving Arizona In Droves
Reports are surfacing around the Valley that illegal-immigrant families with school-age children are fleeing Arizona because of a new immigration law.

Some school officials say enough parents and students have told them they plan to leave the state this summer to indicate Hispanic enrollment could drop at some schools. But there's no way to know exactly how many illegal immigrants will depart because schools do not inquire about a student's or a family's legal status.

For schools, the impact could be loss of students and, as a result, loss of state funding and parent support.
Did the NYT write that sentence?
The state could see savings.

Despite signs of an exodus, the picture remains murky. Teachers and principals at Alhambra elementary schools in west Phoenix, for example, are saying goodbye to core volunteer parents, who tell them that the new migration law threatens their family stability and that they must leave. The district expects the new law to drive out an extra 200 to 300 students over the summer.

Balsz Elementary District in east Phoenix lost 70 families in the past 30 days, an unprecedented number, officials said.

In contrast, Isaac Elementary District in Phoenix, where 96 percent of its 8,058 students are Latino, lost fewer students than usual after its Christmas break, and its May enrollment grew by 20 students over last year.

About 170,000 of Arizona's 1 million K-12 students are children of immigrants and include both citizens and non-citizens, according to a 2009 Pew Hispanic Center study.

For every net decline of one student, a school loses an average of $4,404 in state money. The total amount of funding for the 170,000 children of immigrants is about $749 million, or 16 percent, of the state's education budget.

A sizable loss of undocumented families could reduce crowding in some schools and allow others to combine classrooms and reduce teaching staff, said Matthew Ladner, research director for the Goldwater Institute in Phoenix, which has not taken a stance on the law.

"It would actually help the state's balance sheet down the road and would lessen the burden on the general fund," Ladner said.

Worry has spread through the sprawling, 14,538-student Alhambra Elementary School District in Phoenix, which has lost about 2.5 percent, or about 363 students, a year since 2008. That's when a new law took effect that made it more difficult for employers to hire undocumented workers and the recession began ripping away jobs in earnest.

Latino students make up 75 percent of Alhambra's enrollment. Before SB 1070 became law, families in which one parent was legal could still survive. But jobs remain tight, and now, any undocumented family member can be deported after getting a traffic ticket.

Volunteers are dwindling, and fewer parents are showing up for parent coaching and teacher meetings, Alhambra Superintendent Jim Rice said. This summer, the district expects to lose twice as many students, Rice added.

"Our children have been here since they were 1 year old or 2 years old, and they are ready to go to high school," he said. "That's what makes it tough."

Mesa Public Schools, the state's largest unified district, has 67,749 students, and Latino students make up 37.5 percent. It anticipates a decrease of 1,500 students, similar to losses over the past four years.

Paradise Valley Unified District in Phoenix, where nearly a quarter of its 33,431 students are Latino, hasn't seen a large drop in total enrollment.

"A lot of our students go to Mexico for the summer, and we're speculating they may not come back," spokeswoman Judi Willis said. "But we don't know."

Enrollment at Glendale Union High School District, where about half of its 14,940 students are Latino, has held steady, but the number of students signing up for English-language summer school has fallen.

High-school districts are less likely to feel the loss because older kids are more likely to stay behind with friends and relatives, said Craig Pletenik, spokesman for Phoenix Union High School, where more than three-fourths of the district's 25,083 students are Latino. "Our kids are older, and closer to the educational finish line." The district hasn't seen a dip in enrollment.

Claudia Suriano is sitting with four fellow school volunteers at Brunson-Lee Elementary in Phoenix's Balsz district. She is among three who are leaving the state. Two others say their families are still debating.

Suriano is a Phoenix mother of two whose husband just quit a good job as a roofer after five years.

While he has survived atop Valley houses for five summers, he could not stand the heat of the new immigration law.

"He feels so stressed that he's not a citizen. He feels it's going to catch up to him," said Suriano, 27, who also is undocumented. "He speaks excellent English, but he feels a pressure they're going to find out what his status is here, and it's too great a weight for him."

Suriano's husband has been in New Mexico for two weeks, looking for an apartment and a job. She is packing up their Phoenix apartment. "He tells me over in New Mexico, it is like here when we first came: There is no fear and they treat you like human beings."

She tries to explain to her two children, one of whom is not a citizen, why the family must leave after six years.

