[Straits Times] SEVERAL websites are abuzz with news that Malaysian millionaire Taek Jho Low is the 'mystery man' spotted with good-time girl Paris Hilton, reported Kosmo!
The Malay tabloid said the websites, including that of OK! Magazine, had identified Hilton as the girl in a sexy pink outfit in a photograph of partygoers aboard a boat in Paris, France.
According to the magazine, Mr Low had been splashing his money, holding expensive parties in various nightclubs and running up huge shopping bills.
The New York Post reported on Nov 8 last year that Mr Low, who is in his 20s and a graduate from Wharton Business School in Philadelphia, spent thousands of dollars in nightclubs over a three-month period in the United States.He caught media attention after being spotted partying with several celebrities, including singer P. Diddy, in the city.
According to the operator of Pink Elephant Club at 27th Street in New York, Mr Low always spent between US$50,000 (S$68,700) and US$60,000 a night, including flying eight waitresses to a party in Malaysia once.
He was rumoured to be staying in a posh apartment in Park Imperial in the city, where James Bond actor Daniel Craig and P. Diddy also lived. Mr Low, whose own recent birthday party was attended by actress Megan Fox, was said to be working as a consultant with a few international companies.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Drug trade? Government baksheesh from uncle? Oil?
Nelson Mandela's grandchildren were held up by gunmen after returning from the former South African president's 92nd birthday party, it emerged today.
Mr Mandela's daughter, Zindzi Mandela, and her children were attacked by two men as they arrived by car in the driveway of their home in Johannesburg. They were ordered to lie down, but then the men decided to leave.
However, they returned and searched the group, but then one of the men suddenly fired a shot. The victims' driver returned fire and the men, both said to be black, fled.
I wasn't there but if the driver had shot the perps on the first encounter they wouldn't have come back the second time.
No one was hurt in the exchange on Sunday.
It is unknown whether the attackers hesitated because knew recognised Miss Mandela, 49.
The family is still coming to terms with the death of Zindzi's grandchild Zenani, who died in a car crash ahead of the World Cup, hosted in South Africa in June. Mourning for her death led Nelson Mandela to cancel his appearance at the opening ceremony.
Police said Mr Mandela's grandchildren were returning to their Johannesburg home from Mr Mandela's estate across the city at 6.30pm on Sunday when the attack took place.
Plainclothes police severely beat the wife of a provincial official, mistaking her for one of many Chinese who petition government offices in the hope of redressing wrongs, the China Daily reported on Wednesday. OOPS!!
The case of mistaken identity has become a hot topic among Chinese Internet users, highlighting the abuse that China's armies of petitioners routinely suffer at the hands of police and hired thugs who wish to silence them. Thump, thump. Ow!! Shuddup!
Six public security officers set on Chen Yulian, the wife of a provincial law enforcement officer, last month when she tried to enter her husband's office building, which houses the Hubei provincial party headquarters, the China Daily said. 6 to 1. The odds were not in her favor.
"This incident is a total misunderstanding," the Communist Party chief of the district bureau explained, according the newspaper. "Our police officers never realized that they beat the wife of a senior leader." "They thought she was just another run-of-the-mill peasant. Sorry! I mean just look at her. Peasant written all over her."
China's leaders are obsessed with maintaining social stability and "building a harmonious society" has been their chief concern in the recent years. Give them all harmonicas.
Thousands of petitioners take their grievances to Beijing every day. Many of their complaints stem from land seizures, while others seek redress for lay-offs dating from massive bankruptcies in China's state sector in the 1990s.
The men who beat Chen were later identified as public security officers from Wuhan, the provincial capital, who had been assigned to guard the office building and "subdue" petitioners. "Subdue" covers a wide range of activities.
"A strong wave of fists rained down on her for more than 16 minutes," the report said. I like the writing but does a wave rain? I think a wave pours over.
