A 35 year-old Gurkha soldier named Bishnu Shrestha was riding a train when he suddenly found himself in the middle of a massive robbery. 40 men armed with knives, swords and guns stormed the train and began robbing the passengers.
Bishnu kept his peace while the gang snatched cell phones, jewelry and cash from other riders. But then, the thugs grabbed the 18 year-old girl sitting next to him and forcefully stripped her naked. Before the bandits could rape the poor girl in front of her helpless parents, Bishnu decided he had enough....He pulls out a kukri (i.e. a knife) (a seriously badass knife)
and proceeds to kill 3 of them, injure 8 of them, and causes the rest to flee....
#3
I had a customer whose son is in the Royal Marines. They said not only do they live up to the article, but they also make some real badass curry.
Just another reason they are people you want on your side.
#4
There is a reason that Nepal is one of the only countries in the world (if not the only country)that has never been ruled by someone else.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
02/01/2011 19:55 Comments ||
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#5
It is interesting to see how this story has evolved and been embellished since the REAL event in late summer of 2010 - see: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata-/Soldier-takes-on-dacoits-on-trainGang-Of-30/articleshow/6488820.cms
'Not to take anything away from the Gurkha sergeant, but the story really has been changed rather significantly.
[Straits Times] A SENIOR Malaysian Islamic judge was on Monday charged with 'khalwat", a charge imposed for illicit contact with someone of the opposite sex, state media said.
Adam Tumiran, a 43-year-old judge with the Sharia High Court in northern Penang state, pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." in a lower religious court to 'close proximity' with a woman at a government residence last December.
If found guilty, the pair face a maximum penalty of two years' imprisonment, the state news agency Bernama said. The woman in the case, a 34-year-old financial adviser, also pleaded not guilty.
Malaysia's Islamic morality police periodically carry out khalwat raids, on hotels and private residences, under religious laws that bar Mohammedans from being alone with a member of the opposite sex before marriage.
Malaysia has a dual-track legal system and Islamic courts can try Mohammedans - who dominate the multi-cultural population - for religious and moral offences.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2011 00:00 ||
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(Xinhua) -- Niger holds the presidential and parliamentary elections on Monday to restore the constitutional order and democracy after a military coup in February 2010.
A total of 6,730,472 Nigeriens will cast ballots in 20,899 polling stations across the land-locked African country to choose the president from among 10 candidates, and elect 113 parliamentarians.
The presidential contenders include Mahamadou Issoufou of the Social Democratic Party, Seini Oumarou of the National Movement for the Development of Society, former prime minister Hama Amadou and former president Mahamane Ousmane. A second round of election will be held in mid-March between the two leading candidates if none has a clear win on Monday.
The military junta, known as the Restoration of Democracy in Niger (CSRD), toppled former president Mamadou Tandja on Feb. 18, 2010, citing his attempts to cling to power.
Tandjia had sought a third term in violation of the original constitution, which he replaced with a new one through a referendum in 2009. Tandjia had been under international criticism for his steps to hold on to power, before a group of military officers toppled him.
Tandjia was transferred to a prison close to the capital Niamey two weeks before the polls from the presidential palace, where he had been under house arrest since the coup.
Election campaigns opened on Jan. 15 and ended on Saturday night. Land borders are closed between Sunday and Monday for the security of the elections, according to a communique of the Interior Ministry.
In an interview with Xinhua Interior Minister Ousmane Cisse reiterated the neutrality of the CSRD in the competition for the country's top post. "We are going to respect the choice of the Nigerien people," he declared.
The elections are unfolded in accordance with the pledge by the CSRD under international pressure to restore democracy and the constitutional order. The junta formed a government of transition in the run-up to the polls, in which it vowed no part.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
ION PEOPLES DAILY FORUM > UN PREDICTS [as many as] 100,000 COULD FLEE IVORY COAST TURMOIL, to LIBERIA espec to escape NEW OUTBREAK OF CHOLERA.
For a map, click here. For a map of Guerrero, click here by Chris Covert
In a stunning reversal for the Partido Revolucionario Institutcional (PRI), voters in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero voted in a leftist coalition candidate as governor Sunday, according to various news accounts.
Angel Aguirre Rivero for the Nos Une coalition won 56 percent of the vote, leading its nearest competitor by nearly 13 percentage points.
