[Emirates 24/7] A Saudi man had his Filipina housemaid placed in long-term storage after suspecting that she is involved in sorcery targeting his family, a newspaper reported on Sunday.
The unnamed man from the western town of Taif told police that he suspected the maid after she started to spend most of her time in her bedroom and staying for long periods of time in the bath room, Sabq Arabic language daily said.
Police raided the maid's bedroom and found talismans and other magic items while more such items were found inside her underwear at the women's jail.
"The man and his family complained to the police after suspecting the maid was trying to put them under magic spell."
The paper said the unidentified maid was handed over to the anti-witchcraft unit at the feared Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/27/2011 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] A devotee died when two crocodiles attacked her in a large pond of Hazrat Khan Jahan Ali's shrine in Bagerhat yesterday morning. The ceremony was simply ruined! They had to start all over again!
Forty-year-old Mariam Begum, a resident of Nonadanga village in Bagerhat Sadar Upazila, went to the pond to have a wash, locals said.
Mostafa Fakir, khadem (caretaker) of the mazar, said Mariam stayed at the house of Shahadat Fakir on the bank of the pond Saturday night.
"When she went to the pond around 5:00am, two crocodiles swooped on her and dragged her into the middle of the waterbody," he said.
Hearing her scream, locals rushed to the spot but failed to rescue her.
Around 9:00am, Mariam's body was seen floating near a mass of water-hyacinth in the pond, locals said, adding that she used to frequent the shrine.
On information, police reached the spot and recovered the body with the help of locals.
"Crocodiles ate away some flesh from the victim's legs," said Harun Rashid, sub-inspector of Bagerhat Model Police Station.
Police later handed over the body to Saleha, Mariam's sister, at about 10:00am.
An unnatural death case was filed.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/27/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
seems like a natural death to me
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/27/2011 10:38 Comments ||
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#3
That federal judge who wouldn't let the dams be drained down because of the damned plovers should be tied to the nuke plant until it is dry and safe.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
06/27/2011 11:12 Comments ||
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#4
So many of the Japanese nuclear safeguards and preparations proved false this year, I hope the US methods turn out better.
#5
Joe Herring makes the case that the Missouri has been purposely flooded by the enviros, making all the damages criminal. Knowing the snow melt was to be high, they could have let water out much sooner. Dry reservoirs, thought to take 7-9 years to refill by normal rainfall, are full even with a 100,000 cubic feet per second being discharged. Recent storms have compounded the problem. Read this blog and weep: http://brotherpete.com/index.php?topic=2621.msg10828#msg10828going
Americans spent in May at the weakest pace in 20 months, a sign that high gas prices and unemployment are holding back the economy.
Consumer spending was unchanged, the Commerce Department said Monday. That was the worst result since September 2009. And when adjusted for inflation, spending actually dropped 0.1 percent. Gee... who woulda thunk that higher energy and food costs would have made customers have LESS money to spend on fun items?
#4
...and just the anticipation of more inflation causing others to hang on to what they have for the price increases tomorrow. Of course those are the people who plan and actually do pay their mortgages and debts in the first place.
The Republican New Jersey governor, who just completed a deal with The Garden State's Democratic Legislature on a bill that decreases benefits to unionized public employees, said during an interview with Politico that opponents are twisting the idea. "This whole idea that we're taking away collective bargaining is just false," Christie told Politico. "What we're doing is setting the bar to a new normal.
"I think the future of public sector unions is still going to be important players in what happens as we move forward . . . but what we changed in New Jersey is, they're not gonna always get their way, all the time." Meanwhile, a union official called him "Hitler".
As for the fact that his name keeps popping to the top of some Republicans' presidential candidate wish lists, Christie said with a chuckle: "Is it appealing to have people say to you, 'We believe you're the best person to be president of the United States and leader of the free world?' Yeah that's pretty good." Yeah, but some folks used to say that about Obama and Carter...
But "you don't run for president because the opportunity is there. I would never run for president saying, 'I think I can win, I hope I'm ready.' I want to say, 'I know I'm ready, I hope I can win.' So until I can say that, I have no business asking anyone to vote for me for president." Every time I read about Christie, I like him more.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/27/2011 10:34 ||
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#1
collective bargaining: Newspeak for closed shop mandatory protection racket money dues
Unions already have paid representation in the form of the Donk party they purchased fund. They're just upset they haven't stayed bought.
A ship jointly owned by Swedish, Greek, and Norwegian activists hoping to join a flotilla of activist vessels challenging Israel's economic blockade of Gaza, had its propeller cut while in Athen's harbor today.
The ship has been detained in Athens on spurious charges that it's not seaworthy. She says that charge was made by an Israeli legal group. Spurious? You don't have a friggin' propeller!
The damage was discovered at 6:30 in the evening Athens time today, and that divers probably cut the propeller in the past 24 hours. Repairing the damage will take a few days. As to who is responsible, he declined to speculate. A few days? Guess again. You're looking at major 3 shop work, or more likely dry dock.
