[WSJ] Atop a wooded hill here in the heart of Americas Dairyland, an industry legend was recently laid to rest.
It wasnt some milk magnate or a famed innovator, but an ornery, 2,700-pound bull named Toystorya titan of artificial insemination who sired an estimated 500,000 offspring in more than 50 countries.
He was a dream bull, said Jan Hessel Bierma, editor in chief of dairy-breeding magazine Holstein International.
Continued on Page 49
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[An Nahar] A children's beauty pageant in Colombia, dubbed "Little Miss Thong," sparked outrage online Tuesday, but local officials are defending the contest in which eight-year-old girls parade in skimpy swimwear.
In the pageant, held Sunday in the northeastern town of Barbosa, in Santander department, young girls competed in bikinis as part of the annual Festival del Rio Suarez.
Local authorities denied the pageant was a pathway to child prostitution.
"We would never induce the girls to make inappropriate or vulgar acts," insisted Barbosa mayor Rocio Galeano on a local radio station.
"We are simply promoting the defense of the body, of body care," she said.
"It is giving the children the importance they deserve," the mayor said, and letting them be included "in all cultural and sports activities."
The competition, which Galeano emphasized has "always had the support and permission of parents," has sparked heated debate on Twitter.
"The Little Miss Thong competition is shameful and totally violates the rights of the girls! How horrible and irresponsible of the parents," Cristina Plazas, director of Colombia's family welfare institute, tweeted.
Plazas said she was consulting "with lawyers on taking appropriate action" against the event organizers, as well as against sponsors and parents.
She also suggested bringing the issue to the attorney general's office, which is tasked with overseeing public employees in Colombia, to punish authorities who encouraged this "abnormal" event.
Beauty contests are popular in Colombia, where pageant queens often compete at high levels in international competitions like Miss Universe and Miss World, as well as in smaller local events.
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#1
"It is giving the children the importance they deserve," the mayor said, and letting them be included "in all cultural and sports activities."
The game of Ōllamaliztli was part of Mesoamerican culture and sports as well. Due to ritual aspects, winning was pretty much essential and somewhat evil by modern standards.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A 5-year-old boy was sexually abused by an Afghan policeman in northern Jawzjan province of Afghanistan, local officials said Wednesday.
The officials further added that the child was raped by the policeman on Tuesday evening.
Head of the Criminal Investigation Department in provincial police commandment Mohammad Rahim said the suspect has been placed in durance vile Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! and is currently in the custody of police for further investigation.
According to Rahim, the family of the victim has claimed that the child was threatened by the policeman not to inform his family regarding the incident.
This was the rape incident reported in northern Jawzjan province of Afghanistan within the past one week. A woman was raped by her brother in northern Jawzjan province of Afghanistan late on Sunday night.
The victim was identified as Farzana who is only 17-year-old woman and was living in her fathers house since her husband had passed away last year.
According to the local government officials, incidents involving rape of women and kiddies have been rampant in this province during the recent months.
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[An Nahar] Hundreds of Tanzanian schoolgirls returned home Monday after spending three months hiding in safe houses to escape genital mutilation, state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
said.
Female genital mutilation (FGM) can range from hacking off the clitoris to the removal of the entire female genitalia.
Some 800 school girls fled to shelters run by charities and church organizations, which offer protection during the months FGM is traditionally carried out, from October to December. Some of the shelters are given police protection to ensure the girls remain safe.
Minister of Labour and Employment Gaudensia Kabaka called on traditional leaders to use their influence to stop "this retrograde practice."
Campaigners call the dangerous practice mutilation rather than the term female circumcision, so as to make clear the dangers it involves and the harm it causes.
Apart from the intense pain itself, immediate dangers include bleeding and infection. In the longer term, risks include infertility and complications during childbirth, sometimes resulting in the death of the baby.
Some of the girls returning home explained that the safe houses were the only way they could ensure they would not be cut.
"My mother supported me, she did not want me to be cut, but my father began to beat me so I decided to come here," said one girl in tears, who had been sheltered in a centre run by the protestant church.
FGM was outlawed in Tanzania in 1998 and carries a punishment of up to 15 years in prison, but is still regularly carried out, especially in northern and central regions of the east African nation.
It continues to be carried out in secret, often in basic conditions without anaesthetic.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Best way to end it.
Public castration for all living male relatives. Then burn them alive.
[DAWN] 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 the Soddy national face... on Wednesday beheaded a convicted Pak narco and one of its own citizens who killed a soldier.