Chen was knocked to the ground despite her attempt to explain that her husband worked in the office building. She was then transported to a police station and yelled at when she requested medical attention, according to the paper's account.
The attack left her with a concussion, and damaged brain and nerve tissues. Chen was released and sent to hospital after she reached her husband by phone, and ranking police officers apologized profusely. Boy-howdy are we in trouble now! It's gonna be the Salt Mines for us!
"Does this mean the police are not supposed to beat leaders' wives, but the ordinary people can be battered?" the China Daily quoted an anonymous visitor to Chen's ward as saying. Sounds like it to me. If you have to ask you already know the answer ...
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/22/2010 14:50 ||
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#1
looks like a few Chinese cops will be spending the rest of their careers on the overnight shift guarding The People's Shitpile.
#1
Screw the media, why didn't the space-junk people screech bloody murder? Is it because the second Chinese try *didn't* produce a Kessler Syndrome deathbloom of potentially satellite-killing shards like the first try did? The Seattle Times' pet anonymous "expert" doesn't think so, but who'd take an anonymous "expert"'s word for it?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/22/2010 16:42 Comments ||
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-- Northrop Grumman Corp. on Tuesday said it is considering "strategic alternatives" for its shipbuilding sector that include a possible sale or spinoff of the business, including its shipyards in Newport News and on the Gulf Coast. --
Northrop said it hired Credit Suisse Group as its lead financial adviser and also is being advised by Perella Weinberg Partners.
#1
"According to financial writer Michael Barone Perella Weinberg Partners reputation was threatened by the Barack Obama White House after it refused to accept a 33 cent on the dollar payment for their senior secured bonds made as an investment to keep Chrysler afloat prior to its 2009 bankruptcy.
"Barone also says separate anonymous death threats were made to the bondholders over their refusal.
"Perella Weinberg Partners' objection was that political supporters of Obama, the United Auto Workers, was receiving 50 cents on the dollar for unsecured debt under the same deal.
"Generally loans made during bankruptcy proceedings are paid ahead of most other debt as Perella Weinberg Partners contended their secured bonds should have been.
"Eventually the company acquiesced and accepted the Obama deal, however, other bondholders did not. Perella Weinberg Partners may still revive the traditional bankruptcy distribution as the other bondholders have petitioned the bankruptcy court to rule on the hierarchy of their secured versus unsecured debt."
#4
Naasco in San Diego just laid off 300 or so employees, and a similar amount of subcontractors due to lack of shipbuilding bizness. Good job, Baracky!
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/22/2010 18:57 Comments ||
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#1
Spent 2 weeks there this spring.
The souk is there but it is being hyped quite a bit.
Biggest problems in Granada appear to be:
1) Rowdy gangs run the streets after mid-night and cover everything with graffiti.
2) Constant Socialist/Farmer marches that are pretty rowdy.
3) Constant "official" traditional Catholic marches for any random church holiday. This with local folks dressed in KKK style pointed hats competing with each other. Each group has different colored robes and hats. These competitions are avidly reported in real time by all the local TV stations and watched and commented in depth by the locals. Both the folks from the souk and Americans like myself seem to be genuinely puzzled by the competitions. Sort of like somebody from space trying to make sense of cricket.
The souk is right outside the main Cathedral and it was planted there in the first place because a prior Moorish era souk was there.
Everywhere there is a Moorish or Islamic historical site the Spanish are sure to plant a Catholic one right near it but higher....
As an example.. I have a photo of myself taken by the statue where the first sultan landed on Spain. If you could rotate the photo toward the sea you see the statue is at the foot of a tall rocky point. The top of the point has a huge lighted cross on it. If you go to the cross it smells of urine because muslim youth go up at night and piss on it. Ten to one the Spanish have a cam watching for that and note each youth that does so.
