#4
It is because in America people do not take kindly to having their cars torched. Or even 'keyed'. And too many Americans have shotgun racks in the back window of their pickup trucks (full racks this time of year.)
#6
Israel (70 percent) and the United States (63 percent) were named as the two countries that "pose the biggest threat to you."
Jeez, could they possibly come up with a more loaded question? Why two countries? Could they have possibly had the answer in mind before the question was asked?
#7
Oh, I am VERY certain many Arabs would like the US and Israel to be impotent and France to be in charge. They have so much in common, including a culture of corruption.
In Chitungwiza, a dormitory town home to more than one million black Zimbabweans, a breeze is a curse. It shifts the rotting rubbish in front of the tiny houses. And it laces the air with the stench of human waste, which drifts in thin dark rivers in the streets.
âWe are sitting on a time bomb,â Misheck Shoko, the Mayor of Chitungwiza, said as he gestured towards a concrete pipe spewing thick brown effluent into a stream outside the townâs main sewerage treatment plant. The stream feeds the Manyame Dam, which supplies the capital, Harare, with its water. âItâs a miracle there have not been more outbreaks of disease.â
Across Zimbabwe the scene is the same: townships that were once models for Africa have become stinking health hazards. The big cities are not much better. Zimbabwe is fast sinking into the past. The meltdown of one of the continentâs best infrastructures has been years in the making, the result of underinvestment and mismanagement. But the speed of the decline over the past few months has been astonishing. It has been driven by a crippling shortage of foreign currency. Since the seizure of white-owned commercial farms began in earnest nearly six years ago, agricultural output â the mainstay of the economy â has dropped 80 per cent. Without dollars the Government cannot buy the £70,000 worth of parts it needs to fix the sewerage plant in Chitungwiza, where dozens of people have already contracted dysentery.
It also cannot buy fuel. Service stations have not had petrol or diesel for months. Fuel can only be bought on the black market â at more than four times the official pump price. Air Zimbabwe cancelled all its flights for a day last week because of a lack of jet fuel. Only 15 of the countryâs 175 railway locomotives are in running order. The state-owned Zimbabwe United Passenger Company, which runs Harareâs bus services, is broke with debts of £410,000. Demand for bicycles has soared. At Zacks Cycles, opposite the railway station in downtown Harare, Yossi Tal, the manager, said that he had sold thousands of heavy, Chinese-made single-speed bicycles this year to companies such as British American Tobacco. âConsidering the situation here, itâs been a good year,â said Mr Tal, one of the few businessmen who can afford to smile.
The IMF has refused credit unless urgent economic reform takes place. Donor countries have long closed their wallets. Even China, to whom President Mugabe has turned with his Look East policy, has refused to bail Zimbabwe out. South Africa, which does not want its neighbour to collapse, will only loan money if there is political reform.
Hospitals, receiving an increasing number of patients suffering from malnutrition, are creaking under the strain. Harare Central Hospital said that it may have to close because so many nurses were leaving â 30 over the past two weeks â because of poor wages and a lack of medical equipment. No more AIDS patients are being accepted for treatment because of a shortage of drugs. Thousands of soldiers have been sent on compulsory leave because there is not enough food and money.
A shortage of seed and fertiliser â and money to buy them â mean next yearâs harvest could be one of the worst. Aid agencies believe that more than three million people will need feeding by March. The Government, in denial over the scale of the problem, is reluctant to let food relief in. The hardship is tearing at the social fabric of a country where the life expectancy is now just 37.
The brutal police operation, known as Operation Murambatsvina (Sweep out the rubbish), left 700,000 without homes or work. Operation Hlalani Kuhle (Live well), meant to provide legal homes and formal markets, has barely begun, and the ban on vending is still being ruthlessly enforced. Newspaper boys selling mobile telephone charge cards are frisked and their stock is confiscated; women selling a few tomatoes and eggs are hauled off to police stations.
In the state media â which now include the Daily Mirror, furtively purchased with public money by the Central Intelligence Organisation â the ruling Zanu (PF) party leaks stories of hope: that recent uranium finds will help to boost the rural electrification programme, that Zimbabwe can host the 2010 African Nations Cup, that a Stalin-type command agriculture will help to utilise idle land, that petrol will arrive âwithin daysâ. Most ordinary Zimbabweans, beaten down, despondent and dismayed by the infighting in the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, seem to have accepted their miserable fate.
