A GREENPEACE activist trying to free tuna from a commercial fishing net in the Mediterranean was harpooned through the leg by fishermen on a French boat, the environmental group said.
"In a non-violent action, Greenpeace activists in zodiac boats attempted to lower the side of a purse seine net with sand bags to free the fish," said Isabelle Philippe of Greenpeace France.
"At that moment, fishermen violently attacked the activists, harpooning one of them through the leg," she said.
The injured man, a British national identified by the group as Frank Huston, was transferred to a hospital in Malta where he was to undergo surgery on Friday evening (local time).
"His life is not threatened, but he is in serious condition," Ms Philippe said.
The fishing ship, the Jean-Marie Christian VI, was one of several French tuna vessels in the area when the attack occurred in international waters near Malta, she added.
Several boats surrounded the zodiacs, threatening them with knives attached to long poles and some of the fishermen also fired flare guns at a Greenpeace helicopter hovering overhead to monitor, Greenpeace said in a statement.
A French navy vessel was seen arriving in the area after the clash had ended, the statement added.
Greenpeace said that it had stationed two ships in the Mediterranean, the Rainbow Warrior and Arctic Sunrise, to confront tuna fishing boats during the short tuna fishing season.
Pascal Husting, director of Greenpeace France, condemned the fishermen for their violent response.
"The tuna fishermen only know brutality: all our militants have are bags of sand to weigh down the nets and free the fish," he said.
Bertrand Wendling, head of Sathoan, which represents the owners of many of the French tuna fishing boat including the one whose nets were targeted by Greenpeace, accused the group of interfering with a legal business activity and jeopardising the livelihoods of ordinary fishermen.
"Red tuna fishing is a highly regulated, legal and permitted activity," he said.
"It is out of the question that you go out on the high seas to stop people working when they have only 15 days in which to earn a living, because the season runs from May 15 to June 15 and until now the boats have been completely stuck."
About 100 fishing vessels navigate the Mediterranean during the short tuna fishing season.
Many of the boats carry net cages used to encircle the tuna swarms, which are then towed offshore to be fattened and shipped in giant freezer ships to Japan, where it is a mainstay of sushi and sashimi.
Industrial-scale fishing and harvesting on the high seas has caused stocks to plunge by up to 80 per cent in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic, where they come to spawn in the warmer waters.
Earlier this year the European Union and the United States backed an international trade ban on tuna fished from these waters, but Japan lobbied successfully and the proposal was defeated.
#1
"A GREENPEACE activist trying to free tuna from a commercial fishing net in the Mediterranean was harpooned through the leg by fishermen on a French boat, the environmental group said."
Hey, Greenpiss - short memory regarding you and the Phrench?
Be grateful a harpoon was all you got.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/05/2010 18:39 Comments ||
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#2
Frank Huston: nice catch! Memento Harpoon
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/05/2010 19:22 Comments ||
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#3
I didn't know Greenpeace was involved with Charlie the Tuna. I thought they just wanted to shave the whales.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/05/2010 20:34 Comments ||
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#4
Probably left a lot of frustrated sharks, if some of the Greenpeace activist's blood got in the water.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/05/2010 22:28 Comments ||
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#5
laff all ya want. bluefin are going extinct. these fishermen are harpooning themselves. sometimes the stinky hippie has a good point.
#6
"The tuna fishermen only know brutality: all our militants have are bags of sand to weigh down the nets and free the fish," he said.
"Militants"?!? Any group that refers to their members that way deserve whatever happens to them; they are no longer approaching the problem from a peaceful perspective.
A driver working on his broken-down vehicle near Walterboro with his wife and mother-in law nearby shot an armed robber who confonted them, according to the Colleton County Sheriff's Office.
The attempted robbery and shooting happened just before midnight on Thursday.
Malone said the three victims were traveling southbound on I-95 in two separate vehicles, one of them pulling a U-haul trailer.
The vehicle pulling the trailer started having mechanical trouble and they pulled off onto the exit ramp at McLeod Road.
They called for a tow truck and began to transfer the U-haul trailer from the disabled vehicle to the second vehicle.
The two women stood near the other vehicle and trailer while the man was down near the bumper trying to wire the trailer lights into his truck.
Malone said that's when a silver colored sedan with three people inside pulled up.
