KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- A Russian businessman allied with Ukraine's president was killed by a sniper Tuesday as he was escorted from a courthouse during a break in his extortion trial, a government official said.Maksim Kurochkin, 38, was hit by a bullet fired from a building next to the court, said Volodymyr Polishchuk, an Interior Ministry official. A police officer guarding the businessman was seriously wounded.
Ukrainian media reported that Kurochkin had repeatedly asked the court to release him on bail, saying he feared for his life and claiming that he had survived 18 assassination attempts, including a November 2004 car bombing that seriously wounded his bodyguards.
Guess he was right
Kurochkin had been charged with extortion in connection with a fight for control of a southeastern Ukraine goods market. Three other businessmen connected to Kurochkin and the market were shot dead earlier this month as they rode in a car, Polishchuk said. The director of the market was killed in October.
Sounds like a good old fashioned mob war...
Kurochkin's trial had been closely watched because of his ties to pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych. During the bitter 2004 presidential campaign and Orange Revolution protests, Kurochkin ran an organization called the Russian Club that supported Yanukovych.
....or perhaps not
Kurochkin, who was arrested in November at Kiev's airport, had said the charges against him were fabricated.
"I was.....BANG!.....framed..urp, rosebud..."
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2007 08:28 ||
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WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. Jim Webb said a senior aide who was arrested after trying to carry a loaded pistol into a Senate office building did so "completely inadvertently." Webb, D-Va., spoke to reporters Tuesday at the U.S. Capitol just before his aide was arraigned in District of Columbia Superior Court on charges of carrying a pistol without a license and carrying an unregistered firearm and unregistered ammunition.
Phillip Thompson entered a not guilty plea through his attorney, Richard Gardner, and was released on his own recognizance. Thompson was arrested Monday morning when he entered the Russell Senate office building with a loaded pistol and two other loaded magazines in a briefcase that he placed on an X-ray machine, according to court documents. Thompson told the officer at the building's entrance that the weapon belonged to Webb. D.C. law prohibits people from carrying handguns and concealed weapons without licenses.
At a news conference Tuesday, Webb said he was in New Orleans when he learned that his executive assistant had been arrested. He called Thompson "a longtime friend, a fine individual. I have a tremendous amount of respect for him," Webb said. He called the incident "one of those very unfortunate situations" and said Thompson "completely inadvertently took the weapon" into the building. Not just inadvertently, mind you - completely inadvertently.
But Webb told reporters he did not give Thompson the gun and refused to confirm or deny whether the gun was his, saying he couldn't comment further because of the pending legal matter. I ain't got nuttin' ta say, coppers!
"I have never carried a gun in the Capitol complex and I did not give the gun to Phillip Thompson," Webb said. He said his staff had been preparing three cars for his trip to New Orleans and that probably contributed to the "inadvertent situation." That's a good excuse. The gun was supposed to go in Car #2.
Webb also stressed his support for the Second Amendment, saying he thought the right to carry a gun was important because legislators don't have armed protection like the president and other members of the executive branch. And Lord knows, we need it!
"We are required to defend ourselves, and I choose to do so," he said. But I didn't bring the gun, don't own it, and never gave it to my buddy Phillip. Maybe he swiped it?
Thompson, a former Marine and former editor at the Army Times Publishing Company, was arrested on his 45th birthday, according to court documents. He spent the night in the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department's central cell block. Happy Birthday, Phil!
Thompson said nothing outside the court to reporters. His attorney also had no comment. Thompson is due back in court May 1.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/28/2007 06:09 ||
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#1
hey the press would give a repub a pass on this too. sure no biggie.
#2
Though the press might normally give a pass to a Dem politician, I think Mr. Thompson is not eligible for that consideration, given his membership in the US Marine Corps.
Posted by: Mac ||
03/28/2007 8:48 Comments ||
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Heck, compared to smacking a police officer, carrying a gun is nothing. I'm amazed they even arrested him. But just like nothing happened to McKinney, I'll wager nothing happens to this guy either in the long run.
A catfight at The New York Times Friday still has staffers in shock. The dustup between two female editors in the Styles department disrupted work on the Thursday and Sunday Styles sections as co-workers froze at the fracas. Fashion editor Anita LeClerc was the aggressor and her superior, deputy editor Mary Ann Giordano, the victim, sources say.
So Ginger and Mary Ann finally went at it, did they?
The two had exchanged words just moments before, allegedly over turf, and LeClerc began stomping around the office, muttering loudly to herself. But when Giordano, a talented import from the Metro section, came over in a conciliatory way and tried to smooth things over, LeClerc made it physical.
"Take that, bitch!"
"She shoved Mary Ann and pushed her, and Mary Ann said, 'Don't you touch me, you hairy old bitch! Don't you touch me!'" says a source. "Mary Ann grabbed her wrists to try to stop her, and [LeClerc] just started flailing."
"That was when the knives came out..."
Top editor Trip Gabriel grabbed LeClerc and dragged the still-sputtering stylista into his office as Giordano followed. "They were in there for a long time," reports a source.
Suddenly a shot rang out!