Near Chivhu, a government stronghold in central Zimbabwe, Nicodimus Joni, 43, a farmworker in tattered blue overalls and sandals made of old car tyres, waited for a lift to work. Closing his eyes, and slowly moving his head from side to side, he tried to find words to describe what was happening in his country.
âAh, Zimbabwe,â he eventually sighed. âZimbabwe is dead.â
#2
Sounds like some of those Chinee 40 pounders that the Beard brought in during the special economic times. Very sturdy, a bike for me. On a level or downhill grade I was pure sleek momentum.
#3
arm the opposition - otherwise they'll die in a giant gulag. Bob and Grace and co. need to die untimely deaths...soon
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/03/2005 13:13 Comments ||
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#4
There is no real opposition. The MDC tried initially, got dumped upon by the intellectual and cultural elite for not being 'sensitive enough', and is now in disarray. The intellectal and cultural elites themselves are blithering; they want change, have no stomach for revolution, and any change has to "not hurt the poor".
#5
One trillion dollars in aid to Africa has been pissed up against the wall since world war 2 and this is the end result!?....is it any wonder there's so much "compassion fatigue"?....They were a thousand percent better off under colonial rule.
#6
At risk of being redundant, for anyone on the 'Burg who hasn't read it, I suggest Kim DuToit's article, "Let Africa Sink." Nothing can be done for those people from outside that will be truly lasting except recolonization. And that won't happen because no country in its right mind would want the problems that would come with an African populace. It's a Darwinian dilemma.
Posted by: mac ||
12/03/2005 23:00 Comments ||
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MANAMA â Rioters burned cars and set off explosions with gas cylinders on Thursday in the third night of unrest in Bahrain, and 15 people were arrested, police said. Among those arrested were children aged between 13 and 15, caught after police used tear gas to break up a protest where rioters stole a car and set it ablaze, an Interior Ministry official said.
The unrest has flared since a committee for Bahrainâs unemployed organised protests against joblessness and to demand an investigation into a claim of an assault by unidentified men, believed to be armed security officials, on committee member Moussa Abdaali. The committee said it had called off Thursdayâs protest a few hours before it began, but protesters claiming to be representatives of villages gathered and organised the rally.
About 80 people had marched through the highway causing traffic chaos, the official said. Two gas cylinders exploded after rioters set them on fire and placed them inside burning garbage dumps that were used to block traffic. âWhen police approached them, they hurled stones and Molotov bombs at the units, before taking refuge in a nearby village from which they continued their attacks,â the official said.
A Bahraini official has accused the organisers of attempting to mimic the riots against poverty, crime and unemployment that shook Franceâs suburbs and cities in late October and November. The head of the capital security directorate, Colonel Isa Al Musalam, has called the protests a campaign to incite unrest with the aim of striking terror with the public.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/03/2005 00:00 ||
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The weight of the world's tallest skyscraper - specially built to withstand Taiwan's frequent earthquakes - could be causing a rise in the number of tremors beneath it, a professor of feng shui from the island wrote in a scientific journal. Lin Cheng-horng, an earthquake specialist at the National Taiwan Normal University in the capital, Taipei, says the 1,679-foot Taipei 101 building - named for the number of floors - might rest on an earthquake fault line.
In the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters, Lin wrote that the pressure of the building's 700,000 tons on the ground may be leading to increased seismic activity. The tremors "could be a direct result of the loading of the mega-structure," said an abstract of Lin's article, published on the American Geophysical Union's Web site. However, Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau said on Friday that the one year since the building's completion was too short a time in which to evaluate its effect on tremors.
Taipei 101, which looks like a giant steel-and-glass bamboo shoot, is equipped with a 733-ton ball suspended near the top supplied by Haliburton and equipped with radio receivers for an unknown reason that moves to counter the force of earthquakes or strong winds.
Kanagawa Gov Shigefumi Matsuzawa said Saturday he will continue to seek the deployment of a conventional aircraft carrier at the U.S. naval base in Yokosuka in the prefecture, despite the announcement that the nuclear-powered George Washington will be stationed there from 2008.