"They're just innocent children," she said. "The older one - he's 9 - says, 'Mommy, I have my friends here and my school.' They don't understand what in the world is going on."
Word to New Mexico.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/28/2010 08:55 || Comments || Link || [20 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Suriano is a Phoenix mother of two whose husband just quit a good job as a roofer after five years.
While he has survived atop Valley houses for five summers, he could not stand the heat of the new immigration law.

"He feels so stressed that he's not a citizen. He feels it's going to catch up to him," said Suriano, 27, who also is undocumented. "He speaks excellent English, but he feels a pressure they're going to find out what his status is here, and it's too great a weight for him."


FIVVE YEARS and they are still "undocumented"? Have they even started the process for becoming legal? Methinks not.
Posted by: WolfDog || 05/28/2010 10:30 Comments || Top||

#2  "They're just innocent children," she said. "The older one - he's 9 - says, 'Mommy, I have my friends here and my school.' They don't understand what in the world is going on."

They're fuc&ing up my country. What about my kids? They can go back to Mexico and fuc& things up there instead.
Posted by: gorb || 05/28/2010 10:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Oh, we know the story in NM. The new Albuquerque Mayor has directed that the police also screen here as well. That raised the ire of a couple of city councilmen who failed to get passed action to stop the Mayor and failed to get passed the usual anti-Arizona measures which are the favorite of international socialists and La Raza sympathizers. Meanwhile the Trunk race for governor has heated up with the AG from down around Las Cruces pointing out that the other major candidate had a opinion piece in the major paper a couple of years back promoting amnesty. Border security seems to be up there near the top of her platform. Wonder why? /rhet question

Ranking just above Louisiana and Mississippi in per capita income, NM is no position to offer social services at a level that attracts so many free renters. Those coming here are in for a rude surprise.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/28/2010 11:00 Comments || Top||

#4  WolfDog, they couldn't even apply to become legal because they came over here illegally in the first place.

I may be wrong, but I believe they would have to go home, wait ten years and then they could apply. The fact one of their kids apparently is US born is irrelevant. Once that kid reaches 18 he or she could possibly apply for them, but not now.

Anyway....enjoy NM, pendejos. If what p2k posted is true, and I have no reason to doubt it, you are gonna have fun in the Land of Enchantment. Next time you should consider San Francisco.
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie || 05/28/2010 11:12 Comments || Top||

#5  Head 'em up, mooooove 'em out!
Posted by: mojo || 05/28/2010 11:13 Comments || Top||

#6  Suriano's husband has been in New Mexico for two weeks, looking for an apartment and a job. She is packing up their Phoenix apartment.

Bawhaahaa! Now you know why NM Gov. Bill Richardson so vocally denounced the Arizona law. Kinda like King Abdullah of Jordan’s constant calls to jumpstart the Mid East peace process. It’s much simpler to be the humanitarian when you’re watching from the sidelines eh Billy Boy!
Posted by: DepotGuy || 05/28/2010 12:11 Comments || Top||

#7  Yep, spillover. Ready Colorado?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/28/2010 12:19 Comments || Top||

#8  "They're just innocent children," she said. "The older one - he's 9 - says, 'Mommy, I have my friends here and my school.' They don't understand what in the world is going on."

Well gee lady - maybe YOU AND YOUR ILLEGAL ALIEN HUSBAND should have thought of that six year ago when you decided to COMMIT A FELONY by being in the US illegally!

Don't come crying to me and bringing up your spawn when it's time to pay the bill. Its entirely *your* fault. Get the f-k out of the U.S. Apply for LEGAL citizenship when your 10-year ban is over.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 05/28/2010 12:21 Comments || Top||

#9  CrazyFool is neither.
Posted by: Hellfish || 05/28/2010 12:41 Comments || Top||

#10  Don't feel all that bad about this woman, her kids or her husband. Get legal or get lost.
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/28/2010 12:49 Comments || Top||

#11  In nature, most parasites optimize the host-parasite relationship so the host does not die or expel the parasite. That's not been happening in this instance...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/28/2010 13:48 Comments || Top||

#12  She doesn't seem to, or want to, realize what "illegal" means. It doesn't mean that you move to another state and that makes everything okay. It means as long as you're not a citizen or documented, you're a criminal.
Where you gonna move when New Mexico wises up lady?
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/28/2010 14:05 Comments || Top||

#13  I was talking with a legal who has illegal relatives, and he said that they are terrified senseless at the though of going back to northern Mexico, because of the insane level of violence. Whole towns are being emptied by the gangs.