When they came out, Anita went back to her desk, but Mary Ann went out for a walk. She looked shaken."
"Ginger could see her from her office window. None of us knew she kept that Mannlicher in her desk, but suddenly there she was!"
The scrap at the newspaper could inspire jokes ("Pulitzers for Pugilism at the Black-and-Blue Lady?") but it's not funny, sources say.
"'Tain't funny, Magee!"
"Mary Ann is afraid now," says one. "She's a really nice woman, too. She keeps candy on her desk!"
"It's right next to her Ruger."
That's why some at the respected broadsheet are baffled as to why no apparent disciplinary action has been taken against LeClerc. A Times spokeswoman did not answer questions about the slugfest, or disciplinary action, by deadline. Calls to LeClerc, Giordano and Gabriel were not returned.
Lt. Col. Chase J. Nielsen, a Utah man and member of the famed "Doolittle Raiders" who bombed Japan in 1942 -- in a retaliation attack from Pearl Harbor -- passed away on Friday at the age of 90. Should be "for" Pearl Harbor but even that is misleading, since so much had happened in the intervening 5 months, including the Bataan Death March.
Nielsen was a navigator in one of the most daring air raids in American history, when 16 B-25 bombers took off from an aircraft carrier and bombed Tokyo on April 18, 1942.
Nielsen and his crew -- named "Crew 6," because of the order in which they left the aircraft carrier -- ditched the plane off the coast of China after it ran out of fuel. He then spent more than three years as a Japanese prisoner of war. Nielsen was the only member of "Crew 6" to survive the war.
The raid, planned by Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle as a retaliation attack from Japan's assault on Pearl Harbor four months earlier, was the subject of the book and movie "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" and the book "Four Came Home," which chronicled the story of Nielsen and the three other survivors. (Click Here to see pictures of the raid)
Nielsen, who returned to China to testify at Japanese war crimes trials just months after he was released, was known for telling his story to anyone who asked.
"They were always after him to tell his war stories," Nielsen's wife, Phyllis, told the Ogden Standard-Examiner. "He was a very well-thought-of man because he was just a nice person. He loved to help anybody that needed help."
Nielsen's death leaves 14 surviving "Doolittle Raiders," according to researchers.
In 1935, Nielsen graduated from South Cache High School in Hyrum before attending Utah State University between 1935 and 1938, where he received a degree in civil engineering. Nielsen enlisted at Fort Douglas in Salt Lake City as a flying cadet in 1939. He retired from military service in 1961 after receiving several honors including the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Purple Heart. Doolittle Raiders--Official Website
The video for this story is a mishmash of WW2 archive shots, obviously assembled by someone who knows nothing of aircraft and little of history. It includes no authentic Doolittle raid footage, though plenty is available, but it does show B-26s, A B-29, and a B-17, as well as a couple of B-25s, and a shot of the liberation of Dutch PoWs. Disgraceful.
Moved story here because it didn't fit "Lurid Crime Tales.
#2
I met Col. Nielsen and the other surviving Raiders at their 2002 convention in Columbia SC, and I wish every RB'er could have been there. These guys - plus many of their widows, children, and the Chinese man who saved most of them - were treated like rock stars for the week they were here. Mind you, it didn't show up in any other news outlets.
One thing that struck me and everyone else there was how thoroughly modest and self-effacing they all were. Another was how each and every one of them, without exception, would look you dead in the eye and say, "If it had not been for Colonel Doolittle, we would not have made it." And the last thing was how every one of them would have gone right back out again today if they were asked. (Two of them confirmed a rumor I'd heard some time after Operation Desert Shield that General Doolittle had actually been brought in by the planning staffs to give his...shall we say, unique viewpoints on how to whack someone by surprise, and he in turn went to a couple of his Raiders. The resulting suggestions ended up incorporated in the final plan.)
Go with God, Colonel Nielsen. You'll be remembered..and missed.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/28/2007 8:37 Comments ||
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We still have heroes in this country. We're going to need some more before we've sorted Islam out. In guys like Doolittle and Nielsen, there are some superlative role models for the new breed to follow.
Posted by: Mac ||
03/28/2007 18:19 Comments ||
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#4
We still have heroes in this country. We're going to need some more before we've sorted Islam out. In guys like Doolittle and Nielsen, there are some superlative role models for the new breed to follow.
Posted by: Mac ||
03/28/2007 18:20 Comments ||
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#5
We still have heroes in this country. We're going to need some more before we've sorted Islam out. In guys like Doolittle and Nielsen, there are some superlative role models for the new breed to follow.
Posted by: Mac ||
03/28/2007 18:20 Comments ||
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#6
Sorry about the triple post; "submit" button was hanging up.
Posted by: Mac ||
03/28/2007 18:22 Comments ||
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Comic-book hero Asterix did his bit for Middle East peace this weekend, when Arab and Hebrew translations of an Asterix album with a Middle Eastern touch were released simultaneously at the Paris book fair. "Translation opens us up to others, to all peoples," said Syrian Jamal Shehayeb, who usually translates literary works by Proust or poet Lamartine.
