Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's party said on Wednesday it would deploy more war veterans to campaign in opposition areas ahead of a presidential election run-off marred by violence.
Opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader (MDC) Morgan Tsvangirai accuses the ruling ZANU-PF of widespread attacks on his supporters but says he is confident of victory in the June 27 poll after beating Mugabe in the first round.
ZANU-PF officials in the southern Masvingo province, where the ruling party has lost several parliamentary seats in rural districts traditionally considered safe, told Zimbabwe state television they had stepped up their campaign against "troublesome spots where MDC structures had taken root". "We are setting up units of war veterans to go to those areas to fan out the MDC, to campaign for President Mugabe, to confront and talk to some company managers who are openly supporting these MDC structures," said retired Major Alex Mudavanhu, ZANU-PF chairman for Masvingo. "We are going to tell people that ZANU-PF is not going to lose this election," he said.
Mugabe's guerrilla fighters from the 1970s independence war and ruling party youth brigades are regularly used as political shock troops against the opposition and have recently been threatening to launch another bush war if Mugabe loses.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Yo, baby, where my war vetrin uniform be at?
Posted by: Farmin B. Hard ||
06/12/2008 9:28 Comments ||
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Mugabe's guerrilla fighters from the 1970s independence war and ruling party youth brigades are regularly used as political shock troops against the opposition and have recently been threatening to launch another bush war if Mugabe loses.
Huhhhhh, "veterans" from the 1970's? That was over 30 years ago and the life expectancy in Zim is well under 50 years. I'm having a problem with the math on this one.
Bangladesh released former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who faces graft charges, on parole for eight weeks on Wednesday to go abroad for medical treatment. She is likely to leave for the United States aboard a British Airways flight early on Thursday, a senior prison official said. From prison Hasina was driven to her residence in DhakaÂ’s Dhanmandi area under tight security.
Supporters cheer: Thousands of followers and members of her Awami League political party cheered her on the way, as she waved back at them from her car, witnesses said.
Some analysts fear once she leaves she will not be allowed back, and that if fellow former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia left the country that would also be her fate.
Hasina was arrested by the army-backed interim government in July last year on charges of graft and misuse of power while she was prime minister between 1996-2001. Although party officials spoke as if they assumed Hasina would be returning, some analysts fear once she leaves she will not be allowed back, and that if fellow former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia left the country that would also be her fate. That could enable the military-backed interim government to re-shape BangladeshÂ’s politics ahead of nationwide polls in December.
Courts prosecuting Hasina for corruption charges ruled on Monday that trials would continue in her absence. A government-appointed medical board suggested on Sunday that Hasina be sent abroad immediately for medical treatment. She is suffering from high blood pressure, eye problems and hearing impairment caused by grenade blasts at a rally in Dhaka in 2004, which killed 23 people.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2008 00:00 ||
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BELGRADE - Serbia arrested a top Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitive on Wednesday and will hand him to the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, earning praise from the European Union and the United States. Bosnian Serb security chief Stojan Zupljanin, 56, was one of four suspects sought by the tribunal for war crimes in the territory of former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Their arrest and handover to the tribunal has been a condition of Serbia's progress towards EU membership.
"There was no resistance during his arrest," said Vladimir Vukcevic, Serbia's chief war crimes prosecutor, who coordinated the operation. "This arrest shows clearly that we are seriously cooperating (with the Hague)." Zupljanin was found at an apartment about 8 km (5 miles) from the centre of Belgrade by police and security agents and will be extradited within in 72 hours, officials said.
Officials said Zupljanin had foiled a previous attempt to arrest him in the southern Serbian city of Nis two months ago. His family had publicly called on him to surrender, to spare them further notoriety and financial collapse.
Zupljanin, a commander in the city of Banja Luka during the 1992-95 Bosnian war, is charged with killing Muslim and Croat civilians. The president of the association of former detainees in Banja Luka said the arrest will bring relief to the victims. "This is a very good news for all people who survived the arrests and tortures in Banja Luka," said Zijahudin Smailagic. "I hope that executors of Zupljanin's orders, who now walk freely in Banja Luka, will also be arrested."
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/12/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Loved this comment You can't hide your bias by sweeping it under the rug !! Fox Noise is stuffed with this mentality and firing one person, doesn't get it done. They are a discredit to true journalism, something that is almost nonexistent, thanks to Corps America. We can't handle the truth!!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Fine - I'll go without Fox News if you go without BO. Also commenter 'Green Trees' wasn't accepted as far left enough. F*n loons.
To me, at worse it just looked like an awkward moment where BO wasn't ready for the silly hand gesture.
#2
Wow, she has great legs. I wonder when she has time to keep up on all the State Department cables and DoD releases between workouts and make-up sessions.