#5
So unlike the vast rightwing conspiracy, this is ample proof of a leftist conspiracy to misinform and twist the perceptions of hte American public to achieve a political end. They should all be executed
Posted by: No I am The Other Beldar ||
07/22/2010 14:50 Comments ||
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#6
Whatta bunch of dorks. More like VJJ Day. Seriously.
Well, in a sense they have. 'Journalism' now ranks up there with Phrenology. The difference between them and independent, or even bought, bloggers is a fake degree course run by an ever more evident paper mill industry, formally known as institutions of higher learning. All those layers of 'fact checkers and editors' mean absolutely squat. Its now one of the biggest confidence games in modern society, though still below politicians. At least politicians have to deliver something of value to keep a position that allows them to steal the money derived from the sweat and skills of the prols.
#2
Prior to this latest round of emails, it would've been possible to mount a decent defense of Journolist as just colleagues "shooting the $hit" around the water cooler-- this is basically what one of the smartest lib journalists, Jon Chait of TNR, argued yesterday.
But today's email expose is the smoking gun. Journolister after journolister refers to "the line" against Palin, or "the spin" on Palin, or even, as with Ed Kilgore, sending out marching orders:
"What we can do is to expose her ideology."
"lets dont concede the claim that [Hillary Clinton] supporters are likely to be very attracted to her,
Joe Klein laid it open for all to see:
Times Joe Klein then linked to his own piece, parts of which he acknowledged came from strategy sessions on Journolist. Heres my attempt to incorporate the accumulated wisdom of this august list-serve community, he wrote. And indeed Kleins article contained arguments developed by his fellow Journolisters. Klein praised Palin personally, calling her fresh and delightful, but questioned her militant ideology. He noted Palin had endorsed parts of Obamas energy proposal.
[Al Arabiya Latest] The mustache that adorns the faces of millions in Turkey still retains its political relevance, as demonstrated by a row between government and the opposition, a Turkish newspaper said Wednesday.
The quarrel began last week when Huseyin Celik, the deputy chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), gave a television interview on a government plan to create units of professional soldiers to fight Kurdish rebels, the English-language Today's Zaman reported.
The government is determined not to repeat the mistakes of the 1980-1990s when serious human rights abuses were blamed on similar special units which were full of sympathizers of the Nationalist Action Party (MHP), Celik was quoted by the paper as saying.
"In the past, the wrong men were in the special operations task force. They were likely typical MHP militants with mustaches with down-turned ends," he added.
His remarks angered MHP leader Devlet Bahceli, who questioned whether the new forces would have "members with almond-shape moustaches", referring to the small and trimmed classic mustache associated by Islamists.
There is a third mustache that has left its imprint on Turkish politics: a full-grown one drooping over the upper lip -- a bit Nietzschean -- which is the sign of a leftist
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2010 00:00 ||
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Last night, The Daily Caller reported that Sarah Spitz, a public radio producer for the NPR affilaite KCRW in Santa Monica, fantasized about watching Rush Limbaugh die and not doing anything to help him. This afternoon Spitz released the following statement:
I made poorly considered remarks about Rush Limbaugh to what I believed was a private email discussion group from my personal email account. As a publicist, I realize more than anyone that is no excuse for irresponsible behavior. I apologize to anyone I may have offended and I regret these comments greatly; they do not reflect the values by which I conduct my life.
That's a half-assed apology. The issue is not whether we were offended, the issue is whether she recognizes she was wrong and expresses remorse.
The Daily Caller originally -- and wrongly -- reported that Spitz was an at NPR rather than a producer at an NPR affiliate. NPR has been quick to clarify that Spitz did not work directly for them.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Captain Karma has noted your action and your lame apology for your public wishing of death on another fellow American. He will take your case under advisement and will get back to you in his own time.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/22/2010 0:23 Comments ||
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#2
Glad to see that such behaviour has consequences. Sheesh.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/22/2010 7:22 Comments ||
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#4
Wishing death to someone I would say is a a private matter between him and the "victim". But I thought that people who work in a tax-payer funded radio should try to say non-partisan and that such actions should carry immediate firing.