In the books, the diminutive Gallic warrior's friends "live in peace and friendship with all other people as long as nobody bothers them", said Israeli Dorith Daliot Rubinovitz, who generally translates French novelist Maupassant.
The translated comic-book album is titled in French Asterix chez Rahazade (Asterix at Rahazade's) and refers to the 1001 Arabian Nights.
Both translators said they had to adapt the text to reality, but decided to keep the wild boars that people the albums despite religious objections to pork. "We left the boars in though they're not kosher," said the Israeli translator. Syrian Shehayeb said an earlier Asterix album translated into Arabic had used "wild beasts" rather than "boars" to avoid offending fundamentalists. "I kept the original because you have to face reality as it is," he said.
Since he came to life in 1959, Asterix has been translated into 107 languages and dialects.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
D ***ng, whatzabout the six-sided? HEXAGON on Saturn???
#4
Google for saturn hexagon, twobyfour. Pretty damn amazing.
As for the comic book, IMHO, if people in the ME spent more time with hobbies like comic books and less time on hobbies like murder, the whole world would be better off.
As a french student, I practiced reading French from the Asterix comics at the college library. One of my fonder memories is, after having worked through the book, calling my brother over and reading it to him. I got some english translations for my boys a few years back, and one a few weeks back up and suddenly asks when I'm getting more Asterix books.
This, of course, is complete whitewashing bullshit: the comic is written with the main characters being contemporaries of Julius Caesar, occasionally bumping into "Jules" every other comic or so, being one major source of gags and plotlines. Islam, the REAL REASON FOR THE PROBLEM OF ARABS, didn't even exist at that time. Heck, Christianity didn't exist at that time. Restrictions on Pork were non-existent in Arab culture at that time, and the society was matriarchal (sp?). A woman could divorce her man by throwing his saddle out the tent door onto the ground.
Obelix without wild boar? He'd become positively boorish *rim shot*
Last week's blasts at the Malhazine armoury in Mozambique were due to a robbery that went wrong, military sources told an independent newspaper on Monday. In its Monday edition, Tribuna Fax, quoting anonymous military sources, said the blasts came after officials, who were stealing mercury by draining it from some of the containers, failed to tightly close the containers, Vista News reported. "These acts are well known by authorities at the armoury, who never took any action," the source told the paper. "If thorough investigations are going to be made it will be discovered that this act of robbing mercury involves army engineers who know very well how to deactivate these arms."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2007 00:00 ||
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Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe will attend a regional meeting in Tanzania this week, official reports said on Tuesday, as pressure mounts on African leaders to tackle his controversial rule. Mugabe, who has come under a wave of Western-led criticism following a crackdown on the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), will brief leaders from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) at the special summit, the official Herald newspaper said. The discussion will focus on "the campaign by the MDC to unleash violence as part of its Western-backed efforts for illegal regime change in Zimbabwe", the Herald said.
Zimbabwe's official media has highlighted what it says are a series of attacks by MDC supporters after MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and other party supporters were arrested and beaten after attempting to attend a banned prayer meeting this month. The crackdown raised tensions in the Southern African nation, where the 83-year old Mugabe has been frequently accused by critics of political abuses and disastrous economic mismanagement. The Herald said Mugabe would "brief his colleagues on the situation in the country in the wake of the MDC violence", which it described as a plot by Western nations to bring Zimbabwe before the United Nations Security Council.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2007 00:00 ||
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Wonder if he is going by train? if they lose power they can just coast to a stop, whereas aeroplanes don't do that very well.
Zimbabwe's main opposition leader announced on Tuesday he will boycott presidential elections scheduled for next year unless the poll is carried out under a new democratic constitution that ensures they are free and fair. Morgan Tsvangirai, addressing mourners at a memorial service for an opposition activist shot dead by police on March 11, said a free election was the constitutional and democratic right of Zimbabweans. Boycotting is absolutely the wrong move. Better to campaign hard and then wave the bloody shirt when they steal the election.
About 800 mourners, including opposition leaders wearing bandages and other signs of injuries sustained in clashes with police, sang traditional dirges and gospel songs and waved the opposition's symbolic open hand salute at a church in northern Harare. "We will never go into an election that is predetermined," Tsvangirai said, vowing to continue anti-government protests.
The opposition accuses President Robert Mugabe of rigging all elections since 2000 with the help of electoral laws and constitutional provisions favouring his party. Mugabe (83) is seen as unlikely to adopt a reformed constitution before polling, provisionally slated for next March.
Zimbabwe's long-time ruler, meanwhile, was to attend a hastily called regional meeting on politics and security called by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Tanzania beginning on Wednesday, the state media reported in Harare. An SADC official had said the meeting was to focus in part on Zimbabwe. The 12-nation regional bloc has been under intense international pressure to intervene in the deepening political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe following an upsurge in political violence this month.
Gift Tandare (31) died when police crushed a prayer meeting in the western Harare township of Highfield, which authorities said was a banned political protest. Tsvangirai and 12 senior opposition colleagues were hospitalised after being injured in the police action and alleged they were assaulted with clubs and iron bars while under arrest without provoking police.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2007 00:00 ||
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Well, he doesn't have to worry about that silly boycott anymore: HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Police stormed the offices of Zimbabwe's main opposition party Wednesday and arrested its leader hours before he planned to talk to reporters about a wave of political violence that had left him briefly hospitalized. Party head Morgan Tsvangirai was taken along with other political opponents of President Robert Mugabe in a bus to an undisclosed location by officers who had sealed off approaches to his headquarters and fired tear gas to drive away onlookers, the party and witnesses said.
