[An Nahar] Paris Hilton unveiled her first real estate project Thursday in metropolitan Manila and said she wants to follow in the footsteps of her great-grandfather and grandfather, who created and led a luxury hotel empire. She's still around, huh?
Hilton inaugurated the urban Gay Paree Beach Club, which she designed in collaboration with Philippine developer Century Properties. The bean-shaped, three-story club fronting a man-made beach is within the resort-themed Azure condominium community in Paranaque City.
The 33-year-old businesswoman has acted in television and films and worked on perfumes and other projects, but she said the new project is just a start to more property ventures.
"This is probably the one project I'm most proud about because real estate is something that runs in my blood," Hilton said.
She told news hounds that ever since she was a little girl she had looked up to her great-grandfather and grandfather and she had "incredible mentors." Conrad Hilton bought his first hotel in Texas in 1919, and his son, Barron Hilton, later led the family business.
"So I always really admired them and want to follow their footsteps," Hilton added. "This is my first step towards it and I'm so proud and honored to be doing this with Century Properties."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I thought videomaking in low-light conditions was the something that ran in her blood.
[An Nahar] A Mississippi farmer who made global headlines two weeks ago when he woke up in a body bag at a funeral home died on Thursday aged 78, local media said.
Walter "Snowball" Williams passed away in the early hours, the Clarion-Ledger newspaper in the state capital Jackson reported.
"Well, they came and got him again around 4:15 am," said Williams' nephew Eddie Hester, quoted by Jackson television station WAPT. "I think he's gone this time."
Williams, who entered a hospice in February because of congestive heart failure, was first pronounced dead on February 27 after nurses and a coroner detected no pulse.
He was transferred to a funeral home, only to start rustling inside a body bag -- prompting duly astonished staff to summon an ambulance to take him back to his hospice bed.
Williams, a father of 11 with six great-grandchildren, said he had merely fallen into a deep sleep, but family members felt God had given him extra time for a reason.
"You'd be surprised how many people this has touched in more ways than we can ever put our hands on," daughter Mary Williams told the Clarion-Ledger.
"This is a testimony that will live longer than we will."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I'd put off the burial for a little while, just in case...
#2
Makes me wonder, I've heard reports that many people exhumed bear signs of premature burial, In other words, scratching at the casket lid, I plan to be cremated, I DON'T plan to suffocate In my coffin.
Now to plan NOT to be burned alive?
I've instructed my daughter to BE SURE.
(In other words, cut off a finger or two, any blood, wait.)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/15/2014 10:28 Comments ||
Top||
#3
I've instructed my heirs to shoot my remains in the LaGrange 5 Garage. If they fail this minor damn request I swear to fuck to haunt their Porches wiring until the end of time.
#4
"you poke him...no, you do it. He's startin' to get gamey...no, he always smelled like that..."
Scenes played out at the local medical examiner's office.
There was one local worthy in Cut-and-Shoot, TX, that had this story play out TWICE. He was so funky nobody wanted to examine too close. He was finally done in by a UPS truck.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/15/2014 18:38 Comments ||
Top||
#5
He can still vote right?
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
03/15/2014 18:58 Comments ||
Top||
A Connecticut police officer commented on a Facebook page a few days ago, saying he would "give my left nut to bang down your door and come for your gun...", and now the Branford, Connecticut Police department is trying to tamp down on the reaction by talking with a known Connecticut pro RKBA man.
As I have said before, patriot and pro-gun blogs have been outraged, expressing in stark and bellicose terms about Connecticut's experiment in fascist police work, and now one of their henchmen, identified as Joseph Peterson, has given the game away.
Now the police chief of Branford, Kevin Halloran, is "investigating" the officer and is willing to make an apology.
I don't live in Connecticut, but it seems to me apologies are a little late at this point. Connecticut police have gone over the side with Connecticut politicians with this unconstitutional power grab, and now they are dealing with threats that would make any thug with a badge think twice about banging "down your door and come for your gun..."
Molon Labe is not just a fine sentiment any more, and as was pointed out earlier, the Wacos and Ruby Ridges of yesteryear won't be met with silence in the night. There will be real consequences.