E. D. Hill (born Edith Ann Tarbox on July 27, 1961) is an American news anchor who works for Fox News Channel.
Joining the network in 1998, Hill anchored America's Pulse, a show that aired until June 10, 2008 when it was canceled. She co-hosts Bill O'Reilly's Radio Factor. Hill moved to the 2:00 p.m. hour after serving as host of the 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon block of Fox News Live. These changes were part of a line-up change that also includes fellow anchors Jon Scott and Jane Skinner teaming up for a show called Happening Now.[1] Previously, Hill was a co-host on the Fox News Channel's morning show Fox & Friends from 1999 to 2006.
A graduate of the University of Texas with a bachelor's degree in journalism, she is working on a master's degree in government. Hill won a local Emmy Award for Outstanding News Special while working for WHDH-TV in Boston (1990-91), and has also received a Golden Quill Award for live spot news reporting.
In November 2005 Hill published a book entitled Going Places: How America's Best and Brightest Got Started Down the Road of Life, a collection of personality profiles. She has been married three times and is the mother of five children and stepmother to her husband's, venture capitalist Joe Hill, three children from a previous marriage.
More recently, she has filled in for Bill O'Reilly on The O'Reilly Factor.
In June 2008, Hill was criticized for referring to an affectionate gesture made between Barack Obama and his wife after the final 2008 presidential Democratic primaries as a "terrorist fist jab". Hill, introducing an upcoming discussion, wondered aloud if the gesture was "A fist bump? A pound? A terrorist fist jab?"[2][3][4][5][6] Hill apologized for her comments. [7]
Fox News announced on June 10, 2008 that Hill's show America's Pulse had been canceled.[8] Hill's future with the channel has not been announced.
#4
It didn't suck, but it was nothing different from any other Fox fare. Liked her, wish her the best, but she was on live TV for 10 yrs...this is a small transgression, and no doubt a reason they welcomed to reshuffle - I can't get worked up about it. Think about BHO or Michelle on Live TV for 3-4 weeks or so, what fun!
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/12/2008 20:34 Comments ||
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E.D. Hill is clueless about black culture. More scripted chatter and less improvising.
Posted by: ed ||
06/12/2008 23:00 Comments ||
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Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Wednesday said the head of his vice presidential search team and former head of the mortgage giant Fannie Mae had decided to step aside. Obama said in a statement that Jim Johnson had decided to quit the unpaid position in order to avoid distracting from the process of gathering information about possible vice presidential candidates.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
IIRC, FOX NEWS + MSNBC > Jimbo J. was involved in alleged FINANCIAL = $$$ LOAN IMPROPRIETIES vv employer [NOT Barack]???
#2
JosephM, if I recall correctly, when he headed up Fannie Mae, Mr. Johnson was getting extra-special interest rates and other loan goodies approved for him by the loan approval officer at either Fannie Mae itself or one of the key feeder banks associated with it.
Mr. Johnson, who led mortgage buyer Fannie Mae from 1991 to 1998, received more than $5 million in loans from Countrywide that were arranged outside its normal underwriting process.
Mr. Johnson received loans from Countrywide on at least six properties between 1998 and 2007, some at lower-than-average interest rates. His debts to Countrywide as of mid-2007 exceeded $5 million.
For one previously undisclosed loan last year for a Montana real-estate project, Countrywide overrode its internal limits on loan size, amount of allowable debt and number of loans to a single borrower, the lender's loan records show.
Anyone associated with Fannie Mae is a presumptive bad man until proven otherwise. If any private company acted the way Fannie, Freddie and Sallie do, they'd be pilloried in the press and subject to SEC investigation and prosecution.
#4
The ability to surround oneself with a team of competent and qualified individuals is fundamental to any real leader, let alone the senior office of President of the United States today. Obama repeatedly shows poor grades in this department and its not an office in which 'efforts' counts as much as 'results'.
#5
Mr. Johnson, who led mortgage buyer Fannie Mae from 1991 to 1998, received more than $5 million in loans from Countrywide that were arranged outside its normal underwriting process.
Mr. Johnson received loans from Countrywide on at least six properties between 1998 and 2007, some at lower-than-average interest rates. His debts to Countrywide as of mid-2007 exceeded $5 million.
Guess someone's having some issues paying down principal, heh...
#6
The ability to surround oneself with a team of competent and qualified individuals is fundamental to any real leader, let alone the senior office of President of the United States today.
Chicago politics. You surround yourself with the corrupt people that have dirt on others so they can't throw it at you without the tosser getting real dirty.
Only problem... Obama forgot he ain't in Chicago anymore.
New Delhi, June 11, 2008. India will not sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) that prevents it from conducting further nuclear tests and impinges on its sovereignty, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Wednesday.
Addressing new recruits of the Indian Foreign Service at a function, the prime minister also stressed that the nuclear deal India had signed with the US protected its "national interests".
