[Al Jazeera] An Armenian-led ring of criminals has used non-existent clinics and identity theft to file fraudulent claims, bilking the US government medical insurance programme Medicare out of $163m, US authorities say.
The network's operations represent the largest single Medicare fraud by one criminal enterprise in the programme's history.
Federal prosecutors have brought charges against 73 people, most of whom were capture during raids Wednesday morning in New York City and Los Angeles.
There were additional arrests in three other states.
The extent and complexity of the alleged scam "puts the traditional Mafia to shame," US attorney Preet Bharara said. He said the group ran "a veritable fraud franchise'.'
Armenian 'godfather' arrested
The gang operated under the protection of an Armenian crime boss, known in the former Soviet Union as a "vor", prosecutors said. Armen Kazarian, the ring's reputed boss, was in custody in Los Angeles.
Bharara said Kazarian's arrest was the first a a vor, which he described as "the rough equivalent of a traditional godfather", had been charged in a US racketeering case.
Kazarian, 46, of California, and two other alleged leaders - Davit Mirzoyan, 34, also of California, and Robert Terdjanian, 35, of Brooklyn - were named in an indictment unsealed in Manhattan.
Most of the defendants were to appear in court later Wednesday on charges including racketeering conspiracy, bank fraud, money laundering and identity theft.
The New York-based investigation began after information on 2,900 Medicare patients in the state - including Social Security numbers and dates of birth - was reported stolen.
Also stolen were the identities of doctors. The gang members set up 118 phantom clinics in 25 states, authorities said, and the stolen identities were used to submit fake bills for treatment that was never given.
Shoddy fraud
Some of the phony paperwork was apparently a giveaway: It showed eye doctors doing bladder tests, ear, nose and throat specialists performing pregnancy ultrasounds, obstetricians testing for skin allergies and dermatologists billing for heart exams.
Investigators said that in New York alone, more than $100m in fraudulent bills were submitted and Medicare paid out at least $35m, sometimes by wiring it to the clinics' banks accounts.
Most of the defendants "were Armenian nationals or immigrants and many maintained substantial ties to Armenia" and criminals there, the indictment said. Couriers would often carry cash proceeds from the fraud back to Armenia, it added. The ring was also allegedly involved in other crimes, including credit card theft and drug distribution.
Armenia says it will co-operate with the US in the investigation, and Tigran Balayan, Armenia's foreign ministry spokesman, said that his nation was "sorry" for what had happened.
Prosecutors were seeking forfeiture of real estate in Las Vegas; Palm Springs, California; and elsewhere, as well as of a 2007 Maserati and a 2006 Jaguar.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2010 00:00 ||
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The federal government does not keep track of the total amount of Medicare fraud. But if the Medicare budget is $368 billion, and 20% of all Medicare bills are fraudulent, then the total amount of fraud is an estimated $74 billion per year.
#3
Wouldn't you think we could fix a lot of the Medicare problem simply by beefing up enforcement of Medicare Fraud? As a twofer it also could employ all those Healthcare IRS agents instead of hounding actual taxpayers.
The ignorance and special interest group power in Washington is utterly astounding.
[Straits Times] SPANIARDS are snuggling up with pillows and stuffed animals amid the din of a suburban shopping center in what is being billed as the country's first siesta contest.
Contestants in groups of five are given 20 minutes lying on garish blue coaches and timed as to how much of that stretch they spend actually snoozing.
The contest is being run by a group called the National Association of Friends of the Siesta. It began on Thursday and is to last nine days. The top prize is 1,000 euro (S$1,827).
The goal is to promote the post-meal nap, a cherished Spanish tradition many says is eroding because of modern fast-paced lifestyles.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2010 00:00 ||
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...eroding because of modern fast-paced lifestyles.
Want to return to the old siesta in a hurry? Abolish air conditioning.
#2
Churchill contracted the habit of siesta in Cuba while covering the Spanish-American war. During WWII he attributed his capacity of long hard work to this habit
[Al Arabiya] An Egyptian man who set up an association of men with long moustaches stirred anger among many women, not including his wife who threatened to divorce him if he shaved.
