A Bangladesh court on Thursday ruled that detained former prime minister Sheikh Hasina stand trial on charges of kickbacks amounting to $100 million in the purchase of military planes from Russia eight years ago.
The case against Hasina was originally filed by the government of immediate past prime minister, Begum Khaleda Zia, but has since been revived by the countrys army-backed interim administration as part of a campaign against graft. The charges against Hasina will now proceed for trial as the High Court has rejected her petition, a court registrar said, referring to a petition filed by the former prime minister seeking to quash the charges.
Hasina, chief of the Awami League, has been accused of conniving with six officials, including the then chief of the air force, to misappropriate $100 million in the purchase of eight Mig-29 fighter planes. Hasina, who served as premier from 1996 to 2001, has been under detention since July on a separate case relating to charges of extorting more than $1 million from two businessmen. She has denied both the charges.
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This article starring:
Sheikh Hasina
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#1
from the photo - is he a cross dresser? Transvestite?
The RAF scrambled to intercept eight Russian nuclear bombers heading for Britain yesterday in the biggest aerial confrontation between the two countries since the end of the Cold War. The Tupolev-95 Bear bombers were approaching in formation when they were met by four Tornado F3 fighter jets. Defence sources said that the Russian pilots turned away as soon as they spotted the approaching Tornados and did not enter British airspace.
Norway had earlier sent four F16 jets to shadow the Russians as they neared its airspace in what Moscow insisted was a training mission. The bombers had flown over international waters from the Barents Sea to the Atlantic before heading for Britain.
Russian Bears flying in pairs have triggered several alerts this year as they neared the 12-mile British airspace zone, but this was the first time that so many bombers had simultaneously tested British air defences.
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#1
TOPIX NEWS/WORLDNEWS > HINDUSTAN TIMES > CONTAINING RUSSIA:BACK TO THE FUTURE article, except that this time CONTAINMENT andor ignoring Russia may actually lead to de facto MIL CONFRONTATION WID WEST. Read - Russ is MilPol uppity/nervous about competition from USA, CHina, etal.
#2
Jam their radios and splash them. When the Russkis demand answers, just tell them there must have been an accident.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
09/07/2007 8:35 Comments ||
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#3
you would think that the russkies would think twice about arming Muslim natioms after chechnya and getting their ass handed too them in afghanistan
Posted by: here now gone tomorrow ||
09/07/2007 9:22 Comments ||
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#4
I would start putting SAMs on submarines. Jam the ruskie bombers then splash them from the subs. Perfect deniability since there were no traceable ships/planes in the area.
#5
virtually all of our strategic planes are being shadowed by Nato fighters.
So it's good practice.
Plus those Bears are getting pretty old. If they keep this tempo up, I'm forseeing phrases like "metal fatigue", "structural failure" and "no survivors" in the near future. Probably get some decent pictures too...
#8
The real question here is what are the Russians try to accomplish? What message are they sending? And what will their next step be? If one or more of those Bears, for whatever reason splashes, what then? Strange, very strange indeed. But they are .... Russians after all.
#9
Article: It costs more than £40,000 an hour to fly a Tornado F3 and yesterdays operation will have cost at least £160,000.
That's $80,000, which can't be right. Commercial 737 airplanes carrying a hundred people get about $30,000 of revenues each for city-to-city shuttle flights. And commercial jets, being bigger, should be more expensive to maintain. They must be throwing everything and the kitchen sink into that cost figure.
#10
The exercise is expensive for the RAF. It costs more than £40,000 an hour to fly a Tornado F3 and yesterdays operation will have cost at least £160,000. Underlining the scale of the operation, the RAF also sent up an airborne early warning aircraft (Awacs) and a VC10 tanker so that the Tornados could be refuelled.
Time to make this excersize much more expensive for the Russians. Splash a few of their Bears and they won't come back for more.
Over one quarter of a million dollars just to scramble some jets. Putin needs this rammed up his tailpipe. I'm hoping some of the weapons he sells to Malaysia turn up in an atrocity on Russian soil. He sure as hell didn't learn anything from Beslan.
#11
Have the RAF pilots turn on their fire control radars and lock on the Bears. Go through whatever maneuvers they do right before firing. If nothing else, it will raise the pucker factor for the Russkis.
#12
It's the way the British do their accounting. Take the total Tornado program costs and divide by the expected flight hours and you get these crazy numbers. In contrast the US takes into account the extra fuel and maintenance required vs the bird sitting on the tarmac, about $3-5000/hour.
Same when buying equipment. The Brits use total lifetime program cost, the US the cost to procure the airframe. The British accountants claim each WAH-64 costs £60 mil ($125 mill) while the US Army was buying AH-64Ds at a flyaway cost of $15-20 mill.