The Movement for Democratic Change said Tsvangirai had been scheduled to give a news conference on the government's escalating violence against its political opponents. `Tsvangirai and a number of others we have not been able to identify have been taken by police in a bus. We don't know their whereabouts. We don't know if they have been charged,'' said Eliphas Mukonoweshuro, an aide to Tsvangirai.
Mukonoweshuro said police had searched the offices of Harvest House, the opposition headquarters in downtown Harare, after sealing off two nearby streets and firing tear gas. The European Union said it viewed the arrest of Tsvangirai with ``great concern,'' said Jens Ploetner, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of EU president Germany.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2007 10:35 Comments ||
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Up to 600 people have been killed in fighting between Congo's army and troops loyal to the former rebel leader and presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba, European Union ambassadors have said. They warned that the fighting had "seriously wounded" the country's young democracy.
Bemba lost the election, then decided to stage a coup. Had he succeeded that would have also "seriously wounded the country's young democracy."
Top 55 graft suspects hold at least 40 times more money in their bank accounts than the amounts declared in their last tax statements, an investigation into their deposits by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) reveals. NBR Chairman Badiur Rahman disclosed this to the press yesterday, adding that the undisclosed bank deposits of these people would total to more than Tk 100 crore, but he declined to reveal the actual amount.
Rahman was holding a meeting with tax officials at the NBR office where he invited the journalists as guests. Following the caretaker government's move against top graft suspects of the country, the NBR in early March asked all banks to freeze the accounts of 55. They include high profile politicians like barrister Moudud Ahmed, barrister Nazmul Huda, Mohammad Nasim, Mosaddak Ali Falu, Nasser Rahman, etc. "Now we will serve each of them with a notice to pay the due tax against these hidden deposits," NBR chairman told the reporters, "if they do not oblige, we will sue them."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2007 00:00 ||
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GOOD MORNING FRIEND. I AM THE WIFE OF BARRISTER MOUDUD AHMED. I BEG YOUR ASSISTANCE IN RETRIVING TK100 CRORE IN A FROZEN BANK ACCOUNT.....
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2007 7:48 Comments ||
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Condemned killer of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman--retired army major AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed was supposed to be brought back to Dhaka today but latest reports say his trip has been delayed. Mohiuddin was expected to travel to Dhaka via Bangkok but Bangladesh Ambassador in Bangkok Shahed Akhter told The Daily Star over telephone last night that he had no knowledge of Mohiuddin's whereabouts.
"But the Rab Federal Protective Service assures me they'll be along shortly, after a brief stop at the docks and dinner with a doctor friend of theirs."
The comments contradicted earlier information from the home ministry, where a source quoting the foreign ministry said Mohiuddin had arrived at Bangkok Airport yesterday morning and was to be flown to Dhaka today onboard a Thai Airways flight. "There was an indication of deporting him today, but we've no confirmation from the US authorities," acting Foreign Secretary Touhid Hossain told UNB last night. He could not say about the exact date of Mohiuddin's arrival in Dhaka. "What I can say is that he has not departed for Bangladesh today," he said.
A US diplomat told UNB that he had no reason to believe that he is coming today. "He will be arrested on a pending warrant and be sent to jail soon after arrival," Home Secretary Abdul Karim told The Daily Star yesterday, adding that all necessary directives were given to law enforcement agencies.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2007 00:00 ||
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Bangladesh's Chief of the Army Staff has lambasted the country's leaders, and urged the elimination of "corrupt politicians" if the nation wants to improve. Speaking to veterans of the 1971 war of independence in Dhaka, Moeen Ahmed said, "It is time to ... fight against injustice, terrorism and corruption, as well as corrupt politicians."
"Through the 36 years after independence, politicians gave us nothing good, not even to give due recognition to the national leaders," Moeen added, referring to the country's first President, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
A military-backed government, headed by former central bank governor Fakhruddin Ahmed, has been ruling the country ever since a state of emergency was declared on January 11. Fakhruddin has vowed to clean up Bangladesh's notoriously corrupt politics in order to hold credible elections. "Politicians divided the country by their feuding while indulging in corrupt practices. Now the time has come to reunite the country and try to deliver the benefits of independence," Moeen said, according to a government press release.
As part of a massive crackdown on graft, scores of high-profile politicians, including former ministers from both main parties, and the outgoing Prime Minister's son, have been detained on corruption allegations. After imposing the state of emergency, President Iajuddin Ahmed canceled disputed elections scheduled for January 22. The main opposition Awami League had said it would boycott the ballot, accusing the outgoing Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of trying to rig the election.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2007 00:00 ||
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Relations between Britain and Argentina took a turn for the worse today after Buenos Aires ended an agreement for oil exploration near the Falkland Islands.