This means, if they go back, it has to be at least as far south as Mexico City, but any further south sucks as well.

So their option is to flee to other US States. And don't assume that means just adjacent States, either. In a car, they are just as mobile as are anyone else. The smarter ones will go to the less populated States with few Mexicans.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/28/2010 14:12 Comments || Top||

#14  Illegal means: CRIMINAL!!!!!!!!!!! What is it about illegal=criminal don't they understand?
Posted by: anymouse || 05/28/2010 16:52 Comments || Top||

#15  Anonymoose:

1. Nothing in Mexico will ever be fixed if we continue to provide a free safety valve for Mexican corruption by allowing their population to relocate here. When they no longer have that option then they'll have to address problems at home.

2. There are states with fewer illegals? Maybe relatively speaking, but every state has an illegal problem.
Posted by: Iblis || 05/28/2010 21:40 Comments || Top||


The Ballerina, Profumo, And The Panamanian Coup That Wasn't
Previously secret papers declassified Friday revealed that British ballerina Margot Fonteyn was heavily involved in plotting a coup to overthrow Panama's government, detailing how her clandestine political activities both exasperated and amused officials on both sides of the Atlantic.

The confidential telegrams and correspondence released by Britain's national archives pieced together a bizarre and sometimes comic account of the attempted coup in the late 1950s, during which the celebrated dancer and her diplomat husband, Roberto Arias, sought Fidel Castro's help in a revolution that failed because of a last-minute blunder.

Fonteyn was 39 and an internationally renowned ballerina when she was arrested and briefly detained in a Panama prison on April 20, 1959. A few days earlier she and Arias had set out in a yacht on an apparent fishing holiday, but aiming to gather men and arms for the coup.

The papers showed that British officials in London, as well as diplomats in Panama and New York, scrambled to contain the incident, fearing the plot would threaten British relations with the central American country. But they also documented how the officials thought the events were a kind of "slapdash comedy."

"I had to pinch myself several times during her visit to be sure I wasn't dreaming the comic opera story which she unfolded," wrote Foreign Office Minister John Profumo in one of the papers as he described a private meeting with Fonteyn shortly after she was released.

Profumo wrote that Fonteyn admitted to him how she and her husband had visited Castro in Cuba and received a pledge of some weapons and men from the leader. "She affirmed that ... Castro was behind this coup. Naturally he now had to disclaim all knowledge," Profumo wrote.

He himself later courted controversy. As a Cabinet minister in 1963, he had a liaison with a prostitute who was disclosed to be linked to a Soviet spy.

British ambassador to Panama Ian Henderson was not impressed by Fonteyn's behavior and wrote that he hoped she would "keep away from Panama for a very considerable time. I do not regard her conduct as fitting in any British subject. ... Her conduct has been highly reprehensible and irresponsible," Henderson wrote in a telegram.

The officials believed that although Fonteyn was "involved in the plot up to her neck," she was an amateur revolutionary who viewed the whole situation in a "charmingly lighthearted way."
Geez, doesn't that sound familiar?
Profumo wrote that Fonteyn described how, as the coup unraveled, she mistakenly dumped some incriminating documents into the sea. Officials later retrieved the items, including Arias' address book, which contained the addresses of actors John Wayne and Errol Flynn. The celebrities apparently had business dealings with Arias.
...and then she got in her yacht and sailed away. Viva la Revolucion!
Mark Dunton, a historian at the archives, said the files gave an unusual glimpse into a previously little known chapter of Fonteyn's life. "The extent of Dame Margot's personal involvement has not been in the public domain before," said Dunton. "It adds to the slightly bizarre nature of this attempted revolution."

Fonteyn, who was born Peggy Hookham in 1919, went on to reach even greater creative heights through her acclaimed partnership with Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev. She returned to Panama with her husband years later and died there in 1991.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/28/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:



Economy
CA Cities Contemplating Chapter 9 - Unions Trying To Block In Legislature
Two years after Vallejo, California, filed for bankruptcy protection, officials in nearby Antioch are also tossing around the 'B' word.

Antioch's leaders earlier this month said bankruptcy could be an option for the cash-strapped city of roughly 100,000 on the eastern fringe of the San Francisco Bay area.

Antioch's fiscal woes are standard issue for local governments in California: weak revenue from retail sales and property taxes is forcing spending cuts, layoffs and furloughs.