Meanwhile at the federal level, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raided a shop in California which sells 80 percent receivers on spurious suspicions that the company, Armes Armor, was illegally selling firearms. The JBTs demanded a customer list and other business records. The company, to their everlasting credit refused to comply, gaining a temporary restraining order pending a hearing next week.
As the people at Western Rifle Shooters remind us constantly, the Bad People are coming first for your guns, and then your life.
Loads.
Rantburg's summary for arms and ammunition:
Prices for pistol and rifle ammunition were mostly higher. Prices for rimfire ammunition have absolutely jumped higher.
Prices for used pistols and used rifles were mixed.
Pistol Ammo
.45 Caliber, 230 grain, From Last Week: -.01 each (After unchanged previous two weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Goose Island Sales, Tulammo, steel cased, .33 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: LV Ammo, RN, reloaded, .34 per round (Unchanged three of last four weeks)
.40 Caliber Smith & Wesson, 180 grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (Unchanged 5 of 9 previous weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Selway Armory, BVAC, reloaded, .28 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 250 rounds: Freedom Munitions, Store Brand, reloaded, .27 per round (Unchanged from last week)
9mm Parabellum, 115 grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (+.07 over previous four weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Freedom Munitions, Store Brand, RN, .25 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: SG Ammo, Brown Bear, reloaded, .22 per round (-.02 each after unchanged previous 2 weeks)
.357 Magnum, 158 grain, From Last Week: +.04 Each (!)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Bud's Gun Shop, Geco, HP, .49 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 250 Rounds: LAX Ammo, Store Brand, .39 per round (Unchanged from previous week)
Rifle Ammunition
.223 Caliber/5.56mm 55 grain, From Last Week: +.04 Each (!)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: LG Outdoors, Wolf Ammo, steel cased, .29 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: SG Ammo, Wolf, steel cased, .30 per round (+.01 from the previous week )
.308 NATO 145 grain, From Last Week: -.03 Each (-.10 over previous six weeks (!))
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Selway Armory, MFS, steel cased, .55 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: The Sportsman Guide, MFS, steel cased, .56 per round (Unchanged (three weeks))
7.62x39 AK 123 Grain, From Last Week: +.01 Each
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Ammunition to go, Wolf, steel core and case, .26 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: SG Ammo, Wolf, steel core and case, .23 per round (-.01 Each (After +.03 Each over two weeks))
.22 LR 40 Grain, From Last Week: -.06 Each (!)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Munire USA, Blazer, .13 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Federal, .17 per round (-.01 from previous week )
Guns for Private Sale
Rifles
.223/5.56mm (AR Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $734 Last Week Avg: $810 (-)
California: Palmetto State Armory: $800
Texas: Del-ton: $700
New York: Del-ton: $795
Virgina: American Tactical Imports: $675
Florida: Ruger AR: $699
.308 NATO (AR-10 Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $1,125 Last Week Avg: $1,344 (-)
California: DPMS LR308: $1,200 (Same Gun)
Texas: DPMS LR308: $1,200
New York: None Available
Virginia: FN Defender 2000 SPM16: $1,100 (Same Gun)
Florida: Ruger SR-762/308: $1,000
7.62x39mm (AK Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $794 Last Week Avg: $678 (+)
California: M&M: $875
Texas: Wil-Mor: $800
New York: Unknown brand: $1,000
Virginia: Zastava (Synthetic Stock): $600
Florida: IO : $695
Hmmm, with the right accessories, you can turn an M1 into a Scary Black Rifle.
Looks like Connecticut has bitten off more than it can chew. Nice to see the push-back. Yeah, we actually do believe in the Constitution. It is what makes us Americans.
#3
those same LEO's and Politicos have homes, family, and friends. Threaten law abiding citizens with unconstitutional laws and illegal raids and the angry peons might just decide other laws are just as ignorable
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/15/2014 10:53 Comments ||
Top||
#4
That's how society comes apart.
The alternative is that we vote out each and every legislator who voted for this law. We'll see.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/15/2014 11:08 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Cops got to go home at night. Just saying. Until they start living in barracks and controlled access facilities, they'll be like a lot of cops around the world, who want to get up the next morning and go to work.