Mahmoud Massih Iqbal Massih was executed in Qatif near the Gulf coast for heroin trafficking, the Saudi interior ministry said.
At the same time, Rakan bin Eid bin Bikheet al-Baqmi, a Saudi, was found guilty of chasing and firing on a security patrol, killing soldier Sultan bin Ibrahim bin Ghrahid al-Jaid.
Baqmi was executed in the Mecca region of western Saudi Arabia.
Their cases bring to nine the number of executions this year, according to an AFP tally.
Saudi Arabia carried out the death penalty against 87 people last year, up from 78 in 2013, according to another AFP tally.
The kingdom had the third-highest number of recorded executions in 2013, behind Iran and Iraq, Amnesia Amnesty International said in a report.
Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's strict version of Islamic law.
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[ARABNEWS] Arab ministers unanimously reaffirmed Wednesday their declaration of the importance of the Arabic language as a platform for cultural and humanitarian integration and the need to protect it from the dangers currently facing the Arab world.
The ministers were participating in the 19th conference of Arab culture ministers in Riyadh this week under the aegis of King of the Arabians, Sheikh of the Burning Sands, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah in a major drive to push Arabic to the forefront of the worlds live languages.
Minister of Culture and Information Abdul Aziz Al-Khodairy stressed the need to use Arabic as a medium for the promotion of cultural and humanitarian integration.
To ensure its role as a platform for humanitarian integration, the Arabic language must be taken beyond its Arab borders with wider presence and productivity in the global digital content. The movement of translation from and into Arabic must also be encouraged, a resolution adopted at the conference said.
The resolution also stressed the need to use modern technology in teaching the Arabic language.
The conference observed that the Arab world is going through rapid changes and the onus of responsibility falls on the ministers of culture and education to enable the Arabic language to meet the challenges.
The conference declared that humanitarian citizenship cannot be achieved amid the blatant Israeli attacks on the Arab cultural heritage and the holy sites in Jerusalem.
The Arabic language expresses thought, creativity and knowledge and is a symbol of the Arab identity and culture, the declaration said.
As a pillar of Arab identity, it should be of special interest in the Arab cultural policies and plans to raise the level of the Arabic language as part of the national plan with the provision of scientific objectives and output, the resolution added.
It called for the celebration of the World Day of the Arabic language as an appropriate event to identify the Arab cultural and cognitive creativity at home and abroad.
Posted by: Fred ||
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That is such a great idea!
No IT's Not.
Arabic is confusing to most Non-klingons because too much dialect and hidden language meaning and hidden slurs and depictions.
Arabic is the sewer of language.
Hebrew outlines threshold, English is the business Language, French is flowing, German is core as is Latin.
18 different dialects of an Arabic language not agreed upon. naw.
#2
Yes, by all means. Let's learn Arabic so that we can watch their great movies, read their innovative patents and indulge in intellectual discourse over anything that's not the Koran over beers and BBQ.
[Dhaka Tribune] Rab tossed in the slammer Book 'im, Mahmoud! three poachers from a gang yesterday from Morelganj area of the Bagerhat district. Skin, skull, teeth and bones of Royal Bengal Tigers were recovered in the arrest.
Major Adnan Kabir, deputy commander of RAB-8, disclosed the information at a press briefing at RAB headquarters in Rupatali area of Barisal.
The arrestees are Delwar Sheikh, 35, Nuruzaman Sheikkh, 53, and Kabir Haoladar, 40 from Sharonkhola area of Bagherhat district.
Adnan said, acting on a tip-off, RAB personnel raided Morelganj bus stand area, and arrested the culprits carrying one tiger-skin, skull; 29 teeth; and 24 pieces of bones.
After interrogation, the poachers said they have killed different species of rare animals, including eight to ten Royal Bengal Tigers, in recent times the RAB official said.
Interrogations also revealed the recovered set was being smuggled to China. Tiger parts ingredients for many herbal medicines are highly demanded in China. RAB will file a case in this connection with local cop shoppe.
Operation is to arrest other members of the gang is already underway.
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Ghost of Tony the Tiger about RAB: " They-rrre GREAT!"
[An Nahar] Colombia's military denied a claim by the FARC rebel group that eight soldiers were killed this week in a counter-insurgency operation.
Military sources disclosed, however, that a soldier was killed in a separate engagement on January 9 in the southern department of Caqueta.