Fathi Ahmed Mahmoud, nicknamed Fathi Shanab (Arabic for moustache), established the "Association of Egyptian Moustache" with membership open only to those with a moustache no less that 20 centimeters in length. The association has slogan that says: "A man without a moustache is like a donkey without a tail."
Shanab started thinking of establishing the association in 1987, but it took him years to obtain an official license. The union started with 24 members and now they exceed 200 from all over Egypt.
"We are all Egyptians, but recently we started receiving membership requests from other countries and we're currently discussing the possibility of allowing them to join," he told Al Arabiya.
Shanab added that members of his union include public figures in Egypt from the police and the army as well as politicians, engineers, lawyers, and doctors who are all active in their respective fields.
When asked about the conditions for joining the union other than the length of the moustache, Shanab said that the men have to be decent and open-minded.
"Men with long moustaches might be faced with a lot of sarcasm so he has to be tolerant and not get himself into trouble. He also has to have a strong personality so that he won't shave his moustache under any circumstances".
Shanab denies allegations that the purpose behind establishing the union is being in the limelight.
"This is not true. We aim to help people and do charity. Our unique moustaches help us establish connections with public figures and officials and they in turn help us in our mission," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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SOMEONE TELL THE 1944 FRENCH RESISTANCE = MAQUIS, ala "THE LONGEST DAY".
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The number two in Niger's ruling junta, Colonel Abdoulaye Badie, is under arrest at military headquarters in Niamey, a military source said today, amid media speculation of a foiled coup plot.
"Colonel Badie was jugged yesterday afternoon and is under detention in military headquarters in Niamey," the military source said.
"He is being interrogated," the source added, without explaining the reasons for the arrest.
Badie was permanent secretary to the junta under General Salou Djibo, leader of the coup that overthrew Niger's president Mamadou Tandja in February. He also served as chief military quartermaster. Djibo issued a decree abolishing the post of secretary on Sunday but left Badie as a member of the junta, which calls itself the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy (CSRD).
In its edition of Monday, the independent weekly Le Canard Dechaine suggested that the suppression of the secretary's post could be linked to "crazy reports about an attempted coup d'etat" in preparation.
The front man for the junta, Colonel Abdoul-Karim Goukoye, could not be reached for comment.
For several days, the military presence in the capital and its suburbs has been stepped up, with larger patrols, particularly at night, AFP journalists noted.
Last Friday, Djibo sacked the top commander of the national guard (the former republican guard), Lieutenant-Colonel Abdou Sidikou.
The official statement announcing his dismissal gave no explanation.
The arrest of the number two in the junta comes as Niger, one of the world's poorest countries rich only in uranium, is preparing for a transitional process intended to restore democracy.
A constitutional referendum is planned for October 31 to start this process, which will culminate with a presidential election on January 31, next year.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2010 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Rwandan police arrested the country's most prominent opposition leader on Thursday and accused her of being involved in the formation of a terrorist organisation, months after she was barred from challenging the president in an election. Human rights groups have accused the Rwandan government of using terrorist allegations to stifle opposition in the country, where the campaign leading up to the August vote was marred by a series of attacks on outspoken government critics. Rwanda's government has denied any involvement.
Authorities said Victoire Ingabire was implicated during investigations into the activities of a man who was a former commander of a Hutu militia group operating in neighboring Congo. Vital Uwumuremyi, who was arrested Wednesday, was accused of forming a terrorist organization, Coalition of Democratic Forces. Police claim it is the military wing of Ingabire's political party. Ingabire returned to Rwanda in January after 16 years to challenge President Paul Kagame but she was barred from contesting the August poll and Kagame was re-elected in a landslide. Ingabire already faced charges of genocide ideology after she stated publicly that crimes committed during the 1994 Rwandan genocide against Hutu citizens should be investigated.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2010 00:00 ||
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[Straits Times] BRITAIN is to abolish, merge or reform 481 semi-independent state agencies to cut spending and help cut its deficit, under a plan that will cost thousands of jobs and change the way many services are delivered.