[MAGHAREBIA] Algeria's constitutional council on Thursday (March 13th) approved six candidates to run in the April 17th presidential elections, APS reported.
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika ... 10th president of Algeria. He was elected in 1999 and is currently on his third or fourth term, who will probably die in office of old age... will compete with former premier Ali Benflis, Algerian National Front (FNA) chairman Moussa Touati, Workers Party leader Louisa Hanoune, Abdelaziz Belaid of the El-Moustakbel Front (FM), and Ahd 54 leader Ali Fawzi Rebaine.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wreckage, Captain Poindexter awoke groggily, his hand still stuck in the Ming vase... Bouteflika appointed Energy Minister Youcef Yousfi as interim premier after Abdelmalik Sellal resigned the post to run the president's campaign.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[MAGHAREBIA] Beautiful young women enter the popular "Miss Tunisia" pageant every year to win modelling contracts and other prizes. For promoters, the 2014 edition is also a chance to revive the country's troubled tourism sector.
Eighteen contestants, representing nearly all of Tunisia's governorates, will begin training on Saturday (March 15th) for the April 5th beauty pageant in Carthage.
"We have to send a clear message - to Tunisian men and women and the rest of world - that we're a life-loving people who seek to stop the intolerance and violence that has marred our daily lives in recent years," said Atf al-Marsani, one of the volunteer organisers.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[An Nahar] Zim-bob-we's President Bob Muggsy Mugabe Octogenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case... on Friday vowed to crackdown on corruption involving high-profile officials at state institutions following recent damning exposures of graft, including at the national airline.
"If there was any corruption, people will answer for it, I tell you," Mugabe said at a belated party hosted by civil servants and security forces to celebrate his 90th birthday.
His warning came after media reports of alleged corruption involving bigwigs across a number of state-run bodies including the government pensions authority, power utilities and the national airline, Air Zim-bob-we.
"It has ruined the country," said Mugabe describing corruption as a "growing disease".
The media has also reported on grossly inflated salaries for bosses at the public broadcaster which failed to pay workers for more than six months.
And the CEO of a public service health insurance fund, which has been in arrears in its remittances to hospitals and practitioners, has reportedly been receiving a monthly salary of $230,000 (165,000 euros).
Mugabe also poked fun at the tensions in the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) saying the party's in-fighting was caused by their loss to his party in general elections last year.
"It's disorganized them as you can see," he said.
The MDC has been embroiled in squabbles following the suspension of deputy treasurer Elton Mangoma after he suggested Morgan Tsvangirai should step down as leader of the party following last year's defeat to Mugabe.
Mugabe, in power since 1980, turned 90 on February 21.
Birthday celebrations were held at a stadium in the small town of Marondera, east of the capital and attended by thousands of supporters.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
The Saudi Gazette reported that a local inspection team, acting on a tip, confiscated approximately 300 pounds of persimmon that had Israel stickers.
Nineteen miles from the border, somebody is quite certain that the locals are not just willing, but eager for Israeli products. One wonders if the seller just hadn't got round to relabelling the stuff, or if that was -- very probably -- a selling point worth the risk of getting caught? I ask because the final sentence of the article is a bit of personal experience from the journalist:
When I worked at a kibbutz plastics factory years ago, we made sure that the product being shipped to Saudi Arabia was sent in a box marked Made in Jordan.
#3
When I worked at a kibbutz plastics factory years ago, we made sure that the product being shipped to Saudi Arabia was sent in a box marked "Made in Jordan." Posted by: trailing wife
Got to be a book or short story here somewhere :-)
In a serious escalation of tension in Crimea, a Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest was kidnapped on Saturday.
Sources in Ukraine say Father Mykola Kvych, a pastor and a Ukrainian military chaplain, was abducted by pro-Russian forces after celebrating the liturgy. Reports Saturday evening suggest Father Kvych may have been released, but those reports have not yet been confirmed.