The soldier, 23-year-old Edward Valsco Medina, was believed to be the first combat death since the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia FARC or FARC-EP, is either a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary guerrilla organization or a drug cartel based in Colombia. It claims to represent the rural poor in a struggle against Colombia's wealthier classes, and opposes United States influence in Colombia, neo-imperialism, monopolization of natural resources by multinational corporations, and the usual raft of complaints. It funds itself principally through ransom kidnappings, taxation of the drug trade, extortion, shakedowns, and donations. It has lately begun calling itself Bolivarian and is greatly admired by Venezuela's President-for-Life Chavez, who seemingly fantasizes about living in the woods and kidnapping people himself. He provides FARC with safe areas along the border. (FARC) unilaterally declared a ceasefire on December 20.
The Bogota government and the FARC have been in peace talks for more than two years, aimed at putting an end to the oldest leftist insurgency in Latin America.
"It's not true that 8 of our soldiers have been assassinated by #Farc in #Meta," the army tweeted.
The rebel group said eight soldiers were killed in central Meta province earlier this week after one of its units came under mortar and air attack.
"As a result of the defensive response, we lament that eight military personnel bit the dust, unnecessarily," it said in a statement from Havana, where peace talks are underway.
The rebels said a Colombian soldier also was maimed during a separate counter-insurgency operation in the northern Antioquia and Uraba regions.
"These are all casualties that could have been avoided if the government had been less small-minded," it said.
The FARC urged the government to stop "these senseless actions in the midst of a grinding of the peace processor, because they could provoke the end of the unilateral ceasefire and disturb the climate of confidence that should prevail at the negotiating table."
The rebel group unilaterally declared an indefinite ceasefire on December 20, a stance it reaffirmed on Tuesday.
President Juan Manuel Santos has refused to commit to a truce until the FARC signs onto a comprehensive peace agreement.
Peace talks have been taking place in Havana for more than two years, and remain a high priority for Santos, who has made ending the 50-year-old insurgency the central goal of his presidency.
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For a map, click here. You can enlarge the map, if you open it separately.
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
The civilian passenger bus Ukrainian authorities say was hit by rebel rocket artillery may have been instead hit by a mine, according to Russian language sources.
According to a news report posted on regnum.ru, legal authorities say they have opened a criminal investigation into the deaths of 12 civilians in the January 13 incident.
Rebel authorities claim that the nearest rocket artillery to the scene of the detonation was 50 kilometers away. Rebel military units have BM-21 Grad 122mm rocket launchers in the order of battle which have a range of about 20 kilometers.
A new surveillance video released by Ukrainian sources purports to show the passenger bus being driven into the impact zone of a rocket artillery barrage, with corresponding multiple ground impacts.
Russian military bloggers say the video was doctored because the impacts and corresponding explosions do not have the flaming explosion characteristic of a 122mm artillery rocket impact.
Instead the bus may have been hit with a directional mine similar to the US Claymore, or similar mine. Another possibility was the bus was hit by a "bouncing" mine, such as the Russian OZM series. Photos taken from the scene show an impact zone similar to a directional mine, which was likely detonated from remote.
Bloggers have pointed out also that Ukrainian military were at the scene, and had run away from the area even though the closest impact was 400 meters away, indicating an erroneous remote detonation of the mine.
Volnovakha is about 30 kilometers north of Mariupol and 25 kilometers southwest of Donetsk city, and is very close to a contested zone.
Rebels have hit passenger buses before with direct fire and small arms attacks. Last August a bus carrying members of the Ukrainian Right Sector political party being transported to an army induction point was attacked by rebels with seven being killed and several more wounded. Right Sector activists are particular targets for rebel because of their role in the massacre at the Trades Union building in Odessa last May 2nd.
Ukraine has abandoned the Donetsk Airport?
Rebel media says that the Ukrainian military has abandoned the airport. According to a news report posted by Russian backed Voice of Sevastopol, rebel tanks destroyed the control tower, according to them, bringing it down. The control tower was used by Ukrainian military units to adjust artillery fire into Donetsk city.
Rebel claim that they have seized and control the first floor of the new terminal, which part of the area the Ukrainians have held since the rebel have attempted -- repeatedly -- to drive Ukrainian military from the airport starting last September.
If the reports are true, the accurately directed artillery fire may be coming to an end.
Ukrainian artillery fire and rebel counterbattery fire, and vice versa has caused numerous civilian casualties in recent days, and has been routine for residents in Donetsk city since last May.
