[An Nahar] A Saudi princess was caught trying to leave the Shangri-La hotel in Gay Paree without settling a six million euro ($7.4 million) bill for her rooms, police said Saturday, confirming a report in the daily Le Gay Pareeien. Times are tough all over...
Maha al-Sudani, the former wife of Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face... n Crown Prince Nayef ben Abdel Aziz, tried to walk out on 3:30 am Thursday without paying for her suite and those of her 60-strong entourage, prompting staff to call in police, Le Gay Pareeien reported.
The Saudi Arabian ambassador was also contacted during the incident, added Le Gay Pareeien, which noted that Sudani enjoys diplomatic immunity.
When contacted by Agence La Belle France Presse, the luxury hotel's director Alain Borgers said that there are "no problems" with its clients and "no unpaid bills" at the moment.
The princess has already had previous run-ins over unpaid bills. In 2009, fashion chain Key Largo went to court to obtain 89,000 euros owed by the princess.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/04/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Huh. I've always been told that debts are a civil case.
But nobody thought it was a big deal. That's because politicians then weren't as "sophisticated" as they are these days. Or perhaps the electorate wasn't as "sophisticated".
Recently unearthed photographs taken by Danish explorers in the 1930s show glaciers in Greenland retreating faster than they are today, according to researchers.
The photos in question were taken by the seventh Thule Expedition to Greenland led by Dr Knud Rasmussen in 1932. The explorers were equipped with a seaplane, which they used to take aerial snaps of glaciers along the Arctic island's coasts.
After the expedition returned the photographs were used to make maps and charts of the area, then placed in archives in Denmark where they lay forgotten for decades. Then, in recent years, international researchers trying to find information on the history of the Greenland glaciers stumbled across them.
Taken together the pictures show clearly that glaciers in the region were melting even faster in the 1930s than they are today, according to Professor Jason Box, who works at the Byrd Polar Research Center at The Ohio State University.
There's much scientific interest in the Greenland ice sheet, as unlike most of the Arctic ice cap it sits on land: thus if it were to melt, serious sea level rises could occur (though the latest research says that this doesn't appear to be on the cards).
It's difficult to know exactly what's happening to the Greenland ice in total and very different estimates have been produced in recent times. However Professor Box says that many glaciers along the coasts have started retreating in the past decade. Meaning we may well understand again why it was named "Greenland" in the first place?
It now appears that the glaciers were retreating even faster eighty years ago: but nobody worried about it, and the ice subsequently came back again. Box theorises that this is likely to be because of sulphur pollution released into the atmosphere by humans, especially by burning coal and fuel oils. This is known to have a cooling effect. Uh oh, global cooling alert. Quick! We need tax incentives to buy cars from Cuba! Of course, that means we'll have a bunch of bumper stickers to vote for Castro all over the place, which nearly half the voters will take seriously.
Unfortunately atmospheric sulphur emissions also cause other things such as acid rain, and as a result rich Western nations cracked down on sulphates in the 1960s. Prof Box believes that this led to warming from the 1970s onward, which has now led to the glaciers retreating since around 2000. My, how quickly mother earth reacts to the tiniest inputs.
Other scientists have said recently that late-20th-century temperature rises in the Arctic may result largely from clean-air legislation intended to deal with acid rain: some have even gone so far as to suggest that rapid coal- and diesel-fuelled industrialisation in China is serving to prevent further warming right now. Had to deal with this glaring hole in their logic somehow, I guess.
Still other scientists, differing with Prof Box, offer another picture altogether of Arctic temperatures, in which there were peaks both in the 1930s and 1950s and cooling until the 1990s: and in which the warming trend which resulted in the melting seen by Rasmussen's expedition actually started as early as 1840, before the industrial revolution and human-driven carbon emission had even got rolling. In that scenario, variations in the Sun seem to have much more weight than is generally accepted by today's climatologists.
At any rate, the new information from the old Danish pictures adds some more data to the subject. The new study by Box and his co-authors is published by Nature Geoscience.