He said he will continue to ask the Japanese and U.S. governments to deploy a conventional aircraft carrier, in addition to requesting settlement of the noise issue caused by carrier-based planes. The U.S. Navy announced Friday that the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George Washington will replace the conventional flattop Kitty Hawk, which uses the Yokosuka base as its home port, in 2008.
#1
Mr. Matsuzawa ought to know the Chinese have long memories; grandchildren of grandchildren of victims of Japanese atrocities in the 1930's & 1940's will not be unlikely to seek payback if the situation presents. US carrier George Washington is one way to help keep things cool another generation.
#5
IIRC - the Connie was decommisioned here in SD last year for mothballs and I seem to recall the JFK and Kitty Hawk destined for same, if not done already on JFK
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/03/2005 13:17 Comments ||
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#6
pics from the decommissioning of the Constellation.
The ship's crew actually sponsored one of my Little League teams (back in the late 60's early 70's olden days). Very cool - we got tours of the ship
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/03/2005 13:39 Comments ||
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#7
So, I take it, the Govenor and his electorate are going to build and pay for a modern non-nuke carrier to give to the US to be stationed there?
#8
Damn right 3dc, where are the 2 or 3 Japanese carriers to protect their sea lanes? Just don't name them the Kaga and Akagi, OK?
Posted by: ed ||
12/03/2005 17:04 Comments ||
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#9
The JFK was still afloat as of this year; I was onboard this past May for Fleet Week 2005.
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
12/03/2005 17:24 Comments ||
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#10
The Pentagon wanted wanted to retire the Kennedy in 2006. But there is a lot of poltical opposition to it, so the decision is still in the air. I think the original plan was to keep the Kennedy till around 2020, so she still has a lot of life left in her.
Posted by: ed ||
12/03/2005 17:38 Comments ||
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MELBOURNE - A lawyer who tried and failed to save an Australian drug trafficker executed by Singapore urged Canberra Saturday to protest the use of the death penalty in the United States.
Julian McMahon was speaking as he arrived back in the southern city of Melbourne, the day after 25-year-old Nguyen Tuong Van was hanged at Singaporeâs Changi prison despite repeated appeals for clemency from Prime Minister John Howard. Nguyen went to the gallows the same day that convicted murderer Kenneth Lee Boyd became the 1,000th person put to death in the United States since capital punishment resumed there in 1977.
âSome laws are wrong, and we have an obligation to speak out against those laws wherever they are,â McMahon told Australian Associated Press. âThe Australian community has a reawakened awareness from this case that premeditated state-sanctioned killing is wrong,â he said of Nguyenâs execution.
Seems to me that if you'd done your job a little better you wouldn't be talking with the Singaporan authorities about where to ship your client's remains.
=âWe should not be afraid to speak the truth to our powerful friend the United States,â McMahon added.
"Just because the Singaporans didn't listen to me -- and that cane hurts, let me tell you -- doesn't mean we shouldn't badger the Americans. They don't cane people, you know."
Nguyenâs execution sparked an outcry in Australia. Vigils were held across the country Friday morning and gongs and bells rang out 25 times - once for every kilogram of heroin he was smuggling year of his life - at the hour of his hanging.
McMahon was scathing in his criticism of Singaporeâs mandatory death penalty for drug smugglers. âIt is even more legally and morally repugnant when it is mandatory, premeditated state-sanctioned killing,â he said.
So you're also angry with Saddam, right? Hello?
But while he was critical of the Singapore justice system, he praised Nguyenâs jailers. âBy the time Van died everyone involved in the case knew the prison workers had only been kindly to him and he loved them, to use his words,â McMahon said.
"Please don't let them cane me again!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/03/2005 00:04 ||
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#1
A lawyer who tried and failed to save an Australian drug trafficker executed by Singapore urged Canberra Saturday to protest the use of the death penalty in the United States.
A couple of suggestions:
1) Obey the laws of the country you are in, whichever one it may be. As I understand it, the guilt of the person executed wasn't in doubt, it's just that Australian officials had a beef with the penalty. Hello? That's how their justice system works! Mr. Van gambled and he lost. Get over it.
2) Don't like a country's justice system and can't obey its laws? THEN DON'T GO THERE.
3) Take your anti-death penalty crusade somewhere else and leave us the hell alone, dumbass.