Every abduction is a terrible event for everybody involved, said Bishop Borys Gudziak, the Eparch of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Eparchy. Its a gross violation of human rights and God-given human dignity. He expressed his grave concern about the repercussions of the kidnapping of Father Kvych.
Earlier this month, Ukrainian Greek Catholic priests received oral and written threats warning them to leave Crimea. Many priests, however, have chosen to remain with their people.
[An Nahar] A United States surveillance drone has been intercepted above the Ukrainian region of Crimea, a Russian state arms and technology group said Friday.
"The drone was flying at about 4,000 meters (12,000 feet) and was virtually invisible from the ground. It was possible to break the link with U.S. operators with complex radio-electronic" technology, said Rostec in a statement.
The drone fell "almost intact into the hands of self-defense forces" added Rostec, which said it had manufactured the equipment used to down the aircraft, but did not specify who was operating it.
"Judging by its identification number, UAV MQ-5B belonged to the 66th American Reconnaissance Brigade, based in Bavaria," Rostec said on its website, which also carried a picture of what it said was the captured drone.
The photograph appeared to show an apparently armed drone in flight, rather than debris.
The Crimean port of Sevastopol is home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet, which is believed to be equipped with detection equipment.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
[An Nahar] Around 500 Crimean Tatars erupted into the streets after prayers on Islam's holy day Friday to protest against an "illegal" referendum on closer ties with Russia which they plan to boycott.
Waving Ukrainian flags and chanting "Go away Putin" and "Russian soldiers go home", the protestors lined one of the main roads in Bakhchysaray, the biggest Tatar settlement in Crimea.
The rally was held under the slogan "No to the illegal referendum!" to be held on Sunday following a decision by the Medzhlis, the Tatar parliament.
Earlier, the Tatars were urged to resist "provocations" at Friday prayers at the 16th century Big Khan mosque, the town's largest.
The demonstration was peaceful but watched from the other side of the road by around half a dozen pro-Moscow self-defense forces.
One protestor, Fatima Suittarova, 40, came to the rally with her young daughter.
"We don't even want to think about the possibility of joining Russia," she told AFP.
"We see the future of our nation only with Ukraine."
Another protestor, 63-year-old Said Umir, said he feared the prospect of Crimea -- currently an autonomous peninsula which is part of Ukraine -- joining Russia.
"Every five years, Russia has war and we don't want our children to be fighting for them," he said.
A few trucks carrying Russian forces were stationed on Bakhchysaray's main road out of the town on Friday morning, an AFP news hound saw, but they did not appear at the demonstration.
A convoy of dozens of cars waving Russian flags and tooting their horns did drive by, drawing loud chants from the crowd.
The Tatars are native to Crimea and were the main ethnic group on the peninsula until they were deported en masse by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin during World War II.
They only started returning as the Cold War was ending in the late 1980s and currently make up some 12 percent of Crimea's mostly Russian-speaking population of two million people.
Worshipers outside the mosque after Friday prayers spoke of their fears about the future.
"Only Allah knows what will happen -- we just want there to be peace," said Haji Rasim Islam Settar Ogoli, 79.
"Ukrainians, Tatars, Russians are brothers here. We already saw a lot of things because we are old and we want to live in peace."
Another man, 83-year-old Rasim, said he felt unsafe due to the presence of Russian forces around the town.
"How can you feel with armed people around? You don't expect something good," he said.
"We're surrounded by the army so what can we do about it?"
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I await Russian response with bated breath---and more than a little envy.
[An Nahar] Russia has launched a criminal investigation into Ukrainian nationalist leader Oleg Tyagnybok for allegedly fighting Russian forces in Chechnya, the powerful Investigative Committee said Friday, in a largely symbolic move.
Tyagnybok, the leader of the parliamentary faction of the Svoboda (Freedom) party, is suspected of fighting "on the side of Chechen separatists from 1994 to 1995," the Investigative Committee said in a statement.
The agency, which investigates serious crime, named Tyagnybok as among a group of at least seven who are suspected of forming an "armed band" and taking part in attacks on Russians.
If they are convicted of being organizers of an armed band, they could face up to 15 years in prison.
