An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 has rocked eastern parts of Indonesia.
The earthquake occurred at 7:57 a.m. local time (0057 GMT) with the epicenter located 132 kilometers (82 miles) southeast of Labuha in North Maluku province, at a depth of 56 kilometers, Xinhua quoted the Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics Agency as saying.
However, the US Geological Survey reported that it was a 6.5 magnitude quake, Xinhua said.
The quake came on the heels of a moderate tremor that struck the country's Palau region on Saturday morning.
The 5.9-magnitude earthquake was centered about 361 kilometers (224 miles) north-northwest of Manokwari, a city in the Pacific nation's West Papua province, according to the US Geological Survey.
No tsunami warnings were issued following the earthquake, and there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties in the Saturday quake, which was initially reported as a 6.2 magnitude tremor.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2010 00:00 ||
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Twas a nicely-shaped SKYBALL/FLASH oer the roof of Agana BOH bank + AGANA BAY-WESTPAC.
D *** NG IT, MORIARITY, THE QUAKEY = CRIKEY WAS "THAT-A-WAYS"!
(CNN) -- Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was admitted to a hospital in Seoul, South Korea, on Saturday with a stomach virus, a doctor told CNN.
"He is getting hydration and holding his food down," Dr. John Linton of Yonsei Severance Hospital said. "All his signs are normal. We hope to send him on his way tomorrow, but he is an elderly gentleman, so we are watching him like a hawk."
The state-run Yonhap news agency reported that Kissinger, 86, arrived in the South Korean capital Wednesday for a security forum and met with President Lee Myung-bak on Friday.
A special medical team did a check-up and MRI scan and took X-rays, but found nothing serious, staff sources at the hospital said.
Kissinger will likely remain at the hospital overnight and will probably be released Sunday, they said.
Kissinger, who now chairs a consulting firm, served in the 1970s under Presidents Nixon and Ford. He shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 with Le Duc Tho for negotiating a treaty to end the Vietnam War.
Kissinger had triple coronary bypass surgery in 1982 and an angioplasty in New York five years ago.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2010 00:00 ||
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"He is getting hydration and holding his food down," Dr. John Linton of Yonsei Severance Hospital
#3
Hee hee. When Kissinger made the first (secret) trip to Beijing, he reported having a 'stomach virus' and that he was recuperating in a Pakistani villa loaned to him by Yahya Khan. He was actually on a plane enroute.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/14/2010 17:43 ||
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#1
I can't find any sympathy for them.
What Westerners in their right minds even go to a moslem country, where this kind of crap is likely bound to happen? They probably fooled themselves that Dubai is "so modern" and somehow different.
It ain't.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/14/2010 18:37 Comments ||
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#2
The arrogance of certain Britons abroad has to be seen to be believed.
#3
Expats tend to forget that when you are in a foreign country you must abide by the laws of that country... or experience that country's punishment for breaking its laws. No sympathy, just as I had no sympathy for the idiot teenager in Singapore a number of years ago who got himself caned for keying a car or spitting on the sidewalk or something. Granted, in Saudi Arabia the odds are 50/50 that the charges were made up out of whole cloth, but that, too, is one of the known risks of being a foreigner in that country. If you want the rules to be just like home, just stay home!
#4
It should work both ways, but it doesn't. I remember a few years ago British flight attendants were forbidden to wear symbols of their religion (crosses, etc.) when traveling to Muslim countries; it might offend their tolerant sensibilities. So...do the Muslims reciprocate when visiting the UK? Do they leave their Korans and burkas behind? Hell no.
Investment Dar, the troubled Kuwaiti firm that owns half of luxury British carmaker Aston Martin, said on Saturday it has filed for legal protection under Kuwait's financial stability law.
"Investment Dar announces today that it has started a process of legal protection under the terms of Kuwait's Financial Stability Law," a company statement said.
The company, which has debts of over three billion dollars, said the move aims at pushing through a debt restructuring plan that is backed by more than 80 percent of creditors but is opposed by a minority.
If the request is accepted by authorities, it will halt all legal actions against Kuwait's top Islamic investment firm.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2010 00:00 ||
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"Islamic investment"
Now there's an oxymoron....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/14/2010 0:25 Comments ||
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#2
Islamic investment firms work a lot like venture capitalists - taking stakes in return for cash.
The problem is that this isn't a good model for larger companies who need loans and credit, which helps explain why the Islamic world has almost no large publically traded companies who aren't property developers. The Islamic investment model handles property loans reasonably well. A lot like American banks in fact.
#3
As I understand it, Sharia financing means investing in something in exchange for a cut of the proceeds. No interest, just a fixed cut on completion/payment.