#3
TOPIX, FREEREPUBLIC > IN CEDEAR TREES, JAPANESE SCIENTISTS FIND EIGHTH-CENTURY [774-775 AD] COSMIC MYSTERY | MYSTERIOUS RADIATION BURST RECORDED IN TREE RINGS.
Earth bombarded in Year 774-775 AD wid cosmic rays from unknown source most likely NOT the Sun.
versus
* RENSE > [Green Real Blog] SUPER-SOLAR STORM TO HIT EARTH IN 2013 "CARRINGTON EFFECT", 400 NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS MAY [suddenly] SHUT DOWN OR EXPLODE.
* SAME > YAMAMOTO: IFF ANOTHER EARTHQUAKE HAPPENS, IT WILL BE THE END OF THE COUNTRY [Japan].
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] South Sudan has shut down more than 20 private universities that it said were operating illegally, placing the future of higher education on the spot in a country where public universities are only partially operational.
The minister for Higher Education, Science and Technology, Peter Adwok Nyaba, said the institutions were illegal for they have been operating on letters of no objection that were meant to only enable them acquire and develop land.
"The 'no objection letter' does not mean that you go and operate. You have to come back for guidelines and curriculum," Dr Adwok said on Sunday.
"You can't run a university without an act of parliament. These so called private universities don't have an act of parliament. They don't have the senate. They are not chartered. Their certificates will not be recognised," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/04/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Mandating them to provide free contraception services would have softened the headlines and achieved similar results.
#2
These universities were under the misapprehension that they could function without handing out copious amounts of baksheesh. Looks like South Sudan is turning into yet another sub-Saharan paradise.
[Al Ahram] Eliminated presidential candidates Hamdeen Sabbahi, Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh and Khaled Ali will hold a joint presser Monday morning to present a united stance on this month's scheduled presidential runoff vote.
The conference was first scheduled for Sunday evening, following a meeting between the three candidates earlier in the afternoon. However, the hip bone's connected to the leg bone... when the meeting lasted longer than expected, the conference was pushed to Monday at 11am at the Sabbahi campaign's Cairo headquarters.
Abul-Fotouh's campaign released a statement Sunday evening announcing that the candidates have also reached three points of agreement: Mubarak and his aides should receive urgent and fair retrials; the recently approved Political Disenfranchisement Law must be implemented (meaning disqualification for Mubarak's last PM and runoff contender, Ahmed Shafiq); and that a proposed presidential council, which emerged in Tahrir Square, should be respected and taken into consideration.
The meeting between the three candidates comes amid mass protests in Tahrir Square against Saturday's verdict that handed Mubarak and his interior minister a life sentence but surprisingly acquitted senior police chiefs on charges of participating in the crime of killing protesters during the January 25 Revolution.
Protesters largely denounce the presence of Ahmed Shafiq in Egypt's first genuine multi-candidate presidential elections, as he served as Mubarak's last PM during the infamous Battle of the Camel on 2 February 2011.
Runoffs set for 16 and 17 June will pitt Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Mursi against Shafiq.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/04/2012 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Egypt's ex-strongman Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... was issued regulation blue prison uniform on Sunday a day after being sentenced to life and taken to a jail that once housed his opponents, official media reported.
The state news agency MENA reported that guards in the Cairo Tora prison took his official jail photograph and supplied him with his prisoner number.
Prison authorities turned down his request to continue receiving treatment from doctors at a military hospital where he was tossed in the clink But I'm sick, honest I am! I'm sick of being held prisoner! while on trial for involvement in the killings of protesters during last year's uprising.
The 84-year-old, who reportedly has a heart condition, is being kept in the prison's medical wing.
Security officials and state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
had reported on Saturday that Mubarak suffered a "health crisis" on arrival by helicopter at the prison after sentencing, and that he was revived with oxygen.
The former strongman broke down in tears and initially refused to leave the helicopter at the facility that once housed opponents of his regime, many of whom were freed after the uprising that toppled him in February 2011.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/04/2012 00:00 ||
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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, dogged by widespread speculation about his health, appeared chipper and energetic in a television appearance over the weekend.