"It is now becoming obvious that many radical Ukrainian activists calling for the destruction of Russian citizens and just (ethnic) Russians, have great experience not only in making calls but also in torturing and murdering Russian citizens, what's more on Russian soil," the Investigative Committee said.
The Investigative Committee said it suspected Dmytro Yarosh, the leader of Pravy Sektor, or Right Sector, an ultra-nationalist movement, fought alongside Tyagnybok.
Last week, Russia said it was investigating Yarosh, whose supporters clashed with riot police at protests in Kiev, for allegedly inciting acts of "terror" in Russia.
Tyagnybok's biography on the party's website said he began serving as a local councilor in the western city of Lviv in 1994, aged 25.
The Kremlin waged a first war against separatist rebels in Chechnya in 1994-1996 and then a second in 1999.
The opening of such criminal cases seems to be aimed largely at discrediting Ukraine's new rulers in the eyes of Russians.
On February 21, Tyagnybok was one of the three opposition leaders to sign a deal with then-President Viktor Yanukovych aimed at ending the violence in Kiev.
He does not have a position in the new government but heads the party's faction in the Verkhovna Rada parliament.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Two can play the lawfare game --- who'd guess it?
#5
Grom likes the jackboots, he preparedly posts so. Gtom you'd have fit right in with Soros and the SS boys, turning over Jews in order to be the one wearing the boots.
[An Nahar] Spanish campaigners accuse the country's Catholic Church of trying to cover up the Islamic history of Cordoba Cathedral, a world heritage site that was originally a mosque.
It is one of the most famous Islamic sites in Europe, but those coming to learn about that are left none the wiser by the information leaflets given out to tourists, critics say.
"For the citizens of Cordoba, what has hurt our feelings is that they have cut off the name and the memory of the monument," said Antonio Manuel Rodriguez, a law professor at Cordoba University.
He is a member of a secular group of local campaigners who have gathered 146,000 signatures on a petition demanding that the common Islamic and Christian heritage of the site be recognized.
The acclaimed British architect Norman Foster is among the signatories, as well as many Spanish writers and scientists and moderate Catholics.
A historical jewel in the southern city that was a capital of Islamic Spain in the Middle Ages, the building with its cobbled patios and minaret draws more than a million visitors each year.
The entry ticket visitors receive bids them "welcome to the Santa Iglesia Cathedral", but does not mention that the building, now administered by the church, was a mosque for centuries.
"Over the past few years, the Diocese of Cordoba has erased the term 'mosque' from all the information leaflets of what is recognized worldwide as a symbol of cultural harmony," the "Save the Cordoba Mosque" petition says.
This "offers millions of tourists a distorted historical account, which crudely adulterates the essence of a complex building and an emblem of diversity."
- Andalusia's golden age -
The visitors' leaflets point out that a mosque was built on the site of a Visigoth church in the eighth century, but skims over its next 500 years as a place of worship for Moslems at the height of the Islamic rule in southern Spain.
UNESCO, in its listing of Cordoba's historic center as a world heritage site, highlighted its place in the Andalusia region's golden age, which began with its conquest by the Moors in the eighth century.
Under the Islamic Umayyad rulers, Cordoba flourished with mosques and palaces that rivaled Constantinople, Damascus and Storied Baghdad for splendor, UNESCO said.
Construction of the mosque, with its grand prayer room and marble columns, began in 766. It was transformed to a cathedral in the 13th century after a Christian ruler conquered the city.
In 2006, the campaigners say, the Cordoba bishopric registered the cathedral as its own property without informing the regional government which had allowed the Church to run the site.
Until that point, the site "was in legal limbo -- it was neither public nor private property", said Rodriguez.
"The problem arises when the Church hierarchy thinks it belongs to them," he added.
Andalusia's Socialist regional government said last week it was considering legal action "to protect the public ownership of this cultural asset".
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#4
It's the Hagia Sophia, Sgt. D.T., once upon a time one of the grandest Romanesque churches in Christendom, since the Turkish conquest of Constantinople made into a mosque -- note the much later minarets at the corners. After the Ottomans were unseated, it was made into a museum, but there is talk of returning it to religious Muslim use.