I have used this method of financing jobs myself, albeit not with Islamists.
BRITAIN'S House of Lords could be abolished and replaced with an upper house full of elected politicians under plans being considered by the UK Government.
The 700-year-old House of Lords has about 740 members, none of whom are elected. Most obtained their upper house seat in parliament upon an appointment by the Queen on the recommendation of the prime minister or an appointments committee. Others simply inherited the right to sit in the Lords thanks to their ancestors.
But Justice Secretary Jack Straw has begun consulting his cabinet colleagues about making revolutionary changes to the upper house that would end centuries of tradition.
Mr Straw is considering plans for a directly elected second chamber, in a similar way to how senators are elected to the upper houses in Australia and the United States. A proportional representation system would be used, with one third of the chamber being elected at a time. Members would serve three terms, or up to 15 years and the upper house would be renamed The Senate.
The plans are expected to be unveiled before Britons go to the polls for a general election, widely expected in early May.
"Jack has been working very hard on this issue, and we will have some proposals soon which we think will be very significant," a source close to Mr Straw told Britain's Sunday Telegraph. "They will reflect a degree of consensus about the need for reform."
The only major change to the House of Lords made by Labour since it came to power in 1997 was to remove most hereditary peers in 1999. Ninety-two hereditary peers remain in the upper house, but all would lose their seats under Mr Straw's planned changes.
MPs in the House of Commons also voted in 2007 to reform the upper house so it could become an elected chamber. However, the Lords themselves blocked the move, preferring a fully appointed assembly.
Hey guys we can help you along, I think Harry Reid will be looking for work next year, you can have him.
Posted by: Spater Scourge of the Infinitesmal1256 ||
03/14/2010 12:21 Comments ||
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#3
Black Bart, posting here as Spater etc. - please stick to one 'nym right now.
Fred and the mods are dealing with a huge spam storm and other attacks. Your cooperation will be helpful as the sources of attacks are painstakingly tracked down and holes plugged.
#4
Lord Mountararat.
When Britain really ruled the waves
(In good Queen Besss time)
The House of Peers made no pretence
To intellectual eminence,
Or scholarship sublime;
Yet Britain won her proudest bays
In good Queen Besss glorious days!
Yet Britain won her proudest bays
In good Queen Besss glorious days!
Chorus.
Yes Britain won her proudest bays
In good Queen Besss glorious days!
Lord Mountararat.
When Wellington thrashed Bonaparte,
As every child can tell,
The House of Peers, throughout the war,
Did nothing in particular,
And did it very well:
Yet Britain set the world ablaze
In good King Georges glorious days!
Yet Britain set the world ablaze
In good King Georges glorious days!
Chorus.
Yet Britain set the world ablaze
In good King Georges glorious days
Lord Mountararat.
And while the House of Peers withholds
Its legislative hand,
And noble statesmen do not itch
To interfere with matters which
They do not understand,
As bright will shine Great Britains rays
As in King Georges glorious days!
As bright will shine Great Britains rays
As in King Georges glorious days!
Chorus.
As bright will shine Great Britains rays
As in King Georges glorious days!
#5
It looks like a copy of the Australian Senate, which incidentally is popular here - PR with minority/fringe party representation. And generally no majority for either major party.
Even the Greens provide a certain entertainment factor. They are currently jumping up and down about the arrest of the whaling 'activist'. I hope the leader of the Greens goes to Japan and gets kicked out of the country or even better gets thrown in jail alongside his mate.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Drug-related violence has left 13 people dead in the Mexican resort city of Acapulco, including four civilians whose bodies were decapitated and five police.
Two bodies of men who had been decapitated were found overnight on Scenic Avenue in the downtown area and the other two were found near a small village west of the town on Saturday, AFP reported.
The five police officers were shot to death by gunmen in nearby Tulchingo.
The states of Guerrero and neighboring Michoacan are largely under the control of the vicious "La Familia" drug cartel, one of the most powerful trafficking groups in the country.
Rival drug cartels are fighting deadly battles over lucrative drug routes to the north into the United States.
Drug-related crime has left more than 15,000 dead over the past three years in Mexico, despite a nationwide clampdown on the growing violence involving the deployment of some 50,000 government troops.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2010 00:00 ||
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Not getting killed, that's the key to Obamacare.
The retirement nest egg of an entire generation is stashed away in this small town along the Ohio River: $2.5 trillion in IOUs from the federal government, payable to the Social Security Administration.
It's time to start cashing them in.
For more than two decades, Social Security collected more money in payroll taxes than it paid out in benefits billions more each year.