Street expects more talk of municipal bankruptcy across California because local government finances are in such dire shape -- a situation underscored on Wednesday when a top finance officer for Sacramento County projected a worse-than-expected shortfall for the county of $181 million, which could force more than 1,000 layoffs from the county's payroll.

"You don't have the easy out of increasing revenue and you have a lot more call on services because of the economy," Street said. "There's no such thing as entertaining bankruptcy; there's ending denial."

Talk of municipal bankruptcy has not escaped California's politically powerful public employee unions. A number of them are pressing the legislature to pass a bill that would require local governments to get the approval of a state board before filing for bankruptcy. Since the board could be stacked with union-friendly appointees, bankruptcy pleas could be rejected or delayed.

"It's a horrible bill," Levinson said. "If you don't have the bankruptcy outlet, what do you do? If you can't pay your bills what do you do?"
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/28/2010 11:35 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Stupid but predictable on the unions' part. There can be an orderly bankruptcy via the legal system, or a chaotic, de facto bankruptcy where the doors are padlocked and the lights go out.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/28/2010 13:40 Comments || Top||

#2  In the end it doesn't matter if its a board or a judge. If there's no money in the bank, there's no money to pay out. Once the citizenry figures out that they're clearly nothing but tax serfs for the unions, they'll either suffer with taxes that deliver nothing but union pay and benefits or flee. I doubt any of them have the stomach for their own Place de Concorde.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/28/2010 14:18 Comments || Top||

#3  If you can't pay your bills what do you do?

Raise taxes, raise taxes, always raise taxes.
Posted by: Jerry Brown || 05/28/2010 14:30 Comments || Top||

#4 
#3 If you can't pay your bills what do you do?

Raise taxes, raise taxes, always raise taxes.


well, that and blame Bush
Posted by: abu do you love || 05/28/2010 14:35 Comments || Top||

#5  Sacramento is was hometown and i still work there. There are about 1.5 million people living in the county. Before the crisis they were expected to spend $400mil. Where did think they were going to get the money to spend? It boggles the mind.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 05/28/2010 15:30 Comments || Top||

#6  Can the state legally stop a municipality from filing for bankruptcy?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 05/28/2010 16:23 Comments || Top||

#7  bk doesn't affect pensions, which are a large part of the problem (Police and Fire typically get 3%/yr of service at age 50 - that's unsustainable). New employees in most munis are getting a lower tier 401K instead of a defined benefit plan. Unions have gotta (and I am in one) understand that this is not the time to be dickheads. Public employees have to share the pain. We gave back 6% in our last contract, and I voted to approve it
Posted by: Frank G || 05/28/2010 17:08 Comments || Top||

#8  Frank G: I'm not so sure about pension protections in Chapter 9. The law is fuzzy, at best:

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202429132330

And it is coming to a head in a hurry.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/28/2010 18:16 Comments || Top||

#9  both Orange County and Vallejo tested but were not able to rescind them - I have one (not for another 10 years though), so I follow it. City of SD maxes at 90% (2.5%/service year means 36 years, and your first year on probation doesn't count, so effectively 37 yrs maxes you out for non-safety-employees). Like I said - that's not for new (last 2 yrs and future) employees.
Posted by: Frank G || 05/28/2010 18:56 Comments || Top||

#10  VARIOUS > seems MEXICO is okay wid POTUS BAmmer sending 1200 US troops to their side of the borders BUT NOT OKAY WID THE US TRYING TO STOP ILLEGAL HISPANIC IMMIGRATION into the US [Arizona]???

D *** NG IT AMERIKA, the mighty OWG USSA = weak OWG USRoA SSR, WE'RE TRYING/WORKING HARD TO NOT SOLVE A PROBLEM HERE, D *** YOU!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/28/2010 21:03 Comments || Top||

#11  I live 30 mins from Vallejo. I love lurking around the ol' Mare Island Shipyards. :::sigh:::. Folks, the Dems are gonna triple down on their asinine ideology. They've nothing else to do. This is their moment. They will go for broke and simply hope the Repubs don't have the power to undo the damage they have done - the volkes be damned. It's that simple... that sad.
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 05/28/2010 21:58 Comments || Top||


Obama vows to hold BP accountable
[Iran Press TV Latest] US President Barack Obama has promised to hold oil giant BP responsible for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and has admitted that the US was short of the technology to deal with such a crisis.

"Make no mistake -- BP is operating at our direction. Every key decision and action they take must be approved by us in advance," he said during a news conference at the White House on Thursday.