"What a lovely breeze, what lovely weather," Chavez said Saturday as he opened a meeting with a delegation from Belarus several weeks before President Alexander Lukashenko's scheduled visit to the South American nation.
State-run VTV showed Chavez walking down a long hall with the Belarusian delegation before delivering a speech on the front steps of the palace.
Facing a row of cameras, the Venezuelan president spoke effusively about his Bolivarian revolution, football, friends and the weather.
Live television appearances have long been common for the Venezuelan president, but have dwindled in recent months as he undergoes cancer treatment.
On Tuesday, the Venezuelan president spoke for several hours, making no mention of his health, during a cabinet meeting that was broadcast live.
Eleven months after Chavez first announced his cancer diagnosis, Venezuelan officials have released few details about his treatment. Neither Chavez nor anyone in his government have publicly discussed what kind of cancer he has or provided a detailed prognosis for the 57-year-old leader.
In May, Chavez said he had successfully completed his latest cycle of radiation therapy. Congratulations.
"This week I have been holed up, working, rigorously following the doctor's orders to recuperate as soon as possible from the effects of the radiation therapy. And I am recuperating gradually," he said in a May 18 telephone interview with VTV.
But speculation has continued to swirl about the president's political future, and for months many have turned to media accounts for information on Chavez's health.
Last week, a report from veteran U.S. television journalist Dan Rather described Chavez's health situation as "dire," citing an unidentified source's assessment that the Venezuelan president may not see the final results of the October elections due to the progression of his cancer.
"This reporter has been told that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has metastatic rhabdomyosarcoma, an aggressive cancer that has 'entered the end stage,'" Rather said on the website for his HDNet show "Dan Rather Reports."
Rather, a longtime CBS News anchor and "60 Minutes" correspondent, said the information came from a "highly respected source close to Chavez and who is in a position to know his medical condition and history." Fidel, you're altzheimer's is starting to make problems.
However, Rather said that "there is only one source for identifying the cancer and the prognosis quoted in the first part of the story."
He did not disclose the source of his report, which has not been confirmed by CNN.
The report -- which also referred to Chavez as a "dictator" -- drew swift ire from the Venezuelan government. The next day, the nation's information ministry distributed an editorial from close Chavez ally Eva Golinger titled, "Shame on You, Dan Rather."
"Dan Rather has always emphasized the necessity of 'courage' in reporting, yet he shows cowardice and sloppy ambition by racing to publish unconfirmed reports on President Chavez's health, and by touting slanderous epithets to describe the Venezuelan head of state," Golinger wrote. I'll withhold judgment until you die of metastatic rhabdomyosarcoma, then we'll see what you have to say.
Golinger said Chavez was "a far cry from being on his 'death bed,' as Rather implies."
"Chavez has cancer, and he is fighting it hard, with the same strength he has used to propel his nation forward, often against the toughest obstacles," she wrote.
Chavez, who has ruled oil-rich Venezuela since 1999, is a controversial figure with outspoken, antagonistic views toward the United States. Ruled? How Obamaesque.
His pro-Cuban, socialist policies are also controversial domestically and have increasingly polarized the nation and national media, according to the Atlanta-based Carter Center, which provided election monitors in the nation's 2006 presidential elections. Don't vote for him, I said. He's a socialist, I said. Never worked before, I said. He'll loot you for all you and your children are worth and retire behind his army, I said. You gotta be kiddin' me, you're a bunch of flaming IDIOTS, I said.
Recent polls have offered different assessments of how Chavez's health could impact Venezuelan voters when they cast their ballots on October 7. Their vote may actually count again for the first time since '99?
According to the Datanalisis polling firm, Chavez's popularity stood at about 49% last year. The pro-government GIS XXI reports that 86% of the population admires how he has handled his illness and 45.7% said Chavez's health hadn't affected the national political situation. Not a bit. They're both gonna die.