Earlier today, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet approved using any means necessary to stop the flotilla from reaching Gaza.
The flotilla spokesman says it has no plans to enter Israeli waters, instead planning on transiting through international waters to Gaza's territorial waters. Gaza has no territorial waters.
The distinction goes to the heart of their protest. While Israel extends de facto sovereignty over Gaza's coastal waters, penning its fisherman close to shore and preventing any shipping or ferries to run to and from the Strip, it's not their territory under international law. Wrong.
The activists themselves say they want to make the point that peacefully coming and going from Gaza shouldn't be criminalized, insist that they will practice nonviolent in their attempt, and that they'd be delighted to simply sail through unmolested.
[An Nahar] A Turkish court has charged four soldiers over an alleged 2003 plot to overthrow the Islamist-rooted government and ordered them jugged pending trial, Anatolia news agency reported Saturday.
At the rate they're going at it, they'll soon have the entire Turkish army behind bars, leaving no one to engage Syria...or Israel. On the other hand, Prime Minister Erdogan will charm all opponents with his Islamic approach and his hijabed wife, so that's ok.
Two-star admiral Mucahit Sislioglu, a colonel, and two other soldiers were questioned Friday and then charged as part of an expanding probe into a purported coup plot, codenamed "Operation Sledgehammer," that has already landed some 200 soldiers in court.
The arrests bring to 25 the number tossed in the clink pending trial since the investigation entered a second stage after fresh coup documents were allegedly discovered in February, Anatolia said.
The probe, the toughest challenge yet to the once-omnipotent Turkish army, has resulted in a massive case against 196 serving and retired officers, who went on trial in December. Most of them remain in prison.
The case has been marred by serious doubts over the authenticity of some incriminating documents, fueling mistrust between army and government.
Prosecutors argue the coup plan was drawn up shortly after the Justice and Development Party, the moderate offshoot of a banned Islamist movement, came to power in November 2002 amid fears it would undermine Turkey's secular system.
The soldiers allegedly plotted to bomb mosques, and down a Turkish jet over the Aegean and blame it on Greece, hoping to destabilize the government and garner public support for a coup.
The alleged criminal mastermind says papers from a seminar on a contingency plan based on a scenario of tensions with Greece and domestic unrest have been doctored to look like a coup plan.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/27/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] For the first time in the country's democratic history, the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly has directed the defence ministry and the GHQ to submit a report on corruption charges against three retired generals.
The generals were allegedly involved in misadventures in the stock exchange which caused a loss of about Rs2 billion to the National Logistics Cell (NLC).
A meeting of the PAC held here on Saturday also took notice of the killing by Rangers personnel of an unarmed youth in Bloody Karachi and officials of the interior ministry informed the committee that activities of Rangers were being monitored.
The meeting, presided over by Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan of the PML-N, asked the defence ministry to submit the report on NLC scam to the PAC Secretariat by June 30.
Saeed Zafar, a member of the PAC, said the committee had been waiting for the past seven months, but the GHQ was to submit its report on the scam to the committee.
The defence ministry officials said the GHQ had already completed its inquiry into the scam and would soon forward a report to the ministry.
"The three retired army general and a bureaucrat need to be brought to justice," Chaudhry Nisar said, adding: "I have also told the army chief that the inquiry has to be in light of three audit reports already conducted into the NLC affairs."
The NLC is a subsidiary of the Planning Commission but has traditionally been dominated by the army. It is being headed by a serving major general and various army officers are working as his subordinates.
According to an audit report, the NLC management had obtained illegal and unauthorised loans of Rs4.3 billion between 2004 and 2008 for investment in the volatile stock market and suffered a loss of Rs1.84.
The PAC chairman told the defence ministry officials that obtaining the report from the GHQ would not be a problem. "Gen Ashfaq Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... has already assured me," he said.
At an earlier meeting of the committee, NLC Director General Maj-Gen Junaid Rehmat had said the NLC was paying Rs2.7 million per day as mark-up on the loans illegally obtained for investment in the stock market.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/27/2011 00:00 ||
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Many Jewish Scotch drinkers were drunk with anger -- almost to the point of vomiting -- when a small village in Scotland enacted a ban on Israeli-made goods last year.
The town, West Dunbartonshire, is home to many distilleries that produce a brand of booze considered sacred by many alcohol-guzzling Jews: Scotch whisky.
But when the West Dubartonshire Council passed a motion to boycott all Israeli goods in 2009, Jewish activists responded with a counter-boycott. As much as it pained their palettes, Jewish Scotch enthusiasts put an embargo on all whisky products originating from distilleries in West Durbantonshire. (This reporter, however, kept his bottle open, and imbibed with pleasure.)
Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), not a Jew, was one of the few in Congress to take this issue seriously (which is a good thing). Kirk quickly realized that while the Scots may be perpetually sloshed, those in the West Durbantonshire Council were demonizing Israel in a serious way.
"The Scottish Government and the Scottish National Party have a responsibility to speak out against attempts to delegitimize and castigate a fellow democracy and strong Scottish ally like Israel," Senator Kirk said in a statement.