Not anymore. This year, for the first time since the 1980s, when Congress last overhauled Social Security, the retirement program is projected to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes nearly $29 billion more.
Sounds like a good time to start tapping the nest egg. Too bad the federal government already spent that money over the years on other programs, preferring to borrow from Social Security rather than foreign creditors. In return, the Treasury Department issued a stack of IOUs in the form of Treasury bonds which are kept in a nondescript office building just down the street from Parkersburg's municipal offices.
Posted by: ed ||
03/14/2010 09:41 ||
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With this kind of fiscal discipline, why would anyone believe Obamacare will succeed? No surprises here. This train has long been approaching the station. The Social Security disability claims are skyrocking. I look for Obama to establish a "needs based" Social Security system in the very near future.
#2
"I look for Obama to establish a "needs based" Social Security system in the very near future. "
In order to screw me, as I approach retirement age in the next few years, B.
But I figured that.... >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/14/2010 13:10 Comments ||
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Barb, I figured out 30 years ago (when I was a die-hard democrat no less...) when I first started working that Social Security wouldn't be there when it was my turn.
I always considered the Social Security payments were just another Federal tax. Much like unemployment insurance. I've worked for 30+ years and never had a single claim... yet I still have to pay the same. That's not insurance - that's a tax.
I agree that Bumbles and Bimbo will turn Social Security into a needs-based payment system.
I figure Obumblecare will follow suit - just another entitlement program for the vote-slaves on the plantation which we have to pay for.
This is the way it is going America .....
You must Hope You're Not Left With Change.
Black Bart, posting here as Gleling etc. - please stick to one 'nym right now.
Fred and the mods are dealing with a huge spam storm and other attacks. Your cooperation will be helpful as the sources of attacks are painstakingly tracked down and holes plugged.
#5
Oh, that's just the start. Years ago, when "means testing" was first proposed, it was done so just as a delaying tactic. The bottom line is that there is going to be no Social Security for anyone. Or Medicare. Or Medicaid.
While they are figuring on just whittling it away over the course of some years, at a particular point, it will collapse into months, then weeks, then days.
Then they will likely choose hyperinflation, combined with re-denomination (removing zeroes), over default, which is pretty much what Zimbabwe is doing. They will choose this, because the 'H-re-' system allows them to continue profligate spending.
Default closes the purse, so they no longer have false credit by loaning themselves money, and can only spend tax revenues, not a dime more.
Were they to choose default, the US would start to emerge from the disaster after a decade. With h-re-, we will be stuck for maybe 40-50 years.
#6
With this kind of fiscal discipline, why would anyone believe Obamacare will succeed?
Exactly! The Federal government's track record is not very good: Social Security is broke, Medicare is broke, the Post office is broke, the VA has problems in delivering service, Cash-for-Clunkers cost more than it was worth, the border fence has never been completed and we can't control the spillover of violence from Mexico...There are probably other examples of costly failed programs.
#2
IMO, as things stand right now there may be two broad or strategic catalysts for these events to occur,
To wit,
(1) the MILTERRS going "NUKULAAR: in YEAR 2012 or shortly after, i.e. in possession of, andor having acess 9or the ability to manufacture NUCBOMBS + VARIOUS ADVANC WMDS,
By extension, IMO NUC RADICAL ISLAMISM INFERS NEW 9-11's OR OTHER MAJOR TERROR ATTACKS AGZ CONUS ALA 2012 OR SHORTLY AFTER [timely].
IMO again, 2012-2012 JIHADIST-LED INSURGENCIES OUTISDE OF AFPAK = setting up a foundation for FUTURE NEW TERROR STRIKES AGZ CONUS PER SE.
MAJOR NUMBERS OF US TROOPS WILL BE "OVER THERE", NOT "OVER HERE" PROTECTING + DEFENDING THEIR OWN COUNTRY + HOMETOWN/MAIN STREET, USA.
and
(2) ANTI-US "GREAT POWER" MIL CONFRONTATION + FORCED INTERVENTION VEE IRAN, TAIWAN, ETC. CRISIS OR CRISES.
Lest we fergit, 1990's CLINTONISM e.g. LETTING UNO SANCTIONS HANDLE SADDAMIST IRAQ, etal. > "ARROGANT FASCIST MALE BRUTE CAPITALIST, ETC. AMERICA MUST BE RESTRAINED, CONTROLLED".
Twas NOT "SHOULD BE", BUT "MUST BE", RESTRAINED OR CONTROLLED!
#3
The poster "Comrade Obama -- Hopeiate of the masses" is a nice touch.