An armed man stepped out and pointed the gun at the older woman, as he covered his face with a cloth.
The woman's son-in-law stood up from behind his vehicle and she ran to her daughter as they took cover.
The son-in-law was armed and drew his weapon and ordered the robbers to leave.
Malone said the robber, armed with 50-caliber Desert Eagle handgun, pointed the gun at the son-in-law.
That's when the son-in-law fired several rounds, hitting the robber.
The two other suspects helped the wounded man back into their car and fired several shots as they drove away.
Malone said a short time later, the Colleton Regional Hospital staff notified the Sheriff's Office that they just had a person come in to their emergency room with several gun shot wounds.
The man, he said, fit the general description of the robbery suspect.
The suspect, David Jayquon Jakes of Smoaks, was transferred to a Charleston area hospital where he was last reported to be in critical condition.
The man who shot him recently returned from the Middle East as an Army Specialist and has a concealed weapons permit to carry his weapon.
Malone said he will not be charged since he acted in self-defense.
Among the charges against Jakes are 3 counts of armed robbery.
#2
David Jayquon Jakes of Smoaks,
Tried to armed rob three decent folks.
Little cared he, who he provokes, does
David Jayquon Jakes of Smoaks.
So minimal are the sympathies he evokes,
And few will mourn if he up and croaks,
He shouldnt have messed with better blokes,
Mr. David Jayquon Jakes of Smoaks.
[Iran Press TV Latest] The first private daily paper to be published in Zimbabwe in seven years has hit the newsstands.
Last week, four private daily newspapers were issued licenses by a media commission appointed by the government earlier this year, and the first issue of one of the dailies, NewsDay, was published on Friday, Reuters reported.
NewsDay is owned by the newspaper group Alpha Media Holdings, headed by Trevor Ncube, who is also the publisher of two weeklies in Zimbabwe and the Mail and Guardian in South Africa.
The last private daily newspaper published in Zimbabwe was banned by President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party in 2003.
Over the past few years, Zimbabwe's only national daily paper has been the state-run The Herald. There is also a regional daily, The Chronicle, published in the city of Bulawayo.
There are no private radio or television stations in Zimbabwe, and foreign media outlets are not allowed to base correspondents in the country.
Ncube said in the opening statement of NewsDay that the newspaper's birth "represents the hope of a tortured nation" and would provide leadership as the country normalizes.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/05/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
It only costs 1 wheelbarrow full of Bob bucks for a weekly subscription.
[Bangla Daily Star] Japan's parliament installed Naoto Kan as prime minister yesterday, handing the political veteran the immediate task of rallying his party and reclaiming its mandate for change before elections next month.
Kan succeeds Yukio Hatoyama, who stepped down Wednesday after squandering the public's high hopes with broken campaign promises and financial scandals.
"My task is to rebuild this nation," said Kan, who was Hatoyama's finance minister.
The 63-year-old with a reputation for confronting Japan's powerful bureaucrats must contend with a daunting list of problems.
Kan's first task will be to form a Cabinet. He said he would announce the members "early next week" after thinking about the posts over the weekend.
"We will work together as one in the face of the tough political situation and the upcoming upper house elections and fight together unified," he told party members. "Our first priority is to regain the trust of the people."
Kan, the country's sixth prime minister in four years, pledged to confront problems linking money and politics. He also stressed the need for fiscal discipline while trying to spur economic growth.
Chosen Friday morning as new chief of the Democratic Party of Japan, Kan was voted into office a few hours later by the lower house, the more powerful chamber of Japan's parliament.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/05/2010 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] The oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico is spreading rapidly as tar balls have now reached an island off the northeastern Florida panhandle.
On Friday, gooey oil balls were spotted on the beach of Santa Rosa Island and the US Coast Guard said that officials are analyzing the balls to determine whether they came from the same oil spill.
Florida's governor is seeking 100 million dollars from oil giant BP to protect the state from the damage.
Meanwhile, a poll has shown over 60 percent of those surveyed disapprove of the US government's handling of the disaster.
However, President Barack Obama has defended the administration's actions. He said he was furious at the situation but yelling would be useless.
The oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico is believed to be the worse environmental disaster in US history.
Since the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, which left 11 people dead, more than 20 million gallons of crude oil has entered the sea.