Argentina's decision came just days before the 25th anniversary of the war for the South Atlantic islands.
Round two warming up
The move ends a 1995 accord designed to foster cooperation on oil prospecting around the islands. Scientists say that there may be billions of dollars worth of oil under the waters in the area.
The Argentinian foreign minister, Jorge Taiana, said the move was taken as Britain had unilaterally floated public bid oil deals in the area. Mr Taiana said he had informed Britain's ambassador in Argentina, John Hughes, about the decision, adding "the Argentine decision brings an end ... to an instrument the United Kingdom sought to use to justify its illegitimate and unilateral action to explore for resources that belong to Argentines."
The 1995 agreement was reached under British prime minister John Major and Argentine president Carlos Menem, who worked hard to improve relations between the two countries. The first Argentinian head of state to visit Britain since the Falklands war, he laid a wreath at the Falklands memorial in St Paul's cathedral. President Nestor Kirchner, who came into office in 2003, has adopted a different tack, calling on Britain to discuss the issue of sovereignty of the islands, populated by 2,900 people of mostly British ancestry.
Last year, Argentina criticised a British decision extending fishing licenses from one to 25 years in waters around the Falkland Islands, saying it disregarded Argentina's territorial claims. "Argentina is not opposed to cooperating with the United Kingdom, but only if this contributes to renewing dialogue over sovereignty," Mr Taiana said.
Argentina invaded the islands - called Las Malvinas by Argentineans - located some 300 miles off its South Atlantic coast - on April 2 1982. Seven hundred Argentinian and 255 British troops died in the 10-week conflict before Argentina's forces surrendered. Argentina claims it inherited the islands from Spain before they were occupied by Britain in 1833.
Might as well try to grab them again. What's left of the British army is tied up in Iraq and Afghanistan, there's hardly any Royal Navy left, and Tony has lost his spine.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2007 14:44 ||
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#1
The Argies should also be reminded that when the British invaded the Falklands, they may have only killed about 700, but they captured 11,300.
#3
I doubt Britain would fight if the Argies took the islands a second time. Argentina should just pass an eminent domain law and buy out the land at their decided upon price. Pretend it's all legal, as if they are the governing body responsible.
The usual suspects will support them against Imperialist squatters.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
And picking up speed....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/28/2007 0:28 Comments ||
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#2
I like this pope. He certainly does not suffer from a lack of clarity of vision.
Although, I think there is more to the contraction of population than what is apparent on the surface. The odd thing is that the trend is not only present in Europe. Everywhere. It expresses itself in different forms--for instance some countries have relatively high birth rates, but the net gain shows a declining trend.
What is that hidden factor is a good question. I have only a tentative "pet" theory but not far enough with it to present it.
Of course, beside the hidden factor, "picking up speed" in Europe is due to the factors pope so eloquently presented.
#3
I have only a tentative "pet" theory but not far enough with it to present it.
IM(very)HO it's structural (due to higher life standards), cultural (nanny state eliminating the need for large families to support elders, higher cost of raising children & higher expectations of what a child should *have*, hedonism, destructuration of the family cell and patriarchal society, promotion of "alternate lifestyles",...) and environmental (dramatic lowering of the spermatozoid count and testosterone in developed societies due to chemicals found in many, many plastic material, solvants, foods - cf Jim Rutz's serie on soy in WND -,...).
The first one is probably inevitable and should lead to a 2.1+ birthrate, but the last two are quite avoidable; as a matter of fact, the cultural issue is indeed voluntary and is the result of constructivism by the Forces of Progress, while the chemical pollution is an issue not taken into account, in favor of politically-useful imaginary fears like GW.
#4
I have only a tentative "pet" theory but not far enough with it to present it.
Also, while PCT and the famous population reduction supposedly planned by the NWO should be avoided, it's true that the driving ideology of the Enlightened Elites, both in Europe and in the USA (globalism or tranzi) has a distinct malthusian undertone I think, with a zero sum game mentality (cf the Club of Rome's agenda back in the 70's), so population growth is not a priority... even if paradoxally, the EU is well aware this demographic winter is going to be a MAJOR issue soon enough, if only if the social-democrat (socialist) societies are to be preserved... and what is the response? Well, immigration and elargement of course! I remember a pol saying in teevee debate during the 2005 "EU constitution" referendum that "the turks will pay our retirement".
#5
A5089, from my POV, you describe, in #3, symptoms, rather than causes. One can abstract these as modae operandi or patterns of some basic factor. Will not elaborate at this point.
As the "the turks will pay our retirement", I have to react with a pure unadulterated (almost) evil laugh!
What would be left from Western Europeons would be paying for Turks' retirement. WE's retirement would be guaranteed after assumption of a room temperature.
Not saying that it would last forever. Just that sometimes... the lessons to be learned are very harsh.
#6
2x4, I'd be very interested by your own view on that, even if it's a WIP; please, do elaborate.
Not saying that it would last forever. Just that sometimes... the lessons to be learned are very harsh.