While the Schengen area of 15 European Union states has no frontier controls for travellers, the new deal will be all about keeping a strict watch over borders. "The immigration phenomenon, in the short term, the medium term and the long term, is the biggest question facing all the countries of the EU," said Mr Zapatero.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/03/2005 00:26 ||
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Economic necessity, opportunity to stick it to the US, or both? You be the judge.
The European aircraft manufacturer Airbus, which expects a big order from China any day, is increasingly working with Chinese companies in a drive to penetrate the Chinese market. Airbus, which expects the order during a visit to France by Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabo, is pursuing this strategy even at the risk of seeing some of its technological expertise slip through its fingers.
Wen is to begin his visit on Sunday with a tour of the Airbus headquarters at Toulouse, southern France, leaving France on Wednesday.
The stakes are high: the European Airbus consortium claims to account for 34 percent of the Chinese market compared with 60 percent held by the main rival, Boeing of the United States, and intends to raise its share to 50 percent by 2013. Air traffic in China is growing at nearly twice the average rate in the world and China is set to become the second-biggest market in the world after the United States, absorbing 1,600-2,600 new airliners in the next 20 years, according to estimates by manufacturers.
China, which is recognised as being highly successful in acquiring the technologies it lacks, has imposed clear rules: penetration of its market depends on investment which is likely to develop the Chinese aerospace industry. Airbus president Gustav Humbert said at the Dubai air show:
"We have to be in China and find a way to increase international cooperation with China and through this, increase our market share over there. "However, if you decide to close yourself to international cooperation or technology transfer, this market will be closed to you." He added: "In a case of industrial cooperation, you have to have technology transfer. The question is, how much of the latest technology are you able to transfer? "The most difficult issue, in particular in China, is the matter of intellectual property rights. You have to make sure that you are the master of the newest technology and not give away technology which might work against you tomorrow, with competitors copying you later. "This is a crucial point, which is the main point in our discussions with the Chinese."
Boeing has signed sub-contracting agreements for Chinese companies to do work for its 787, 777 amd 737 airliners worth US $600 million (EUR 598 million).
Not sure that stat makes me feel any better.
Airbus has decided to go along with the Chinese requirements by increasing the involvement of Chinese suppliers in the construction of its aircraft. This approach carries with it a benefit in that production costs are reduced since the cost of labour in China is far lower than in Europe. Airbus has allocated Chinese industrialists five percent of its programme for the long-distance A350 airliner on a basis of shared risks. And in line with this, Airbus plans to employ 200 engineers in a research centre in Beijing by 2008. Airbus has also undertaken to transfer to China the technology for the total production of the wings for the A320, work which until now has been carried out in Britain. Already five Chinese companies are involved in making parts for Airbus aircraft. This work includes parts of the front landing gear for the new superjumbo A380, as well as doors for the A320 and A330 models.
Noël Forgeard, a co-president of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) which controls 80 percent of Airbus, said recently that EADS did not rule out building an assembly line in China.
However, some experts warn that Airbus should remain cautious about sub-contracting in China in case its technology is misused. China has made clear that it has big ambitions in the field of civil aviation with a programme for an airliner capable of carrying 105 passengers called ARJ-21.
#1
'is pursuing this strategy even at the risk of seeing some of its technological expertise slip through its fingers.'
rofl, may as well just give em the 'blueprints'.
Posted by: Shep UK ||
12/03/2005 4:16 Comments ||
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#2
and all the R&D + software.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
12/03/2005 4:56 Comments ||
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#3
Just make sure everything has a kill-switch, including the software. It's a nice thought to think the would use AirBus tech then suddenly fall from the sky cursing "French traitors".
Posted by: Charles ||
12/03/2005 5:53 Comments ||
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#4
Makes a lot of sense to me. It's not like airplanes will be built in Toulouse in another generation. Prayer rugs with compasses pointing to Mecca, yes; airplanes, no.
Posted by: ed ||
12/03/2005 7:22 Comments ||
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#5
They just want to pump Airbus dry of technology, and then come out with their own products. I've seen it happen a million times. In 10-20 years, there will be a highly competitive Chinese airline industry that will undercut Airbus left and right. These dummies are sowing the seeds of their own bankruptcy.
Bizarre The government is excising from the new English textbook for class XI a poem titled "The Leader" whose first alphabets of all its verses, put together in sequence as they occur, read President George W Bush.