Are these the same changes that have been discussed before, or are they new ones?
The overhaul of what the government calls 'arm's length bodies' because they are not under direct ministerial control will affect agencies with a wide variety of responsibilities ranging from competition to child protection to renewable fuels.
'It will save money, but that is not the principal objective of it, actually. The principal objective is to increase accountability,' Francis Maude, the minister in charge of the reforms, told BBC radio.
The two-party government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats that came into power in May had pledged in its coalition agreement to reduce the number and cost of arm's length bodies as part of its deficit reduction strategy.
Britain's budget deficit stands at more than 10 per cent of Gross Domestic Product and the coalition has set itself the goal of almost eliminating it in five years.
That means deep cuts in public spending, many of which will be detailed when a Comprehensive Spending Review is unveiled on Oct 20. Among the controversial measures already signalled are cuts to child benefits and increases in student tuition fees.
The moneyed parents are upset, and the uni students have been demonstrating, or so I've heard.
Posted by: Fred ||
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But the Ministry of Silly Walks is still safe, right?
#6
Speaking of which:
The controversial Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has escaped being axed by a Government review of quangos, but it will be substantially reformed
Hackers believed to be from China stole secret South Korean documents on defense and foreign affairs by using e-mails pretending to be from Seoul officials, a news report said Friday.
The suspected hacking occurred when South Korean officials handling foreign and security affairs opened attachment files that contained titles referring to items such as the schedule of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's trip to China, the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said, citing a ruling party lawmaker. What is the greatest vulnerably of computer systems? Human gullibility. Seriously.
#1
ION SINA, WAFF > BHARAT-RAKSHAK NEWS/INDIAN EXPRESS = VIETNAM OFFERS REPAIR SERVICES TO INDIAN WARSHIPS [HAI PHONG City-Harbor close to Chin's HAINAN ISLAND CPLA Bases].
* CHOSUN ILBO > NORTH KOREA REGIME COLLAPSE COULD TURN INTO "IRAQ-STYLE INSURGENCY" [Middle East Islamist-led anarchies].
* SAME > PENTAGON: CHINA COULD INTERVENE AT [various Regional] MILITARY "FLASHPOINTS".
* SAME > CHINA WARNED NORTH KOREA TO LEAVE KIM JONG-NAM ALONE. Fear in Pyongyang = Kim Family circles that Beijing will unilater send in CPLA milfors to decisively intervene in DPRK, JONG-NAM-VS-JONG-UN KIM DYNASTIC POWER SUCCESSION???
#2
Again, despite any PCorrect-Deniable rhetoric to the contrary, "RISING CHINA" sees itself as the DE FACTO FUTURE SOLE SUCCESSOR TO THE USA AS WORLD #1.
NOT as JOINT, nor as WORLD #2, #3,....@etc. behind RUSSIA, JAPAN, EU, etal, + BEIJING IS NOT WILLING TO WAIT UNTIL 2050-2100 OR BEYOND TO PROVE ITS POINT.
#3
INDIAN EXPRESS > [IAF Army General VK SINGH] WAR WID CHINA "NOT CERTAIN", [border, Mil]CLASHES POSSIBLE, despite seeming Sino-Indian stability at present, + steady improvements in bilateral relations.
#1
Theoretically, the Ratigans are right, the TARP funds and the bailout supposedly made the banks well over all of the non performing loans.
Since the banks bundled bad loans with good loans to get the bad ones off the books with their mortgage backed securities, and the Feds bought up the bundles, the banks were made whole by the bail out.
Instead of seizing property and depressing real estate values even further thus making even more mortgages upside down with real estate values, perhaps the banks could show some understanding of basic macroeconomics and sit down with people out of work and sign some kind of conditional promissory note that would carry the families over until they could begin paying again...essentially adding the arears on to the end of the loan and extending the term. This would do a lot toward repairing the lost good will of the banking industry and allow people to have some margin of self respect left.