#5
The solution to this sort of thing is so simple. Get the government out of media ENTIRELY. No public radio, no newspaper subsidies. Let opinionators across the ideological spectrum opinionate away, but not on the taxpayer dime. It seems to work for some, like Rush, for example...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/22/2010 9:23 Comments ||
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#6
...you mean compete on the merits of their product? Without creative Hollyweird bookkeeping to cook the books on circulation and viewership? Why, why how could that balance out against our power to dictate to the unwashed masses 'social justice'? /sarc off
#10
The left is mere inches away from their ""Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" moment. There will be no absolution in front of the cathedral to avoid the consequences to their never ending polluting of the public discourse with their culture of hate and intolerance.
Kosovo's unilateral secession from Serbia in 2008 did not violate international law, the World Court said on Thursday in a case that could have implications for separatist movements around the world, as well as Belgrade's stalled EU membership talks.
Successful secessions never violate international law. Unsuccessful secessions never matter under international law. Just ask Biafra ...
The ruling is likely to lead to more countries recognizing Kosovo's independence and move Pristina closer to entry into the United Nations.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ)'s non-binding ruling addresses Serbia's 2009 claim that Kosovo's declaration of independence secession was a "flagrant violation" of its territorial integrity.
The United States and most other Western states recognized Kosovo's February 2008 declaration of independence but Serbia rejected it, as did its ally Russia, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.
"If the ICJ opinion establishes a new principle, an entire process of creating new states would open throughout the world, something that would destabilize many regions of the world," Serbian President Boris Tadic was quoted as saying by the Tanjug news agency. He was speaking before the court ruling.
On Wednesday, the White House said U.S. Vice President Joe Biden reaffirmed U.S. backing for Kosovo's independence at a meeting with visiting Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci.
Serbia lost control over Kosovo in 1999 when a 78-day NATO bombing campaign ended a two-year war between Serbia and ethnic Kosovo Albanians, and put in place a U.N. administration and a NATO-monitored ceasefire. Since then some 2 million Albanians and 120,000 Serbs have lived separately in Kosovo, mutually suspicious and occasionally hostile to each other.
Then again, they've been mutually suspicious and occasionally hostile to each other for the past thousand years ...
Belgrade has refused to recognize Kosovo's independence move and the dispute has held up its EU membership talks -- and hindered its ability to attract foreign investment.
EU ministers did not debate Serbia's candidacy in June, waiting instead to see progress in relations with Kosovo, a source close to Brussels has said. The EU has told some of its diplomats to delay summer vacation plans to begin lobbying Serbia and Kosovo immediately after the ICJ ruling.
Kosovo has been recognized by 69 nations and already functions as an independent republic with a constitution and elections.
Georgia filed a lawsuit in 2008 against Russia at the same court, saying that Russia's incursion into its South Ossetia province amounted to ethnic cleansing. Russia, which took two decades to crush a separatist rebellion in its Chechnya province, has recognized both rebel Georgian regions as independent states but few others have followed its lead.
Spain, which has its own regions seeking greater autonomy, has already said it will not recognize an independent Kosovo.
At the start of deliberations last December, judges at the ICJ -- the United Nations' highest judicial body -- heard statements from 29 other nations, including Spain, the United States and Russia.
Although non-binding, the court's ruling will provide a framework for diplomats to try and establish a working relationship between Serbia and Kosovo, said Bibi van Ginkel, senior researcher at the Clingendael Institute.
"The political implications of advisory opinions can be substantial," she said.
Adding to the uncertainty, the Yugoslavia war crimes tribunal on Wednesday overturned the 2008 acquittal and ordered a retrial of former Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj on charges of orchestrating torture, murder, rape and deportation during the war.
NATO forces in Kosovo are on heightened alert but the commander of the 10,000 troops there said there was no sign of trouble brewing.