The 20-verse poem, authored by an anonymous poet, spells out ideal qualities "the leader" has. "We have decided to delete the poem from the book, published by the National Book Foundation (NBF) and prescribed for the federal board students of intermediate," a visibly embarrassed official of the federal education ministry told The News. "It will be stretching the matter too far- to assert that the poem was inserted in the book deliberately to enumerate the qualities of the American president," he said.
"The Leader" by "Anonymous" appearing on page 226 of the book, with its editors being Muhammad Aslam Gondal and M H Hamdani, reads:
"Patient and steady with all he must bear,
Ready to accept every challenge with care,
Easy in manner, yet solid as steel,
Strong in his faith, refreshingly real,
Isn't afraid to propose what is bold,
Doesn't conform to the usual mold,
Eyes that have foresight, for hindsight wont do,
Never back down when he sees what is true,
Tells it all straight, and means it all too,
Going forward and knowing he's right,
Even when doubted for why he would fight,
Over and over he makes his case clear,
Reaching to touch the ones who won't hear,
Growing in strength, he won't be unnerved,
Ever assuring he'll stand by his word,
Wanting the world to join his firm stand,
Bracing for war, but praying for peace,
Using his power so evil will cease:
So much a leader and worthy of trust,
Here stands a man who will do what he must."
Posted by: john ||
12/03/2005 19:20 ||
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#1
Perv is just jealous his name isn't spelled out
Posted by: john ||
12/03/2005 19:35 Comments ||
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#2
This poem is anachronistic. It rhymes.
Posted by: ed ||
12/03/2005 19:42 Comments ||
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UN chief Kofi Annan and US Ambassador John Bolton have sparred over the stalled UN budget and the slow pace of planned reforms amid fears that the impasse could lead to a "financial crunch."
"Plus this so-called 'reform' might result in my incarceration, which naturally is inconceivable."
"There has been suggestion by some governments, or a government, that we should not be given the two-year budget but maybe a temporary three-month or so budget," Annan told UN staff, referring to a Bolton proposal. "This doesn't work for the United Nations," said Annan, who cancelled an overseas trip this weekend to deal with the budget challenge. Last month, Bolton, the US envoy to the UN, suggested that the world body adopt an interim budget only for three or four months pending the resolution of a stalemate over management reforms which Washington strongly backs. But Annan Friday said not adopting a full budget for 2006-2007 would lead to "a financial crunch."
"The business of the UN is not reform, the business of the UN is carrying on the mandates that the General Assembly, ECOSOC (the Economic and Social Council) and Security Council have given us, so that business must continue," the UN secretary general noted. "We should not take any initiative that will not only risk the reform but also the ongoing activities, and that's one of the reasons I decided to stay here," he added.
Annan called off a planned two-week Asian tour, including visits to China, South Korea, Japan and Vietnam, that was to have started this weekend. "We are at a critical stage of the budget process... So I decided that it was important for me to work with member states to ensure that we get the budget approved."
Hmmm. The threat to Kofi's Kleptocracy must be real. Come to think of it, Kofi's had to stay at his desk a lot this year. I wonder why that is?
Asked whether he was hopeful the two-year budget could be adopted by the end of the year, he replied: "Most of the member states understand the need for the budget."
"Yass, yasss. An unaccountable, unelected global bureaucracy has needs. Evr'ybody knows that."
In response, Bolton told reporters Friday: "There has never been a suggestion that we would not approve a budget. Reform should drive the budget process, not the other way round. And what we proposed in order not to disrupt the work of the UN was an interim budget, of three to four months," Bolton said.
The management reforms demanded by Washington, and pushed strongly in the wake of the Iraq oil-for-food scandal, include giving the secretary general greater powers in exchange for greater accountability, creating a new ethics office and establishing a whistle-blower program to root out corruption. The broader reforms agreed at the UN world summit in September include setting up a more effective human rights council and a peacebuilding commission to assist countries emerging from conflicts. But the reform package is bogged down over a perceived power struggle between Annan's secretariat and the 191-member General Assembly.
Annan stressed the urgency of establishing the new human rights council and management reform. "I put forward proposals I expect states to endorse to show movement on that track," Annan said.