Forty-five days on, oil continues to gush into the water at a rate of 12,000 to 25,000 barrels per day according to official figures.
However, scientists say that at least 70,000 barrels of oil are spilling into the sea every day.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/05/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
This is one area where I favor a little more regulation. I can't drywall over the wiring of a house before an inspector checks it.
The engineers on that rig apparently TOLD the management aboard that there was pressure in that well. They fought as best they could against flushing that mud out of it under those conditions, management did it anyway.
There should be certain "checkpoints" where a third party not under the control of the well owner must certify that conditions are right before operation continues to the next step. That is done in many industries and it should be done in this one.
This accident wasn't the result of "drilling". It was the result of a technical problem that was ignored by management. Someone needs to be able to inspect and overrule the management during certain key phases of finishing a well.
#2
It's already pretty bad here. I can see 3 weepers 1 crier and a screamer. I expect things to get much worse. I have decided to predip a pelican to give it a holistic treatment against the vagaries of BPie and BusHitler. It's horrible. I really can't go on.
Frankly the only way this is going to end is if you send me a shitload of money. Otherwise, these Pelicans are dead.
#1
"Not even a non-Muslim dares to walk around with a short skirt in Rinkeby."
I will never understand the Wests obsession with committing suicide by opening the borders to people that have no intention of anything but replicating the shit hole they left. It is nothing short of insanity.
#5
There's a fresh pot on in the Club, OS, right next to the box of Krispy Kreme donuts. With real cream and sugar for those who enjoy such, and artificial stuff for those who don't.
#6
Yah, welfare collecting Scandi carpet humpers led worldwide Muslim boycotts against trade with their adopted countries, some of which granted those quranimals 'refugee' status. Makes sense to a moron, to scribe rights to their conduct.
Attorney General Eric Holder on Friday vowed to prosecute hate crimes aimed at Arabs, Muslims and Sikhs in the United States, as he marked the anniversary of President Barack Obama's speech in Egypt on American and Muslim relations in Egypt, urging peaceful and civil connections.
Holder said the Justice Department has opened several investigations aimed at hate-fueled crimes. He mentioned only one -- and drew applause-- as he noted the FBI is involved in the investigation of last month's pipe bomb attack on a Jacksonville, Florida, mosque. "This case is a top concern for the FBI," Holder said.
Holder said he has heard from Arab Americans and Muslim Americans who are uneasy about their relationship with the federal government. "They tell me that too often it feels like us versus them," Holder said. "The era of us versus them that some of you have experienced must end. At long last it is ending," he said.
Holder did not mention terrorism in his address to the annual gathering of the American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee. He made only one oblique reference to a plot aimed at U.S. citizens. "Let us not forget, it was a Muslim-American man who first alerted the New York police to a smoking car in Times Square. And his vigilance likely helped to save lives," Holder said to applause.
The attorney general also said he is continuing to monitor an internal Justice Department review designed, if necessary, to tighten President Bush's 2003 policy which prohibits racial profiling. "I want to be clear about something. Racial profiling is wrong. It can leave a lasting scar on communities and individuals. And, it is quite simply bad policing," Holder declared.
Moslems are not your friends. You wont see any Moslems waving American Flags this 4th of July.
No big Moslem Rallys eating Hot Dogs with the fixins and ribs. No pretty Moslem girls down by the Pool passing out cold beer.
What you will get from a Moslem is Whhiiiinnne and a fatwa.
#7
If Holder vows to prosecute hate crimes against Arabs, Muslims an Sikhs in the US, what does he plan to do about hate crimes against Jews?
Of course, lots of the so-called "hate crimes" against Muslims consist of people saying less than complimentary things about Muslims.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
06/05/2010 11:49 Comments ||
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#8
Call me when he puts the cuffs on Helen Thomas.
Posted by: Matt ||
06/05/2010 12:25 Comments ||
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#9
There was a "Arab" here in California that explained how she was the victim of a hate crime. What it boiled down to is the when she were an hajib on the bus people looked at her strangely and did not talk to her. Oh the horror
Hor Akl, 37, and his wife, Amera Akl, 37, both dual citizens of the United States and Lebanon, face charges that they conspired to launder money and committed arson relating to an insurance fraud scheme. Mr. Akl is also charged with two counts of bankruptcy fraud and one count of perjury. According to the complaint, the Akls agreed to send money to the terrorist organization Hezbollah after they were approached by a confidential informant for the FBI who claimed he worked for an anonymous donor eager to support Hezbollah. The couple researched and proposed at least 10 ways in which the money could be shipped to Hezbollah.