The map is a tin-foil based hallucination (especially wishful thinking about Alaska! C'mon Russians, feggetaboutit!).
EU left coast, ideologically somewhat, but only the librul enclaves (cities).
China does not have to acquire territory, it will have a lease-ownership of the juicy chunks that would go toward a collateral, mostly rare elements rich deposits. The administration would do their biding and Chinese would not need to be worried about discontent of population.
Mexico--in their dreams!
Canada expansion--nope. I actually see Canada splitting on east/west boundary one day in the misty, fuzzy future.
War, yea, itsa coming. 2012-2014 or there about.
It won't be purdy. But the USA would remain, just without some big blue coastal cities.
The banned militant outfit Amr Bilmaroof Wa Nahi Anil Munkar (promotion of virtue and prohibition of vice) has lifted the ban on cricket in Qambarkhel area of Bara sub-division, local sources told The News on Saturday. National cricketer Shahid Afridi belongs to the same clan of the Afridi tribe.
The sources said that acting head of the organisation, Haji Darya Khan, announced lifting of the ban during his speech on FM radio three days ago. The late head and founder of the organisation, Haji Namdar, had imposed a ban on cricket in Qambarkhel area some two years ago. Namdar was quoted as saying that cricket was not a useful game as it did not contribute to promotion of jihad and its philosophy.
The sources said that the militant organisation reviewed its decision after pressure mounted by members of the Qambarkhel Afridi tribe against the ban. The local people welcomed the decision and started playing cricket again.
SAN DIEGO Investigators with Toyota Motor Corp. and the federal government could not replicate the runaway speeding reported by a Prius owner who said his car's accelerator stuck as he drove on a California freeway, according to a memo drafted for a congressional panel. The memo, obtained Saturday by The Associated Press, said the experts who examined and test drove the car could not replicate the sudden, unintended acceleration James Sikes said he encountered. A backup mechanism that shuts off the engine when the brake and gas pedals are floored also worked properly during tests.
During two hours of test drives of Sikes' car Thursday, technicians with Toyota and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration failed to duplicate the same experience that Sikes described, according to the memo written by the Republican staff of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. One congressional staff member observed the investigation of Sikes' Prius. "Every time the technician placed the gas pedal to the floor and the brake pedal to the floor the engine shut off and the car immediately started to slow down," the memo said.
Also, the Prius is designed to shut down if the brakes are applied while the gas pedal is pressed to the floor. If it doesn't, the engine would "completely seize," according to the report that cited Toyota's "residential Hybrid expert."
"It does not appear to be feasibly possible, both electronically and mechanically that his gas pedal was stuck to the floor and he was slamming on the brake at the same time," according to the memo.
The memo did say that investigators found the front brake pads were spent."Visually checking the brake pads and rotor it was clearly visible that there was nothing left," it said. But the wear was not consistent with the brakes being applied at full force for a long period, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday, citing three people familiar with the probe, whom it did not name. The newspaper said the brakes may have been applied intermittently.
Sikes could not be reached to comment. However, his wife, Patty Sikes, said he stands by his story. "Everyone can just leave us alone," she said. "Jim didn't get hurt. There's no intent at all to sue Toyota." Well...not anymore.
"If any good can come out of this, maybe they can find out what happened so other people don't get killed." Can't we all just "move on"? As quickly as possible.
Mrs. Sikes said the couple's lives have been turned upside down since Monday and they are getting death threats. "We're just fed up with all of it," she said. "Our careers are ruined and life is just not good anymore." Honey, go with the mouse in the Coke bottle next time. It's tougher to prove.
Black Bart, posting here as Gleling etc. - please stick to one 'nym right now.
Fred and the mods are dealing with a huge spam storm and other attacks. Your cooperation will be helpful as the sources of attacks are painstakingly tracked down and holes plugged.
#3
I'd tend to discount claims like this, except Woz has reported similar occurences and believes they are do to on-board computer / software problems in the Prius.
#4
Sounds trivial but this happened to me when the driver-side rug slipped its moorings and migrated up, tight against the accelerator shaft, so that the accelerator was stuck when pressed.
Check the rug. And always engage brain before starting mouth.
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.
An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 has rocked eastern parts of Indonesia. .JPG)
The sources said that acting head of the organisation, Haji Darya Khan, announced lifting of the ban during his speech on FM radio three days ago. The late head and founder of the organisation, Haji Namdar, had imposed a ban on cricket in Qambarkhel area some two years ago. Namdar was quoted as saying that cricket was not a useful game as it did not contribute to promotion of jihad and its philosophy. 