CNN affiliate Globovision TV reported that polling firm Varianzas, which claims to be independent and has no international affiliation, puts Chavez at a 51.3% percent lead in the latest polls ahead of his opponent, Henrique Capriles Radonski, who registered a 46.5%.
Varianzas President Rafael Delgado told reporters in May that the October presidential elections will be very close, and trends could quickly change depending on campaigning styles and economic trends. Hint, hint .... Oh, who am I trying to kid. Socialists stick together.
[Al Ahram] At least 38 people injured in a clashes between neo-Nazi demonstrators and far-left counter-protesters overnight in the northern German port city of Hamburg
Posted by: Fred ||
06/04/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
I hope those seven hundred are the sum total of Neo-Nazis--there's trouble in Flußtadt (=River City) if they're gaining popularity.
Canada has formally withdraw from the United Nations World Tourism Office (UNWTO), a move it said was formalized this week over the agency's recognition of Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe as being representative of international tourism.
Another smart move by our neighbors to the north.
The UNWTO announced that it gave an Open Letter on Travel and Tourism to the presidents of Zimbabwe and Zambia on May 29, in recognition of a tripartite agreement with both countries on the hosting of the 20th Session of the UN General Assembly in Victoria Falls, which straddles the borders of both countries.
Yet, the recognition of Mugabe at a UN event was enough for Baird, who called it the "last straw" for Canada's participation in the UNWTO.
US Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, commenting on the UNWTO's action said, "The UN has hit a new low with the naming of Mugabe as a UN tourism envoy, as if North Korea chairing the Conference on Disarmament and Cuba serving as vice president of the Human Rights Council had not been enough...The UN's legitimization of brutal dictators is a disgrace. Mugabe's terrible human rights record and intentionally-ruinous economic policies have made him the subject of US and EU sanctions--including a travel ban. This UN honor for Mugabe comes just days after the newly reappointed, anti-Israel, anti-Western UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called for the lifting of international sanctions on Zimbabwe. The continued rewards the UN bestows upon the world's dictators has reached the point of being absurd.
Despite Canada's political strength in promptly and publicly criticizing Mugabe for any UN recognition and in withdrawing from the UNWTO and Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen's strong statement, there was understandably no similar criticism expressed by the Obama Administration.
[Dawn] Flagging the twin deficits -- budget deficit at 7.4 per cent and current account deficit at 1.7 per cent of GDP this year -- as top challenges, Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Sheikh did not rule out on Saturday the possibility of seeking a fresh bailout package from the International Monetary Fund in six months.
Addressing a post-budget briefing, he said "we are constantly in touch with the IMF", adding the purpose of creating the IMF was to help its member countries in difficult balance-of-payments position so that they could stand on their own feet.
Asked if Pakistain was going to seek a fresh IMF programme in six months, Mr Sheikh said his official position required him to speak carefully because his words could be interpreted by different people in different manners.
In his written statement, the minister said that 'containing current account and budget deficits' was on top of the five challenges which in his view confronted Pakistain at present. Others included acceleration of growth and creation of jobs, overcoming energy shortages, increasing investments and reducing public debt.
The statement put the current account deficit for the outgoing fiscal year at $4 billion or 1.7 per cent of GDP and overall fiscal deficit for the current year at about Rs1.5 trillion or 7.4 per cent of GDP, including Rs391 billion for power sector subsidies and debt consolidation and current account deficit.
The current account deficit for the next year has been projected at $4.8 billion or 1.9 per cent of GDP and budget deficit at Rs1.105 trillion or 4.8 per cent of GDP.
Mr Sheikh explained that when the previous IMF programme was acquired in 2008 to support the balance of payments, Pakistain was in the crisis situation, facing current account and fiscal deficits and high international oil prices. The exchange rate had increased from Rs60 to Rs80 and inflation was high. Pakistain, he said, had repaid $1.2 billion to the IMF this year under an agreed schedule.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/04/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
The Pakistani government has embraced sharia finance & is littered with Islamic banks, but when they want real money, they seek interest-based financing from the IMF.
Posted by: American Delight ||
06/04/2012 6:46 Comments ||
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#2
but when they want real money, they seek interest-based financing from the IMF.