Heck after the election, there is going to be a lot of money pouring into the market and we could see a kick start to the economy. That could change the whole dynamic.
I don't understand why the banks are in such a rush to foreclose on people, unless they are trying to get it done before the foreclosure reform bill is finally unwound from Bambi's clutches and recrafted and passes.
#4
If you felt absolutely certain a republican victory would turn around the markets, you could put your money in them now and clean up after the election.
Chances are any _likely_ benign effects of a republican victory are already factored into current market levels.
#5
I think that market idea is a couple months late; but maybe not. Personally I find the market(s)...unpredictable around election times.
If I were running a bank, especially a small to medium size, I would be trying to wrap up any loose properties before foreclosures by practicle purpose against the law.
[Iran Press TV] The number of homes foreclosed and seized by American banks has hit a record high as US authorities launch a probe into foreclosure fraud allegations.
A record number of 102,134 US homes were repossessed by banks in September, the first time bank repossessions have surpassed the 100,000 mark in a single month, the Los Angeles Times cited a report released by Irvine-based research firm RealtyTrac on Thursday as saying.
"It is almost a certainty that we will see over a million over the course of the year, and that would definitely be a record," Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac senior vice president, said. "It's serious, but it doesn't appear to be that these levels will crater the housing market if the economy at least stabilizes and we do start to see some job creation."
The spike in foreclosures come at a time when attorney generals of all 50 US states have announced a joint investigation into alleged forgery by banks and mortgage companies.
One in every 139 US housing units received a foreclosure filing during the third quarter.
That doesn't seem right. Perhaps the journalist meant one of every 139 homes with a mortgage in arrears?
Bank repossessions also hit a record high in the quarter, with a total of 288,345 properties being repossessed by lenders, an increase of seven percent from the previous quarter and an increase of 22 percent from the third quarter of 2009. Mortgage lenders had repossessed more than 95,000 homes in August.
US bank repossessions increased 38 percent in the second quarter compared with the same period a year earlier for a record total of 269,952, according to Irvine research firm RealtyTrac.
Official figures indicate that more than three million foreclosures are expected to take place in the United States in 2010 with 80 percent of them having documentation problems.
Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and GMAC have announced the suspension of tens of thousands of foreclosure processes across the country due to apparent improper handling of documents.
Posted by: Fred ||
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RT (Russian Propaganda TV in the US ) was claiming today that Homeless in percentage and absolute terms are now greater in NYNY than during any time in the Great Depression.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
10/15/2010 0:25 Comments ||
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They told me that if I voted for McCain (albeit holding my nose), the number of homeless would surge...
#5
That does raise a very interesting point, however. With as many as 1 in 5 adult Americans now unemployed, or not looking for work, where the heck are they?
That is, if some food bank gets in a huge shipment, it is flooded with people. But then they go *somewhere*, but where? This suggests that housing in America is so vastly overbuilt, that we can absorb an effective 20% unemployment just by increasing occupancy in our existing homes.
#6
tw, the figure appears to be correct. Here's an article from 2008. Things are much worse now. Perhaps half of the subprime loans are not performing.
A million foreclosures in one year against 50 million mortgages. That's two percent added to those already in foreclosure but not evicted!
And Obama throws more sand into the gears with his pocket veto. The markets can't clear.
You heard about the family that broke into the house they were evicted from and changed the locks while the police watched? Where the new owner had already renovated the place and was ready to move in? Utter chaos.
"Living in well-worn campers and tent compounds overstretched with 20-foot-long tarps, 85 percent of residents here are permanent, a good chunk of them economic refugees. Its an increasingly familiar scene across the country as campgrounds, RV parks, national parks, and city-owned pockets become inundated with permanent campers, and as entire tent cities spring up and expand, with some hinting at permanence by voting on village bylaws.