Lugansk
Rebel operations in northern Lugansk have increased in recent days with rebel units holding a solid bridgehead at Slavnoserbsk after days of fighting. According to Ukrainian military correspondent Dmitri Tymchuk, units involved in those operations have received fresh units from Russia, including tanks and artillery. Those units are likely staffed with volunteers and older prior service military veterans.
Four days before on January 9th Tymchuk said that four mixed batteries and 10 tanks had been moved up the the Northern Donetsk River near Schastye and Stanitsa Luhanskaya.
Schastye has been an issue with rebel military leaders since last August when Ukrainian units which had previously taken the Lugansk airport by storm were forced to withdraw. Since that time rebel units have been trying to eject Ukrainian Army units from the town since it occupies a bridgehead that can be used for further operations south into Lugansk.
As subsidiary operation, rebel have been trying to seize towns west of Schastye which can be used to cut off the main highway from Schastye to Slavyansk. Ukrainian routinely use that road to rotate units in and out of Schastye. Similarly, rebel units have been trying to eject Ukrainian military units from Stanitsa Luhanskaya and surrounding communities, which is east of Schastye, with a mixed bag of luck. Should rebel units fully secure those two bridgeheads and use those positions to place the road leading to Schastye under artillery fire, Ukrainian military units may be forced to withdraw from Schastye.
Rebel maps show rebel units across the river and driving towards other settlements on the river, including Orekhovo-Donetskoye and Novotoshkovskoye, all of which is west of Schastye.
Chris Covert writes about foreign military issues for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com. You can read past articles about the 2014 war in southeastern Ukraina by clicking here.
[TELEGRAPH.CO.UK] Thousands of German spies posted around the world could be at risk after it emerged that a double agent unmasked last summer stole a list of their real identities and may have sold it.
The double agent, who has been identified only as Markus R under strict German privacy laws, obtained a top secret list of the real names, aliases and locations of 3,500 German intelligence officers posted abroad, according to a report in Bild newspaper.
But German intelligence sources sought to downplay the incident, briefing that the list in question was out of date and contained far fewer than 3,500 names, the DPA news agency reported.
The arrest of Markus R last summer caused a major diplomatic rift between Germany and the US, after it emerged he had acted as a double agent for the CIA.
He had also approached Russian intelligence and offered to sell them secret information, and there are fears he may have passed the list of German spies' names to a hostile foreign agency.
An employee of the BND, Germany's equivalent of MI6, Markus R worked in the registry section of its overseas operations department, where he had access to top secret documents including the identities of operatives posted abroad.
The stolen list, which is said to date from 2011, is believed to contain the real identities and aliases of BND officers posted under cover as diplomats to various embassies around the world, and of those working secretly in countries where the German military has missions abroad, including Afghanistan.
It is not clear whether Markus R passed it to any foreign intelligence agencies. It was found on a hard drive seized during a search of his home after his arrest last summer, which has only recently been properly evaluated.
Markus R's unmasking was one of two spying scandals that badly shook US-German relations last summer, and saw 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... 's government ask the CIA station chief in Berlin to leave the country.
Markus R has reportedly confessed to passing the CIA more than 200 secret documents over a period of two years, in return for payments of 25,000 (£16,500).
He appears to have been motivated by money rather than ideology, and it is the possibility that he may have sold German spies' real identities to a hostile foreign intelligence agency that will be of most concern now.
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No to be confused with hundreds of thousands of Stasi spies and informers who's names were reveal when the wall fell.
My roommate's a police officer in one of the affected towns; just got off his shift when this crap started. Lucky guy!
Protesters shut down I-93 Northbound at East Milton Square and I-93 Southbound in the Medford-Somerville area during the Thursday morning commute causing major traffic backups, according to Massachusetts State police.
Police reported that 29 people from the protest were arrested while MassDOT said all lanes at the Milton scene were again open to traffic by 10:00 a.m.
The protest was organized by the Boston contingent of the group Black Lives Matter, according to an Associated Press report. In a statement posted Thursday morning on the groups Facebook page, the protest was held to disrupt business as usual and protest police and state violence against Black people.
Massachusetts State Police said this morning that the protest blocked an ambulance traveling to a Boston hospital from Easton, diverting it to a smaller hospital in southeastern Mass. The ambulance was carrying a car crash victim with life-threatening injuries.