Yes, but learning lessons assume you survive to learn, and what's happening is nothing short of survival at stake, not only culturally, but also as simple continued existence as a population group. What cracks me up is that for the EE, "France" or "Italy" or "Spain" are assumed to be some kind of given assumptions, as if those notions were not dependent upon the persistence of french, italians and spaniards to continue to exist.
#7
A5089, would love to elaborate, but want to be a bit coherent and have still some research to do, to have a reasonable skeleton to flesh out. Gimme some time (at the moment my spare time is rather miniscule, so it may take a while).
as if those notions were not dependent upon the persistence of french, italians and spaniards to continue to exist
Agreed. I am not saying that they will rise from ashes. More likely not. But while big chunks of Western Europe will be colonized, "turkized", Central Europe (formerly called Eastern Europe) wont be. CE has been inoculated for centuries and that is still in their genes (or cultural memory).
So, some ethnica may be gone, but the European culture will survive, and later flourish again. An European Lingua Franca in these times may be a version of Polish, or Czech, or Hungarian.
#9
No children, whatta ya think 400 years of colonialization have brought us(them). Lots and lots of "children"...
algola, liberia, israel, belize, hawaii, philippines, the list goes on and on, not that they're well developed healthy children, however, they are children nonetheless.
The late pope John Paul II will move a step closer to sainthood next week when the Vatican receives proof of his miraculous intercession to cure a French nun of Parkinson's disease, diocesan officials said on Tuesday. The "miracle", if certified by the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, will qualify the charismatic Polish pope for beatification, the main stepping stone to becoming a saint. Monsignor Slawomir Oder, spearheading the process, said the Rome diocese was "spoiled for choice" among dozens of reported miracle cures attributed to John Paul II, of which about 20 warranted serious consideration.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2007 00:00 ||
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Turkey has criticised the French president Jacques Chirac's EU leaving present - a beer mug showing an 18th-century Ottoman defeat by the French. "The EU should concern itself more with the future than with the past," Abdullah Gul, the country's foreign minister, said.
A little more context from Expatica. Perhaps a little cipher with a knowing wink from Germany to France? Turkey certainly got the message:
What to get the French president who has everything and is attending his last EU summit? German Chancellor Angela Merkel decided the answer was an antique beer stein. At festivities for the 50th anniversary of the European Union Sunday, the diminutive German chancellor presented the towering French president with a rare 18th century mug during a luncheon for the 27 EU leaders. "We gave him a beer mug to add to his collection," a beaming Merkel told reporters after hosting a summit on the 50th anniversary of the EU's founding Treaty of Rome. "It's a piece of history," she said, noting that it dated from a time when "Napoleon was fighting in Egypt."
"He has left his mark on Europe in a very positive sense," she said. "There was a very generous round of applause for him" from the other EU leaders.
Sen. Hillary Clinton has agreed to help former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, who endorsed her Monday, pay off his $400,000 campaign debt. Clinton (D-N.Y.) will put the arm on her donor network for Vilsack, who quit the presidential race Feb. 23 citing financial difficulties.
Clinton spokesman Phil Singer said it was a normal gesture to make and called suggestions of any endorsement quid pro quo "ridiculous." "One thing's got absolutely nothing to do with the other," he said. "They've known each other for years. If she weren't running for President, she'd be doing whatever she can to help retire his debt."
Brought to you by Perma-Bond, the official Lip Glue of the Hillary Clinton campaign committee
Three weeks ago, Vilsack said his main focus was closing down his campaign debt and that he would not make an endorsement until the end of the year - if then. "I think the chances are good that I'll do that, but I don't know that for certain," he said.
Clinton has already run into problems with the appearance of buying endorsements. Right after she scored the politically important backing of South Carolina pastor and state Sen. Darrell Jackson, it emerged she had also hired him as a $10,000-a-month consultant. Rival Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) had offered him half that. It's an old political pitfall. In 2004, Democrat Howard Dean was accused of "buying" the endorsement of Carol Moseley Braun by giving her a $20,000-a-month travel budget.
Meanwhile, in other 2008 endorsement news, Obama picked up the backing of Sheila Johnson, the ex-wife of BET media pioneer Robert Johnson, who supports Clinton. She wouldn't say if her ex's choice made any role in her decision. And to no one's great surprise, Clinton - the front-runner to be first woman President - will be getting the official endorsement of the National Organization for Women today.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2007 08:06 ||
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Bitch. She never offered me that deal.
Posted by: The Ghost of Vince Foster ||
03/28/2007 12:41 Comments ||
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#2
Another of those "Cattle Futures" paid off? Again?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/28/2007 18:27 Comments ||
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The return of White House press secretary Tony Snow's colon cancer is an ominous development, but moderately useful treatments remain open to him, and even a cure is a remote possibility. Precise estimates of survival are not available, although several studies suggest it is about two years on average. But patients with unusually good responses to a new round of chemotherapy -- which these days usually includes "targeted" biological drugs along with older ones -- may qualify for surgery, which can further prolong life.
"It is still potentially curable, even if it is recurrent. I underline the word 'potentially,' " said Dan Laheru, an oncologist at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Martin J. Heslin, a cancer surgeon at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, echoed that assessment -- and the caveat. "You don't want to overstate the number of people who can make it into that subset," he said. "It is a relatively new concept, this idea of chemotherapy making people surgical candidates."