Its not quite Hoovervilles, but its getting there, says Leonard Heumann, a housing policy professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, referencing the massive tent cities and shantytowns erected during the Great Depression."
#11
And Obama throws more sand into the gears with his pocket veto. The markets can't clear.
Obama either vetoed or pocket-vetoed the "Interstate Recognition of Notarizations Act of 2010" last week. I can't identify the process by which he rejected that from reading the media, I just know the bill was not enacted. Were you referring to this? IRONA2010 was a piece of garbage designed to interfere with property rights, traditionally a key justification for the existence of government itself. It was designed to force all state courts to accept the lowest possible standard of legal documentation in their courts, using the infamous and currently-acceptable distortion of the Commerce Clause. NO ONE forced the banks and mortgage financiers to utterly screw up the documentation of ownership the way they did. Not the Dems, not the GOP, not the government regulators, not the liberals or the socialists. The banksters brought it all on themselves, by their own selves. They were fully capable of handling these papers in a much better way than they did. Perhaps the mortgage industry could have (oh, the horror) either trained or hired a sufficient number of competent people to process the documents in a proper manner, but the expense would have been unbearable, and would have eaten into the bank's profits and diminished the bonuses paid to corporate insiders. The worst thing you can say about the government's role in this is that they didn't crack down on the utterly inadequate documentation of mortgages far sooner than they did. A least one Florida judge called such documentation 'a fraud upon this court.' Obama's veto was a good thing.
As far as 'clearing the market', just slash the prices of the houses in question until the market 'snaps them up'. That is all it would take. Housing is still far too expensive. Foreclosure is one way of doing clearing the market, and renegotiating mortgages (by slashing the principal due) is another. Of course, slashing housing prices would show the largest banks as being insolvent, which they have been since 2008. That is something the government has been trying to paper over since 2008 with ever decreasing success. Keeping zombie corporations and banks alive is what counts above all.
And no, I am not in favor of free houses for deadbeats. I am in favor of property rights for those of us who like to think we own our houses.
This point in the crisis was predicted by the usual cast of Cassandra bloggers and renegade financial columnists back in 2007 if not earlier. Of course, they are not the best and the brightest, and their opinions and predictions don't matter.
#12
If foreclosures are stalled through faulty documentation or the ability to claim invalidity of of out-of-state notarizations, the market for those particular houses can't clear. No one knows who owns them.
You may be right about the slipshod legislation, but what's going to replace it, and when? Sand in the gears, I say, and to Obama's benefit: more chaos.
#13
No one knows who owns them. Ever since the documents were first made out, years ago, then compounded. State laws about real estate ownership have been hammered out over the centuries, then in the last 20 years ignored by the banksters for their own profit and perhaps for their ultimate doom.
Which is why Title insurance companies are now refusing to deal with titles from some of the major banks. That makes the titles unsaleable except to gamblers. The deal in a gamble is to dangle a big pay off for a small investment. To get people to buy tainted paper, the price has to be reduced to induce. In effect, it'll do the reduction in value the banks are desperate to keep artificially high. Instead the banks are suspending foreclosure proceedings at the point of execution to liquidate and are going to hold the paper. It keeps the books cooked and the bonuses for the management flowing.
The best tool to end this situation is the local county treasurer who can identify property in arrears in taxes for sheriff sales and new papers. If the banks can't competently keep track of the existing papers and titles, they certainly are not necessarily keeping up with the taxes either.
#17
Since I'm a Georgist it seems entirely fair to me that as the State creates property rights and the banks are not paying the state for them then the banks should lose their right to the property.
#18
So this month they stopped all foreclosures. Next month Bawney, Zero and his cast of morons will be standing up touting the market has turned and all is well because there will be records set for lack of foreclosures!!!!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
10/15/2010 19:40 Comments ||
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"Perhaps half of the subprime loans are not performing."
Geez, who could have seen that coming?
That also means half are performing, KBK - I'm surprised that many are.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/15/2010 19:43 Comments ||
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If the banks can't competently keep track of the existing papers, they should be euthanized.