Obama, however, added that BP will "be paying a lot of damages, and we're going to stay on them on that".

He also announced the suspension of two planned oil explorations off the coast of Alaska.

Earlier, a panel of US scientists found that between 12,000 and 25,000 barrels of oil is leaking into the gulf waters everyday. Independent scientists, however, maintain that at least 70,000 barrel of oil is gushing into water a day.

Meanwhile, Democratic sources say the Obama administration has fired the head of the US Minerals Management Service.

The move was in response to blistering criticism over the federal government's lax oversight of BP and the rest of the offshore oil industry.

The decision about Elizabeth Birnbaum, who has run the service in the Interior Department since July 2009, is among the announcements made by President Obama on Thursday.

Obama's response to the five-week-old spill has prompted growing criticism about his leadership.
Posted by: Fred || 05/28/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The decision about Elizabeth Birnbaum, who has run the service in the Interior Department since July 2009, is among the announcements made by President Obama on Thursday

It really didn't happen e x a c t l y this way, but Barry's lips were moving at the time.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/28/2010 4:52 Comments || Top||

#2  "Account" is an interesting word to use for a politician who received so much in donations from BP.
Posted by: no mo uro || 05/28/2010 6:07 Comments || Top||

#3  Obama vows to hold BP accountable

As in Accounts Receivable, that would be about 10 million in small untraceable credit card donations for the reelection fund.

"Johnson. Cut the 30 second commercial ad from the next Super Bowl and schedule a luncheon at the yacht club tomorrow with Advertising where I'll tell them about the Chicago Way(tm)."
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/28/2010 8:38 Comments || Top||

#4  In a White House news briefing, Obama called the five-week-old BP spill an "economic and environmental tragedy" and said he was frustrated and angry over its duration. Every morning when he's finished shaving, he said, one of his daughters quizzes him: "Did you plug the hole yet, Daddy?"

Girls, I don't think daddy could plug in a lamp without a teleprompter spewing him the instructions...
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/28/2010 9:15 Comments || Top||

#5  I don't think they were referring to the oil well, TU
Posted by: Frank G || 05/28/2010 9:52 Comments || Top||

#6  I still like what Noonan said over at the WSJ -

"When your most creative thoughts in the middle of a disaster revolve around protecting your position, you are summoning trouble."

That's a 'keeper'.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 05/28/2010 10:29 Comments || Top||


Europe
Spain approves controversial bill
An unpopular 15-billion-euro austerity plan aimed at reducing the deficit has been approved by just one vote in Spain's parliament.

The controversial plan which includes a wage cut for civil servants was passed with 169 votes in favor, 168 votes against, and 13 abstentions, BBC reported.

The bill was supported by the governing Socialist Party while the conservative Popular Party and all others either opposed or abstained.

Before the vote, Spain's Finance Minister Elena Salgado had pleaded with lawmakers to support the bill and vote in favor saying the measures were "painful but inevitable", AP reported.

The plan that was announced earlier this month is intended to reduce a deficit of 11% of GDP to 6% by 2011.

Other than the 5 percent pay cut, the plan includes a scrapping of a 2,500-euro payout to parents for the birth of children.

The payout was a key part of Spain's Prime Minister Zapatero's social platform to increase Spain's declining birth rate.

Zapatero and government ministers will also have their salaries cut by 15 percent and the salaries of secretaries of state will be cut by 10 percent.
Posted by: Fred || 05/28/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Indo-Israeli missile successfully test-fired: DRDO chief
The Indo-Israeli Long Range Surface to Air Missile (LR-SAM) was successfully test fired in Israel last fortnight. "The 70-km missile was fired at an electronic target and met with its initial objectives," DRDO chief Dr Vijay Saraswat said in an exclusive interview with India Today.

The second test of the missile will be held in India sometime later this year. The missile will be integrated by Indian technicians. The LR-SAM area defence missile is being jointly developed by India and Israel under a Rs 2500 crore project which began in 2006. The missile, also called the Barak-2 are to equip the three guided missile destroyers of the Project 15A class. The three destroyers are to join the Indian navy in one year intervals beginning in 2012.