Snow, 51, had his colon removed and underwent six months of chemotherapy when the cancer was diagnosed in 2005. Last week, he announced he would have surgery on Monday to identify a small, abnormal mass in his abdominal cavity that had been detected on a CAT scan.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, at yesterday's briefing, said physicians had determined that the mass was colon cancer. She also said the cancer had spread to the liver. Late in the afternoon, she refined the report by saying that the liver tumors were on the surface of the organ, not inside it.
Although many details were not available, this suggests that Snow's cancer has "peritoneal metastases" -- the spread of cancer cells to the translucent membrane that envelopes the abdominal cavity, called the peritoneum. The liver is covered with a similar membrane, called the capsule.
Cancer cells can land on the peritoneum and the liver capsule through the same mechanism, which is probably direct seeding from the original tumor. This is different -- although no less serious -- from spreading through the bloodstream, which is how cancer cells get to the liver's interior.
The cancer cells found this week originated in Snow's colon and almost certainly spread before his first operation. Only with time have they grown to form clumps large enough to be seen on a CAT scan. A major unanswered question is whether -- or how many -- other microscopic clumps are still growing and not yet visible.
Among the possible treatments Snow might receive are chemotherapy drugs, such as irinotecan and oxaliplatin, that poison cells. Also available are biological treatments, such as Avastin and Erbitux, that rob tumors of their blood supply or suppress growth by blocking cell-surface receptors.
Patients whose tumors shrink greatly after those treatments sometimes then undergo surgery to remove a small number (usually three or fewer) of cancer nodules that remain in the liver or elsewhere.
The proportion of patients with recurrent colon cancer who ultimately qualify for surgery is small, probably no more than 15 percent. Of those who have surgery, perhaps 20 to 30 percent will survive five years -- which in the case of colon cancer strongly implies they are cured.
Some patients whose tumors have spread onto their peritoneum also undergo an experimental treatment in which the abdominal cavity is flooded with hot chemotherapy drugs under general anesthesia. It may have the power to cure on occasion.
Experts yesterday emphasized the great improvement in the treatment of colon cancer, which kills about 55,000 Americans a year. Godspeed, Tony.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/28/2007 06:40 ||
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which these days usually includes "targeted" biological drugs
monoclonal antibodies?
#2
Monoclonal antibodies are almost passe these days.
There are an incredible variety of "targeted" drug therapies available today to cancer patients. these range from deep-targeted transmitted radiation beams which penetrate tissues to a certain, specific depth and then deliver their radioactive payloads in precise doses, to microscopic beads packed with radioactive materials and specifically designed to target only specific tissues to active gene therapies designed to turn cancerous tissue cell growth off at the genetic level.
Tony has a good chance. Even if the cancer has spread to his liver, they can cut the cancerous portion out and he can survive because the liver regenerates. Or, barring that, there's always the alternative of a liver transplant or other radical surgery in combination with the chemo.
Scientists have created the world's first human-sheep chimera - which has the body of a sheep and half-human organs. "Hi, there, little sheep! What's your name?"
"Baaaah-b!"
The sheep have 15 per cent human cells and 85 per cent animal cells - and their evolution brings the prospect of animal organs being transplanted into humans one step closer. "Clara, this mutton smells kinda like you!"
Professor Esmail Zanjani, of the University of Nevada, has spent seven years and £5million perfecting the technique, which involves injecting adult human cells into a sheep's foetus. He has already created a sheep liver which has a large proportion of human cells and eventually hopes to precisely match a sheep to a transplant patient, using their own stem cells to create their own flock of sheep.
The process would involve extracting stem cells from the donor's bone marrow and injecting them into the peritoneum of a sheep's foetus. When the lamb is born, two months later, it would have a liver, heart, lungs and brain that are partly human and available for transplant.
"We would take a couple of ounces of bone marrow cells from the patient,' said Prof Zanjani, whose work is highlighted in a Channel 4 programme tomorrow.
"We would isolate the stem cells from them, inject them into the peritoneum of these animals and then these cells would get distributed throughout the metabolic system into the circulatory system of all the organs in the body. The two ounces of stem cell or bone marrow cell we get would provide enough stem cells to do about ten foetuses. So you don't just have one organ for transplant purposes, you have many available in case the first one fails."
At present 7,168 patients are waiting for an organ transplant in Britain alone, and two thirds of them are expected to die before an organ becomes available.
Scientists at King's College, London, and the North East Stem Cell Institute in Newcastle have now applied to the HFEA, the Government's fertility watchdog, for permission to start work on the chimeras.
But the development is likely to revive criticisms about scientists playing God, with the possibility of silent viruses, which are harmless in animals, being introduced into the human race.
Dr Patrick Dixon, an international lecturer on biological trends, warned: "Many silent viruses could create a biological nightmare in humans. Mutant animal viruses are a real threat, as we have seen with HIV."
Animal rights activists fear that if the cells get mixed together, they could end up with cellular fusion, creating a hybrid which would have the features and characteristics of both man and sheep. But Prof Zanjani said: "Transplanting the cells into foetal sheep at this early stage does not result in fusion at all."