Posted by: ed ||
09/07/2007 17:25 Comments ||
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#13
And why exactly all these Poles, Lithuanians and Slovaks, Bosnians coming to UK? How can they all be vetted? Mossies sleepers not the only sleepers, but with politicians as fast asleep as these guys, there will be nothing left to govern soon, forget the Russians.
#14
Item one: There's a Russian election coming up. Nobody's going to flank Putin's faction from the right.
Item two: Russian arms sales. It's easier to sell armaments if your military is on the perceived "offensive". A reputation for grounding your aircraft because you can't afford the maintenance is not a successful marketing tactic.
#16
And why exactly all these Poles, Lithuanians and Slovaks, Bosnians coming to UK?
Chatted with a contractor working on my house today. Emigrated from the Ukraine 16 yrs ago. He talked about how many families in the Ukraine have only 1 child because the economy was wrecked by the soviets and hasn't recovered yet .... lots of fathers are working in Poland, Germany, Britain and sending home whatever money they can.
#18
No. Think of it as a mini F-111. It is an attack plane (as the Germans use it) but the Brits shoehorned into the interceptor role, with predictable results. The British were offered the F-15 but decided to go with the "European" Tornado, much as they did again with Eurofighter Typhoon even though rumor has it the Brits were offered the F-22.
Posted by: ed ||
09/07/2007 20:07 Comments ||
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#19
Thanks, ed. There's a similar thread over at Samizdata, and one of the commenters sketched out some broad comparisons between the F-15, F3, Typhoon, and the Raptor.
Saudi Arabian ambassador in Britain Prince Muhammad Bin Nawaf has said the Saudi spokesmans statement published in Pakistani newspapers about former prime minister Nawaz Sharif is the official stance of his country, Geo news reported.
The statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) quoted an unnamed official as saying, Wisdom dictates that Nawaz Sharif abide by his promise not to return to Pakistan and to politics. Nawaf told reporters on the eve of Saudi Arabias national day that the statement didnt support Sharif or the Pakistani government.
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09/07/2007 00:00 ||
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The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawazs (PML-N) top-ranking official in Pakistan has played down the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) news against Nawaz Sharifs return, saying that it was based on an anonymous source. Saudis established norms and traditions are known to us and it doesnt get involved in controversies, Raja Zafar ul Haq, the PML-Ns chairman, told Daily Times. He also heads the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) that is an alliance of the Opposition, excluding the PPP.
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He said the premiership of Pakistan should not be decided in a drawing room in London or Dubai. Hussain said he had advised President Pervez Musharraf to allow Sharif to return to Pakistan, adding that the ruling PML would compete with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz on political grounds. Hussain said Gen Musharraf would soon become Mr Musharraf and that things would be cleared this month or next month.
This article starring:
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz
PML Secretary General Syed Mushahid Hussain
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Hundreds of Buddhist monks took a group of local and security officials hostage at their monastery Thursday, one day after troops violently broke up an anti-junta protest, residents told AFP Thursday.
The showdown in Pakokku, about 500 kilometres north of the commercial capital Yangon, marked the most serious confrontation with the military government since protests erupted nationwide more than two weeks ago. Tensions have soared in Pakokku, a major centre of Buddhist learning in Myanmar, since at least 300 monks marched through the streets on Wednesday, chanting prayers in a protest against a massive hike in fuel prices.
Troops fired warning shots above the crowd and then beat the monks with bamboo sticks to break up the protest, according to residents. Local and security officials had come to the Aletaik monastery early Thursday to apologise for the violence, but the monks set four of their cars on fire and took about 20 people hostage, residents said. Five of the hostages were released after about five hours, but the others remained inside the monastery, residents told AFP by telephone.
Outside the gates to the monastery, which is home to about 700 monks, hundreds of people had gathered to applaud their anti-government action, residents said. The regional military commander arrived in Pakokku in the afternoon, but had apparently not yet made direct contact with the monks, they said.
I fully support the monks. They were just peacefully praying for the people. The monks are absolutely right, one resident said. Im surprised that these security people would dare to harm Buddhist monks in this country. Pakokku is home to an estimated 10,000 young monks studying in more than 80 monasteries, according to Win Min, a Thailand-based analyst.
UN criticises Myanmar: Accusing Myanmar of crushing dissent, a senior UN official said on Wednesday the southeast Asian countrys recent national convention to draw up a constitution was undemocratic and exclusionary. Still, Undersecretary-General Ibrahim Gambari, the UN point man for Myanmar, formerly Burma, hoped that the countrys Asian neighbours could put pressure on the ruling junta.
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#1
So I take it we can't joke about buddhist extremists any more, someone actually found some.
L'Engle died Thursday at a nursing home in Litchfield of natural causes, according to Jennifer Doerr, publicity manager for publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
The Newbery Medal winner wrote more than 60 books, including fantasies, poetry and memoirs, often highlighting spiritual themes and her Christian faith.