The Nos Une coalition consisted of the Partido Revolucion Democratica (PRD) and the Partido Trabajadora (PT), while its competitors included a coalition of PRI, Partido Verde Ecologista de Mexico or Green Party of Mexico (PVEM) and Partido Nuevo Aliance (PANAL).
The PRI under the national leadership of Beatriz Parades Rangel last year scored a huge string of electoral victories in several Mexican governor races, holding 75 percent of seats, while only losing two and swapping two.
Parades Rangel steps down as leader of the PRI, to be replaced by current Coahuila governor Humberto Moreira next week, who is expected to lead the PRI in retaking the Mexican presidency in 2012.
Aguirre received 667,383 votes, or 56.08 while the PRI's Tiempos Mejores coalition candidate, Manuel Añorve, won 507,362 votes, or 42.61 percent. The Partido Accion Nacional candidate, Marcos Efren Parra, received 15,998 votes, or 1.34 percent.
In several southern Mexican states in the past the PRD has entered into coalitions with local PAN organizations. Such coalitions, as the argument goes, makes the PRD candidate more competitive with the much stronger PRI in elections.
The leader of the PRD, Andres Manuel Lopez Orbador, the PRD's candidate for president who came within a hair's breadth of defeating Felipe Calderon in 2006, has recently been critical of such arrangements, arguing that PRD is strong enough to win against PRI without combining with other parties, especially PAN.
A leftist win in Guerrero is no surprise since the state is long known as a center of small leftist and communist guerrilla movements since the 60s, and such insurgencies are likely to receive support from the local population. The Zapititstas, for example, have helped the PRD win in local races simply by demonstrating an alternative to guerilla warfare.
Two rebel groups currently operate in Guerrero mostly engaging in kidnapping and armed robberies to find their operations.
A leftist government in Guerrero is much more likely to accommodate drug cartels than a PRI or PAN governor. Lopez Obrador nas been constantly critical of Calderon's war against the cartel mainly by pointing out that resources to aid the poor have been diverted to fighting cartels. This strategy mirrors much of what PRI did during the growth of the Mexican drug business in the 80s and 90s before the start of the 2006 war.
Very little of the feared disruptions of the voting took place in Guerrero Sunday, most activity confined to the usual trading of charges of support by the drug cartels, usually by "narcomessages" placed on blankets in different parts of the state.
In other news, the leader of the PRD, Luis Sanchez Jimenez, said that PRD's Guerrero victory presages a defeat for the PRI in Mexico state this coming July. Enrique Peña Nieto, governor of Mexico state, is PRI's leading candidate for the presidency in 2012.
Sanchez Jimenes said that Peña Nieto has been sending resources into the state since last August in an effort to influence the vote.
A defeat of PRI in Mexico state would be devastating to the presidential aspirations of Peña Nieto. The governor recently hedged his bet for his drive for Los Pinos by outlawing coalition arrangements in Mexico state, a law that was recent affirmed by the Mexican supreme court. Critics of the ruling call it a "wedding gift" to Peña Nieto, who was recently wed to Angelica Rivera, a Mexican soap opera star.
#1
A leftist government in Guerrero is much more likely to accommodate drug cartels than a PRI or PAN governor.
Does this mean the -- or some -- cartels will move there, where they're less likely to be hassled by the Mexican army? Or that the cartels already based there will thrive relative to the others because they will have a lower cost of dealing with threats, simply due to the luck of their location (Darwin always wins)?
#2
The issue is of reallocation of resources. Lopez Obrador has made that much clear. Funds taken from security and goes to traditional forms of support for the poor such as tortilla price supports, can't be used to monitor or fight cartel operations in Guerrero. That task then calls to the Policia Federal and the army.
Cartels already have the upper hand in Guerrero because of Acapulco. Beltran-Leyva and Sinaloa drug gangs already have operations in Acapulco. Other cartels have no reason to move in since drug sales are to tourists. It is not a major source of income for any drug gang.
The most likely affect of the new leftist government is that if it decides to reallocate resources, that pressure on those drug gang operations will lessen.
Guerreo is a poor state. 21 percent illiteracy and it as the highest outmigration rates in Mexico. Poverty is grinding there. PRD will take full advantage of those facts for the next six years. It sure did in the elections.
[Arab News] A proposed referendum to extend the term of Kazakhstan's long-serving president has been ruled unconstitutional.