#2
Hard time in the state pen would seem to be in order but it's a good bet they're gonna be released on their own recognizance after a couple of hours in jail and if, big if, the DA decides to prosecute they'll get a slap on the wrist.
#4
I'm on I-93 tomorrow morning. I'm packing some countermeasures in my trunk; bet they're gonna love the 40 oz. bottle of my beer piss poured over their heads if I get stuck in one.
#5
Besoeker, who knows? Blacks get in car crashes too.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
01/15/2015 16:39 Comments ||
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Easy fix. Snow plow. Or simply move the drums to the guardrail, flip the drums over the rail. Or just leave the little anarchists there chained to the drums off on the shoulder for s couple of days and nights January in Boston...
#7
ya know, when you've chained yourself to a drum, you're vulnerable and unable to get away. The cops need to leave and allow street justice to happen. A road flare can do a lot of social justice
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/15/2015 17:52 Comments ||
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I'd combine the thoughts of OldSpook and Frank. Use a crane and pick up the barrels, very carefully and very sloooooowly, and move them to the side of the road. I'd be so slow that, with a really big crane, these folks would be suspended a couple hunnert feet in the air for oh, a couple of hours.
Then set them down under a really big, well lit sign that says something along the lines of "these are the assholes who blocked traffic today". Near the sign would be the extra construction materials for the sign -- 2 x 4s, rebar, etc, all in about 4 foot lengths. Maybe even some leather-handled truncheons.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/15/2015 18:50 Comments ||
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#9
I'm missing something in the story. How'd they get the drums there?
Posted by: James ||
01/15/2015 19:19 Comments ||
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Chained to a barrel? Perfect time for tear gas or pepper spray! Enjoy the burn!
Or better yet, use what the Israeli's call "Skunk" on them, that super stinky stuff they came up with for dealing with yobs.
#11
Frankly it's important early in the morning to use the proper flare color sequence. Yellow starting 1 mile before the scene followed by greens 1/4 Mike before the scene.
[DAWN] A teenager on Wednesday confessed to molesting and killing a 6-year-old boy who was found strangled on the roof of a mosque on January 2 in Green Town.
Seventeen year old Shoaib, a hair dresser at a barber shop near the mosque, was one of several suspects tossed in the slammer Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! by the police following the gruesome murder of a young boy named Moin.
The CCPO Lahore, during a presser, confirmed that Shoaib confessed to murdering the child. The confession came after a DNA test directly implicated the teenager in the crime.
Shoaib confessed to molesting the victim several times before killing him, police said. A doctor at the morgue corroborated that the postmortem had revealed the victim was sexually assaulted before being murdered.
Earlier, the muezzin (who leads the call to prayer) of the mosque had been the prime accused in the young boys death, but police cleared him of involvement. A 'confession' by the muezzin that was attained and widely spread on social media was rejected by police as being unrelated to this specific case.
In the video, the accused admitted to a grisly crime and said, "The devil lead me to a gruesome act".
"I wasn't tortured by police and am giving my confession out of the goodness of my heart," the suspect added in the video, in which he was flanked by a police officer.
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[ARABNEWS] Two more Rohingya migrants have died in southern Thailand after trucks packed with dozens of members of the Myanmar Moslem minority group were intercepted by authorities, police said on Wednesday.
The two men, both believed to be aged 20, died in hospital of hunger and dehydration on Tuesday, a day after police reported a Rohingya woman had died from suffocation while making the same journey through the kingdom.
On Sunday Thai authorities found five pickup trucks carrying nearly 100 Rohingya, mostly aged under 18, in the Hua Sai district of Nakhon Si Thammarat province on the Gulf of Thailand.
These two men were found to be in a serious condition, provincial police commander Kiattipong Khawsamang told AFP.
We took them to two local hospitals, where they died from hunger and dehydration. Two of the Thai pickup drivers locked away Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! at the scene have been charged with human trafficking, the commander added.
We are investigating others involved in the trafficking ring and believe we can issue arrest warrants against them soon, he said.
The 95 surviving migrants are currently being held in shelters in the southern province as Thailands social development ministry determines whether to deport them back to Myanmar.
Thousands of Rohingya, described by the UN as one of the worlds most persecuted minorities, have fled deadly communal unrest in western Myanmars Rakhine state since 2012.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[An Nahar] A children's beauty pageant in Colombia, dubbed "Little Miss Thong," sparked outrage online Tuesday, but local officials are defending the contest in which eight-year-old girls parade in skimpy swimwear.
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