Although L'Engle was often labeled a children's author, she disliked that classification. In a 1993 Associated Press interview, she said she did not write down to children.
"In my dreams, I never have an age," she said. "I never write for any age group in mind. When people do, they tend to be tolerant and condescending and they don't write as well as they can write.
"When you underestimate your audience, you're cutting yourself off from your best work."
#1
A Wrinkle In Time was a great book I read as a kid, as have many ever since. It was Christian Religious Allegory that goes far deeper than the Sci-Fi exterior would seem to allow.
If you have not read it, go do so. Its only a children's book in the way that Harry Potter is - its well written anda good read.
If you have children, be sure they read it - or read it to them.
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IS DELIBERATELY MISSPELLED BECAUSE THE FILTERS EAT THE WORD OTHERWISE due to a spam drug being in the middle of that word.
Below is a good review from Amazon.
It turns out I wasn't as smart as I thought I was when I was ten. Madeleine L'Engle managed to hoodwink me, but good. I thought this was just a great Science Fiction/Fantasy story, but now I discover that the whole book is a religious allegory.
Meg Murry and her brothers, Charles Wallace and the twins, live with their mother. Their Father has been missing for years, supposedly working on a top secret government project. Meg and Charles Wallace are strange children, noone seems to know quite whether they are idiots or geniuses. In short order they meet Calvin, a tall gangly boy, who also feels like a misfit and three women who have moved into an abandoned house in the neighborhood. The old women, Mrs. Whatsit , Mrs. Which & Mrs. Who, inform the children that Mr. Murry is in dire straits and needs their help. They travel through time and space via wrinkles, called tesseracts, to the planet Camazotz, where Mr. Murry has gone to battle the forces of darkness that are closing sections of the universe in shadow. There they battle the evil being known as IT, a disembodied brain who offers people complete security if they will only give up their freedom and their individuality, as have the inhabitants of Camazotz.
Most of the allegorical stuff is easy enough to see, the children can fight evil by finding The Father. Meg despairs that evil is allowed to exist at all and blames her father, and so on. But I really liked the fact that L'Engle portrays Camazotz (or Hell) as a place where there is complete conformity and security, but no personal freedom. Personally, I believe that Camazotz closely resembles both a Socalest or Communist State and the Garden of Eden. Just as the great struggle of Ms L "Engle's time was the fight for freedom against the security of Socalism/Communism, Man chose to leave the security of a pastoral existence in the Garden and accept the vicissitudes of life without because we prefer freedom.
The book also contains one of the most beautiful descriptions of human life that I've ever heard. Mrs. Whatsit compares life to a sonnet:
It is a very strict form of poetry is it not?
There are fourteen lines, I believe, all in iambic pentameter. That's a very strict rhythm or meter, yes?
And each line has to end with a rigid rhyme pattern. And if the poet does not do it exactly this way, it is not a sonnet, is it?
Calvin: You mean you're comparing our lives to a sonnet? A strict form, but freedom within it?
Yes. You're given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself. What you say is completely up to you.
This book conveys a worthwhile religiopolitical lesson about the human condition and is great fun besides. I look forward to reading it with my kids.
#2
Madeleine L'Engle managed to hoodwink me, but good. I thought this was just a great Science Fiction/Fantasy story, but now I discover that the whole book is a religious allegory.
Same here. I thoroughly enjoyed it as SF/fantasy book when my 5th grade teacher read it to my class, completely missing the allegory. The best literature can always be enjoyed on several levels.
My kids didn't really like it and didn't finish it. But, since they gobbled up Harry Potter and happily read LotR, I'm not complaining.
#3
Maybe that's why I never could write free verse, but only within strict forms. With very rare exceptions, the discipline required makes for much better poetry.
#4
I have a copy of The Glorious Impossible set aside for when my new little one comes to that age. Wonderful pictures; frescos from the Scrovegni Chapel by Giotto.
#6
set aside for when my new little one comes to that age.
Oooooh, we get to welcome another future Rantburger!!! Heartiest congratulations to both parents, swksvolFF, and may I wish you many joyous hours looking at those and many other wonderful pictures together, before the little one is ready to read solo.
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 Bangladesh court on Thursday ruled that detained former prime minister 
The RAF scrambled to intercept eight Russian nuclear bombers heading for Britain yesterday in the biggest aerial confrontation between the two countries since the end of the Cold War. The Tupolev-95 Bear bombers were approaching in formation when they were met by four Tornado F3 fighter jets. Defence sources said that the Russian pilots turned away as soon as they spotted the approaching Tornados and did not enter British airspace. 
Former US president Bill Clinton was behind former prime minister Nawaz Sharifs deal with the Pakistani government, 