Posted by American Delight
Finance interest is easily offset by US foreign aid payments. It's a wash, no real deviation from sharia.
[Dawn] Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain on Sunday termed a news telecast by private news channels regarding killing of four women of Kohistan ...a backwoods district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa distinguished by being even more rustic than is the norm among the local Pashtuns.... totally wrong and baseless.
The Information Minister said that he had talked to the DCO Kohistan, the DIG Hazara and Home Secretary who had termed the reports about the incident baseless.
However, corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds... he said that the DCO Kohistan had been directed to reinvestigate the reports and send an investigation team to the area to further probe the matter.
He urged the media to confirm news from the authorities concerned before releasing or telecasting them.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/04/2012 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Compare wid DAILY TIMES.PK > [Pakistan] FORCED MARRIAGE REPLACE RAPE AS WORST CRIME AGZ WOMEN.
The sad part is that many Pak Politicos + Groups, despite recognizing the many many serious or violent abuses that occur agz women, are themselves not willing to change or reform anything due to the tenets/premises of Sharia.
SHARIA = ISLAMIC LAW, + PRESERVATION OF TRADITIONAL FAMILY INSTITUTIONS, ETC. MATTERS MORE THAN PERSONAL SAFETY.
IOW, the abuse + violence agz women will continue, + perpetrators will continue to go [mostly] unpunished or even not arrested. Iff anything, the Fed-Local Govts will help the Perps escape any kind of litigation, punishment, or public-media association wid abusive or violent acts.
[SGT.SCHULTZ here].
versus
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > [Video] CHILD BROTHELS IN BHARAT [India].
BAGHDAD Despite sectarian bombings and political gridlock, Iraqs crude oil production is soaring, providing a singular bright spot for the nations future and relief for global oil markets as the West tightens sanctions on Iranian exports.
The increased flow and vital port improvements have produced a 20 percent jump in exports this year to nearly 2.5 million barrels of oil a day, making Iraq one of the premier producers in OPEC for the first time in decades.
Energy analysts say that the Iraqi boom coupled with increased production in Saudi Arabia and the near total recovery of Libyas oil industry should cushion oil markets from price spikes and give the international community additional leverage over Iran when new sanctions take effect in July.
Iraq helps enormously, said David L. Goldwyn, the former State Department coordinator for international energy affairs in the Obama administration. Even if Iraq increased its oil exports by only half of what it is projecting by next year, he said, You would be replacing nearly half of the future Iranian supply potentially displaced by tighter sanctions.
For Iraq, the resurgence of oil, which it is already pumping at rates seen only once and briefly since Saddam Hussein took power in 1979, is vital to its postwar success. Oil provides more than 95 percent of the governments revenues, has enabled the building of roads and the expansion of social services, and has greatly strengthened the Shiite-led governments hand in this ethnically divided country.
Oil has also brought its share of pitfalls for the fledgling democracy, fostering corruption and patronage, and aggravating tensions with the Kurdish minority in the north over the division of profits, a festering issue that could end up fracturing the country.
The Iraqi government says it can add an additional 400,000 barrels a day of production by next year, and it has announced a goal of producing 10 million barrels a day by 2017, which would put it in a league with Saudi Arabia.
Few independent analysts say they believe the larger goal is realistic, but oil company executives have been impressed by Iraqs progress and ambition.
What the government is embarking on and the increase in production they are looking for under all of these contracts is unique in the world, said Michael Townshend, president of BP Iraq. But, he cautioned, Nobody has yet managed to increase oil production in their country to the extent Iraq is planning to. Its hugely ambitious, and it will take a lot of things to work correctly.
The countrys improving oil fortunes are well timed to compensate for Irans declining oil output, which according to OPEC fell by 12 percent in the first three months of the year as India, China and other Asian nations have gradually cut purchases under pressure from the United States and Europe.
Iraqs role in ameliorating the effects of those sanctions in the oil market could create tensions with Iran, a strong backer and ally of the Iraqi government. But oil experts say exports are too valuable for Iraq to allow its relationship with Iran to impede production.