UNITED NATIONS -- The outgoing chief of a U.N. office charged with combating corruption at the United Nations has issued a stinging rebuke of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, accusing him of undermining her efforts and leading the global institution into an era of decline, according to a confidential end-of-assignment report.
The memo by Inga-Britt Ahlenius, a Swedish auditor who stepped down Friday as undersecretary general of the Office of Internal Oversight Services, represents an extraordinary personal attack on Ban from a senior U.N. official. The memo also marks a challenge to Ban's studiously cultivated image as a champion of accountability.
Shortly after taking office in 2007, Ban committed himself to restoring the United Nations' reputation, which had been sullied by revelations of corruption in the agency's oil-for-food program in Iraq.
But Ahlenius says that, rather than being an advocate for accountability, Ban, along with his top advisers, has systematically sought to undercut the independence of her office, initially by trying to set up a competing investigations unit under his control and then by thwarting her efforts to hire her own staff.
"Your actions are not only deplorable, but seriously reprehensible. . . . Your action is without precedent and in my opinion seriously embarrassing for yourself," Ahlenius wrote in the 50-page memo to Ban, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post. "I regret to say that the secretariat now is in a process of decay."
Ban's top advisers said that Ahlenius's memo constituted a deeply unbalanced account of their differences and that her criticism of Ban's stewardship of the United Nations was patently unfair.
"A look at his record shows that Secretary General Ban has provided genuine visionary leadership on important issues from climate change to development to women's empowerment. He has promoted the cause of gender balance in general as well as within the organization. He has led from the front on important political issues from Gaza to Haiti to Sudan," Ban's chief of staff, Vijay Nambiar, wrote in a response.
"It is regrettable to note," Nambiar added, "that many pertinent facts were overlooked or misrepresented" in Ahlenius's memo.
The departure of Ahlenius, 72, coincides with a period of crisis in the United Nations' internal investigations division. During the past two years, the world body has shed some of its top investigators. It has also failed to fill dozens of vacancies, including that of the chief of the investigations division in the Office of Internal Oversight Services. That post has been vacant since 2006, leaving a void in the United Nations' ability to police itself, diplomats say.
"We are disappointed with the recent performance of [the U.N.'s] investigations division," said Mark Kornblau, spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations. "The coming change in . . . leadership is an opportunity to bring about a significant improvement in its performance to increase oversight and transparency throughout the organization."
The U.N. General Assembly established the Office of Internal Oversight Services in 1994 to conduct management audits of the United Nations' principal departments and to conduct investigations into corruption and misconduct. The founding resolution granted the office "operational independence" but placed it under the authority of the secretary general and made it dependent on the U.N. departments it policed for much of its funding and administrative support.
The dispute between Ahlenius and Ban has underscored some of the resulting tensions and exposed a protracted and acrimonious struggle for power over the course of U.N. investigations.
While Ahlenius cited Ban's move to set up a new investigations unit as a sign that he was seeking to undermine her independence, Nambiar said that it was intended to strengthen the United Nations' ability to fight corruption.
Ahlenius also clashed with Ban over her efforts to hire a former federal prosecutor, Robert Appleton, who headed the U.N. Procurement Task Force, a temporary white-collar crime unit that carried out aggressive investigations into corruption in U.N. peacekeeping missions from 2006 to last year. The unit's investigations led to an unprecedented number of misconduct findings by U.N. officials and prompted federal probes into corruption.
Ban's advisers said they blocked Appleton's appointment on the grounds that female candidates had not been properly considered and said that the final selection should have been made by Ban, not Ahlenius.
"The secretary general fully recognizes the operational independence of OIOS," Nambiar said. But that, he said, "does not excuse her from applying the standard rules of recruitment."
Posted by: chris ||
07/22/2010 10:10 Comments ||
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#2
Why is our membership in the UN not a political talking point? I believe a large majority of Americans are very tired of giving these people money that could be better spent on the USA.