#6
Fester, can you artistically render the Mohammed Bomb-head cartoon onto a camel's body? A perfectly insulting chimera, but what percent human would it be?
Presidential spokesman Tony Snow's cancer has returned and spread to his liver and elsewhere in his body, shaken White House colleagues announced Tuesday. They said he told them he planned to fight the disease and return to work. "He is not going to let this whip him, and he's upbeat," President Bush said of his press secretary. "And so my message to Tony is, 'Stay strong; a lot of people love you and care for you and will pray for you.'"
Snow, 51, had his colon removed in 2005 and underwent six months of chemotherapy after being diagnosed with colon cancer. He underwent surgery on Monday to remove a growth in his abdominal area, near the site of the original cancer.
Doctors determined the growth was cancerous and the cancer had metastasized, or spread, to the liver. The cancer has attached to the liver but is not in the liver, White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said. The news rocked the White House. Snow had gone into the surgery saying he felt fine, and recent blood tests and imaging scans had indicated no return of cancer. He had said he opted to remove the growth out of "aggressive sense of caution."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2007 00:00 ||
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Get well Tony and any RBee who has cancer, you are in our prayers.
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.
A catfight at The New York Times Friday still has staffers in shock. The dustup between two female editors in the Styles department disrupted work on the Thursday and Sunday Styles sections as co-workers froze at the fracas. Fashion editor Anita LeClerc was the aggressor and her superior, deputy editor Mary Ann Giordano, the victim, sources say.
Lt. Col. Chase J. Nielsen, a Utah man and member of the famed "Doolittle Raiders" who bombed Japan in 1942 -- in a retaliation attack from Pearl Harbor -- passed away on Friday at the age of 90.
Comic-book hero Asterix did his bit for Middle East peace this weekend, when Arab and Hebrew translations of an Asterix album with a Middle Eastern touch were released simultaneously at the Paris book fair. "Translation opens us up to others, to all peoples," said Syrian Jamal Shehayeb, who usually translates literary works by Proust or poet Lamartine.
Last week's blasts at the Malhazine armoury in Mozambique were due to a robbery that went wrong, military sources told an independent newspaper on Monday. In its Monday edition, Tribuna Fax, quoting anonymous military sources, said the blasts came after officials, who were stealing mercury by draining it from some of the containers, failed to tightly close the containers, Vista News reported. "These acts are well known by authorities at the armoury, who never took any action," the source told the paper. "If thorough investigations are going to be made it will be discovered that this act of robbing mercury involves army engineers who know very well how to deactivate these arms."
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe will attend a regional meeting in Tanzania this week, official reports said on Tuesday, as pressure mounts on African leaders to tackle his controversial rule. Mugabe, who has come under a wave of Western-led criticism following a crackdown on the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), will brief leaders from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) at the special summit, the official Herald newspaper said. The discussion will focus on "the campaign by the MDC to unleash violence as part of its Western-backed efforts for illegal regime change in Zimbabwe", the Herald said.
Zimbabwe's main opposition leader announced on Tuesday he will boycott presidential elections scheduled for next year unless the poll is carried out under a new democratic constitution that ensures they are free and fair. Morgan Tsvangirai, addressing mourners at a memorial service for an opposition activist shot dead by police on March 11, said a free election was the constitutional and democratic right of Zimbabweans.
Top 55 graft suspects hold at least 40 times more money in their bank accounts than the amounts declared in their last tax statements, an investigation into their deposits by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) reveals. NBR Chairman Badiur Rahman disclosed this to the press yesterday, adding that the undisclosed bank deposits of these people would total to more than Tk 100 crore, but he declined to reveal the actual amount.
The late pope John Paul II will move a step closer to sainthood next week when the Vatican receives proof of his miraculous intercession to cure a French nun of Parkinson's disease, diocesan officials said on Tuesday. The "miracle", if certified by the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, will qualify the charismatic Polish pope for beatification, the main stepping stone to becoming a saint. Monsignor Slawomir Oder, spearheading the process, said the Rome diocese was "spoiled for choice" among dozens of reported miracle cures attributed to John Paul II, of which about 20 warranted serious consideration.
Turkey has criticised the French president Jacques Chirac's EU leaving present - a beer mug showing an 18th-century Ottoman defeat by the French. "The EU should concern itself more with the future than with the past," Abdullah Gul, the country's foreign minister, said.
Sen. Hillary Clinton has agreed to help former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, who endorsed her Monday, pay off his $400,000 campaign debt. Clinton (D-N.Y.) will put the arm on her donor network for Vilsack, who quit the presidential race Feb. 23 citing financial difficulties.
Scientists have created the world's first human-sheep chimera - which has the body of a sheep and half-human organs. 
Presidential spokesman Tony Snow's cancer has returned and spread to his liver and elsewhere in his body, shaken White House colleagues announced Tuesday. They said he told them he planned to fight the disease and return to work. "He is not going to let this whip him, and he's upbeat," President Bush said of his press secretary. "And so my message to Tony is, 'Stay strong; a lot of people love you and care for you and will pray for you.'" 