The recovery of Iraqs oil industry after decades of wars, sanctions and neglect began in 2009 and 2010 as security improved and Baghdad signed a series of technical service contracts with foreign companies like Exxon Mobil, BP, China National Petroleum Corporation and ENI of Italy. The companies brought in modern seismic equipment and modern well recovery techniques to resuscitate old fields.
The deals have been only modestly profitable for the foreign companies, but foreign executives express cautious optimism that Iraq can eventually produce oil in amounts that could put it in an elite group of exporters with Saudi Arabia and Russia sometime in the 2020s.
Iraq produces around three million barrels a day, and few analysts believe it can reach its goal of 10 million barrels a day by 2017, a target Baghdad recently reduced from a previous estimate of 12 million barrels a day by that year. But Hans Nijkamp, Royal Dutch Shells Iraq country chairman, estimates that Iraq could produce 6 million to 10 million barrels a day by early next decade, which is really substantial.
International oil executives say the government bureaucracy is still slow and poorly coordinated in building new port and pipeline infrastructure to get oil to the tankers from the fields. The political battle over divvying up profits has prevented the enactment of a national oil law, meaning that the companies need to follow myriad regulations, some of which date back to the Ottoman Empire. Electrical shortages are forcing politicians to choose between serving the oil companies or restive civilian populations that want more reliable utility service.
To increase output, the country will need to develop a huge water project to filter and pump seawater into old oil fields to increase the pressure required to coax crude out of the ground. Planning has begun, but the project is progressing slowly.
Iraq will also need to negotiate a sizable export quota within OPEC to accommodate its increasing potential, a nettlesome process that could produce tensions with Saudi Arabia and Iran. Why should Iraq join OPEC?
Some of the problems were on display at last weeks oil and gas auction, the countrys fourth postwar bidding round, where only 3 contracts were awarded out of 12 up for bid.
The auction, in an auditorium at the Ministry of Oil, had the trappings of a militarized movie premiere, with red carpets, velvet ropes, hordes of photographers and a white-uniformed honor guard carrying Kalashnikov rifles fixed with bayonets. The proceedings were carried live on state television. An elevator-music rendition of Lionel Richies Hello played over and over. The room was packed with diplomats, politicians and foreign oil executives, but few actual bidders.
There are three minutes left and it seems like no one wants to bid, Abdul Mahdy al-Ameedi, the ministry official overseeing the auction, said at one point.
The disappointing auction was less a reflection of lack of interest in Iraqs energy sector than of the tough terms demanded by the government, the location of some of the fields in dangerous and remote regions of the country, and the fact that many of the blocks up for bid were for natural gas, which is less attractive to foreign companies than oil.
Iraq also used the auction to slap Exxon Mobils hand for signing production sharing contracts for 850,000 acres in the Kurdistan region without getting permission from the central government, denying the company the right to bid. But at the same time, Iraq has not touched Exxon Mobils oil contracts in the south, a sign of pragmatism, or perhaps paralysis, international oil analysts said.
Exxon Mobil has by far the largest stake of any American company in Iraq, but most of the major players are European and Asian, like Lukoil and Gazprom from Russia, and Chinese companies like China National Petroleum and China National Offshore Oil Corporation. So it's easy to see how we went to war for oil...
Despite the uncertainties, the foreign companies say they are staying.
We are in Iraq because we think there is big potential, huge production growth, said Claudio Descalzi, chief operating officer for exploration and production at ENI, the Italian oil giant. In the future, things can only get better.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/04/2012 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] West Bank residents say finding jobs in Israel is getting harder as employers opt to hire cheaper day-laborers
Paleostinians who receive work permits in Israel expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... over the growing number of African work-migrants and infiltrators, who they say are quickly taking their place in the workforce.
The issue of work permits in Israel is one many Paleostinians take personally. As such, they are well aware of the growing debate within the Israeli society regarding the migrant problem.