#6
Oh, and then there's this key bit, with no explanation by the protestors of how that happened to be, nor why that would effect the behaviour of those currently in charge of the thing:
The visitors' leaflets point out that a mosque was built on the site of a Visigoth church in the eighth century
[Dhaka Tribune] The European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... has agreed on a framework for its first sanctions on Russia since the Cold War, a stronger response to the Ukraine crisis.
The move was forwarded as a mark of solidarity with Washington in the drive to make Moscow pay for seizing Crimea, reports Rooters.
US President Barack Obama I am the change that you seek... warned Russia it faced costs from the West unless it changed course in Ukraine, and pledged to "stand with Ukraine" as he met with the country's new prime minister in Washington.
"We will never surrender," Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk vowed as he and Obama met in a White House show of support for the embattled leader.
"Mr Putin - tear down this wall - the wall of more intimidation and military aggression," Yatseniuk told news hounds in remarks aimed at Russian President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... and a reference to then-President Ronald Reagan's challenge to the Soviet Union in a 1987 speech at the Berlin Wall.
But Obama and Yatseniuk outlined a potential diplomatic opening that could give Russians a greater voice in the disputed Crimean region, where a referendum is scheduled for Sunday on whether it should become part of Russia.
Yatseniuk told a forum in Washington after his White House meeting that his interim government was ready to have a dialogue and negotiations with Russia about Moscow's concerns for the rights of ethnic Russians in Crimea.
The EU sanctions, outlined in a document seen by Rooters, would slap travel bans and asset freezes on an as-yet-undecided list of people and firms accused by Brussels of violating the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom... said the measures would be imposed on Monday unless diplomatic progress was made.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
[An Nahar] Turkish prosecutors have completed a first batch of indictments in a graft scandal that has rocked the 11-year rule of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi only they haven't dumped him yet... , overcoming intense pressure from his conservative government, local media reported Friday.
Mustafa Demir, the mayor of Istanbul's Fatih district, a stronghold of Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP), is among 21 people in the indictment, the reports said, without naming the others.
They were among dozens of key allies of the prime minister, including the sons of three cabinet ministers, who were detained in police raids in December when the corruption scandal first erupted. The ministers have since resigned.
Prosecutor Ekrem Aydiner has completed the first tranche of allegations, which will now be sent to the courts for formal approval, the private Dogan news agency reported.
The indictments accuse the 21 of "bribery", "forgery" and "violating a law on the conservation of cultural and natural property", Dogan said.
The graft probe has become one of the biggest challenges facing Erdogan and his AKP, and comes ahead of pivotal municipal elections on March 30.
Violent protests against what rights groups claim are heavy-handed police tactics against demonstrators have also piled pressure on Erdogan's administration.
Riots erupted Wednesday that left at least two people dead as tens of thousands turned out to mourn the death of a teenage boy who was hurt during violent festivities with police last year.
Also Friday, parliament Speaker Cemil Cicek said the body would hold an emergency meeting next Wednesday on the corruption allegations at the request of the opposition at a time when campaigning for the municipal polls is in full swing.
Parliament is currently in recess in the run-up to the polls, the first since the corruption scandal erupted.
The scandal has widened to implicate Erdogan himself, after recordings were leaked in which the prime minister could allegedly be heard discussing hiding large sums of cash and conspiring to extort a bribe from a business associate.
Erdogan has retaliated by sacking hundreds of police and prosecutors believed to be linked to a former ally turned arch-rival, U.S.-based Moslemholy man Fethullah Gulen.
The prime minister says Gulen is using his influence over the police and the judiciary to destabilize the government.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Hell, I thought we were talking Butterball here.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/15/2014 18:32 Comments ||
Top||
[DAWN] "It was one of the most saddening experiences when I saw her lying on the hospital bed, most of her body burnt," says Mukhtaran Mai, in an interview with Dawn. Her voice thickens with tears but she swallows them back.
'A' was a student of first year and a resident of Meerwala as is Mukhtaran. After she had filed the FIR, she found out that one of her 'rapists' were set free on bail. Mukhtaran alleges the investigating officer was bought for Rs70,000.