(KUNA) -- U.S. government data released on Thursday showed that new jobless claims rose last week, and the U.S. trade deficit reached 8.8 percent, hitting 46.3 billion dollars in August.
Jobless claims rose by 13,000 to 462,000 in the week ended Oct. 9, U.S. Labor Department figures showed.
The total number of people on unemployment insurance rolls decreased to the lowest level since November 2008, while those getting extended benefits declined. The new jobless numbers indicated the U.S. job market is still struggling.
At the same time, record-high imports from China helped push the U.S. trade deficit wider in August, while rising food and energy prices pushed inflation at the wholesale level up twice as fast as expected last month.
The U.S. trade deficit increase in August was pushed by record imports from China that helped the U.S. deficit with China set a new record of 28 billion dollars, the U.S. Commerce Department said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2010 00:00 ||
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The YTD figures are: TOTAL 55,804.6 (exports) 229,206.7 (imports) -173,402.1 (trade deficit). Each of these figures are multiplied by one million dollars.
#3
Commerce is cooking the books on the unemployment rate.
There is no way it is only 9.7%.
Heck even Yahoo had an article on distressed housing markets and they said the unemployment rates in the top ten most distressed markets were over 30%.
The Department's figures are a screwy invented equation that only tracks unemployment claims. It automatically drops you off the books if you are self employed, out of work and not eligible or your unemployment compensation has run out or you are a small business owner without business...
The numbers of people out of work, the numbers of small businesses closing down and the number of businesses contemplating going out of business over the healthcare bill is staggering.
I would venture the true number of everyone out of work whether they are making an unemployment claim or not is well up in the 20% range for a national average.
RIOT police on Thursday stormed the Acropolis, Greece's best-known monument, to break up a blockade by protesting culture ministry staff that had kept the site shut this week.
The police broke into the monument perimeter through a side entrance and pursued dozens of protesters, who grabbed onto fence railings to prevent their removal from the hilltop site overlooking central Athens.
Police subsequently used tear gas to disperse media thronging the front entrance in order to surround the protesters. At least one protester was detained and the police were progressively evacuating the site as a number of tourists snapped pictures, an AFP photographer said. 'Most protesters have been evacuated from the site and have moved outside the perimeter,' a police spokeswoman said. 'There is no more tension.'
One tourist said he sympathised with the protesters' claims. 'I am OK with the protest, but from the other side, we came here to visit the Acropolis and we can't. This is of course bothering me. I hope that the problem will be solved today, that is what we were told,' said the man from Germany, who did not give his name.
The union representing temporary culture ministry staff began the blockade on Tuesday to protest the imminent dismissal of 320 fixed-term employees whose contracts expire at the end of the month. They also want the state to settle unpaid salaries which they say are worth five million euros (S$9 million) over two years.
The protesters had intended to blockade the Acropolis until October 31 and their union leader pledged on Thursday to continue the mobilisation. 'The protest will continue, the head of temporary ministry staff Nikos Hasomeris said after the police operation. 'The authorities must accept their responsibilities. Today they destroyed the archaeological site,' he said.
It's kind of hard to destroy the Acropolis, given that when it was an armory it was blown up...
Mr Hasomeris had earlier warned police not to break the blockade by force. 'All our colleagues stand beside us, so the monument will not operate today no matter what happens,' he told Mega television.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Germans, too, once stormed the Acropolis - hoisting a humongous Nazi Flag on it in '41. Mebbe that's why the German tourist was a bit reticent about giving his name.
#2
When the bulk of the population of Athens retired to Salamis and the 'wooden walls' of its fleet, the Persians stormed the Acropolis killing the hold outs and burning the place, in the processing clearing the place for the grand construction upon which its fame lives today. Insert allegory here if future Greece is to recover from the man made ruin it now finds itself in today.
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.
Hackers believed to be from China stole secret South Korean documents on defense and foreign affairs by using e-mails pretending to be from Seoul officials, a news report said Friday.