The parliament of the sprawling Central Asian republic this month unanimously passed legislation calling for a referendum on allowing President Nursultan Nazarbayev to stay in office at least another decade.
But the head of the country's Constitutional Council, Igor Rogov, said Monday the body has ruled the measure does not conform with the constitution.
According to the news agency Interfax, Rogov noted that the president has the right to object to council rulings.
Nazarbayev, who has ruled Kazakhstan since independence from the Soviet Union, last year rejected a parliamentary proposal to extend his term. A petition drive supporting the referendum followed that rejection.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2011 00:00 ||
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WIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange has called on Prime Minister Julia Gillard to put her foot down and offer him protection from the US government.
Perhaps you should first demand protection from the British and Swedish governments.
The whistleblower made the comments as he prepared to face a London court next week for the start of legal proceedings to have him extradited to Sweden on possible sexual assault charges. Supporters claim the charges have been trumped up to silence him.
It hasn't worked, obviously, so the evil CIA will have to step up...
"Gillard needs to declare publicly that this is not an acceptable treatment of an Australian organisation. WikiLeaks is registered in Australia," Mr Assange told the Seven Network.
Perhaps it's not an acceptable Australian organization...
"Nor is it acceptable treatment of an Australian."
...and perhaps you're not an acceptable Australian.
The US government is looking at whether the whistleblower can also be charged over the release of classified documents on his WikiLeaks website.
Mr Assange said he wanted to return home to Australia with a guarantee he would not be handed over to the US government.
"I'd like to return immediately," Mr Assange said.
I'll bet you would. Finally figured out that the Swedes are serious, have you...
#5
I turned on the snoop Brad M.,
And let the excuses spin.
Around nordic towns I did roam.
Drinking all night.
Sold my book rights.
My mum she needs me.
I want to go home.
So look at Brad M in jail,
But don't you look at my mail.
Call for a lawyer abroad,
Let me go home.
Wa wanna go home, yeah yeah,
My bank says I'm broke now,
I wanna go home.
#6
NPR has a long interview with Bill Keller, executive editor of the New York Times, about Assange and the WikiLeaks cables. Among other things, Mr. Keller describes how he came to dislike and distrust his supplier:
Keller tells Terry Gross that during an early conversation with representatives of The Guardian, Assange was told that both The Guardian and The New York Times wanted to edit out the names of ordinary Afghan citizens in classified military documents.
"Assange's reaction was, 'Well, they're informants. There's no reason for protecting them,' " Keller says. "But I think over time, he came around to the view that at least, from a public relations point of view, it was better to allow for a certain amount of editing out of things that could cost lives."
Of the nearly 131 million housing units in this country, 112.5 million are occupied. 74.8 million are owned, and that's only dropped by about 30 thousand in the past year. 38 million are rented, but that's up by over a million year over year. That means more new households are choosing to rent.
Now to vacancies. There were 18.4 million vacant homes in the U.S. in Q4 '10 (11 percent of all housing units vacant all year round), which is actually an improvement of 427,000 from a year ago, but not for the reasons you'd think.
The number of vacant homes for rent fell by 493 thousand, as rental demand rose. 471,000 homes are listed as "Held off Market" about half for temporary use, but the other half are likely foreclosures. And no, the shadow inventory isn't just 200,000, it's far higher than that.
So think about it. Eleven percent of the houses in America are empty. This as builders start to get more bullish, and renting apartments becomes ever more popular. Dunno about most folks, but this sounds like fertile ground for another year of real estate flat lining, if not an outright second crash.
#2
The problem seems to be only in Internet Explorer. Microsoft has a page for IT people here. There is a link on this page to enable a temporary patch for the vulnerability there. Unfortunately it seems to lock down IE to the extent you can't do many rather ordinary things on websites. The same page also has a link to UNDO the fix if that becomes necessary. I expect a more comprehensive solution soon.
#3
Yeah, there are bugs all over the place and you gotta keep up with the patches. But I do a fair amount of web programming and IMHO, IE is a piece of crap. I'm absolutely certain that Microsoft puts a lot of crap into it on purpose just to make it incompatible with all of the other browsers. Hey, if that's the way they wanna play the game, then so be it. But I always recommend Firefox.