"She first came to me two days after the incident, asking for help. I offered her shelter at my home for survivors of sexual harassment but she refused the offer, saying she wanted to stay with her family.
My team and I were with her throughout but after learning what the police had done, she was shocked."
Mukhtaran said her team's psychologist kept explaining to her not to lose heart because these things took time and that the case was yet to go to court. But like many other young women who are left confused, depressed and angry, 'A' was impatient.
And when she went to the cop shoppe again, the officer involved hid himself in his room, not appearing and she doused herself with a bottle of petrol and set herself on fire.
The Nishtar Hospital in Multan where she was admitted announced her to be in a precarious condition with 80pc burns and she succumbed to the burns on Friday. But was it really burn injuries that killed her or it was the level of injustice that women in the country have to face everyday?
Even the Punjab government seems to have taken its time to respond.
On Friday, women's rights activists protested in front of the Punjab Assembly to show their anger at the Muzaffargarh police and insisted that the Punjab government should itself take action and do some research as to why number of crimes against women was on the rise in the province. They demanded that the accused, including police officer involved, must be dealt with strictly.
In a press statement, Zohra Yousuf of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistain (HRCP) said it was common knowledge that only the courageous rape survivors in the country took the matter to police or court.
"It leads to only one conclusion: she had become convinced that she would not get justice. It is sad and ironic that only a week after celebrating the International Women's Day with such fanfare the state and its justice system have let a woman down so brazenly."
Meanwhile, ...back at the shouting match, the spittle had reached unprecedented levels... Mukhtaran Mai, who herself is a rape survivor, says that problems are deep rooted and many.
"The problem starts with the government and police and ends with the judiciary but this is just the tip of the iceberg. The concept of sexual harassment does not seem to exist in Pak society. Men look at women as mere commodities."
Referring to her own case, she says: "It takes a lot of consistent courage to face the men who have assaulted you.
Sometimes when I get out of the school, I see those men in front of it, sitting under a tree and when I go past them, they comment and whistle at me. But women cannot go on living in fear."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[An Nahar] A Pak teenager died Friday after setting herself on fire after a court dropped charges against four men accused of raping her, police said.
The incident occurred in Muzaffargarh district of Punjab province, where the horrific 2002 gang rape of Mukhtar Mai, an illiterate women, made headlines around the world.
Amina Bibi, aged 18 according to police, doused herself with petrol and set herself alight on Thursday in front of a cop shoppe in the village of Beet Meer Hazar.
Pak news channels aired horrifying footage showing the self-immolation and desperate attempts by onlookers to put the flames out.
She was taken to a nearby government-run hospital where the doctors tried to save her but succumbed to her injuries early on Friday, police said.
She was allegedly assaulted by four men, including a family member, in early January and reported the incident to police.
But a local court in Muzaffargarh dropped the case on Thursday following a police report which said she had not been raped, prompting Bibi to take the desperate measure.
"Nadir, the main accused in the case was a relative of the victim and they had a family dispute," senior local police official Chaudhry Asghar Ali told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"The case was investigated twice and Sherlocks discovered that the victim had not been raped."
Pakistain's Supreme Court on Friday demanded an explanation for the incident, ordering the provincial police chief and district police chief to appear in the court in person.
The court ordered police to file a written report explaining how the case was investigated and why the accused men were cleared.
The Punjab police chief's spokeswoman said an investigation team had been sent to the area to investigate.
"We have sent an inquiry team to the area and have suspended the police officials who were investigating the case", Nabeela Ghazanfar, spokeswomen of the Punjab police chief told Agence La Belle France Presse.
The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistain demanded the government take steps to ensure rapists are brought to justice.
"Her sacrifice has exposed the ordeals that rape victims in the country face when they try to bring their tormentors to justice," the group said.
"It is common knowledge that only the courageous rape victims in Pakistain take the matter to the police or court."
Physical and sexual violence against women are widespread in Pakistain, a deeply conservative, patriarchal Mohammedan country.