Japan has begun developing a high-speed anti-ship missile in response to China's growing naval power, according to a media report Wednesday. The missile, called XASM-3, is slated for production starting in 2016, the daily Tokyo Shimbun said. The supersonic missile is "almost impossible to shoot down" and "appears to be aimed at thwarting China's rising naval might," the daily said.
The XASM-3, which is 6 m long and weighs 900 kg, is small enough to be mounted on giant robots fighter jets rather than bombers. Japan is prohibited from having long-range bombers due to limitations on its arsenal of offensive weapons by its post-war Constitution. The Japanese government has earmarked 32.5 billion yen to develop the missile. The country's present arsenal of air-to-ship missiles is subsonic and can be shot down.
Supersonic anti-ship missiles are used for defense against aircraft carriers, destroyers and cruisers. At present, Russia has the largest numbers of them, to counter U.S. aircraft carrier groups. China has imported them from Russia and is developing its own version. The U.S. has none due to a different military doctrine but apparently began developing them recently.
China has been boosting its naval strength and plans to build its own aircraft carrier by 2015. It recently bought four destroyers from Russia and deployed its own Aegis-class destroyers.
#2
... and deployed its own Aegis-class destroyers.
Did they buy a few from us or did they just steal the plans?
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/22/2010 11:28 Comments ||
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Re: Japanese Aegis.
They licensed it, and improved it along the way; they're supposed to be some of the better Burke-"clones" floating around the seas. They are built to be compatible with any sort of anti-ballistic-missile upgrades that are currently being developed or may be developed in the future.
Compare and contrast with the British, who thought they could replicate the functionality of the whole Aegis system, radar and missiles, from scratch, for what turned out to be a four-ship production run. Allegedly their equivalent to the ESSM just plain doesn't work, which means their two billion pound destroyers are sitting ducks for a couple million dollar supersonic SSM such as described in this article.
Posted by: Things From Snowy Mountains ||
07/22/2010 11:43 Comments ||
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#3
No one really wants a full size autonomous helicopter. But they will scale it down. Autonomous helicopters weighing a couple of pounds that can be launched from anywhere would be a real aid in monitoring things like perimeters in Afghanistan.
#1
In other news: Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack confesses to being the murderer of Shirley Sherrod's father, puts self under bus. Shirley Sherrod appears on Oprah to announce her refusal to be rehired by "The Man," accepts undisclosed cash settlement and purchases Salamanders Spa near Middleburg, VA. as retirement home.
#3
I harbor strong suspicions that this was a sting operation. Vilsack fired her way too quickly. Now it will take her days to decide whether to take the job while Breitbart is villified. He'll have to be more careful next time.
#9
Heck, they sound like two pigs caught in a fence when the methods they employ are directed back at them. Everyone is suppose to understand that for the left it's always been 'one set of rules for me, a different set of rules for thee'. Make them live by the standards they've established for everyone else.
#10
I get the feeling that more is to come regarding her commie leanings.
Posted by: Jack Sakami ||
07/22/2010 9:52 Comments ||
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#11
Pigford
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
07/22/2010 12:18 Comments ||
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#12
I get the feeling someone said "They have her on tape during that speech 'X' she gave..." then Breitbart released this, and they panicked. But this wasn't the tape of Speech X, this was of Speech W. We haven't seen the really troublesome tape yet.
Posted by: Things From Snowy Mountains ||
07/22/2010 16:23 Comments ||
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#13
I cant wait for the headline,"Obama apologises to Sherrod only to find out she was really a bigot". Then the real tape comes out showing her full racist attitude. Obama blames FOX news and all the liberals sing praise be Obama.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/22/2010 22:07 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.
[Straits Times] SEVERAL websites are abuzz with news that Malaysian millionaire Taek Jho Low is the 'mystery man' spotted with good-time girl Paris Hilton, reported Kosmo!