"We will deliver the system to the armed forces in 2013. I am very confident it will be an astounding success," Dr Saraswat said. A second variant, called the Medium Range SAM (MR-SAM) is being developed for the Indian Air Force under a Rs 10,000 crore project signed in 2009. The MR-SAM is to replace all the IAF's ageing Soviet-made Pechora SAM missiles. According to naval officials, a 100-km range theatre defence version called the Extended Range SAM is being developed for the four Project 15B destroyers.
Posted by: john frum || 05/28/2010 17:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:


Pigeon held on suspicion of spying
INDIAN police are holding a pigeon under armed guard after it was caught on an alleged spying mission for arch rival and neighbour Pakistan. The white-coloured bird was found by a local resident in India's Punjab state, which borders Pakistan, and taken to a police station 40km from the capital Amritsar. The pigeon had a ring around its foot and a Pakistani phone number and address stamped on its body in red ink.

Police officer Ramdas Jagjit Singh Chahal told the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency that they suspected the pigeon may have landed on Indian soil from Pakistan with a message, although no trace of a note has been found. Officials have directed that no one should be allowed to visit the pigeon, which police say may have been on a "special mission of spying".

The bird has been medically examined and was being kept in an air-conditioned room under police guard. Senior officers have asked to be kept updated on the situation three times a day, PTI said.

Mr Chahal said local pigeon fanciers in the sensitive border area had told police that Pakistani pigeons were easily identifiable as they look different from Indian ones, according to the Indian Express newspaper.
Posted by: phil_b || 05/28/2010 09:45 || Comments || Link || [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Don't they still race homing pigeons it that part of the world? Kind of a 'hold-over' from the 'Colony Days'.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 05/28/2010 10:31 Comments || Top||

#2  A pigeon, spying? Does that make him a stool pigeon? And who ratted him out--the rat? Or did the canary sing? Maybe it was the pig who squealed. I suspect a snake in the grass.

Looks like a job for . . . Secret Squirrel!
Posted by: Mike || 05/28/2010 10:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Need pigeon spies? We've got em!

pidgeon
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/28/2010 11:10 Comments || Top||

#4  "Look, guys - it's a freakin' bird. Unless it's got a GPS beeper stuffed up it's tiny little butt, it's not gonna be telling anybody anything..."
Posted by: mojo || 05/28/2010 11:12 Comments || Top||

#5  The word you're looking for is 'squab.'
Posted by: Fred || 05/28/2010 12:03 Comments || Top||

#6  Looks like they need a pigeon whisperer...
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/28/2010 12:06 Comments || Top||

#7  D *** NG IT, MUTLEY, STOP THE PIGEON!

"Stop that Pigeon, Stop that Pigeon..." > sniff, sniff, one of my fav 1960's classic toons + theme songs.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/28/2010 20:55 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Doctors Reverse Stand on Circumcision
The American Academy of Pediatrics has reversed its decision last month regarding the practice of female circumcision by immigrants from some African, Middle Eastern and Asian cultures. The academy had suggested in a policy statement that doctors be given permission to perform a ceremonial pinprick or nick on girls if it would keep their families from sending them overseas for the full circumcision. Although the nick on a girl's clitoris is illegal in the United States, the academy's bioethics panel had noted it is practiced in some countries. The policy statement ignited a storm of criticism from opponents of female genital cutting. Dr. Judith S. Palfrey, president of the academy, said: “We're saying don't do it. Do everything that you can to support that family in this tough time, but don't be pulled into the procedure.'
Posted by: Beavis || 05/28/2010 15:20 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The policy statement ignited a storm of criticism from opponents of female genital cutting.

Take what you can get or it will backfire in a big way.
Posted by: gorb || 05/28/2010 19:32 Comments || Top||

#2  "Although the nick on a girl’s clitoris is illegal in the United States, the academy’s bioethics panel had noted it is practiced in some countries."

Ummmmm, NO. The backward, 6th century "countries" that "practice" this mutilation don't do just a "ceremonial nick" or "pinprick."

I'd suggest if they think FGM is such a great idea, they first do the exact equivalent to all the men.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/28/2010 20:20 Comments || Top||

#3  Barbara, that's a GREAT idea! Any country that practices FGM absolutely should do the male equivalent.
Posted by: Glenmore || 05/28/2010 22:19 Comments || Top||

#4  EVERY one of the doctors doing the "insignificant nick" should have the same done to them prior to the surgery. I bet the scar tissue doesn't build up before the practice is stopped
Posted by: Frank G || 05/28/2010 23:07 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2010-05-28
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Thu 2010-05-27
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Wed 2010-05-26
  Peru Paroles NY Terrorist Lori Berenson After 15 Years
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