One of Pakistain's most infamous sex crimes against women, Mukhtar Mai's 2002 rape and survival transformed her into an international rights icon.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
U.S. officials announced plans Friday to relinquish federal government control over the administration of the Internet, a move that pleased international critics but alarmed some business leaders and others who rely on the smooth functioning of the Web.
Pressure to let go of the final vestiges of U.S. authority over the system of Web addresses and domain names that organize the Internet has been building for more than a decade and was supercharged by the backlash last year to revelations about National Security Agency surveillance.
The change would end the long-running contract between the Commerce Department and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a California-based nonprofit group. That contract is set to expire next year but could be extended if the transition plan is not complete.
We look forward to ICANN convening stakeholders across the global Internet community to craft an appropriate transition plan, Lawrence E. Strickling, assistant secretary of commerce for communications and information, said in a statement.
The announcement received a passionate response, with some groups quickly embracing the change and others blasting it.
In a statement, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) called the move consistent with other efforts the U.S. and our allies are making to promote a free and open Internet, and to preserve and advance the current multi-stakeholder model of global Internet governance.
But former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) tweeted: What is the global internet community that Obama wants to turn the internet over to? This risks foreign dictatorships defining the internet.
Risks? It virtually guarantees it. Remember this is the same global community that put Zimbabwe, Iran and Syria on the 'Human Rights' Council...
The practical consequences of the decision were harder to immediately discern, especially with the details of the transition not yet clear. Politically, the move could alleviate rising global concerns that the United States essentially controls the Web and takes advantage of its oversight position to help spy on the rest of the world.
U.S. officials set several conditions and an indeterminate timeline for the transition from federal government authority, saying a new oversight system must be developed and win the trust of crucial stakeholders around the world.
Which will be run as well as ObamaCare has been...
The moves critics called the decision hasty and politically tinged, and voiced significant doubts about the fitness of ICANN to operate without U.S. oversight and beyond the bounds of U.S. law.
This is a purely political bone that the U.S. is throwing, said Garth Bruen, a security fellow at the Digital Citizens Alliance, a Washington-based advocacy group that combats online crime. ICANN has made a lot of mistakes, and ICANN has not really been a good steward.
Beats whatever the Syrians, Zimbabweans and Iranians could do...
Its inconceivable that ICANN can be accountable to the whole world. Thats the equivalent of being accountable to no one, said Steve DelBianco, executive director of NetChoice, a trade group representing major Internet commerce businesses.
U.S. officials said their decision had nothing to do with the NSA spying revelations and the worldwide controversy they sparked, saying there had been plans since ICANNs creation in 1998 to eventually migrate it to international control.
The timing is now right to start this transition both because ICANN as an organization has matured, and international support continues to grow for the multistakeholder model of Internet governance, Strickling said in a statement.
Although ICANN is based in Southern California, governments worldwide have a say in the groups decisions through an oversight body. ICANN in 2009 made an Affirmation of Commitments to the Commerce Department that covers several key issues.
Fadi Chehade, president of ICANN, disputed many of the complaints about the transition plan and promised an open, inclusive process to find a new international oversight structure for the group.
Nothing will be done in any way to jeopardize the security and stability of the Internet, he said.
The United States has long maintained authority over elements of the Internet, which grew from a Defense Department program that started in the 1960s. The relationship between the United States and ICANN has drawn wider international criticism in recent years, in part because big American companies such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft play such a central role in the Internets worldwide functioning. The NSA revelations exacerbated those concerns.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/15/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Risks? It virtually guarantees it. Remember this is the same global community that put Zimbabwe, Iran and Syria on the 'Human Rights' Council
An thus the tower of Babel doth fall. At one time the human specie spoke one language. Then we went our separate ways. The walls will go up.
File under - Lessons Unlearned - if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
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.
[An Nahar] 
Bouteflika
[Dhaka Tribune] The 
[An Nahar] A Pak teenager died Friday after setting herself on fire after a court dropped charges against four men accused of raping her, police said.
U.S. officials announced plans Friday to relinquish federal government control over the administration of the Internet, a move that pleased international critics but alarmed some business leaders and others who rely on the smooth functioning of the Web.