As the world's seas continue their inexorable rise, we're going to see more and more engineers working on more and more coastal defences. Most, of course, will be much smaller and much less elaborate than MOSE. MOSE is a $6.35 Billion plan for inflatable barriers to protect Venice from high tides and surges.
Many will be like the project now under way in Ventura, Calif., where crews are moving a crumbling bicycle path, two parking lots and some underground utility lines about 35 metres inland from a beach that has already receded 100 metres or more since the 1970s because of rising sea levels and increasingly severe storms. Rising sea levels came first? What, alphabetically?
At $4.5 million, it's not a big deal in itself, but it is a vivid example of what might lie ahead for California as costal erosion worsens. It's being called "managed retreat," and it's something that must be contemplated by every country with a coastline. Except in the Netherlands, where they are expanding their beaches, described a few paragraphs above what is provided here.
"The challenge," says Gary Griggs at the University of California Santa Cruz, "is that we have built most of our civilization within a few feet of sea level or right at the edge. It's going to be either managed or unmanaged, but it's going to be retreat."
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/01/2011 12:48 ||
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#1
I thought the problem in Venice was that the city is sinking, not that the ocean is rising...
Not a problem, TW. We are still not finished figuring out interestingly complex things like the weather or the sun.
And yes, in a world where the oceans are rising at a rate of a millimeter a year (a foot every 300 years), beach erosion and land subsidence are bigger problems than rising sea levels.
So-o-o IIUC, GLOBAL WARMING/CLIMATE CHANGE + RISING SEAS + GUAM-WESTPAC > Year 2050-2100 = Coastal or seashore Villages may have to relocate themselves towards NEAR ANDOR ABOVE THE CLIFFLINES OF THE ISLAND'S NORTHERN PLATEAU + HIGH SOUTHERN RIDGES. MOUNTAINS, since low-lying land areas will become the NEW BEACHFRONT(S).
SUPER-STORMS + MINI-ICE AGES NOTWITHSTANDING.
The Great = Mighty Pacific Slushy.
versies
* WORLD NET DAILY [old?] > HOLY TOMBSTONE! EASTER SUNDAY ASTEROID ON PATH TOWARDS EARTH.
Russian Scientists says EARTH IMPACT in 2036 vee COMET APOPHIS is still possible, given normal gravity factors + extant circumstances in place at that times.
Lest we fergit, ME > GUAM,EARTH-VISIBLE MOON EXPLOSIONS ala Year 2030.
E.g. TOPIX > GLOBAL ERUPTIONS ROCK THE SUN [Sun-wide SOLAR EXPLOSION(S)].
In order for the various Pert forecasts as per magnitudinal GLOBAL TEMPERATURE CHANGES 2050-2100 TO HOLD TRUE, IMO THE SUN MUST GET HOTTER, i.e. release LARGER BIGGER SOLAR FLARES = CMES which in turn will affect Space Bolides, etc. like APOPHIS, MOON, + even EARTH + MAJOR PLANETS.
Lest we fergit II, MSM-NET's "PLANETARY/SYSTEMIC WARMING".
IOW, 2012-2013 TECHS-DAMAGING MASSIVE SOLAR STORMS, iff + when the same occurs as per NASA + Perts, will affect what occurs in 2030 + 2036, etc.
An excerpt:
Mirengoff's post was not an attack on American Indians, the Yaqui tribe, or the participation of the tribal leader in a tribal prayer. The point of the post quite clearly was on the absurdity of not having a Christian prayer said for Christian victims. The lack of a Christian (or Jewish) prayer was commented on and criticized by a lot of people, and I agree with that criticism. The American Indian leader was welcome to participate with a traditional prayer, but if you were going to have a memorial service, why not also pay religious respect to the people you were mourning?
But that was not good enough for one of Mirengoff's law partners, James Meggesto, who issued a sanctimonious statement saying he was "shocked, appalled and embarrassed" by Mirengoff's "insensitive" "web posting" (emphasis mine):
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.
Logic-Cool News
A SENIOR Malaysian Islamic judge was on Monday charged with 'khalwat", a charge imposed for illicit contact with someone of the opposite sex, state media said.
Of the nearly 131 million housing units in this country, 112.5 million are occupied. 74.8 million are owned, and that's only dropped by about 30 thousand in the past year. 38 million are rented, but that's up by over a million year over year. That means more new households are choosing to rent.