Kirk demanded that the Scottish Government take a stand: Are they on board with the local council's anti-Israel boycott?
When a powerful lawmaker like Kirk demands answers, he soon gets them: The Scottish Government and the Scottish National Party today strongly disavowed the West Dunbartonshire Council's boycott of Israel (via the British embassy).
Kirk praised the move. "I welcome the Scottish Government's decision to disavow the West Dunbartonshire Council's boycott of Israel and urge the First Minister to take further steps to reaffirm the Scottish-Israeli relationship," he said in the statement. The Scottish govt will take the heat about freeing a Libyan mass murderer, but they do protect their distilleries.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/27/2011 14:34 ||
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[Al Jazeera] A week before Thailand votes in general elections, opinion polls show the largest opposition party, Pheu Thai, leading the ruling Democrats.
The party is led Yingluck Shinawatra, the sister of ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
But there still remains the question of the army, which has staged or attempted 18 coups in the past, most recently in 2006. That was when it removed Thaksin, who was later convicted of corruption and abuse of power.
Some believe the army will intervene again to prevent the party, which Thaksin controls from exile, taking office. Some who conveniently aren't named in this article.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/27/2011 00:00 ||
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Peta's going to just LOVE this!
The first 'test-tube' hamburger is only a year away, scientists claim.
They believe the product, beef mince grown from stem cells, could pave the way for eating meat without animals being slaughtered.
The Dutch scientists predict that over the next few decades the world's population will increase so quickly that there will not be enough livestock to feed everyone. So what is the fertility rate of Europe these days?
The scientists are currently developing a burger which will be grown from 10,000 stem cells extracted from cattle, which are then left in the lab to multiply more than a billion times to produce muscle tissue similar to beef. Similar - but not exactly? My guess it will taste, and look like crap - or chicken.
He told Scientific American magazine that he thought the first burger could be made within 12 months.
In 2009 scientists from the same university grew strips of pork using the same method. They admitted it was not particularly appetising, being grey with a similar texture to calamari. Fish fillets have been grown in a New York laboratory using cells taken from goldfish muscle tissue. Any guesses what those Scientists swallowed during college?
Even if the initial results do not taste quite the same as proper meat, scientists are convinced the public will soon get used to it, especially if they are not allowed do not have a choice. Any guesses if Al-Gore and company are backing this? How soon will the raising of cattle be severely restricted - to control CO2 emissions from cow farts burps?
I have no doubt we will have a large group of people who don't have any problems with killing an unborn human fetus getting all uptight about eating 'in-vitro' meat.
Posted by: Every Day a Wildcat(KSU) ||
06/27/2011 9:19 Comments ||
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one small burger for a man
one giant bite for mankind
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
06/27/2011 9:27 Comments ||
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GM Crops bad.
Stem Veal good.
The only thing more full of it than Europe must be Sciam. These are the same people who put together a full spread advocating - yes the right word - the reintroduction of ice age animals to roam freely across the midwest. Basically, op-ed spreads.
#10
Something new for the frankenfood crowd to go nuts over.
Posted by: My two cents ||
06/27/2011 11:18 Comments ||
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If they could make it so the finished product was almost identical to the original, this would be a wonderful invention. It would allow for cheap meat that a lot of the world craves and keeps a lot of pathogens out of the food chain.
Personally, I think it is a good idea to try. If they can get a nice marbled steak grown in the lab for $1/pound, I'm all over that!
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/27/2011 12:01 Comments ||
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But what do they have to feed these cells in order to grow?
Ah, someone hits the nail on the head. Growing cells in industrial quantities is a matter of applied technology. The "What to feed them?" question is economics.
Your basic cow is essentially an bioreactor that takes a low-grade input, grass, and uses it to culture micro-organisms that feed on otherwise indigestible cellulose. The cow processes the micro-oranisms into tasty cow-meat that we find on our grocer's shelves. To be economical, you are going to have to beat Cow + Grass = Meat.
As for SciAm, once upon a time, it was a scientific journal back before it turned into Discovery Lite.
#16
We will have no choice. Only the politically connected or wealthy will be able to indulge in the real thing. It will be marketed as positively as possible. Turn in your appliances for credits. Exciting, fun, healthy and convenient. Health why worry. This food will make you young and live years longer. Citizen it is your duty to save the planet for yourself and future generations. With the medical history we have we can produce for you your optimum needs (valium, lithium etc.for that little extra kick).
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.
[Emirates 24/7] A Saudi man had his Filipina housemaid 
A devotee died when two crocodiles attacked her in a large pond of Hazrat Khan Jahan Ali's shrine in Bagerhat yesterday morning.
Americans spent in May at the weakest pace in 20 months, a sign that high gas prices and unemployment are holding back the economy.
[An Nahar] A Turkish court has charged four soldiers over an alleged 2003 plot to overthrow the Islamist-rooted government and ordered them 
[Dawn] For the first time in the country's democratic history, the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly has directed the defence ministry and the GHQ to submit a report on corruption charges against three retired generals.