[Dawn] The Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) issued on Thursday a whitepaper on, what it called "black deeds" of the Punjab government, claiming a "total administrative and financial collapse of the province".
Addressing a press conference, former chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, who returned recently from abroad, said the PML-N government had ruined the provincial finance and did not have money to pay salary to officials."On May 30, it had only Rs420 million in its account," the PML-Q leader claimed.
"It (Punjab) sought the federal government's help, which enabled it pay salaries by transferring money to its account on the last day of the month. That is how a surplus, in every sense of the word, province has been turned into a bankrupt federating unit all because of lack of vision, egotist policies and sheer incapability of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif."Of a total development outlay of Rs175 billion, only Rs74 billion had been spent in the year, the Chaudhry said.
In order to hide the `disastrously' bad performance of his government, he said, the Punjab finance minister was now saying that the development budget was in fact only Rs95 billion. "The Communications and Works Department has not submitted its annual report so far, and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has called it exceptionally low development spending year in the history of Punjab.
"The total default of the province stands at a staggering Rs80 billion. And still they call it good governance," he said sarcastically.
Flanked by Leader of the Opposition Chaudhry Zaheeruddin and former Punjab law minister Raja Basharat, Mr Elahi said that Sharif Brothers were defaulter of over Rs4 billion to different banks.
He said the Punjab government was currently raiding people's residences to recover tax on luxury vehicles, and when notices were issued to Sharif Brothers for Wealth Tax, they went to court (seeking stay orders) to avoid payment.
"That is how both brothers are setting a personal example of good governance," he claimed.
In the last two years, the prices of eatables had skyrocketed -- making life miserable for every one in the province, he said. The flour prices went up by 100 per cent (from Rs16 per Kg to Rs32), sugar by 168 per cent (from Rs28 to Rs75 per Kg), chicken meat by 70 per cent (from Rs100 to Rs170 per Kg), milk by 100 per cent (from Rs25 to Rs50 per litter) and yogurt by 83 per cent (from Rs30 to Rs55 per Kg).
"It is a shameful performance by any standard. How one can dare call it good governance," he wondered.
"In the last two years, crimes have gone up by 48 per cent, which is a matter of official record. All kinds of heinous crimes are being committed with impunity and ruling MNAs and MPAs are involved in such crimes. Extra judicial killings have also gone up. The police budget is multiplying along with the crime rate," he claimed.
He said the Punjab government had turned out to be a government "for the task forces and by the task forces". According to him, there are four task forces on 'cattle lifting', three on sports and one has been created even in London for the Pakistani community.
Elahi said the advocate general cost Rs700,000 per month along with two vehicles and five-star hotel stay. The Lahore commissioner is drawing a Rs340,000 salary as project director of Ring Road, Chief Minister's Task Force Chairman (Farooq Naveed) draws a Rs280,000 monthly salary, the Liquidation Board chairman Rs400,000 and AD Analysis Khalid Sherdil Rs200,000. "All these appointments are personal, but cost the province," he claimed.
Calling the whitepaper the first phase of a series of such papers, the former chief minister said that the corruption of the Punjab government "would be taken up at every appropriate forum".
The PML-Q leader took the occasion to condemn attack on the Ahmadis, calling it a "worst day in the history of the province". As the Punjab government was forewarned, the attack should have been pre-empted, he said.
"The Punjab government is handicapped to stop such attacks as no capable officer is ready to work in the province," he said. The egotist and insulting policies of the chief minister had shooed everyone away. Mr Sharif was happy with his immature team and everyone in the province was paying the cost, he said.
He supported an even-handed "operation against terrorists wherever required".
Posted by: Fred ||
06/05/2010 00:00 ||
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[4 views]
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#1
Sharifs crooked? Can't be...
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/05/2010 12:39 Comments ||
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#2
Punjab should ask itself "What would the Messiah Bambi do?" - then raise taxes on Americans.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/05/2010 18:42 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.