"The Sudanese are a problem for us," Ahmed Shubaqi, from Ramallah, told Ynet. "They are willing to work for next-to-nothing and places that used to hire us are now hiring them, because it costs them less."
Unemployment rates in the West Bank are on the rise, but while there is work to be found in construction within the Paleostinian Authority, the majority of Paleostinian say the pay offered -- about NIS 50 a day (roughly $13) -- is simply too low. The result is a growing demand for work permits in Israel.
One Paleostinian explained that hiring Paleostinians is in both parties' interest: "Both sides prefer hiring Paleostinians over infiltrators. We come in, do the work and go home. It's better that the money stays here -- in Israel and the West Bank. Besides, the Paleostinians do a better job."
According to official data 51,500 Paleostinians received work permits in 2011, with 28,000 working in Israel and 23,500 working in the greater West Bank area.
So far, in 2012 54,600 Paleostinian -- or 16% of the Paleostinian workforce -- received work permits. A Paleostinian day-laborer working in Israel makes over twice as much as his Paleostinian counterpart.
It is estimated that illegal Paleostinian aliens make up 4% of the Paleostinian workforce.
The defense establishment sees granting Paleostinians work permits in Israel as a mitigation meant to assist the Paleostinian population -- which coincides with Israel's interests.
#1
"The Sudanese are a problem for us," Ahmed Shubaqi, from Ramallah, told Ynet. "They are willing to work for next-to-nothing and places that used to hire us are now hiring them, because it costs them less."
Israeli scientists have cultivated a cannabis plant that doesn't get people stoned in a development that may help those smoking marijuana for medical purposes, a newspaper said on Wednesday.
According to the Maariv daily, the new cannabis looks, smells and even tastes the same, but does not induce any of the feelings normally associated with smoking marijuana that are brought on by the substance THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol. no comment
#1
I thought it was called "ditch weed" and was around until massive spraying.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
06/04/2012 10:14 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Pot Lite? Blunt-less? No-stone? The new Down-low? Doubt it will catch on--'strapless' Mary Janes won't sell well and kill jobs in the med marijuana field.
#4
On the positive side, most of the current "medical" marijuana users will be miraculously cured of their glaucoma as soon as the drug stops getting them high.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
06/04/2012 12:50 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Still, I'd like to think the legitimate ones, the guys with cancer and such, could get a little high once in awhile.
#6
My grandmother had glacoma and a prescription to get Federal cannabis. I think it drove my hippie uncle nuts that she never used the prescription (or allowed it to be misused by others).
#7
Marinol (Dronabinol) is in a class of medications called cannabinoids. It works by affecting the area of the brain that controls nausea, vomiting, and appetite. It is legally used for chemotherapy patients to curb nausea and vomiting. It is also used to treat excessive weight loss. However, a friend of mine who underwent chemo said he did much care for Marinol and it didn't provide the high that weed did.
#8
Pot without the buzz, curly lightbulbs with the luminous intensity of a kerosene lamp, and dishwashing detergent that isn't. Man, the future is looking dim. And where's my flying car?
#9
Like non alcoholic beer or decaf coffee, what the hell good is that for?
I smoked it on chemo. Know what it got me? A decent night's sleep. No waking up to heave every two hours. It's actually what got me over the hump.
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.
But nobody thought it was a big deal.
South Sudan has shut down more than 20 private universities that it said were operating illegally, placing the future of higher education on the spot in a country where public universities are only partially operational.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, dogged by widespread speculation about his health, appeared chipper and energetic in a television appearance over the weekend.
[Al Ahram] At least 38 people injured in a clashes between neo-Nazi demonstrators and far-left counter-protesters overnight in the northern German port city of Hamburg
Canada has formally withdraw from the United Nations World Tourism Office (UNWTO), a move it said was formalized this week over the agency's recognition of Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe as being representative of international tourism.
Flagging the twin deficits -- budget deficit at 7.4 per cent and current account deficit at 1.7 per cent of GDP this year -- as top challenges, Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Sheikh did not rule out on Saturday the possibility of seeking a fresh bailout package from the International Monetary Fund in six months.