Japan's UN envoy Kenzo Oshima, whose country is the second largest contributor to the UN budget after the US, said he shared some of the concerns expressed by Bolton. "We think it's very important that the next (budget) should reflect at least some of the conclusions or implementations" of the reforms agreed in September," he said. The UN General Assembly's budgetary committee is currently debating a proposed regular budget totaling 3.8 billion dollars, including around 73 million dollars for reform activities decided at the UN world summit. Warren Sach, a UN assistant secretary general and controller, told reporters early this week that Bolton's proposal would cripple the UN's cash flow, forcing the world body to draw on reserves, cut back on expenditures and borrow from peacekeeping-type operations.
"Hand over the cash or we'll be forced to defund the Global Partnership for Fluffy Baby Bunnies."
Meanwhile The New York Times on Friday said Bolton's "threat to block the next UN budget is likely to be counterproductive. John Bolton has been all muscle and no diplomacy as the United States ambassador to the United Nations," the daily said. "Just as the (US) Senate feared when it declined to confirm Mr Bolton in the job, his blustering unilateral style is turning him into one of the biggest obstacles to achieving changes that had been within reach before he appeared on the scene."
Laos has marked 30 years of communism with a mass rally of 25,000 people and exhortations to modernise the economy of one of Asia's poorest and least developed nations. Banners, as well as national and communist party flags, adorned many buildings on Friday but there were few other signs of festivities in Vientiane, with officials discussing the challenges ahead as well as the achievements of the regime. "We have ensured the country's political stability and maintained public order," President Khamtay Siphandone said in his speech.
Now a country of 5.6 million people, Laos joined the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1997, introduced economic reforms and accepted foreign aid, still a mainstay of its economy. "Over the past 30 years, we were able to develop the economy and maintain a consistent pace of growth," said Khamtay, whose speech greeted with scant applause from the crowd.
In a voice that sounded faint at times even through the loudspeakers, he said Laos would emerge out of the list of least developed countries by 2020. He said the regime planned to lift the country out of least-developed status "by enhancing the strength of all economic sectors based on the market-oriented mechanism, together with seizing external cooperation and assistance." He also acknowledged the "support from the international community, including friendly countries, the United Nations system, financial organisations and non-government organisations." As soon as Khamtay's speech ended, the crowds, including around 3000 men and women from the armed forces, marched away hurriedly.
Donors say Laos had some achievements to show already. "There is something to celebrate here," said Finn Reske-Nielsen, resident coordinator of the UN Development Programme. There had been a "very significant reduction in poverty", with 30% of people now deemed to be living below the poverty line, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/03/2005 00:27 ||
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#3
Laos has marked 30 years of communism with a mass rally grave of 25,000 people
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/03/2005 13:30 Comments ||
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#4
In a voice that sounded faint at times even through the loudspeakers, he said Laos would emerge out of the list of least developed countries by 2020. He said the regime planned to lift the country out of least-developed status "by enhancing the strength of all economic sectors based on the market-oriented mechanism . . .
Another triumph of socialism -- NOT!
Posted by: Mike ||
12/03/2005 13:37 Comments ||
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#5
"Laos would emerge out of the list of least developed countries by 2020." - only if Hugo Chavez continues to screw up several South American countries and the sub-Saharan trends continue.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/03/2005 15:04 Comments ||
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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.
MELBOURNE - A lawyer who tried and failed to save an Australian drug trafficker executed by Singapore urged Canberra Saturday to protest the use of the death penalty in the United States.
UN chief Kofi Annan and US Ambassador John Bolton have sparred over the stalled UN budget and the slow pace of planned reforms amid fears that the impasse could lead to a "financial crunch." 
Meanwhile The New York Times on Friday said Bolton's "threat to block the next UN budget is likely to be counterproductive. John Bolton has been all muscle and no diplomacy as the United States ambassador to the United Nations," the daily said. "Just as the (US) Senate feared when it declined to confirm Mr Bolton in the job, his blustering unilateral style is turning him into one of the biggest obstacles to achieving changes that had been within reach before he appeared on the scene."
Laos has marked 30 years of communism with a mass rally of 25,000 people and exhortations to modernise the economy of one of Asia's poorest and least developed nations. Banners, as well as national and communist party flags, adorned many buildings on Friday but there were few other signs of festivities in Vientiane, with officials discussing the challenges ahead as well as the achievements of the regime. "We have ensured the country's political stability and maintained public order," President Khamtay Siphandone said in his speech. 