"Despite the fact that we are not a signatory to the NPT (Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty), and we have also said that if the CTBT came into being we will not sign it, there is no pressure from the US on India to sign the NPT or any other international arrangement of that sort to enter into nuclear cooperation for civil energy," Manmohan Singh said.
Preparations are set to begin in the coming days for Kadima primary elections, after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Wednesday ordered two senior party officials to select a date for an early poll.
Olmert met on Wednesday MK Tzachi Hanegbi and MK Eli Aflalo, to determine the framework and a possible date for a Kadima party primary. Hanegbi, who is chairman of the committee for party affairs, and Aflalo, head of the party's Knesset faction, requested the meeting in light of growing internal pressure on Olmert to agree to a process that would move the Kadima primary forward.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2008 00:00 ||
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Looks like White Slag is back...
MANILA,(Reuters) - High-grade methamphetamines from North Korea have started to flood the Philippines, reducing street prices of the drug by about 50 percent, the head of the country's drug enforcement agency said on Friday.
Dionisio Santiago, a retired general, told Reuters there was strong suspicion a huge shipment of methamphetamines seized at the former U.S. navy base of Subic north of Manila this week came from clandestine drugs laboratories in North Korea. "We've been informed by our counterparts abroad that North Korea has become a steady source of methamphetamines in the Asia and Pacific region," Santiago, a former army chief, told Reuters in an interview.
The Philippines has long been a source of methamphetamines, enforcement officials say. Clandestine production centres make the drug for local consumption but it is also smuggled to Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea and the United States. The country itself had about 3.4 million regular and occasional drug users in 2007 , down from 6.7 million in 2004, according to government figures.
On Wednesday, more than 700 kg of high-grade crystal white methamphetamine worth nearly $100 million was seized in what is believed to be the country's biggest-ever drugs haul. "Based on our initial investigation, the Vietnam-registered boat which unloaded the methamphetamines shipment had made port calls in North Korea," Santiago said.
He warned that the Philippines could become a transhipment point for illegal drugs from other countries."Our ports are becoming transhipment points for ecstasy, cocaine and shabu and what had happened in Subic this week should be a wake up call for our port authorities to work closely with us," he said.
The quality of narcotics available on the street was also improving and prices were falling, Santiago noted. "In the last few months, we've noticed methamphetamine prices going down to as much as 3 million pesos ($68,000) per kilo from a high of 6-8 million pesos," he said. "Those that were manufactured here were of yellowish and brown crystal form, but, lately we've been seeing higher-grade methamphetamines in crystal-clear white form."
In its 2007 annual report, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said methamphetamines, locally known as "shabu", were the primary drug of choice in the country.
Drug use in the country cuts across all social and economic classes, enforcement officials said. A small number of wealthy people use ecstasy and cocaine but methamphetamine and marijuana are the most popular drugs, while homeless people use solvents.
Santiago said transnational drug syndicates operating in the Philippines could have resorted to importing high-grade finished products from abroad after the break up of clandestine production bases in the country. Nine clandestine laboratories and 13 warehouses around the capital Manila last year were dismantled last year. There were eight known international drug rings with links to criminal gangs in China and Taiwan, Santiago said.
#1
Seven hundred kilograms! Holy pharmaceutical factory, Batman! I don't think that a meth lab could produce that much in a year, much less high-quality stuff. Thanks again, North Korea!
#3
Norks??? Nope. Try China. Philippine lies again, or are confused as usual. Meth labs are in Northern Luzon, Chinese fastboats, using cigarette smuggling as cover. Sweet operation.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
06/12/2008 20:07 Comments ||
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#4
sounds like the NORKS learned Hawaiian Ice recipes.....hint: look for Amy Winehouse teefs
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/12/2008 20:49 Comments ||
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Perhaps the Phillipines are merely a bit confused, 49 Pan. Doesn't meth cloud the thinking? ;-)
#6
it sharpens it, TW, to a fine focus (like: are these paper clips all facing the right way?), for 48-96 hours....
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/12/2008 22:57 Comments ||
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#7
Hyperfocus? One loses track of the details of the world beyond the paperclips, though. And that, even assuming the Chinese meth is not contaminated with amusing traces of less expensive chemicals, like recent mouthwashes, toothpastes and pet food ingredients, "high grade" often being a marketing rather than technical description in that part of the world.
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.
Bangladesh released former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who faces graft charges, on parole for eight weeks on Wednesday to go abroad for medical treatment. She is likely to leave for the United States aboard a British Airways flight early on Thursday, a senior prison official said. From prison Hasina was driven to her residence in DhakaÂ’s Dhanmandi area under tight security. 
BELGRADE - Serbia arrested a top Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitive on Wednesday and will hand him to the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, earning praise from the European Union and the United States. Bosnian Serb security chief 
